What You would Find on Mars
By R.S. Richardson and Glenn C. Moore
Staff Members, Mt. Wilson Observatory
SEVERAL months ago thousands of people in the United States became panic stricken when they heard on the radio that men from Mars were invading the earth.
At that time Mars was 223,100,000 miles away, almost the greatest distance possible.
But since then the Red Planet has been drawing steadily nearer, until on July 27 it will be only 36,030,000 miles away, the closest approach for fifteen years past and for fifteen years to come. From a faint speck of light, Mars has grown until now it appears brighter than any star in the whole heavens—a glowing ball of fire low in the southern sky.
Gazing at our nearest neighbor in space” this summer, we cannot help wondering what kind of a world it is. What strange things would we find on it? How would we feel there?
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Space Cops to Enforce World Peace
Man-made satellite rocketships may soon revolve in endless orbits around the earth, policing our civilization.
By Frank Tinsley
NATIONS of the world are racing to send the first man-made satellite revolving in an endless orbit around the earth. In the hands of an agressor, such a machine might mean slavery for all mankind, but as a police unit of the United Nations, it holds a promise of world peace.
Back in the closing days of 1948, when Secretary of Defense James Forrestal disclosed the existence of an “earth satellite vehicle program,” the press and public reacted with a gasp of incredulous amazement. For the first time, responsible officials had dared to admit that they were seriously investigating the fantastic dreams of Sunday-supplement screwballs!
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If you like this article, you should also check these out:
How Scientists Visualize the REAL Flying Saucer Men
When scholars of the universe recreate spacemen along logical scientific lines, even those supposed weird little saucerites seem ordinary by comparison.
By I. B. Neer
PRYING eyes of science are probing into space again in the hope of detecting life on other planets. Armed with new facts, previously accepted theories about what lies beyond the Earth are being discarded by scientists every day and the possibility grows more and more distinct that creatures, more fantastic than our most vivid imaginations could conjure up, may inhabit the planets around us. They make those startling stories of weird little men in flying saucers seem tame by comparison.
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No, this article is not about a particularly ambitious band of paparazzi.
Photographing Stars with a Rocket
WILL science ever be able to take photographs of the spectra of the sun and other stars with cameras far outside the range of the earth’s atmosphere? Speculation on this possibility has been renewed by the recent experiments of Prof. Robert H. Goddard, of Worcester, Mass., in launching rockets of his own design powered with a secret liquid propellant which he invented.
Contrary to popular belief, Prof. Goddard has no intention of occupying one of his rockets on a fantastic journey to the moon. As pointed out by Dr. C. G. Abbott, secretary of the Smithsonian Institute, a close friend of Professor Goddard, the professor’s experiments are directed toward a scientific exploration of the upper heavens at distances now far beyond the reach of man.
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How can you not love the headline?
Sun Not So Bright
Compared to other stars in the same class, our sun is a weakling as far as brightness is concerned. According to recent tests at Harvard University, it gives off only seven tenths of the radiation it should for its size.
Skyrocketing to Mars
Will Man Ever Reach the Red Planet?
Rocket machines operate more efficiently in the vacuum of interstellar space than in an atmosphere. Will science be able to harness this new force for interplanetary travel?
SCIENTISTS say that in the next few months we may see the first trials of man-carrying rockets, which will be shot off into space in an effort to land some intrepid adventurer on Venus or Mars! Visions of a Jules Verne voyage to another planet are actually nearing realization through the lessons learned from recent rocket tests made by Fritz von Opel and Anton Raab, two Germans who have made exhaustive studies of rockets as a means of propulsion.
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I’m not really sure how this is supposed to work. Where would all the material from that sphere go? I suppose if you used a nuke then you could vaporize it, but then I don’t think you’d want to live there.
Blast a Home in the Moon?
THE latest in a series of proposals for your lunar living facilities—in case you decide to make the trip—suggests construction could begin even before you land. A projectile from Earth would carry special shaped charges to blast a shaft (Fig. 2A) in the Moon’s surface. At a predetermined depth it would blow a spherical chamber (2B).
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It’s a giant space condom!
Inflatable Solar Collector
Rocketing into space in a canister the size of a teacup, a solar collector will billow out to a conical shape with a metalized Mylar reflector that is seven feet in diameter.
The sun’s rays striking the reflector are focused onto a collector. These rays will be transformed into heat energy which then may be used to power various electrical and mechanical instruments in space.
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THE POOR MAN’S TELESCOPE
AS EVERY astronomer knows, a steady mounting is a must when using high magnification. Generally, to obtain the required steadiness, it has been considered necessary to build a strong, heavy instrument, made with high precision, often mounted on concrete piers. The disadvantage of such instruments, in their lack of portability, has led us to develop the six-inch reflecting telescope and mounting shown here. We feel it combines features especially suited to the needs of the amateur.
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Machines that “Destroy” the Earth
Intricate mechanisms at New York Planetarium show how celestial forces could burn, blast or freeze the world.
By HARRY SAMUELS
THREE times a day in five spectacular ways the earth “dies” in the Hayden Planetarium in New York.
First performed in 1939, the Planetarium’s sky drama was shut down by the war in 1941 and was not resumed until recently. The new “End of the World” show is considerably more vivid than its prewar predecessor because of added startling effects and more authentic background material worked out by the Planetarium technical and scientific staffs. The pictures and captions on the accompanying pages explain how these effects are obtained.
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I googled Ronald Benrey, the kid who made the satellite to see what he went on to do. I was rather surprised when my own site came up in the results. Apparently Ronald went on to write for Popular Science and was the author of this excellent article about making your own laser.
Instrumenting an Earth Satellite
Prize-winning Science Fair model reels off space secrets of the push of a button
WEBSTERS DEFINITION of Argus is incomplete. In Greek mythology, Argus has another connotation - it denotes the starry heavens. In all respects, it is a fitting name for a model satellite - “Argus I” -built by Ronald Michael Benrey and entered in the National Science Fair.
The satellite took second prize at the Fair and took first prize inn the Air Force’s Awards Program, as well as receiving other citations. While it doesn’t have the 100 eyes of the mythological Argus, it does have seven “eyes” - sensors designed to “see” such things as temperature, ultraviolet light and micrometeorites—as well as two “voices”—transmitters to relay the information to receivers.
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