Astounding Stories of Super Science/Volume 04/Number 03

Astounding Stories of Super Science (1930)
December 1930 (Volume 09, Number 03)
2364454Astounding Stories of Super Science — December 1930 (Volume 09, Number 03)1930

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VOL. IX, No. 3
CONTENTS
December, 1930
COVER DESIGN H. W. WESSOLOWSKI
Painted in Oils from a Scene in "The Ape-Men of Xlotli."
SLAVES OF THE DUST SOPHIE WENZEL ELLIS 295
Fate's Retribution Was Adequate. There Emerged a Rat with a Man's Head and Face.
THE PIRATE PLANET CHARLES W. DIFFIN 310
It is War. Interplanetary War. And on Far-Distant Venus Two Fighting Earthlings Stand Up Against a Whole Planet Run Amuck. (Part Two of a Four-Part Novel.)
THE SEA TERROR CAPTAIN S. P. MEEK 336
The Trail of Mystery Cold Leads Comes and Dr. Bird to a Tremendous Monster of the Deep.
GRAY DENIM HARL VINCENT 354
The Blood of the Van Don's Ran In Karl's Veins. He Rode the Skies Like an Avenging God.
THE APE-MEN OF XLOTLI DAVID R. SPARKS 370
A Beautiful Face in the Depths of a Geyser—and Kirby Plunges into a Desperate, Mid-Earth Conflict with the Dreadful Feathered Serpent. (A Complete Novelette.)
THE READERS' CORNER ALL OF US 421
A Meeting place for Readers of Astounding Stories.


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A SIGNAL TO THE MOON

THE idea of a radio signal to the moon may sound fantastic, but is easily within the range of possibility, says Dr. A. Hoyt Taylor, Chief of the Radio Division of the United States Naval Research Laboratories at Washington, who plans such an attempt in the near future.

"We have reason to expect a good chance of getting the signal back in a time interval of slightly less than three seconds," said Dr. Taylor.

To be exact, a radio signal should be reflected back to earth in a time interval of 2.8 seconds, this being the necessary elapsed time for it to carry the 250,000 miles to the moon and return at its speed of 300,000 kilometers, or 186,000 miles per second.

The signal would be very weak, Dr. Taylor points out, but not impossible of detection with the present refinement of receiving instruments, provided no great absorption took place in interstellar space.

A high frequency wave will be used, as such a wave penetrates readily the earth's atmosphere and probably goes far beyond. The frequency of the wave will range between 20,000 and 30,000 kilocycles. Twenty kilowats of power will be used, enough to furnish current for about forty flatirons.

The value of a radio signal to the moon lies in the confirmation of whether there is or not heavy absorption of waves in the upper levels of our own atmosphere. If successful it would indicate a reasonably good reflection coefficient at the surface of the moon—the power of the moon's surface to act as a joint agent in the perfection of the signal.

The signal might have some bearing also on whether the moon has an atmosphere—something pretty much settled already by astronomical observation. It would also lead to the possibility of fairly accurate determination of wave velocity in free space, all of interest to science, either confirming existing theories or establishing new ones.

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IN THE NEXT ISSUE

The Fifth-Dimension Catapult

A Novelette of an Extraordinary Interdimensional Rescue

By Murray Leinster


The Gate to Xoran

A Thrilling Story of a Metal Man's Visit to Earth

By Hal K. Wells


The Eye of Allah

A Story of the Tracking Down of a Mysterious Scientific Killer

By C. D. Willard


The Pirate Planet

Part Three of the Outstanding Current Novel

By Charles W. Diffin


——AND OTHERS!


This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was legally published within the United States (or the United Nations Headquarters in New York subject to Section 7 of the United States Headquarters Agreement) before 1964, and copyright was not renewed.

Works published in 1930 would have had to renew their copyright in either 1957 or 1958, i.e. at least 27 years after they were first published/registered but not later than 31 December in the 28th year. As this work's copyright was not renewed, it entered the public domain on 1 January 1959.


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