Chapter 14 - On a Marché Sur La Lune
Chapter 14 - On a Marché Sur La Lune
August 5, 1968 - 3:40 pm UTCKorolev “Archangel, you are approved for Lunar Orbit Insertion in 30 minutes, loss of signal in moments. Good luck, brave eagles.”
For the past few days, Archangel 3 has been floating peacefully through space on its way to the Moon. Just a fragile tin can painted a soothing green, mated with several fuel tanks, and that small lander. Alexei Leonov stared outside, watching as Mare Smythii passed by, another moment of solace fell across the spacecraft. Leonov and Volynov did not talk at this moment, but just watched as Earth fell behind the limb of the Moon, taking a single photograph of the earthset. Half an hour passes, and they ignite the Blok D stage, slowing them into orbit. The engines stop firing as the Sun sets over Mendeleev crater. Almost an hour after loss of signal, Earth rose over the invisible, pitch black lunar terrain below. They weren’t scheduled to try landing for at least a day, at Korolev’s request for more time to confirm all systems functional. A request accepted due to the overwhelming lead over the Americans, and seen as a sort of taunting them. For mass considerations, there weren’t any experiments ready for the duration spent in orbit, with the exception of a camera. This left most of the time before landing for Leonov and Volynov to just talk, especially while signals were cut behind the Moon.
Leonov “Pretty sight, isn’t it?”
Volynov “All the same, craters and dust. Strangely, yeah, it’s pretty.”
Leonov “I wonder what will become of this mission, its legacy. Do you think we’ll have a base down there soon?”
Volynov “This an interview now? I suppose we probably will. Can’t imagine it’ll happen too soon though, maybe a decade away at best.”
Leonov “I’d like to go there when it opens. Take morning strolls across the Moon. I imagine it’d be calming”
Leonov is sketching Volynov in front of the LOK window, using the set of pencils provided.
Volynov “Hope we have a lander with more than one seat by then. I'd honestly like to go to Mars more. Maybe an asteroid. Somewhere fun like that.”
Leonov “Feel that Martian dust, run over the dunes, drinking water made from the polar caps.”
Volynov “You get it! Proper adventure, places that humans haven’t even seen before. We’ve been staring at the moon for millions of years, Mars for a few centuries, but we’ve never seen an asteroid close before. Would love to make something like a map of these small worlds, little hills and mountains, craters and ravines.”
Leonov “You’d need a good cartographer, someone good with sketching”
Volynov “All respect, I need a solid decade between repeat crews.”
Leonov “Maybe this’ll change your mind. How’s the portrait?”
Volynov “...Well, I can probably go down to 4 years?”
Leonov “2 if I colour it.”
Volynov “Sure.”
August 5, 1968 - 10:10 pm UTC - T-51:00
The majestic Saturn V stands proud upon its launch mount, a monochromatic beast shouldering the payload of Apollo 9. Onboard, the crew is filled with joyful anticipation, adrenaline drowning the fear or any incidents occurring, just waiting for launch. It's just 50 minutes before launch now, and everything is falling into place.
“Apollo 9 carries three astronauts; The commander is Gus Grissom, the second American in space, whom you may also remember for his historic flight on Apollo 1, and Gemini IV. Command module pilot is Michael Collins, flying previously on Apollo 2, and Gemini VII. Joining him on that flight was Neil Armstrong, Lunar Module Pilot of this mission. All three are veterans of spaceflight. Their main objective is, of course, to land on the moon and return safely. Collins will remain in orbit of the moon while the other two land, with a planned stay time of just 26 hours.
Meanwhile, on the Soviet side of news, Archangel 3 remains in lunar orbit. What little information we- Hold on one moment. You can see on the live feed the arm is moving, the Apollo Access Arm. We’ve hit T-43 minutes, at this time they should also be arming the Launch Escape System as well.
Where were we? Yes, What little information we have been given on Archangel is this - Its crew is Alexei Leonov, the first person to perform a spacewalk, beating the brave Karol Bobko on SC-2A by 4 months. The other crew member is unknown at this time, but speculated to be either Boris Volynov, or Vladimir Komarov. It’s not known when they will attempt their landing, but it’s more and more likely that it will indeed be the Soviets who win this race. We’ll be back at T-15 Minutes, when the rocket switches to internal power.”
T-00:30
PAO “Twenty seconds and counting... T minus 15 seconds, guidance is inertial. Twelve, eleven, ten, ignition sequence start-”
Slowly, after a flurry of small pyrotechnic detonations set turbopumps in motion. A wave of chilled liquid oxygen rushing through the labyrinth of pipes, spraying through the injector and into the combustion chamber. At the same time, the kerosene fuel sprays into the chamber as well, causing the two to ignite. Within almost seconds, forces rise from nothing to almost 34 meganewtons, enough to accelerate a Chevrolet Corvette to 24 km/s.
PAO “Three, two, one, all engine running, LIFTOFF! We have liftoff, one minute past the hour!”
Grissom “Roger! We- We’ve got a roll program!”
Collins “Smoother than anything!”
Armstrong “Coming up on max-Q!”
Grissom “Everything is nominal so far, we’re all enjoying the ride.”
