After acrid oratory it was finally determined to interview Professor Hansen, the foremost astronomer of the day. His opinion that Mars was inhabited by creatures of intelligence was important, and likewise, what he thought would be encountered by an expedition after landing upon the surface of the distant planet was valued.
The whole city of New York was in a turmoil of anticipation when Hansen appeared before the Mars Committee. As he left his car, at the door of the great cupola of the Capital of the World in Greenwich, reporters by the hundred swarmed around him, vainly seeking advance information as to his testimony.
After he had taken the stand, he looked solemnly at his hearers and began.
"Before touching the practical phase of the astronomical aspect of Operation Mars, I feel it my duty to pay tribute to a great man. For several decades, the turn of a forested peak near Flagstaff, Arizona, has covered all that was mortal of Percival Lowell. Beside his grave rises his beloved observatory where, over eighty years ago, he pronounced to the world certain truths, which have now been confirmed by the perfecting of our methods of research. He had seen almost all of it through the eyes of genius, his gift of observation and his ability to combine the seen with the felt. By fellow observers he was often ridiculed because they, lacking his keen eye and even keener perceptiveness, could discover no confirmation of the vital findings at which he had arrived after many years of laborious work. It would seem that his very eyes had been so trained by the labor of the years that they could clearly discern what others thought too dim for credence.
"You, gentlemen, might well open Percival Lowell's books written in 1903 and 1905 and in those musty tomes find everything which I propose to lay before you today. In point of fact, all I have to tell you is that photographs and measurements taken from the Lunetta observatory, under the direction of its distinguished chief observer, Dr. Hans Bergmann, fully confirm all the theories advanced many years ago by Percival Lowell.
"Astronomers today generally hold that the origin of most stars is as follows:
"Empty space no longer is thought to be really empty. Rather is it believed permeated with cosmic dust. The distribution of this dust is so unbelievably fine that it does not appreciably affect either the passage of light or the movement of the stars.
"In the illimitable reaches of space between the fixed stars, this dust is subject to radiation pressure from the surrounding heavenly bodies. As eons pass, the combined action of some of the closer and powerfully radiating stars, omnilaterally surrounding any given sidereal space, drives this dust together and condenses it into the shape of the wellknown cosmic clouds. As the particles of dust are heaped together, they develop a common center of gravity, to which other particles are attracted with increasing velocity.
Such a cosmic cloud finally collapses on itself with protean violence and the sudden deceleration of the particles manifests itself in incredibly high temperatures. This phenomenon becomes visible as a new star in the heavens. We have reason to believe that this is the way in which our Sun came into being.
"Hitherto, there has been no completely satisfactory hypothesis as to the creation of the planets in the solar system. Theory after theory has been advanced, only to be found wanting in one respect or another. The presently favored explanation postulates that the Sun at one time was circled by a very large satellite, with which it formed a double star.
Then it is thought that some wandering star appeared from the depths of space and collided with the satellite after entering the Sun's gravitational field. Quite possibly the planets as we know them are the remnants of the incandescent wreckage of that sidereal cataclysm.
"The molten character of the new-born planets allowed them to assume spherical shapes under the influence of the gravity of their own mass. They cooled more or less rapidly, according to their magnitudes, the larger ones remaining hot longer. Heavier components concentrated in the center, forming a core, while the lighter, gaseous ones surrounded them as atmosphere. The core of a planet would first become cool at the surface, due to the continuous loss of heat by radiation into space. This formed a crust while the liquid center shrank more and more. Then the crust, already solidified, became too large for the shrinking core and began to develop folds and crevices, exactly as does the skin of a drying apple. Mountains and valleys were thus formed, and basins for seas and lakes. In these, water collected, precipitated by the cooling of the vapor in the atmosphere.
"A heavy, impenetrable layer of clouds still hovered above the permanent gloaming of the surface. This shielded off any direct sunlight and reduced the loss of heat during the nights.
"Our planet was like this when life made its first appearance, and the experience of Mars must have been the same, although it seems to have taken place sooner, in view of Mars' smaller size. For his smaller size contributed to his cooling process occurring more rapidly than ours.
"Our scientists no longer believe that life came to Earth in the form of bacteria or living cells from somewhere in space. Meteorites could hardly have brought such life, for they glow red-hot when they enter the atmosphere and would kill any germs. Radiation pressure from the Sun might have brought life germs, but from where? Hardly from its incandescent surface…
"So we are forced to believe that our life originated here.
"When the water had cooled below its boiling point, protoplasm appeared within it. The reason why it did, only the Creator knows, but protoplasm is the foundation of what we call life. At first it was the lowest, monocellular beings which were protected and given the uniform conditions and food they required by the naturally thermostatic oceans.
Then life evolved from monocellular creatures into the incredible variety of marine plants and animals — algae, trilobites, fish, and marine reptiles.
Water, however, is a poor medium for the development of the higher forms of life, ideal as it may be for its generation in primitive form. Fish, for example, deposit their thousands of eggs in it and leave their posterity to the tender mercies of chance. In the higher forms of life, the parents must supervise the growth of their young, must warn them of dangers and instruct them.
"And so we may visualize how one fine day, some reptile crawled out of the water and established a new home on terra firma. The great lizards of the Saurian period originated in the development of higher forms of life brought about by this step to solid ground. But the saurians later became extinct and bequeathed the mammals supremacy on dry land.
"Life out of water, however, brought combat with the asperity of nature. The water vapor content of the atmosphere had decreased and this caused temperatures varying between roasting sunlit days and frigid starlit nights. As the battle against the increasing obstacles grew fiercer, nature developed her most powerful weapon, intelligence. This led to the mastery of man.
"Intelligence enabled man to inhabit regions entirely unsuited to his bodily constitution. Had he not invented such things as clothing and housing, and discovered the power of fire, he would never have been able to extend his dominion far into the icy Northern latitudes. Without his intelligence and these fruits of his creative imagination, he would miserably have perished there."
"Now," Hansen continued, "let us take a look at Mars.
"Here is an aging planet, much further along his life's path than we. The protecting clouds of his earlier days are gone very nearly entirely. His oceans have dried up. His mountains have eroded away. Five-eighths of his area is bare desert with no signs of fruitfulness throughout the Martian year. The temperature variations between day and night are tremendous according to our standards. This comes from the almost total absence of protective cloud covering and the fact that the Martian atmosphere has become as tenuous as our own stratosphere throughout the passage of thousands of years. A few figures will be illuminating. Near the Martian equator, sunrise temperatures are of the order of -20 °C; near noon they are from 20 to 30 °C above freezing; and at sunrise they fall to zero. During the night they go as low as -30 °C.