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Mission to the Mom
By Lester del Rey
Jacket illustration by Alex Schomburg
■ lm Stanley, who had helped to build J the first space station, was thrilled to return to it as a member ol the crew selected to erect the ships which would fulfil Man's age-long dream to reach the Moon. A total effort was being made to surpass the progress achieved in outer space by an enemy Combine. It was believed that it this foreign group scored the initial landing and gained control of the cold planet, the world would be threatened.
The desperate effort to forge ahead of the Combine suddenly turns into a race against death when a young, space-happy boy takes off alone for the Moon in an adequate ship. Although hampered by accidents, false rumors, and conflicts on Earth below, the crew works with frantic haste and grim determination to get the ships underway and to the boy in time. Jim Stanley, as mechanic and pilot, contributes a major share in the task of construction and on the tense rescue journey.
Here is a gripping account of pioneers in space by one of science fiction's best known and most skilful writers. Jim Stanley's adventures on the first flight to the Moon make a lusty and exciting talc for all who love to envision Man's ultimate conquest of space.
THE JOHN C. WINSTON COMPANY
Philadelphia and Toronto
Zhe Author
I,estkh Di'",i. IIky is a familiar name to readers of science fiction. His first book for the Winston Science Fiction Scries. Marooned on Mars, won a Hoys' Clubs of America Award and was the first science fiction novel so honored. Prior to his career as an author and editor of Sjnice Science Fiction magazine. Mr. Del Key moved about in a variety of occupations: advertising, photography, carpentry and farming. Among his hobbies, which number in the dozens, are philology and linguistics, cooking, history and all scientific speculation. His wanderlust and varied interests have led him over most of the United States. Canada, Mexico and Alaska. Other books of his include And Some Were Human, It's Your Atomic Age, A Pirate Flag for Monterey (a Winston Adventure Book) and Step to the Stars, another title in the Winston Science Fiction Series.
Zhe Editors
Cecii.k Matschat, editor of the Winston Science Fiction series, is recognized as one of tins country's most skilful writers and editors. She has sixteen books to her credit, including the highly praised Suwannee River in the "Rivers of America" series. Nationally known as a lecturer, an artist of great ability, Cecile Matschat is also an expert historian. With this varied hack-ground, she is perfectly suited to select top science fiction authors and books to make this a balanced and well-rounded series.
Carl Carmkh. consulting editor, holds an outstanding position in the literary world. Author of Stars Fell on Alabama, he now edits the popular "Rivers of America" series. Other of his books are Genesee Fever. Listen for a Lonesome Drum, and Windfall Fiddle.
Jf you Want the Mest in Science Tiction,
look for books with this distinctive herald
Twenty-eight unique books by leading science fiction writers and well-known scientists . . ,
The Secret of the Martian Moons— by Donald A. Wollheim
Step to the Stars—by Lester del Rey
The World at Bay—by Paul Capon
The Secret of Saturn's Rings—by Donald A. Wollheim
Rockets to Nowhere—by Philip St. John
Trouble on Titan—by Alan E. Nourse
The Star Seekers—by Milton Lesser
Missing Men of Saturn—by Philip Latham
Planet of Light—by Raymond Jones
Danger: Dinosaurs! — by Richard Mar sten
Attack from Atlantis—by Lester del Rey
Vandals of the Void—by Jack Vance.
Rocket to Luna—by Richard Marsten
Battle on Mercury — by Erik Van
Lhin
Mystery of the Third Mine—by
Robert W. Lowndes
The Ant Men—by Eric North
The Mysterious Planet—by Kenneth Wright
Mtsts of Dawn—by Chad Oliver
Rocket Jockey—by Philip St. John
Vault of the Ages—by Poul Anderson
Islands in the Sky — by Arthur C. Clarke
Sons of the Ocean Deeps—by Bryce Walton
Earthbound—by Milton Lesser
Son of the Stars—by Raymond Jones
Find the Feathered Serpent—by Evan Hunter
Five Against Venus — by Philip Latham
Marooned on Mars—by Lester del Rey
A Science Fiction Special
The Year After Tomorrow—An Anthology of Science Fiction Stories—edited by Lester del Rey, Carl Canner and Cécile Mats chat. Illustrated by Mel Hunter.
THE JOHN C. WINSTON COMPANY
Philadelphia and Toronto
Mission to the Moon
A Science Fiction Novel
Mission to the Moon
By LESTER DEL REY
Jacket and Endpaper Designs by Alex Schomburg
Cedle Matschat, Editor Carl Carmer, Consulting Editor
THE JOHN C. WINSTON COMPANY Philadelphia • Toronto
L. C. Card #56-5093
Copyright © 1956 by Lester del Rey
first edition
To
DOUGLAS and KAREN tcho may see it happen!
