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THE CHINA MAIL, SATURDAY, MAY 2, 1959.
THE FLIGHT AND
To get the moon, you go to bed and close your
eyes.
James Rogers, the first man to make the trip, knew just what to do. The tiny cockpit of his space craft contained a sponge rubber couch,
LANDING
several feet thick, with an indentation that exactly By.
fitted the shape of his body.
He lay down and was strapped in. His liands could-reach a small panel of control buttons buttons he would never push on the outward trip unless something went wrong
Above his head was a line of flash, and heard the final mum- lge, easy-to-read dials.
bers of the count-down: 5—— 3-2-1-Zero.
If he turned his head. he could just see a tiny porthole, reverul feet thick and treated to filer out radiation.
He could visualise just what
outside.
WEN
going
rocket was long and slender, like a guided minille. I had five stages below the cockpit, Three would fall away during the out- ward trip, the other two would bring him home. The tiny, nearly atmosphereless moon, one eightfell the size of the earth, would have less gravity, and co less force wouki be needed to get him home.
IN
He had been through this hundred times. The roar of the rocket mutors bursting into life it left is launching pad did not did not surprise him, the Jolt as
ever cause him to lose a breath,
He opened his eyes and saw the deep bhe ky turning purple..
Minutes later was dark.
MAN
John Maclean
orbit, the counter-rockets the next would slow him down and he would land -rst, be hoplu, în
ane uf the deep dust-filled cruters of the 11000,..
him to the right one, and its ground control dropped dust were just the right depth, he would scarcely feel a jolt.
KDA
Every stage of the operation controlled from the ground, Bul there was ono button In hls space rocket,
covesed part of the "far side of One edge of the horizon
the moon" the alde reen by man.
never
It did not seem any different from the rest.
He made a note.
Three times the ship circled as plantied, then it crept to- ward the moon, its vast rocket brakes guiping fuel so that the tank anuges swung crazily,
The first problem was to And out if the moon had any
ON THE MOON: II
He reported himsel on the marked
heard the
reassuring
Through tiny earphones, be fringe of the earth's atmos could hear the count-down, phere, By twiddling the email dial sear he waist, he could hear report that all was well.
The vor commaunleations 130!- work, alerting crews to pick him up if anything went wrong. being given its final fest.
Through a microphone In the wall at ble side, he reported himself ready.
He
Cizg
closed his eyes, just in of possibly injury from
€ 242
hours and he 011 the moon,
simply: "Return," which would, theoretically, sind him back."'
Fity-two
An electronile device calculat- Just now he was headed out would lund
rd the exact position of the rocket and it would release Just in advance of the moon's path, the pull of the earth. Then, at enough blast to return him to Later their COLTSCA Would evincide and then he would the moment that atmospheric orbit the moon three times, pressure was recorded on un- while every bit of equipment other dial, another binst would lew him down so the rocket was checked.
would not burn up on re-entry Into the earth's atmosphere.
Then the Anal stage of the ruckert would binst him out of
This Funny World
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"What? Get married and run the risk of having one of my own?"
A British Crossword Puzzle
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ACROSS
1 Knocks (6).
4 Haphazard (6).
Method (U).
10 Obtains as reward of labour
(5).
12 Belt (0).
14 Call together (7).
17 Culminallon (4).
10 Warded off (7).
20 Gauge (7).
23 Flower (4),
23 Rubbing out (7).
27 Soup ingredient (0).
29 Cunning (5),
30 Ran off (0),
21 Giant cale (8).
32 Correspond (5),
32
DOWN
1 Fundamental (5).
2 Worker in stone (5).
3 Lengthy attack on fortlisted
pines (5).
imitated (4).
d Straightforward (6).
Failed to hit (0).
