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AL. 4 ——— nn ee I

THIRD PART OF A NEW SERIAL

Merttts is the ‘third “ot a sériés of extracts, appearing exclusively in the Pacific Tribune,

4

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— theiy

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: British magazine engaged
a Controversy with George
‘tephenson, the famous Brit-
‘sh inventor, wrote that- there

a Nothing more absurd than
Promise to build a loco-

| Motive running twice as fast
| * postal coach.

To believe that the citizens
Woolwich would entrust
lives to this machine, it
 htinued, was as stupid as to
Bi they would let them-
_ “Ves be fired off in a rocket.

So by way of a joke Steph-
“son named his first loco-
ative the “Rocket.” In the
re that followed the

irket” moved several times

g

| des st 88 @ postal coach and
| averted all
- fely to their destination.

its passengers

eePhenson would probably
ie © been very surprised if
ae been told that man
4 1% be able to travel just
“ty oy in a real rocket,
| iovige at a cosmic speed,
Wes ded certain conditions
te fulfilled.
At

a :
and ake-off the spaceship

€ human organism are
ed to strains as a re-
of acceleration.

me ‘Permissible strain at
| ae and, consequently,
Tee of acceleration are
the <¢ by the endurance. of
a Uman organism. At an

e :
tine tation of four to five

% . 8ravity, cosmic speeds
{ ay © attained in a matter of
_ *W minutes.
| ie know from practical ex-
jy "ce that a human being
Me Pable of withstanding
Manner eater strains when, for
Yehien a fast - moving
“a he is travelling in
hen to a sudden stop, or
bom he dives under water
8 certain height.

2 airman is subjected to
i}, Strains when his plane
dy stnched by catapult or
| 8 aerobatics.

‘

Hy
the, Hearn more about this,
been ‘al experiments have
“arried out.

Rani €Ndurance of the or-
ht | Tepends to a large ex-
"dy 1 the position of the
i 2 ting accelerated
Xperiments show that
tolerate excessive

nN a prone position

‘ORE than 100 years ago a

better than in a standing or
sitting posture.

Nowadays, in order to in-
crease the resistance of the
organism, jet aircraft are fit-
ted with ‘special couches
which adjust themselves to
the shape of the body when
it is undergoing excessive
strain.

Physical training must also
be taken into consideration.
People who have had good
physical training are reported
to have endured a strain 15
times greater than their own
weight for two to three min-
utes.

From the physiological point
of view this is quite enough
to emerge not only into inter-
planetary space but also be-
yond it.

It is quite natural that
people travelling in a rocket
moving through space under
its own momentum should
feel weightless.

The sensation of weight is

the result of the pressure of
a support (a floor, chair, bed)

1: from a remarkable new Soviet book, Interplanetary Travel, by A. Sternfeld, recently
| Published in Moscow. , An English edition of the book is to be published in Britain soon.
his third extract deals with the effect of space flights on human beings.

upon the body, as well as the
mutual pressure the different
parts of the body exercise
upon each other.

If the support is taken away
the sensation of weight is lost
too.

Let us assume, for exampie,
that we are in a specially de-
signed lift which is in free
fall at the moment. All the
objects inside the cabin are
falling at the same speed and
therefore exercise no pressure
upon each other.

If you let go of something
you have been holding in
your hand it will not fall to
the floor because it has be-
come weightless as everything
else inside the cabin, includ-
ing yourself. :

On the earth we experience
a sensation of weightlessness
when, for example, we leave
the support that holds us and
dive into the water or bale out
from an aircraft in a delayed

‘drop.

If you jump down with a
weight in” your pocket you

‘

will forget about it in free
fall. A partial loss of weight
is experienced by a skier slid-

-ing downhill or by a person

rocking in a swing, especially

as he reaches the highest
point.
Parachutists and — acrobats

experience a_ sensation of
weightlessness _ without losing
their balance or - orientation.

In literature or astronautics
the term “weight” is gen-
erally taken to mean a force
that keeps the® people and
equipment on the floor of a
spaceship.

ww

In the absence of this force,
people and_ objects do not ex-
ercise any pressure upon one
another and become weight-
less.

Some authorities say that
the weight of a man or an
object aboard a rocket in
flight “seems” to increase or
decrease. However, we cannot
accept this, as the actual dif-
ference in weight can be de-
tected by instruments.

Before take-off a one-kilo-
gramme weight suspended
from a spring-balance moves

The conquest of space

the pointer to the one-kilo-
gramme mark.

As soon as the rocket is up
in the air,’..however, the
weight of the bodies inside in-
creases several-fold, for in-
stance, four times as much,
and the pointer of the spring
balance points: to the four-
kilogramme mark.

When the rocket moves
under its own momentum, all
the bodies inside it lose their
weight and the pointer of the
spring-balance returns to the
zero mark.

There is still a lot of hard
work to be-done on the ques-
tion of providing astronauts
with enough oxygen, water
and food for their first jour-
neys to Mars and Venus,

_ which may last more than two

years.

A more detailed study also
has to be made of the problem
of purifying the air and water
aboard the spaceship.

But the important thing is
that today the solution of
these problems is a practical
possibility,

@ A fourth extract, on the
dangers of space flight,
Will appear next week.

Soviet dogs are pioneering the way for man’s own journey into space.
aes Novembe:

Je) ——

wi adie