K.TSIOLKOVSKY
the
CALL
of the
COSMOS
FOREIGN LANGUAGES PUBLISHING HOUSE
MOSCOW
Konstantin Eduardovich Tsiolkovsky (1857-1935).
Photograph by V. V. Assonov, 1920
K. TSIOLKOVSKY
FOREIGN LANGUAGES PUBLISHING HOUSE
MOSCOW
TRANSLATED FROM THE RUSSIAN
EDITED BY V. DUTT
K. 3. LHOJIKOBCKMA
ILYTb K 3BE3J,AM
CONTENTS
FOREWORD. ‘Translated by -A. Shkarovsky .
ON THE MOON. Translated by A. Shkarovsky .
DREAMS OF EARTH AND SKY. Translated by D. Myshne
ON VESTA. Translated by A. Shkarovsky
OUTSIDE THE EARTH. Translated by V. Tulmy <.
THE AIMS OF ASTRONAUTICS. Translated by X. Danko .
CHANGES IN RELATIVE WEIGHT. Translated by A. Shkarovsky
LIVING BEINGS IN THE COSMOS. Translated by X. Dunko .
BIOLOGY OF DWARFS AND GIANTS. Translaled by A. Shkarovsky
ISLAND OF ETHER. Translated by A. Shkurovsky
BEYOND THE EARTH'S ATMOSPHERE. Translated by A. Shka-
rovsky
B. N. VOROBYOV. SCIENCE FICTION IN TSIOLKOVSKY’S WRIT-
INGS. Translated by A. Shkarovsky
Supplements
T. To Inventors of Reaction-Propelied Machines
JJ. Is This Mere Fantasy? .
IT. Pages from a Young.Man’s Notebook .
FOREWORD
Taken as a whole, this book makes interesting, even
fascinating reading. Tsiolkovsky’s stories are of tremen-
dous interest and urge us to ponder over the many purely
specific problems of space travel. They will, undoubtedly,
increase the number of enthusiasts in this branch of science
and technology. His “On the Moon”, “Outside the Earth”
and other stories afford hours of entertainment and leave
a lasting impression.
Illustrated here is the world outlook of Konstantin
Tsiolkovsky, original thinker, self-taught scientist, founder
and keen enthusiast of space travel. Though man is bound
by every fibre to his home-planet, Tsiolkovsky argues
that he stands to gain immeasurably by gradually con-
quering space. Life in space, where there is no accelera-
tion of gravity in relation to manned spacecraft, or even
on such objects as the Moon or the asteroids, where the
gravity is negligible compared with the Earth’s, presents
tremendous advantages, Tsiolkovsky claims, since with
the same effort it is possible there to accomplish an in-
comparably greater amount of work. In addition, in the
absence of disease-producing germs and drawing on the
Sun’s continuous radiation, it will be possible to cultivate
in artificial hothouses with temperature control and air-con-
ditioning, various kinds of plants, which provide food for
a human population and also consume the excreta of
animal organisms.
The achievement of this balance between animal and
plant life on mammoth space rockets, a balance which
would make possible space journeys of indefinite dura-
tion, provided the consumption of solar energy is con-
trolled, presents an extremely interesting idea that should
be closely examined with a view to the possibility of
actually putting it into practice.
One may also agree with Tsiolkovsky in thinking that life
will develop and prosper wonderfully in the absence of
gravity pull as well and that for anima! organisms atmos-
pheric pressure can be much lower than what is usual
and normal on the Earth. What he has to say about the
different apparatus for making rocket travel comfortable
in the absence of gravity, is most absorbing.
His descriptions of lunar landscapes, and journeys on
the Moon, his fantastic stories about leaping lunar animals
or beast-plants which either hide in crevices or try to
keep abreast of the Sun to escape the approaching cold
of the lunar nights, are most entrancing. Even these
fantastic stories seem quite in place, because, for all their
absolute improbability, they soften the picture we have of
the harsh and rigorous natural conditions on the Moon.
However, Konstantin Tsiolkovsky lets his imagination
run away with him, when he begins to describe the imag-
inary life of intelligent creatures on Mercury, Mars, the
asteroids and other planets. Consequently, “Life in Space”,
“On Vesta”, “Mercury”, “Mars”, “The Asteroids” and
several other stories are fantasies of the first water, and
where mention is made of intelligent beings on planets and
asteroids no worthwhile information is desirable. Stories
of this kind include his “Island of Ether’—about the
structure and evolution of the Universe. Like the physicists
of the nineteenth century, the author assumes that there
exists “light ether” which, in his opinion, does not extend
far beyond the limits of the material Universe accessible
to us. Thus, in his opinion, our system of galaxies must
be hopelessly isolated from other similar systems, as in
6
the absence between them of an ether medium capable of
transmitting light, they must be totally inaccessible to
observation. These arbitrary assertions—and this should
be emphasised—do not at all coincide with Tsiolkovsky’s
general outlook, since he considered that there were no
limits to our cognition of the infinite Universe.
And even those of Tsiolkovsky’s writings, which are
acceptable from the scientific point of view, contain
several errors to which attention should be drawn.
In the first place, Tsiolkovsky does not sufficiently take
into account that even in the case of diminished gravity
the same inert mass remains, to which the same force
must be applied to impart a definite acceleration as that
applied on the Earth. Further, he overestimates the possi-
bility of protecting a living organism from the excessive
gravity which occur, for instance, during rocket accele-
ration, by immersing the living organism in an air-tight
water bath. It is true, as Tsiolkovsky indicates, that the
immersed organism would scarcely feel any violent blows
on the outside of the vessel. But it would certainly feel
intensive deceleration or acceleration of the vessel as a
whole, and this might even prove fatal. The author com-
pletely underestimates the danger of collisions with me-
teorites and his descriptions of the way one might catch
approaching bolides from the spacecraft, using something
like a butterfly net, are most curious and can be attrib-
uted to his own typical brand of humour. Because in
actual fact every time one of the host of micrometeorites
whirring through space hits a spacecraft, it produces a
minor explosion and is sure to dent the plating of the
spaceship. These direct hits which should occur extremely
often would almost immediately destroy the external
green-house suggested by the author, which is shielded
from its cosmic environment only by thin glass panes.
Even far from the Earth, where its gravitational pull exerts
almost no influence, the relative speed at which the me-
teorite collides with the spacecraft will nevertheless be of
7
the order of several kilometres, even tens of kilometres, a
second. Hosts of meteorites thus would constitute a con-
siderable danger to the safety of the spacecraft.
Various factors in some of Tsiolkovsky’s writings are
occasionally wrongly appraised. For instance, he points
out several times that the temperature in the focus of
mirrors concentrating the Sun’s rays of a definite inten-
sity will reach 6000°C. Purely theoretically a temperature
of this order is conceivable only when the Sun’s angular
dimensions are magnified by mirrors to the dimensions of
a complete sphere which, in practice, is not possible.
In accordance with the notions current at the time his
stories were written, Tsiolkovsky speaks about each star
being surrounded by a family of planets and all these
planets being inhabited irrespective of their temperatures
and other physical conditions. In his opinion—to which,
incidentally, other authors have frequently subscribed—
the living organism can be composed of any kind of ele-
ments able to produce liquid compounds at a given tem-
perature. There is not even the slightest mention of the
unique part played in the structure of the living organism
by compounds of carbon with oxygen, hydrogen and also
nitrogen, which require absolutely specific, strictly defined
conditions. Neither did Tsiolkovsky think an atmosphere
indispensable for organic life, presuming that organisms
can produce and subsist on their own micro-atmospheres.
There is no need to show the completely fantastic nature
of such ideas.
Tsiolkovsky rendered a great service in so zealously
advocating attempts to conquer outer space. But his fan-
tasies in this direction knew no limits. He wanted to
emphasise that mankind will of necessity migrate to other
planets circling around some other sun, when our own
Sun will have greatly cooled, which he thinks may happen
in several million years from now. Of course, in Tsiolkov-
sky’s time the gravitational energy of compression was
thought to be the sole means by which the Sun maintained
3 b
radiation. However, to think today that the Sun may cool,
in the direct sense of the word, is out of the question. It
may, of course, ultimately pass into the category of white
dwarf stars, which though of unusual density and having
insignificant radiation, nevertheless have a high internal
temperature. This process will require not millions but at
least several thousands of millions of years. In some of
his writings Tsiolkovsky suggests that the populations of
the numerous planetary systems in various parts of the
Universe establish associations or alliances of mutual as-
sistance for promoting migrations to the most suitable
planets, in order to avoid the dangers arising from their
own suns “going out of commission”. Here Tsiolkovsky
reaches the extreme limits of fantasy.
Actually life in outer space should be viewed as a rare
exception, and not a universal rule. However, this in no
way minimises the vast scientific and practical importance
of Tsiolkovsky’s ideas about space exploration, on the
threshold of which we now stand as a result of the tremen-
dous Soviet scientific and technical achievements that have
now ushered in a new era in the history of mankind.
The break through into space is proceeding along much
the same lines as those which Tsiolkovsky forecast with
such extraordinary insight so many decades ago. Tsiolkov-
sky was a most unique person and everything associated
with him is of great interest. So though many of his state-
ments are unacceptable today, they still serve as the best
possible illustration of the fact that Tsiolkovsky was more
than a designer of jet engines. In his dreams and scientific
fiction he was already beginning to live in space.
ACADEMICIAN V. G. FESENKOV
Moscow, October, 1960
ON THE MOON
A Tale of Fantasy
I
I woke up, and, as I lay in bed, pondered over the dream
I had had. I had dreamt I was bathing, and this dream of
summer bathing was particularly pleasant, since it hap-
pened to be winter.
But it was time to get up.
I stretched myself and sat up in bed. How easy it was!
Easy to sit, easy to stand. What can have happened? Was
I still dreaming? I felt I was standing so lightly, that I
might have been up to my neck in water. My feet hardly
touched the floor.
But where on earth was the water? I could see none. I
flourished my arms about: but I felt not the slightest
resistance.
Was I dreaming? I rubbed my eyes; everything was
just the same.
How odd!
But I had to get dressed.
I moved chairs, opened wardrobes, took out my clothes,
lifted various objects and—I could not understand a thing!
Have I grown stronger? Why was everything now so
ethereal? Why could I lift objects which I could not shift
before?
No! These feet, these arms, this body could not be mine!
Mine were always heavy and moved with difficulty.
How was it that my arms and legs were now so strong?
10
Could it be that some force was drawing me and every-
thing else upwards and so lightening my work for me? But
in that case what a strong pull it was exerting! A little
more and it seemed to me that I would bump against the
ceiling.
And why was I leaping instead of walking? Something
was pulling me in the direction opposite to gravity, tensing
my muscles and making me leap.
I could not resist the temptation, I jumped.
I seemed to have ascended rather slowly and descended
equally slowly.
I leapt higher, and looked round the room from a fair
height. Ouch! I knocked my head against the ceiling. The
rooms are high-ceilinged and the concussion was unex-
pected. ...I decided to take more care in future.
The yelp I gave awoke my friend. I watched him turn
over and, a little later, hop out of bed. And I saw him
‘make the same spectacle of himself as I, all unawares, had
just made of myself. In fact, I derived the greatest satis-
faction from watching his rolling eyes, his comical pos-
tures and the unnatural agility of my friend’s movements.
His odd exclamations, so like mine, amused me.
I gave my physicist friend time to exhaust the supply
of surprises; then I asked him to solve just one question:
what had happened? Had we grown stronger or had the
gravity diminished?
Both conjectures were equally astounding. But one be-
comes indifferent to everything once he grows accustomed
to it. My friend and I had not yet reached that stage, but
we already wanted to know what was at the bottom of it
all.
My friend, accustomed to analysing problems, soon
sorted out the mass of phenomena that had stunned and
confused my mind.
“We could use a dynamometer or spring balance,” he
said, “to measure our muscular power and discover
whether it has increased or not. Watch me press my feet
14
against the wall and pull at the dynamometer hook. As
you see, it is five poods.* I haven’t grown any stronger.
You can do the same, and you'll also see that you have
not become a Hercules.”
“How can I agree?’ I objected, “when the facts are
against it? Just explain why I can lift the end of this book-
case, though it weighs at least 50 poods? At first I imagined
it was empty, but when I opened it, not a single book was
missing. And while you’re about it, explain how I managed
to leap to a height of five arshins.’”’**
“You can lift heavy loads, leap so high and feel so light
not because you are stronger—the dynamometer refuted
that supposition—but because the gravity is less; you will
see jt for yourself by using the same spring balance. We
can even find out how many times less it has grown.”
And he picked up the first weight to hand—it happened
to be a 12-pounder—and hung it on the dynamometer.
“Look!” he continued, taking the reading. “This 12-
pound weight now weighs only two pounds. That means
gravity is six times less.”
Then after a moment’s thought he added:
“This is exactly the gravity on the surface of the Moon,
owing to its small volume and small density.”
“We're not on the Moon, are we?” I guffawed.
“Supposing we are,” the physicist laughed, assuming a
frivolous tone, “there is not much to worry about, for if
such a miracle is possible, it can be repeated in reverse
order which means we'll get back to where we belong.”
“That’s enough quibbling. But suppose we weigh some-
thing on an ordinary pair of scales? Will the diminished
gravity be noticeable?”
“No, because the object being weighed will lose the same
amount of weight as the weight on the other pan. The
scales will balance despite the changed gravity.”
* One pood is 36 lb.—Tr.
sè One arshin equals 28 inches.—Tr.
12
“I see!”
Nevertheless, I tried breaking a stick, hoping to find I
was stronger. But I could not do it though the stick was
not thick and only the day before had yielded in my hands.
“How stubborn you are! Chuck it!’ said my friend.
“You'd do better to think about how perturbed the world
probably is now because of all the changes.”
“You are right,” I replied, dropping the stick. “I’d for-
gotten it all, forgotten about mankind with whom J, like
you, passionately wish to share our thoughts.”
“Something’s happened to our friends. Could there
have been other upheavals?”
I had opened my mouth to speak and had pullea aside
the curtains (drawn to the night before to shut out the
moonlight that prevented us from sleeping), but immediate-
ly recoiled. Horror of horrors! The sky was blacker than
the blackest ink!
Where was the town? Where were the people?
This was some wild, inconceivable place, bathed in
bright sunshine!
Perhaps we had indeed been transported to a desert
planet?
These thoughts passed through my mind, I could not
express them. I merely muttered incoherently.
My friend rushed across to me, presuming that I felt
faint, but I pointed to the window. He looked out and was
petrified with astonishment.
That we did not actually faint was because the small
gravity prevented too much blood from rushing to the
heart.
We looked around us.
The curtains were still drawn and we could no longer
see the astonishing spectacle. Meanwhile, the normal ap-
pearance of the room and the familiar objects helped to
restore our peace of mind. |
Standing close together, and still a little scared, we
first lifted a corner of the curtain and then drew it
13
completely aside. Finally we decided to step outside and
observe the funereal sky and our surroundings,
Though our minds were filled with thoughts of the walk
we intended to take, there were one or two things we par-
ticularly noticed. Thus, when we walked about the large,
high-ceilinged rooms, we had to use our crude muscles
with some caution, otherwise our feet just slid over the
floor; there was no danger, however, of falling as might
happen on damp snow or ice. But our bodies bobbed about
very much. When we wanted to move rapidly, we had
first to lean perceptibly forward like a horse when Starting
to pull a heavy cart. It only appeared to be like that, be-
cause actually every movement we made was extremely
light. How boring it was to descend a Staircase, step by
step! How slow to move at a walking pace! Soon we aban-
doned all these procedures, so suitable on the Earth but
so ridiculous here. We learned to move by leaps and
bounds; we took ten or more steps at a bound up or down
the staircase like the most harum-scarum schoolboys;
sometimes we jumped the whole flight or leapt through
the window. In short, by force of circumstances we were
transformed into jumping animals, like grasshoppers and
frogs.
So, after rushing all over the house, we jumped out and
ran in leaps and bounds towards the nearest mountain.
The Sun was dazZlingly bright and seemed almost blue.
Shielding our eyes with our hands to protect them against
the glare of the Sun and the brightness of our surround-
ings, we could see the stars and planets which were also,
for the most part, tinted blue, Neither stars nor planets
twinkled, which made them like silver-capped nails stud-
ding the black firmament.
Ah! there was the moon, in its last quarter! We could
not help being amazed, since its diameter seemed three or
four times larger than that of our old familiar Moon. And
it shone more brightly than it does in daylight on the
Earth, when it appears as a small, white cloud. Silence
14
reigned. The skies were clear and cloudless. We could see
no plants, no animals. A desert with a black monotonous
firmament and blue cadaverous Sun overhead. No lakes, no
rivers, not a drop of water! If only the horizon were
lighter—that would indicate the presence of vapour. Alas,
it was as black as the zenith!
There was nothing of the wind that rustles the grass
and sways the tree tops on the Earth. No chirping of
grasshoppers. No birds, no brightly coloured butterflies!
Nothing but endless mountains, forbidding, high mountains,
on whose peaks no snow sparkled. Not a snow-flake any-
where! And there lay the valleys, plains, and table-lands,
heaped high with stone and rock, black and white, large
and small, and all of them jagged and shining. None were
rounded or softened by waves; they had never rolled here,
had never merrily, noisily, dragged at them in play, had
never worked on them!
Here was an undulating, smooth area, without a single
pebble. Only dark crevasses sprawled out in all directions
like snakes. This was a solid floor of rock with no soft
humus, no sand, no clay.
A gloomy spectacle! Even the mountains stood bare in
shameless nakedness. They had no flimsy veil, none of the
transparent, grey-blue mist which envelopes mountains
and remote objects on the Earth. Nothing but severe,
Strikingly well-defined landscapes! And the shadows! How
deep they were! What sharp changes from darkness to
light! There was nothing of the so familiar colour modu-
lations that only an atmosphere can produce. Even the
Sahara desert would seem a paradise compared with what
we were seeing here. We would hardly have minded the
scorpions and locusts, the white-hot sands tossed up by
the dry wind, not to mention the rarely encountered sparse
vegetation and groves of date palms. But we had to think
of returning. The ground was cold and our legs and feet
felt frozen, yet the Sun was baking hot. We had the un-
pleasant feeling of coldness which one gets when one is
15
freezing cold yet trying to get warm in front of a blazing
fire-place; the room seems too cold to get warm in, and
although a pleasant feeling of warmth covers the outer
skin, nothing seems able to prevent one from shivering.
We warmed ourselves on the way back by skipping with
chamois-like ease over large rocky boulders. They were
rocks of granite, porphyrite, syenite, rock crysta!, various
quartzes and silica, transparent and opaque, and all of
volcanic origin. Incidentally, we observed also traces of
volcanic activity.
At last we were back home!
Inside we felt fine: at least there was an even temper-
ature. So we felt inclined to try out a number of new
experiments and to discuss everything we had seen. Clearly
we were on another planet, which had neither air nor any
other atmosphere.
If there were gas, the stars would twinkle; if there were
air, the sky would be blue and the distant mountains
veiled in mist. But how were we able to breathe and hear
each other? That was something we could not understand.
From a mass of phenomena it was evident that there was
neither air nor gas of any kind: we could not light a cigar,
and we rashly used up innumerable matches trying to do
so. We were able to compress a closed, impermeable rub-
ber bag without the slightest effort, which we could not
have done if there had been gas inside. Scientists indicate
that there is no gas on the Moon, too.
“Perhaps we are on the Moon, after all?”
“Have you noticed that from here the Sun seems no
bigger and no smaller than from the Earth? This would be
so only from the Earth and from its satellite, as these ce-
lestial bodies are almost equidistant from the Sun. From
other planets it should seem either larger or smaller. Thus,
from Jupiter we would see the Sun at a fifth of the present
angle, and from Mars, at two-thirds the angle. From Venus,
on the contrary, the angle would be one and a half times
greater. On Venus the Sun burns twice as fiercely,
16
whereas Mars feels only half the warmth. And there is
the same difference from the Earth’s two closest planets!
But on Jupiter, for example, the warmth received from the
Sun is only one twenty-fifth of what the Earth gets. We do
not see that sort of thing here, though we well could, if
it existed, because we have enough of protractors and
other measuring instruments.”
“Yes, we are on the Moon. Everything points to it!”
“It is even borne out by the size of the cloud-like moon
we saw, which is evidently the planet we departed from not
of our own accord. What a pity we cannot now discern
its spots, its profile, and determine our location once and
for all. Let us wait till nightfall.”
“So you say,” I remarked to my friend, “that the Earth
and the Moon are the same distance away from the Sun?
But in my opinion, the difference is all the same fairly
large, 360,000 versts*.”
“But I said almost, since 360,000 versts are only 1/400th
part of the total distance to the Sun,” the physicist
objected, “and 1/400th can be ignored.”
How tired I was, not so much physically as morally! I
had an irrepressible desire to sleep. What would my watch
tell me? We had risen at 6 a.m. and now it was 5 p.m.
Eleven hours had passed, yet, judging by the shadows, the
Sun had scarcely moved. The shadow from the steep hill
yonder had barely reached the house and it was in the
same position now; the shadow cast by the weather-vane
still lay on the same boulder.
More proof that we were on the Moon!
Indeed, its axial rotation was as low as that. Here, the
day lasted for as Jong as about 15 of our 24-hour days,
or 360 hours. And the night was just as long. Not very
* One verst is 3,500 feet.—Tr.
2—761 17
convenient. The Sun prevented us from sleeping. I remem-
ber experiencing the same thing when I spent a few sum-
mer weeks in arctic lands. The Sun never sank below the
horizon and 1 grew sick and tired of it! However, there
was a great difference between my experiences then and
now. Here the Sun was moving slowly but in the same
way. There it moved quickly, describing a circle once
every 24 hours just above the horizon.
But in both places there was the same remedy: to close
the shutters.
But was my watch right? Why did my watch not tally
with the pendulum clock on the wall? My watch indicated
five o’clock, and the clock on the wall—only ten a. m. Which
was right? Why was the pendulum swinging so lazily?
Quite obviously the clock on the wall was slow!
My watch, on the other hand, could not be wrong as its
pendulum is not swung by gravity but by the resilience
of a steel spring, which is the same on the Earth as on the
Moon.
I could check this by feeling my pulse. It used to beat
70 times a minute. Now it beats 75 times. A little more
than usual, perhaps, but that may be due to the nervous
excitement of finding myself in such unusual circum-
stances and to all the strong new impressions.
There was still another way of checking the time. At
night we would be able to see the Earth turning on its
axis once every 24 hours. That is the best clock, an infal-
lible one!
Though we could hardly keep awake, my physicist friend
could not resist the temptation to put the clock right. I
watched him remove the long pendulum, accurately meas-
ure it and shorten it to a sixth of its previous length. But
even the shortened pendulum behaved staidly, though not
quite like the longer one. After the metamorphosis, the
clock ticked off the hours in harmony with my watch.
At last we went to bed and covered ourselves with the
light blankets, which here seemed almost ethereally light.
18
We hardly made use of pillows or mattresses at all. One
could sleep soundly on boards here.
J could not rid myself of the idea that I was going to
bed too early. The Sun! The time! They were frozen stiff
into stillness like the whcle nature of the Moon!
My friend was no longer conversing with me; I too
dozed off.
We woke up in good spirits. We felt cheerful, but
famished. Until now, the excitement had deprived us of
our customary appetites.
How thirsty I was! I removed the stopper from my wa-
ter-bottle but what did I find? The water seemed to be
boiling! Slowly and gently boiling. Cautiously I touched
the water-bottle in case it was too hot. But no, the water
was only warm and most unpalatable!
“My dear friend, what have you to say about this?”
“We are in an absolute vacuum, which is why the water
is boiling, not being subject to atmospheric pressure. Let
it boil a while. Don’t put the stopper back. In a vacuum
boiling water gradually freezes. But we shall not let it
freeze. That is enough! Pour some water into a glass and
stopper the bottle, otherwise too much will boil out.”
How slowly liquid pours out here on the Moon!
The water in the bottle became still, but in the glass it
continued its lifeless agitation, which with time became
weaker.
The water left in the glass turned to ice. Then the ice
evaporated and grew smaller in size.
How would we be dining now?
It was easy enough to eat bread and other more or less
solid foods, though they rapidly dried up in our by no
means air-tight box. The bread had turned to stone, the
fruit had shrivelled and become pretty hard. Of course the
skin and peel had helped to retain some moisture.
“This habit we have of eating hot dishes! What are we
going to do? We can’t start a fire here: no wood, no coal,
even no matches will burn here!”
2* 19
“What about making the Sun do the job? After all
people cook eggs in the hot sand of the Sahara desert!”
We adapted our pots, saucepans and other utensils, so
that the lids fitted tightly. Then, filling them all accord-
ing to the rules of culinary art, we set them out in the
sunshine. Then we collected all the mirrors from the
house and set them up so that the sunlight was concen-
trated onto the pots and pans.
In less than an hour we were enjoying well-steamed,
well-baked food.
But why talk about it? Have you heard of Mouchauld?*
We left his improved system of solar cooking far behind!
Call it boasting or bragging, if you like. Perhaps our pre-
sumption should be attributed to our ravenous appetites,
due to which any foul food would have seemed perfection.
There was one nasty thing about it, however: we had
to hurry. I must confess that we more than once choked
and spluttered over our food. And no wonder, for the
soup boiled and cooled not only in our plates but even in
the throat, oesophagus, and stomach. If we did not look
alive about it, we found ourselves swallowing a lump of
ice instead of soup.
It was surprising that our stomachs remained unharmed!
The pressure exerted by the vapour greatly distended them.
At any rate our appetites were satisfied and we felt
at peace with ourselves. We did not understand how we
were living without air, and how we, our house, our gar-
den and orchard, our stores of food and drink in the cel-
lars and barns had been transported from the Earth to the
Moon. We even had our doubts. We began to think per-
haps we were asleep and dreaming or that we had fallen
victim to some diabolical hallucination? But for all that,
we grew accustomed to our situation and treated it with
mixed feelings of curiosity and indifference. The inexpli-
* Mouchauld chose astronomical subjects for the science fiction
stories he wrote in the 1890’s.—Ed.
20
cable no longer astonished us and the thought never en-
tered our minds that we might die of starvation, alone and
miserable.
As the story of our adventures unfolds, you will dis-
cover why we were so incredibly optimistic.
An after-dinner constitutional would not be amiss, I
thought.
I persuaded my friend to accompany me.
We Stood in a big courtyard, with a climbing pole stand-
ing erect in the middle, and a fence and outhouses all
around.
But what was the reason for this boulder? One could
easily fall over it. In the yard the ground was of ordinary,
soft earth. Let’s chuck it out, over the fence! Pick it up
boldly! Don’t let its size perturb you! With our united
efforts, we lifted the 60-pood boulder and tumbled it over
the fence. We heard it drop with a thud on the Moon’s
rocky surface. We heard the thud not through the air, but
from the ground. The impact produced a concussion on the
ground and then on our bodies and the bones in our ears.
In this manner we could often hear the blows we struck.
“Perhaps this was the way we heard one another?”
“Hardly so! The sound would not be heard as it is
heard in the air.”
The ease with which we moved gave us a Strong desire
to climb and jump.
Sweet childhood days! I remembered climbing onto
roofs and tree tops, imitating the cats and birds. How
wonderful it had been!
And the competitions for the high jump over ropes, the
long jump over ditches! The races for a prize! These were
my passion!
Should I recall old times? I was not very strong, espe-
cially my arms. I could jump and run pretty well, but
climbed ropes and poles with difficulty.
I had always longed to be physically strong! To pay
back my enemies, to reward my friends! The child and the
21
Savage are one. These dreams of being strong were now
ridiculous. My eager childhood longings had now been
fulfilled. Because of the Moon’s insignificant gravity I
seemed now to be six times as strong as before.
Moreover, the weight of my own body now meant noth-
ing to me, which fact increased the effect of being strong.
What was a fence to me now? No more than the threshold
or a stool on the Earth over which I could step with ease.
And, as if to test this thought in action, we soared up and
without a running start leapt over the fence. Then we
jumped and even bounded over the shed, but for this we
had to have a running start. How pleasant it was to be
racing about! We could hardly feel our feet. Let’s run a
race. Off we go!
Whenever our feet struck the ground we leapt several
yards, especially horizontally. Whoa, there! In one minute
we had raced round the entire yard. Five hundred sazhens*
—the speed of a race horse.**
We took some measurements. At an easy gallop we
rose some four arshins upwards and in length we leapt five
sazhens or more, depending on the speed at which we ran.
“Now for some gymnastics!”
Making hardly any effort, and simply to amuse our-
selves, we climbed the rope, using only the left hand.
It was terrifying! After all, it was a four sazhens drop!
We still felt we were on our own clumsy planet. Our heads
went round and round.
My heart was in my mouth, but I decided to jump first.
Here I go. Ouch! I knocked my heels!
I should have warned my friend, but instead I slyly
egged him on. Raising my head I shouted:
“Come on, jump! You won’t hurt yourself!”
“I don’t need you to persuade me. I know perfectly well
that to jump from this height is the same as jumping from
* One sazhen equals 2.3 metres.—Tr.
** The speed is slightly exaggerated.—Ed.
22
a height of two arshins on the Earth. I know I'll bash my
heels a bit!”
My friend jumped. It was a slowish process, particularly
at first, and took him about five seconds.
Time enough to think of many things.
“Well, physicist?”
“My heart’s beating fast, but that is all.”
“Now for the orchard, to climb the trees and race along
the paths!”
“Why haven’t the leaves shrivelled?”
The verdure is fresh and will shield us from the Sun.
Tall lime-trees and birches! We leapt and climbed among
the thin branches like squirrels, and they did not break
under our weight. No wonder, for here we are no heavier
than a couple of fat turkeys!
We flitted over the bushes and among the trees, moving
as though we were flying. What a merry time we had!
How easy we found it to keep our balance! We swayed
unsteadily on a branch, about to fall, but the inclination
to fall was so slight and the deviation from equilibrium
proceeded so slowly, that we had only to shift the leg or
arm slightly, to regain balance.
Now for the wide, open spaces! The big courtyard and
orchard seemed like a cage. At first we raced over the
level ground. On our way we encountered shallow ditches
some ten sazhens across.
We took them in our stride, fleeting over like birds, We
came to a hillside. At first we went up a gentle slope but
later the going became steeper and steeper. So steep,
indeed, it was that I felt sure [ would get out of breath.
But there was no reason to fear. We took the ascent
easily in long and rapid strides. It was a high hill and we
felt tired on the Moon with its low gravity. We sat down
to rest. Why was it so soft here? Could the rocks have
softened?
I picked up a large stone and struck it against another.
Sparks flew.
23
After resting we turned back.
“How far are we from home?”
“Not very far now, perhaps 200 sazhens.”
“Do you think you could throw a stone that far?”
“T don’t know, but I can try!”
We each picked up a small piece of rock. Who would
throw it farthest?
Mine flew right over the house. It was just as well. As
I watched its flight I greatly feared it might smash a
window.
“Where did yours go? Farther still, think!”
Shooting was very interesting here. Bullets and cannon-
balls should fly horizontally and vertically for hundreds of
versts.
“But will gunpowder do its job here?”
“In a vacuum the force of explosives is even greater
than in the air, as the latter only hampers the expansion
of gases. As for oxygen they don’t need it, because they
themselves contain as much as they need.”
We reached home.
“I shall sprinkle some gunpowder on the window-sill in
the sunshine,” I said. “Now focus your burning glass on
it. You saw the flash and the explosion, though it was
noiseless. And there was the familiar smell, only it van-
ished instantaneously.
“You can fire a rifle, only don’t forget to put the per-
cussion cap on. The burning glass and the Sun will take
the place of the trigger.”
“Let’s aim the rifle vertically, in order to retrieve the
bullet afterwards close by.”
There was a flash, a slight pop and the ground shook
slightly.
“Where’s the wad?” I exclaimed. “It ought to be close
by, though it won’t be smoking!”
24
“The wad went up with the bullet and will most likely
remain with it. Back on the Earth it is only the atmos-
phere that prevents it from winging after the lead bullet.
Here a feather will fall or fly up as headlong as a stone.
Suppose you pluck a feather from your pillow while I take
a little iron ball. You'll find you can throw your feather
and hit something, even far away, just as easily as I can
with my little ball. I can throw the ball 200 sazhens; you
can throw your feather just as far. True, you will not kill
anyone with it and you will not even feel that you have
thrown it. So let us throw our projectiles with all our
might—I think we are about the same in that respect—
at one and the same target—that lump of red granite, for
instance.”
We watched the feather slightly outfly the iron ball, as
if carried away by a strong whirlwind.
“But what can have happened? It is already three min-
utes since we fired the shot, and still there’s no bullet!” I
exclaimed.
“Wait a couple of minutes, it’s sure to come down,”
replied the physicist.
And indeed, roughly in the time specified we felt the
ground tremble slightly and saw the wad bobbing about
near by.
“But where is the bullet? The scrap of tow could not
have caused the ground to tremble?” I asked in astonish-
ment.
“Most likely, from the impact the bullet heated up to
melting point and the splashes flew off in different di-
rections.”
After searching around we indeed found some tiny pel-
lets—evidently particles of the vanished bullet.
“The bullet certainly flew quite a time! How high
should it have gone?” I asked.
“Up to some 70 versts—all because of the small grav-
itational pull and the absence of atmospheric resistance.”
* * *
25
We were tired mentally and physically and needed rest.
The Moon is all very well in its way, but all the leaping
about had made itself felt. As the flights were prolonged
we did not always fall on our feet and so we sometimes
hurt ourselves. In the four to six seconds we spent in flight
we not only had a bird’s-eye view of the vicinity, but
could also move our arms and legs. But we never seemed
able to somersault in space. Later we learned to control
our bodies and even do as much as three somersaults in
space. This is an interesting experience and it is interesting
to watch others doing it. 1 spent a long time observing the
movements of my physicist friend; he performed many
experiments off the ground and without any support. To
describe them I would have to write a book.
* * *
We slept for 8 hours.
It was getting warmer. The Sun had risen higher and
was not beating down so fiercely. Now it shone on a small-
er surface of the body, but the ground had warmed up
and no longer gave off coldness. In general, both the Sun
and the soil were warm, almost hot.
It was time, however, to take precautions, as we clearly
realised that we would become burnt up before noon.
What were we to do?
We proposed different plans.
“We could spend a few days in the cellar, but there’s
no guaranteeing that towards evening, that is, in about
250 hours from now, it will not be like a furnace there,
because the cellar is not deep enough. Then we shall also
long for comfort and be sick and tired of remaining in a
confined space.”
True, it is easier to suffer boredom and inconvenience
than to be baked alive.
But would it not be better to choose one of the deeper
crevasses? We could climb down and spend the rest of the
day and part of the night in pleasant coolness.
26
That would be much more amusing and romantic. What
a cellar, after all?
Necessity compels people to hide in the queerest of
places!
So we chose a crevasse, the idea being that the more
fiercely the Sun beat down, the lower we would descend.
Incidentally a few sazhens will be quite deep enough.
We took along sunshades and provisions in tightly
closed boxes and barrels. We threw fur overcoats over our
shoulders; they would come in useful whether it was too
hot or too cold. Moreover, here they were not much of a
burden.
Several hours passed, during which we ate, rested and
talked of lunar gymnastics and of the wonderful miracles
circus acrobats from our Earth could perform here.
We could tarry no longer. It was infernally hot, at least
outside. In sunny places. the rocky ground was so hot that
we had to tie thick wooden boards to the soles of our
boots.
In our haste we dropped some of our glass and china-
ware but nothing broke, so feeble was the gravitational
pull.
I almost forgot to tell of the fate that befell our horse,
which, as chance would have it, was also with us. When
we wanted to harness it to a cart, the unfortunate beast
somehow broke loose, galloped off faster than the wind,
tumbling and bruising itself and then, not understanding
the force of inertia, and failing to avoid a huge boulder in
its path, dashed itself to pieces. Its flesh and blood first
froze and then dried up.
Then there were the flies. They could not fly at all, but
merely jumped up and down.
* * *
And so, taking with us all we needed, making a tremen-
dous load on our shoulders, which highly amused us as all
of it seemed hollow and fragile, and having barred doors,
27
windows and shutters so that the house would not get too
hot and damaged from the high temperature, we set off in
search of a suitable crevasse or cave.
Meanwhile we marvelled at the sharp fluctuations in
temperature. Places that had been long in the sunshine
were as hot as a fiery furnace. We tried to get past them
as quickly as possible and then to cool off and rest in the
shade of a boulder or a cliff. And we cooled off so thor-
oughly that had we tarried any longer our fur coats would
have come in for some use. But even these spots were not
so dependable. We realised that the Sun would have to
move round and shine on what had previously been in the
shade and cold. So we looked for a crevasse on which the
Sun would not shine for any length of time, and would
not therefore make the rock very hot.
We found a crevasse with almost overhanging cliffs,
only the very tops of which we could see. The crevasse
itself was dark and seemed bottomless. We walked round
it and found a gentle slope, which seemed to descend
straight into Hades itself. We took a few steps without
mishap. But then it grew so dark that we could see no
further than our noses, and it seemed too horrible and
risky to proceed. Happily we remembered the electric
lamp; candles and torches were not possible here. The
beam of light flashed before us, revealing a crevasse some
20 sazhens deep; the slope of the land made the descent
quite possible.
So much for the bottomless gorge! Hades, indeed! We
were most sadly disillusioned.
First of all, the darkness was because the place lay in
shadow, the crevasse was narrow and deep and the light
reflected from the sunlit environment and tall mountains
could not penetrate it to these depths. Secondly, it was
dark because there was no atmosphere to reflect light to
it, whereas the atmosphere on the Earth sends diffused
light down to the deepest of wells which are therefore not
so dark as on the Moon.
28
As we descended, now and then clutching at the walls,
the temperature dropped, though not below 15°C, Evidently
this was the mean temperature of the latitude we were
in. We chose a convenient, level spot, spread out our fur
coats and made ourselves comfortable.
But what was this? Had night fallen? Shielding our eyes
from the beam of the lamp, we peered at the slit of black,
star-spangled sky overhead.
Our timepiece showed that little time had passed and
we knew the Sun could not have set so suddenly.
Confound it! An awkward movement has shattered the
lamp, though its carbon filament continues to glow and
even more brightly. Back on the Earth it would have gone
out at once, burning itself out in the air.
Out of curiosity I touched it. It snapped, and everything
was plunged in darkness. We could not see one another.
Only high above us we could just discern the edges of
the crevasse, and the long narrow strip of the dark firma-
ment seemed studded with still more stars.
We could not believe that it was broad daylight up
there. I became impatient; with some effort I dug out a
spare bulb, switched on the lamp again and began the
ascent. It grew brighter and warmer. The light blinded me,
and my lamp seemed to have gone out.
It was indeed daylight; both the Sun and the shadow
were there as before.
How hot it was! I hurried down again.
Iv
Idle, we slept like logs. Our refuge kept cool.
Now and again we climbed out to find a shady place and
observe in their stately motion the Sun, stars, planets and
our big moon, which compared to your miserable Moon
was as large as an apple compared to a cherry.
The Sun moved almost in step with the stars, barely
29
perceptibly falling behind them, just as when observing
it from the Earth.
Meanwhile, the moon hung quite still and was invisible
from our crevasse, which we greatly regretted, as from
the darkness we might have observed it just as well as
at night-time, for which we had to wait a long time. It
was unfortunate that we had not chosen some crevasse
from which the moon would have been visible. But it was
now too late.
It was almost midday. The shadows were no longer
growing shorter and the moon had dwindled a slender
crescent, growing paler and paler as the Sun drew
close.
The moon was as large as an apple, the Sun the size
of a cherry. Would the cherry glide behind the apple?
Would there be an eclipse of the Sun?
On the Moon this is a frequent. and magnificent phe-
nomenon; on the Earth it is rare and insignificant. There
the umbra, the size of a pinhead (it is sometimes several
versts long—but what is that if not a pinhead compared
with the size of the Earth?), pencils a strip across the
planet, and, in favourable circumstances, passes from
town to town, spending a few minutes in each. But here
the umbra covers either the whole Moon, or, in most
cases, a considerable part of its surface, so that complete
darkness lasts for several hours.
The crescent grew slenderer still, and was barely notice-
able beside the Sun.
Then it completely disappeared.
We climbed out to observe the Sun through a piece of
dark glass,
It seemed as though a gigantic invisible finger had flat-
tened one side of the Sun’s glowing mass.
Then only half the Sun was visible.
Finally, its last limb vanished, and everything was
plunged into darkness.
A vast pall of shadow stole up and covered us.
30
But the feeling of being blind quickly vanished. We
again saw the moon and a multitude of stars.
This was no longer a crescent moon. Now it was in the
shape of a dark circle, standing out magnificent radiance
of deep red light that shone most brilliantly, though
slightly paler on the side where the last of the Sun had
disappeared.
What we were seeing was the same sunset glow we had
once gloried in on the Earth.
The entire surroundings were bathed in a blood-red
glow.
Meanwhile, thousands of people on the Earth with the
naked eye or through telescopes were observing a full
eclipse of the Moon—and us!
The eyes of our own human race! Could they perhaps
see us?
As we stood commiserating, the glowing corona as-
sumed a more even shape and became more beautiful; it
became similar in size to the crescent itself; the eclipse
was at its height. Then the side opposite to that behind
which the Sun had disappeared paled and grew more
luminous, its brilliance increasing in intensity until it re-
sembled a diamond set in a crimson ring.
The diamond became a segment of the Sun and the
outer radiance vanished. Night changed to day, the en-
chantment was gone. The landscape before our eyes was
as it had been before the eclipse. We conversed together
animatedly about what we had just witnessed.
Earlier I mentioned that we had chosen a shady place
and made observations. But you may ask: “How were you
able to observe the Sun from a shady place?”
This is my answer: “Not all shady spots were cold
and not all sunlit places hot. Indeed, ground temperature
depends mainly on how long the Sun has been warming
it. But there were areas on which the Sun began to shine
just a few hours previously and which before that had
been in the shade. Naturally, the temperature there could
31
not have been so very high. On the contrary, it would
have been excessively cold. Wherever there are cliffs and
steep mountains throwing shadows, there will be places
which are cold, though they are sunlit, and though from
them the Sun can be seen.
“True, they are not always to hand, and before they
are found and arrived at, even a sunshade will not save
you from being thoroughly baked.”
For the sake of convenience and partly to get limbered
up, we decided to take with us a fair supply of the many
still cold stones lying about in our crevasse, planning to
heap them out in the open and thus shield our bodies from
the heat.
No sooner said than done.
We were thus always able to emerge and, squatting deep
down among the pile of stones, conduct our observations.
But the stones would get hot in time!
Well, we could go back for more, there were so many
of them down below, in the crevasse. With our strength
increased sixfold because we were on the Moon, it was
hardly likely to give out.
We did all this after the solar eclipse, which we had
not expected with certainty.
Besides this, no sooner had the eclipse passed than we
determined to ascertain our latitude. This was easy enough,
having in view the Sun’s altitude and the period of the
equinox (this being evident from the recent eclipse). We
found we were in latitude of 40°N, so we were not on the
Moon’s equator.
Thus half the day—-seven Earth days from the sunrise
we had not seen—had already gone by. Indeed, our time-
piece showed that our sojourn on the Moon had lasted five
Earth days. Consequently we had arrived on the Moon at
48 o’clock in the early morning. That was why we found
the ground very cold when we awoke. There had been no
time for it to warm up after being terribly cooled off by
the preceding long night of 15 Earth days.
32
* + *
We slept and woke, and each time saw more and more
new Stars above. They were the self-same Stars set in the
same familiar pattern as those seen from the Earth. Only
because of the narrowness of the deep hollow we were
lying in, we could not at a glance see their vast numbers.
Nor did they twinkle against their black background, and
they moved twenty-eight times more slowly than the
speed observed from the Earth.
Then Jupiter appeared. Its satellites could here be seen
with the naked eye and we observed their eclipse.* Then
Jupiter went out of sight and the Polar Star came out.
Poor star! It is of no importance here. The crescent alone
would never peep into our crevasse, if we sat there for
a thousand years, for it is eternally immobile. Only if we
move ourselves on this planet, can it be set in motion.
Then it will descend, rise and set. But we shall return to
this point later.
* * E.
We could not sleep and sleep all the time!
And so we began to make plans.
“Tonight we shall climb out of our crevasse, but not
immediately after the Sun sets when the ground is at
its hottest, but several dozen hours later. We shall set off
for our house and see what has happened there. Whether
the Sun has been up to mischief? Then we shall make a
voyage by moonlight, enjoy the sights of this moon. So
far we have seen it as a milk-white cloud; at night-time we
shall admire it in its full beauty, its brilliance, every as-
pect of it, since it revolves rapidly and shows itself in not
more than 24 hours, a mere fraction of the lunar day and
night together.”
* An observer on the Moon would never be able to see Jupiter’s
satellites, and still less eclipses of them, with naked eye.—Ed.
3—76l 33
Our large moon, the Earth, has phases like the Moon
we used to watch from afar with dreamy curiosity.
In our locality new moons or, rather, new earths occur
at noon: the first quarter is at sunset, the full moon—at
midnight, and the final quarter—at sunrise.
We are in a locality, where nights and even days are
eternally moon-nights and moon-days. This is admirable
but only while we exist in the hemisphere, visible from
the Earth. As soon as we pass to the other hemisphere,
invisible from the Earth, we shall immediately lose the
light during the night. And this will be so for as long as
we stay in this unfortunate, and, at the same time, so
mysterious hemisphere. It is mysterious for the Earth since
the Earth never sees it and that is why it intrigues scien-
tists so very much. It is unfortunate because its inhab-
itants, if any, are deprived of a nocturnal luminary and
a magnificent spectacle.
Indeed, are there any inhabitants on the Moon? What
are they like? Are they like us? So far we had not met
them. It would have been pretty difficult to do so, since
we had been keeping almost in one place all the time and
had occupied ourselves far more with gymnastics than
with selenography. Of special interest is the unknown half,
whose dark heavens at night are eternally studded with
a legion of stars, most of which are telescopically minute
since their tender glow is neither destroyed by multiple
atmospheric refractions nor dulled by the harsh light of
an immense moon.
Could there be depressions there, in which gases, liquids
and a lunar population could accumulate? These formed
the subject of our conversations, as we waited for the
sunset and the night. Impatiently we waited for nightfall.
It was not really boring, for in addition we called to mind
the experiments with lamp oil, which my physicist friend
had mentioned earlier.
The fact is, we had succeeded in getting drops of huge
dimensions. For instance, when drops of oil fell from a
34
horizontal plane they reached the size of an apple. Drops
from a sharpened tip were much smaller. Oil poured
through a hole, flowed at a speed that was two-fifths of
what it would be on the Earth, the conditions being the
same. Capillary attraction* on the Moon was six times
greater than on the Earth. Thus, round the sides of the
container the oil rose above the general level with an in-
tensity six times greater than that on the Earth.
In a small wine glass, the oil assumed a compressed,
almost spherical, shape.
Nor did we forget our sinful bellies. Every 6-10 hours we
fortified ourselves with food and drink.
We had with us a samovar with a lid screwed on tightly
and we often sipped a brew of the Chinese herb.
Of course we could not get the samovar going in the or-
dinary way, as air is required to make coal and wood chips
burn. We merely stood it out in the Sun, packed round
with a pile of hot stones. The water soon began to sim-
mer, but did not boil. Hot water would spurt from the
open tap, under the pressure of the inside steam, which
was not offset by outside atmospheric pressure.
Taking tea in this way was not particularly pleasant,
because of the possibility of scalding ourselves, for the
water spurted all over the place like exploding gun-
powder.
So we put the tea into the samovar, then let it first
heat up thoroughly, then shifted the hot stones away and
waited for it to cool off. Only then did we drink the
ready-brewed tea without scalding our lips. However,
even this tepid tea spurted out fizzing into our glasses and
seemed like soda water in our mouths.
* Capillary attraction is the adhesion of liquids by virtue of
which kerosene, for instance, rises up a wick, or sap flows towards
the leaves. It is a complex phenomenon which occurs in a multitude
of forms.
3 35
v
Soon the Sun would be setting.
We watch the Sun touch a mountain peak. On the Earth
we would have done this with the naked eye. Here it was
impossible, because here there was no atmosphere and
no water vapour, and consequently there had been noth-
ing to detract from the Sun’s bluish tinge, its heat, or
its brilliance. We were able only for a brief instant to
glance at it without dark-tinted glass. It was not at all
like the rosy, soft light of the Sun when it is rising or
setting on the Earth!
Slowly the Sun sank lower and lower. Half an hour had
passed since it first touched the horizon, yet half of it
had not disappeared.
In St. Petersburg or Moscow the Sun sets in three to
five minutes. In tropical climes the sunset lasts for about
two minutes. Only at the poles does it take several hours
to set.
Finally, the last segment of the Sun, seeming like a
bright star, died out behind the hills.
And no sunset glow at all!
Instead we saw all around us the multitude of moun-
tain peaks and other hilly areas glowing in a rather bright
reflected light.
This light was quite enough to prevent complete dark-
ness for several hours, even when there was no moon.
One remote peak shone like a beacon for 30 hours.
Finally this, too, went dim.
Now only the moon and the stars were shining down,
but the light from the stars was very faint.
Immediately following the sunset and even for some
time afterwards, the reflected sunlight was more power-
ful than the moonlight.
But when the last mountain beacon had faded, our noc-
turnal luminary reigned in full grandeur over the Moon.
We turned and looked at it.
36
Its surface was 15 times greater than that of the Earth’s
Moon, which, as already mentioned, was the size of a
cherry compared with an apple.
The light it emitted was 50 to 60 times more powerful
than that of the Moon, we had been accustomed to.
It was possible to read without straining the eyes, it
did not seem to be night at all—rather a fantastic kind
of day.
Its glow prevented us from seeing either the zodiacal
light or the smaller stars, without using special screens.
What a spectacle! Greetings, Earth! Our hearts beat
with a bitter-sweet longing, our minds were filled with
recollections!
How precious and mysterious now was this once cursed
and banal Earth! We saw it as a picture behind a pale
blue glass. The glass was the ethereal] ocean of the Earth!
We saw Africa and part of Asia, the Sahara desert, the
Gobi desert and Arabia! Lands, where it never rains and
the skies are always blue! They are unblemished, always
open to the eye of the selenite. Only as the planet turns
on its axis does it carry these deserts away.
The white amorphous tufts and strips are clouds.
The ground seemed to be a muddy-yellow or muddy-
green.
The seas and oceans were dark, but of different shades
which most likely depended on how turbulent or still they
were. Where the sea was whitish white horses rode the
billows, perhaps. In places the waters were obscured by
clouds, not all snow-white, though few were greyish. They
were evidently covered by upper light strata composed
of an icy, crystallic dust.
The two diametrically opposite sides of the planet shone
particularly brightly due to the polar ice caps.
The white cap at the north was purer and larger than
that in the south.
Had the clouds been motionless it would have been
difficult to distinguish them from the snow. Incidentally
37
the snows for the most part lie deeper down in the ocean
of air, so that the blue colouring that conceals them is a
shade darker than that above the clouds.
There was a sprinkling of snow scattered over all parts
of the planet, even along its equator. These were the moun-
tain peaks, which were so high, that even in the tropics
the snow caps did not melt.
There were the gleaming Alps!
And there the Caucasian Mountains!
And over there the Himalayas!
The patches of snow were more constant than the
clouds, but even they changed, disappearing and reappear-
ing with the different seasons.
If we had only had a telescope, we would have been
able to detect all the details. It would have been a lovely
sight!
The planet was in its first quarter. Illuminated by the
feeble moonlight, the Earth’s darker half was barely dis-
cernible, being much darker than the darker (ashen) part
of the Moon that is visible from the Earth.
We felt hungry. But before descending into the crevasse
we decided to find out whether the ground was still very
hot. We stepped down from our rocky platform—by now
we had renewed it several times—and plunged into what
seemed like an incredibly hot bathhouse. The heat quickly
penetrated the soles of our boots, and we beat a hasty
retreat. The ground would not cool for some time*.
We dined in the crevasse, the edges of which had al-
ready ceased to shine; from there a mighty host of stars
was visible.
Every two or three hours we climbed out to observe our
moon—the Earth.
We could have taken it all in at a glance but for the
clouds covering our planet. To some parts the clouds
* As the Moon has no atmosphere, its surface cools extremely
rapidly.— Ed.
58
clung obstinately, trying our patience, even though we
still hoped that we would see them. And when fine
weather set in, we did observe them.
kod * *
We spent five days under cover in the depths of the
Moon, emerging only to spend brief intervals in the im-
mediate vicinity.
The ground cooled and after five Earth days, or towards
lunar midnight, it was so coo] that we resolved to em-
bark on a journey over the hills and dales of the Moon.
Actually, we had not as yet visited any low-lying place.
The accepted name for these vast, darkish low-lying
lunar expanses is the maria or seas, which is really quite
wrong because no water has ever been found there. Would
we be able to discover in these “seas” and still lower
places any traces of Neptunian activity—traces of the
water, air and organic life, which some scientists consider
long vanished from the Moon? It has been suggested that
at one time all this existed on the Moon, and perhaps still
does in some of its crevasses and abysses; that there had
been both water and air but that with the passage of time,
it had all soaked into and been absorbed by the soil, and
had formed chemical compounds with it; that there had
once been organisms—vegetation of a simple order, and
shell-fish, because where there is water and air, there will
be mould, and mould is an original form of organic life,
at least of the lowest order.
As for my friend, the psysicist, he thought, with good
reason, that there had never been any life, water or air
on the Moon. If there had been water and air, their tem-
peratures would have been so high that any organic life
would have been impossible.
My reader will forgive me for giving here the personal
view of my friend, which has no proof to support it.
At any rate, when our round-the-Moon voyage is over,
we shall know who was right.
39
And so, shouldering our loads, which had grown much
lighter due to the vast quantities of food and drink con-
sumed, we parted with our hospitable crevasse and, tak-
ing our bearings by the immobile moon suspended in the
black firmament above, set off for our house, which we
shortly discovered.
The wooden shutters and other wooden parts of the
houses and sheds had become rotten and charred on top,
due to the prolonged action of the Sun’s rays. In the court-
yard we found broken bits of a water cask, which had ex-
ploded from the pressure of the steam. We had stupidly
bunged up the cask and left it out in the baking Sun. There
were, of course, no traces of water, it having completely
evaporated. By the porch we found some slivers of glass.
This was from the lantern, the frame of which was of an
easily fusible metal. Quite understandably, it had melted
and the glass had fallen out. Inside the house, we found
less damage: its thick brick walls had given good pro-
tection. In the cellar everything was intact.
Taking from the cellar everything required to prevent
us dying of starvation and thirst, we set forth on a long
journey to the lunar pole and to that other, mysterious
hemisphere which no man had ever seen before.
“Would it not be advisable for us to trail the Sun west-
wards, at the same time deviating a little towards one of
the poles?” my physicist friend suggested. “We would kill
two birds with one stone, the first being that we would
reach the pole and the reverse hemisphere, and the sec-
ond, that we would avoid excessive cold, since if we keep
abreast of the Sun, we shall travel through places warmed
by the Sun for a definite period of time, that is, through
places having a constant temperature. We may even
change the temperature at will, to suit our requirements:
by overtaking the Sun we shall raise it; by lagging be-
hind we shall cause it to drop. This will be particularly
advantageous considering that we are approaching the
pole, where the mean temperature is low!”
V
“Really? Is that possible?” was my response to the
physicist’s odd theories.
“Quite possible!” he replied. “Just bear in mind how
easy it is to run on the Moon and how slow the Sun’s ap-
parent motion is. The greatest lunar circle is ten thousand
versts long. To keep up with the Sun, this distance has to
be covered in 30 days or seven hundred hours, in terres-
trial terms. Consequently, we must go at fourteen and a
half versts an hour.”
“Fourteen versts an hour on the Moon!” I exclaimed.
“That’s a mere trifle.”
“Well, there you are!”
“Well do twice that with the greatest of ease,” I con-
tinued, recollecting our gymnastics. “Then we shall be
able to sleep twelve hours out of the twenty-four.”
“The parallels are different,” the physicist explained.
“The nearer to the pole, the shorter they will be, and since
we intend to cross the pole, we shall keep up with the
Sun even by gradually slowing our pace. But the polar cold
will prevent us. AS we approach the pole, we must get
closer to the Sun, if we are not to freeze to death. In other
words, we must travel over places which, though near the
pole, will have been longest in the Sun. At the pole the
Sun does not rise high above the horizon and so it heats
the ground much less intensively, and even at sunset it is
only just warm.
“The nearer we draw to the pole, the closer we must be
to where the Sun sets in order to be in the most constant
temperature.”
“So, Westward Ho!”
We slid along like shadows, like ghosts, our feet noise-
lessly touching the pleasantly warm ground. By now the
moon was almost completely spherical and therefore ex-
tremely bright, presenting an. enchanting picture behind
a pale-blue glass which seemed to thicken towards the
outer edges where the shade of blue was darker. At the
4
very edges we could not distinguish the land, the water or
the shape of the clouds.
First we saw the hemisphere, a wealth of dry land.
Twelve hours later, we saw just the opposite: a hemisphere
with an abundance of water, almost the size of the Pacific.
It poorly reflected the rays of the Sun, consequently had
it not been for the brightly lit clouds and ice, the moon
would not have been as bright as it then appeared.
We climbed ascending slopes easily, and ran down again
with still greater ease. From time to time we dived into
the shade, from which more stars were visible. So far we
had encountered only small hills. But even the tallest
mountains were no obstacle, because on the Moon the
temperature does not change with the altitude. Mountain
peaks are just as warm and free of snow as the valleys.
Undulating stretches, cliffs and abysses are not formi-
dable on the Moon. We leapt over uneven ground and cre-
vasses ten to fifteen sazhens wide. When they were very
wide and beyond our powers, we either by-passed them
or climbed their steep cliffs and terraces with the help of
a line, sharp hook-handled sticks and spiked boots.
You will understand why no stout ropes were required
when you remember how little we weighed.
“Why not head for the equator? We haven’t been there
yet, have we?” I ventured to remark.
“There is nothing to prevent us,” my friend acquiesced.
We changed our course at once.
We were running too fast, and so the ground grew
warmer and warmer. Finally, we found it impossible to
run because of the heat; we had reached places which had
been more fiercely heated by the Sun.
“What will happen,” I asked, “if, despite the heat, we
run on at the same speed and in the same direction—west-
ward?”
“Running at this speed, in seven Earth days, we would
first see Sun-lit mountain peaks and then the Sun itself
rising in the west.”
42
“Would the Sun really rise where it usually sets?” I
said, doubtfully.
“Yes, it would, and if we were legendary salamanders,
insured against fire, we would actually be able to convince
ourselves of the fact.”
“Would that mean that the Sun would appear and again
vanish, or that it would rise in the usual way?”
“As long as we run along the equator, say, faster than
fourteen and a half versts an hour, the Sun will be mov-
ing from west to east where it will set. But as soon as we
stop, it will at once move in the usual way and, forcibly
elevated in the West, will again sink below the horizon.”
“And supposing we keep going steady at fourteen and
a half versts an hour, no more and no less, what will
happen then?” I persisted.
“Then the Sun will stand still in the skies, as in the
days of Joshua of Jericho, and there will be no end either
to day or night.”
“Could this hocus-pocus be done on the Earth?’ I in-
terjected.
“Yes, as long as you are able to run, ride or fly at a
speed of over 1,540 versts an hour.”
“Fifteen times faster than a tornado or hurricane! I
won’t undertake to do that ... oh! I forgot ... I mean,
I wouldn’t undertake to do it!”
“Of course not! What can be done here with ease is
quite unconceivable on that Earth,” said the physicist,
pointing at the moon.
So we debated, seated on the rocks. As I said, it was
impossible to continue running because of the heat.
Tired out, we soon fell asleep.
The cold awoke us. Agilely jumping to our feet, and
leaping forward, five arshins to the bound, we raced on-
wards to the west, veering towards the equator.
You will remember that we determined the latitude of
our house as being 40°; so it was still a fair distance to
the equator. But do not imagine that a degree of latitude
43
on the Moon is as long as on the Earth; remember that
the size of the Moon compared to the Earth is like a cherry
to an apple; hence a degree of lunar latitude is not more
than 30 versts, while a degree of terrestrial latitude is
104 versts.
By the way, we realised that we were nearing the
equator from the fact that the temperature in the deep
crevasses, representing the mean temperature, was gradu-
ally rising; but after reaching 50°R it stopped there. Then
it even began to drop, indicating that we had crossed into
the other hemisphere.
We determined our position more accurately astronom-
ically.
But before we crossed the equator, we had encountered
many mountains and dry “seas”.
People on the Earth are very familiar with the shape
of lunar mountains. They are mostly rounded with a crater
in the centre.
But the central crater is not always empty, not always
of the most recent origin. Sometimes, in the middle, there
is another big mountain again with an inside depression
indicating a crater of more recent origin. It is very seldom
active and has reddish lava inside at the very bottom.
Were these perhaps the volcanoes that had at one time
ejected the rocks we found pretty frequently? Otherwise
I could not understand how they came to be there.
Out of curiosity we deliberately ran round the very top
of the volcanoes and, glancing into the craters, twice
watched the glowing, undulating waves of lava below.
On one occasion, to one side of us we spotted above
a mountain peak a huge tall pillar of light, probably con-
sisting of a large quantity of white-hot luminescent rocks.
Our light feet felt the tremor as they struck the ground.
Whether because of the shortage of oxygen on the
Moon or for some other reasons, we only found unoxidised
metals and minerals, mostly aluminium.
Contrary to the convictions of my friend, the low-lying,
44
level areas and the dry ‘‘seas’”’ in other places were covered
with obvious, though meagre, traces of Neptunian activity.
We liked these lowlands where our heels threw up dust;
but as we ran so quickly, the dust remained behind and
settled at once as there was no wind to rake it up and
blow it into our eyes and noses. We liked them because
after bruising our heels on the rocks, they felt like soft
carpets or grassland. This alluvial layer did not impede
our progress for it was not more than a few inches thick.
The physicist flung his arm to show that on my right
hand was what looked like a bonfire throwing out red
sparks in all directions. The sparks described beautiful
arcs.
We agreed to make a detour to find out what this was.
Upon reaching the place, we saw scattered lumps of
more or less molten iron. The smaller lumps were already
cold, but the larger were still red.
“It’s meteoric iron,” the physicist said, picking up a
cold chunk of aerolite. “They fall on the Earth too,” he
continued. “I have seen them more than once in museums.
However, the only thing is, that the name given to these
celestial stones, or, rather, bodies, is wrong, especially here
on the Moon, where there is no atmosphere. They are never
visible here, until they strike the rocky ground and be-
come hot, because some of the energy of their motion is
transformed into heat. On the Earth they are discernible
almost as soon as they dive into the atmosphere, as friction
against the air makes them red-hot.”
After crossing the equator, we again decided to deviate
towards the North Pole.
The cliffs and piles of rocks were wonderful. Their
shapes stood out boldly in precarious positions. We had
never seen anything like it on the Earth.
If transported there, to your planet, they would inevi-
tably crash down. But here, they retained their fantastic
shapes due to the small gravitational pull, which could
not disturb their balance.
45
We dashed on and on, drawing closer and closer to the
pole. The temperature in the crevasses was steadily drop-
ping. But on the surface we did not notice it, because we
were gradually catching up with the Sun and were soon
to witness its miraculous rising in the west.
We did not run quickly; there was no need. We no
longer descended into crevasses to sleep. We did not want
to freeze. So we took our rest and meals wherever we
made a halt.
We even dozed en route, abandoning ourselves to
broken dreams; this was not surprising, since such things
happen on the Earth; they are all the more possible here,
where standing is the same as lying prostrate (from the
viewpoint of gravity).
vi
The moon sank lower and lower, shining down on us
and the lunar landscapes with a light now faint, now
strong, depending on which face it showed us, that with
most dry land or that with most water, and on whether
its atmosphere was cloudy or not.
Then came the moment when it touched the horizon and
began to dip beyond it, thus signifying that we had
reached the other hemisphere, which is never visible from
the Earth. ad
Four hours later it had disappeared completely and w
saw only a few illumined mountain peaks. Then even they
grew dim. The gloom was wonderful. There were stars
galore! From the Earth such a host can be seen only
through a very powerful telescope.
It was unpleasant, though, to perceive their lifelessness,
their immobility, so far removed from the immobility of
the blue sky of the tropical climes.
And the black background was depressing!
But what shines so brightly in the distance?
Half an hour later we discovered that it was mountain
peaks. Then more of them shone forth.
46
We had to climb a mountain. Half of it was shining.
The sunlight was there. But as we climbed up, darkness
swooped down upon it and the Sun was not visible
from it.
This is apparently where the Sun had set.
We quickened our pace still more.
We went swift as arrows shot from a bow.
We need not have hurried so; all the same we would
have seen the Sun rising in the west even if we had gone
at five versts an hour, in other words, if we had not run
at all—what sort of running was it, indeed—but merely
walked.
But we felt we had to hurry.
And lo! What a miracle!
In the west an ascendant star gleamed forth.
It quickly increased in size. A limb of the Sun appeared,
and then all of it! It rose, separated from the horizon and
rose higher and higher.
And yet it was all exclusively for us, as we ran; the
mountain peaks behind us faded out, one after another.
Had we not looked at the approaching shadows, the
illusion would have been complete.
“Enough, we’re tired!” the physicist jokingly exclaimed
addressing the Sun. “You may retire.”
We sat down to wait for the moment when the Sun,
setting in its usual way, would vanish from view.
“Finita la comedia!”
We turned over and fell into a deep sleep.
When we woke up we again, without hurrying, merely to
have light and warmth caught up with the Sun and no
longer let it out of sight. It ascended and descended, but
was ever in the sky, ever giving us warmth. When we fell
asleep the Sun was fairly high in the sky, when we woke
up we caught the rascally Sun trying to slip away, but we
curbed it in time and made it rise again.
We were almost at the pole!
The Sun was so low and the shadows so vast that we
47
froze as we dashed across them. In general, the contrast
in temperatures was Striking. A place of prominence be-
came so hot that we could not get close to it. It was im-
possible to cross other places that had lain for 15 Earth
days or more in the shade for fear of the rheumatism. It
should be remembered that here the Sun, even when al-
most on the horizon, warms up the sides of the rocks
turned to its rays just as much, even twice as much, as
the Earth’s Sun when directly overhead. Of course, this
does not happen in the Earth’s polar regions, because
firstly, the energy of the Sun’s rays is almost completely
absorbed by the atmosphere, and, secondly, on your planet
it does not shine down so obstinately on the pole as well;
there, every 24 hours the light and the Sun circle round a
boulder but without losing sight of it.
But you will ask: “What about heat conductivity?
Should not the warmth of the boulder or mountain be ab-
sorbed by cold and rocky ground?” “It does, sometimes,”
is my reply, “when the mountain is an integral part of the
continent. But many granite boulders, despite their size,
have been simply thrown down and have only three or four
points of contact with the ground or another boulder.
Through these points of contact, the warmth escapes very
slowly, or, it would be better to say, imperceptibly. So the
mass continues to warm up, while the radiation of heat
is very faint.”
Incidentally, our difficulty was not these boulders but
the very cooled valleys lying in the shade. They interfered
with our progress to the pole, because the closer they
were to it, the more extensive and impassable these shady
places became.
If only the seasons of the year had been more pro-
nounced here, but there were hardly any at all. In the
summer the Sun at the pole does not rise above 5°; where-
as on Earth it rises five times as high.
And when could we expect this summer, which most
likely would allow us to reach the pole somehow?
48
So by moving in the same direction, trailing after the
Sun and making circles, or rather spirals round the Moon,
we again moved farther and farther away from this partly
ice-cold spot with the hot boulders scattered all over the
place.
We desired neither to freeze nor to scorch ourselves!
We moved farther and farther away. It grew hotter and
hotter. We were obliged to lose sight of the Sun. We had
to lag behind it, in order to avoid being baked. We ran on
in the darkness, which at first was embellished a little by a
number of peaks in the mountain range. Soon they, too,
were gone. It was now easier to run: we had consumed
much of our food and drink.
The moon, which we had forced into motion, would
soon appear.
There it was!
Hail to thee, precious Earth!
We were overjoyed to See it, no joke!
No wonder, after such a long separation!
Many more hours fled by. Though we had never seen
these regions and mountains before, they did not arouse
our curiosity and seemed monotonous. We were sick and
tired of all these marvels! Our hearts ached. The sight of
the splendid, so inaccessible Earth only aggravated the
pain of recollection, the pangs of irreparable loss. If only
we could soon reach our house! We could not sleep. But
what would await us there? Merely familiar, but inanimate
objects that could only give us more painful torment.
What was the reason for our nostalgia? We had hardly
felt it before. Had the novelty, the interest in our sur-
roundings, overshadowed it until they had begun to
bore us?
We hurried in the direction of our house, if only to get
away from the sight of the dead stars and funereal
heavens!
Our home should have been near by. We had established
astronomically that it should be there. But despite the
4—76l 49
definite indications, we not only failed to discover our
familiar courtyard, but even to recognize a Single view, a
single mountain that should have been known to us.
We searched high and low.
We walked hither and thither—it was nowhere to be
found.
We sat down in despair and fell asleep.
The cold awoke us.
We fortified ourselves from our now scanty supplies of
food.
To escape from the cold we took to our heels.
As if to spite us, not a single suitable crevasse, in which
to take refuge from the cold, ever came our way.
Again we ran in the wake of the Sun. Ran like slaves
lashed to a chariot! Ran through eternity!
Through eternity? Far from it! There remained enough
food for one meal.
And what then?
We ate our last meal.
Our eyes closed in sleep. The cold forced us to huddle
close together.
Where were the crevasses, which were always there
when we had no need of them?
We did not sleep long, the unceremonious, merciless
and ever-increasing cold awoke us. It gave us barely three
hours respite, no chance of a good, long sleep.
Weak and worn out with longing, hunger and the ap-
proaching cold, we were no longer able to run at our
former speed. We were freezing to death!
When sleep almost overpowered me, my friend pre-
vented me from succumbing; and I restrained from the
sleep of death my physicist friend who had taught me the
significance of this horrible last slumber.
We supported and fortified each other. And, as I re-
member now, the idea of deserting one another or post-
poning the hour of death never for a moment crossed our
minds.
The physicist fell asleep, raving about the Earth. I flung
my arms round him in an endeavour to give warmth to
his body.
* * *
Enticing dreams of a warm bed, of flames in an open
fire-place, of food and wine took possession of me. I was
with my friends and relations, being cared for and cher-
ished!
* oe *
What pleasant dreams! Of a blue sky and snow on the
roof tops. Of birds flying past. Faces, familiar faces. A
doctor. What was he saying?
“Lethargy, prolonged sleep... his life has been in danger.
Considerable loss of weight, terribly emaciated. But the
breathing is improved, consciousness is returning. The
crisis is over.”
All round were happy, tear-stained faces.
In short, I had been in a morbid coma, from which I had
just awakened; I had gone to bed on the Earth, and had
awakened on the Earth; my body had remained here, in
thought I had flown to the Moon.
Still, I was delirious for a long time: J asked about the
physicist, talked about the Moon and wondered how my
friends came to be there. The terrestrial was confused with
the cosmic: I imagined myself on the Earth, then thought
I was on the Moon.
The doctor’s orders were that no one should argue with
me, or irritate me. He was afraid I would lose my reason.
Very slowly I regained consciousness and still more
slowly recovered.
It goes without saying that my physicist friend was very
surprised when, having fully recovered, I told him the
whole story. He advised me to write it all down and to
add to it a few explanations of his own.
DREAMS OF EARTH AND SKY
Chapter 1
EXTERNAL STRUCTURE OF THE UNIVERSE
[Introduction]
1. Size of the Earth. If we walk continuously unim-
peded and tirelessly, day and night, “over land, over sea”,
at the rate of 4.5 kilometres an hour, in a year’s time we
shall have walked round the large circumference of the
globe.
If we spend only one second examining each square
kilometre of the Earth, it will take 16 years to examine
the whole of its surface, and to examine the land alone
will take from 4 to 5 years. If we take one second to ex-
amine one hectare of land, we shall need 400 or 500 years
to do it. Despite the enormous 1,500 million population of
the Earth, there is an average of only 3 people per square
kilometre on its surface. Including the sea there are about
33 hectares to each person, or about 8 hectares of land
alone. There are 2 square kilometres or about 200 hectares
of land and sea for every family of six persons.
If we convert the Earth into cubes, and reckon that it
will take us one second to examine each cubic kilometre,
we would need 32,000 years to examine the whole inter-
nal and external mass of the Earth. The size of the Earth
compared with the size of a magnificent fairy-tale palace
(120 m in length, width and height) is the same as that
of the palace compared with a tiny droplet (1 mm in
diameter).
The volume of the Earth per person would be equal to
that of a planetoid about 10 kilometres in diameter* or a
field 1,000 kilometres square and 1 metre thick.
2. Comparative measurements of the water, atmosphere,
mountains and the hard crust. Imagine the Earth as a
polished ball with a diameter as long as the index finger
(120 mm). The tiniest granules of sand (0.1 mm) adhering
to it will represent the height of the tallest mountains.
Let us dip this ball in water, and then shake off the drops;
the adhering layer of water will represent the deepest
oceans. The Earth’s atmosphere which rises to a height of
about 300 kilometres will appear on our ball as a layer of
liquid 2.5 mm in thickness. But if we only consider the
layer of air in which man can breathe, this layer will be
no thicker than cigarette paper.
The deeper into the interior of the Earth, the higher the
temperature; this leads one to assume that only a small
part of the Earth is cold and solid, whereas its internal
mass is hot, molten and liquid;** according to our scale,
we can think of this hard crust as a thin layer of card-
board about 0.6 mm thick (the thickness of a visiting
card).
3. The sizes of the members of the planetary system.
If we think of the Earth as a small pea (5 mm), the Sun
will then be a giant water-melon (550 mm), the Moon—a
millet grain (1.5 mm), Jupiter—an apple (56 mm), Saturn—
a smaller apple with a thin ring encircling but not touch-
ing it, Uranus and Neptune—two cherries, the other
planets and satellites—small peas and grains, and the
asteroids—granules of sand and specks of dust.
4. The distances between the members of this system.
The absolute distances separating the heavenly bodies are
so immense that the figures expressing them in the usual
* The planet Agatha is no more than 6 kilometres in diameter.
“* However, the mass of the Earth is liquid only under the
crust, while deeper down the tremendous pressure prevents it from
melting, despite the monstrous temperature, Astronomers-mechanics
also find that the Earth, generally speaking, is a solid body.
53
measures are more likely to stagger the imagination than
convey anything to it.
For example, the distance from the Earth to the Sun is
so great that we should have to walk day and night for
4,000 years to cover it. To follow the Earth along its orbit
around the Sun we should have to walk 25,000 years. It
would take almost a million years to walk round Neptune's
orbit, a distance which Neptune itself covers in 165 years
travelling at the rate of 5.3 kilometres a second. The
figures we would have to use to show the time it would
take to traverse the interstellar spaces can easily be writ-
ten and pronounced but not imagined.
By reducing the interplanetary spaces in proportion to
the reduction in the sizes of the heavenly bodies we find
that the pea-Earth will be 180 steps (120 metres), the ap-
ple-Jupiter about 500 metres and Neptune a little over
3 kilometres away from the water-melon—Sun.
Thus, in the planetary system known to us (up to Nep-
tune), the Earth is just a pea on a round, 8,000-acre field.
The grain-Moon will be less than 150 mm distant from
the Earth.
5. The motion of the planetary system. All these ap-
ples, peas, grains, granules of sand and specks of dust not
only spin like tops but also move round the water-melon-
Sun which in relation to them is almost motionless and
only rotates.
The planetary system lies, as it were, in one field which
carries away in a Straight line all the movable and im-
movable objects lying on it.
It is remarkable that the axes of rotation of almost all
the members of the planetary system point approximately
in one direction; they seem to be placed on the imaginary
field. Remarkable also is the fact that the rotation and
motion round the Sun take place in one direction. If we
stand at the North Pole of the Earth or the Sun, we shall
see that they are moving counterclockwise. The satellites
move in the same way.
54
6. The speeds of planets. The pea-Earth rotates on its
axis once in 24 hours and takes one year to revolve round
the water-melon-Sun. The closer the planets, or the
spheres which represent them, are to the water-melon-Sun
the faster they move, and the farther away they are the
slower they move. The same is also true of the planetary
satellites. For example, Jupiter with its satellites forms a
miniature planetary system, except that in this case the
central body (Jupiter) does not emit its own light.*
Although our peas and cherries move very slowly and
rotate altogether sluggishly, the true speeds of these
movements are far from what they appear. For example,
the extreme points of the Earth, which are some distance
from the axis of rotation, move with the speed of bullets
or shells fired from the biggest guns, the large planets
rotate still faster, and the total motion round the Sun of
all the points of a heavenly body is even hard to imagine.
For instance, the Earth travels at a rate of about 27 kilo-
metres a second. If only a particle of the Earth, equal in
size and mass to a small bomb, were to hit an immovable
wall, the force of impact would be 2,000-3,000 times as
great as the distructive force of the finest artillery gun.
If a stone were thrown from the surface of the Earth at
the speed at which the Earth moves round the Sun, it
would forever move away from the Earth and, hurtling
eternally in the same direction, would lose less than half
of its initial speed.
7. An idea of the speed of light which will help us in
our narrative. Light travels at such a speed that it can
circle the Earth 7 or 8 times in one second. It travels
through interplanetary space with about the same ease as
a fly flies from one end of a room to another, or a bird
from one part of a town to another. For example, a ray
of light reaches the Earth from the Moon in about one
* If Jupiter does emit light, it does it very feebly, and its lumi-
nescence is like that of an active terrestrial volcano, only on a
grandeur scale. : `
PA
second and the Earth from the Sun in 8 minutes; it travels
through all the interplanetary space known to us—from
Neptune to the Sun and back—in 8 hours. Thus the
planetary system is really not so small, if even for the
swift ray of light it represents a greater distance than
30 kilometres for a hiker (since the hiker will cover this
distance in less than 8 hours).
Indeed, light moves 500,000 times as fast as a cannon
ball which would take 400-500 years to cover the distance
a ray of light travels in 8 hours.
8. The Milky Way. The Milky Way is a galaxy of thou-
sands of millions (literally, and not in the sense of a multi-
tude; I shall always try to express myself exactly) of
stars or suns occupying in aggregate a disk-shaped space,
like a bun or a flattened sphere, and all tremendous dis-
tances apart from one another. The whole starry sky
visible to the naked eye, together with the nebulous band
of stars distinguished only through telescopes, is the
Milky Way. The stars which appear large are closest to
us, the smaller ones are farther away, while the smallest
ones appear as a whitish mist because of their remoteness.
On our Earth we are about in the middle of the Milky
Way. Across it we see only the relatively close stars
which therefore do not merge into a single nebulous mass.
Lengthwise along the Milky Way we observe so many and
such remote stars that they appear as a mist to us.
The Sun is one of the stars of the Milky Way, but we
are so close to it that it blinds us. All stars are like this
if we get close to them; the satellites of the suns*—the
planets and the satellites of the planets—are an exception.
With the naked eye not more than a dozen of them are
visible. INumined by the Sun and relatively close to us
they look like stars, but if we came closer to them, they
* If the satellite of a sun (i.e. of a star) is very large, it has
not had time to cool and is therefore radiating light, like a sun;
such a system is known as a binary star; there are also multiple
or complex ste@rs. .
56
would turn out to be mere planets, like the Moon. Through
a telescope several hundreds of them can be seen; they
are all satellites of our Sun; the satellites of other suns
cannot be seen because of their remoteness.*
The distance to the nearest stars is so enormous that
even by reducing it, as we reduced the size of the Earth
by making it as small as a pea, we should still find it to be
thousands of kilometres. Hence, the stars, according to
our picture (our miniature), are self-luminous water-
melons of different size located thousands of kilometres
apart.
But how bright these water-melons must be to be seen
thousands of kilometres away! Some of the stars in our
model will therefore appear like mountains. For example,
the diameter of Sirius will be about 6 metres.
By imagining the solar system as the average space
occupied by a star in the Milky Way, we can say that the
Earth in the latter is like a drop of water in the ocean.
This space, or distance from the neighbouring stars, is
so enormous that even a swift ray of light takes years
to traverse it. It takes light thousands of years to traverse
the entire Milky Way known to us with the help of teles-
copes. The smallest of the infusoria, barely visible through
a microscope, is of incomparably greater significance in
the waters of the Earth than is the Earth in the Milky
Way. I mean, of course, not the spiritual significance of
the Earth, but only the space it occupies.
9. The grandeur of the Universe. The Milky Way has
so many stars that, if they all merged into one, we would
have a sun that would occupy the whole planetary system
at least as far as Jupiter.
But there is more than one Milky Way; there are numer-
ous similar galaxies of stars. From the Earth, i.e., from
our Milky Way, these galaxies appear as rather rounded
* Except the enormous luminous ones.
57
telescopic nebulous spots.* Their number may be as great
as the number of stars in the Milky Way.
The distance between the galaxies is immense and at
the speed of light it would take millions of years to
cover it.
Had they appeared 100,000 or 200,000 years ago we
would not be able to see them today because in that time
a ray of light would not have succeeded in reaching us.
They must have appeared millions of years ago if we see
them as we do today<...>>**
A group of galaxies in all probability constitutes some
other unit of a higher order... .
10. The movement of stars. I said that the imaginary
field of our planetary system carried along, as it were,
by a storm, moves in a straight line so that the Sun also
traverses several dozen kilometres per second. All the ob-
served stars also have similar speeds but they move in
various directions. But the speed of the remote stars is
extremely difficult, as yet even impossible, to measure.
Some stars travel at the rate of hundreds of kilometres a
second but though they move so fast, the naked eye would
never observe any movement even in the course of thou-
sands of years.
Hence, the incorrect, although generally used expres-
sion “fixed stars”.
The reason for this is the enormous distance between
the stars. If the nearest star decided to run with the speed
of light round the Sun or round us (which is the same
thing since, relatively speaking, we are at almost the same
point as the Sun) it would need years or even dozens of
years to do it. How long, then, must a star travel at its
* That such a spot is not a rarefied gas—father of suns and
planets—is evident from its characteristic spectrum which differs
from that of gas and is typical only of incandescent solid bodies
and stars.
** The angular brackets here and below show a cut in the
text.—Ed.
58
natural speed which is hundreds of thousands of times
less rapid! f
To do this a star would need millions of years, whereas
thousands of years would only see it through a small frac-
tion of a degree.
If we lived and thougtt amazingly slowly so that for us
a century turned into a second, we would see with our
own eyes the wonderful sight of stars crawling in different
directions. Some of them would grow brighter, others dim-
mer. Some would pass so near that their light would blind
us.... But the Milky Way would long appear unchanged
because of its remoteness.
11. A view from different points of the Universe. What
will a man see as he moves at an arbitrarily chosen speed
from one point of the Universe to another? Since he starts
from the Earth he will see, in the first place, how rapidly
the Earth grows smaller, after appearing at first as a
greyish bowl, into the interior of which he is looking,
and occupying a little less than half the sky. The bowl
grows smaller and smaller and changes into a gigantic
saucer.
The Sun will change much more slowly; to avoid being
burned, we shall move away from it, in view of which we
shall dress more warmly. The appearance of the starry
sky will long remain the same; but now the Sun has
changed into a star; the Earth and the other planets have
long become invisible; the pattern of the constellations is
clearly not what it was; only the small stars and the Milky
Way are the same as before.
We shall move faster, and all the large stars will appear
to be moving, like trees to a person who is travelling
swiftly past them; some of them will draw nearer and
shine brighter, others will move away and totally disap-
pear. We shall go on still faster because we have seen
enough of this change of scenery. If we move along the
Milky Way bun, the mist on one side of it will gradually
turn into stars and finally disappear. We shall see stars
59
all around us, but the Milky Way, in a semi-circle, is only
on one side.... Later we shall see the stars also only on
one side. They will grow increasingly dimmer and smaller,
until they disappear and only the arc of the Milky Way
will remain, and this, too, will gradually diminish and
become a nebulous spot.
I look hard and see many such nebulous spots all
around. These are other galaxies. I see no Stars or Sun,
but only these very faint, whitish spots. I fly past the
whole association of spots leaving them to the side, in a
heap. The heap grows smaller and disappears. Total dark-
ness. Can this possibly be the end of everything, the end
of the world? Not by a long shot! We fly faster in the same
direction, and new association of spots comes into view
out of the darkness. Everything is repeated in the reverse
order, and we enter a new world, the existence of which
we can only guess at.
And how many worlds like this can there be, how many
tranquil associations of tiny spots are there in the whole
of infinity?!<...>
Chapter 2
UNIVERSAL ATTRACTION
12. How weak is the mutual attraction of terrestrial
bodies. A stone falls into a well, and a weight presses
against the floor—this is gravity. Its cause is as yet the
unexplained property of matter to attract other matter,
like a magnet attracts iron, but much more weakly. Al-
though many attempts have been made to explain gravita-
tion, all the explanations proved unsatisfactory* and hence
were discarded. In addition, they introduced principles
which were no more intelligible than the mutual gravita-
“The most ingenious of these explanations was offered by
Georges-Louis Lesage in 1818.
60
tion of all bodies at a distance. Since the acceptance of
some inexplicable principle is inevitable, it is best to ac-
cept a principle like the law of gravitation which is per-
fectly clear, is expressed mathematically and has already
explained a whole mass of phenomena.
The force of attraction of a given spherical or point
mass diminishes (the greater the distance from it), as
does the intensity of light, the farther the distance from
the spherical source. But there is apparently very little
in common between gravity and these partial forces. In-
deed, gravity does not disappear, does not become ex-
hausted, does not depend on temperature or lighting and
does not require time for its propagation. Otherwise an
incandescent or luminous body, for example, would be
attracted by the Earth with an inconstant force, i.e., it
would weigh differently, something that no one has ever
yet observed. Further, different parts of the globe, being
differently heated, would display a tendency to explode
or to distort the shape of the Earth. Differing physically,
the Earth and the Moon would be unable to move in con-
cert round the Sun.
Thus all bodies attract each other at any distance.
But only very precise and difficult experiments* reveal
the attraction of terrestrial bodies to one another, because
even the attraction of such masses as mountains is ex-
traordinarily feeble. The mass of the Earth is enormous,
and that is why we easily notice its attraction.
The attraction of small bodies would be revealed in
their drawing nearer if this were not prevented by fric-
tion. Two stout men at a distance of 1 metre attract each
other with a force of 0.05 mg. This force may bend a hair
one metre long but will never break it; it will not even
break the finest cobweb. Can it, then, possibly move two
* The most precise experiments on the attraction of spheres
were performed by Cavendish and, on the attraction of mountains,
by Maskelyne. Airy’s experiment in mines is also well known.
61
men, overcome their relatively considerable friction against
the ground on which they stand?!
Spherically shaped and with their centres one metre
apart, one ton attracts another with a force of 6.66 mg.
12,The power and law of attraction of a given mass
depends on its shape and density. Don’t imagine that the
force of gravity of a given mass depends entirely on its
size and the distance and mass of the attracted body! Only
for spheres or material points is the attraction propor-
tional to the product of the attracting masses and inverse-
ly proportional to the square of their distance apart. For
bodies of a different shape the laws of gravitation are
pretty capricious. For example, an endless plate limited
in thickness by two parallel planes, and, consequently,
also an infinite mass, should attract with an infinite force,
and yet this is not at all the case; the attraction is quite
weak, depending on the thickness and density of the
plate; it is at a right angle to it and is everywhere the
same at every distance from it.
If the distance of the body in relation to the size of the
plate is smail, then for purposes of calculation it may be
assumed to be endless. We saw, for example, that for each
inhabitant of the Earth there is a mass equal to the mass
of a flat field 1,000 kilometres square and 1 metre thick
(its density must equal the average density of the Earth,
or 5.5). A man walking along this field will experience
over almost the whole of its area and on heights up to sev-
eral dozen kilometres the same attraction (as if the plate
were endless) which is 6 million times less than the Earth’s
attraction or 2,000-3,000 times less than that on the sur-
face of an asteroid 6 kilometres in diameter (Essay 31).*
To exert an attraction equal to that of the Earth the
endless material plate of the same density as the Earth
must be 4,000 kilometres thick (2/3 of the terrestrial
radius).
* Agatha.
62
But, on the other hand, the attraction of such a plate
does not diminish at any distance and does not change
its direction (of course, on the other side of the plate the
gravity will be in the opposite direction).
The Earth flattened into a disc exerts less attraction,
the thinner the disc. Thus, theoretically, the attraction of
the Earth can be reduced at will. The disc can be gently
revolved so that the interattraction of the parts of the
flattened planet does not bend it into a tube or turn again
into an astronomic drop, and the centrifugal force will
eliminate the attraction and prevent the destruction of
the disk.
Loosening the spherical planet also reduces the attrac-
tion on its surface and inside it; for example, an eightfold
decrease in density, without affecting the mass, reduces
the attraction fourfold; a thousandfold loosening reduces
the gravity hundredfold.
Sometimes enormous masses of whatever size produce
no mechanical effect on bodies.
Thus an empty sphere with concentric walls and an
empty cylindrical pipe with similar walls* produce no
mechanical effect on bodies placed inside them, not only
in the geometrical centre but anywhere at all. The exter-
nal attraction of a pipe is inversely proportional to the
distance of the body from its axis, whereas the external
attraction of a sphere is inversely proportional to the
square of the distance from its centre.
13. The effect of gravitation on the shape of planets;
gravity on different planets. We know how amazingly
large the heavenly bodies are, and they alone clearly re-
veal their attractive force.
Owing to gravitation all suns and large planets are in
the shape of almost perfect drops. Even if the heavenly
bodies were cold and made of the strongest material, for
* True for endless pipe.—Ed.
63
example, steel, they would, if they were any shape but
round, break up and become rounded. They would retain
relatively negligible unevenness, like the granules of
sand on the polished ball.
The attraction on the surface of different suns and
planets varies with their mass and density.
If a man lifts 80 kilogrammes and jumps over a chair
on the Earth, he will lift a cow and jump over a high fence
on the Moon. On the Sun he would be unable to stand
up; he would fall and be killed by his own gravity which
is 27.5 times greater than on the Earth. On Mars and
Mercury he would lift 160-240 terrestrial kilogrammes
and would easily jump over a table. On Jupiter, without
carrying any load, he would barely drag his feet along, as
though he were carrying a stout man too heavy for him.
On asteroids he would lift houses and jump over the
tallest trees, belfries, forests, wide ravines and more or
less tall mountains, depending on the size of the asteroid
he was experimenting with. Finally, on aerolites few
dozen metres across he would feel no gravity at all.
The force of gravity on different planets limits the
height of the mountains, buildings and organisms. On the
Moon the mountains would be six times as high as they
are on the Earth, and if they are as high as those on the
Earth it is only accidental or due to the looseness of the
material forming the lunar mountains; after all, on the
Earth the mountains do not reach their maximum height.
On asteroids the unevennesses are so enormous that they
exceed the size of the planets themselves, and so their
shapes are infinitely varied and may not be spherical at
all. Some of them are shaped like an irregular stone or
fragment, others like a disk, a ring, etc. (This is just a
mere supposition: their shape cannot be distinguished by
the telescope. We have arrived at this conclusion partly
theoretically and partly because the strength of their
light is deceptive). As they rotate, they reflect sometimes
more and sometimes less of the rays of the Sun and
64
Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, 1910
Tsiolkovsky’s old house in Kaluga where he lived from 1904
to 1932 and which has been turned into a museum
A corner of Tsiolkovsky’s workshop
through the telescope appear to the observer as variable
stars of every possible size.
