George and the Blue Moon

by Stephen Hawking

  “I know!” said George. “Boltzmann!” he called over to the robot, who was slumped in a dispirited manner in the corner.

  “Yes?” said Boltzmann sadly, raising his great big blackened head.

  “Boltzmann,” said George, using what he knew were the magic words. “Would you like to help me?”

  “Yes!” said the very nice robot, jumping up. “Do you have a task for me?”

  “I do,” said George. “And it’s very important and only a very nice robot could manage it.”

  “In that case,” said Boltzmann, “I am your bot!”

  Leaving Leonia operating the computers in Mission Control, George and Annie, with Boltzmann leading the way, shot off as fast as they could toward the launchpad. It was a huge advantage having Boltzmann with them—the distance between them and the spacecraft looked so huge that they feared they would never cover it in time, but Boltzmann simply picked them up, one under each arm. Carrying both kids, the robot ran in great long strides, covering the ground at least five times more quickly.

  When they reached the spacecraft, which was simmering on its launchpad like a dog straining at the leash to go for a walk, it was Boltzmann who guided them up the complex path through the umbilical tower to the bridge, still connected to the spacecraft itself. Leonia managed to open the hatch just as they arrived, so they flew into the spacecraft itself and pulled out dazed-looking kids in space suits, who seemed disoriented and confused, though totally obedient to anything asked of them, as though still partly asleep. To George’s amazement, the last space-suited astronaut off the ship was the small figure of his friend Igor.

  Ushering them off Artemis and sending them back down the tower with instructions to move away as fast as possible, Annie and George searched for their families.

  “What are we looking for?” asked George as he clambered further into the spacecraft. It was an awkward climb—they had entered the spacecraft near the top and were now progressing downward into the cargo hold. Of course, when the spacecraft was actually flying, it would be horizontal, where it was now vertical, which made it even more difficult to explore.

  “Boxes!” Annie, who was on the level above George, shouted down to him. “Can you see some large boxes, kind of people-size and white?”

  “Yes!” George’s voice floated back up. “I’ve found them! Do you think it’s safe to move them?” He touched the boxes gently, trying to communicate with the sleeping people within—his mom and dad! And in those smaller boxes beside them—were those his little sisters? He felt a big lump in his throat and swallowed, almost choking back tears. How would he get them off in time? Could he save them … ?

  “I don’t think it’s safe to leave them,” said Annie, horribly aware that the minutes were ticking away and they didn’t yet know if Leonia had managed to cancel the launch or delay it any further.

  Boltzmann climbed down with George. “These have self-contained circuits and power sources,” he said confidently. “They have been designed to be moved so they will be entirely self-sufficient provided that each box is fully charged.” He checked. “Which they are.”

  “Ugh, they’re too heavy,” huffed George, trying to lift one of the bigger ones.

  “They’re automatically loaded,” said Boltzmann cheerily. “And can be unloaded the same way. Like this!” The robot pressed a button set into the wall of the spacecraft and each box rose, like on a stairlift, up to the exit again, where it was laid flat and pushed back out onto the bridge. One by one, to George’s astonishment, the boxes seemingly levitated out of the spacecraft and back onto the connecting bridge again.

  Annie started to scramble out after them. “C’mon!” she shouted back down to George. “We’ve got to get ourselves off the ship too! We don’t know if Leonia can hold it on the launchpad for much longer!”

  “Coming!” Now that George had seen all the boxes off the ship, he felt surprisingly carefree. He had never really understood until that moment how being afraid for someone else is even scarier than being afraid for yourself! Now that he thought—and hoped—that his family was out of danger, he felt a huge weight lift. He sighed with relief, and took just a tiny moment to enjoy the fact that he was in the belly of a real-life spaceship, one with the capacity and power to fly through the Solar System at great speed! Then he started to clamber upward, following the huge platelike metal feet of robot Boltzmann, who seemed to be humming to himself.

  “We did a good job,” said Boltzmann from above. But then his huge foot slipped and he tumbled backward a little. It wasn’t a serious fall, but it held him and George up for an extra minute while he regained his balance.

  As the nice robot steadied himself, George thought he detected a change in the rumbling sound of the spacecraft’s engine. It had been active all the time they were inside it, grumbling along at a low-powered hum. But now it seemed to get deeper and more resounding, as though the beast was rearing up for action… .

  Above George, Annie had already exited the spacecraft. Worried that this was all going too slowly, George climbed onto Boltzmann’s shoulders and looked upward. Through the open hatch he could see Annie’s face peering down from the connecting bridge she stood on.

