May 29, 2008

200 INCH TELESCOPE Is Greatest Engine of Science (Jun, 1934)

Filed under: Space — @ 2:49 am
Source: Modern Mechanix ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Jun, 1934
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200 INCH TELESCOPE Is Greatest Engine of Science

by WILLIAM JENNINGS

COOLING slowly in a brick igloo in Corning, N. Y., is a lake of 34 tons of molten glass, representing the greatest scientific project ever attempted by man. It took six years to reach this stage of the great task and it will be more than four more years before its success is known.

From far and wide scientists came to see the formation of this huge lake of glass— the pouring of the 200-inch telescope mirror that is expected to reach out into the unknown depths of the universe.

The work has hardly begun with the pouring of the mirror. Countless problems still face the scientists who have undertaken the task.
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May 6, 2008

What You would Find on Mars (Aug, 1939)

Filed under: Space — @ 11:08 pm
Source: Popular Mechanics ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Aug, 1939
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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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April 23, 2008

Space Cops to Enforce World Peace (Dec, 1951)

Filed under: Space,War — @ 10:09 pm
Source: Mechanix Illustrated ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Dec, 1951
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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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April 13, 2008

How Scientists Visualize the REAL Flying Saucer Men (Jun, 1951)

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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April 12, 2008

Photographing Stars with a Rocket (Nov, 1929)

Filed under: Space — @ 10:12 pm
Source: Modern Mechanix ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Nov, 1929
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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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April 7, 2008

Sun Not So Bright (Nov, 1937)

Filed under: Space — @ 9:04 pm
Source: Popular Science ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Nov, 1937
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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.

April 4, 2008

Skyrocketing to Mars (Nov, 1928)

Filed under: Space — @ 8:47 pm
Source: Modern Mechanix ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Nov, 1928
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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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February 1, 2008

Future GIs to ride rocket troopship (Jul, 1964)

Future GIs to ride rocket troopship

Troop transport in 45 minutes to a brush-fire war anywhere in the world is proposed by Douglas Aircraft space engineers.

The 80-by-210-foot re-usable rocket shown at right would speed 17,000 m.p.h., carrying 1,200 troops and equipment. Landing upright, it would debark them by portable ramps, jet packs, and rope ladders.

It’s called ICARUS: Intercontinental Aerospace craft—Range Unlimited System.

January 28, 2008

Blast a Home in the Moon? (Mar, 1962)

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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January 24, 2008

Inflatable Solar Collector (Jul, 1961)

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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January 17, 2008

THE POOR MAN’S TELESCOPE (May, 1962)

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. Read the rest of this entry »

January 10, 2008

Machines that “Destroy” the Earth (Nov, 1946)

Filed under: Space — @ 12:44 am
Source: Popular Science ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Nov, 1946
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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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