Dreams That Became Realities
N
any people believe that the conquest of space began when President Eisenhower announced that the United States would send tiny satellites up to circle the Earth in 1957 or 1958. Actually, the real conquest of space began much earlier, and the practical means to travel through real space came somewhat later.
Space was first conquered in 1923 in the pages of a slim book with the title of The Rocket into Interplanetary Space. It was written by a young mathematician named Hermann Oberth, who had to pay for part of the expense of getting it published. To most people, it was difficult, filled mostly with mathematics. Yet to people who could understand, it was the most exciting book ever published. It proved beyond all question that men could travel into space—and it showed how it could be done! Without ever having built a rocket at that time, Hermann Oberth had made a science of rocketry and had blazed the path to the depths of spacel
It took time and immense amounts of work to turn the scientific knowledge into engineering fact, however. Eight years later, in 1931, the first liquid-fuel rocket was flown pub
licly; it was 2 feet high, weighed about 11 pounds, and rose to a height of less than 1,500 feet. It took 11 years more before the first V-2 proved for all time that a real load-carrying rocket could fly dependably.
Man first knocked at the door of space early in 1949 when a small WAC-Corporal rocket was lifted by a V-2. The blast of the smaller rocket carried it 250 miles up—into the beginnings of real space, where there is almost no air.
The "Birds," as the tiny satellites announced by the President were called, were sent up to almost the same height. But instead of falling back directly, they were placed in a circular orbit at a speed of 18,000 miles an hour, to keep circling around the Earth once each 90 minutes while the instruments inside the basketball-sized "Birds" sent back information on space by radio beams. However, they were not quite out in real space; there was still some air, and the tiny trace of friction from that gradually slowed the little satellites until they eventually fell back to Earth, burning up in the friction of the thicker air.
The real practical conquest of space began with the building of the first space station, about ten years after the first "Birds* went up. Oberth had already explained why such a station would be needed, and Wernher von Braun, Willy Ley and others had worked out how it could be done much earlier. But it was a huge job, requiring tremendous efforts and cos
ting billions of dollars.
The building of this was covered in Step to the Stars. Jim Stanley had dreamed of going into space, but had almost given up hope. Then, suddenly, he was hired by a secret project and found he was to be one of the men who were to build the first station in space.
It wasn't an easy job. Up where there was no air except what could be brought up in tanks, where the circling of the station balanced out the pull of the Earth until there was no feeling of weight, and where everything was new and un-
Dreams That Became Realities
IX
usual, accidents were inevitable. Political troubles, sabotage, and unexpected difficulties all slowed down the work, until it seemed that the station might never be finished.
In the end, Jim was forced to take over the building of the station in a mock mutiny against the Major Electric Company, which was building the station. But the station was finished, and on time. Man's first foothold in space was now established. And most of the work of reaching the Moon and the planets had been done.
The big station was located at a distance of 1,075 miles from the Earth, circling the planet below once every two hours, exactly as the Moon circles each 28 days without falling. But while it was only the first thousand miles away against the 239,000 miles distance of the Moon, most of the work of getting to the Moon is done in those first thousand miles. The station traveled at a speed of 15,840 miles an hour, and a rocket had to develop about six miles a second speed to reach it!
To reach the Moon, however, a rocket needed only to add another mile or so a second to the speed of the station. It was almost impossible for any rocket men could build to take off from Earth, fly to the Moon, and return; it was just within the limits of possibility to reach the station. But a ship could be built at the station, fueled there, and then sent to the Moon without using fuels or techniques not known as early as 1950!
In space, the first thousand miles are harder than all the rest of the distance to even Mars or Venus!
And because he knew this, Jim Stanley wasn't too surprised when he learned that such a trip to the Moon was being planned. The cautious, scientific estimates of Wernher von Braun had indicated men should reach the Moon within ten years of the building of the space station. But science nearly always moves faster than the scientists dare to predict. The techniques learned in building the station had made it possible for the Moon trip to be made within another year—it simply required enough people who wanted to go badly enough.
Men had dreamed of the Moon for centuries. Lucian of Samosata wrote a book about travel to the Moon 1,800 years ago—but he was careful to warn the reader that it couldn't happen, and wasn't true! Less than a hundred years ago, men began to realize it could be done—maybe in another thousand years! Then Oberth proved it could be done this century. Men who had dreamed suddenly began to plan, and to fight to make those plans come true.
Those men weren't ready to wait any longer. And the men, like Jim Stanley, who helped to build the satellite station as the first steppingstone to space had no intention of stopping there.
This, then, is the account of how such men will make the trip. For the scientific facts, I am indebted to Wernher von Braun and Willy Ley, and to Collier's which published Man on the Moon. I have tried to make this an accurate picture of the trip they have outlined. But if there are errors, I hope someday they will be pointed out to me by one of the readers-one who will be writing the letter after his return from the first trip to the Moon!
