Dr. Johnston's calculations have been proven correct for we are on the
Moon side and Bob is having to slow up the ship. Immediately after
leaving the neutral zone we noticed that our instruments began working
again, registering atmospheric conditions as well as a gravitational
pull. Also our ship has begun to take on an increased speed as though
being pulled by a tremendous force, which we realize is the Moon's
gravitational pull. This pull seems to increase as we near the Moon
so that Bob has to keep cutting down the speed of our ship; yet our
instruments show that the Moon's gravitational force is weaker than the
Earth's force, only about half of that of the Earth.
On this side we have also encountered a few meteorites of a fair size
but they have a different glow of color, sort of a purplish glow
instead of amber such as those shooting towards the Earth. They also
seem to travel a little slower than those approaching the Earth. We are
travelling towards the Moon so fast that we seem to miss, just by the
speed of our ship, the meteors that we otherwise would be encountering.
Our speed at this point is fifty thousand miles per hour.
We are approaching the Moon on the light side as seen from the Earth
so that at ten miles distance from it we begin to get a very good
perspective of the craters and mountainous area. Bob is having to
continuously slow down the speed of the ship.
Within five miles of the Moon we encounter a terrific storm blowing
from the north to the south. It is so strong that we don't know
whether we can make it through or not. George has decided that our
only chance of surviving is to go with the storm. He has instructed
Bob accordingly. With this in mind, Bob is speeding up the ship to a
point where he thinks he can enter this storm with a certain amount of
safety. The idea is to cross through it in such a way that we will get
continuously closer to the Moon and yet avoid being hit broadside.
We have made it safely and are only three miles from the Moon. We had
to circle it twice in crossing through the storm before getting into
the calmness again, but we were all so engrossed in getting safely
through that we failed to make any observations of the Moon. Now we are
breathing easier. Bob is slowing the ship down and we can get a good
perspective of the Moon. We are flying at only one hundred miles per
hour at an altitude of five thousand feet above the surface of the Moon
in the area that people on Earth call the rim of the Moon, where the
light side ceases and the dark side begins.
Of course this was all worked out months before when we were making
our plans for this trip because Dr. Johnston had said that if there is
anything at all favorable to human life on the Moon, it would be in
this zone.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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