A Journey in Other Worlds: A Romance of the Future

by John Jacob Astor

  CHAPTER II.

  SPACE AND MARS.

  Never before had the travellers observed the stars and planetsunder such favourable conditions. No air or clouds intervened,and as the Callisto did not revolve on its axis there was nonecessity for changing the direction of the glasses. After anhour of this interesting work, however, as it was already late atthe longitude they had left on earth, and as they knew they hadmany days in space before them, they prepared to go to bed. Whenready, they had only to pull down the shades; for, as apergy wasnot applied to them, but only to the Callisto, they still lookedupon the floor as down, and closed the heavy curtains to havenight or darkness. They found that the side of the Callistoturned constantly towards the sun was becoming very warm, thedouble-toughened glass windows making it like a greenhouse; butthey consoled themselves with the thought that the sun's power onthem was hourly becoming less, and they felt sure the doublewalls and thick upholstery would protect them almost anywherewithin the solar system from the intense cold of space.

  "We could easily have arranged," said Ayrault, for night and dayon alternate sides of the Callisto by having strips of metalarranged spirally on the outside as on the end of an arrow.These would have started us turning as slowly as we like, sincewe passed through the atmosphere at a comparatively low rate ofspeed."

  "I am afraid," said Cortlandt, "the motion, however slow, wouldhave made us dizzy. It would be confusing to see the heavensturning about us, and it would interfere with using the glasses."

  The base and one side of the Callisto had constant sunshine,while the other side and the dome were in the blackest night.This dome, on account of its shape, sky windows, and thecompleteness with which it could be isolated, was an idealobservatory, and there was seldom a time during their wakinghours for the rest of the journey when it was not occupied byone, two, or all the observers.

  "There is something marvellous," said Cortlandt, "about thecondition of space. Its absolute cold is appalling, apparentlybecause there is nothing to absorb heat; yet we find the base ofthis material projectile uncomfortably warm, though, should weexpose a thermometer in the shade in front, we know it would showa temperature of three hundred to four hundred degrees belowzero--were the instrument capable of recording it."

  Artificial darkness having been obtained, the travellers weresoon asleep, Bearwarden's dreams being regaled with thoughts ofhis company's triumph; Ayrault's, naturally, with visions ofSylvia; while Cortlandt frequently started up, thinking he hadalready made some great astronomical discovery.

  About 9 A. M., according to seventy-fifth meridian time, theexplorers awoke feeling greatly refreshed. The tank in which theliquefied oxygen was kept automatically gave off its gas soevenly that the air remained normal, while the lime contained incups absorbed the carbon dioxide as fast as they exhaled it.They had darkened those windows through which the sun wasactually pouring, for, on account of the emptiness of thesurrounding ether and consequent absence of diffusion of light,nothing but the inky blackness of space and the bright starslooked in at the rest. On raising the shades they got an idea oftheir speed. A small crescent, smaller than the familiar moon,accompanied by one still tinier, was all that could be seen ofthe earth and its satellite.

  "We must," said Bearwarden, "be moving at the rate of nearly amillion miles an hour, from the way we have travelled."

  "We must be doing fully a million," replied Cortlandt, "for bythis time we are pretty well in motion, having got a tremendousstart when so near the moon, with it and the earth in line."

  By steering straight for Jupiter, instead of for the place itwould occupy ten days later, they knew they would swing past, forthe giant planet, being in rapid motion, would advance; but theydid not object to this, since it would give them a chance toexamine their new world in case they wished to do so beforealighting; while, if they preferred to land at once, they couldeasily change their course by means of the moons, the fourth,from which their car was named, being the one that they knewwould be of most use. Their tremendous speed showed them theyshould have time for exploration on their arrival, and that theywould reach their destination sooner than they had expected. Theapergetic force being applied, as we have seen, only to theCallisto, just as power in starting is exerted on a carriage orrailway car and only through it to the passengers, Ayrault andhis companions had no unusual sensation except loss of weight,for, when they were so far from the earth, its attraction wasvery slight, and no other planet was near enough to take itsplace. After breakfast, wishing to reach the dome, and realizingthat it would be unnecessary to climb, each in turn gave a slightspring and was obliged to put up his hands to avoid striking theroof. In the cool quiet of the dark dome it was difficult tobelieve that only twenty feet away the sun was shining with suchintensity upon the metal base as to make it too hot on the insideto touch without gloves.

