Two other scientists besides our host are accompanying us on this trip
to Venus. The ship's personnel numbers sixty, including these two
scientists.
The prospects of this trip fill us with thrilling excitement for on it
we are venturing still farther into space, to a planet that Earth men
had proclaimed as probably uninhabitable since they had never been able
to penetrate its surrounding atmosphere.
Many dignitaries are at the airport to wish us good luck on the trip.
Our takeoff was so smooth and noiseless that we were unaware of leaving
the ground. At an altitude of two thousand feet, the pilots level off
and glide for awhile that we may see more of planet Mars, her cities
and her countryside.
The surface appearance of Mars is very similar to that of Earth. There
are many large mountain ranges with very fertile valleys lying between
them. We also saw a flat area corresponding to our plains and many
rivers. We have passed over a few fair-sized cities and many hamlets.
Now we can see one of the polar caps in the distance. It looks like a
very large glacier, but we are not going closer to it for here is where
we get on the beam to Venus.
It is odd how they do this. On the instrument panel of the ship is
a small screen upon which the light of the planet to which they are
going is focused. The details of this instrument we don't know, but
the principle is the same as that used by an astronomer when he gets
an image in the dead center of the mirror of his telescope. Once the
planet is perfectly focused upon the screen, one of the pilots pushes a
button and the ship is definitely on the light lane towards its desired
destination.
Our host explains that once this is accomplished, no outside
interference can cause the ship to change its course for it is actually
being pulled forward by the light.
This explanation seemed to us to be in reverse, for we had been taught
that planets reflect light, having no light of their own; then the
light should be going away from them. Yet he tells us that we are
being pulled towards the planet by her light.
Noting our confusion, he continued, "the light does not go away from
the planet into space, but rather it comes from out of space towards
the planet. It is travelling towards the planet instead of from it.
For you see, the sun is in the center of a system and all planets
revolve around it in their respective orbits. That which you call light
is radiation from the sun and is actually travelling from the sun to
the planet. The reflection from the planet is short lived. It doesn't
penetrate into space very far. It really becomes dead within the
atmosphere of the planet."
"Why does the telescope seem to get the light direct from the planet?"
questioned Dr. Johnston.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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