MOSCOW COSMODROM
AUGUST 11, 1990

“Have a good journey! See
you on Mars!” we told the
crew of the MK-1 as we saw
them off at the consodrome
on the expedition to Mars.

Telescopic “time - magnify-
ing glasses” photographed the
take-off of the giant 175 - ton
machine. It was an amazing
spectacle.

For several minutes the ex-
haust of the flying atomic vol-
eano threw out a great column
of flaming gases.

A few days later our own
MK-2 expedition is to follow.
We wait impatiently for the
day.

x,
ABOARD THE MK.2

AUGUST 18

Tonight has certainly been
the shortest in my life. Blind-
ing sunlight is now flooding
the cabin of the rocket, yet
only an hour ago when we
took off from the cosmodrome,
dusk was just beginning to
descend.

“We set off at 21.30 hours.
Just as a sailing ship uses
the force of the wind, so our
rocket used the Earth’s centri-
fugal force.

We are measuring time by
conventional Earth days of 24
hours, although here it is per-
petual daylight.

4BOARD THE MK.-2
AUGUST 19
We have lived through some
difficult moments.

When the automatic pilot
switched off the motor and our

*space-ship continued her flight

by inertia, the navigators cal-

culated our position and
course — a painstaking task
which took two hours.

They announced that our

path would not pass through
the orbit of Mars at all. There-
fore we would presumably
complete our own eliptical
path, returning to the Earth’s
orbit a year and 258 days later.

But, unfortunately, this
would miss the Earth by mil-
lions of miles.

If we left it at that, we
would travel endlessly round
the Sun — hardly a pleasing
prospect!

So we quickly set about cor-
recting the situation. Our navi-

gators set up our electro-gy- |

roscope and switched on the
current. The space-ship slow-
ly started to turn. Soon all was
well, My station is in the ob-

&

Flight |
to Mars

Adapted from a
space fiction log
by A. STERNFELD

servation dome. On the right
I can see the thin crescent of
the Earth, fuzzy with its halo
of atmosphere.

As we leave the Earth be-
hind, we increase speed rapid-
ly, catching up with the MK-1.
We are now travelling at 2,000
miles an hour.

*

ABOARD THE MK.-2

SEPTEMBER 1

At 02.21 hours we sped past
the MK-1! We will be the
first to reach Mars!

We have plenty of time to
think over the events that led
upto our flight. When the
FK-1 squadron returned in De-
cember 1988 from Phobos, the
small satellite of Mars, it was
decided to send an expedition
to Mars itself.

The MK-1 was not yet com-
pleted when the Astrocouncil
announced the building of a
second space ship.

Heated arguments began in
the research institutes, and in
drawing offices. Some thought
that the second space ship
ought to be an exact copy of
the first.

Others — including the
members of our expedition —
thought differently.

“Science and technique de-
mand continual improvement”
we argued. “Using the exper-
ience we have gained in the
process of building the MK-1
we should make the new ship
more powerful.”

By increasing the speed of
our jets and reducing our
weight, our new ship can
reach a speed of 41,000 m,p.h.!

The poor old MK-1 can only
potter along at 39,000 m.ph.

ABOARD _THE MK.2
NOVEMBER 9

Nearly thre months aboard
our rocket — and still a long
way to go to complete our
370-million mile journey. We
will soon be in a direct line
with Mars — we can see its
disc almost completely. Not

for a minute have our com-

munications. with Earth been
interrupted.

4BOARD THE MK.2
JANUARY 7, 1991

Mars seems to be approach-
ing us rapidly — we are watch-
ing its dise very closely. Our
ship intersected its orbit at an
angle of 17 degrees 1 minute
and our speed is 52,425 m.p.h,
— nearly 11,000 m.p.h. faster

than our our planned maxi-
mum. Our extra speed has giv-
en the navigators many head-
aches.

Now the job is landing, Our
speed and direction has to be
brought into line with the
speed and course of Mars. Then
a burst on the rockets to over-
come the pull of Mars’ gravity
— and down we go!

MARS, JANUARY 9

We are on Mars! A radio
message of greeting from
Earth took seven minutes to
get here.

We broke into the atmos-
phere of Mars dawdling aong
at a speed of only 19,575
m.p.h. The signals from the
automatic radio transmitter
which the FK-1 reconnaisance
party established on Phobos
helped us greatly in landing.

