The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1922-01-07
Latest News From Mars
BY FREDERICK ). HAsKIN

WASHINGTON, JAN All of the
latest scientific dope on that most in
teresting of all planets, Mars, is con-
veniently gathered together in a re-
cent publication on the subject, by
Professor William H. Pickering, who
has charge of the Harvard Astronom-
ical station in Jamaica, and who has
devoted much of his time to looking
at Mars through telescope and specu
lating about conditions on the sister
planet.
Like most strictly scientific revela-
tions what Professor Pickering has to
say is somewhat disillusioning to the
| layman. Mars has held high place in
| the popular imagination for a long
time. 1t has been generally assumed
| that Mars is inhabited by intelligent
| beings something like men. How
these beings differ from us and how
they resemble us, whether we can
hope ever to recognize them-these
questions fire even the dullest imagi
nation. All sorts of fantasies have
been based on imagined visits of Mar
tians to the world, or of inhabitants
of the world to Mars.
| uttnGI Mails 10 lnlldDltCu ny
| telligent beings is a highly debatable
question, as Professor Pickering
! shows, but it is extremely probable
that life in some form exists on Mars
That alone is enough to keep human
curiosity about it at the highest pitch
Men have been squirting at Mars fol
/ centuries, finding out more and moro
about it as their instruments improv
ed. There is now an association c1
/ Martian observers who look at the
/! planet from all different parts of the
/ earth and exchange observations ano
opinions. Professor Pickering him
self has worked out in theory gianl
heliograph by means of which it would
be possible to signal the inhabitants
of Mars, provided they are intelligent
beings with as much power OF sigh
as We have.
A Trip to Mars
! The time may yet come when VIZ
will get daily communications from
Mars. After all, at times it is onl!
$4,000, 900 miles away. Should a means
of travelling through interstellar spac'
with a supply of canned oxygen eve,
be perfected, as it well might, an eX
petition to Mars would doubtless bt
launched. An aeroplane travelling a
the rate of one hundred miles an hou
might reach Mars in about 40 years
provided it set out at the right time
The chief of the expedition, a youth O
90 would carry with him a few prom
Using infants of both sexes, aged abou
) one year. These would be men ant
women at the height of their maturit!
when Mars was reached. They would
do the observing and their progen.
would carry the dope back to earth
along with delegation of Martians
The entire operation need not con
sumo more than three generations.
1t is only fair to add that Professol
Pickering is not responsible for an!
of the above speculations. He die
invent the signaling system, it is true
but he does not seem to be at al
sure that there is anyone on Mar:
worth cores ponding with.
! Although the scientists have tn
greatest difficulty in ascertainins
what kind of life there is on Mars
they are able to supply a surprising
amount of information as to living
conditions there When the Martiar
expedition sets sail, science will no
be able to tell the members what sor