Chariots of the Gods

Chapter Ten - The Earth's Experience Of Space

The question whether space travel has any point has not yet been silenced in discussion. The partial or total meaninglessness of space research is supposed to be proved by the banal assertion that people should not poke around in the universe so long as there arc still so many unsolved problems on earth.

As I am anxious not to enter into the realm of scientific argument unintelligible to the laymen, I shall only give a few obvious and valid reasons for the absolute necessity of space research.

From time immemorial curiosity and the thirst for knowledge have always been the driving force for continuing research on the part of man. The two questions, WHY did something happen and HOW did it happen, have always been the spur to development and progress. We owe our present-day standard of living to the permanent unrest that they created. Comfortable modern means of transport have removed the hardships of journeys which our grandfathers still had to suffer; many of the rigours of manual labour have been noticeably alleviated by machines; new sources of energy, chemical preparations, refrigerators, various household appliances, etc., have completely liberated us from many activities that formerly could only be done by human hands. The creations of science have become not the curse, but the blessing of mankind. Even its most terrifying offspring, the atom bomb, will turn out to be for the benefit of mankind.

Today science reaches many of its goals with seven- leagued boots. It took 112 years for photography to develop to the stage of a clear picture. The telephone was ready for use in 56 years and only 35 years of scientific research were needed to develop radio to the point of perfect reception. But the perfecting of radar took only 15 years. The stages of epoch-making discoveries and developments are getting shorter and shorter; black and white television was on view after 12 years' research and the construction of the first atom bomb took a mere 6 years. These are a few examples from 50 years of technical progress—magnificent and even a little frightening. Development will continue to reach its targets faster and faster. The next hundred years will realise the majority of mankind's eternal dreams.

The human spirit has made its way in the face of opposition and warnings. In the face of the archaic writing on the wall saying that water was the fishes' element and air the birds' element, man has conquered the regions which were not apparently intended for him. Man flies, against all the so-called laws of nature, and he lives under water for months in nuclear-powered submarines. Using his intelligence he has made himself wings and gills which his creator had not intended for him.

When Charles Lindbergh began his legendary flight, his goal was Paris; obviously he was not really concerned with getting to Paris; he wanted to demonstrate that man could fly the Atlantic alone and unharmed. The first goal of space travel is the moon. But what this new scientific-cum-technical project really wants to prove is that man can also master space.

So why space travel?

In only a few centuries our globe will be hopelessly and irremediably overpopulated. Statistics already calculate a world population of 8.7 milliards for the year 2050 Barely 200 years later it will be 50 milliards and then 335 men will have to live on one square kilometre. It doesn't bear thinking about! The tranquilliser-like theories of food from the sea or even cities on the floor of the sea will prove inefficient remedies against the population explosion sooner than their optimistic supporters would like to think. In the first six months of 1966 more than 10,000 people, who had tried in desperation to keep themselves alive by eating snails and plants, starved to death on the Indonesian island of Lombok. U Thant, Secretary-General of the UN, estimates the number of children in danger of dying of hunger in India at 20 millions, a figure which backs up Professor Mohler of Zurich's claim that hunger is reaching for world domination.

It has been proved that world food production does not keep pace with the growth of the population, in spite of the most modern technical aids and the large-scale use of chemical fertilisers. Thanks to chemistry, the present age also has birth control products at its disposal. But what use are they if the women in underdeveloped countries do not use them? For food production could only draw level with the population increase if it were possible to halve the birth rate in ten years, i.e. by 1980. Unfortunately I cannot believe in this rational solution, because the 'sound barrier' of prejudice, ostensibly due to ethical motives and religious laws, cannot be broken through as quickly as the calamity of overpopulation grows Is it more human or even divine to let millions of people die of hunger year after year than to save the poor creatures from being born?

Yet even if birth control were to win through one fine day, even if cultivable areas were enlarged and harvests multiplied by aids as yet unknown, even if fishing supplied much more food and fields of algae on the ocean bed provided nourishment, if all this and a lot more were to happen, it would all be only a postponement, a putting off of the evil day for about 100 years.

I am convinced that one day men will settle on Mars and cope with the climatic conditions just as the Eskimos would do if they were transplanted to Egypt. Planets, reached by gigantic spaceships, will be populated by our children's children; they will colonise new worlds, just as America and Australia were colonised in the comparative recent past That is why we must press on with space research.

