CHAPTER 10 – A VIEW TO THE EARTH
19:45 (Florida Time)
Tuesday, October 10, 1961 ‘C’
United States Space Plane AMERICA
On approach to the Mare Nectaris
Near side of the Moon
“Descent rate is now 200 feet per minute, present altitude is 1,400 feet. Glide slope looking good, Gertrude.”
Gertrude Meserve, sitting in the pilot’s seat of the SP-10C AMERICA and wearing her fully sealed space suit, acknowledged curtly the information from John Glenn, sitting to her right in the copilot’s seat and also wearing his space suit. Sitting behind them in the seats reserved normally for mission specialists were Charles Yeager and Alan Shepard. Visible a few kilometers ahead through the thick forward viewing window of the cockpit were the flashing red beacon lights of the automated cargo ship that had landed on the Moon twelve days ago. Gertrude’s goal was actually to land as close as possible to the cargo ship without risking a collision. While maintaining a façade of calm and coolness, Gertrude felt more nervous right now than she had ever been, and for good reasons: she was piloting the first manned spaceship about to land on the Moon. The public reaction in the United States and around the World when the automated cargo ship TERA had touched down smoothly on the Moon had been one of both enthusiasm and disbelief. Gertrude could thus easily imagine the huge nationwide party that would follow their landing on the Moon. Sitting on top of the TERA, alongside its main communications antenna dish, was a pair of television cameras fixed to swiveling mounts. Those camera mounts could in turn be remotely operated from Cape Canaveral, with their images then transmitted to Earth. They had up to now been used with excellent results to visually explore the area that was planned to become the first human base on the Moon. Now, they were filming the approach of the AMERICA as it was about to land nearby, thus giving a view of terrific news value to all the American listeners and to those in Europe and the Pacific who were hooked via satellite retransmission to the CBS television channel. The impact around the World of such an American accomplishment was bound to bring enormous prestige to the United States, while the Soviet Union, whose space capabilities were nowhere near comparable, was going to definitely look second best now. On its part, the once proud and mighty Great Britain, whose empire and economy were in a downward slide by now, was more and more looking like a second rate power around the World, something that unfortunately too many British officials and aristocrats still had problems accepting.
“Deploy the landing gear!” Ordered Gertrude as the space plane passed the altitude of 1,000 feet. John Glenn flipped a switch and observed for a moment his instrument panel, then spoke up calmly.
“Landing gear deployed! TERA ahead and below at eleven O’clock, distance three miles, closing speed of 130 miles per hour.”
“Activating retro-rocket to slow down.” Replied Gertrude. “We don’t want to overshoot the landing spot.”
Her delicate hand movements on the small side control stick attached to the right armrest of her seat made a short burst of rocket exhaust appear from the nose retro-rocket engine. At the same time she fired off briefly the rocket engine connected to the system of swiveling exhaust nozzles that allowed her SP-10C to land and take off vertically to and from the Moon. With the local gravity being only one sixth that of Earth, the rocket engine power and the corresponding fuel consumption needed to land on the Moon was that much diminished. That in turn had made possible to use a modified two-seater SP-10B and make it able to get to the Moon and back. Along with the new SP-10C, a modified PEGASUS unmanned second stage rocket had come as well as part of the Moon landing program. That second stage, once launched from high Earth altitude from its C-2000 LEVIATHAN first stage transporter, rocketed to Low Earth Orbit, or LEO, where the SP-10C would later join it and attach to it. The extra rocket fuel remaining on the PEGASUS was then used to boost itself and the SP-10C into lunar orbit. While the whole procedure was a bit complicated compared with a normal space plane mission, it had allowed the use in only slightly modified form of the existing space systems used by the United States Military Space Command, thus saving a tremendous amount of time and money along the way. Apart from the AMERICA, two more SP-10C were already in service, with a fourth SP-10C to be ready in a matter of weeks, thus ensuring a quick turnaround time between Moon missions. As Gertrude was on her final landing approach, she could take some reassurance from the fact that the SP-10C LEXINGTON was on standby in Vandenberg Space Command Base, along with a PEGASUS second stage and two C-2000 transporters. If for some reason the AMERICA became unable to leave the Moon, Commander Schirra would be able to launch and get to the Moon within a week, fast enough for Gertrude and her crew to have a good chance of being rescued. For the moment, however, everything had been going well and the SP-10C was responding smoothly to Gertrude’s commands. With John Glenn now reading their altitude every few seconds, Gertrude finally put her space plane smoothly down on the surface of the Moon, less than fifty meters from the automated cargo ship. Shutting down her rocket engines, Gertrude blew out air as the other three crewmembers yelled their joy. She then spoke in her helmet microphone.