If a man on the Earth were two to three times his pres-
ent size (his shape being the same) he could hardly drag
himself along, and if he were six times his present size
he could only lie on a soft couch or stand up in water;
but on the Moon the same 12-metre giant would feel per-
fectly at ease.
Giants the height of a very tall belfry would move about
easily on asteroids. A giant whose hand could touch the
top of the Eiffel Tower and who weighed 334,000 tons
would skip and frolic like a goat on an asteroid 150 kilo-
metres round (supposing it to be spherical) and having the
average density of our Earth. On the other hand, only
Lilliputians 6.6 cm tall could live on the Sun.
It will be observed that these conclusions about organ-
isms of this structure are strictly mathematical.
The effect of gravity on the shape of the planets is
complicated because they rotate round their axes.
Because they do so, the Sun and the planets are more
or less flattened at each end of their axes. If the rota-
tion accelerated, the planet would first turn into a flat
bun and then into a ring with a central spheroid; the ring
could break up into separate parts revolving round the
central body.
Perhaps this is how Saturn with its rings and the
planets with their satellites came into being; perhaps this
is how the whole planetary system was formed.
14, What would happen to the Earth, if the Sun no long-
er stretched its attracting arm towards the Earth? Grav-
itation keeps the planets near the Sun and the satellites
near their planets and does not allow them to escape into
cold and infinite space.
If the Sun were not retaining the Earth as if with a
rope, then within one year every living, unprotected
earthly thing would perish; the Sun would become a very
bright star, and its luminosity and heat would be 37 times
5—761 65
Jess strong than it is today. Within two or three years
the temperature of the atmosphere and external parts of
the planet would scarcely differ from that of outer space
(about 200° below zero); then light—the last consola-
tion—would vanish, too, just like a playful electric sun;
nothing would remain but ice-cold night and the sky,
beautiful but sad. The oceans would freeze and the air
would liquefy and destroy man, trying to keep warm in
caves—his last refuge.
Everything would straggle off in different directions’
and the planetary system would cease to exist. And if in
a few hundred thousand years, the planets with their
hapless inhabitants encountered some other sun, which
would be most unlikely, they would immediately lose it
again in the space of two or three years, in so short a
time for the extinct or, rather, the remaining spark of life
to spring up again.
See what a role gravitation plays!
Like light and sound and heat and magnetism it rap-
idly diminishes with distance and according to the same
law.
As gravitation recedes from its source, as it were, it
disperses, dissolves into expanding space.
The Earth is drawn to the Sun with a force 50,000 times
less than the force which would attract the same Earth
if it were lying on the surface of the Sun; and yet this
force is sufficient to change the natural rectilinear motion
of the Earth into a circular, or to be more exact, an
elliptical motion.
Very rapidly moving heavenly bodies cannot be long
detained by the Sun; it diverts them from their straight
course, but not for long: speed gets the upper hand and
the bodies move off into infinity. These bodies are the
comets. Some return to the Sun, their course (trajectory
or orbit) being a greatly elongated circle (an ellipse, like
a long bleb in a bad window pane).
15. The mutual attraction of the stars and the Milky
66
Way. Where is there no gravity? When we move away
from a candle its light grows feebler; gravitation depends
on distance in exactly the same way.
If we move 10 or 100 kilometres away from a candle
we finally lose sight of it; similarly, if we move far
enough away from the source of gravitation, our sense
organs completely lose their ability to determine or even
notice the infinitely diminished force of gravity.
Interstellar space, especially the space between the
“spots” of the galaxies is of this kind.
Even between the stars gravitation is at least 100 mil-
lion times as weak as the Earth’s force of gravity at its
surface. This means that if a motionless body were placed
there it would acquire within 24 hours a speed of 9 mm a
second.
Within a year this speed would be no greater than that
imparted to a man jumping from the height of a table
(5/6th of a metre).
The attraction between the spots of the galaxies, or
the accumulations of stars, is 1,000 times as weak as the
foregoing; it follows that in the course of a year man
acquires the same speed there as he does when falling
from a height imperceptible to the eye (1/1,250 mm). The
speed of the stars is so great (Essay 10) compared with
the effect of gravitation that even if their course is curved
the curvature is very small. Perhaps stars are incapable
of escaping the field of gravity of their own galaxy; but
they certainly cannot escape the sphere of a neighbour-
ing star and assume a distance mid-way between them.
Although there are numerous “binary” and even “‘ter-
nary” stars (“compound stars”), or stars revolving round
one another, as the Earth revolves round the Sun or the
Moon round the Earth, and which form systems, like the
planetary system, but composed only of self-luminous
members, they are nevertheless exceptions which came
into existence because of the relatively negligible distance
between such stars.
5* 67
16. The apparent absence of gravity. There is no need
to climb so high in order to witness phenomena in the
absence of gravity.
Let us imagine ourselves on a tiny little planet revolv-
ing round the Sun somewhere between Mars and Jupiter,
i.e., in the zone of asteroids or outside it, closer to the
Earth. At any rate there can be no shortage of these tiny
planets, and if they can’t be seen through a telescope it
is only because they are so small. In the planetary sys-
tem, all round the Sun, there is plenty of planets the size
of a pebble, pea or speck of dust which from time to time
cross our atmosphere, becoming heated through air fric-
tion and shining like stars (aerolites or “shooting stars”);
sometimes they strike against the hard surface of the
Earth. We collect them up and keep them in museums,
And so, we are on a tiny planet a few dozen metres in
diameter; we can disregard its gravity, since indeed with
a diameter of, say, 12 m anda density equal to the mean
density of the Earth (5.5) it exerts at its surface an at-
traction 1,000,000 times as weak as that of the Earth.
The question is, will our weak gravity alter on this tiny
planet under the influence of the Sun’s attraction?
The Sun imparts a certain motion to the planet, but it
imparts exactly the same motion to our bodies; the Sun
alters the motion of the planet, but it also alters the mo-
tion of our bodies. Hence, if we, for example, did not
come into contact with the planet’s surface prior to the
Sun’s attraction, then after it sets in we would neither
draw nearer to, nor recede from the planet. This shows
that our relation to the planet does not alter under the
effect of external gravitation (no matter how many forces
of this kind there may be and regardless of the direction
in which they attract), as long as the distance between
their centres and the group of bodies under observation
is large in comparison with the size of the group itself.
You will understand this if you think of a handful of
wood chips being carried away by a current, the position
68
of the wood chips in relation to each other remaining un-
changed for a long time. We and the tiny planet are the
handful of wood chips, the attraction of the Sun is the
current.
It follows that the apparent absence of gravity may be
encountered on every small asteroid measuring a few
metres across. But the attraction of even large masses, of
any enormous size, may also have no influence on other
bodies.
Calculations show that a hollow sphere produces no
mechanical effect on bodies located inside it or on its in-
ternal surface. If our planet is a hollow glass sphere con-
taining air and plants to purify it, we have a fine arrange-
ment for performing experiments. True, the air itself at-
tracts, but this attraction is relatively negligible.
Our glass sphere revolves round the Sun between the
orbits of Mars and Jupiter. Won’t this be a little too far?
Can’t we create, on the Earth or very near it, conditions
in which there will be no gravity? Yes, we can; but let
us keep it a secret for a while and imagine that, by some
miracle, the Earth’s gravity has disappeared. Let us des-
cribe what will happen then. Man is in such close affinity
with his environment that there can be no more suitable
method for describing the phenomena occurring without
gravity. We shall therefore try to preserve the entire
surroundings with only a few exceptions.
Chapter 3
DESCRIBING VARIOUS PHENOMENA IN THE ABSENCE
OF GRAVITY
17. Vanished gravity. The Earth has lost its gravity: in-
stantly the air disappeared, rivers and seas became still,
boiled up or frozen over; plants shrivelled, animals per-
ished. Much more would occur, but not everything can be
foreseen or described.
69
There is no gravity, but let us suppose the air and the
seas and rivers remain. This is not easy to arrange, but
anything can be assumed. So let us, incidentally, assume
that the centrifugal force of the Earth’s daily revolution
has not hurled from its surface everything that was on it.
For our purpose, the Earth must not rotate, the air must
be retained from dissipation by a strong crystal envelope
like the imaginary sky of the ancients. Then, the moisture
will remain, the plants will not shrivel nor the living
creatures die.
Let us further assume that the terrestrial world has
become a hollow sphere, turned inside out. The air, trees,
houses, people, rivers—all are on the inside of the
sphere, while the masses of the Earth gush out of its
bowels. In this way, gravity will be naturally abolished
(Essay 16).
Now let us place a small sun in the centre of our new
habitation and make the best of our eternal daylight.
However we look at it, we are living in our usual con-
ditions, the only thing lacking is gravity.
18, What happened inside the house (subjectively). The
previous night we had gone to bed in the ordinary way,
but on this particular day we awoke in an environment
devoid of gravity.
It was in this way. I awoke with a dreadful sinking of
the heart, the sort of feeling that assails anyone falling
from a height. I flung off the blanket and then observed
that the bed was standing on end, yet I hadn’t slipped off
it. My friend, sleeping in the same room, was awakened
by the same sinking of the heart and a feeling of cold-
ness: his mattress had springed him and his blanket com-
pletely off the bed and he was floundering close to the
ceiling, unable to cover one half of himself with the blan-
ket and shivering in the cold morning air.
My blanket, somehow caught up in the bed, was scarce-
ly covering me, and my body hardly touched the mat-
tress.
70
I had a constant feeling that I was falling. My heart
sank ... I looked round... everything was in its place....
I calmed down; then I dozed to be awakened with the
same sinking feeling. Gradually the intervals between
these sinking feelings grew longer and the false sensa-
tion of falling weakened. I got up in order to dress, when
suddenly I found myself gliding fairly smoothly to the
opposite wall. My heart thumped alarmingly... I could
no longer distinguish floor from ceiling, top from bottom.
The whole room and the garden and sky glimpsed through
the window seemed to be whirling round for no reason at
all. I was in a dreadful state of indescribable confusion.
I travelled through the air to all the corners of the
room, to the ceiling, the floor, and back again; I tumbled
around in space like a clown, only involuntarily; I knocked
every limb on every possible object, setting in motion
everything I hit into. The room swam about, bobbed up
and down like a balloon, receded, struck me, came to
meet me. My head was in a whirl of confusion, and all the
time there was that ghastly sinking of the heart.
We tried to grab various articles of apparel, but the
movement from place to place continued, and everything
whirled and floated about in the air; objects knocked
against one another, against us, against the walls.
Our unmentionables floated about the room in a friendly
embrace with a hat; coat and scarf gracefully writhed and
quivered; shoes and socks lay in separate isolation. As I
moved after one article, another hid itself in some nook,
revelling in its solitude.
We were no good at controlling our direction and beat
about like flies in an oil-lamp glass. We continually forgot
to cling to something and to hold fast to the smaller
articles we required for dressing. Round the room we
tumbled, our trousers only half on, forgetting to catch up
our jackets and causing ourselves additional trouble.
Books from the shelves, various small objects, all
seemed to be alive and were sedately roaming round
71
with apparently no serious intention of ever coming to
rest.
The room was like a fish-pond; it was impossible to
turn without knocking against something: tables, chairs,
sofas, mirrors were suspended in air, each in its own
fashion, performing stately twists and turns in somewhat
unpicturesque disorder, yet as though in a state of rev-
erie. The books fluttered open, their pages puffed up as
if to say: “Read us on both sides; we’ve brought ourselves
to you out of sheer boredom.”
If we pushed aside some plaguesome object as it dived
for our eyes, brushed the nose, ticked the ear or tweaked
the hair, it thrashed about from corner to corner, striking
us and knocking into other objects with the extraordinary
fury of one possessed, as though angered and paying us
back for our insolence; and its capers only doubled the
general confusion. Gradually it quietened down and
gently nudged a doll as if to say: “Why aren't you joining
in the row?” And the doll, too, joined in the commotion.
My watch, captured by its chain by sheer chance, writhed
and squirmed like a snake as it showed us the time and,
by way of reward, was returned to my waistcoat pocket.
It was quite impossible to restore order: the more zeal-
ously we tried to set things to rights, the more they fell
into confusion. The pendulum clock stopped and refused
to start despite all our efforts. The pendulum would not
swing. A jolt sent the water out of a decanter flying across
the room like an oscillating balloon until it burst into drops
as it struck some object, splashing against and oozing down
the wall.
Nor were things in their accustomed place in the other
rooms, but as no one tried to restore order, at least they
did not behave wildly; they did not shift about, leap in the
air or knock other things about. On closer scrutiny, how-
ever, we did notice some slight disturbance.
The garden looked much as usual, unlike the chaos in-
doors: the green, swaying trees, the rustling grasses, the
72
fragrance of the flowers reaching us through the net cur-
tains over the open window. I hesitated about opening
the curtains for fear of losing articles which had several
times approached the windows, peeped into the garden
and, as though regretting they could not promenade
further, had very slowly withdrawn.
We became a trifle used to our new situation. I no longer
cried out every time I found myself head downwards,
between “sky and earth’; my heart no longer sank from
time to time. We learned to remain on one spot or to move
in a desired direction.
What we could not learn was how to float around with-
out revolving; we pushed off and without fail began
revolving, although slowly; it was dreadful because on all
sides everything appeared to be going round and round
till the head began to spin. It was equally difficult to rid
ourselves of the idea that the house itself was tottering
and mobile. It was hard to convince ourselves that we
alone were moving. When we pushed off it seemed as
though we had given the room a shove and it was floating
away, just like a skiff, in the direction we had shoved it.
19. An unsuccessful leap that ended safely (subjective-
ly). Do not imagine, dear reader, on the basis of the pre-
ceding essay that in space, where there is no gravity, bod-
ies have the property of being set in motion of their own
accord. Quite the contrary. In a gravity-free environment,
a body which has no motion will never acquire it without
the action of some outside force, and on the contrary, a
body in motion retains its motion forever. Everything in
our room was in a turmoil because where there is no
gravity there is also no friction, which largely proceeds
from gravity itself, owing to which the least effort, the
slightest puff of air is sufficient to move an object from
its place and make it move eternally in one direction and
to revolve eternally.
It is very difficult to put down an object without some-
how giving it an accidental jolt. Try putting a samovar
73
down straight on the floor! It seems that nothing could
be easier, yet you will not be able to do it, even if you
yourself are held steady.
While your hands hold the samovar everything is splen-
did, the samovar stands up; but the moment you withdraw
your hands it begins very, very slowly to turn to one side
and lean over; you will find that within five minutes it
is an inch off the floor, no longer touching it. The whole
point is that when you withdrew your hands, you imparted
motion to the samovar through the involuntary, imper-
ceptible shaking of the hands, and in the course of time the
samovar reveals this motion.
If the objects in our room gradually settled down, it
was due to the resistance of the air and the loss of speed
through impacts.
The wandering of these objects in the free medium can
be compared to the motion of motes in a pond. Note how
agitated they are, eternally stirring, eternally crawling
about, yet in the water they encounter relatively terrific
resistance.
From wall to wall, not without mishaps, we floated in
broken lines through all the rooms, until we came outside
to the doors of the porch. Here we paused to think. A
wrong move and we would be flying into the “sky”. And
how would we return? We leaped into the garden; we had
miscalculated (leapt too high) and flew upwards, not even
brushing the tallest tree.
Vainly we stretched out an arm to grab a tree top: the
trees receded, descended, as though falling down from us.
In addition, the flaying of arms and legs in the air caused
me to begin to revolve; it appeared to me that the entire,
vast terrain from which I was receding was also revolv-
ing: now it was straight over head (an abyss beneath
me), now it was a wall, now a mountain pointing sky-
wards....
I was alone; my friend had lagged behind, although he
had shouted: “I'll catch up with you in a second!’ I
74
wanted to wait for him, I swung my arms about, but it
was quite useless.
I knew I was flying but my senses could not register
the fact; I seemed to be absolutely motionless and the
Earth to be moving. What I had feared was now happening.
I was being carried away into infinite space to become a
satellite of the Sun, in a word—a planet.
What I had once thought about long ago as I lay in
the grass looking up into the clear sky came to pass.
“What if I fall off into what is there?!” had been my
thought. And now I was falling, the approaching air ruf-
fling my clothes. Bah! This air should stop my planetary
flight.
Yet an hour passed and I was still flying. I made des-
perate efforts, but in vain. My friend had disappeared from
sight.
Something appeared far ahead of me ... closer and
closer ... a barrel! It bashed into me. Ah, deuce take it!
A lucky trail it followed. The impact sent me flying in the
opposite direction. Splendid! Back ... to the garden ... to
my friend flying helplessly.... I grabbed his outstretched
leg and together (not particularly gracefully) we plunged
into the shady coolness of the garden... . The leaves tickled
our faces ... but we paid no attention to anything and,
tortured by anxieties and with the caution, born of our
unfortunate experience, made our way from tree to tree,
from branch to branch to the summer-house where we
locked ourselves in so as not to get lost and gave our-
selves up to sleep.
If anyone had seen us Sleeping, he would have likened
us to corpses floating in the breeze. Obviously there is no
conceivable bed quite as soft as that in any part of an
environment free from gravitation. l
20. In the garden. We glided along close to the ground,
barely brushing the grass. Like butterflies we touched the
flowers and delighted in their fresh fragrance. Like birds
we flew among the shrubs and trees, clutching at them,
75
then after circling around a few times, hesitated like young
birds swiftly alighting on a twig, and then stood still.
If you cannot manage to keep still hanging on to a
supple sapling and make a half or even a quarter turn, the
direction of your motion will change, but not altogether.
It was good lying motionless close to the ground; some-
times we felt we were immersed in wonderfully clear
water or lying on the finest plate glass.
In order to move faster it is convenient to kick off from
the sapling, rather like I used to when I swam on my
back. In this way I flew through the air at ten to fifteen
kilometres an hour. But the air resistance soon slowed
me down, and I found it better to kick off more often and
more gently. Because of this resistance, and starting with
this initial speed we could scarcely be carried beyond the
atmosphere. Incidentally, calculations show that the mo-
tion of a body never ceases when it is in a liquid medium
(or in the air), and, although the speed rapidly diminishes,
it does not diminish to zero; in these conditions the body
traverses infinite space in an infinite space of time. Yet
air currents, terribly weakened by the absence of gravity,
could freely carry us away.
21. What happened in the town. A town acquaintance
dropped in, or rather he flew into our garden in a state
of agitation and, while nibbling at a ripe apple, gave us
the essence of what was going on in the town. Things
were in a terrible mess: the horses, carriages, people and
even completely furnished houses, where their foundations
were poor, were flying through the air as lightly as specks
of dust and bits of fluff. The ladies had tied tape round
the lower part of their skirts, because they had little use
for their legs, and also because the situation was embar-
rassing. Some were wearing male clothing—emancipation
of a kind!
... Water flowed out from rivers, ponds, and wells. was
absorbed by the ground or flew about in the shape of
spheres of various sizes, like soap bubbles, only not so
76
fragile. When a particularly enormous water sphere
touched someone not sharp enough to avoid it, it drenched
him from head to foot, and he had to shake himself dry
like a sheep-dog. Subsequently, everyone learned to travel
safely, but at first it was amusing and at the same time
bitter experience. ...
Because of capillary attraction the subsoil water, no
longer restrained by gravity, rose to the surface. The plants
obtaining enough moisture now could do without
rain. Indeed, we found the ground damp everywhere, like
it is after rain, yet the grass and leaves were dry.
There was a clamour and uproar everywhere; everyone
was flying about, but never for a moment in the desired
direction; people were crawling about, spinning round;
there were shouts of horror, exclamations of surprise ...
and peals of carefree laughter.
Creatures that had never been known to fly—cats, crawl-
insects, yelping dogs—were tumbling about in mid-air.
And their flight was peculiar—upwards, ever upward for
they were evidently not adjusted to the new conditions.
An entire herd of cattle was mooing in the heights be-
neath the clouds. A company of soldiers with no mind for
discipline, some upside down, some sideways-on, others
swaying like rickety posts; one standing on the head of
another ... and the whole lot like a handful of matches,
scattered untidily on an invisible cobweb.
22. Out in the open. We moved along smoothly, at one
and the same height; when we came to a ravine or a river
the ground dipped below us. At the bottom, the remaining
water sparkled and assumed marvellous, fantastic shapes.
But there was no occasion for us to fear: we did not fall
into the abyss, but floated over it like clouds, soared like
birds, fluttered like bits of fluff caught up by a strong
wind. Sometimes we brushed lightly against a wall or a
hill; but pushed off, soared up and alighted on it so imper-
ceptibly that it was as though the wall or hill had itself
obligingly descended. We clutched at the grass, shrubs
77
and stones on the hill sides in order to change our direc-
tion and again made off in a horizontal direction.
But our motion gradually slowed down; we had to im-
part ourselves motion again through some kind of impetus;
for this reason it was not convenient to fly high, since there
was nothing to kick off from.
Sometimes we flew head downwards, and the earth
stretched above us like a ceiling, with overturned forests
and mountains, while beneath our feet was an abyss into
which, however, we did not fall. When we flew in a recum-
bent position, it seemed as though we were ascending or
descending alongside a wall, the Earth standing to the side,
like a wall, the trees also sideways-on; on all the other sides
of us there was a chasm!
Then all the illusions vanished, we no longer regarded
the Earth as a capricious spinning-top and began to realise
precisely how we were moving about. In this way does the
wayfarer floating in his boat down a river gradually comes
to the realisation that the river banks are not really slipping
past him, but that he is moving past them.
In time we learned to move at any altitude and in any
direction. For this we used wings which had no weight of
their own, despite their large surface, and which sped
along at our backs without the slightest effort. The wings
rid us of the unpleasant rotation, and we found that, like
birds, we could easily set ourselves in motion and with the
minimum expenditure of effort. We easily flew 10-12 kilo-
metres an hour without feeling particularly fatigued. In a
recumbent position we could move twice as fast. Since
we tired most from the variety of frolicsome evolutions we
performed, we settled ourselves on a hill, rested, ate our
fill, then dozed a little or simply admired the beautiful
view. During our meals, bread, meat and pitchers of
water—all of them rested in the air as they would have
been set out on the table.
It was wonderful to fly over mountains, through dark
ravines, over forests and water.... After a few days of
78
playful travel, we found ourselves in a warm climate. We
protected ourselves from venomous snakes, beasts of
prey, and the like, by flying inside an iron net. Actually,
the poor dumb creatures were entirely disarmed and just
as helpless as the population had been when the upheaval
started. Most of them had perished and the rest were
doomed, too, because it was only by chance that they
found food and water.
Our food consisted of delicious nuts and fruits which,
it goes without saying, we procured without any difficulty.
The people became more and more accustomed to the
new conditions; the animals perished because of their
limited understanding, the plants survived because of
their total lack of understanding.
In forest clearings we sometimes encountered men and
women performing beautiful folk dances. We heard human
singing and music in the air at the height where the larks
hover and sing. And here the poses the dancers’ bodies
assumed were a joy to behold. At times we were so en-
tranced that the dancing and singing plunged us into an
imaginary fairy-tale world of mermaids and other fabu-
lous creatures.
Sometimes we witnessed the tragedy of an unfortunate
ruminant dying of starvation within a few metres of thick,
succulent grasses. By kicking about violently in the air
it had, accidentally, of course, scarcely approached the
ground and begun to crop the grass than a new, foolish
movement of the legs carried it up into the air again, and
it found itself still farther from food than it had been be-
fore.
It was even worse with the beasts of prey (the birds
of prey adapted themselves to their new conditions, al-
though not without some difficulty); they very rarely en-
countered food and food rarely came their way!... But we
also witnessed scenes where an unfortunate lamb, cham-
ois, deer, cow, hare or horse was carried willy-nilly into
the jaws of a bear, lion or wolf.... In chorus they bleated,
79
mooed and neighed but could not evade their inexorable
fate. Incidentally, an animal was carried within a metre of
a beast of prey, which in spite of its sincere desire to make
the best use of the wild game, was unable to do so. Then,
again, a domestic animal sometimes knocked into the back
of a beast of prey, bounced off and away from it, thus
escaping its claws. When it was possible and necessary
we rescued an animal ... for the purpose of eating it our-
selves!
Chapter 4
THE GRAVITY HATER
(A Touch of Humour)
23. One of my friends was a very odd fellow. He hated
terrestrial gravity as though it were something living; he
hated it not as a harmful phenomenon, but as his personal,
bitterest enemy. He delivered threatening, abusive speeches
about it and convincingly, so he imagined, set out to
prove its entire worthlessness and the bliss that “would
come to pass” through its abolition.
“For pity’s sake,” he cried, “you can’t build a house
without gravity hindering it with all its might.... Drag
up the bricks, haul up the logs.... Why shouldn’t I be
able to straddle a log and ride it out of the forest?... And
all because of this mischievous gravity! It won't let us move
fast, comfortably and cheaply.
“Isn’t it to gravity that we owe all the frightful expen-
diture on the railways, which are still very imperfect, in-
sufficient and costly?!
“You can’t go down a mine or climb a mountain without
difficulties, dangers or expenditures.
“You have to thank gravity,” he yelled, “for killing
workers by burying them underground, for the bridges and
buildings that cave in and bury people under the wreck-
80
Konstantin Tsiolkovsky in his study (1932)
Konstantin Tsiolkovsky works on the design of his all-metal
airship (1933)
age, for drowning people and sinking ships laden with grain
and other riches, for smashing people to smithereens when
they fall from buildings, and for destroying crops with
hail, for preventing the glorious development of the animal
and vegetable world, and for countless other vile tricks.
“It forces you to build massive, luxurious homes, to buy
upholstered furniture, mattresses, pillows and feather-
beds....
“You have to thank gravity,” he continued, “for press-
ing you down to the Earth like worms, for shackling you,
and scarcely allowing you to look at the sky and Earth,
for the miserable altitude of 10 kilometres, to which man
rises with much sacrifice and danger to life, represent, in
the heavens, no more than a grain of sand on the peel of
an orange.
“Isn’t it gravity that limits our portion of space and
sunlight?!
“But an environment free from gravity,” he would say,
with great emotion, “that’s the thing! It makes the poor
equal to the rich, for it gives both a comfortable carriage
with wonderful horses which need no fodder and are tire-
less. Everyone sits, sleeps and works where he chooses,
needing no ground and using fine furniture of comfort
quite beyond compare. Houses of any size can be built ev-
erywhere, on a hill or mountain, which is a tremendous ad-
vantage in many respects: they don’t have to be strong
and, at the same time, they can serve as airships carrying,
inside or outside, as many passengers and as much cargo
as space will permit.
“The high speed of such ships, if they are streamlined,
will be outstanding. Travelling eternally they will provide
their owners with all the blessings and treasures of the
Earth, the journey round which having become a mere
trifle.”
“But that will lead to complete chaos,” we tried to
argue. “What will become of the seas, the oceans, the
air?! How will raindrops fall and how will the fields be
6— 761 8!
irrigated? Indeed, salt water will flood your house, your
garden and vegetable patch. How will you keep it out?”
But there was no stopping the odd fellow; he would not
listen to anything and would grow angry at the objections,
saying that no one understood him.
Then we would ask him: “But where is there such an
environment? And has it anything to do with us? And
isn’t this ‘happy Arcady’ merely a figment of your imagi-
nation?”
“I have invented no ‘happy Arcady’, and there is really
such an environment on the asteroids,” he would reply.
“But there is no air there, no atmosphere,’ we would
say. “Besides, it is too far from us, unless you consider a
few hundred million kilometres a short distance.”
“To begin with, distance is nothing because it depends
on the speed of motion and the convenience of the means
of communication. Before Columbus, America was inac-
cessible, although it was relatively not far away; now it
is only 5 to 7 days’ travel from Europe. Besides, why do
you think that creatures cannot live without visible
breathing? Why shouldn’t people be able to adapt them-
selves to such a life in the course of time? According to
some naturalists, the atmosphere must, in time, be ab-
sorbed by the Earth’s crust and together with its elements
form a chemical compound, then human beings and animals
will have to be content with less and less oxygen, anyway.
Must everything perish and not become adapted to the
new life?
“Finally, gravity can be done away with on the Earth,
too. Don’t you know that even now it is being weakened
by centrifugal force, and that at the equator gravity,
partly because of this, is less than it is at the poles?”
And then he would talk such nonsense that his audience
would merely shrug and walk away.
And yet many of his fantasies appealed to me for their
scientific and philosophical undercurrent, wealth of images
and the train of thoughts they invoked.
82
He said, for example:
“If we lived at the bottom of the seas under tremen-
dous pressure, and were merely fish that could think,
and if we were told that there were organisms living
without water and without its pressure, we would cry out:
What?... Without water?!.. Without pressure?! For
goodness’ sake! Then how do they swim? What do they
eat? Why, the sun would dry them up! Of course, for sure
they would be dried up by the Sun!”
Let us, for the time being, leave aside these arguments,
this diversity of fantasies and make use of them sparingly
and in their proper place.
Chapter 5
IS IT POSSIBLE TO PRODUCE ON THE EARTH
AN ENVIRONMENT WITH A DIFFERENT GRAVITY
FROM THAT WHICH THE EARTH NOW HAS!
24. Increasing the gravity in a spinning bowl. It is ex-
tremely easy to increase relative gravity in a medium of
a known volume.
Imagine an enormous round bowl about 25 metres wide
and let it spin like a clay bowl under the hands of the
potter who is shaping it. Let us enter this bow], taking
with us a 5-Kg weight and a spring balance.
When we stand at the very bottom, in the centre of its
rotation, the balance shows 5; but as soon as we move
away from the centre the balance appears to be incor-
rect, and the farther we move away from the vertical axis
of rotation the more incorrect is the balance. According
to the distance we move away, it shows successively 10.5,
11, 12, 13, 14 pounds; at the same time we also feel
somewhat ill at ease, heavy; head, arms and legs feel as
though they were full of lead and the heart beats faster.
As long as the bowl spins evenly, this phenomenon is in-
variable.
6* 83
If the bowl is in the shape of a paraboloid and spins
with sufficient but not excessive speed, we can walk freely
all round its walls, remaining perpendicular to them, like
people walking on the Earth.
At its edges we stand almost on our sides, i.e., in a re-
cumbent position, although we are not lying but standing
in relation to our location; it has to be confessed, how-
ever, that we are standing with great difficulty, because
the gravity is as great as it is on Jupiter.
If the bowl were closed on all sides and were spinning
fairly smoothly (for example, rotating like the Earth) we
would not notice that it was spinning but would only feel
the increased gravity.
Water poured into our spinning vessel is distributed
along its curved surface of the vessel.* The terrestrial
seas and oceans are limited by a convex surface, whereas
here the surface is concave.
The phenomena in the bowl become somewhat com-
plicated when the observer moves rapidly. But if the
movements are slow or normal, but the bowl is large, we
would not in any way distinguish this artificial gravity
from that of the Sun or Jupiter: bodies would fall, the
pendulum would swing and the clock would tick in just
the same way, liquid would be distributed in the same
manner, the same laws of Pascal and Archimedes would
apply, etc., etc. We would observe literally the same phe-
nomena that occur many millions of kilometres from us,
on other planets with greater gravity. This artificial gravity
would produce absolutely the same effect on organisms as
* But if the shape of the vessel is irregular, it will in no way
prevent the liquid from restricting itself to the surface of the para-
boloid. Assuming uniform rotation, complete silence all round, ab-
sence of shocks, and a vertical axis of rotation, we shall have a
splendid reflector or a concave mirror. By using mercury could we
not use it like Newton’s reflecting telescope? This mirror may be
larger but it is inconvenient because of its eternally horizontal
position.
84
does real, natural gravity. Thus, it is known that the main
trunk of most plants rises and grows in the direction of
gravity. If we covered the interior of our bowl with a layer
of fertile soil and planted seeds of cereals, flowers and
trees in it, they would all give shoots in different directions"
along the entire surface of the bowl, but everywhere in
the direction of the relative gravity, i.e., normally to the
walls of the bowl.
Such experiments have already been made, and confirm
what has been said; the vessel with soil and germinating
seeds rotated by means of a small water-mill.
I experimented with insects, and calculated that their
weight increased 300-fold. Thus they became 15 times as
heavy as gold coins of the same volume. In precisely the
same way I increased the weight of the cockroach, and
even this seemed not to affect it. It evidently follows that
the cockroach, and still less other very small insects,
would suffer no discomfort at all if transferred, say, to the
Sun, assuming, of course, that it was cold there and at-
mosphere was suitable. It would be interesting to know
what amount of increase in gravity has no harmful effect
on other, larger creatures, and especially human beings.
These experiments are not at all difficult. I increased the
gravity of a chicken several fold (I do not remember ex-
actly how much, but I think—fivefold) but this did not kill it.
Here gravity is the result of two factors: the attraction
of the Earth and motion; but it is possible by motion alone
to produce the purest mathematically identical environ-
ment of relative gravity, a phenomenon which will not
differ one iota from natural gravity no matter what the
conditions.
For this purpose, it is necessary to impart uniformly
accelerated and direct motion to the medium in which it is
desired to produce artificial gravity. Naturally, in practice
this motion can continue for only a few seconds or, at
best, minutes.
85
If bodies fall rapidly to the ground, it is a sign of grav-
ity; if, on the contrary, the bodies are motionless and the
ground moves towards them at a uniform speed, we have
the phenomenon of apparent gravity which, incidentally,
in no way differs from natural gravity.
It is known that the weights in Atwood’s machine move
at a uniformly accelerated speed. If we make ourselves
as small as a fly and alight on these weights, we shall feel
during their motion an increase or decrease in our gravity,
depending on whether they move upwards or downwards.
The heavier one weight, compared with the other, the
closer to zero is the seeming gravity on this weight,
whereas it becomes almost doubled on the other weight.
25. Examples of an apparent change or even the com-
plete annihilation of gravity in the given environment.
When you skate or toboggan down a good, ice-covered,
fairly steep hill, the direction, as well as the stress of
gravity (with respect to the skates or toboggan), are dis-
turbed. The gravity diminishes, while the direction is nor-
mal to the surface of the hill. The steeper the hill, the
weaker the relative gravity and the more does the body
of the skater or tobogganer deviate from the vertical; on
the contrary, the gentler the slope, the less does gravity
change.
When people ride on the roller-coaster the same thing
occurs, only with more variety, i.e., with an increase, a de-
crease and the total destruction of gravity (in relation to
the coaster and the people in it),
Of course, all this lasts only a few seconds, and the
passengers, unable to account for the phenomena, merely
experience the thrill and have the sinking feeling, which
people who like keen sensations find so pleasant.
Gravity changes its direction and stress on all bodies
on which uniform or nonuniform curvilinear motion exists.
All sorts of swings and roundabouts are places of a seem-
ing change of gravity which makes itself felt in sinking
feelings, dizziness, etc.
Eh
Somewhere, someone proposed to give the lovers of keen
sensations a special thrill. The idea was to put these
“thrill-lovers” into a chamber and to have it fall from a
high tower straight into a tank of water, where it would
gradually lose speed and would then re-emerge into the
light of day to the general delight of the public and the
lovers of thrills.
But what feeling do these people experience during their
fall and swift immersion in water?
Assuming that the chamber falls from a height of
300 metres, i.e., from the Eiffel Tower, we shall find that
for a period of almost 8 seconds, before hitting the water,
the passengers will be in an environment of seeming ab-
sence of gravity. This is because the gravity of the Earth
attracts the chamber together with the bodies it contains,
owing to which the gravity does not disturb the position
of these bodies in relation to each other and in relation
to the chamber.
For example, how can a stone fall to the floor of the
chamber if the chamber itself is falling at the same speed
as the stone?
Furthermore, during the immersion in water the relative
eravity in the chamber has a chance to increase to such
an extent (depending on the shape of the chamber) that
the “lovers of keen sensations” will be flattened out under
their own weight like bugs crushed underfoot.
I would propose another method which, the height of
the tower being the same, offers twice as much time to ob-
serve the space free from gravity and, in addition, a meth-
od in which the subsequent increase in gravity occurs
fairly uniformly and depends completely on us; this being
the reason why under certain conditions this method can
be perfectly safe.
The method is as follows: a carriage is placed on the
rails which have the form of a propped-up magnet or a
horseshoe. The carriage firmly grips the rails on both sides
and cannot be derailed. Falling from one end of the rails
47
the car describes a semicircle at the bottom and rises to
the other end where it stops automatically as soon as it
loses all its speed.
During the descent to the semicircle (the curve) the
relative gravity disappears; on the curve it emerges again,
in a greater or lesser degree, depending on the radius of
the semicircle, but is approximately constant. During the
ascent along the straight or upright rail gravity disap-
pears; it also disappears during the return drop if not
retained at the top. Thus the time for observing the seem-
ing absence of gravity is doubled. If the friction of the
car against the rails and the resistance of the air are dis-
regarded, the car ought to roll back and forth eternally,
like a pendulum. In that case the observers sitting in the
car would alternately experience the absence of and the
increase in gravity.
The following are the results of calculations in which we
disregarded the complicating conditions of friction against
the rails and the resistance of the air; nor are they of any
importance at low speeds and heights.
Data: the Eiffel Tower—300 metres tall; radius of the
curve—I5 metres; conclusions: longest time of the grav-
ity-free space—15 seconds; increase in gravity during mo-
tion along the curve—40 (a man weighing 60 kg would
weigh 2,400 kg or twice the weight of gold of the same
volume as the man); time during which it was observed—
slightly over 1 second.
With a fourfold increase of the arc radius normal grav-
ity increases only tenfold (600 kg in man) and will con-
tinue for 4.5 seconds.
If a drop is 4 times less, the time, during which the
seeming absence of gravity is observed, will decrease
only twofold (8 seconds), but gravity, with the same arc
(15 m) will decrease fourfold and a 60 kg person will
weigh 600 kg, while with a radius of 30 m he will weigh
300 kg; in a recumbent position or in water (up to the
68
neck) man will in all probability tolerate such a weight
without ill effects.
With a still lower drop the safety increases more, but
the time for observing interesting phenomena is too short.
When a man skating or tobogganing down an icy hill
rapidly changes his direction at the foot of the hill, his
relative gravity increases, although only for a short time,
10-20-fold or more, depending on the circumstances. It is
well known that the man feels none the worse for it.
There are conditions under which even a tremendous in-
crease in gravity proves perfectly harmless to man—for
example, immersion in water. It would be extremely in-
teresting to perform such experiments in a spinning bowl
(Essay 24).
25. Can the human organism endure weightlessness?
A method of protecting the organism from the effects of
the dreadful force of gravity. Something similar to the
absence of gravity can also be experienced for prolonged
periods on the Earth.
Let us imagine a large, well-lighted tank of clear water.
On immersion in the water, a man whose mean density
equals that of the water loses gravity and the effect of
this is balanced by the reciprocal effect of the water. By
putting on special spectacles one can see as well in water
as in the air if the water is not deep and is clear. It is
also possible to use a breathing apparatus. And yet the
illusion will be very far from complete. True, the man will
be in equilibrium in any part of the liquid; by hooking a
small object, he can also give his body any steady direc-
tion he chooses, but the resistance of the water is so enor-
mous that the motion imparted to the body is almost
immediately lost, unless it is extremely slow and imper-
ceptible to the eye. Since such a position in water is per-
fectly harmless, it must be assumed that the man will
also endure the absence of gravity for any length of time
without any ill effects. As a matter of fact, the absence of
gravity eliminates the weight of the column of blood and
89
must therefore increase the blood pressure in the brain.
But the same increase also occurs upon immersion of the
body in water; almost the same thing occurs in a recum-
bent position, so that the organism experiences nothing in
particular by the elimination of gravity.
The most fragile bodies placed in a liquid of the same
density sustain, without breaking, the hardest blows by a
vessel or against the vessel as long as the vessel itself re-
mains intact.* And yet under these blows, the relative
gravity in the vessel increases, if only briefly, several
hundred- or several thousandfold. It is well known that
nature places everything that is weak and delicate—em-
bryos, the brain—in liquids, or surrounds them with liq-
uid. Could we not also avail ourselves of this method for
a variety of purposes?!
26. The apparent and prolonged elimination of terres-
trial gravity is impossible in practice. Let us suggest more
examples of weightless environment existing for a longer
period of time.
If its mass is very small, an imaginary satellite of the
Earth, like the Moon, but as close to our planet as we
choose only beyond the limits of its atmosphere, that is,
about 300 kilometres distant from the Earth’s surface, will
offer an example of a weightless environment.
We explained in Essay 16 why, although it is close
to the Earth, the bodies lying on it or near it are apparently
not affected by gravity.
* You can personally prove the correctness of the above. Take
a glassful of water, a hen’s egg and salt. Put the egg in the water
and pour salt into the glass until the egg begins to rise from the
bottom to the surface of the water. At this point add some water,
so that the egg is suspended in equilibrium at any point in the ves-
sel, i.e., so that, being suspended at an average height, it will nei-
ther rise to the surface nor drop to the bottom. Now strike the glass
against the table as hard as the strength of the glass will permit
and you will observe that the egg in the glass will not stir. Without
the water the egg naturally breaks immediately even from the slight-
est blow. I have described these experiments in Volume 4 of the
Transactions of the Moscow Society of Amateur Naturalists, 1891,
90
“So near and yet so far.” To be sure, despite the rela-
tive proximity of such a satellite, how could we get be-
yond the terrestrial atmosphere to reach it, even if it actu-
ally existed? Or how could we impart to a terrestrial body
the speed necessary to develop a centrifugal force over-
coming the gravity of the Earth, if this speed must be
close to 8 kilometres a second?
If we could build a train which sped along the Earth’s
equator at the rate of 8 kilometres a second, gravity would
be eliminated in the carriages by the centrifugal force;
but unfortunately the air will under no circumstances allow
motion at such speed.
If we could build a platform belting the Earth at a
height beyond the atmosphere, then out there in an ab-
solute vacuum this speed could be attained, but then, prac-
tically speaking, the platform itself at a height of 300 kilo-
metres is an absurdity.
If the Earth gradually increased the speed of its rota-
tion, it would at first flatten out along the equator into a
pancake and would then break up and form, under favour-
able conditions, something like Saturn with its system of
rings; there would be almost no gravity on these rings.
But such a thing is even less conceivable than fast
trains.
What else is there, then? Should we perhaps build high
towers or fire cannon balls like those “fired” by Jules
Verne?
As we ascend a tower, gravity gradually diminishes;
and, if this tower is built in the equator of a planet and
therefore rotates rapidly with it, gravity also diminishes
not only because of its gradual departure from the centre
of the planet but also because of the increase in the centri-
fugal force which is proportional to this recession. The
attraction decreases as the light of a lamp placed in the
centre of the Earth decreases as it moves away from it,
while the centrifugal force, acting in the opposite direc-
tion, increases. Finally, on the Earth gravity is destroyed
91
at the top of a tower 5.5 Earth’s radii tall (34,000 kilo-
metres from the Earth’s surface; the Moon is about
11 times as distant).
As such a tower is ascended, the gravity gradually di-
minishes without changing direction; at an altitude of
34,000 kilometres it vanishes completely, and higher up
appears again with a force proportional to the removal
from the critical point, but in the opposite direction, so
that the climber is turned head towards the Earth which
he sees above his head.
Here are a few more calculations of this kind, concern-
ing the planets which differ most from each other.
1. On Mercury and approximately on Mars the critical
point is at a distance of 6 radii of the planet or 3 radii of
the Earth.
2. On Venus it is about the same as on the Earth.
3. On the Moon it is at a distance of 50 radii of the
Moon or 13 radii of the Earth.
4. On Jupiter it is at a distance of 1.25 radii of Jupiter
(reckoning from the surface of the planet, as in all these
calculations) or 14 radii of the Earth. Incidentally, the new
satellite of Jupiter is at a distance of only 0.25 of the
radius of the planet.
5. On Saturn the critical point is at a distance of 0.80
of its radius or 6 radii of the Earth. At this distance, or,
to be exact, somewhat closer to the planet, Saturn’s ring
begins.
6. On the Sun its attraction is eliminated by centrifugal
force at a distance of 26 radii of the Sun or 2,800 radii of
the Earth. The height of such a tower constitutes 0.125 of
the total distance from the Earth to the Sun.
There is no need to speak of the possibility of such
towers existing on planets, and yet, even in the planetary
system, which is just a speck in the space of countless
numbers of other such systems, we see something of the
kind when contemplating Saturn’s ring through the tele-
scope,
9?
If we fired a cannon-ball—a compartment with people,
air and food—how long would it all last? Besides, with a
cannon even a few kilometres long, so powerful is the rela-
tive gravity formed in the barrel when the cannon-ball
passes through it that, even before the cannon-ball leaves
the barrel, a man in it would be crushed by his own weight,
which would be a thousand times greater than his or-
dinary weight.
Yet, on leaving the dark barrel, always supposing that
by some miracle the traveller inside the cannon-ball has
remained intact, his weight will immediately disappear
and he will find himself close to the Earth, yet apparently
outside its influence; it makes no difference whether the
speed of the missile is high or low (i.e., gravity is elimi-
nated anyway), but it should be high in order that the mis-
sile keeps travelling and does not crash back to the Earth
like a ball thrown up in the air. For the cannon-bal]l to
move farther and farther from the Earth eternally and
become a satellite of the Sun it requires a speed of 11 kilo-
metres a second; for the cannon-ball to move away eter-
nally from the Sun and become a transient comet it re-
quires a speed of at least 27-30 kilometres a second (with
the cannon-ball being fired in the direction of the annual
revolution of the Earth).
I suggested a cannon not more than a few kilometres
long, but if we build them horizontally several hundred
times as long, then relatively speaking the undertaking
would not be so inconceivable because the relative gravity
in the cannon-ball does not increase very much, and under
favourable conditions (immersed in liquid) a man could
easily endure it.
Chapter 6
27. The crank’s thoughts about the harmfulness of air
and the possibility of living in a vacuum; his dreams of a
special race of rational beings living without an atmos-
93
phere. This crank of mine turned out, in addition, to be an
air-hater.
“Air impedes rapid motion,” he said excitedly, as usual.
“Air destroys motion!
“Air in an environment devoid of gravity is a down-
right nuisance!
“If there were no air I could push off and fly millions
of kilometres; but, as it is, first I have to replenish the
motion by constantly pushing off, wasting energy in pro-
portion to the distance or time passed; secondly, if the
speed of cleaving the air is to be high, the low expend-
iture of work at low speeds increases extraordinarily
rapidly and becomes an unbearable burden.”
Thus, a tenfold increase in speed increases 1,000-fold
the amount of work per unit of time spent on cleaving the
air; a 100-fold increase in speed increases this work
1,000,000-fold. Yet in an absolute vacuum the speed, how-
ever high, once acquired by a body is retained by it eter-
nally and requires no expenditure of energy.
True, there are forces, in addition to friction and others
that are well known, which decelerate motion—electrical
and mechanical induction, for instance. The influence of
the Moon produces the tides on the Earth, the phenomenon
which decelerates the diurnal rotation of the Earth*; I
call this mechanical induction. Ordinarily its influence
is entirely unnoticeable.
“You said,” he continued, “that the equatorial train
can’t move at the rate of 8 kilometres a second because of
the resistance of the air, and that it was therefore impos-
sible to eliminate the gravity in the carriages of this train.”
“JI pointed to the resistance of the air,” I rejoined, “as
being one of the main reasons for the impossibility of at-
taining such speeds, but this does not mean there are no
other obstacles.”
* But maybe it is accelerated just as much by the contraction
of the Earth due to cooling.
94
“Wait and let me finish. Just imagine there is no at-
mosphere on the Earth and our planet is smooth. In that
case why shouldn’t the train have the speed which de-
stroys gravity by centrifugal force?”
“Once we had imparted such speed to the train,” he ar-
gued with growing animation and preventing us from in-
terjecting a single word, “the train itself would lose grav-
ity, would no longer press against the ground or touch it
and would travel eternally round the Earth, like the Moon
does, never tiring and retaining for its passengers the
wonderful conditions of an environment devoid of grav-
ity.”
“All this is very fine,’ we would say, “but you're run-
ning away with yourself, forgetting that the Earth is not
smooth, that it has oceans and an atmosphere, and that no
human beings or plants can live without them.”
“I don’t mean the Earth alone. I mean the planets in
general and the living beings which perhaps inhabit them.
For example, on the asteroids and the Moon there is no
air or water, the surface on them can be made smooth,
or at least a road can be levelled out and so impart fast
motion to the trains; there the creatures may be adapted
to living in a vacuum. Don’t we see life existing on the
Earth in all kinds of conditions: in water, salt and fresh,
in the air, in the soil and on heights, in warmth and in
cold, in arid deserts and in the marine depths, under
frightful pressure and in the mountains where the pres-
sure is relatively very low. You must agree,” he continued,
“that even if living beings need oxygen, its extreme rare-
faction does not play the decisive role and does not negate
life. For example, its solution in rivers is not greater than
1/140 of the density of the atmosphere and yet it suffices
to maintain life. But it is not at all difficult to maintain
such density and a correspondingly low pressure in thin,
closed vessels.
“Let us imagine a glass sphere several metres in di-
ameter equipped with a strong protective steel-wire mesh.
95
Or let us imagine an incomparably larger steel sphere with
a continuous series of holes hermetically sealed by clear,
transparent panes of glass.
“Put some soil, plants, oxygen, carbon dioxide, nitro-
gen and moisture inside, and all the conditions for the ex-
istence of animals will be observed.
“This sphere is speeding with all its content through
an absolute vacuum without encountering the slightest re-
sistance, like an asteroid, and in rapid motion like the lat-
ter, loses relative gravity which cannot therefore break
it or crush it by its own force. The only concern is to
contro] the negligible pressure of gases.”
“That’s too artificial and unstable; it isn’t natural.”
“Spectacles are also unnatural, yet you wear them. The
greater man’s progress, the more he replaces the natural
by what is artificial.”
“But first you must prove that organisms can exist in
a vacuum without any of your spheres; you must prove
that they live there as freely and naturally as fish in water.”
“Certainly. What do they need? Heat! They get that
from the Sun, and the intensity of the heat does not make
much difference; what’s more, it partly depends on the
surrounding conditions. For example, when the Sun is in
its zenith over the Himalayas, the peaks are closer to the
Sun than the foot-hills, and yet the temperature, on the
contrary, is lower at the summits than it is at the sea
level.
“One and the same body becomes heated to extraor-
dinarily varying degrees, depending on how it is placed
in relation to the Sun and what colour it is; here the at-
mosphere is of no consequence.
“What else do animals need? Motion! That is provided
by the same Sun, because the energy of its rays is not
small; each square metre of surface, being in a position
normal to their direction and at the distance of the Earth,
receives 2-3 steam hp, which is equal to the steady work
of 20-30 men; if we could make use of 0.5 per cent of this
96
physical work by transforming it into mechanical work by
means of special motors (something that can also be done
on the Earth) we would still have more than enough for
one anthropoid being; in an environment devoid of gravity
even this is superfluous.
“The animals also need oxygen and food for thinking,
growth and muscular activity,” he said pursuing his line
of argument, “oxygen can be formed by the chemical
work of the Sun’s rays in the body of the animal or in its
special organs, just as it is formed in the green parts of
the plant from the carbon dioxide of the air.
“The animal’s carbon dioxide, instead of dispersing in
the atmosphere, will remain in the animal and will serve
as the material for forming oxygen and new reserves of
carbon.
“As in plants, the chemical activity of the Sun will gen-
erally be complex and multifarious and will provide the
animals with all they need for life.
“Thus in these wonderful creatures the animal will
merge with the plant into a single whole and such a crea-
ture can, therefore, be called an animal-plant. As is well
known, there is something of this kind in the world of
terrestrial organisms.*
“But the digestive, respiratory and other excretions of
our imaginary animal-plant are not lost; they are fully
reprocessed with the aid of sunlight into food and oxygen
which the creature uses again as food, thus completing an
eternal cycle and never becoming exhausted.
* Green grains of chlorophyll have been found in radiolarians—
minute, unicellular animals living in very large numbers on the sur-
face of the sea; chlorophyll has also been found in relatively large
animals—the hydra, sponge, medusa (bell-shaped), actinia, etc. The
role of chlorophyll consists in reprocessing the carbon dioxide ex-
creted by the animals, by means of sunlight, into the oxygen and
carbon required for nourishment and respiration. Such a creature
can, theoretically, do without external oxygen and external food.
Scientists hold that the green of these creatures is an entirely sep-
arate organism so that in this case they regard it only as an
example of symbiosis.
7—761 97
“There is nothing impossible in this. Do we not see the
same thing, only on a larger scale, on the surface of the
Earth?! Don’t the selfsame materials eternally serve for
the vital processes of plants, animals and even man him-
self?!
“The Sun keeps working, but the material is always the
same and never becomes exhausted. Why do you not want
to admit on a small scale what already exists on a large
one?”
“But we do! Calm down and merely explain how your
creatures will manage not to dry up like mummies?”
“That's simple. Their skin is covered with a hyaline
layer, rather soft and thin, but absolutely impermeable to
gases, liquids and other volatile bodies and therefore safe-
guarding the animals against all and every material loss.
“These animals have no external apertures in their bod-
ies; the cycle of gases, liquids and dissolved solids—all
this takes place inside the animals and not through the ex-
ternal environment. The surface of the body with small
wing-like appendages illumined by the Sun serves as a
laboratory for producing life and power. If such append-
ages cannot be burdensome in the environment of grav-
ity, in space devoid of gravity they are imperceptible even
with a surface of several thousand square metres.”
“I say! And how will they, your animal plants, com-
municate with each other, exchange ideas without air? For
ether does not transmit sound waves.”
“Firstly,” he said, quite unperturbed, “sound vibrations
can be communicated from one creature to another along
a conductor, like a wire, and weakening even less because
of the distance than when they move through a liquid or
gaseous environment. Secondly, do we exchange ideas only
by means of sound, voice? What about books and letters?
Something like that, but much more perfect and natural,
serves them for communicating with one another. On one
of the visible parts of the body, through its transparent
coating, as in the camera obscura, a series of living pic-
98
tures appear, follow the thoughts of the creature and give
them precise expression. It depends on an influx of vari-
ously coloured subcutaneous fluids into extremely thin
vessels, the fluids painting a series of rapidly changing
and easily understandable pictures.”’
Chapter 7
IN THE ASTEROID BELT
(From the Odd Fellow’s Fantastic Stories)
28. How I found myself on an asteroid. In addition to
the eight large planets with their satellites and asteroids
which are also quite large and which move between the
orbits of Mars and Jupiter, a mass of small planets, so
small that they cannot be seen through a telescope, also
revolve round the Sun.
The certainty that they exist arises out of the follow-
ing: no one doubts the existence of numerous stones
(aerolites) which, like the planets, revolve round the Sun;
some of them brush up against the Earth and fall on to
it; others, presumably losing their speed because of the
resistance of the ether and excited by the motion of in-
duction, fall on to the Sun giving a little support to its
luminosity. If there are large and small heavenly bodies,
why should there not be intermediate ones?*
I have been on asteroids and still smaller planets and
have seen life on them. Oh, each is a marvellous country!
<1... There were wise creatures who <...> sur-
rounded me with every comfort, supplied me with an arti-
* When our cranky fellow expressed this idea the planetcsimals
of up to 6 kilometres in diameter had not yet been discovered. Thus
he forecast this discovery. When our instruments and methods are
perfected we shall no doubt discover still smaller planets—real
heavenly Lilliputians.
7*
to
©
ficial atmosphere, enclosed in a spherical, partially hyaline
contrivance in which there were plants with lovely ripen-
ing fruit that satisfied both hunger and thirst excellently.
But that was not all; when I wanted to see how they
lived, they covered me up closely without affecting the
shape of my body or interfering with my freedom of mo-
tion; the covering was a rather thin membrane which pro-
tected my body against the dangerous absence of atmos-
pheric pressure; they supplied me with oxygen-contain-
ing vessels and various other apparatuses which were con-
nected with my body and for some time took the place of
air and food. Owing to the almost total absence of gravity
these apparatuses, of course, would not have been a bur-
den to me even if they had been 1,000 times as massive.
Thus I used to leave my abode and see everything.
To them it made no difference whether they lived in an
atmosphere or without it, because gases and foreign bodies
in general could not penetrate their skin; the layer of
atmosphere only retarded to some extent the process of
their nutrition through the Sun’s rays.
I shall omit the infinitely complex, vast and multiform
structures, the mysterious deeds and the mass of phe-
nomena which I could not divine, and shall only describe
the things that strike the eye and can be grasped by our
human mind.
When I grew accustomed to them and learned their
visual language (they supplied me with a special mecha-
nism which gave a “pictorial” expression of my thoughts)
I conversed a great deal with them.
I shall not speak about their figures, because ideas
about beauty are extremely subjective even among one
race of bipeds; still, I can say that even to me, a human
being, their figures seemed highly elegant.
Is there any need to remind you that from the asteroids
the Sun appears very small and emits 3, 4, 5 and even
20 times as little light and heat as it does on the Earth?
The asteroids closer to Mars receive one-third of what we
100
get, and the farther they are from it, the less light and
heat they get from the Sun. On Jupiter the power of the
luminary decreases about 25 times and the Sun looks like
a voltaic arc, almost a star.*
I therefore required some protection against cold, the
amount depending on where I happened to be at the time.
The inhabitants of these places, too far removed from the
Sun, were cold-blooded, like our fishes and insects, and
were made of substances which do not freeze easily.
29. My conversation with the natives. “Where are you
from?” I once asked them.
“We are migrants from other large planets.”
“But how did you get here and how do you live in a
vacuum, if your bodies were adapted to life in an at-
mosphere?”
“I can’t explain to you how we even got here, because
it is too complicated; as to the atmosphere, our bodies
were gradually transformed and became adapted to life
in a vacuum, just as your aquatic animals were gradually
transformed into land animals, and the nonflying into
flying animals. Generally speaking, the aquatic animals
were the first to appear on the planets, then came the
animals that lived in the air and, finally, those which lived
in a vacuum.”
“<...> Would you kindly tell me what you feed on?”
“<...> We feed and develop like plants—through the
action of the Sun’s rays.”
“<, ..> But I still don’t understand. Plants feed on the
nutrient fluids of the Earth and the gases of the air, which
the energy of the Sun’s rays transforms into plant tissue.”
“You see the green appendages of our bodies that look
like beautiful emerald wings? They contain grains of
chlorophyll, like that which gives leaves their character-
istic colour; some of your animals also have such grains
* But the intensity of this light is also at least 20,000 times as
great as our lunar light under the most favourable conditions.
401
in their bodies. Because of their hyaloid membrane the
wings allow nothing to escape, but freely absorb the
Sun’s rays. These rays break up the carbon dioxide dis-
solved in the fluids which flow through our wings, like the
blood of your body, and perform thousands of other chem-
ical functions which produce various gases, liquids and
solids. All of these immediately enter into a relation, partly
physical, partly chemical with the other constituents of the
juices and form liquids, i.e., enrich the juices with new
substances. Thus enriched, the juices constantly supply our
bodies with all they require for their nourishment: oxygen
in a weak chemical compound, hydrocarbons and nitroge-
nous substances. The Sun does something like this in your
plants ~...°>.”
“But kindly tell me how, the surface of your wings
being so small, you obtain so much from it, even without
fertilisers, for in order to subsist on the Earth, a man
needs several hectares of land, a thousand times more, in
fact?”
“Let me tell you how,” one of the natives said. “In a
vacuum, the energy of the Sun’s rays is extraordinarily
great; besides, we transform a much greater part of it
(1/6th) into potential chemical energy, than you do on your
planet through your plants, and it quite suffices to main-
tain our vital processes. You must know, indeed, that a
square metre of surface illumined by the rays of the Sun,
which are normal to it, produces work equal to almost
3 hp. But we are farther from the Sun and receive 3-4
times as little energy from it. Thus with a total wing sur-
face of about 3-4 square metres we have work in one day
equal to the potential energy of 5 kilograms of purest
carbon, assuming that during the production of the energy
it burns in oxygen. The greater part (5/6th) of this energy
heats our bodies and the rest (1/6th) is used up as food.
The energy of this food corresponds to almost 1 kilogram
of carbon. One would require very much food in its usual
form to obtain that much energy from it (almost 4 kilo-
102
grams of bread or 5 kilograms of meat*). It follows from
this that we cannot be hungry.”
“What? Do you really never experience the unpleasant
sensations of hunger, thirst or indigestion?”
“Never! We have a regulator which indicates when we
should turn our wings to the Sun -....° . When there is
a danger of exhaustion the regulator carefully points it
out. Incidentally, there are no clouds in our environment,
and we get our nourishment unimpeded.”
“So that’s what your beautiful wings are for! They serve
as your orchard, vegetable garden, field, cattle-yard and
so on, since they supply all you need for your table. At
first I thought you used them for flying.”
“We can fly without wings; in a vacuum wings are use-
less for your ordinary flying. Can your flies fly when the
air is pumped out of the bell-jar?”
30. More conversations. These creatures with their prop-
erties surprised me; they neither ate nor drank <...>,
and did not seem to ail or die! And yet they had a bodily
membrane! Here are some more of our arguments con-
cerning these things.
“Do you ever ail?” I once asked.
“Very rarely; one in a thousand may fall ill in the
course of a thousand years.”
“Do you live so long?”
“Like your plants we have a life of indefinite duration.
There are very rare cases of death due to some unfavour-
able course of events; death from disease is even rarer.”
“But how do you account for such longevity, almost
immortality?’
“Some of your trees live for thousands of years de-
spite the fact that they are continuously in the grip by
disease, crawling with parasites, felled by winds and
gravity, and the stronger they are, the older and more
massive they become. We are insured against all this and
* Lebon’s Physiology. Nutrition and Its Methods.
103
against much more.... Why should we not live long? We
owe our longevity to the cleanliness of our bodies which
carry no infectious agents—all the cocci, bacilli and fungi
which teem in your wretched bodies and produce a con-
stant threat of destruction; we owe our longevity to the
complete isolation of our bodies from harmful elements,
thanks to the absolute vacuum that surrounds us and the
impermeability of our skin; we owe our longevity to the
wonderful structure of our bodies possessing organs of
which you, inhabitants of the Earth, have no idea what-
ever. We have special life regulators which prevent the
body from growing old and weak and changing in any way
that could be detrimental to the body.
“You have already gained some insight into certain
principles of the causes of death. Your experiments with
generations of infusoria* have shown that reproduction
of budding (i.e., successive division of one infusorian into
two individuals) increasingly exhausts their numerous
progeny. In just this way the cells of the terrestrial
body become exhausted: at first there is an <...> increase
in its volume—the body grows; then the rate of growth
becomes increasingly retarded because, although the num-
ber of cells increases, their volume continually decreases
due to degeneration; there comes a moment when the
bodily volume ceases to increase. This would be no mis-
fortune if the quality of the cells (and the various body
tissues composed of them) did not deteriorate with each
new generation of cells; old age sets in, the body grows
thin, fat takes the place of useful tissues, the walls of the
vessels, through which the fluids of the body circulate,
grow weak and burst under the pressure of the blood in
different parts, producing various diseases and death.
This is natural, “lucky” death—from old age.
“With us, the cells have an opportunity of forming con-
nections with other cells and reproducing by budding
* Probably colonies of stylonichias.
104
<...>. This is the merging of two cells into one with the
result that the weakened cells are rejuvenated, becoming
young and strong <...>; the regulators do not allow them
to grow old, nor do they allow them to increase in size
beyond a certain limit; their total volume does not change
because the amount of material of each individual cell is
invariable.
“Yes,” the lucky creatures said, “we see that you are
ceasing to understand us. We shall try to explain to you,
from another point of view, the possibility of extraordi-
nary longevity and even physical immortality. Look at your
mankind as a single whole. Is it not immortal in mass?
Does this whole die? Or if it dies, are there any definite
limits to its longevity?! Who can tell how many thou-
sands or millions of years it will live?
“Think of mankind as a single being, as one of us, and
make a comparison; the resemblance will be striking:
your people are the different cells of one of our bodies;
your instincts, your love and, very likely, your reason are
the regulators which support the existence of the whole
and do not. allow it to grow old and die; if we take your
entire organic world with its atmosphere and soil for
comparison, the resemblance will be still more amazing:
is it not true that you live by the same amount of sub-
stance, belonging to your planet, as each of our bodies
does? In the final analysis is it not the Sun that feeds you
as it feeds us? Is any water, any food supplied to this
great (although pitiable) organic body from outside, from
another world (say, from another planet)? Perhaps you
are given servants, money, or special air? You are given
nothing, and yet there is enough of everything, and there
cannot fail to be enough as long as the Sun shines and as
long as the size of the “great body” does not increase ex-
cessively at the expense of inorganic matter. And you
can easily picture to yourself the regulators which pre-
vent that excessive growth <...>.
“Our body represents in miniature the organic life of
105
the Earth,” the natives said <...>. “You, people, will also
be happy, and your generations will not become extinct
if you are reasonable.”
“That’s true, mankind does not die but lives like one
of your marvellous beings; it is immortal,” I observed.
“But you show me an example of individual indefinite
extension of life on the Earth.”
“I can do that,” one of them interrupted. “You have in-
fusoria. The life of each of them consists in its separat-
ing from itself similar creatures, one after another, in con-
sequence of which (maybe not from this, but the details
would lead us too far) it weakens, degenerates, diminishes
and within a few hundred births grows so small that it
changes beyond recognition; it begins to die! But another,
suitable individual approaches this dying one, merges with
it into a single whole and after this—oh, miracle!—it is
rejuvenated, resurrected, begins to grow rapidly, reaches
the normal size, reproduces again, etc.”
“Yes, yes. I read something about it,’* but you prob-
ably know better than we do-<...°>.”
“Are there many of you?” I asked with interest.
“The solar system, i.e., the Sun itself, can theoretically
support the energy of life of 3 x 10% beings like ours
and this number is 15 x 10! as great as the number of
inhabitants on your Earth, assuming it to be 2,000 mil-
lions.”
“Look here!” I rudely interrupted. “How do you know
all these details about the Earth? You have surprised me
more than once on this score!”
“Well, here I am talking with you.... What makes you
think we have never talked with other people like you
from the Earth? Moreover, if you had ever seen our tele-
scopes, our astronomical apparatus....”
“I understand. You say—so many times greater than
* Maupas and Delfeb. The former performed experiments with
a colony of stylonichias, the latter advanced an explanation of the
results obtained by the former.
106
the population of the Earth.... But it comes to a colossal
number!! How can one grasp it in a more perceptible
way?”
“Like this. Imagine a box 25 m high filled with poppy
seeds, each of which is not more than 1 m in diameter.
Imagine that each of these seeds is a terrestrial sphere
with all its rational inhabitants; this will give you a clear
idea of the number of beings the Sun can feed. As a mat-
ter of fact it feeds about 1,000 times less, but not because
it cannot feed any more. This real population, according
to our arbitrary terminology, will be expressed in a box
5 cu m filled with poppy seeds.
“There are very few of us, belonging to the group of
planetoids that travel between the orbits of Mars and
Jupiter, just a handful of poppy seeds,” the asteroid in-
habitant continued. “And don’t forget that each seed is
an Earth with all its inhabitants.”
“I beg your pardon, but I don’t agree that there are so
few of you. I even fail to understand how there is enough
room for you all. The surface of the asteroids known
to us is positively negligible.”
“We don’t need any planet surface; we are satisfied
with the world space, sunlight and the material which we
find in abundance by digging and breaking up the aster-
oids.”
“ `.
<, >
31. The planet from which one can escape by one good
leap. We are on an asteroid which is invisible from the
Earth even through the finest telescopes because its dia-
meter is not more than 6 kilometres.* The gravity here is
so low that it is enough to make a sinall effort and take
* These planetoids are observable with extraordinary difficulty
only through the most gigantic telescopes. They are best discov-
ered by means of photography. Thus, the discovery of the planetoids
Agatha, Philahoris and Erigona has been confirmed beyond all
doubt. The first of these has a diameter of not more than 6-7 kilo-
metres.
307
a long leap to recede from it eternally, never to approach
it again. We free ourselves from its gravitation by one
good jump which would only raise us about 1.25 metres
from the surface of the Earth.
Only the Sun will swerve us from our straight course
and make us revolve round itself like a regular planet;
owing to this we may, within a fairly long space of time,
again come close to the asteroid we left behind, receding
from it along a circle and overtaking it from behind.
Please, don’t think of our asteroid as being very small:
it has a circumference of about 17.5 kilometres, a surface of
almost 10,000 hectares, a volume of 92 cubic kilometres and
a mass 6,000 times as great as that of the whole<. . .>Earth.
The relative surface of this asteroid is truly diminutive;
it can accommodate not more than 3,000* terrestrial in-
habitants with their wasteful economy <...>.
Here gravitation is 2,250 times as weak as it is at the
surface of the Earth. This means that here you can carry
2,250 poods as easily as you do 1 pood on the Earth; you
do not feel the weight of your own body because you are
pressed to the ground with a force of only some 30 grams
(in terrestrial figures); a propped massive pig-iron body
about 2 sq m produces practically the same pressure here
as a basketful of bread does on the Earth; the weight of a
barrel of water produces the impression a glass of wine
does on the Earth, a full-grown man on your shoulders
feels like a doll weighing 30 grams and 2,250 men like one
man on the Earth, even less, because on the Earth you
also feel the burdensome weight of your own body, some-
thing you don’t feel here.
You stand upright on the surface of an asteroid, as you
do on the Earth but the slightest movement you make
sends you up in the air like a bit of fluff. The effort re-
quired to jump on a terrestrial threshold would carry you
* The planet is farther from the Sun than is the Earth, and the
energy af the Sun’s rays is therefore 3 times as low.
£08
here to a height of about 250 metres, or a little below
that of the Eiffel Tower. Gravity is so negligible here that
it would take you 22 seconds, almost half a minute, to fall
from a height of 1 metre.
If you deliberately lean over in order to drop to the
ground like a felled tree, you will wait several minutes for
this pleasure to come to an end and, of course, wil! feel
no impact from the fall. If you draw up your legs in order
to sit down, your legs will hang in space for 10 seconds
without any support—long enough to light a cigarette
(a pity that the absence of air will not allow you to do it!).
If, while lying down, you stir, stretch, sneeze or yawn, you
immediately rise a few metres into the air, just like a
feather caught in a light breeze which is carried some dis-
tance and dropped again. You can stand and lie on sharp
stones, you will not be cut or get cramp. If you are
thoughtless and spring up suddenly from the grass, as
you might (on the Earth) in order to greet an approaching
lady, you will be carried several hundred metres into
space leaving the poor (even if only imaginary) lady
deeply perplexed. You rise for about 3 minutes, and it
takes you as long to land at some spot about 300 metres
distant away from the ill-starred person.
Don’t throw smal] things about because they fly away
forever; nor is it difficult to chuck 20-kilogram rocks
about, so that they become aerolites and disappear for-
ever.
Here a terrestrial seconds pendulum, about one metre
long, swung 47 times more slowly, and the clock, instead
of showing that 1 hour 34 minutes had passed, showed
only 2 minutes, time appearing to move 47 times more
slowly. Our seconds pendulum is so short (less than
0.5 mm) that it is invisible. Watches keep exact time (i.e.,
their movement hardly depends on gravity at all).
It is very inconvenient to run or even walk on our
planet. At the slightest attempt to do so you fly upwards.
Incidentally, what you can do is run with giant steps,
109
covering several metres at a step, but you must step
lightly; the moment you step the slightest bit heavily you
begin to tumble about in space and to take the next step
using head, arms, sides—anything, but not your feet. It’s
inconvenient, very inconvenient, just try it yourself.
If you want to travel or, rather, fly round the planet
along the different meridians and examine its surface, it
is best to do so like this: push off with your feet from
some rock or projection of the planet, but do it lying down
and in a horizontal direction. Then you will fly, or swim
like a fish in water—using side-stroke, breast-stroke or
on your back. If you push off gently, vou will fly a few
hundred metres and then approach the ground again
slightly scraping it as you move along; here you again
push off horizontally from some jut on the ground, re-
peating the operation 5-10 times until you no longer con-
tact the ground at all; this will mean that the centrifugal
force has overcome the planet’s gravity. You become its
satellite, its moon, and cease to feel the influence of grav-
ity; you are in an environment of a seeming absence of
gravity.
Don’t imagine you need great speed! One single hori-
zontal leap, needing about half the effort it takes to move
completely away from the planet; this leap is therefore
equal to a terrestrial high jump of about 5/8 metre. And
it is best immediately to acquire the necessary speed
(3.6 m per second) by pushing off mightily, as you push
off with your feet from the side of a terrestrial swimming-
pool.
It will be observed that during any kind of jump or
flight (even on the Earth, not considering the air) you are
also in an environment of apparent absence of gravity un-
til you touch the ground, just as you are when travelling
round the planet. The journey is made without the slight-
est effort (except the momentary effort, i.e., the jump for
l hr 24 min at the rate of 3.6 m per second). You must
not move any faster of you will recede from the planet,
110
and at a speed 50 per cent greater than that mentioned
(5 m per second, or about 18 km per hour), you will move
away, never to return.
If the planet were rotating, the phenomena described
would become more complicated.
Although no effort is required to make such a round-
the-planet trip, even if you travel for trillions of kilo-
metres, the only drawback is the low speed (about 18 km
per hour). True, by arranging the train to travel upside
down, as though reflected in a plate-glass ceiling, we could
travel at any speed because the centrifugal force will be
checked by the rails. By moving 47 times as fast (550 km
an hour) such a train gives rise to a centrifugal force
equal, but inverse to terrestrial gravity. The passenger
“falls”, so to speak, “to the ground from the clouds”;
when moving 2.5 times as slowly, the gravity is the same
as on the Moon. The appearance of gravity naturally in-
creases the friction and makes it more difficult for the
train to move.
The many millions who populate the planet live on it
only part of the time; most of them, in pursuit of light
and room for themselves, form—with their machines, ap-
paratus and structures—a moving swarm around it shaped
like the ring around Saturn, only relatively larger. This
living ring is located in a plane perpendicular to the direc-
tion of the rays of sunlight and is therefore never deprived
of its life-giving force; as the planet revolves round the
Sun, the motion of the ring changes artificially, so that
its “face” continues to “look” at the luminary; the speeds
of the elements of the ring are so negligible that the
direction of its plane may be changed not merely once a
year, but even 100 times a day.
The diameter of the ring is 10 times as big as that of
the planet, and for this reason the inhabitants of the for-
mer receive 100 times as much solar energy as do the
inhabitants of the planet proper. Thus, the inhabitants of
the ring number some 800 million individuals.
Il
I visited their ring, flying from one part of it to an-
other and pushing off higher and higher. It always seemed
to me that the planet was rotating and we were standing
still or moving only when we wanted to.
The parts of the ring moved more slowly the farther
away from the planet they were; on the outskirts the
speed did not exceed 3.5 km/hr (1.12 m/sec), whereas
down below, at the actual surface of the planet, it was
3.33 times faster (3.6 m/sec).
I travelled together with my house and all my house
furnishings, as built for me by the inhabitants of the aster-
oid. I was thus able, whenever I wanted, to enjoy the at-
mosphere and everything I was accustomed to. As soon
as I grew tired of my customary way of living, I donned
my “skin” and attached all the equipment I needed for
living in a vacuum and wandered about in it, quite im-
perturbed.
32. An asteroid with a diameter ten times greater. Here
is an asteroid with a diameter of 56 kilometres,* a cir-
cumference of 176 kilometres and a surface of 9,856
square kilometres. Since this planet is in the proximity of
the one described above, it uses the same energy of the
Sun’s rays but can provide subsistence, on the basis of
its surface, to about 800 million inhabitants. Its volume
is 1,000 times as large as that of the former planet, What-
ever you Say, it’s quite a planet. A jump no longer raises
* Some asteroids are smaller, others larger. There are about
220 of the former and close to 130 of the latter. The following are
the diameters of some asteroids in kilometres, assuming that they
are spherical: Agatha—7, Hestia—25, Atalanta—30, Virginia—32,
Leucotea—37, Themis—-52, Polymnia, Thocea, Parthenopa, Pomona—
about 60 each, Euterpa, Lutecia, Thalia, Proserpina—about 67 each,
etc.; then comes a series of small planets showing a steady increase
in size. Judging by the steady increase in size of this series, it must
be assumed that it shows an equally steady decrease down to the
asteroids that are invisible because they are so small. Their masses
are not known at all; their shape is very irregular, which allows
not only theoretical gravitation but shows that gravitation is most
likely because of the extraordinary variability of their brightness or
of the sunlight they reflect.
112
you high in the air—only about 281 metres. Of course, it is
not difficult to jump over a belfry or a river. But gravity
makes itself felt; terrestrially speaking, your body now
weighs about 400 grams; an 800-litre barrel is no longer as
light as a glass of wine, but like five litres, and a bucket of
water presses with the force of about 50 grams.
It is quite a size! And it is more convenient to run on it
than on the other one. Only don’t hurry; if you do, you will
begin tumbling about.
A stone thrown with a speed of 50 m/sec leaves the
planet forever; on the Earth a stone with this vertical
speed will go up to about 125 metres; that is why not only
bullets and cannon-balls, but even an arrow shot from a
toy bow leaves the planet for good. A stone thrown from
a sling or by any other simple method easily achieves the
speed necessary to escape the planet.
A train developing a speed of 36 m/sec (126 km/hr)
loses its weight through the centrifugal force; on the
planet this is no speed at all on a good road. Indeed, there
is no air, the gravity is 225 times less than on the Earth,
and so the friction of all kinds is as many times less.
Moreover, with this speed of 120 km/hr sometimes de-
veloped by terrestrial locomotives, gravity and, it fol-
lows, friction disappear altogether; the train soars and
speeds away eternally without any expenditure of power;
whereas it is easy for the train to run in the beginning,
it becomes even easier later on, because with the increase
in speed its small weight diminishes still more, until it
reaches zero.
On this planet you could go cycling by adapting the bi-
cycle a little to the low gravity, provided the road were
good and smooth. But a little extra effort, and the bicycle
would leave the planet and would take you cycling through
space,
The inhabitants of the small planets have special meth-
ods and devices for accelerating, braking and preventing
tumbling.
8—761 113
Round this planet, as round the smaller one, a living
ring rotates and receives enough energy from the Sun to
support the existence of 20,000 million inhabitants. The
population of the ring is twenty-five times, while its sur-
face only six times, that of the planet. The plane of the
ring as well always “faces” the Sun, and its elements
change their motion as they revolve round the luminary.
The diameter of the disk is about 5 times as large as that
of the planet. Its inhabitants maintain constant contact
with those of the planet in the following way.
All round one of the meridians of the planet there is a
smooth road and on the road a moving belt circling the
entire planet. This belt is a long annular platform on
numerous wheels. By means of solar motors it moves
steadily in a continuous strip round the planet at the rate
of 4 m/sec. On this platform another, similar but lighter,
platform moves by the same method. On the second plat-
form there is a third, and so on. Altogether there are 9 of
these platforms. Thus the last annular platform moves at
the rate of 36 m/sec, at which speed it loses its gravity.
There is no reason whatever to be surprised that such
multi-tiered trains are possible; their total weight is
45 times less than one of them (of an average mass)
placed on the Earth.
The system described is good for the inhabitants in
that it always ensures convenient communication between
the ring (or disk) and the planet. If, for example, I wish
to make my way to the ring and lose my gravity there, I
stand on the planet near the first platform, as you would
do, if you wanted to hop on a moving tram. Here they have
a contraption to make the whole business easy. But you
can manage without it: just run alongside the platform
until you catch up with it; it is not difficult to run on a
small planet at the rate of 4 m/sec, or 14.4 km/hr (it is
possible to run at that speed on the Earth, too); after this
preliminary run you will jump without pushing off on to
the first platform, and from this, in the same way, on to
114
the second and, finally, you will find yourself on the last
one, where you will be rid of gravity.
33. The asteroid with a diameter ten times greater still.
It has a diameter of 560 kilometres,* i.e., one-sixth that
of the Moon. As you see, this is already quite a good-sized
planet. Gravity on this planet is 22.5 times lower than it
is on the Earth. A man can jump only about 20 metres,
i.e., he can jump over a tall birch-tree, a five-storied house,
a 20 m wide ditch or river. A 65 kg person weighs here as
much as a 3 kg suckling pig weighs on the Earth. A man
of average strength, without any effort, can carry on his
shoulders, head or in his arms, wherever most convenient,
a crowd of 22 people like himself. The strength of ma-
terials in relation to the force of gravity is very great
here, too. For example, a person can sit on a swing sup-
ported by strings slightly thicker than ordinary terres-
trial sewing thread. Buildings of similar construction as
those on the Earth are 22 times as tall. On your Earth a
tower is 300 metres tall, whereas here it could be 6.6 kilo-
metres tall. A stone cannot be thrown by hand so that it
flies away into infinity or revolves round the planet like
a satellite. But cannon-balls fly away altogether, while
bullets, losing their gravity, revolve round the planet
without falling on it.
To destroy the attraction of centrifugal force, a train
must travel at the rate of 360 metres a second, or 1,280
kilometres an hour.
The question is: Is it possible to attain a speed which
is about 10 times as fast as that of the fast terrestrial
locomotives?
Air is the main obstacle to fast motion; but there are
* The asteroids known to me are smaller, namely: Vesta—406 km,
Ceres—367 km, Pallas—225 km, Eunomia—187 km, Juno—172 km,
etc. How did our cranky friend ever get to a 600-km planet which,
in addition, had a ring greatly exceeding it? Was he not perhaps
confusing our Sun with some other sun? Astronomers could never
have overlooked such an asteroid in our planetary system.
8* 115
no gases here. The gravity is 22 times as low and friction
as many times less; speed can therefore be at least 5 times
as great, i.e., 640 kilometres an hour. At this speed the
centrifugal force will constitute only one-fourth of the
force of gravity and will therefore not destroy it. Still
the decrease in gravity will somewhat increase the speed
of the train, but it is doubtful whether the speed will reach
the appropriate degree.
Incidentally, the inhabitants of the asteroid attain the
speed they need by the extraordinarily easy methods I
have already described: by means of many-storied per-
petual-motion circuit trains driven by solar motors.
I shall describe these motors in a moment. But first of
all, allow me to observe that the inhabitants of the aster-
oid have achieved great success in the production of un-
commonly strong metal vessels which are absolutely
closed but capable of changing their volume; for example,
like bellows or a concertina.
Now imagine that a vessel, permanently filled with the
vapours of some appropriate liquid, has one half black,
which is warmed immediately by the Sun, and the other—
shiny and silvery. When the black side of the vessel is ex-
posed to the Sun, the temperature and resiliency of the
vapours reach their highest magnitude, and when the
light half faces the Sun—their lowest. Hence it is clear
that, if the vessel rotates (which it can do by inertia),
and turns its dark and shiny halves alternately towards
the Sun, the walls of the vessel begin to draw closer to
each other and then away from each other with a known
power, which the natives utilise by means of simple de-
vices. Thus they convert one-third of the solar energy into
mechanical energy. This is the simplest possible system,
but they also have many more systems, which I do not
undertake to describe.
When use is made of a square metre of the Sun’s surface
at a distance twice as great as that from the Earth to the
Sun (as in the case of our miniature planet) work equal tc
116
1/3 hp, i.e., the work performed by three good workers,
is obtained.
Working eternally, everywhere and at every altitude,
such motors need nothing but the Sun. The inhabitants of
the asteroids have them everywhere, in every possible
design and for every possible use; they trail after the na-
tives like obedient animals, always offering their services
and never tiring.
It is these motors that set the many-storied trains into
proper motion.
The number of trains or stories is not great—about 10,
but the difference in their speeds is much greater than
with the preceding asteroid, 36 metres, in fact. It is very
difficult to pass from one train to another without the spe-
cial devices they have there. Here is one of them. On each
train and on the planet itself is an additional railway track
with light carriages at different places. Before it is coupled,
each carriage either stands still or moves together with
the railway track. But it is enough to create slight fric-
tion between the truck and the side of the moving train,
and it, too, begins to move at the same speed with the
latter. Thus, I get into the first carriage and push it against
the first train to create friction; within a few minutes I am
speeding along with it at the rate of 128 km/hr. From the
carriage I pass on to the train and uncouple it from the
train, causing it to roll on for a while until it comes to a
standstill. From the first train I easily climb in to the
next relatively motionless carriage, connect it by friction
(through pressure) with the other train, acauire this train’s
double speed, and in this way rise higher and higher,
gathering speed until, in the final train, it becomes equal
to the gravity itself.
Then I proceed unimpeded to any part of the ring, at a
height of thousands of kilometres, as in an environment
devoid of gravity.
All the trains (while in motion) weigh only one-fourth
of what one of them would weigh if placed on the Earth,
117
34. On the rings of the asteroids.* I shall now describe
what I experienced many times on the ring and have not
yet passed on to you; this is a more exact description of
phenomena in an environment of seeming absence of grav-
ity, I observed these phenomena in great detail for the
first time on the rings.
I was in a magnificent palace surrounded by my distin-
guished friends who suggested I take part in various ex-
periments. They placed me in the middle of the hall in a
perfectly motionless position. Do not imagine that this is
easy; on the contrary, it is as difficult as balancing a chair
on two legs or a stick on its sharpened tip. They took a
lot of trouble and used all sorts of cunning methods be-
fore they got me into a state of complete physical calm.
I don’t remember ever before being so absolutely motion-
less in an environment devoid of gravity. Usually I was
always crawling off somewhere, and if I was brought to
a halt by some obstacle, I rebounded like a rubber ball
and then continued moving in some other direction; and if
I was attached to something, though movement became
restricted, it was evidently unavoidable; I bobbed about
like an angler’s float. And so, after getting me into a state
of equilibrium they asked me to approach them. I started
vigorously moving my legs and swinging my arms but
got no closer to the goal. This made me angry and for
some moments I alternated between anger and despair,
but never advanced an inch. Finally, seeing the futility
* On Pallas and Ceres Schröter observed atmospheres of enor-
mous height, which were three times in excess of the diameters
of the planets. Could he not, perhaps, have been seeing the rings of
the asteroids composed of numerous small parts with intervals which
therefore appeared to be semitransparent, like liquids or the spokes
of a rapidly revolving wheel?! It seems the diameter of this
ring is 7 times that of the diameter of the planet; these dimensions
are not far from the relative sizes of the rings described by our
“wonder worker”. And perhaps the asteroids themselves are the
disks inhabited by the beings mentioned by our story-teller and
formed by them artificially. For the densities and masses of the
planetoids are not known to astronomers.
118
of my efforts, I relaxed my limbs and refused to continue
the experiment.
My terrestrial friends would certainly have scoffed at
my situation, have tormented me for an hour or two by
disappearing and leaving me to the mercy of fate; but here
I was surrounded by beings of another kind; they im-
mediately extricated me from my unfortunate situation by
suggesting another experiment.
“Throw something to us,” they said, “the stick you’re
holding will do.”
I immediately threw the stick and observed that my po-
sition in the centre of the hall became disturbed, one wall
of the hall drawing closer to me; I had moved in the op-
posite direction to that of the stick and in a moment came
up against the wall with a gentle bump.
On another occasion, and under the same conditions, I
was asked to stand upside down; of course, in an environ-
ment devoid of gravity there is no up or down and every
direction, physiologically speaking, is absolutely the same,
so that I use these expressions merely to save time and
to make myself clear.
Much as I tried to take some other direction, it was
useless, and when I calmed down and assumed the for-
mer, most restful posture, my face still looked in the same
direction. All my efforts proved futile, and yet I could
freely move all my limbs, in fact, just as on the Earth.
I curled up in a ball, sat down Turkish-fashion (not in a
seat, of course) crossed my arms on my Chest or moved
them in any direction, bent my head up, down, and to the
sides; in a word, my body and limbs could assume any
position I chose, but as soon as I adopted the ordinary
posture, I found I had neither moved nor turned in the
slightest.
Yet it was all very simple.
If you want to turn round, take off your hat and make
it spin about its imaginary axis, parallel to which you, too,
want to turn; keep your eye on the hat and don’t let it
119
get away; the moment it seems to be making off, pull it
in closer and make it spin again. And so, you'll find that
as soon as your hat begins spinning, you are turning, too,
but in the opposite direction. When you have turned as
much as you wanted to, stop the hat; you, too, will im-
mediately stop and will be facing in the opposite direc-
tion* without having made any effort.
Thus you can turn about the longitudinal axis of the
body and about the transverse axis (perpendicular to the
longitudinal axis), i.e., you can spin like a top, swing your-
self like an acrobat on a trapeze or move sideways like a
bug on an entomologist’s pin.
The greater the mass of a body, the more losely packed
and voluminous it is, the more difficult it is to make it
rotate, and thus you will spin faster and the body—more
slowly (the ratio of angular velocities equals the ratio of
the moments of the bodies’ inertia).
When pushed away, the speed of the repulsed body is
greater, the smaller its mass, and vice versa. When the
masses, that of you and of the repulsed body, are equal,both
fly off at the same speed, only in opposite directions. There
are many different laws involved here, and our terrestrial
mechanics know them all in detail.
The motion of a body is for the most part complex, i.e.,
the body rotates round the so-called free axis and at the
same time moves forward so that the axis is in direct
and uniform motion. The slightest effort is enough to im-
part speed, if there is some support, even as tiny and un-
stable as a falling raindrop. But if there is no support only
* Pick up a cat and hold it horizontally on its back, paws up.
When the cat has calmed down, quickly withdraw your hands so
that it drops unexpectedly. You will see the cat make a rapid half-
turn in the air and land on its feet. What happens to make the
cat turn without support? The whole point is that actually the cat
has support, but it is invisible because it is inside the animal. Its
support is the animal’s abdominal organs with their contents; if
necessary, they can twist sharply in any direction by means of the
internal muscles.
120
an outside force can impart speed to you. And once you
have speed, you cannot change it without some support.
Thus, sometimes I would fly within a metre of the object
I needed, but could not get hold of it because, having no
support, I was unable to turn sideways.
35. How terrestrial gravity was arranged for me on the
ring; various experiments and observations. The kindness,
forethought and tender solicitude of the natives towards
me made my sojourn among them definitely pleasant.
Once, while I was on the ring, they suggested I make use
not only of the terrestrial surroundings, which I had
earlier enjoyed there whenever I wanted, but also of ter-
restrial gravity.
An enormous hollow metal sphere, full of air, light and
plants which regenerated the atmosphere I polluted by
‘my breathing and supplied me with all kinds of most de-
licious fruits (unknown to you terrestrial inhabitants)
was at my service whenever I wished to take a rest in the
conditions to which I was ordinarily accustomed. In this
sphere there was no gravity, which I had come to miss,
no top and no bottom; here you needed no soft couches,
feather beds, pillows or beds, nor did you need hangers
or shelves. Instead, there were simple contraptions to fix
things in their places. These were thin threads with hooks
that held the objects where they were supposed to be
and prevented them from slipping about in disorder; the
pots with plants stood at the windows and sunlight gave
them life, making them tirelessly bear fruit which very
well replaced the most nutritious substances existing on
the Earth.
Should gravity make its appearance, all this would
break loose and tumble together into a single disorderly
heap. The comfortable atmosphere of the environment de-
void of gravity is unsuitable for the Earth which has its
own style of comfort.
