1955-12-17 — Page 9

DIAMETER QI MARS

1216 86

TEMPERATURE OF MARS

POLAR

CAP

DESERT

I NIGHT.

EQUATOR

62.900.000 MILES

70

CARTH

DESERT

TOLAE

Ca

DAY,

THE CHINA MAIL, SATURDAY, DECEMBER: 17,: 1965.

Christmas

Pago

SHOPPING'S EASY at

Whiteaways

HONGKONG & KOWLOON

-120°F 86F

Space Christmas

Although this is not in the future, it is based on the latest findings of research workers who are laying the founda- tions of interplanetary travol,

T

HE following is the text of The tape recorded diary of a member of the Bri. tish expedition which landed on Mars on December 24, 1998. it is the only record of the expedition so far re- covered.

0800 CHRISTMAS DAY:

I have been struggling for an

To convince

Four now

д

myself A 10.3s is really Chrisant. The struggle is

not merely whim of mine, It is an order. Fur sychology

on all important factor in an exped! tun ke this,

It

Is not easy to convince yourself that it's Christmas here on Mars. There are no decors tions in a space-shitp. There are no signs of the hustle and bustle to get the Christmas din-

There uer ready.

isn't much for necessary preparation dehydrated turkey. There was just the present from my wite

a tiny square box wrapped in

issue paper,

By WILLIAM KING

it is even possible that, in them, there is oxygen.

that little box to The only re- minder of reality.

It is even possible that there is tomething living in or near the canals". It is almost cer- that there aro tain, anyway,

up It plants growing neur them-tiny

Blchen mosses,

I am standing now in the middle of a vast rod desert. It is thought to be composed of iron oxide-tiny shifting parti

Its ces of rua

rusty metal.

expet composition is one of the my- series we are here to solve. is red because it has absorbed virtually all of the oxygen on the planet. There is now only the tiniest fraction of it left-at

kust here in the deseri,

Bonie

out,

This morning. I hope to and My job is to find one of these "cinals and

then report back to the ship an quickly on pos alufe, We can spend just about then we days here and three

Д

1100:

There Is I can see a faint There Unge of green ahead. seems to be a depression behind. Wait. The wind is whipping

the green has disappeared.

can no longer make much I can't contact the progress. ship, either. Sand in the radio It's a little box, scar probably.

my chest and It's strapped to hard to got at.

No, wait, there are sounds on

Static. it now.

But regular static. Could someone be jam- ming the radio waves? Or la it another trick of the Marlian atmosphere?

I Just

That partly explains why I om wandering about in this cumber-

which must return. pressurized suit. looks rather like the things you But today, must find used to sec years ago in the

"canal" and then get back. drawings which accompanied hope to be back for

the half science fiction. Of course, it is hour in which we will have a a good deal more flexible and real "Christmas"' nboard the less like a suit of armour than ship. those, Freedom of movement is

all Important,

IL bag

0900:

I

The other reasons are that the suit la heavy and that it is re- shifts in

I have been making good latively impervious to temperature.

bo prugrens. If the astronomers to heavy. A man Mars weighs maps are right, I should reach noon. But a only

Lenth as much as he does the "canal" by in Earth, and I should shoot strong wind is whipping up. high in the air with every step have Just radioed the ship, and were it not for the weights in the men who headed north have the suit. Tho temperature been enveloped in a sandstorm, fluctuated from about 120 de- or should I say a mictaj storm? zero (Fahrenheit) They have lost contact with the grees below at night to close to 80 degrees ship, for the moment, anyway, couldn't get much information above zero in the afternoon.

from the ship because they ask-

But for the suli, life would be

a continusi shume from a Tyr-ed to cut off in order to devote k.3 bath into a relrigerator all their frequencies to attempts or almost. Not quile, of course, to make contact with the lost

men.

Wo agreed not to open the because there is almost no water presents until this arternoon-vapour here either. Without when we get back from our the damp, the heat and the cold

are much more toleražje.

our

missions, But I hoki it in my hand and turned it over and

Anyhow, here I am, as I said, over, trying to guess what was in the desert-to be precise, in

the in it.

tho desert just south of You must forgive me If I seem Martien north pole. to rumble that is part of the

We landed, yesterday, near orders.

We have been instquet- the pole because

biggest ed to keep inking Inte our job here is to track the "canals" microphones almost continuous which lead from the polar re ly from the moment we leave glons, where there is ice in the The ship to the moment we re-

8.x-month long Martian water, turn. Here on Mars, a môn can

Towards the equator. easily lose his

Tulking--

are the his grip. even to a tape recorder-helps a

straight, criss-crossed lacs man koep hold on himself, which have fascinated astrono- mers ever since Lowell mapped them in 1800.

Let me tell you hile about Mars, Taking a tract of the Sahara Desert, transport it to the North Pole, and lift it to The Stratosphere and you have a sound approximation of Londitions and the terrain.

The "cana)s"

The winds and the sands are our biggest enemies,

The dawn is just breaking. The Martian night — with fis stars a thousand time, clearer than any stars you can see from an earthly deserts the sort of right which might well havo inspired the men who watched on the first Christmas to be lleve a miracle was in the offing.

me

The cloud of sand in front of a London fog, looks like only it has this strange red cel- our. No nostalgia about that,

A

I think the wind is dropping

bit. Yes, I can

"greenery" again now.

It looks like a bed

the

of moss,

But there is definitely a depres- sion behind it.

Here we go.

There is a

1200:

of

(cvel stretch smooth rock reaching away from other and just below the tops of the banks.

ono "bank" of the cansi to the

It looks as though someone put it there. But this could be bed and the rock an old river could have been worn smooth. There is no telling for sui

yet.

