A Trip to Venus | Page 9

of time."
G. "If they struck the earth they would be solemnly registered as falling stars."
I. "Certainly they would be burnt up in passing through the atmosphere of a planet and do
no harm to its inhabitants."
G. "Well, now, granting that you could propel the car, and that although your gun was
badly aimed you could steer towards a planet, how long would the journey take?"
I. "The self-movement of the car would enable us to save time, which is a matter of the
first importance on such a trip. In the plan of Jules Verne, the bullet derives all its motion
from the initial effort, and consequently slows down as it rises against the earth's
attraction, until it begins again to quicken under the gravitation of the moon. Hence his
voyage to our satellite occupied four days. As we could maintain the velocity of the car,
however, we should accomplish the distance in thirteen hours at a speed of five miles a
second, and more or less in proportion."
G. "About as long as the journey from London to Aberdeen by rail. What about Mars or
Venus?"
I. "At the same speed we should cover the 36,000,000 miles to these planets in 2,000
hours, or 84 days, that is, about three months. With a speed of ten miles a second, which
is not impossible, we could reach them in six weeks."
G. "One could scarcely go round the world in the same time. But, having got to a planet,

how are you going to land on it? Are you not afraid you will be dissipated like a
meteorite by the intense heat of friction with the planet's atmosphere, or else be smashed
to atoms by the shock?"
I. "We might steer by the stars to a point on the planet's orbit, mathematically fixed in
advance, and wait there until it comes up. The atmosphere of the approaching planet
would act as a kind of buffer, and the fall of the car could be further checked by our
means of recoil, and also by a large parachute. We should probably be able to descend
quite slowly to the surface in this way without damage; but in case of peril, we could
have small parachutes in readiness as life-buoys, and leap from the car when it was
nearing the ground."
G. "I presume you are taking into account the velocity of the planet in its orbit? That of
the earth is 18 miles a second, or a hundred times faster than a rifle bullet; that of Venus,
which is nearer the sun, is a few miles more; and that of Mars, which is further from the
sun, is rather less."
I. "For that reason the more distant planets would be preferable to land on. Uranus, for
instance, has an orbital velocity of four miles a second, and his gravity is about
three-fourths that of the earth. Moreover, his axis lies almost exactly on the plane of the
ecliptic, so that we could choose a waiting place on his orbit where the line of his axis lay
in the direction of his motion, and simply descend on one of his poles, at which the
stationary atmosphere would not whirl the car, and where we might also profit by an
ascending current of air. The attraction of the sun is so slight at the distance of Uranus,
that a stone flung out of the car would have no perceptible motion, as it would only fall
towards the sun a mere fraction of an inch per second, or some 355 feet an hour; hence,
as Dr. Preston has calculated, one ounce of matter ejected from the car towards the sun
every five minutes, with a velocity of 880 feet a second, would suffice to keep a car of
one and a half tons at rest on the orbit of the planet. Indeed, the vitiated air, escaping
from the car through a small hole by its own pressure, would probably serve the purpose.
Just before the planet came up, and in the nick of time we could fire some rockets, and
give the car a velocity of two or three miles a second in the direction of the planet's
motion, so that he would overtake us, with a speed not over great to ensure a safe descent.
Our parachutes would be out, and at the first contact with the atmosphere, the car would
probably be blown away; but it would soon acquire the velocity of the planet, and
gradually sink downwards to the surface."
G. "What puzzles me is how you are to get back to the earth."
I. "Whoever goes must take the risk; but if, as appears likely, both Mars and Venus are
inhabited by intelligent beings, we should probably be able