New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1921-10-09
Which Will Bare Secrets of =:
Mars--Rocket, Radio or Camera?
Mysteries of Nearest Planet Puzzle Scientists Of II,
World, Who Combine Genius TO Evolve
Plan That VIII Solve Them

~ ocKET, radio or camera
which will be first to lay bare
& y the secret Of Mars?
OF course, it isn't at oil GER
prove q successful Sherlock Holmes of
the skies, but scientists, lured on by
an .age-old curiosity concerning our
neighboring planet, are pressing along
all three paths.
Yhe latest development TO- set the
scientific world again asog over the
CID question of whether there was life
on Mars was the announceme from
Paris OF s. McAfce. American scientist.
and Professor David Todd. Am crican
astronomer, that they purposed to snap
shoot tne planet by using an abandoned
mine shaft in Chile as the barrel for
telescope.
Only short time before Signor Mar
conf, of wireless fame, had put a kick
OF interest in the most fantastic of
sc'entific Inquiries by suggesting that
radio signal of 100, 900 meters which no
had picked up might have come from
some Marian armed with a mammoth
sending set.
Daring individuals Offer
10 Make Trip in Rocket
But 1t was left to Professor Robert
RI. Goddard, of Clark College. in
Worcester, Mass, to suggest making
an investigation Of the moon bv means
Of Il multiple charge, high efficiency
rocket, capable Of carrying cameras and
other recording apparatus needed to
explore the unknown regions of the
upper air. AS the claim was made
that rocket could be constructed Of
unlimited cruising power, it has been
suggested that it might be shot IN to
Mars instead of the moon, which many
scientists affirm is uninhabited One or
two daring individuals even have voluo-
teered to be shot up in place of a
camera.
The possibility that some folk might
be wandering up and down the valleys
or Mars has excited the curiosity Of
astronomers snd laymen throughout all
the ages, for Mars is the nearest planet
to the earth and the easiest to observe
imaginative writer's took their readers
on trips to the moon and laid the
scenes Of their stories in the surround
lngs OF Mars, Saturn and other planets.
but there was little scientific kno,yl-
edge to furnish basis for ouch fiction
The perfecting of the high powered
telescope and the adaptation Of photog-
raphy to the uses of the astronomers
quickened their interest in the possi
ollity OF life on another world. Mars,
which was seen to have large areas
OF q blush green and other areas of
an ocher red, with patches Of white at
the poles, was believed by many astron-
oIners to be capable of supporting life
in some form.
Schiaparelli Observed
Engineering Work on Mars
Schiaparelli, an Italian astronomer,
announced in 1871 that he had found
the surface Of the planet SCARED by
many lines, which were perfectly
straight and seemed to have some sys-
ten, like vast engineering works. He
called the lines canals and said he be-
lleved they had been constructed and
were not simply cracks in the surface
Of the planet.
Professor Percival Lowell erected an
observatory in Flagstaff, Ariz., many
years ago and commenced a svste-
matte observation Of Mars. More than
ten years ago he startled the world
by expressing his belief that Mars
was inhabited by intelligent organisms
living in civilization much further
advanced than ours.
The canals, he said. were really big
bitches bringing water from the poles
TO lrrlgate the rest Of the planet. The
oeher red areas on the surface of Mars,
he asserted, were deserts or fallow
fields which became blush green as
the water flowed along the canals in
the seasons
Later, he said that he had watched
the blush green area, denoting land
springing to life with the coming of
the water, spread down the northern
hemispheres along tho borders of the
canals to beyond the equator Of the
planet and then gradually turn red
dish brown with the waning of the sea-
son. The water. he claimed, was from
ice melting on the polar caps of the
planet.
Temperature Of Mars Too
Cold for Life, Assert Some
Other scientists took the ounosite
point of view. Sore said the canals
were only cracks in the surface of the
planet filled with sand, imprernated
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