We must bequeath our grandchildren a chance to survive. Every generation which neglects this duty is condemning the whole of mankind to death by starvation some time in the future.

It is no longer a question of abstract research which is only of interest to the scientist. And let me impress on anyone who does not feel that he is responsible for the future that the results of space research have already protected us from a third world war. Has not the threat of total annihilation prevented the great powers from settling opinions, challenges and conflicts with a major war? It is not necessary now for a Russian soldier to set foot on American soil in order to transform the USA into a desert, and no American soldier need ever die in Russia, because an atom bomb attack makes a country uninhabitable and barren owing to radioactivity. It may sound absurd, but the first intercontinental missiles guaranteed us comparative peace.

The view is occasionally put forward that the billions invested in space research would be better spent on assisting development. This view is wrong; the industrial nations do not give aid to underdeveloped countries purely on charitable or political grounds; they also give it, understandably enough, to open up new markets for their own industries. The aid that the underdeveloped countries require is irrelevant from a long-term point of view.

Approximately 1-6 milliard rats, each of which destroyed about 10 lb of food a year, were living in India in 1966. Yet the state dare not exterminate this plague, because the devout Indian protects rats. India also has a population of 80 million cows, which give no milk, cannot be harnessed as draught animals, or even be slaughtered. In a backward country whose development is hindered by so many religious taboos and laws, it will take many generations to sweep away all the life-endangering rites, customs and superstitions.

Here, too, the means of communication of the age of space travel—newspapers, radio, television—serve progress and enlightenment. The world has become smaller. We know and learn more about each other. But to arrive at the ultimate insight that national frontiers are a thing of the past, space travel was needed. The resulting increase in technology will spread the realisation that the insignificance of peoples and continents in the dimensions of the universe can only be a stimulus and incentive to co-operative work on space research. In every epoch mankind has needed an inspiriting watchword that enabled it to rise beyond the obvious problems to the apparently unattainable reality.

A quite considerable factor which provides an important argument for space research in the industrial age is the appearance of new branches of industry, in which hundreds of thousands of people who lost their jobs through rationalisation now earn their living. The 'space industry' has already outstripped the automobile and steel industries as a pace-setter in the market More than 4,000 new articles owe their existence to space research; they are virtually byproducts of research for a higher goal. These by-products have become an accepted part of everyday life without anyone giving a thought about their origin. Electronic calculating machines, mini-transmitters and mini receivers, transistors in radio and television sets, were discovered on the periphery of research, and so were the frying pans in which food does not stick, even without fat. Precision instruments in all aircraft, fully automatic ground control systems and automatic pilots, and last but not least the rapidly developed computer are parts of the space research that has so many persecutors, parts of a development programme, that also have an effect on the private lives of individuals. The things of which the layman has no idea are legion: new welding and lubricating processes in an absolute vacuum, photo-electric cells and new tiny sources of energy conquering infinite distances.

Out of the flood of taxes which is poured into space research, the returns on the vast investment flow back to the tax-payer in a steady stream. Nations that do not participate in space research in any way will be overwhelmed by the virulent technical revolution. Names and concepts such as Telstar, Echo, Relay, Trios, Mariner, Ranger and Syncom are signposts on the road of irresistible research.

Since terrestrial supplies of energy are not inexhaustible, the space travel programme will also become vital one day, because we shall have to obtain fissionable matter from Mars or some other planet in order to be able to illuminate our cities and heat our houses. As atomic power-stations provide the cheapest form of energy already today, industrial mass production will only be fully dependent on these stations when the earth no longer yields fissionable matter. Fresh consequences of research overwhelm us daily. The leisurely transmission of acquired knowledge from father to son is over for ever. A technician who repairs a radio set that works by simply pressing a button must know all about the technology of transistors and complicated circuits that are often printed on sheets of plastic. It will not be long before he also has to deal with the tiny new components of micro-electronics. What the apprentice is taught today, the journeyman will have to fill out with new knowledge. And even if the man who was master of his craft in the days of our grandfathers had knowledge to last his whole life, the master of the present and future will constantly have to keep on adding new skills to old. What was valid yesterday is obsolete tomorrow.

Even though it will take millions of years, our sun will burn out and die one day. It does not even need that terrible moment when a statesman loses his nerve and sets the atomic annihilation apparatus in motion to cause a catastrophe. An unascertainable and unpredictable cosmic event could bring about the earth's downfall. Man has never yet accepted the idea of such a possibility, and it may be for that reason that he devoutly sought the hope of an after-life of the spirit and soul in one of the many thousand religions.

