Luna
The Earth’s nearest neighbor,circling resolutely a mere 300,000 miles away, has to date been far more elusive than the much more remote worlds of Venus and Mars.
Ethereal navigators have been put to the test merely setting their vessels down on a world with no atmosphere,and every indication is that Luna has no particular wealth or prospects to offer the ambitious Earthmen buzzing past in favor of richer worlds.
Telescopic observations from the Earth have been confirmed by firsthand examination of the facts: Luna is a barren world without atmosphere or water, trod upon for the first time by scientists wishing to unlock the doors of knowledge with Edison’s remarkable key.
Specifically, Luna is a ball of rock 2160 miles in diameter with a surface area of 14.5 million square miles, approximately equal to that of Asia. Its terrain, as can be seen from Earth, is mostly mountainous and cratered, and speculation that much of this is due to meteor impacts over time appears to be correct.
The gravity at the surface of this tiny world is only one-sixth that of the Earth, allowing for tremendous acrobatics for those willing to brave the deadly vacuum in specially adapted suits.
Navigational Difficulties
ETHER FLYERS used for commerce Venus generally take advantage of the atmospheres of those worlds to get from orbit to surface. Both liftwood and hydrogen help make the vessel “lighter than air,” letting it settle to the surface or rise to orbit using the atmosphere as a buoyancy medium. Luna, however, has no air to be lighter than, rendering liftwood and hydrogen useless. The only alternative for getting to its surface is to use the ether propeller, a device whose speeds are measured in millions of miles per day, to navigate the delicate distance between orbit an surface.
Obviously, the typical ether propeller is hardly sensitive enough for such precise maneuvers, and only the very best pilots will even attempt a landing on a vacuum world like Luna.
Earthmen on Luna
LUNA WAS first visited by Sir William Otterbein, in an ether flyer designed by himself and his Italian assistant, Luigi Piachetti, and financed by his estates and by industrialists in London wishing to find cheap sources of iron ore.
Otterbein managed to land his flyer in Mare Imbrium without significant damage. He and his assistant then set out to establish that Luna does suffer from “Moonquakes,” that the surface, at least in the so-called “seas,” is very dusty and difficult to traverse, that the surface gravity is quite low, and that there is no atmosphere.
After his return trip, analysis of samples found them almost barren of useful materials, and Otterbein’s industrial backers pulled their support out from under him. He never returned to Luna.
Others have, however, including Brian Masterly of Great Britain, the Davis brothers of Philadelphia, and Vladimir Tereshkova of Russia. The latter made a total of five trips to Luna for the Czar, the final one (from which he never returned) in 1887.
All the scientific data gathered have confirmed suspicions that Luna is of little value. No permanent facilities exist on Luna, and by 1889,visits there are extremely infrequent.
The Glow
RUMORS ABOUT hidden treasures, great wealth in diamonds, and indeed the existence of so-called Selenites, or Moonmen, have passed between space mariners for years. To date, none of them have been borne out despite several visits to Luna over the last two decades. Still, such rumors die hard, and many people persist in their belief that there is more to Earth’s Moon than meets the eye.
“The glow” is a particular event which many explorers and ether pilots claim to have witnessed on the far side of Luna. They claim that, if one is in the right position, a faint glow can be seen on a particular part of the far side. The glow is barely a pinprick as seen with the unaided eye, but telescopic observers claim the glow area may actually be anything up to a mile across. Its greenish-white light has never been scientifically examined.
Rumor has it that the Russians have more information about the glow, but, frankly, they aren’t talking.
It is also rumored that Vladimir Tereshkova was investigating the glow on his fateful trip of 1887.
The text of this post is taken from the original Space 1889 rulebook, Copyright by Frank Chadwick, now published by Heliograph.
No challenge to asserted rights is intended by reproducing this extract.
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