exploration of Farside threw up a completely different and totally
unexpected story.
Although the surface of Farside looked much the same as Near-side
to the distant observer, it proved at the microscopic level to have
undergone something radically different in its history.
Furthermore, as bases, launch sites, communications installations,
and all the other paraphernalia that accompanied man wherever he
went, began proliferating on Nearside, the methodical surface
coverage that this entailed produced oddities there, too.
All the experiments performed on the rock samples brought back from
the eight sites explored before the mid-seventies gave consistent
results supporting the orthodox theories. When the number of sites
grew to thousands, by far the majority of additional data confirmed
them-but some curious exceptions were noted, exceptions which
seemed to indicate that some of the features on Nearside ought,
rightfully, to be on Farside.
None of the explanations hazarded were really conclusive. This made
little difference to the executives and officers of UNSA, since by
that time the pattern of Lunar activity had progressed from that of
pure scientific research to one of intense engineering operations.
Only the academic fraternity of a few universities found time to
ponder and correspond on the spectral inconsistencies between dust
samples. So for many years the well-
documented problem of “lunar hemispheric anomalies” remained ified,
along with a million and one other items, in the “Awaiting
Explanation” drawer of science.
A methodical review of the current state of knowledge in any branch
of science that might have a bearing on the Lunarian problem was a
routine part of Group L’s business. Anything to do with the Moon
was, naturally, high on the list of things to check up on, and soon
the group had amassed enough information to start a small library
on the subject. Two junior physicists, who didn’t duck quickly
enough when Hunt was giving out assignments, were charged with the
Herculean task of sifting through all this data. It took some time
for them to get around to the topic of hemispheric anomalies. When
they did, they found reports of a series of dating experiments
performed some years previously by a nucleologist named Kronski at
the Max Planck Institute in Berlin. The data that appeared in those
reports caused the two physicists to drop everything and seek out
Hunt immediately.
After a long discussion, Hunt made a vi-phone call to a Dr. Saul
Steinfield of the Department of Physics of the University of
Nebraska, who specialized in Lunar phenomena. As a consequence of
that call, Hunt made arrangements for the deputy head of Group L to
take charge for a few days, and he flew north to Omaha early the
next morning. Steinfleld’s secretary met Hunt at the airport, and
within an hour Hunt was standing in one of the physics department
laboratories, contemplating a three-foot-diameter model of the
Moon.
“The crust isn’t evenly distributed,” Steinfield said, waving
toward the modeL “It’s a lot thicker on Farside than on Nearside-
something that has been known for a long time, ever since the first
artificial satellites were hung around the Moon in the nineteen
sixties. The center of mass is about two kilometers away from the
geometric center.”
“And there’s no obvious reason,” Hunt mused.
Steinfleld’s flailing arm continued to describe wild circles around
the sphere in front of them. “There’s no reason for the crust to
solidify a lot thicker on one side, sure, but that doesn’t really
matter, because that’s not the way it happened. The material that
makes up the Farside surface is much younger than anything anybody
ever believed existed on the Moon in any quantity
up until about, ah, thirty or so years back-one hell of a lot
younger! But you know that-that’s why you’re here.”
“You don’t mean it was formed recently,”~ Hunt stated.
Steinfield shook his head vigorously from side to side, causing the
two tufts of white hair that jutted from the sides of his otherwise
smooth head to wave about in a frenzy. “No. We can tell that it’s
about as old as the rest of the Solar System. What I mean is-it
hasn’t been where it is very long.”
He caught Hunt’s shoulder and half turned him to face a wall chart