And so, this blissful abode was transformed in advance:
top and bottom were defined, a flat floor was laid on the
121
bottom, furniture, including beds, were placed on the floor,
a pendulum clock was hung on the wall, and pitchers of
water and jars of oil, and various other terrestrial para-
phernalia and articles were put on the tables.... But how
did your natives manage to produce gravity? the reader
will ask.
Very simply and absolute gratis!
They chained the sphere adapted to gravity to a fairly
considerable mass which, however, only slightly exceeded
the mass of the sphere itself, and they made the whole
system rotate about its centre of gravity (in mechanics
it is called the “free centre”; its position coincides with
that of the centre of gravity). To prevent the system from
interfering with the motion of the rings, motion of several
metres was also imparted to its centre, this motion being
enough for the system to rise over the ring and float in-.
dependently as a satellite of the planet.
With a speed of 50 m/sec and a chain 500 m long the
sphere developed from the centrifugal force a gravity
equal to that existing on the Earth.
Suddenly I felt I was in my old surroundings, but I had
grown unaccustomed to it and it stunned and crushed me,
fettered me and pinned me down; within a few minutes
I was begging my new friends to arrange lighter gravity
for me. But before help arrived, J had already recovered
and become acclimatised. First I lay down on the bed and
alternately raised arms and legs as though testing their
weight and, as though doubting that weight was possible.
Then I sat up, stood up and walked a bit; I wanted to
jump, but found I could not—I lacked the energy; I waited
a while and then jumped, but not high. I walked over to
the clock and touched the pendulum which began to
swing, ticking away the seconds. I poured out some water
and drank it. I threw an eraser; it described an arc (pa-
rabola) and hit the carpet; I tilted the table and the pen-
cils rolled. I experienced everything I had not experienced
for a long time.
122
When, at my request, my friends who flew after me
(outside) halved the speed of the system’s rotation re-
ducing it to 25 metres, I felt I was only 50 per cent heav-
ier than on the Moon, because the gravity had become
four times as weak.
The pendulum swung at half its previous rate and the
water flowed more slowly, but I felt much stronger and
jumped almost to the ceiling.
I sat down in an armchair and looked about me.
Through one window I saw the black sky with stars
that did not twinkle, through others the bright, bluish
Sun. It seemed as though the entire heavenly firmament
with the stars, Sun, the planetoid and its rings were re-
volving round with me as the centre, making a complete
revolution in 63 seconds. My room seemed to be abso-
lutely still. For me my room became a planet. I sought out
the fixed points on the heavenly firmament—the poles,
round which it revolved so hurriedly. Of course, the axis
of a system can be fixed at will; thus any star and even
the Sun can be taken as the polar points; in the latter
case the Sun appears to be still, shines into the same wind-
ows and casts the same shadows.
With a chain 125 m long (but in order to produce the
same gravity) the speed will be only 12.5 m/sec and a
complete revolution about the axis will take 32 seconds.
This gravity obtained by rotation is eternal and for
its maintenance requires no expenditure of power.
They gave me any gravity I asked for.
When the speed of rotation was accelerated the gravity
increased and I increasingly felt the roughness of its paws;
it got to the pitch when I lacked the strength to rise from
my bed or alternately, to seat down on it, and I crashed
down on it instead. But when it reached the stage when I
could not raise my arms, I gave the signal for the experi-
ments to be discontinued.
I grew tired of it all, and wanted to be once more in
the tender embrace of an environment devoid of gravity.
123
While the rotation was being slowly stopped, I observed
the effect of the gradual diminution of gravity on certain
phenomena.
On the table before me was a glass of water with a glass
tube in it. I saw water trickling from the wash-stand and
drops of water splashing one after another on the floor.
The more the gravity weakened the higher the water in
the tube rose above the level of the water in the glass; the
water in the glass also rose higher and higher round the
edges forming a deep hollow; the drops of water falling
from the stopped-up wash-stand grew larger and larger:
at first becoming as large as peas, then as cherries, then
apples. They fell to the floor more and more slowly and
hit it more and more gently.
Then the water reached the edge of the glass and began
to overflow, the tube filled to the top, and the last enor-
mous drop of water from the wash-stand almost hung in
the air. Finally, all the water flowed over the edges of
the vessels and scattered in all directions leaving a wet
place. The pendulum hung motionless to one side, I rose
with my armchair into the air, the bodies ceased to fall,
everything began to move about, became agitated....
The illusion of gravity had disappeared....
Gravitation between small bodies is more easily revealed
in an environment devoid of gravity. Thus inside a sphere
whose mass, according to analytical conclusions, cannot
exert any influence on the bodies within it, all these bod-
ies have a tendency of mutual attraction; but the speeds
derived therefrom are so negligible that the bodies seem
motionless and a considerable time is required to notice
that they have moved at all.
Two motionless persons of average size which at a dis-
tance of 2 metres develop a mutual attraction of 0.01 mg
(the weight of a grain of sand) traverse 18 mm during the
first hour, about 54 mm during the second hour, and close
to 108 mm during the third hour—a total of 180 mm in
3 hours, each body traversing 90 mm,
124
It would take more than 5 hours for them to come into
direct contact with one another.
They could revolve next to each other (properly speak-
ing, round the middle point of the distance from each
other) and make a complete revolution in 44 hours at a
speed of 1 mm in 26 seconds.
Clearly too much patience is required to observe so
inert a phenomenon and, besides, it is very difficult to
make bodies motionless; you constantly give them imper-
ceptible jerks and impart enough motion to them to drive
them into different corners and, relatively speaking, pretty
fast at that.
Lead spheres, weighing 1 kg each, at a distance of 2 dec-
imetres revolve a little faster, i.e., making a complete
revolution in 12 hours.
If solid lead spheres with the same distance* between
their centres (2 decimetres) are enlarged so that they
almost touch, they will make one revolution in 1.8 hours,
and this is intolerably slowly.
35. Terrestrial view on an asteroidal ring (continuation).
The wisdom and power of my friends were astounding.
On one occasion I said:
“Why don’t I ever see our lovely blue sky with the
merrily twinkling stars, our mountains and seas? Here,
you know, the sky seems black and the stars dead-silver
dots.”
And seeing how sad I felt, they took the hint and pre-
sented to me an absolutely terrestrial view.
Within a few minutes they had carried me off.
At first we flew, then gravity formed and we rolled
down a long corridor. Finally, they closed my eyes and
when I opened them again, I was sitting on a river bank
under a willow tree as though preparing for a swim. I had
migrated, heart and soul, to the old world, had an irresist-
ible desire to plunge into the cool watery depths....
* Incidentally, the time of revolution of contacting spheres does
not depend on their size and the distance from their centres.
125
In the distance were hills enveloped in a blue mist, close
by were corn fields, the ears of grain swaying in the breeze,
several groves of trees and poor Russian villages. The sky
was blue and clear.
“Watch us making big waves on the river,” they
said.
And they gave orders for the force of gravity to be re-
duced. The more it weakened the larger grew the waves,
and the larger they became the more slowly they rolled.
I felt the effect on myself of the lessened gravity because
the ground on which I sat became, as it were, softer. I
saw the waves rise like mountains, ready to sweep over me.
“On oceans we could make waves several hundred me-
tres high, provided there were sufficient water,” they ob-
served.
There was no question of swimming in such a river; but
they moderated the agitation of the waves by increasing
the gravity to its lunar magnitude (one-sixth of terrestrial
gravity). I plunged into the water, and how easy it was
to swim! It took little effort to keep on the surface, but to
leave yourself to the mercy of fate could probably mean
drowning. When I had dressed again and was seated in a
boat, rowing, I found that the harder I rowed and the
weaker gravity became, the more did the boat rise out of
the water. It reached a point where it barely touched the
water and was moving very fast. This happened when
gravity was reduced 30-fold.
36. A trip round the Sun. Inhabitants without planets.
All of us, who live on planets, travel round the Sun. The
planet itself is the safe carriage and the tireless horses. It
is the same even with you people who live on the Earth.
But how would you like to take a trip alone or in the
company of good friends without a planet?!
You have seen asteroidal inhabitants freely soaring over
their planet and they can even move very far away from
it; you have also seen that a cannon-ball on a planet some
500 kilometres in diameter recedes from it forever or, after
126
making one revolution round the Sun, overtakes it from
behind.
Here the point is that the speed you imparted to the
cannon-ball is gradually taken away from it by the gravita-
tion of the planet, and the cannon-ball retains only the
speed it shared with the planet before, i.e., a speed high
enough to prevent it from falling on the Sun but not enough
to make it move away from the planet forever. In a word,
the course of the thrown body coincides approximately
with the orbit of the planet itself.
But, since the body moves almost at the same speed as
the latter or slightly faster, they may not catch up with
one another for hundreds or even thousands of years.
On all asteroids the inhabitants have special mechanisms
which conveniently impart the requisite speeds to them-
selves and their accessories. Do you remember their multi-
tiered trains for communication with the ring? They have
something similar to enable them to move completely away
from the planet. Incidentally, on the small asteroids, 5 kilo-
metres and less in diameter, a good jump suffices <...> to
attain the requisite speed. Vast numbers of the inhabitants
of such planets travel round the Sun, forming a series of
settlements in space which form a precious necklace adorn-
ing the luminary. These are the inhabitants without planets.
On the large asteroids the matter is more complicated.
The last train, or the final, highest platform of the ar-
rangements described earlier, loses gravity, but its speed
suffices only for that and is not enough for complete reces-
sion from the planet. If a new platform moving in the same
direction but faster were placed on this last platform, it
would rise and fly away or would break up into links and fly
away just the same, although it would not leave the planet
altogether.
What can be done?
Rails, with their free ends pointing downwards, are fas-
ened to the platform, and on these rails, already beneath
hem roll the wheels of the next higher platform; the plat-
127
form is supported by the platform below and could not be
carried away by centrifugal force, if this underlying plat-
form is not able to fly away. Hence it is evident that all
the platforms—to the last one on the ground—should be
similarly coupled with one another.
Thus, these devices, built separately, are exactly the
same as the ones described, but since the speeds of half the
higher platforms develop a force greater than the gravity
of the planet, and consequently the higher platforms are
able to fly off or drag the lower platforms behind them,
they are all firmly coupled together.
A planet of the same density as the Earth (as we usually
assume), with a diameter of 56 kilometres should impart
to the uppermost platform a speed of 50 m/sec, and a
planet with a diameter of 560 kilometres—500 m/sec.
In passing from the lower trains to the middle one, grav-
ity gradually diminishes and then altogether disappears
in the last train; ascending higher, the relative gravity is
again manifested, but changes to the opposite direction
and, increasing, becomes equal in the last train to the grav-
ity of the planet.
In the upper trains man is standing upside down in rela-
tion to the planet. It is enough, so to speak, to fall off the
last train, to fly off the planet entirely and become a satel-
lite of the Sun.
Imagine that the gravity of the Earth has changed its
direction, and the Earth, instead of attracting, repels you
skywards (into the blue abyss), so that you can barely held
on sitting up in a tree, upside down, clinging to whatever
comes to hand.
You have the same experience in the uppermost train [of
the asteroid]; the centrifugal force presses you against the
ceiling of the carriage and if you get out of the window you
will fall into the sky.
In relation to the train, this will be a perfectly real fall
(at least during the first minutes)—you will be falling like a
stone with increasing speed.
128
The only good thing here is that the gravity pressing you
to the ceiling is very weak and even on an asteroid 560
kilometres in diameter it is 22.5 times as weak as it is on
the Earth, so that you can easily avoid falling, if your left
hand holds on to a ledge on the roof. This effort is equiv-
alent to about 3 terrestrial kilograms, assuming your ter-
restrial weight to be 64 kilograms.
From the middle train you can fly wherever you please
and become either a satellite of the planet or part of its
ring; from the lower trains you drop onto the planet; from
the upper ones you fly away higher, the closer the particu-
lar train is to the uppermost train from which you fly off
into space and become either an independent asteroid or
part of the solar “necklace”.
The many-tiered circular trains of the planet, moving
along a meridian and at the same time rotating very slowly
with it are thus able to throw off bodies in all directions
and, within a certain limit, at any speed desired.
37. How are things managed in a weightless environment?
I have already given the reader an idea of the laws of mo-
tion in an environment devoid of gravity or in one with a
seeming absence of gravity. I shall describe the simplest
devices the natives use for all practical purposes.
Here is an apparatus to prevent (to some extent) the
vibration or rotation of dwellings and the like; it is fairly
stable, not rotatory, despite the forces which can rotate it.
The apparatus consists of a sort of room with two ex-
tremely rapidly revolving wheels on two adjacent walls; the
massive wheels do not press on bearings and therefore re-
volve freely, without friction; but when attempts are made
to turn the apparatus, to send it in the opposite direction,
the wheel axles begin to press on the bearings because of
the pressure encountered and give rise to friction according
to the speed of the discs, the friction being overcome by
weak solar motors. In such a room I was able to move
about, turn from side to side and perform all the usual
movements, and yet the room did not begin to rotate no-
9—761 129
ticeably, as in the case of an ordinary room without rotat-
ing disks.
They make each of the latter in pairs, i.e., it consists of
two parallel wheels revolved by motors in opposite direc-
tions; they are paired in order to be able to brake or accel-
erate them (for greater stability), without disturbing the
immobility of the chamber.
To this the natives add an apparatus which enables them
to set the room in position quite arbitrarily prior to im-
parting stability to it. It also consists of a pair of mutually-
perpendicular, but simple (not paired), motionless wheels.
When these wheels are revolved, the chamber also revolves;
when they stop the chamber also stops. At first one axle
with its wheel is revolved arbitrarily as gently as possible
until the other assumes the desired direction. At this point
the first wheel is stopped and the other set in motion so
that the axle of the first is given the desired direction.
Thus the chamber is set up as required—with the axles
directed at the stars desired—and then stability is imparted
to it. The axles of the wheels usually coincide with the
imaginary “free” axes of the chamber. Now I must also
describe how translational motion is imparted to it.
For this purpose the chamber has something like a long
cannon which shoots cannon-balls. To impart a definite for-
ward motion to the chamber, it is set up so that the cannon
points in the direction opposite to the desired path. The
cannon is then fired (or the cannon-ball is moved by solar
motors) and the chamber flies in the desired direction at a
speed of several dozen metres a second, according to the
mass and speed of the cannon-ball. By firing another can-
non-ball in the same direction we get (approximately) the
same speed and fly twice as fast. This is how the desired
speed is obtained. The motion can be stopped or retarded
by firing cannon-balls in opposite direction. By firing can-
non-balls in different directions, we can turn corners and
move along broken lines; by ejecting a continuous stream of
liquid or small bodies we get curvilinear motion of the kind
130
required. To keep these cannon-balls from causing damage
when meeting bodies during flight, they are made soft and
loose in texture, even though they are massive.
For short-distance travels the natives use a long chain
with a mass at the end; the mass is released without much
force; the chain unwinds and is paid out together with the
mass as far as desired. At the same time the chamber
moves away in the opposite direction. With a large re-
pulsed mass and a long chain the motion can be pretty
considerable. For example, when the thrown mass equals
that of the chamber with its contents and the chain is
2 kilometres long, the missile travels one kilometre from
its place in any direction. The chain can be made much
longer because it does not snap due to gravity, nor does
it bend or stretch where gravity is absent. The impact of
the cannon-ball can be as gentle as you like, and the long-
er the chain, the more harmless it is.
Yet the natives rarely travel or live singly; usually a
native when he wants to travel employs as a support the
mass of others. By pushing off consecutively from very
many of his fellow creatures a native does not perceptibly
alter their motion yet at the same time acquires the neces-
sary speed and direction.
Of some interest are the joint evolutions of the inhab-
itants [of an asteroid]. For example, several of them, mov-
ing in conformity, take the form of various motionless fig-
ures: circles, triangles, etc., the location of the centre of
gravity of their total mass remaining constant. Sometimes
they arrange themselves in two circular concentric chains.
One of the chains, by pushing off from the other, imparts
to itself and the other chain motion in opposite directions,
thus forming two sets of a round dance perpetually circling
alongside each other. Now if the members of one of the
sets make a closer ring, their velocity—both angular and
absolute—will increase until finally they will lack the
power to draw closer, owing to the developed centrifugal
force. For example, a tenfold reduction of the diameter of
gr 131
the ring will increase the angular velocity 100-fold, the
absolute velocity 10-fold, and the centrifugal force 1,000-
fold. Such a centrifugal force scatters their uncoupled
members radially against their will.
Sometimes two of these beings agree to push off from
each other as hard as possible by means of some special
device. As a result one of them acquires greater speed and
describes an ellipse, instead of a circle, round the Sun
moving away from the luminary; the other loses part of
his inherent natural speed and, describing an ellipse, ap-
proaches the Sun. If pairs, rather than individuals, have
pushed off from each other, then one of the pairs, for
example, that which has approached the Sun can still
break apart, one member of the pair coming still closer
to the Sun and the other member receding from it. These
evolutions are infinitely variable.
The inhabitants of very small asteroids (for example,
1,000 metres in diameter and even smaller) transformed
their planet into a guided missile, imparted to it the rota-
tion they wanted and thus changed their diurnal period at
will; they also imparted more or less translational speed
to their planet which sometimes receded from the Sun in
a spiral and sometimes approached it. They drove the
planet as we drive horses. When they drew closer to the
Sun their year grew shorter, as they receded from the Sun
it grew longer. In the latter case the Sun gave them less
heat, and their summer turned to winter. On the other
hand, as they came closer to the Sun their cold weather
was replaced by heat. They changed the axis of rotation
of their planet, each time forming a new polar star and
equatorial constellations; thus they governed the seasons
of the year.
They changed the position of the axis on the planet itself
without changing its position in relation to the stars. They
changed the plane of their trajectory around the Sun, the
trajectory itself, moving in the direction they required.
They were in a position to recede from the Sun forever or
132
be hurled into its fiery abyss serving as an addition drop
in the source of solar radiation.
It stands to reason that in all such changes in motion
and position, the planet inevitably loses part of its mass,
and the more of these changes it undergoes the more of
its mass it loses; as for the work these changes require, the
planet gets this from the Sun.
One small asteroid was broken up into a circle by its in-
habitants so that there was nothing left of the planet and
its low gravity decreased another100-fold. The inhabitants
were directly interested in transforming their planet into a
disk which would receive a relatively tremendous amount
of sunlight to give the inhabitants life and power.
This ring, or disk as it dispersed in space, formed a
“necklace”, a chain of settlements without a foundation,
revolving round the Sun like the rim of a wheel revolves
round its bush.
A great many asteroids—even large ones—were trans-
formed into such collars or “necklaces”. In the Solar Sys-
tem they stretch like thin threads around the luminary.
They are invisible to man because, even if they are one
kilometre wide, their length of several million or, perhaps,
several thousand million kilometres makes them look much
finer than a cobweb, scarcely perceptible to the eye, even
when viewed through the most powerful telescopes. These
threads partly regulate their motion by parting and alter-
ing their speed when there is a danger of falling or run-
ning into some intolerable minor planet flying too close.
There are no “necklaces” near the large planets. [The
large] planets a are e fatal to them.
a Let us see how ‘the natives travel from one
asteroid to ‘another.
Here is a series of imaginary asteroids, each 6 kilometres,
let us say, in diameter.*
* About the size of Agatha.
133
Assume that they perform strictly circular revolutions
round the Sun in one plane and at about a distance at
least twice that between the Earth and the Sun.
Calculations show that the asteroids about 6,000 kilo-
metres apart (even less, 3,000 kilometres sufficing if there
are not many asteroids) do not greatly influence each other
and cannot under any circumstances collide, especially if,
in addition, the planes of their orbits do not align.
Each planet moves at a speed 23 cm greater than the
next one immediately following at the closest distance of
6,000 kilometres. It is clear from this that the translational
speeds of the asteroids are almost equal and if they do not
merge into one (planet) it is only because of their weak at-
traction (1/2,250th of the terrestrial attraction) which is
made much weaker still by the relatively enormous dis-
tances between them; moving in one direction they travel
for long distances side by side and in sight of each other.
Consequently, one planet will surpass the next by a
whole circle, i.e., will meet it again only in 31,000 years.
In 100 years one planet outstrips the other by only 1°
(1/360 of its circumference).
Clearly, flying from one asteroid to another is not in the
least difficult or dangerous. By properly imparting to our-
selves on the requisite circuit train, the appropriate speed,
say, about 10 m/sec (32 km/hr) we can reach the nearest
planet in 10 days. The difference in the speeds is slight,
and the impact, if the simple precautions are taken, is neg-
ligible. In the event of an error in direction, this can easily
be rectified by means of the devices already described
(Essay 37).
We know about 350 asteroids between Mars and Jupi-
ter along a length of 46,000 terrestrial radii, each asteroid
occupying an average distance of 131 terrestrial radii; but
then the asteroids, on the average, also have a much great-
er mass and, consequently, mutual attraction than do our
imaginary minor planets with a diameter of 6 kilometres.
The mean difference in their speeds will be about 60 m/sec.
134
This speed is not so great as to prevent the inhabitants from
communicating with each other. It will be remembered
that, on the average, one asteroid outstrips another by a
whole circle and they meet again in 200 years. Inciden-
tally, the asteroids are actually very eccentric; they by no
means revolve in one plane and differ in their masses.
But can we possibly know all of them, if dozens of new
ones are discovered every year?*
The inhabitants of the “necklaces” are free and happy
beings—they are not slaves to gravity, they can travel
wherever they please; a trip from one “necklace” to an-
other, covering many thousands of kilometres, presents
no difficulties at all. Such trips are a common occurrence;
some travel away from the Sun, others travel towards it.
In general, the motion of the “necklaces” barely changes
despite the constant role of the support. Such trips are
particularly easy between Mars and Jupiter because the
asteroids scarcely interfere with them, especially, if the
trips cover the space between the part of the “necklaces”
farther away from the asteroids. This is even more so,
since these parts will catch up with the asteroid only af-
ter the elapse of scores or even hundreds of years. It fol-
lows that the time available for the trip is very consid-
erable.
Movement in the other intervals between the neighbour-
ing orbits of other large planets is just as free.
It is only somewhat more difficult to travel from one
inter-orbital space between two large neighbouring plan-
ets into the other.
Let us take, for example, a flight from a zone of asteroids
into the zone between the orbits of Mars and the Earth.
At a distance of 200 terrestrial radii from Mars, closer to
*The number of all the known asteroids is about 350. Of these
220 are less than 50 kilometres in diameter, 100 planetoids are 50-90
kilometres, and 30 are 90-180 kilometres in diameter; lastly, Vesta,
Ceres and Pallas have much greater diameters, the largest of them
—Vesta—being 406 kilometres in diameter.
135
or farther from the Sun, i.e., at a distance of 1,250,000 kilo-
metres, bodies running past Mars along circular orbits like
planets do, are in danger of being attracted by it.
Thus, between two “necklaces” insured against attrac-
tion by the planet there remains a space of 2,500,000 kilo-
metres. While Mars is on the side opposite to the inhabit-
ants of the “necklaces”, they can pass swiftly over this
distance in one year, moving at a speed of only 75 m/sec
or 270 km/hr (composite speed in the direction of the Sun
and not absolute); for outer spaces this speed may appear
negligible to us, if we recall that even the multi-tiered
trains on the asteroids easily developed speeds 5-6 times
as great (500 m/sec); on the ‘necklaces’, where there is
no gravity, such speeds are much more conveniently at-
tained.
It should be noted that much more time than one year
is available to make a safe flight across the orbit of a
large planet, since, for example, Mars catches up with the
outer “necklace” on a semi-circumference in only 60 years.
During this time, and even longer, the orbit of the plan-
et can be freely traversed.
Crossing the orbit of the Earth, which has a mass
about 10 times as great as that of Mars, is somewhat more
difficult but, as calculations show, is also perfectly possi-
ble and requires a speed of less than 500 m/sec to be com-
pleted in six months. The orbits of other planets, closer
to the Sun, can be traversed still more easily, because of
the smaller mass of these planets.<...>
38,. Across a planet in forty minutes. On one occasion,
I happened to be on a spherical, nonrotating planet which
has a tunnel running diametrically through the whole
planet. For small planets, not exceeding 400 kilometres in
diameter, such tunnels are quite possible; in general, every
kind of deviation from the spherical form is possible.
If you jump into this tunnel, you reach the opposite end
in about 40 minutes; near the exit you slow down some-
what, grasp the edges and climb out to the antipodes. If
136
you do not desire to do so, you will [swing] eternally back
and forth, like a pendulum. During all this time you feel
no gravity in relation to the things you have with you; but
do not grasp the walls of the tunnel or friction will soon
bring you to a halt. With low gravity it is easy to come
to a halt by this method at any distance from the centre
of the planet; then we would see that there is no gravity
in the middle of the tunnel and that it increases in propor-
tion to the distance from it, right up to the exit.
It is interesting that from whatever point in the tunnel
you begin to fall, the return to the former place is com-
pleted in one and the same period of time (for a planet of
the density of the Earth it is 1 hr 20 min) so that it takes
the same time to travel small distances of a few millime-
tres and long distances of several hundred kilometres. It
is like a pendulum: whether the amplitude is consider-
able or small, it requires roughly about the same time
for each swing (the isochronism of swinging).
It is also interesting that in other planets—much larger
and much smaller—we also made this diametrical trip in
about the same space of time.
Theoretically, if all the planets were of the same form
and density, it would always take the same period of time
to travel from one of their edges to another. Even if the
Earth had a through tunnel, we would dive through it to
the antipodes in 40 minutes. Through the Sun we would
cover this journey in 1 hr 20 min (because its density is
only one-fourth that of the Earth) and through the Moon—
in 53 minutes.
It transpires that it takes the same period of time for
the enormous diameter of the Sun (more than 1 million
kilometres) to be pierced by the force of gravity, as it does
for a tiny clay sphere.
38,. On three primordial asteroids. I also once sojourned
on a primordial planet left untouched by the inhabitants of
the asteroid belt, in commemoration of the past, just as
we preserve localities of definite geological interest. Good
137
God! What an irregular mass it was! From afar, and close
up, it looks like a rough fragment, nothing like our com-
paratively polished Earth. Gravity being very low on it
because of its smal] size is infinitely varied in direction
and intensity.
On another occasion I visited a primordial rotating plan-
et of almost spherical form. Owing to the rotation, the
relative gravity at the surface of the planet also greatly
varied: at the poles of rotation the magnitude was at its
greatest and the direction normal, towards the centre, but
the farther away from the poles the weaker the gravity
became and the more its direction deviated towards the
equator, so that a person coming from the poles, as it
were, descended an increasingly steep hill, although it
was not difficult to keep one’s feet on the increasing slope
since gravity grew weaker; at some distance between the
poles and the equator the direction of gravity coincided
with the horizon, i.e., it was parallel to the surface of
the planet, and you seemed to be descending a sheer
wall. Further on, the ground presented itself as an inclined
ceiling which at the equator became an ordinary hori-
zontal terrestrial ceiling, and you had to grasp at what-
ever came to hand in order not to fall off the planet.
Here you had to stand on your head in the manner of boys
and acrobats the only difference being, however, that the
blood did not rush to your head, your face did not redden,
and the terrible terrestrial gravity did not press you to the
ground, on the contrary, it tended to pull you lightly away
from the ledges to which you were clinging. Here there
were no stones; they had all flown off the planet due to
centrifugal force, but as they circled round the planet
they approached it from time to time.
Once, the ledge I was clinging to broke away, and I
began moving away with it from the planet; I pushed off
from the fragment as hard as I could causing the frag-
ment to move rapidly away from me and the planet, where-
as I approached the planet; but as this time I fell on to
138
a smooth part of the planet and there was absolutely noth-
ing at all I could cling to, I had to move away from the
planet again. At first I moved normally in relation to its
surface and with increasing speed; then I noticed I was
no longer receding from it, but even beginning to approach
it once more. I did not hit it but merely brushed against
it, although at an entirely different spot, then began to
move away normally from it again. My impression was
that the sky repelled me with invisible hands and put me
on the planet, but the planet also refused to receive me
and similarly repelled me without a blow, mysteriously.
Thus I kept rising and falling and always at different spots
on the planet. It was a rare occurrence to fall twice on
the same spot.
The faster the rotation of the planet, the farther do the
bodies that have fallen off the equator recede. But for a
complete removal from the planet quite a low speed of ro-
tation is required for small asteroids. At that speed things
are thrown off once and for all by centrifugal force, and
become Satellites of the Sun.
There was one other almost spherical and rotating plan-
et, but with a relatively enormous mountain on its equator.
Everywhere on this planet gravity had the upper hand, ex-
cept for the mountain, the upper part of which moved
more rapidly and so developed a centrifugal force that ex-
ceeded the planet’s attraction. AS we ascended from the
foot-hill of the mountain, we observed that the gravity
grew weaker and weaker and at some point disappeared
altogether. Above this critical point it reappeared, but in
the opposite direction, tending to throw everything off the
ground, and you had to walk on your head—on your
hands, to be exact—grasping at whatever came to hand
in order not to fall off the planet.
On another similar planet there stood a terribly tall
tower, thin at the top and bottom, like a spindle, and with-
out any support, i.e., it did not touch the planet. We walked
under this air castle and wondered why it did not drop
139
on our heads. The point is that, owing to the centrifugal
force, the upper part of the tower tended to fly away,
while the lower part pulled it in the opposite direction. Its
form and position were such that it was invariably in a
state of equilibrium.
38,. An asteroid with a moon, I shall tell you briefly
about another planet 56 kilometres in diameter, which was
situated between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. It had a
Satellite, 6 kilometres in diameter. The satellite moved at
a distance of 60 radii of the planet (1,680 kilometres), at
the rate of 4.5 metres a second (about 14 km/hr), making
a complete revolution in 28 days, like our Moon.
From the planet it was, of course, not difficult at all
for the natives to reach the satellite (Essay 38); it took
them roughly a day. They had long since grown tired of
this satellite because with the power of its attraction it
caused perturbations and disorder in their rings as they
revolved round the planet.
So they decided to do away with it as a satellite and
transform it, right to the centre, first into a thin disk and
then the disk into a planetary ring.
Owing to its symmetrical position and continuous ac-
tion such a ring no longer produced perturbations in the
planet’s own rings and did not hinder them from expanding
to the very Satellite that had been transformed into a
ring.
Thus, the planet with the satellite formed a system like
that of Saturn with its rings.
The satellite was transformed into a ring with the aid
of solar motors in the course of 10 years. But it later
took 1,000 years completely to change the planet into a
disk. After that the disk easily changed into a solar
necklace (Essay 37).
39. Temperature at different distances from the Sun.
The power of the Sun’s rays increases as their distance
from the Sun decreases in absolutely the same manner as
the force of the Sun’s attraction. It follows that in the solar
140
system space the temperature varies endlessly. In a way
it is true, but artificially the temperature may differ very
much in one place and, on the other hand, may be the
same at different distances from the Sun. By very simple
methods the natives make it as cold as they like where in
ordinary conditions they should disintegrate from the heat.
Even at the distance of the Earth and in its atmosphere
a black surface, in certain circumstances, becomes heated
to 100°C. What is it like, then, in a vacuum under the
continuous action of the Sun’s rays and at a distance, for
example, 10 times nearer, at which the Sun appears to have
a diameter 10 times as large and to be 100 times as vast,
bright and warm?!
Imagine that in so hot a spot the inhabitants [of an
asteroid] are under the shade of a shiny metal sheet which
does not lose its reflective capacity, despite the rise in
temperature. The screen repels the greater part of the Sun’s
rays, although it heats to 300-400°C.
It disperses this heat in space in every direction, and
the natives in the shade some distance from it receive a
relatively small amount of heat.
By using another screen behind the first, and standing
in the shade cast by the first, and heated by it alone, we
can get a temperature that at least can be borne by living
beings.
Using several screens, placed one behind the other, it
is possible to reduce the temperature of, so to speak, the
very nose of the Sun, to the point where water and alcohol
freeze.
Now you believe that my distinguished friends were
not afraid of flying close to the Sun, although their per-
manent residence was not very near it.
On the other hand, those who receded from the Sun
raised the temperature artificially; they had numerous meth-
ods of doing this. Picture to yourselves, for example, a
reflector or a concave mirror and a living creature in the
cone of the rays reflected by it. It stands to reason that
{41
as the creature approaches the apex of the cone it raises
its temperature as required.
Even when these mirrors are of an enormous size they
may be thin and fragile as you like; owing to the absence
of gravity there is no need to fear that they will break;
nor is there any danger of their losing their lustre, since
there is no atmosphere.
The colour of the natives and their clothing also enor-
mously affect the amount of heat they assimilate. An ob-
ject with its black half facing the Sun and the white, shiny
half in shadow is in the best possible conditions as re-
gards the degree to which it is heated by the Sun.
By this simple method, the natives obtain the temper-
ature of the human body even in the asteroidal zone. If
you are hot in this position, turn at a small angle and the
temperature will drop.
Because of its constancy, this outer-space temperature
is extremely healthful; no day or night, no wind, damp nor
rain—nothing disturbs its perfection and complete depend-
ence on rational beings.
Constant and exactly how you like it! Is it not truly
wonderful!? Simple screens either lower or raise the tem-
perature depending on whether they are protecting the
object from loss of its own radiation or from the radiation
of the Sun. While protecting a body from loss of its own
heat and at the same time reflecting the Sun’s rays on to
the object itself, the screen still further helps to raise its
temperature.
The side screens along which the Sun’s rays only slide
are also effective; they retard the radiation from the body.
Poor heat conductors, i.e., the clothing, also exert some
influence.
Using a variety of devices, the natives came so close
to the Sun that its rays melted glass, and it oozed like wa-
ter, while chemical compounds broke up into their com-
ponents with amazing rapidity.
142
They also moved so far away from the Sun that in the
shade, under the protection of a consecutive series of
screens, they produced such low temperatures that gases
were converted into liquids and, on freezing, became as
hard as steel. Hydrogen was well preserved in a shiny
metallic form (like blue steel).
It is of an enormous convenience to be able to produce
tremendous temperature contrasts, wherever needed. The
natives made use of these contrasts for transforming the
energy of the Sun’s rays into mechanical work by the
simplest and most advantageous methods. We have al-
ready described one type of their solar motors.
40. From star to star or from sun to sun. Once I asked
my friends:
“Well, then, you live by the Sun and need no nourish-
ment but light. But what will happen when this light van-
ishes? For the Sun will not shine forever! Our terrestrial
mathematicians find that it will shine for another dozen
million years, after which it will be covered with a dark
crust or heavy clouds and will be like Jupiter, which is of
no use to us at all. Must you perish then?”
“To begin with, your mathematicians also know that
universal gravitation is an inexhaustible source of energy;
their assumption that the Sun will cease shining is based
on the idea that the Sun cannot become denser than the
Earth, or something of the kind. This assumption is wrong.
Secondly, even if the Sun stops shining for a time, and we
shall know about it many thousands of years ahead, there
is nothing to stop us flying to another Sun and living
there until it becomes exhausted. There are stars with dia-
meters 10 times* that of the Sun, and according to your
own theory these stars should shine at least 1,000 times
as long as the Sun.
“We shall wander from star to star, as they become
* The diameter of Sirius is 14 times that of the Sun.
143
extinguished, until the same stars begin shining with a
new, more abundant, more resplendent light.*
“But how is this so,” I objected, “the interstellar dis-
tances are so frightful.... When will you reach another
home, another source of life, if it takes light months and
even years to traverse these distances?”
“It does take light years, and we cannot move with the
speed of light,” they answered. “On our ‘necklaces’ we
develop speeds that equal those of the planets, i.e., up to
100 km/sec and more. Thus, if light requires years to trav-
erse a certain distance, we shall travel for thousands of
years covering the same distance; if light requires months,
we need hundreds of years.”
“But what do you subsist on during these thousands of
years? The weak Stellar light, perhaps, that accompanies
you on your cheerless voyage?”
“No, we live on the reserves of solar energy, as you
always do.”
“You mean you will become transformed and take nour-
ishment like we, human beings, do?”
“Not at all. We only convert the reserves of energy
into light which, like the Sun, keeps us alive. It is the
same as when you convert the energy of the Sun, con-
tained in coal, into mechanical work and the latter into
electric light.”
* According to the Boscovich hypothesis, accepted with minor
corrections by the great Faraday, matter consists of centres of forces,
of mathematical points interconnected by attraction or repulsion,
whose law for molecular distances is unknown. If this is so, there
is nothing to prevent matter from infinitely becoming condensed.
This condensation can serve as an inexhaustible source of energy
liberated by suns in the form of heat and light. For example, water
was long considered to be incompressible. But what are the facts
today? According to Cailletet, water contracts in proportion to pres-
sure, like gas, only 20-30 times as weakly as air contracted to the
density of water. Experiments were performed up to 705 atmospheres.
There are no reasons to regard contraction of bodies as limited.
Solids contract similarly (Buchanan). Thus the pressure in the cen-
tre of the Sun should condense steel 600-fold.
144
“But how much energy, what reserves of it, do you need
for thousands of years and for millions of creatures?’
“The reserves are carried without any effort in infinite
quantities and endlessly according to the well-known laws
of inertia. Each of you requires but a small reserve for
1,000 years of subsistence, whereas we need very little
indeed. One cubic kilometre of grain contains 1,000 years
of nourishment for 3 million people; ten cubic kilometres
of it contain enough to feed 3,000 million people. On our
rings and necklaces the Sun prepares such a reserve in just
a few seconds. Finally, we can exist in a state of blissful
lethargy, and in this semicoma a thousand years passes
like a minute, like your pleasant deep slumber.
“This state requires nothing but a definite temperature
and an extremely small amount of light.”
41. Return to the Earth. How many years had passed I
do not know. The time came for me to leave my good genii.
With my human, sinful heart I had grown very much at-
tached to them, to their life, to their environment and
kindly solicitude that surrounded me.
I found them as beautiful as precious ancient vases and
admired them as the finest productions of the human mind
and heart... <...>
Yes, my friends, I have told you many wonderful things,
but not even a millionth of what actually existed there.
And yet, where had I been and what had I seen?! Only
the solar system. But how many are there of these sys-
tems? Billions in our Milky Way alone. How many galaxies
are there? Who can tell? The world is infinite.
Chapter 8
THE ENERGY OF SUNLIGHT
42. The total energy of the Sun. We said (Essays 3 and 4)
that, if we imagined the Earth as a small pea, the Sun
would be a large water-melon 180 steps away from it. This
10—761 145
shows the relatively insignificant amount of solar energy
representing the Earth’s share.
But the energy of all the rays emitted by the Sun is so
enormous that, if it were fully converted into mechanical
work, it would overcome the mighty attraction of the parts
of our planet, would mechanically disintegrate them into
mist in a very short period of time, and would change
their shapes the more easily by turning them into cubes,
buns, rings, etc.
Here we should note two things: firstly, no physical
energy is fully, without a trace, converted into mechanical
energy, but engines can be designed which in a vacuum
can convert one-fifth (approximately) of the solar energy
into mechanical work; secondly, I am not here dealing
with the methods used for separating the parts of the
planet or changing its shape, I am only assuming that
there are such methods and that they are so perfect that
in this process the work of the rays is fully utilised.
The whole outline which now follows will take into ac-
count similar conditions which are, in practice, impos-
sible.
Jupiter, our largest planet, disintegrates mechanically
into an infinitely rarefied mist* in the course of 115 years;
the Earth is disintegrated by the total solar energy in 4
days, the Moon in 3 minutes; a planet or a satellite half
the diameter are disintegrated in less than one second.
This energy is enough to heat the cold (by supposition)
Earth to 3000°C in 24 hours. It can heat a mass of icy wa-
ter equal in volume to the Earth to 100°C and then con-
vert it to steam in 4 hours.
The solar energy liberated in 3 days corresponds to the
energy of a quantity of coal, equal in volume to the Earth
(assuming the density of coal as unit), when burned in oxy-
gen.
* Here the relatively insignificant force of cohesion of matter
(adhesion, etc.) 1s ignored.
146
In one second it produces more power than that from
food prepared to feed 2,000 million people (more than the
population of the Earth) for 25 million years.
Here you involuntarily exclaim: what enormous wealth
our luminary sends out every second, yet we cannot take
advantage of it, and it slips through our fingers!
In less than one day a volume of water equal to the
volume of our Earth is chemically decomposed by the Sun’s
energy into its constituents (hydrogen and oxygen).
The total energy of the Sun fully converted into mechan-
ical work, can impart to the Earth its diurnal rotation
about its axis in 11 hours and to an asteroid, one-tenth
its diameter, a similar diurnal rotation (a complete diur-
nal turn about its axis) in 0.5 sec.
The translational speed of the Earth along its orbit is
acquired in almost a month; the motion of the Moon round
the Earth in 3 seconds.
It is this energy in particular that is extremely great
in relation to the transformation of the small asteroidal
planets which it rubs, crumples, changes to any shape,
breaks up into mist, disintegrates chemically and physi-
cally, imparts rotation and translational motion, removes
from the Sun or brings closer to it, drives onto the Sun
or throws away into void <...> in the course of a few
seconds or even fractions of a second. Compared with
this force the Earth itself is nothing: condensation of its
atmosphere into liquid, every kind of disintegration—chem-
ical, mechanical and physical—of the substance of the
planet and the imparting to it of any shape or motion, are
a matter of a few days, at most a few months.
43. Part of the energy received by the planets. But the
planets make use of only a small part of the solar energy.
For example, the Earth receives from the Sun only a
2,000-millionth part of the energy that the latter dissi-
pates in space. All the planets together receive extremely
little energy from the Sun. Saturn, for example, not count-
ing its rings, receives about as much as the Earth, Jupiter
10* 147
about 4 times as much, Mars about 8-9 times less, and
Venus about twice as much, so that hundreds of millions
of times as much energy is dissipated as is utilised. Ah!
and how is it utilised>?*
Let us assume that the energy of the Sun’s rays falling
on the Earth is distributed equally over its surface and is
completely converted into mechanical work; then, each
square metre will receive 0.5 hp working incessantly day
and night, while 5 square sazhens will receive 75 hp. The
work of such imaginary machines would lift a layer of
water 1 metre thick and uniformly covering the entire
Earth at the rate of 5 cm/sec; in 24 hours this mass of
water will be lifted to a height of 4.32 kilometres, and in 3
months it will reach the extreme limits of the atmosphere
(about 300 kilometres).
This work is at least 17 million times greater than that
performed by all the people. If five able-bodied workers,
capable of working tirelessly, were placed on each square
metre of the Earth’s surface, their work would equal that
performed by the Sun’s rays on the Earth. Actually the
Sun’s rays perform much less mechanical work; it pro-
duces the winds and sets the waters in motion; the great-
er part of it is converted directly into heat which sends
out rays into outer space.**
If the gravity were the same on all planets, the mechan-
ical effort of solar power would be the same everywhere,
i.e., on each planet a layer of water 1 metre thick would
steadily rise at the rate of 5 cm/sec; but on the Moon, for
* If we assume that each hectare of the Earth’s surface yields
an average of 2 tons of grain, sugar and other nutrient substances
a year, we will find that only 1/5,000th part of the solar energy is
being utilised.
** In the course of time all the mechanical and chemical work
of the Sun is converted into heat. Only here and there peatbogs
and the like, representing the potential energy of the Sun, are ac-
cumulated. Formerly these reserves accumulated more intensively,
forming heavy seams of coal.
148
example, the gravity is 6 times less, and the same layer
of water would therefore rise for nearly 0.33 m/sec. It
follows that on the small planets the relative action of
the Sun’s rays is much more pronounced.
The entire Earth is mechanically disintegrated by the
energy it receives in the course of 26 million years. Have
I not astounded you with the power of gravitation? As a
matter of fact, for large planets it is very tangible. But
let us take the small planets! The Moon, for example, is
disintegrated in only 170,000 years, and the asteroid* 6
kilometres in diameter, invented and described by our
crank (Essay 31), is disintegrated by the energy of the
rays received by the planet in only one week; the next
asteroid, 56 kilometres in diameter in 20 years, and the
still larger one (560 kilometres in diameter) in 20,000
years.
But we have seen that, being able to form rings round
themselves, the small asteroids can make use of incom-
parably more of the Sun’s energy; if we assume that the
surface lighted by the normal rays of the Sun is only 100
times greater, then the periods of time given will be con-
siderably reduced. For example, the disintegration of the
asteroid 560 kilometres in diameter will take only 200
years.
The periods of time required to alter the planets into
all the possible shapes are shorter than those indicated.
It also requires less time than indicated for the above fig-
ures to alter a planet into a thin rotating disk consisting
of rings (like the rings of Saturn) revolving at different
speeds and overcoming by their motion the force of attrac-
tion of their parts.
Incidentally, it requires only a little less work to trans-
form the whole planet into a very thin and, consequently,
weakly rotating disk.
* Or the minor planet Agatha, assuming that it is spherical and
has the same mean density as the Earth (5.5).
149
Although the existence or, to be exact, the formation
of rings, like those of Saturn, around the large planets is
inconceivable because of the enormous speeds, which must
be imparted to them, to prevent them from falling on the
planet (or being destroyed by gravity), and because of
the resistance of the planetary atmospheres (whence the
process of motion will have to be begun), and presumably
for many more reasons, nevertheless, trying to give the
reader a clear idea of the relation of the Sun’s energy re-
ceived by the planets to the energy of gravitation, I shall
give here the results of calculations of this nature.
A disk 1 cm thick of a density 3 material (almost the
density of aluminium) consisting of a series of rings ro-
tating at different speeds and having a diameter 10 times
as large as that of the Earth is formed in about 3 years
(2.63 years) round our planet by the energy of the rays
it receives.
If we take into account the fact that with an increase
in the number of rings or in the size of the disk the force
forming it also increases, then the time required for its
formation will be much less.
A similar disk on the Moon with its diameter of 10 lu-
nar diameters would require 40 days’ work.
If we disintegrate (mechanically) the planet to its very
centre, i.e., completely, and in doing so use the continu-
ously and rapidly increasing surface of the disk as a
[condenser] of solar work, it stands to reason that this dis-
integration can be accomplished in periods of time which
are not at all as dreadful as those we have given. In this
case it would not take the Earth 26 million years and the
Moon 170,000 years to disintegrate. Theoretically, these
periods of time could be reduced a thousand times.
I repeat that all this is impossible in practice and, if at
all applicable, only to the small asteroids that are not
surrounded by atmospheres and have diameters of only
some hundreds of kilometres <...>.
150
Chapter 9
GRAVITATION AS THE CAUSE OF THE SPEEDS
AND RADIATION OF HEAVENLY BODIES
44. Formation of galaxies and their rotation. Formation
of suns with planets and their satellites. Their rotation.
Under the influence of the condensation of matter by the
force of gravity, the primordial nebula divided into innu-
merable nebulae of the second order. These divided into
numerous nebulae of the third order, etc., just as the outer
layer of the Earth, contracting from heat and loss of mois-
ture cracks into large and small parts, or as a large mass
of water vapours, condensing in the air, forms drops.
We cannot solve the problem as to the order of nebula
from which were formed our disk-like Milky Way and
similar groups of stars, which from the Earth look like
more or less rounded spots of mist because of their re-
moteness.
For the sake of simplicity we shall consider that the
nebula from which the Milky Way and similar groups of
stars were formed was one of the first order. Therefore,
the Milky Way is a nebula of the second order, and the
nebula from which the solar system and the like were
formed is a nebula of the third order.
My question is: when the first nebula that did not, we
assume, have a common rotation was dividing into parts,
was it possible that during its break-up these parts did not
get a common, even if extremely weak, rotation?
If two men were to pull each other by the hand, then
undoubtedly in addition to translational motion, they would
certainly impart to each other rotatory motion as well,
which would immediately be destroyed by friction against
the ground. Swing a pendulum on a thin thread by hand
so that it does not rotate. It is impossible to throw or
move anything so accurately that it is not given just the
slowest rotation.
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Push a stone on smooth, clean ice and you will have
one more proof of this. According to the theory of prob-
ability, when nebula is broken up, its parts are given
reverse rotations.
According to the laws of nature, a rotation of all the
parts in one direction (assuming that the first nebula did
not rotate) is impossible, but more or less reverse rota-
tions are admissible and necessary.
Thus during the break-up of the principal nebula the
nebulae of the second order acquired rotatory motions
which, however slow they may have been at the outset,
accelerated increasingly as the nebulae condensed. Having
a speed of a few metres at the periphery (along the edges)
they had increased this speed many hundred thousand
times when, owing to condensation, the diameter of the
nebulae reached the size of the Milky Way or similar stel-
lar groups. This conclusion is a strictly mathematical one.
The work of rotation is acquired, during the condensation
of matter, by the potential energy of gravitation, the sup-
ply of which is theoretically infinite.
But do the stellar nebulae and the Milky Way really
have a common rotation?
Their disk-like shape convinces us that this is so; the
motion of the solar system towards the constellation of
Hercules, i.e., almost in the plane of the Milky Way also
confirms this.
To proceed, assume that the nebula of the second or-
der, say, the Milky Way, for example, condenses in its
turn; it breaks up into billions of nebulae of the third or-
der, each of which gives rise to a planetary system with
a central luminary—a star or sun.
Of course, here the same thing must happen as did dur-
ing the break-up of the nebula of the third order; for
example, rather weak rotation was imparted to the one
that gave rise to our solar system; this rotation was added
to the common motion, which although also rotatory, had
such a relatively enormous radius of curvature that this
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original motion may be considered almost rectilinear. This
explains not only the translational motion of the solar
system (around some centre, somewhere far distant in
the Milky Way) but also the rotation of the Sun and all
the planets according to the well-known law (Essay 5).
As the tertiary nebula condenses, its weak rotation in-
tensifies. During this condensation the nebula breaks up,
as usual, into parts or rings which as they break up, in
their turn, in most cases form spherical masses or give
rise to planets with their rings and satellites.
The break-up and acceleration of rotation described
above recurs with these, at first spherical, nebular masses
of the fourth order and bodies of the fifth order are formed,
which give rise to the planetary satellites or rings like
those of Saturn.
This theory advanced by Laplace explains excellently
the motion and rotation in one direction of the Sun, plan-
ets and their satellites.
45. A grand picture of a Universe full of marvellous,
living creatures. Without as yet touching upon gravitation
as the cause of the radiation of the suns (from afar—the
stars) for millions and even billions of years, let us turn
to the grand picture that the mind’s eye has conjured up.
In the Milky Way alone, telescopes show billions of
suns. Yet how many similar galaxies there are, which
taken as a whole are a mere grain of sand in the edifice
of the Universe!
The innumerable stars, or suns, shining (if we were to
approach them) even more brightly than our Sun, are sur-
rounded by still more countless numbers of planets—dark
heavenly bodies receiving heat and light from their suns.
Our solar system counts them in hundreds (350); one
of them is called the Earth. But who can tell how many
of these earths there are in the world, and existing in
conditions almost the same as those of our Earth?!
Is it probable for Europe to be inhabited and not the
other parts of the world? Can one island have inhabitants
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and numerous other islands have none? Is it conceivable
for one apple-tree in the infinite orchard of the Universe
to bear fruit, while innumerable other trees have nothing
but foliage?! Spectral analysis indicates that the sub-
stances of the Universe are the same as those of the Earth.
Life also extends everywhere throughout the Universe.
This life is infinitely varied. If life is varied on the Earth in
relatively uniform circumstances how infinitely varied must
it be in the Universe, where any conditions are possible?!
All the phases in the development of living beings can
be seen on the different planets. What humanity was like
several thousand years ago and what it will be like in
a few million years—all this according to the theory of
probability can be found in the planetary world.
All that which is marvellous, and which we anticipate
with such a thrill, already exists but we cannot see it be-
cause of the remote distances and the limited power of
our telescopes....
ON VESTA
Let us imagine ourselves on Vesta. Although this is
not freedom, it is a foretaste of freedom. Vesta is the larg-
est asteroid. It moves round the Sun almost in a circle.
If it is spherical, its mean diameter is not more than 400
kilometres. If it has the same density as the Earth, the
gravity on it is 30 times as low as on the Earth. If there
are liquids and gases there, the liquids should scarcely
evaporate and the gases should have an enormous molecu-
lar weight (at least 5 times that of oxygen) in order not to
be dissipated at such low gravity. All this is possible. Even
on the Earth there are liquids which scarcely evaporate. In
this case life can be engendered and can exist in these
liquids as in our ocean or atmosphere. Only oxygen will
be replaced by some heavy gas or non-evaporating liquid.
One transparent liquid is also enough, in which case this
liquid will be an atmosphere for the living being.
The living beings on Vesta frolic and swim about in
their liquid medium like fish; sometimes they leap out of
their sea (like flying fish into the air) into the vacuum, or
crawl on to heights that are not submerged. But here
they begin to gasp and pant and hurriedly plunge back into
their medium.
Some of these creatures subsist on plants and the weak-
est living beings, others are nourished by the Sun alone,
like plants, yet others combine the functions of plants
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and animals, like our actiniae, and so on; in a word, they
contain chlorophyll.
The rays of the Sun penetrate the transparent cover-
ing of their bodies and produce chemical phenomena which
engender life.
These creatures crawl out of the seas on to the heights
in the vacuum where they take delight in the primordial
power of the Sun’s rays. The process of life continues in
these creatures in the vacuum but their bodies lose part
of their fluids, although these fluids evaporate very weakly.
Within a few hours these creatures have to go back to
their sea, like our aquatic animals which sometimes come
out of the water.
Some of them have a covering permeable to rays but
almost impervious to matter. Such creatures can remain
in a vacuum for an extraordinarily long time. They very
rarely have to renew the substance lost from their bod-
ies, either from the liquid or from a surrounding mineral
mass. After swallowing this mass they tightly close their
mouths.
In the beginning these creatures spent part of their lives
in oceans and the other part in a vacuum. Later the first
period (in liquid) grew increasingly shorter and finally it
ended. The creatures were born and lived all their lives
on land and in a vacuum. This phenomenon is similar to
the adaptation and evolution of the Earth’s aquatic ani-
mals into land animals.
These creatures become more and more intelligent. By
various artificial methods they adapt themselves to life in
a vacuum more and more, constantly improving it.
In time their oceans disappeared, and the population in
them perished; but the creatures on land survived and
prevail.
But how could human beings live here? Let us assume
that these creatures are more civilised and wiser than hu-
man beings. And this must inevitably occur, if we give
them enough time for civilisation; then they will help us
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to settle on Vesta. They build spherical or cylindrical cham-
bers from strong net frames with numerous transparent
window panes. These chambers contain oxygen (0.1 density
of the air), a little carbon dioxide and water vapours. They
also have fruit-bearing plants growing in humid soil. They
bear the fruit required for our nutrition. The plants pro-
duce food and oxygen. On the other hand, our excretions
serve as food for them. We breathe, feed and excrete, and
so do the plants. An eternal, monotonous exchange, eter-
nal energy and life.
We live in the cylinders as if we were at home. But we
can also get out of them into the vacuum, for which pur-
pose we have to wear special clothing. We put on very
elastic and very thin clothing which is impervious to mat-
ter. Rarefied oxygen continuously circulates between the
covering and the skin. Before the mouth, nose and eyes
there is a larger space, before the eyes—transparent glass.
We breathe in this oxygen and give out carbon dioxide
and other gases and vapours. Passing through special ap-
pendages of the clothing these are absorbed, while oxygen
is continuously liberated from another appendage. One
kilogram of oxygen is enough for a whole day of stren-
uous life. But since a human being gets tired and wants
to eat after 5-6 hours, about 200 grams of oxygen in a
weak chemical compound and in the liquid state is quite
sufficient.
Neither the clothing nor these insignificant appendages
can inconvenience or burden the human being. The ma-
chine with the pumps, the covering and the substances,
which absorb the human excretions and give oxygen, weigh
together not more than 3 kilograms, which on Vesta is
equivalent to only 100 grams.
On Vesta we make ourselves at home. In the vacuum
we do as we please. And when we get tired, hungry and
thirsty we enter our transparent cylinders, take off our
suits, eat, drink and sleep, i.e., do the same as on the Earth.
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We walk freely on the surface of Vesta in our light
suits, we breathe freely and look about us.
To begin with, the temperature! The average distance
from Vesta to the Sun is 2.36 times as great as from the
Earth to the Sun. The temperature of the dark surface of
the planet, with which our bodies merge, is about 0°C,
according to the table and calculations. This is a very
low temperature, especially since it is the maximum; but
there is nothing to prevent us raising it by various
means.
To keep warm, let us, for the time being, wear warm
clothing. lt is 30 times as light as clothing on the Earth,
and will not hamper us in any way, but will merely keep
us warm.
We look about us. The diameter of the Sun appears two
to three times as small, yet the Sun shines intolerably.
In intensity the light is very like a solar eclipse in a clear
sky and at its low phase (1:6). The ground of the planet
also shines brightly, making our pupils contract. We see
only the largest stars in a black sky.
But if we stand with the back to the Sun and shade
our eyes from the light of the ground with the palm of
the hand, we shall see a little later, when the pupils have
dilated, countless numbers of stars. It is also good to look
through a cone blackened on the inside.
The sky looks like a vault as it does from the Earth,
only it is not flattened at the top, but is perfectly spher-
ical. It is as black as soot and is studded with the same
constellations, without the least change, that are seen from
the Earth. But there are many more stars; they do not
twinkle and to people with good eyesight they look like
points without rays. It is the same at night, only then
there seem to be more stars.
Zero temperature on Vesta, or in the vacuum in general,
is not at all the same as it is on the Earth, especially in
a strong wind. Loss of heat in a vacuum takes place only
158
by radiation. Thus it is difficult even to imagine how
warm it is (in the lightest of clothing) on Vesta at zero
temperature and even below. If you place screens, which
very well reflect radiant energy, on five sides of you and
allow free access to the Sun’s rays on the sixth side, the
temperature of the body can be raised greatly. But there
is no need for it now. On Vesta it is enough to have
light, black clothing and the Sun’s rays. The rays can
cause sunstroke because they are not weakened, not ren-
dered harmless by an atmosphere, but in this case, properly
dyed clothing and a transparent plate before the eyes offer
good protection.
Let us move about, lift weights, work, talk, etc. Our
words are not heard, but if a thread is stretched between
the suits of two human beings, they can converse splen-
didly even over an enormous distance.
On the Earth I can freely carry someone of my own
weight. This means that 1 am actually carrying two peo-
ple—myself and the other person. On Vesta I can carry
with the same ease 30 times as much, i.e., 60 people—59
and myself. This means 4 tons without any strain; or 4
cubic metres or 8 barrels of water.
On the Earth, by crouching down about 50 cm, I can,
by straightening up swiftly, jump another 50 cm, i.e., my
jump totals 1 metre. On Vesta the same effort results in
a jump 30 times as high, i.e., 30 metres. This is the height
of a 10-storied house, a very tall pine-tree or a fair-sized
hill.
Acceleration on Vesta is 30 cm/sec. This means that
when a body falls it drops 15 cm during the first second.
In a vertical jump a man acquires in the first moment a
speed of about 4.5 metres. It follows that when a man on
Vesta jumps he rises for a period of 27 seconds. It takes
him as long to descend. This means that the jump will
require 54 seconds, i.e., about a minute, Just think what
you could do during such a jump!!!
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The best long jump should be made at an angle of 45°
to the horizon, in which case the vertical rise will be only
half as high, i.e., 15 metres, while the horizontal displace-
ment will be 60 metres. This means that on Vesta one
can easily jump across ravines and ditches as broad as
rivers, and over trees and buildings 15 metres tall. And
all these jumps can be made without a preliminary run.*
* Written before 1919.
OUTSIDE THE EARTH
1. THE CASTLE IN THE HIMALAYAS
Hidden somewhere among the loftiest ranges of the
Himalayan Mountains there stands a beautiful castle. In
it live a Frenchman, an Englishman, a German, an Amer-
ican, an Italian, and a Russian. Disappointment in people
and the joys of life drove them to seek refuge in seclu-
sion. They found happiness in science. The meaning of
their life lay in imaginative thinking, which drew them
together in an anchoretic brotherhood. They were fabu-
lously rich and could freely indulge their scientific whims.
Costly experiments and installations continually taxed
their purses, but could not deplete them. Their only con-
tacts with the outer world were for the purpose of those
installations, the building of which required many people,
but as soon as everything was ready they returned to
their researches and their seclusion. The only other inhab-
itants of the castle were the members of the household
staff and workers, whose attractive houses nestled in the
valley.
2. THE JOY OF DISCOVERY
The top of the castle was occupied by a spacious glazed
hall where our anchorets were especially fond of gather-
ing.
In the evening, after sunset, planets and countless stars
shone down through the transparent dome. Thoughts
11—761 161
inevitably turned to the sky, and the conversation would
drift to the Moon, the planets, and innumerable distant
suns.
What dreamers they were! Time and again they would
elaborate fantastically bold projects of travel through
stellar space, but their own vast knowledge mercilessly
shattered their dreams.
One clear summer night three of our friends were en-
gaged in a lively conversation. Suddenly the Russian burst
in like a whirlwind and began hugging and pummeling
the three men till they pleaded for mercy.
“Would you kindly explain what all this means?” the
Frenchman Laplace asked when he had finally extricated
himself from the Russian’s arms. “And what were you
doing all this time in your study? We even feared some-
thing had happened to you during your experiments, and
we thought of forcing the door.”
‘Tve invented something terrible! No, not terrible, but
amazing and wonderful!”
“Well, what is it? Don’t act like a madman,” said the
German Helmholtz, who had suffered most.
The flushed, sweaty face and dishevelled hair of the
Russian were signs of an unnatural inspiration, his spar-
kling eyes expressed bliss and fatigue.
“We reach the Moon in four days.... We escape the
atmosphere in a few minutes, we reach interplanetary
space in a hundred days!” the Russian, whose name was
Ivanov, blurted out.
“You're mad,” said the Englishman Newton, gazing at
him intently.
“Or in too great a hurry, to say the least,” Laplace
ventured.
“True, gentlemen, I’m carried away with excitement,
but please call in the rest of our colleagues and hear what
I have to say.”
The others soon came and they all gathered about a
162
large round table, and looked up to the sky from time to
time as they waited impatiently for the Russian’s announce-
ment.
3. DISCUSSION OF THE PROJECT
“My friends,” the Russian began, “my idea is most
simple.”
“Judging by appearances, we had expected more,” re-
marked the Italian Galileo, who had already been briefly
informed of the preceding events.
“You know what is meant by the energy of combustion
of different fuels,” the Russian went on. “The combustion
of a ton of petroleum, for example, develops an amount
of work capable of lifting an identical mass to a height
of several thousand kilometres from the surface of the
Earth. A ton and a half of petroleum is capable of im-
parting to a mass of one ton a velocity sufficient to leave
the Earth forever. ...”
“In other words,” the Italian intervened, “a mass of
fuel 50 per cent larger than the mass of a person can im-
part to him a velocity sufficient to leave the Earth and
travel around the Sun....”
“Ivanov has probably invented a giant cannon,” Frank-
lin, the American, declared. “But, firstly, this is not new,
and secondly, it is totally impracticable.”
“We've discussed this at length and long since rejected
the idea,” Newton added.
“Please let me continue!” The Russian said in a vexed
tone. “You’re all wrong.” The others stopped talking and
he continued. “You might call it a cannon, but it’s a fly-
ing cannon, with thin walls and it shoots gases instead of
shells. Have you ever heard of such a cannon?”
“T don’t follow you,” the Frenchman said.
“But it’s so simple, I have in mind a kind of rocket.”
“And that’s all?” the impetuous Italian asked, disappoint-
ed. “A rocket is a mere plaything. You can hardly sur-
11* 163
prise us with that. You don’t mean to say that you want
to penetrate into outer space in a big rocket?”
The others smiled, but Newton pondered while the Rus-
sian replied.
“Yes, in a rocket, but appropriately designed. It may
seem ridiculous and impossible, but strict calculations in-
dicate the contrary.”
Newton listened attentively, the others contemplated
the starry sky.
When they turned to Ivanov again he went on.
“Irrefutable calculations reveal that the blast of an
explosive from a gun barrel of sufficient length can devel-
op a velocity of 6,000 metres per second. If the mass of
the gun is equal to the mass of the ejected gases, the for-
mer will receive an oppositely directed velocity of 4,000
metres a second. If the mass of the explosive is three times
that of the cannon, the latter’s velocity will reach 8,000
metres a second. Finally, if the barrel’s mass is seven
times greater it will attain a per-second velocity of 16,000
metres, which is more than necessary to leave the Earth
and travel around the Sun.”
“The per-second velocity needed for this is 11,700 me-
tres,’ Newton remarked. “But please go on and describe
your rocket.”
“Go on, we're all ears!’ the others exclaimed, Galileo
loudest of all.
“Imagine an egg-shaped capsule. Inside the capsule is
a pipe with an exhaust nozzle, accommodation for myself,
and a stock of propellant explosives. When the propel-
lants burn a gaseous jet escapes through the exhaust noz-
zle. The continuous burning of the propellant and the
ejection of the combustion products with tremendous force
generates a thrust force in the opposite direction which
tends to propel the capsule upwards with mounting ve-
locity. Three cases are possible: the thrust of the gas jet
is insufficient to overcome the weight of the projectile;
the thrust is equal to the weight of the projectile; and the
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thrust is greater than the weight of the projectile. The
first case is of no interest to us because the projectile won't
move or it will fall back if not supported. The only result
will be to reduce its weight. In the second case, it will
lose its weight, that is, it won’t fall if its supports are
removed. In the third and most interesting case, the pro-
jectile will climb upwards.”
“Using oxy-hydrogen gas,” Laplace remarked, “it could
hover in mid-air for 23 minutes and 20 seconds, if the
weight of the propellant is seven times that of the vehicle
and its payload.”
“Quite right! But hovering in the air is of no use to us,
so we won’t consider that case. I'd only like to note that
the apparent gravity inside the vehicle would not change,
that is, all objects would retain their weights.”
“You undoubtedly assume,” Newton intervened, ‘that
your gun stands vertically, muzzle downward?”
“Of course, though it could also be inclined to the hori-
zon. But let us consider the third case. The greater the
exhaust rate of the propellant, the better the perform-
ance of the rocket and the greater its acceleration.
“But then, firstly, the rapidly attained velocity will be lost
due to the resistance of the air during flight through the
atmosphere. Secondly, the gravity inside the vehicle will
increase so much as to crush all living creatures inside.
“Furthermore,” Franklin noted, “the gun would have
to be very strong, therefore its weight would be too
large, which is also a drawback.”
“True enough. I think that a registered pressure ten
times larger than the weight of the projectile and its load
would be sufficient. In this case a person would feel only
ten times heavier than usual. I have invented a device
which will enable him to sustain this load with ease.”
“It would be interesting to hear of this device,” Helm-
holtz ventured.
“You shall, but in due course. To proceed. The projec-
tile will move with acceleration. By the end of the first
165
second its velocity will be 90 metres a second and it will
have climbed to a height of 45 metres. After two seconds
its velocity will have doubled and the path travelled will
have quadrupled. Let me draw a table showing the time,
and the corresponding velocities and distances travelled
by the projectile.”
“Tll do it for you,” Newton said, and wrote three rows
of figures in large characters on a big blackboard:
Seconds 1 2 40 30 100
Velocilies 90 180 900, 2,700 9, 000
Melres > 45 350 4,500 40,500 450, 000
“I don’t approve of such a high rate of acceleration,”
Galileo remarked, studying the table. “True,” he added
after a moment, “in less than a minute the projectile will
already be outside the atmosphere, but it will neverthe-
less lose much because of the drag. It would be preferable
for the initial velocity, the velocity in the air, to be as
low as possible. I would make bold to submit another
table, based on tripled weight.” He walked up to the black-
board and wrote the figures:
Seconds 1 2 10 50 109
Velocities 20 40 200 1, 000 2,000
Metres 10 40 4, 000 20, 000 100, 000
23
“In fifty seconds,” the Italian continued when he had
completed the table, “the projectile will have ascended
25 kilometres, where the resistance of the atmosphere is
negligible, while the speed is still not too high. After es-
caping the atmosphere the thrust force and the accelera-
tion can be increased, but in the air they should be kept
as low as possible.”
“Wonderful!” the Russian exclaimed. “Your remarks
not only reveal your attention, but they are very useful as
well. It goes without saying that I accept them with grat-
itude.” Ivanov paused. “But now imagine the rocket
shooting towards the sky. It moves slowly at first, then
166
faster and faster, till it disappears from sight and loses
all connections with the Earth....”
The others waited for Ivanov to continue, but he was
silent. The lights in the hall had not been lit and a red-
dish Moon that had just risen cast a faint light. The Rus-
sian had fainted. Carried away by his idea, he had worked
for several days without food or sleep and reduced him-
self to a state of extreme exhaustion. The lights were
turned on and everyone leapt into action. Ivanov soon
came round, but the others would not allow him to speak.
Instead they made him drink some wine and eat a little
food. They were all extremely excited, but for their com-
panion’s sake they refrained from discussing the subject.
It was decided to continue the discussion of what now
interested them all on the following day. The Russian was
left in Galileo’s care, with instructions to build up his
strength and get a good sleep.
4. MORE ABOUT THE CASTLE AND ITS INHABITANTS
While the castle and its inhabitants repose in slumber,
let us find out more about them.
Two kilometres from the castle there was a waterfall
which revolved turbines, which in turn drove dynamos, sup-
plying an abundance of electricity. The current was trans-
mitted by wire to the top of the hillock on which the
castle stood. Electricity illumined all the rooms, performed
all manner of chemical and mechanical operations in
the workshops, provided heat when it was cold, ventilated,
pumped water, and did a variety of other jobs which it
would be too tedious to list. It was also used, incidentally,
to prepare the supper with which our friends ended the
day.
At night the castle was ablaze with electric light and
presented a beautiful sight from afar, gleaming like a stel-
lar constellation.
In the daytime, however, it was even more beautiful, with
167
its turrets and domes and terraces. It presented a charm-
ing sight against its background of sunlit hills. At sundown
it glowed as if burning from inside.
The rugged environment was in keeping with the mood
of the castle’s inhabitants. They were all disillusioned,
emotionally shaken people. One had lost a wife in tragic
circumstances, another—his children, others had failed in
politics or had been the victims of outrageous injustices
or human stupidity. City noise and the presence of people
only served to lacerate their wounds. On the other hand,
the majesty of the surrounding hills, the eternally spar-
kling snow-capped peaks, the pure, transparent air, and the
abundance of sunlight soothed and stimulated them.
All eminent scientists of world-wide fame, they were
like thinking machines and, therefore, had much in com-
mon. Suffering and meditation had dulled their emotional
susceptibility and elevated their minds. Affinity to science
drew them together.
Their differences were not characteristic: Newton was
more of a philosopher, a profound thinker and phlegmat-
ic; Franklin inclined to pragmatism and religion; Helm-
holtz had made many discoveries in physics, but at times
he was so absent-minded that he forgot which was his
right hand; he was more of a choleric; Galileo was a zeal-
ous astronomer and an ardent art connoisseur, though for
some reason he inwardly despised his passion for refine-
ment; Laplace was mainly a mathematician, while Ivanov
was a great dreamer, though possessing vast knowledge;
more than the others was he capable of abstract thought,
and it was he who most frequently broached such unusual
subjects as the one discussed by our companions on the
day described.
Contact with the outside world was maintained by huge
metal dirigibles capable of carrying hundreds of tons of
cargo at speeds of one hundred and more kilometres an
hour. For small cargoes and few passengers aeroplanes
were used.
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5. FURTHER DISCUSSION OF THE ROCKET
The following evening the Russian continued his report.
“We see that in a few seconds the projectile will reach
extremely rarefied atmosphere, and several seconds later
will be travelling in total vacuum. Assuming the average
thrust force of the gases to be ten times greater than the
total weight of the rocket and its pay load, we find that,
given the most powerful propellants, it will consume its
entire fuel supply in 160 seconds. By then it will have
risen to an altitude of 1,152 kilometres and attained a
maximum velocity of 14,400 m/sec. This speed is suffi-
cient to carry it away forever not only from the Earth,
but from the Sun as well. All the easier will it be to reach
any planet of our system. From what has been said you
will undoubtedly also realise the difficulties of such an
enterprise. We’ll need air for breathing, but no means
of getting it....”
“We can take a supply of air,” the Italian remarked.
“True, it will soon be exhausted.”
“But sunlight is capable, through the medium of plants, of
purifying the air polluted by breathing,” Helmholtz objected.
“In any case,” the Russian said, “this problem will re-
quire a thorough study before it is put to practice. Now
another question: how are we to return to Earth or land
on another planet? A special reserve of explosives will
be necessary if we hope to remain alive.”
“For some time I’ve been experimenting on the problem
of explosive energy,” Franklin intervened. “I think I’ll be
able substantially to reduce the mass of the propellant by
replacing conventional explosives by new ones.”
“The best of success to you,” the Russian commented.
“Only by joint effort can we hope to put our plan into
effect.”
“In any case, it’s far too risky,” observed the cautious
Newton. “You’ve forgotten about food. You can’t travel
long without food and water.”
169
“I don’t contemplate long journeys at first,’ Ivanov
objected. “A trip to the Moon and back, for instance, can
be made in a week. This disposes of the food question, at
least in the initial stages. Several kilograms of food and
water are of no consequence.
“And so, gentlemen,” he summed up, “let us work togeth-
er on the details of the project. Then we'll experiment
with flights beyond the atmosphere at an altitude of about
500 to 1,000 kilometres.”
“Later we can expand the scope of the experiments,”
Laplace remarked. “I wouldn’t even mind being the first
to fly, once everything is completely worked out, and I’m
convinced the experiment is not dangerous.”
Franklin smiled.
“Anyone would embark on the flight, given such assur-
ances!” he said.
“We'll all fly together with Laplace,” a chorus of voices
echoed. ,
“But meanwhile,” said the Russian, “it wouldn’t be a
bad idea to reproduce in vivid colours the picture of our
trip....”
“I’m a Star-gazing enthusiast,” said Newton, “and Prd
be very happy, with your kind permission, to devote our
evening leisure hours to a series of lectures, which could
be attended by all the inhabitants of the castle who wished
to.”
The company decided unanimously that it was an excel-
lent idea and directed Newton to lead their astronomical
talks.
“But you mustn’t forget,” said Newton, “that your au-
dience will include not only scientists: many other people
in the castle will want to hear you, and some of them don’t
even know the difference betwen a star and a planet.”
“Exactly,” said the Italian. “Your lectures should be
both interesting and popular. Maybe I’ll be able to help
you....”
“And I, and I!” the others exclaimed.
170
+?
“Thank you, gentlemen,” Newton replied.
“Well work during the day,” Helmholtz said, “and in
the evening we shall discuss the unparalleled event.”
“When we have successfully concluded our work, we'll
call a special meeting,” Franklin suggested.
6. NEWTON’S FIRST LECTURE
At dusk the following day they all assembled in the
round hall together with the several people from the
castle who wished to attend the lectures.
Five of the scientists sat at the table, the others occupied
soft couches along the walls.
“The planet inhabited by mankind,” Newton began, “rep-
resents a sphere with a circumference of 40,000 kilome-
tres. A person walking 40 kilometres a day would take a
thousand days, or about three years, to circle it.”
“The speed of modern steamships and railway trains,”
Franklin remarked, “makes it possible to reduce the time
it takes to journey round the world twenty-four times. Ac-
tually, it is possible to average 40 kilometres an hour
instead of a day and to circumnavigate the globe in 42
days.”
“But what supports this enormous sphere?” one of the
workers exclaimed.
“The sphere rests on nothing and is supported by noth-
ing,” Galileo replied. “It hurtles through the ether like
a balloon driven by the wind.
“The globe is a double magnet. The first magnetism di-
rects the magnetic needle of the compass; the second mag-
netism is called gravity. It is the latter that holds on to
every object on the Earth’s surface: the oceans, the at-
mosphere, people. If it were not for gravity, the air, thanks
to its ability to expand, would long since have escaped
from the Earth. Similarly, a single leap would carry a
person away forever and make him a free body in the
ether.”
171
“What is this ether? Is it like the ether we have in our
clinic?” another worker asked with a smile.
“Oh, no!” said Helmholtz. “It’s something in the na-
ture of air, only extremely elastic and rarefied. The nature
of ether is still very much of a mystery.* It is a medium
which fills the whole of space and through which light
travels. Thanks to it we can see near and distant objects,
if they are large and bright enough. Without it we’d be
unable to see the Sun or the stars....
“.,. If we were to line up all the people on Earth one
metre away from each other, they would girdle the globe
200 times.’’**
“Only? But I thought there were 5,000 million people
on the Earth,” someone remarked.
“Quite right,” Newton said. “So you can imagine the
immensity of the Earth compared with man, who rightly
judges of the greatness of nature in relation to himself.
“If humanity were evenly distributed over the whole
surface of the Earth, in hot and cold countries, on seas
and lands alike, the closest neighbours would be more
than one thousand metres apart. They would hardly be
able conveniently to engage in conversation. The quanti-
tative insignificance of man is even more striking: if his
aggregate mass were pulverised and spread evenly all
over the globe it would make a layer some 1/23,000th of
a millimetre thick, i.e., one-thousandth the thickness of a
sheet of tissue-paper.”
“The slightest breeze would waft him away,’
operator exclaimed.
“The Earth, man’s heritage, is beautiful,” Galileo inter-
an engine
* Some scientists even deny its existence. See also K. E. Tsiol-
kovsky, The Kinetic Theory of Light (The Density of Ether and Its
Properties). Publication of Kaluga Society for Natural Studies and
Local Lore, 1919.—Ed.
** The story was begun 20 years ago. Later, when I altered it to
move the events 100 years away, I made the population 5,000 mil-
lions. The result was a discrepancy which I omitted to amend. (The
author’s note was supplied in 1927,—Ed.)
172
vened. “But if he were told: go and survey your domain,
how long do you think it would take him?”
“We don’t know,” voices exclaimed.
“If he were to survey only the dry land, which occu-
pies about one-quarter of the Earth’s surface, and if it
took him a second to inspect every hectare, it would take
him 400 or 500 years!”
“I was sure that a lifetime wouldn’t be enough to see
the whole world,” one worker commented.
“And you were right!” Newton said. “But imagine then
how great the mass or volume of the Earth is! If someone
were to knead the globe into spheres of equal size and
give one to every person, including, of course, women and
children, what would be the size of such a globule?”
“It would undoubtedly be a large chunk,” someone ven-
tured,
“It would be a whole planet 11.75 kilometres in dia-
meter,” said Laplace.
“Its surface would be 380 square kilometres,” Newton
added.
“Why, that’s as much as a whole German principality,”
the Russian commented. “There would be sufficient elbow-
room on it!”
“There are other ways of showing man’s insignificance
as compared with the planet,” Newton continued. ‘‘Pic-
ture to yourself the Earth and everything on it reduced
to the scale, say, of 1/10,000th. We would have a
sphere 1,260 metres in diameter, and on it a pygmy 1/5th
of a millimetre in height. And that would be the tallest
inhabitant of the Earth.”
“He could drown in a sea the depth of a grain of sand,”
Helmholtz added.
“The atmosphere would be 20 metres high and the tall-
est mountains only 85 centimetres. The oceans would be
only slightly deeper.”
“But that is sufficiently noticeable,’ someone remarked.
“Take a smaller scale,” Galileo said, “and you would
173
discern neither mountains nor oceans. Picture the Earth
as a ball 12.5 centimetres across, and the tallest moun-
tains and deepest seas would be represented by uneven
patches of 0.1 of a millimetre, the thickness of a sheet
of writing paper.”
“Which means that our globe is pretty well ironed out,”
joked a turner.
“Yes,” Newton answered, “provided one travels far
enough from the Earth for its apparent size to be 12.5
centimetres.”
It was getting late and so they decided to separate until
the following evening.
7. THE SECOND LECTURE
The sky was unusually clear when the population of
the castle assembled for their evening talk. Although hard-
ly an hour had passed since sundown, the sky sparkled
with stars. There was no Moon: it rose late.
“See how many stars there are!” said the Russian, point-
ing to the sky which could be observed very well through
the polished glass dome,
In good weather a portion of the ceiling could be opened.
This was done now, letting in the pure mountain air which
brought a pleasant coolness after the hot day.
“I wonder what the stars are made of,” one man asked
after staring at the sky for a while.
“Let us first discuss the Sun and Earth,” Newton sug-
gested. “Then we’ll be able to understand what the stars
are. The previous lecture gave us a fairly vivid idea of
the tremendous bulk of the Earth. Now I want to give
you an idea of the size of the Sun. The Sun is a fiery globe
which could be made into 1,280,000 fiery globules the
size of the Earth.”
“Some globules!” one of the listeners observed.
“But why does it seem so small?” another asked.
174
“Because of its terrific distance from us,” Galileo an-
swered. “It is 150 million kilometres distant from the Earth.”
“And yet at that distance it can feel so hot!’ someone
exclaimed incredulously.
“That is hardly surprising, if we take into account its
size,” Newton replied. “Its diameter is 108 times that of
the Earth. So if we pictured the Earth as a ball 12.5 cen-
timetres across, the Sun would be a sphere 14 metres in
diameter, the height of a five-storied building! But in spite
of the difference in their volume, the Earth and the Sun
are, in effect, almost identical....”
Galileo interrupted him. “I’m afraid you're exagger-
ating,” he said.
“I know,” Newton replied. “My listeners haven’t quite
understood me.”
“It does seem strange,” one of the men said. “The Sun
is an immense burning-hot body while the Earth is a com-
paratively tiny cold, dark ball.”
“That’s so, but not quite,” Newton remarked. “The
thing is that this little ball is still terribly hot inside. There
was a time when the Earth sparkled and shone like a little
sun, and the time may yet come when the Sun will cool
down like the Earth.”
“God forbid,” the listeners sighed.
“The Earth is a tiny cooled sun, while the Sun is an
enormous Earth which hasn’t cooled yet only because of
its size.”
“Impossible!” the listeners exclaimed.
“Yet this is not only possible but quite obvious,” the
lecturer observed. ‘‘Firstly, the Earth still retains its in-
ternal heat. Secondly, what, in fact, is soil, what are gran-
ites and the overlying sedimentary rocks? They are all
products of the combustion of metals, gases and metal-
loids. The Earth is covered with ash and is composed of
ash. This all points to the huge conflagrations which once
raged on Earth. Gases burned, and the purest metals and
metalloids burned.”
175
“And the very water of the oceans,” Galileo interjected,
“is merely a product of the combustion of hydrogen in
oxygen. We are surrounded with ash: the rocks are ash,
water is ash, the mountains are ash. The incombustible
remnants are negligible. They exist, but are concealed in
the depths of the Earth and are inaccessible to us. Man
tries to extract his incinerated property from the ash in-
herited by him. He mines gold, silver, iron, aluminium
and many other things for his needs, but how paltry are
his gains!”
“As for the Sun,” Newton continued, “it will continue
to glow for a very long time, yet there already appear on
its surface huge cinders the size of the Earth, and many
scientists think that one day the Sun will be extinguished.”
“How awful! When will that happen?”
“The demise of the Sun will occur in at most several
tens of millions of years....”
“Oh!” the audience sighed with relief, “that means nei-
ther we nor our children have anything to fear.”
It had grown quite dark. The air was pure and countless
stars twinkled overhead.
“All those stars are actually suns,’ Newton said.
“Enormous, blazing suns not inferior to the luminary
which sustains organic life on our Earth.”
“And I thought there was only one Sun,” a fitter re-
marked with naive surprise.
“If you undertook to count the stars, you would count
not more than five thousand suns.”
“But why does the number of stars on a dark night
seem infinite?” the listeners asked.
“We feel this instinctively,” the Russian said, “and our
impression is not wholly unjustified.”
“Precisely,” Newton confirmed. “The better the glass
at our disposal, the more stars can we see. The best tele-
scopes reveal as many as 200 million stars. ...”
“Two hundred million suns!’ several voices repeated.
“Incredible!”
176
“You will realise the magnitude of this number if in-
stead of every star visible to the naked eye you imagine
40,000 suns, that is, eight times more than are immediate-
ly apparent in both hemispheres of the sky.”
“In which case,” Laplace put in, “we would have 10,000
stars on a patch of the sky the size of the Moon, and each
of them would be a distant sun.”
“Look at that bright red star,” an engine operator ex-
claimed. “That must be a terribly big sun.”
“Why, that’s Mars,” Galileo said. “A paltry planet like
the Earth, one of the tiny cooled suns that we call planets.
It is not self-luminous, like fire, and shines only thanks
to the reflected light of our Sun. It is brighter than the
stars because of its nearness to the Earth: the mere 70
million kilometres separating us is nothing on the scale
of interstellar distances.”
“Are there many such planets among the true suns?”
asked a listener from the seats by the wall.
“There are seven planets visible to the naked eye in
both hemispheres of the sky. In telescopes more than 600
can be observed. The seven big ones are called planets,
the others, planetoids.”
“Is that all?” someone asked incredulously, “considering
the multitude of stars that is rather strange.”
“You forget their small size and their obscurity,” Gali-
leo said. “That is why we see so few of them. We can
See only the nearest planets belonging to our solar sys-
tem and travelling round the Sun like the Earth, the eighth
major planet. If our Sun has more than 600 planets, we
may well assume that other suns have planets, too. But
how can we see them if the enormous distances make suns
themselves nothing more than glimmering pinpoints! Most
of them can’t be seen at all.”
“Assuming,” Galileo said, “that each sun has an aver-
age of at least 600 planets—for our Sun is no better than
any other—the total number of planets should be not less
than 80,000 millions.”
12—761 177
“Which means,” Laplace remarked, “that every person
could receive a gift of 16 planets, some of which would
be larger than the Earth.
“But who is to guarantee that with our weak eyes and
our puny instruments, we See all the actually existing
stars? If we see 200 million suns and presume the exist-
ence of 80,000 million planets, what, then is the number
of suns and planets invisible to us?”
The population of the castle used the French language
for communication. At first there had been a violent con-
troversy over the common tongue to be used, but it was
finally decided that it should be the simplest and most con-
cise. An investigation was carried out, and French was
found to meet the requirements. All mute letters were dis-
carded and a phonetic orthography was introduced with
each sound being written just as it is pronounced.
8. ATMOSPHERIC ROCKET TESTS
The lectures were discontinued for a while because
our scientists were completely absorbed in the Russian’s
project.
Franklin invented a propellant 100 times more efficient
than anything known. Recurrent blasts shook his laboratory
and piercing hissing sounds and screaches often frightened
the peaceful inhabitants of the castle. Newton and Lap-
lace were engaged in endless computations. They wrote
long rows of figures and formulas, whispered mysteriously
and meaningfully together, sometimes ejaculating loudly
as if in heated argument. Helmholtz worked on problems
of life in ethereal space and elaborated breathing and feed-
ing systems.
The Russian consulted one or the other and drew blue-
prints and travel plans. Galileo was all eagerness, and to-
gether with Ivanov he worked on a model of a celestial
vehicle. There were setbacks at first and they had to go
178
from models back to drawings and computations, then on
again to models. A month passed in this manner. They
met in the glass hall daily, but outsiders were not al-
lowed in.
The day finally came when our scientists brought their
researches to a happy conclusion.
Everything was abustle in the workshop where the
strange vehicle, in which our companions planned to visit
the Moon, was being assembled. They decided to test the
projectile in a high shed where it was held securely to a
frame, Let us follow our companions into the well-lit shed
and have a look at their vehicle and the experiment.
The vehicle was a 20-metre long cigar-shaped metal
structure 2 metres in cross-section standing on end. Nu-
merous portholes let in a sufficient amount of light. Three
pipes ran down along its walls, protruding at the lower
end. There were many mechanisms partially shielded by
metal casings and large tanks of strange liquids. When
mixed they produced a continuous, uniform blast the prod-
ucts of which escaped with tremendous force through the
pipe nozzles in the lower part of the projectile. A row of
knobs and numerous dials were intended for steering the
projectile and varying the thrust. The other parts will be
described in due course.
Franklin, Ivanov and Galileo entered the vehicle, while
Laplace, Helmholtz and Newton retreated to a safe dis-
tance, where they kept glancing from their watches to the
projectile. An explosion thundered forth followed by a
deafening roar. The vehicle shuddered and rose as high
as its tethers would allow. The spectators outside shouted
something, their eyes sparkling, but words were drowned
by the noise. Ten minutes passed and the party inside con-
tacted their companions by telephone and congratulated
them on the success of the enterprise. The experiment
went on. For another ten minutes the rocket continued to
hover and then slowly descended. Ivanov and Franklin
climbed out and without a word threw themselves into
12° 179
the arms of their friends. They were followed by the tardy
Italian, who declared that only 1/100th of the propellant
taken for the experiment had been expended.
The next test—of the controllability of the projectile—
had to be conducted in public, which was inconvenient in
the cramped space of the shed.
It was decided to set the vehicle up in the courtyard
and observe its manoeuvres there. This time the English-
man, German and Frenchman boarded it. The spectators
gathered a short distance away, behind a low fence sur-
rounding the projectile, which gleamed in the sun like a
mirror. Many were not aware of the actual purpose of the
rocket and thought that it was only for meteorological
research in the upper layers of the atmosphere.
The three friends took their seats inside and nervously
awaited the time scheduled for the flight. Helmholtz shiv-
ered slightly; tense silence reigned. Newton had his hand
on the lever controlling the rate of combustion and the
thrust generated by the ejected gases. Laplace was to
steer the rocket, while Helmholtz looked on, ready to re-
place either of them in case of need.
The long-waited moment arrived, and Newton shifted
the lever.‘Laplace had set his lever in advance, and the
projectile began very slowly to climb.
“Gentlemen, the rocket is behaving excellently,” Helm-
holtz exclaimed joyfully. It was all he could do to retain
his composure. “Weve climbed 100 metres. Now stop
the motion!”
Newton shifted his lever and the rocket stopped mov-
ing, although the gases continued to escape with tremen-
dous force. After a few seconds of hovering flight Newton
suggested that they accelerate their upward motion, in
which case their apparent weight inside the vehicle would
double, i.e., each would weigh from 128 to 160 kilograms.
The safety of this test had been established in the course
of the preliminary research. His companions had no objec-
tions, and they sat back more firmly in their seats. New-
180
ton moved the lever. They all grew pale. The cushioned
seats sagged beneath their increased weight.
“Gentlemen, I can’t stand any more,” Laplace pleaded
after 20 seconds. ‘‘That’s enough, please!” he entreated
looking up comically from the depths of the seat into
which his increased weight had pushed him. Newton turned
the lever to end the test with a hand weighted down
by the increased gravity. When they felt well again they
all hastened to their feet and peered out of the portholes.
“We've flown the devil of a distance away,” Helmholtz
remarked with annoyance. The castle and surrounding
buildings could hardly be seen in the distance.
“Not the devil of a distance but only two kilometres,”
Laplace remarked, glancing at the barometer.
“If we had taken precautions about breathing,’ said
Newton, “in ten minutes we could have risen to an alti-
tude of 1,800 kilometres. But now we must think of return-
ing immediately, otherwise in several seconds we'll suf-
focate in the rarefied atmosphcre, for the rocket is trav-
elling at a rate of 200 metres a second.”
