ROCKET TO MOON FORECAST

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 69, Issue 78, 12 January 1949, Page 6

ROCKET TO MOON FORECAST

LONDON. A clergyman astronomer at Hertford has assured his audiences that they will I'ive to know another world .—the world of the moon. “Give the Americans 10 years or less and the first rocket to the moon will have been sent off and will have returned guided, of course, by radar,” said the Rev. R. C. Wood, Hertford Congregational minister and a fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society. The first, rocket will probably contain only instruments, but for the second rocket there will be a call for volunteers to form a crew. The Rev. Wood said he believed that the discovery of atomic energy had removed the last obstacle in the way of' rocket projection to the moon—the propulsion power. The Rev. Wood added that the surface of the moon is already better known than the surface of the earth, many parts of which are as yet unmapped, but he believed that within the next year enough photographs of the earth can be taken from rockets flying 100 miles or more up to “get a picture of the earth as it really is—a tiny ball whirling in space.” Astronomers, he said, know that there is some kind of vegetable life on Mars, but added that on the question whether there is human life “your guess is as good as mine.”—From a Reuter correspondent.