Alex S
- 1. Lunar City Selenite Kids Watch the Astronauts
- 2. Lunar City Have you ever sneaked out of your bedroom and gone on the roof on a cold night to look at the full moon? I’m going to tell you a story about something mysterious that happened on the moon in July thirty-seven years ago.
- 3. It’s a story about two unusual kids that lived in Lunar City, in a special group of craters in a region called Marian of the moon. They were not at all like you and me because they were not made of flesh and bone, they were Selenites, moon people made of rock held together by loose sticky dust. Pyro and his friend Olivine liked science and to explore outside the city with their pet, KREEP.
- 4. Their pet, KREEP, as always, had come along and was howling at the big blue ball in the distance. At that moment, Pyro saw a flying object hovering by the crater they called Alphonsus. “Hey, look!” Pyro yelled to Olivine, “something is landing! Let’s go see it.” Because there very little gravity on the moon, Pyro and Olivine
- 5. - and KREEP – can make long jumps and it only took a short time to get closer to the “something.”
- 6. They see some sort of machine that they have never seen before. A door opens and something steps out. It is a strange looking creature with a shiny top and big slow moving legs. They heard an unfamiliar sound from the creature. The creature was joined by another similar one and the two of them began moving around the machine. Suddenly it opened and another something rolled out. It moved like their own Lunokhod, but a special edition.
- 7. “ Wow! Think how far we could go if we had that mover!” exclaimed Olivine.
- 8. Just then the two strange creatures moved toward them and pointed their direction. They hadn’t noticed until then, but KREEP’s curiosity had taken him right by the mover. “ Let’s go get him,” said Pyro. At that moment, the creatures picked up KREEP and, separating his rocky parts, put him in three bags and put them in the landing machine. “What if they see us and take us apart?” asked Olivine. “Let’s go and warn the others in Lunar City! Hurry!” She started leaping away from the machine and Pyro followed.
- 9. She was frightened and Pyro was, too. They began to leap in the wrong direction! After a while, Pyro realized that they are in a place he doesn’t recognize. They’re lost and no one knows where they are! “ And they took KREEP!” Olivine cries. “He could have helped us.” Before they decided which way to go, their neighbor’s pet, Magma jumped out of some moon dust. Behind him was their mom and day, looking worried! “Why did you go so far?” shouted Mom.
- 10. “ We are sorry,” Olivine and Pyro said at the same time. “ Where’s KREEP?” Dad asked while looking around. “The strange creatures took him inside the landing machine!” they answered. “They took KREEP apart and put him in bags and they were pointing and looking at us!” “ Let’s go home and warn the others in Luna City,” said Mom. It isn’t necessary,” said Dad, pointing to sky where the machine was flying away.
- 11. “ Dad, can I show you where they landed. If they left KREEP, we can put him back together,” begged Pyro. “OK, Pyro,” Dad said. Everyone went. Back at the landing site, guess what they found? The creatures had left the special edition so everyone had a smooth ride back to Lunar City. But back at the landing site, guess what they didn’t find? KREEP. He had gone to earth.
- 12. Mystery: Reader, what do you think would happen if KREEP’s parts got put together back on earth?
- 13. Bibliography Bibliography Cole, Joanna, The Ma g ic School Bus: Lost in the Solar System , Scholastic, 1990. Luna 17, Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luna_17. Lunar Sample Overview , Lunar and Planetary Institute, http://www.lpi.sra.edu/lunar/missions/apollo/apollo_11/samples/ Lunar Sample Overview , Lunar and Planetary Institute, http://www.lpi.sra.edu/lunar/missions/apollo/apollo_12/samples/ Lunar Sample Overview , Lunar and Planetary Institute, http://www.lpi.sra.edu/lunar/missions/apollo/apollo_14/samples/ North, Gerald, Observin g the Moon: The Modern Astonomer’s Guide , 2 nd Ed., Cambridge University Press, 2007. Rukl, Antonin, Atlas of the Moon , Kalmbach Publishing Co., 1992.
- 14. Images Images Apollo 15 Astronauts, Colonel David Scott and Pilot James Irwin, http://www.nationmaster.com . Apollo 15, Colonel Scott saluting the United States Flag near Mare Imbrium , http://www.history.nasa.gov/a15/a15.crew.html Apollo 15 Insignia, http://www.nationmaster.com . Johnson, Andrew, Gruithuisen’s Lunar City , in North, Gerald, Observin g the Moon: The Modern Astonomer’s Guide , 2 nd Ed., Cambridge University Press, 2007, p. 223. Layout of the Map of the Near Side of the Moon in 76 Sections, in Rukl, Antonin, Atlas of the Moon , Kalmbach Publishing Co., 1992, p. 27. Luna 17, Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luna_17 . Rover Vehicle, http://www.lsda.jsc.nasa.gov . Lunar Module hovering over moon, http://www.nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov .
- 15. Appendix Baron Franz von Gruithuisen was born in Bavaria in 1774. He was a medical doctor but became a Professor of Astronomy at Munich, Germany in 1826. He believed that he had traces of lunar inhabitants, especially of one of their colossal buildings. He described his discovery as, “a lunar city” Even though Gruithuisen has been ridiculed for his “discovery, there are many people today that claim they have observed happenings—especially short lived glows--on the moon’s surface. In the United States, we call this Lunar Transient Phenomena or LTP. One of these people is Dr. Dinsmore Alter. In 1955, using infra-red and ultra-violet filters, observed what seemed to be mist rising from the crater Alphonsus. Another scientist at the Crimean astrophysical Observatory obtained spectrographic evidence of a reddish haze at the central peak of the crater Alphonsus. During a few hours, he observed the peak grow bright and white, then back to normal. He, Nikolai Kozyrev, thought it was volcanic action; other scientists explain it as an effusion of gas. Interestingly, the three astronauts on Apollo 11 reported a glow localized in the wall of the crater Aristarchus in 1969. (Observing 357-360) Selenography is the mapping of the moon Selenographer is a person that studies and maps the moon Selenites is the name given to the inhabitants of Gruithuisen’s Lunar City Crater – a circular depression, usually with an elevated wall. Galileo Galilei , in 1610, discovered that there were mountains and craters on the moon. (atlas, p. 12) Luna 2 September 9, 1959 (near Lunar City - Luna 13 December 24, 1966 On July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong and Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin were the first humans to walk on the moon. Apollo 11 (Observing, pps 128-132) Luna 17 November 17, 1970 Apollo 14 Alan Shepard and Edgar Mitchell landed in the Frau Mauro region on January 31, 1971. Apollo 14 Alan Shepard and Edgar Mitchell landed in the Frau Mauro region on January 31, 1971. Apollo 15 landed at the foothills of the Lunar Apennine mountain range (Montes Apenninus) on July 30, 1971. David Scott and James Irwin drove over the lunar surface in a “rover vehicle”. Apollo 16 touched down in the Descartes region of the southern highlands of the moon on April 21 1972 with astronauts John Young and Charles Duke on the ground. Apollo 17, on December 11, 1972 brought Eugene Cernan and geologist Harrison Schmidt down in the Taurus-Littrow region. Olivine – rocks on the moon contain this magnesium-rich mineral Pryoxene – rocks on the moon contain this magnesium-rich mineral Norite, Dunite and troctolite are also subtypes of the magnesium-rich rock KREEP is the name given to a moon rock containing potassium, rare-earth elements (REE) and phosphorus (P)