The Indianapolis journal., 1889-01-07
A JOURNEY TO THE PLANET VENUS.
A Calculation Illustrating the Immense Dis
tances in Space.

A Calculation Illustrating the Immense Dis
tances i'm Space.
d. c. Robertson, in ST. Nicholas
Let us for moment suppose certain rail-
ways TO be built: one round the world in a
perfect circle others to various points in
pose that the trains on these railways could
be kept going at the rate of sixty miles an
hour for any required length of time; that
their passengers could do without food or
could be supplied with abundance of it;
that the bodies of such passengers could be
made capable of enduring the various
changes of air, temperature, and other eli
matte conditions, to which they would be
exposed.
And on our world this kind of travel
would be comparatively easy, and would
hours the passenger could travel LAO
miles, or considerably further than from
New York to Chicago: In. forty-eight
to Liyerpool;. and in less than seventeen
days he could go around the world. But.
as regards the journeys IN space, difficulty
In most cases lnSuperable would stand IN
the way. In order to visit ary but a very
few of the nearest bodies in space, the tray-
elers on our celestial RAILWAYS would need
to have their lives very greatly prolonged.
Were they to set out for any distant part
of the system, they all would die before
they had fairly begun their journey. A
would, under the above conditions, be pos
sible; to any other body in the system it
would be impossible.
The journey to the moon would be COM
paratlyely short. Our companion is distant
about 100000 miles; or, in round numbers,
It's distance contains ten times as many
miles as are contained in the earth's cir
cumference.
Travelling at the rate of sixty miles an
hour, and never stopping, it would take be-
tween 166 and 167 days to reach the Jour
ney's end. Compared with other heavenly
distances this Is a mere nothing; but conf
pared with the distances actually traversed
by the average man, 1T is very great indeed;
Few ever travel at sixty miles an hour, and
then only for short periods and at consider
able intervals. Many, probably the major
lty of those who live to good old age,
cover less than 100000 miles during their
whole lives. A great traveller might do 1t
In, say, fifteen years. For even conduct
or or engineer of an express train it would
require several years.
Let us now take a trip to the planet
Venus, our next nearest neighbOr. This
will be much more formidable undertake
ing. We have seen that succession of
the longest Journeys over this earth would
form but short and passing episodes in q
lifetime. We have seen that, on one sf our
imaginary railways, the traveller cOufd cir
Gle the world in less than three weeks. We
have seen. not only that a journey to the
moon is quite possible to the passengers by
our celestial railway, but that equal and
even greater distances are often travelled
OH earth. But a trip to Venus would be a
very different matter. Venus, as already
stated, is about 10000, 600 miles away; or, at
sixty miles an hour, without stopping, she
is distant a journey not OF three weeks,
or six months, but of some fifty years.
On the imaginary railway such journey
would be possible; for q great many per
sons live longer than fifty years. But in
real life no one ever has Travelled, and no
one ever will travel anything like SO far.
No human being ever has travelled 100000
miles, and it is safe to say that no one ever
will. To complete this measure of journey
ing would require an average of 100000
miles year for fifty years. Some few,
perhaps, in all their lives. may have tray
eled 1,OOO, 900 miles, but these are probably
very rare exceptions. So we see that no
one ever has lived who has travelled more
than a small part of the distance to Venus.
Yet, compared with other bodies in the
system, this star may be said to be almost a
neXt-door neighbOr.