SIGNALLING MARS,

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 3220, 18 June 1909, Page 3

SIGNALLING MARS,

USE OF LIGHT REFLECTORS

PROFESSOR PICKERING'S SCHEME. ?. The plan of Professor W. 11. Pickering, the eminent American astromimcr, for signalling Mars by mans of a series of mirrors has been endorsed in Europe. M. Camille Flammarion, the famous French astronomer, in speaking oi the scheme, says: "Trie project certainly is feasible. Signalling with light reflectors, of course is the only practical method of attempting to coinmimieatn with other worlds, and Professor Pickering has very wisely suggested July as the best time for making ihe experiment, because aithoough Mars will be nearest (o the ei;rt!i in September, the two pb:K-t3 »t that epO'.-h are in apposition so obviously that it wouid be impossible to reflect the sun's rays from the later to the former. In July, however, while only ninety millions of kilometres, roughly, will separate the two worlds, they will be so placed that if lines were drawn from one to the other and from each to the su'i, they would form a triangle and signalling would become theoretically a very simple affair.

"Naturally, the practical details of the scheme presents difficulties of execution, but none should be insurmountable, especially if the £2,000,000 proposed by Professor Pickering be placed at his disposal. This is not the first time the plan of communicating with Mars by means of mirrors has been evolved. Forty years ago M. Charles Gros, a friend of mine, made the suggestion which aroused a great deal of discussion in scientific circles. Other savants from time to time have studied the possibilities of such a scheme, but, personally, I think a still better- way of putting a system of mighty reflectors in'practice would be by electric light reflectors at night, as the luminous projections thus thrown from the dark surface of the earih would be seen much more easily than a reflected light intense enough in itself, but neutralised to a certain extent by the bright surface of the sunlit earth.

"In either case the signals could certainly be seen by the Martians, provided they possess instruments and other means uf perception equivalent to our telescopes. The experiment might be tried in any part; of the world. Supposing the signals were seen and answered, the rest should ba easy. Frist primitive calls exchanaged would be just the interp'anetary telegraphic 'Are you there?' Once communication is establiahed the invention of a" code of thought transmission, end inteligiblt for both worlds would he a comparatively easy matter. The fact is there is no doubt that the Martians, if they" exist, have already attempted to get into communication with out planet. It must not be forgotten that the telescope was unknown 300 years ago, and only within the last hundred year 3 have astronomers studied Mars seriously, so it may §he that unperceived by the inhabitants of the earth the the Martians signalled to us thousands of years ago, and, obtaining no response, abandoned their efforts, concluding that our planet was uninhabite J. "The luminous phenomena observed recently on the surface of Mars were not signals; they are satisfactorily explained by natural causes. I should add that the signalling suggested by Professor Pickering need not be discontinued even if no immediate results be obtained. But a period of fifteen years must elapse before Mars comes so near the earth as in September. It will come near enough every two years for light reflectors covering an area of a quarter of a mile to be visible to the sister phnet."