The God Experiment

Chapter No. 33. Discovery.

Chapter No. 33. Discovery.

The cat dropped in the next day. Janet answered the phone and handed it to her husband. "It's NASA."

"Yes?" After a brief discussion, he handed the phone back to his wife to hang it up.

"Now what?" she asked.

"They've discovered a problem which they claim will make most life on Earth become extinct."

Her eyebrows shot up. "Really?"

"Yeah, but they didn't give me any details. It has something to do with the Moon."

"Are we going to go to JPL?"

"I suppose we should. It's Saturday and we really don't have anything else to do."

James came in the room. "What's up?"

"We have to go to JPL. They say they've discovered something that could make life extinct."

"Sounds wild."

"Okay, let's go," Robert said.

They appeared in the JPL mission room. Jason was there, along with an African American woman they hadn't seen before."

"This is Vicky Rodgers. She's in charge of Moon missions."

Robert gave her a nod and glanced at Jason before turning back to Vicky. "So, what's the problem?"

"As you probably know, our large moon is responsible for keeping Earth's orbit and spin orientation stable," Vicky said. "The Moon's tidal forces with Earth cause a slowing of Earth's spin and it transfers this energy to the Moon, which makes it move away from the Earth. Normally, this amounts to the Moon increasing its distance from Earth by about 1.5 inches per year. However, we've measured the increase to be above five inches and it seems to be increasing at an alarming rate."

"What could cause the rate to increase like that?" Robert asked.

She shook her head. "We don't know. It's not due to any forces we can discern."

"How is this going to cause an extinction effect?"

"If the Moon gets too far away from Earth it will result in the Earth's spin orientation to change radically over an extended time period, resulting in devastating climate changes."

"You're not suggesting that this climate change is imminent, are you?"

"No, but if the Moon's distance increases too fast, it could be a serious problem."

"NASA has orbital satellites around the Moon. Have you been able to detect what may be causing this?"

"No. We haven't discovered anything that could cause this."

"What about the Moon colonies?" James asked. "Have they found anything?"

"We've ordered all the colonists back to Earth. Russia, China and the EU have done the same."

Robert sighed. "Well, the good news is that the Moon is relatively close to Earth. We should be able to easily go there and see what's going on."

"Do you need suits?" Vicky asked.

"No. We got away without them on the Mars mission." Robert looked at his wife and son. "Let's go see what's happening."

They teleported to a position a thousand meters from the surface of the far side of the Moon. They couldn't talk to one another while in a vacuum, so they used mental communication.

"Man, this part of the moon is completely covered with craters and craters upon craters," James said.

"I don't see anything suspicious," Janet said. "There is something weird about that large crater over there." She pointed to a large mound in the middle of a mile wide crater.