  “Hurry up!” she urged him.

  But George suddenly paused. This was what he had always wanted, wasn’t it? To travel into space, to explore unknown worlds, to use all the skills and science he had been learning to find out the answers to some of the great unanswered questions about our solar system? Could he turn his back on all of that? Could he walk off the spaceship now, knowing this was probably his biggest chance ever to depart from Earth on a voyage of total adventure?

  He made a sudden but very clear decision.

  “Annie!” he called up. “I’m not coming home. I’m going to stay on board! Tell my mom and dad and little sisters how much I love them …” As she began to try to interrupt—he could see tears in her eyes—he reversed further into the body of the spacecraft. “It’s what I want, Annie!” he shouted, filled with glorious excitement. “And we’ll be doing it together! You and Eric and Cosmos can be with me every step of the way!”

  The hatch started to close and George heard Annie scream, but knew there was no way that human power could stop the mighty door closing. It slammed shut, and the engines revved hungrily beneath him and the only other being left on the ship, Boltzmann Brian, the terribly nice robot.

  An announcement came over the loudspeaker inside the spacecraft: “Cleared for takeoff. Takeoff is active now. T minus sixty seconds.”

  And as Annie scrambled away from the tall rocket, racing for safety as the gantry fell away, George strapped himself into one of the seats and prepared himself for the journey of a lifetime.

  “Five … four … three … two … one … we have takeoff!”

  Mission Artemis had begun.

  The Overview Effect by Dr. Richard Garriott de Cayeux

  I think almost everyone dreams of going into space at some point in their lives. Sadly, though, most give up on that dream when they determine that the odds of going seem so small. In my case, however, my father and both my next-door neighbors’ fathers were astronauts. In my neighborhood, it seemed normal to believe that all of us would go into space someday.

  When I found out that I did not qualify to be a NASA astronaut, due to my poor eyesight, I decided I must build a private space agency, so that I could fly. I invested the money I earned making computer games in companies that eventually made it possible for me and others to fly to space privately. In October of 2008 I flew to the International Space Station and became the first second-generation American astronaut, and I flew with the first second-generation Russian cosmonaut!

  Preparing for, and making a trip to space, is an amazing experience! Many of the details of the experience were very different from what I expected, or the impressions you get from watching television or movies about space.

  Before you fly, you must train to operate the spacecraft. Training was a great deal
of fun, and I was amazed how most of it was very similar to activities students do at school, or in some after-school clubs. For example, many people like to scuba dive, as I do. When you get a scuba diving license, you learn about air pressure and gases like oxygen and carbon dioxide, expanding on what you learn in school chemistry and physics. This is almost exactly the same as the life support on board a spacecraft. If you can get a scuba licence, you can operate life support in space! Similarly, if you can get an amateur radio operator license on Earth, you can operate the radios on a spacecraft. Learning to be a qualified astronaut was more fun and less difficult than I had imagined … as long as you are a good student in school!

  Then there is the space flight itself. When you watch a rocket launch into the sky, in person or on TV, it is very loud, and you can feel the massive vibration. However, on the inside, when I launched into space it was quite the opposite. When the engines lit up, we could barely feel or hear it. When the rocket began to lift off, it was very gentle. I have often described it as feeling like “a confident ballet move, lifting us ever faster into the sky.” For just over eight minutes you feel about three times the force of gravity, then the engines cut off … and you are floating weightlessly in orbit over Earth.

  The view is, of course, spectacular, but I was immediately struck by how close we remained to Earth. Airplanes can fly almost ten miles above Earth, and we were orbiting about twenty-five times higher than that. However, that is still close enough to see many of the same details you see from a plane, yet far enough to see the whole Earth below you. It is a strange feeling to be both unexpectedly near Earth, but also totally isolated from anyone down there on the surface. You clearly understand that if an emergency arises, you and your crewmates must solve it, for there is little help that can come from the surface. Learning to be both self-reliant and to be a reliable team member is also essential preparation for a space flight, and for life in general!

  Many astronauts are deeply moved by seeing the Earth from space. There is even a term called “the Overview Effect,” which refers to how people are changed by this experience of seeing Earth from space. I too experienced this, and think it is worth sharing.

