Chapter 2: Space and Mars

Never before had the travellers observed the stars and planets under such favourable conditions. No air or clouds intervened, and as the Callisto did not revolve on its axis there was no necessity for changing the direction of the glasses. After an hour of this interesting work, however, as it was already late at the longitude they had left on earth, and as they knew they had many days in space before them, they prepared to go to bed. When ready, they had only to pull down the shades; for, as apergy was not applied to them, but only to the Callisto, they still looked upon the floor as down, and closed the heavy curtains to have night or darkness. They found that the side of the Callisto turned constantly towards the sun was becoming very warm, the double-toughened glass windows making it like a greenhouse; but they consoled themselves with the thought that the sun’s power on them was hourly becoming less, and they felt sure the double walls and thick upholstery would protect them almost anywhere within the solar system from the intense cold of space.

“We could easily have arranged,” said Ayrault, for night and day on alternate sides of the Callisto by having strips of metal arranged spirally on the outside as on the end of an arrow. These would have started us turning as slowly as we like, since we passed through the atmosphere at a comparatively low rate of speed.”

“I am afraid,” said Cortlandt, “the motion, however slow, would have made us dizzy. It would be confusing to see the heavens turning 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 the completeness with which it could be isolated, was an ideal observatory, and there was seldom a time during their waking hours for the rest of the journey when it was not occupied by one, two, or all the observers.

“There is something marvellous,” said Cortlandt, “about the condition of space. Its absolute cold is appalling, apparently because there is nothing to absorb heat; yet we find the base of this material projectile uncomfortably warm, though, should we expose a thermometer in the shade in front, we know it would show a temperature of three hundred to four hundred degrees below zero--were the instrument capable of recording it.”

Artificial darkness having been obtained, the travellers were soon asleep, Bearwarden’s dreams being regaled with thoughts of his company’s triumph; Ayrault’s, naturally, with visions of Sylvia; while Cortlandt frequently started up, thinking he had already made some great astronomical discovery.

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

“We must,” said Bearwarden, “be moving at the rate of nearly a million miles an hour, from the way we have travelled.”

“We must be doing fully a million,” replied Cortlandt, “for by this time we are pretty well in motion, having got a tremendous start when so near the moon, with it and the earth in line.”

By steering straight for Jupiter, instead of for the place it would occupy ten days later, they knew they would swing past, for the giant planet, being in rapid motion, would advance; but they did not object to this, since it would give them a chance to examine their new world in case they wished to do so before alighting; while, if they preferred to land at once, they could easily change their course by means of the moons, the fourth, from which their car was named, being the one that they knew would be of most use. Their tremendous speed showed them they should have time for exploration on their arrival, and that they would reach their destination sooner than they had expected. The apergetic force being applied, as we have seen, only to the Callisto, just as power in starting is exerted on a carriage or railway car and only through it to the passengers, Ayrault and his companions had no unusual sensation except loss of weight, for, when they were so far from the earth, its attraction was very slight, and no other planet was near enough to take its place. After breakfast, wishing to reach the dome, and realizing that it would be unnecessary to climb, each in turn gave a slight spring and was obliged to put up his hands to avoid striking the roof. In the cool quiet of the dark dome it was difficult to believe that only twenty feet away the sun was shining with such intensity upon the metal base as to make it too hot on the inside to touch without gloves.

The first thing that attracted their attention was the size and brilliance of Mars. Although this red planet was over forty million miles from the earth when they started, they calculated that it was less than thirty million miles from them now, or five millions nearer than it had ever been to them before. This reduction in distance, and the clearness of the void through which they saw it, made it a splendid sight, its disk showing clearly. From hour to hour its size and brightness increased, till towards evening it looked like a small, full moon, the sun shining squarely upon it. They calculated that on the course they were moving they should pass about nine hundred thousand miles to the right or behind it, since it was moving towards their left. They were interested to see what effect the mass of Mars would have on the Callisto, and saw here a chance of still further increasing their speed. Notwithstanding its tremendous rate, they expected to see the Callisto swerve from its straight line and move towards Mars, whose orbital speed of nine hundred miles a minute they thought would take it out of the Callisto’s way, so that no actual collision would occur even if their air-ship were left to her own devices.

Towards evening they noticed through their glasses that several apparently island peaks in the southern hemisphere, which was turned towards them, became white, from which they concluded that a snow-storm was in progress. The south polar region was also markedly glaciated, though the icecap was not as extensive as either of those at the poles of the earth.

“As the Martian winters must be fully as severe as ours,” said Cortlandt, “on account of their length, the planet’s distance from the sun, and the twenty-seven and a half degrees inclination of its axis, we can account for the smallness of its ice-caps only by the fact that its oceans cover but one fourth of its surface instead of three quarters, as on the earth, and there is consequently 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 to swerve perceptibly, its curve, as when near the moon beginning with a spiral. They swung on unconcernedly, however, knowing they could check their approach at any time. Soon Mars appeared to have a diameter ten times as great as that of the moon, and promised shortly to occupy almost one side of their sky.