1959-05-02 — Page 5

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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

342+7=

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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

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ROLEX

the history of Time mokbareme

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