So I suggest that space research is not the product of his free choice, but that he is following a strong inner compulsion when he examines the prospects of his future in the universe. Just as I proclaim the hypothesis that we received visits from space in the dim and distant past, I also assume that we are not the only intelligence in the cosmos—indeed I suspect that there are older, more advanced intelligences in the universe. If I now also assert that all the intelligences are carrying on space research on their own initiative, I am really moving into the world of science-fiction for a moment, knowing full well that I am putting my head into a hornets' nest!

'Flying saucers' have been cropping up on and off for at least twenty years; in the literature on the subject they are known as UFO's, the abbreviation of their American name—Unidentified Flying Objects. But before I deal with the exciting subject of the mysterious UFO's, I should just like to mention an important argument used when the justification for space travel is under discussion.

It is said that research into space travel is unprofitable; no country, however rich, can raise the enormous amounts of money needed without risking national bankruptcy. True, research per se has never been profitable; it is the products of research that make the investment profitable. It is unreasonable to expect profitableness and the amortisation of research into space travel at its present stage. No balance has been struck to show the return from the 4,000 'by-products' of space research. To me there is absolutely no doubt that it will give a return such as has seldom been given by any other kind of research. When it reaches its goal, not only will it be profitable, it will also bring the salvation of mankind from downfall in the literal sense of the word. Incidentally I may mention that a whole series of COS-MAT satellites are already sound commercial propositions. In November 1967 Der Stern said:

'The majority of medical life-saving machines come from America. They are the product of the systematic evaluation of the results of atomic research, space travel and military technology. And they are the product of a novel collaboration between industrial giants and hospitals in America which is leading medicine to new triumphs almost daily.

Thus the Lockheed Company which makes Starfighters and the famous Mayo Clinic co-operated to develop a new system of nursing based on computer techniques. The designers of North American Aviation, following suggestions by the medical profession, are working on an "emphysema belt", which is intended to make it easier for patients with lung trouble to breathe. The NASA space authorities produced the idea for this diagnostic apparatus. The apparatus, actually conceived to measure the impact of micro-meteorites on space-ships, registers minute muscular spasms in certain nervous diseases.

'Another life-saving by-product of American computer technology was the "pacemaker". Today more than 2,000 Germans live with one of these apparatuses in their chests.

It is a battery-driven mini-generator which is introduced under the skin. From it the doctors insert a connecting cable through the superior vena cava to the right auricle of the heart. The heart is then stimulated to rhythmical movements by regular surges of current. It beats. When the battery of the "heart machine" is burnt out after three years, it can be changed by a comparatively simple operation.

'General Electric, the American concern, improved this little miracle of medical technology last year when it developed a two-speed model. If the wearer of this "pacemaker" wants to play tennis or run to catch a train, he simply moves a bar magnet up and down for a moment over the spot where his built-in generator is located. His heart promptly works at a higher speed.'

So much for the report in Der Stern. Two more examples of by-products of space-research. Who still has the nerve to say that it is useless?

Under the headline 'Stimulus from Moon Rockets', the newspaper Die Zeit contained the following report in its edition No. 47 of November 1967:

'The designs of space vehicles developed for soft landings on the moon have an interim interest for automobile manufacturers, for the knowledge of how such designs behave under conditions which cause their destruction can be appreciably increased. Even though it will not be possible to make cars safe for the passengers against all kinds of collisions, the designs used with most success in space travel can help to diminish the risk when collisions occur. "Honey-comb" sheets which are being used more and more in modern aircraft construction, guarantee high tensile strength with little weight. They have also been practically tested in automobile manufacture. The floor of the experimental gas-turbine-driven Rover car is made of "honey-combs".'

Anyone who knows the present state of research and the impetuous way in which it develops can no longer tolerate sayings such as 'It will never be possible to travel from one star to another'. The younger generation of our day will see this 'impossibility' become reality. Gigantic space-ships with incredibly powerful motors will be built, as the Russians proved in 1967 when they succeeded in coupling two unmanned space-craft in the stratosphere. One sector of space research is already working on a kind of protective screen, like an electric arc, which is attached in front of the actual capsule and is intended to prevent or deflect the impact of particles. A group of distinguished physicists is trying to detect what are known as tachyons. As yet these are theoretical particles which are supposed to fly faster than light and whose lower speed limit is the speed of light. Scientists know that tachyons must exist; it is now 'only' a question of providing physical proof of their existence. Yet such proofs have actually been produced for neutrinos and anti-matter! Finally I should like to ask the die-hard critics in the chorus of opponents of space travel: do they really believe that several thousands of probably the cleverest men of our time would waste their impassioned work on a pure Utopia or a trivial goal?

