[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]recorded to supernatural phenomena, apparitions, visitations, miracles,
saints, ghosts, visions, and witches had a Lunarian connection.
But as the months passed and no dramatic revelations unfolded, the world began
to turn elsewhere for new sensations. Reports of further findings became
confined to the more serious scientific journals and proceedings of the
professional societies. But the scientists on the project continued their work
undisturbed.
Then a UNSA team erecting an optical observatory on the Lunar Farside
detected unusual echoes on ultrasonics from about two hundred feet below the
surface. They sank a shaft and discovered what appeared to be all that was
left of the underground levels of another Lunarian base, or at any rate, some
kind of construction. It was just a metal-walled box about ten feet high and
as broad and as long as a small house; one end was missing, and about a
quarter of the volume enclosed had filled up with dust and rock debris. In the
space that was left at the end, they found the charred skeletons of eight more
Lunarians, some pieces of furniture, a few items of technical equipment, and a
heap of sealed metal containers. Whatever had formed the remainder of the
structure that this gallery had been part of was gone without a trace.
The metal containers were later opened by the scientists at Westwood.
Inside the cans was a selection of assorted foodstuffs, well preserved despite
having been cooked. Presumably, whatever had done the cooking had also cooked
the Lunarians. Most of the cans contained processed vegetables, meats, and
sweet preparations; a few, however, yielded a number of fish, about the size
of herrings and preserved intact.
When Danchekker's assistant dissected one of the fish and began looking
inside, he couldn't make sense of what he found, so he called the professor
down to the lab to ask what he made of it. Danchekker didn't go home until
eight o'clock the next morning. A week later he announced to an incredulous
Vic Hunt: "This specimen never swam in any of our oceans; it did not evolve
from, nor is it in any way related to, any form of life that has ever existed
on this planet!"
Chapter Eleven
The Apollo Seventeen Mission, in December 1972, had marked the successful
conclusion to man's first concerted effort to reach and explore first-hand a
world other than his own. After the Apollo program, NASA
activities were restricted, mainly as a result of the financial pressures
exerted on the USA by the economic recessions that came and went across the
Western world throughout that decade, by the politically inspired oil crisis
and various other crises manufactured in the Middle East and the lower half of
Africa, and by the promotion of the Vietnam War. During the mid and late
seventies, a succession of unmanned probes were dispatched to Mars, Venus,
Mercury, and some of the outer planets. When manned missions were resumed in
the 19 80's, they focused on the development of various types of space shuttle
and on the construction of permanently manned orbiting laboratories and
observatories, the main objective being the consolidation of a firm jumping-
off point prior to resumed expansion outward. Thus, for a period, the Moon was
left once more on its own, free to continue its billion-year contemplation of
the Universe without further interruption by man.
The information brought back by the Apollo astronauts finally resolved the
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conflicting speculations concerning the Moon's nature and origins that had
been mooted by generations of Earth-bound observers. Soon after the Solar
System was formed, 4,500 million years ago, give or take a few, the Moon
became molten to a considerable depth, possibly halfway to the center; the
heat was generated by the release of gravitational energy as the Moon
continued to accumulate. During the cooling that followed, the heavier, iron-
bearing minerals sank toward the interior, while the less dense, aluminum-rich
ones floated to the surface to form the highland crust. Continual bombardment
by meteorites stirred up the mixture and complicated the process to some
degree but by 4,300 million years ago the formation of the crust was virtually
complete. The bombardment continued until 3,900 million years ago, by which
time most of the familiar surface features already existed. From then until
3,200 million years ago, basaltic lavas flowed from the interior, induced in
some places by remelting due to concentrations of radioactive heat sources
below the surface, to fill in the impact basins and create the darker maria.
The crust continued cooling to greater depths until molten material could no
longer penetrate. Thereafter, all remained unchanging through the ages.
Occasionally an additional impact crater appeared and falling dust gradually
eroded the top millimeter of surface, but essentially, the Moon became a dead
planet.
This history came from detailed observations and limited explorations of
Nearside. Orbital observations of Farside suggested that much of the same
story applied there also, and since this sequence was consistent with existing
theory, nobody doubted its validity for many years after Apollo. Of course,
details remained to be added, but the broad picture was convincingly clear.
However, when man returned to the Moon in strength and to stay, ground
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