Hopkinsville Kentuckian. [volume] (Hopkinsville, Ky.) 1889-1918, 1908-06-06
IA VISIT 10 The NOON.
10 Such = Thing Within the Bounds Of
Possibility

Possibility
Can men visit the moOn2 In any age
but the present, says Professor Ernest
Green Dodge, A. NJ, this question II
seriously asked would have been an
swered by a, chorus Of jeers. So far
/ beyond the pale OF possibilities has the
visiting Of other worlds always APP
reared that writer's of fiction have
felt free to treat the idea sportively
describing thrilling journeys through
space in impossible vehicles.
! Nevertheless the thought of explor-
ing distant planets, pausing en- route
to view the farther side of the moon,
so tantallzingly turned from us. is one
that fires the human imagination most
profoundly. The worst that can be
said is that it now looks as difficult TO
us as the crossing Of the great Atlantic
must once have appeared to the naked
savage upon its shore. The impossi-
bility of the savage became the tri-
umph of Columbus, and the day dream
of the nineteenth century may become
the achievement even of the twentieth.
A body on the earth'S equator is
travelling with the earth's rotation at
a speed of more than a thousand miles
an hour. If relieved of gravity 1t
would not ny suddenly off. like can
non ball, and disappear into space. For
several seconds its rise from the sur
face of the earth would be so slow
as to be practically imperceptlble ow-
ing to the small difference between a
straight tangent line and the earth's
slow curvature. Gradually, however.
its apparent upward velocity would
increase so as to lift it some sixty-fve
yards the first minute and more than a
hundred miles the first hour. 1t would
travel $4,000 miles, the distance be-
tween the earth and the moon, In ten
days, and II suitably exposed to the
0arth's attraction. acting as a brake.
while screened from that Of the moon,
its landing could be made gentle and
safe. Strangely enough. the unturning
attitude of the lunar surface in rela-
ton to the earth makes the return
voyage absolutely impossible save by
a tedious roundabout journey of many
months, involving the circumnaviga-
ton Of Mars.
The query may now arise, what is
the moon good for, even If man sue
ceeds in reaching it?"
We know 1t to be a barren, rocky
world, without air or moisture, un-
speakably cold at night and below the
freezing point even at noon. However,
men could abide there for a time in
thick walled, air tight houses and could |
walk out of doors in air tight divers |
suits. Scientists would find In the |
lunar wastes a fresh field for explora-
ton. Astronomers could plant their !
there, free from their most
serious hindrance, the earth's atmos- !
phere. Tourists Of the wealthy and |
adventurous class would not fail to
visit the satellite, and costly hotels |
must be maintained for their accommo-
iation. Then it is quite probable that |
veins of previous metals, beds of dia-
monds and an abundance Of sulphur
might be discovered on q world of so
highly volcanic a character.
The foregoing may seem filed with
'the stuff that dreams are made Of"
yet most of the assertions are based
IN the hard facts of mathematics and
physics. History is not always par
ocular to follow the precise path laid
,ut for it by prophets, yet in the long
'un 1t never fails to achieve larger
hings than the seer dared to predict
New York World