So let me tackle UFO's boldly, ignoring the risk of not being taken seriously. If I am not taken seriously, I can at least console myself with the knowledge that I am in distinguished company.

UFO's have been sighted in America and over the Philippines, in West Germany and over Mexico. Let us assume that 98 per cent of the people who claimed that they had seen UFO's actually saw ball lightning, weather balloons, strange cloud formations, new unknown types of aircraft or even odd effects of light and shade in the sky at twilight. Undoubtedly, too, many people were the victims of mass hysteria. They claimed to have seen something that simply was not there. And of course there were also the publicity-seekers who wanted to make capital out of their alleged observations and produce banner headlines for the press in the silly season. If we reject all the crackpots, liars, hysterics and sensation-mongers, there still remains a sizeable group of sober observers, including people whose jobs make them familiar with celestial phenomena. A simple housewife may have made the same mistake as a farmer in the Wild West. But when, for example, a sighting of UFO's is made by an experienced airline pilot, it is hard to dismiss it as humbug. For an airline pilot is familiar with mirages, ball lightning, weather balloons, etc. The reactions of all his senses, including his first-class vision, are regularly tested; he is not allowed to drink alcohol for some hours before take-off and during flights. And an airline pilot is hardly likely to talk nonsense, because he would lose his nice, well-paid job only too easily. Yet when not merely one airline pilot, but a whole group of pilots (including airforce men) tell the same story, we are bound to listen to it.

I myself do not know what UFO's are; I do not say that they have been proved to be flying objects belonging to unknown intelligences, although there could be little objection to such a supposition. Unfortunately I have never seen a UFO with my own eyes during my world-wide travels round the globe, but I can reproduce here some credible, authenticated accounts:

On 5 February, 1965, the American Department of Defense announced that the Special Division for UFO's had been instructed to investigate reports of two radar operators. On 29 January, 1965, these two men had made out two unidentified flying objects on their radar screen at the Naval Airfield in Maryland. These objects approached the airfield from the south at the enormous speed of 4,350 m.p.h. 30 miles above the airfield the objects made a sharp turn and quickly disappeared out of radar range.

On 3 May, 1964, various people at Canberra (Australia), including three meteorologists, observed a large shining flying object crossing the morning sky in a north-easterly direction. During an interrogation by delegates of NASA the eye-witnesses described how the 'thing' had tumbled about in a strange way and how a smaller object had rushed at the large one. The small object had given off a red glow and then been obliterated, while the large 'thing' had disappeared from view in a north-westerly direction. One of the meteorologists said resignedly: 'I've always ridiculed these UFO stories. What the hell am I going to say now?'

On 23 November, 1953, an unidentified flying object was picked up on the radar screen of the Kinross Air Base in Michigan. Flight Lieutenant R. Wilson, who happened to be on a training flight in an F-86 jet aircraft, was given permission to chase the 'thing'. The radar crew watched Wilson pursuing the unidentified object for 160 miles. Suddenly both flying bodies merged with one another on the radar screen. Radio calls to Lt Wilson were unanswered. During the next few days, the region in which the inexplicable event took place was combed for wreckage by search troops and nearby Lake Superior was examined for traces of oil. They found nothing. There was absolutely no trace of Flight Lt. Wilson and his machine!

On 13 September, 1965, shortly before one in the morning, Police Sergeant Eugene Bertrand came across a distracted woman at the wheel of her car in a by-pass at Exeter (New Hampshire, USA). The lady refused to drive on and claimed that a gigantic gleaming-red flying object had pursued her for 10 miles to Route 101 and then disappeared into the forest.

The policeman, an elderly level-headed man, thought the lady was a bit crazy, until he heard the same report from another patrol over his car radio. Speaking from headquarters, his colleague Gene Toland ordered him to return there at once. There a young man told him the same story as the lady had done; he too had sought refuge in the ditch from a glowing red object.

