Navigation and Communications
Division
FROM: Dr. V. Hunt Section Head
Special Assignment Group L
ANOMALIES OF LUNAR CR1~TERING
(1) Hemispheric Anomalies
For many years, radical differences have been known to exist
between the nature and origins of Lunar Nearside and Farside
surface features.
(a) Nearside
Original Lunar surface from 4 billion years ago. Nearly all surface
crater- ing caused by explosive release of kinetic energy by
meteorite impacts. Some younger-e.g., Copernicus, 850 million years
old.
(b) Farside
Surface comprises large mass of recently added material to average
depth circa 300 meters. Craters formed during final phase of this
bombardment. Dating of these events coincides with Lunarian
presence. Origin of born- bardment uncertain.
(2) Nearsicle Exceptions
Known for approx. the last thirty years that some Nearside craters
date from same period as those on Farside. Current theory ascribes
them to overshoots from Pars ide bombardment.
(3) Conclusion From Recent Research at Omaha and Pasadena
All Nearside exceptions previously attributed to meteoritic
impacts. This belief now considered incorrect. Two classes of
exceptions now distinguished:
(a) Class I Exceptions
Confirmed as meteoritic impacts occurring 50,000 years ago.
(b) Class II Exceptions Differing from Class I in irradiation
history, formation of glasses, absence of impact corroboration and
positive results to tests for elements hyperium, bonnevilliuin,
genevium. Example: Crater Lunar Catalogue reference MB 3O76/K2/E
currently classed as meteoritic. Classification erroneous. Crater
MB 3076/K2/E was made by a nucleonic bomb. Other cases confirmed.
Investigations continuing.
(4) Farside Subsurface Intensive sampling from depths approximating
that of the original crust indicate widespread nucleonic
detonations prior to meteorite bombardment • Thermonuclear and
fission reactions also suspected but impossible to confirm.
(5) Implications
(a) Sophisticated weapons used on Luna at or near time of Lunarian
presence, mainly on Farside. Lunarian involvement implied but not
proved.
(b) If Lunarians involved, possibility of more widespread conflict
embracing Lunarian home planet. Possible cause of Lunarian
extinction.
(c) Charlie was a member of more than a small, isolated expedition
to our Moon. A significant Lunarian presence on the Moon is
indicated. Mainly concentrated on Farside. Practically all traces
since obliterated by meteorite storm.
chapter twelve
Front page feature of the New York Times,
14 October 2028:
LUNARTAN PLANET LOCATED
Did Nuclear War Destroy Minerva?
Sensational new announcements by UN Space Arm Headquarters,
Washington, D.C., at last positively identify the home planet of
the Lunarian civilization, known to have achieved space flight and
reached Earth's Moon fifty thousand years ago. Inf ormation pieced
together during more than a year of intense work by teams of
scientists based at the UNSA Navigation and Communications Division
Headquarters, Houston, Texas, shows conclusively that the Lunarians
came from an Earth-like planet that once existed in our own Solar
System.
A tenth planet, christened Minerva after the Roman goddess of
wisdom, is now known to have existed approximately 250 million
miles from the Sun between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, in the
position now occupied by the Asteroid Belt, and is firmly
established as having been the center of the Lunarian civilization.
In a further startling announcement, a UNSA spokesman stated that
data collected recently at the Lunar bases, following research at
the University of Nebraska, Omaha, and the UNSA Mineralogy and
Petrology Laboratories, Pasadena, California, indicate that a
large-scale nuclear conifict took place on the Moon at the time the
Lunarians were there. The possibility that Minerva was destroyed in
a full-scale nuclear holocaust of interplanetary dimensions cannot
be ruled out.
Nucleonic Bombs Used at Crisium
Investigations in recent months at the University of Nebraska and
Pasadena give positive evidence that nucleonic bombs have caused
craters on the Moon previously attributed to meteorite
impacts. H-bomb and A-bomb effects are also suspected but cannot be
confirmed.
Dr. Saul Steinfield of the Department of Physics at the University
of Nebraska explained: "For many years we have known that Lunar
Farside craters are very much younger than most of the craters on
Nearside. All the Farside craters, and a few of the Nearside ones,
date from about the time of the Lunarians, and have always been
thought to be meteoritic. Most of them, including all Farside ones,
are. We have now proved, however, that some of the Nearside ones
were made by bombs-for example, a few on the northern periphery of
Mare Crisium and a couple near Tycho. So far, we've identified
twenty-three positively and have a long list to check out."
