by Jerry
After going through the usual routine of washing, shaving, and of eating breakfast, we prepared to continue our exploration of the moon’s surface.
As Banning and I were getting into our space suits, I asked, “By the way, Professor, would you mind telling us why you picked this particular spot for us to spend our first night on the moon?”
To which he replied, “I am anxious to settle as soon as possible certain questions which have been the source of a great deal of guess work and argument on the part of astronomers and selenographers. The. most important one is this: Is there any vegetation or other form of life on the moon? I chose this place because the interior of the ring mountain Eratosthenes is one of the regions in which a noted astronomer claims to have detected evidence that some form of vegetable life exists.”
CHAPTER XIII
Answering Puzzling Questions
WHEN a traveler is writing about a strange land—describing scenes which have never before been gazed upon by human eyes, there is perhaps a strong temptation to fabricate or at least to exaggerate. It would be easy enough—with the aid of a creative imagination—to describe the moon as covered with monstrous and preposterous vegetation and inhabited with animals—some horrible, some weird, some human-like.
But since this is nothing but a straightforward, accurate account of what we actually saw and did during our sojourn on the moon, I am compelled to chronicle that no life of such extraordinary characteristics does exist on the moon.
We learned that the changes in the color of the plain inside the ring mountain Eratosthenes, which take place as the heat of the sun warms this region, were not due to vegetation—as was erroneously deduced by one or two well known astronomers. It was caused entirely by the effect of the heat on a mineral formation which is metallic in character. Professor Banning secured samples of this mineral which were subsequently submitted to various tests. While the metal contained in them was entirely different from any substance found on earth, the transformation caused by heat in varying degrees of intensity might be compared to the changes in the color of a piece of iron when it is subjected to high temperatures. The only essential difference was that the minerals found on the moon went through these color changes at lower temperatures—ranging from 50 degrees to 218 degrees Fahrenheit.
In order to make certain that no plants or other forms of life existed in any part of the moon, Professor Banning explored and thoroughly investigated all of the places where changes that might have been caused by vegetation had previously been observed by astronomers. Among the regions which we visited during this visit for this purpose were the interior of the ring mountains Plato, Aristarchus, Grimalidi, and Alphonsus. We also flew back and forth over the Sea of Serenity, approaching close enough to the surface to observe all important details, but we did not find any evidence that either animal or vegetable life had recently existed there.
For some mysterious reason, Professor Banning seemed very much pleased when he had convinced himself indubitably that no plants or animal of any description were living on the moon.
“It’s much better to begin with nothing at all than to run the risk of having to fight undesirable things,” he murmured, half to himself. Just what he meant by this cryptic remark I did not know until several years later.
As time is reckoned on earth, we spent approximately ten days in exploring the half of the moon which is visible from the earth. All during this time I had been impatient to see what was on the far side of the lunar sphere. Professor Banning had grudgingly consented to our making one brief trip for a short distance beyond the western boundaries of the earthward hemisphere, while that portion of the moon was illuminated by the sun. Naturally, it was not feasible to penetrate beyond the lighted parts of the opposite side, since there we had no friendly earthshine to light our way as was the case on the portions which faced the earth.
I can only report that we discovered nothing startling or unusual. The landscape on the far side of the moon was very similar to that which is visible from the earth. The characteristic features, such as magnificent mountains, spacious craters, abysmal clefts, and glittering rays were all duplicated on the other side of the moon.
We took a large number of photographs from the air. When pieced together, these pictures constituted an aerial map of about one-fourth of the hemisphere which is turned away from the earth. Because of the fact that a considerable part of this half of the moon was in darkness, we were not able to map it completely.
The number of actual landings we made on the far side of the moon were limited—only five to be exact. The last of these stops came very near being the termination of our adventure.
Berglin had set the Amundsen down on a level stretch of desolate ground about 300 miles from the imaginary line, which marked the eastern boundaries of the moon’s disc as seen from the earth.
We were all weary and had planned to rest for several hours. From the place which we had chosen as our camping ground we could see the sun low in the horizon, so that neither the light nor the heat was excessively intense.
In examining our surroundings before retiring, I noticed that we were close to a peculiar formation. Our flyer was just inside the angle formed by two cracks in the ground, which met at an angle of approximately 120 degrees. I estimated this from the fact that the amount of divergence seemed to be just about the same as the angle of a regular hexagon. The most remarkable thing about these cracks were that they extended as far as the eye could reach in perfectly straight lines. When I first observed them, they were only a few inches wide. Interested as I was in this unusual feature, it did not occur to me to regard it with foreboding, or even to point it out to my companions. At that particular moment I was more interested in getting some sleep than in studying geology—or perhaps I should say “selenology.”