  The first thing that attracted their attention was the size andbrilliance of Mars. Although this red planet was over fortymillion miles from the earth when they started, they calculatedthat it was less than thirty million miles from them now, or fivemillions nearer than it had ever been to them before. Thisreduction in distance, and the clearness of the void throughwhich they saw it, made it a splendid sight, its disk showingclearly. From hour to hour its size and brightness increased,till towards evening it looked like a small, full moon, the sunshining squarely upon it. They calculated that on the coursethey were moving they should pass about nine hundred thousandmiles to the right or behind it, since it was moving towardstheir left. They were interested to see what effect the mass ofMars would have on the Callisto, and saw here a chance of stillfurther increasing their speed. Notwithstanding its tremendousrate, they expected to see the Callisto swerve from its straightline and move towards Mars, whose orbital speed of nine hundredmiles a minute they thought would take it out of the Callisto'sway, so that no actual collision would occur even if theirair-ship were left to her own devices.

  Towards evening they noticed through their glasses that severalapparently island peaks in the southern hemisphere, which wasturned towards them, became white, from which they concluded thata snow-storm was in progress. The south polar region was alsomarkedly glaciated, though the icecap was not as extensive aseither of those at the poles of the earth.

  "As the Martian winters must be fully as severe as ours," saidCortlandt, "on account of their length, the planet's distancefrom the sun, and the twenty-seven and a half degrees inclinationof its axis, we can account for the smallness of its ice-capsonly by the fact that its oceans cover but one fourth of itssurface instead of three quarters, as on the earth, and there isconsequently a smaller evaporation and rain and snow-fall."

  They were too much interested to think of sleeping that night,and so, after dining comfortably returned to their observatory.When within four million miles of Mars the Callisto began toswerve perceptibly, its curve, as when near the moon beginningwith a spiral. They swung on unconcernedly, however, knowingthey could check their approach at any time. Soon Mars appearedto have a diameter ten times as great as that of the moon, andpromised shortly to occupy almost one side of their sky.

  "We must be on the lookout for the satellites," said Cortlandt;"a collision with either would be worse than a wreck on a desertisland."

  They therefore turned their glasses in the direction of thesatellites.

  "Until Prof. Hall, at Washington, discovered the two satellitesin 1877," he continued, "Mars was supposed to be without moons.The outer one, Deimos, is but six miles in diameter, and revolvesabout its primary in thirty hours and eighteen minutes, at adistance of fourteen thousand six hundred miles. As it takes butlittle longer to complete a revolution than Mars does to rotateon its axis, it remains in the Martial sky one hundred andthirty-two hours between rising and setting, passing through allthe phases from new moon to full and back again four times; thatis, it swings four times around Mars before going below thehorizon. It is one of the smallest
bodies discovered with atelescope. The inner one, Phobos, is considerably larger, havinga diameter of about twenty miles. It is but twenty-seven hundredmiles from Mars's surface, and completes its revolution in sevenhours and thirty-eight minutes, which is shorter than any otherknown period, Jupiter's nearest moon being the next, with elevenhours and fifty- nine minutes. It thus revolves in less than athird of the time Mars takes to rotate, and must consequentlyrise in the west and set in the east, as it is continuallyrunning ahead of the surface of the planet, though the sun andall the other stars rise and set on Mars in the same way as onthe earth."

  When about fifteen thousand miles from Mars, they sighted Deimosdirectly ahead, and saw that they should pass on its left--i. e.,behind--for it was moving across them. The sun poured directlyupon it, making it appear full and showing all its features.There were small unevennesses on the surface, apparently seventyor a hundred feet high, which were the nearest approach tomountains, and they ran in ridges or chains. There were alsounmistakable signs of volcanic action, the craters being largecompared with the size of the planet, but shallow. They saw nosigns of water, and the blackness of the shadows convinced themthere was no air. They secured two instantaneous photographs ofthe little satellite as the Callisto swept by, and resumed theirinspection of Mars. They noticed red and brownish patches on thepeaks that had that morning turned white, from which theyconcluded that the show had begun to melt under the warm springsun. This strengthened the belief they had already formed, thaton account of its twenty-seven and a half degrees inclination thechanges in temperature on Mars must be great and sudden. Sointerested were they with this, that they did not at first see alarge and bright body moving rapidly on a course that convergedwith theirs.