L.D.R.
Contents
CHAPTER PAGE
Dreams That Became Realities . . vii
1. Return to Space......................................... 1
2. Two Is a Crowd......................................... .......... 11
3. Rocket Trail.............................................. 22
4. Half a Billion Dollars................................. .......... 31
5. Dark Outlook............................................ 42
6. Full Speed Ahead........................................ .......... 53
7. Crackup!................................................... 64
8. Washout................................................... 75
9. Automatic Computer.................................. 85
10. Once Around the Moon .... 96
11. Orbit's End............................................... 106
12. Futility..................................................... ....... 117
13. Last Hope................................................. ....... 127
14. Stress and Strain....................................... ....... 138
15. Takeoff..................................................... ....... 149
16. Holed....................................................... 160
17. Emergency Repair...................................... ....... 171
18. Lunar Landing........................................... ....... 181
19. Rescue Party............................................. ....... 192
20. New Worlds.............................................. 202
Chapter 1 Return to Space
thousand miles beyond Hawaii, the big jet plane began to nose down for a landing at Johnston Island. Jim Stanley had been asleep in one of the two passenger seats, but now he awoke at the change in the speed. He sat up, yawning, and began buckling his seat belt, grinning self-consciously at the man in major's uniform who sat opposite him.
Jim was a short, stocky young man, and the thin nylon shorts and shirt he wore emphasized his build, as well as showing the muscles that hard work had given him. Under the crew-cut, carroty-red hair, blue eyes looked out from a sprinkling of freckles around his snub nose.
The major smiled back, staring at the weight-saving uniform Jim wore. "First trip up to the space station?" he asked.
"Third," Jim corrected him. "I was part of the crew that built it."
The other man frowned in surprise, and then studied him more closely. The surprise on his face deepened as he stuck out a hand quickly. "You're Jim Stanley! No wonder I thought your face looked familiar. Wait'll I tell my boy I met the man who led the mutiny that finished the job up there!"
Jim started to deny it, but the plane was touching the water and there was no time for explanations. Besides, it would have done no good to refute the story the newspapers had built up around the finishing of Earth's first station a thousand miles out in space.
When Major Electric Company had fallen behind on the building of the station, they had sent out Jonas, their top troubleshooting executive. He'd needled the men into "mutiny'' by pretending to stop the work. And when Jim had led the revolt to get the job finished, Jonas had stood by, secretly helping in every way he could. But the picture of a bunch of men fighting against the Company and nearly killing themselves to prove the job could be done in time had made too good a newspaper account to be altered by the facts.
It didn't matter. The important thing was that the station was up there now, circling the Earth every two hours. Man's first real step into space had been taken, and the next one—the long trip to the Moon-was now about to begin. At least Jim could think of no other reason for his being called back.
Johnston Island was busier than ever as Jim stepped off the plane. New buildings had been erected since he'd been there last, and he could barely see the tips of the great rocket ships over them. Then he heard his name called, and turned toward the man waiting for him in a jeep.
Mark Emmett waved, and slid over on the seat. "Hi, Jim! You look good." The small slim man was the ace rocket pilot for the ships that supplied the station, and the one who had first gotten Jim his job. Now he swung back to the wheel and began gunning the jeep toward the rocket field.
"No medical red tape this time, boy," he told Jim. "Colonel Halpern's yelling for you. Even had me hold up the takeoff, if I had to!"
Jim blinked at that. Rocket takeoffs had t
o be precisely timed. "Don't tell me they've built the Moon ships already?" he asked.
"Nothing that good," Mark answered. "It's Hal-pern's kid, Freddy. He stowed away on the ferry for the relay station. Hid in a box of supplies and wasn't found until the ferry was back. So you're supposed to rescue his precious little hide!"
"What happened to the regular ferry pilot?"
"Appendicitis, of all things. Dr. Perez was operating on him when they got word on Freddy. So they put in a rush call for you."
Jim sat back in sudden disgust at his former hopes.
He'd been almost sure that the Moon rockets must have been finished ahead of schedule, and that he was being called back for the piloting job he'd been promised. And now this! He couldn't share Mark's dislike of Halpern's somewhat spoiled, fifteen-year-old son, but he couldn't work up any enthusiasm for rescuing him from his foolishness now, either.
"What about the Moon ships?" he asked. There was still a chance that it was more than just Freddy's plight that was involved.
But Mark's shrug ended that hope. "Who knows?" he said. "You'll see soon enough. But don't get your hopes up too high."
He refused to say anything else. Jim was left with the conflicting rumors he had heard—rumors that ranged from the statement that the first trip to the Moon had already been made to speculation that the whole project had been called off. Maybe he'd been a fool to take off six months for boning up on theory at Central Tech. At least, if he had stayed on at the station as ferry pilot, he'd have known what was developing.
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