Made of What?
Nov 27, 2022 17:34:05 GMT -5
Post by Radrook Admin on Nov 27, 2022 17:34:05 GMT -5
Made of What?
The approx. three-day, 245,000 mile voyages to Earth’s Moon had gone smoothly and was, completely on schedule. From Lunar orbit, the moon had looked exactly the way it was supposed to look. Smooth areas called Mares, or what had previously been mistaken as seas but were later identified as lava plains, and which contrasted sharply with the more cratered surroundings and began passing by below as the ship attained lunar orbit. Soon, they were preparing to descend to its surface after decades of mankind having concentrated on low- Earth orbit missions.
As usual, someone, in this case navigator Garibaldi, was to remain behind in orbit in order to take care of the redocking procedure, after the two, exo geologist Garcia and Captain Sunahara, had finished their lunar surface mission of conducting seismic experiments and collecting lunar surface material to bring back to Earth.
Unfortunately, they had discovered something extremely disturbing about the moon's consistency. Something so ridiculously unexpected, in fact, that they were very reluctant to report their findings to the Mission-Control Center back at Houston. In fact, for a long while they just stared at one another through their gold-tinted helmet visors in utter disbelief.
“So how exactly do we now go about informing Mission Control?" Captain Sunahara, a tall lanky middle-aged man of Japanese descent who had always dreamt of space exploration, asked his fellow astronaut exo- geologist Abel Garcia who had been staring in astonishment at the sample of lunar soil that they had just collected as they stood at the base of the lander.
“I'm afraid they will think us insane, sir," Abel Garcia, replied with a worried look on his face. “ I would not blame them either," he added "After all, we are supposed to find the Lunar material composed of abundant amounts of oxygen, iron and silicon, with trace quantities of carbon and nitrogen and smaller traces of oxygen, silicon, iron, magnesium, calcium, aluminum, manganese, and titanium, exactly as our first expeditions back in the 60‘s did, but none of this mix is evident in our samples. Instead we have this!" he pointed his gloved index finger at the specimen that they were intending to bring back to earth.
Sunahara knew it was true. Their discovery was seriously contradicting everything that had been theoretically proposed about Earth’s moon. For example, its density which accounted for its gravitational pull that affected Earth’s tides was being questioned. In short, this discovery contradicted well- established fact, and if they reported it, space-travel-induced insanity might very well be suspected.
In fact, when they radioed their findings to Sergio Garibaldi, the ship's navigator who had remained in orbit, he remained silent for a while and then suddenly laughed ironically in disbelief, and began to demand that they stop attempting to play practical jokes and to take their jobs more seriously. When they had insisted that they were indeed being serious, he accused them of maybe having gone partially insane, and temporarily cut off communications. However, once the Lunar Lander had docked with the orbiter for the return trip home, and they had shown him the samples, he was also convinced.
“So we are mad are we?" Captain Sunahara said while extending another sample of the lunar surface material for Garibaldi’s further inspection. At first, Garibaldi, had grimaced in surprise at the texture of the lunar soil as it felt spongy and greasy, and smeared his gloved fingers when pressured. Then he winced at the unmistakable very familiar aroma that the sample of lunar soil emitted. Then, after backing away in shock, he stood gazing at it wide-eyed as if beholding some horrifying apparition.
“My God you are right!" Garibaldi said. “But how the hell can this be?"
"We don't know." Sunahara responded after placing the soil-sample in a hermetically sealed receptacle to be refrigerated.
“All we know is that this is undeniably real. Neither is it limited to the landing site. It's exactly the same within a the entire mile-wide circumference area around the landing site. It’s even detectable at considerable subsurface depth. We drilled fifty feet, and it was the same substance all the way down, only packed together more tightly. Makes absolutely no sense-I know. More like some, some sort of cosmic practical joke."
"But a practical joke played by whom?" Garcia asked, squinting suspiciously as he strapped himself to his seat in preparation for the sudden acceleration needed to leave lunar orbit.
"I don't know," Sunahara rplied tiredly. He had been exhausted from the mission and had been looking forward to a respite, but now suddenly this made that impossible!
“God the creator himself maybe?" Garcia, the religionist among them, suggested with a wry smile o his face.