While Newton spoke they had climbed another kilometre
and began to gasp for air. Newton stopped the burning of
the propellant. At the Same instant they lost their weight,
each becoming lighter than a speck of dust. It was a curi-
ous sensation, but as they continued to coast upwards
and had to struggle more and more for breath they had
no desire to make observations. After climbing another two
kilometres the vehicle stopped as if uncertain of the course
to follow and began to descend exclusively under the
force of gravity. The state of weightlessness continued,
but after 20 seconds the rocket’s fall was retarded, and
several seconds later a series of blasts brought it lightly
to rest on its pad in the castle courtyard. During those 20
seconds they were again pinned down to their seats by the
increased weight. l
181
9. ANOTHER ASTRONOMICAL LECTURE
Our scientists’ success was complete and they decided
to undertake a flight beyond the atmosphere.
They marked the occasion by gathering in the round
hall for a third lecture at which they informed the public
of the vehicle for flight in ethereal space.
After briefly describing the projectile, Newton said:
“Now, with the promise of interplanetary flight, astron-
omy should be of special interest to us. We learned at our
previous lectures that the visible universe of stars, or suns,
contains not less than 80,000 million planets. In our own
solar system we know for sure of the existence of over 600
planets. In view of our forthcoming journeys, it would be
interesting to consider the distances of the planets from the
Sun and the Earth. Can we cover these distances? Moreover,
is a human life long enough to undertake such journeys.
“Our closest celestial neighbour is the Moon. The Moon
is a child of the Earth, just as the Earth and the six hun-
dred other planets, including the major planets, are chil-
dren of the Sun.”
“Which means,” a voice from the audience remarked,
“that the Moon is a grandchild of the Sun.”
“Exactly,” Galileo agreed. “But the Sun has many other
grandchildren as well: the moons of other planets. Jupiter,
for example, has eight moons, eight children, and all of
them, like our Moon, are grandchildren of the Sun.”
“Let us discuss the Moon,” Newton continued. “It is
380,000 kilometres from the Earth. Travelling in our space
vehicle at an average of five kilometres a second, we could
reach it in 76,000 seconds, that is, less than a day.”
“There’s the Moon rising,” said one of the listeners. “One
could probably fly to it in a balloon or an aeroplane... .”
“Yes,” Ivanov replied, “if the atmosphere extended that
high! But even then it would take a thousand days, or
about three years, because we can’t travel in air as fast
as in a vacuum.”
182
“The atmosphere, however,” Laplace remarked, “envel-
opes the Earth like the skin of an orange, i.e., to an insig-
nificant height. It is very light, diaphanous attire.”
“The atmosphere extends to an altitude of 300 kilo-
metres,” Franklin went on to explain. “But at a height of
ten kilometres it is already so rarefied that a man is un-
able to breathe and would inevitably perish.
“At the very most, the atmosphere reaches to not more
than 1/1,000th of the distance to the Moon and, naturally,
it can’t be used for flying to the Moon in a balloon.”
“Ts that so!” the same listener exclaimed. “I always
thought that not only the Moon but the stars, too, were
floating in our atmosphere.”
“The stars are too far away!” another listener remarked.
“Yes,” Newton confirmed. “The nearest star is our Sun,
and it is 150 million kilometres away. You can imagine
how far off the other suns must be if we see them as mere
glittering specks though some of them are actually much
brighter than the Sun.”
“Flying in our vehicle at a speed of 10 kilometres a
second,” Franklin said, “we could reach the Sun in
15,000,000 seconds, or less than half a year. The distance
to the planets of our solar system can also be expressed
in terms of years and, if we discount difficulties other than
time, it would be quite feasible to reach them in our vehicle.”
“The planets of other suns, however, are inaccessible to
us,” Helmholz remarked. “The human span of life would
be too short to reach them in.”
“In fact,” the Russian said, “the second closest star (a)
of the constellation Centaurus, is 38,000 million kilometres
away. It would take about 12,000 years to cover this dis-
tance, even travelling at 100 kilometres a second, which
is a feasible speed. If a Jarge company embarked on such
a journey, only the four-hundredth generation would ar-
rive at that sun.” ,
“What a pity,” Galileo exclaimed, “that those 80,000
183
million planets which Newton mentioned are forever inac-
cessible to us!”
“Indeed it is,’ said Ivanov, “but don’t forget that hu-
manity is immortal and 12,000 years is nothing to it. So
even if those suns and planets are not our inheritance,
they may become the inheritance of mankind as a whole.”
“And yet,” Newton observed, “the Sun with its planets
and their satellites are more important to us, for we can
settle them while we can only dream of other suns and
their planets. Here is a scale model of our planetary sys-
tem. The scale is 1/1,000,000,000th. Imagine a fiery
sphere 139 centimetres in diameter—the Sun. Revolving
round it in approximately the same plane are the planets
and their moons. The nearer to the Sun the greater their
speed. The nearest and fastest is Mercury. In our model
it is shown as a ball five millimetres in diameter (a small
pea) and 58 metres from the Sun. Next comes Venus,
represented by a 12-millimetre ball (the size of a hazel-
nut) 105 metres from the Sun.”
“And there’s Venus itself,” Galileo interrupted, point-
ing to the West where a bright star gleamed in the gather-
ing dusk.
“Venus shines brighter than any other star,” Laplace
remarked.
“I once even observed it in daytime, when the Sun was
shining,” said Franklin. “Mercury and Venus can be seen
either in the West or in the East. Mercury is the more
difficult to observe because it is very close to the Sun
and sets almost immediately after it.”
“Let us continue,’ Newton said. “After Venus, at a
distance of 148 metres from the central body, we have
the Earth, a nut 13 millimetres across.”
“At last!” one of the listeners remarked. “You’ve re-
duced the Earth almost to the other planets.”
“It was not my intention to belittle the Earth,” Newton
replied. “That is how nature has made it and you'll have
noticed that it is larger than the first two planets. The
184
next planet is Mars, represented by a pea 6.5 millimetres
in diameter. It travels more slowly than the Earth because
it is farther away—227 metres. Look there! See that bright
red star in the East? It has already risen fairly high.
That’s Mars. It has two satellites, tiny specks too small for
our scale, which circle it with terrific speed and at the
same time travel about the Sun together with their
primary.”
“You've forgotten the Earth’s Moon,” Laplace broke in.
“The Moon is the most accessible to us, and therefore the
most interesting body. Our exploration of celestial bodies
will start from the Moon.”
“That’s so,” Newton agreed. “Our Moon is represented
by a millet seed 3.5 millimetres across and 38 centimetres
from the Earth. It revolves round the Earth and together
with it round the Sun, like the other planets and their
satellites.
“Beyond Mars we find more than 600 planets represent-
ed by tiny poppy seeds and specks of dust. They vary
widely in size but all are very small. They form a rather
tightly packed belt, which, however, doesn’t prevent them
from moving uniformly in one direction around the Sun.
Beyond this swarm of planets we find the largest planet
of all, Jupiter, represented by a big apple or a small melon
14 centimetres across. The Earth looks puny by compar-
ison, for we could make 1,390 terrestrial globes from the
material of Jupiter.
“It’s the biggest planet, and in our scale it will be 750
metres from the Sun. It has eight satellites the size of
millet and poppy seeds.”
“The nearest one,” Laplace remarked, “is a speck of
dust.”
“And with this planet,” Newton said, bowing to his
audience, “allow me to end my narrative.”
Everyone thanked the lecturer and, after wishing each
other good night, they separated.
185
10. PREPARING FOR FLIGHT ROUND THE EARTH
The lectures, however, were discontinued: our scien-
tists were so engrossed in their space vehicle that they
lost interest in instructing their audience in the celestial
sciences. They decided to carry out a flight beyond the
atmosphere as soon as possible. The vehicle was hermet-
ically sealed and filled with pure oxygen (without nitro-
gen) to one-tenth of atmospheric pressure, or half the
pressure of the oxygen of the air. This made breathing
easy while at the same time avoiding the overstimulation
produced by the inhalation of oxygen of atmospheric pres-
sure. Furthermore, the low internal gas pressure enabled
the rocket hull to be made comparatively thin. It was
planned to take a large stock of substances, by mixing
which oxygen could be produced. Carbon-dioxide and
other human refuse would be absorbed in the vehicle by
alkalies and other preparations, thus continually purifying
the atmosphere of the capsule polluted by breathing.
The daily requirement per person of these substances
for breathing purposes was about 10 kilograms.
Since in the unusual flight conditions a person might
easily lose his presence of mind and fail to operate the
necessary controls, it was decided to develop an automatic
pilot which would shift the various switches at the re-
quired time and steer the rocket at the correct speed and
in the right direction.
By common consent it was decided to feed the follow-
ing instructions into the automatic pilot: the rocket would
take off parallel to the plane of the equator at an angle
of 25° to the horizon in the direction of the Earth’s rota-
tion. During the first 10 seconds its velocity would in-
crease rapidly to 500 metres. In passing through the atmos-
phere the rate of the acceleration would be low until the
air was sufficiently rarefied. With the Earth’s atmosphere
left behind the velocity would again increase rapidly, the
direction of flight gradually changing until, at an altitude
186
of 1,000 kilometres, the rocket would enter into circular
orbit. The speed at that point should be such as to keep
the vehicle in a circular path about the globe without
approaching it. The automatic pilot, of course, could be
switched off or reset.
11. ETERNAL SPRING. THE COMPOUND ROCKET.
PREPARATIONS AND SUPPLIES
Time flew swiftly. There was much work to be done,
many tests to be carried out and there were many more
setbacks. Much time was spent on improving the injector,
a device for feeding the two liquid propellants into the
combustion chamber, where they exploded on contact. The
temperature was enormous, and it was hard to find mate-
rials which would be both refractory and durable. Ordi-
nary pumps were unsuitable because they required a high
driving power, and consequently an engine capacity which
the rocket did not possess. A possible design was that of
a Giffard steam-jet pump (injector) in which the work was
done by the propellant itself. Unlike conventional rockets,
their projectile required an injector. In conventional rock-
ets the pressure of the combustion gases acts on the
propellant storage tanks, which therefore have to be thick-
walled and very heavy. When the propellant supply is
small a rocket can climb and fly even with heavy tanks.
With an enormous propellant supply the tanks had to be
relieved of pressure to reduce their weight. This could
be achieved only if pumps or injectors were employed.
During the initial tests, when the flights were of short
duration, it was possible to do without them. It was also
necessary to find suitable materials for the exhaust pipes,
the rocket skin and other parts. Much time went into per-
fecting the controls, the temperature and air-breathing reg-
ulators, etc. At long last the date was fixed for a flight
beyond the atmosphere, round the Earth.
187
At an altitude of three or four kilometres the sultry
climate of tropical countries, which is so oppressive in
lowlands lying close to sea level, turns into eternal spring,
with its mildness, sunlight and stable weather conditions.
This was the sort of the locality where our anchorets lived.
There were very many clear days and an abundance of
light, the air was dry and the temperature even, generally
10-15°C lower than at sea level. The temperature ranged
from 10 to 20°C in the shade during the day-time, drop-
ping considerably at night. But then, at night they hardly
ever worked in the open, preferring to find jobs indoors,
where it was warm. Thanks to perpetual spring, people
could work all the year round in the shade of trees or
awnings. They had to shield themselves from the sun, for
it was much more intense than down in the low valleys,
and more liable to produce a sunstroke.
* * *
From the simple rocket they proceeded to the compound
rocket made up of several simple ones. The complete set-
up represented an elongated, streamlined body, 100 me-
tres long and 4 metres across and resembling a mammoth
spindle. It was divided by lateral partitions into 20 sec-
tions, each of which constituted a self-contained rocket-
propelled apparatus, i.e., each section carried a supply of
propellants, a combustion chamber with a self-operating
injector, an exhaust nozzle, etc. There was a middle sec-
tion which had no propulsion motors and served as a com-
partment. It was 20 metres long and 4 metres in diameter.
The injectors were designed for continuously feeding
the propellants at an even rate into the combustion pipe,
and they were similar in operation to Giffard’s steam in-
jectors. The compound-rocket construction made it pos-
sible to achieve comparatively low weight combined with
tremendous thrust. The combustion pipes formed coils
which expanded gradually towards the exhaust nozzle.
Some of the coils wound athwart the rocket, others were
188
wound longitudinally. By revolving in two mutually per-
pendicular planes the exhaust gases gave the rocket great-
er stability. It did not yaw and pitch like a poorly guided
vessel but flew straight as an arrow. The exhaust nozzles,
which projected along the sides of the rocket, were all
pointed in almost the same direction, forming a spiral
about the circumference of the rocket.
The combustion chambers, injectors and exhaust pipes
were made of extremely refractory and durable substances,
such as tungsten. A motor was encased in a chamber
through which flowed one of the propellants. The evapo-
ration of the liquid kept it sufficiently cool. The other
liquid was kept in isolated tanks. The rocket skin consist-
ed of three layers. The inside layer was of a strong metal,
with portholes of quartz covered over with a layer of or-
dinary glass, and air-tight doors. The second was a refrac-
tory layer with very low heat conductivity. The outside
layer was a fairly thin but very refractory metal shell.
During the rocket’s acceleration through the atmosphere
the external shell would heat to a white glow, but the
heat would be radiated into surrounding space without
penetrating inside. Inward radiation was prevented by a
gas coolant continuously circulating between the outside
and inside layers through the porous, low heat-conductive
middle layer. The thrust was controlled by a complex sys-
tem of injectors. The combustion could be started or
stopped at will. These and other devices made it possible
to change the direction of the exhaust and the orientation
of the rocket’s axis.
The interior temperature was controlled by a system of
valves regulating the flow of the gas coolant through the
middle layer of the rocket walls. Oxygen for breathing
was supplied from special reservoirs, Other devices were
designed for absorbing the waste products of the skin and
lungs, and they too could be adjusted to suit the passen-
gers’ needs. There were compartments containing supplies
of food and water. There were special suits to be worn
189
for emerging into vacuum space or the hostile atmosphere
of strange planets. There were numerous general- and
special-purpose tools and irstruments. There were tanks
of water to accommodate the travellers during periods of
increased relative gravity. Submerged in the water, they
were provided with spevial breathing pipes protruding
into the rocket’s atmosphere. The water offset any increase
in weight during the short period of acceleration. In
such a tank a person could move his limbs as freely as
on Earth without any sense of burden, like a swimmer
or like the olive oil in wine in Platos experiment. This
ease and freedom of inotion made it possible to operate all
the rocket contrcls freely, to keep control of the tempera-
ture, thrust force, direction of flight, etc. For this, levers
and switches were submerged in the water. Furthermore,
there was a special automatic pilot which could operate
all the rocket controls for several minutes. During that
time there was no need to look after the controls, which
operated by themselves according to commands fed to
them in advance. The supplies included seeds of various
fruits, vegetables and sereals to be planted in special green-
houses which would be erected in outer space from pre-
fabricated structural elements.
The volume of the rocket was about 800 cubic metres.
It could have carried 800 tons of water. Less than a third
of this volume (240 tons) was occupied by the two liquid
propellants discovered by Franklin. This quantity was suf-
ficient for 50 accelerations of the rocket to the velocity
required to escape from the solar system forever and for
50 corresponding decelerations. Such was the propulsive
power of the fuels. The rocket proper with all its accesso-
ries weighed 40 tons. The supplies, instruments and green-
house elements weighed 30 tons. The passengers and every-
thing else weighed less than 10 tons. Thus, the weight of
the rocket and the pay load was one-third of the weight of
the propellants. The living quarters, i.e., the sections filled
with rarefied oxygen, occupied a volume of about 400 cu-
190
bic metres. It was decided that 20 people would embark
on the flight. Each would be provided with 20 cubic me-
tres of living space which, with the atmosphere being con-
tinually purified, was quite adequate. The 21 compartments
were connected by small passages. The average volume
of each compartment was about 32 cubic metres, half of
which was occupied by the necessary furnishings, equip-
ment and the propellants, leaving 16 cubic metres of free
space. The middle compartments were larger and provided
excellent quarters for one person. One compartment in the
broadest section of the rocket was 20 metres long and
served as a drawing-room. All the compartments had port-
holes provided with inside and outside shutters.
12. ATTITUDE OF THE OUTSIDE WORLD. LOCATION OF
THE ROCKET
The outside world had been totally unaware of our scien-
tists’ plans. The newspapers had kept silent, and the scien-
tists had said nothing. These events took place in the year
2017. But even then there were secluded places, remote
nooks from which hardly any news leaked to the greater
world. The whole population of the community consisted
of the personnel, workers and associates of the scientists,
and none of them cared for publicity.
The rocket site was not far from the castle, on a slope
with a gradient of 25° or 30° to the horizon. It was open
to observation from airships and aeroplanes which often
carried cargoes and passengers over the area. In many
respects it was like the case of the Wright brothers more
than a century earlier: Europe and the world began to
believe in them only after two years, and although many
train passengers had seen the brothers flying their aero-
plane, people had refused to give credit to the stories of
eyewitnesses. i
191
13. THE SEND-OFF. LOCKED IN THE ROCKET.
THE DEPARTURE. FIRST IMPRESSIONS
Newton, Laplace, Franklin and Ivanov were chosen for
the flight. The crew also included 16 workers handpicked
to perform all the duties required to man the rocket. The
whole community came to see the travellers off. Long be-
fore launching time a crowd surrounded the rocket. The
weather was fine and the sun shone brightly. True, there
was nothing extraordinary in this as it was the usual weath-
er for the locality. The air was dry, crisp and invigor-
ating. The dryness of the region made it necessary for
the castle’s inhabitants to irrigate their fields, orchards
and gardens. There were many waterfalls and rapid moun-
tain streams from which water was diverted to the
orchards and cultivated fields. The rocket stood amidst
attractive fruit trees, and stately sequoias towered a short
way off. Good wishes and embraces were exchanged and
to the excited shouts of the crowd all twenty travellers
boarded the rocket. They sealed the openings hermetically
and switched on the electric lights. The double shutters
were drawn and the men submerged themselves in the
water tanks. They breathed through the breathing pipes
and could move their hands freely and steer the vehicle
with the help of levers submerged in the water. Newton’s
job was to control the thrust in the exhaust pipes; Lap-
lace was to steer the rocket and also to neutralise any rota-
tional motion that might appear; Franklin looked after the
air conditioning; Ivanov looked after other things and
everything. He could communicate with his companions,
and they among themselves, through a system of voice
pipes. The other sixteen men could only inform one of the
head-workers of their needs, the latter, if necessary, passed
the information on to Ivanov. This time Ivanov was
elected to supervise the flight.
` “Gentlemen,” he inquired. “Can we start our flight? Is
everything in order? Are you all ready?”
Everything was reported to be in order and the passen-
192
gers ready. Ivanov shifted a lever, as he had done before.
A series of blasts could be heard which soon turned into
a monotonous deafening roar. The passengers’ ears were
protected by the earpieces and the layer of water, other-
wise their eardrums would not have withstood it. Electric
light penetrated through small windows in the coffin-like
tanks where our friends lay submerged in water. The ‘‘de-
ceased” were lively enough, however, and they looked
about them unperturbed, examining the familiar walls of
the rocket and the cabinets and instruments which they
themselves had attached.
“Gentlemen,” Ivanov informed them, “the relative grav-
ity is now ten times greater than terrestrial gravity. Some
of you now weigh 650 or 800 kilograms. Do you feel the
difference? Does anyone feel any pain or discomfort?”
“All is fine! An excellent bath! Complete relaxation! No
change in weight! Complete freedom of motion! Simply
wonderful!” a chorus of reassuring and even happy voices
responded.
Several seconds passed.
“It’s hot, the breathing air’s too hot!” one rather stout
worker complained.
Ivanov passed the complaint on to Franklin who turned
a switch to accelerate the circulation of the gas coolant.
The temperature dropped.
Several more seconds passed.
“It’s getting cold,” someone complained.
This was also rectified. All complaints were immediately
dealt with: at one point it became hard to breathe because
of the accumulation of carbon dioxide; then the rocket
began to rotate about its longitudinal axis and the weaker
passengers felt giddy. No one complained, however, when
there was an excess of oxygen, but this was not allowed
just as drinking is not allowed, even though it enlivened
everybody. l
The thrust was not constant, since considerations of
economy in regard to the propellants—their energy reserve
13—761 193
—called for a strict, previously computed sequence of
gas pressures to be maintained. This was effected automat-
ically. As a result the relative gravity changed continual-
ly. No one noticed this, however, nor could they have done,
thanks to the water in which they were submerged, which
had the same density as the average density of their bodies.
Only several poorly secured objects fell off the walls.
However no one heard them fall because of the roar and
din of the rocket motors.
14. ON THE EARTH. LECTURES IN THE CASTLE
Let us leave our companions to continue their flight and
return to the castle’s inhabitants who had gathered to see
them off. The crowd saw the rocket lurch forward and
gather speed at an angle to the horizon. Many started
back in fright. All were deafened by the roar, but it sub-
sided rapidly as the rocket climbed higher and higher,
heading towards the east, in the direction of the Earth’s
rotation about its axis. In ten seconds it had covered five
kilometres and was travelling with a spead of 1,000 me-
tres per second. It could hardly be seen through a power-
ful field-glass, and then only thanks to the fact that it had
begun to glow from air friction. Actually it disappeared
from sight almost instantaneously. A deafening roar mount-
ed steadily and then grew weaker. Peals of thunder con-
tinued to shake the air even when the rocket had disap-
peared from sight. The people looked up for clouds, but the
sky was clear. The thunder was caused by the atmospher-
ic wave produced by the rocket cleaving through the air.
Helmholtz and Galileo invited everyone to the assembly
hall where they could relax and talk. Some took armchairs,
others occupied seats forming an amphitheatre. Fruit and
soft drinks were served by way of refreshment. There was
a buzz of conversation, as people discussed the rocket and
its passengers.
Galileo suggested that they discuss the event. The
194
people made themselves comfortable and the hubbub sub-
sided.
“Gentlemen,” Galileo began. “I should like to give you
an idea of how our friends must have felt in the rocket.
I’ve overheard some of your arguments and I find that
many of you are wrong. Let us assume that acting on the
rocket—the rocket alone, but not the bodies in it—there
is a constant force in one direction, for instance, the thrust.
Assume, for a moment, that the gravitational] attraction of
the Earth and other celestial bodies has disappeared. The
thrust force will propel the rocket with uniform accelera-
tion, i.e., the velocity will increase in proportion to the
time. Anybody inside the rocket not touching the walls
or floor will seem to be falling in the opposite direction
of the external force acting on the rocket. Thus a body
will seem to be falling with uniform acceleration. If a
floor, table or any other obstacle restricts this motion, the
falling body will press against it. This pressure will be
equal to the apparent weight, the action of which in no
way differs from weight due to the attraction of a planet.
The magnitude of this apparent weight will be greater, the
greater the per-second increase in the rocket’s velocity.
The acceleration of the free fall on Earth is approximately
10 metres per second. If an external force imparts to the
rocket the same acceleration, the weight of an object in-
side will be the same as at the surface of the Earth. If the
per-second acceleration is ten times greater, the apparent
weight inside the rocket will also be ten times greater
than on Earth. This artificial gravity, as I have remarked,
will be directed opposite to the force acting on the rocket.”
“What effect have the Earth, the Sun and the planets on
the apparent weight inside the rocket?” several voices asked.
“J shall now proceed to explain this,’ Galileo replied.
“Let us consider, for example, the effects of the Earth’s
gravitational attraction.
“The Earth’s gravity acts not only on the rocket but on
all the objects in it as well. If the rocket moves in any
13" 195
direction under the influence of this all-penetrating force,
any object inside or near the rocket subjected to the action
-of the same force will move in a similar way. An observer
inside the rocket will see no difference between the motion
of the rocket and the objects about it. Thus, the effects
of the Earth’s gravity can’t be observed in relation to the
rocket. We therefore conclude that neither the Earth nor
any other celestial body has any influence on the apparent
gravity inside the rocket, i.e., they can neither increase
nor diminish it. This, of course, holds good for rectilinear,
uniform, all-penetrating forces.”
“Consequently,” Helmholtz said, “the apparent gravity
inside a rocket depends only on the acceleration caused by
the exhaust gases ejected from the nozzles. If the per-
second increase of velocity (or acceleration) is 100 metres
all objects inside the rocket will be 10 times heavier than
on Earth. The Earth, Sun and planets, for their part, don’t
affect the apparent gravity.”
“From this, it can also be concluded,” the Italian re-
marked, “that when the combustion of the fuel is stopped
and the rocket is no longer accelerated by the pressure of
the exhaust gases the relative gravity will disappear com-
pletely, regardless of the magnitude of the all-penetrating
gravitational forces. The crew will then float in their atmos-
phere, neither falling nor pressing against the floor or
obstacles. They'll be like fish in water with.the advantage
that they won't have to overcome the great resistance of
water when they move.”
“What a wonderful state,” several voices exclaimed.
“I have a question,” one of the listeners said. “When
the rocket leaves the atmosphere there will no longer be
any external pressure acting on it. Won’t the elasticity of
its internal atmosphere explode it?”
“The rocket’s walls can stand a pressure one hundred
times greater. Besides, the rocket is filled with pure oxy-
gen of one-tenth the density of the atmosphere. Its elas-
ticity is one-tenth that of air, and the partial pressure is
196
half that of the oxygen of the atmosphere. Thus the pres-
sure on the walls will be one-tenth of normal atmospheric
pressure. This is too small to damage the rocket.”
“Isn’t there a danger of developing a haemorrhage in
such a rarefied atmosphere?” a worker asked.
“The effects of such an atmosphere were successfully
tested during the preliminary experiments,’ Helmholtz
said. “But if the crew experiences discomfort they can
make their gas medium denser by adding as much nitro-
gen as they want to.”
“Just one question about the temperature,” asked a very
young man. “The temperature of outer space is very close
to absolute zero, or 273°C below freezing point. Can people
stand that temperature?”
“The temperature of space is determined by means of a
thermometer,” Helmholtz explained, “and what we actual-
ly do is to determine the temperature of the thermometer.
In the absence of any celestial or terrestrial radiating
bodies, the thermometer like any other isolated body loses
all its heat through radiation, ultimately cooling down
to absolute zero, or 237°C below freezing point.”
“We don’t even know what might happen to a body in
such an event,” Galileo remarked. “Its properties may
change completely. Its internal cohesion may increase in-
definitely and it may contract tremendously even to the
point of disappearing altogether.”
“Yes,” Helmholtz agreed, “it’s difficult even to imagine
what might happen to a body in such conditions. But
ethereal space is filled with a variety of vibrations, and
electrons and many smaller particles of matter move vio-
lently in it. This is caused by the radiation of the Sun,
planets, Earth, and the ether itself. In practice, therefore,
the atoms of a thermometer or any other body can’t stop
moving and a body can’t lose all its energy. We can neg-
lect the radiation of distant suns, or stars, and of the plan-
ets, which is negligible compared with that of the Sun. Our
rocket, flying some distance from the Earth, will be almost
197
constantly subjected to solar radiation. The question is,
to what temperature can this radiation heat the rocket?”
“That depends not only on the distance of the body
from the Sun,” said Galileo, “but on its shape, colour, mo-
tion, and other factors.”
“Precisely,” Helmholtz assented. “The scientist Stefan
developed a law by which to determine, at least approxi-
mately, the temperature of planets and other even very
small bodies subjected to different conditions. According
to his law, a plate perpendicular to the Sun’s rays at the
distance of the Earth, with the side facing the Sun covered
with carbon black and the reverse side prevented from
losing any heat should be heated to 152°C. This is the
maximum possible temperature on Earth, and we might
expect such temperatures on the Moon. If we had a revolv-
ing dark ball, its mean temperature would be 27°C. The
same could be achieved with a rocket painted black, and
if its shaded side were prevented from radiating heat and
given the right shape its temperature could reach 152°C.
If the ball isn’t black and reflects an appreciable quantity
of heat back into space, its mean temperature will be
lower. Thus, in the conditions of the Earth, which reflects
20 per cent of the Sun’s rays, the temperature would be
13°C (the mean temperature of the Earth reduced to sea
level is 15.5°C).”
“That’s all very well,” one of the workers objected. “But
what will it be like in the rocket at the distance from the
Sun of, say, Mars? Won’t the passengers freeze to death
then?”
“The answer is best supplied by figures,” Galileo replied.
“Even twice as far from the Sun as the Earth, the maxi-
mum temperature of a black plate is 27°C above zero. By
using different means to prevent radiation from the shaded
side of the rocket and facilitating the absorbtion of solar
rays on the other side, we could achieve, if not 27°C, at
least 20° or 15°C, which is quite adequate. We could use
heating, but this is unnecessary, considering the constant,
198
if weak, radiation of the Sun. In fact, we could increase
the temperature of the rocket at will, by beaming solar
rays on it with a system of mirrors. There, in ether, metal
mirrors would become neither dim nor deformed under
gravity, since it is nonexistent outside or inside the rocket.”
“Well,” a young worker remarked, “it’s clear that the
rocket need not fear the cold. What I can’t understand,
though, is why the relative gravity in the rocket, when
fuel combustion begins, doesn’t crush the passengers. You
said that it could increase tenfold for a short time, which
means that if I weigh 80 kilograms now I’d weigh 800 in
the rocket. If my head weighs three kilograms, it would
weigh thirty in the rocket. Why, it would be just as if you
had loaded over 700 kilograms on me! I couldn’t stand it!
My blood would be almost as heavy as mercury! My blood
vessels would burst and my hands would be torn off by
their own weight.”
“That’s so!’ a chorus of voices exclaimed.
“True enough,” Galileo confirmed. “And yet our friends
will remain hale and hearty, because they are submerged
in the recumbent position in a liquid of the same density
as the mean density of their bodies. You'll understand
when I show you an experiment. Observe this figurine,
which is made of a very fragile material. I drop it and it
breaks into pieces. Now I take a similar figurine and place
it in a strong transparent sphere filled with a liquid of the
same density as the figurine. Observe that it neither buoys
up nor sinks down, no matter how I turn the sphere. Now
let us throw the sphere and hit it with a hammer. You
see the figurine is intact. Now I place the sphere in a cen-
trifugal machine and by rotating it increase the weight of
the figurine, the sphere and the liquid a hundredfold. See,
the figurine still remains intact.”
“The reason is,” Helmholtz interjected, “that the weight
of the liquid balances the weight of the figurine, so that
its members don’t press against each other or the walls
of the sphere. It doesn’t even touch the walls.”
199
“Different parts of the human body,” Galileo went on,
“have different densities. Bones, muscles and fats are all
of different density. This makes for some tension between
them, which increases considerably when the relative grav-
ity is great. But a tenfold increase is not enough to cause
a rupture of the tissues. We can perform the same exper-
iment with living creatures: a fish, a frog, and so on.
We can increase their weight a hundredfold. See, they all
remain alive.”
“Gentlemen!” someone exclaimed. “These creatures are
alive, but how about our friends travelling beyond the
atmosphere? Are they well, and where are they?”
“They may be flying over our castle at this very mo-
ment.”
All eyes turned involuntarily to the transparent dome.
“What is that little star creeping eastward?” a very
young worker asked. “Could it be an aerolite?”
“Where? Where?” several voices asked. “Oh, there it is!
There, there, in the constellation of Cassiopeia!”
“Gentlemen,” Galileo said, “that is no meteor. A meteor
leaves a trail in the atmosphere and usually disappears
rapidly. This star leaves no trail. Furthermore, it moves
much more slowly and, as you see, remains in the sky.
“Ten hours have passed Since our friends embarked on
their flight. In this time they must have circled the Earth
six times. What we probably see is the rocket displaying
a powerful electric light. Our friends are signalling to us
that all is well.”
Galileo had hardly uttered these words when the star
began to blink, disappearing and reappearing again at reg-
ular intervals.
“Unquestionably our friends are there,” Helmholtz said,
“and they’re communicating with us by Morse. They are
reporting that everything is well and they are alive and in
good spirits.”
The meeting broke up in a tumult of joyful cheers.
Eyes sparkled and everyone breathed more freely.
200
15. INSIDE THE EARTH-CIRCLING ROCKET.
THE COMBUSTION ENDS. EMERGING FROM THE TANKS.
CONVERSATION
Let us see how our friends are faring in the rocket. We
know that they felt well in their water-filled “coffins”.
They communicated with each other and freely moved
their limbs. Their only concern was not to expose a single
limb of their bodies, otherwise it would become very
heavy and fall back into the water like a piece of lead. Their
bodies could be exposed only after the rate of combustion
was reduced. Ten minutes later the oppressive roar of the
rocket ceased and only a ringing sound lingered in their
ears.
“The motors have been switched off,” Ivanov informed
the others, and proceeded to emerge from the water.
The sensation was as if the rocket had suddenly stopped
moving. Yet they were hurtling forward at a terrific
rate. The only thing that had ceased was the chemical
reaction between the combining propellants. Many were
reluctant to leave the water, just as we are often reluctant
to get out of a soft bed in the morning. They saw the Rus-
sian clamber out of his tank and several times fly back
and forth about his compartment before he finally grasped
something to cling to. The water creeped out of the
tank and flew about in drops until they hit the walls and
the water spread all over them. Ivanov laughed as he
dried himself with a towel.
“Gentlemen,” he said, “it’s time to get up, you’ve rest-
ed long enough.”
Urged on by curiosity, our companions quickly clam-
bered out of their tanks, and found themselves repeating
Ivanov’s antics. They still felt a ringing in their ears, but
their laughter and vociferations drowned that nervous
sound. They dried themselves and donned light clothing.
The water was carefully collected and deposited in the
tanks. Everything was set in order. Loose objects drifting
201
back and forth, tumbling until they gradually slowed down,
were all firmly secured in their places.
The crew gathered in the big cylindrical cabin in the
middle of the ship. It was about four metres in diameter,
like the other compartments, but five times longer, i.e.,
20 metres. It was large enough for 20 persons. The doors
leading to the other compartments were open, and our
companions flew in one after another: one Sailing side-
ways, another upside down, though each thought it was
he who was right side up, and the others were not, that
he was motionless while the others were flying about. It
was difficult to keep from moving. The Sensation was very
weird and called forth no end of witty remarks, jokes and
laughter. The men’s eyes bulged from fright, perhaps, or
surprise. ...
“Gentlemen, we'll be having much more occasion for
surprise and merriment,” Newton remarked. “Let us calm
down and discuss our Situation. I mean not your sensa-
tions but our position in outer space.”
The hubbub subsided, but the men continued to drift
about and jostle each other like fish in water, only their
bodies pointed in different directions. Everyone was all
attention.
“Judging by the time,” said Laplace, looking at his
watch, “‘we’ve left the atmosphere behind. The rocket
seems to be at rest, but that is purely illusory. According
to the previously drawn-up programme carried out by the
automatic pilot, the rocket should now circumnavigate
the Earth forever. Its location is very stable: one thou-
sand kilometres from the Earth’s surface, travelling in a
circular orbit with a constant speed of about 7'⁄ kilome-
tres a second, and circling the globe once every hour and
forty minutes, approximately. Like the Moon we are now
an Earth satellite and like the Moon we can never fall
back, because the centrifugal force is balanced by the at-
traction of the Earth.
202
16. SUBJECTIVE SENSATIONS
“Gentlemen, we're not moving at all!” an anxious voice
exclaimed. “Were sealed off in an illumined vault going
nowhere. I can’t understand what’s happening and I don’t
believe were moving or anything....”’
“I must be going mad,” someone else said. “Everything
is in commotion, nothing keeps its place, and we’ve just
become so many birds or fish. But they, at least, can
keep their balance, while we twirl about head over heels
and bump into each other, even though the room is large
enough. I know I’ve lost my relative weight, but I never
expected to feel as I do now. It’s positive phantasmago-
ria! My heart jumps every minute and I’m afraid of falling
as soon as I see that nothing supports me....”
“Be calm, friends,’ the Russian said. “Well gradually
become accustomed to this strange state and it will seem
quite natural. As to your doubts, they'll be dispelled as
soon aS we open the shutters and see God’s world. I think,
however, that we shouldn’t hurry with this: we’re wrought
up as it is, and there’s no telling what will happen when
we see sky and Earth changed beyond recognition. Some
of you may wonder at all these precautions, but the view
may be so startling that the first impressions may com-
pletely unnerve you. At the same time, however, I can
reassure you with the news that Laplace has already looked
out of a small porthole and found that the rocket has
become a Satellite of the Earth, we are in complete safety,
and everything is proceeding according to the programme.
17, PURSUITS, SLEEPING, READING, EATING
“Instead of getting worried,’ said Franklin, “let us
rather think of our ‘home’ and engage in something more
pleasant. It’s light, warm and clean here, the air is pure,
there are twenty of us.... We.can read, sleep, eat, con-
verse or retire to our cabins, of which there are twenty
203
besides this fine drawing-room. Let one remain on duty to
look after the temperature and air-conditioning.”
“Hear, hear!’ several voices exclaimed. ‘‘Let’s retire to
rest or converse,” and the rocket’s inhabitants fluttered
away in ones and twos and threes to their respective cab-
ins. The cabins were lit up and had all the necessary con-
veniences. To move around the men had to push against
the walls. This mode of travel was not so easy, and many
collided with door jambs, from which they rebounded to
continue their flight. Others, however, were nimbler and
shot through all the doors without brushing against a
single one. When one of them reached his cabin, he had
to steady himself at the wall before diving in. Some put
out the electric lights and went to sleep in mid-air, the
slightest involuntary motion sending them drifting slowly
from one end of the room to the other. Even breathing and
the circulation of the blood affected their motion and po-
sition. There were no beds, but no one complained of hard-
ness. It was warm, too, and when preparing for sleep,
each member of the crew could raise the temperature of
the air in his cabin by several degrees. If he preferred to
keep his head cool he could crawl up to the neck into a
special woollen sleeping-bag. Some took books to read.
There were light folding frames to which one could strap
oneself to avoid floating about. This was convenient for
reading at a lamp, but for sleeping it was not necessary.
Those who customarily tossed about in their sleep could
fasten themselves to two straps attached to the walls or
slip behind a net screen, rather like a fisherman’s net. A
book could be held with the greatest ease since it weighed
nothing, but the pages fanned out and had to be clamped
down by a spring or simply held down with a finger. Some
found solace in talking about the Earth and in nostalgic
reminiscences of the life left behind. Others refreshed
themselves with food. Special provisions had to be taken
for eating and drinking in the rocket, as the normal pro-
cedure was impossible. A table and chair would not stand
204
in place and the slightest push would send them drifting
away in all directions; you could catch your furniture and
set it down, but it would only float off again. The furni-
ture, of course, could be screwed to the walls, but what
need was there for a table, if the dishes didn’t fall? What
need for chairs or couches if a person could rest on air
and wouldn’t move unless pushed? What need for beds,
spring mattresses, blankets and pillows if the air was soft-
er still? Merely to create an illusion of the terrestrial way
of life? But what was the use of an easy chair or bed, if
you could stay in it only if you were strapped down!
Plates and decanters and the food itself would have to be
fastened. If you laid your spoon or fork on the table and
it sailed away towards your neighbour who had to be on
the alert to prevent a fork poking his eye out or a knife
from grazing his nose! It would swing on a string or de-
scribe circles, smearing the table or the face of your neigh-
bour. When cut loose, crumbly food would scatter about
and get into your nose, mouth, eyes, ears, hair and
pockets. They would sneeze and cough and rub crumbs out
of their eyes and fat off their faces. If you wanted a glass
of water, the water would not pour. You could throw
back your head to toss off a glass of wine, but the wine
would fly out, break into several Jarge globules and float
away, wetting the hair and clothes of diners or entering the
mouth of someone who had had no intention of drinking....
For chairs there can be light racks to keep a person in
place; for tables, similar racks, for food containers—
something like a light what not with many compartments
from which the food and drink containers could be taken
and then clamped back into place. All this was available
in the rocket, for the scientists had foreseen and provided
for practically every exigency. The food was in closed
containers. Semi-liquid and liquid products had to be
pushed out of their containers by pumping in air, which
pressed on a special piston forcing the liquid through a
valve with a flexible tube attached to it. The would-be
205
diner took the stem in his mouth and opened the valve
for a moment. The semi-liquid food entered the mouth
from where it could be pushed down into the oesophagus
by the tongue and then swallowed. Solid food and such
semi-solid dishes as jellies or fruit were kept in plates
by springs and nets. A person pinned a piece down with
his fork, cut off a morsel and dispatched it to his mouth
where he could make short work of it with his tongue
and teeth. Knives, forks and other implements had to be
strapped to the already secured plate or its support.
18. PHYSICAL AND CHEMICAL EXPERIMENTS.
A CONCERT
When they had rested, the scientists invited the crew
to assemble in the drawing-room to see some physical and
chemical experiments connected with the absence of
gravity.
“As you will have observed from the very fact of our
conversing here,” Newton began, “sound propagates here
just as it does in the Earth’s atmosphere. The gas inside
the rocket has retained its elasticity, and consequently its
ability to vibrate... .”
“Let’s sing a song to illustrate this,’ someone sug-
gested.
“Fine,” said Laplace, “and we can add music.”
The assembly agreed. Musicians unfastened themselves
from their racks and flew away to fetch their fiddles, trum-
pets and scores. They were back in no time. Most of the
company preferred to strap themselves to the racks de-
scribed before to keep from tottering or drifting away in
all directions. Otherwise the assembly looked quite re-
spectable. The conductor gave a sign and the chorus began
singing to the accompaniment of musical instruments.
They sang with such gusto that one might have thought
they had been long deprived of music. Many forgot they
were not on the Earth and, hovering in mid-air, muttered
206
remarks quite out of keeping with their existing state. The
final chord rang out, everyone applauded and cried “en-
core”. They sang several more songs with equal success,
until finally the musicians pleaded for mercy. ,
“You thus see,” said Newton, “that we have no lack of
sound. Any experiment in acoustics staged here would be
an exact replica of a similar one on the Earth.
“There is no gravity, that terrestrial measure of mass,”
he went on after a pause. “And yet we can feel mass
here, especially when we wish to impart motion to bodies.
The greater the resistance of a body to your push, the
greater its mass. The mass of any body is immediately
registered by the hand pushing it.
“But of course, neither a spring balance nor scales can
register mass here: the spring doesn’t stretch, the balance
pans remain in equilibrium in any position regardless
of the load. Still, mass can be determined with great ac-
curacy with the help of various instruments, notably a
suitably devised centrifugal machine. Mass is also manifest-
ed when we stop a moving body with our hand. The hard-
er it is to stop one of several bodies moving with the
same speed, the greater its mass. Mass is further manifest-
ed in impact, being proportional to the impact force. The
speed of a mass should also be taken into account, for a
small mass travelling at a high speed may produce a
strong blow, and vice versa. Firearms are more effective
here than on the Earth.”
“Disregarding the resistance of the air,” Ivanov noted,
“motion here is rectilinear, infinite and uniform. The in-
fluence of the Earth and other bodies can also be felt; but
in the rocket and within a radius of several tens of kilo-
metres it is negligible.”
“Here is a mercury barometer,” said Franklin. “You
see that the mercury fills the whole tube. No matter how
long the tube, the mercury will fill it to the top, because
it has no weight. But the aneroid barometer or the mano-
meter do their work here, because in them the gases press
207
on a tube or membrane, the elasticity of which is manifest-
ed even without gravity.”
“An ordinary pendulum doesn’t swing here and a pen-
dulum clock won't work. If we push a pendulum it will
merely revolve about its point of suspension until halted
by the resistance of the air. But a watch and other ma-
chines and instruments the action of which is not
based on gravity, operate well,—a sewing machine, for
instance.
“Heated air doesn’t ascend because there is no ‘above’
here. A burning candle or paraffin lamp goes out because
there are no convection currents and the flame is envel-
oped in the combustion products through which oxygen
penetrates very slowly by diffusion. On Earth many ap-
paratuses are based on combustion in the oxygen of the
air. Here furnaces and similar installations will rapidly
break down without a stimulated blast.
“Hydrogen and other light gases don’t rise here and
they can’t lift balloons, for there is no direction in which
to lift them. Aeroplanes are unnecessary, and all that is
needed is a motor for translatory motion. A heavy body
hovers without support side by side with a light one, and
neither moves unless pushed. The same is true of liquids,
in which bodies of any weight, shape and volume remain
in equilibrium, Archimedes’ law for bodies submerged in
water is useless here because, being based on gravity, it
is just non-existent.
“Liquids cannot be siphoned, but air and suction water
pumps work, of course, if there is a surrounding elastic
medium, as there is in the rocket. Power water pumps and
centrifugal pumps even work in a vacuum.
“Fountains, which are based on gravity, are here im-
possible, but those based on the elasticity of the air work
wonderfully, producing a straight smooth jet, like a glass
rod. At some distance, however, this jet bursts into a vol-
ley of flying water bombs.
“Liquids, of course, can’t flow out of vessels, they aren’t
208
bound by horizontal surfaces and are not distributed ac-
cording to density.
“Molecular forces in bodies are especially manifest in
liquids. As a result, every liquid mass, no matter how
great, takes the shape of a sphere. You can break it up
into several masses, and each will gather into a globule.
Water enters a tube of any size of its own accord and
fills it completely. The molecular forces of non-wetting
liquids, on the other hand, force them out, like mercury
from a glass tube. Nets, frames, vessels and other solid
bodies can give liquids any desired shape. Thus, we can
produce various double-convex or double-concave lenses
out of water or oil and use them in optical instruments.
We can even build complex telescopes, and microscopes
with wire frames and liquids.
“Fire engines of all types can work only if provided
with forced-draft fire-boxes. But water in a boiler won’t
separate from the steam, which may cause a breakdown
in conventional engines.”
“Maybe we've had enough physics?” an old worker ven-
tured, when the Englishman paused for breath.
“All right,’ Newton agreed. “Lets postpone our talk
and experiments for another time.”
“Gentlemen,” a young worker objected, “why not just
have a break. We can have tea or coffee, relax and then
continue. I'd like to know how our rocket’s exhaust noz-
zles work.”
“Fine, agreed,” a chorus of voices concurred.
They arranged their racks round a large vessel in a
frame attached to the rocket with twenty pipes issuing
from it. The water was heated by electricity in a few min-
utes, tea and sugar were added and the beverage was left
to cool a little. Some air was pumped into the vessel, each
man took a pipe stem into his mouth and drank the ex-
cellent tea by opening a tap.
Refreshed, they cleared away the tea things and pre-
pared to listen.
14—761 209
“You raised the question of the rocket,” said Newton,
turning to the young worker. “I was just preparing to dis-
cuss the question. Segner’s wheel, the water-mill and the
water turbine cannot work here, as there is no gravity.
But we can demonstrate other reaction instruments, which
are operated by springs, steam, the elasticity of gases or
other forces not dependent on gravity.
“This little boat carries a hidden spring which shoots
out beads. Observe how well the boat moves in the oppo-
site direction. Take this box. The force of compressed air
in it throws out a jet of water. See how it travels with
increasing speed across the room. Here is another vessel,
an airship, if you like. A jet of steam ejected from the tail
end propels it marvellously. See how strongly it hits the
wall.”
“Steam can be replaced by an explosive, as in a toy
rocket,” Laplace remarked.
“Of course,” Newton agreed.
“That’s all very well,” the young worker said, “but all
these devices work so well here, in a gaseous medium.
The ejected bodies are repulsed, pushed away by it. If it
weren’t for this atmosphere there would be no motion.”
“The motion of our own rocket contradicts your con-
clusion,” Newton observed. “Our vehicle has travelled
hundreds of miles through vacuum with mounting speed
propelled by the pressure of the elastic products of com-
bustion.”
“We can make the devices displayed here move in vac-
uum,” Ivanov declared.
A tiny little vessel with compressed air was again
launched before the audience. Tied to a rod passing through
the plate of an air pump, it described circle after circle
like a fettered horse. Then it was covered with a large
bell and the air was rapidly evacuated,
“Gentlemen! Observe that the motion, far from stopping
in the rarefied atmosphere of the bell, is accelerating.
Hardly any air remains under the bell, yet the ship contin-
210
ues to move until it exhausts its store of compressed air.
The answer to the question posed is thus self-evident.”
“The main thing in this, my friends,’ Newton went on
to explain, “is the inertia inherent in all gases, just as it
is in all other states of matter.”
“What, then, is the basic principle of reaction engines?”
one of the group asked.
“It is simple,” Newton said. “Imagine two balls with
a spring compressed between them in a gravity-free field.
If we let the spring go, it will push one ball to the right
and the other to the left. The same will happen if two
rubber balls are pressed tightly together and then released,
in which case there is no need for a spring. Or imag-
ine a tube with compressed gas. If one end is opened,
the gas will press only on the other end, causing the tube
to move, say, to the right, the gas escaping to the
left. This is very much like the action of our rocket. The
same happens when a shotgun or cannon is fired.”
“It seems, then,” a young engine operator remarked,
“that in all these experiments the material medium, or at-
mosphere, surrounding these contrivances plays a second-
ary part and may even reduce the total reaction force.”
“Quite right,” Ivanov confirmed, “though the role of the
atmosphere is not yet quite clear.”
19. OPENING THE SHUTTERS
After dinner and a brief rest everyone gathered again
in the drawing-room.
“Friends,” said Newton, “we shall now open the shutters
and see a wonderful sight. Those who don’t trust their
nerves had better not take part in this ceremony.”
“Ceremony, indeed!” muttered one of the men suspend-
ed in mid-air.
“The more courageous will then tell the others what
they’ve seen, and so prepare them for some unusual im-
pressions,” Newton went on, ignoring the remark. “Our
14* 211
supplies of light, different forms of energy and food are
very small. We’ll have to begin by limiting our consump-
tion of electricity and making use of the daylight....”
One of the double shutters was opened and the lights
were turned off. A dazzling beam of sunlight pierced the
hall. The other shutters were opened and the more daring
members of the crew flew over to the portholes.
The sight was hailed with cries of delight:
“The sky’s pitch-black!”
“It’s blacker than soot!”
“What a vast number of stars!”
“And they’re all sorts of colours!”
“The constellations are the same, but there are more
stars! But why are they so lifeless? They don’t radiate or
twinkle and they look like mere dots. How clearly they
stand out! They seem so close and the celestial sphere so
small!”
Men at other portholes saw the Earth at a distance of
a thousand kilometres. They didn’t realise at first that they
were looking at the terrestrial globe. But then they began
to recognise the familiar contours of lakes and islands and
continents amidst patches of clouds. It was like a huge,
distorted map of a hemisphere. In actual hemisphere maps,
the edges are clear and their scale is double that of the
central portion. Here the reverse was true: the edges were
reduced radially and very vague.
“How strange our Earth looks! It occupies almost half
the sky (120°) and seems to be not convex but concave,
like a plate with people living on the inside.”
“The edges are uneven and in some places they’re jagged
because of the mountain peaks. Something like a mist
lies farther in from the edges and there are many elongat-
ed grey spots—clouds darkened by the thick layer of the
atmosphere. The spots stretch round the Earth’s circum-
ference. The farther they are from the edges the lighter
and broader they seem, and towards the centre they’re
rounded or irregular in shape, not stretched out.”
212
“The Earth, Sun and stars seem very close, practically
within reach! They all seem to be attached to the inside
of a very small sphere.”
“The Sun seems small, close and bluish, but how hot it
ist The stars, too, are mostly bluish, but some are of
other colours as well.”
The men were stunned by the sight, some felt exhausted
and moved away from the portholes. Others, alarmed by
their cries, hesitated to look out. Many flew away to their
cabins, drew the shutters and lit dim electric lights. Others,
however, darted excitedly from porthole to porthole with
cries of surprise and delight. They were like children on
their first train or steamboat journey. The Earth fascinat-
ed them most. It was full at first, but waned as the rocket
sped rapidly eastwards. Gradually it turned into a huge
crescent moon. Its dark side glimmered in the weak light
cast by the Moon. The boundary between the dark and
daylit parts (the terminator) appeared rough and broken
due to shadows cast by the mountains. The Moon could
also be seen in the sky. Like the Sun, it seemed very close
and small, much smaller than usual. Actually, though, the
angular dimensions of the Moon, Sun and stars had hard-
ly changed at all.
“Gentlemen,” Newton said, “our rocket is circling the
Earth once every 100 minutes. The solar day lasts 67 min-
utes, and the night, 33 minutes. In 40 or 50 minutes we
shall enter the Earth’s shadow. The Sun will set almost
instantaneously. We’ll hardly see the moonlit Earth, but
its edges will shine brightly with all the colours of the
dawn. This light will be our substitute for moonlight.
“Im warning you in advance what to expect to pre-
pare the people whose nerves are not strong....”
Meanwhile the Earth continued to wane and at the ter-
minator the oblique shadows of mountains and elevations
grew longer and longer. The impression was as if the stars
were falling to the jagged sunlit edges of the Earth in
tens, hundreds and thousands, so large was the portion of
213
the sky occupied by the Earth and so great was the num-
ber of stars that could be seen in the void. At the other
edge, where its dark side looked vaguely, with huge ser-
rated shadows cast by the descending Sun, the stars
seemed to appear out of nowhere. Actually they were emerg-
ing from behind the dark face of the Earth which had
eclipsed them. The rate of motion of the stars was 3.6°
per minute, which meant that they travelled the diameter
of the Sun or Moon in eight or nine seconds. That, approx-
imately, is the apparent motion of al! celestial bodies—
the Sun, Moon, planets and stars—in relation to the Earth.
The size of the seas and continents, as seen from the
rocket, can be imagined from the following comparison.
In optimum conditions, a distance of 100 kilometres, or
one equatorial degree, could be observed at an angle of
6°, i.e., 12 times wider across than the Moon. Features
not too far from the central portion, which was not so
much obscured by air and clouds, could be seen in consid-
erable detail. The sight was an impressive one. They
could see cities, large villages, rivers more than a hun-
dred metres wide. Sometimes the land below assumed one
colour, as if covered with snow, and it was difficult to
see anything. The view presented by a telescope can hard-
ly be described. The rocket had no atmosphere to distort
the image or obscure the smaller stars. The sky was so
tightly packed with stars that there was hardly an empty
space left: a black sky powdered with silver stardust, with
the exception of the so-called coal-sacks, which were as
black and empty as viewed from the Earth.
Binary, ternary, multiple, and vari-coloured stars could
be seen everywhere. The moment of eclipse, or night, was
approaching.
“Gentlemen!” someone exclaimed, “the invisible edge
of the Earth has covered one side of the Sun.”
In four seconds only half the Sun remained, and four
seconds later it was night time. Their eyes soon grew ac-
customed to the darkness, however, and they could see
214
a glowing ring of dawn circling the dark Earth. The dawn
was especially bright where the Sun had just disappeared.
The beautiful halo was about 10 degrees high. It gradually
became uniform in size, and 16 seconds after sunset it
presented a continuous colourful ring embracing almost
half the sky (its diameter was 125°). The crimson glow
was bright that one could read without artificial light.
Some found the sight unbearable. Others continued to dart
from porthole to porthole with cries of delight. As it was
comparatively dark many more stars could be seen on
the opposite half of the sky. They continued to fall like
snow into that flowing sea, only to burst forth from the
other side of the crimson ring like sparks from fireworks.
Gradually the ring paled on one side and brightened on the
other, passing through different hues. Scarcely 17 minutes
had passed when a strip of the Sun appeared. Everything
sparkled and the glow of dawn dimmed. In nine seconds
the full Sun emerged in all its glory, blinding everyone
with its light.
“Not much of a night,” a young worker remarked. “Only
half an hour!”
“Tt was an eclipse, not night,” a friend corrected him.
“It was both night and eclipse,” said Ivanov. “This is
the only night we’ll have and other nights will be as short.
An hour-long day (67 minutes) is followed by a half-hour
night (33 minutes). Unless we change the speed of our
vehicle we'll have to put up with this rapid succession of
short days and nights.”
“Did you notice the coolness of night?’ Newton asked.
“No, we didn’t feel cold,” several voices replied.
“That,” Newton explained, “is first of all, because our
rocket is protected by a layer which keeps it from radiating
heat, secondly, the night was very short, and finally, the
huge, though dark, surface of the Earth radiates heat to-
wards us. Generally in the course of our brief night the
temperature should fall one degree centigrade or even less.”
“Thus, the short day and proximity of the Earth have
215
their advantages,” Franklin remarked. “Namely, we have
no cold nights.”
“We needn’t mind our nights. After all, we can’t sleep
for half an hour! We aren’t accustomed to it. I suggest
that we stay up for 16 hours and sleep eight hours, approx-
imately, of course. Everyone can arrange his own night
by closing the shutters or make day with the aid of elec-
tricity. In short, we can keep sleeping and waking hours
at will. No danger threatens us and we have no need to
keep watch or arrange shifts.”
Several days and nights passed, but actually it was
only 10 hours. In one of these short nights they passed
over the Himalayan Mountains. They could see the famil-
iar snow-capped peaks, but they couldn’t discern the castle
even through a telescope. Laplace suggested that they
telegraph to their friends in the castle by means of light
signals in Morse key. It was simple, and all that was re-
quired was to press a button which sent a powerful cur-
rent to an arc lamp of 100,000 candle-power. It was the
light of that lamp that had been observed and understood
at the castle. A long push of the button gave a long light,
which was received on Earth as a dash, a short tap pro-
duced an instantaneous flash which was received as a dot.
* * *
It was decided to have a good terrestrial sleep. Re-
freshed after sleep and a cup of coffee, our friends assem-
bled in the drawing-room.
“I request your undivided attention, gentlemen,’ New-
ton addressed the meeting.
The conversation subsided.
“So far we have only observed, admired, wondered at,
and studied the conditions of our new existence. We
examined and inquired, but we gave no thought to our
daily bread. Our vital stores are not too plentiful. Before
we have exhausted them we must decide whether we shall
remain here until they are exhausted and then return to
216
the Earth—which we could do a hundred times with our
stock of propellants—or try to produce the necessary things
for life here before we use up all our supplies. Then we
can remain in the ether for a long time.”
“Let's remain in the rocket and try and grow our bread,”
one of the company suggested. “If we are unable to pro-
vide for ourselves we can return to the Earth.”
“Hear, hear!” several voices cried. “Why not try?”
“But shall we be able to produce oxygen and food?”
a sceptical voice asked.
“If we fail, we’ll return home,” a young mechanic said.
“Well, the risk is not great.”
“It’s decided, then, that we remain up here!”
20. PROTESTS. LONGING FOR WORK. ARTIFICIAL GRAVITY
But there were dissenters as well.
“Better return!”
“I feel somewhat peculiar.”
“Something’s missing,” they complained.
“T feel an itch in my muscles. They need some work, I
think.”
“That’s easily remedied,” Ivanov remarked. “We've got
several kinds of treadle tools—get down to work!”
“That’s easier said than done,” a worker observed. “As
soon as I press my foot on the pedal I'll shoot upwards:
there’s no gravity!”
“That’s so,” said Laplace, “but if you looked closer
you'd have noticed certain attachments to all the tools:
Straps in the floor for your feet and a waist strap which,
however, leaves you with complete freedom of motion.”
Thus our dissenters were given work for the common
good and were thereby made completely satisfied.
4 k A
There were dissenters of another category, however,
who longed for gravity.
217
“I want to see water pouring and weights falling,” one
of them said. “I want to sit and recline properly.”
“There’s no need to return home for that, either,’’ New-
ton said. “Nothing could be simpler than simulating grav-
ity here. For this we merely have to revolve our rock-
et—best of all about its middle lateral axis. Centrifugal
force will generate gravity in every cabin. The gravity will
be greatest in the outermost compartments and least in
the middle one, i.e., in the drawing-room. Objects will fall
along the rocket’s longitudinal axis, water will pour, and
everything will be as on the Earth: you can sit, recline
and walk, get tired, carry weights and pails of water, etc.”
“For example,” said Laplace continuing Newton’s
thought, “if one end of our rocket, which is a hundred
metres long, sweeps through one metre a second, the syn-
thetised gravity will be 0.002 of terrestrial gravity, or the
Same as on a planetoid 24 kilometres in diameter. The
rocket will describe a complete circle in 314 seconds
(5 minutes). If the speed is increased to 10 metres per
second, the gravity will increase a hundredfold and be
1/5th of terrestrial gravitation, which is slightly more
than on the Moon. The rocket will describe a complete
circle in half a minute. This is still slow enough not to
cause dizziness.”
“There are several ways of making the rocket rotate,”
Newton said. “For instance, if we spin this wheel, or just
give it an initial push (it will continue to revolve by iner-
tia) the rocket wil] start turning. However, rotation is
easier achieved with the help of the two exhaust nozzles
by turning them in opposite directions perpendicular to
the rocket’s longitudinal axis.”
This was done and the dissatisfied were appeased. Hav-
ing worked themselves to a sweat and revelled in gravity,
they pleaded for relief. The rocket’s rotation was stopped
by directing the exhaust opposite to the rotation. Only a
negligible part of the powerful propellant discovered by
Franklin was used for this manoeuvre.
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21. THE ROCKET BECOMES A BLOSSOMING GARDEN
“Well, gentlemen,” Newton said, addressing the crew,
“we’ve humoured ourselves sufficiently and it’s now high
time we got down to work while our supplies are still
plentiful.”
“You will have noticed,” he continued, “the great num-
ber of portholes along one side of the rocket. If all the
shutters are opened, the total windowed area will be
eighty by four metres (one-third of the circumference of
the rocket). Up till now we've had no use for such an
abundance of sunlight, which would be unbearable: it
would get too hot and the bright light would weary the
eyes. This volume of light falling on an area of 320 square
metres, or 16 square metres per person, can yield, with
the aid of certain plants, considerable quantities of oxy-
gen and food in the form of fruit containing starch, sugar,
oil, nitrogenous and aromatic compounds.”
“Even if we are unable to maintain our food supplies
at one level,” Ivanov added, “we can at least consume
them much more slowly.”
k * *
The excretory products of the lungs, skin, kidneys and
other organs were absorbed in special vessels and provid-
ed excellent nourishment for the plants. Seeds were
planted in boxes with soil fertilised by these excretions.
When the seeds sprouted the boxes were placed in the light
and the shutters were opened wider and wider. The unu-
sual force of the sunlight, not weakened by the thick layer
of the Earth’s atmosphere, its continuous action, the ver-
tically-falling rays, the absence of pests, and favourable
water and air supplies all combined to work miracles:
hardly a month had passed when the diminutive plants
were covered with juicy, nutritious, fragrant fruit. The
blossoms were a wonderful sight. Fertilisation was arti--
ficial. Thanks to the absence of gravity the plants branched
219
freely in all directions and the fruit did not weigh
them down. When the foliage became so thick as to almost
obscure the portholes the glass shields were removed,
leaving only the quartz. As a result, the plants abundantly
provided with ultra-violet radiation, developed twice as
fast. Still, the yield was not sufficient to satisfy the food
problem; besides, the oxygen supplies had to be used for
breathing. Nevertheless, things were going so well that it
was decided to build, at a later date, a greenhouse outside
the rocket in order completely to meet all food require-
ments and, as it were, to enable them to stand on their
own feet.
22. DONNING SPACE-SUITS
While the seeds were sprouting, growing, blossoming,
ripening and yielding fruit, our companions were not mark-
ing time. They decided to investigate the space surround-
ing them and leave their rocket, their wonderful blooming,
fragrant haven, and take a broader look at God’s world
than was possible through the portholes.
We shall describe this event. One day the boldest mem-
ber of the crew remarked, as he admired the beautiful
flowers:
“It’s very nice in here. The air is clean and we've got
plenty of space: a hundred-metre corridor along which we
can fly back and forth to our heart’s content. A hall 20
metres long with ceilings four to five metres high pro-
vides lots of elbow-room and space to fly about and gambol
in. We have light and merriment, food and warmth. We’re
in high spirits. If anything goes wrong we can return to
our beautiful Earth: there it is, a mere thousand kilo-
metres away!
“This is all very well,” he went on, “but shall we never
leave these walls and go out into the boundless, though
seemingly limited, space that we see through our port-
holes?”
220
“Why not? It is quite possible,” Newton said. “We have
all the necessary contraptions to do it. They were prepared
back on the Earth: special suits, provided with breath-
ing apparatus and absorbing the waste products of the
body.”
“Well, why not open a porthole or door and fly straight
out?” someone asked naively.
“The Sun is shining so brightly, it looks so delightful,
it would be fine to get out of doors!”
“Firstly,” Laplace interposed, “we can’t open a door
or a porthole: the air would immediately rush out of the
rocket and we'd perish at once, for our bodies require
atmospheric pressure and oxygen. Secondly, even if that
were not to happen, the direct rays of the Sun would kill
any mortal who failed to shield himself with suitable trans-
parent or opaque covers.”
“But why is no one killed by the Sun on Earth?” some-
one asked.
“On Earth the strength of solar radiation is halved by
the thick atmosphere,” Franklin observed. “What is more
important, it is rendered harmless, though not completely,
for sun-stroke is not infrequent, especially in hot countries
and high in the mountains where the atmosphere is rarer
and more transparent.”
“Finally,” said Newton, “even if we left the rocket
without letting the gas out—which is easily achieved—we
wouldn’t find a single molecule of gas for at least 800 kil-
ometres (to where the Earth’s atmosphere begins). How
can we breathe and get along without the customary, es-
sentia] pressure on our bodies? I ask this question only to
demonstrate to you that we can’t simply leave the rocket
through an open door.”
“But what are we to do?” the one who longed for space
asked.
“All these problems were solved by us on Earth,” New-
ton said. “Ivanov, please bring the suits for survival in
vacuum. You know where they are?”
221
“Certainly. I’ll be back in no time.”
He returned in a few minutes with two space-suits.
“TIl explain how they work,” Ivanov said, demonstrating
the suits and equipment. The others gathered closer round
and looked on with interest.
“Some day,” Ivanov began, “we may have to land on
planets into atmospheres unsuitable for breathing either
because of their composition or their extreme rarefaction.
The same type of outfit is suitable for survival in a void
and in rarefied or hostile atmospheres. Here you see a
suitable space-suit. It covers the whole body including the
head, and is gas- and vapour-tight, flexible, light, and al-
lows the body freedom of movement. It is strong enough
to withstand the internal pressure of gases surrounding
the body and the helmet has special flat visors. It has a
thin, warm living through which gas and vapour can pass.
It has reservoirs for urine and other purposes and is con-
nected with a special cylinder which provides an adequate
supply of oxygen. Carbon dioxide, water vapours and
Other products excreted by the body are absorbed in spe-
cial vessels. Automatic pumps continuously circulate the
gases and vapours inside the suit through the permeable
lining. Each man needs not more than a kilogram of oxy-
gen a day. The suit has an eight-hour supply, and its total
weight is 10 kilograms. Here, however, it weighs nothing.
The suit, you will observe, doesn’t even disfigure the
wearer.”
“We'll need these suits in our future greenhouses where
the gas will be very rarefied,” Franklin observed.
“And also for building the greenhouses,” Newton added.
“And now, gentlemen, which of you would like to don
this suit and have a jaunt in space?” Laplace asked.
All but two young workers retreated hastily as if they
had been scolded. The two were helped into the space-
suits. Capering comically, they several times pranced
about the room to the delight of the others. Their voices
were quite audible through the suits.
222
23. EXCURSION INTO THE ETHER
“Well, gentlemen, are you ready?” Newton inquired.
“Oh, one moment,” he added, “if you go as you are, you'll
be uncomfortably warm. Bring them a couple of light
white cloaks. Here, fling them on and attach them so that
they won’t fall off. If you feel cold,” he instructed the
two, “fling the cloaks aside until you get warm. Without
the cloaks the mean temperature of the black space-suits
may reach 27°C.”
“The temperature can rise even higher,” Laplace added.
“if you use the white cloak to reduce radiation from the
shaded part of the body and open the sunlit part com-
pletely.”
“Yes, but above 20°C the heat is oppressive,” Newton
remarked. “So they'll more likely want to reduce the tem-
perature than to increase it. For this they should use their
cloaks to shield part of their bodies from the Sun.”
“You realise, of course,” the Russian said, addressing the
spacemen, “that when you leave the rocket you'll fly in the
direction you push off. You’ll have no means of stopping
of your own accord, and several years may pass before
you meet the rocket again. Long before that you'll have
starved to death or suffocated from lack of oxygen.”
“What!” the two spacemen exclaimed. “Suffocate after
eight hours? That’s more than we bargained for. Wander
about in space to die? You should have warned us!”
“Tm not going!” one of them declared flatly.
“Neither am I,” the other echoed from his space-suit.
“Undress me, immediately!”
“And me, too.”
“What cowards you are!” Newton said. “I haven’t fin-
ished yet. You'll be quite safe. First, we’ll let you out on a
leash... .”
“Like a dog? Gratified, I’m sure.”
“It'll be a kilometre long and you'll be able to fly in any
direction and be sure of returning.”
223
“What if the leash snaps?” the elder of the two asked,
fearfully.
“You’ve nothing to fear. You will be provided with a
special device which acts like a rocket and which you can
steer, by regulating the gas jet. With its help you can fly
in any direction and return home whenever you want to.”
“The main thing is not to lose sight of us,” Franklin
admonished them. “Otherwise you may lose us completely.
Each of you take a spyglass for safety’s sake. Here, I'll
fasten them to your cloaks.”
“But what if I use up all the propellant?’ one of the
spacemen inquired. “How will I be able to return to the
rocket even if I’m a couple of feet away?”
“You have an adequate supply of propellant, but you
should expend it with care. Don’t use it all up: this indi-
cator will tell you how much of it you have left. Besides,
if you get lost we’ll find you and bring you back home.”
“What if you don’t find us?”
“Anything may happen,” Ivanov said.
“Then we’ll be done for!” the spaceman said, with a
wry smile, which remained unobserved beneath his helmet.
Pride, however, triumphed. It would be humiliating to get
out of the space-suits in front of everybody and to be the
laughing-stock of the crew.
“Come on! It’s nothing,” one of them encouraged the
other. His resolve inspired several other volunteers.
“I wouldn’t mind going myself,” remarked one of the
spectators, who was flying back and forth impatiently.
“Nor I!”
“Nor I!”
“Very well, but not now,” Laplace said. “Let’s dispatch
those who’re ready.”
They were provided with everything necessary and one
of them entered an air-lock, a very narrow box-like cham-
ber. This was done by first opening the inner wall of the
air-lock and then hermetically sealing it up. The remaining
insignificant amount of air was then pumped out, so that
224
not a drop of it would be wasted. The spaceman no doubt
looked bewildered but waited impatiently in the darkness.
A minute or two later the outer door of the air-lock opened
and he bounded out of the rocket. Soon he was joined
by his companion.
The men inside gathered round the portholes. They could
see the spacemen flying off in different directions, their
leashes unwinding. They turned, veered, threw open their
cloaks or drew them about their bodies, soared and whirled
like toy spinning tops. Their antics, however, were fa-
miliar to our travellers, for they had experienced the same
sort of thing inside the rocket. One of the spacemen un-
hooked his leash and flew so far away that they could
hardly sce him. He reappeared soon, growing in size as he
approached the rocket, and sped close by. A thin cloud of
smoke could be seen: the spaceman had switched on his
jet motor and was Steering himself towards the rocket. He
grasped a bracket and peered in. The men inside could see
his laughing face through the porthole. He signalled that
he wanted to enter the rocket. He entered as he had left,
the same precautions being observed, so as not to lose
any air. The other man returned and was let in too. Every-
One congratulated the two on their return and showered
them with questions. There was quite a commotion. The
men took off their space-suits and pleaded for rest and
quiet.
“Have patience!” one of them said. “Let me digest my
impressions, and then Pl] tell you everything.”
“Yes,” the other rejoined, “give us a rest.”
24. THE SPACEMEN’S STORY
Two hours passed, the Sun set and rose again before our
travellers came to the drawing-room to describe their ex-
cursion outside the rocket. The others surrounded them,
impatiently awaiting to hear their story.
“When the outside door opened and I found myself on
15—761 225
the threshold of space I faltered and made a convulsive
movement which pushed me out of the rocket. I might
have expected to have been already accustomed to hovering
without support in this room, but when I glanced down
and saw nothing below me, a complete void without sup-
port of any kind, I just fainted and came to only when
the whole leash had unwound and | was a kilometre away.
The rocket looked like a thin white rod at the other end
of the leash. I was covered with the shiny cloak, which
reflected almost all the sunlight. I felt cold, and that was
probably what brought me out of the faint. I pulled on the
leash and sped towards home. Soon I felt better, especial-
ly when I saw your inquisitive noses pressed against the
rocket windows, I was ashamed of having shown my fear
and of seeking refuge in the rocket. So after flying about
on my leash I unhooked it and flew off on my own. When
the rocket was almost out of sight J resorted to my jet
motor and flew back. But it was frightening. You must
have seen how I spun round, yet I myself felt nothing: it
seemed to me that the celestial sphere with everything
on it and even the rocket itself were all revolving about
me. I was able to stabilise myself with the aid of the two
levers operating special devices attached to my space-suit.
These levers actuated two mutually perpendicular heavy
disks. Thanks to them I was able to stop spinning and
orientate my body at will or turn about any axis. As far
as I was concerned, however, no one would have con-
vinced me that I was not actually whirling the whole heav-
enly sphere round together with the Sun and stars, just
like a merry-go-round. I could turn it quickly or slowly
or stop it altogether. The axis of rotation of the sphere
also depended on me. The rocket seemed to jump from
right to left, and I was the only motionless object and
could turn the Universe at will. At one moment I] saw the
Sun below me and it seemed that I would fall into its mol-
ten mass; my heart quaked, but I didn’t fall. Then our
Earth, which covered half the sky would appear below
226
me, and I felt that there was ‘below’ and I was ‘above’.
My heart sank again, and I felt as if I were falling and
would dash my brains out or get drowned in the ocean.
You could observe that I assumed the same postures as
you do here, that is, I changed my position, if I got tired
or for any other reason. If it felt cold and I forgot to
draw aside the cloak to catch the rays of the Sun I hud-
dled up as we usually do when the morning chill creeps
into our bed. If it felt hot, 1 extended my limbs subcon-
sciously in order to increase the radiating surface and give
off the excess heat. If neither happened I changed my
position whenever I felt like it: when I was tired of being
prone I curled up, crouched, pulled up my knees, made
swimming motions, shook my hands and feet and head,
and moved my limbs if they felt cramped. When I was
in translatory motion you could see me move, but as far
as I was concerned, if the motion was strictly translatory
I could swear that everything stood stock still, except the
rocket which either approached or receded from me.”
“Actually the rocket did move a little,” Newton re-
marked. “But as its mass is 5,000 times greater than the
mass of a man, its displacement was no greater than 20
centimetres.”
“It seemed to me,” spaceman continued, “that the rocket
obeyed me dutifully whenever I pulled the leash. Only my
rotation created the illusion of a moving sky.
“It’s unfortunate that in these ethereal expanses, in
this brilliant, beautiful and awesome world you are de-
prived of the satisfaction of motion. It may be that this
subjective sensation will pass and then we’ll feel ourselves
move.”
“There’s hardly anything I can add,” the other space-
man said. “My sensations were the same as just described,
only I didn’t faint. I felt frightened, but my fright passed
almost at once. My nerves are stronger!
“Of course, gentlemen,” he went on, “you all know how
tremendous and free is the space surrounding the Earth,
15° 227
how full of light and how empty it is. This is unfortunate.
We are so cooped up on Earth and we prize every sunlit
spot to cultivate plants, to build homes and live in peace
and quiet. When I roved in the void about the rocket I
was struck by its immensity, the freedom and lightness of
motion, the mass of wasted solar energy. Who is to pre-
vent people building greenhouses and castles here and
living happily?”
25. REGULATING THE TEMPERATURE
“Pardon me for interrupting you,’ Newton intervened,
“but you’ve reminded me of something of immediate im-
portance to us. We’ll deal with it at once. In what con-
dition did you find the rocket’s surface, which had been
highly polished before?” he asked the spacemen.
“It was white,” one of them replied. “I didn’t pay atten-
tion to it.”
“It had a dull silverish lustre and sparkled like snow,”
the other declared.
“This must have been caused by the high temperature
to which the outer shell was heated during our flight
through the atmosphere,” Ivanov suggested.
“So far,” said Newton, “we have maintained the tem-
perature in our rocket by heating it a little and wasting
our supplies of energy. Now we can discontinue this. We
shall drape the rocket in a black cloak and so regulate the
temperature. At night we can draw the cloak off. In the
daytime, if it gets too hot, we can gather it into folds, just
as you did with your own cloaks,” he said, turning to the
Spacemen. “Now we can all leave the rocket and go about
our affairs both inside and outside.”
“We could paint a portion of the rocket,” Laplace sug-
gested. “That would be quicker, though it would be harder
to regulate the temperature.”
“As soon as we go outside,” said Ivanov, “we'll
take the necessary steps, and will no longer have to
228
waste our supplies of energy to maintain a constant tem-
perature.”
After a further conference it was decided to use easily
removable paint to obtain the average desired temperature.
The temperature of each small cabin could be regulated
from inside by working a system of inside and outside
shutters.
26. DISCUSSING THE SPACEMEN’S SENSATIONS
The company broke up for food and rest. They gathered
again only eight hours later. The crew adhered to ter-
restrial time, which presented no difficulty in the presence
of the Earth, Sun and Moon and with our scientists’
thorough understanding of the laws governing the motion
of celestial bodies and the rocket. An ordinary pocket
watch served, and it was checked astronomically once in
a while.
“You,” said Newton, addressing one of the spacemen,
“raised the question of the possibility of living in outer
space and its advantages compared with life on the Earth.
This is a very interesting question for discussion.”
“There are many things I don’t understand,” one of the
listeners interjected. “Maybe you would reply to several
preliminary questions concerning the surrounding Uni-
verse?”
“You’re welcome to ask your questions.”
“Why, for instance, didn’t the spacemen fall to Earth
under the influence of its attraction once they left the
rocket?”
“That is very simple. On leaving the rocket they had its
speed, i.e., 7.5 kilometres a second. This is ten times the
velocity of a cannon-ball and it is sufficient to develop a
centrifugal force equal to the Earth’s gravity. You can't
fall down for the same reason that the Moon can’t fall.
Reduce the Moon’s velocity, and in five days’ time it will
fall like a stone to the Earth and convert it into a ball of
229
molten, gaseous matter. As long as you move in ether the
resistance of which, if it has any, has never been detected
and, to say the least, is highly doubtful, you can’t lose
your speed. You travel like a bolide which, unless it enters
the atmosphere or hits the Earth, will continue to coast
along forever.”
“That seems clear. Now, why is the sky black?” one of
the hovering listeners asked.
“Did you ever climb a mountain?” Laplace asked. “If
you did, you undoubtedly saw the sky grow darker and
darker as you ascended higher and higher. At an altitude
of ten kilometres an airman sees a very dark sky. The blue
colour belongs to the air. Remove the air, and the colour
disappears. Since there is no air here there is nothing to
make the sky blue.”
“What about the air in the rocket?” one of the men
asked.
“Such a thin layer can have no perceptible colour, just
as a thin layer of water or glass is transparent while a
thick layer is opaque.”
“That’s clear, too. Now, why are there so many stars,
why don’t they twinkle, why are they so brilliant and dif-
ferently coloured?”
“Here too, the reason is the absence of the Earth’s
atmosphere. Its ever-changing state affects all rays pass-
ing through it: they scatter and a star grows fainter and
disappears, then they converge and a bright image strikes
the eye, they waver and a star seems to oscillate. All this
is impossible here, and we see every star as a bright dot.
Furthermore, the thick layer of terrestrial air absorbs and
scatters rays which have the highest refractory power—
violet and blue—letting through a greater proportion of the
red rays which reach the eye of the earthbound observer
(this is not so apparent when a star is in its zenith). Thus
from the Earth the stars seem reddish, although in a void
they are mostly blue, green or the like. Similarly, a cloud
observed through a red glass will seem red. Here in the
230
ether we see the stars in their natural colours, not dis-
torted by the vast two-hundred-kilometre layer of air. As
they have different colours, that is how we see them.”
“The atmosphere,” Ivanov added, “not only scatters
and absorbs light coming from the stars, obscuring the
weaker stars, it also outshines them in daytime when its
light is so powerful that it hides the stars from us. At
night this diffused light dims the stars, blotting out the
weaker ones completely. That is why we see such a multi-
tude of stars here.”
“Why doesn’t a spaceman feel any motion in the ether?”
one of the workers asked.
“Because there are no manifestations of motion in the
ether, none of the sensations that accompany motion on
Earth: the resistance of the air, the jolts, jars and vibra-
tions, the fields, gardens and buildings rolling past, etc.
We've gradually come to trust our little rocket when we're
inside, but outside we still refuse to trust it. This may
pass, and then we shall feel our motion not only in the
rocket, but in the ether as well. For thousands of years
people have never felt the rotational and translatory mo-
tion of the Earth and the Solar System. Even now, though
we are aware of it, we don’t feel it, no matter how we
try.”
27. DISCUSSING LIFE IN THE ETHER
“If there are no more questions,” said Newton, “‘let’s talk
about the advantages of life in a void with no gravity.”
“The best thing in it is,” one of the men ventured, “that
you need no effort or muscular power to move about or
shift the largest of masses,”
“There’s no need for trains, ships, horses, airships, aero-
planes, coal, firewood, etc.,’’ another echoed.
“You can travel at tremendous speeds,” added a third.
“All that’s needed is an impulse, i.e., a first thrust. Motion
persists, because there’s nothing like the resistance of air
or water to prevent it.”
231
“Consequently, passenger and goods traffic over any
distances and at any speeds costs nothing....”
“Structures of all types aren’t subjected to gravitation-
al forces. Walls can be very thin and buildings enormous;
gravity can’t destroy them.”
“How wonderful is the realisation that you can’t fall
and bruise yourself. There’s no danger of falling over a
precipice or of a ceiling or wall collapsing. You can’t drop
or break a plate, and you can work in any position.”
“All this is so, but even more important is the profusion
of light, solar energy, space....”
“Where are the clouds, dirt, moisture, mist, cold, heat,
exhausting labour?” several enthusiastic voices cried.
“Where are the darkness and cold of night, the bitter
winds and snows and blizzards, the hurricanes and ship-
wrecks, the impassable deserts and inaccessible mountains?”
“Gentlemen, your enthusiasm is carrying you away!”
Newton said. “All this is so, of course, but we shouldn’t
let the roses hide the thorns.”
“What thorns?” several voices asked.
“Tve but to open a porthole or pierce this wall or even
accidentally break a glass and we’ll all perish without the
air, which will immediately escape from the rocket due to
its boundless ability to expand.”
Many glanced about in terror.
“Our windows are made of thick double glass reinforced
by wire mesh. They are sufficiently strong, and yet by
carelessness they can be broken. The walls are of metal,
but they too can be pierced.”
“Let’s close our eyes to the negative aspects of our new
existence for the time being and turn to the brighter as-
pects,” Laplace intervened.
“The temperature here can rise from zero to 100°C and
more,” said Ivanov. ‘‘All we have to do is to increase the
dark surface of the rocket. We can raise the temperature
as high as we want to, say, to 25°C. We'll have no need
of clothing then! True, our clothes are almost resistant to
232
wear and tear. The soles of our shoes don’t wear out. But
we have to move about and operate machines. We can
hardly get along without moving at all. This will ulti-
mately destroy our clothing.”
The crew decided to reduce their clothing to a minimum
as soon as possible, at the same time raising the temper-
ature inside the rocket to 30°C.
“Being so close to the Earth,” said Franklin, “we can’t
achieve very low temperatures: the Earth continuously
radiates heat from both its daylight and night sides and
warms our rocket. High temperatures, however, are more
easily obtained by simply painting the rocket and prevent-
ing it from radiating heat. Spherical, parabolic and flat
mirrors can raise the temperature to 150°C and higher.
“This will make it possible to operate different types
of solar motors, to fuse metals and perform many other
technical jobs without the use of fuel.”
“With a constant aperture,” said Newton, “the temper-
ature in the focus of a spherical mirror (my calculations
are based on the works of Stefan) doesn’t depend on the
size of the mirror. The size only increases the heating
surface proportionally. Given an ideal reflecting surface
and a black heating surface, a 60° mirror, or a reflecting
arc of one-sixth of a circle, can develop a temperature of
4402°C. It doesn’t even depend on the distance to the Sun,
only the diameter of the focus area expands in proportion
to the angular diameter of the Sun, i.e., the closer the Sun
the larger the heating surface, the farther the Sun the less
the surface. A mirror with an angle of 120° is capable of
raising the temperature in its focus to 5000-G000°C. On the
Earth half the rays are absorbed by the atmosphere; fur-
thermore, a conic beam is cooled considerably by the air,
and we could hope to obtain as much as 3000°C only un-
der the bell of a vacuum pump with glass of an ideal trans-
parency. In normal conditions, of course, we could never
achieve such a temperature. However, even platinum
melts in the focus of a mirror, which means that on Earth
233
the temperature in this case is above 2000°C. The heating
area, or the diameter of the focus, i.e., the image of the
Sun, for a mirror of one meter radius (with an aperture
of 60° this will also be the diameter of the mirror) is four
millimetres. If the mirror diameter is increased tenfold,
the focus area will correspondingly increase to four cen-
timetres. Here in vacuum we can probably obtain a tem-
perature of five or six thousand degrees. We could raise
it even higher by special methods, but there is no need for
this.”
“Which means,” Ivanov remarked, “that we have excel-
lent facilities for sundry metal-working jobs—in the space
outside the rocket, of course, and wearing space-suits.
When we work in the atmosphere the air attacks metals
and tools and damages the products of our labour. Here
welding, for instance, is very simple: all we have to do is
to concentrate a beam of light on the welded parts and fuse
them with a rod of the same metal, or even just joint the
heated edges. The focus and temperature can be controlled
with great precision. Why, it’s wonderful!
“And we shouldn’t forget,” he went on, “that, here,
mirrors won't become deformed under their own weight,
they can be transferred and revolved in their light frames
without effort and their surfaces won't oxidize and grow
dim. Marvellous! Why, a mirror even 1,000 metres across
is quite feasible, and such a mirror will produce a four-
metre focus. How do you like that? But even with a small
mirror we can consecutively weld together large sur-
faces.”
“You have again mentioned the absence of gravity,” an
elderly worker intervened. “Of course, it is indubitably
absent, since I simply can't feel it, and yet I don’t under-
stand it: the Earth is so close, its gravity is practically
the same, so why don’t we feel it?”
“I've already explained,” Newton said. “But lets ap-
proach it in another way: do the people on the Earth feel
the attraction of the Sun and the Moon? It exists, but no
234
one feels it and even scientists don’t take it into account.
It is manifested only in the ocean tides. The gravitational
force on any planet and on Satellites depends only on its
mass. Even the most exacting astronomers ignore the in-
fluence of the mightiest of suns. In our rocket, too, gravity
depends only on the mass of the rocket, its shape, etc.
And since its mass is negligible compared with the mass
of a planet, its attractive force is also negligible.”
“And yet,” another elderly worker remarked, “the ab-
sence of gravity has its drawbacks, and somctimes it’s a
downright nuisance. All sorts of odds and ends are drift-
ing about the rocket, dust doesn’t scttle—how are we to
wipe it away? Water refuses to stay put in open vessels,
you can’t take a bath or wash, and in the lavatory it’s
just awful....”
28. TAKING A BATH
“First of all,” Laplace said, “the air in the rocket is
continuously pumped through special filters and all impu-
rities are removed. There may be a pencil or something
drifting about, but that’s due to our own carelessness.
Secondly, you’ve probably had no occasion or time to take
a bath in our specially equipped bath-room.”
“True, I haven’t had a chance to take a bath yet,” the
stout man Said, good-naturedly.
“Our bath,” a young worker said, “consists of a sealed
cylindrical tank three metres in diameter with one en-
trance, which rotates about its axis. The tank is half filled
with water. To take a bath you set the tank rotating. The
water flows to the walls and makes a cylindrical surface
of uniform depth. Thanks to the centrifugal force bathers
can stand chest-high in the water, their heads pointing
towards each other like the spokes of a wheel. There are
several windows and various devices and you can have
an excellent bath.”
“You don’t say! And here I’ve been wanting a bath so
much....”
235
“That’s always possible,” the young worker said.
“Furthermore,” Laplace continued, ‘“‘who’s to stop us
from generating gravity in the whole of the rocket by re-
volving it as we’ve already done. We can maintain arti-
ficial gravity as long as we want to, at practically no cost.
Gravity can also be developed in any structure outside
the rocket. When we spin a vessel of water, or rotate
vanes submerged in it, the water will accumulate round
the equator of the vessel and remain there. Revolve this
pot and you'll see that the liquid won’t pour out. The sim-
plest thing is to close a vessel tight and stir the liquid with
vanes whenever you want it to pour. All you have to do
is open a tap and a fountain of water will gush out.”
“We've been bathing quite often,” one young man re-
marked, “and J must say I enjoyed it very much. How is
it that the water is always so pure? Is it changed often?
For we cannot have unlimited supplies of water!”
“It’s continually being purified by distillation, filtration
and by other physical and chemical methods,” said Ivanov.
“It is also disinfected by heating and other means.”
29. SUMMING UP LIFE IN THE ETHER
“I should like to sum up our talk,” Newton said after
a pause. “Thanks to the Sun we have the temperature we
want and can therefore get along without shoes or cloth-
ing; this is further facilitated by the absence of gravity.
Weightlessness also provides us with the softest of quilts,
pillows, beds, etc. To it we owe the ease with which we
can cover long distances quickly and effortlessly. We shall
also be completely provided with food and air when we
have built several greenhouses. If the yield from the plants
we have with us were absolutely perfect the existing sur-
face of the rocket would be sufficient. The space we could
occupy round the Earth, at only half the distance to the
Moon, receives a thousand times more solar energy than
the terrestrial globe does. I imagine that this space or
236
ring, which explorers after us will in time occupy, be per-
pendicular to the Sun’s rays. It is already ours, and we
have only to fill it with dwellings and greenhouses, and
to populate it. Parabolic mirrors can produce temperatures
up to 5000°C, while the absence of gravity makes it pos-
sible to build mirrors of practically any size and, conse-
quently, to obtain heating areas of any size. High temper-
ature and the chemical and thermal energy of sunlight
not weakened by the atmosphere make it possible to car-
ry out a wide range of industria] jobs such as, for instance,
welding, reducing metals from ores, forging, casting,
rolling, and so on. True, we lack terrestrial variety, the
romance of highlands and oceans, storms, rains and frosts.
On the other hand, we're not quite deprived of the Earth,”
Newton went on, pointing to the visible contours of the
seas and continents. “Yet to most of the mortals on our
planet, all that romance is nothing but a source of annoy-
ing, often cruel and distressing cares. Nevertheless, the
Earth remains ours and it will always be ready to embrace
people who find separation from it unbearable. In short,
we can always return to it. But do we really lack romance
here? We have left to us science, matter, worlds and man-
kind surrounding us on all sides in this boundless space! Is
not Man himself a being of the loftiest romance? Is not the
Universe more accessible to us from here, than from the
Earth?”
“That’s all very well,” said Ivanov, “but now allow me
to list the shortcomings of this world. The vicinity of the
Earth robs us of a simple means of obtaining the low
temperatures required for the more efficient work of our
solar motors, for such industrial purposes as the liquefac-
tion and solidification of gases for storage.”
“That handicap is easily rectified,” Newton remarked.
“All we have to do is travel away from the Earth. We
can even obtain much more space and sunlight if we set
up our new dwellings in a ring about the Sun extending
beyond the Earth’s orbit. There we can receive thousands
237
upon millions of times more energy than the Earth re-
ceives. The temperature can easily be lowered to almost ab-
solute zero.”