Rather unwillingly the men went on a car patrol, convinced that the whole silly story would have a rational explanation. They searched the district for two hours, then they set off on the return journey. They passed a field in which stood six horses that suddenly stampeded madly out of it. Almost simultaneously the region was bathed in glowing red light. 'There. Look there!' shouted a young policeman. Indeed, a fiery red object, which moved slowly and silently towards the observers, was floating above the trees. Bertrand excitedly informed his colleague Toland over the telephone that he had just seen the damned thing with his own eyes. Now the farm near the road and the neighbouring hill were also bathed in glowing red light. A second police car screeched to a halt next to the men.

'God damn it!' stuttered Dave, 'I heard you and Toland yelling to each other over the radio. I thought you'd gone crazy. But just look at that!'

Fifty-eight qualified eye-witnesses came forward during the investigation of the mysterious incident that was subsequently carried out. They included meteorologists and members of the Coast Guard, in other words men who as reliable observers were scarcely likely not to be able to tell a weather balloon from a helicopter, or a falling satellite from the navigation lights of an aircraft. The report contained factual statements, but did not give any explanation of the unidentified flying object.

On 5 May, 1967, the Mayor of Marliens in the Cote d'Or, Monsieur Malliotte, discovered a strange hole in a field of clover 680 yards from the road. He found traces of a circle with a diameter of 15 1/2 ft and a depth of 1 ft. Deep furrows 4 inches deep ran out in all directions from this circle. They gave the impression that a heavy metal grating had been pressed into the ground. At the end of the furrows there were holes 1 ft 2 in. deep, which might have been impressed in the soil by 'feet' at the end of the metal grating. An exceptionally curious feature was the violet-white dust which was deposited in the furrows and holes. I have inspected this place near Marliens personally. Ghosts could not have left those traces!

What are we to make of this account? It is depressing what many people—and sometimes whole occult societies— make out of their ostensible observations. They only blur our view of reality and deter serious scholars from dealing with verified phenomena because they are afraid of exposing themselves to ridicule.

On 6 November, 1967, during a transmission by German Television 2 on the subject 'Invasion from the Cosmos?', the captain of a Lufthansa aircraft told of an incident of which he and four members of the crew were eye-witnesses. On 15 February, 1967, about ten to fifteen minutes before landing in San Francisco, they saw close to their own machine a flying object with a diameter of about 33 ft that shone dazzlingly and flew alongside them for some time. They sent their observations to the University of Colorado which for want of a better explanation surmised that the flying object was part of a previously launched rocket falling to the ground. The pilot explained that with over a million miles of flying experience he was as unable as his colleagues to believe that a falling piece of metal could stay in the air for a quarter of an hour, have such dimensions and fly alongside an aircraft; he believed this explanation even less since this unidentified flying object had been observable from the ground for nearly three-quarters of an hour. The German pilot certainly did not give the impression of being a visionary.

Two reports from Die Suddeutsche Zeitung, Munich, for 21 and 23 November, 1967:

'Belgrade (from our own correspondent)

'Unidentified flying objects (UFO's) have been sighted over various districts of south-east Europe during the last few days At the weekend an amateur astronomer photographed three of these gleaming celestial objects at Agram. But while the experts were still giving their opinions of this photograph that was splashed across several columns of the Yugoslavian papers, more UFO's have already been reported from the mountainous region of Montenegro, where they were even supposed to have caused several forest fires. These accounts come mainly from the village of Ivangrad where the inhabitants swear black and blue that they have observed strange brightly illuminated heavenly bodies every evening during the last few days. The authorities confirm that several forest fires have occurred in this district but so far cannot explain what started them.'

'Sofia (UPI)

'A UFO has appeared over the Bulgarian capital of Sofia. According to the report of the Bulgarian News Agency BTA, the UFO could be recognised with the naked eye. BTA says that the flying body was "bigger than the sun's disc and later took the shape of a trapeze". The flying body is supposed to have emitted powerful rays. It was also observed by telescope in Sofia. A scientific collaborator of the Bulgarian Institute for Hydrology and Meteorology said that the flying body apparently moved under its own power. It was flying about 18 miles above the earth.'

People block the road to serious research by boundless stupidity. There are 'contact men' who claim to be in communication with extraterrestrial beings; there are groups who develop fanciful religious ideas from hitherto unexplained phenomena or build cranky philosophies of life from them or even claim to have received orders for the salvation of mankind from UFO crews. Among the religious fanatics, the Egyptian 'UFO angel' naturally comes from Mohammed, the Asiatic one from Buddha and the Christian one directly from Jesus.