“Cape Control, this is the AMERICA: we are on the surface of the Moon and everything is nominal.”
Back on Earth, at the mission control room in Cape Canaveral, Ingrid and all the others present there yelled with joy on hearing Gertrude’s words, backed up by the camera view showing the AMERICA now safely down on the Moon. Major General David Aldridge, Ingrid’s deputy, then shook her hand vigorously.
“Dammit, General, you did it! You got us to the Moon in less than nine months from the word go.”
“We were all part of the effort, Dave.” Replied Ingrid at once. “I may have had some good ideas but our scientists and engineers did all the important work.”
“Ingrid, you are one of those engineers.” Shot back with a smile Aldridge. “Besides, you are the one who came up with the idea of using modified PEGASUS second stage unmanned rockets both as orbital boosters to our SP-10Cs and as automated cargo ships. Hell, the TERA allowed us to land over ten tons of equipment in advance of our first manned Moon mission! And the idea of using the TERA’s empty liquid oxygen tank as extra livable space once on the Moon was your idea too, Ingrid.”
“Somebody else would have thought about that anyway, Dave. Don’t make so much of it, please.”
Aldridge’s smile faded as he looked into the big, beautiful blue eyes of his commander. As a woman, Ingrid was both admired and desired by most men on the base, secretly of course. As a military commander and space project manager, she was also genuinely respected by all the professionals in Cape Canaveral. Sure, many old-fashioned farts still couldn’t digest the fact that a woman could do all that Ingrid did, but that beautiful young woman, who still had the looks of a mere teenager, just had sent the first American crew to the Moon in record time and at a ridiculously low overall cost compared to all the estimates and predictions of doom from the nay-sayers and pessimists. Aldridge said his next words in a low voice, so that no one else around them could hear.
“Ingrid, with all due respect, stop selling yourself short. Without you we would be still trying to figure out how to send people in Earth orbit and then get them back safely. The nation owes you, big time!”
“And I owe the United States big time too, Dave.” Said Ingrid softly. “It allowed me to become what I am today. In most other places I would still be kept in low level clerical jobs and would have been refused the privilege of becoming a military pilot. I guess that this was my way to pay my debt of gratitude to my country of adoption.”
“Then, shall we break out the champagne bottle?”
“Not yet, Dave.” Said Ingrid, smiling again. “First, I want to see our crew make their first steps on the Moon.”
“You are right, again. Now, that will be a memorable moment.”
Aldridge then looked back with Ingrid at the large television screen that showed the picture of the AMERICA on the Moon surface, as taken from the cameras of the TERA.
Being already fully suited up, Gertrude Meserve, John Glenn and Charles Yeager got up from their seats and made their way through the cockpit section to the exit airlock, situated aft from the small living compartment adjacent to the cockpit. That airlock incorporated in its floor a telescopic lift platform that would lower them to the Moon surface, apart from having pressurized exit hatches that communicated with the main payload bay and with the top surface of the space plane. Leaving Alan Shepard in charge of the space plane, Gertrude entered the airlock with John and Charles, then closed and secured the large hatch before initiating the airlock’s depressurization cycle. It took a bit over a minute before the pumps of the space plane sucked in the air and created a near vacuum. Once the control panel’s red light came on, Gertrude activated the lift platform, making her and her two comrades smoothly go down. All three lowered their anti-solar glare helmet visors before they emerged in the open, as the Sun lit the whole surrounding moonscape with a harsh white light. Gertrude made the lift platform stop a few centimeters from the dusty surface on which her space plane had landed, then took one gloved hand from each of her companions, who stood on each side of her.
“Ready, guys?”
