Evening star., 1936-05-31


and would begin the long swing around
the moon. The sitting. maddening
nothingness rasped on the mans mind.
He felt mummifed, buried alive. The
faint, regular movements of the re-
cording apparatus. the lifeless chemi-
cal odor of the artifcially regenerated
air, irritated him beyond all bearing.
Time seemed to move with infinite
slowness - to stand still.
Only the steadily increasing size of
the broad silver disk indicated any
change. The navigating instruments,
operating through the compact peri
scope which he had projected now that
the effects of air-resistance had ceased,
were his only connection with the
outer universe jet-black and studded
with blazing white stars
At last the faint invisible grip of
the moons gravitational field COM
menced to tighten about the machine:
Inward it fell with gradually increas-
ing speed. sweeping around a great
curve that passed within less than a
thousand miles of the moon's unknown
outward face. The man in the control
chamber kept his eyes intent on the
instruments, watching for any unto
ward variation in the rockets path.
A few seconds of arc more at this time
would mean crashing to utter annihi-
lation on the jagged surface below -
few less would mean hurting out
into space, to slow suffocation when
the air supply expired.
But as the hours passed, and the
great silver disk rolled by below at
exactly the computed rate, Grierson
realized that the first miracle had been
accomplished - the gyroscopic con-
trolls had been able to hold the take
off to the hairline precision that was
required.
He looked for the first time with
upwelling emotion at the superbly
desolate landscape below. The great
shallow craters, with their silver rays
radiating for hundreds of miles across
the surrounding country, the barren
seas of white pumice, the jagged peaks
of unnamed mountain ranges - these
things shook his spirit with fascina-
ton and dread.
Neither fast nor slow - but time
less, the universe rolled by. and with
it all humanity was as tiny pattern
"a little thing. flashing by in the
interlude of geologic ages and yet
a little thing that in itself compre-
hended all -
Gradually the projectile swung to-
ward the shadow of the moon, plunged
into it and was lost in the darkness of
eternal night.
1t was the beginning of the long fall
back. The speed, which had dropped
to mere ten thousand feet second
at the point of neutral gravitation,
would begin to increase gradually as
the pull of the earth outmastered the
lesser gravity of the moon, till the pro-
jectile, upon entering earth's atmo-
sphere, would be travelling at exactly
the speed at which it had left. A
speed, that is, which would be suffi-
cient to melt and volatilize it into in
candescent vapor if it were checked
suddenly.
That was the weakest point in the
whole framework of mathematical the
ory that lay behind this attempt.
If it were possible so to direct the
course of the falling body that it would
just Craze the upper regions of rarified
atmosphere. would yield enough of its
kinetic energy to slow it into an clip
tical orbit, and yet not burn the merely
human pilot to cinder; if it were
possible then to repeat this brakine
maneuver in series of gradually mar
rowing circles, each one complete
circuit of the earth, till a speed at
which the projectile could be guided
into great volplane to earth was at