TALKING TO MARS.
"ARE YOU THERE?" The stupendous task of signalling to Mars and putting the momentoHs question "Are you there" Professor W. H. Pickering, , of Harvard University, bel.e/eb could be accomplished for an expenditure of ten million j dollars. His plun is simplicity itself. ' Light travels with vast rapidity, and to enormous distances. Reflectors of sufficient size, catching the parallel beams of the sun, could readily be made to drive them back on an angle that would send an enormous flash hurtling across the 35,000,000 intervening miles of space to the blinking eyes of Martian astronomers. frofessor Pickering approaches the problem with becoming caution, and advises first of all that steps should be taken to make more certain that Mars is inhabited. He himself is not at all convinced on that point, and he urges that the markings to be seen on the j planet may not afford any evidence j of intelligent effort. The "canal" \ so-called, might be due to volcanic cracks lying between craterlets on the Martian surface. Water vapour escaping irom these cracks would nourish the vegetation along their sides, and it might be this vegetation that is visible in our telescopes.
He points out further that tliere arc cracks in the moon which, seen through a small telescope, are not to be distinguished from those seen through a larger telescope on Mars. Altogether Professor Pickering takes a most commendably conservative view of all the possibilities. To settle the preliminary point at issue, he proposes that, somewhere in the lower latitudes, where the atmospheric conditions are favourable, a telescope be erected, and that twelve astronomers ol international fame foregather and decide whether or not Mars is really inhabited. If there is a reasonable unanimity in favour of Mars being populated with intelligent beings, the next step could be confidently taken. Man? acres of gigantic mirrors would be laid down to concentrate the sun's light in one enormously vivid flash j lhat would surely rtach acruss the i«I tervening void. The language to be used once (if; the flashes were seen and answered, Professoi Pickering regards as the simplest, part of the proposition. One flasn would be sent, then two, and then three, conveying tu the Martian a&trouumeis the homely earth-truth that "one and two equal three." Wuh the word "and" and "equal" understood at the other side of the ethereal herring pond, by means of a process of multiplication and subtraction, words such as "less," "times," "more," etc., could be added until tne foundation of a mutual language was built up. It is a fascinating thought this idea of calling up Mars on some bright sunny day and enquiring "Are you there?" and if it can be accomplished for ten million dollars there is no reason to suspect that the portentous question may not be popped in our day and generation.
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Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 9678, 30 December 1909, Page 7
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475TALKING TO MARS. Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 9678, 30 December 1909, Page 7
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