Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1961-09-22

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face and televiSion cameras
Photos brought back by the
Russian landing party in 1867
had been widely published and
had added to general knowl-
edge about the moon.
Even SO, the dark-brown
landscape held the three in
fascination. The steep cragS
of science-fiction art were no.
where to be seen; the surface
of the moon was a place OF
gentle slopes and tedious land
scapes, as photographers had
learned a decade earlier. Being
smaller than the earth, the
moon was a world of close
horizons; inside a crater 20
miles across the spacemen
could barely see the tops of the
low mountains that formed the
rim.
Before opening the port in
the spacecraft, the crewmen
put on special suits that would
protect them from the lunar
vacuum. and the fierce heat
and cold Of the lunar days and
nights. In mid-courSe they had
enjoyed the relative comfort of
flying suits: at takeoff and
landing they wore full-pressure
rigs. But neither of these would
suffice for exploration outside.
The co-pilot, as commune
Gator, would stay behind to re-
main in touch with both the
earth and his colleagues on
the lunar surface. He would
get his chance to set foot out
there after the others returned.
Cabin Oxygen Turned Off
Even though the co-pilot
would not go out just now, he
donned his space suit along
with the others. The cabin oxy-
gen supply would have to be
cut off before the port could
be opened, and would remain
off until the three men were
reunited inside and the port
closed again. In the interim
they would breathe the oxygen
supply carried in their suits.
Oxygen was too scarce a COM
modify to vast room full of
it on one man.
Even in 50-pound space suits,
the astronauts felt strangely
light in the sub-gravity of the
moon. Weighing in at 210
pounds including suit, the pilot
felt to himself as if he weighed
35. If he did not seem cor
respondingly agile, that was
only because the clumsy space
suit was not conducive to
agility.
AS the two explorers decended
a ladder to the surface, they
noted with incredulity that the
spindly tripod legs of their
craft really did hold it erect,
as the designers had predicted.
Flimsy on earth, the legs were
we'll able to bear a considerable
burden in the 1853 environ
ment of the moon.
A brief reconnaissance
showed a small moon-jeep, de-
livered in 1866 by a PRO
spector" spacecraft, to be near
one of the landing beacons. 1t
had a sign hung on its side
a feature not included in the
original design. On close in
spection, the sign proved to
bear four Russian words: DO
bro pozhalovat' v lune"-"wel-
come to the moon" Apparently
some explorers from the Rus
sian base about so miles away
had placed it on the jeep as a
prank. The Soviet mischief had
stopped short of malice, how
ever; the jeep was in perfect
working order.
Exploration Starts
Collection of lunar samples
was high on the agenda. Later,
several sorties would be made
in various directions to find,
if possible, some cavernous area
that might prove suitable as a
pioneer moon base. Some people
thought that there might be
ice on the moon, and this would
be sought later, as well. The
first trip would not permit
much wide-ranging, but if ex-
ploration proved fruitful the