TRIP TO MARS

Hokitika Guardian, 21 May 1929, Page 7

TRIP TO MARS

A FANTASTIC SCHEME. SAN FRANCISCO, April 17. Everett Hunt, :U years old, professor of science and mathematics in tinhigh school at Oakland City in In diana. is about to begin building machine that In- believes "ill tak him straight to tbe planet Alai;-. While be may not be the first mu to feel ibis ambition, be at least bus i new idea about locomotion. Tho rocket-like contrivances which otlieihave proposed for such inter-stellai journeys have been discarded by bin; and in their place lie is developing e car which, 'lie says, will take him t ATars in something like five minutes and will bring bint back again whelm is ready to leave—something tlnr the rockets would not do. His proposed sopor-flying machine i* to he a big pear-shaped affair iff duralumin, with a complicated moteoil the top where tbe stem ought t<be. This motor, according to bis ideas would look something like a radi' loop aerial. It. would depend o" neither patrol nor oil, but would grab out of infinite space, energy front tb-all-pervading ether waves to cart--the machine along. Out of it he be lieves lie will be able to get a. speed afoproxim siting the speed of light--186',000 miles a second. Just how these wares will be use 1 to make the thing go will have to r<main a mystery to the general publifor the present. Hunt says he ha his scheme all worked out, but canno 1 describe it. until be has it perfected and patented. “It is hard for me to believe,” h savs “that God would create tlr

vast universe and place us on thi insignificant eaVth without sommeans of interplantary travel to othe worlds. Some day we will know ho' to get back and forth from one plane 4 to another.-” His flying machine will have n< landing gear, as it will rise and de scend vertically, thus requiring n/special landing field. It will be abb to travel in the air either straight tr nr horizontally, or at anv other angle* the motor at the top being pivoted S' as to be upright no matter what the angle of the car below*. OXYGEN MASKS REQUIRED. AVlien the machine gets half-way to Mars, he believes, it will pass on 4 ' of the region of the earth’s gravitational attraction and become pulled toward Mars. Then ft will swing gradually round and eventually land on Mars fight side. up.

Oxvgen tanks will have to be in stalled, of course, as there is no ai r at all in the vast region between tlm earth and Afars. Oxygen masks probably will have to he carried, too, so that tho passengers can explore Mars after they get there, as scientists re port that the atmosphere on Afars is much thinner than oil this planet. There are objections to his plan, Hun' admits, hut be does not think the” are verv serious.

“Certain scientists claim.” he says “that there prevails about 200 mile from the earth a zone in which there is a total abence of ether waves. I have not considered this as a problem for I don’t agree with them. The mere fact that waves of energy come from the sun in the form of light and heat would disprove this theory, to my mind.”

However, if this condition should really exist, Hunt believes it could b<surmounted h.v having a radio statio* on the earth broadcast power to him. When his machine-is completed Hunl plans to take several persons alone with him. He believes it would be just as well to have a competent as 'tronomer in tho crew, to act as pilot while flying around among the planets!

Later, he says, he could build machines to carry 100 passengers—ma chines that would not only he fit to travel to other stars, but that would be very useful for ordinary air Haveon earth, since they would have > speed so much greater than that oi any existing aeroplane.

anticipate a steadily growing volume of visitors, but again we must remember that tho Englishman will be inclined to measure us against th-" standards of oilier countries which are open to him.”