0 Mosque tower (7).
11 Starties (8).
13 Day-dream (7).
15 Past (4).
16 Ship (0).
18. Niggardly (4).
20 Dwark (6).
21 211 (0),
24 Deal out (8).
25 Drive (5).
26 Dlery (5). 28 Nigh. (4).
YESTERDAY'S CROSSWORD.-Across: 3 Bulletin, 6 Trap, Deducted, 11 Provided, 13 Gles, 15 Daffodil, 18 Talented, 19 Byre, 21 Vendita, 25 Itealines, 30 Full, 27 Tempests. Down: 1: Stop. 3 Dato, 4 Used, B Loud, 6 Total, 7 Nudge, 0 Divot, Devil 12 Reddy 14 Event, 16 Dares, 17 Leads, 18 Burst, 201 Resim, 21 Vice, 22 Neat, 23. True, 24 Ally,
10
He knew exactly how uli these mechanisms worked. He might have to repale soms of them after the landing. In a compartment under the couch were complete instructions and Everything could be rachet whout leaving the pressurised chamber.
atmosphere. If it did, 'the atmosphere - however thin would help sow the ship down. If not, the
brakes would have to bear the full brunt of the slow-down.
as the rocket slowed down. He Rogers did some calculations reckoned from the fuel con- sumption that there was vir tually по atmosphere. That had been the best astronomical quesa.
They would lond hlan toward the edge of the shadow giving him about three hours of the "best" lime on the moon, the time between the brolling heat of the day and the blood- freezing cold of night,
.
Degused
Three hours was his Init, in AL hand, too,
case radiation against which was որ enturous, lead-weighted
he would have only minimal There too, he would be safer space protection in his moon-sult against radiation sult in which he would make
and against his explorations of the moon's
surface.
The 'netual space was dull.
journey
proved dangerous. There would the landing of a siray melcor- not be enough atmosphere to the kind that would, burn out filter out much of the down- long before renched earth Inig tourings of comic rays.
but, if on the moon with no almowhere to burn it would lond with the force of a hydro- gen bomb.
le ate well and slept well, Towards the afternoon of the third day, the diois shonved sharp
change of course. The moon, a dull slate grey in the black sky, shimmered beneath him, pock-marked ang desolate,
DERY
・
And they were landing him spot where astronomern guessed a vast meteor had dug an enormone Lower and lower he went. tunnel in the rock. For the The brake rockets suddenly first blazing hour and a half, hot out a blast, turning the that would give him nome nose upward and Bottling the protection,
on its tall, down
ship down
The Target: Silent Satellite
Of
Many
Secrets
Now is as good a time as any to brush up on your knowledge of the moon's features-since before very long mankind may gain a much closer, acquaintance with them than has hitherto been possible.
Names like Mare Vaporum FROM-
(Sea of Vapours),
MAJ
Serenitatis (Sen of Serenity);A China Mail
Mare Humorum
Moisture), will then become geographically familiar. They are misnomers that have been
in use for centuries, from the ern of the great Italian astrono imer: Galiléo, who-lived between"
1504 and 1042.
Correspondent
Apennines, and
on. The beights of many of the moun-
They are the areas which ap- pear dark to the naked eye, and they were called maria (seas) tains of the moon have been by Golileo In the mistaken de- lief that they were covered by woter,
Others
of these areas
measured by the lengths of their shadows, as was first done by Callico.
.
are. The
Copernicus is another crater which is the centre of a similor system of raYS.
Astronomers scrutinising them through powerful
telescopes have maintained that these rays cannot be cracks in the moon's surface, or..ang natúra-faw of a similar character,
•
What Are They
More than that they cannot Bay,
Nor is it likely that the mystery of the rays will ever be solved untii
men have reniarkabic spanned the most known as Mare Foecundiialis features on the moon, how lon
quarter of a mil- miles, or thereabouts, ever-and the most
which separate our earth from troversial are the cratert its allent and secretive Junar
(Sea of Fertility), Mare Crislum (Son of Crisis), Mare Tranquillitatis (Sea of Tran- quillity). Mare Prizoris (Sea of Cold), Mare Imbrium (Sea of Showers) Oceanus Procellarum (Ocean of, Storms), Mare Noblum (Sea of Clouds), Blaus Iridium (Bay of Rainbows),
No Seas
Actually they are Orcat plains. There are no cas on the earth's satellite, far since Galileo's day astronom ** have catablished that the moon is without water.