How long I slept I do not know, but when I did awake it was with a weird feeling in my bones that something was wrong. I glanced out of the window and what I saw made me utter a yell that jolted Berglin and Banning from their slumbers with rude suddenness. Stretching away from us in almost rectilinear regularity were two ridges about three feet high. They seemed to be made of thin clay or mud which oozed forth from the bowels of the moon and piled up higher and higher as we watched.
One of the ridges extended directly under our flyer. So rapidly was it increasing in size that it had almost engulfed us before we realized what was happening.
“Quick!” cried the Professor. “Turn on the rear rocket tubes. Give it all you have—full speed ahead.”
Berglin responded instantly, but the glutinous material, half fluid, half solid, already had grasped us in its tenacious embrace. Fortunately, the tail of the Amundsen was clear, so that we could at least make a valiant attempt to escape.
For several anxious seconds our fate hung in the balance. Starting with as much power as he dared to use, Berglin quickly accelerated until the maximum force of our powerful fuel was shooting through the rocket tubes. Under the terrific strain, the Amundsen shivered and groaned but held together.
Then we moved forward!
At first the movement was almost imperceptible, but nevertheless it was a motion and that was enough encouragement for us to keep trying. Inch by inch, foot by foot, we fought our way forward until, at the end of about half an hour, we cleared the ground and hopped triumphantly into space.
“Soar around for a while. I want to study this,” the Professor commanded. It was then our privilege to observe a phenomenon such as mortal eyes had never before beheld—namely the birth of a crater, or ring mountain.
From our vantage point on high we were able to see that the ridge, which had threatened to engulf us, was but a part of a gigantic formation. It then became evident to me that the cracks I had seen a few hours previous had been part of an enormous hexagon. Through these fissures, semi-fluid material from below the surface had oozed out, while at the same time the section of the surface which was thus detached had sunk in.
It wasn�
��t long before the flowing clay or mud had filled in the corners so that the wall changed from a hexagonal to a circular form.
“Well,” said the Professor after a while. “That settles another important question that has puzzled selenographers for some time.”
“What question is that, Professor?” I asked.
“The question as to how these so-called ‘craters’ were formed. You can easily see now that they are not craters at all, because volcanic action has nothing to do with it.”
To which I replied, “Whatever it is that forms those rings, I’d just as soon steer clear of them from now on—especially the baby ones that are just getting ‘borned’.”
CHAPTER XIV
Preparing for the Homeward Journey
IN planning our itinerary, Professor Banning had set the date for our departure from the moon exactly two weeks after our arrival there. The main reason for this was that at the expiration of fourteen days the moon had moved around to the opposite side of the earth so that it was leading its mother planet in the joint march around the sun. This enabled us to make use of the momentum of the earth on our return journey, just as we had utilized the momentum of the moon on the first part of our trip.
The fourteen days referred to were, of course, terrestrial days which really amounted to only one of the moon’s days as recorded from sunrise to sunset.
Our supplies of oxygen, water, food, fuel and other necessities had been calculated to suffice for an absence of two weeks—with liberal safety factors provided, of course.
During this period we succeeded in accomplishing, with surprising thoroughness, all the things which the Professor had mapped out for us. These tasks were two-fold in character: First, to answer the most important questions regarding the moon which had previously puzzled and baffled astronomers, and second, to learn as much as possible about the chemical and physical composition of the moon’s surface.
So important is it for mankind to know the correct answers to the questions which for generations have been asked about the moon, that I think it will be pertinent to summarize them here. For convenience and clarity I am using the “catechism” or question and answer format:
Q. Has the moon any atmosphere?
A. No. Scientists have known this for some time, although there have been a few who thought they could detect evidence of the existence of a very tenuous atmosphere on the moon. Our investigations showed that the moon has no atmosphere comparable to that of the earth.
Q. Is there any water on the moon?
A. Only a very small quantity, which is in the form of vapor during the lunar day and is converted into hoar frost at night.
Q. Is there any vegetable life on the moon?
A. Since vegetable life as we know it requires both air and moisture, it is evident that no plants such as we know on earth can exist on the moon. We found not even the slightest vestige of plant life. Q. Is there any animal life on the moon?
A. No, for the same reasons that vegetable life could not exist there.
Q. Is there any form of life on the moon?
A. No.
Q. How then, can the changes in coloring which take place as the temperature changes be accounted for? A. We found this to be due to the physical effects of heat on certain mineral substances, corresponding to the color changes in a piece of iron when it is heated.
Q. Are the so-called “craters” on the moon volcanic in character?
A. No.
Q. How were these ring mountains formed?
A. By clay and similar semi-fluid material oozing up to the surface through cracks formed when the moon cooled.
Q. How were the rays on the moon formed?
A. When the moon cooled from a molten state, crevasses were formed in the surface, similar to the cracks which would be produced if a hot sphere of glass were thrust into cold water. Later, these cracks became filled with a metallic substance, which reflects the light of the sun and makes them stand out brilliantly from the rest of the moon’s surface.