"After all, what prevents an almighty God from having a sense of humor simply because he is God? Such a being, similar to the mischievous Star-Trek Q, might be laughing at us right now," he added despite the stern, accusatory glare of his atheistic comrades.
“So do we report it?" Garibaldi asked totally ignoring what Garcia had just suggested.
“Are you insane?" Captain Sunahara stared at him in wide-eyed disbelief. Garibaldi, of course, was as equally worried about revealing the absurd discovery to the extremely skeptical people at Mission Control, as the captain was. So, the question had only been rhetorical.
“No we don’t," Sunahara added, "...we will keep this strictly among ourselves. Reporting such an unscientifically ridiculous thing would cost us our jobs! They might even decide to institutionalize us after arranging for some bogus psychiatric evaluation supposedly undertaken for our benefit," Sunahara continued shifting his dark eyes from side to side suspiciously as if being assailed by some invisible predator.
“But why? Why can’t they just take our word for it?" Garcia asked.
“Why? You ask? Very simple,"" Sunahara shot back, " because revealing such an absurdity would seriously call into question all the other scientific discoveries and theories which are practically considered to be indisputable facts. Theories such as abiogenesis and evolution. Theories considered almost sacred among those in the scientific community. Indisputable theories that are never questioned regardless of any counter evidence that might emerge. In short, their scientific credibility would consequently be irrevocably weakened and would make people far more predisposed to believing in a creator than they are now."
"Also, are we supposed to cut our own professional throats? Are we supposed to discard our entire hard-earned careers into the garbage-bin because of this?" he gestured disdainfully at the polished metal cylindrical canister that contained the lunar regolith samples which he had already decided to jettison before landing on Earth.
“But maybe we are wrong sir!” Garibaldi suggested as the engines started to rumble and the sun-illuminated lunar landscape as viewed from the porthole began rapidly tilting away from the ship.
“I truly wish we were wrong Garibaldi," Sunahara answered sadly in a lower tone of voice. “ I really do. But the chemical analyses only serves to confirm what we already know. The lactose, the casein, the texture, along with the aroma, all conclusively prove that the moon is now actually not what it had once been.
“So to avoid all the consequent unsavory complications that revealing this fact will bring, let's just tell them what they are expecting to hear, that the moon is indeed composed of basaltic rock and silicates and other the such inorganic material, and let the members of the next Lunar mission report this garbage.
“I agree, Garcia finally admitted. “It's the only sensible thing to do! Let them be the ones to inform Mission Control personnel that we found irrefutable evidence that the moon is now actually made of cheese.
As usual, someone, in this case navigator Garibaldi, was to remain behind in orbit in order to take care of the redocking procedure, after the two, exo geologist Garcia and Captain Sunahara, had finished their lunar surface mission of conducting seismic experiments and collecting lunar surface material to bring back to Earth.
Unfortunately, they had discovered something extremely disturbing about the moon's consistency. Something so ridiculously unexpected, in fact, that they were very reluctant to report their findings to the Mission-Control Center back at Houston. In fact, for a long while they just stared at one another through their gold-tinted helmet visors in utter disbelief.
“So how exactly do we now go about informing Mission Control?" Captain Sunahara, a tall lanky middle-aged man of Japanese descent who had always dreamt of space exploration, asked his fellow astronaut exo- geologist Abel Garcia who had been staring in astonishment at the sample of lunar soil that they had just collected as they stood at the base of the lander.
“I'm afraid they will think us insane, sir," Abel Garcia, replied with a worried look on his face. “ I would not blame them either," he added "After all, we are supposed to find the Lunar material composed of abundant amounts of oxygen, iron and silicon, with trace quantities of carbon and nitrogen and smaller traces of oxygen, silicon, iron, magnesium, calcium, aluminum, manganese, and titanium, exactly as our first expeditions back in the 60‘s did, but none of this mix is evident in our samples. Instead we have this!" he pointed his gloved index finger at the specimen that they were intending to bring back to earth.
Sunahara knew it was true. Their discovery was seriously contradicting everything that had been theoretically proposed about Earth’s moon. For example, its density which accounted for its gravitational pull that affected Earth’s tides was being questioned. In short, this discovery contradicted well- established fact, and if they reported it, space-travel-induced insanity might very well be suspected.
