AERIAL NAVIGATION IN MARS.

Auckland Star, Volume XLI, Issue 4, 5 January 1910, Page 2

AERIAL NAVIGATION IN MARS.

, ... SUGGESTED HOUSEBOATS AND SUSPENDED VILLAGES. 1 AEROPLANE AND AIRSHIP THEORIES The planet Mars, which is now attractj ing world-wide attention, may well be ; termed the planet of romance, since it is i enveloped in a mysterious charm, giving ; the Imagination full sway. Some romailtlc- . ists like Flamnwrion have pictured the ln- , habitants of Mars as . winged c reatures,. '. 'though whether they, are of the nature of . bird. bat. or bntterfly, the French scientist • has not attempted to decide. It Is a strange coincidence, however, that the outlines of the darker portions of the ! snrfaee of the planet, as delineated by Professor Perciv.il Lowell, of the Flagstaff 0& -, servatory, Arizona, show a remarkable resemblance to hnge bat<like creatures apparently floating In the Martian atmos phere. Once the attention is drawn to the strange outlines, the wonder is that these seeming aeroplanes of bat-like appearance have so far escaped detection. Since I flights of imagination regarding Mars seem to be in the ascendant at present. Owing to the fact that the- planet was at its nearest, and consequently well placed for observation, during August, may one be permitted to weave the following fanciful theory around, the planet of romance? a flight Of Imagination. Supposing Mars Is an older world than ours and Inhabited by a race of beings far ahead of us id thefr knowledge and- inventive faculties, may "they not long since have mastered the intricacies of the mechanism of airships? Wealthy Martians probably own their own airships, navigating the air at wUI when calling on. their friends, who may reside on huge aeroplanes accommodating hundreds, and corresponding to floating villages or gigantic houseboats. Some such arrangement would become actually a necessity for the Martians residing within fifty or sixty degrees of the polar regions,' for the simple reason that during the season which corresponds to springtime on earth great inundations take place, swamping the land as far as the tropics. ■It Is a fact that In the year 18M, whei the polar icecap was equal in size to a circular mass of ice extending from tli» borderland of! Canada to the Gulf of Mexico, j a great catastrophe took place which was observed by astronomers on our planet. The icecap was seen- not only to melt as springtime advanced, setting free an immense -quantity of water, but in the course of a few months it vanished altogether. As a -result an Inundation must have occurred, flooding every particle of land from the ■ polnr regions to. a latitude corresponding t<* a few degrees from .the equator. Such inundations seem' to be no uncommon occurrence oo Mars, and undoubtedly. If the planet Is an inhabited, world gouiething mnst bo done to obviate the disastrous re- : surts of such a catastrdph*.. May not these huge bfltlike Outlines be airships..constructed hy. the. Martians for use In the hour of direst need, in which they ascend above tbe surface of their planet when they know tbe springtime . floods are duel Just as the Egyptians of old fled from certain regions on the banks of the N'lle when they, observed Slrlus, the } Dogstar, rising in the morning sky before dawn, warning them ot the approaching flood, so the gradual melting'of th« toeap must be, In the nature of a signal to the j Martians to embark on their aeroplanes and airships. ' ... ;.:.-. -.:' <

