Authentic Science Fiction Monthly, No. 65 — page 50: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

SPACE ACADEMY LIGHT OF A NEW DAWN creeping over the world’s hoeion —the dawn of the Space Age. Already rockets have been fired to a height of over 280 miles, and the larger countries all have active interplanetary societies composed of eminent mathe- maticians, engineers and_ scientists who are forging ahead, finding answers to the problems of space flight. There can be no doubt in serious minds that space will be conquered, and very soon! When that time comes there will be a great need for young men to pilot and navigate the spaceships. Just as there are aviation schools today, so there will be Space Academies in the future. Let us take a look at one and see how boys will be trained to carry humanity to the stars. The building, of course, will be a superb piece of architecture, made of durable materials and designed es- pecially for its purpose. It will be located some distance from the large towns and will be a complete little world in itself. It will have bedrooms, classrooms, an observatory, shops, cinema and recreation rooms. Spacemen will have to learn con- siderably more than present-day air- men learn. The Space Academy will take cadets when they complete their primary education and will put them through courses in all the subjects that are essential for the men who are to take charge of vessels in the void of space. Mathematics, physics and engineering will be the most important subjects. Astronomy, too, will play an important part. Perhaps, to help cadets to become familiar with heavenly bodies, the Space Academy will have a large planetarium filling the whole centre of the building up to the first floor. Here, the planetary models will circle a model sun in imitation of the Solar System and the cadets may study them when they please. Above all, space cadets must be 49 physically fit. A sick man, or even a rather weak man, might crack up under the rigours of space flight; he might endanger the whole ship. So, the Space Academy will be amply provided with sports grounds, a gym- nasium and swimming pool. One good reason for maintaining perfect health is that all spaceship crewmen will have to withstand very strong forces when the ships take off and land, due to the tremendous ac- celeration necessary to escape from Earth’s gravity field. Escape velocity is seven miles per second, and the effect of this is that the men will be pressed down into spongy mattresses by what seems like a giant hand. To prepare cadets for this experience by easy stages, the Space Academy will have a centrifuge room. In this, for sO many minutes a day, the cadets will be spun round on the revolving walls, centrifugal force pushing them out- wards and simulating the drag of gravity. Gradually they will become used to the experience and when they graduate from the Academy they will take blast-offs and landings in their stride. Naturally, there will be terrific competition among boys for places in the Space Academy, and the authorities will have a very stiff entrance examina- tion for weeding out the unsuitables. We can be certain that the wealth of the boy’s parents will count for nothing. Successful candidates will be those who have shown their ability at the primary school and are willing to work extremely hard while they are at the Academy. This question of mental characters will loom very large. Space voyages will be long and arduous, boring perhaps, and not a little dangerous. However clever a man may be at, say, physics, he becomes a liability in space if he tends to be irritable, selfish or belligerent. Careful psychological test- ing will be applied all through the courses to detect such weaknesses. a. * me a ee comiclbooks.conn