“You mean this ship will carry smaller craft?” said Bud.
“That’s right. They’ll be berthed in here.” Entering through an air lock, he showed Bud a
80 THE RACE TO THE MOON
large hangar compartment. “Then there’s a machine shop for emergency repairs on each side, with laboratories above them.”
They walked through the starboard shop, equipped with lathes, welders, and other tools, and entered a small elevator. Tom pressed a button and they zoomed upward.
“This is the top deck,” Tom said as they stepped out. They were in a small compartment containing banks of electronic computing gear. “These computers will feed our navigation equipment and also compute the tapes for our automatic pilot when we operate on auxiliary rocket power,” he explained.
“This ship is sure loaded with brains!” Bud grinned. “Not counting me.”
Next came the ship’s control room where the pumps, gauges, and air-conditioning equipment were installed. When they entered the flight compartment, Bud’s eyes popped when he saw the rows of gleaming dials, levers, and switches.
“What a setup!”
Bucket seats for pilot and copilot stood in front of twin quartz-glass view panes. At the left was a huge fluorescent screen and at the right a multi-dial panel labeled with names of the planets and other heavenly bodies.
“I’ll check you out on all these controls tomorrow, just before we take her up,”
Tom said. “Right now, let’s see the other sections.”
Beyond the flight compartment was another
A POWERFUL TAKEOFF 81
small room full of mysterious dials and electronic gear. “This is the radiation-control room,” Tom explained, “for monitoring the gamma and cosmic radiation received by the ship. And this next door leads to the power room, where we handle the electrical output of our solar-conversion units.”