“Certainly,” Ivanov agreed. “The absence of low tem-
perature is easily remedied. But I could point out other
negative aspects of our life here. True, we have no need
of clothing and furniture, but then, we are confined to a
dungeon, light and beautiful though it may be. We can
leave it only in space-suits, which are complex apparatuses
and much more cumbersome than clothes.”
“Space-suits,”’ said Franklin, “serve one single purpose
and are needed to overcome one single obstacle. They are
essential here to one and all. The manufacture of hundred
millions of one single item will reach perfection and become
inexpensive. In this respect the space-suit cannot be com-
pared with clothing. But here our dwellings also take the
place of clothing. And dwellings here can be furnished very
simply and with great uniformity. We can therefore say
that once we have dwellings, there is no need to have
clothing.”
“That’s so,” the Russian said, “but in these dwellings
we are constantly exposed to the risk of losing gas and
perishing!”
“Dwellings will be as uniform as clothing. When built
for hundreds of millions of people they will be improved to
perfection. The environment is extremely uniform, which
makes it possible to perfect them in the same way as the
space-suits. Besides, doesn’t everyone on Earth risk his
life every minute of the day even now? If the heart is
pierced, a vital ganglion injured, the carotid damaged or the
aorta severed, you'll die. Here, though, the surrounding
population will be so numerous, so wise and united and
will have such remedies, such instruments, that it will
always be possible to find a means of counteracting any
danger or misfortune.... I can’t forecast all the possibil-
ities of improvements in the next millenium,” Newton
said with some heat.
238
“Maybe mankind will so evolve that in the void it will
need neither space-suits nor shelters,” Franklin noted.
“Or it may create even earlier a gaseous, unenclosed
atmosphere in the ether!” the Russian added.
“We can hardly hope to interpret all the ideas we have,”
Laplace concluded.
30. DESCRIPTION OF A BATH
“Gentlemen, that’s enough. Let’s refresh ourselves with
a bath!” one of the listeners exclaimed.
The suggestion was approved and several members of
the crew pushed off and flew to the bath-house compart-
ment. They found there a large drum about four metres
long and three across occupying almost the whole of the
compartment. First they made it turn about its axis. In
the absence of gravity the drum revolved by inertia and
only a slight impetus was needed to keep it turning. On
one side of it, at the drum axis, was a hatch «bout a metre
in diameter which they opened. Divesting themselves of
their colourful loin-cloths and loose-flowing robes—a very
light and unburdensome costume—they plunged one after
another into the bath. Revolving together with the drum,
the water spread over its circumference, with the cylin-
drical surface as the bottom. Pushing and jostling, our
companions dived into the water. They began revolving
together with it and regained their weight. With what
satisfaction they soused themselves in the cool liquid!
How easy it was to swim there! Ivanov saw Newton di-
rectly overhead, ducking and splashing with the same de-
light as he, with Franklin alongside and the others at right
angles. To see Newton, Ivanov had to lean back as if in-
specting a church dome. The men stood with their heads
towards each other and their feet away. This was the only
peculiarity of their bath. In other respects it was just like
one on the Earth. They ducked, dived, caught one another
by the feet, splashed about, swam this way and that,
239
agitated the water, shouted and laughed and, most im-
portant, felt splendidly refreshed. The artificial gravity was
not great. What need had they for more? Hence, it was
much easier to swim here than on the Earth. All the hy-
drostatic and hydrodynamic laws based on gravity, such
as Archimedes’ law held good again. After revelling to
their heart’s content, the company flew out of the bath
just as they had entered it. There was no need to dry
themselves: the hot sunlight, which shone continuously
through the thick foliage, dried them rapidly. They put on
their loin-cloths and went about their private affairs. The
water was filtered and the residue from the filters was
used for fertilising purposes.
31. THE GREENHOUSE
The next meeting was opened by Newton, who report-
ed on the existing state of affairs.
“Gentlemen,” he began, “I should like you to pay at-
tention to our domestic affairs. Our supplies are steadily
dwindling. They are turned into fertilisers for the plants,
but we aren’t growing enough fruit and vegetables to utilise
all the fertilisers. The rocket is too small for the pur-
pose. We have to add a greenhouse, then we’ll have more
Space to move about in without getting into our space-
suits. We shall no longer use up our supplies of oxygen
and food: the surplus plants will provide us with both. All
excretions and waste products will be completely ab-
sorbed. We shall get from our plants as much as we give
them. There will be no need for us to husband our sup-
plies, for we'll be adequately supplied with carbonaceous
and nitrous substances from the fruit we grow. Having in
view the easy life we have, the absence of arduous labour,
and the thirty-degree temperature, such a diet is both
wholesome and necessary.”
“Wouldn't it be better,’ Laplace suggested, “to set up
greenhouses separately from the rocket? Plants don’t re-
240
quire as much gas, and an environmental préssure as wé
people do. Their atmosphere can be different and made
to have an excess of carbon dioxide, moisture, and so on,
all of which is unsuitable for human beings. The green-
house may be limited in size to that of a pipe two metres
across: just large enough for a gardener to fly through it
freely in order to tend the plants and collect the fruit. This
and the low density of the surrounding gaseous medium
will make it possible to effect a considerable saving in
building materials, our stocks of which are not endless.”
“I fully agree,” Newton said. “If I’m not mistaken, the
sections of the greenhouses are almost completely prefab-
ricated and they are built precisely on the lines just
described. We'll have adequate space inside the rocket,
and if anyone feels cooped up, there’s nothing to stop
him getting into his space-suit and gallivanting for hun-
dreds of miles around. The rocket itself, thanks to its
exhaust nozzles and its tremendous stocks of propellants,
can be steered away from the Earth to the Moon or as-
teroids or wherever we wish to go. We are journeying at
this very moment and beautiful, changing pictures of the
Earth are forever unfolding before our eyes. One might
say we were travelling in eternity. As for the greenhouse,
we'll connect it to our rocket by two narrow tubes: one
for removing carbon dioxide and other human refuse from
the rocket to the greenhouse, the other for delivering the
fresh oxygen exhaled by the plants to the rocket. We’ll
need pumps, but our solar motors brought from the Earth
work excellently.”
“Gardening will be a wonderfully simple job here,” Frank-
lin said. “The soil was baked to destroy all weeds, harm-
ful bacteria and pests. As to useful bacteria, for legumi-
nous crops, for instance, we'll introduce them ourselves.
Thus there will be no need to weed our garden. All we'll
have to do is look after the composition of the soil, the
moisture and the gaseous atmosphere.
“The liquid and soil for the plants is prepared just be-
16—761 241
fore planting. The garden will be irrigated automatically.
Water will be condensed from vapour in specially de-
signed cold sections of the rocket and pumped to the con-
sumers. Flowers will be pollinated almost instantaneously
with the help of air fans. The atmosphere will be produced
by our breathing. Finally, the fruit will be touched by
no disease and will grow in all directions without weigh-
ing down the plants, as there is no gravity.”
“But won't we have to leave the rocket to get to those
separate structures?” one of the workers asked.
“Of course,” said Newton. “Don’t you like the idea?”
“On the contrary, Pd like very much to have a jaunt
outside the rocket,” the same voice replied. “I haven’t been
there yet.”
“We'll all have to go out to work,” said Newton. “Be-
sides, we shall frequently have to visit the new greenhouse
to bring in the harvest and look after the plants, and we'll
have to wear our space-suits for that, since the gas pres-
sure in the greenhouse will be too low and the atmosphere
unsuitable for human breathing.”
32. BUILDING A GREENHOUSE. INEXHAUSTIBLE SUPPLIES
Several hours later they began building the greenhouse.
They unpacked the structural elements, mainly thin cylin-
drical tiles of a specially strong and resilient glass rein-
forced by rectilinear wire netting. There were spherical
parts, finished metal attachments and very thin metal
sheeting. The materials were placed in a special chamber,
the air was evacuated, a hatch opened and the materials
pushed out into ethereal space.
Large sections were simply leashed to the rocket, small-
er Ones were stored in a special spherical wire cage out-
side. Once inside the cage, the objects wandered back and
forth like beasts and would not settle down for a long
time. The cage, of course, was strapped to the rocket and
had a door and lock. The structural elements were all
242
numbered and ten workers assembled them in a matter
of hours. The workers left the rocket as described before.
At first they moved about very clumsily but they soon
grew accustomed and proceeded with their job. They
couldn’t help glancing down apprehensively to where the
void yawned underfoot. The work was very easy: no mat-
ter how heavy an object it could be moved by the slight-
est effort. However large, thin or weak the various parts,
once they were joined, but slightly, they neither separat-
ed, fell, deviated nor bent. A senior worker supervised
the construction. Elastic strings stretched between the
men made it possible for them to converse among them-
selves, or even all at once, with the usual confusion which
results in such cases. Vibrations caused by the vocal chords
were transmitted through the air in the helmet to the
space-suit, to the string, and through it despite the sur-
rounding void to some else’s space-suit.
The shell of the greenhouse was soon assembled, but
the parts had to be welded together to prevent gases from
escaping at the joints.
The welding, that is to say the sealing of the transpar-
ent and opaque sections, was an exceedingly simple mat-
ter. The workers could surround the greenhouse on all
sides, and all postures were equally convenient to them.
They stood parallel or perpendicular or at an angle to the
structure, swarming over it like flies. For welding, however,
the greenhouse had to be placed in a special position in
relation to the Sun, for the work was carried out in the
focus of parabolic mirrors. The job was like gas-welding
on the Earth, only more simply and perfectly performed,
in the absence of oxygen and combustion, and because the
workers were not compelled to adopt inconvenient, unna-
tural positions. The temperature was higher and more
stable. In short, it was more like play than work. Only the
frequent setting of the Sun 67 minutes after it had risen,
interrupted their work. But even when the Sun disappeared,
the Earth, which occupied one-third of the sky (120°),
16* 243
provided both light and warmth and they could continue
to work during the night on jobs not requiring the Sun’s
heat. The constant switching from one kind of work to
another was, however, irksome; the men were unwilling
to interrupt the work, which was going so well. But half
an hour (33 minutes) later, the Sun would come again
to their aid in all its grandeur.
Soon the welding was completed, and tested to ensure
that it was air-tight, all the cracks and fissures detected
were sealed, and the walls were declared to be completely
air-tight. The greenhouse was a cylindrical tube 500 metres
long and two metres across. A huge window occupying
one-third of the circumference extended from end to end.
Flattened out, the window was 500 metres wide and two
metres high. In spite of its size, the pipe was not massive,
but it was strong, flexible and durable. Although there
was a possibility of breaking the glass, though only with
great difficulty, this would not let the gas escape thanks
to the strong metal reinforcing netting of the glass which
prevented it from splintering. Small fissures were gas-tight.
The wall, if struck, only vibrated elastically. The workers
in their space-suits swarmed over the finished hull. When
they bumped into one another, they tumbled about comi-
cally, and then calmly restored their equilibrium. They crit-
ically surveyed their handiwork from all sides and at
various points distant from it.
Lastly it was necessary to bring into the greenhouse a
vessel containing a semi-liquid soil, let in the rarefied
gases, plant the seeds and regulate the temperature, humid-
ity, fertilisers and the composition of the gas-forming en-
vironment.
A sectional, opaque, metal vessel was installed, extend-
ing the whole length of the greenhouse along its axis. It
was filled with a soil-and-water mixture and had many
little holes in which seeds or seedlings were planted. In-
side, its walls were moistened with a liquid, while on the
outside, they were coated with a special enamel. Thanks to
244
this the liquid could not leak outside and in accordance
with well-known hydroscopic laws remained confined in-
side the central pipe. Two thin tubes passed down the
middle of this pipe with rows of holes in them. One sup-
plied gases to the soil, the other liquid fertilisers. Per-
petually operating air pumps produced the required gas
mixtures which permeated the soil. Other pumps delivered
to the soil liquid containing fertilising substances.
You may be astounded that such an enormous green-
house could come out of the rocket. But, firstly, its volume
was almost equal to the volume of the rocket; secondly,
the pressure of the gases and vapours in the greenhouse
was so Small that its walls could be very thin, no thicker,
in fact, than ordinary cheap window glass. Thus, the whole
shell weighed some 20 tons, whereas the rocket and its
pay load weighed 400 tons. The greenhouse provided an
additional 1,000 square metres of surface exposed here to
strong sunlight throughout two-thirds of the day, that
is, 50 square metres per person! It is not difficult to imag-
ine what a tremendous amount of nutritious fruit could
be provided by that surface up here, in these wonderful
growing and lighting conditions! The glass was of pure
quartz which lets through chemical rays greatly intensify-
ing plant development and good yields.
Finally everything was completed, the seeds planted and
the greenhouse began to function. Shoots soon appeared.
The transparent part of the greenhouse was continuously
set perpendicular to the Sun’s rays. The back surface was
twice as large, but as it reflected diffused sunlight, it lit
up the whole shaded part of the central pipe with its del-
icate sprouting leaves. Nevertheless, the distribution of
light was uneven and the soil pipe was turned so that
the young plants would receive equal quantities of solar
energy. The rotation was automatic, though it could be
done by hand without leaving the rocket. In general,
the fertiliser supply, lighting conditions, etc., could be
controlled from inside the rocket, so there was no need
245
to get into space-suits very often. It should be noted that
both the rocket and the newly constructed greenhouse were
always orientated most advantageously in relation to the
Sun. This could have been achieved by keeping a constant
sleepless vigil, but a more convenient solution was found.
Light is known to exert a slight—very slight—pressure
on bodies, amounting to half a milligram per square metre
of a surface. By itself this force was too weak to turn the
rocket, but it performed the same service as a ship’s com-
pass. An even simpler device was a magnifying lens at-
tached to the greenhouse wall so that it cast a bright, hot
spot on a screen placed in its focus. Any deviation by the
spot from a specific point set in motion the attitude-con-
trol mechanisms of the greenhouse which returned it to
the required position. An even simpler method of attitude
control would have been to make the rocket and green-
house revolve gently about some axis.
Strawberries, various vegetables and fruit grew by the
hour. Many plants yielded every ten or fifteen days. Dwarf
apple- and pear-trees and other diminutive fruit-bearing
shrubs and trees were planted. They blossomed continu-
ally and bore amazingly large and tasty fruit. Some trees
blossomed while others were already carrying ripe fruit.
The most successful crops were water-melons, musk-mel-
ons, pine-apples, cherries and plums. It was only necessary
to prune the growing shrubs and trees very often. The
harvest was picked continuously, as there reigned an un-
changing climate with no seasons, They could artificially
change the climate over a broad range, making it possi-
ble to grow the sort of crops to be found in the different
countries of the Earth. Large trees were impossible, both
because of the limitations on size imposed by the dimen-
sions of the greenhouse and the shortage of soil and fer-
tilisers. When millions of human beings inhabit these emp-
ty ethereal expanses matters will be arranged differently.
The space travellers frequently visited the greenhouse
to collect fruits or simply for the sake of an outing. They
246
had to wear space-suits for these excursions, as the pres-
sure of the gases and water vapours in the greenhouse
was not more than 20 millimetres of the mercury column,
i.e., one fortieth of atmospheric pressure, which is totally
inadequate for human beings. The composition of the
gases, which completely suited the plants, was wholly
unsuitable for human breathing. The humidity was far
below the saturation pressure corresponding to the tem-
perature because the vapour from the leaves and soil was
condensed, before it could reach saturation point, in spe-
cial appendages of the greenhouse, which were kept con-
stantly in the shade and where consequently the tempera-
ture was close to zero. Thus the vapour pressure was nev-
er greater than 4-10 millimetres. Carbon dioxide, oxygen,
nitrogen and other gases were also in an extremely rarefied
state. But this, it is known, hardly affects plant develop-
ment.
Thus, on Earth the content of carbon dioxide—the prin-
cipal gas for plants—does not exceed one-thousandth, i.e.,
the partial pressure is not more than one millimetre.
The crew took great delight in visiting the greenhouse,
especially at first. The plants grew so thick that they could
hardly make their way through the lush vegetation. Flying
along the tube they had to keep their bodies parallel to
the walls in order not to touch the fruits. This sometimes
happened, for all that, and much of the ripe fruit came
away from the plants. They would never have come away
of their own accord, no matter how ripe, for they had no
weight. Even when separated from the plants, the fruits
did not fall, but drifted about until they got caught in the
dense foliage. A spaceman, flying about like a bird in the
greenhouse could simply have caught the fruit in his
mouth, but unfortunately the space-suit made it impossible.
The fruit and berries bounced off the helmet and had to be
caught in a net like butterflies and stored away in light,
semitransparent bags.
Access to the greenhouse was not simple, despite the
247
space-suits. To pass inside from outer space one had to
enter a special air-lock and close the outside door. Air
from the greenhouse was then let into the lock through an
open hatch through which the person entered the green-
house.
Later, when an air-lock was made to connect the rocket
and the greenhouse, the whole procedure became simpler.
Anyone dressed in a space-suit could enter the lock with
the atmosphere of the rocket. Then the air was pumped
into the dwelling section, the second door was opened,
and the person entered the greenhouse. If he wished to
go from the greenhouse into outer space, he entered the
outer air-lock of the greenhouse. The gases and vapours
in the lock were pumped back into the greenhouse, the
door into ethereal space was opened, and the spaceman
flew out.
33. CAREFREE LIFE. SOLAR TELEGRAPHY
Our travellers were now established comfortably. They
had consumed their stores but had no further need for
them as the greenhouse produced an abundance of tender,
fragrant fruit and vegetables, containing sugar and oil. The
more they ate the more fertilisers they had and, conse-
quently, the more food they could grow—to the extent,
of course, allowed by the solar energy falling on a unit of
surface. Their bodies spent so little energy on movement
and protection against cold that they put on weight in
spite of their vegetarian diet. They enjoyed the “feather-
bed” state of their gravity-free environment and the ab-
sence of diseases. Diseases and their infecting agents had
no opportunity of developing in the rocket, and even if
some bacteria were to make their appearance, the fierce
rays of the Sun would destroy them all. The only area not
completely disinfected was the inside of the human body!
Being completely provided for, they could have con-
tinued in their blissful state until death if death had any
power there.
248
They had a rub-down or bathed almost every day. The
bath was easily transformed into a shower, and artificial
rain produced by centrifugal pumps driven by solar mo-
tors sprayed abundantly from all sides of the bath-house.
The tranquillity of their life, however, brought boredom.
They searched for new activity. It was necessary to send
to Earth a detailed report on their condition, work, achieve-
ments, and state of mind. Most of the electric-power re-
serves had already been exhausted and other means of
telegraphy had to be devised.
Ivanov estimated that solar light reflected by a flat mir-
ror was 40,000 times more powerful than light scattered
by a ground glass surface in similar conditions. There was
sunlight in abundance and plenty of mirrors. One square
metre of mirror reflected as much light as a silver-backed
ground glass 200 metres square. At a distance of 1,000
the brightest planet. reaches only 0.6 of a minute at its
closest opposition, and then only a narrow crescent is
seen. Clearly the mirror could be observed much better
than Venus in the most favourable conditions which meant
that it could be seen even in daytime. The best time for
reflecting the light was just before sunset and immediate-
ly after sunrise, and this happened twice every 100 min-
utes, which was the duration of a day and night up here.
Long and short flashes were produced by manipulating
the mirror slightly. The flashing of the new star could be
observed from parts of the Earth immediately below and
the Morse signals readily deciphered.
34, MANKIND IN THE YEAR 2017*
What was our Earth like in the year 2017, to which
our narrative relates?
There was a Single authority for the whole world, a
congress of elected representatives of all nations. It had
* Written before the 1917 Revolution.—Ed.
249
been inaugurated more than 70 years before, and it dealt
with all mankind’s problems. Wars were impossible. Mis-
understandings among peoples were settled by peaceful
means. Armies were drastically limited, or rather, they
were labour armies. Thanks to the fairly favourable con-
ditions of the preceding one hundred years, the population
had trebled. Commerce, engineering, the arts, and agri-
culture had progressed considerably. Huge metal airships
capable of lifting thousands of tons made travel and goods
traffic both convenient and cheap.
Especially effective were the largest airships, which by
using air currents were employed to transport almost free
of charge such inexpensive commodities as wood, coal
and metals. Aeroplanes were used for the rapid transport
of small numbers of passengers or valuable commodities.
Most widespread were single- and two-seater aeroplanes.
Mankind was peacefully advancing along the road of
progress, but the rapid growth of the population was a
matter of concern for all thinking people and rulers.
Ideas about the technical feasibility of conquering and
exploiting the deserts of the Universe had been voiced
more than a hundred years before. In 1903, a Russian schol-
ar wrote a serious work on this subject and proved math-
ematically, on the basis of the scientific data available
at the time, the feasibility of colonising the Solar System.
His ideas, however, were all but forgotten, and it was left
to our company of scientists to revive them and partially
carry them out.
35. THE STRANGE STAR. THE WORLD LEARNS
THAT THE DESERTS OF THE UNIVERSE ARE OPEN TO MANKIND
Many people observed an unusual phenomenon which re-
curred before dawn and at dusk: a bright flashing star trav-
elling rapidly across the sky. At first it was thought to
be an airship, signalling with an electric light, but it was
pointed out that an airship would have several bright, un-
250
blinking lights at night. Furthermore, the deciphered sig-
nals carried an amazing message.
Rumours had it that a space vehicle based on the rocket
principle had departed from the Earth, but the news had
been ridiculed as merely another newspaper sensation.
Then one day the following telegram was deciphered:
“April 10, 2017. On January first, this year, we the un-
dersigned, 20 persons in all, took off in a reaction-pro-
pelled vehicle from a valley of the Himalayan Mountains
(name supplied). We are now circling the Earth in our
rocket at a distance of 1,000 kilometres, making one com-
plete orbit every 100 minutes. We have built a large green-
house, planted fruit and vegetables, and have already gath-
ered several harvests. Thus we have plenty of food and
are alive and healthy and adequately supplied for an in-
definite period of time. We are surrounded by boundless
space capable of providing a home for countless millions
of human beings. We invite you to move up to us if you
are inconvenienced by overpopulation and if terrestrial life
burdens you. Here life is a virtual paradise, especially for
the weak and ailing.
“Details of our flight can be obtained from our place
of departure, where full information about our achieve-
ments is available. There you can obtain the necessary in-
formation about the construction of reaction-propelled ve-
hicles for space flight.” The telegram was signed by several
famous names,
The report was received by many telegraph operators
and printed in all newspapers. Everyone had seen the won-
derful flashing star. Scientists and academicians studied it.
They determined its distance from the Earth, the time
when it appeared, the elements of its orbit, its velocity,
etc. Their data confirmed the authenticity of the telegram,
for no airship could rise to an altitude of 1,000 kilometres
in order to hoax the world. A wave of excitement spread
over the Earth as if the end of the world had been an-
251
nounced, but this was joyful excitement. What prospects
were now thrown open to the human race!
People of every nationality knew, besides their own
tongue, a universal, world-wide language. There was a com-
mon alphabet, certain common laws which united people
possessing the most diverse qualities and natures. News of
the world-shattering events spread rapidly to the farthest
corners of the Earth. Airships delivered newspapers, books,
preachers and lecturers at very low expense, often just
with the aid of a fair wind.
Everyone participated actively in terrestrial affairs. The
announcement of the accessibility of the deserts of the
Universe was hailed with great delight, for many people
had been longing for the freedom of outer space. The ail-
ing hoped to be cured, the old and the weak, to prolong
their lives. Our Himalayan anchorets were the centre of
interest, a source of happy news and information, towards
which the eager ears of the world were ever turned.
Countless commissions from scientists and engineers
were dispatched to our hermits in order to investigate
their work on the spot. A vast number of schools were
opened for studying the sky and reaction-propelled vehi-
cles. Graduates from these schools qualified as reaction-
propulsion engineers. Factories were built for the manu-
facture of space projectiles. Technicians, foremen and
workers were trained. In short, the wheels were spinning,
and in less than a year a thousand reaction-propelled vehi-
cles were ready for the transmigration.
36. BEYOND THE EARTH AGAIN. DISCUSSION
OF A NEW SPIRAL FLIGHT ROUND THE EARTH.
THE MYSTERIOUS KNOCK. A WATCHMAN IN’ ETHER
But what were our rocket men doing meanwhile? Sev-
eral months passed before the curiosity of mankind was
satisfied. Daily they received hundreds of questions from
‘the Earth which had to be answered. Finally, the curiosity
252
began to abate and a telegram as follows was flashed to
the Earth: “Are traveliing in spiral path away from the
globe. Will explore the space area round the Earth. Ex-
pect no telegrams meanwhile.”
Once again the crew assembled in the drawing-room.
Newton opened the meeting.
“We've reported all our experiences to the Earth, what
we have felt and have found. Let the inhabitants of the
Earth make use of these expanses, this sunlight and
warmth, this carefree, affluent social existence and the
opportunities it provides for unhampered thought and en-
terprise. We have supplied the technical data necessary
for organising an exodus and forming a colony round the
Earth. There is nothing to keep us here any longer, but
it would be a good idea to pave the way for the further
advance of mankind.”
“Hurrah! We're flying on!” enthusiastic cries welcomed
his words.
“But, in effect, we haven’t even explored the space
round the Earth as far as the Moon’s orbit. This is a vast re-
gion which receives thousands of times more light than the
Earth. We shall place it at the disposal of man. The rocket
and the greenhouse with its continuously ripening fruit
provide us with everything, from the material point of
view,” Newton continued. “We can’t part with the green-
house and will have to drag it along on our spiral journey.”
“Well switch on our motors,” said Laplace, “and the
rocket will take the greenhouse in tow.”
“Here we won’t need a powerful thrust,” Ivanov re-
marked. “Before, our acceleration reached 100 metres a
second, which increased our weight tenfold, compared with
the Earth. This forced us to submerge in water to protect
ourselves. Now a thrust of one ten-thousandth is all that
is necessary and adequate. An acceleration of one centi-
metre per second will be enough.”
“The relative gravity,” Franklin commented, “will be
one-thousandth of the terrestrial gravitational force, i.e.,
253
quite negligible. It can’t harm the greenhouse or the plants
in it, to say nothing of the rocket, which can withstand
large loads.”
“In fact,” Laplace remarked, “our flight will hardly affect
our present state. In the rocket and the greenhouse we
shall fall in the direction of their long axes. A falling body
will travel five millimetres in the first second; it will take
ten seconds to fall 500 millimetres, or half a metre, and
one hundred seconds to fall 50 metres, or half the length
of the rocket. We’ll be able to enjoy standing and walking,
although we shall find it rather difficult. A sneeze, a cough
or a sudden wave of the hand or foot will waft us off our
feet. A man weighing 100 kilograms will weigh only 100
grams. Of course, the objects, plants and people lashed
secure in the rocket and greenhouse will remain in place.
We'll continue to fly about without even noticing the slight
weight we possess.”
“The purpose of this small acceleration,” said Newton,
“is to describe a spiral about the Earth and explore the
surrounding space as carefully as possible. Our spiral mo-
tion will carry us farther and farther away from our plan-
et towards the Moon’s orbit. We can’t have a great accel-
eration or thrust force as, in that case, the greenhouse
would be destroyed by its own weight. We could dis-
mantle the greenhouse and stow it away in the rocket,
but this would be a nuisance and we should lose too much
time. Besides what would we eat? We have no more stores,
and a final harvest before dismantling the greenhouse
would last no more than a fortnight. We’d probably spend
more than that on dismantling, re-assembling, planting,
and waiting for the fruits to ripen.
“Even this acceleration of 1 cm/sec is a lot,” Newton
continued. “It will take 200,000 seconds, or about a day
and a half, to increase the rocket’s velocity by one kilo-
metre per second. In the meantime the rocket will have
circumnavigated the Earth more than ten times and trav-
elled a considerable distance away from it. Due to the
254
increasing distance from the Earth, the actual velocity will
gradually decrease, and near the Moon’s orbit it will be
only one kilometre a second, as compared with 7.5 now.
By then we shall have almost completely overcome the
Earth’s gravitational pull. Furthermore,” Newton conclud-
ed, “if we find it necessary we can stop the motors or we
can accelerate the rocket.”
“Why not fly straight from the Earth round the Sun?”
one of the crew asked. “What can we expect to find in the
neighbourhood of the Earth? Isn’t the space round the Sun
and onwards to the orbit of Mars and the minor planets
more interesting? If anything, it is a million times great-
er than the Earth-and-Moon backwoods!”
“Why, listen to him talk!” several voices exclaimed. “He
calls an area a thousand times greater than the surface
of the Earth mere backwoods!”
“A trip round the Sun independently of the Earth is pos-
sible,” said Franklin. “But caution is the best counsel. No
harm will be done by exploring the neighbourhood of the
Earth more carefully. We want to know whether it is suit-
able for life and whether there are bodies in it that might
endanger the colonies of man. We’ll have time enough for
the other trip. At present we are more interested in the
neighbourhood of the Moon. We may even visit it.”
“How interesting! That’s really something!” several ex-
cited voices exclaimed.
All of a sudden a loud knock echoed through the ship.
Everyone looked around.
“Gentlemen, who did that?”
The sound was an unusual one, rather like a bump from
outside. Some grew pale, others hastened to the portholes.
“Gentlemen!” one of the latter exclaimed. “A strange
object is receding from the rocket. Maybe it hit us and re-
bounded?”
The others peered out.
“Why, it’s an aerolite!” Ivanov exclaimed, “a celestial
rock, a tiny planet or part of a comet.”
255
The rock was slowly drifting away and dwindling in
size.
“By the time we get into our space-suits and fly out,”
Newton observed, ‘‘the bolide will be too far away and we
may not find it.”
“I think it would be a good idea to keep a lookout near
the rocket,” Laplace suggested. “We really ought to cap-
ture a body like that. The material may come in handy.
The iron, nickel, carbon, oxides and other substances con-
tained in these roving rocks can all be utilised.”
The suggestion was accepted, a schedule was drawn up
and one of the crew left to go on watch.
“I think the rock which alarmed us so much is a satel-
lite of the Earth,” Newton said. “The blow was relatively
weak, which may mean that it is one of the Earth’s little
moons revolving round it with a velocity corresponding to
the distance. The velocity should be very much like that
of the rocket, making the relative velocity of the rocket
and the rock almost zero. Such celestial bodies present
no danger to us since collision with them will be slight.
Comet bolides, however, may well destroy the rocket and
the greenhouse. This collision of ours is an extremely rare
thing and the probability is no greater than the chance of
an aerolite falling on a house on the Earth. We have as
much cause to fear such a collision as to expect a bolide
to fall on the head of a chance pedestrian on the Earth.
We shan’t need watchmen to look out for such a contin-
gency. On the Earth no one lives in fear of an aerolite.
However, our watchman might be lucky enough to spot
in a telescope some large body several hundreds of kilo-
metres away. Then we could capture it and make use of
the material.”
“If there’s no danger,” said Ivanov, ‘‘do we really need
a watchman? We can keep a lookout in all directions from
the inside using spyglasses. There’ll be plenty of enthu-
siasts. As it is, we are always staring out into space. If
256
anyone notices something of interest a trapper can imme-
diately set off after our celestial quarry.”
The watchman was called in, and he was not at all dis-
pleased.
37. SPIRAL FLIGHT. TRAVEL IMPRESSIONS. BOLIDES.
REACHING THE MOON'S ORBIT. DECIDING TO LAND
ON THE MOON
Two symmetrical exhaust nozzles were used and the
expenditure of propellants was reduced to a minimum.
The blast was hardly noticeable and soon everyone grew
as accustomed to it as to the ticking of a clock. They
looked out of the portholes with curiosity. They saw the
same black sky, the huge crescent of the Earth, the gleam-
ing bluish Sun, the dark sphere powdered with the silver
dust of unblinking stars. At first they were amused by the
sensation of gravity and falling, to which they had grown
unaccustomed. But the falling was negligible and it had
practically no effect on their usual flying about and gam-
bolling in the rocket. Water poured into vessels from a
slow-running jet, forming a horizontal surface over which
large waves rolled lazily. Pendulums swung astonishingly
slowly: the pendulum clock in the rocket went 32 times
more slowly than one on the Earth.
Previously, when anyone left the rocket in his space-
suit and took care not to push off, he hovered near it; if
he pushed off he moved steadily away. Now, he fell away
from one end of the rocket and was pressed against it at
the other end. The same occurred inside the rocket: in one
hundred seconds a person, like any object, fell 50 metres
from it, in one thousand seconds the distance reached five
kilometres. The velocity grew in proportion to time. This
was no joke and made a leash necessary. It grew taut, but
hardly perceptible. If a person jumped forward from the
front end of the rocket he soared up, with uniformly-retard-
ed motion, the retardation being one-thousandth of the
17—761 257
magnitude of retardation in conditions of terrestrial grav-
ity, and finally returned back to the rocket. The thrust
could be increased and the phenomenon would be more
pronounced. A large gravitational force, however, could
damage the greenhouse.
“It seems to me,” said one of the bolide searchers,
“that the Earth and the continents and seas are growing
smaller.”
“That is the natural consequence of our spiralling away
from the globe,” Ivanov remarked.
The days grew longer but the nights, while increasing
absolutely (due to the slower motion of the rocket) became
shorter as compared with the days. With each circle around
the Earth the splendid evening glow, a crimson circle em-
bracing almost the whole sky, grew smaller and weaker. It
was quite light, but not as before. The Sun shined as
before.
All twenty men maintained a continuous watch, with
weak and powerful telescopes from the well-polished port-
holes of their cabins. They began to meet small bolides
several centimetres in diameter, but they made no attempt
to catch them as they were too far off. Soon there were
more of them, some hardly moving. This meant that their
motion coincided with that of the rocket, i.e., it was in
the same direction and almost of the same speed. They
were caught and moored to the rocket. Not a single bo-
lide, however, came closer than within several kilome-
tres. The men chased them in space-suits fitted with small
jet motors and caught them in nets. Soon a sizable col-
lection was assembled, Analyses revealed the presence of
iron, nickel, silica, alumina, calcium oxide, feldspar, iron
chromite, iron oxides, graphite and other simple and com-
pound substances. The most frequently occurring were
pure iron, nickel and silicon.
Newton showed the company a collection of uranolites
and informed them of the results of the analyses.
“We have here,” he exclaimed, “excellent building ma-
258
terial, the oxygen we lack, and soil for plants. True, the
oxygen is in combination with other substances, but it is
there and nothing could be simpler than to extract it in
gaseous form. After all, we have such a powerful source
of energy as the Sun. The temperature in the focus of our
mirrors can reach 5000°C.
“Weve lost very little oxygen and water vapour,” La-
place remarked.
“Water, too, can be obtained from these rocks,” Frank-
lin observed. “Some of the feldspars contain chemically
combined water.”
“It is noteworthy,” said Ivanov, “that all these min-
erals and elements are familiar to terrestrial mineralo-
gists, since they are present in the rocks of our native
planet. They have also been found in aerolites collected
on the Earth and kept in museums.”
“If the composition of this world is so like our own,”
Ivanov went on, “what is to prevent it from becoming
man’s habitation and an arena for his activity?”
The farther they receded from the Earth, the more
rocks they encountered. Some of the bolides were several
metres across, but they left such giants alone as their bulk
would hamper the motion of the rocket. Sometimes a shad-
ow would flit by in the distance: these were splinters of
comets travelling at terrific speed. The larger and more
distant bodies travelled across the black sky like stars,
though they were much closer. Most bolides between the
Earth and the rocket moved faster than the latter, those
farther away moving more slowly. The illusion was that
the rocket was motionless while the bolides traced back
and forth in different directions. Observing this, a young
member of the expedition suggested that the relative mo-
tion of the bolides could be used to accelerate or retard
the rocket without expending any fuel.
“All we have to do is to hitch a ride,” he said.
“A splendid idea,” Laplace remarked, “but unfortunate-
ly we can’t make use of it because we lack the necessary
17* 259
implements. The rocket would probably withstand the
jar and we could survive if submerged in water, but the
greenhouse would be destroyed.”
The Earth grew smaller and smaller, the day became
longer: thanks to the longer day, night set in suddenly,
and more and more followed the lines of an ordinary solar
eclipse lasting several hours. A day in the rocket was al-
ready equal to ten terrestrial days. The Moon alternately
expanded and contracted; at its largest it was a most strik-
ing spectacle. At one point its maximum size became equal
to that of the Earth. The latter’s dimensions did not change
in the course of the day, i.e., as the rocket circled round
it, but it shrank gradually, as the distance increased. In the
course of half the rocket’s day the Moon expanded consid-
erably, then dwindling rapidly until it became even small-
er than as seen from the Earth. The apparent diameters
of the Earth and the Moon became equal when the rocket
reached a point 4/, of the distance between them, or 48
terrestrial radii from the Earth. Soon that point was
passed.
The cloudless day grew longer and longer. Flowers and
fruit flourished in the Sun. During oppositions of the Earth
and Moon the latter seemed larger. Lunar attraction exert-
ed a growing influence on the rocket’s motion. The veloc-
ity would first increase, then be retarded by the pull of
the Earth’s satellite. The orbit or path of the rocket was
distorted, and it could even have hit the Moon, but that
did not happen.
Finally, however, the rocket reached the orbit of the
Moon, moving in the same direction and with the same
velocity as the Moon, but on the other side of the circle,
‘So that they could never meet.
There were no more nights, only eclipses of the Sun,
which were as rare as lunar eclipses on Earth. A continu-
ous day set in.
The motors were stopped. The Moon was far away and
seemed even smaller than when seen from Earth,
260
The rocket’s orbital period about the Earth was the
same as that of the Moon, its synodic period (with respect
to the Sun) being about 30 terrestrial days. In its spiralling
away from the Earth the rocket more and more infre-
quently overtook the Moon, until finally it began moving
with the same speed as the Moon, which seemed fixed in
the sky.
This happened when the rocket was the same distance
from the Moon as from the Earth.
The distance between the rocket and the Moon became
constant. As the rocket seemed stationary to its inhab-
itants, so did the Moon and the Earth. Both traced their
paths among the stars, but the impression was that the
stellar sphere was moving.
38. DOUBTS. SHOULD THEY VISIT THE MOON!
The space between the Earth and the Moon for 360,000
kilometres round the Earth had been thoroughly explored
and found to be quite safe and almost free of bolides. Peo-
ple could now begin their transmigration. A telegram to
that effect was flashed down to the Earth. This time the
mirror had to be larger, and a reflector 10 square metres
was used. A telegram from the Earth acknowledged the
receipt of the good news.
“Mankind will now embark on a new era of colonisa-
tion,” Newton informed his weightless audience. “We for
our part must discuss our future plans. We have good
grounds for satisfaction and confidence: we have carried
out our plans, the rocket is coasting round the Earth in
the orbit of the Moon, which presents no danger to us
and cannot perceptibly affect our motion, we are adequate-
ly provided with food. Our position has changed only
relative to the Moon and the Earth, remaining the same
in relation to the Sun and the stars.”
“We can take one of three courses by switching on our
motors,” Laplace said. “We can land on and explore the
26!
Moon and attempt to determine its importance to the Earth
and in general. We can accelerate our ship to a velocity
which will take us forever from the Earth and put us in
orbit round the Sun. Thus we can explore an expanse
about our luminary which is hundreds of millions of times
greater than the surface of the Earth. Finally, we can de-
velop a negative velocity, i.e., reduce our speed with rela-
tion to the Earth, in which case we shall begin falling
earthwards drawn by its gravitational pull. In five days
of accelerated fall we shall dash to smithereens against
its surface.”
“That’s the least desirable course,’’ several voices ex-
claimed.
“A trip round the Sun can also be postponed!”
“Why not try to reach the Moon?” came the suggestions
from all sides.
“It is feasible,” said Newton. “But we can’t take the
greenhouse to the Moon with us. When we start retarding
our motion on approaching it there will be developed in
the rocket and the greenhouse a relative gravity not
less than the gravity at the Moon’s surface, i.e., minimum
one-sixth of the Earth’s gravity at ground level. The green-
house can’t withstand even that small gravitational
force.”
“Consequently,” Franklin said, “we'll have to leave the
greenhouse here and proceed in the rocket carrying stores
of food and oxygen. This means that we shan’t be able to
stay long on the Moon, especially if we all land together.
On the other hand, we can’t leave anyone in the green-
house because a space-suit must not be worn for more
than six hours, and even if we could extend this time in-
definitely, it would be most tiresome to remain contin-
uously in a space-suit.”
“Suppose we dismantle the greenhouse, stow it away
in the rocket and then set it up on the Moon? Then we
can dismantle it again and fly back,” some of the workers
suggested.
262
“This has been discussed,” Ivanov remarked, “and it was
found impracticable.”
“The only thing to do,” said Newton, “is for all of us
to fly to the Moon for a short period without the green-
house. We’ll gather as much fruit as possible and then
reduce functioning of the greenhouse, leaving regulators
to supply the plants with moisture, nutritious substances
and everything they need for several dozen hours.”
The question of visiting the Moon was debated for some
time, before a satisfactory solution was finally arrived at.
The greenhouse would be equipped with a slowly revolv-
ing polyhedral mirror. The light reflected by its facets
would be seen several thousand kilometres away.
But let us now leave our weightless travellers and re-
turn to the Earth.
39. EVENTS AT HOME
While reaction-propulsion crafts and greenhouse parts
were being built, new experiments carried out and new in-
struments manufactured, the inhabitants of the Earth were
dreaming about, arguing over and reading everything that
appeared in print about the new trans-atmospheric colo-
nies. Some opposed the idea of colonisation, some were
indifferent, but the majority ardently supported the idea.
Many books appeared devoted to life outside the Earth.
People poured over colourful pictures illustrating life on
the future colonies. The children were the first to pounce
on those pictures, they were followed by the younger
men and girls, and finally the adults. Sceptics predominated
among the old folk and women, but the girls were as
enthusiastic as the young men.
Lectures were delivered and papers read at meetings,
learned societies, and academies all over the world.
People impatiently awaited the first flights. The telegram
from our trans-atmospheric travellers that they were well
and had explored the space between the Earth and the
Moon was received with general satisfaction.
263
The question of selecting the first colonists was widely
debated. Half the population of the world—some 2,000 mil-
lions—had volunteered, but in their heart of hearts many
thought, “Let someone else go first. Pll follow the lead.
There’s no haste.” Children fancied themselves flying
about, cavorting, playing and skimming in air and the
boundless ether.
People imagined how nice it would be to be rid of over-
cast skies and to enjoy the constant sunshine. The inhab-
itants of northern and cloudy lands were the most anx-
ious.
“You can’t get along without nights,’ the sceptics
wagged their heads.
“Darkness is easily made,” the optimists countered.
Weak, ailing and old people longed for the Sun even
though they were apprehensive of some of the conditions
in the new life. They wished for repose, freedom of move-
ment and tropical heat, but they had their doubts about
weightlessness. Poor people relished the prospect of break-
ing away from want and the squalor that inevitably ac-
companies poverty.
“There’s nothing shameful in being naked among other
naked people,” they said. “Why, some might even take
pride in a beautiful body and give themselves airs—with-
out having a penny in their pockets!”
“How much energy it takes to overcome the hostility
of beds, homes and clothing! It’s all very well for the rich
to talk! But the poor and the weak suffer most from ver-
min, especially in hot countries where the level of culture
is low; it is they who find it so hard to combat vermin and
insects.”
Everyone was impressed by the possibility of control-
ling the temperature from zero to 150°C.
“This means,” they said, “that we can always have 30-
35° C at home. In such easy conditions, with the tempera-
ture almost equal to that of the body, the organism
expends the minimum of energy, making it possible
264
to be contented with every little food and still put on
weights.”
Vegetarians were pleased to hear that their diet would
consist of fruit and vegetables.
“But there’s nothing to prevent us from breeding ani-
mals there,” contended the lovers of meat.
“Oh, no,” the vegetarians argued, “you won't be al-
lowed to.”
The discussion spread to the newspapers. It was an-
nounced that the higher animals would not be slaughtered
in trans-atmospheric colonies. Even on the Earth the
consumption of meat was gradually falling because of the
increasing variety and quality of fruit and vegetables and
because the expansion of world trade had made the finest
fruits available to everyone. Moral considerations, natural
compassion, and an organic abhorrence of blood had led
to a position where only sick people included animal flesh
in their food.
Sick and aged people donated huge sums of money to
hasten the beginning of the transmigration. Doctors as-
sured them that there were better conditions for re-
cuperation and prolongation of life in outer space: eternal
sunlight, a constant, healthy temperature, complete bodily
rest, absence of blankets, beds, clothing, no pressure and
contact with anything. The slightest effort was sufficient
to change the position of the sick patient. Every part of
the body was free and accessible, and there was no danger
of ever developing bed-sores. Finally, there was the total
absence of infecting agents.
“It’s immoral to expose the body,” the pessimists de-
clared.
“There’s nothing to prevent you wearing clothing if
you so wish,” the exponents of the new way of life coun-
tered. “Besides, it will be obligatory to conceal certain
parts of the body.”
“Men and women almost naked! It’s awful!” the moral-
ists exclaimed in horror.
265
“They’ll get used to it,” replied the positive advocates.
“If they don’t, it will surely mean that such people are
spiritually unchaste and should be left on the Earth. Not
everyone will depart, in any case. Someone will have to
remain here. The Earth will continue to require looking
after just as before and even more, otherwise it will be-
come a hell. At first we'll send up just a few people, the
most physically fit and, what is more important, morally
sound. Later on, only the overspill population of the Earth
will be resettled.”
Everyone was glad that there was no need to do any
travelling, no need to overcome gravity, friction, the re-
sistance of water and air, with the exception of the air
inside the rockets or the very rarefied air in the green-
houses. The journey could be made without clothing inside
the rocket or in a space-suit outside. In both cases people
would be racing through the void without ever stopping
or feeling the drag of the medium.
“A rocket will be like a gaol,” the doubters grumbled.
“Not a gaol but a spacious home with every possible
convenience of the kind that even the most powerful peo-
ple cannot at present enjoy,” the supporters replied.
“Furthermore, you can leave the rocket from time to
time. All you have to do is get into a space-suit and you
are free to move in all six directions.”
“A space-suit is cumbersome,” the grumblers continued.
“Your eyes are always behind glasses. It’s clothing all
over again, but worse and more inconvenient.”
“Up there a space-suit will weigh nothing, and in any
case it’s much more comfortable than the garments of an
Eskimo or a Yakut. Space-suits are still far from perfect,
of course, but when they are improved you'll be sur-
prised at the result!”
“We'll see! But then, you never have the pleasure of a
stroll on foot, everything is so monotonous, and the black
Sky and the lifeless stars are dreadful. Here I can see the
blue sky, the glorious sea, the lovely colours of the air,
266
hills, valleys and woods. A medley of sounds caresses the
ear wherever you go. What can be better than a thunder-
storm in spring, the babble of a brook, the murmur of the
trees, the pounding of the surf on the beach... .”’
“That is so,” the exponents rejoined. “But how many
people have the time and opportunity to enjoy them? On
the other hand, in the greenhouses there will be flowers,
fragrance and beauty galore, and, in addition, the oppor-
tunity to enjoy them. A tired, work-weary person cannot
take in the beauties of nature. Enlightenment and asso-
ciation with large numbres of people will be a great rec-
ompense for the absence of terrestrial romance. Besides,
to some extent, reading books about the Earth and look-
ing at pictures of the Earth will make up for its absence.
People will be able to visit the Earth once in a while. But
goodness! how disappointed they will be after their care-
free life in the skies! The visitor to the Earth will be like
an old man hankering after his native parts. His child-
hood and adolescent memories are so pleasant that his
childhood haunts him because of their seeming charm
and delight, because childhood friends seem so attrac-
tive.... Yet when he finally reaches home he finds.... Ah
me! but every old man knows what he finds and how dis-
heartened he is.”
Many people agreed that a world without gravity had
its advantages: walls couldn’t fall or ceilings cave in,
people could not trip up and fall or slip and break their
bones; every position was achieved effortlessly, the legs
and arms would never grow numb, and freight haulage
would cost nothing. All this was known and had been
discussed, but it was pointed out that there were many
occasions when gravity was essential, for example, when
washing or in a Javatory.
“Even if you are right to regard gravity as essential,”
a physics teacher protested, “there is nothing simpler than
to produce it by rotating your dwelling. Rotation up yon-
der is permanent and costs nothing. Furthermore, its speed
267
depends on us, we can make it less than on Earth or more,
within infinite limits. This is our advantage. Terrestrial
gravity is constant, but there it can be of any force from
zero upwards. Now about the temperature. Close to the
Earth it can’t be lowered very much because of the plan-
et’s heat radiation. But farther away temperature control
can be accomplished within very wide limits. At the dis-
tance of the Moon, where our travellers are at this mo-
ment, the temperature can be brought down to almost
absolute zero, i.e., to 273°C below freezing point. This is
of tremendous importance for industry,” the teacher went
on. “On Earth it is very difficult and expensive to achieve
low temperatures. Up there it is virtually possible to get
+150°C and —250°C simultaneously. A difference of 400°C!
Then take the absence of gases for metal-working. It’s
impossible to enumerate all the opportunities and indispu-
table advantages available!
“Due to its spherical shape,” the physicist continued,
“the succession of days and nights and the absorption of
the atmosphere, the Earth receives only about one-eighth
of the amount of radiant energy received up there. Clouds
and mists further considerably reduce this figure. Then
the absence of insects and other pests and the favourable
moisture and fertiliser conditions afford fabulous yields
of crops. A very small greenhouse can feed one person
with hardly any tending. Weeds are destroyed by preheat-
ing to a temperature of 100 degrees. And this requires no
fuel, and in general fuel is redundant up there.”
“You could be a lawyer,” someone remarked sarcasti-
cally. “Better say what'll happen if by accident all the gas
escapes from the greenhouses and dwellings? Everyone’ll
die.”
“Proper care must be taken. If you make a hole in the
dykes of Holland the whole country will be flooded!”
“But some loss of gas is inevitable. How will you make
up for it?”
268
“Water seeps through dams, but it is not regarded as a
catastrophe.”
“And the bolides and asteroids! They supply gases, and
water (in solid state), and building material. An asteroid
one kilometre in diameter has a mass of about 5,000 mil-
lion tons and it can supply an enormous population for a
long time. There are any amount of these asteroids which
escape observation in the finest telescopes, even in fa-
vourable circumstances.”
“But no one has ever seen them!” several voices ex-
claimed.
“Hundreds of asteroids 10 metres and more in diameter
have been discovered. Our travellers report that they have
seen many bolides and even gathered a small collection
of celestial rocks. We find many aerolites in museums
here on the Earth. The smaller a celestial body, the more
of them there are. There are thousands of ten-mile planets.
There are probably many more smaller ones, only the low
power of our telescopes makes it impossible for us to see
them. There is a tremendous amount of interstellar dust,
which manifests itself in the shape of shooting stars and
which probably settles on the snow of the polar countries.”
Unfortunately, we are unable to recount all the argu-
ments of this nature. Often the same things were repeated
over and over again and we have given here only the
most characteristic arguments.
40. EARTH TO ETHER AND BACK. ESTABLISHING
NEW COLONIES
The rockets were built and equipped along the lines
already described. Thousands of them left the Earth one
after another, roaring and thundering and spitting fire, to
the delight of onlooking crowds. First only scientists, tech-
nicians, engineers and workers were dispatched, all of
them young, energetic and in excellent health, and all of
them builders.
269
On the advice of the scientists, a swarm of these rockets
was put into orbit at a distante of 5.5 terrestrial radii, or
33,000 kilometres, from the surface. They circled the plan-
et in just one terrestrial day. Daytime was almost con-
tinuous, being interrupted every 24 hours by a brief solar
eclipse which could hardly be regarded as night. The Earth
was seen at an angle of 16°, i.e., it looked like a huge
moon 32 times broader than the Moon seen from the Earth.
The latter seemed alternately slightly larger or slightly
smaller than usual. Everything else was as described, only
on a smaller scale. The rocket’s velocity in relation to the
Earth was 3 km/sec.
Newcomers to that strange world were first awed, then
delighted, but they gradually got used to the situation and
engaged in work as described before. They used structural
elements to build a number of greenhouses. Later it was
decided to adapt them for habitation as well. Accordingly,
the gas pressure was brought up to one-fifth of atmospher-
ic. It consisted mainly of oxygen—80 per cent—the other
20 per cent including carbon dioxide, water vapour, etc.
The absolute amount of oxygen was only slightly less than
on the Earth at sea level. The oxygen, however, was much
more stimulating, because it was almost pure and not
overburdened, as it is on the Earth, with a lot of useless
nitrogen. The pressure was rather low, but all the new
settlers had passed the examination to test their ability to
stand the reduced pressure. The greenhouse atmosphere
had a double advantage: the oxygen was more effective
and the walls of the structures were subjected to only one-
fifth of atmospheric pressure, making it possible to reduce
their weight without detriment to strength. The green-
houses were not exactly identical with the one described.
They were designed for living and were built stronger than
the ones designed only for plants, and which had a very
rarefied atmosphere.
Thousands of rockets shuttled freight between the Earth
and outer space. Several of them remained in orbit as
270
dwellings for the builders, but they could always return
to their native Earth at short notice.
The homeward journey was a reverse of the upward
path. The sensations and flight conditions were virtually
the same, the only difference being that the velocity was
reversed as the exhaust was directed against the motion.
The speed was gradually reduced until it reached zero at
the Earth’s surface. For safety reasons it was actually re-
duced to nil long before landing. The rocket hovered in
the air before slowly descending until it softly touched
the ground. The landing technique may sound simple, but
in practice it required great skill to stop the rocket at the
split second when it touched the ground in the desired
point. That is why a greater amount of propellants had
to be used in landing than in launehing a rocket of the
same mass. Usually a rocket would land in a big mountain
lake not far from the launching site. Then it was towed to
the shore and transported back to the launching pad.
The construction crews were rarely relieved because they
had to pioneer the building of space colonies, and in ad-
dition, the work was very light and clean. Parts were rap-
idly welded together with great accuracy by focusing sun-
light in a parabolic mirror.
The first greenhouse was finished in 20 days, It was a
long tube like the one described, but 1,000 metres long and
10 metres across. It was designed for accommodating and
feeding 100 persons. There was 100 square metres of lon-
gitudinal section of the cylinder, or 100 square metres of
surface for each inhabitant continuously subjected to the
normal rays of the Sun (except during eclipses). The side
facing the Sun was transparent over one-third of the cir-
cumference. The reverse side was opaque metal with small
portholes. Thanks to an extremely strong, silvery wire re-
inforcement glass could quite safely withstand the pres-
sure of the inside atmosphere and heavy blows. The non-
transparent wall was still stronger. The temperature in the
long tube was regulated on the outside and inside, and
271
could be varied from —200°C to +100°C. This was mainly
achieved by altering the radiating capacity of the outer
shell. The non-transparent part was black. Over it was a
system of burnished shutters. When the shutters covered
the black skin, the radiation of heat by two-thirds of the
surface stopped almost completely. Sunlight continued to
stream into the greenhouse and the temperature could rise
to 100°C. When the burnished shutters were retracted, the
exposed black metal envelope gave off intense radiated heat
into stellar space and the temperature in the greenhouse
fell. If the shutters were drawn over the glass to keep the
sunlight out the temperature could drop to 200°C below
zero. The temperature extremes could be further widened
by means of a third, inside shell. If you recall the Dewar
flask, in which things keep hot and cold so well, you will
understand the principle. The centre of the cylinder, its
axis in fact, was occupied by a pipe filled with soil. Pass-
ing through it were two smaller pipes which continually
supplied air, fertiliser and moisture to the soil. Seeds and
seedlings of fruit-bearing plants and vegetables were plant-
ed in numerous holes in the soil pipe. A silvery net divided
the cylinder longitudinally into two semi-cylindrical com-
partments. The front, sunlit section was only partially shad-
ed by grapevines and other plants clinging to the win-
dows. This section was open to all, regardless of sex or
age. The second half was shaded by dense, lush vegeta-
tion. It had few windows through which only the starlit
sky, the Moon, and the Earth shining 1,000 times brighter
than the Moon, could be seen. Adjoining these windows,
i.e., the metal part of the greenhouse, was a row of com-
partments or separate rooms, 200 in all. One hundred were
for families; then came 50 rooms for bachelors and wid-
owers and 50 rooms for unmarried women and widows.
Every family occupied not less than two adjoining rooms,
one for the husband, the other for the mother and chil-
dren. Single persons were given a room each, but as half
the rooms remained unoccupied, there were usually va-
272
cant rooms separating the bachelor rooms. Further on was
a series of rooms for families, then a series for girls, and
finally for youths. There were six long drawing-rooms be-
tween the dwelling quarters and a vast hall. Three draw-
ing-rooms faced the family quarters: one for the married
men, another for wives and children, the third for mixed
gatherings of wives and husbands. The other three draw-
ing-rooms faced the bachelor quarters: two for youths and
girls separately and a room in between where they could
meet together.
The stainless lateral and longitudinal netting was cov-
ered with dense foliage, flowers and ripening fruit. Their
fragrance filled both private and public rooms. What could
be more beautiful than these rooms, with their walls of
blossoming, fruit-bearing verdure! The thin golden shafts
of sunlight hardly pierced through the luxuriant foliage.
All rooms except the children’s had only one door, which
could be locked. The doors of the girls’ rooms, for exam-
ple, opened into the girls’ drawing-room, which led to the
joint girls’ and youths’ drawing-room, and finally to the
hall where all the inhabitants could assemble. Working
implements were mostly stowed away in the drawing-
rooms, but if desired they could also be kept in private
rooms,
The general assembly hall was designed as follows. If
you stood on the green partition, assuming it to be the
floor, you would have the Sun directly overhead and it
would give no shade. The Sun would have been unbeara-
ble but for the plants, which softened its harsh light. From
this position you would have a view of the magnificent
hall with its vaulted glass roof and green floor. You would
be in no danger of getting entangled in the foliage or fall-
ing through the floor, as there was no gravity and the firm
Silvery netting prevented it. The hall was 10 metres wide,
5 metres high and 1,000 metres long. It provided ample
space for the 100 inhabitants. If they all entered the hail
simultaneously, each had about 400 cubic metres of space.
18—761 273
True, the plants occupied part of it, but not much. The
cylinder was some 30 metres in circumference. Thus, the
vault occupied 15 metres. The transparent part spanned
10 metres, ending 2.5 metres above the green carpet. There
were more rooms than were required. Let us imagine one
of them. It is 2.5 metres high, 9 metres long and 5 metres
wide. If we took up a position in it with our feet to the
Sun, along the line of the sun-rays, we would see overhead
a vaulted opaque ceiling with small portholes with rays
from the Earth streaming through them, generally ob-
liquely. The light is quite sufficient for reading.
The six drawing-rooms were each 2.5 metres high, 167
metres long, and 10 metres wide. The direction of height,
width or length depended on the position of the observer.
By making the greenhouse revolve slowly about a lateral
axis its position in relation to the Sun was kept constant,
because the plane of rotation possesses the property of
maintaining a constant aspect. The gravity generated by
the rotation was hardly perceptible and had no effect on
freedom of movement. The artificial gravity was greatest
at the ends of the greenhouse, where the toilets and baths
were located, and there it served the useful purpose of
keeping the water flowing through the vessels and helping
with the natural functions of the body.
Mention should be made of a very important part of
the greenhouse: the moisture, or humidity, regulator. Sub-
tected to the steady hot rays of the Sun, the plants trans-
pired large amounts of water and rapidly drained the soil.
This should, presumably, have made the greenhouse atmos-
phere terribly humid. But this was not so. A special humid-
ity-control system was set up to rectify this. Along the
shaded external side of the greenhouse there passed a
black metal refrigerating pipe. Air was continuously pumped
through it, and the vapour condensed. The rate of con-
densation depended on the temperature of the pipe, which,
as explained before, could be lowered to almost —200°C.
Of course, there was no need for such a low temperature;
274
a few degrees of cold was sufficient. After heating, the air
in the greenhouse became very dry. The condensed water
was driven, by means of a jet of air or by the rotation of
the greenhouse, to the ends of the greenhouse, where the
toilets and bath-rooms were located. There it was finally
purified for washing, after which it was pumped into soil
pipes.
One of the effects of the absence of gravity was that
there was no air circulation in spite of differences in tem-
perature in the differently shaded parts. The centrifugal
force produced air streams, but they were too weak. Ven-
tilators were therefore installed which mixed the air and
cleaned it of dust, leaves, fruit and any objects that might
be drifting about. Air streams flowing to the cooler could
also be used for ventilation.
The builders joined several greenhouses together into
the shape of a star or some other shape and made them ro-
tate slightly so that the transparent half of the structures
would always face the Sun’s rays.
But let us leave our architects to their work of build-
ing trans-atmospheric habitations and return to our celes-
tial explorers, travelling in the Moon's orbit at a speed of
one kilometre per second. We shall visit the settlers again,
when more of them have moved to their new dwellings.
41. FROM LUNAR ORBIT TO THE MOON
We left our scientists in the Moon’s orbit at a distance
of 360,000 kilometres from the Earth. You will recall that
they had decided to visit the Moon. At a new meeting,
however, the original flight plan was completely revised.
For the sake of fuel economy and so as not to jeopardise
the greenhouse, which was their main source of food, it
was decided that only two men, travelling in a specially
designed rocket, would embark for the Moon. With a crew
of two a large, strong, heavy rocket would be unneces-
sary and the thrust force could be reduced to a fraction.
18* 275
In addition, a small rocket could be adapted for negotiat-
ing the lunar surface and skimming over gorges, moun-
tains, craters and volcanoes. The first was achieved by
providing the rocket with wheels driven by accumulated
power since, once on the Moon, it would not be possible
to count entirely on solar energy; the second was achieved
by placing additional exhaust nozzles in such a man-
ner as to counteract the small weight the rocket would
have on the Moon. Wings would have been useless, as our
natural satellite has practically no atmosphere.
So while down on the Earth far from our scientists new
colonies were being arranged, inside the rocket a new
lunar vehicle was being designed and built. An engineer
by the name of Nordenskjöld passionately wished to fly
to the Moon and Ivanov wanted to go with him. The com-
pany voted that they should go.
They were given a great send-off and, more important,
their supplies and the functioning of their equipment were
thoroughly checked. A large group of men in space-suits
sallied forth to see the rocket off. It rapidly picked
up speed, the send-off party fell back and the rocket
disappeared. The men left behind returned to their
quarters. i
The exhaust gases escaped in the direction of the small
rocket’s motion, and soon it accelerated to two kilometres
per second. The relative gravity was small and there was
no need for the lunar travellers to submerge in water. To
save time, however, they later increased the exhaust to
raise the gravity to terrestrial gravity. How pleasant it
was to feel the tension in one’s muscles produced by just
standing or lifting an arm! At first they turned pale, as the
blood drained to their hands and feet. They had grown
so unused to gravity and become so pampered by weight-
lessness, that soon the change in gravity began to annoy
them. When the state ended 100 seconds later, they sighed
with relief. and felt no craving for a return to gravity. On
the contrary, they relaxed in the small space of the rocket
276
as they might have done in a feather bed after a hard
day’s work. The apparent diameter of the Moon increased
perceptibly. The relative velocity was one kilometre a
second, but it gradually increased due to the Moon’s pull.
This force, however, could not increase the velocity to more
than two kilometres a second. The initial distance to the
Moon, measured along the orbit, was 1,200,000 kilometres.
In seven days it was almost halved. Now, if they did not
retard the rocket, they would be taken away from the
Moon. The velocity was reduced by firing the exhausts
against the rocket’s motion, and their path curved down
till it entered the Moon’s orbit. The motors were stopped
and the relative gravity again disappeared. Five days later
the Moon was at a distance of 200,000 kilometres and
seemed twice as large as when seen from the Earth. As
they drew closer the face of the Moon broadened, visually
confirming their approach. On several previous occasions
they had already been closer to the Moon than now, so
its apparent increase in size did not interest them greatly.
Still, knowing that within a few hours they would reach
its surface, they inevitably cast apprehensive glances at
it. For all they knew, something might go wrong and they
would be dashed to death against its surface.
“Isn't it time to decelerate?” the Swede asked anxious-
ly, his eyes riveted to the Earth’s satellite.
“No,” said Ivanov. “We must wait until the Moon’s at-
traction increases the relative speed of the rocket to two
kilometres a second.”
There was still much time. They nibbled at some food
and from time to time persuaded one another to take
food as they nervously looked about them. The Sun was
as blinding as ever, the huge Earth shone forth, displaying
its pattern of continents, seas and lakes. All round them
was the black sky studded with lifeless stars and occasion-
al planets. They kept their eyes on the Moon, the apparent
size of which soon equalled that of the Earth, only later
to surpass it in size and then to dwarf it.
277
Another day passed, and the Moon began to expand
rapidly, growing in size by the minute.
“How awful,” the Swede exclaimed involuntarily, gaz-
ing with awe at the enormously bloated Moon. Seas, cra-
ters, gorges and strange bright stripes and dots stood out
with clarity. The map of the Moon lay before them in a
Striking, transfigured, enchanted, living form. They saw
valleys and mountains never in any telescope seen from
the Earth. The travellers were approaching the Moon
from “the side” and could see half of its reverse side.
“Isn’t it time to brake the rocket?” the Swede asked,
unable to hide his agitation. :
“Yes, in a few moments.”
At a distance of two thousand kilometres the Moon pre-
sented an angle of 50°, and covered one-seventh of the
celestial sphere. It was a terrifying sight indeed to behold.
Its diameter was 100 times larger than usual.
They switched on the braking rockets. Once again they
felt their weight, though it was much less than on the
Earth. They sat on the floor; beneath them was the huge
Moon looking like an overturned embroidered parasol,
forming part of the heavenly sphere.
“We'll be on the Moon in half an hour,” said Ivanov.
The gleaming parasol beneath them expanded till it cov-
ered almost half the sky. Their pulses quickened in anx-
ious anticipation. Mountains, valleys, cliffs and craters
appeared as close and clear as a terrestrial landscape.
Several kilometres separated the travellers from their
destination. The retro-exhaust increased and the rocket
slowed down.
“We are motionless,” said the Russian, who had been
observing the Moon in a goniometer.
The exhaust was reversed, the rocket gathered speed,
and the direction of the relative gravity shifted so that the
Moon immediately seemed to be above their heads. Two or
three kilometres from them were the hills and dales of
the Moon. With the relative gravity directed away from the
278
Moon, it was strange to see its surface hanging overhead
like a ceiling.
The illusion was so great that Nordenskjöld continued
to mutter. “How are we going to walk on that ceiling? What
shall we hold on to?”
“Don’t worry,” Ivanov reassured him, “everything is all
right.”
The rocket was approaching the Moon, only two and a
half kilometres away, at a speed of 100 metres per second.
The thrust force became equal to the: Moon’s gravitational
pull. The rocket began coasting with a constant velocity
of about 100 metres per second. The relative gravity
vanished again and the travellers could observe the Moon
from different aspects, depending on the position of their
bodies. In 20 seconds they were only 500 metres away and
braked the rocket once more. The gravitational force shift-
ed and the Moon appeared beneath them. In another 10
seconds the explorers touched the Moon with scarcely a
bump. The manoeuvre was carried out as follows. When the
rocket was almost grazing the soil and had all but come to
a standstill, it was tilted over until it landed on its four
wheels like a cat falling on its feet. It rolled on for several
score metres and came to a standstill.
42, OVER THE HILLS AND DALES OF THE MOON
Dead silence enveloped the motionless rocket. The two
men seemed stunned, as if they had just come out of a
deep sleep or come to after fainting. Finally, the Russian
rose to his feet, stretched himself, and said:
“Were on the Moon. Gravity here is one-sixth of that
on the Earth. It’s quite perceptible,” and he flourished his
arms and shuffled his feet.
Gravity no longer seemed strange to them, for they had
experienced it several times during their trip. There was
a difference, however, between true gravity due to the at-
traction of a mass and relative gravity. Relative gravity
279
appeared when the rocket was accelerated or uniformly
decelerated, and it depended on the thrust force. Since this
force could never be absolutely constant in magnitude and
direction, relative gravity fluctuated, creating slight jolts
of the kind experienced on a fairly good road. Relative
gravity induced by rotation was free of jolts or fluctua-
tions. For objects and people moving not too rapidly, in-
side a rotating body, relative gravity was not different from
gravitational pull, except for the slight dizziness ex-
perienced by some people. The majority, however, felt no
unpleasant sensations, especially if the radius of rotation
was huge. When one moved quickly, the gravity produced
by centrifugal force displayed itself in very interesting
phenomena, which will be described on a more suitable oc-
casion. The travellers’ sensations on the Moon reminded
them of their native planet. They were like some unexpect-
edly familiar fragrance, conjuring up childhood memories.
“It’s cold,” the Swede remarked.
“Yes, it is chilly.”
Night peered in at the windows. The ground could hardly
be seen. The heavenly sphere embraced them from without,
pitch-black and dusted with countless unblinking stars. The
Earth was nowhere in sight. They felt helpless, sad, even
frightened. A dark jagged mass looked dimly on the hori-
zon. The sky above it was powdered with silvery star dust.
“You know,” Ivanov said, “we're on the reverse side of
the Moon, the side people have never seen and where the
Earth never shines.”
“But the Sun does shine here,” the Swede said, ‘‘and
we'll wait until it rises.”
“Naturally. And then we'll see what no one on Earth
has ever seen.”
“When will the Sun rise?” the Swede asked. “We'll
freeze if this night lasts for several hours.”
“The Sun will soon appear,” the Russian replied. “The
horizon over there seems to be getting brighter already.
Dawn must be approaching.”
280
“There is no dawn here,” the Swede remarked. “The
Moon has no atmosphere, consequently there can be no
dawn.”
“There may be a very rarefied atmosphere, but it is not
that which produces the light of dawn. The hills illumined
by the Sun cast reflected light on the still dark summits,
which then reflect it further, etc. This produces the lunar
dawn, which is very weak and unlike dawn on the
Earth. ...”
“See how the light of dawn has grown brighter, while we
have been talking,” the Swede said, peering out of the
window. “But it’s terribly cold. Let’s switch on the electric
heater.”
“Go on then, press the button,” the Russian said.
“We're not so badly off,” he continued. “Because of the
void all round us and the polished double shell of the
rocket, the cold penetrates to us very slowly. The rocket’s
envelope reflects heat rays wonderfully, preventing them
from escaping either into outer space or into the lunar
soil.”
“Half a tick!” the Swede exclaimed. ‘‘What’s that gleam-
ing over there in the east?”
“Direct rays from the Sun have lit up a mountain top,”
the Russian replied calmly.
“Which means the Sun will rise soon. ..
“Oh, no! You’ve forgotten that the lunar day is 30 times
longer than a day on the Earth and here the Sun rises
correspondingly more slowly.”
“Quite right. I had clean forgotten: if we were on the
Moon’s equator, the rising of the Sun would last exactly
60 minutes.”
“Correct,” Ivanov said, “since at the Earth’s equator it
takes two minutes for the Sun to rise.”
It grew warmer from the heater, and their spirits rose
accordingly. Another mountain top flashed into existence,
followed at once by two more. It had already become light
enough to discern one or two things. When they had landed
281
they had not switched on the light, although they had tried
switching it on, only to find later the surrounding darkness
even more foreboding. So they had switched it off. They
could then at least observe the familiar patterns of the
constellations: the Dipper, Orion with the bright Sirius,
the Milky Way spanning the heavens. This cheered them
immensely. Now, since they had long ago grown ac-
customed to the black sky, they could at least see some-
thing.
An hour slipped by unnoticed in the pleasure of watch-
ing the rising Sun kindling the mountain tops. They had
been without the Sun for only two hours, but its loss had
been such a torture that they hailed the first rays with
shouts of delight. Their eyes were dazzled. The Sun grad-
ually climbed over the horizon, but it was not the “red
Sun” of terrestrial dawns. It was a bright, bluish Sun,
twice as powerful as when directly overhead on the Earth’s
equator. Towering hills, valleys, cliffs and rocks hove into
sight. One side of the rocket faced the Sun, but thanks
to its polished surface it did not become too hot.
“Well be warm now without the heater,” the Russian
remarked. “Please turn that lever to cover the side facing
the Sun with a black surface.”
“Ready!” the Swede reported.
Soon it grew terribly hot.
“I say,” the Swede said, “didn’t I switch the heater off?
Why, it is off....”
“I’m suffocating,” said Ivanov, and he pushed back a
lever so that the side facing the Sun became striped, with
sooty black and silvery bars. It grew colder. They moved
the lever back and forth till they achieved the desired
temperature of about 30°C.
“Now it’s just right,” the Swede said with satisfaction.
“And what are we going to do now?”
“We can go out and take a walk to stretch our limbs,”
Ivanov suggested. “By the way, a stroll here will be an
unusual experience. We can explore the neighbourhood and
282
then ride around the Moon in the rocket, which can travel
like a coach on wheels. We can skim over gorges, craters
and mountains by using the motor thrust to counteract the
small lunar gravity.”
“Splendid,” the Swede agreed. “But what about air?
There seems to be no atmosphere here and the soil must
have grown terribly cold during the long night.”
“The temperature of the soil must be about —250°C, as
the Sun hasn’t warmed it yet,” the Russian observed. “But
that’s of no consequence. It was worse when we had
nothing under our feet and nothing to protect us from
radiation. Cold as it is, the ground gives off much more heat
than interstellar space, which virtually sucks warmth from
everything in it.”
“But how can we walk on the cold ground?”
“We'll get into our space-suits, take a supply of oxygen
and put on special shoes with soles which hardly conduct
heat. The hot Sun will warm us just as well as the rocket
did. Here is the striped clothing that will absorb as much
heat from the Sun as is necessary, even a little more.”
“Suppose we wait until the Sun has warmed the soil,”
the Swede suggested.
“We’ll lose too much time: the soil is too cold to warm
up very quickly.”
They decided to leave the rocket, so they put on their
Space-suits and special shoes. The Swede entered the air-
lock first, closed the inside door, left through the outside
one and slammed it tightly shut. The Russian followed suit.
They alighted on the Moon’s soil. Alongside them was the
rocket standing on wheels. Not being designed for travel-
ling through air, it was built in the shape of an ellipsoid
which was only three times as long as its height, and it
looked like a funny old-fashioned coach.
Everything around them sparkled and shone in the rays
of the Sun. High mountains loomed in the distance. They
stood on the fairly smooth floor of one of the so-called
“seas”. The Sun warmed them and they felt no coldness
283
from the soil. They looked about thoughtfully for several
minutes. But they soon had to shift about, as their suits
grew too hot on the sunny side and too cold on the shady
one.
The sight around them was strange and beautiful, their
bodies felt light, the Sun was bright and warm. Their spir-
its rose rapidly. The Russian rubbed his hands, hugged
himself and experienced a tremor of sheer joy. The Swede
pranced about delightedly and soared four metres up. The
jump took him three seconds. The Russian ran ahead,
making huge leaps three metres high and 12 metres long.
Each leap increased his stride till he was jumping over
clefts and fissures 24 or more metres wide. They picked
up rocks so light that they seemed to be wooden or hollow.
A 96-kilogram granite boulder weighed only 16 kilograms.
When they threw up a Stone, it flew six times higher than
when thrown on the Earth, and took so long to fall back
that our friends grew tired of waiting, for its flight lasted
six times longer and it travelled six times farther than on
the Earth.
Very slowly the Sun climbed higher and higher. The
shadows stood out very sharply defined, though not
absolutely black because the surrounding sunlit hills and
mountains reflected light on them. It was impossible to
remain in the shade for more than a few minutes, for
without sunlight it was bitterly cold. Only the human body
radiated heat and very soon the cold drove one to a sunny
spot. The two men played leap-frog with the greatest ease
and they could lift one another without the slightest effort.
They could turn several somersaults during one leap, and
even when they failed to land on their feet they hit the
ground very softly. They gambolled and raced about and
turned cartwheels like children, paying no attention to
anything else. But soon they grew tired of romping about.
The Russian stooped and scraped the ground with his foot.
It was covered with a thin layer of dust below which was
something hard like granite. In other places the dust layer
284
was thicker, and deposits were of considerable thickness.
Some were soft, others had caked into a harder crust, and
others yet were quite hard. A special thermometer encased
in a metal rod showed the temperature inside a dust layer
to be —250°C. At the surface the deposit was already
warmed by the Sun’s rays. There were outcrops of bare
granite. The ground was strewn with rocks, which seemed
very light, and big granite boulders lay scattered about in
the distance. The hills and mountains looming beyond them
seemed very close and small. There were many fissures,
especially in the bare granite, most of them narrow and
scarcely noticeable, others several metres wide. There was
an occasional crevasse. The dust was pock-marked with
holes, large and small. Our friends ran about in different
directions to see the sights. They easily cleared large
boulders and fairly wide gorges. Every now and again they
stopped to share their impressions. They could not talk
directly, because of the extremely rarefied atmosphere, so
they had to put their helmets together or stretch a steel
wire from one to the other. The ground did not transmit
their voices as the soles of their shoes were poor sound
transmitters.
“Tve always wondered,” the Swede said, “both here,
and out in space, why it is we seem to See a ‘firmament’.
There’s no air here, so why the illusion of a firmament,
even a black one? Flammarion rejects the idea of a firma-
ment on the Moon.”
“This illusion is easily explained,” said Ivanov. “The eye
is unable to discriminate between large distances. That is
why the stars, Sun and Moon all seem equally far away,
i.e., attached to the inside surface of a sphere with our-
selves at the centre. This gives the illusion of a semi-spher-
ical firmament. On the Earth it looks blue and flattened at
the top because the denser air at the horizon obscures stars
and terrestrial objects. We are accustomed to thinking
that objects darkened by the air are more distant. That is
why on the Earth the firmament seems flattened. In the
285
ether and here there is no air, the stars and hills are not
darkened and the sky seems round. That, by the way, is
why the stars and hills seem so close and toy-like. Some-
thing of the same, although to a smaller extent, is observed
on high terrestrial mountains, where everything also seems
closer and smaller than in the valleys.
When the men looked towards the Sun they saw fewer
stars because their pupils contracted in the sunlight and
in the reflected light of the sunlit mountain slopes. From
the depressions, where there were few sunlit features, from
the shade, and especially from the hollows and crevasses,
they could see as many Stars as at night.
The Sun rose very slowly, climbing at the rate of one
diameter an hour. It needed 180 hours to reach noon. The
shadows were very long. It was dangerous to go too far
from the rocket. The deep craters, into which the Sun’s
rays could not penetrate, were dark and cold, and our
friends were afraid of losing too much heat in them.
They made a tentative descent into one gorge. The edges
stood out in the Sun, but the bottom was lost in darkness.
They found a sloping entrance and began to climb down.
When darkness enveloped them and countless specks of
stars glimmered overhead they switched on a powerful
electric torch. The walls flashed into being. Here and there
they were studded with what looked like hieroglyphic
characters. The walls were warm, and at a depth of 5-10
metres the thermometer showed about 20°C. The Russian
fingered the granite rock and found that it closely resem-
bled terrestrial graphic granite, or Jew Stone, which con-
tains very little mica. The temperature hardly changed as
they went deeper and it felt quite warm. At a depth of
more than 100 metres the walls grew smoother and took
on a lustrous hue. The Swede scratched an especially shiny
patch.
“I say,” he exclaimed, “this is metal! See how it shines!”
“Owing to the scarcity of oxygen only the top layers
of the lunar crust have become oxidised,” the Russian
286
responded. “This produced granites at the surface, leaving
light metals and alloys lower down. This crevasse was
probably formed after the Moon lost, or rather absorbed,
its own atmosphere.”
They chipped off samples of rock and metal at various
depths and after reaching a depth of 1,000 metres returned
to the surface. Both the descent and ascent were an-ex-
tremely simple business. The 64-kilogram Swede felt as
though he weighed a mere 12 kilograms, while the lighter
Russian weighed only 11 kilograms. Similarly, their 16
kilograms of minerals and metals weighed only about 3
kilograms. There was no moisture or humidity in the gorge,
though it mattered little to them as they were breathing the
synthetic air mixture carried on their backs.
It was time for a rest and food, and soon our companions
with their precious loads reached the refuge of the rocket.
After eating and resting they again put on their space-suits
and went out the same way as before.
In conditions of terrestrial gravity motion, though
fatiguing, is freer than in unconfined ethereal space and
it can be altered at will. On the Moon freedom of movement
is further facilitated by absence of fatigue, thanks to the
low gravity. Only the space-suits inconvenienced our
travellers slightly. What a new world lay before them!
What a wealth of astonishing discoveries! And how natural
that their high spirits were due not only to the relief of
treading on hard ground, but also to the pride of being the
first explorers of the Moon, to their thirst for knowledge
and simple curiosity.
The Sun rose some 20 degrees, the shadows grew
shorter and the soil warmer. Slopes perpendicular to the
Sun’s rays became quite warm. The men ran towards a
nearby hillock. They climbed to the top but were forced
to halt before an abyss. They stood at the brink of an
extinct volcano. It was still dark very far down, and they
could hardly see the bottom. In the centre of the black disk
there glowed one lone spot, probably a mountain peak lit
287
up by the Sun. They did not venture down the crater, pre-
ferring to make their way around it. At some points the
ground sloped gently outwards and inwards; in other
places it sloped steeply. Avalanches had heaped piles of
rock and rubble at the foot of the hills. In general the inside
slopes of the crater were steeper. Here and there they saw
stately pillars of basalt. On their way back they collected
samples of porphyries, basalts, trachytes, lavas, syenites,
hornblendes, and feldspars.
“It seems to me that something is moving in and out of
the cracks,” the Russian said.
“Tve noticed it, too,” the Swede remarked.
They looked more carefully at cracks and holes. Sure
enough, ever more frequently something would fleet by, a
shadow would run and disappear hastily. The men tried
to approach the apparitions, but they disappeared before
they reached them. Finally the Swede raised his field-glass
to the flat visor of his helmet.
“It’s alive!” he cried. “There it is running across the
plain... now it’s hidden in a hole....”
“Let me have a look,” Ivanov asked, impatiently snatch-
ing the binocular from his hands. “Why, they’re green, with
something like twigs on their backs. They look like moving
shrubs. We've got to catch one of them.”
They were unsuccessful, however, for the nimble crea-
tures disappeared as soon as the men approached. More
and more of them appeared as the soil grew warmer. Some
sat still, warming themselves in the Sun, others scampered
across clearings between burrows. They were of different
shapes, sizes and colours. Most of them were green, but
there were also red, yellow, orange, and black ones, as well
as some multicoloured. Their bodies were covered with
spots which sparkled like glass. The smaller creatures were
digging in the dust and seemed to be swallowing it. The
larger ones chased the smaller ones, worried them and
dragged them to their burrows where they probably
devoured them.
288
“Theoretically the temperature on the Moon should vary
between —250°C and +150°C,” Ivanov said. “Obviously, in
such harsh conditions, to say nothing of the lack of
moisture and any adequate atmosphere, no plant can grow
in the lunar soil.”
“That is so,” the Swede agreed, “but you have in mind
terrestrial forms of vegetation. If a plant could acquire
some degree of intelligence, or at least instinct and the
ability to move, it could live on the Moon. We can’t reject
offhand the possibility of plants developing such capaci-
ties, especially if we take into account the well-known
facts, for example, the existence of insectivorous plants
on the Earth. There is nothing to prevent these travelling
plants from sheltering from the cold in deep crevasses
where the temperature is quite normal, i.e., about 22°C at
the equator and lower in the upper latitudes. When it gets
very hot, i.e., towards the end of the long day, they could
again seek refuge in the deep lunar fissures.”
“T haven’t seen a single ordinary plant with roots,”
Ivanov remarked. “The terrific temperature extremes here
would have killed any stationary flora. Even in deep gorges
plants would perish from the shortage of sunlight.”
“Neither have I noticed any plants like those on the
Earth,” the Swede remarked. “These travelling plants re-
semble some marine species containing green chlorophyll.
Many of them, particularly the very smallest, microscopic
ones, owe their existence to the Sun alone, while larger
ones live on sunlight and by preying on the smaller ones.
The processes here are the same as in terrestrial oceans,
without the water and the substances dissolved in it.
“Here living creatures consume dust containing oxygen,
carbon, hydrogen and many other elements necessary for
life. The Sun transforms the elements into water and
the various complex bodies which constitute the living
world.”
“The outer skins of their bodies are practically im-
pervious to gas, which prevents them from drying up,” the
19—761 289
Russian observed. “They derive energy from sunlight by
devouring other creatures or, more frequently, in both
ways. Thanks to this energy they move about and even
think a little.”
“Under the influence of the Sun’s rays,” the Swede
added, “the chlorophyll of their bodies breaks carbonates
and other simple compounds into carbon, oxygen, etc.,
which combine to form the complex tissues of the body.
These, in turn, decompose during muscular and mental
functioning into simple compounds which are generally
excreted. These creatures, however, do not excrete them
but with the aid of sunlight reprocess them in special ap-
pendages to their bodies. Thus, once formed, these
creatures have no need of food, i.e., no need to consume
external substances, organic or mineral.
“We've no time to discuss this subject, however, and
even less time for experiments. Let’s travel round the
Moon and rejoin our companions: before we exhaust our
supplies. When we return the greenhouse will supply us
in abundance. After all, we can’t eat these creatures; they
may be poisonous, and we don’t know how to catch them.”
“I think,” the Russian said, “that we should not ride
inside the rocket but on its upper platform, with the spe-
cial railing, seats and light adjustable awning.”
“It will be more interesting to travel eastwards towards
the Sun, across the unknown half of the Moon. Firstly,
we'll come to steadily warmer ground and, accordingly, to
more active life; secondly, the long lunar day will pass
more quickly and we’ll be able to observe some interesting
phenomena at sunset.”
“Right you are,” the Russian agreed. “So let’s have a
rest and then set out. We’ll gather some more minerals for
our collection.”
Several hours later found them reclining in seats on
the rocket’s upper platform and racing towards the Sun
almost along the planet’s equator at a speed of 10 to 100
kilometres an hour, depending on the state of the road.
290
They kept to valleys and plateaux, skirting the towering
peaks and even the small craters and hills. They were
forced to follow a tortuous route, and the Sun kept shifting
to the right, left and rear. Their space-suits shielded them
reliably from the lethal effects of the Sun’s rays. The wheels
revolved as they steered their way to the south and then
northwards. They negotiated small gorges without a hitch,
took running jumps over the larger ones, and skimmed-
over gorges several hundred metres (and even several
kilometres) wide, clutching the railing for dear life, but
not forgetting to steer the vehicle. When they spotted a
gorge in the distance they switched on the motors, which
cancelled out their slight weight and their vehicle raced
with tenfold speed over crevasses, gorges, small craters
and hills. But they rarely indulged in this sort of thing, for
they were economising on fuel.
Their rapid progress to the east made the Sun seem to
quicken its pace and rise more rapidly. At a speed of 15
kilometres an hour, the Sun seemed to double its pace
across the sky, i. e., in an hour it appeared to pass through
a whole degree instead of half a degree. At 105 kilometres
an hour, the Sun seemed to pass through 4 degrees in an
hour. This speed made it possible to travel round half the
equator in 45 hours.
“T say,” the Swede remarked, “‘the Sun is setting in the
east!”
“That’s because we've turned back to skirt that mountain
and aren’t moving westwards.”
“It turns out that we can control the motion of the Sun,
make it set or rise, move faster or slower or stand stock
still, or make it rise in the west and set in the east,” the
Swede remarked as his eyes swept the luxuriant landscape.
“Quite right,” the Russian replied. “The Moon is small
and the speed of its equatorial points is correspondingly
small: less than 4 metres a second, or about 15 kilometres
an hour. If we travel at that speed along the Moon’s
equator in the opposite direction, our rotation will be can-
19% 291
éelled out and the Sun wili seem to stand still forever. At
night this would keep us always in the dark, in the daytime
we should remain continuously in the sunshine. By altering
our speed we can make the Sun move now faster now
slower, or rise and set unnaturally or in some unusual
manner.”
They had to stop every three or four hours and get
inside the rocket for food, rest and to check their space-
suits. After a rest they emerged in the highest of spirits
and ran about collecting rock samples. So far they had
found no precious metals. They usually made a halt when
something special attracted their attention. They saw
several avalanches of flashing, sparkling rock slide down
the slopes of a steep, towering 10-kilometre mountain
range, spanning the horizon behind them. Huge rocks,
boulders and whole mountain-sides tumbled down the vast
height. There being no atmosphere, the rocks hurtled down
unimpeded at a terrific speed and smashed to smithereens
at the bottom. The debris of recent avalanches not yet
covered with dust sparkled in the Sun with all the colours
of the rainbow. The sunlight playing in the translucent
crystals produced an interesting spectacle. The reason for
the landslides was quite obvious although the Moon has no
dense atmosphere or abundance of water to cause rock
erosion by their movement and freezing like on the Earth.
The chief reason here for the landslides was the tremen-
dous extremes of temperature during the day and the night
which reached 400°C. These extremes gradually split the
originally solid rock. The cracks grew deeper and wider and
one day, if the slope was steep enough, the rock slid down.
This was followed by more avalanches due to the same
cause. The rubble heaped up at the foot of the hills soon
prevented further landslides. Furthermore, as the gradient
of the hillside decreased, the fractured rocks remained in
place. Many mountains on the Moon had already reached
that state and no longer crumbled or lost height. But many
craters continued to disintegrate. On several occasions our
292
companions felt distinct tremors due to huge avalanches,
several of which they even observed. The sound reached
them considerably muffled by its passage through the
ground, as the extremely thin atmosphere scarcely trans-
mitted it at all.
The awning of the rocket hid the bluish Sun but did not
prevent them seeing the black semi-spherical sky with its
familiar pattern of constellations. Only the light reflected
from the hillsides reduced the number of visible stars.
Deathly silence reigned, except for the noise of the motors
which reached them through the walls of the rocket and
their chairs. Not a cloud or tree or blade of grass was to
be seen. Only the green lunar animal-plants, scared by the
movement and noise of the rocket, scampered out of the
way. The absence of trees, green meadows, lakes and rivers,
snows and the blue sky was discouraging.
“Look there,” the Russian called out. “What’s that
moving towards us? It looks like a green cloud. Over there,
in the direction of the big cliff.”
“T see it! It’s probably a flock of lunar animals.”
The Swede raised the binoculars to his eyes and saw a
flock of creatures leaping like kangaroos in hasty flight
towards the west. Ivanov took the field-glass but the
creatures, scared by the rocket, swerved suddenly and
disappeared behind the nearest hill. Our travellers saw the
creatures several times again. They came to the conclusion
that not all the denizens of the Moon sought refuge from
the cold in gorges and clefts. The larger and stronger
species enjoyed eternal sunlight and the warmth of the soil
by keeping pace with the luminary, spending their lives in
constant migration and preying on weaker creatures. To
keep pace with the Sun they had to cover an average of
14 kilometres of ground an hour moving westwards. With
the feeble attraction of the Moon, this continuous, moderate
motion was quite possible and not at all difficult to achieve.
During their halts the two men climbed over the debris
strewn at the foot of steep, sometimes overhanging, granite
293
cliffs, collecting whatever they most fancied. They found
transparent quartzes in the shape of huge chunks of rock
crystal; reddish orthoclase and dark hornblende were
scattered about abundantly; occasionally they found zir-
cons, garnets and tourmalines. Unbroken pillars of green-
stones, reddish porphyries, and magnificent basalts of
various colours stood all round. Our companions foraged at
the foot of the pillars, going into raptures from time to
time at the sight of the beautiful stones. They filled their
hampers with red rubies, transparent orange-coloured
jacinths, dark melanites, blood-red pyropes, violet alman-
dines, sapphires, emeralds and amethysts. They also found
diamonds of different colours, though rather small speci-
mens. Many samples of rock crystal were pearly, pink and
other colours. There were many hydrates (water com-
pounds) of quartz such as chalcedony, semitransparent
jasper and opal, but most of all there were flints. Among
the chalcedonies there sparkled red cornelian, green blood-
stone with a sprinkling of red spots, and agates.
