The trip to Mars

The journey to Mars by Hans Dominik is a technical and scientific future history. It appeared in 1908 in the annual book series Das Neue Universum (Volume 29) and in the collection of short stories by Hans Dominik Ein neue Paradies , published in 1977 by Heyne Verlag as paperback No. 3562 .

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In 2108, humans detected air, water and green vegetation on Mars . But no human has yet managed to fly to Mars. This only changes when Doctor Müller invents a liquid with which he can remove matter from the effects of gravity . With the money from the Paris Mars Prize, a sphere is built with which the first two people set off for Mars. Arrived there happily, you will find a landscape like in the Bernese Oberland with plants and animals.

Parts of the story are reminiscent of Kurd Laßwitz and his Mars novel Auf Zweiplanets . Kurd Laßwitz was a teacher at the Gotha grammar school when Hans Dominik went to school there.

To the short story

Hans Dominik wrote this entertaining and at the same time instructive story at a time when a real Martian fever was rampant after the discovery of the Martian canals . Bruno H. Bürgel wrote about this in his popular celestial study From distant worlds , the first edition of which was published in 1910: When the author of this book came to the observatory as a young man, the high school students did not use to talk and argue about any sports greats as they do today raised witty reflections on the much discussed question: Is Mars inhabited? Are the “canals” discovered on it great structures by the Martian engineers?

Already at the beginning of his story from 2108, Hans Dominik shows how one can get information about Mars without having been there: The results of an improved and expanded spectral analysis showed with unmistakable certainty that the neighboring planet of the earth, the Mars, water, air and a green vegetation. Unfortunately, all attempts to reach Mars have failed. Hans Dominik writes: In the second half of the twentieth century, an Australian billionaire, probably inspired by a fantastic writing by Jules Verne, attempted to send a huge missile from a giant gun to Mars. The attempt had failed ominously. Even before the projectile had passed the Earth's atmosphere, the infinite friction had melted it and splattered it into steam.

The journey to Mars only became possible when, in 2109, Doctor Müller found a way to neutralize the effects of gravity. In 2110, with the travelers Doctor Müller and Monsieur Durand on board, a bullet was the first Martian spaceship to be released from a shotgun in Komgo State. The sphere contains air renewal systems, a heater and provisions. This is reminiscent of the novel From the Earth to the Moon by Jules Verne .

Arrived on Mars, they use gravity to brake and let their spaceship touch down on a treeless mountain ridge 500 m above the forests. The air pressure is only half as high as on earth, but the air on Mars contains twice as much oxygen as the air on earth, so that travelers can leave their vehicles. Outside you will find herbs, trees, flowers, mushrooms, mosses and ferns and, from animal life, worms, beetles and butterflies. “You could think of it for an afternoon in the Bernese Oberland,” said Doctor Müller.

Before they return to Earth after a short stay, they leave the German and French flags on Mars as well as geometrical theorems on a stone as a clue for intelligent Martians. As a souvenir, they pick a large bouquet of Martian mountain flowers. In the last moment before departure, a creature that can be compared to a giant jungle bear breaks through the thicket and moves towards the spaceship.

Soon after the happy return to earth, scheduled traffic between earth and Mars will begin.