TRIPS TO THE MOON.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20602, 28 June 1930, Page 2 (Supplement)

TRIPS TO THE MOON.

JOURNEY IN AIRSHIP. AMERICAN SCIENTIST'S VISION. :ONE HUNDRED YEARS HENCE. Speculations regarding the practicability, of: trip's' to the moon are now in i'asliion. On tho two previous Saturdays this page has contained articles giving the views expressed by three men who bavo formulated ideas the,subject. Two of them, .who were .quoted last week, spoke of' making a start for the distant planet this, -year. Others are not so impatient. One 6t these'is £>r. John Stewart,, professor of astronomical physics at .Princeton University. United States. He is content to h&ve a vision of what may be done within a hundred years. A trip to the moon and back within tho next cehtury is envisaged as a scientific possibility ; by Professor Stewart. In 'a lecture delivered in New York recently, arid reported in the London, Sunday Times, he said that speed was the prime such a trip. Ho said ho was cpiifidcijt'that' in the course of 100 years, through - the use of some such form of concentrated energy as ionised hydrogen, which contains a hundred times the

enorgy of coal . and a speed of some 50,000 miles an hour could be attained.

" Within 20 years," Professor Stewart said, " ifc'iq very likely that a speed of 1000 miles an hour will be possible. Tho journey to the moon will be made in an airship propelled on the principle of the rocket, and built for a voyage through interplanetary space in the form of a large, metal sphere 110 ft. in diameter, and weighing 70,000 metric tons. It will carry a crew of 60, with a dozen scientists. Projecting from the ship's surface in all directions would be cannon, which could ' shoot' at the rate of 200 miles a second."

Half an hour before noon, and three days before new moon, Professor Stewart \yould discharge the cannon, which would force tho ship to leave the earth's surface at the rate of two iniles a minute. Two and a half " hours later firing from the lower cannon would be stopped. By that time the ship would have reached a height of 13,200 miles. Seventy hours

later, crossing the moon's orbit, Professor Stewart would firo the forward cannon, and coast around the moon while the ship was slowly sucked towards the satellite. The" forward cannon would be fired to i" cushion " tho fall to the moon, and once landed men in diving suits could oxploro its eurftfce. Telephonic communication with the earth over a beam of light would bo possible, Professor Stewart says he believes. Tho return trip would bo faster because of the earth's groater attraction, says the professor, and landing in a desert would bo necessary because ol the tremendous charges which the forward cannon would , firo to prevent crashing.,