Once they spotted a white, snow-like mass in the dis-
tance. When they approached it they saw among the frag-
ments of gneiss and the mica schists a whole field of dia-
monds, some of them as large as a fist.
“Here are riches which exceed the combined wealth of
all people!” the Russian exclaimed. His companion, how-
ever, did not hear him, for their helmets were not in
contact.
The men pounced eagerly on the treasure. They had to
throw away many fine stones to make room for the most
interesting diamond specimens. With their baskets full they
hurried joyously to the rocket and sealed themselves in.
There were many diamonds; they had also collected
some gold dust. But their stores of food were running low
and they had to leave the Moon without studying it as
thoroughly as they would have liked to. While resting, they
ate bananas, nuts and pineapples, and quenched their thirst
with water-melons and grape juice. They cheerfully sorted
294
their riches, poured aquamarines, emeralds and diamonds
from one hand to the other, from time to time glancing out
of the windows.
“All these riches,” the Russian said, “probably with the
sole exception of gold, of which there is not much here,
are now only a mineralogical collection. When the Moon
becomes accessible to everyone, its gems and diamonds
will lose all their value even on the Earth.”
“Look, there’s a bright light to the left!” the Swede
exclaimed.
The Russian turned and saw a sheaf of sparks rise from
one of the lunar hillocks. Several seconds later, there was
a loud crash, which probably reached the rocket through
the granite soil, and which caused the walls and air inside
to vibrate.
“That was a bolide,” the Swede remarked. “It hit the
granite surface of the hills full force without losing any
of its tremendous velocity through the friction of the air.
That’s why it flared up like a miniature sun.”
“The fireworks were probably produced by a lump of
iron which melted, let off steam and broke into pieces,”
Ivanov said.
This guess was confirmed when they left the rocket and
found the bolide. The place of impact abounded in hot
fragments of iron fused with rock. The smaller fragments
had already cooled and the men gathered several for their
collection. The pieces differed in no way from the familiar
terrestrial aerolites.
43. FAREWELL, MOONI RECEDING FROM THE MOON
The temperature continued to rise and it was becoming
tiresome regulating it. Here was a further inducement to
abandoning the Moon.
They selected a smooth slope with a gradient of 10 to
20 degrees. They placed the rocket there, locked them-
selves in and switched on the motors.
295
“Farewell, Moon!” the Swede exclaimed, looking out of
a porthole.
They glided along the slope, took off and raced through
the ether round the Moon. Higher and higher they climbed,
accelerating gradually until they reached a velocity of
1,600 metres a second. The motors were cut off and they
went into orbit round the Moon at a distance of 250 kilo-
metres from its surface. Travelling at that speed, they
could circle the Moon in two and a half hours. At first
they flew over unknown terrain with strange mountains and
craters, but soon they came to the known side of the Moon.
They saw it as a terrestrial observer would see it through
a telescope with a thousandfold magnification. Their view
of the known face of the Moon was much better than could
be provided by the most perfect reflector, for there was no
atmosphere or lenses to distort the image. The Moon was
enormous. It occupied one-third of the celestial sphere
(120°) and seemed concave, like a bowl, with the rocket at
the very centre. In some respects it reminded them of the
Earth at a distance of 1,000 kilometres, only the Moon was
lifeless and dreary, having no atmosphere, water, clouds,
vegetation. or snows. The rocket passed over the Sea of
Tranquillity and the mountain ranges; they saw the craters
Plinius and Posidonius, the depression Lacus Somniorum
and more mountains; the craters Bessel, Menelaus and
Manilius passed below, followed by more craters and
mountains without end; the Caucasus slipped by
and the crater Calippus beyond them. Beneath them were
endless plateaux and the plains known as seas, but contain-
ing less water than the Sahara desert. They were fringed
with craters and mountain ridges. The terrain was littered
with rubble and volcanic debris. Craters of all sizes pock-
marked the face of the Moon and fissures snaked in all
directions. It was an impressive and instructive scene, but
there was no time to waste, for their stores had fallen low
and they had a long journey ahead before entering the
Moon's orhit and joining their comrades, As they flew over
296
the known side of the Moon, they had a simultaneous view
of the Earth. It was like a Moon in the sky, but its apparent
diameter was 2°, i.e., four times larger than the Sun. The
appearance of the Earth from near by has already been
described. From afar it was much the same, only smaller.
They circled the Moon for several hours before switch-
ing on the rocket motors. When they accelerated to about
2.5 km/sec and entered the orbit round the Earth they
stopped the blast. The Moon grew smaller and smaller, its
apparent size shrinking from 100° to 40°, 20°, 10°, 5°, until
it became the size of the Sun. Long before that, their
velocity had dropped too much and, time being precious,
they accelerated the rocket. According to their estimate,
they should have sighted the big rocket with the green-
house already. In vain they scanned the sky with field
glasses. They had all but abandoned hope, when suddenly
they spotted a flash in the rocket’s polyhedral mirror, which
reflected sunlight across thousands of kilometres. Joyfully
they saw it flicker in the void. There could be no doubt
that some two thousand kilometres away their companions
were amusing themselves. They steered towards the flash-
ing star, and three hours later sighted the big rocket and
greenhouse.
44, THE BIG ROCKET AGAIN. MESSAGE TO THE EARTH
ABOUT THE MOON
The reunion was a joyous one. The two men were greeted
with a barrage of questions, but they declared flatly that
they needed a rest and a good meal after their experiences.
Several hours later Ivanov and Nordenskjöld gave a de-
tailed report of their adventures and demonstrated
their collection of minerals and gems. The listeners were
especially delighted when they saw the huge glittering
diamonds.
A message on the following lines about their adventures
on the Moon was telegraphed to the Earth: “We are well
297
and happy and circling the Earth in the Moon’s orbit on the
diametrically opposite side. Two of us landed on the Moon,
travelled across it and made a collection of lunar rock
specimens. Owing to shortage of vital supplies they had to
abandon the Moon without making the thorough study
desired. Nevertheless we have obtained the following in-
formation: the invisible hemisphere of the Moon differs in
no substantial way from the visible side seen and studied
by terrestrial astronomers. Hardly a trace of atmosphere
and water exists. The firmament is semi-spherical, not
flattened, black, with countless non-twinkling stars. Day
and night are 30 times longer than on the Earth, therefore
at night the temperature drops to minus 250°C while during
the day it reaches plus 100-150°C. No ordinary, stationary
and rooted plants were found. There is a fairly varied liv-
ing world. It is a combination of the vegetable and animal
kingdoms and can be treated either as mobile plants or
animals with chlorophyll in their skins and capable of
feeding on inorganic food like most terrestrial plants. The
Moon is covered with innumerable cracks ranging in size
from fissures to gorges. The temperature in the gorges is
constant, reaching +25°C in equatorial areas. The lunar
animal-plants use them as a refuge from heat and cold.
They are quick and nimble as they must escape being
caught and devoured by larger and stronger creatures. Of
the latter, not all live in burrows, and some travel in the
wake of the Sun’s rays, thereby constantly enjoying the
temperature most favourable to them. We were unable to
collect any specimens of living organisms. We saw no
structures, such as buildings, machines or bridges, which
would suggest the existence of intelligent beings and we
presumed therefore that no lunar creatures have developéd
to the level of Man. The Sun moves at one-thirtieth of the
speed observed from the Earth. It is possible by running to
keep up with its movement, to make it move in any direc-
tion, to change day into night, and sunrise into sunset, etc.
In general, all the astronomical data are confirmed. For
298
example, the Earth is visible only from the hemisphere of
the Moon visible from the Earth. It has the same ap-
pearance as the Moon, but its diameter is four times
larger. It always stands motionless at the horizan, a little
above it or in the zenith. At the same time, its position
fluctuates slightly in the course of a month. These fluctua-
tions are hardly noticeable, except at the horizon. The
Earth changes its position when one moves about on the
Moon, even when walking very slowly. Thus it can also
be made to move in any direction. A vehicle or person
must travel at about 4 metres per second, or 14 kilometres
an hour, to make the Sun change its position. This and
much greater speeds are possible not only for vehicles but
for pedestrians as well, as gravity on the Moon is only
one-sixth of that on the Earth and there is no air re-
sistance. Neither are there any winds, of course. The Earth
is never visible from the unseen side of the Moon. The
nights there are lovely with countless numbers of multi-
coloured stars. With the Earth in the sky, the lunar night
is so light that one can read print. It is also beautiful,
though some time after sunset, when the temperature be-
comes bearable. Stars can be observed alongside of the
Sun and the Earth, though in varying numbers; from the
bottom of craters, depressions and gorges as many stars
as at night can be observed. The Moon is entirely un-
suitable for living purposes, in view of the absence of
water and air, but chiefly because of the tremendous
difference (400°C) between the temperature in the daytime
and that at night. For this reason alone it would be im-
possible to grow any crops. The inorganic world is‘rich in
minerals, gems, and unoxidised light metals and their
alloys, to be found deep in the gorges. Mountains, eleva-
tions and plains consist of granites, syenites, basalts,
trachytes, and of the volcanic rocks generally known on
the Earth. In some places we found a sprinkling of alluvial
deposits which seemed to consist of settled dust. Few
heavy or precious metals were found. On the other hand,
299
diamonds were in such abundance as to cause apprehen-
sion on Earth that prices would drop sharply. Beautiful
women may look forward to adorning themselves with
gems to their heart’s delight, when a steady traffic has
been established between the Earth and the Moon. No
volcanic activity was observed. Avalanches and landslides
are frequent. Bolides strike the surface with tremendous
displays of fireworks and blinding flash of light. Because
there is no mitigating influence of water and air the con-
trasts in temperature are extreme. The depressions and
pits which are always in shadow are terribly cold. It is
probably even colder in such places in the north and south
polar areas. Thick layers of solidified water and air may
possibly have accumulated there, but there are no factual
data in support of this. An effect of dawn is produced by the
many times reflected light from the mountain peaks which
shines over the terrain. For the same reason shadows are
not quite as pitch-black and also not as grey as on the
Earth. In some places, most of them low-lying, thick allu-
vial deposits were found which were probably formed
when the surface of the Moon had not yet cooled com-
pletely, when the temperature was uniform, and the water
and gases had not yet become liquefied and absorbed by
the soil, and therefore flowed and wore down the granite
as on the Earth.”
45. TERRESTRIAL AFFAIRS
The telegram was received on the Earth with jubilation.
Many were disappointed to hear that the Moon was unfit
for habitation, but the jewellers were alarmed and began
to plot against all reaction-propelled vehicles. Impecunious
lasses slyly eyed their more fortunate wealthy rivals. But
on the whole, this first visit to another planet aroused great
enthusiasm, courage and hope. In any case the Moon could
be of use to mankind!
The news about the diamonds and gems created a sensa-
tion among the dandies of the world. The price of jewellery
300
dropped heavily. Many rich people invested large sums
in the manufacture of reaction-propelled vehicles in antici-
pation of a boom in diamonds and other lunar commodities.
x k*k k
Meanwhile at a distance of 5.5 terrestrial radii, or 34,000
kilometres from the Earth’s surface, new colonies were
expanding and people settling in. The greenhouse dwellings
described before became populated with happy men,
women and children. People lived comfortable, prosperous
family lives.
46. THE EXODUS AND LIFE IN THE ETHEREAL COLONIES
The finest types of people were selected for the colonies:
people who were sociable, gentle, resourceful, industrious,
physically enduring, not too old and, preferably, unmarried.
But they outnumbered the requirements so they were as-
sembled in terrestrial communities where they lived, in-
terested themselves in one another and continued to se-
lect people for the space colonies from among themselves.
Even so there were still more people than the accommoda-
tion available out in space, and a third selection became
necessary. The men and women finally selected were ideal
in every respect, regular angels in flesh and blood. How-
ever these “angels” were subjected to rigorous tests
before being allowed to leave for outer space. They were
placed in an atmosphere containing the same amount of
oxygen as at sea level but with the nitrogen removed. Then
the amount of oxygen was reduced by half, bringing it to
the concentration equal to that on top of a five-kilometre
mountain. Those who fainted, felt discomfort or weakness
or lost their appetites were not accepted. It was essential
that they should feel well on a diet of fruit and vegetables.
Thus at the very first selection many “angels” were reject-
ed. There were cases when accidents occurred. Once almost
301
all the air was pumped out by mistake. This was noticed
only five minutes later. Everyone had fainted. Most people
regained consciousness, but three of them died. The surviv-
ors were readily granted permission to embark, for if a
similar accident ever happened to them in the colonies
because of some breakdown in a greenhouse, they would
indeed be sure to survive. This was a great advantage. It
was hoped that, by training, it would be possible to de-
velop in people the ability to survive after short spells in
a pure vacuum. They would then be almost completely
safe in the trans-atmospheric colonies.
The selectees were sent off in very crowded rockets, but
as the whole journey lasted only 10 to 15 minutes it was
not at all tiresome. The journey was too brief to require
any description, particularly as we have already described
one such flight. The passengers had hardly enough time
to look round them and take stock of their surroundings
before their experienced guides hauled them out of water
and conducted them with the already described precau-
tions to a greenhouse.
At first the newcomers found themselves in a common
hall 1,000 metres long, 10 metres across, and 5 metres
high. They were impressed by the size of the room, the
abundance of greenery and the golden sunbeams piercing
through. There was some enchantment about the whole
spectacle. The hall seemed endless. At first newcomers
noticed only the foliage, the light, and the transparent
vaulted ceiling. They felt lost, though the guides did every-
thing to give them encouragement. Looking about, they
saw dark specks fluttering in the distance like flies or
butterflies. A closer look revealed that these were their
companions who had arrived earlier, and they thereupon
exchanged joyful greetings and warm embraces. The old-
timers had small wings rather like fins down the sides of
their bodies, which they moved with their legs, imparting
translatory motion in a gaseous medium. They were easily
folded and removed like clothing.
302
People moved about like fish or birds. There was no
gravity and wings were not essential if one made swimming
motions or pushed off from fixed objects. Wings, however,
were more convenient, as they made it possible to move
quickly and gracefully with the slightest effort.
“Mamma, what are they, angels or devils?” the children
cried. “They won’t send us to hell, will they? You know,
I did tell a lie. I did eat the pastry, only please don’t tell
them....”
The children were wide-eyed in astonishment, some of
them cried and tried to run away—but they ony floun-
dered helplessly. Little by little the parents, themselves ex-
cited enough, soothed their children, while the “angels”
procured wings and helped newcomers to adjust them. The
latter soon learned to propel themselves in any direction.
It was all really quite simple, though at first there were
many cries of dismay and annoyance.
“Oh, Mummy, I’m flying in the wrong direction and I
can’t turn!”
But the “angels” would guide the child back and teach
it to use its wings.
“I’m afraid, Masha, it’s not so easy to learn to fly! I’m
all tangled up in these plants and can’t extricate myself.”
This one, too, was helped.
“Alexander, what am I to do? I can’t turn to the right.”
Alexander, who had already been put through his
paces and could fly about dextrously, hurried to his wife’s
assistance.
“Look at me, Mummy, see how I'm flying!” little Olya
squealed. “See, I can fly to the windows, to the wall and
back.”
The people had not yet become hungry and everyone
was in a delightful humour, though they felt a little bit lost.
The transformation had been so sudden, that most people
felt they were dreaming.
“How warm it is!” the children cried. “Before it was only
warm like this in hot summers.” =~
303
Everyone had cast off their travelling clothes in favour
of light shorts. The temperature was about +-30°C.
One family promenaded down the vast hall. Other fami-
lies drifted towards them. The sunlight streaming through
the foliage cast whimsical patterns on the fluttering groups.
The latest arrivals were left to themselves to look around
and become accustomed to their new life and new duties.
What were the colonists engaged in? Could they do
nothing but gambol, eat and sleep? They had every op-
portunity of doing just that, but in actual fact things were
otherwise.
So far the population of each greenhouse was not large,
a mere 400. Yet it could provide food and shelter for up
to a thousand. The space habitations were built by the
people from the Earth and in part actually down on the
Earth. Builders from the Earth arrived to assemble the
greenhouses and fit them out with everything necessary
for plant-growing. The new settlers owed their comfort
to the Earth, to the effort of their brothers. That, as it
were, was their reward for the good qualities they
possessed which had earned for them the right to be
selected for what was now their native planet.
Could the colonists undertake immediately to build
such a greenhouse dwelling for others or themselves? Not
yet, because the settlement of outer space had only just
begun. The population in space was still sparse and it was
impossible to build the factories and workshops required
for complex output. What is more, they lacked the necessary
building materials. Delivery from the Earth was very cost-
ly. It would have been easier to supply them from the
Moon, but that would also be inexpedient. The explorers
whom we left in the Moon’s orbit hoped to be able to give
assistance in the form of inexhaustible supply of the
necessary raw materials from space itself. Then would be
the time for activities on a more varied scale, when there
would be no longer any need to rely shamefacedly on help
from the Earth. And yet, what was so shamefaced about
804
it? The child relies on its parents, the infant takes its life-
blood from the mother! Who should reproach the weak!
The time would come when they would work to the best
of their ability.
The settlers, however, were sufficiently occupied with
keeping their spacious homes in order, studying themselves
and teaching others, engaging in scientific research, devel-
oping themselves mentally, physically and spiritually. But
it is impossible to manage without some form of social
organisation. They had their own elected leadership. Each
group of boys, girls, bachelors, married folk, old men and
old women, put forward its own elected representative.
In all there had to be 8 representatives, but since it would
be wearying for one person to handle affairs without in-
termission, each group elected 3 or 4 persons who took
turns in the performance of their duties. These 20-30 dele-
gates chose three or four from their midst to be respon-
sible for the overall leadership; the latter also took turns in
office. Elections were called whenever the population found
it necessary to replace poor administrators or those who
had been in office for too long. The elected representatives
were issued special badges so that everyone could recognise
his or her deputy. The badges were in the shape of a dried
fruit, a flower, a sprig of immortelle, or something else
of the kind. Here there would be a group of youths flying
past like a swarm of bees following their leader with a
large flower badge; there would come a charming flock of
children with their elder; a group of girls wafted by with
their elected leader ahead of them wearing an attractive
wreath; there would be the old men and women with their
representatives; the married men, the wives and the in-
fants.
The other deputies kept together in a separate group
until they would be called upon to exercise their authority
in one way or another. The old folk had old leaders, since
young people are not so readily capable of understanding
their emotions, mode of life, behaviour and requirements.
20—761 805
Similarly, women were governed by women, as a women’s
world is almost beyond the comprehension of the mind
of the man. For the same reason children had their own rep-
resentatives, for adults often forget their own childhood
weaknesses and requirements and old women—their
maidenhood and motherhood.
A committee of representatives handled all the affairs
appertaining to the population as a whole, regardless of sex
or age. Actually these duties were relegated to one acting
representative, either a man or a woman. Thus, all matters
were dealt with speedily and efficiently. If many members
of a population group found fault with the actions of
their deputy, he was replaced. The deputy was the mouth-
piece of the average cross-section of public opinion, which
is why he was elected. Similarly, in every population group,
in the girls’ group, for instance, the deputy expressed the
common will, by virtue of which she could issue orders and
partial laws for just as long as she enjoyed the confidence
of the others. Inevitably there were dissenters, but the
cohesion of each group and the whole population required
such an organisation. Being in constant contact, the colo-
nists could size up one another, which was very important.
Thanks to this they were able to elect those candidates who
best qualified for office and for the work. Marriages and
divorces were made effective by a deputy from the whole
population. Disputes inside each group were settled by the
representatives of the group in question. Differences and
quarrels among the members of the different groups were
settled by the common representative for the entire colony.
But in actual practice there were no reasons for squabbles
or arguments. Work assignments were also issued by the
various representatives. For instance, married women re-
ceived instructions from their deputy. The main duties in
a colony were: 1) to look after the temperature in differ-
ent parts of the greenhouse. The temperature varied ac-
cording to the purpose for which the particular premises
were used. Thus, in the rooms for new-born babies the
906
temperature was close to that of the human body, in those
for the old people it was lower, in rooms for youths, lower
still; 2) to look after the humidity of the air; for this there
were special instruments, as already described; 3) to look
after the pumps, delivering water and nutritious liquids and
gases to the soil; 4) to look after the toilets; 5) to look after
the plants; 6) to look after the composition and pressure
of the atmosphere; 7) to look after the intactness and
condition of the greenhouse skin and see that it was
air-tight.
The temperature of the greenhouse skin was constant
and nothing could really cause cracking and gas escape.
Escaping gas would condense into a mist and be im-
mediately noticed. In addition, escaping gas would close
an electric circuit, and the number and location of the
damaged place was automatically indicated. The worker
on duty quickly located the trouble and placed an
emergency plaster on the crack, after which it could be
sealed permanently.
Assignments for work were distributed according to
ability, desire and physical fitness. Another duty was to
keep the greenhouse clean. Leaves, twigs and fruit fell
from the plants, and particles of earth sometimes broke
away from the soil. All this floated about in the air until
the slight centrifugal force accumulated it all at each end
of the greenhouse where the toilets were located. Here it
was converted into fertilisers. All human and vegetable
waste products were dissolved in large quantities of water,
which was pumped through the soil pipes. There the water
was taken up by the soil and plant roots and given off into
the atmosphere by the leaves, adding humidity to the air.
The latter was directed through the outside cooling pipes
where the moisture condensed into a form of dew, which
collected into streams of pure, rain-like water which flowed
to the toilets, bath-rooms, drinking tanks, etc.
People wishing to do so could learn reading, writing, arts
and crafts and study the sciences. Anyone could teach who
20° 507
possessed the knowledge, desire and ability and could find
the pupils. Instructors were freed from other duties by
order of the representative. The system of study depended
on the disposition and desire of the teacher and the pupils.
While there were still few colonies, arts and crafts were
of no great importance and preference was given to science.
The general curriculum included geometry, mechanics,
physics and chemistry, the study of outer space and the
Universe, biology, including the past, present and pre-
dictable future of living creatures. Study was given,
finally, to sociology and philosophy, and numerous prob-
lems so far unsolved. All the sciences were based through-
out on mathematical data.
47, UNION OF COLONIES
New colonies developed in rapid succession, andin sev-
eral years there were very many of them. Communication
between them was by means of corridors with air-tight
doors. This was a precautionary measure against the pos-
sibility of gas escaping from several sections at once if
one greenhouse became damaged or destroyed by a bolide.
The link-up of several greenhouses reduced the escape of
gas and made life in the colonies richer and more
pleasurable, since the inhabitants of one greenhouse could
visit the colonists in any of the others. The connecting
corridors were provided with air-locks, though actually one
could pass through them as easily as going from one room
to another and there was no need actually to evacuate the
air-locks. The doors could have been left open, but they
were firmly closed as a precautionary measure.
Several hundred colonies constituted a new type of high-
er unit. Each colony elected several of its finest members
who, taking turns, governed their population. Part of the
elected deputies from each colony were delegated to the
highest greenhouse where, together with other delegates,
they exercised authority in the manner already described.
808
But there everything was on a more perfect, strict and
principled moral plane.
These delegates, after working together, went back to
manage the lower colonies, while other deputies took their
place. Thus all the delegates took turns in the manage-
ment of affairs and in the sociological study of each colony.
We have said nothing of diseases or deaths in the colo-
nies. The reason is that no diseases had developed and
the colonies were still too new for death with its scythe
to have reaped its harvest. There was only one case of
mild insanity. One of the settlers imagined himself dead
and in “the other” world. No one could dissuade him of
this and he became more and more illogical. The leader
decided that the only hope of recovery was for him to
return home. Soon there were rumours that he had re-
covered, but had chosen to remain on the Earth.
Let us now leave our colonies to multiply, organise,
thrive, progress and expand, and return to the scientists
we left travelling in the Moon’s orbit.
48, THE TRAVELLERS IN THE MOON'S ORBIT.
JHE FIRST CONFERENCE
Several times our travellers circled the Earth in the
wake of the Moon before deciding what to do next.
“The space between the Earth and the Moon which we
have found suitable for settlement,” Newton began, open-
ing the conference, “has one major drawback: a shortage
of materials for construction and other public needs.”
“The delivery of materials from the Earth is far too ex-
pensive,” Laplace confirmed.
“Materials could be delivered from the Moon,” observed
Franklin. “The cost would be 22 times cheaper. But Ivanov
and Nordenskjöld tell us that the Moon is unsuitable for
habitation and work.”
“One way out would be to transfer the colonies to the
region of the minor planets, between the orbits of Mars
809
and Jupiter,” Newton said. “There is only one thing I am
doubtful about: the temperature in the area is rather low.
The maximum temperature with a black surface and in the
most favourable conditions at the distance of Mars would
be about +83°C. Mars is one and a half times as far from
the Sun as the Earth is. This is not so bad. Even at double
the distance from the Sun the temperature is +27°C. But
at the distance of Jupiter it drops to —80°C, and at the
mean distance between Mars and Jupiter it is in the neigh-
bourhood of —30°C.”
“It could be raised by means of mirrors,” Ivanov
observed.
“That applies to us in our travels, but not to the colonies,
where the much simpler solutions should be found. Our
ingenuity, of course, would save us from the cold even
at the distance of Saturn....”
“Thus,” Franklin reiterated, “the most convenient place
for settlement is in the belt close to Mars. There, at a
distance twice as far as the Earth from the Sun, the high-
est temperature for them would be +-27°C.”
“Wouldn’t it be better to build settlements between the
Earth and Mars, or even closer to the Sun, between the
Earth and Venus?” Laplace asked.
“Either variant would be suitable,” said Newton, “if only
we could be sure to find matter there in the shape of
large bolides or asteroids several hundred metres in
diameter.”
“One huge asteroid has already been discovered between
the Earth and Mars,” Ivanov remarked.
“That is Eros,” said Newton. “True, the eccentricity of
its orbit carries it periodically beyond Mars. It could be
made use of, but it’s too large. But generally speaking
no body less than 10 kilometres in diameter can be detected
in the planetoid belt, even using the finest telescopes and
the most favourable conditions on the Earth. Thus, even
if there are a million asteroids less than 10 kilometres in
diameter, they can’t be seen.
310
“And yet,” he continued, “they should exist. When you
walk in a field, which stones do you see more of, large or
small? Small, of course, and the smaller they are the more
there are of them. The same should be true of the Universe.
Consider, there are only 8 major planets, not counting
their satellites. But there are 700 minor planets, or
asteroids, and countless bolides and aerolites, to judge by
the abundance of shooting stars. This means that we may
expect the solar system to have much more than 700 little
planets with diameters of less than 10 kilometres. The fact
that we can’t see them doesn’t mean that they don’t exist.
If bolides didn’t pierce our atmosphere, we'd never see
them, just as we wouldn’t have known of the larger
asteroids, had there been no telescopes and sensitive photo-
graphic plates.” ,
“We can therefore hope to encounter many small planets
nearer than, or farther from, the Earth's orbit,” said
Laplace.
“And so, gentlemen,” Newton concluded, “we shall first
direct our celestial path towards the Earth’s orbit.”
The meeting fully approved his suggestion.
49. THE SECOND CONFERENCE
The second conference discussed the forthcoming trip.
“We are almost free of the Earth’s gravitational attrac-
tion,” Newton said, “which here is 3,600 times less than
at the Earth’s surface. We are travelling round the Earth
at a speed of about one kilometre a second. If we increase
this velocity to 1.5 kilometres a second we shall recede
from the Earth for ever.”
. “At the same time we shall still have the same velocity
as the Earth rotating round the Sun,” Laplace remarked.
“We acquired that velocity from the Earth when we were
still on it and couldn’t have lost it. Thanks to it, we shan’t
fall on our luminary but will revolve about it like the
Earth.” -
att
“In other words,” said Ivanov, “we need an additional
velocity of only half a kilometre per second for our rocket
and greenhouse. That is a mere trifle and still our fuel
expenditure will be almost negligible.”
“Then, in order not to meet the Earth moving along the
same orbit, we shall resume the combustion and then, de-
pending on the Earth’s direction, shall either spiral away
from the Sun or approach it along some curve or other,
which will depend solely on us,” Franklin observed.
“In this case, too,” said Newton, “the fuel expenditure
will be very small. But should we travel towards the Sun
or away from it?”
“It seems to me,” said Ivanov, “that it would be better
to travel away from the Sun. The temperature here is high
enough and we can raise it to 150°C even without the help
of mirrors. In addition, on our way to Eros, Mars and the
planetoids we'll encounter lots of little planets with dia-
meters less than 10 kilometres.”
The motion was carried and the following photo-tele-
gram was flashed to Earth: “We are well. We plan to trav-
el first along the ecliptic and then away from the Sun in
the hope of finding sufficient material for building colonies
between the orbits of Earth and Mars. Regards to Galileo,
Helmholtz and our other comrades in the Himalayan
Castle. Newton.” They received a reply telegram wishing
them good luck.
50. ROUND THE SUN, BEYOND THE EARTH'S ORBIT
The very smallest blast was used. The attraction of the
Moon could be neglected, all the more so as its mass is
only one-eightieth of the Earth’s mass. Relative gravity set
in, but it was so small as to be hardly noticeable. The ap-
parent size of the Earth and Moon, however, decreased
perceptibly. Ten days later the angular diameter of the
Earth and the Moon had decreased by one-half,
oe
“Our present velocity,” said Ivanov, “will carry us
completely out of the gravitational attraction of the Earth
and its satellite.”
The Earth waned rapidly and soon looked more like a
bright star than a planet. The Earth and the Moon phases
could no longer be observed without a telescope. The
phases were identical: if the Earth was in the crescent
phase, so was the Moon. The blast propelled the rocket in
the direction of its true motion about the Sun. Gradually
they left the ecliptic, or the Earth’s path. The Earth became
no brighter than Venus, with a faint little star, the Moon,
close to it.
The only perceptible change in the situation of our
travellers was the gradual, apparent shrinking of the two
big moons, i.e., the Earth and the Moon, into stars and
the slight diminution in the Sun’s diameter.
The temperature fell correspondingly, though very slow-
ly and imperceptibly. By increasing the black surface of
the rocket facing the Sun the temperature was deliberately
kept at the higher necessary level. This dispelled any doubts
the travellers might have as to the real possibility of chang-
ing the temperature in any direction and within extremely
wide limits. As we know, even near Mars it could be raised
to +83°C. The greenhouse submissively followed in their
wake and provided them with everything they needed.
There was nothing to damp their high spirits. They ate,
slept and worked with the same serenity as on the Earth.
Once in a while, they donned their space-suits and sallied
out of the rocket into the ether. The sky continued to be
as black as ink. On one side shone the Sun, on the other
gleamed a multitude of lifeless, multi-coloured stars. The
patterns of the constellations remained the same. The Milky
Way continued to divide the celestial sphere into two
halves, there were many, many stars and much less mist.
The wandering stars, i.e., the planets were visible as before.
Large asteroids could be seen without a telescope and
stood out because of their apparent motion among the
at
“fixed” stars. There were no more “moonlit” nights, of
course. The thrust force propelled the rocket in the same
direction as the Moon and therefore should have accelerat-
ed its motion; actually though, the reverse was true and
the motion was retarded, but the rocket continued to
recede from the Sun. It was like, the movement of a sleigh
uphill when the speed decreases even though the horse
continues to draw it.
51. ON A STRANGE PLANET
They searched with their telescopes for bolides and
asteroids or watched the sky for them looking through the
portholes. They had been travelling for more than nine
months and the monotony had tired them considerably
when one day Franklin spotted a vast bulk quite close to
them and almost motionless. It was obviously a planetoid
moving in the same direction about the Sun.
As the rocket was propelled by the blast the planetoid
soon began to slip back. The motors were turned off, then
reversed, and they approached the asteroid. The travellers
crowded round the portholes, their eyes glued to the vast
bulk. Its visible dimensions grew until it occupied almost
half the sky. In shape it was very irregular, elongated and
rugged. Here and there it sparkled in the rays of the Sun.
Everyone was filled with curiosity.
Finally they switched on the retro-rockets in order to
slow down and avoid bumping into the planetoid. They
came to a standstill and had to switch on the exhaust
nozzles again and then switch them off. Several tens of
metres separated them and they were hardly moving in
relation to the planetoid.
“Enough!” Newton exclaimed. “Let someone moor the
rocket to the planetoid.”
Ivanov, who wanted to be first, was already in his space-
suit. He immediately departed, trailing after him a light
chain attached to the rocket. He approached the planetoid
814
cautiously, bumping gently against it. There was noth-
ing to attach the chain to, only solid granite and metals.
Ivanov decided to use a powerful] magnet as soon as he
found any pieces of iron. This, however, proved unneces-
sary: the force of gravity gradually pulled the rocket to
the planet. To keep it from hitting against the planetoid,
as even the slightest jar might damage the greenhouse,
they switched on the exhaust at the very moment of im-
pact. Rocket and greenhouse bobbed slightly against the
little world and finally settled down on it and became
motionless. The whole population of the rocket flew out,
in their space-suits of course, as there was not the slight-
est tracé of any atmosphere.
One could stand or lie or sit on the little planet the
same as one does on the Earth, but the gravity was so low
that the slightest careless motion sent a person bouncing
several scores of feet upwards.
Laplace found a little stone on the planetoid, tied it toa
thread and made it swing like a pendulum. But goodness,
how slowly it moved! It required a deal of patience slowly to
count its oscillations and calculate the time. Nevertheless
Laplace carried out the experiment and found that a pendu-
lum one metre long performed one oscillation in 80 seconds.
“We can conclude from this,” Franklin said, “that the
force of gravity of this planetoid, at the point where we
are now, is 6,000 times less than terrestrial gravity. In
the first second of free fall a body will here travel just
under one millimetre. Like all of you, I weigh 1/6,000th
of my terrestrial weight, or about 13 grams!”
The horizon was very rugged. It would be difficult to
find anything like it, even in the most fantastic mountain
‘ranges on the Earth. The planetoid was a huge rough,
rugged fragment. Beneath their feet were masses of rock
impregnated with metallic alloys and pure metals, some
of them dark like old iron, others shiny like silver or nickel,
some yellow like brass or calcium, others reddish like cop-
per or gold. Various features caught the eye, but they were
af6
compelled to walk very slowly: the slightest impatient or
hurried movement sent one high up into space, and one
would experience during the descent the whole gamut of
emotions, fearing never to return. Those who had little
portable propelling motors switched them on, though there
was no actual need, and hastened back to the planetoid.
Not everyone had them, however, and these would soar up
for 10 and more minutes, returning often as long as half
an hour. What frustration for those who longed to explore
the planetoid! Sometimes they leaped 250 metres away—
sufficient for anyone to get lost. Those who had never
before found themselves in such conditions found it difficult
to become acclimatised. Later they found a fairly simple
way of moving about at a speed of 4 kilometres an hour.
For this it was necessary to push off horizontally from
stones or vertical projections. But too strong a push would
bring the danger of flying off the planet for good and be-
coming a lost soul in the boundless spaces of the Solar
System. When this happened it was necessary to resort to
the portable motor or to rely on being saved by those who
had them.
By this simple method our travellers flew round the
entire planetoid and found many pure metals and alloys.
The sparkling areas they had noticed from afar turned out
to be heaps of gold, silver and nickel. The planet had a
thousand times more precious metals than the amount pos-
sessed by all the people on the Earth.
Owing to the strange shape of the little planet, its gravity
and its direction varied in different places.
Everyone was delighted and astonished at the sight of
the treasures. They displayed this by antics and gestures,
but the expressions on their faces were almost hidden.
They could talk only by getting close to each other and
bringing their helmets together; but their curiosity had
taken them off in different directions. They took many
photographs, made collections of minerals and materials,
collected the necessary data for determining the size and
sle
mass of the asteroid, and returned, enriched but not over-
burdened, to the rocket. In truth, it would be hard to be-
come overburdened, for a mass of 600 tons weighed only
100 terrestrial kilograms.
52. BACK IN THE ROCKET. THE FLIGHT TO MARS
The motors were switched on again and the rocket sped
away from the Sun, exploring the space between the Earth
and Mars. The strange planetoid they had just left behind
rapidly disappeared from sight, though to them it seemed
as if it was the planetoid that was moving away. The scien-
tists, however, continued to study it with great interest.
They analysed and examined the rocks, metals and alloys.
The gold, silver and platinum were almost pure, with slight
additions of other metals. They estimated that the mean
diameter of the planetoid was 900 metres. Small wonder
that earth-bound astronomers knew nothing about it. It
was impossible to spot such a tiny mass at that distance.
Even the satellites of Mars, ten times larger in diameter
and 100 times greater in area, were only discovered with
great difficulty. The volume of the planetoid was about
360 million cubic metres. Its mass could not be determined
very accurately, but judging by the abundance of heavy
metals even at the surface, it could not be less than 7,200
million tons, assuming the mean density of the planet to
be 10. The planetoid rotated slowly.
“It contains enough material to build well-appointed
greenhouse dwellings for the whole of mankind,” Ivanov
said.
“There would be only about one ton per person,” Newton
objected. “That is not enough.”
“If the need arises more heavenly bodies of the kind
can be found to supplement the supply,’ Laplace observed.
“We haven't even explored the space up to Mars, and we
may well encounter thousands of these miniature worlds
on our way.”
317
“Very possibly,” Newton agreed.
This proved to be the case, and as they spiraled away
from the Sun they encountered asteroids almost every
month. Some were larger than the one described, but most
were smaller. They left most of them unexplored, but when-
ever they visited one they almost invariably found heavy
and precious metals.
“I find this strange,” Nordenskjöld observed. “So little
gold and platinum is found on the Earth yet here there is
enough to pave the streets.”
“Yes, it is surprising,” Newton agreed. “Yet according to
at least one hypothesis it is easily explained. These compar-
atively small bulks may well be only parts or fragments
of large planets. Being fragments, some of them may
contain only the internal and others the superficial elements
of a whole planet. The innermost parts of a planet are
bound to consist of the heavier elements, such as gold,
platinum, iridium and their alloys. This is just what we
observe on the discovered planetoids. You will have noticed
that we found no heavy metals on some of them, which in-
dicates that they were once part of the outer crust of some
larger planet.”
“Such a hypothesis was put forward by Olbers to ex-
plain the existence of numerous asteroids between the
orbits of Mars and Jupiter,” Laplace said. “If we can judge
by our own discoveries, this probably applies also to the
origin of the celestial bodies between the Earth and Mars.”
“But what could cause a major planet to break up into
several minor ones?” one of the listeners asked.
“There are many possible explanations,” said Ivanov.
“Chemical processes inside the planet might have produced
gases the expansion of which blew up the planet like a
bomb, or there may have been a collision between planets,
or it may have been due to the steadily increasing centri-
fugal force resulting from the contraction of a revolving
planet.”
“Acting alone this force could at most cause the sepa-
318
ration of satellites or rings, but not such a catastrophe as
these fragments suggest,” Newton said.
“You are probably right,” said the Russian. “A variety
of known and unknown causes may have operated,” he
added after a pause.
“From your words we may draw some interesting con-
clusions,” Franklin remarked. “First of all, our Earth may
well be torn to pieces some day. Secondly, the inner parts
of our planet should also abound in precious metals.”
“Neither possibility can be rejected,” several voices com-
mented.
“Well, and if that is so,” said Ivanov, “it would be a good
idea for the human race to move to other worlds without
awaiting such a calamity. A suitable place would be these
ethereal deserts which contain all the materials necessary
for the safe accommodation here of man.”
53. PASSING THROUGH GAS RINGS
Each circuit round the Sun took more than a year, and
each year they discovered new worlds. Several times they
encountered gas rings, very transparent, tenuous and
hardly noticeable, but several kilometres thick. They ap-
peared first as a thin misty strip tapering towards the ends.
When the rocket entered the gas ring they heard a strange
noise and the temperature definitely increased. The rocket’s
speed did not differ much from that of the rings, but it
passed through them in its movement away from the Sun and
soon left them behind. Many rings remained unobserved,
like many of the planetoids. They collected some gases from
one of the rings, condensed them with the aid of pumps
and analysed them. They contained oxygen, nitrogen, car-
bon compounds, traces of hydrogen and other gases.
“This is wonderful,” said Ivanov after the first discovery.
“It would be a good idea to place the colonies in a ring of
this kind: there would be gases on hand, and in addition,
in the event of gas escaping from a rocket, it would remain
219
-in the surrounding atmosphere from which it could be
retrieved. This discovery shows that the expansion of gases
is not unlimited, as follows from Boyle’s Law, and that
there is something that restricts it.”
“This is not a new conclusion,” Laplace observed. ‘‘The
same has been observed in our own terrestrial atmosphere.”
“On the Earth the unlimited expansion of gas is restricted
by the attraction of the Earth and the molecular theory,”
Franklin began.
“And here there is the attraction of the gas ring itself,
and maybe something else,” said Newton.
“But what?” Franklin exclaimed impatiently. “The at-
traction of the ring itself is insufficient.”
“I don’t know,” said Newton. “It may be that gases are
distributed throughout the Solar System, though in very
small quantities. Mendeleyev thought so, incidentally.”
54. APPROACHING MARS
Several years passed and Mars was already not far off.
The space between the two neighbouring orbits was ex-
plored so thoroughly that they were in a position to report
the results of their work to the Earth. But this would have
required a flat mirror some 100 metres in diameter, the
building of which would prove to be a difficult undertaking.
It would be simplest to return to the Earth or to send a
telegram from the Moon’s orbit or from some spot lying
even closer.
Near Mars one revolution of the rocket round the Sun
took almost two years. The travellers suffered from an
accumulation of boredom and nostalgia. When the time
came to return to Earth they would, of course, not follow
the spiral route. A short route would bring them home in
four months. Mars was already 10 million kilometres
distant and looked like a miniature Moon 4 minutes across,
or 1/7th of the diameter of the Moon as is seen from the
Earth. With a telescope they could clearly see its “canals”
820
and “seas” containing no one knew what, its hills and val-
leys and the polar “ice” and “snow”.
“We shan’t go any closer to Mars,” said Newton. “To
land on the planet would be a dangerous undertaking. We
are all tired and, what’s more, we have to report our im-
portant discoveries to the Earth as soon as possible.”
Some objected, others were delighted at the prospect of
soon returning home.
“Mars won’t run away from us,” Ivanov remarked.
“We'll reach it in the course of a later expedition.”
55. CAN PLANETS BE VISITED!
They had a great deal of free time. The scientists dis-
cussed travel plans, but even more they discussed the
Earth, its inhabitants and terrestrial affairs in general,
which they now viewed most favourably. We, however,
would find it more interesting to hear the scientists’ views
about space travel and conditions of life in other worlds.
Here is what they had to say on the subject.
“We landed perfectly safely on the Moon, and find life
splendid here where we are almost the same distance from
the Sun as Mars! It is warm as before, the fruits do not
ripen so fast, but we are adequately supplied. If we were
to run short of food there is nothing to prevent our build-
ing two or three additional greenhouses,” a very young
and enthusiastic member of the expedition declared.
“There are difficulties,” Newton began, addressing the
assemblage. “It will take much brainwork and physical
effort on the Earth to overcome them. Let us see what
prevents us from landing on planets immediately, apart
from our own fatigue and a universal desire to return to
our native planet.”
The audience fell silent and settled down to listen
attentively.
“Let us begin with temperature,’ Newton continued.
“Imagine a soot-black plate perpendicular to the Sun’s
21—761 321
rays. It absorbs almost all the rays falling on it. The
reverse side should not lose any heat. This can be achieved
by covering it, for instance, with polished silver. In
ethereal space a plate of this kind will lose heat in pro-
portion to the fourth power of its absolute temperature.
This is the law of Stefan and Wien from which we shall
proceed in our further arguments. We can check its truth
from the following considerations. The experimentally de-
termined constants of this law make it possible for us to
solve many interesting problems. Here are some of my
own computations. The temperature of parts of the Sun's
Surface is about 6500°C. That is the normal tem-
perature; the absolute scale begins at 273°C below
zero. According to one hypothesis, absolute zero begins
with the complete absence of heat in a body. The temper-
ature of our black plate, at the distance of the Earth, may
reach +152°C. This is the maximum temperature that
can be obtained on the Earth, the Moon, and bodies in
space at the same distance from the Sun as our planet.
This is also the maximum temperature of the greenhouses
and rockets of the colonies near the Earth. It is sufficient
to roast meat. I shall not speak about other methods of.
increasing this temperature, as, for example, with
the help of mirrors. Here is the maximum temperature in
degrees centigrade for the different distances from the
Sun, taking the distance of the Earth as unity:
Distance to Sun Temp. °C. Distance to Sun Temp. °G.
1 +152 Infinity —273
2 +27 1/2 +322
3 —27 1/3 +450
4 —61 1/4 +577
5 —83 1/9 +1002
9 —131 1/16 +1427
16 —167 4/25 +1852
25 —188 1/36 +2277
36 —202 0 -+ 6427
322
“It will be observed from this table that the upper limit
for space travel is twice the distance to the Sun, i.e., about
150 million kilometres from the Earth’s orbit, or 175 mil-
lion kilometres from Mars’ orbit to Jupiter.”
“But why can’t flat, cylindrical or spherical mirrors be
used to raise the temperature in the rocket and green-
house?” Laplace objected.
“They can,” Newton answered, “especially here, where
there is no relative gravity and mirrors can be made very
thin. But on planets we’d encounter difficulties.”
“There are other ways of increasing the temperature
in greenhouses, say by making windows which would
freely let in the light and highly refractable rays in general
while retaining dark heat rays with a low refractability.”
“Precisely, dear Franklin,” Newton said. “The Sun's
rays will enter the greenhouse, change there into dark
ones and remain inside, thereby raising the temperature
much higher than our calculations show. But as yet I have
no exact data about the degree to which the temperature
could be raised in this way. For research and information
in this field we shall have to rely on the Earth, leaving it
aside for the time being.”
“Any way,” concluded Ivanov, “with the help of mir-
rors or other devices, it may prove possible in time to
travel beyond Mars to Jupiter and maybe even farther.”
“Ive nothing to say against that,” said Newton. “But
allow me to draw your attention to the table showing the
maximum temperatures for the various planets.”
Planet Distance lo Sun Temp. °C.
Mercury 0.39 -|-407
Venus 0.72 4-227
Earth 1.00 +153
Mars 1.53 -|- 83
Jupiter 5.20 — 83
Saturn 9.54 . —134
Uranus 19.18 —176
Neptune 30.05 —195
2i* 323
“It will be observed that the maximum temperature on
the interior planets is excessively high, yet technically
favourable for a travelling rocket.”
“Technically?” one of the listeners asked. “But isn’t
it much too high?”
“Don’t forget,” Newton said, “that the table gives the
highest temperature for ideal conditions which are hardly
attainable in actual practice. For the Earth this is +153°.
Imagine the same plate set normally to the rays, with the
reverse side polished as before, but the front side, instead
of being covered witth soot-black, having a surface capable
of reflecting and dispersing the light rays falling on it.
The temperature will be lower, below zero and even as low
as —273°, i.e., absolute zero, if it reflects all the Sun’s
rays falling on it and the reverse side is covered with soot-
black and radiates all the heat into the ether. This con-
clusion holds good for any plate of the kind. Undoubtedly,
this is only partially possible, but it does point to the
feasibility of reaching the nearest planets, Mercury and
Venus, and even getting still closer to the Sun. If we were
not fatigued, we could even now safely undertake a
voyage there. To prevent ourselves from burning we should
only have to expose the black part of the rocket’s reverse
surface and close the front, transparent side with bur-
nished shutters. If we had the inclination, we could even
freeze in our rocket in the immediate vicinity of the Sun.”
“Amazing!” his listeners exclaimed.
“And so,” Ivanov concluded, “theoretically rocket trips
closer to the Sun or farther away from it are quite fea-
sible.”
“Yes,” Newton confirmed, “but this conclusion doesn’t
apply to landing on a planet. Let us again begin with the
temperature. Imagine an isolated black sphere in ether,
i.e., something like a planet. It loses four times more heat
than our double-surface disk, and the average temperature
will be 1.4 times less (the 4th root of 4). Thus we obtain
the following average temperature (centigrade) for the
324
different planets: Mercury, -++-200°, Venus +90°, the Earth,
+27°, Mars, —23°, Jupiter, —138°, Saturn, —174°, Uranus,
—204°, Neptune, —218°. Actually though the average
temperature of the Earth is not +27°C but only +14°C or
+15°C. What is the cause of this? The point is that not
all of the Sun’s rays are absorbed by the planet; part of
them is scattered by clouds, waters, snows, sands, hills—
in short, by every kind of surface. From the inconsistency
in temperature just pointed out, we find that the Earth
takes in about 80 per cent of the Sun’s rays, scattering
and reflecting the other 20 per cent back into outer space.
If the other planets also threw back one-fifth of the rays,
their temperatures would be respectively: Mercury, +176°,
Venus, +72°, Earth, +14°, Mars, —35°, Jupiter, —145°,
Saturn, —179°, Uranus, —207°, Neptune, —221° centi-
grade. The average temperature of the asteroids ranges
from —35° to —145°C. It is difficult to assume, therefore,
that with an average temperature of —35°C, the canals
and seas of Mars consisted of liquid water. The average
temperature there is 49°C lower than on the Earth, a large
portion of the surface of which is covered with eternal
ice, snow and frozen soil. Of course, the soil and atmos-
pheric conditions on Mars are different. But if we assume
them to be the same, then the average temperature at the
Martian equator should be 49°C less than at the terrestrial
equator, i.e., below —25°C. So where can the water come
from?”
“But what about the mirrors?” a young listener queried
sadly. ‘‘Couldn’t they save us from the bitter cold?”
“They could, of course,” Newton replied, ‘‘especially if
there is no atmosphere there. At low temperatures its mo-
tion produces a cooling effect which it is very difficult to
overcome. I don’t, however, reject the possibility of suc-
cessfully overcoming these odds with the aid of special
devices which are not at present at our disposal. Even on
Jupiter, where the temperature is —145°C, the cold can
be successfully combated. But how to overcome the heat
325
of the atmospheres of Venus and Mercury, which reaches
+72°C and +176°C respectively? It’s lower at the poles,
of course, but the terrific heat generates currents in the
local oceans and atmospheres and drives them towards
the poles. In addition, what gases will surround us when
we land on a strange planet? Space-suits and an adequate
supply of exygen would protect us from the lethal gases
of any atmosphere, but where is the guarantee that our
Space-suits and bodies will not perish in a blaze of Bengal
lights? I reject nothing,” Newton concluded hopefully, “but
I only want to say that we shall need to make prepara-
tions to perform long and painstaking work, if we are to
hope to triumph over the hostile forces of nature. Other-
wise they will crush us without even noticing us.”
56. THE SHORT CUT TO THE EARTH
It was unanimously decided to steer a course back to
the Earth. The attraction of Mars increasingly disturbed
the even curve of the rocket’s path. Since their journey
would last about four months they had to cling to the
greenhouse, otherwise their supplies of fruits would be
insufficient. With it in tow, they found they could not
decelerate hard by reversing the blast, without damaging
their source of nourishment. All the same, the decelera-
tion was dozens of times harder than during their slow
Spiralling away from the Sun, and it carried our travellers
sunwards in a steep, contracted spiral. The greenhouse
was now not behind the rocket, but ahead of it. When they
began their deceleration they were 65 million kilometres
away from the Earth’s orbit and moving at a speed of
about 25 kilometres a second, or 5 kilometres less than
that of the Earth. Due to the deceleration, the speed
dropped, but the rocket’s fall towards the Sun tended to
increase it. When they reached the Earth’s orbit it should
be 30 kilometres a second, i.e., equal to that of the Earth.
Then, the closer they approached the Earth the more
ane
would the attraction of the planet come into play. The
increasing velocity would again have to be retarded by the
retro-blast. The travellers’ thoughts were constantly with
the Earth, consequently their conversation during the
return trip is of no interest at all to us.
The older travellers had had time to turn grey, the
youths had matured.
Only the most essential observations were made. A
feeling of apathy set in. They looked after the greenhouse
and the rocket. Their route was so short that they hardly
noticed three or four new asteroids. The difference in
their speeds and that of the rocket was so great that it
would have been very hard to approach and explore them.
Their eyes often turned to a star as beautiful as Venus.
It was the Earth. They thought constantly of it. As they
drew closer it became brighter and more beautiful. Soon
it turned into a splendid miniature Moon. Its crescent in-
creased, grew as large as the Sun, and then larger still.
They crossed the Moon’s orbit. The Earth became enor-
mous: four times larger and 16 times brighter than its
satellite. Their native planet grew larger and larger. It
began to look very familiar. Soon it occupied 3, 4, then 5
degrees in the sky. Only a few days’ travelling remained.
Hearts beat faster, especially those of the younger men.
What would they find back on the Earth?
It was decided to flash a telegram by means of a small
mirror. Ivanov telegraphed the following message: “We
explorers of outer space are nearing the Earth. We have
visited and studied as much space as possible between
the orbits of the Earth and Mars. We found in it hundreds
of tiny planets 5,000 and less metres in diameter. This is
only a fraction of what we estimate to exist. We did not
see Eros. The discovered asteroids provide a rich and in-
exhaustible source of material for establishing colonies
beyond the Earth’s orbit. Many planetoids contain heavy
metals in ores and in the pure state. Some contain 10 per
cent of gold and platinum. Judging by the composition of
327
these celestial bodies, we think they are fragments of
one or several larger planets. The space discovered.by us
receives 2,500 million times more radiant energy than the
Earth. It is trillions of times larger than the Earth. In sev-
eral places we encountered gas rings. We have samples
of rocks, metals and gases. No one has suffered injury and
we ran short of nothing. Life in outer space is wonderful.
There is eternal day, eternal warmth, a variety of excel-
lent fruit, and splendid conditions for the most diversified
engineering and scientific work. We shall land in the Indian
Ocean, off the coast of East India. All shipping is
warned. ...
“Spare our modesty and relieve us of any welcoming
fétes! God gave us the talent which we have shared with
mankind, and that is all. We need nothing. We have had
everything in abundance, including honours. Rather see
that you support the geniuses among yourselves: you know
very few of them but there are more than you imagine.
Try and discover them. Their hands are tied because of
their difficult material conditions. Ivanov.”
The greenhouse had to be dismantled or left to circle
the Earth in an elliptical orbit. There was not much time
left, and it was decided to abandon it. The plants in the
rocket and the various devices for cultivating them were
also abandoned. The propellants had been largely used up
and the rocket had become much lighter.
The deceleration increased. The Earth seemed enormous
and covered one quarter of the sky. They had long since
passed the colonies. The water tanks were filled and the
travellers got into them to avoid suffering from mounting
relative gravity. In short, they took all the precautions they
had taken on leaving the Earth. The rocket and its instru-
ments functioned reliably. They steered with the help of
levers submerged in the water.
The rocket entered the atmosphere, the thin protective
shell grew red-hot, but the speed dropped steadily as the
rocket approached the surface of the ocean.
328
57. ON EARTH
The deceleration increased, the rocket almost came to
a standstill. A slight splash, and the rocket was riding the
waves like a destroyer.
They opened the shutters and portholes and the air of
their native planet rushed in with a loud hissing sound.
The travellers felt they were dreaming. A stunned silence
reigned for a few moments. Then they clambered out of
their protective baths and put on their clothing. The Earth
seemed different. They could hardly tell what was greater,
their joy or their disappointment. First of all, it seemed
cold and damp. Their hands, feet and bodies seemed to be
weighed down with lead. For a long time they were unable
to lift themselves from the floor, they felt giddy and tot-
tered as if they were drunk, especially the older men. The air
with its burden of nitrogen seemed suffocating, while their
voices, due to the denser atmosphere, deafened them. A
motorboat sailed up and took them in tow to a ship. The
travellers began to feel better and the breeze refreshed
them.
Thanks to the warning about their modesty no people
had assembled to pester the scientists with questions. But
they did not feel well. Some began sneezing, the following
day many had colds, and some went down with influenza.
The sick were in poor spirits and the joy of their return to
Earth was marred. The Sun seemed dim and cold. The sky
was misty, the stars at night seemed few and far between
and, especially near the horizon, they were dim, while the
firmament seemed flattened at the zenith. Everywhere was
an unpleasant smell. All the food seemed tasteless, people
looked clumsy in their clothing, furniture looked repulsive,
the weight was unbearable, and the mattresses and pillows
hard. The travellers constantly tripped and stumbled. For-
getting themselves, they would push off with an idea of
soaring away only to fall awkwardly to the ground; and
their swearing was a source of laughter. People could not
529
understand the cause of their extraordinary behaviour and
stared curiously at the strange tourists. They arrived safely
in Bombay, from where they continued by train and then
by airship to their Himalayan Castle.
The inhabitants of the castle, of course, were already
well informed about their adventures. They were given a
rousing welcome, but many were surprised to see the trav-
ellers were bruised and had sticking plasters on their
faces. They couldn’t refrain from laughing when they dis-
covered the reason.
The newcomers found it unusually cold in the hills, but
the Sun was warmer. Gradually they discarded their great-
coats, recovered their health and strength, the bruises
faded from their noses and foreheads and they became
accustomed to terrestrial life. Helmholtz and Galileo were
constantly with them.
58. THE MEETING IN THE CASTLE, PLANS FOR MORE
SPACE TRAVEL
The world waited impatiently for the scientists’ report
on their extraordinarily successful trip. Newton named the
day when he and his companions would deliver their re-
ports in the castle.
On the appointed day learned delegates arrived at the
castle from all the countries of the world.
Newton, interrupted frequently by his equally learned
companions and members of the audience, gave a detailed
description of their adventures in outer space. He wound
up with the practical conclusions to be drawn and his
plans for more travel and research in the future.
“The space 34,000 kilometres from the Earth where the
colonies are now being established,” he said, “is inconven-
ient, since there is not enough materials to provide for
work. I suggest therefore that new settlements be gradu-
ally transferred to the space between the orbits of the
Earth and Mars, which abounds in building materials, I
330
have in mind very small planets invisible from the Earth.
When the number of colonies increases sufficiently they
will expand their industries and be able to build dwellings
without help from the Earth. Material is also available
in space in the form of the small bolides to be found be-
tween the Earth and the Moon, where the colonies now
are, but there is so little of it, that it is not worth mention-
ing. For some time to come the Earth will continue to
manufacture only propellants and rockets for carrying
people. The rockets, after serving their purpose, will be
able to return on fuel manufactured ‘up there’. Our pos-
terity will find shelter, happiness and moral satisfaction
in outer space. Can human genius forecast the develop-
ment of the settlements beyond the Earth’s orbit in a
thousand or a million years? Who can say how the colonis-
ers will adjust themselves from the material and social
point of view, as their numbers increase? Can we foresee
what they stand to gain, the development of industry and
science, the evolution of the human race itself? Will the
Sun grow dimmer in the millions of years to come? What
will the inhabitants of the sky do then? Will they find a
way out? Maybe they will take off for other, burning stars?
What will their journey be like? What planets will they
encounter and what will they find on them? There are in-
finite numbers of planets suitable for habitation like the
Earth.”
“But that is all far away and hypothetical,” one of the
learned listeners remarked. ‘‘We would prefer to hear
about what can be done in the immediate future.”
“When we have rested, digested our vast accumulation
of impressions and gathered strength,” Laplace replied,
“we shall dispatch a new expedition.”
“Then,” Newton added, “we'll head for the region of
known asteroids between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter,
where we should find much of interest. En route we shall
circle Mars several times, and maybe visit it. It will be a
simple matter to visit its two small satellites—as easy as
oat
gaining access to the asteroids, since the gravity at their
surface is low.”
“If we do not become overfatigued,” Ivanov said, “we
may reach Jupiter and Saturn. It will be hardly possible
to land on those planets, and anyone bold enough to try
to do so will almost surely meet his death. But we can
circle them at close range and visit their small satellites
and the rings of Saturn.”
“We may first undertake a trip to Venus and Mercury,”
Newton observed. “It is difficult to foresee how much can
be done and to what extent we shall be successful.”
The conference ended on the following day, the guests
departed, and the castle anchorets resumed their peaceful,
rational existence.
THE AIMS OF ASTRONAUTICS
The possibility of space travel has been discussed at
large, both in our country and abroad.
Suppose it is possible—what will be the good of it?
What will humanity gain from conquering outer space?
Some think of manned spaceships travelling from planet
to planet, of the gradual populating of the planets and of
deriving advantages from them, as in the case of ordinary
earthly colonies.
Actually this process will be quite different. So far we
cannot even dream of landing on large heavenly bodies,
for the task presents tremendous difficulties. Even landing
on a smaller body like our Moon is something that belongs
to the very remote future. What we can realistically dis-
cuss is going to some minor bodies and moons, for in-
stance, asteroids (10 to 400 kilometres in diameter).
The chief aim and the first achievement will be man’s
journey into the ether, the use of solar energy and of the
bodies dispersed in space (asteroids and still smaller par-
ticles).
I hear the reader exclaim: “What utter nonsense! Can
human beings live in the ether without a planet, without
support for their feet?! Only the larger planets have at-
mospheres and can accommodate man.”
But, first of all, landing on major planets is a difficult
technical problem and only specialists can appreciate
these difficulties. Secondly, we shall encounter on them
333
atmospheres of unknown composition, unknown plants
and animals, and unknown temperatures that alone will
be sufficient to destroy us. Of course the time will come
when the planets, too, will be visited, but so much time
will have to pass before this happens that there is no
point in discussing it now.
Even if we did manage to reach all the planets now, it
would be of comparatively little use. The value of a plan-
et depends on the amount of solar energy it receives, and
all the planets taken together get only ten times as much
energy as does the Earth. This is an infinitesimal amount
compared with the total solar energy, which is 2,200 mil-
lion times that received by the Earth, and 200,000,000
times the aggregate amount which goes to all the planets
of the Solar System. And this store of energy will be at
man’s disposal if he manages to master outer space!
The achievement of this goal is hardly to be compared
with the discovery of 2,000,000,000 new planets like the
Earth.
When we have obtained a clear idea about life in the
ether, we shall well understand the meaning of the word
“hardly”.
It would seem that nothing could be more absurd than
living in a void and without any support. Yet this is not
only achievable but offers advantages which it is extreme-
ly difficult to appraise correctly.
We have first to consider how man breathes there, how
he builds his dwellings, how he moves about, how he
breeds plants, how he lives, eats, works, manipulates
machines, marries, reproduces his kind, what is the state
of his health, and many other questions.
Evidently the most impossible, intolerable thing is the
absence of air or atmosphere. But that is only partly true,
for the atmosphere is at the same time the source of the
greatest misfortunes of man; as yet man cannot control
the atmosphere, its temperature, or any of its other prop-
erties. Take the temperature, for instance. In the daytime
334
life is all but impossible at the equator because of the
intense heat. At night, it is more tolerable, but the air
is humid and unhealthy. In northern countries the sum-
mer is unbearably hot and the winter as unbearably cold.
What tremendous sacrifices and labours is man involved
in because of this struggle against air temperature, winds,
snow-falls, torrential rains, droughts, microbes, and so on!
Then the atmosphere deprives man of a tremendous part
of the Sun’s energy, as one part of it is reflected by the
clouds and the other absorbed by cloudless air. It simply
robs us!
At present neither human beings nor plants can do with-
out gases. Man needs not less than half the oxygen avail-
able at present (a density of 0.00012, the pressure being
not less than 100 g/cm?, or 0.1 atmosphere). In addi-
tion he needs a small amount of water vapour; nitrogen
and other gases are not necessary, they are even injurious.
Plants can be satisfied with negligible quantities of car-
bon dioxide, oxygen, nitrogen and water vapour, consti-
tuting their gas nutrition. The aggregate pressure of this
gas mixture is less than 0.0] atmosphere, i.e., 10 g/cm?.
This means that if a little carbon dioxide and nitrogen
is added to the atmosphere needed by man, it becomes
suitable for plants.
For the time being we shall deal only with this kind
of atmosphere, how to prevent it from being dispersed and
to keep it pure. Actually every living being, every plant
needs a special kind of atmosphere, temperature and soil,
but we shall disregard this for a while.
Ordinarily, a spherico-cylindrical metal vessel capable
of withstanding inner pressure weighs ten times as much
as a gas having the elasticity of oxygen contained within
it. Suppose that 100 cubic metres is space enough for one
man. One cubic metre of oxygen will weigh about 0.00012 t,
100 cubic metres—0.012; the container will weigh 0.12 t,
or 120 kg, i.e., its mass will be twice that of a man.
To spend 120 kg of glass, steel, nickel and other hard
835
metals on constructing a home for a human being is a
mere trifle. There would be no harm in spending ten times
-as much.
How is such a dwelling constructed? It is cylindrical,
closed at each end with- half-spherical surfaces. The more
spacious it is within, the thicker will be its walls. To make
the thickness of the walls a practical proposition, the
dwelling is built for several thousands or hundreds of per-
sons. It consists of a spherico-cylindrical surface, which
shines both within and without. A third of the surface
turned towards the Sun consists of latticed window panes.
It can be likened to a curved window-frame.
What are the best shape and dimensions? A sphere is
not convenient because it is not particularly easy to ar-
range for communication between spherical surfaces. Very
long rounded (cylindrical) surfaces seem to be the best.
Thus the dwelling will have the appearance of a tube of
indeterminate length.
What will be its diameter? The greater the diameter,
the less sunlight there will be per unit of volume, that is,
per inhabitant. A large diameter is, therefore, a disadvan-
tage because sunlight feeds plants, and plants supply food
for the people. Neither is a small diameter any better as
it hampers movement, restricts space and does not allow
thick plating. We may take a diameter of two or three
metres but it can, of course, be much larger, depending
on the purpose of the dwelling. Assembly halls, factories
and other public buildings will be enormous. Their pur-
pose will determine their size. Just now we are concerned
with the family—where it will live and what it will eat.
Our calculations show that the skin of a cylinder with a
diameter of three metres will be too thin for practical pur-
poses. But there is nothing to prevent our making it ten
or a hundred times thicker. Its strength will increase in
proportion and we will not economise on material.
In addition to the advantages in regard to light, a thick-
walled tube has others: the smaller the diameter, the
336
greater the number of isolated compartments. This mini-
mises the risk of loosing all air and perishing in space.
Suppose the dwelling is three kilometres long and its
diameter, three metres; it can then be divided into 300
compartments, each ten metres in length, three in width
and with a volume of 70 cubic metres. This will make a
sizable room, large enough for an average family. Its lighted
area will be 30 square metres—dquite sufficient for the
garden that will provide the family with food.
Why is this less risky? Suppose a compartment develops
an air leak; the manometer will instantly show this; the
family moves into the neighbouring compartment and the
damaged one is isolated from the rest. It is then inspected
inside and outside by people wearing space-suits and the
leakage is repaired. The family then returns to its home.
So it is clear that the more compartments there are, the
less the danger. Special devices may be installed to in-
dicate automatically the cracks through which air is
escaping.
The air in the compartment would become foul but for
the plants and the soil they grow in. In this miniature
world, the family compartment, the same cycle which
purifies the air and the soil takes place as that on the
Earth. We will give more details when we describe the
growing of plants.
Now let us examine the temperature in the dwelling.
With the construction just described and at a distance
from the Sun equal to that between the Sun and the Earth
(i.e., the Earth’s orbit), a suitable temperature is possible
only when the dwelling rotates and the windows alter-
nately face the Sun, or are turned away from it, i.e., when
day and night alternate. Another method is to have part
of the windows permanently facing the dark side, with
approximately 0.1 of the total inner area in sunlight
(0.3 of the projection). .
The temperature will be wholly controlled by man who
will be able to change it from —250° to +-200°C, depend-
22—761 337
ing on what amount of the Sun’s light is used. He will be
able to reproduce all climates, not of the Earth alone but
of every planet in the Universe.
There is one hitch, however, and it is that, for economy’s
sake, as much solar energy as possible must be utilised
through plants or by some other means. Yet if this is
done the temperature will reach 200°C above zero and
everything will be burned up. On the other hand, it would
be a pity to lose light by turning away from it. The reme-
dy against this is simple: to move to a more remote orbit,
one between Mars and Jupiter but closer to the former.
If the orbit is removed twice as far as the Earth is from
the Sun, the amount of warmth will be just enough for
man and plants to thrive. It will then not be necessary to
turn away from the Sun and reject its gifts.
We can spend some time on the Earth’s orbit but that
will be extravagant. The sunlit area at twice the distance
will be four times greater than at the Earth’s orbit; there
we shall find plenty of material as it will lie beyond Mars,
in the asteroid belt. (A method that is not extravagant
would be to utilise the whole of the Sun’s energy without
moving away from it.)
Now let us see how the Sun will treat us and what con-
ditions it will create for us in our dwelling. We still have
an eternal day or eternal night, or an alternation of the
two just as we please. For instance, plants may have a
permanent day while man who, owing to the Earth’s
rotation is accustomed to sleeping at night, may set up a
screen and sleep in the dark. Then we shall always have
excellent weather and any temperature we like. This will
make clothing and footwear unnecessary. We shall be
amply supplied with vegetable foods. There will be no
fear of catching infection as the atmosphere will be free
from harmful bacteria, or, should the need arise, any
compartment can be isolated and disinfected by simply
raising the temperature to 100°C or more. Even at a double
distance from the Sun it will be possible to raise the
338
temperature considerably, but we shall deal with this later.
Is there any comparison between this and our unfortunate
Earth!
There is one very important circumstance, a priceless
gift of ethereal space, the absence of gravity. Mass is there
all right, but gravity seems to have disappeared.
Our dwelling moves in space at a speed of several dozen
kilometres a second, or several million versts a day, de-
pending on the distance from the Sun (the nearer we are
to it, the greater the velocity, and vice versa). But we are
totally unconscious of this motion, just as we do not notice
the movement of the Earth. We feel as though we were
perfectly stationary.
We experience the gravitational pull from the Sun, the
planets, the stars and other heavenly bodies. But we do
not feel it, as we do not feel the Sun’s attraction on the
Earth where we are conscious only of the Earth’s gravity.
In our dwelling we are far from the Earth; instead of the
Earth there is the tiny mass of the tube, so small in fact
that it has no perceptible force of attraction for us.
The attraction of the Sun and other heavenly bodies
makes us fall towards them, and therefore, describe a
curved line like that described by the Earth. But our
dwelling and we ourselves are falling in the same way,
so we do not notice it, just as on the Earth we do not
notice that we are falling towards the Sun.
Gravity seems to be absent as motion is evidently ab-
sent. If we have not produced them ourselves, then there
is neither gravity nor motion. What are the consequences?
The bodies do not exert pressure on one another and do
not fall. A building, even if it is several kilometres high,
cannot fall to pieces or fall down. So in construction one
has not to overcome gravity. Parts of a building will exert
perceptible pressure on one another (owing to reciprocal
attraction) only if it is on the planet scale of several hun-
dreds of kilometres high. Where there is insufficient resist-
ance of the material, the parts press close together and
22° 339
become destroyed. But evén a destroyed building cannot
fall anywhere, just as the Moon does not fall on the Earth
and the two together do not fall on the Sun. Bodies can
remain suspended without any support and without touch-
ing one another. Their direction relative to rest is quite
arbitrary. For instance, we in our dwelling can hang in
mid-air (without a rope or other support), our heads turned
towards the Sun, or away from it, or in any direction we
choose.
There are no weights, there are only masses. We can
hold any mass in our hands and feel no weight. No matter
where we put the mass—on our head, on our back or
under our feet—we do not feel it.
It is clear then that we can dispense not only with
clothing and footwear but also with furniture. What need
have we of chairs, armchairs, beds, mattresses, pillows
and so on, if there is no need to lean against anything, if
nothing presses against anyone, if every place is “soft”
in a way that the finest of feather beds cannot be soft.
Why pack tender fruits, glassware and other fragile
objects in straw, sawdust, cotton-wool or rags, if there
is no reciprocal pressure? Is not all this the great advan-
tage of life in space!
There is no above or below. Until one gets accustomed
to this, what is over one’s head is above and what is under-
foot is below. So above and below are interchangeable
at will. Fancy finding yourself without a support and a
yawning chasm under your feet! Gradually, however, the
illusion of above and the fear disappears. But in the early
days a dwelling with walls and a floor and even physical
contact with them are essential to soothe the nerves.
Now let us consider motion. We shall not discuss ab-
solute motion, which actually is non-existent, but of mo-
tion in relation to the Earth, the Sun or some other body;
nothing is known of absolute motion. We shall also leave
aside our planetary movement (our dwelling is racing
through space like a planet), i.e., its movement in relation
840
to the Sun. We do not notice it so for the time being we
shall not talk about it. We have in mind only the move-
ment we ourselves produce by means of our muscles,
machinery, or in some other way.
We shall consider that the aggregate dwelling of great
length and breadth, huge in volume, is stationary, just as
in speaking of man’s movements on the Earth we presume
the Earth to be in a state of rest.
Let us imagine that we are in a spacious hall, experi-
menting with movement. In the centre of the room there
is a big stone, a table, a chest of drawers or some other
object the parts of which are not in a state of interaction
or motion, as with a working machine or an animal; that
is, we have in mind a single solid inorganic body.
It will cost us much effort to place the object (a table)
so that it is immobile. Once this is done, what next? It will
remain stationary for ever, which is to say, it will not
rotate or change its place in relation to the walls of the
dwelling. It will remain for all eternity in the position in
which we have placed it.
The same could be done with a human being—he can
be fixed in one place and asked not to move his limbs. In
such a case, he will not move closer to or farther from
the walls.
Then we give him freedom of action and ask him to
move his arms and legs, come towards us—and what do
we find! He will writhe about, move his arms and legs
but still remain on the spot (if he is in empty space). He
waves his legs and arms about freely, squirms like a
squashed worm, moves his head to right and left, tries to
sit down, to stand up, stretches his limbs in every direc-
tion, but his centre of gravity seems nailed to the spot.
He remains where he was and has not advanced by as
much as a centimetre.
We ask our friend to spin around as children like to
do; with the best will in the world he is unable to per-
form this act. When tired out he is quiet again, his face is
34l
turned in the same direction as it was when first we put
him in position. The position of his body has not changed
either.
If this is the state of affairs, how is one to move
about, to change one’s position and move in different
directions? Nothing could be easier. It is possible to move
about in every direction, both in a gaseous medium and in
a void. In a geseous medium the palms of the hands are
used like wings; we would soon learn to push the air with
them and turn around or move in any desired direction.
But hands are poor wings, because their surface is too
small. With the help of light plates, about a metre square,
it is possible to turn round and move at a great speed.
The wings can be even smaller—there will be no gravity
to overcome, for inertia and friction will be the only
factors to contend with. This will require the minimum
effort for ordinary speed, that of a pedestrian.
There are other methods that can be used both in an
atmosphere and in a void, but which are indispensable in
a void, for there no other means are available that can be
of any use. In the air medium of our dwelling the wings
will be quite sufficient. But we shall continue our experi-
ments in the big hall, ignoring the resistance of the
medium which is not great at ordinary primitive speeds of
man.
We have seen that man could not set himself in mo-
tion, i.e., impart to himself either translational or
rotatory motion, or even to turn his body in a different
direction. All he achieved was a haphazard movement of
the limbs. In the long run he found himself in his original
position.
But let us imagine he is wearing clothes. He takes off
his hat or coat (he can do this) and throws them aside;
the objects fly away, but he also slowly moves off in the
opposite direction until he hits against a wall. But for
this obstacle he would have moved on eternally, smoothly
and in a straight line. 7
342
The greater the mass of the thrown object and the
greater the force with which it is thrown, the faster the
man moves from place to place. If two men of an equal
mass were to repulse each other with equal force, they
would move apart in opposite directions with equal speed.
If one man were repulsed from two men or from double
his own mass he would move at twice the speed of the
other two.
The difficult thing here is to avoid rotating: the move-
ment of the masses repulsed from one another is accom-
panied by rotation. Their movement, in general, is like
the movement of a cart wheel, a spinning-top or a planet.
Theoretically, however, repulsion without rotation, that
is, pure translational movement, is also possible.
Let us consider rotation as such. We shall again turn
to our dressed man. Ask him to take off his hat or boots
and spin them like a top. The hat or the boot spins round
but the man, too, begins slowly spinning. He spins round
like the hat, only in the opposite direction. The greater
the mass of the object he has spun and the greater the
speed with which it spins, the faster the man rotates. If
two men of similar shape and mass were to set one
another spinning their angular rotatory velocity would be
the same. But if one were spinning round his vertical axis
and the other round his horizontal axis, the latter would
spin more slowly, as the moment round the horizontal
axis is greater.
In air, of course, rotation will stop sooner or later
owing to friction. But in a void it would be eternal and
uniform, like the movement of the planets. And the two
men would go on spinning in space like two dolls, and
all their will-power would be unable to destroy this mo-
tion or the translational movement. But if they come into
contact with each other again then the rotatory move-
ment of both will stop, they will cease to spin.
Let us imagine a group of people without a support,
perfectly motionless and not rotating. Their common centre
843
of gravity is stable. ‘he moment of circular movement is
zero for all time. But each one of them can make grimaces
and strike different attitudes. The movement of their
muscles is as free as on the Earth. By pushing away from
one another, any of them can obtain all forms of rotatory
or translational movement. If one of the group is given
rotatory and translational movement and he cannot catch
hold of the group (or is not roped to it) then he will never
lose either form of movement. He will become a spinning-
top for all time, and will be separated from his friends
for ever. He will move eternally, uniformly and in a
straight line. He will cover thousands, hundreds of thou-
sands of kilometres and will never stop. The members of
the group may wander in space at will but their centre of
gravity will remain in one spot.
In order to stop the movement translational or circular
motion (in reverse direction) has to be imparted to some
other body within reach; if this opposite movement is
insufficiently strong, the movement of the main body will
merely slow down; if it is sufficient, the main body will
stop; and if excessive, its direction will change.
So it is clear now, how movement in air is started and
stopped. Inside the dwelling it is possible to push off from
the walls, from different objects and from the air with
the help of small wings which, of course, have no weight.
In a void the task is more difficult and dangerous. Here
some kind of support, not necessarily connected with the
dwelling, is essential. A rocket, compressed gas or vapour,
or any solid or liquid body can be used.
It is possible to dispense with a movable support and
the throwing of objects (which leave us never to return), if
attached to the dwelling by a rope or a cable. We can then
push ourselves from it in the desired direction and fly
away until the rope pulls us up short. Then, in order to re-
turn, we pull ourselves back by the rope to the dwelling.
Thus, movement in ethereal space, in a medium without
gravity, can be of three main kinds, Uniform and- even
344
without rotation, circular with a stationary centre of grav-
ity and axis of rotation, and the mixed kind, i.e., a com-
bination of the rotatory motion and perpetual transla-
tional movement along a straight line.
There is circular movement of a more complex type,
with the addition of vacillation of the axis of rotation.
This type, however, is unstable, that is, not eternal, and
tends to be gradually transformed into simple rotation
round a free axis.
We have left out of consideration the complex bodies
whose parts are movable, and also living bodies. Both
can eject visible and invisible particles. And so, the laws
of motion already indicated would seem to become
violated. For every animal regularly excretes various
substances, such as vapours and gases, and can there-
fore be likened to a jet device. In our dwelling, a man
who is at first quite motionless will acquire a little rota-
tory and translational movement, due to the effect of
ejected gases and vapours, of the irregular blood circula-
tion, the heartbeat and the movement of other organs. But
this will only be so after a considerable period of time.
Where there is no ejection, then all bodies, no matter
how complex, whether animate and inanimate, are subject
to the following three rules:
A. If the centre of gravity of a complex body is in a
state of rest, this state of rest cannot be disturbed by
the body’s internal forces.
B. If the centre of gravity is in motion, the body’s
internal forces cannot change either the magnitude or the
direction of the motion, i.e., the motion will be perpetual,
uniform and along a Straight line.
C. There is a third, extremely important law pertaining
to the rotation of a complex body, the relative positions
and motion of whose parts constantly change: the rotatory
moment of inertia of such a body continues invariable for
all time (concerning moments of every kind, refer to a
textbook on mechanics). .
345
This law is applicable to contracting suns, nebulae
planets and solar systems. Its application is truly universal.
For instance, if a group of people hold hands and move
round in a circle and draw closer together as they
move, the velocity of their motion will increase as they
come closer together and the group becomes more
compact, and vice versa. Given this condition, both
angular and absolute velocities will increase.
But what are the sensations of a man rotating in a circle
or moving without rotation? Let us go back and observe
him or ourselves inside the dwelling. Being unaccustomed,
we are not conscious of translational movement and it
seems to us that not we but the walls around us are in
motion. Neither are we conscious of our own rotatory
motion—again it seems that the room is rotating. To us
it appears as though somebody is revolving it. We Earth
dwellers go round with the Earth, move forward with it
and have many other motions in common with the planet.
And we feel that these are not our own motions but the
movement of the heavenly bodies surrounding us. What
we are conscious of are the movements which we our-
selves produce. Most of the Earth’s motions do not exist
as far as our senses are concerned.
But in the ether we produce our own, even the slightest,
movements. Why then do they seem to lie outside us?
The reason is the smoothness of this kind of motion, the
fact that it is imperceptible because there are no jolts,
vibrations or other effects accompanying the terrestrial
non-ideal rotation and motion.
Nevertheless, in time these illusions should disappear
at any rate in the dwelling. On a boat it seems to us, at
first, that the river banks are moving; gradually, however,
we become conscious of the motion of the boat, no matter
how slow and smooth. It will probably be like this in the
ether.
So far we have been talking about rest and motion in-
side the dwelling. What about our sensations outside in
346
the immense Universe, under the bright and scorching
rays of the Sun?
We can see quite a lot through the windows of our
dwelling. The sky is black. The patterns of the constellations
are just as we see them from the Earth, only there is less of
the red tint in the stars and a greater variety of colour.
They do not twinkle or shimmer, and if the eyesight is
good, they look like lifeless dots without any rays. The
Sun is somewhat bluish, the Earth is like a star—like
Venus—and the Moon is hardly discernible. The pattern
of the constellations does not depend on our position
in the Universe but is always the same seen from Jupiter
or Mercury; but the Sun preserves its visible size only
along the orbit of the Earth.
As there is no atmosphere the stars, nebulae, comets,
planets and their satellites are seen extremely clearly.
Bodies visible from the Earth only through a telescope
can be seen here with the naked eye. But things that can
never be seen from the Earth with a telescope become
visible.
We can leave our dwelling in space-suits with an
oxygen supply and an apparatus to absorb human excre-
tions.
We have chosen the shady side. The Sun is not visible.
The picture before us seems very strange. We feel we are
the centre of a small black sphere spangled with varicol-
oured dots, stars and nebulous spots. Across the entire
sphere there stretches the broad hazy band of the Milky
Way branching off in some places. Whenever we try to
avoid the Sun we find ourselves in the midst of night. If.
we move away from the dwelling but do not leave its
shadow, we can see almost the whole of the celestial
sphere at once.
We would be killed by the Sun’s ultra-violet rays, but
the glass of our space-suits and the dwelling protect us
from them. On the Earth we are protected by our atmos-
phere. :
347
Out of the shade we can see the Sun. It seems to have
grown smaller compared with what we see on Earth; it
has dwindled just as the celestial sphere has, but this is
a subjective impression for, actually, it is as large as
ever.
It is hard to imagine the feelings of a human being in
the midst of the Universe, in the centre of this woebegone
black sphere adorned with bright coloured spots and
smeared over with a silvery mist. He has nothing under-
foot, nothing overhead. Perhaps he imagines that any
minute he will fall to the bottom of this sphere, to where
his feet are.
After pushing off from the dwelling he will move along
a straight line and to all intents and purposes should find
himself leaving the dwelling never to return. But this is
not quite so. The Sun’s gravitation will make him revolve
round it regardless of the direction in which he moves.
So the line will be not straight, but curved. One degree
of the circumference (at the distance from the Earth) is
equal to more than two and a half million kilometres, and
the man’s path may be regarded as straight for hundreds
of thousands of kilometres. If the man covers a metre a
second (walking pace) his path for several years will be
as straight as an arrow. It will take him 30,000 years to
complete the orbit but he will pass so far from his dwell-
ing that he will not notice it.
But if by that time humanity has spread all over the
vast celestial sphere and has constructed dwellings and
other buildings in outer space, the individual who has
left his own dwelling will not be helpless for he will meet
people and their buildings all along his path; he will re-
ceive information and directions and find his way back to
wherever he wants to return.
How enormous is this field of the Solar System, this
sphere which mankind can occupy! At a distance from the
Sun exceeding twice that of the Earth its surface is
8,800,000,000 (almost 9,000,000,000) times greater than
348
the surface of the largest section of the Earth (its projec-
tion) or 2,200,000,000 times more than the entire surface
of the Earth. This sphere receives equally as many times
more solar energy compared with the Earth.
The Earth does not receive all of the solar energy sent
to it, because more than a half is reflected by the clouds,
part is absorbed by the atmosphere, another part falls on
oceans, deserts, mountains and snow-fields where it is of
little use, and slightly more than 10 per cent reaches the
Earth’s surface. Thus the value of the sphere, of its
eternal day, of the virginal rays of the Sun, is ten times
greater and is expressed in the additional amount of solar
energy of 22,000 millions compared with that of the Earth.
Even this figure cannot define the spaciousness of this
sparkling sphere: it is many hundreds of millions of times
greater than the Earth. The most important thing, how-
ever, is not its size but the amount of available solar
energy.
Motion and its laws outside the dwellings and inside
them are the same, but the sensations of human beings are
quite wonderful.
One is not conscious of translational movement which
is ascribed to the surrounding, artificial, man-made bodies.
It has absolutely no influence on the position of the stars
and planets. So if no people with their buildings are vis-
ible, everything seems to be stationary.
But strictly parallel translational movement is difficult
to obtain. It would be imperceptible, if it were not ac-
companied by rotatory motion. If the latter is slight the
human being does not ascribe it to himself, but believes
the black celestial firmament is rotating—the axis on which
our body revolves becomes the axis of the Universe. Thus,
if we revolve round our vertical axis we shall have one
pole overhead (with a “polar” star) and the other under-
foot. All the other stars will describe circles simultaneous-
ly with the man, so that if the man completes his circle
in ten minutes the astral sphere will complete its circle
349
in the same time. Rapid rotation may cause dizziness,
illness and even death. It will therefore manifest itself to
man by its consequences.
Then the illusion of above and below will be difficult to
discard. We shall continue to regard what is over our heads
as being above, although the head may be constantly de-
scending and ascending if the body is rotating round its
horizontal axis. It will appear to us that the stars are
falling and rising all the time. We do not believe in the
descent of the head; it is, as it were, immobile and what is
over the head is above.
The void and absence of support under the feet also
frightens us. There is the constant fear of falling down
into the void; it is a perpetual surprise to have no floor
or ground underfoot.
We are not concerned here with the beginnings of life
in the cosmos. It starts on the Earth. The first dwellings,
tools, machines, plant nurseries, workmen, etc., all come
from our Earth. We can only here describe the gradual tran-
sition of the emigrants from our planet to a life in outer
space independent of the Earth; the development of their
industry and the population of the celestial sphere. At
first the colonial population consumes the supplies that are
brought from the Earth and only step by step do they be-
come independent, prosperous and spread all over the
sphere.
We are supposing that the initial stage is over. We
now have to describe what life is like there. What prepa-
rations were made for it on the Earth and how everything
was brought to the ether do not concern us.
Perhaps the absence of gravity will prove injurious to
human health? Gravity makes the blood flow to the legs
and feet, while if there is no gravity the blood will flow
to the brain. So a human being with weak blood-vessel
walls (inclined to apoplexy) risks dying if he is immersed in
water, or assumes the recumbent position or, especially, if
he stands on his head.
350
In water or when lying down the blood pressure becomes
almost uniform just as it does in the absence of gravity.
So the absence of gravity is as harmful, or as beneficial, as
lying down. The sick and the weak will benefit from it, it
is even essential for them. A medium where there is no grav-
ity is little short of paradise for the sick, the doctors and
people who have no legs: indeed, there are no bedsores,
one has access to all parts of the body and all movements
are effortless. A healthy person soon finds lying down in-
tolerable, but this is chiefly due to the physical inactivity
of lying down. If he could exercise his muscles while lying
in bed, the tediousness would disappear. Jt is boring to
lie on one’s back: there are no new impressions. But in a
medium without gravity the work of the muscles depends
entirely on us.
Gravity enables us to swallow our food and to excrete.
But these functions of the organism can be performed
in the horizontal position as well. So gravity is not abso-
lutely necessary after all. Acrobats can drink and eat even
Standing on their heads—and there is no deception
about it.
The upright position we maintain on the Earth is re-
sponsible for certain diseases, so too much of it is even
harmful.
In the ether dwellings, baskets, shelves, stands, racks,
etc., to hold plates and dishes, various household objects
and other things will be unnecessary. But in the absence
of gravity the slightest effort, even the inevitable move-
ment of the air, will be sufficient to start them all wan-
dering about the rooms like animated things, or like specks
of dust in the air. And this is intolerable and dangerous:
while breathing a man may get a pea, a nail or a pin in
the throat which may prove fatal. But all kinds of small
objects can be kept in light packets, boxes and sacks. For
bigger objects there will be nets to hold them. The least
force will suffice to hold them in place. Objects may be
also kept tied on short strings.
35!
And what about the soil for the plants? With the slightest
jolt, friction, movement, air current, especially if it is dry,
it will be dislodged and carried away into the air in the
shape of floating specks of clay, grains of sand, lime, etc.
This, also, cannot be tolerated. On the Earth strong winds
carry away not only dust, which is always present, but
largish grains of sand and even small stones, leaves, insects,
and so on. But where there is no gravity, this will occur
more frequently and will be much more serious. Of course,
before it can be breathed in, air must be sieved through
nettings, fabrics and various liquids.
All that, however, will not be enough: artificial grav-
ity will have to be created by some means or other. There
is no need for it to be as great as on the Earth and so bur-
den people with the effort of combating it. Gravity equal
to one-hundredth or one-thousandth of what we have on
the Earth will be quite enough. Let us deal with the smaller
figure. What makes it insufficient? The effect of it will
be to make all large objects fall to the artificially created
region below, i.e., to the floor, for with gravity there will
appear a floor, a ceiling and slopes. The falling-down will
proceed slowly: in a second a body will fall half a centi-
metre, in 10 seconds—half a metre and in a minute—18
metres. We see that a minute will be enough to clear the
largest room of its wandering bodies, both large and
small.
A weak gravity will be especially important for buildings
where plants will be grown, in order to keep the soil in
place. Dust, sand and even larger bodies roaming about
present no danger to plants, but they are nevertheless
harmful as they obscure the sunlight. Besides, how can
plants live if the soil is dispersed into the air?
In the ethereal medium it is very simple indeed to ob-
tain constant artificial gravity. However if the gravity is
considerable, the dwellings and premises for plants should
be made a little more durable, a little bulkier than in its
absence.
352
Gravity appears due to the rotation of a body; in emp-
ty space a body rotates forever. So gravity will be con-
stant and uniform and will require no effort. The higher
the velocity of the particles describing a circle and the
smaller the radius, the greater the centrifugal gravity, and
vice versa.
