Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Ana Darcy responds: Men on the moon?


Question: Since Ana & Hleo were on the moon since the fifties, can they finally settle the debate on whether man has really walked on the moon? (eR1)

Ana Darcy's reply:

I was asleep during the earlier parts of the Apollo program, but Hleo followed the entire project with great interest as you may imagine, since we were under orders from the Council of Clans (of Thomo) to remain undetected. It would have been a problem if Commanders Armstrong and Aldrin had landed right next to us! As it turned out, there was no worry, since the side of the moon that faces the Earth is a very large area, and the odds of their setting down within sight of us were small.

Hleo awakened me to witness the Apollo 11 flight, which orbited the moon. We cannot say we actually saw the lunar module descend to the surface of the moon or Commanders Armstrong and Aldrin walk on its surface--that was well over the horizon from our base. But we did note that the Apollo 13 vehicle did indeed orbit the moon, that the lunar module was detatched during many of those orbits (inluding July 20, 1969), that it had rejoined during the last few orbits, and that the Apollo 11 vehicle returned to Earth orbit. Its landing site was to be the Sea of Tranquility, which is to the northeast of our own base. Our base is in a debris field in Crater Albatagenius, where the shadows make it hard to identify from Earth. Both areas lie along the equatorial region of the moon.

Hleo and I felt privileged to witness the first visit of our distant cousins to another celestial body as a result of their own efforts. (Our Thoman ancestors, of course, had also visited another celestial body, but we were mere passengers then, frightened passengers.) We shared your exhilaration, recalling our own elation when our own ancestors, in the 153rd Generation, developed the ability to leave our planet. Our people were of course driven by the desire to find our place of origin, and that made the expense worthwhile. We can only hope, Hleo and I, that some day our cousins will reciprocate, and pay us a visit in return.



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