In fact, when they radioed their findings to Sergio Garibaldi, the ship's navigator who had remained in orbit, he remained silent for a while and then suddenly laughed ironically in disbelief, and began to demand that they stop attempting to play practical jokes and to take their jobs more seriously. When they had insisted that they were indeed being serious, he accused them of maybe having gone partially insane, and temporarily cut off communications. However, once the Lunar Lander had docked with the orbiter for the return trip home, and they had shown him the samples, he was also convinced.
“So we are mad are we?" Captain Sunahara said while extending another sample of the lunar surface material for Garibaldi’s further inspection. At first, Garibaldi, had grimaced in surprise at the texture of the lunar soil as it felt spongy and greasy, and smeared his gloved fingers when pressured. Then he winced at the unmistakable very familiar aroma that the sample of lunar soil emitted. Then, after backing away in shock, he stood gazing at it wide-eyed as if beholding some horrifying apparition.
“My God you are right!" Garibaldi said. “But how the hell can this be?"
"We don't know." Sunahara responded after placing the soil-sample in a hermetically sealed receptacle to be refrigerated.
“All we know is that this is undeniably real. Neither is it limited to the landing site. It's exactly the same within a the entire mile-wide circumference area around the landing site. It’s even detectable at considerable subsurface depth. We drilled fifty feet, and it was the same substance all the way down, only packed together more tightly. Makes absolutely no sense-I know. More like some, some sort of cosmic practical joke."
"But a practical joke played by whom?" Garcia asked, squinting suspiciously as he strapped himself to his seat in preparation for the sudden acceleration needed to leave lunar orbit.
"I don't know," Sunahara rplied tiredly. He had been exhausted from the mission and had been looking forward to a respite, but now suddenly this made that impossible!
“God the creator himself maybe?" Garcia, the religionist among them, suggested with a wry smile o his face.
"After all, what prevents an almighty God from having a sense of humor simply because he is God? Such a being, similar to the mischievous Star-Trek Q, might be laughing at us right now," he added despite the stern, accusatory glare of his atheistic comrades.
“So do we report it?" Garibaldi asked totally ignoring what Garcia had just suggested.
“Are you insane?" Captain Sunahara stared at him in wide-eyed disbelief. Garibaldi, of course, was as equally worried about revealing the absurd discovery to the extremely skeptical people at Mission Control, as the captain was. So, the question had only been rhetorical.
“No we don’t," Sunahara added, "...we will keep this strictly among ourselves. Reporting such an unscientifically ridiculous thing would cost us our jobs! They might even decide to institutionalize us after arranging for some bogus psychiatric evaluation supposedly undertaken for our benefit," Sunahara continued shifting his dark eyes from side to side suspiciously as if being assailed by some invisible predator.
“But why? Why can’t they just take our word for it?" Garcia asked.
“Why? You ask? Very simple,"" Sunahara shot back, " because revealing such an absurdity would seriously call into question all the other scientific discoveries and theories which are practically considered to be indisputable facts. Theories such as abiogenesis and evolution. Theories considered almost sacred among those in the scientific community. Indisputable theories that are never questioned regardless of any counter evidence that might emerge. In short, their scientific credibility would consequently be irrevocably weakened and would make people far more predisposed to believing in a creator than they are now."
"Also, are we supposed to cut our own professional throats? Are we supposed to discard our entire hard-earned careers into the garbage-bin because of this?" he gestured disdainfully at the polished metal cylindrical canister that contained the lunar regolith samples which he had already decided to jettison before landing on Earth.
“But maybe we are wrong sir!” Garibaldi suggested as the engines started to rumble and the sun-illuminated lunar landscape as viewed from the porthole began rapidly tilting away from the ship.
“I truly wish we were wrong Garibaldi," Sunahara answered sadly in a lower tone of voice. “ I really do. But the chemical analyses only serves to confirm what we already know. The lactose, the casein, the texture, along with the aroma, all conclusively prove that the moon is now actually not what it had once been.
“So to avoid all the consequent unsavory complications that revealing this fact will bring, let's just tell them what they are expecting to hear, that the moon is indeed composed of basaltic rock and silicates and other the such inorganic material, and let the members of the next Lunar mission report this garbage.
“I agree, Garcia finally admitted. “It's the only sensible thing to do! Let them be the ones to inform Mission Control personnel that we found irrefutable evidence that the moon is now actually made of cheese.