“Hell, I’ll never be more ready than now for this, Gertrude!” Replied John Glenn, his heart beating fast. On his part, Charles nodded his head to Gertrude, who was looking at her.
“Let’s go, together.”
“Then, one, two, three, step out!”
All three astronauts then stepped forward and jumped off the lift platform, setting each one foot at the same time on the Moon surface. Well before leaving on their historical mission, all four crewmembers had come to an agreement concerning that first human footstep on the Moon, thus squaring away a point that could have become quite acrimonious indeed. Nobody but the four of them however knew in advance how that first step on the Moon would happen. As mission commander, Gertrude however got to say solemnly the next words on the radio.
“May this be a date remembered by all as the first step of Humanity out of its cradle.”
She then released the hands of her comrades, who took a few cautious steps each in the weak gravity of the Moon. It took nearly a minute to Gertrude to go over the overwhelming emotion that had come with her first step on the Moon. Finally looking left and right at her two comrades, she pointed the nearby automated cargo ship to Charles Yeager.
“Chuck, you go take the bulldozer out of the TERA. Me and John will take out the rover.”
The big ex-test pilot man acknowledged her with a hand signal, then started walking, or rather jumping in small bounds, towards the TERA. Gertrude herself bounced lightly along the Moon’s dusty surface towards the large ventral keel of the AMERICA, which contained its two integrated rocket/ramjet main engines, followed by John Glenn. She was soon standing at the foot of the keel, besides the eight large, low pressure tires of the main landing gear, and spoke in her helmet radio microphone.
“Alan, open the keel payload bay, please.”
The navy man, sitting inside the cockpit of the space plane, obliged at once, making the rear ramp of the plane’s secondary payload bay open and lower to the ground, revealing a relatively small compartment measuring four meters in length, 2.8 meters in width and 2.4 meters in heigth. Inside the compartment was a small four-wheeled vehicle slightly reminiscent of a dune buggy, with solar panels mounted above the two seats of the machine and a directional radio antenna folded at the rear. Walking up the ramp and entering the compartment, Gertrude started undoing the cargo straps that held the vehicle tightly in place. With the help of John, that task took a couple of minutes, following which both astronauts sat in the vehicle. Gertrude smiled to John through her transparent helmet.
“May I ask you for a ride, John?”
“But certainly, my dear Gertrude!” Replied John with a grin. He next switched on the electrical circuits of the Moon rover and, grabbing the control stick positioned between the two seats of the rover, made the small electric vehicle roll out of the payload bay and onto the surface of the Moon. Following a preplanned routine, John drove the rover towards the TERA, so that he and Gertrude could go help Charles. The automated cargo ship, sitting on its four landing legs, was a crucial part of their mission. Apart from allowing the landing in advance of vital equipment and supplies at no risks to a human crew, it had been designed to have most of its systems and parts play dual functions, both as a spaceship and as part of a manned base on the Moon. The two large liquid oxygen fuel tanks of the TERA, now empty except for some oxygen slush and vapors, would soon be turned into working and living space for the astronauts who were going to man the Moon base once completed. The solar power panels of the ship, deployed since it had achieved Earth orbit, would now help provide power to the base, while its directional radio antenna would provide a high quality radio link between Cape Canaveral and the Moon. Even the empty kerosene fuel tank was going to be of use, being first vented to vacuum to expel the remaining kerosene fumes from them, then sealed back so that it could be used as a large capacity trash and waste collector tank. John could only admire the stroke of genius from Ingrid Dows that had produced the dual use TERA. There was however some work to be done before the space inside the automated ship could be used by humans.
By the time John stopped the rover besides the TERA, Charles had activated the cargo ramp of the ship’s belly payload bay, lowering it to the ground, and had entered the bay to untie the wheeled bulldozer stored inside. A specially designed and built, one of a kind vehicle produced by the Massachusetts’s Institute of Technology, the bulldozer used electric propulsion powered by solar panels, fuel cells and batteries. It was equipped with a segmented dozer blade that could be reconfigured at a push of a button into a digging bucket, and with a crane and towing hook. To save on weight while keeping it stout, it was built mostly out of titanium alloy, with non-stressed parts made of aluminum. At 643,000 dollars it was certainly the most expensive bulldozer ever produced but it also was going to be one of the most useful and precious machine ever used in human exploration. When John and Gertrude walked up the ramp of the cargo bay, they found Charles about to climb into the driver’s cabin of the big machine.