Now imagine a long conical surface, a kind of funnel
with the base or wide orifice, closed by a transparent
spherical surface. It is turned towards the Sun and the
funnel rotates round its longitudinal axis while a layer of
moist soil is distributed on the cone’s non-transparent
inner walls, where plants are grown.
This is how solar energy can be utilised without ex-
treme rise of temperature even at a distance as long as
from the Earth to the Sun. The longer the cone and the larger
its area (with permanent transparent base), the lower the
temperature within the cone. At the Earth’s distance, this
area should be about four times that of the glazed surface.
To get this, the generatrix (a little larger than the longi-
tudinal axis) should be twice the diameter of the base.
Closer to the Sun the cone should be longer, and farther
from it, shorter. Even in close proximity to the Sun the
temperature of the gases in the cone can be made to suit
the plants. For instance, at a distance one-tenth of that
between the Earth and the Sun the cone should be 100
times longer—its base diameter being 1/200th of the height.
The trouble with cones is that passages between them
are more difficult to construct than between the cylindri-
cal human dwellings we have already described.
It would be advisable to construct buildings for plants
separately from human dwellings, because they do not need
a dense atmosphere and strong walls. This means a saving
in building materials while a special, somewhat rarefied,
atmosphere makes for excellent yields. Should some of the
plants chance to die because of gas escapes, this would
‘not be very important. True, there is the difficulty about
getting human excretions to the hothouses, and the prod-
23—761 853
ucts of plant life (gases, fruit, etc.) to the human dwell-
ings.
In the cones sun-rays fall on the plants obliquely, so
their effect is weakened. Inside the cones there is eternal
day and also eternal spring with a fixed temperature best
suited to the plant growth. The rotation of the cone which
gives rise to gravity keeps the moist soil and vegetable
residue in place. Ripe fruit will fall down to the soil and
not float about in space inside the cone.
In human dwellings and in other buildings some sort
of gravity could also be of use. A gravity equal to one-
hundredth of the Earth’s will in no way hamper movement
and different working processes. Let us suppose we have a
spherical building two kilometres in diameter. The sphere
rotates slowly with the velocity at the equator of about
16 m a Second. The sphere completes its revolution in 600
seconds, or 10 minutes. The greatest gravity at the equator
amounts to one-hundredth of that of the Earth. A leap from
the inner circumference to the centre lifts a man 100 m,
SO gravity is imperceptible and movements are not ham-
pered.
The phenomena of motion in such a sphere are compli-
cated and we shall not describe them here.
The types of human dwellings and buildings for plants
can be infinitely varied and for the time being we shall
leave this aside, too.
We shall explain what is very important: the way in
which a definite temperature, moisture and air composition,
and good food for the plants and human beins are ob-
tained in the combined dwelling.
The slow rotation gives rise to gravity, gets rid of rub-
bish and ensures order in the dwelling. The glass in the
windows is thin (quartz or some other material), highly
transparent, letting through, as far as possible, every kind
of rays. The rays are tempered down by the glass and the
thickly growing plants so they cannot harm humans. The
plants chosen are fruit-bearing, with plenty of foliage,
au
dwarfish, without thick stems or any parts which do not
need suadight. The more they make use of the sunlight, the
more they produce fruits, turning to the best account solar
energy and heat. The heat is returned, since the human be-
ings eat the fruit and release into their dwellings the heat
assimilated by the plants. When fruit is stored the heat
is for a time withheld from circulation.
There should be as many plants as will produce (through
their leaves, roots and fruit) the quantity of oxygen con-
sumed by the people living in the dwellings. If consump-
tion exceeds production the people suffer from lack of
oxygen while the plants grow better thanks to the surplus
carbon dioxide; if more oxygen is produced than the people
need their breathing becomes easier but the plants do not
receive enough carbon dioxide and grow weaker. With a
happy choice of plants the equilibrium is maintained auto-
matically. Another important factor is the number of peo-
ple in the dwelling: this must be in conformity with the
number and properties of the plants.
What about the water which both plants and human
beings greatly need? The quantity of water will remain con-
stant, neither increasing nor decreasing. But how will this
be brought about? Plants, animals and soil transpire water
all the time inside the closed building and the vapours
cannot escape from it, so they will be condensed in a re-
frigerator and accumulated as water. There will be rooms
on the shady side of the dwelling with various low temper-
atures. Any room can be turned away from the Sun and
isolated from the internal heating arrangements (just like
household cold-storage cellars), and the low temperature
desired is easily obtained. More or less moist air is passed
to these rooms and leaves as much vapour there as is re-
quired, this depends on the speed of circulation and on the
temperature. Both can be controlled.
THe water from the refrigerator is used for drinking,
bathing, watering the plants and moistening the soil. Air,
too, constantly circulates with the water between the plants
23" 356
and the refrigerator, and back. It is passed into the soil
by special tubes and, having passed through the roots and
bacteria, is released into the atmosphere purified and fit
to be inhaled.
Human excretions are diluted with water and also go to
the soil where bacteria quickly make them suitable for
plant consumption.
In these dwellings no regular supplies of water and food
for plants and animals will be needed. The established quan-
tity of gases, water, soil and fertilisers will serve all pur-
poses and never become exhausted.
The same thing takes place on the Earth, only on a
larger scale. But there, the fertilisers are carried into the
oceans and it takes time for them to be brought back. In
the space dwellings, however, no sooner are they used up
or stored in the fruit than the people and animals return
them and there is no loss at all. The time will come when
on the Earth, too, it will be found to be advantageous to
isolate plants with their supply of food and water. It will
be done first of all in the deserts where there is a dearth
of food and water. j
So within the space dwelling the atmosphere is pure,
the air is as moist as desired, even the composition of the
atmosphere can be controlled. There is an inexhaustible
supply of distilled water, oxygen, warmth and food. There
will be no need for clothing.
There is no gravity, feet do not swell, branches are
not bowed down by the weight of the fruit. In the plant
sap circulates freely, since there is no gravity to overcome.
Although a little gravity has been created artificially it
is so insignificant we can ignore it; the human beings liv-
ing there may be considered as inhabiting gravity-free
space.
The temperature in the dwelling can be regulated at
will—so where is the need for clothing? <<... > Of course
one is at liberty to cover oneself: some people’s bodies
are unsightly, deformed or old and ugly. If the community
356
does not object, anyone may wear any kind of clothing or
ornaments.
But a suitable temperature can be given at a moment’s
notice to a chilly aged person, to invalids or premature-
born babies. The wishes and nature of the inhabitants have,
of course, to be considered: some people from the tropics,
the old and infirm, the invalids may want a temperature of
30°C; others—25°C and some even 20°C. Any temperature
can be obtained in any building and different temperatures
can be established in one and the same dwelling. When
the people go to bed, they want higher temperatures, for
there are no mattresses, pillows, blankets or pyjamas. When
many people are assembled in one room with the tempera-
ture being 30°C, for some it will be too hot, even without
clothing, for others about right; but if the temperature is
fixed at 25°C the feebler people will be cold. In this case,
those who are cold will have to wear some clothing.
Temperature control and direct sunlight will be used for
a great variety of purposes: for instance, disinfecting the
soil, the atmosphere, the walls and other household ar-
ticles. For this, the plants and people will be evacuated
and the temperature raised to 100-200°C. All living organ-
isms will, naturally, be destroyed; that is why agriculture
there becomes easy, for there will be no pests and only
pure crops from the desired plants will be grown.
Plant selection, suitable temperature, atmosphere and
nutrition will lead to marvellous harvests of excellent fruits.
This will require no effort as there will be no weeds, pests,
droughts or excessive rainfall.
Such chemical processes as fermentation involved in the
production of alcohol, vinegar and other substances require
a definite temperature. This is easily provided. The fac-
tories can produce any temperature not exceeding 200°C,
in buildings not unlike the dwellings. To get a temperature
above 200°C, special apparatuses are used, where heating
is also produced by the Sun alone.
Water and various fruits, completely free of every kind
ESYA
of infection satisfy hunger and slake the thirst. There are
no chills, no infectious diseases. Bathed in sunlight, the
human body is gradually freed from noxious bacteria. As
time goes on, humanity will become liberated more and
more from all the harmful influences with which mankind
is born at present.
Once man has a dwelling with the desired temperature,
a virginal sun, day and night whenever he chooses, plenty
of water (a store that remains constant) and food, no need
of clothing, and can move in any direction without an ef-
fort, what more can he want?
First, the human being reproduces his kind, became
this is an advantage (with a larger population the social
system is more perfect, there are more geniuses who can
become leaders). But this means that more dwellings will
be needed and material from which to build them. Secondly,
man is constantly studying matter and the Universe, so he
must have the same appafatuses and instruments that are
in use on the Earth. Man perfects plants and himself, and
for this he will always be requiring new apparatuses. But
to manufacture them a great number of factories and work-
shops, pursuing the same aims as on the Earth, will be nec-
essary. Household articles will be different, but that is
inevitable, and books, too!
In the beginning the materials will come from the Earth.
But transporting them from the Earth involves a tremen-
dous effort; it is much simpler to bring them from the
Moon or some smaller planets. It would be still easier to
utilise asteroids with diameters of a few kilometres, and
even smaller heavenly bodies of which there are countless
numbers in interplanetary space, particularly between the
orbits of Mars and Jupiter.
Minor planets have no atmospheres or liquids, but they
have any amount of hydrate and constitutional water,
gases, metalloids and metals of all and every type. The
only thing to be done is to decompose the minerals that
are in a dry state.
358
For this mechanical forces will be required; where are
these to come from? The amount of mechanical force in
the ether is 2,000 million times more than on the Earth.
It comes from solar radiation and can be utilised either
through the agency of plants or directly. The Sun will help
man to obtain wood, charcoal, starch, sugar and an immense
variety of other substances derived from plants on the
Earth, all of which are sources of power, like coal, water-
falls and wind on our planet. Methods of employing the
energy from these sources in the dwellings where there is
oxygen will be similar to those used on the Earth. But it is
inconvenient for the air will soon be polluted.
So perhaps it will be better directly to use solar heat
instead of the heat of burning. We cannot do it con-
veniently on the Earth for various reasons: the bodies
heated by the Sun are cooled by the air and wind; the Sun
shines only in the daytime and even then is often hidden
by the clouds; half of the heat coming from the Sun is ab-
sorbed by the atmosphere; the intensity of the rays changes
with the changing angle at which they fall; there is no
natural refrigerator with a sufficiently low temperature;
the mirrors collecting heat quickly lose their lustre under
the effect of air and moisture, then they are heavy, fragile,
expensive and not big enough, All this makes the use of
solar thermal units impracticable in the conditions obtain-
ing on the Earth.
The situation is quite different in ethereal space free
from gravity. No mirrors are needed in order to get 200°C
above zero in one spot and 270°C below, in another, only
a metre distant. This makes it possible to use highly ef-
ficient steam engines working on the steams from water,
ether, alcohol and other liquids.
Obviously the engines are mentioned here by way of
example and actually they may be of an entirely different
type. Here is the description of an elementary steam en-
gine. We have two vessels of the same size and shape, ther-
mally isolated from one another. One vessel is turned to-
939
wards the Sun and the other is placed behind it, in the
shade. The front of the first vessel is black, that is, it
absorbs the sun-rays well. The dark surface and the liquid
in the vessel become heated by the Sun; the temperature
does not exceed 200°C. Before passing to the rear vessel—
the refrigerator—the vapours of the liquids pass through
an ordinary steam engine or turbine. With the proper choice
of liquid and type of engine, the efficiency can easily reach
50 per cent. Such a machine will yield over one hp per
metre of dark surface facing the Sun.
When almost all of the liquid has passed from the first
vessel (boiler) into the second (the refrigerator), the lat-
ter is turned towards the Sun and the former placed in the
shade. The roles of the two identical main parts of the
installation change automatically approximately every hour,
depending on the capacity of the vessels. These, of course,
are made up of tubes like a woven fabric; there will be
no loss of the liquid because the whole system will be se-
curely sealed against escape of steam.
We cannot tell as yet, what types of motor will be in
use; there will probably arise many types and systems
which cannot be foreseen at present.
The vessels may be of any size as there will be no grav-
ity to limit it. So they can generate any amount of power.
This is what industry will be like.
A. The elementary components such as gases, liquids,
metalloids and metals, will be extracted from minerals.
B. The elements are used to produce the essential, or
useful, compounds—gases, perfumes, dyes, drugs, food-
stuffs, acids, alkalis, salts, fertilisers, alloys and the like
(sometimes both the elements and the necessary compounds
are found in nature).
C. The alloys, various building materials and solid sub-
stances in general are processed and made into tools,
lathes, machines, utensils, scientific instruments, paper,
fabrics, clothing, space-suits, dwellings, factories and
SO on.
$60
To effect the above (A, B, C), we on the Earth use the
method of raising or lowering temperatures and pressure,
electricity, catalysers (substances used in minute doses to
accelerate chemical processes), and mechanical forces.
The required tools are already in use on the Earth and
will be delivered into space.
At first man, like animals, had no tools, then very simple
ones were made; with their help man made better ones,
and so on and on, until he learned to make the modern
machines that fill us with profound amazement and admira-
tion. Progress in this sphere will never come to an end,
and in the ether tool-making will develop along perfectly
new lines, in keeping with the new conditions.
We know how high temperatures are obtained on the
Earth, but in the ether these methods will be needed only
in exceptional cases. Here a rise in temperature from 273°C
below zero to the temperature of the Sun can at any mo-
ment be achieved by exposure to the Sun, a simple and eco-
nomical procedure.
For obtaining low temperatures glittering screens will be
used as protection from the Sun’s rays, and dark surface
will irradiate heat into space. In this way temperatures
down to 273°C below zero may be obtained.
This is what the most economical method of heating will
be like: a chamber of the desired size and shape is com-
pletely enclosed within several walls that reflect sun-rays
well. In this way heat is preserved within the chamber due
to internal reflection, and the temperature remains at almost
the same level, no matter how high it may have been orig-
inally. It is all like a vacuum flask, but more perfected
thanks to the several walls and the absence of a material
environment such as air.
The heat of the Sun enters the chamber through a small
opening; a parabolic mirror behind the chamber (larger than
the chamber itself) focuses the sun-rays in a small beam
the size of the opening. Once inside, the rays radiate and
heat the space inside the chamber to the temperature of
a6!
the Sun, no matter how small the mirror. But this is in
ideal conditions with the full preservation of the heat, the
opening no larger than a dot, and perfect mirrors. In prac-
tice none of these conditions can be ensured, and so the
temperature will approach that of the Sun only if the mirror
is many times larger than the chamber. Then its walls inev-
itably become heated a little and this impairs their reflect-
ing power, and prevents the chamber being heated to the
temperature of the Sun (5000° to 10000°C).
The Sun is reflected in the focus of the parabolic mir-
ror; the smaller the mirror, the smaller the opening in
the chamber, the higher the temperature within. On the
other hand, the influx of heat is proportionate to the sur-
face of the mirror. Assume the radius of the mirror as one
metre. The reflection of the Sun will be in the focal point,
half a metre away from the mirror. The angle of the solar
reflection half a metre away will be about half a degree
(this is the angle of the Sun from the Earth); the true size
of the Sun’s reflection (in mm) will be equal to the sine
of half a degree multiplied by 500 mm, that is, about
4.3 mm. If the radius of curvature of the spherical mirror
is P metres, the reflection of the Sun will be P times larger.
So for a mirror of 100-m radius the diameter of the reflec-
tion will be 430 mm. Thus, the larger the radius of the
mirror, the greater the reflection, the larger the opening
in the chamber and the greater both the incoming and
outgoing heat. We suppose all the mirrors to be similar,
i.e., being equal to one and the same part of the complete
spherical surface. Given this, it would seem that the tem-
perature in the chamber should not depend on the size
of the mirror. Actually, however, this is not quite the case:
a larger mirror will give a higher temperature in the cham-
ber, because the heat goes not only through the opening
into the chamber but spreads all over its surface. There
is another advantage of large mirrors: the speed at which
the objects in the chamber become heated increases with
the increase in the size of the mirror. In addition they pro-
562
duce more heat per time unit and if the heat is consumed
by chemical processes inside the chamber, the processes
take place more rapidly.
To simplify matters, assume that the mirror is round
like a saucer. The mirror is part of a spherical surface.
We join the centre of the imagined sphere to the edges of
the mirror by a radius. The angle obtained cannot be more
than 180° (a hemisphere). But this angle is almost useless
as it focuses only a little more rays than does a mirror
with an angle of 90°, or even 60°. So we shall take an
angle of 60° for mirrors of all sizes. The width of such
mirrors will be equal to the radius. Thus if the radius of
a mirror is 100 m, its width will also be 100 m, and the
size of the reflection, 430 mm (always 233 times less than
the width of the mirror). If the chamber is a complete
sphere the width of the mirror in practice should not be
less than twice the diameter of the chamber. With a cham-
ber of 1 m the mirror should be minimum 2 m. A quarter
of its surface will be in the shadow thrown by the chamber,
so it can be built in the shape of a ring. The lost quarter of
the solar energy can be utilised by means of a biconvex lens
or by a number of special mirrors. These should be placed
in front of the chamber, nearer the Sun.
The mirrors may be immense for, even if they have a
thin surface and are small in mass, they will not break or
bend under their own weight because there is no gravity.
To give them the required shape, a slow rotation can be
imparted to them together with the chamber with which
they constitute a single unit.
These units plus pressure and catalyserg are employed
for any chemical processes requiring a fixed temperature.
The temperature can easily be controlled by changing the
size of the mirrors and the system of screens. If a defl-
nite pressure is required as well, the opening has to be
securely closed with a transparent shutter.
These chambers can be used to heat alloys for moulding,
pressing and forging, to produce the desired shapes,
863
Now let us consider mechanical processing of cold,
slightly heated, solid and semi-solid materials. We have
described the simple devices, one square metre of the sur-
face of which gives 1 hp. To obtain this energy mirrors,
as well as chemical processes, can be used. So there is
plenty of mechanical power. It can easily be converted into
electric power if, for some reason, it connot be done by
solar radiation directly. And it is a matter of common
knowledge that high-potential electric power can produce
a temperature above that of the Sun.
But will machines function without gravity? If founda-
tions are necessary, these are available in the massive
multi-chamber dwelling or in special premises. Now let us
examine the work of a few machines in a gravity-free me-
dium.
Coal and firewood will escape from the furnaces. If the
furnaces are supplied with gratings, then small particles
of coal will slip through. In addition, thin gratings will
melt away or be burned up. The firewood and coal will not
lie at the bottom of the hearth but will hover inside the
furnace, filling it from bottom to top. This, however, is
not so bad. There will be no natural draught, so an arti-
ficial is required. It is clear that coal, firewood, peat and
similar fuels are impracticable in a gravity-free environ-
ment to say nothing of the absence of the necessary amount
of atmospheric oxygen. But to start with we do not need
ordinary fuels in space, and should the need ever arise
for them, we could make use of coal dust, liquid fuel and
artificial draught. But in general, in gravity-free envi-
ronment the Sun does the heating and bodies are cooled by
heat radiation.
We have seen that sometimes boilers with liquids will
be used in motors. The liquids will not occupy the lower
part of the vessel, because there is no below there; they
will spread chaotically inside the boiler, mixed up with
the vapours. But then liquid will escape together with the
vapour, which is not what is wanted. Order can be estab-
364
lished in the boiler if it is rotated, or if the liquid is ro-
tated within a stationary boiler by means of a wheel with
blades. Both can be easily achieved where there is no grav-
ity. The liquid will then spread along the boiler’s equa-
tor and the vapour will occupy the axial area.
Now let us imagine a factory with wheels rotating, pul-
leys moving in all directions, shavings flying about, work-
ers swarming like fish in water. If the whole of the factory
building is rotating, gravity is formed and the conditions
will be like those on the Earth except for a slight difference,
depending on the amount of the artificial gravity. If there
is no rotatory motion or if it is only slight, the gravity
will be almost imperceptible. In this case there should be
special boxes for all kinds of waste material, the air should
be constantly filtered to free it from dust and particles
flying about in it. Magnets will attract iron, steel and cast-
iron shavings and dust.
But in some industrial processes (for instance, rolling
and pressing) there are no waste materials, or they are
harmless, and easily removed. No artificial gravity will
be required there. Finally, when waste materials constitute
a danger to the workers, a net or glass can be used for
head-protection and some kind of pad—to protect the
mouth. There should also be protective clothing. And even
here, on the Earth, are we guaranteed against waste prod-
ucts—shavings and the like?
The workers and engineers flying among the machines
and the finished products may get caught up in the wheels,
levers and in other moving parts of the machinery and re-
ceive injuries. To prevent this, danger spots will be netted
off. Then parts of the machinery can be remote-controlled.
There will be nothing new in this—we have long been fa-
miliar with it on the Earth.
The part being processed, no matter how big, does not
fall down, cave in or press on the workers; where there
is no gravity it is easy to handle the part and carry it
about. The workers, too, can work in any and every
365
position and place without being afraid they will fall (for
instance, they can stand upside-down in relation to one
another). All they need is some kind of support. A worker
can always have support, if he attaches his feet or body
to the object he is working on, or to his machine-tool. There
is no praise high enough for the convenience of working
in an environment devoid of gravity.
In performing all kinds of work, on the Earth it is not
so much gravity as the inertia of massive bodies that
is used. But in an environment without gravity a hammer
can be as useful as on the Earth. The force of its blow
depends not so much on the weight of the hammer as on
the speed with which it is growing, which in turn depends
on muscular effort and amplitude of the swing.
In machines the force of gravity is less utilised than in
manual operations, and comparatively light presses can
well supersede heavy hammers. Besides there is nothing
to prevent man using some force to impart to some mass
or other (in the ether) the velocity of falling objects on the
Earth. The important thing is velocity, for it determines
the force of the blow. It is easier to impart velocity to
objects in a gravity-free environment than it is on the
Earth. A blow due to gravity is always in one direction,
downwards, but a blow due to velocity can be in any direc-
tion; that, too, is an advantage.
Thrown objects in a medium without gravity would seem
to be more dangerous. On the Earth they fall to the ground
and become harmless while in a gravity-free medium
they will rush along a straight line until someone is hit.
But, on the one hand, rapidly moving objects on the planets,
like cannon-balls, fly through the air for a long time be-
fore they fall and come to rest, and, on the other hand, the
objects wandering around in the ether dwellings, when they
come up against walls, lose their velocity and come to a
standstill. Such objects are more dangerous outside the
dwellings, in space. But, firstly, these objects should not
be let lose unless really necessary, and, secondly, they can
366
be guarded against, just as people guard themselves against
bullets and cannon-balls on the Earth.
Mechanics in an environment free from gravity differ in
no way from scientific mechanics; just leave out the gravity.
The Sun’s gravitational pull at the distance of the Earth
is not very strong: it is 1,800 times less than the Earth’s
gravity (the acceleration per second is 0.0055 m, or 5.5 mm),
The effort lifting a weight to a height of one metre on the
Earth will lift it here nearly two kilometres. But this does
not mean that drawing close to, or moving away from the
Sun at relatively low speeds is limited to kilometres. We
are dealing with relative motions. A thrown object, in ad-
dition to the low relative velocity, also has planetary ve-
locity relative to the Sun. Thanks to this last, and at its
expense, the thrown object moves away from, or is drawn
to the Sun over a distance of thousands of kilometres, de-
spite its low relative velocity.
In our world environment, human beings and other equal-
ly small objects are mutually attracted, but this attraction
is very weak. However, lead or platinum balls at very
short distances from one another move like heavenly bod-
ies. Their velocities have to be extremely low, otherwise
they will scatter in different directions in straight lines.
This makes possible the practical solution in space ether
of numerous extremely important problems which have
not hitherto been solved by mathematicians, One problem
concerns the paths of the movement of three interacting
objects.
But what is inconvenient here is the slowness of the
movement and the length of time of the observation. Thus,
a comparatively small ball rotates round a comparatively
large one made of the material with the greatest density
known and at the closest possible distance, for a period of
2,500 seconds or 42 minutes. The time does not at all de-
pend on the size of the larger ball: whether it is as large’
as the Sun or as small as a grain of small shot, the time
of rotation is always 42 minutes.
367
For a pfactical solution of problems connected with
forms of motion, the bodies are set at a distance from one
another and the observation time is as much as several
days or even months. It is this that makes it inconvenient.
The absolute dimensions of the bodies may be infinitely
small. Perhaps denser substances will be discovered or the
attraction coefficient of small bodies will be found to be
greater—then observations will take less time.
In order to obtain higher velocities, objects of great
sizes have to be used.
An envinonment that is free from gravity offers the
best conditions for determining mutual attraction and re-
pulsion of bodies from different causes.
The bodies do not fall and have no weight but the laws
of inertia are particularly easily observed here. The great-
er the mass of a body, the more difficult it is to impart
motion to it. The greater the mass and the required veloci-
ty, the harder and longer has it to be pushed. And, inverse-
ly, if a moving body is to be stopped, the effort and time
will be more, the greater its mass and velocity. The im-
pact of a moving body is greater, the harder it is and the
greater its mass, and, at the same time, the harder and
more massive the body against which it strikes.
Although the oxygen atmosphere in the space dwellings
will be one-tenth of that in our air, there, too, it will be
found uneconomical to move quickly for a long time, as
it involves the expenditure of much work. Outside the
dwelling, however, in the void it will cost almost no effort:
it will suffice to spend work once to acquire the desired
velocity, which will remain constant if the movement is not
away from the Sun. Even that, as we have seen, will have
little effect over a distance of thousands of kilometres.
Travelling in the void will be possible either in space-
suits provided with breathing apparatus or in individual
dwellings separated from the rest. The latter is more con-
venient as there will be more room, no need to wear
clothes, the plants will travel as well and provide food,
368
water, oxygen and other fecessities. Then the travelling
can be done in large companies. The motion will be unno-
ticeable—only the dwellings left behind will seem to be
moving. But conventionally their motion (to overcome the
Sun’s attraction) will be considered zero. It is as imper-
ceptible as the motion of a planet to its inhabitants.
How will dangerous collision between the moving dwell-
ings, shall we call them carriages or trains, be avoided?
There will be several main travelling directions and one
speed for each direction. The trains going in one direction
will travel along one route so there can be no collisions.
The routes of the different directions will lie at great dis-
tances from one another and the heavenly trains travel-
ling at different velocities cannot collide.
The laws of levers, liquids and gases will not be compli-
cated by their weight.
Gas disperses indefinitely until as a result of expansion
and cooling it becomes dust consisting of solid particles
that will not evaporate.
Liquids take the shape of a sphere or bubble; volatile
liquids quickly freeze owing to evaporation, and the non-
volatile keep their spherical shape. The spheres may
be broken into several smaller ones and vice versa.
Adhesive liquids will stick to various objects, making
queer shapes.
Sounds and other oscillations of all kinds propagate just
as they do on the Earth, but there are no waves like those
in the sea—for this there must be gravity. The barometer
and pendulum clock do not function. Watches, however,
go well. Spring and lever balances are useless as bodies
have no weight and neither type is good for determining
the mass. Mass is determined on a centrifugal machine, or
on the balances in the state of artificial gravity. Force can
be measured with a dynamometer or spring balances.
Magnetic, electrical and other forces operate more sim-
ply and clearly, because there is no gravity to complicate
matters.
24—761 369
Man will quickly adapt himself to the absence of grav-
ity but animals have too little reasoning powers and will
suffer discomfort. Wingless insects will flounder about
futilely in the air, but once on a wall, will run about without
noticing the absence of gravity. Flying insects and birds
will move about but not quite as they wish. As soon as
they reach a wall they will cling to it with their claws.
Neither the birds nor the large animals will be able to
walk: at the first attempt, they will find they have lost
contact with the wall and are in a gaseous medium. Cats
and other similar creatures with movable internal organs
will be able voluntarily to turn their bodies by at least
180°.
We have seen that mah, too, can turn and move about
with the aid of a fulcrum, for instance, a hat. He can turn
even without one; to do so he will have to raise his hand
and rotate it as if he were turning the handle of a machine.
The circular movement of a hand, leg or other limb will
make his body rotate. As soon as the man has ceased
moving the limb his body will come to a rest, although he
may find himself facing in the opposite direction.
We are not speaking of a liquid or gaseous medium in
which any desired movement can be performed.
Man must at all costs overcome the Earth’s gravity and
have, in reserve, the space at least of the Solar System.
All kinds of danger lie in wait for him on the Earth. We
do not mean the difficulties we all daily experience: man-
kind will soon do away with these. We are talking of disas-
ters that can destroy the whole of mankind or a large
part of it.
Take the dry land we now live on—how many times has
it been flooded over and turned into the bed of an ocean!
We cannot be sure that such phenomena always occur
gradually. Earthquakes happen abruptly and destroy whole
towns leaving under water vast stretches of land. There
have been many major catastrophes although man has not
witnessed them (if we leave aside the very doubtful Del-
370
uge). True, the greater a disaster the wider the range of
its action, the less frequently it occurs. But we may yet live
to see one.
For instance, a cloud of bolides, or a small planet a few
dozen kilometres in diameter, could fall on the Earth, with
such an impact that the solid, liquid or gaseous blast pro-
duced by it could wipe off the face of the Earth all traces
of man and his buildings. The rise of temperature accom-
panying it could alone scorch or Kill all living beings.
Imagine the same thing has happened to the space
dwellings: an asteroid ten kilometres in diameter has pierced
one of them. All it can destroy is 75 square kilometres
of inhabited area, not 510,000,000 square kilometres as on
the Earth. Of course, the path of the planet or asteroid is
easier to follow in the ether, so that the dwellings may be
temporarily removed from it; moving them about in space
costs almost no effort. But can we move the Earth to make
way for some heavenly body!?
A few words about aerolites. Large ones are as danger-
ous in the ether as they are on the Earth, but since they
very seldom fall on our heads, roofs and buildings, and
no one fears them, so also they strike no fear into anyone in
space. From small aerolites, we are protected by the
Earth’s atmosphere in which they either become pulverised
or burn out. In space, the dwelling itself can be a safe-
guard. If a tiny fragment of a meteor, a fraction of a mil-
ligram goes through a human being it will cause no se-
rious harm. If it hits against a layer of quartz glass or
steel, such a fragment would most likely get stuck in it.
At the impact the fragment will melt and eventually evap-
orate. In the same way an infinitesimal part of the dwell-
ing’s surface will also melt and evaporate. The impact
may make a tiny hole in the wall, but the molten fragment
will fill in the crevice and even gas will be unable to es-
cape through it.
In addition it has been proved over and over again.
that for an aerolite to hit a human being is highly improb-
24° 37]
able, and could happen on an average once in several
thousands of years (supposing there were no atmosphere
on the Earth).
The ultimate fate of the Earth—as of all other heaven-
ly bodies—is an explosion from the accumulation of elastic
matter inside it. The time will come when mankind will be
faced with this sort of danger. How will mankind save it-
self if it has not mastered space within the Solar System?
And there is yet another danger—the cooling down and
extinction of the Sun. Then man will have to escape from
the Solar System, too. It will be much easier to escape
from ethereal space than from the planetary prison where
we and all we possess are chained down by gravity.
We are further compelled to take up the struggle against
gravity, and for the utilisation of celestial space and all
its wealth because of the overpopulation of our planet .
Numerous other terrible dangers await mankind on the
Earth, all of which suggest that man should look for a way
into the Cosmos.
We have said a great deal about the advantages of mi-
gration into space, but not all can be said or even im-
agined.
CHANGES IN RELATIVE WEIGHT*
MERCURY
We are off to Mercury, the planet closest to the Sun
(though easily visible in tropical climates, in our country
we see it very seldom); it is 2.5 times nearer to the Sun
than the Earth is, and receives seven times more sunshine.
One or two hundred kilometres from the Moon, I looked
down and saw, in its place, a golden bowl with circles and
scars and occupying exactly one half of the sky. The other
half was black, studded with stars, and adorned by the
regal Sun.
As I shot further and further away in the same direc-
tion, this bowl—the Moon—occupied less and less of the
sky, dwindling first into a plate, then a saucer, then into
the ordinary flat Moon we are accustomed to seeing, and,
finally, into a point, a tiny star (much the same picture as
would be seen when moving away from the Earth).
I saw the Moon as this tiny star throughout my entire
journey, the Earth meanwhile appearing also as a star 13
times brighter; when farthest away, near Mercury, it shone
-fainter than Venus. The constellations and Milky Way did
not change their appearance or position either during the
journey to Mercury, or throughout the entire planetary sys-
tem including Neptune; and no wonder, as the entire plan-
etary system appears as a spot compared with the inter-
stellar distances; and wherever I went I was always near
* Excerpt from the manuscript.—Ed.
873
the Sun. Of course, in relation to the stars, I seemed al-
ways to be in one spot, though I travelled thousands of
millions of kilometres.
Mercury almost always was aligned with the Earth (i. e.,
on one radius with the Earth and the Sun), in its most fa-
vourable opposition, and therefore this time I had about
100 million kilometres to cover. As I approached the plan-
et, the temperature rose, and the Sun seemed to broaden.
It was not the temperature of space that rose; since it
did not become warm, as it had no substance (except for
its infinitely rarefied cosmic ether, the conductor of light)
and was absolutely transparent to heat. What did warm up
was my own body, which from time to time I shielded with
the aid of a screen. The screen also became warm, and
warmed me with its dark thermal rays, but however, when
I was far enough away, the heat was by no means very
intense. Using the screen to shield myself from the Sun’s
scorching rays, I had an excellent view of the stars stud-
ding the gloomy background of black, and among them my
destination—the shining star Mercury, to which I had
drawn much nearer.
Now it was clearly beginning to look like a tiny, horned
Moon; it became rounded and showed me all its phases
as I circled around it. The baby Moon became larger and
larger growing before my eyes in accordance with the
speed of my journey towards it. It became as large as the
Moon as seen from the Earth; as large as the Earth when
observed from the Moon; it changed into a plate, and finally
into an enormous silver bow] taking up half the sky. Clouds
and mountains, the planet’s watery and solid areas came in
sight. At last, I reached Mercury itself.
This planet, which has the density of iron (the Earth
has a mean density, which is equivalent to that of fluor-
Spar, i.e., 5.5) is as many times closer than the Earth, i.e.,
2.5 times. The duration of the day is the same. The Sun
is seen as a body that is seven times larger and brighter
and it gives seven times more warmth. Objects weigh half
874
of what they weigh on the Earth. A freely falling body
drops no more than 2.5 metres in the first second. The mean
temperature is around several hundred degrees centigrade
(on the basis of Stefan’s Jaw and presuming conditions iden-
tical with those on the Earth, the temperature was estimat-
ed to be 176°C). Naturally, all organic bodies transported
from the Earth to this planet die and disintegrate. But do
not imagine that this means there is no life there! On the
contrary, it is teeming with life. The population is a hun-
dred times denser, more evenly distributed and far better
educated than on the Earth. What is the explanation?
What prevents a locomotive from working when the sur-
rounding temperature is 100°C? What is it that makes it
impossible to light a fire, that prevents coal from burning
and many other chemical processes from taking place in
the same conditions? What, in general, is it that prevents
the most intricate of machines and even organisms from
functioning, when they are made of refractory substances
and liquids that do not boil at this temperature? I do not
know the substances from which Mercury’s inhabitants are
made, and even less do I know what compounds are formed
by these substances; all I do know is that animal tissues
resist Mercury’s high temperature just as successfully as
our bodies stand up to a heat of 20°C. The temperature of
their bodies and especially of large Mercurian animals is,
obviously, still higher than the surrounding temperature,
owing to the processes of digestion, breathing, thinking,
etc., going on inside them. They could easily fry our veal
or cook soup in the palms of their hands. At the height of
my curiosity, I several times forgot this and burned myself
when I touched their soft and tender skin. The same hap-
pened to the Mercurians when they touched my hands and
face, only in this case the burns they suffered were due to
the relatively excessive cold temperature of my body.
Mercury has no bodies of water; the water, with other
gases and vapours, forms the atmosphere. It is only in its
top colder strata that at night, the circumstances being
875
favourable, clouds and mists form which resolve them-
selves into torrents of hot rain which rarely reaches the
ground. Even if small drops of hot rain reach the ground,
they are at once transformed into vapour, refreshing Mer-
curians and soil alike.
They have a very well-developed industry and civilisa-
tion but complain that the dense atmosphere prevents their
locomotives from moving rapidly. They also complain of
the high gravity, of the impossibility of making contact
with other worlds, of the overpopulation, due to which the
people have nowhere to spread to and long since set a limit
on the reproduction of their kind. .
Rational beings are dissatisfied with everything! Imagine
them complaining about gravity! Is this a merit or a fault?
Sometimes—a merit, if dissatisfaction with the present
state of affairs takes the form of aspiring towards an ideal,
to what is finest, without violating love towards one’s
closest friends.
So what have the Mercurians to grumble about, when
gravity on their planet is only half what it is on the Earth.
I felt fine here (how I tolerated the infernal heat is my own
business), ran with ease, and leapt three times as high and
as far! Their trains move ten times faster than trains on
the Earth. They have none of the confusions or the interna-
tional strife from which our poor Earth suffers; nor is there
that gulf between different types of inhabitants, which
makes one the slave of the other. Incidentally, it is indeed
crowded on the planet, because of the population and its
small surface area. Then, there are very few seas of some
dense liquids that I know nothing about. All the dry ground,
up to the poles, is inhabited, so that their populated area
is nearly the size of that on the Earth, the total surface
area of which is seven times larger.
They have evolved some eccentric projects which the
prudent majority have no faith in, though they condescend-
ingly tolerate them. One such project, for instance, is to
create rings similar to those of Saturn, by causing masses
576
to revolve rapidly round the planet outside its atmosphere—
and so to extend their territory!! To start off these rings,
it is necessary for the surface velocity to be ‘as much as
two kilometres a second; meanwhile, their fastest trains
(which are streamlined like airships to cut through the
atmosphere) do maximum 300 metres a second, which is
by no means fast enough. Incidentally, the designers of
these projects suggest various methods for reducing friction
and increasing velocity so as to offset the relative gravi-
tational attraction. They also propose methods of provid-
ing comfortable living conditions ... (here two pages are
missing from the manuscript.—Ed.)
... and sea routes and use them even more than air
routes, especially for transporting cheap cargoes. Aircraft
(which are birdlike and have wings) are also extensively
employed, but by the wealthy people or the government,
because for the average Mercurian this means of transpor-
tation (which happens to be the fastest) is beyond his
means. The Venusians, true, have not attained Mercury’s
civilisation, yet none of them walk around with their heads
in the clouds, inventing the impracticable projects for which
-the Mercurians have such a weakness. Let me repeat that
our good neighbour is closer to the Earth even in the
figurative sense, because were some addle-pated eccentric
to suggest expanding territory by means of rings circling
the planet as Saturn’s rings do, he would, without a mo-
ment’s waste of time, be clapped into a mad-house, of
course, out of the most humane motives in the world!
So farewell Venus, likeness of the Earth, magnificent
adornment of its evening and morning heavens!
MARS
Mars is twice the distance away from the Sun that Venus
is and is 1.5 times further away than the Earth. The amount
of warmth received by about 3 acres of soil on Mars is
only half of what the same area on the Earth gets in simi-
377
lar conditions. Naturally, the mean temperature of Mars
must be much lower than the Earth’s and this is indeed
so. Its mean temperature is 32°C below zero (the maximum
being 83°C above). However, do not think that the planet’s
absolute temperature, from 273°C below (absolute zero)
is in proportion to the intensity of solar light and heat,
or to the visible surface of our luminary. Because then,
presuming the Earth’s absolute temperature to be some 300
degrees, we would find, roughly, that it should be 2100° or
1900°C for Mercury, 600° or 300°C for Venus, 130° or 130°C
below zero for Mars, etc. As we have partly seen, there is
nothing of the sort. The temperature is far more moderate
and, for that matter, Mars does not have and cannot have
such lasting cold. Indeed, even on the Earth in winter the
Sun shines down with an intensity that is one-fifteenth
greater, because it is nearer to the Earth at the time. If
we were to allow the earlier argument, then the average
temperature of the Earth in winter would rise by some
18°C. Is this ever observed? Is there ever an average
increase of even 1°C?
In times beyond recall when the Sun was still brighter
and bigger and when Mars itself and its surface were still
hot, the planet’s waters occupied depressions, as our ter-
restrial seas do. It was here that they became petrified,
forming the solid part of the crust, when the times changed
and the temperature dropped.
However, in Mars’ equatorial zones the Sun’s rays, that
were shed upon this ice, melted it a little at the top, making
it polished and transforming it into vapours. The vapours,
carried away into the atmosphere in negligible quantities,
gave rise to the snow clouds, and snow was precipitated
at night in the polar regions of the planet, to form a spar-
kling layer; sometimes the planet was simply covered with
white hoarfrost [as] at the terrestrial poles. It was precip-
itated on to the ground directly from the atmosphere,
after coming into contact with the extremely cold regions
of the planet,
378
There are relatively few of these petrified seas and
tributaries—Martian “canals”.
Thus from the surface, the planet represents one solid
mass, if we disregard the slightly damp and extremely
muddy ice, which gives rise to the miserable little stream-
lets, immediately freezing and becoming covered with
white hoarfrost as soon as the Sun sets. At night the entire
planet is covered with it, but terrestrial astronomers cannot
see the planet’s night-bound part; meanwhile, on the sunlit
side, except for the polar areas, it melts soon after sunrise,
with the result that the ice and dry land cease to look
like snow and appear as seas or ordinary dry ground.
The Martians utilise the glaciers and oceans of ice lying
in horizontal plane as a means of communication.
The planet is much smaller than the Earth, but a little
larger than Mercury. Gravity on it is two and a half times
less than that on the Earth. Objects weigh there two-fifths
of what they do on the Earth. The days are as long (a
controversial issue as yet), but the year is twice as long.
There are two moons to light up the sky at night. They are
both small and glow faintly and are important only because
they are near the planet. The closest, Phobos, glows with
a light that is 8 times fainter than our own Moon. Its visible
diameter is half (of our Moon). On the other hand, Phobos
traces its course across the heavens very quickly, faster
than the Sun, which is why every 12 hours it sets in the
east and rises in the west. The other satellite moves ordi-
narily but slowly, so that it rises above the horizon only
once every five days (approximately).
The inhabitants, i.e., the Martians, are most charming,
but they were very cautious when they were with me,
fearing to get scorched. While Mercurians and Venusians
used me as a refrigerator, here I was employed as a well-
stoked fire. They made a great fuss of me; indeed, warmth
went with me into every home. I am speaking, obviously,
about winter in moderate climes. In the summer, despite
the frost, which is seldom with us, “heat” made them gasp,
879
and sweat out peculiar and extremely volatile liquids. It
was during this time of the year, so unfavourable to me,
that I decided to slip away from them in as delicate a
manner as I could.
VESTA
Beyond Mars lies that belt of asteroids thought to be
fragments of the big planet, which according to Baudot’s
law, had once existed between the orbits of Mars and Ju-
piter. Incidentally there are many reasons why I personally
think this hypothesis very unlikely.
So let us bid farewell to Mars and its satellites and
travel beyond its orbit. At once we encounter beyond it
a host of minor planetoids, but I shall not speak about
them for the time being. Rather let us head straight for the
largest of them, to their queen—Vesta.
It is 21/, times farther from the Sun, than is the Earth
and gets 5.5 times Jess sunshine.
The diameter of the Sun itself seems to be a bit more
than twice as narrow and its surface 5 times as small as
when observed from the Earth. It gives out as many times
less heat and light.
In spite of the low mean temperature, the inhabitants of
this asteroid are like the selenites, but are composed of
materials that do not freeze and are elastic. They do not
suffer from the cold at all, and sing their way through life,
not literally, of course, for since there is no atmosphere,
they can hardly go in for vocal exercises.
They have no plants or animals except at their scientific
establishments, where they are treated with every care and
attention, kept in special conditions and are used for ex-
periments and research purposes.
The rational population with their transparent skin that
lets through light, but does not let matter escape, live to
a ripe old age, but progeny are seldom born. The young
generation is brought up in special, completely enclosed
nurseries, which while thev let in light, do not let in gases
380
and liquids. In short, during their early life Vestians de-
velop and grow in roughly the same way as the inhabitants
of the Earth or the Moon, the only difference being that
their environment is purely artificial and that sunlight is a
very important part of their diet.
As soon as they reach normal height, and their skin hard-
ens, while the sudoriferous glands, lungs, and other organs
unnecessary in a void, become sealed up or atrophied, they
emerge into freedom with their emerald-green wings, like
butterflies from the chrysalis. Throughout the whole of
their subsequent happy life, they change only internally.
Their thoughts change, gradually become perfected and
arrive at the truth, while inside their bodies, which are
outwardly constant in appearance, the eternal plant-and-
animal cycle takes place, as described earlier (for the
Moon).
On Vesta gravity is 30 times less than on the Earth, be-
cause the planet itself is very small and compared with our
globe is like a grain of millet (2 mm) compared with an
apple (60 mm). That is why here gases are stored exclusive-
ly in sealed containers or in a chemical bond with non-
volatile liquids and solid substances. The small gravity is
unable to hold back the headlong movement of the gas
particles, which are completely dispersed in the boundless
reaches of space leaving nothing round the planet; mean-
while on the Moon these particles accumulate in its deep
crevasses which serve as natural nurseries for growing
generations.
Owing to the small gravitational pull, a pood weighs
hardly as much as a pound. A human being seems to weigh
no more than a chicken. The inhabitants carry their green
wings as though they were eider-down; the relatively large
surface of the wings provides them with plenty of solar
energy, though the Sun’s rays are not at all strong. This
energy makes their movements extremely easy, and their
thoughts, on the other hand, most profound. Incidentally,
the ease with which they move is due to the light gravity.
IRI
Do you know that when I found myself here I thought
there was no gravity at all, I felt so light. And here, the
expression “floating on air” is justified. If anyone weighed
me, a husky chap turning the scales at over 70 kilograms,
they would have found me registering not more than 51/3
pounds on a spring balance. After Mars, where objects
weigh 15 times more, this seemed to me really very light!
I could jump up vertically 40 metres, the height of a pretty
high belfry which, unfortunately, do not exist there. I could
take in my stride a ditch 170 metres wide and even more
if I gave myself a running start. Even without an effort, I
achieved astounding results.
Since the inhabitants find it so easy to move about and
encounter no air resistance when running, they have long
been thinking seriously of how to extend their possessions,
by using speed to strike out into space or by forming
moving rings and the like around the planet. Listening to
their arguments, I ceased to be amazed any longer at the
ideas advocated also by the Mercurians. Indeed, if not now,
then probably in the near future they would achieve their
aims.
Everything hinged on the insignificant gravitational
attraction. One of our terrestrial cannon-balls, fired from
the Vesta, would, as it were, break through the “crust”
of its gravitational pull, and escape from the planet forever
to become a satellite of the Sun, a newly formed planet.
If... (several words are omitted here—Ed.) on the Sun
it would move away from it eternally and always in the
same direction.
If Mercurian trains, which run at 300 m/sec were placed
on Vesta’s smooth equatorial route, then owing to the
centrifugal force they would not only lose their weight
entirely or, in other words, would not only cease to press
down on the rails, but would even fly up into the surround-
ing space, which the inhabitants of this apparently insignifi-
cant tiny planet so long to conquer. Such fast trains would
882
be all the more possible as the friction is 30 times less,
while the atmosphere is splendidly ‘conspicuous by its
absense”; and the gases the inhabitants require for the
younger generation are obtained not from the atmosphere,
but from the solid ground; the Vestians decompose chemi-
cal ores and other oxides and thus, with the Sun’s help,
get oxygen, nitrogen, etc.; incidentally they store gases
mostly in a weak-bond combination with other substances;
these compounds, which are usually solid or liquid, relin-
quish their gas to anyone who needs it, or for any required
purpose, as soon as they are slightly agitated (for instance,
by heat).
So you see that Vestian trains stand no comparison, as
far as speed is concerned, with those on Mercury; however,
the speeds they attain are quite enough to reduce their
weight appreciably, almost by half.
How astonished the Mercurians would be if told that
on Vesta their trains would attain their “lofty” aim of
exploiting and colonising space going to waste and the
escaping energy of the Sun’s rays! I think that after hear-
ing about it, they would redouble their efforts to achieve
success. Probably even the Martians, who have never even
dreamed of anything of the sort, would also shake them-
selves up a bit!
But the question is: how do the Vestians set their
mechanisms, trains, for instance, in motion? After all, it
is not by using their muscles, surely? But, of course, they
have solar engines, like all rational beings living in gasless
space. These devices are, approximately, of the following
design. Imagine a slender air-tight vessel that can change
its volume much like a concertina or a pair of bellows.
Even we, on Earth, have made similar cylinders only made
of metal, with the idea of replacing steam-engine cylinders
with them. They were air-tight and resembled a Chinese
lantern, folding up into a thin flat circle; this vessel con-
tained a quantity of some suitable gas or steam which first
expanded to move the walls of the container apart, when
383
its black half was exposed to the Sun, and then became
compressed, when placed in the shade behind a screen,
and it lost more warmth than it received. So, in ordinary
circumstances the walls of the container would either move
apart or come together much like a concertina in the hands
of the performer; this could serve as a source of a fairly
considerable amount of mechanical work. It would already
perform work simply by alternately turning first its dark,
and then its shiny side towards the light by the force of
inertia (after the initial push).
I have described the simplest type of the least bulky
solar motors. There were also other types of motors; in
these the gas or liquid, which was heated either directly
by the Sun’s rays or by means of reflectors (i.e., mirrors),
was forced from one container into another placed in the
shade, and therefore extremely cold; in this process the
gas or steam performed work, as it passed through a steam
engine. These machines are more intricate and bulkier, but
they are more economical, because from the given sunlit
area they derived a greater amount of work. There are still
more intricate systems. None of them ever loses a single
drop of liquid or gas; it is sometimes lost by pure accident,
but extremely little.
Judge for yourself how powerful these motors can be
from the following: theoretically the work performed by
the Sun’s rays falling perpendicularly on one square metre
from a distance equal to that between the Sun and the
Earth—if all the energy is transferred by machines without
any loss—will be 2,120 kg m, which is about 1.5 hp per
square arshin (2.13 m), or the equivalent of 15 husky
labourers working round the clock. But since the intensity
of the Sun’s rays at the distance of Vesta from the Sun
is five times as weak, and since motors can convert not
more than a third of the radiant energy into mechanical
work, a square arshin of motor space will be equivalent
to the work of one husky labourer working continuously
(0.1 hp, or the work done by a man steadily climbing a
884
Staircase at a rate of a quarter of an arshin every two
seconds).
Strictly speaking, the Vesta inhabitants expend very
little muscular energy due to low gravity, which means
that their muscles are weak. All work is done by the motors
described, which operate machine-tools, used for a variety
of purposes and varying in complexity.
If the inhabitants of Vesta were put on our clumsy Earth,
they would immediately be crushed to death because of
gravity, and the same would happen to us if we were put
on the Sun, where gravity is almost as many times greater
than that on the Earth as this latter is greater than gravity
on Vesta. The blood vessels of the slim-legged Vestians
would burst and then, of course, they would be too weak
to carry themselves; their wings would become flaccid and
droop feebly and their bodies would drop to the ground
and break into pieces; it would be as though an overburden-
ing load had been heaped on to them.
But, after the horrible fetters of terrestrial gravity, and
not having been spoiled by any tenderness from it, I felt
“on top of my form” here, and astonished my hosts by
performing wondrous acrobatic stunts.
If I had been put back in my native land, I would have
felt terribly disappointed there and would have felt like
an earth-worm.
Vesta’s eccentricity is small and so its temperature is
practically constant all round the year. It has the same
diurnal period of rotation as the Earth; consequently, the
velocity of its equatorial points is not so small as to make
it possible conveniently to follow the Sun and turn evening
into morning and vice versa, or, in short, to control the
times of the day and night as one could on the Moon. The
highest velocity capable apparently of halting the Sun in
its diurnal course and perpetuating day or night is roughly
15 m/sec, or 1,333 km in 24 hours. The Vestians can run at
that speed, but it is a strain they would prefer not to put
upon themselves. On the other hand, in their trains which
25—761 385
travel much faster, miracles are encountered at every step.
For instance, you may get up in the early morning, board
a train and be in a great hurry to set off; but alackaday!
the joyful Sun, which has only just risen, begins to set two
or three hours later.... Is there anything more fascinating
than hoping to enjoy the freshness of the morning and
finding yourself travelling by night!!
Then it sometimes happens like this if you are travelling
in the opposite direction: you board a train in the evening,
hoping to admire the sunset, read a little, perhaps doze off
in the stillness of the night, and suddenly find that instead
of setting, the capricious Sun is rising higher and higher
in the sky; you are in despair, the Sun prevents you from
sleeping and upsets all your innocent plans. But the Sun
is inexorable; noon comes followed by the evening; the time
lost is, as it were, retrieved; the Sun sets; you rub your
eyes, unable to believe your senses; you grasp your head,
aching from lack of sleep, and completely disappointed you
sleep the slumber of the dead.
But imagine the horror of the traveller who set out west-
wards one night on a trip round the equator at a speed
of 54 km/h and saw the sky in petrified immobility. One
hundred, two hundred, even a thousand hours pass and not
a star wanes nor does the Sun rise; there is no daybreak,
nor will there be. Bear in mind that the daybreak we are
accustomed to, the rosy break of day produced by the
Earth’s atmosphere, does not exist on Vesta; there is a
special kind of daybreak, partly the zodiacal light and
partly the alternating reflection and glow of the elevated
and sunlit regions of the planet. It is just as ghastly when
you set off at noon and the stationary Sun beats down
relentlessly, unceasingly.... One can well go mad....
The planet is extremely densely populated. The popula-
tion is a little less than that of the Earth, inspite of the
diameter being 30 times smaller and the surface area 900
times less; consequently the surface area per head of the
population is 370 sq m.
386
As for its volume you can judge this from the fact that
from the total mass of the Earth 27,000 little spheres the
size of Vesta could be made!
Mountains, in general, are smoothed down to provide
convenient routes of communication; however, their chron-
icles provide data about mountains 100 kilometres high;
so it was not possible to say of this planet that, even from
some distance away, it was reminiscent of a finely polished
ball or globe. Indeed, these [00-kilometre elevations had
covered only .a quarter of the planet’s diameter and had
made it more resemble a rock or a piece of shrapnel than
a sphere. Calculations show that the relative elevations
of a planet, the conditions being the same, are proportional
to the square of the diminution of its diameter. The dia-
meter of Vesta is 30 times smaller than that of the Earth,
relatively the biggest mountains on Vesta could be only
900 times taller; the height of the mountains of the Earth
is not more than 1/1,200 of its diameter, and consequently
the height of the mountains on Vesta will be 900/1,200
or three-quarters of its diameter.
Incidentally, the elevations on these minor planets may
be still greater, owing to the diminution with distance of
their gravity.
CERES AND PALLAS
However, let us leave this charming, hospitable planet
and its highly erudite inhabitants, who dream at some time
in the future of breaking out of the clutches of the gravity
of their planet and embarking upon a mighty exodus into
the infinite reaches of space, outside the miserable surface
of their planet, and so extend their control over nature;
let us part with these kind-hearted dreamers and fly
onwards.
While roaming absent-mindedly among the asteroids, I
wondered where all these creatures came from. Their being
on the Moon was comprehensible. The Moon had once had
25° 387
an atmosphere, and the gradual rarefaction of the atmos-
phere over tens of thousands of years could have adapted
their bodies so much that they were able to dispense with
an atmosphere. But what was the origin of the inhabitants
of Vesta, where, because of its small size, there could ob-
viously never have been any gases at all, since their parti-
cles have a velocity of a cannon-ball and like the latter
Should have overcome the feeble gravitational attraction
and have dispersed. I wished I had had a serious talk with
the Vestians about the origin of their ancestors. But I had
no desire to return, particularly as the distant horizons
were such an enticement.
Ceres and Pallas come next in size after Vesta, the larg-
est of all the planetoids. Their mean distances from the Sun
differed very little, but their orbits did not lie in one plane,
they obviously could not intersect, otherwise they would
certainly collide at any rate several thousand years
hence. i
The mean distance between the Sun and these asteroids
is about three times (2.76 and 2.77) greater than the dis-
tance between it and the Earth; the Sun seems as many
times smaller in diameter when observed from them; the
strength of the Sun’s light, heat and gravity is only one-
eighth what it is on the Earth.
Ceres is slightly closer to the Sun than Pallas and is a
little smaller than Vesta; to be exact it is only 63 kilometres
smaller across than Vesta, which means that it is smaller
by one-sixth, or one-seventh; however, because Pallas pos-
sesses an eccentricity that is incomparably greater, the
apparent diameter of the Sun fluctuates greatly in its
annual motion (i.e., during one full revolution around the
luminary) from 1 to 1.7, while the intensity of the Sun’s
warmth ranges from 1 to 3. Moreover, this planet was right
on my route, while Ceres was at the opposite end of the
orbit, and I would have had to go nearly 1,000 million
kilometres out of my way to visit it. Pallas and Vesta
greatly differ in size; Pallas has a diameter of only 255 km,
388
about half as long as Vesta, which is why on Pallas objects
weigh 52 times less than they do on the Earth.
Because of these considerations I hastened on to Pallas
but even before I arrived, I saw with the naked eye that
it was enveloped in an atmosphere that seemed to be of
a tremendous height. At once I recollected the observations
of Schröter who had also seen that Ceres and Pallas had
atmospheres and who had established that they each
reached to three times the height of the diameter of the
respective planet.
As far as Pallas was concerned, this had proved true and
I began to regret that I was unable to verify the astrono-
mer’s observation with regard to Ceres.
The atmosphere was extremely transparent, not at all
distorting or refracting the rays from the stars that passed
through it; this seemed odd as, in general, did the existence
of this “extremely high” atmosphere.
But a moment later I had drawn so close that I clearly
realised my mistake. It was not an atmosphere at all, but
simply a ring, like Saturn’s; only it reached down to the
very surface of the planet; after flying off at a tangent and
viewing it from the side, I realised still more clearly that
I had been mistaken; indeed, the ring appeared as an ellipse,
even as a thread, which could not be the case with an
atmosphere; we know that in the course of its revolution
round the Sun, i.e., in the course of 30 Earth’s years, Sat-
urn’s ring also twice appears sideways in the form of a
thread, because twice its plane falls in with the angle of
vision of the terrestrial astronomer, or, in other words, is
aligned with the Earth’s orbit.
I found why Pallas’ ring was transparent as soon as I
entered it. I saw that it consisted of a vast number of
bodies circling round the planet. These were the natives of
Pallas, their homes, engines, factories and various appara-
tuses, Arranged freely, so as not to rob each other of the
Sun’s rays, they let through chinks of light, just as lattice-
work does. From a distance the separate objects were not
889
visible; all that could be seen was the transparent totality
of them producing an illusion of gas or of a rapidly revolv-
ing wheel. We should note in passing that some of Saturn’s
rings are also transparent, but so far we do not know why.
I rapidly flew past the dwellings of the legion of colo-
nists, without really looking at anything properly, and set
foot on the terra firma of Pallas itself.
I felt still lighter than on Vesta; I weighed myself on a
terrestrial spring balance, and found I was 3 pounds. I
could have walked barefoot along a flinty path strewn with
sharp rocks, without harming myself; I could have flung
myself down on the rock as calmly as on the softest eider-
down. I jumped twice as high and twice as far as on Vesta,
providing the relatively puny inhabitants with the some-
what comical spectacle of a jumping flea, which, inciden-
tally, amused them very much. They applauded every jump
I made, which lasted half a minute or more, because I went
up very high. While off the ground I managed to blow my
nose, ask the time of day and even meditate for a while.
Every time I required a “bird’s eye view” of their struc-
tures, all their variety of buildings, their railways and so on,
I leaped up and “from the highest point of vision ” obtained
a general picture of the things I wanted to see, and having
shot up vertically some 60 metres, I hung suspended there
for a while only to find myself, after a few seconds, accel-
erating to the ground again.
I shall not describe the natives, as they were surpris-
ingly like the Vestians; the minor differences between them
now elude me in the way that the differences between
butterflies of the same species are forgotten. But I should
mention that their bodies, which had emerald-green wings,
were as elegant as precious malachite vases, that their
eyes sparkled like diamonds. Let me repeat that they fed
on sunshine, like plants, and were as innocent as flowers;
when I called them Sun-children, they were puzzled and
said: “The Sun itself is a drop of wisdom.”
_ I was most curious about their “rings” and life on them,
890
outside the planet itself; I wanted to know how they had
managed to create these artificial rings, and how they had
hit upon the idea.
I conversed with them by means of pictures, drawings
and gestures, which they also employed, but chiefly with
the aid of the natural pictures, drawn in the differently
coloured subcutaneous liquids on their transparent chests;
it was obvious that their brains and thoughts were linked
by vasomotor (vascular motor) nerves, with the ebb and
flow of these liquids. This was the universal prime “lan-
guage”, which I encountered wherever an atmosphere and
aerial sound waves were absent. This language is the same
everywhere, because it depicts the real nature of objects
and phenomena, by composing some likeness of them; the
speech organs of the natives were very intricate, I could
not keep abreast of them in the speed and accuracy with
which they conveyed their ideas; I understood them better
than they understood me; for, who, indeed, would fail to
grasp the meaning of the wonderful paintings that flashed
out on their chests, only to disappear and give way to
pictures that were still more understandable or that were
the second part of the story given in the first set. You can
see something of the sort in the moving, tinted light images
of the camera-obscura (or photographic apparatus).*
The chest pictures of the Pallasians flashed past just as
quickly as their thoughts and ideas; their eyes served them
as ears.
ON THE RINGS OF PALLAS
Having seen Pallas itself, we turned to what was most
remarkable about it—its disk, or circle, right in the centre
of which was the planet itself.
It was much easier for the inhabitants of Pallas to realise
the dreams of the Vestians: to colonise surrounding space.
Indeed, it is not so difficult to combat gravity there; a
* There was no cinema at the time I wrote this.
391
speed of 200 m/sec is enough for a body to escape from
the planet forever and become a satellite of the Sun, or
in other words, an independent planet. It is enough for
a train to work up a speed of 141 m/sec, to shed weight
and to escape into the surrounding void; such a train, doing
508 kilometres an hour, moves only 4 times faster than
the fastest trains on the Earth. This, and even greater speed
is quite attainable here because objects weigh fifty-two
times less than they do on the Earth; friction of every kind
is also as many times less, Hence speed, in the case of an
identical amount of energy being expended, can be safely
increased (in relation to the speed of terrestrial trains)
fourfold. Taking into further consideration the absence of
drag and the perfection of the railways and machinery of the
Pallasians, it can be increased five- or even tenfold, but
that would be superfluous, as a fourfold acceleration is
quite adequate.
Only do not imagine that you would see right on the
planet’s equator a train travelling at 500 kilometres an
hour and covering the distance round it in only one hour
and 35 minutes! No, the first train, standing or travelling
on the actual surface of the planet itself moves at 14 m/sec
(50 kilometres an hour). It winds round the planet in an
endless circle moving round it in much the same way as
a worm round a nut. The second train, which is like the
first, but which runs on top of it, as if on a moving platform
with moving rails, has the same speed in relation to the
first; however in relation to the planet itself it possesses
a speed that is twice as great, or in other words, it travels
at about 100 kilometres an hour, or about 28 m/sec.
The third train moves with the same velocity and in the
same direction; in relation to the second it travels at
14 m/sec, while in relation to the planet it possesses a
speed that is three times as great (150 kilometres an hour).
In this fashion each train higher up travels at 50 kilometres
an hour faster than the one beneath it, but the velocity of
each train in relation to the planet depends on its position;
d92
for example, a fifth-level train will already travel at 250
kilometres an hour. The highest or tenth train, moving on
top of the ninth, which, like all the other trains, is an
endless circle with platform and rails, already travels at
141 m/sec; owing to the centrifugal force, objects inside
weigh nothing and the train itself weighs nothing; it barely
touches the rails. The next or eleventh circle will hang
suspended in space without the slightest support and with-
out any contact with the tenth, even though the speeds
of the eleventh and all succeeding trains, far from increas-
ing in relation to the planet itself, even decrease a little;
the speed of the tenth train, which is 508 kilometres an
hour, is the peak velocity of the entire multi-tiered ring or
circle stretching up to a height of 800 km; further up the
speed of the ring continually diminishes, but extremely
slowly, consequently the difference in the speed of the two
neighbouring trains is imperceptible, meaning that they
move at an almost identical speed; the fringe of the
“circle”, the top train, travels at only 53 m/sec, which
means that its speed is a little over one-third of the highest
Speed.
After this brief description of the essence of the “multi-
tiered” trains and the secret of the existence and origin
of the rings of Pallas, let us climb in to the first train,
which is done extremely easily; we need only to run beside
it. After all, 50 km an hour is nothing on a planet where
objects weigh 52 times less, and air resistance, so percep-
tible on the Earth at such a speed, is quite absent. Having
done that, we need only stretch out an arm as we run and
grasp the bar, and we are on board; the entire manoeuvre
is identical with the one used when jumping on a moving
horse-drawn tram.
Here (on the first train) gravity is less than on the planet,
though the difference is hardly felt; but it can easily be
detected by means of the spring balance which you have
taken along. It can also be spotted by observing the slower
swing of the pendulum of the clock on the wall; to see
399
that you need only compure the time it shows with that
of your pocket watch, whose mechanism does not depend
on weight, but merely on the elasticity of the steel spring
(hair spring). The diminution of gravity, in general, on the
first train is not noticeable and does not strike the eye
after all we have experienced in this respect; but it pro-
gressively increases from train to train. If we take the dimi-
nution of gravity on the first ring as the unit, on the second
it will be four times as much, on the third—9 times, on the
fourth—16 times, on the tenth—l100 times, and on all
subsequent trains—also 100 times as much.
From the first train we make our way in the same manner
as before to the second; let us note, in passing, that we can
use for the purpose the special devices which transfer you
imperceptibly, and without effort, to any of the trains;
however, I shall not tire your imagination describing them;
most of the natives use them.
Once transferred to the fastest or tenth train, ‘which
is not very far away from the surface of the Pallas, some
22 metres or so, we find that gravity apparently disap-
pears altogether; the pendulum stops swinging, weights
no longer pull at the spring balance but register zero; and
bodies do not fall down. I hung suspended in the middle of
the carriage like a fish in water or a bird in the air, but,
naturally, without my making any effort. My notions of
above and below were confused in my mind and depended
on the direction I took; above meant what was overhead
and below meant what was beneath my feet, but as I did not
fall down, my sensations were quite confused. I had to turn
with my feet towards the ceiling of the carriage and every-
thing in it, or rather in my brain, turned “upside down”;
the floor of the carriage seemed to be the ceiling, and the
ceiling—the floor, and it was difficult for me to convince
myself that the carriage had not overturned. I did not feel
its motion, because it was travelling extremely smoothly
like a boat in water; but I am unable to explain how they
achieved this. When I looked out of the window I saw the
so4
planet itself receding in a direction opposite to my own,
my movement was imperceptible to me, and every one and
a half hours the Sun rose and those regions of the planet,
which I had already seen before, came into sight again.
The slightest push was enough to send one flying inside
or outside the carriage in any desired direction; I had
merely to sneeze, yawn, or cough, for my body, which had
so far been immobile and had been in contact, without
pressure, with other objects, to speed forward for quite a
while along a straight line. Together with this, since a
rotational motion is, for the most part, added to the recti-
linear motion, it seems to you that the planet with its train
and the heavenly firmament with its stars and Sun are
revolving round you.
With a gentle push against the wall of the carriage, I
found myself shooting towards the opposite door but my
fear made me clutch at the bar-handle on the steps outside;
I clung on for some time, peering around me and slowly
becoming calm again. No! The idea of shooting away from
this ring terrified me. So I tied myself to the bar with a
long piece of thin rope; then very gently I pushed myself
away from it and flew a few seconds in a perfectly straight
line; only the rope kept me from promenading further, and
God alone knows, where I would have gone. The rope be-
came taut and jerked me back so that I landed safe and
sound. at the side of the carriage. I was bounced off it
again, this time involuntarily like a ball, for it had not
been my intention to repeat the experiment. I again flew
the entire length of the rope only this time slowly and
remained almost completely immobile.
Beneath me the planet raced by, but I did not fall on
to it, despite its gravitational pull; there unfolded before
me glimpses of life on the planet, the various buildings,
the wonderful palatial dwellings and the wreathing crowds
of Pallas’ dense population. Many of them boarded the
trains, changing from one to another; others dropped down
to the planet. My train and the rings higher up seemed
395
stationary, while those lower down seemed to dash along
with the planet, running faster the closer they were to it;
but actually, the reverse was the case.
The upper rings teemed with life and seemed like a
miracle suspended in space; only some parts touched one
another, leaving large gaps in between.
I pulled at the rope and the impetus returned me to
the carriage; to ascend from it a dozen kilometres or so,
a jump was enough; in this way having remoted the rope,
I found myself on the top rings; after flying a fair distance
and stopping outside one of the rings I took another jump
and again flew several kilometres without any effort.
The area of the entire disk is 48 times greater than the
surface area of the planet in its equatorial cross-section.
Thus, taking into consideration the fact that the plane is
not always perpendicular to the Sun’s rays, we find that
the inhabitants of Pallas were receiving 20 times more
warmth and light than they had a right to, according to
the size of their planet. Its diameter was only a seventh of
the ring’s width; this means that the ring was relatively
larger than Saturn’s.
None of the objects released carefully, without a push,
on the rings above the 10th, ever fall anywhere. But if
pushed, they fly (in relation to the rings), for a fair time
in a straight line and smoothly inthe direction of the push.
It is possible even to shove an object towards the planet,
but that would be dangerous as it would collide headlong
with the first object to come its way. Anything may be
thrown or sent in other directions. It will move upwards,
downwards, or sideways, indifferently and quite freely,
though given time it will nevertheless return to the rings.
From this it is evident that the motion is curvilinear and
not quite smooth (even in relation to the rings). However,
over a distance of several kilometres and in the course of
minutes, even hours, it differs in no way from the motion
of objects in an environment having no gravity. Along the
entire 800 kilometres upwards from Pallas, the ring is a
396
relatively gravity-free environment, provided we disregard
the negligible force of attraction it itself has; however even
this is practically absent in the gaps between therings (the
attraction of the lower rings is cancelled out by the attrac-
tion of the upper ones). This relatively gravity-free space
does not differ in beneficial properties from the absolutely
gravity-free environment (which actually does not exist).
You have only to push off horizontally, for instance, along
the thin line of one of the rings and, with one slight effort,
you begin to move with the speed of a “mail train” in rela-
tion to the ring, either at its side or, in the gaps in between;
you spend your life in motion, cover millions of kilometres,
and be unable to stop, unless you take the right measures;
your motion in relation to the planet is, of course, 100 times
faster and continues forever, in spite of you, owing to the
revolution of the rings. The inhabitants of the disk hold
all kinds of conclaves and meetings with the greatest of
convenience and without the slightest difficulty; they have
no need at all of such relatively powerful instruments of
locomotion as our legs. While taking part in their meetings
and outings and, at the same time, reading or doing some-
thing else, I hardly noticed the road or my own movements,
feeling no headaches or aching bones because of the dust
and jolting, I involuntarily had a mental vision of my own
planet, the Earth. I thought of the unfortunate traveller
there, blistering his feet as he walks 20 to 30 kilometres,
or the rich man in his cabriolet, drenched to the skin by
the rain, frozen to the marrow, and wistfully dreaming
of rest and a soft bed; but what is a bed compared to the
“bed” of free space you always have there—and my heart
was filled with pity.
“How did the idea enter your heads of conquering space
and solar energy by such simple, easy means?’ I once
asked the inhabitants of Pallas. And they told me the
following story.
Long, long ago, in ancient times,.the planet was by no
means as smooth and spherical as now. On the equator
397
itself stood a mountain, which revolved together with the
planet. We climbed vertically up this mountain, which was
as much as 800 kilometres high, as easily as you, on the
Earth, climb an imperceptible slope of half a degree; every
jump you took would land you 30 metres higher up in half
a minute; so in one second you would cover one metre
(the speed of a pedestrian).
Our feeble legs could not take such leaps, but we climbed
Straight up, at a speed of 3-4 kilometres an hour; conse-
quently we could cover the entire distance in 200 hours or
8 terrestrial days, or, including time for resting, in a fort-
night. Later, mechanical roads with solar motors were de-
vised and the trip up the mountain no longer presented any
difficulty.
Climbing up the mountain one way or another the
travellers always noticed that they felt lighter the higher
up they went; they were able to jump more easily and
further, the higher up they were. At a height of 700 kilo-
metres, very heavy objects weighed less than a dram and,
when given the slightest push, soared up like feathers for
several kilometres, floating for a long while and falling
very slowly! At a height of 750 km gravity disappeared
completely. Jumping sideways, or by just not keeping
close to the mountain, one became separated from it and
hung suspended at a height of 750 km above the planet,
with an abyss overhead and underfoot.
Imagine the situation of a rational being, who has
accidentally slipped off a mountain and sees it receding to-
the distance! He wants to return to it, helplessly stretches
out his arms and sends out plaintive appeals; but all in
vain: the mountain continues to recede into the distance!
It is all well and good when there is something to catch
hold of, or when you accidentally move away from it
together with a lump of rock, because then, after pushing
it aside in the direction opposite to your own, you can still
return at once from the yawning abyss. But when there
is nothing? However, do not worry, the first explorer who
898
ran this terrible risk did not perish. He returned quite safely
to his kith and kin; he merely had a cheap round-the-world
trip, true at such a great distance from Pallas, that he saw
it as a brightly shining giant moon, occupying a tremendous
part of the heavenly firmament (15°, or 900 times more
than the Moon, observed from the Earth).
To what point, however, did he return? He came back
to the same mountain two terrestrial months later, presum-
ing he had pushed off gently enough to impart to himself the
relative velocity of translation of about one metre a second.
The first traveller, who returned terrified but also greatly
delighted, was followed by a legion of brave explorers,
who, with all their goods and chattels, shortly formed a
whole living ring around the planet. The crowded condi-
tions on the planet, the shortage of sunlight, i.e., their
source of food, spurred on the kindly folk, who desired
to avoid quarrels and troubles over a crust of bread in
earthly language, or sunlight—in their language.
They soon noticed that this very tall mountain impeded
the formation of rings above and below. Enlightenment
spread, machinery and technology progressed, and, finally,
they contrived what you see here today; the mountain was
removed because it produced “perturbation” in the rings,
because of its gravitational attraction, and obstructed
freedom of movement and expansion above and below.
And now we extend the diameter of our ring as required,
concluded the story-teller.
LIVING BEINGS IN THE COSMOS*
From a purely terrestrial standpoint the animal is com-
posed of 29 elements known to us. Its chief component
is water; it can stand temperatures not higher than 100°C
and not lower than 100°-200°C (but then it does not live
but is preserved alive in a state of anabiosis); most of the
animals require a definite average temperature, approxi-
mately 20°C. The animal requires an atmosphere containing
oxygen and water vapour. The source of the animal’s
activity, i.e., movements and thinking, comes from other
organisms, or at least the Sun (zoophytes). The animal
presumably cannot live without atmospheric pressure and
gravity. The animal’s body temperature must be above
freezing point, but must not exceed 37°-40°C. The mature
animal reaches a definite size.
Even the highest animal (man) is far from perfect; for
instance, the life span is short, the brain is small and of
poor structure, and so on.
All this is essentially a result of adaptation to the con-
ditions of life prevailing on the Earth, chiefly to life on the
* The article offers a broad view of the universal occurrence and
variety of forms of life in the cosmos. It deals with worlds within
worlds, the periodicity and complexity of matter and phenomena,
which have no end; it speaks of infinitely remote epochs where
there were “ethereal” animals unlike any found on Earth, and dif-
ficult to imagine, but in their way perfect and almost humanly con-
scious. —Ed,
400
equator, and a sign of incomplete phylogenetic development
(evolution). On other planets with different conditions of
life the animal will be built on different lines. Our Earth,
too, will produce more perfect forms in the course of time.
Let us examine, in sequence, all the available information
pertaining to terrestrial organisms.
Why are the animals made up of 29 elements and why
do they not contain the remaining 61, for instance, gold,
platinum and others (these are sometimes found in organ-
isms but only by chance, in negligible quantities and play-
ing no role at all)? (And of the 29 elements probably nine
are unnecessary, too.)
The first reason is that the animal feeds on plants and
plants contain just these elements. And why are plants
made up of these substances? Plants are surrounded by
the atmosphere, water and water vapour, while their roots
are in the soil, so it is natural that they should contain
these substances; hydrogen and oxygen come from the
water while the soil, dissolved in the water, gives the
plants chiefly calcium, phosphorus, chlorine, sulphur,
sodium, potassium, fluorine, magnesium, iron, silicon, man-
ganese, aluminium and other elements. The atmosphere
provides oxygen, nitrogen and carbon. Soil and water in
the soil contain other elements as well, but in infinitesimal
doses, because these are either rare substances or heavy,
and hidden deep down in the earth and not easily acces-
sible to the plants. If other elements predominated in the
composftion of soil and atmosphere, the composition of
plants and animals would be different.
The upper crust of planets lying closer to the suns con-
tains more of the heavy elements, and organisms on these
planets should contain heavy elements. Organisms on plan-
ets that are far removed from the suns should, on the
contrary, contain the lighter substances, because more of
these occur there.
Man has extracted heavy metals from the bowels of the
earth and made gold, for instance, part of his body (gold
26—761 40!
teeth, etc.); generally speaking, the composition of animals
on Earth may yet undergo a change.
What inference can be drawn from the above? Given
suitable conditions, all elements can be used to build up
living organisms. So we may suppose that on every planet
different substances predominate in the composition of
living beings, depending on the elements in the planet’s
crust, its distance from the Sun, the latter’s properties,
the temperature on the planet, and other factors.
The animal consists of solids and liquids. And water
is not the only liquid. But on the planets that are situated
far from the Sun—and at low temperatures in general—
water is a mineral while the prevailing liquid substances
are of other composition, for instance, liquid carbon dioxide,
various oils, alcohols, hydrocarbons, carbohydrates, liquid
gases and so on. These would form the seas and living or-
ganisms. On the other hand, bodies that are solid on the
Earth would be in a liquid state on planets nearer the Sun
and might become parts of the composition of the animals.
Atmospheres of other planets, too, may have a different
composition with hydrogen predominating on the cold
planets, and, on planets nearer the Sun—water vapour or
other liquids converted into gases because of the great
heat.
The conclusion to be drawn is that on cold and hot
planets there may be living beings composed of the seas,
atmospheres and soils peculiar to each of the planets.
Is it true that for life to develop abundantly the ®nviron-
ment must have a temperature of roughly 25°C? We have
seen that neither a high nor a low temperature deprives
planets of oceans and atmospheres, only their composition
is different; so animal life should also be possible on the
planets. The animals will be made up of the liquids and
gases appropriate to the mean temperature of the given
planet. Consequently, the greatest variety of temperature
on the planets are no obstacle to the abundant development
of life on them.
402
We know that even our own organisms adapt themselves
to a low temperature. True, this applies to either the lowest
of the animal kingdom or to rational man, capable of
creating an artificial situation to protect himself from the
cold, which costs him a tremendous effort. But the northern
animals have migrated from warm climes, their place of
origin was the equator and they were not adapted to the
harsh climate at first. Hundreds of millenia had to pass
before they grew accustomed to the cold, and then not all
of them. That is why so far we have not observed any
luxuriant blossoming of life in winter conditions and in the
polar climate. Incidentally, the main reason for the scarcity
of life in cold countries is the absence of the solar energy.
Why is the body temperature of the higher animals on
Earth about 37°C? Life originated at the equator, in its seas
and oceans. (Why? Because of the even warmth and abun-
dance of the solar energy.) The mean temperature of water
there fluctuated around 25°C. That was the body tempera-
ture of the primordial animals, the height of whose exist-
ence coincided with just this temperature. The animals
accepted the temperature of their environment, and al-
though they could stand lower and higher temperatures
they were at their best only in the mean temperature of
the environment.
The body temperature of these first creatures was only
Slightly higher than that of their environment, since they
had little vital energy.
There then developed the warm-blooded animals with
their tremendous vitality. As a result of this (the warmth,
the burning up or chemical processes inside the animal)
their body temperature became much higher than the
average temperature of the surrounding medium. Thus, the
body temperatures of animals are always a little higher
than the mean temperature of the planet. But planets may
have widely varying temperatures, and so, therefore, can
animals. Some may be very hot, others ice-cold—from
man’s point of view. I leave out of the discussion cases
26° 403
where the temperature of the medium is a little higher
than that of the animal; warm-blooded animals are then in
danger of dying, because, if heated, the brain ceases to
function. But actually when this happens the skin or the
lungs give off water, the heat of the body is absorbed and
the brain remains at its normal temperature. A certain
constant temperature is another condition essential to life.
Drastic fluctuations of temperature are fatal to any organ-
ism. But we know that on the few planets which have one
side always turned to the Sun the temperature fluctuates
between 250°C below zero and 150°C above.
How could there be life on such planets? The fact is
that whatever difference there may be in the temperatures
at the surface, this alone does not preclude life, because
inside the planet the temperature remains constant. So
animals can burrow down into the ground and hide in
their holes from the excessive heat and cold. But the lowest
animals would be quite helpless. The beginnings of life
in such contrasting temperatures would be difficult. There
are limits to everything, even to the endurance of living
things; so perhaps rational beings having the highest de-
velopment of knowledge and technology, might take pos-
session of the places that are inconvenient for lower animal
life.
Must there be a sun for animals to exist? The energy of
solar radiation is widespread in the Universe: the Ethereal
Island alone has over a million thousand millions of suns,
young and old, constantly emitting their rays into space.
It is clear, therefore, that most animals live by solar
energy. Yet they may exist by force of some other energy.
Some of the suns become extinguished and distant planets
have almost no sun-rays at all, yet life does not immediate-
ly end on these planets. High temperatures and chemical
energy are long preserved within the celestial bodies that
have cooled on the outside. This makes it possible for
different organisms to continue living for a long time. Only
there is no particular need to utilise these meagre remnants
404
of celestial energy, since there are vast numbers of flaming
hot suns! Theoretically any form of energy can support
life; for instance, the energy of planetary motion and
revolution, gravity, heat, atomic energy, and other kinds.
But we shall not discuss in what way.
A very important factor is the kind of brain an animal
has. Can it grow larger with the animal’s size remaining
the same, and if so, to what extent? The important thing
is the structure of the brain, but size is a good quality,
because the larger the brain, the more capacious the mem-
ory and the mental powers in general. We can carry heavy
loads, why then can we not have heavier heads? Mechanics
shows that our brain can quite safely be twice or three
times as large as it is. So far, however, there are obstacles
to this. First, child-birth becomes more difficult and, sec-
ondly, development of the brain (at the initial stage) leads
to circumscribed moral standards and man renounces
personal happiness and leaves no offspring. At the second
Stage this development leads to pessimism which destroys
bright hopes, fills the mind with fears and is the cause
of nervous disturbances and early death. Only at the third
Stage, with the brain and mind reaching their highest de-
velopment is a degree of equilibrium established between
altruism and egoism and man realises that he has a duty
both to himself and his offspring.
The first obstacle can be overcome by premature births
and subsequent development of the foetus in a special
artificial medium. Man will, as it were, have to return to
the period of egg-laying (birds, reptiles and the like). The
second and third obstacles can be removed by precautions
undertaken during the first and second stages of develop-
ment and the immediate development of the third, which
gives rise to optimism, thanks to superior knowledge, pene-
tration into the depths of nature and great wisdom.
But the brain may grow in size in proportion to the
growth of the entire animal. Growth is hampered on the
Earth by gravity. Mechanics definitely proves that the
405
mass of the brain of animals similar in shape is propor-
tional to the cube of the decrease of gravity to which the
animals are subjected. Thus on Mars and Mercury where
gravity is half what it is on the Earth the volume of the
brain could be eight times larger than that of the ter-
restrial animals provided, naturally, for an animal with a
similar external appearance. The creatures would be twice
as large as on the Earth. On the Moon they would be 16
times as large and the mass of the brain 216 times greater.
This conclusion of mechanics does not apply to aquatic
creatures, for their weight is counteracted by water. Ani-
mals with large brains could originate in water. But no
industry is possible in a water medium (no fire can burn
there), there is insufficient oxygen and solar energy (light),
so life could not and did not develop there to any extent.
When man has settled down in the ether, in artificial
dwellings, i.e., when he has overcome the Earth’s gravita-
tional pull and escaped from it, he will not, in interplan-
etary space, encounter any obstacle to the growth of his
brain if we ignore the complexity of a large brain and
the organs that supply it with nutriment which, of course,
are bound to put a limit on the development of the mass
of the brain.
But while man is on the Earth (and part of mankind
will certainly remain on the Earth) his brain can increase
only two or three times. It will not be beautiful, but one
can get accustomed to anything. Beauty is a convention-
al, subjective thing.
The lungs of mammals are very imperfectly constructed.
This organ ought to be transformed. Take the example of
the alimentary canal. In lower forms it has an entrance for
food but no special exit. What is left after food has been
digested goes out the way the food came in. Locusts, for
instance, excrete through the mouth. This slows down the
digestive process. That is why higher animals have ac-
quired an anus. They have an advantage over animals
without it. Primitive blood circulation, again, was in waves
406
(to and fro). It is only the higher forms that have a decent
pump (the heart) and regular blood circulation.
It is the same with the lungs of the majority of mam-
mals who inhale air, extract oxygen from it and exhale
the products of respiration through one and the same ori-
fice. Because of this the blood is oxidised slowly, the organ
of respiration has a big volume yet gives little oxygen to
the animal. Like the alimentary canal, the respiratory
chamber should have a separate exit; the air should enter
uninterruptedly through one opening and go out through
another. That this is possible can be seen from the struc-
ture of insects and birds which willy-nilly release enor-
mous energy during flight. Insects, for instance, have re-
spiratory tubules (tracheae) through which the air flows.
All they lack is a pneumatic pump, and we can be sure
that at least some insects possess one. In birds the thoracic
muscles are pierced with similar tubules, although we
know little of the mechanism of how the air passes
through them: whether the streams of air flow in one di-
rection or whether they fluctuate backwards and forwards
as in the lungs. One thing is clear—the air current through
these tubules is brought about by the contraction of the
thoracic muscles during flight (just when great amounts of
energy are needed).
There is no doubt that the evolution of animals even
on the Earth might have taken a different course and pro-
duced animals with “through” respiratory organs. And it is
quite possible that such creatures do exist on the many mil-
lions of other planets. They may originate on the Earth as
well, either naturally or artificially, when man begins to
model his body. Physiologists are well aware of the numer-
ous defects in the structure of the bodies of even the high-
est animals. All these defects should be eliminated by
means of exercise, selection, crossing, operations and so
on, We have mentioned a few of the shortcomings by way
of illustration. There is not a single-organ in man that does
not require to be improved. We might mention in passing
407
that in many aquatic creatures oxygen, dissolved in water,
moves along with it in the same direction. In fish it
travels form the mouth to the gills. Perhaps that is why
fish can live on the small amount of oxygen available
in water.
ls gravity, and particularly the gravity of the Earth, es-
sential to man? In similar organisms (or ones that have
an external likeness but are of different sizes) the greater
the gravity the more it hampers growth. Consequently, it
makes for a smaller brain and weaker mental powers. So it
appears that gravity is harmful.
That the total removal of gravity in no way precludes
life is seen from the fact that aquatic creatures, with
gravity (or weight) counteracted by the counter-pressure
of the liquid, come to no harm. On the contrary, nowhere
does the size of organisms reach such dimensions as in the
ocean. Quite helpless on land, the whale in water frisks
like a kitten. An animal upside down does not die or suf-
fer, although gravity operates in the reverse direction.
Even less does it suffer when lying down, when the pres-
sure of the blood column is several times less than usual.
In this same position a man can swallow, digest his food
and perform other actions. Apart from their therapeutic in-
fluence, baths often ease the condition of sick people by
abolishing their weight. Decreased gravity should diminish
the mass of the organs of locomotion (legs, feet, wings,
etc.) if it does not increase the size of the organism. This
is what can be expected to happen on planets with little
gravity:
1. The less the radius of gravity of the planet, the larg-
er the organism on it.
2. If this is not the case, the organs of locomotion (legs
and so on) become very weak or thin.
3. If this is not the case, the animals move in longer
leaps or at greater speed.
4. The three cases may be combined, that is, a moder-
ate increase in size, moderately weakened leg or thorax
408
muscles, moderately increased leaps and other movements.
The three extreme cases may be found in the most varied
combinations.
The opposite is observed on big planets with a strong
gravitation pull.
But it may be objected: How can gravity be dispensed
with—the oceans will evaporate, the atmosphere will dis-
perse and without them life is impossible.
Let us sort it all out in its proper order. Can water
and air be dispensed with, and to what extent are they nec-
essary? Man easily adapts himself to heights, where
there is half as much air and oxygen as elsewhere. There
are mountain villages at such heights and the children
born there thrive on the shortage of oxygen while moun-
taineers feel the lack of it. Healthy people can, for a time,
tolerate only a quarter of the usual amount of oxygen. If
there are ever such things as “through” lungs people will
be satisfied with still less of this vitalising gas. Fish can
be said to breathe not air but water saturated with it. The
water streams in one direction (from the mouth to the
gill slits), just like the blood and food of the higher ani-
mals. Water contains 60 times less oxygen than the at-
mosphere but this does not prevent the fish from keep-
ing alive. What is more, aquatic creatures can exist per-
fectly well when there is far less oxygen. It will be said:
“That’s just what a fish’s life is like!” But pure oxygen
(without water and atmospheric nitrogen), if there were
such things as “through” lungs, would rapidly dissolve in
the blood and give it no less than our land animals get.
But how can atmospheric pressure be dispensed with?
Where there is no pressure from the air or some other me-
dium, the result is bleeding from the nose, throat and other
organs. This is understandable, for the strength of the
blood vessels is partly supported by the external pres-
sure of the atmosphere. Once there is no pressure or only
a little, the weaker vessels in the, nose and throat are
burst by the blood. Man and the higher animals are not
409
adapted to weak pressure from the environment. If, in-
deed, in such an environment people are born and survive,
it is because, in consequence of the ability of organisms
(as Lamarck observed) to adapt themselves to new con-
ditions, their blood vessels become stronger and they come
to no harm in a rarefied environment.
Organs of locomotion are also articulated by atmospheric
pressure. Without air this bond is disrupted. But the bones
will not fall apart even without pressure from the air
because they are also connected by cartilages and the
constant tension of the surrounding muscles. That this is
so is evident from the experience of gymnastic exercises:
an athlete can hang by the arms or legs, subjected to a
force of gravity many times exceeding the atmospheric
pressure on the inconsiderable areas of his connecting
joints. In spite of this weight the joints do not come apart.
From this it is evident that muscular tension alone is
enough to keep the bones articulated.
In a rarefied medium perspiration from the lungs and
sweat glands should be intensified. But there are some
animals (the dog) which have no sweat glands in their
skin. So there can be organisms which do not lose water
through perspiration. There are also some plants that do
not transpire water (some cacti). What is the conclusion?
That there can be creatures which would in no way suffer
from the loss of external pressure. True, with lungs inca-
pable of evaporating water the animals would be unable to
regulate their body temperature and would perish. But if
the temperature remains constant this danger will not be
present.