  "We must be ready to repel boarders," said Bearwarden, observingit for the first time and fixing his glass upon it. "That mustbe Phobos."

  Not ten miles off they beheld Mars's inner moon, and though theirown speed caused them to overtake and rush by it like awhirlwind, the satellite's rapid motion in its orbit, in a coursetemporarily almost parallel with theirs, served to give them achance the better to examine it. Here the mountain ranges wereconsiderably more conspicuous than on Deimos, and there wereboulders and loose stones upon their slopes, which looked as ifthere might at some time have been frost and water on itssurface; but it was all dry now, neither was there any air. Theevidences of volcanic action were also plainly visible, while anoticeable flattening at the poles showed that the little bodyhad once rotated rapidly on its axis, though whether it did sostill they had not time to ascertain. When abreast of it theywere less than two miles distant, and they secured severalinstantaneous impressions, which they put aside to develop later.As the radius of Phobos's circle was far shorter than that of theparabolic curve they were making, it began to draw away, and wasrapidly left behind. Applying the full apergetic force to Marsand the larger moon, they shot away like an arrow, having hadtheir speed increased by the planet's attraction whileapproaching it, and subsequently by repulsion.

  "Either of those," said Bearwarden, looking back at the littlesatellites, "would be a nice yacht for a man to explore space on.He would also, of course, need a sun to warm him, if he wished togo beyond this system, but that would not have to be a largeaffair--in fact, it might be smaller than the planet, and couldrevolve about it like a moon."

  "Though a sun of that size," replied Cortlandt, "might retain itsheat for the time you wished to use it, the planet part would benothing like as comfortable as what we have here, for it would bevery difficult to get enough air-pressure to breathe on so smalla body, since, with its slight gravitation-pull, to securefifteen pounds to the square inch, or anything like it, theatmosphere would have to extend thousands of miles into space, sothat on a cloudy day you would be in darkness. It would bebetter, therefore, to have such a sun as you describe andaccompany it in a yacht or private car like this, well stockedwith oxygen and provisions. When passing through meteoric swarmsor masses of solid matter, collision with which is the mostserious risk we run, the car could follow behind its sun insteadof revolving around it, and be kept from falling into it bypartially reversing the attraction. As the gravitation of sosmall a sun would be slight, counteracting it for even aconsiderable time would take but little from the batteries."

  "There are known to be several unclaimed masses," added Ayrault,"with diameters of a few hundred yards, revolving about the earthinside the orbit of the moon. If in some way two of these couldbe brought into sufficiently violent collision, they would becomeluminous and answer very well; the increase in bulk as a resultof the consolidation, and the subsequent heat, about serving tobring them to the required size. Whenever this sun showed spotsand indications of cooling, it could be made to collide with thesolid head of some comet, or small asteroid, till its temperaturewas again right; while if, as a result of these accretions, itbecame unwieldy, it could be caused to rotate with sufficientrapidity on its axis to split, and we should have two sunsinstead of one."

  "Bravo!" said Bearwarden. "There is no limit to what can bedone. The idea of our present trip would have seemed morechimerical to people a hundred years ago than this new schemeappears now."

  Thus they sat and talked, or studied maps and star- charts, orthe stars themselves, while the hours quickly passed and theyshot through space. They had now a straight stretch of overthree hundred million miles, and had to cross the orbits ofinnumerable asteroids on the way. The apparent size of the sunhad by this time considerably decreased, and the interior of theCallisto was no longer uncomfortably warm. They divided the dayinto twenty-four hours from force of habit, and drew the shadestightly during what they considered night, while Bearwardendistinguished himself as a cook.