Owing to the fact that the surface gravity of Mam is such that a man weighing oae hundred and fifty pounds fcere would weigh but sixty pounds there, we mn weii imagine that the art. of flying can be as easily acquired on Mars a« swimming la here. Therefore we can imagine that the construction of flying machine* adapted for use in the Martian atmosphere is carried to-a degree of perfection scarcely possible here. Prior to.the yearly floods th« Martians equipped with individual. flying machines would thus be enabled t* flit from one aeroplane to another until U»e> had decided on their abiding place for th* time being or directed their airship in the direction of dry land in the equatorial regions. | , '- A WORN-OUT WORLD. .Probably the most. generally accepted theory concerning Mars is that it is a wornout world on the verge of extinction. This has given rise to the theory that the Inhabitants at their last gasp for breath are vainly endeavouring to attract our attention by frantic signals. The matter of fact scientist, slow to accept theories wtthfrut substantia) facts whereon to build, laughs with scorn at what he terms "mere phantsalw of the imagination," and declare* we know little enough about Mars, and is he not right? .. . ' ':/':.' "....."", . That Mars Is surrounded by an atmosphere there is abundance of proof, but that the atmosphere is' similar to that of the earth is not so well established. As a whole, from observations which'have been made the' Atmosphere is remarkably clear and transparent; though at times- the presence of a very thin hose or fog half veiling- the surface niarklnfs has been observed. Clouds, if any" exist, are. very .unusual, -and great storm clouds such as we have here have never, been.noted. Nevertheless, during the latter half of October, 1804, an area much larger than Europe remained hidden by mist or clouds. Yet we presume 'that heavy rainfalls are unusual on' Mars, and that storms and cyclones such as occur on our planet are unknown iv that distant world. On the other hand, while the oceans ou earth keep within certain limits, the water on Mars seems to march about at its ease, according to M. Faye, the greatest French scientist, "In , 1892," he writes, "regions of the planet as wide as France were inundated by such an overflow." :. .-• 5 - -r - - - - - For this reason Mars may well be termed the "Venice of the sky," though, unlike Venice; h can Scarcely be a' comfortable world on which to reside. While there are insny reasons for believing that life May .exist on; Other bodies of the universe, are' .there Any sufficient reasons for supposing that life „actually does exist on this particular body? WHAT W» KNOW ABOI3T-MARS. Mais has been known and carefully studied from prehistoric timet, It complete* a circuit of the heavens Is about two years, from which fact it )» easy te Itftt Uu; tft* ftlMaH fe IS * giawi «V» Vvi3-. i'k

tance from the sun than the- earth. In consequent it receives a lessened amount of heat' and light, the proportion heine somewhat less than half the amount received by the earth. The day on Mars is. about half an hour longer than here, and the seasons; nearly twice as long. . Summer lii the northern hemisphere lasts asi days, and winter only 306. At the north pole the Bight Is - 30ft days longr that is, the ana never rises during that period,. and Martians- living -within, twenty-four degrees ■pt th«--»ertl» pole are- consequently in darkness for a time corresponding to more than ten. months, in the southern hemisphere the winter is.longer than the summer, the night at the south pole being 381 days and : the day 30tt days long, during which time the sun never sets. We have a. similar ; effect hr the Land of the Midnight Sun, . where the sun remains above the horizon for three months, but -imagine living in a region where daylight lasts for ten months! .We can well Imagine the Martians forsaking the dreary'realms-' of darkness for .the land where-, the sun never sets, retreating from one to the other according; to the varying .seasons. . The surface.of Mars is a little less, than one-third that of the earth, a trifle more than the. total. area of dry land on our planet. The volume of the planet is oneserenth. and tts mass only one-tenth that of the earth. This was determined with great accuracy from observations of the two little moons. Phobos and Deimos, discovered by Professor Asaph Hall, of the Naval Observatory, Washington, In 1877. The toner moon, Phobos, with a diameter of seven miles, makes one revolution around the planet in a period of seven hours and a half, or three times during the course of a Martian day. passing through all the phases of new, crescent, and full in a single night. The outermost moon. Deimos, with a-dia-meter of five or six miles, completes itsjourney once tn a period of thirty hours, and eighteen minutes. Consequently there . must always be a moon adorning, the Martian sky. But how small in size are these ' moons as compared with our own glorious satellite,, with its diameter of over two thousand milest; Owing to the lessened force of gravlty tbe Martians might attain a strength and stature greater' than ours, without being burdened by tneir owd weight. Dealing, as they would have to. with rocks only a little, more than a third as heavy as they would be here, their work would be much more effective Nevertheless, according to a calculation made by Mr J. Orr, of the British Astronomical Association, It would reQ«lr* an army of two hundred million men. working for a thousand years, to construct the canal system now outlined on Mars. No part of the Martian surface is entirely free from this network of lines, which furrow so called land and dark seas alike. Those who see in these markings a vast irrigating system also contend that the ■water flows from the north during th« northern summer, and from the south to the north In the other half of the year. "To push speculation and imagination to this extreme is farcical," says Professor 'Poor, "when the simplest and most elementary of the planetary conditions are •till unknown. There is no direct evidence that water eves exists upon the surface of Mart: its presence is Inferred from the behaviour of the polar caps. - Whether this Inference Is correct or not !* an open question." The imaginative theory suggested by the writer earlier in this article concerning the dark outlines on Mars as resembling huge aeroplanes, with the additional suggestion that the network ot lines may be gigantic cables holding the aeroplanes in place, Is Jnst as plausible in its way at the elaborate network of canals running up hill and down dale, the one being as likely at the other.— Mary Proctor, in the "New Tork World Magazine