“The sun revolves on its axis in a little over twenty-five days, but the exact period of its revolution is difficult to determine. The mean distance of the sun from the earth is about 92,800,000 miles. When we are farthest from it its distance is 94,600,000 miles, and when nearest, 91,000,000 miles—these differences, of course, arising from the eccentricity of the earth’s orbit.
“The sun’s density is only about one-fifth of the earth’s density; so it is evidently mainly gaseous—at all events in the outer envelopes.
“The spots upon the sun often cover such an immense area, that if our earth were dropped into the cavity, it would be like placing a pea in a teacup! Some of the spots entirely close up in a short time, but others last for weeks.”
We now turned from the sun and looked at the stars. Such a multitude were visible as we had never seen from the earth; for small stars, which there required a telescope to bring them into view, could now be plainly seen without any such aid, and their various colours were seen much more clearly. They all shone with a clear and steady light; the twinkling and scintillation of the stars, as seen from the earth, being caused by the vibrations and movements in our own atmosphere. We also saw many nebulæ without using a glass.
The Milky Way was a most gorgeous spectacle, and its beauty utterly beyond description, as such an immense number of its component stars, and their different colours, were visible to the unaided eye; besides, we could trace wisps and branches of it to regions of the sky far beyond the limits within which it is seen from the earth.
We noted that the planets were also much more clearly seen; and the orange-red disc of Mars, of course, received our particular attention.
We had spent very many hours in viewing the moon, and a long time in examining the sun and stars; so we now sat down to a hearty meal, and, after a short time spent in conversation, we made our arrangements for taking turns in attending to the machinery, and then retired to bed.
[Illustration: DIAGRAM: showing the Positions and Movements of the Planets between the 3rd of August and the 24th of September, 1909: and the Course taken by the “Areonal” on the Voyage to Mars.
The dotted line joining the Earth to Mars shows the course taken.
The dotted Circles show the Orbits of the Planets. The thick arrows show the distances travelled by the respective planets during the period covered by the Voyage: the line at the back end of the Arrow being the planet’s position on the 3rd August, and the points of the Arrows the position reached on the 24th September.
The Orbits of Mercury, Venus, the Earth and Mars are drawn approximately to scale, but those of the outer planets are not. On the same scale, the radii of the Orbits of the outer Planets would, approximately, be as stated below. These figures will afford some idea of the enormous distances separating those planets.
Jupiter 3 Inches Saturn 5-3/8 ” Uranus 10-7/8″ Neptune 17″
Drawn by M. Wicks
Plate V]
CHAPTER VIII
JOHN INSISTS ON GOING BACK AGAIN—A STRANGE, BUT AMUSING INCIDENT OCCURS
When we rose the next day the moon was a considerable distance away from us, but not so far off as might at first be imagined if one only considered the speed at which we were travelling; for, although moving at our full speed, the earth was following us up pretty closely, as the curve of its orbit would, for several days, run nearly in the same direction as we were going. Still, 2,000,000 miles a day was sufficient to make a diminution in the apparent sizes of the sun and Venus; and there was a gradual increase in the size of the planets, Mars and Saturn, towards which we were moving. As regards the fixed stars, however, there was no change in our surroundings, as they are such an immense distance away—the nearest being, at least, twenty billions of miles from the earth, that a few million miles more or less make no difference in their apparent size, or in their positions in regard to each other in the constellations as we know them in our maps.
As we were now fairly on our way, and moving rapidly in the direction we wished to travel, I thought it quite time to put into operation a scheme which John and I had previously decided upon, so I told M’Allister that he must be prepared to take a little change of air.
“Why, Professor,” he exclaimed, “that sounds almost like a proposal for going to the seaside!”
“We certainly are not going there,” I replied, “for we are rapidly moving away from all seaside resorts, and you are not likely to visit any of those places for a very long time to come.”
“Well, mon, where are we going to get our change of air then?” he inquired; “you know there’s no air at all outside of this vessel.”
“Quite true,” I answered; “so we must get our change of air inside the vessel.”
“Yes,” interposed John, “and, Kenneth M’Allister, you will have to make up your mind to have rather short commons of it; the same as we shall!”
“Whatever do you mean?” he inquired, now appearing really scared—for a dreadful thought had crossed his mind. “Mon, you surely do not mean that our machinery is giving out!”
“Oh no! not at all, M’Allister,” I replied; “but perhaps I had better give you a full explanation of the matter:—
“You know we are bound for the planet Mars, where the air is very much thinner than that which we have been accustomed to breathe, and very probably it is composed of somewhat different constituents. In these circumstances you will understand that, if we landed upon Mars without having taken proper precautions, such thin air might make us very ill, even if it did not kill us.
“That little compartment next the store-room was arranged and fitted up for the special purpose of supplying a thin air in which we could prepare ourselves for the atmosphere of the red planet. So we are really going into training. The machines in that room will generate an attenuated atmosphere somewhat similar to our own, and this will be automatically mixed in a cylinder with a little oxygen and nitrous oxide gas, so as to make it as near as possible like what we expect to find upon Mars. When we commence it will be only slightly different from our own air; then gradually we shall reduce its density and change its quality until it is as thin as we shall require. Each of us must spend about eight hours a day in that little compartment, though it will not be necessary to take the eight hours continuously, for we may spend a few intervals in the other rooms.
“John and I will take general charge of the machinery in that room, and he will also look after your machines whilst you are with me in our Martian air-chamber. In addition to these arrangements, we have prepared a concentrated air of the same kind which we can carry about with us in bottles, so that by simply opening a little valve in the bottle we can inhale some of the air now and then when we are in the other rooms. By adopting this plan, I hope when we reach Mars we shall all have become so acclimatised that we shall be able to breathe the Martian air without much inconvenience.”
“Heh, Professor,” said M’Allister, “what a mon you are for planning things out; I would never have thought of that!”
“John had quite as much to do with the planning out as I had,” I replied; “and as you now understand what we propose to do, we will at once commence our training, but we shall not feel much difference in the air for the next day or two.”
We accordingly put our plan into operation, each of us making up at least eight hours’ time every day in the Martian air-chamber, with the result that we gradually became accustomed to the thinner air, and could breathe it without any feeling of inconvenience.