XEROX COPY OF A letter dated 29 July, 1968, from the Public Information Officer, Department of Research & Development, National Office of Space Studies, Washington, D.C. 20036, addressed to Mr. Gerald Bingham, Jr., Apartment 5A, 535 East Seventy-third Street, New York, New York.
DEAR SIR:
Re your letter of 16, May 1968, I have been instructed by the Director of the Department of Research & Development, National Office of Space Studies, to thank you for your interest in our activities, and for your suggestion of the use of solidified carbon dioxide (“dry ice”) as an ablative material on the nose cones of rockets, space probes, and manned space vehicles during reentry into the Earth’s atmosphere.
As you doubtlessly know, Mr. Bingham, a great deal of expensive research has been conducted in this area, and a wide variety of materials has been tested, ranging from metals and metal alloys to ceramics and ceramic-metal alloys. The material currently in use has been tested successfully in our Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs.
I have been instructed to inform you that “dry ice” could not withstand the extremely high temperatures encountered during the reentry of heavy rockets and manned space vehicles.
However, your letter revealed a very high level of sophisticated scientific expertise, and the fact that you are, as you say, fifteen years old, is of great interest to us. As you probably know, the National Office of Space Studies has a number of college and university scholarship awards at its disposal. Within the next six months, a representative of our Scholarship Award Department will call upon you personally to determine your interest in this area.
Meanwhile, we wish to thank you again for your interest in our activities and your country’s space program.
Cordially,
[signed] CYRUS ABERNATHY, PIO, R&D