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race to the planets

BY WILLY LEY

It won’t be long! Earthmen are fast removing all obstacles to me conquest of Interplanetary space* EARTHMEN have set their thoughts on the conquest of space. More than that, they have set their hands to it. In dead earnest they are committed, in both the Old World and the New. It now can definitely be said, the race to the planets is on!

Most experts are agreed that the first unmanned guided missile will strike the Moon some day during the next ten years. The fist manned Moon rocket will probably follow within five years after that. But that trip will not include a landing; it will be merely a trip around the Moon, at a comparatively close but respectful distance, with return to Earth after circling it a few times.
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Is Radio Earthbound?

By D. C. WILKERSON

Can Radio Waves conquer interstellar Space and travel from planet to planet? That is the question the scientists hope to answer with Prof. Goddard’s proposed Moon Rocket, Which will contain a radio transmitter.

HOW IT LOOKED IN 1925

This article was originally published in RADIO NEWS, our sister publication, in March, 1925. It shows that even 33 years ago realistic individuals were thinking ahead on the subject of radio transmission. It is rather amazing that author Willterson predicted the future so well, as evidenced by the fact that we are receiving transmissions from space today. Note the similarity of the rocket conceived by Dr. Goddard back in 1925 (shown on page 52) to a modern rocket, the “Thor” (shown here).
—THE EDITORS
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Is There Life On Mars?

By G. Harry Stine

Viking-Aerobee Operations Engineer White Sands Proving Ground AT THIS moment the planet Mars is swinging to within 35,400,000 miles of the Earth—about the closest it ever gets—and astronomers the world over are training their telescopes on it. They will be making drawings, photographs, and spectrographs of the surface details in order to find answers to some of the mysteries which surround the sun’s fourth planet.

With the advent of the space travel era almost upon us Mars will be receiving a lot of attention because, after the moon, it is certainly the next target in space for our up and coming space explorers. And there are a number of important questions about that planet which can only be answered by going there. Read the rest of this entry »

Whole library in a nutshell
This latest space trick might work well with earthbound libraries. The magnifying viewer on the astronaut’s knee holds 12,000 pages of microfilmed manuals, maps, and navigation data for use in the Apollo lunar spacecraft. The film is coded and indexed so a flip of a switch puts any page on the screen in 15 seconds.

METEOR CUTS LIGHT WIRE

A meteor’s prank recently plunged the town of Herman, Nebr., in darkness. The heavenly missile. falling during the night, clipped a main transmission line. Then it dug a fifteen-inch hole in the ground, where witnesses say it lay spouting flames for hours. Electric repair men hurried to the scene to splice the first recorded break made by a meteor. When the object was recovered, it was found to have been fused into a shape grotesquely resembling a small pig. Read the rest of this entry »

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Exploring the Moon by Rocket Ship

by ROBERT ESNAULT-PELTERIE as told to ALFRED ALBELLI

Alexander the Great wept because he had no more worlds to conquer, but the modern scientist is more optimistic and plans to conquer worlds situated millions of miles from the earth. In this article a famous French experimenter tells of his problems in building a moon-rocket ship.

Editor’s Note: After 25 years of investigation in aeronautics and astronautics, Esnault-Pelterie has worked out a systematic plan of procedure for making a flight to the moon. He first plans to build a rocket, containing only scientific instruments, that will travel 100 miles into the air, descending by parachute and bring back data of the stratosphere. This he believes will be done in two years.
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The WORLD’S BIGGEST EYE

A GROUP of American astronomers soon will experience one of the greatest scientific thrills of the century. On the night the world’s most tremendous telescope is completed they will take turns peering into a tiny, brilliant eyepiece.

Looking at the heavens with the aid of the most extraordinary piece of glass ever poured, they may make discoveries that will completely change man’s conception of the universe.

After years of research the men in charge of building the monster instrument for the California Institute of Technology are now at work. Astronomers estimate that the mirror, 360,000 times more powerful than the human eye, will magnify the moon and planets 10,000 times. Read the rest of this entry »

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Science Newsfront

Last-minute news and notes to keep you up-to-date

By ARTHUR FISHER

NASA fights auto pollution

The big guns of aerospace technology are being enlisted in the battle against the major source of air pollution in this country—automobile exhaust. The mission: to reduce the one-quarter to one-half ton of carbon monoxide and hydrocarbons each car spews into the atmosphere in a year, as a result of incomplete fuel combustion. The battle plan: Develop a thermal reactor that would replace the standard exhaust manifold and serve as an afterburner. But such a reactor must withstand temperatures occasionally exceeding 2,000 degrees F, thermal shock from cold starts, and jarring vibrations—all problems routinely encountered in space exploration. Read the rest of this entry »

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Daring Men in Seven Nations Aim to Harness GIANT Rockets

FIFTEEN years ago the rocket was a toy, fit only for fireworks or laboratory demonstrations. Twelve years ago only one scientist in the world, the American physicist, Dr. Robert H. Goddard, of Clark University, Worcester, Mass., was working to transform this ancient plaything into a source of power for fast vehicles. So rapid has progress been, since then, that today the rocket is a young giant, though as yet too impetuous and uncontrolled for commercial use.
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Chicago Man Stakes Claim to Outer Space

SCIENCE ILLUSTRATED PHOTOGRAPHS BY RUS ARNOLD

Early this year, 74 envelopes, each addressed to “The Honorable Secretary of State” of 74 different nations were dumped into a Chicago mailbox. Within the envelopes was the announcement that a new nation had been formed and was asking lor recognition. The intruder into world politics was a thing called Nation of Celestial Space, the brainchild and property of a Chicago publicity man and “industrial designer,” James T. Mangan.

The idea of a nation encompassing all of outer space smote Mangan late last year when he and Ernest Eckland, his partner, were idly talking about “stuff.” Eckland pointed out the window and remarked that there was “plenty of stuff out there.” Read the rest of this entry »

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MAN TO THE MOON

What will that first trip be like when—soon— brave men soar into the skies to conquer the moon?

Here is a preview of that great adventure By Tom Alexander Author of Project Apollo: Man to the Moon { Harper and Row, New York)

Illustrations by Ray Pioch THE FLIGHT A top their vast and audibly seething assembly, three men lie breathing quick in concentration as earth and rocket begin to cast off lines. In the last second a hundred switches clatter, fires are kindled, valves open, flames belch and cough smokily. Long, slow vibrations run upward through the rocket to jostle the crew, then begin smoothing away as the launch pad’s hold-down clamps fall. The Saturn poises, struggling against earth’s gravity and an atmosphere clinging like glue to its sides. It rises in a thunderous stroke to stage-one burnout at 150 seconds and 36 miles. …
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Coast-To-Coast in 40 Minutes

By G. Harry Stine

Three hundred miles up at two miles per second, then an 1,800-mile toboggan ride—that will he the new transcontinental rocket.

IN A RELATIVELY short time you may be able to have lunch in New York City, hop aboard an airliner, and have breakfast in Los Angeles the same day! The present seven-hour plane trip will take only 40 minutes.

Let’s slide forward a few years. The place is just outside New York City on a cold, blustery day. Inside the passenger terminal, luncheon is being served in the restaurant. It looks like an ordinary airline terminal except for the signs over the desks: Transcontinent Rocket Lines, Atlantic Rocket Service and others. We check in at The Transcontinent Rocket desk where our baggage is carefully weighed —along with ourselves. Weight has always been a prime factor in rocket work.
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