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Dyson's Book Serialized in Denver Post
Saturday, September 20, 2003 6:41:00 PM
by Marianne J Dyson
| Children |
| Marianne Dyson's children's book, HOME ON THE MOON, published by National Geographic in 2003, was selected for serialization in the Denver Post Colorado Kids section from September to November. |
Chapter 1. The New Moon
The bright white smile of a crescent moon dips below the horizon. It hides its glowing face, waiting, as three brave men prepare to see it up close for the first time. Frank Borman, Jim Lovell, and Bill Anders are the crew of Apollo 8. It is the morning of December 21, 1968. The crew enjoy steak and eggs for breakfast. They don space suits and climb atop the most powerful rocket ever built.
The sun is shining. It's a quiet, blue-sky day. At 7:51 AM, the Saturn V moon rocket thunders to life with more energy than an atom bomb. Frightened fish leap from the water. Thousands of people up and down the Florida coast gasp in awe. Never before have men ridden such a rocket. Never before have they attempted such a journey. What will they see? What will they learn?
The Saturn V rocket has three stages. In the first two and a half minutes, the twelve-foot wide engines of the first stage burn 54 railroad cars worth of liquid oxygen. Apollo 8 surges up, flattening the crew into their seats with four times the force of gravity.
The first stage shuts down. The men are thrown forward against their straps. Then the second stage kicks in, and they rock back into their seats again. The ship rattles and shakes until the second stage shuts down. The third stage blasts them into Earth orbit at a speed of five miles a second. They circle the Earth for almost three hours.
The third stage engine fires again, bright enough for people in Hawaii to see its plume in the sky. Through the window of their spaceship, the Earth shrinks to a blue ornament in the blackness of space.
Apollo 8 shoots up the invisible "hill" of gravity between Earth and moon. After about three days of coasting, they reach the top of the hill of gravity. Their speed has slowed from about 24,000 mph to 2,200 mph. They arc over the top, and slide down the other side, picking up speed again as they fall towards the moon. Inside the ship, the crew feel no change. They remain weightless.
The moon keeps one face towards the Earth at all times. It is called the near side. Despite how close they are, the men can't see the moon. Their windows face the sun.
They pass in front of the moon and then loop around behind it. The moon blocks radio signals with Earth for 32 minutes. No three people have ever been so alone. Suddenly, they pass into the total darkness of the moon's shadow. The sky is full of stars, except for one large black spot - the moon!
Apollo 8 exits the moon’s shadow. The men see the moon up close for the first time. "Look at that!" Anders exclaims. He thinks the far side looks like a beach with lots of footprints.
While over the far side of the moon, a single engine must fire to slow them down. If it doesn’t fire, they will swing around the moon and head straight back to Earth. If it burns too long, they will crash into the moon. If all goes well, they will fly around the moon ten times, spend two and a half days coming home, and splashdown in the Pacific Ocean six days after they left Earth.
The engine works fine. They enter orbit 60 [ref A] miles above the surface of another world.
They fly swing around to the near side. Radio contact comes back. Borman tells Mission Control, "The moon is essentially gray. No color. Looks like plaster of Paris…"
Four orbits later, they roll the spacecraft. "Oh my God!" Anders says. "Look at that picture over there." The fragile blue Earth hovers above the gray lunar horizon.
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REVIEWS OF HOME ON THE MOON
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