On the moon is a ray-crater named LaPaz in honor of the man who has had a major part in establishing the highly significant theory that the lunar ray-craters were made by the impact of meteorites. Lincoln LaPaz is a leading pioneer as well as a widely recognized authority in meteoritics, an important branch of astronomy. He was born on Lincoln’s birthday, in Wichita, Kansas, where he grew up. Although both his master’s degree, at Harvard, and his doctorate, at Chicago, were in mathematics, his chief interest since boyhood has been in meteorites and meteors. Today he is Director of the Institute of Meteoritics at the University of New Mexico, where he also heads the Division of Astronomy. [Illustration: RAVINI PHOTO Jean LaPaz] Jean LaPaz was born in Hanover, New Hampshire. Since girlhood she has been close to her father in his fascinating work. When she was a high-school student in Ohio, she did some serious fieldwork as a member of the Ohio State University Meteorite Expeditions. Later, she received both a Bachelor of Science degree in geology and a Master of Arts in English from the University of New Mexico. Science and Literature continue to be her mutually favoring interests. Transcriber’s Notes —Retained publication information from the printed edition: this eBook is public-domain in the country of publication. —Silently corrected a few palpable typos. —In the text versions only, text in italics is delimited by _underscores_. End of Project Gutenberg's Space Nomads, by Lincoln LaPaz and Leota Jean LaPaz