“Ready to start playing construction crew, Chuck?” Asked on the radio Gertrude, attracting a grin from him. He had joined the Army Air Force as an aircraft mechanic before becoming a fighter pilot during World War Two and had been unanimously chosen by his fellow astronauts as first driver of this bulldozer. Unspoken as a factor for being chosen to be part of the first Moon mission crew was also the fact that he had risked his life to protect Ingrid when she had come under sniper fire, something that had been recognized by all.
“Hell, Gertrude, this is going to be the most exciting construction site I will have ever worked on! Have you decided where exactly I will dig the main trench?”
“Roughly. I’m going to go survey and measure the precise site now with John. In the meantime, you can start filling with dirt the starboard top bilges of the TERA.”
“Consider it done, Gertrude.”
Letting Charles get into the bulldozer, which had a driver’s compartment that was heavily shielded against radiations, Gertrude went back out with John and walked around the TERA, which was roughly shaped like a thick slab with the profile of an hypersonic lifting body. The top panels constituting the upper external surfaces of the ship had opened upward and inward after the landing on the Moon, exposing the empty fuel tanks and encased systems inside the hull. The inner surfaces of those panels, now exposed to sunlight, were covered with solar cells and acted as electrical power generators. Also, by opening and exposing the innards of the ship, the panels would allow Charles to scoop lunar dirt with his bulldozer and then pour it over the innards to create a thick layer of dirt that would then act as radiation shielding and protection against micro-meteorites. The dangers from space radiation, especially from solar flare activities, were very much present in the minds of the Moon mission planners and had heavily influenced the design of the equipment for the project.
Gertrude took fifteen minutes to survey and measure with John an area immediately adjacent to the nose section of the TERA, then marked the surface to be dug with red tape attached to lightweight pegs. Once that was done, the two astronauts walked under the belly of the automated ship, going to the forward section of the belly keel. Using tools from their spacesuits’ outer pockets, Gertrude and John unscrewed the bolts holding together the aerodynamic front cover of the keel and opened the two clamshell sections wide, exposing the large airlock and transit compartment inside the forward keel section. Neatly telescoped in a compact mass was a 2.3 meter-diameter accordeon tube connected to the forward section and set to the left of the exit hatch of the airlock. John looked for a moment at the stored tube, made of light but extremely tough plastics covered with puncture-resistant Mylar film lined with Kapton, a plastic insensitive to extremes of temperatures.
“Should we start deploying the transit tunnel now, Gertrude?”
“Not yet, John! Let Chuck do his digging work first. In the meantime we will go inside and make that place livable.”
“Got it!”
Gertrude then walked to the airlock hatch, jumping lightly to step on its outer platform, which stood maybe one meter above the surface of the Moon. With John at her side, she manually opened the large hatch and entered the airlock. Once John was also inside, she closed back and locked the hatch, then went to a control panel by the side of the exit hatch. Switching on the panel, Gertrude next punched in sequence a number of buttons, pressurizing first the airlock and heating the air now filling it to a comfortable temperature. While the air warmed up inside the airlock, Gertrude started the pressurization of the two empty oxygen tanks that would serve as the main command, control and work habitats of the new Moon base. With heated air filling the tanks, the residual liquid oxygen sitting inside them as a frozen slush gradually warmed up and evaporated, adding oxygen to the air blowing in. Gertrude carefully watched the gauges of the control panel while that happened, looking for any possible leak that would compromise the pressure integrity of the tanks. To her relief and that of the controllers at Cape Canaveral, who were anxiously following the procedure via radio and video links, the two empty oxygen tanks proved to be airtight. Periodic rumbles and vibrations during that vital procedure showed in the meantime that Charles had started scooping up Moon dirt and piling it over the innards of the TERA. Maybe twenty minutes after starting the tanks’ pressurization, the instruments of the control panel showed to Gertrude that the tanks were now apparently safe to enter.
