Aiming Radio Signals at the Moon

RADIO signals from the moon can be heard, asserts Dr. A. Hoyt Taylor of the Naval Research Laboratory at Washington, D. C. The plan is to direct a short wave radio beam at the moon in such a manner that it will be reflected by the moon’s surface to produce an “echo” wave, audible through powerful receivers on earth some three seconds after the 500,000-mile trip through inter-stellar space.
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It seems the Army was a bit over optimistic. The first man made object to impact the moon was the Russian probe Luna 2 on September 14, 1959.

Station MOON

Radio rocket planned by Army would send hourly signals from the Moon.

STATION MOON may soon be calling Earth. The U. S. Army is constructing a Moon-bound radio-carrying rocket which it expects to complete early in 1948.

The missile will weigh only 100 lbs., including a 50-lb. radio capable of transmitting its signals across the intervening quarter-million miles of space.
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Inside Our First Two-Man Spacecraft

Not just a scaled-up Mercury capsule, the Gemini spacecraft is a ship for astronauts to fly

By Wesley S. Griswold

WITHIN the next few months, for the first time in our space program, two U.S. astronauts are expected to go into orbit together.

Their vehicle, the Gemini spacecraft, is far more than just a Mercury built for two. Besides being half again as roomy and twice as heavy as Mercury was, it is much more complex and efficient. That is because it will have many intricate tasks to perform before it completes its 12 scheduled missions.
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What ever happened to the Manned Space Stations?

By Dr. Wernher von Braun

Director of NASA’s George C. Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala.

DURING the years before Sputnik, several writers, including myself, predicted that one of the first objectives of manned space flight would be to establish one or more orbiting space stations.

Today we’re busy building rockets and spacecraft to take men to the moon. We have been fabulously successful with Project Mercury, and our Saturn I rockets have shown that they can reliably haul more than 10 tons of payload into orbit. Yet little is heard of manned space stations. Why is that so?
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LET’S CLAIM THE MOON – NOW!

We can beat the Reds with this plan for shooting our flag to the Moon by rocket.

By Pierre J. Huss

THE RUSSIANS, by their own admission, are getting ready to claim possession of the Moon. By 1970, judging from known Soviet plans for shooting rockets into the skies, the Moon will become sovereign territory of the Soviet Union—a “suburb” of Moscow. Obviously, then, now is the time for us to stake out our claim to the Moon if the interests of free mankind are to be safeguarded for future generations. Otherwise, the Russians will beat us to the punch by grabbing first and talking afterward.
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Life Aboard a Space Ship

Eating, washing and sleeping will be tough problems for passengers on the first flights to outer space.

By Willy Ley, World-Famed Rocket Authority

NEVER doze off without tying yourself down or you’ll crack your head on something. If you feel a sneeze coming, hang on to something or you’ll slam into the bulkhead. Don’t try to pour from a bottle and don’t smoke without turning up the air conditioner.” This advice may well be given to a space cadet in about 1980 by an experienced hand. All of it refers to the little tricks men will have to learn if they want to survive a trip through space and be reasonably comfortable while doing so. Reasonably comfortable; real comfort is not likely to come to the space lanes for many years.
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Rocket pioneer Robert Goddard was killed today in an large explosion. Apparently the explosion occurred when a prototype Mark I Strato-Rocket was dropped on the floor. His last words reportedly were “I got it, got it, whoops!”

Strato-Rocket Nears Completion

A ROCKET flight 150 miles into the stratosphere at a speed of more than 700 miles an hour was predicted for sometime next year following a visit of Col. Charles A. Lindbergh and Harry F. Guggenheim at the rocket laboratory of Dr. Robert H. Goddard near Roswell, New Mexico.

In a joint statement, Dr. Goddard and Mr. Guggenheim reported great advancement in their discoveries, and announced that next year’s flight would be for the purpose of gathering information on electrical phenomena such as the reflection of radio waves in the upper stratosphere.

Present plans call for a parachute attachment to the rocket so that scientific instruments may be safely lowered.

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Fate of UNIVERSE May Be Told in Cosmic Ray Origin

by JAY EARLE MILLER

Where in the universe does the mysterious cosmic ray originate? Science is now conducting extensive research to solve that mystery, for the answer may disclose the destiny of the earth we live on.

ON MOUNTAIN tops in Hawaii, Alaska, Peru and at other isolated points around the world—eighteen stations in all—an answer is being sought this summer to the most perplexing question in modern science —what is a cosmic ray?

First discovered nearly thirty years ago, and made famous in 1925 when Dr. Millikan of California Tech confirmed their existence, and, much to his embarrassment, the press named them “Millikan’s rays,” the cosmic emanation continues to be the baffling enigma on which scientists throughout the world are divided.
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I screwed up when scanning this article and I’m missing the last few pages. So I’m sorry but you’ll have to make due with the first 15.

As Jayessell pointed out in the comments to another article from this magazine, the cover image as well as the first page of this article are from the 1929 Fritz Lang picture “Frau im Mond”. I’m not sure if the landscapes and moonscapes are from the same movie, but they are beautifully done.

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ROCKET TO THE MOON?

The favorite theme of science fiction is no longer a fantasy-latest advances in rocket research make it a distinct possibility.

BY WILLY LEY

Charter Member of British Interplanetary Society and Author of Rockets—Future of Travel Beyond the Stratosphere

THE STORY OF THE MOON GUN

WITH the exception of an occasional comet, our moon is the nearest of all celestial bodies. Its average distance, in round figures, is 240,000 miles. Sometimes it is distant by 13,000 miles more, sometimes, when the moon is closer in its orbital gyrations, it is almost 20,000 miles less. The average, or mean, of all the possible distances is 240,000 miles; or, if you want to be more precise, 238,900 miles.

As astronomical distances go, this is very close indeed; it is not even very far when a purely terrestrial yardstick is applied. I know a Hollywood producer who, for business reasons, has to come to New York five times every year. After eight years of flying to New York five times a year and back, he will have travelled the whole distance to the moon. Taken as one trip, it would be 900 hours on a fast transport, 600 hours on a modern fighter plane.
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Forecast: A SKY FULL OF SATELLITES

By Richard F. Dempewolff

MAN’S GREAT DREAM of stepping off his island in the universe to explore the spangled reaches of space took a giant step toward realization on October 4, 1957. That date marks the exclamation point in history when a 184-pound moon, boosted by a mighty rocket smashing skyward from an airfield on the Caspian Sea, was programmed into an 18,000-mile-per-hour orbit around the earth.
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The Challenge of Space
The dream of human flight is as old as man—and the ultimate goal is the stars.

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Tom Thumb Planetarium Easily Built from Odds and Ends

By GAYLORD JOHNSON

SIMPLE PROJECTOR MAKES THE CONSTELLATIONS MARCH ACROSS A SCREEN IN YOUR LIVING ROOM

IF YOU ever attended a performance in a large public planetarium, you probably envied the lecturer’s ability to rehearse any part of the drama of the skies at will. Or perhaps you never have witnessed the march of the stars across a giant dome, and are anxious to see a man-made sky in action. At a cost of less than a dollar, you can assemble, from odds and ends, a midget planetarium that will put on a performance right in your own parlor.
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