I am making my way south along the bank now.

deinitely Inst.

The ship reports (the "static" has stopped) that the men who went north are Two men were sent to find them. They found them good mile apart, Both were smothered in sand and their oxygen tanks

apparently burst,

found the But here the astral fireworks

сте

out

another

No one has ever ugh the

been sure just what they are. But they may be waterways- irrigation canals — dug by tho the "Martians" to preserve life on a

dying planet.

terrible hazard,

оп

No one has, seen any sign of the man who went west and

"canal." Nothing interesting, yet. Just this slab of rock....

un good repeating the official ship no good repeating the official about Christmas when all you have to focus your mind on is a tiny box in red tissue paper.

to

I won- in that

lang, melcors which burn themselves

I must got back soon. on earth na they hurtle

are der what will turn up atmosphere to come straight through present from my wife.

That la here, blockbusters from hell itself.

like so many howling seem to have with the Earth. the only contact wo

But I must not dwell

For Mars is too far away for things like that.

Just those pre I must try to radilo contact, think

walung be Christmas, 1 mus: sents,

open battle about keep up a stout heart. But it is

into a hospital- cat compact, hygienic, smelling a litle of air conditioning, and disinfectant, completely limper sonal. Neno of us has any

per- sonal

with him: posscasions

They would take up space urgently needed for

equipment equip ment that may save our lives.

But wo were each permitted to take one Christmas present. with us ono minuto box with a human touch, about it.

AhThere's a hole in the A round smooth hole. a hatch or a manhole cover. there до rumblings

WELL WHAT D'YOU KNOW!

EVEN CIVILIANS

CAN WIN THE VC

It is a good thing that wo de cided not to open the presents, though. It's surprising how + little curiosity helps to keep a man going.

1000:

rock

The wind is growing stronger. L I can hear the bits of iron oxida every war, and World War blowing against my They

north.

What we know about the in-

BRAVE deeds are done in t only 181 Victoria Crosses bound line pebbles bouncing of there. It could be a Mestian were won between 1939 and 1945, as compared with 581a in cab. The ship le still there geysers in New Zealand. between 1914 and 1918. The Korean War produced only searching for the men who went or a small volcano? two V.C's. It looks as though the world's most coveted And something more ominous terior of Mare makes it seem medal is getting harder to win,

has happened. The man who doubtful, But suli.... Many people have the idea that the V.C. is awarded to men want west we must

No, I could swear **because WO haven't something moving..... only. But it can be won by women. For that matter, anyone alone can win it even a civilian, provided he or she is under the enough men to travel in pairu- Maybe I'm losing my grip, orders, direction or supervision of the military, naval or air forces. found a "canal." Then, sud- But here goes to and out.... And the act of valour doesn't have to be in the face of the enemy, denly, he went off the air. as is popularly supposed.

In 1858, two years after Queen Victoria instituted the award, the Royal Warrant was amended to cover other acts of gallantry. Private Timothy. O'Hea won his V.C. on June 9, 1883, for putting out a fire in a railway ammunition ear. COLOUR BAR TILL 1911

travel

17 I and one, I shall throw this record outside before I enter.

thu

1 am moving as fast as I ean. I must try to get back to

ship by four. The Christmas dinner con

and

debydrated Toode won't look

look much like the

NOTE:

there, is

·The recording endis. there, True to his word, the explorer, dropped it beside the "canal".; or what he thought was the

canal before

to in- 'he went vestigate.

The Bocond British expedition

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No

Until 1911, only white serving men could win the red-orcentrated blue ribbon. (It was blue for Naval VC's until August 1918), Christmas you'll be having back landed on Mars in June 1994. and the award was not open to nurses before 1920. S

For more than eighty years, the medal was made from cannon on Earth. But there will be the. The first space-ship had been captured in the Crimean War. Then the supply of cannon metal presents we brought from home wrecked in a sandstorm. ran cut and, since 1942, it has come from the Royal Mint.

the the presents which have stays survivors were found and, Winning the V.C. brings great honour-but Bile else. There ed in the wreppers for nine where lig "record was

Jocated in an annuity of £10 a year for non-commissioned holders only,

weeks

while we seemed to there was no sign of plus sixpence a day added to a pension. The annuity can be mov

er motionless in poes!

and Just ralped to £75 a year in cases of extreme poverly,

were really hurtling through it, so more even desert.

found no Cat 70,000 miles an hoini.

"canala" EXTRA £5 NEVER PAID

"con

Recond Garreturned home:

I wonder what my wife do after a day and a half when

An additional £5 a year is awarded to double-VC's, if they cled was appropriate for a man

a man serious sandstorms were sights. Bro non-commissioned. But so far it has never been paid. Only on Mars Argentina

three men have won a bar to the medal, so far, and they were would have taken up too

At least, it can't officers. all Although the actual value of the V.C. is but a few lung mich d

+

1} attracts big money from collectors. One was sold for £116, 92 & PORCA

That's why counterfeiters have tried their hands at forging the I'm

medal.

*

Two fake V.C.'s were discovered in 1954. ^ Oct was supposed

to have been the original medal won by neprivals on the 16th

Hussays In the glorious Chart of the Light: Brigade

The other was thought to be Private O'Hesthe man who

kit out, the Thre” în 1860)". But, thấy VC, les lat

A third expedition will leave

tie, Anexİ,

́te is bulky A

xi yehr in the hope that the y can be cleared up

mós that the RADIOERE

Superior in every feature,

in every way.

MODEL CO