Heavenly Bodies

The second student-speaker evening of the Maths, and Physics Society was, as before, well attended. There were two interesting talks on space flight.

The first speaker, John Hercus, discussed the methods of getting a body to travel in an orbit about the earth or eventually to fly to another celestial sphere. He gave an account of the difficulties that are encountered with present rockets and how they may be overcome. Although he made numerous calculations on the blackboard, none were too difficult for first-year students to follow.

Hank Jansen, the second speaker pointed out uses that could be made of an artificial satellite, manned or unmanned. If meteorologists could observe the earth from satellite stations in space they would be able to give warnings of unfavourable weather. He also discussed the uses that could be made of satellites as low-temperature laboratories, relaying stations for radios and television, astronomical observatories and as a site for equipment which involves working in a vacuum.—J.T.S.