con-
with which it surface is satellite, pockmarked. 'Learned ተረ have long debated the cause And not until a rocket has of them, some arguing that circled the moon" will the they were the result of age- tentures of its other halt be re- old bombardment by hupe vealed; for,, as it rotates on its meteorites, metallic or stony own axis in the same Ume ai makacs of matter hurtling that of its revolution round the through space; others com- earth, so It always keeps the tending. that they were the same face turned towards the outcome of immenas. volcanic earth. eruptions.
Astronomers con tell us great"dealTMTMabout the orb which Cn the Crater Trobe, near zhines by reflecting the sunlight, the moon's south pole, has been end which plays the chief port calculated to measure more in causing the tides reducing than 60 miles in diameter, and by its attraction a deformation possesses enormous walls rising. In the surface-of. our secons.
It has also been established in terraces to an estimated that the moon is airless and height of about seventeenthou-
consequence is wrapped in sond feet. 社 aternal silence. In this
in
connection it is interesting to
note that if any missile struck
the moon thero would be no
sound of impact because of the
·lack of air and the absence of shock-waves.
They can give us much in- formation concerning its visible features, its fantastic extremes
Tycho is one of the crateri¡ of heat and cold, and other associated with a phenomenon characteristics. They can pass which mystifies all students its diameter as 3,100 miles, and of natronemy. From it, there is momentum through the vold emanaikaa perplexing system sa something more than two of raym", white: stranke that thousand miles an hour, extend for hundreds of zulies But, like us, they must awoll Boross the lunar surface, the conquest of space by the crossing other craters and scientists and technicians of the valloys Rocket Ago before the moon the divulats the profoundal of her
many secrets...
If there are no sea on the moon there are mountains; how- aver. Some of these mountain ranges have been named after, those which bulge from juntain Deaks, and
"and" plalun without
earthly sphero-such as Alps,
klightest deviation.
NORTH
POLE
CHATOSTRENLER
S of apruits
PTOLEMAEUR
Sea of
Moistur
A-Clouds
*STURIENT WALL,
SOUTH
POLE
with a squish in dust that might.
mile deep.
be
the
return flight to
It was a smooth landing→ sinoother than it would be on i
carth,
MACROUSUS
пер
BEAD
Page
Radiation Weighs Rail Trucks
Cleveland, Ohio.
where the speed of the rocket The New York Central, Hail-radioactive material. the rays
would be greater and there
trould not be · enough fuel to slow him down as much as he would have liked.
NEXT WEEK:
EXPLORING THE MOON
་
As the train passen over the penetrate each ear, the co- tents of which absorb a certain amount of the radiation de- pending on their meas, The overhead counter records the degres absorption and a feeds the information to on electronic computer which figures the weight of the car anki.recorda. It.-U.P.I
zond's Lechnical research centre has put atomic energy to work weighlag freight trucks as they roll by at 30 or 40 milles an hour. The нем technique ures gamma rays emtilted from cobalt Go source beneath the ralls and a scintillation counter suspended over the tracks,
Rolex help probe earth and universe
World's oldest-established scientific body supplied with Rolex for greatest scientific exploration
-Frem July, 1057 until December, 1938. the greatest clentino exploration aver carried out took place. That was the international Geophysical Year · It was a carefully co-ordinated International scieniine enterprise of unprece dented and scope, with, the object of learning more about our planet - and its place in and ratation to the vast universa.
The British contribution to this tremendous advonture we dieled by the Royal Society of London the world's senior selaille body
Rolex watches suppiled to Royal Boulety
Halex ste proud Indeed, that their watches were supplied to the Royal Society for this thrilling venture
Totax have long radion of achievement and of watch-making excellence. Their watches for them, and, for women, have the highest re putation for unsurpassed precision: Therare araud of this recognition by the world's eklezi- established petentible body in' the grestezi Explora=
ROLEX
the history of Time mokbareme
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