“Tanks pressurized to one atmosphere of standard air, with inside air temperature now at twelve degrees Fahrenheit and still climbing steadily.” Announced Gertrude on the radio. “We will now go in and start configure the interior for occupation.”
She then turned around and went to the steep ladder leading up to the level of the oxygen tanks. The weak gravity of the Moon made that climb nearly effortless, allowing her to step within seconds on the upper level of the airlock after opening the upper hatch separating the two levels. Closing back that hatch behind John, Gertrude then opened one of the five other hatches of the upper airlock/transfer chamber. Stepping over the sill of the hatch, she entered the starboard side oxygen tank, a three meter-diameter cylinder with a length of ten meters that was designed to act eventually as the command and control module of their Moon base. Forming a floor surface was a two meter-wide metallic grating made of magnesium alloy set above the curved bottom side of the tank. With a head clearance of over two meters, Gertrude didn’t have to worry about bending over as she walked in her spacesuit inside the module. John nodded approvingly while looking at the large, empty compartment.
“This will definitely be a lot roomier than the living quarters of our space plane.”
Gertrude could only agree to that: while well designed and adequate for stays of up to a few weeks, the cramped habitat section aft of the cockpit section of the AMERICA could feel downright claustrophobic after a few days in space.
“Amen to that! Well, time to roll out the welcoming mat.” She said with a smile before heading towards the aft part of the module, where another hatch was visible on the curved surface of the end cap of the module. Opening that hatch and leaving it open, she stepped inside a smaller diameter communications tube that linked the two oxygen tanks with three other, smaller modules. One of those modules, a cylinder of oval section that sat between the two oxygen tanks, was the storage module for the base. It presently held some air, water, food and other supplies but was mainly packed with the modular consoles and equipment that were going to furnish the two empty oxygen tanks, turning them into the command and workshop modules. The two other modules, running vertically at each end of the communications tube, were respectively a toilet module with its recycling and waste storage systems and a shower module. Stored in side cabinets lining up the walls of the communications tube was more equipment and fittings destined for the various modules. Gertrude took out of one cabinet a large, heavy roll of plastic carpeting and, with the help of John, laid it on top of the floor grating of the command module, fixing it in place with screws. Taking out another roll of carpeting, they then repeated the process inside the workshop module.
Going next inside the storage module, Gertrude and John spent the next four hours carrying and fixing in place the various consoles and cabinets, uncoiling and plugging their numerous cablings and wires as they went. That job, while seemingly complicated to a neophyte, was greatly facilitated by the fact that the spots where each console or cabinet was to be fixed were marked with alphanumerical codes painted on the walls, between the protruding bolt heads meant to secure in place each item. The two astronauts took ten minutes in the middle of their work to both rest a bit and get out of their bulky spacesuits, since the air inside the modules was now at the correct temperature and was fully breathable. Working in their jumpsuits proved much easier then, accelerating the pace of their work greatly. By the time that Gertrude was ready to call for a meal break, the whole complex was nearly completely set up and ready to function, with only a few auxiliary systems left to install. Going to the communications console, which had been one of the first to be put in place, she put on a radio headset and called Charles, who was still working with his bulldozer.
“Chuck, we are about to have supper. How are you doing on your side?”
“I have finished piling dirt inside the top part of the TERA and am maybe halfway digging the trench for our habitat module. How is it going inside?”
“We will need maybe less than half an hour before being finished here. It already feels like home away from home here. Park your bulldozer and come inside for supper.”
“With pleasure, Gertrude!”
Gertrude then called next Alan Shepard, who had been staying inside the AMERICA as backup in case something happened to the work crew outside.
“Alan, you may join us for supper in the TERA. Leave the lift platform down when you will step out of the AMERICA. John will replace you in the AMERICA after supper.”
“Understood! Am on my way.”
Smiling to John, Gertrude pointed towards the hatch leading to the workshop module.
“Time to see what you want to heat up for your supper, John.”
“Hopefully, they stocked the galley with something else than C-Rations.” Replied John, making Gertrude’s smile turn into a grin.
“It could be worse: they could have put Australian bully beef as part of our rations.”
John made a grimace at the mention of what had been probably the worse kind of food to be fed to American servicemen in the Pacific during World War Two.