Q. How were the deep valleys or gorges on the moon formed?
A. They must have been formed either by comets or meteors striking the moon glancing blows.
Q. Does the hemisphere of the moon which is not visible from the earth differ materially from the part which is visible?
A. The topographical features are quite similar on both sides of the moon.
I realize that there is nothing especially remarkable about the foregoing information. Most of it has been suspected by the keenest students of selenography for some time. But since this is not intended to be a bit of sensational fiction, but merely a faithful account of our explorations, I must chronicle the facts as they actually existed.
In order to find out as much as possible regarding the composition of the moon’s surface, Professor Banning directed me to collect samples of soil and minerals from each of the various characteristic portions of luna’s surface. Occasionally he helped me in this work, but most of the time I did the gathering alone, while Banning busied himself at a small bench which he had fitted up as a chemical laboratory at the rear of the Amundsen’s cabin. Here he fussed eternally with his beakers, test tubes and crucibles. For hours on end he would work in silence, then would surprise us with an unexpected whoop of triumph or a groan of disappointment. However, he did not vouchsafe to give us any explanation of his chemical researches and neither Berglin nor myself would admit being curious enough to ask him regarding his discoveries.
On the day before the one scheduled for our departure for home, however, Professor Banning issued a singular order which could only have been predicated on something which his chemical investigation had revealed. He directed Berglin to set the flyer down close to the spot where we had previously blasted out a portion of the giant ray about a hundred miles west of ring mountain Rhetius. Again we shot off a charge of radatomite, but this time we took the precaution of piling a large number of heavy boulders over the place to be blasted, thus preventing the fragments from being thrown far from the center of the explosion.
Following the professor’s instructions, I filled all the available storage space in the Amundsen with chunks of the material torn from the great ray.
CHAPTER XV
An Alarming Discovery
CAME the zero hour for our departure.
Momentous as this occasion was, we hopped off as nonchalantly as if we were only going on a short trip of exploration.
On our return voyage we had planned to use the same strategy which had proved successful on our trip from the earth to the moon.
Steadily and swiftly we climbed until the ground beneath us lost its concave appearance and assumed the form of a huge ball hanging in space. We directed our flight so as to carry our flyer along the same path the moon was traveling in its journey around the sun.
By operating the four dimensional steering apparatus, we severed the gravitational tie which bound us to the moon, and then made the hairpin turn which sent us hurtling back toward the approaching earth.
A few moments after this maneuver was completed, I noticed off to one side of us a peculiarly shaped object drifting in space. To see anything at all in what should have been an absolutely empty void gave me such a shock that I uttered a blood-curdling yell which made my two companions jump.
“Look!” I cried. “See that object out there! It must be a meteorite or something!”
“Hardly a meteorite,” Professor Banning corrected me. “It looks to me like something from our flyer. Out there, with nothing to compare it with, it’s hard to tell whether it is a large body far away or a small object close to us. Let’s see how it looks with the glass.” Banning picked up a field glass and trained it on the mysterious object. “I thought so!” he cried. “It’s a part of something from our ship! And if I’m not mistaken, it’s a piece of a four-dimensional rocket tube!”
“Let me look!” He handed me the glass and I pointed it at the mysterious object.
“You’re right!” I exclaimed
. “It is a section of our four dimensional rocket tube. It must have been broken off the tube for steering us back out of hyperspace. How do you suppose that happened?”
“It probably became cracked-or weakened while we were tearing ourselves loose after getting caught in the ooze from that newly formed ring mountain,” the Professor suggested. “When you turned on the other four dimensional rocket tube a moment ago it gave the ship a jolt which must have loosened the weakened part.”
“Is the loss of that part likely to cause any serious consequence?” Berglin inquired.
“Serious!” I said. “I’ll say it’s serious. Without that tube functioning properly it’s going to be impossible for us to get back into three dimensional space. It means that we are doomed to drift around in hyperspace until our oxygen, our water, and our food give out.”
Berglin seemed unwilling to accept my statement. Turning to Banning, he said, “Is that true, Professor?”
“Yes,” was Banning’s simple response. “It’s true that we’ll have to stay in hyperspace until we can get that four dimensional rocket tube repaired.”
“Get it repaired?” I said in a tone which I fear was not very respectful. “You talk as if all we have to do is phone for a plumber—preferably one with a mathematical training—to fly out here and put a new four dimensional tube on our space ship.”
Fortunately my sarcastic and discourteous comment did not seem to offend the Professor. He merely gave me a tolerant smile and said, “The trouble with you, my boy, is that you give up too easily. We hear a lot about the persistency of youth but after all it seems to take a man of mature years and experience to realize the fact that, no matter how hopeless a situation my be, it pays to keep on trying to get out of it.”