At the 7th International World Congress of UFO Investigators, in the autumn of 1967, Professor Hermann Oberth, the man known as 'the father of space travel' and the teacher of Wernher von Braun, said that UFO's were still 'an extra-scientific problem'; but, said Oberth, UFO's were probably 'space-ships from unknown worlds' and to use his own words: 'Obviously the beings who man and fly them are far ahead of us culturally, and if we go about things properly we can learn a lot from them.' Oberth, who accurately predicted rocket development on earth, suspects that the prerequisites for abiogenesis exist on other planets in the solar system. Oberth, a research scientist himself, demands that serious scientists, too, should tackle problems that may seem fantastic at first. 'Scholars behave like stuffed geese who refuse to digest anything else. They simply reject new ideas as nonsense.'

On 17.11.67, under the headline 'Second Thoughts', Die Zeit said: 'For years the Russians have ridiculed western hysteria about flying saucers. Not long ago Pravda contained an official denial that such peculiar celestial vehicles existed. Now the Air Force General Anatolyi Stolyakov has been appointed director of a committee which is to examine all reports of UFO's. In this connexion the London Times writes: "Whether UFO's are the product of collective hallucinations, whether they originate from Venusian visitors or are to be understood as a divine revelation—there must be an explanation for them, otherwise the Russians would never have set up a Committee of Enquiry".'

The most spectacular and puzzling incident connected with the phenomenon of 'matter from the universe' took place at 7.17 on the morning of 30 June, 1908, in the Siberian Taiga. A fire-ball shot across the sky and was lost in the steppe. Travellers on the Trans-Siberian Railway observed a glowing mass which moved from south to north. A thunder-bolt shook the train, explosions followed and most of the seisomographic stations in the world registered an appreciable earth tremor. At Irkutsk, 550 miles from the epicentre, the needle of the seismograph went on quivering for nearly an hour. The noise could be heard over a radius of 621 miles. Whole herds of reindeer were destroyed. Nomads were whirled up into the air with their tents.

Not until 1921 did Professor Kulik begin to collect eyewitness accounts. Finally he also succeeded in collecting the money for a scientific expedition to this sparsely populated region of the Taiga.

When the expedition reached the Stony Tunguska in 1927, they were convinced that they would find the crater made by a gigantic meteorite. Their conviction turned out to be quite wrong. They saw the first trees without tops as much as 37 miles from the centre of the explosion. The nearer they came to the critical point, the more barren the district became. Trees stood there like shaved telegraph poles; in the vicinity of the centre even the strongest trees had been snapped off outwards. Last they found traces of a tremendous conflagration. Pushing on further north, the expedition became convinced that a vast explosion must have taken place. When they came across holes of all sizes in swampy ground they suspected the impact of meteorites; they dug and drilled in the marshy ground without finding a single remnant, a piece of iron, a bit of nickel or a lump of stone. Two years later the search was continued with bigger drills and improved technical resources. They drilled to a depth of 118 ft without finding a single trace of any-kind of meteoric material.

In 1961 and 1963 two more expeditions were sent to the Tunguska by the Soviet Academy of Sciences. The 1963 expedition was under the leadership of the geophysician Solotov. This group of scientists, now equipped with the most modern technical appliances, came to the conclusion that the explosion in the Siberian Tunguska must have been a nuclear one.

The type of an explosion can be determined when several physical orders of magnitude that caused it are known. One of these orders of magnitude in the Tunguska explosion was known in the vast amount of radiant energy emitted. In the Taiga the expedition found trees eleven miles from the centre of the explosion that had been exposed to radiation and set on fire by it at the moment of explosion. But a growing tree can only catch fire if the amount of radiant energy per sq. cm reaches 70 to 100 calories. Yet the flash of the explosion was so bright that it continued to cast secondary shadows at a distance of 124 miles from the epicentre!

From these measurements they worked out that the radiant energy of the explosion must have been around 2-8 x 10 <23> ergs. (Let me explain: the erg in science is the so-called 'measurement of work'. A beetle with a mass of 1 gramme performs 981 ergs' worth of work when it climbs a wall 1 cm high.)

