Chapter I
FROM EARTH TO THE MOON
Ever since man has been upon the Earth he has observed the stars in the heavens and wondered about them. As he watched their movement across the heavens night after night, his curiosity has been awakened and he has wondered just what these diamonds in the sky were made of and what they were like.
As his curiosity has grown, man has worked constantly seeking an answer to these questions of his mind. Thus he has developed the telescope from its first crude beginning to the present large two hundred inch in the Hale Observatory on Mount Palomar.
Hand in hand with the developing of the telescope for the past quarter of a century has gone the development of the airplane, and with it the ever mounting hope in man’s heart that soon he will be able to make a trip to his nearest neighbor in the sky, the Moon.
This in spite of the fact that for centuries man on Earth has been taught that there is no atmosphere on the Moon, Yet as the telescopes had been developed to greater and greater size and perfection, storms had been observed around the Moon. Also from time to time a state of what
scientists called atmospheric movements had been noted. Thus even when our plans for making this trip were first being worked out, we were of the firm conviction that the Moon did have atmosphere of some kind. What we did not know was; what is the consistency of the Moon’s atmosphere?
We were sure that it contains a certain amount of oxygen, for as Dr. Johnston said, “even if the Moon is all rock, rock in itself contains and gives off oxygen.”
Also we knew that there couldn’t be any kind of atmosphere anywhere without it containing oxygen. Therefore, since the Moon had rock in it and since we had seen storms around it, there was no question in our minds as to whether oxygen was tKere. The question was concerning its quantity; was there a sufficient amount to supply the needs of Earth men like us?
Now after twenty odd years of work and constant improvements, the ship which we hope and believe will take us to the Moon on the first leg of an inter-planetary space journey is ready. Included in her equipment are the latest improvements in radio, radar, television, photography and all types of instruments that the best minds of science, using the finest laboratories on Earth, have been able to develop for our safety in making such a trip. The ship herself has pressure equalizers built in her. These are so constructed that they automatically balance the pressure within the ship to conform with the various stratas of atmospheric pressure in space through which we will have to pass on this trip. Because of these equalizers, we have no fear of our ship exploding in air due to pressure differences within and without. Also there is an instrument with which we can measure the oxygen content of the Moon’s atmosphere before even opening the doors of the ship to venture out upon the Moon.
For ourselves we have specially made suits that will support and protect our bodies through any type of pressure. By using our oxygen masks we expect to be able to keep alert during the entire trip and at the same time, by controlling our oxygen intake while carefully watching our pressure gauge, to acclimate our bodies so they can quickly become accustomed to activity in the lighter pressure we expect to find on the Moon. As a precaution, we are taking , along an extra supply of oxygen, several large tanks full, to enable us to stay at least a short time upon the surface of the Moon after making this long and hazardous trip, should we find upon arrival there that our calculations have been wrong and the atmosphere is such that we are unable to breathe or move about without it.
An announcement has been made of our proposed trip and the interest of the people throughout the world is very high. The date for our takeoff has been set and all arrangements have been made for a round-the-world hookup for radio and television, thus enabling all who wish, to listen in and view our trip with us.
The big day has arrived and the atmosphere is filled with excitement as thousands have gathered at the airport to see us off. It seems as though Mother Nature herself is doing her very best to help us, for man could not desire more perfect weather conditions than we have.
Our ship stands waiting on the runway, glistening and beautiful in the morning sun as if she too is eager to be off on this new adventure. The last details have been completed and we bid our dear ones a fond farewell before going down the ramp and across the airstrip to the ship.
We check with the ground crew who are standing by. Everything is set. We climb in, take our places, close the doors, then start the motors. Their whirring is music to our ears.
The four of us making this trip are: Bob, the pilot;
Johnny, the copilot and radio man; George, the navigator;
and Dr. Johnston, the scientist.
This is the moment we have been working towards for more than twenty years and we are just as excited as any of those standing out there watching. They aren’t sure that they will ever see us again; while we are confident of much accomplishment and a safe return.
