BY ROCKET TO THE MOON

Manawatu Times, Volume LIV, Issue 6809, 12 January 1929, Page 5

BY ROCKET TO THE MOON

I met Monsieur 11. .Ksnault-IMteric, tlic inventor of the ‘‘joy-stick” control of the aeroplane—who lectured at the Koval United Service Institution, Whitechapel, London, on travelling by rocket to the planets —in hi;; flat in Berkeley street, Mayfair (writes Commander H. M. Daniel in the Daily Mail) In discussing the problem of a journey through space, he disposed of the idea that jt could over be undertaken

in any sort of projectile fired from a gun. ■ ■ But a rocket, he said, is different. As its ascends its speed increases indefinitely; firstly because the force of gravity becomes weaker; secondly because the mass of the rocket is getting steadily less as tho composition burns awav.

Diagrams show how fast the. rocket must be travelling at various heights to be sure of escaping finally from earth. A study of these show at once

One was the necessity of finding some fairly hopeful method "of returii. Without some special safeguard the ‘‘astro-

craft” would be consumed with the heat generated by friction with the air, and therefore a reverse to act as a, brake would be necessary. German scientists are to-day hard at. work on similar investigations, and from figures obtained by them in recent practical experiments he considers that the problem is not so far from solution ns ho had recently thought. But he clearly points out the obstacles that are yet to be overcome before a serious attempt can be made.