The expedition found branches and twigs on the tops of trees that had been carbonised, up to range of eleven miles. From this they concluded that sudden heating had taken place. This was the result of an explosion, not a forest fire! These carbonisations were only found where there had been no shadows to interrupt the diffusion of the flash. Clearly and unquestionably it must have been a case of radiation. The sum of all these effects makes the energy of 10 <23> ergs necessary for the gigantic devastation. This immense energy corresponds to the destructive power of an atom bomb weighing 10 megatons or 100,000,000,000,000,000,000,000, ergs!

All the investigations confirmed a nuclear explosion and related to the realm of fable explanations such as the impact of a comet or the fall of a great meteorite.

What explanations are offered for this nuclear explosion in the year 1908?

In March 1964, an article in the reputable Leningrad paper Svesda put forward the theory that intelligent beings living on a planet in the constellation Cygnus had tried to make contact with the earth. The authors, Genrich Altov and Valentina Shuraleva, said that the impact in the Siberian Taiga was a response to the colossal explosion-like eruption of the volcano Krakatoa in the Indian Ocean that had sent a large concentration of radio waves into the universe when it erupted in 1853. The distant stellar beings had erroneously taken the radio waves for a signal from space; so they had directed a Laser beam, which was much too strong, at the earth, and when the beam hit the earth's atmosphere high above Siberia, it had turned into matter. I must admit that I do not accept this explanation because it seems too far-fetched.

I am equally unable to accept the theory that seeks to explain the incident by the impact of anti-matter. Even though I believe that there is anti-matter in the depths of the cosmos, there cannot be any left in the Tunguska, because the collision of matter and anti-matter results in their mutual dissolution. Moreover, the possibility of a piece of anti-matter reaching the earth without a collision with matter on its long journey is very remote. I prefer to adhere to the opinion of those who suspect that the nuclear explosion was caused by an unknown spaceship's energy pile bursting. Fantastic? Of course, but does that make it impossible?

There are shelves and shelves of literature about the Tunguska meteorite. There is one further fact I want to emphasise: radioactivity around the centre of the explosion in the Taiga is twice as high—even today—as elsewhere. Careful investigation of trees and their annual rings confirm an appreciable increase in radioactivity since 1908.

Until a single, exact, indubitable scientific proof of the phenomenon—and many others—is produced, no one has the right to discard an explanation within the bounds of credibility without giving his reasons.

Our knowledge of the planets in our solar system is pretty comprehensive; Mars is the only planet where 'life' in our sense of the word might exist and then only in limited quantities. Man has set the theoretical boundary to the possibility of life in his sense; this boundary is called the ecosphere. In our solar system only Venus, the Earth and Mars lie within the limits of the ecosphere. Nevertheless, we should remember that the determination of the ecosphere is based on our conception of life and that unknown life is by no means necessarily bound to our premises for life. Until 1962 Venus was considered as a possible home for life, that is until Mariner II got within about 21,000 miles of Venus. According to the information it transmitted, Venus can now be ruled out as a supporter of life.

It emerged from Mariner II's reports that the average surface temperature on both light and dark sides was 420 (deg) C. Such a temperature means that there could be no water, but only lakes of molten metal on the surface. The popular idea of Venus as the twin sister of the earth is over and done with, even though the carburetted hydrogen present could be a culture-medium for all kinds of bacteria.

It is not long since scientists claimed that life on Mars is inconceivable. For some time now that has become 'is scarcely conceivable'. For after the successful reconnaissance mission by Mariner IV we must concede, even if reluctantly, that the possibility of life on Mars is not unlikely. It is also within the bounds of possibility that our neighbour Mars had its own civilisation untold millennia ago. In any case the Martian moon Phobos deserves special attention.

Mars has two moons: Phobos and Deimos (in Greek, Fear and Terror). They were known long before the American astronomer Asaph Hall discovered them in 1877. As early as 1610 Johannes Kepler suspected that Mars was accompanied by two satellites. Although the Capucine monk Schyrl may have claimed to have seen the Martian moons a few years earlier, he must have been mistaken, for the tiny Martian moons could not possibly be seen with the optical instruments of his day. A fascinating description of them is given by Jonathan Swift in A Voyage to Laputa and Japan, which forms Part III of Gulliver's Travels. Not only does he describe the two Martian moons, but he also gives their size and orbits. This quotation comes from Chapter 3:

'(The Laputan astronomers) spend the greatest part of their lives in observing the celestial bodies, which they do by the assistance of glasses far excelling ours in goodness. For although their largest telescopes do not exceed three feet, they magnify much more than those of a hundred yards among us and at the same time show the stars with greater clearness. This advantage hath enabled them to extend their discoveries much further than our astronomers in Europe for they have made a catalogue of ten thousand fixed stars, whereas the largest of ours do not contain above one third part of that number. They have likewise discovered two lesser stars, or satellites, which revolve about Mars, whereof the innermost is distant from the centre of the primary planet exactly three of the diameters, and the outermost five; the former revolves in the space of ten hours, and the later in twenty one and a half; so that the squares of their periodical times are very near in the same proportion with the cubes of their distance from the centre of Mars, which evidently shows them to be governed by the same law of gravitation, that influences the other heavenly bodies.'

