INTER-PLANETARY TRAVEL

Press, Volume XCIII, Issue 27874, 24 January 1956, Page 12

INTER-PLANETARY TRAVEL

Possibility Of Trip

To Moon

“WITHIN LIFETIME OF PRESENT QUEEN”

A one-way rocket could be sent to the moon within five years, Sir Walter Perkins, a former member of the British House of Commons, said in Christchurch yesterday. Sir* Walter Perkins has already booked a return ticket to the moon. He was Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Civil Aviation in 1945.

“I want to go with him to the moon,” said Lady Perkins, who is accompanying her husband on a tour of the British Commonwealth. Sir Walter Perkins said that any form of inter-planetary travel would almost certainly involve a “change of horses in mid-stream.”

;“As soon as a rocket got right out of this atmosphere passengers would have to take their seats in another rocket, ’ he said. “They could proceed to the moon in another type of rocket.” Sir Walter Perkins said a half-way station, such as satellites already planned by America and Russia, could be stationed 1100 miles away right out of this atmosphere. Passengers could ch .?rnf e roGkets at the satellite station. Tke first earth tourists to the moon would have to wear ‘space suits’ and take their oxygen with them,” said Sir Walter Perkins. “There is no life of any kind on the moon—that is this side of the moon. No-one has seen the other side.”

Sir Walter Perkins said that rockets would most certainly be the kind of power used in inter-planetary travel. It is technically possible now to send a rocket to the moon. It is now a question of getting the right type of fuel and heavy Government backing An enormous amount of money would have to be thrown into any such projects,” he said.

No Passengers at First Sir Walter Perkins said that he believed man would fly to the moon and return in the lifetime of the present Queen of England. “On a one-way trip to the moon that could easily be accomplished in five years no passengers could be taken ” he said. “But the rocket could send out wireless signals on the whole of its path till it crash-landed on the moon, the rocket would hit with an enormous impact. The wireless signals would distinguish atmospheric conditions on the way and these could be recorded.”

Sir Walter Perkins said he would certainly use his booked return seat to the moon if it happened in his lifetime. I don’t think it will,” he said Once man has got to the moon it wHI be easier to proceed to other planets But trips to other planets would be rather long trips. A trip to the moon would be a dreadfully short trip - £? get , to Mars and back would probably take two and a half years And nine months of that would have to be spent on Mars—but I won’t go into that.”

u Sir 4. XJ Iter Perkin s said something about the sun getting in the way” but declined to make further comment about why return passengers to Mars would have to spend nine months there.

He said that rockets to take passengers out of the atmosphere could be very small—not more than 200 ft long They would be what is known as three-stage rockets,” he said. “The rocket for the second stage of the journey to the moon need not be very big either. There is no resistance to movement once you're out of the atmosphere. Very high speeds would be Possible there—perhaps 20,000 miles an hour.”

Sir Walter Perkins was a member of the House of Commons for 21 years. He is a keen member of the Interplanetary Society. He holds a university engineering degree. Sir Walter Perkins plans to spend a week in the South Island with his wife before flying to Australia. Later they will visit South Africa.