“Please, don’t remind me of that stuff! I still barf out at its mention.”
Gertrude laughed at that and led him into the workshop module, where a communal table big enough for four persons had been set near one of the module’s ends, along with four swiveling seats. Besides the table, fixed to the wall, were two small convection ovens, with a television monitor and a camera above them. Close to the table were a small refrigerator and a freezer. Going through the refrigerator, Gertrude pulled out a chicken supper tray for herself, then put the tray in one of the ovens to heat it while John chose his supper. As her food warmed up, Gertrude switched on both the television set and the camera, so that the controllers in Cape Canaveral could both see them and appear to the astronauts.
Charles was first to arrive inside the workshop module, having been wearing his spacesuit when called in. Alan came in ten minutes later and all four astronauts were then able to sit together at the table of the workshop. They looked for a moment in silence at each other, measuring fully the significance of their presence on the Moon and in such an environment. Everybody’s food was soon heated and ready to heat, prompting Gertrude to raise her container of vegetable juice for a toast.
“Gentlemen, let’s have a toast to all the men and women who worked hard for months on Earth to make this trip possible, but could not be here. They deserve as much praise as any of us, if not more.”
“To our ground team.” Said solemnly Alan, echoed by the others before they took a sip from their drinks. The technicians and engineers in the mission control room in Cape Canaveral, visible on the television monitor, all applauded and cheered at those words. The picture then switched to show the face of Jack Ridley, who was acting as chief mission controller in Cape Canaveral for this mission.
“Thanks for the thought, guys. It was really appreciated around here. How are things up on the Moon?”
“Everything is going according to plan.” Answered Gertrude in her capacity as mission commander. “The installation work inside the TERA is nearly complete and the digging of the trench for our habitat module is half done. Once we are finished having supper, John will go to the AMERICA, while Charles will continue his digging work. As for me and Alan, once all the internal furbishing is completed, we will go out on top of the TERA with shovels and redistribute the dirt piled on top of the innards to make sure that no spot is lacking anti-radiation shielding. Is there any solar flare activity predicted in the days to come?”
“The Sun is presently in a quiet period and should stay quiet for a couple more days. A number of observatories are watching constantly the Sun during your mission, so you will have over a day of warning time if a solar flare erupts suddenly.”
“We will still dig ourselves in as fast as we can, Cy. We won’t take the chance of being caught unprotected by a radiation storm.”
“A wise policy indeed. Look, I will now let Ingrid speak to you for a bit.”
Ridley’s face was then replaced by that of Ingrid on the television screen. Ingrid was obviously elated, and for good reasons.
“Hello guys! Do I get any complaints about the food or the lodging?”
“Yeah!” Answered Alan Shepard with false indignation. “The price for accommodations on the Moon is downright outrageous.”
Ingrid laughed briefly at that.
“Don’t say that too loud or the taxpayers will hear you, Alan. They probably would be scandalized as well to learn that we are paying a Navy commander to shovel dirt and assemble furniture.”
“It could be worse!” Replied Gertrude. “They could have seen a lieutenant general shovel dirt.”
“That could happen in a few missions time.” Said Ingrid before becoming serious. “You have all done great work up to now, guys. Work for another hour or so, then wash up and hit the sack: I want you to look rested and clean in ten hours, when the President will speak with you. Your families will be next after that to be put through.”
“Thanks, Ingrid, we appreciate that.” Said Gertrude, meaning it. While she was still single and childless at 44, her three male comrades were all married and had children. Talking with their families from the Moon would certainly mean a lot to them. “What is the status of Commander Schirra and of his crew?”
“The LEXINGTON is being reloaded with the second mission follow up equipment and geological lab module as we speak. It will launch in two days, if all goes well. That information is still not known from the public, so refrain from mentioning it until the President can make the announcement himself to the nation tomorrow.”
“Will do! Anything else, Ingrid?”
“No! I will now let you enjoy your meal in peace. We will speak again in nine and a half hours. Have a good night!”
“The same to you, Ingrid.”
Gertrude then looked at her comrades as Ingrid left the field of view of the camera at Cape Canaveral.
“I still can’t believe how fast we wi