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It sounded like a rebuke, as if the gaunt old man really meant: 'So you're the man who upsets the subjects of that quite peaceful country with your shocking theories.’ As a result, our conversation, carried on in English, began with a certain amount of reserve. Calmly, deliberately, often looking for the right word, the famous man—and he knows that he is famous—explained his Martian moon theory. He thinks that the two moons of our neighbouring planet are artificial satellites. While he explained his arguments in favour of this theory, he would repeat in all modesty that it was only his private opinion. After lunch in the crowded canteen, Professor Shklovsky relaxed his suspicious attitude a little. We began a lively argument about the impossible possibilities in the cosmos. In the end I had the satisfaction of realising that this leading expert of the eastern world, too, does not exclude the possibility of a visit in the past by unknown intelligences from the cosmos. He suspects that there are planets with intelligent life within a radius of 100 light years. bridged?’ Shklovsky answered unhesitatingly: 'Obviously there is no cut and dried answer to that. Automatons or cybernetically controlled stations are not subject, as you know, to the calendar of 'normal' years. So what is there to stop a robot making a thousand year journey undamaged? After all, some of the satellites sent on their travels by us will still be functioning when we have long been in our graves.' That is the opinion of a scientist who is an expert on the subject. It points to the technical possibility of bridging unimaginable distances. However, it still does not explain how and by what means intelligences could survive such periods of time. My helpful friend Alexander Kassanzev was waiting for me in his old car. He had been talking to the students. The Institute is like home to him. Now he wanted to take me to the Pushkin Museum, which houses magnificent collections of Assyrian, Persian, Greek and Roman art. En route we spoke about a fascinating piece of Chinese research which would have made a great impression on our archaeologists. As we drove along Prouzenskaya Quay, Kassanzev told me many details of the latest conclusions Chinese scholars had reached and I spoke the key-words into my portable tape-recorder. When we stopped at traffic-lights as we did at Zoubovski Boulevard, I spelt out names and places clearly. The story I took home on tape was so exciting that it richly repaid the expense and efforts of the journey. Kassanzev mostly talked about the remarkable finds in the Chinese mountains of Baian Kara Ula. His story sounded like a fairytale. This Kassanzev's story: 'It was in 1938 that the Chinese archaeologist Chi Pu Tei discovered graves arranged in rows in the mountain caves of Baian Kara Ula in the Sino-Tibetan border district. He found small skeletons of beings with delicate frames, who nevertheless had rather large skulls. On the walls of the caves he discovered rock drawings which portrayed beings with round helmets. The stars, sun and moon were also scratched on the rock and connected by groups of pea-sized dots. Chi Pu Tei and his assistants managed—and this is the sensational thing about the find—to salvage 716 granite ‘But what about the distances, Professor? How will the incalculable distances between the stars be