How could Swift describe the Martian satellites when they were not discovered until 150 years later? Undoubtedly the Martian satellites were suspected by some astronomers before Swift, but suspicions are not nearly enough for such precise data. We do not know where Swift got his knowledge from.

Actually these satellites are the smallest and strangest moons in our solar system. They rotate in almost circular orbits above the equator. If they reflect the same amount of light as our moon, then Phobos must have a diameter of 10 miles and Demos one of only 5 miles. But if they are artificial moons and so reflect still more light, they would actually be even smaller. They are the only known moons in our solar system drat move round their mother planet faster than she herself rotates. In relation to the rotation of Mars Phobos completes two orbits in one Martian day, whereas Deimos moves only a little faster round Mars than the planet itself rotates.

In 1862, when the earth was in a very favourable position in relation to Mars, people sought in vain for the Martian satellites—they were not discovered until fifteen years later I The theory of planetoids came up because several astronomers suspected that the Martian moons were fragments from space which Mars had attracted. But the theory of planetoids is untenable, for both the Martian moons revolve in almost the same planes above the equator. One fragment from space might do that by chance, but not two. Finally, measurable facts produced trie modern satellite theory.

The renowned American astronomer Carl Sagan and the Russian scientist Shlovsky in their book Intelligent Life in the Universe, published in 1966, accept that the moon Phobos is an artificial satellite. As the result of a series of measurements Sagan came to the conclusion that Phobos must be hollow and a hollow moon cannot be natural.

In fact, the peculiarities of Phobos's orbit bear no relation to its apparent mass, whereas such orbits are typical in the case of hollow bodies. The Russian Shlovsky, Director of the Department of Radio-Astronomy in the Moscow Sternberg Institute, made the same statement after he had observed that a peculiar unnatural acceleration could be confirmed in the movement of the Martian moon Phobos. This acceleration is identical with the phenomenon which has been established in the case of our own artificial satellites.

Today people take these fantastic theories of Sagan and Shlovsky very seriously. The Americans plan further Martian probes, which are also intended to take the bearings of the Martian moons. In the years ahead, the Russians intend to observe the movements of the Martian moons from several observatories.

If the view supported by reputable scientists in east and west that Mars once had an advanced civilisation is correct, the question arises why does it no longer exist today? Did the intelligences on Mars have to seek a new environment? Did their home planet, which was losing more and more oxygen, force them to look for new territories to settle? Was a cosmic catastrophe responsible for the downfall of the civilisation? Lastly, were some of the inhabitants of Mars able to escape to a neighbouring planet?

In his book Worlds in Collision, published in 1950, and still much discussed in scientific circles, Dr Emanuel Velikovsky declared that a giant comet had crashed into Mars and that Venus had been formed as a result of this collision. His theory can be proved if Venus has a high surface temperature, clouds containing carburetted hydrogen and an anomalous rotation. Evaluation of the data provided by Mariner II confirms Velikovsky's theory. Venus is the only planet which rotates 'backwards', i.e. the only planet that does not follow the rules of our solar system as do Mercury, the Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.

But if a cosmically caused catastrophe is a possible reason for the destruction of a civilisation on the planet Mars, that would also provide material for my theory that the earth may have received visits from space in the very remote past. The thesis that a group of Martian giants perhaps escaped to earth to found the new culture of homo sapiens by breeding with the semi-intelligent beings living there then becomes a speculative possibility. Since the gravity of Mars is not as strong as that of the earth, it can be assumed that the build of Martian men was heavier and bigger than that of the earth men. If there were anything in this argument, we should have the giants who come from the stars, who could move enormous blocks of stone, who instructed men in arts still unknown on earth and who finally died out.

Never did we know so little about so much as today. I am certain that the theme 'Man and Unknown Intelligences' will remain on the agenda of research until every puzzle that can be solved has found an answer.

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