Further evidence collected from deep below the Farside surface
indicates heavier bombing there than on Nearside. Obliteration of
the original Farside surface by a heavy meteorite storm immediately
after these events, accounts for only meteorite craters being found
there today and makes detailed reconstruction of exactly what took
place unlikely. "The evidence for higher activity on Farside is
mainly statistical," said Steinfield yesterday. "There's no way you
could figure anything specific-for example, an actual crater
count-under all that garbage."
The new discoveries do not explain why the meteorite storm happened
at this time. Professor Pierre Guillemont of the Hale Observatory
commented: "Clearly, there could be a connection with the Lunarian
presence. Personally, I would be surprised if the agreement in
dates is just a coincidence, although that, of course, is possible.
For the time being, it must remain an unanswered question."
Clues from ILIAD Mission
Startling confirmation that Minerva disintegrated to form the
Asteroid Belt has been received from space. Examination of Asteroid
samples carried out on board the spacecraft Iliad, launched from
Luna fifteen months ago to conduct a survey of parts of the Belt,
shows many Asteroids to be of recent origin. Data beamed back to
Mission Control Center at UNSA Operational Command Headquarters,
Galveston, Texas, gives cosmic-ray exposure times and orbit
statistics pinpointing Minerva's disintegration at fifty thousand
years ago.
Earth scientists are eagerly awaiting arrival of the first Asteroid
material to be sent back from Iliad, which is due at Lana in six
weeks time.
Lunarian Origin Mystery
Scientists do not agree that Lunarians necessarily originated on
Minerva. Detailed physical examinations of "Charlie" (Time
s, 7
November 2027) shows Lunarian anatomy identical to that of humans
and incapable of being the product of a separate evolutionary
process, according to all accepted theory. Conversely, absence of
traces of Lunarian history on Earth seems to rule out any
possibility of terrestrial origins. This remains the main focus of
conrroversy among the investigators.
In an exclusive interview, Dr. Victor Hunt, the British-born UNSA
nucleonics expert coordinating Lunarian investigations from
Houston, explained to a Times reporter: "We know quite a lot about
Minerva now-its size, its mass, its climate, and how it rotated and
orbited the Sun. Upstairs we've built a six-foot scale model of it
that shows you every continent, ocean, river, mountain range, town,
and city. Also, we know it supported an advanced civilization. We
also know a lot about Charlie, including his place of birth, which
is given on several of his personal documents as a town easily
identified on Minerva. But that doesn't prove very much. My deputy
was born in Japan, but both his parents come from Brooklyn. So
until we know a lot more than we do, we can't even say for sure
that the Minervan civilization and the Lunarian civilization were
one and the same.
"It's possible the Lunarians originated on Earth and either went to
live on Minerva or made contact with another race who were there
already. Maybe the Lunarians originated on Minerva. We just don't
know. Whichever alternative you choose, you've got problems."
Alien Marine Life Traced to Minerva
Professor Christian Danchekker, an eminent biologist at Westwood
Laboratories, Houston, and also involved in Lunarian research from
the beginning, confirmed that the alien species of fish discovered
among foodstocks in the ruin of a Lunarian base on Lunar Farside
several months ago (Times, 6 July 2028) appear to have been a life
form native to Minerva. Markings on the con-
tainers in which the fish were preserved show that they came from a
well-defined group of equatorial islands on Minerva. According to
Professor Danchekker: "There is no question whatsoever that this
species evolved on• a planet other than Earth. It seems clear that
the fish belong to an evolutionary line that developed on Minerva,
and they were caught there by members of a group of colonists from
Earth who established an extension of their civilization there."
The professor described the suggestion that the Lunarians might
also be natives of Minerva as "ludicrous."
Despite a wealth of new information, therefore, much remains to be
explained about recent events in the Solar System. Almost
certainly, the next twelve months will see further exciting
developments.
(See also the Special Supplement by our Science Editor on page
14.)
chapter thfrteen
Captain Hew Mills, UN Space Arm, currently attached to the Solar
System Exploration Program mission to the moons of Jupiter, stood
gazing out of the transparent dome that surmounted the two-story
Site Operations Control building. The building stood just clear of
the ice, on a rocky knoll overlooking the untidy cluster of domes,
vehicles, cabins, and storage tanks that went to make up the base
he commanded. In the dim gray background around the base,
indistinct shadows of rock buttresses and ice cliffs vanished and
reappeared through the sullen, shifting vapors of the
methane-ammonia haze. Despite his above-average psychological
resilience and years of strict training, an involuntary shudder ran
down his spine as he thought of the thin triple wall of the
dome-all that separated him from this foreboding, poisonous, alien
world, cold enough to freeze him as black as coal and as brittle as
glass in seconds. Ganymede, largest of the moons of Jupiter, was,
he thought, an awful place.
