SUNGLASSES AND ROCKETS Part 1 : New Moon

PEACE ON THE MOON...

I will allow myself to reproduce the four-line summary of Colonel Cox's report, as Dr. Moses Masterton wrote it:

1. The United States of America and the rest of the world is threatened by an imminent nuclear disaster.

2. It is not advisable to use planet Earth to carry out the most significant experiments that will define the course of western civilization in the next 100 years.

3. The United States of America will rely on the military, scientific, and technical team to immediately start the construction of a Moonbase that will be located, for reasons of security, on the dark side of the satellite.

4. The selection of experiments to be conducted on the future Moonbase will be determined by a group of scientists who have been awarded the Nobel prize; that is, the doctors...

I do not know exactly how many times I re-read the report. I scratched my head and started again. I did not rest until I heard a you may sit down, and I snapped back to attention. I looked at Darwin, who was at my side. His mouth hung open and he was staring at the board. He was completely entranced.

"Hey Darwin," I whispered.

"Did you say something?" he asked in surprise, as if he had just woken up.

"The doctor told us to sit down..."

"Yes, of course."

We scurried back to our places.

"This group of award-winning scientists, were they the same as for the Manhattan Project?" Darwin asked impatiently.

"Some, yes," the doctor replied as he cleaned the board. But slow down, let's take it step by step."

He finished erasing and turned towards us.

"The report that you've just read became the project called..."

"Honeymoon?" I interrupted.

I was sure.

"That's right."

"Doctor," Darwin interjected, raising his hand and waving it, "is there a base on the dark side of the Moon?"

"Of course," the doctor responded with all the naturalness in the world.

Evidently he was familiar with all such disconcerting information.

"A base on the dark side of the Moon?" I interrogated, conveying my incredulousness. "How is that possible? And the rockets? Where do they..."

"Just a moment."

The skillful yo-yo handler performed a trick known as around the world.

"Let's go step by step," he suggested, the yo-yo returning to his hand. "Contrary to what Colonel Cox's report says, back then the United States didn't have the technology to construct a Moonbase right away. However, they started to work on the first phase of the Moonbase project..."

"Building rockets to go to the Moon," interrupted Darwin.

"You could say that. In the next few years the Atlas rockets were developed, but due to the army's insistence, they ended up becoming intercontinental ballistic rockets with thermonuclear warheads and not, as originally planned, vehicles for getting to the Moon. Even the powerful Titan rocket, used for the first time in 1959, was destined to become a nuclear weapon."