Chapter 6

In 4,000 years of peace, the people of Doug's World had become, figuratively speaking, fat and complacent. Doug was afraid that the people would sink into a downward spiral of decadence, so he looked for something to wake them up and put some oomph back into their lives. He decided to start a promotion for space travel. Science, technology, and industry had reached the point equal to or exceeding the levels attained in Doug's 21^st Century, so Doug knew that they were fully capable of going to the Moon and beyond.

They already had satellites in geosynchronous orbits relaying TV and telephone signals around the world. So they were capable of doing more, they had just gotten too fat and lazy to try. Doug started out by offering prizes for the best stories in print and on TV dealing with space travel, especially promoting the drama and adventure offered by the opportunity. This campaign was a little slow to get off the ground, so to speak, but it did grab the attention of the youth of the world. It took 20 years to get enough hard public support, but they eventually built up enough interest to warrant a full scale space program.

There were now in existence some aircraft capable of very heavy lifting and capable of operating at speeds approaching Mach 4, so here was the obvious first stage of a launch system. A similar technique had been used to get the various satellites into orbit, so there was plenty of prior knowledge available.

There had been some recent breakthroughs in laboratories in harnessing the force of gravity to produce a limited antigravity effect. Doug immediately had gobs of money poured into research on that subject in parallel with research on conventional rockets. Doug's idea was that the conventional rockets could be used to venture to the Moon and get organized there while an antigravity propulsion system was being developed. Hopefully, it would be possible to tack the antigravity propulsion system onto existing designs for the passenger-carrying part of the vehicle.

Once a fully functional base was established on the Moon, they could use the lower gravity well to launch probes to the other planets. It took another five years to get a man-carrying rocket ready for a shot to the Moon, and there were plenty of volunteers to be on that rocket. The decision was made early on to send a man and a woman as a team to be the first humans to walk on the Moon. The couple, Blue Eyes and Hard Head, trained intensively for the job. In case you are wondering, Hard Head got her name when she accidentally fell against a window and broke it with her head. She had carried the name ever since her early school days and had worn it proudly.

Blue Eyes got the name because his eyes caught the interest of every woman who ever saw them. He was handsome enough to go with his eyes, but, suffice it to say that he never slept without female companionship, except by his own choice. Hard Head was as beautiful as she was smart, and the two test pilots became inseparable.

At first, there had been some fear that Hard Head would become pregnant by Blue Eyes, since they began living together from the day they met, but the science of birth control had advanced to the point where that was no problem if either partner would take a few simple precautions. Neither Blue Eyes nor Hard Head wanted to ruin their chances for this great adventure, so they both took the necessary precautions and no pregnancy got in the way.

Finally, the big day for the launch came and the two pilots climbed aboard the vehicle named Earth's Spirit. Hard Head and Blue Eyes chose to dub themselves Moonies, a name they came up with after a hard night of partying. The powers that be in the rocket program were appalled, but the name stuck when it was leaked to the public.

The first stage of the launch was completely routine, since the airplane had flown many times with a much heavier load. The tension came when it was time to launch the second stage. Earth's Spirit was released from the airplane at a speed of Mach 3.76 and was allowed to fall free for 12 seconds while the plane escaped its vicinity. At this point, the mixture of hydrogen and oxygen was fired off and Earth's Spirit was on its way to the Moon.

The initial acceleration pinned the Moonies to their seats for 3.63 minutes. This got them to near-orbital velocity before the stage burned out. It was jettisoned, and they used the next stage to park themselves in a convenient orbit while they waited for the proper moment to aim for the Moon.

As planned, there was still plenty of fuel left in that stage of the rocket, so they used that to shoot for the Moon when they were in the proper position. The trip to the Moon was essentially uneventful, except that the Moonies took the time to become charter members of the 10,000-Mile-High Club, the 100,000-Mile-High Club, and the 200,000-Mile-High Club.

The Earth's Spirit orbited the Moon for several passes, taking photographs to leave a hard record of their achievement, so far. From these photographs, a final choice was made of a landing spot out of those tentatively selected before the original launch was ever made.

They chose a very large crater with few large boulders to interfere with their touchdown. They touched down with no problems, but a lot of fanfare, as a live TV broadcast was beamed back to Earth. At the appropriate moment, Hard Head was able to announce, "People of Earth, Earth's Spirit has landed!" There was a much elation on the Moon lander as on Earth, if not more so. The Moonies could hardly wait to touch the Moon and walk on a new heavenly body, but there were some things that had to be done, first.

Just before it had dropped out of Moon orbit, Earth's Spirit had separated from what the Moonies jokingly called "the trailer," which was actually an extended nose for the ship. The trailer had its own rocket engine which was remotely controlled from Earth's Spirit and used to land the trailer nearby. The trailer contained all of their expendable items that they needed on the Moon, but did not need to take back to Earth with them. These items included the Moon Buggy and their geological survey tools, along with extra bottles of fuel to be used for the return to Earth.

Once the trailer was down, the Moonies were ready to leave Earth's Spirit. They had flipped a coin back on Earth, and Blue Eyes had won the honor of being the first human to set foot on the Moon. He went through his routine and exited through the airlock. He was followed down the ladder by TV, and when he set foot on the Moon, he looked directly at the camera and said, "Thanks to all of the people of Earth, we made it safely to the Moon!" His simple statement was well received, even with some relief by the higher ups—they had feared that he would say something insulting or trivial just to spite them.

Hard Head now followed Blue Eyes to the surface, and the two Moonies had some fun bouncing around and trying out various walking techniques. They quickly found a gait that worked and went to the trailer where they removed the Moon Buggy and assembled it. An hour or so later they were pooped, the assembly of the Moon Buggy had been harder work than they had anticipated. They dumped their geological survey tools into the carrier and drove back to Earth's Spirit.

This need for a rest had been anticipated by the mission planners, so there was a rest period built in for now. The Monies returned to the interior of their living area and relaxed for a while. A part of their relaxation was becoming charter members of the Moon High Club, though that was not broadcast on TV.

The geological survey went well. Included was the discovery of some rocks that seemed to pulse with green light when they were exposed to sunlight. Nobody on Earth could figure out what was causing the strange behavior, but the Moonies quickly determined that there was no harmful radiation coming from the rocks. They were ordered to collect as many specimens as they could; eventually they collected what turned out to be 123 pounds of the rocks for return to Earth. They picked up a variety of rock and soil samples, but were disappointed to find no direct traces of water or ice.

The return trip to Earth was made without difficulty and they landed in the Sahara desert without incident. The Moonies were greeted by thunderous crowds wherever they went for months afterwards, and Doug was happy with the result of the trip. Public interest was at a peak and plans were underway for a permanent station on the Moon.