"Close-approach radars have locked on. Landing sequence is active.
Estimated time to touchdown: three minutes, fifty seconds." The
voice of the duty controller at one of the consoles behind Mills
interrupted his broodings.
"Very good, Lieutenant," he acknowledged. "Do you have contact with
Cameron?"
"There's a channel open on screen three, sir."
Mills moved around in front of the auxiliary console. The screen
showed an empty chair and behind it an interior view of the
low-level control room. He pressed the call button, and after a few
seconds the face of Lieutenant Cameron moved into the viewing
angle.
"The brass are due in three minutes," Mills advised. "Everything
okay?"
"Looking good, sir."
Mills resumed his position by the wall of the dome and noted
with satisfaction the three tracked vehicles lurching into line to
take up their reception positions. Minutes ticked by.
"Sixty seconds," the duty controller announced. "Descent profile
normal. Should make visual contact any time now."
A patch of fog above the landing pads in the central area Of the
base darkened and slowly materialized into the blurred outline of a
medium-haul surface transporter, sliding out of the murk, balanced
on its exhausts with its landing legs already fully extended. As
the transporter came to rest on one of the pads and its shock
absorbers flexed to dispose of the remaining momentum, the
reception vehicles began moving forward. Mills nodded to himself
and left the dome via the stairs that led down to ground level.
Ten minutes later, the first reception vehicle halted outside the
Operations Control building and an extending tube telescoped out to
dock with its airlock. Major Stanislow, Colonel Peters, and a
handful of aides walked through into the outer access chamber,
where they were met by Mills and a few other officers. Mutual
introductions were concluded, and without further preliminaries the
party ascended to the first floor and proceeded through an elevated
walkway into the adjacent dome, constructed over the head of
number-three shalt. A labyrinth of stairs and walkways brought them
eventually to number-three high-level airlock anteroom. A capsule
was waiting beyond the airlock. For the next four minutes they
plummeted down, down, deep into the ice crust of Ganymede.
They emerged through another airlock into number-three low-level
anteroom. The air vibrated with the humming and throbbing of unseen
machines. Beyond the anteroom, a short corridor brought them at
last to the low-level control room. It was a maze of consoles and
equipment cubicles, attended by perhaps a dozen operators, all
intent on their tasks. One of the longer walls, constructed
completely from glass, gave a panoramic view down over the workings
in progress outside the control room. Lieutenant Cameron joined
them as they lined up by the glass to take in the spectacle beyond.
They were looking out over the floor of an enormous cathedral, over
nine hundred feet long and a hundred feet high, hewn and melted out
of the solid ice. Its rough-formed walls glistene
d white and gray
in the glare of countless arc lights. The floor was a litter of
steel-mesh roadways, cranes, gantries, girders, pipes, tubes, and
machinery of every description. The left-side wall, stretching away
to the far end of the tunnel, carried a lattice of ladders,
scaffolding, walkways, and cabins that extended up to the roof. All
over the scene, scores of figures in ungainly heavy-duty spacesuits
bustled about in a frenzy of activity, working in an atmosphere of
pressurized argon to eliminate any risk of explosion from methane
and the other gases released from the melted ice. But all eyes were
fixed on the right-hand wall of the tunnel.
For almost the entire length, a huge, sweeping wall of smooth,
black metal reared up from the floor and curved up and over, out of
sight above their heads to be lost below the roof of the cavern. It
was immense-just a part of something vast and cylindrical, lying on
its side, the whole of which must have stretched far down into the
ice below floor level. At the near end, outside the control room, a
massive, curving wing flared out of the cylinder and spanned the
cavern above their heads like a bridge, before disappearing into
the ice high on the far left. At intervals along the base of the
wall, where metal and ice met, a series of holes six feet or so
across marked the ends of the network of pilot tunnels that had
been driven all around and over and under the object.
It was far larger than a Vega. How long it had lain there, entombed
beneath the timeless ice sheets of Ganymede, nobody knew. But the
computations of field-vector resultants collected from the
satellites had been right; there certainly had been something big
down here-and it hadn't been just ore deposits.
"Ma-an," breathed Stanislow, after staring for a long time. "So
that's it, huh?"
"That is big!" Peters added with a whistle. The aides echoed the
sentiments dutifully.
Stanislow turned to Mills. "Ready for the big moment, then,
Captain?"
"Yes, sir," Mills confirmed. He indicated a point about two hundred
feet away where a group of figures was gathered close to the wall
of the hull, surrounded by an assortment of equipment. Beside them
Giant Series 01 - Inherit the Stars Page 13