Using our retractable wings
and the rocket itself, we man-
aged very well —-but even so
Wwe uséd up more than a ton
of fuel in braking.

*

MARS, JANUARY 10

We descended on the south-
ern shore of “Sun Lake,” It’s
midsummer here—today the
temperature reached 62 de-
grees F. But last night it drop-
ped to 54 degrees F. below —-
86 degrees of frost.

We can thank Mars’ thin at-
mosphere for that variation.

The ground is covered. with
vegetation. Some of it is green
—but most blue, light and
dark—low shrubs, mosses,
grasses, and lichen,

The end of summer is still a

long way off, but the grass and
shrubs are already beginning
to wither and turn brown.

The horizon appears very
much nearer than on Earth. Of
course we expected that, for
the radius of Mars is not quite
half that of Earth — but all
the same it seems very
strange!

Of course, there’s a lot on
Mars like our planet.

The day for instance, is only
a few minutes longer. In 38
Earth days, Mars revolves ‘37
times. And Mars is tilted on its
axis to almost the same degree
as Earth — so the seasons are
like those on Earth — except
that they are a good deal long-
er, for Mars — with a lot fur-
ther to go-to get around the
Sun — has a year 669 days
long. .

Where we are in the “south-
ern” hemisphere, fall lasts for
193 days, winter 178, spring
153 and summer 155.

*

MARS, JANUARY 14

We were a bit disturbed to-
day when we heard an unus-
ual rustling noise. from our
radio amplifier.

Looking out of the observa-
tion dome, we saw a small
animal which disappeared into
the blue scrub before we could
get a proper look at it.

We put on our space suits
and poked about in the bushes
for some time, but it was hope-
less. But at least we know

now there is animal life on.

Mars!
During an expedition along

FEBRUARY 8, 1957 — PACIFIC TRIBUNE~PAGE 1!

“Sun Lake” we gathered a
bunch of flowers. When we
brought them home they began
to give off an unusual per-
fume. We put them in water—
clearly the wrong thing to do
on Mars—for they began to
fade rapidly.

The weather hereis very
changeable. Semi-transparent
feathery clouds sail by slowly
overhead; a light breeze blows
then suddenly there is a peal
of thunder — our amplifier has

‘detected distant atmospheric
“disturbances.

MARS, JANUARY 19

We have travelled hundreds
of miles in our search for water
reservoirs. Usually we follow
broad ravines, both sides of
which are overgrown ° with
shrubs.

From time to time we have
found traces of streams which
have dried up only recently.
But there is no water any-
where. This is very serious.
We must have water — we
need it to fuel our return to
earth.

MARS, MARCH 29

It’s fall! At noon we are still -

recording temperatures above
freezing, but at night the
thermometer registers 108 de-
grees of frost.

We watched our moon, Pho- -

bos, rising above the horizon,
moving in an opposite direction
to the stars.

It grew larger as we watch-
ed, but suddenly, entering the
shadow of Mars it disappeared
—we had seen our first lunar
—Phoban, rather!—eclipse.

MARS, APRIL 19

Today, just a hundred days
after our arrival, the MK-1
reached Mars.

For a long time before it
landed, the MK-1 was asking”
for bearings, As in our case
she found the automatic trans-
mitter on Phobos of great as-
sistance.

There was an accident to
the ship on landing. She came
down through the atmosphere
too quickly, and the strong
blast of the gas stream dam-
aged the mechanism.

To brake the ship, the crew
had to use some of the nuclear
fuel needed for the return
journey.

MARS, APRIL 20

We've checked the fuel re-
serves of the MK-1l. There is
not enough. We can spare her
some from our stocks, but even
that is insufficient.

To cut down weight, one of
us will have to remain on Mars
until the MK-3 arrives, If all
goes well that should be 202
days after the departure of the
MK-2—if we find the water
we need.

MARS, MAY 21

With the aid of pulleys and
tractors, we hauled the MK-1
up into take-off position, to
check the damage.

Our heavy space suits did
not hamper us in the least.
This isn’t surprising, of course,
for everything weighs only tw0
fifths as much as it does on
Earth. :

We've made a landing strip
ready for the MK-3.

MARS, JULY 24 \
The MK-1 has been on Mars

for 97 days, but it was only
_ Concluded on Page 12