  When orbiting onboard the ISS, you are traveling around Earth at about 17,210 miles per hour. At that speed you go all the way around our planet about every 90 minutes. That means you see a sunrise or a sunset every 45 minutes, and you cross entire continents in 10–20 minutes. Yet you are close enough to Earth to see clearly more detail than you might expect, even things as small as the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco (though you cannot see the Great Wall of China, as many have believed). Looking out the window at the Earth, seeing it in great detail while it smoothly rolls by, was like having a fire hose of information shooting into your mind about the Earth itself.

  One of the first things you notice about the Earth from space is its weather. This is because a large portion of the Earth is always covered by clouds. From space you notice things like how over the Pacific Ocean large smooth or geometric patterns of weather form, as the ocean is free from large islands or surface temperature variations. On the other hand, the Atlantic Ocean is filled with more chaotic weather patterns. This is due to the highly varied surface temperatures and shapes of nearby continents that interrupt the smoothness you see in the Pacific.

  The next thing I noticed was how beautiful the deserts of the Earth are, as they are generally not covered by clouds. Sand and snow on Earth is blown into small drifts, then bigger dunes, then even bigger ridges, and from space you can see the rolling hills of sands that make similar patterns that scale all the way up to being seen from space! It was amazing to see these “Great Fans” caused only by the winds blowing across the deserts of the Earth.

  From space, it also became clear how completely humanity now occupies the whole surface of the Earth. Every desert I saw from space had roads across it, also often farms growing crops with water pumped up from deep within the Earth. Every forest, even in the Amazon basin of Brazil, had roads and cities within it. Every mountain range had roads through passes, and dams along its rivers. I saw very little “open space” left on the Earth.

  Finally, I saw an area I knew very well, the area of Texas I grew up in. I saw my hometown, and nearby towns I had driven to many times, as well as the long Texas coastline where I used to visit beaches. And in the same view I could see the whole Earth, which I had now orbited many times. Suddenly it hit me … I now knew the true scale of the Earth by direct observation.

  I had a huge physical reaction to this moment! It was like watching a movie, where they might zoom in the camera lens, while moving the camera backward. It creates an effect where the hallway seems to collapse and shorten while the actor stays the same size. It was like that as I looked at the Earth; it remained the same size out the window, but the reality of scale around it collapsed. Suddenly to me, the Earth, which had been unimaginably large, became finite … and in fact, rather small.

  Since my return from space, I have grown to learn that many astronauts express a similar “epiphany” from this “Overview Effect.” Many astronauts, including myself, come home with a renewed sense of the importance of environmentalism, to protect this fragile world we have. It seems to me that if more people had the chance to see the Earth from space, we would all take better care of our precious planet and of each other.

  If space travel is a dream of yours, as it was of mine, I hope you will fulfill it someday. The opportunities to do so are getting easier every year. However, space will always be harder to reach than the next town, country, or continent. You will still have to work hard to be prepared to earn a place on a team that is expanding human knowledge of and presence in locations ever farther from our home planet. You won’t have to be so “lucky,” though, to be selected as many early astronauts were.

  Work hard, and I believe each one of you reading this can build your own destiny in space!

  About the Authors and Illustrator

  STEPHEN HAWKING, a Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge, is the preeminent theoretical physicist in the world. His book A Brief History of Time was a phenomenal worldwide bestseller. He has twelve honorary degrees and was awarded the Commander of the Order of the British Empire and was made a Companion of Honour. He has three children and one grandchild. Visit him at Hawking.org.uk.

  LUCY HAWKING, Stephen Hawking’s daughter, is a journalist and novelist. She is the coauthor of George’s Secret Key to the Universe, George’s Cosmic Treasure Hunt, George and the Big Bang, and George and the Unbreakable Code, as well as the author of the adult novels Jaded and Run for Your Life. She lives in Cambridge with her son.

  GARRY PARSONS is the award-winning illustrator of many books, including George’s Secret Key to the Universe, George’s Cosmic Treasure Hunt, George and the Big Bang, and George and the Unbreakable Code by Lucy and Stephen Hawking. He lives in London. Visit him at GarryParsons.co.uk.

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  GEORGE’S SECRET KEY TO THE UNIVERSE

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  GEORGE AND THE UNBREAKABLE CODE

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  This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincid
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  Text copyright © 2016 by Lucy Hawking

  Illustrations by Garry Parsons

  Illustrations/Diagrams copyright © 2016 by Random House Children’s Publishers

  Published by arrangement with Random House Children’s Publishers UK

  Originally published in Great Britain in 2016 by Random House Children’s Publishers UK, a division of The Random House Group Ltd.

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  ISBN 978-1-4814-6630-1

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