WASHINGTON, Nov. 18— After a year of studying data sent from an automated lunar station. American scientists to day described the moon as a cold, stiff body bombarded reg ularly with grapefruit‐size me teorites and exhibiting some newfound and puzzling physical traits.
The scientific station was set up on Ocean of Storms a year ago by the Apollo 12 astronauts, Lieut. Comdr. Alan L. Bean and Comdr. Charles Conrad Jr. of the Navy.
The station, with some 300 pounds of instruments, has been in use continuously since then. It has responded to 6,500 com mands from the earth and has sent hack voluminous data dur ing the blazing lunar days and frigid nights.
Commander Bean and sev eral scientists spoke today at a briefing for reporters mark ing the remote station's first anniversary. Data coming in from the moon was on display during the session at National Aeronautics and Space Admin istration headquarters here.
Dr. Charles P. Sonett of the space agency's Ames Research Laboratory, at Moffett Field Calif., said some of the data indicated that the moon's tem perature increases only slowly with depth below the surface. If the present data stand, he said, the moon's internal tem perature may be found to rise no higher than to about 1,000 degrees Centigrade, or 1,832 degrees Fahrenheit.
Implications of Data
Dr. Sonett and Dr. Frank Press of the Massachusetts In stitute of Technology said that would be too cool to permit a molten core and thus would argue strongly against any ma jor volcanic activity on the moon.
Dr. Press said the tempera ture level 124 miles below the lunar surface was not greater than at a depth of about 18½ miles below the earth.
Noting that there was no ev idence of lunar water either as ice or bound in minerals. Dr. Press said this meant the moon would be stiff, since bound wa ter lowers the melting point of rocks.
Dr. Gary Latham of Colum bia University's Lamont ‐ Do herty Geological Laboratory, said the seismographic equip ment had recorded many small moonquakes, but no really big ones by earth standards.
He said that there was one seismic event every 1.3 days. Some, coming at regular periods every month, seemed linked to strains in the moon governed by differences in the earth's pull when the two bodies are closest together and farthest apart, he said, while some ap peared to be caused by me teorite impacts.
Dr. Latham said the area within 125 miles of the Apollo 12 station is hit once a month on the average by a chunk of space debris that must be about the size of a grapefruit. Such data should make it possible to calculate the total amount of material that falls to the moon's surface under current condi tions, he said.
The total energy released by moonquakes is exceedingly small compared with earth quakes, he said, explaining that the suggested that the outer shell of the moon must be cold and stable compared with that of the earth. Dr. Latham said one area where the regular monthly moonquakes originate is near a prominent set of rilles in the crater Fra Mauro, near the intended landing site of Apollo 14. Rilles resemble cracks or canyons, but their origin is unknown.
A new moon puzzle was de scribed by Dr. Sonett who said the electrical conductivity of the lunar surface appeared to be greater running in north‐ south directions than from east to west. As yet, he said, there is no clue to the reason for this.
Dr. Conway Snyder of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory at Pasadena, Calif., described a puzzle in the behavior of a thin cloud of ionized gas de tected after a spent rocket‐ stage was deliberately crashed into the moon at a point rough ly 84 miles from the Apollo 12 station.
Although the so‐called “solar wind” of ionized particles from the sun should have blown this gas in the other direction, it actually traveled “upwind” to be detected by the station's instruments.
Dr. Snyder said the cause of the acceleration of gas par ticles remained unknown. He speculated that a shock wave, where the gas and solar wind met, might have been a factor.
In opening remarks at the briefing, Commander Bean de fended the value and im portance of manned landings in exploring the moon. He said Apollo 11 had brought back 50 pounds of lunar rock; Apollo 12 about 75 pounds, while the unmanned Soviet Luna 16 brought back about two‐tenths of a pound.
Describing the complex and varied equipment set on the lunar surface for the Apollo 12 station, he noted that it was put in place by men but had been operating as an un manned station ever since.
His descriptions made it clear he doubted that the Soviet moon rover now on the lunar surface could even come close to matching the effectiveness of a manned landing.