There are many other indications of the influence of the
pressure of the environment. For instance, the lungs of
mammals expand exclusively owing to atmospheric pres-
sure. We are nevertheless hoping that lungs will also be
able to adapt themselves to the absence of gravity. And
indeed, if lungs are of the “through” type, with air flow-
ing right through them in an uninterrupted stream, they
410
may lose their elasticity which will become unnecessary, or
they may become attached to the thoracic cavity. We can-
not go into all that here.
So we see that animals can dispense with gravity and
exist with a small amount of gases exerting little pressure.
Another question arises: is gaseous oxygen or any other
gas-like nutrition necessary at all? No, it is not. Animals
can take oxygen in, like food, in the form of its unstable
compounds in solid or liquid form. Chemistry knows of
numerous compounds of this kind and the chemistry of
the future will discover many more. Perhaps a new organ
—a kind of stomach—will be necessary, from which oxygen
will gradually pass into the blood. An organism will have
two stomachs and no lungs. It does not lose water and will
in no way suffer without an atmosphere. Organisms of
this kind are possible on the Moon and other planets where
there is no atmosphere or where the atmospheres are
highly rarefied.
Organisms that have lungs can exist in atmospheres of
widely differing composition. Energy does not come from
oxygen alone: sodium burns in carbon dioxide and chlo-
rine. Chemistry offers many examples of the kind. And then
even on the Earth there are creatures living in a carbon-
dioxide medium and needing no oxygen (anaerobia). The
millions of thousands of millions of planets of our Ethe-
real Island alone offer such an immense variety, such un-
foreseeable possibilities that it is unlikely that the human
mind today, no matter how brilliant, can encompass them.
Is even food necessary after all? Perhaps there can be
creatures who take no food, that consume no gases, water,
plants, meat and salts! We know that plants can subsist on
mineral substances alone, but still this is food of a kind.
And the atmosphere, too, contributes to their nutrition by
supplying carbon dioxide, sometimes oxygen, sometimes
nitrogen (mostly through bacteria).
There are animals that are like plants, capable of sub-
sisting on inorganic substances; there are the plant-ani-
411
mals (zoophytes). Their bodies contain tiny grains (chlo-
rophyll) through whose agency (together with sunlight)
they decompose the carbon dioxide of the air into carbon
and oxygen. The oxygen is released into the air while the
carbon combines with other inorganic substances to form
sugar, starch, cellulose (carbohydrates), nitrogenous and
other organic tissues that go to make up the body of the
organism.
All we see from this is that plants and animals can
subsist with the help of inorganic food alone in the pres-
ence of sunlight. But all the same atmosphere, water and
soil also play a part here. Is life possible without the con-
stant participation of these elements of the Earth, i.e.,
without the participation of the environment?
Let us imagine a perfectly isolated individual animal.
Suppose that no gases, liquids or other substances find
their way into its organism, and no substances can be re-
moved from it. The animal is permeated with light rays
alone. When the light rays encounter in its body the
chlorophyll, the carbon dioxide and other products of the
decomposition of animal tissues dissolved in the blood,
they decompose them and combine with them, producing
oxygen, starch, sugar and various nitrogenous and other
nutritive substances.
In this way our animal gets all that is necessary for
its existence. The food (what is formed in the body by
the action of sunlight) and oxygen build the animal’s tis-
sues. The latter are again decomposed into carbon dioxide
and other products of decomposition (urea, ammonia and
others). These need not be excreted but can return to the
blood and remain in the organism. The Sun’s rays again
act on them as they do on gaseous and liquid fertiliser in
plants, i.e., transform them into oxygen and nutritive
substances that compensate the loss from the constantly
working parts of the body, such as the brain, muscles,
and so on. This cycle goes on eternally until the animal
itself is destroyed.
412
That such a creature is possible is evident from the
following. Imagine a transparent sphere of quartz or glass,
pierced by the rays of the Sun. It contains a little soil,
water, some gases, plants and animals. In a word, this
tiny sphere is like our enormous Earth and, like every
other planet, it contains a certain amount of isolated mat-
ter and one and the same cycle of matter takes place in
the Earth and in the tiny sphere. One glass sphere is
just like a hypothetical being which manages on an un-
changing amount of matter, and which lives for ever. If
some animals within the sphere happen to die, new ones
are born to take their place (the animals feed on plants).
The sphere can be said to be immortal, just like the
Earth.
One may ask, “How can there appear an animal whose
mass remains constant?” An animal living, thinking, mov-
ing and, let us assume, not even dying. But how is it born
and how does it give birth to new animals? It is conceiv-
able that at the initial stage of its existence it develops
like terrestrial animals from an ovule developing in a suit-
able nutritive medium (perhaps with the participation of
solar energy), growing, breathing, reaching its maximum
size, fertilising or producing ova, then undergoing trans-
formations (like the caterpillar in chrysalis and the but-
terfly), losing sweat glands, lungs, digestive organs, be-
coming covered with an impenetrable skin, in a word, be-
coming isolated from the surrounding medium and devel-
oping into the extraordinary being we have already de-
scribed. It subsists on sunlight alone, its mass remains con-
Stant, it continues to think and live like a mortal or an
immortal being.
The cradle of such beings, of course, is a planet like the
Earth, i.e., having an atmosphere and oceans consisting of
some kind of gases or liquids. But a mature being of this
kind can live in a void, in the ether, even without grav-
ity, so long as there is solar energy. Fortunately there
is no dearth of it as millions upon millions of suns, young
413
and old, with and without families of planets, have been
tirelessly emitting this energy for many trillions of years.
When some of the suns become feeble or extinguished, new
ones take their place. Beings similar to those we have
described cannot fail to make use of this abundant radiat-
ing energy. They surround all the suns, even those that
have no planets, and utilise their energy to live and think.
There must be a purpose for the stars’ energy!
We have mentioned beings like terrestrial plants and
animals. We are not going outside the limits of science,
but our imagination has all the same produced that which
does not exist on the Earth but which is possible from the
viewpoint of our narrow (so-called scientific) understand-
ing of matter. .
By this we mean 80-90 elements, their transformation,
protons, electrons and other working hypotheses. We have
reached several conclusions that living organisms could
adapt themselves to the many conditions of life to be
found on millions and millions of planets and beyond them;
the forms and functions of these beings are naturally much
more varied than is the case with terrestrial plants and
animals; the same applies to their degree of perfection,
but this, in general, is far higher than the highest found
on the Earth; in comparison human genius is nothing. All
this is the result of a great variety of conditions and aeons
of time, of which there could be no shortage whatsoever.
In thè course of time unity is achieved on every planet,
all imperfections are eliminated, it attains a perfect so-
cial order and the greatest power; its supreme council
elects one who administers the whole planet. This one is
the most perfect being on it. His qualities gradually spread
to all the inhabitants but still they cannot all become quite
alike,
But the planet’s population multiplies and the surplus
can only find room in the space around their sun. This pop-
ulation is many million times more numerous than that
left on the planet. It, too, is administered by an elected
414
body and its president. The latter is still more perfect than
the president of the council on an individual planet.
Then neighbouring groups of suns, galaxies, ethereal
islands, and: so on also unite. The representatives of these
social units ascend higher and higher in the scale of per-
fection. Thus, besides the rank-and-file population of the
Universe, which is at a fairly high level of perfection, we
find representatives of planets, solar systems, constella-
tions, galaxies, ethereal islands, and so on. It is difficult to
imagine the degree of perfection they have attained. They
may be likened to deities of different ranks.
One would think that perhaps there is no purpose in
the solar system or in several systems being united. Let
each solar system, for example, live as best it can. What
does it care about some other solar system? But each sun
with its planets will not exist for ever. All of them, in
any case, finally explode, become extinguished or suffer
various catastrophes. Before disasters happen some suita-
ble place to live, that is not occupied, has to be found for
the population. We must know all there is to know about
other solar systems. The president of each group will con-
sider what is in the common interest, he will give the nec-
essary information and direct the movement of the so-
cieties and give them every assistance in settling in the
new place.
Can communication be established between neighbour-
{ng suns? Since we can obtain some knowledge of them
even now you can imagine what will happen later on,
when man has begun to live in the ether where there is
no atmosphere to hamper the almost unlimited increase in
the power of telescopes, when we become free from the
devastating force of gravity, and so on.
For interstellar distances light does not travel fast
enough, it needs years and years to cover them. But per-
haps a new medium will be discovered in the ether, one
lighter and more elastic than the ether (just as ether is
Still found in the atmosphere). Perhaps its invisible vacilla-
415
tions will reach neighbouring suns in a matter not of years
but days or even hours. Then it will be easier to discuss
this problem than it is now.
All this is terrestrial, within the comprehension of the
simple scientific human mind. But perhaps there is a high-
er point of view, less comprehensible to us. That this
may be so is proved not merely by inspired reasoning but
by the facts. But for this we must rise above commonplace
working hypotheses—all these electrons, protons, hydro-
gen and the like.
Indeed, what course has the trend of scientific develop-
ment, i.e., the development of knowledge, taken? At first
man discovered a countless host of bodies with varied prop-
erties and took them to be an infinite number of funda-
mentally different substances. Later, all this variety was
reduced to 90 elements. Finally the conclusion was arrived
at that these 90 simple substances were made up of elec-
trons and protons; the idea of the ether was discarded com-
pletely. But the majority of physicists still use the ether as
a working hypothesis; they think of it as an extremely
rarefied and elastic substance, the particles of which are
many thousand million times smaller than protons and
millions of times smaller than electrons.* But what tre-
mendous leaps are those between the masses of the parti-
cles! If the mass of a proton is taken as unity, the mass of
an electron will be expressed by the ratio 1:2,000 and that
of ether 1 : (16X108).
This muddle can be cleared up if we discard the narrow
standpoint of modern working hypotheses.
Matter as it is at present is the result of the evolution
of a simpler matter whose elements we do not know. What
I mean is that at some period of time matter used to be
* See my Kinetic Theory of Light.
416
lighter and more elastic, because it consisted of smaller
particles than electrons. Perhaps those were particles of
ether.
When was this? Well, time is as infinite as space and
matter. There is any amount of it. No number can express
it. All known and imaginary times are zero compared with
time. So take enough time and we shall come to simpler
matter.
This “simple” matter is the result of still “simpler” mat-
ter. At some date the latter predominated in the Universe.
We can go on and on without an end in this way, and
come to the conclusion that matter can be divided infinitely
owing to the infiniteness of past time.
Say what you will, but to consider proton or hydrogen
to be the basis of the Universe, the true element, the indi-
visible, is as absurd as to consider a sun or a planet to be
that element.
It may be that someone, some giant for whom the whole
sky is only a small particle of matter, and for whom indi-
vidual suns are as invisible as atoms are for us, on exam-
ining the “sky” through his “microscope”, will notice the
suns and will joyfully exclaim: “At last I have discovered
the particles of which ‘matter’ consists!” But we know that
he would be grossly mistaken in taking the suns for indi-
visible atoms.
We make the mistake taking an electron, a proton or
even a particle of ether for an indivisible element. Our
reason and the history of the sciences tell us that our
atom is as complex as a planet or a sun.
What is the use of saying all this? What practical con-
clusion is to be drawn from it? I want to make it clear
that the infiniteness of past time opens up before us a
succession of worlds made up of substances more and
more rarefied, more and more elastic. (It has been observed
that with the decrease of the mass of particles their trans-
lational velocity increases as does their elasticity. Hence,
in more complex matter elasticity decreases, in less com-
27—761 417
plex matter it increases.) I want to make it clear that our
matter, too, will continue to evolve. Some time in the fu-
ture worlds will arise consisting of more and more com-
plex and massive particles. To the future generations of
conscious beings, these, too, will seem at first to be atoms.
But in this they will be as mistaken as we are.
“Well, what of it, what follows?” the reader may ask.
And we shall answer: The epochs that have become lost in
the infinity of time produced beings that achieved perfec-
tion just as beings made up of “our” matter are achieving
it. Each of the rarefied worlds had its own solid, liquid
and gaseous substances which served too for the formation
of thinking beings (consisting of very “subtle” matter).
There has been an infinite number of such epochs before
us and there will be an infinite number in the future. Our
epoch, with conscious beings like those on the Earth, is
one of this endless chain of epochs.
Our imagination presents to us an infinite number of
epochs in the past and in the future, each with its living
beings. What are these beings like, is there any connection
between them, how do they manifest themselves, can they
manifest themselves, do they disappear with the arrival of
a new epoch?
We shall give an example. Plants and animals on Earth
have undergone an evolution. They sprang from a single
source—very simple protoplasm. One could even say that
they sprang from inorganic matter which gave rise to
protoplasm, from which developed a number of very dif-
ferent beings. Some of them became extinct, but in general
the development of higher animals did not prevent the
lower, more ancient, primitive forms from continuing to
exist without much progress. At the feast of life on Earth
we see existing simultaneously bacteria, infusoria, worms,
insects, fish, amphibia, reptiles, birds, mammals and
man. True, the power of man threatens to destroy beings
that are inimical to him. Others, on the other hand, are
necessary for his well-being (bacteria and plants) and still
418
others ‘have some kind of intelligence and are useful to
him, so there is no point in destroying them.
Similarly the epochs, parts of immense and infinite time,
preserved not only the denser beings of our epoch but also
the lightest ones belonging to past epochs. Many of them
could have become extinct, but not all of them: those more
perfect and useful could have remained as beings that are
useful to man.
Formerly we advocated the repetition of phenomena, or
the periodic nature of the worlds, that the worlds were
time and again destroyed and time and again arose. Perio-
dicity there is, but the periods are not all alike, they seem
to descend for they yield ever more complex matter. It
can be compared to an undulating road: we first ascend
then descend as we go along, never noticing that the road
slopes downwards all the time and that at the end of each
period we are on a lower level than before. There is no
end, of course, to periods (waves), to the descent (the
increasing complexity and density of matter).
278
BIOLOGY OF DWARFS AND GIANTS
THE HALF-SIZED MAN
If a man is 180 cm tall, then when he is half that size
he will, of course, be 90 cm. Provided geometric propor-
tions are observed, the bodily surface area will dwindle to
a quarter, and the total volume to an eighth. The weight
and mass of the body will diminish to the same extent. Our
man weighed 64 kg before; now he weighs only 8 kg. The
volume, weight, and mass of his brain, as well as of all
his other organs will also be reduced to one-eighth. Mean-
while the surface area will be only a quarter, and the linear
measurement, i.e., length, breadth and height, will be one-
half. Since this should cause the capacity for logical
thought to weaken, our dwarf is hardly likely to be able
to comprehend and describe his sensations. We shall have
to do that for him. Only with a different brain structure
and a different ratio between its different segments, can
he retain enough intelligence, despite the reduction in the
general mass of the brain.
The total absolute emission of heat will decrease to one
quarter, fully corresponding to the diminished body area.
Consequently, the body temperature should seemingly
remain the same as before. However, since the cold will
penetrate more deeply into the body, the temperature in
its central parts should drop.
The relative volume of food and oxygen consumed and
of excreta should become doubled. Whereas a normal being
consumes two kilograms of food in the 24-hour cycle,
420
our dwarf will consume half a kilogram, which in relation
to the mass of his body, will be twice as much. Thus, our
dwarf will be much more of a glutton. To dine, he will
need a sausage twice as long and a loaf of bread twice as
big—that is, of course, relatively speaking.
He will perform, again relatively speaking, twice as
much mechanical work. He will be able to climb a mountain
or a Staircase and run twice as quckly (that is, if only
friction is taken into consideration, and atmospheric resist-
ance ignored). In relation to the dimensions of his smaller
body, the effect will be four times greater. Thus in one
minute, a normal person climbs a distance equal to his
height; our dwarf—a distance equal to four times his
height.
The absolute muscular strength will dwindle to a quarter.
There will be no point in trying to fight a giant or anyone
that is tall in general; the dwarf is bound to be vanquished.
However, the relative muscular power will double. Whereas
previously he could lift one person, now, as a dwarf, he
can lift two of his own size with still greater ease.
The relative resistance to fracture of the bones and
gristle will double as, too, will the resistance of the tendons
and the skin. Whereas a normal person easily carries
himself and another person of his own size on his shoul-
ders, the dwarf will be able to carry six of his own size,
himself included, or five, not counting himself. Apparently,
the dwarf will be able to drag a log relatively twice as long
and as heavy. He will be able to drag rocks twice as large
in volume, and pull a cart loaded with twice the weight.
The absolute height from which our dwarf will be able to
fall without harming himself will be twice as great; how-
ever, compared with the size of his body it will be four
times as much. A normal person can fall without harming
himself from about his height; but a dwarf can fall down
safely from a place four times his height.
The work performed by any muscle in one contraction
dwindles to one-eighth since the tension will be a quarter,
421
and the size of the contraction is half as much. In con-
Sequence of this, a leap will cover the same absolute
distance, but in relative terms it will be greater. Indeed,
a person of normal height crouches by 30 cm when pre-
paring to jump, and jumps, let us say, as much, raising his
body in all 60 cm. The dwarf’s muscles should raise him
to the same height, But since he will lift himself by only
15 cm upon straightening up, he will still have another
45 cm to go, and, consequently, in relation to his height
the jump he makes is 3 times as great. A normal person
is able to jump on to a chair, but a dwarf will easily be able
to jump on to a table. If, in performing work, the number
of muscular contractions a minute remains the same, the
absolute work performed would decrease to an eighth,
while the relative work performed would remain constant.
However, we know that the relative work performed by
the dwarf is twice as great. Consequently, the number of
muscular contractions per unit of time should double. In
other words, the frequency of movement, the number of
motions made by the limbs, the head, and so on, should
double. This exactly corresponds to the faster nerve com-
munications. The dwarf will prove to be not only a strong
man, an unrivalled jumper and acrobat, but he will also
be very lively, swift and agile.
The absolute height reached by stones of proportionate
sizes, thrown up by hand, will remain the same, but in
relation to the thrower’s height it will be twice as much,
Whereas a normal person can throw a stone the size of his
fist to a height 10 times greater than his own height, the
dwarf can throw a stone the size of his fist to a height
20 times greater than his own. Whereas the first will throw
a stone over his house, the dwarf will throw the same
stone over a house twice the size—of course, in proportion
to his own dimensions.
A blow struck by the fist or a kick, is proportionate to
the dwarf’s mass; in other words, the force of the blow
or kick will be 8 times weaker, since the speed at which
422
the hand, with or without a weapon, moves remains the
same. Hence, the relative force of a blow, delivered by
a fist, hammer, sword, or knife, remains constant, but
the frequency with which the blows are delivered, is
doubled.
The dwarf will find swimming easy, as his energy is
twice as great, while the absolute velocity of the fall into
the water will be reduced by practically a third. Further,
the relative efficiency of the limbs is doubled as their
relative surface area is also doubled.
The foregoing makes it clear that it is far easier for
a dwarf to combat gravity, as he is more energetic and
lively, and even swifter, in absolute terms. What, then, in the
struggle for survival, prevented dwarfs from ousting peo-
ple of normal height? In the first place dwarfs lose because
of their diminished absolute muscular power; in the strug-
gle against gravitation they gain, but in the struggle against
creatures larger than themselves they lose. In addition, the
smaller volume of the brain means weaker mental ability.
THE DOUBLE-SIZED MAN
Suppose now that instead of being 1 m 80 cm tall, our
man is 3 m 60 cm tall. His volume, mass and weight will
multiply 8-fold. Instead of 64 kg, our giant will weigh
512 kg. The absolute power of his muscles and limbs will
be quadrupled. But in relation to his weight, it will be
only half as much. Whereas a person of normal height
is easily able to carry another person of the same height
on his back, the giant will be unable to carry anything,
all his muscular energy is used to carry the mass of his
own body, which is now 8 times greater. He no longer has
enough strength to work, carry loads or build dwellings.
In fact, he will hardly be able to drag himself along; the
slightest pressure will cause him to topple over.
True, he will possess a much greater brain power. But
what use is this to him, if he is physically impotent, is
423
unable to work and has to spend every ounce of his strength
to carry the weight of his own body. The state of being
a giant may be compared to that of an ordinary healthy
man of good physique, who is overloaded to exhaustion
and has no hope of ever ridding himself of the load.
The effort that a giant must make to combat gravity
will be four times greater in relation to his height, because
the loads corresponding to his size increase 8-fold, while
the height to which they must be lifted is doubled. As a
result the work increases 16-fold. Meanwhile, his absolute
Strength will be only fourfold. Consequently, the energy
available to combat gravity is reduced to a quarter. A
giant of still greater height will even be unable to walk,
lift or move his limbs, or perform any mechanical work.
He will retain longest the ability to lift a finger, move his
tongue and other minor organs. But a still taller giant will
even fail to do that, as he will no longer prove able to
overcome their weight. And if he is still taller his blood
vessels will burst, all his internal organs will be crushed,
and he will die.
A MAN ONE HUNDRED TIMES SMALLER
It is scarcely likely in this case that we shall ever be
able to reproduce the internal organs of the appropriate
proportions, but let us presume that it can be done. Now
we are dealing with a real Lilliputian. He is only 10 mm
high, his body surface area is 10,000 times smaller, while
his volume, mass, and weight, are a million times less than
those of a normal person. He will weigh 0.063 gr, which
is just a little more than the weight of an ordinary drop
of water. However, his relative muscular power will be a
hundred times greater, and he will be able to lift loads a
hundred times larger in relation to the mass of his body.
The relative strength of his bones, gristle, skin and other
supporting elements will also be a hundred times greater.
He will be able to carry 200 beings like himself without
424
fear of breaking a single bone or pulling a single muscle.
He will carry them with the same ease, with which a
normal person carries another.
He will find it 10,000 times easier to combat gravity.
For one and the same time the Lilliputian will dig 10,000
dugouts of a size corresponding to his height while the
normal-sized man will dig only one. The canal he digs in the
same period of time as the normal-sized man will be
10,000 times longer (relative to his height, of course).
Though the relative amount of work performed by
muscular contraction will remain the same, the apparent
size of the jump he is able to make will be a hundred times
greater, in relation to his size, and, furthermore, he will
be able to lift himself off the ground to a height 200 times
his own. Without a running start, the Lilliputian will be
able to jump over a building that appears as a 20-storey
“skyscraper” to him and to leap across puddles, that seem
to him as large as lakes. He will be able to throw stones
just as far and just as high—which in relative terms will
mean a 100-fold increase. He will swim without any effort
at all as the relative power of his muscles and the surface
area of his palms will be a hundred times greater.
To the Lilliputian the air—in comparison with the mass
of his own body—will seem to be a hundred times denser.
The force of the wind will also seem a hundred times
stronger. However, he will not be helpless even in the face
of a strong gale, as his muscular power and tenacity will
be a hundred times greater.
Our Lilliputian can fall from any height he pleases.
Atmospheric resistance will prevent him from bruising him-
Self as his relatively large body surface area will not permit
a velocity of more than 3 to 4 metres a second. Further-
more, the resistance his bones and other organs offer to
destruction is a hundred times greater. Even if our midget
were much larger he would be able to jump off a cloud
without hurting himself.
425
Holding a small pair of wings in his hands, our Lillipu-
tian will be able to fly and even carry a relatively heavy
load.
* * +
Again the question arises: How was it that in the
process of evolution man did not become a Lilliputian
since small dimensions seem to present such great advan-
tages?
Firstly, the absolute strength the organs of larger crea-
tures possess is nevertheless greater and if ìt comes to
a fight with midgets, the latter have a bad time of it.
Secondly, larger creatures possess a greater intelligence
and this adds to the chances of winning.
Had the gravitational pull of our planet been different,
the size of that most perfect of creatures, the human being,
and for that matter of all other creatures, would have
changed. For instance, with a sixfold diminution in gravity
(as is the case on the Moon) man might have been 6 times
taller, have possessed a mass 216 times greater and a
muscular power 36 times stronger. His brain would have
been correspondingly larger. Thanks to his muscular power
(and vast intelligence) this type of man would have been
the victor, even though, in the struggle against dead nature,
dwarfs would have had great physical advantages. Our
10-m giant would have been (provided all the proportions
would have been observed) an awkward creature, even
though able to move about and jump with the same ease
as a man on the Earth, though six times more slowly, in
relation to his size, of course. However, his absolute mus-
cular power and intelligence would enable him to subdue
all smaller creatures.
On the other hand, had gravity been 2.5 times greater,
as is the case on Jupiter, the human race would have been
2.5 times smaller. For otherwise their own body weight
would have deprived the people on Jupiter of their capacity
to work and even to move about by their own muscular
426
effort. The human being would have been 72 cm tall, would
have possessed a brain 16 times smaller in volume and
weight, and would probably have had a very limited
intelligence. However, since all other creatures would also
have been smaller, man would have continued to be master
of small living nature.
However, the highest progress in terms of machines,
inventions and science, would probably have been extreme-
ly slow. We could not have expected the advances in
technology that are now witnessed on the Earth and which,
we hope, will in time reach unimaginable proportions. On
Mars, Mercury and the other minor planets and satellites,
we might have expected land animals of gigantic propor-
tions and vast intelligence, if it had not been prevented by
other unfavourable conditions, for instance, excessively
high or low temperatures, an atmosphere unsuited to life,
a scarcity of water and other elements beneficial for the
evolution of life, etc.
ISLAND OF ETHER
By the Island of Ether we mean the whole of the known
Universe. I shall now give you its dimensions, structure
and shape.
Actually it consists entirely of shining suns surrounded
by spheres with extinguished surfaces that are akin to our
Earth. These spheres are called planets. The same can be
said of the Cosmos. It consists of a countless host of
bodies, large and small, of the most varied dimensions.
Some of the larger bodies are suns in the period of their
brilliance. Others, smaller in size and mass, are suns in
the period of their fading, and are dark. The small bodies
did not emit light for long; they soon cooled, and most
[of their existence] was spent in darkness. These are the
planets, their satellite moons, and a countless host of tiny
bodies. Finally, we see immense gaseous and extreme-
ly rarefied nebulae. They are larger than the suns
but glow faintly. These are suns in the period of genesis.
Let us note, in general, that the smaller the mass of the
body, the more often do we find others like it in the
Universe, i.e., there are more small bodies than large ones.
Thus in this space there are mostly dust specks and less
rocks and bolides; then, in order of the number that exists,
there follow the minor asteroids and moons of the same
dimensions; medium-size asteroids and their satellites of
the same dimensions, the large asteroids and moons, the
minor planets, medium-size planets, large planets, suns,
and gaseous nebulae.
428
A sun which is linked by gravitation with other nearby
suns and with small, cold, planetary spheres forms the
totality called the solar system. The Universe is full of
solar or planetary systems. They are very far apart, as
being isolated by space. A solar system, in general,
consists of several suns and a multitude of planets, i.e.,
of dark spheres like the Earth. Every solar system was at
the outset an irregular, extremely rarefied, gaseous mass.
Where did it come from? The whole of the known Universe
is surrounded by a transparent and extremely rarefied
material medium, called ether. Throughout the whole of it,
condensation gives rise to the ordinary substance consist-
ing of known atoms or their different parts. That is why
the ethereal mass is not quite transparent. It [contains]
atoms. Gravitation collects the already formed parts of
matter, or atoms, into clusters, into irregular gaseous
nebulae. Hence, the first stage of the solar system is the
ethereal one, while the second stage is that of the irregu-
lar, scarcely discernible nebula. Condensing more and
more, it becomes dense and assumes the circular shape of
a nebula. This is the third stage. Condensation continues,
luminescence increases, and the temperature rises. We thus
arrive at a star of the fourth age, a gigantic solitary, red
sun, with no companions and no planets. The initial nebula
had a feeble, haphazard, irregular motion, which in the
giant sun developed into motion of translation and rotation.
What, in general, was the source of the initial, scarcely
perceptible, motion? Firstly, there was the influence of
the mutual attraction of the parts of the gaseous mass and,
secondly, the gravitational pull of neighbouring masses,
that is, of similar nebulae and suns. The two combined to
produce an irregular motion which was resolved, as a
result, into the two simple motions of rotation and transla-
tion. Of course, since this motion was never quite regular
either, this subsequently caused certain anomalies (during
the birth of the planets).
The giant star, as yet, revolves very slowly, and produces
429
a spherically shaped mass. But as the star condenses (due
to the formation of more and more complex matter, pos-
sessing less elasticity the more complex it is), this rotation
accelerates, the axis of rotation becomes shorter, the
equatorial line extends, our ball-shaped star becomes more
and more flattened, turning into a sort of pancake, and the
entire process culminates in a solar explosion.
Here two things may take place: 1) The embryonic
rotation was feeble, in consequence of which, before the
explosion (or just prior to it), the star should have con-
siderably condensed or become dense at the middle com-
pared with the outer parts. In this case a ring of the type
seen round Saturn separated from the giant sun. 2) In the
second case, the embryonic rotation of the gaseous mass
was much greater. Then before it broke up, the star pos-
sessed an almost homogeneous density as rapid rotation
prevented it from becoming greatly compressed. In this
case, due to the centrifugal force, it extended in one
direction and broke apart like a dividing germ. This brought
into being two suns of approximately identical volume and
mass.
What took place in the first case, and what happened
to the shining solar ring? Due to radiation, the mass of
the central spheroid diminished, causing the ring to move
further away and finally split off, at first into several
lengthwise rings set on top of each other and then trans-
versely, with the formation of relatively small, spherical,
rarefied, relatively small shining suns.
This is when child-planets are born. These child-planets
—of which there may be several dozens or hundreds—
move farther and farther away from their parent, due to
the central luminary’s loss of mass and to tidal causes,
and create a [shining] planetary system. Actually, we now
have a heap of large and small suns. Subsequently, the
smaller ones cool, become covered over with a solid crust,
and completely cease to shine. If they can still be seen, it
is only because they are illuminated by the sun. After the
480
small planets, the other bodies successively cool down, in
the order of their size. There thus comes into being an
ordinary planetary system akin to our own.
However, before they cooled entirely, the planets gave
birth to satellites or moons, in the very same way as their
parent, the principal sun, gave birth to them. Now it is
clear for us why all the planets, their satellites, and the
sun itself move and rotate in one direction. All these
motions were imparted to them by the Sun. We can also
understand now why the planets are so far away from
the Sun. They drew farther and farther away from it, as
they are now doing, owing to the Sun’s loss of mass and
inductive deceleration.
As the planets separated and moved farther away from
the luminary, its rotational force grew weaker and weaker.
It was spent in making the planets move and draw farther
away. After more or less prolific child-bearing, there always
comes a time when one can no longer expect further
“fertility” from the weakened and [aged] sun. The ring
most likely separates once. Only then does it split length-
wise and transversely, creating the planets.
In the second case, the parts of the broken-up Sun, which
came to have almost equal proportions owing to their loss
of mass due to radiation and to tidal deceleration, also
moved farther apart and formed a double star, a double
sun.
In the process of further condensation, each of these
two suns could have undergone either the first or second
process described above (according to the conditions),
giving rise to planetary systems or double suns.
There thus came into being in the heavens triple and
multiple suns drawn together by attraction. We mostly
see double suns (30 per cent), fewer triple suns, and still
fewer quadruple suns, etc. In practice we may find a
complex sun consisting of as many as seven shining mem-
bers, We have examined the two extremes, or rather the
two typical phenomena. However, between them lie a
431
multitude of secondary, intermediary phenomena. Actually,
we have an almost continuous chain of such phenomena.
Let us take only a few of its links. Let us imagine several
gaseous nebulae of identical mass and volume, but pos-
sessing different embryonic speeds of rotation, from nil
up to the greatest possible velocity. We thus get the fol-
lowing stars that actually exist.
I. A solitary sun with no rotation and no planets. It
has no children and therefore no grandchildren. As it has
no rotation, there is nothing to produce centrifugal force
(which causes the mass to break up). Such a sterile sun is
a very rare and unlikely case, but we cannot deny that it
may exist in the infinite extension of the Cosmos.
2. Feeble rotation and hence extremely powerful central
compression. The ring failed to separate because the cold,
small sun was unable to achieve a speed of rotation that
would overcome the force of attraction.
3. One not massive ring separates, and subsequently
moves away to become a planet.
4, A more massive ring separates, and subsequently
produces several rings and planets.
5. More rings and still more massive planets.
6. A multitude of rings and planets with a consider-
able mass.
7. A double sun that after separation has a smaller mass.
Further compression of each sun may give rise to every-
thing described above.
8. A double sun with equal masses.
9. A triple sun.
10. A multiple sun. Each of the suns in the last four
categories may give rise to what has been described above
in the case of a solitary sun.
Generally speaking, the aggregate mass of the planets
is the greater, the higher the category, or the greater the
embryonic speed of rotation of the gaseous nebula. How-
ever, what happened further to the solar systems, that is
to systems with suns and planets?
432
Both had matter that was much more complex than
elementary, ethereal, or less simple matter (electrons, for
example), Hence, the process of disintegration predomi-
nated in them. At first it gave rise in the bodies to an even
radiation, then an uneven radiation, and, finally, explosions.
The intervals between explosions lengthened while the
explosions themselves came to be more and more terrific
in force. We shall now try to explain what caused these
explosions. While the matter was gaseous and mobile,
there were no explosions. However, the central pressure,
the condensation of matter, its cooling, began to obstruct
the unintermittent emission of electrons, ether, or other
elementary, and consequently unusually elastic, matter.
Then it became periodic. That is, the elastic matter ac-
cumulated in the celestial bodies until it was strong
enough to overcome such obstacles as friction, thickness,
hardness, etc. Then an explosion took place. The more
powerful the resistance offered by the cooling and con-
densation of the matter, the more time was required to
overpower it. Therefore, both the force of the explosions
and their periodicity, in the case of each star, increased as
the star aged.
There is a particular class of stars (the cepheids). The
larger, the brighter they are (true, and not apparent,
brightness), and the greater their central pressure and
condensation. The greater, therefore, the resistance to
explosion, and the greater its periodicity and force. It has
even been established that the interval between explosions
is proportional to the absolute brightness. This has enabled
us to determine the absolute brightness and, consequently,
the distance of the stars from us. So each ageing star
begins to explode with ever greater force but less often.
Thus at first it loses its matter through even radiation and
later through increasingly powerful explosions. At times
the cepheids explode with such force that in one second
they radiate more energy than our Sun radiates during
many years. Thus, on the one hand, we have nebulae and
28—761 433
suns arising everywhere from the ethereal medium, and,
on the other hand, these same nebulae and suns disintegrat-
ing and being dissipated into the ether, serving partly to
supplement the self-generation of nebulae from the ether.
Neither do the small bodies, the planets, escape the fate
of an explosion. This disaster should overtake them even
before it does the suns. Indeed, since their central pressure
is not great, there is less resistance to prevent the elasticity
of the disintegrating matter from triumphing over attrac-
tion. It may well be that our planets too, for instance the
Earth, exploded more than once. However, the mutual
attraction of their parts caused them to gather again into
a single mass. A tiny planet (much smaller than our Moon)
that existed between Mars and Jupiter, most likely ex-
ploded at some time or other, and its parts failed to unite
again, thus bringing into being a swarm of angular-shaped
asteroids. The fragments were unable to merge again into
one planet for the following reason. The planet exploded
not at once into a multitude of fragments but, for example,
into two halves, these two halves later exploding again,
and so on. The phenomenon could have been so complicat-
ed, that considering, furthermore, the attraction of Jupiter
and the other planets, the asteroids became independent
baby planets. By virtue of all that has been said, we see
that death reigns in the Universe just as much as birth.
The general [picture] remains unchanged.
The Island of Ether is permanently made up of:
1) Embryos of matter in every region of the ether. They
either arise of their own accord from the medium or are
ejected by celestial bodies.
2) Irregular gaseous nebulae as a result of attraction.
3) “Planetary (i.e with a spherical form, like a planet)
nebulae, the progenitors of suns.
4) Giant, solitary, red suns.
5) Yellow suns of a smaller mass and size but of a
greater density and temperature.
434
6) White suns of still smaller dimensions and mass
but of a still greater density and temperature.
7) Blue suns of still smaller dimensions and mass but
with a higher density and temperature.
8) White suns in which the temperature, mass and
dimensions are still smaller, but the density increases.
9) Yellow suns. Their temperature, volume and mass
are still smaller, but their density continues to increase.
Explosions are frequent and feeble.
10) Red dwarf suns. Their volume, mass and temper-
ature are still smaller and only their density increases.
Explosions are less frequent, but are of a greater force.
11) Faint stars. Explosions are still stronger.
12) Invisible suns that have cooled on the surface like
planets and that explode periodically until they completely
disperse into the ether. Incidentally, all suns, except the
young giants, explode.
We do not know at which time during this age of the
star, at which of its periods, suns and planets begin to
give birth. This incidentally depends on the embryonic
speed of the progenitor-nebula. Noting merely the suite
of suns and their progeny, we encounter the following
planetary systems (that either shine or are dark):
1) Suns devoid of planets. They can be of all ages
provided there is no rotation.
2) Suns with only one planet.
3) Suns with two planets.
4) Suns with several planets.
5) Suns with very many planets.
6) A sun with a smaller sun (a double sun), each having
many planets.
7) A sun with a companion of the same size (with
another sun). Both have planets.
8) A triple sun with planets.
9) A multiple sun with planets (with the exception of
tiny Vulcan).
Most frequent are the average conditions, the average
28* 435
embryonic speed of rotation and the average number of
planets. We cannot say for certain that our planetary
system is an average case, because about 30 per cent of
all the suns are double suns. Rather it is a system with few
planets of small size. Indeed, our most massive planet
Jupiter is a thousand times smaller in mass than its parent
Sun. What is more, the mass of all the planets of our
system is some 700 times less than that of the central
luminary. Probably most solar systems, after their period
of generation, are richer in planets than ours. They have
bigger families, especially the double suns. It is only our
own planetary system (with all its small fry) that we know
pretty well.
The diameter of the orbit of our planet Neptune is less
than 1,000 million kilometres. That is precisely the size of
our planetary system (not counting tiny Vulcan). The
distance of the nearest solar systems is nearly 40,000 mil-
lion kilometres, or, in other words, a little more than
40,000 times greater than the size of our system. Generally
speaking, the distance to the neighbouring solar systems
averages around 400,000 million kilometres, which is
400,000 times more than the size of our system. This shows
that the dimensions of the solar systems are very small
compared with the space which separates them. Between
them they have terrifyingly vast deserts of ether.
Roughly from 10 to 500 thousand million solar systems
have been discovered with the aid of the telescope or
photography. They comprise the Milky Way. A [somewhat]
Strange name. It is in the shape of a flat pancake or a curl.
In its centre the stars are near neighbours, but the closer
to the edges, the farther apart they become. To determine
the dimensions of the Milky Way and [other systems], let
us use another unit of time called the light year. Though
really a little under 10,000 million km we shall take it to
be exactly 10,000 million km. This is the distance that
light travels in the course of a year ([covering]
300,000 km/sec). In terms of these units our planetary
436
system will equal to 10 hours in size, or, in other words,
it will take light 10 hours to travel the entire diameter
of Neptune’s annual journey. At a distance of 3,000 of these
units from the centre of the Milky Way, the number of
suns already drops to one-tenth, or, in other words, they
are a little more than twice as distant from one another.
At a distance of 15,000 light years, there are hardly any
stars at all. This is where they are farthest apart. The
Milky Way is therefore taken to be 30,000 light years
across, This is the diameter of the flat pancake of the
Milky Way. Its thickness is one-sixth of this, i.e., 5,000
light years. But that is not all there is to the Milky Way....
Beyond the stars of the Milky Way, the void of ether
contains more groups of suns which are called stellar
clusters or stellar accumulations. They are, as it were, the
continuation of the Milky Way pancake and consequently
belong to it. Though they extend its diameter, they do not
make it thicker. In these groups the stars are closer
together than in the centre of the Milky Way. In some
instances, they are 3,000 times closer together, which
means that there the sun is 14 times nearer than in the
centre of our Milky Way.
The cluster has more stars in the middle than at its
edges, just as in the case of the Milky Way. The clusters
are roughly of the same size. They have diameters of
around 500 light years. But they are situated much farther
away from the edges of the Milky Way. The latter with its
sun clusters has a diameter of already as much as 300,000
light years. The stars and stellar clusters move in various
directions. Their paths seem to be straight. The cause of
the motion is, of course, the attraction exerted by the
totality of stars in the Milky Way. Some people have
noticed certain regularities in the movement of the suns:
namely, two or three streams of stars. The velocity of the
Stars and their clusters is usually between 10 and
100 km/sec. The stellar clusters on the edges of the Milky
Way have long been attracted towards it and possess a
437
velocity of as much as 100 and more kilometres a second.
Incidentally, stars, too, move at times with unusual rapid-
ity, travelling as fast as 500 kilometres a second.
1 said that most of the stellar clusters are located in
one direction or in one plane with the curl of the Milky
Way, thus comprising one group with it. However, other
nebulous splotches distributed evenly throughout the
heavens are to be observed. W. Herschel thought these were
other milky ways, but was later assailed by doubts. For
a long time afterwards they were believed to be sections
of our own Milky Way, gaseous nebulae, the embryos of
suns. But when telescopes and photography improved,
they were seen to have separate stars and to display solar
explosions. Their extreme faintness enabled us to con-
jecture that they were tremendously far away. It was found
that these spiral splotches lie far beyond the boundaries
of our Milky Way and the stellar clusters, at a distance of
millions of light years. No wonder that for so long they
could not be distinguished from gaseous nebulae. Now the
conviction is increasingly growing that these splotches,
which often are shaped like curls and are therefore called
spiral nebulae, are nothing but remote galaxies similar to
our own Milky Way. Consequently they also contain thou-
sands of millions of planetary systems. It is claimed that
there are millions of other galaxies. They are millions of
light years apart, while the diameter of the entire group
of these other galaxies is hundreds of millions of light
years. In my Kinetic Theory of Light I demonstrated that
ether spreads to a distance of only several hundreds of
millions of light years. Then it becomes rarefied beyond
measure, just as the top strata of our atmosphere do. Be-
yond the boundaries of the ether lies another kind of mat-
ter which is incomparably more rarefied. That is why I
have called the known group of galaxies the Island of Ether.
Beyond it there probably lie other similar islands, but we
cannot obtain any information about them, as light is unable
to propagate through the etherless voids between them.
438
Our Island of Ether races along with all its ether, into
the unknown at an unknown speed of tremendous propor-
tions. We are unable to ascertain this speed, as we cannot
see the other islands of ether.
The velocity of the spiral nebulae, i.e., the other galaxies,
is of the order of thousands of kilometres a second. But
this is a relative velocity, i.e., in relation to the ether or
Island of Ether, which is considered stationary.
So to sum up: a planetary system is a group of celestial
bodies consisting of one or several suns and a multitude
of Earth-like planets. They are located in one plane and
move and rotate in one direction. The entire svstem races
along in a straight line, at a speed of between 10 to 100 or
more kilometres a second. Its dimensions are of the order
of thousands of millions of kilometres or dozens of light
hours.
The Milky Way consists of thousands of millions of
gaseous nebulae and suns that are either childless, have
families. (i.e., planetary systems), or are fading. The ex-
plosions of the fading suns fill space with a host of comets
and help to create new gaseous nebulae.
The comets are, in all likelihood, really sun-spewed
clots. Most of them fall back on to the sun, but a few, the
luckiest ones, have a velocity greater than the attraction
of the suns and are either comets, which have been in
circulation for a long time, or vagabond, periodless comets
dashing to and fro between the suns from one luminary
to another.
Suns of all ages are separated in the Milky Way by
vast expanses of space, measured in hundreds of thousands
of millions of millions of kilometres, or dozens of light
years across. These voids are hundreds of thousands of
times larger than the planetary systems. They move in a
Straight line in all directions and only after millions of
years do their paths curve. As they thread their path
through the Milky Way, they waver inside it and may
escape its sphere of attraction.
439
On the outskirts of the Milky Way we have as its con-
tinuation the stellar clusters. They are what might be called
miniature galaxies. They are hundreds of light years
across and thousands of light years apart. There are not
very many of them. They move rapidly and seem to fall
towards. their Milky Way.
The Island of Ether is made up of a limited spherical
mass of ether and galaxies, including our own, that float
in, this ether. There are millions of them, that is, spiral
nebulae. In size they are like our Milky Way. The distance
to the nearest is millions of light years. Consequently the
voids between them are dozens of times larger than they
are. The entire Island of Ether contains many thousands
of millions of millions of suns of all ages and millions of
millions of millions of planets.
However, even the Island of Ether is but a small (even
infinitely small) part of the unknown Universe. As a drop
is small compared with an ocean, as an atom is negligible
compared with the Earth or the Sun, so is the Island of
Ether imperceptible compared with the unknown Cosmos,
But even that is not correct, because it is still infinitely
more majestic.
<>
Of the limited character of our knowledge, the same can
be said as is said of the Earth, the Sun, the Milky Way and
the Island of Ether: it is immeasurably small.
BEYOND THE EARTH'S ATMOSPHERE
Experiments have begun with reaction-propelled auto-
mobiles and planes. Calculations show that these experi-
ments will not result in an improved automobile or aero-
plane, because the use of explosives in motoring or aero-
nautics is uneconomical, considering the speeds explosives
can attain in the air. However, these experiments have
another extremely important aspect. The reaction-pro-
pelled automobile and aeroplane, built according to the
design indicated in my composition “The Cosmic Rocket”.
Practical Preparation, will teach us how to pilot rocket
planes and soar higher and higher.
At great altitudes we shall need a pressurised cabin
with oxygen sources and absorbers of human excreta.
Ascents will gradually go beyond the boundaries of the
troposphere and, in the process of testing and improving
the aeroplane, will reach airless space. The return to the
Earth will be effected by gliding. This will be something
like rocket shots, like leaps into the air, which may lead
to flights beyond the atmosphere.
The absence of atmospheric resistance there and centri-
fugal force when the velocity is around 7-8 km/sec, will
impart to the rocket plane a stable altitude outside the
atmosphere and outside the Earth. The apparatus will
become an Earth satellite, a tiny moon, and its stability
will be the same as that of any planet satellite. Ever-
lasting motion and eternal constancy.
u
Were it not for the spoiling of the air inside the rocket,
and lack of food, there would be nothing to prevent us
from ending our lives peacefully and happily in ethereal
isolation.
The rocket must have portholes to let in the sunlight
and prolific plants capable of purifying the air inside the
rocket and of supplying fruits suitable for food and for
maintaining strength.
Light pressure will enable the projectile to move away
from the Earth and enter its orbit, to approach or move
away from the Sun and, in general, to travel within the
limits of our solar system.
Though this is something still remote, we would like
to describe here the phenomena and the conditions for
plant and animal life in the ether presuming that arrange-
ments have been made for a man to exist in special living
accommodations, in the capacity of a tiny satellite of the
Earth or the Sun.
Suppose our rocket is somewhere on the Earth’s orbit,
but is far away from the Earth itself. Incidentally, it makes
no difference where it actually is; as long as it moves as
freely as any celestial body. Then nearly all the phenomena
will take place just as they do in the vicinity of the Earth
(outside the atmosphere). Only when the rocket is very
close, the Earth will tend to act on it by the warmth it
radiates, and in addition, by periodically casting a shadow
on the projectile, will produce alternately day and night.
Let us assume the simplest conditions, when the distance
between the rocket and the Sun is equal to the distance
between the Sun and Earth and the distance separating
the Earth from the rocket. Both conditions are observed
when the rocket is on the Earth’s orbit, but at a point
diametrically opposite to the planet.
We have everlasting day and virginal sunshine. Natu-
rally, we have no clouds, foggy weather, winds, dampness,
storms, earthquakes and the like. But closing the shutters
can always, when we wish, give us the darkest of nights..
#2
Before they fall on the human being, the Sun’s rays must
pass through ordinary window glass, otherwise the living
creature would be killed by ultra-violet rays. Plants could
be given light through quartz glass as well. It is possible
that for some of them this would be beneficial.
The temperature inside the rocket will depend on its
design and surface properties, just as the temperature of
any planet. But we cannot yet regulate the temperature of
the planet, because the planet itself is so enormous, and
the people are weak and few in number. However, we can
easily regulate the temperature inside the projectile; we
can obtain temperatures ranging from —270°C to +150°C.
This cannot be done with the structures on the surface of
the Earth, because they are surrounded by air which some-
times warms and sometimes cools them. But the rocket is
surrounded by a void. To get the highest temperature
inside the projectile, the part of our abode which faces the
Sun must be made transparent and penetrable to the
greatest amount of sunshine. In addition, inside the rocket
the sunshine must fall on a dark surface which absorbs
rays of light. The shady part of the dwelling must be given
one or several shining silvery surfaces which retain the
rays of heat and light inside the rocket and prevent them
from escaping into celestial space and thus cooling the
dwelling.
To obtain the lowest temperature, the rocket must be
turned round so that its shiny surface faces the Sun, while
its transparent side remains in the shade. Then the Sun’s
rays will be reflected without warming up the rocket, and its
warmth will freely escape into space through the shady side.
The surface of the rocket could be made a sliding one
and then without the rocket itself having to turn round,
the desired temperature could be obtained—from —270°C
to +150°C,
Can anything of the kind be achieved on the Earth?
How convenient it would be for life in general, for tech-
nology, for animals and plants. We could apply various
443
degrees of heating for the purpose of disinfection, tech-
nology, medical treatment and public baths, to warm the
aged, the infirm and new-born babies, to liquefy, to freeze,
and to store small volumes of gas, to cause plants to
germinate better, and so on. Then not only would firewood
and artificial lighting become unnecessary, but by employ-
ing special devices, it would be quite possible to have fur-
naces giving the temperature of the Sun (which at its sur-
face is between 5000° and 7000°C). But we shall not deal
with this here. At any rate, such a temperature would re-
lieve us of all need to use fuel in technical production proc-
esses.
The dwellings and the objects inside and around them
are attracted for many hundreds of kilometres by one and
the same force of gravity, which is the resultant force of
many component forces, including, among others, the gravi-
tational pulls of the Sun, the Earth, the planets and the
stars, etc. This resultant alters the velocity of the rocket
and all objects around it in absolutely the same way as
does the current of a river, carrying a bundle of wood
chips. Therefore, if the objects in the rocket were in a
state of relative rest, this state would not be disturbed, no
matter how long or how intensively the forces of gravity
were to act on the rocket and objects in it.
In short, the rocket with its sections and the objects
both inside and outside it, is, as it were, rid of gravitational
attraction. The inhabitant of the rocket, whether inside
or outside, will weigh nothing. On a planet, for instance,
all bodies fall down. On the rocket this does not happen.
On the Earth we have above and below. On the rocket
this is not so. On the Earth tall, slender objects should
[rise] upwards and objects [thrown up] fall down again.
But an object thrown from a rocket will not return to it
at all. It will fly away altogether (strictly speaking, it will
remain on the rocket’s circular orbit around the Sun: only
in the sphere of cosmic velocities will it move away from
the Sun and may even abandon it altogether).
ddd
All the Earth's bodies (even its gases) are bound to it
by the force of gravity; they are fettered to it with chains
of gravitation. However, there is no force binding anything
to a rocket: anything ejected from it will move away from
it for ever. Gas disperses. The attraction the rocket itself
exerts is difficult to detect, it is so small. On the Earth
walls topple down, old buildings are demolished by gravity
and even mountains crumble away, a man may stumble into
a pit and hurt himself. In ethereal space there is none of
this. All the buildings, no matter how weak the material
from which they are made, or how absurd and huge they
are (with dimensions running into hundreds of kilometres),
will remain intact.
How advantageous for ethereal structures! An absolute-
ly unpropped or unsuspended object that is stationary (in
relation to the rocket, of course) will remain stationary
for ever. A rotating one will spin for ever. The position of
a person devoid of all support is a tragic one, because
without motion of translation, he will not be able to move
an inch, despite his every effort. Strictly speaking, all that
remains stationary is the object’s centre of gravity. The
human being may go into any contortions he pleases,
Strike any pose, move his limbs, and, of course, talk,
provided there are gases around him.
But if there is some support: a wall, a rock, a clock or
a hat, it is enough just to push oneself away from it, or
throw something, for one to move steadily and in a straight
line until halted by some obstacle, a wall, an object, a
blow, by some force, by the resistance of the air or by
some other medium.
In the ether this constancy of motion is also a tremen-
dous advantage. There it will cost nothing to switch things
from place to place, even over thousands of kilometres,
because a velocity once acquired will never vanish without
cause or unless obstructed. Then horses, motor-cars,
railways, steamships, airships, airplanes, and even (dear
me!), legs will be quite unnecessary. Legs will be useful
445
only as a source of muscular power. Engines and motors
will be needed only to perform work, but not to move
about. Thus they will be required to saw, forge, press,
roll, crush, and so on.
In a seeming absence of gravity, a human being may
take any direction. Above will be where his head is and
below where his feet are. But with time this illusion will
disappear.
Objects do not press on one another. Therefore, there
will be no need for furniture, for tables, beds and pillows
(in place of furniture we shall have light nettings and grat-
ings on which to place things or hold them in position).
Together with the ability to produce the desired temper-
ature, this will rid the human being also of the need to
wear clothes and footwear. What an incomparable relief!
Absence of gravity cannot harm the human being while
for plants it is even beneficial. Even on the Earth people
almost lose their weight when they get into water, and
this is only harmful to the full-blooded, the infirm and
the aged, as it increases the flow of blood to the brain.
The recumbent position also reduces the blood pressure
(due to weight) almost to nil. To lie recumbent for a period
of years could not cause death. But when lying recumbent
on the Earth some amount of pressure is exerted and
this causes bed-sores. In the ether this does not happen.
Finally, people can even tolerate being upside down, when
the blood pressure is directed in the opposite direction.
It is clear that the absence of gravity can do no more
harm than bathing or lying down. And young organisms
born in the ether will quickly adapt themselves to the
weightless environment. Lying down is irksome because it
goes hand in hand with idleness, which is not the case
in the ether.
The absence of this force does not disturb any human
functions. One can swallow, drink, eat, and excrete on the
Earth not only when in bed or in water, but even when
upside down. This clearly shows us that the same func-
446
tions can be performed in the ether. Even if a force o:
gravity were needed to facilitate these functions, it would
be easy enough to obtain such a force in the ether by
causing the rocket to rotate. The centrifugal force thus
produced differs in no way from gravitation. This is con-
venient, moreover, because this artificial gravity can be
regulated at will. Its magnitude will increase with the
speed of rotation. The latter costs us nothing, as rotation
in a void never stops, or, in other words, does not call for
an endless expenditure of energy.
What is the advantage of terrestrial gravity to plants?
It merely destroys heavy, old tree trunks, bends branches
and breaks them (especially when the fruit is abundant)
and prevents the saps from rising to any considerable
heights. Plants spend a great deal of substance and solar
energy to no avail in order to grow their trunks and
branches, which, were it not for gravity, could be much
thinner and lighter.
The sole inconvenience of life in the ether is that of
maintaining all round the human being a certain amount
of gas pressure, which is something that terrestrial beings,
especially the primates, cannot dispense with. Gases con-
sist of mobile particles and to keep them in place requires
a solid, firm envelope with no openings. Any rent would
let the inside gases escape and without them an animal
would perish. However, in the ether dwellings can be ar-
ranged so as to have many chambers, each chamber being
isolated. As soon as the envelope of one of them is dam-
aged and the gas begins to escape (which a manometer
would indicate) people will immediately take steps to
remedy the situation or move temporarily to the neigh-
bouring undamaged compartment, closing the passage
tight behind them.
To perform work in empty space and, in general, to
emerge into the ether, special gas impervious clothing, like
diving-suits, having a supply of oxygen and absorbers of
human excreta would be needed.
447
Incidentally, after spending hundreds of years in the
ether, man would gradually become a little altered himself
and the void, absence of gas, and direct sunlight would
not immediately kill him as they do now. The void hazard
should diminish. Meanwhile, that is for the initial period,
the human being will have to regard the expanses of ether
around him either through the windows of his dwelling or
through the visor of his space-suit.
On the sunny side he will see the Sun that is bluer than
it seems to be through the Earth’s atmosphere. On the
shady side, with his back turned to the luminary, he will
see a black sky studded with non-twinkling, multicoloured
Stars. They will be arranged in the same pattern as that
observed from the Earth, only the latter will appear as a
small star while the Moon will be a similar tiny spark, but
emitting a much fainter glow.
The position of a person in protective clothing, all alone
out in the ether, and the sensations he will experience, are
of interest. He will have nothing overhead or underfoot,
that is no support, no ground, nothing to suspend him. He
will feel he is the centre of a tiny black sphere spangled
with a countless host of stars. It will seem that he has
only to stretch out his hand to touch them. The illusion
is striking. The Universe will seem totally insignificant.
The deception of nearness stems from the extreme bril-
liance and distinctness of the picture of the stars and their
infinite distances. On the Earth, the atmosphere casts a
shadow on objects and that is why they seem darker and
more vague the farther off they are. But as there is no
atmosphere in space, nothing casts shadows and therefore
the stars seem to be near, and all at equal distance.
A few more words about the plan of work that should
be followed to make a spaceship.
‘We do not know the details of the experiments with
reaction-propelled automobiles. At any rate they will teach
us much. I have already indicated the direction we must
follow. If this direction has not been taken so far, it is
448
merely a concession to the practical side of the work,
because the road indicated is no easy one. But with time it
will nevertheless be taken. Now I shall briefly recapitulate.
The explosive elements must be contained separately
and pumped into the explosion tube. This guarantees safety
and rids us of heavy tanks. The tube must be tapered at an
angle of 30°. This makes it hundreds of times shorter. It
must be cooled. A reaction-propelled automobile must have
three types of control surfaces for flying both in the air
and in the void, while the explosion is taking place. These
should be elevators, fins and ailerons, placed in the gas jet
in the exhaust nozzle. Then they can be made thinner,
lighter and more durable and operate more smoothly.
At first we must practise operating the rudders of
direction and altitude. For this purpose the automobile
has one cross axle with two wheels at its end. We can
first practise operating the rudder of direction, and then
both rudders at once.
Then we shall need an automobile with one wheel and
we must in addition practise operating the fin-stabilisation
rudders. These experiments should be conducted on the
ground, not in the air.
When we learn to control all three rudders, we can add
a pair of wings to our automobile like those of the aero-
plane. However, flights should not and cannot continue
longer than the time taken to use up the explosive material,
because without the explosion our automobile rudders will
either not operate at all, or will be inefficient (as these
rudders have a very small surface area).
To take off and control the aircraft after the explosion
another system of rudders is required, with a greater
surface area, like that of an aeroplane. With these two
systems we can gain height and speed until the explosives
are consumed, and then glide down, which cannot be done
without the aircraft-type system of rudders.
These two rudder systems (though they may be combined
into one) are necessary for flying beyond the atmosphere,
29—761 449
as wherever we fly to, even into space, we shall have to
return to the Earth by gliding, once all the explosives are
used up. For it is not possible to rely on a permanent store
of them.
Only by innumerable dangerous experiments is it pos-
sible to work out a design of the interplanetary spaceship.
All the existing projects are merely schematic or fantastic.
The critics of reaction-propelled automobiles and aeroplanes
quite rightly regard the reaction method of propulsion as
unacceptable because it is uneconomical. Vallier merely
shows us methods of reducing the high cost of this type
of locomotion. The method of reaction propulsion can be
really economical when the thrust velocity approaches the
velocity of the projectiles. That happens only in the case
of spacecraft. Meanwhile, for Earth and aerial projectiles,
the methods must be used that I have described in my
“Atmospheric Resistance and the Express Train”.
SCIENCE FICTION IN TSIOLKOVSKY'S WRITINGS
By B. N. VOROBYOV
“Even the discovery of the differential
and integral calculus would have been in-
conceivable without imagination. Imagina-
tion is a quality of the greatest value.”
V. I. Lenin
The name of Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, father of the
theory of jet propulsion and interplanetary travel, is world
famous. This great Soviet scientist who made such a
Signal contribution to cosmonautics, aerodynamics and
aeronautics, also wrote many remarkable works of science
fiction.
In the process of Tsiolkovsky’s investigations his science
fiction was often, as it were, the initial “trying-out” of
new ideas. The scientist himself made a remarkable state-
ment about this sequence of the creative process in his book
The Exploration of Space by Reaction-Propelled Devices,
first published in Kaluga in 1926: “First, inevitably,
the idea, the fantasy, the fairy-tale. Then scientific cal-
culation. Ultimately, fulfilment crowns the idea.”
This was the path he followed in working out the prob-
lems of jet propulsion and interplanetary travel. A real
pioneer in these absolutely new domains of human en-
deavour, Tsiolkovsky also sought by his works of science
fiction to condition the public mind to accepting such ambi-
29% 451
tious projects as the practical preparation for man’s break-
through into cosmic space. In addition, to write his science
fiction, he had to make the necessary calculations, at least
in rough, so as to put his preliminary conclusions to the
test. He then developed his ideas in order finally to crown
his effort with a completed scientific treatise based on a
full and scrupulous mathematical analysis.
Thus Tsiolkovsky’s science fiction on a subject that had
caught his fancy induced him to tackle and scientifically
develop new problems. He describes this in “Is This Mere
Fantasy?”, an article he wrote in 1934-35 when chief scien-
tific adviser for the SF film Cosmic Journey.
“There is nothing that engrosses me more,” he wrote
in the Soviet youth paper Komsomolskaya Pravda,
on July 23, 1935, “than the problem of overcoming terres-
trial gravity and of making flights into space.... I am
already 78 but I still continue to compute and design what
concerns reaction-propelled machines. The things I have
thought about, the ideas that have surged through my
brain! This was no longer fantasy, but exact knowledge
based on the laws of nature; new discoveries and new
compositions were in the making. But I was also attracted
to science fiction. Many times I essayed the task of writing
about space travel but wound up by becoming involved in
exact compilations and switching to serious work. Science
fiction stories on interplanetary travel carry new ideas to
the masses. All who are occupied with this are doing good
work; they excite interest, promote the working of the
brain and bring into being people who sympathise with,
and will in the future engage in, work on grand projects.”
This point is confirmed by Tsiolkovsky's science fiction
works which provide in embryo the ideas underlying the
discoveries and inventions that were later to immortalise
his name. Of great interest, consequently, are both his
finished works of this genre, and his rough fragments and
outlines, since they mostly date back to when he was work-
ing out the fundamentals of the new science of astro-
452
nautics, the realisation of which by our generation has
initiated the new space age in man’s history. As the world
has now seen, the translation into life of the propositions
that Tsiolkovsky put on such a firm basis, has transformed
astronomy, one of the oldest of sciences, from a
purely speculative branch of knowledge into one dealing
with direct experiment.
Tsiolkovsky’s science fiction was bound to be a concom-
itant and at times forerunner of his major theoretical
treatises and inventions. It is extremely characteristic of
his creative work, being, in fact, the type of ‘“‘conjecturing”,
which Lenin so greatly appreciated and which G. M. Krzhi-
zhanovsky referred to, when he said that he “adored people
who could conjecture”. Tsiolkovsky was most generous
with his conjectures, at once imparting them to others,
and making them part and parcel of his work.
Graphic illustrations are the still extant pages from
Tsiolkovsky’s very first notebook of a young man which
dates back to 1878-79. While in Ryazan, awaiting his ap-
pointment as schoolmaster, he poured dreamily over this
notebook, pencil in hand, making fantastic sketches of
vehicles, and devices, writing the first rough copy of a
future monograph dealing with “free space”. Tsiolkovsky
had just turned 22. Later, his fantastic conjectures, accom-
panied by strictly substantiated mathematical analysis
based on the laws of physics and celestial mechanics, took
tangible shape in the world’s first design for a spaceship
with a jet thrust, becoming the scientist's point of departure
for further work in this field.
The ten science-fiction stories in this collection relate
to different periods of Tsiolkovsky’s work between 1893
and 1929. This is only a small part of his many publications
and manuscripts. However, they were significant as being
the initial stage of the elaboration and preparation for
publication of the scientist’s basic works on jet propulsion
and interplanetary travel. Free Space, the first monograph
on this subject, written in Borovsk in 1883—a work very
453
close in character to science fiction—was the first to sug-
gest jet engines for spaceships.*
Tsiolkovsky was able to find strikingly brilliant colours
and words for his science fiction. Nevertheless—and this
is what is particularly valuable about them—he never
departed from science proper. His science fiction is imbued
throughout with the profound conviction that this was
precisely how man would finally undertake these daring
projects, even though, as he assumed, at some remote date.
This unshakable, and attractively expressed conviction
infects the reader and compels him to stop and reflect on
Tsiolkovsky’s picture of space conquest.
How was it that Tsiolkovsky came to write science
fiction?
In 1892 an important event took place in Tsiolkovsky’s
life; he was transferred from the modest post of arithmetics
and geometry master, which he had held at the elementary
school of Borovsk, to a similar post in the larger, provin-
cial town of Kaluga. He found himself better placed than
he had been in Borovsk. In Kaluga he met people associated
with literary work, who interested themselves in his
scientific researches, which he continued parallel with his
teaching, and also tried to give him every assistance. Their
help took the form, primarily, of getting printed in Kaluga
the second part of his Guided Metal Air Balloon, the first
part of which had been published in Moscow in 1892, and
a year later of publishing in the Moscow magazine Vokrug
Sveta (Around the World) his first science-fiction story
On the Moon, which shortly afterwards came out as a
separate book.**
* This monograph which provides the working principle for
powering a jet-propelled spaceship and gives a general idea of its
design, was made public for the first time in 1954, in the second
volume of Tsiolkovsky’s Collected Works, put out in Moscow by the
U.S.S.R. Academy of Sciences Publishing House.—Ed.
** Tsiolkovsky prepared the manuscript of this book in 1887 when
residing in Borovsk; there is an inscription to the effect on the
copy preserved in the archives of the U.S.S.R. Academy of Sci-
ences.—Ed.
454
In this story, Tsiolkovsky introduces the reader to our
nearest celestial object, our planet’s satellite, the Moon.
He does this on the basis of a thorough study of scientific
sources and in a most fascinating way. He has lent his
story the entertaining form of a narrative, in which a
young astronomy enthusiast relates a dream he had while
in a very deep sleep. The young man dreams that he and
his physicist friend have been transported to the Moon.
There they travel, take observations, perform scientific
experiments and have many adventures. Ultimately, they
are about to freeze to death during the long, cold lunar
night..., when, fortunately, the young man awakes and
decides to put down his dream in writing.
Tsiolkovsky gives an excellent description, packed with
valuable information, of what confronts the first men to
set foot on the Moon. Though the story was first published
in the last century, it has stood the acid test of time and
is still avidly read. It arouses particular interest today
now that Soviet rockets have deposited the state emblem
of the U.S.S.R. on the Moon and have so successfully
photographed its hidden side, now that man will soon in
reality fly to our closest neighbour.
In 1894 Tsiolkovsky completed another important piece
of science fiction which he called “Changes in Relative
Weight”. In the first half he deals with the question of
how to organise the study in interstellar space of changes
in relative weight, describes in detail a special space
structure for the purpose, which he dubs “star cottage”
and tells us how to conduct experiments from it. However,
this story has nothing as yet to say about how man will
be able to strike out into space and build this “star cot-
tage”. Yet, in his Free Space, written nine years earlier,
Tsiolkovsky already discussed manned space flight and
provided the working principles of a jet-propelled space-
ship. In the second half he imagines what one might chance
to observe on various planets and asteroids. But not the
whole of the manuscript was prepared for the press by
455
the author. There are a few less successfully written pas-
sages as, for instance, the conversations between the space
traveller and the “inhabitants” of the celestial bodies in
question. Tsiolkovsky polished up only parts of his manu-
script, mainly his brief descriptions of imaginary voyages
to Mercury and Mars, and the big asteroids, Ceres and
Pallas. Tsiolkovsky’s manuscript is being published for the
first time in this collection.
In 1895 Tsiolkovsky completed a new science-fiction
work called Dreams of Earth and Sky and the Effects of
Universal Gravitation, which in book form was printed
the same year in Moscow. Here for the first time, although
cautiously and in a veiled form he discloses his ambitious
dreams. After describing the majestic panorama of the
Universe and emphasising the importance in our life of
the universal law of gravitation, the author, by way of
illustration, proceeds to tell of the fantastic occurrence,
when undescribable chaos followed on the disappearance of
gravity on the Earth. Then he develops the idea of the
necessity of building an artificial Earth satellite, like the
Moon, for scientific purposes. This is the first time that he
uses the term earth satellite and also indicates that “the
velocity required to give a centrifugal force that will de-
stroy the Earth's gravitational pull should be not less than
8 kilometres a second”, and that the altitude of the flight
“beyond the atmosphere should be some 300 kilometres
away”, which incidentally was the estimated figure for
the height of the atmosphere given in scientific literature
at the time.
Tsiolkovsky also describes propulsion through space
using the force of reaction, as well as “solar motors” to
provide energy in space.*
Tsiolkovsky continued to develop his basic idea of inter-
* Solar batteries were employed in Sputnik III which went up
on May, 1958, to feed its radio equipment and the automatic inter-
planetary station fired at Venus in February 1961, also had these
batteries.—Ed.
- 456
planetary travel, supplying more calculations. By 1895 he
had already worked out the question of interplanetary
travel in terms of mathematics, but did not publish his
work at that date. In 1896 he began to write a science-
fiction story called Outside the Earth, but, as he himself
noted, the end of the year saw only nine chapters com-
pleted. In 1903 the magazine Nauchnoye Obozrenie
(Science Review) at last published the first chapters of a
large theoretical monograph called The Exploration of Cos-
mic Space by Reaction-Propelled Apparatus, the fruit of
several years of work. This was his first scientific treatise
giving the analytical side and also constructive proposals
for a rocket with a drop-shaped body, its design and con-
trol. However, the secret police banned the magazine short-
ly afterwards, and Tsiolkovsky’s article (only the first in-
stalments had been published) passed unnoticed, particu-
larly in view of the fact that he had not read the proofs,
the various formulae were confused and there were other
defects which made the meaning exceedingly obscure. The
next instalment was published only in 1911 in the Vestnik
Vozdukhoplavania (Herald of Aeronautics), an aircraft ma-
gazine published in St. Petersburg. At that time, the aircraft
industry was just beginning in Russia and the first aircraft
and aeronautics establishments were being set up. Conse-
quently, the publication of Tsiolkovsky’s article, being re-
lated to the entirely new science of astronautics that he him-
self had founded, produced a tremendous impression. He
attracted a following which rapidly grew in number both
in Russia and abroad, as also did the group of inventors of
jet-propelled flying craft.
Tsiolkovsky, however, continued to experience great
pecuniary difficulties as no assistance for scientific re-
search was forthcoming. In 1916 the editors of the popu-
lar science magazine Priroda i Lyudi (Nature and People)
suggested that he complete his science fiction work Out-
side the Earth. However, the magazine ceased publication,
with only half the story printed, and Tsiolkovsky had his
30—761 457
manuscript returned. It was only under the Soviet power,
that despite the desperate shortage of paper, Tsiolkovsky’s
friends and the local Natural History Society in Kaluga,
managed to publish the book in 1920. Though the edition
was extremely small, only 300 copies, the book achieved
popularity even outside the Soviet republics.
In 1923 Prof. H. Obert published in Germany a mono-
graph called The Rocket in Cosmic Space. After reading
it Tsiolkovsky commented:
“Obert has much that is to be found in my Outside the
Earth, including space-suits, the multi-stage rocket, the
mooring of people and objects, the black sky, non-twin-
kling stars, mirrors (in universal space), light signalisation,
the trans-terrestrial base, from which to launch out still
farther, the voyage round the Moon, the 300-ton manned
rocket, as well as the lunar studies and much more.”
In birthday congratulations to Tsiolkovsky in 1929, Prof.
Herman Obert quite definitely mentions the Soviet scien-
tist’s indisputable priority. “You kindled this fire,” he
wrote. ‘We shall not let it die; we shall try to realise man’s
greatest dream.”
Outside the Earth is a glowing piece of science fiction
brilliantly characterising Tsiolkovsky’s work in this genre.
The main characters are six scientists of different na-
tionalities, who have clubbed together to con-
duct investigations at a castle specially built for the pur-
pose in the Himalayas. They have at their disposal an army
of engineers, craftsmen, and highly skilled workers, and
all the necessary equipment. Tsiolkovsky symbolically
christens them after world celebrities of the past. Thus the
name of the Italian is Galileo, the Briton—Newton, the
German—Helmholtz, the Frenchman—Laplace, the Amer-
ican—Franklin, and the Russian—Ivanov. This is more
than a literary device; it reflects profound meaning of the
story, namely, that man will most productively and expe-
diently conquer space by working collectively, and not by
the isolated effort of any one single country.
458
In Tsiolkovsky’s team, it is the unassuming Russian
scientist Ivanov who suggests a project which the others
are at first inclined to view as utterly fantastic. However,
they are won over, and enthusiastically embark on Ivanov’s
project to build a rocket, a jet-propelled spaceship, the
working principle and design of which were described by
Tsiolkovsky in 1883 in his monograph Free Space. Here
he quite definitely calls his spaceship a rocket. Outside the
Earth has a tone quite different from that of Dreams of
Earth and Sky, in which he had been extremely cautious,
making merely vague surmises. Now he boldly talks of his
aims and how to accomplish them. With a sure hand he
describes the inspired endeavours of the team of scientists
and speaks in the greatest detail of the design of the first
spaceship, the rocket itself, and its development. There
follows a kaleidoscopic sequence of his dreams as a scien-
tist. First comes the round-the-Earth flight, with the space
travellers maintaining contact with their comrades in the
castle by means of mirror and light: signalisation, a method
which Tsiolkovsky had already expounded in 1896 in the
newspaper Kaluzhsky Vestnik (Kaluga Herald). People on
the Earth learn that man has already gone up into space,
the first volunteers to migrate to other planets come for-
ward, and preparations are made for the journey. Mean-
while the indefatigable Ivanov and one of the engineers
prepare to fly to the Moon. Finally they do visit the Moon
and use a special vehicle to travel about there, and they
discover lunar animals.
In short, Tsiolkovsky here picturesquely describes his
concept of man’s future conquest of cosmic space.
During the years that followed when Tsiolkovsky’s re-
searches had attracted the attention and support of the
Soviet public and government, he elaborated these ideas
in still greater detail in his Aims of Astronautics, published
in 1929. Also a piece of science fiction, it captures and
holds the imagination first because of the thoroughness
with which the author describes the tremendous labour
30* 459
man will have to perform in space during the centuries and
millenia to come.
The important problems of the “biology of the future”,
which are inevitably connected with the evolution of living
creatures in the process of “conquering solar space” are
discussed in the two Stories in this collection called “Liv-
ing Beings in Space” and “Biology of Dwarfs and Giants”.
In the first he interprets from his own point of view the
ways in which the propagation of life may take place in
space. This short item in the form of a fantasy reveals
what Tsiolkovsky thinks about vital processes, and also
suggests that should the human race be compelled to mi-
grate to airless space, it will be forced to alter its physical
structure.
The second story, “Biology of Dwarfs and Giants” was
taken and prepared for the press from a long manuscript
called Mechanics and Biology (1920-21), which Tsiolkovsky
did not complete. He began it in 1882, sending the first part
to the great Russian physiologist I. M. Sechenov for his
appraisal. Though unfinished, it interested Sechenov and he
advised Tsiolkovsky to complete it. But only 40 years later
was Tsiolkovsky able to do so.
The collection concludes with “Beyond the Earth’s At-
mosphere” and “Island of Ether”. The first begins with ref-
erences to experiments carried out in Germany in 1928-29
with automobiles and sleighs equipped with jet-propelled
engines, and contains several highly original points about
jet-propulsion technology. The “Island of Ether”, on the
subject of astronomy has, on the other hand, a peculiar
flavour of its own. In Tsiolkovsky’s house (now a museum)
in Kaluga in the street which has been renamed in his
honour, there is a glassed-in first-floor verandah, which
served as a workshop for his inventions. A little door leads
out of this verandah on to the slightly sloping roof of an
adjacent shed. Tsiolkovsky and his family affectionately
dubbed it “the door to outer space”. In the evenings, when
the weather was fair and the skies cloudless, Tsiolkovsky
460
From Tsiolkovsky’s manuscript: “Space Travel Album” (1933).
Sketch illustrates operation of the spaceship’s shutters regulat-
ing the temperature. The arrows denote the direction of the
Sun’s rays.
7. Average temperature; 8. Higher —200°C; 9. Lower —200°C.
carried through the door his small amateur telescope
mounted on a tripod, and out on the roof he observed the
stars. His wife and neighbouring children who were fre-
quent visitors, also enjoyed locking through the telescope.
On these occasions Tsiolkovsky would gather them all
around him and tell them the attractive, marvellous story
of the constellations, planets, nebulae and shooting stars.
“Island of Ether’, which is now published for the first
time, and gives a wonderful description of our Milky Way,
is in form and content very much on the lines of the infor-
mal, moving science talks that Tsiolkovsky gave to his clos-
est friends and acquaintances.
The supplement to the collection is Tsiolkovsky’s article
“To the Inventors of Reaction-Propelled Apparatus”, which
gives a comprehensive explanation of models of jet-pro-
pelled flying craft, which anyone can make without having
to acquire any complicated tools or special materials.
Drawings are also given. It should be noted that Tsiolkov-
sky was extremely interested in the handicrafts and model-
ling of the children at the local technical centre. It was in
reply to the many questions addressed to him, as to which
models were to be recommended as being safest to handle
and how to construct them, that Tsiolkovsky wrote the
above-mentioned article—which, too, is now published for
the first time.
As one who strove tirelessly to advance mankind and
its culture, and whose motto was “to help mankind for-
ward at least a little’, Tsiolkovsky was able to fire the
minds of people by his inspired work. Now that we have
entered the space age it will definitely be of great interest
to read his writings.
After the establishment of Soviet power, Tsiolkovsky
lived another 17 years, during which his works formed the
basis of a broad movement to reach the stratosphere and
investigate cosmic space. The number of his followers grew
rapidly. When Tsiolkovsky had ceased to engage in further
practical research, engineers V. P. Glushko and F. A. Tsan-
462
From Tsiolkovsky’s manuscript: “Space Travel Album” (1933).
Explanatory note on the sketch of a dwelling (hothouse) in
Cosmos.
der, two of his closest followers, developed the first designs
for jet-propelled engines on liquid fuel. The Soviet Union’s
first liquid fuel rockets were launched, and experiments
made on the manufacture of jet aircraft. Meanwhile Tsiol-
kovsky devoted himself entirely to a voluminous treatise
on jet engines,
With every new day, the ideas born of Tsiolkovsky’s
genius threw into bolder relief the majestic panorama of
manned space conquest of the future. But ill health con-
stantly interrupted his work.
On September 14, 1935, the newspaper Pravda published
a document which made science history. This was Tsiol-
kovsky’s letter to the Central Committee of the Commu-
nist Party of the Soviet Union. It read:
“,.. All my life I have striven by my work to help man-
kind forward at least a little.
“,.. I bequeath all my writings on aviation, rocketry and
interplanetary travel to the Bolshevik Party and the Soviet
Government as the true leaders of man’s cultural progress.
I am sure they will successfully consummate this work.
“I am yours with all my heart and mind, and with. my
last sincere greetings I remain always
Yours,
K. Tsiolkovsky”
On September 19, 1935, the great Russian scientist, Kon-
stantin Tsiolkovsky, passed away.
His pupils and followers, Soviet scientists, engineers,
technicians and factory workers, have brought to life and
fully realised the ideas advanced by Konstantin Tsiolkov-
sky in the field of rocket flight and interplanetary commu-
nications.
Soviet achievements in the discovery and conquest of
cosmic space, which have ushered in a new era in the his-
tory of mankind, are universally known today.
On September 17, 1957, a few days after the U.S.S.R.
Academy of Sciences and other scientific establishments
464
M Te
7 ope pubaniie i ae
From Tsiolkovsky'’s “Space Travel Album” (1933). Sketch
shows how gas rudders operate in a jet-propelled spaceship.
and public organisations had celebrated the centenary of
Tsiolkovsky’s birth, a monument to him was unveiled in
Leningradsky Prospekt in Moscow and the foundation
stone of another monument was laid in Peace Square in Ka-
luga. On October 4, in the same year, the Soviet Union
launched its sputnik, the first artificial earth satellite ever
produced. The event impressed the whole world. Following
this, the Soviet Union, and later the United States, sent up
a series of artificial satellites varying in size and weight.
Soviet rockets reached the Moon and photographed its re-
verse side and several rockets were put into orbit round the
Sun. In 1960, a Soviet spaceship carrying experimental
animals successfully returned after a journey of several
„hundred thousand kilometres in space round the Earth. In
1961, an Earth-Venus automatic interplanetary station was
launched from the heavy sputnik.
If one compares the content of Tsiolkovsky’s science
465
fiction with the terse TASS account of the Soviet automat-
ic interplanetary station, one cannot fail to note the famil-
iar terms, for instance, “gyroscopic transducer”, which
Tsiolkovsky used in describing the first project of a space-
ship in his monograph Free Space written in 1883. (See the
supplement for the diagram.) In his Dreams of Earth and
Sky, written in 1895, what are now known as solar batte-
ries are called solar motors. In the diagram for the unfin-
ished manuscript Space Travel (1934), Tsiolkovsky demon-
strates temperature control inside the rocket by means of
shutters.
Light signalisation is mentioned time and again in Out-
side the Earth (1920), only it is done not by means of a
sodium vapour cloud, as in the case of Soviet space rock-
ets, but with the aid of bright electric searchlights.
In the present-day designing, building and launching of
sputniks and space rockets, Soviet scientists and engineers
have undoubtedly invented immeasurably more than Tsiol-
kovsky did. Nevertheless, it was the realisation of all the
“conjectures” of the genius who founded the theory of jet
propulsion and interplanetary travel, which has brought
his country the tremendous achievements and unfading
glory of this age. Lenin was indeed right when he defined
imagination as a quality of the greatest value.
SUPPLEMENT |
TO INVENTORS OF REACTION-PROPELLED MACHINES
(Dated April 28, 1930)
Both adults and children send me hundreds of projects
for reaction-propelled means of locomotion. To all of them
I can give the following reply.
The essence of a direct-flow engine is that one matter
is ejected rightwards, while the projectile moves leftwards
by virtue of the recoil. In order to get the smallest possi-
ble store of explosives that will not overburden the vehicle,
the ejection velocity should be of the greatest possible or-
der, since this velocity imparts the same speed to the ve-
hicle. Explosives or fuels, by combining with the reserve
oxygen compound, produce jet velocity from 1,000 to 5,000
metres a second. These are what should be used.
When the explosion occurs, part of its energy is impart-
ed to the apparatus, while the other part of its energy
is expended in the gas jet. To achieve a decent ratio in the
use of chemical energy, the projectile’s velocity should not
differ greatly from that of the jet of gases. Let us suppose
that the velocity of the gas jet is 2,000 m/sec. Then, to
achieve high efficiency in the use of the explosives or ex-
plosion-producing elements, the vehicle must. have a ve-
locity of close on 2 km/sec. Probably one kilometre would
be enough.
But are such velocities possible on our roads and in the
air?
In the case of a velocity of 1,000 m/sec the resist-
ance of the onrushing air stream should be more than
467
100 tons per square metre. Actual conditions are still
worse.
Indeed, with a speed greater than that of sound, the air
in front of a plane condenses and becomes an insuperable
obstacle (a stone wall, as it were). In addition, this speed
would break every wheel to smithereens and make the
roads impossible. At a low speed the unevenness of roads
can be tolerated, but at a high speed it becomes unbearable.
If resistance in the air is insuperable, it is still more so
in water. Consequently even speed-boats are no use.
What is to be done, then? Are reaction-propelled, direct-
flow engines to be put to no purpose at all?
We do not say this. We can get out of the difficulty by
giving the vehicle the streamlined, elongated shape of a
bird or fish, and by travelling through the air, instead of
along solid earth or across water.
We thus, willy-nilly hit upon the idea of a fast reaction-
propelled aeroplane. But even this, however, beautiful in
its shape, cannot work up a velocity of several kilometres
a second in the lower, dense strata of the atmosphere. We
must fly our aeroplane in the rarefied strata of the atmos-
phere, to the stratosphere.
Our reaction-propelled aeroplane or rocket plane thus
becomes a rocket-propelled stratoplane. This is a compli-
cated task that is too difficult for the knowledge, powers
and erudition of children. A reaction-propulsion research
institute takes care of all that. Let us leave this work and
the likely achievements to the institute. .
What can we children do? We can make some highly in-
teresting toys. Unfortunately, they have all been made be-
fore and even patented as inventions of supposedly serious
import. We can only reproduce them. However, they will
be instructive for grown-ups and children alike.
Here is a list of them: , ’
1. A gun-boat. The gun, either of the spring, gas, or gun-
powder type, ejects a cannon-ball, and the boat shoots in
the opposite direction.
468
2. A boat with a horizontal fountain. A water-filled cyl-
inder is mounted on the stern of a small vessel. Water
flows from it, through the lower aperture, into the pool
below. The recoil compels the boat to move (until the cyl-
inder runs dry).
3. A steamer. A small tin boiler, heated by methylated
spirit, is installed on a toy boat. The water boils, turns into
steam which escapes through a very narrow aperture in
the stern propelling the steamer. The effect will be much
greater if the steam is ejected under the water through a
tube. But this will no longer be a pure type of reaction-
propelled machine.
4. A similar reaction-propelled automobile. Here, to
achieve greater success, we need a small ordinary rocket
instead of the boiler. In ordinary conditions, the force pro-
duced by the steam will be found to be insufficient to pro-
pel the vehicle.
5. A gas boat. Instead of the heated water-filled boiler
we can use an inflated rubber bladder. The air escaping
from its aperture will compel the boat to move. A football
bladder can be used.
6. The flying inflated balloon that everyone knows.
7. An ordinary rocket equipped with a chamber and
manned by toy travellers, for the sake of effect.
8. A propellerless plane with a rocket. A long light tail
(calico will do very well), should be fitted to its rear to
keep it steady in the air.
Besides providing amusement, these toys may also serve
as a stepping-stone to the building of reaction-propelled
stratoplanes.
SUPPLEMENT II
1S THIS MERE FANTASY?
I was asked some 10 years ago to have my story Outside
the Earth adapted for the screen. But since this proved
such a complicated affair, the enterprise was laid aside.
469
Only now has the Mosfilm studios, in the talented person
of V. N. Zhuravlyov, firmly decided to produce the film
Cosmic Journey.
I was 17 when I first dreamed of the possibility of travel-
ling beyond our own planet. In 1895 I wrote my Dreams of
Earth and Sky. It was published by the nephew of the fa-
mous Goncharov and was then twice reprinted by the State
Publishing House under the title of Gravity has Vanished.
In the first years after the Revolution, I took up the sub-
ject seriously. The fantastic story called Outside the Earth
(1918) reflected this work.
The mathematically elaborated theory of a reaction-pro-
pelled vehicle appeared already in 1903, at first in Filip-
pov’s philosophical journal Nauchnoye Obozrenie (Science
Review) with small circulation, and several years later in
the Vestnik Vozdukhoplavania (Herald of Aeronautics)
(1911-13). Then several publications appeared in separate
editions and in magazines. From 1913 onwards my works
gained recognition also abroad.
There is nothing that engrosses me more than the prob-
lem of overcoming terrestrial gravity and of making flights
into space. I seem to devote half my time and energy to
this problem. I am already 78, yet I still continue to com-
pute and design reaction-propelled machines. The things
I have thought about and the ideas that have surged
through my brain! This was no longer fantasy, but exact
knowledge based on the laws of nature; new discoveries
and new compositions were in the making. But I was also
attracted to science fiction. Many times I essayed the task
of writing about space travel, but wound up with a strong-
er fancy for exact considerations and switched to serious
work.
Science-fiction stories on interplanetary trips carry new
ideas to the masses. All who work on these lines, work
well, arousing interest, promoting the working of the brain,
and training up people who are attracted by the idea of
grand projects, and who will work in this field in the future.
470
What can be grander than to master the full energy of
the Sun, which is 2,000 million times greater than the ener-
gy the Earth gets from the Sun! What can be more splen-
did than to find an outlet from the tight little corner of our
planet, to be in close communication with outer space and
to give people a way out of the cramped position on the
Earth and a chance to throw off the shackles of gravity!
Cinema has a wider appeal than books. They are more
graphic and closer to nature than a mere description. This
is the supreme artistic level, especially now that the cinema
is coupled with the sound-track. I think it very heroic of
the Mosfilm studios and Comrade Zhuravlyov to have un-
dertaken to produce the film Cosmic Journey. I must say
I am extremely pleased with this work.
What is my own view of journeys into space? Do I be-
lieve in them? Will man ever be able to accomplish them?
The more I worked, the more were the difficulties and
obstacles of all kinds that I encountered. Until recently, I
supposed that hundreds of years would be necessary to ef-
fect flights at astronomical velocity (8-17 km/sec). This
was confirmed by the poor results achieved both here and
abroad. But the uninterrupted work carried out in recent
times has shaken my pessimistic views: methods have
been found which will produce amazing results in a few
dozen years from now.
I hope that the attention our Soviet Government pays to
industrial development in the U.S.S.R. and to every kind
of scientific research will justify and bear out these, my
own, expectations.
(Komsomolskaya Pravda,
July 23, 1935)
Kaluga
j SUPPLEMENT II!
PAGES FROM A YOUNG MAN'S NOTEBOOK
In 1878-79, while living in Ryazan, Tsiolkovsky worked
on the problems of interplanetary travel. Preserved in his
archives at the U.S.S.R. Academy of Sciences is a small
471
18-page exercise-book (relating to that period). It was in
connection with this work that he experimented at that
time, using home-made contraptions, chiefly a rotary ma-
chine,
Tsiolkovsky used experimental mice, chicks and insects
to ascertain the effect that acceleration of gravity has on
living organisms. In this schoolboy exercise-book, the fu-
ture scientist jotted down his considerations regarding the
advisability of carrying out other experiments and research,
at the same time making sketches and diagrams of new ap-
paratus for the purpose.
The notes in this exercise-book were the rough drafts
of Free Space, the monograph he wrote while living in Bo-
rovsk, where from 1880 he was arithmetics and geometry
master at the local school.*
The few pages from the exercise-book published in this
collection reflect’ some of Tsiolkovsky’s ideas, which he
later developed in his books in a strictly scientific and most
fascinating form.
Editorial Board
* The monograph was first published by the U.S.S.R. Academy
of Sciences Publishing House in 1954 in the second volume of Tsiol-
‘kovsky's Collected Works.—Ed.
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Facsimile of a page from the manuscript of Tsiolkovsky’s
Free Space (1883), Sketch of cross-section of jet-propelled
spaceship. Right: Cannon firing spherical projectiles and pro-
pelling the vehicle through space with its recoil (reaction).
Centre: Gyroscopes, the revolving of which can change the
position (orientation) of the spaceship in space. The sketch is
dated March 9, 1883 (Old Style)
For Supplement T.
Tsiolkovsky’s sketch for “To Inventors of Jet-Propelled
Machines”
For Supplement I!
Projected or falling projectile has no weight. In a carriage that
is just starting to move or is about to stop, a horizontal gravity
is produced, which added to the terrestrial gravity, results in
an inclined relative gravity. The same takes place in the
cannon-ball ejected by horizontally-mounted gun
For Supplement II
Two persons standing in a room at right angles to each other
For Supplement II
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In gravity-free space curvilinear motion produces relative
gravity proportional to the arc curvature and the square of
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TO THE READER
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