The ground crew has given us the signal and we are on our way to the Moon! As we have climbed upward and ever upward, the speedometer has indicated our speed at three thousand miles per hour, then six thousand, then twelve thousand as we kept going up until we reached a steady speed of one hundred thousand miles per hour. Yet with all this speed we seem to be standing still, for the Earth has long since ceased to be anything more than a large disc of light behind us. We are travelling in space with nothing but space surrounding us, with the exception that every now and then a small meteoric ball of amber light whizzes past us as if shot from some invisible gun. These come out of nowhere and look as though they are just getting hot; nothing like the color they have after hitting the Earth’s atmos-’ phere. One big fellow would surely have wrecked us had it hit us and we impulsively ducked. But it too missed us.
Other than our instruments, the only thing that let us realize that we are moving at all is that the Moon, being our objective, keeps getting closer and closer. It alone stands out from all the stars in the heavens.
Our radio contact with the Earth has remained clear although it has grown weaker as we have climbed higher.
According to calculations by Dr. Johnston before leaving the Earth, we knew that the gap, or neutral zone, between the Earth and the Moon was not exactly halfway between these two bodies. He figured that it started at the approximate distance of one hundred thirty-eight thousand miles from the Earth and probably was about twenty thousand miles in width, leaving us around eighty thousand miles to travel before reaching the Moon.
As we approach this gap, Bob speeds up our ship in the hope of jumping it instead of being caught in it and thereby becoming suspended in space.
During our passage through the gap our instruments cease to operate and we have the feeling that we are in what might be called a perfect vacuum, yet it seems to be filled with a very mysterious substance or particles of various sizes, all apparently quite stationary. It might be described as going through a foamy or feathery condition of some sort of elements which we have never before experienced, but through which there is no resistance whatever.
Up until this time we had all been very excited but suddenly we become very calm with quite a feeling of exhilaration.
Dr. Johnston’s calculations have been proven correct for we are on the Moon side and Bob is having to slow up the ship. Immediately after leaving the neutral zone we noticed that our instruments began working again, registering atmospheric conditions as well as a gravitational pull. Also our ship has begun to take on an increased speed as though being pulled by a tremendous force, which we realize is the Moon’s gravitational pull. This pull seems to increase as we near the Moon so that Bob has to keep cutting down the speed of our ship; yet our instruments show that the Moon’s gravitational force is weaker than the Earth’s force, only about halt of that of the Earth.
On this side we have also encountered a few meteorites of a fair size but they have a different glow of color, sort of a purplish glow instead of amber such as those shooting towards the Earth. They also seem to travel a little slower than those approaching the Earth. We are travelling towards the Moon so fast that we seem to miss, just by the speed of our ship, the meteors that we otherwise would be encountering. Our speed at this point is fifty thousand miles per hour.
We are approaching the Moon on the light side as seen from the Earth so that at ten miles distance from it we begin to get a very good perspective of the craters and mountainous area. Bob is having to continuously slow down the speed of the ship.
Within five miles of the Moon we encounter a terrific storm blowing from the north to the south. It is so strong that we don’t know whether we can make it through or not. George has decided that our only chance of surviving is to go with the storm. He has instructed Bob accordingly. With this in mind, Bob is speeding up the ship to a point where he thinks he can enter this storm with a certain amount of safety. The idea is to cross through it in such a way that we will get continuously closer to the Moon and yet avoid being hit broadside.
We have made it safely and are only three miles from the Moon. We had to circle it twice in crossing through the storm before getting into the calmness again, but we were all so engrossed in getting safely through that we failed to make any observations of the Moon. Now we are breathing easier. Bob is slowing the ship down and we can get a good perspective of the Moon. We are flying at only one hundred miles per hour at an altitude of five thousand feet above the surface of the Moon in the area that people on Earth call the rim of the Moon, where the light side ceases and the dark side begins.
Of course this was all worked out months before when we were making our plans for this trip because Dr. Johnston had said that it there is anything at all favorable to human life on the Moon, it would be in this zone.
As we have been descending we find what we expected, a belt-like section extending as far as we can see around the Moon that has a natural growth of trees and vegetation. In this zone, just at the edge of the crater area, we see a small lake and not far distant up the valley is apparently a small city. Skirting the lake on the side away from the valley in which this city lies, extends a large forest of trees or heavy brush beyond which lies a broad plateau which we have chosen as our landing place.
Here on this plateau is plenty of room for many ships like ours to land. And here we set our ship down, the first Earth ship to reach the Moon.