EXCERPT, NANOWRIMO DAY 4: [Lord is getting briefed on recent secret discoveries....] The interviewer continued. “In 1971, the first Soviet lunar lander traversed an area in the Sea of Storms. It happened to be close to the landing site of Orange 3. While we still have no evidence that the Russians intended to land their rover near the American site, it does seem peculiar.” “Well, there’s no harm in that, is there?” said Lord. “Even if they did it on purpose, I can see how they might want to get a rise out of us. We do that in the piloting world all the time. It is good-natured fun. Besides, I don’t think there is anything of use up there, right? Just a spent lander.” “And several hundred human footprints,” said Dr. Koelle. “Yes, sir, they are certainly there,” said Lord. “It isn’t the fact that they landed so close to Orange 3,” said the interviewer, “but what the rover saw as it photographed the site. Take a look at these.” He pulled out a stack of black and white photographs from his briefcase under the table. “This is what the Lunokhod rover saw as it approached Orange 3.” Lord was amazed. “Wow. I have never seen these. There’s only the photos Gus took, and that was….what, twenty or so?” “Thirteen,” said Dr. Koelle. “Thirteen only. But he had only a half hour on the surface.” The interviewer pointed to a tiny smudge on the horizon of one of the photos. “See that? And on this photo - “ he grabbed another - “and that? This sparked our interest.” “If you don’t mind my asking, how did you get these photos?” asked Lord. “Can I tell him?” said Dr. Koelle to the interviewer, who nodded his head in approval. “A fellow named Sven Grahn, who works in the Swedish space program, captured these by intercepting the Soviet S-band downlink as they were being transmitted. We believe there may be many more photographs, but this was what he was able to acquire.” “That’s good. Did he do this for the Swedish government?” “No, this was an amateur effort on his part. He offered his discovery up to the government. The United States fortunately entered the mix before these went public.” “What harm is there in these going public?” asked Lord. The interviewer said, “These bumps on the horizon are not lunar hills.” Dr. Koelle said, “They are payloads deliver to the Sea of Rains by unmanned Soviet lunar landers.” “We have independent verification from the Apollo Telescope. Do you know Ed White?” “Our paths have never crossed,” said Lord. “On his last mission, his crew trained the ATM cameras onto this area of the moon. And this - “ he pulled out another photo - “is what they saw.” The photo, a larger one compared to the Lunokhod photos, looked down on the surface of the moon. A series of bright dots peppered the dark volcanic plains of the Sea of Rains. There was no pattern, and the proximity of the dots were typically spaced a half mile apart.” The interviewer said, “We don’t know how they all got there. We believe they have been taking a similar strategy to that of Orange 3. That is, parking a spacecraft in geosynchronous orbit, and when they believe the timing is right, nudging the relatively tiny lander stage out of GEO into a trans-lunar trajectory.” “So, they are using Gus’ old trick!” said Lord. Dr. Koelle smiled. “Gus may have performed it, but the trick was all mine, Captain Byron.”
Posted on: Mon, 04 Nov 2013 15:40:24 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015