Apollo 9 - T+50:00 - LEO
Grissom “I feel the horizon coming up”
Grissom “We haven’t got too many of them this flight, so you might as well enjoy it while you can.
Collins “Jesus Christ, look at that horizon!”
Grissom “Isn’t that something.”
Collins “Goddamn that’s pretty, it’s unreal.”
Armstrong “Get a picture of that.”
Grissom “Where’s the- where the damn Hasselblad? No way we’ve lost that big sun of a gun”
Armstrong “Is it in the bulkhead-”
Collins “Got it-”
Grissom “C’mon quick, sun's almost too far up-”
Armstrong “Missed it.”
Collins “Shit... doubt Houston will let us spend another orbit down here...“
CAPCOM “No we will not. G’day Apollo 9, this is Houston coming through Carnarvon, Australia.”
Collins “What is it now?”
CAPCOM “Well unfortunately, y’all gotta go to the Moon. Got about 20 minutes to TLI.”
August 6, 1968 - 8:30 pm UTC - LLO
Alexei holds the rim of the Soyuz LOK’s hatch, trying to ground himself for what’s to come next. He carefully pushes himself through the port, grasping the descending exterior handles for dear life. For time constraints, they had not had the time to implement the free-flying EVA systems, meaning that if he lost grip on the handles, if he went floating off, he’d be gone. His breath fogged up the helmet ever so slightly, illuminated hauntingly by the brilliant flare of the Sun. He was passing the base of the service module now, where the solar panels would be for a normal Soyuz, and caught a glimpse of the engine mounted within the truss structure. Turning to face down, he gets his first sight of his vehicle, the LK. He opens its hatch, entering the cramped interior and closing the hatch behind him. This all took place behind the moon, Earth only now rising above the horizon, communications regained with Baikonur.
Sitting inside the LK’s capsule, Alexei gets some time to prepare for what's next. Deep breaths, staring out the window at the fractal of craters sliding away. If all goes well, I’ll be the first person on the Moon, the first of thousands. If the landing goes wrong, I’ll be the first life lost in pursuit of other worlds, the first of hundreds. He receives the confirmation for separation and descent, cautiously pressing the series of buttons required. A sharp jolt strikes the spacecraft, small motors separating the two vehicles out to a safe distance, and the weight of both worlds begins to crush down on Alexei. His eyes lock in on the sequence to begin descent - first igniting the Blok D stage for a second time, then separating it and carefully landing with the LK’s own Blok E. He attempts to ignite Blok D, but nothing happens. No second jolt, no push back into his seat, not even a sputter of a failed ignition. There’s just nothing, a soul crushing silence. He tries again, only to be met with more silence. For whatever reason, the engine simply refuses to listen to commands, and Apollo 9 is nearing the Moon.
August 8, 1968 - 8:10 am UTC
Grissom “Engine shut down in 3... 2... 1... Engine shut down.”
Collins “There we have it.”
Armstrong “She sure is something...”
Collins “Look at that darkness, just the blackest black I’ve seen”
Grissom “Like we’re above a black hole.”
Collins “Bet you two are excited to get down there”
Grissom “Oh, you’d trade places with us in a heartbeat even if that WAS a black hole!”
Collins “No, I’ll appreciate the peace and quiet I get from you two chattering.”
Armstrong “Mike, you’ve talked more than all of us.”
Collins “Can’t I love the sound of my own voice?”
Armstrong “You-”
Grissom “If you two keep arguing, I’ll turn this ship around and head home.”
12:45 pm UTC - Archangel 3, Low Lunar Orbit
Leonov “Boris?”
Volynov “Hm?”
Leonov “What’s the view outside like?”
Volynov “Can’t you see it?”
Leonov “The window is too small to see much, and it's facing the horizon right now.”
Volynov “We’re passing by the south-eastern edge of Mare Crisium, there's a- a series of wrinkles running across its floor in a large arc. The low lighting angle makes a lot of things visible. I can see a series of low hills in the distance, and some boulder fields if I squint.”
Leonov “It sounds beautiful...”
Volynov “The sun is about to dip behind the limb, but I can see a few mountains with their peaks still illuminated.”
The sun briefly shines through the LK’s viewing port, forcing Alexei to avert his gaze. Its light cascades around the cabin, brightening the interior to match a brilliant noon sky on Earth, putting the dim artificial lights to shame. While avoiding the light, Alexei notices something out of the corner of his eye, a small glimmer of light under the final Blok D ignition switch - a screw.
Leonov “OH! BORIS!”
Volynov “What’s happened-”
Leonov “THERE WAS A SCREW UNDER THE IGNITION!”
Volynov “Oh! You ca-”
Leonov “How much longer until the next descent window?!”
Volynov “Just over 10 minutes!”
Leonov “Baikonur, we’re going to try for descent this time!”
1:12pm UTC
Alexei is pushed back in his seat, Blok D finally igniting, sending him flying away from the LOK complex. His landing site, Oceanus Procellarum, is just barely illuminated, meaning most of this descent takes place in lunar night. He knows it's dangerous, but he’s trained years for this. Korolev is waiting on the other side of the communications for Alexei to reemerge from the limb of the Moon, which he does just 10 minutes later. Frantically, he goes through the whole checklist of what to do, and a siren goes off - final descent has to begin now, or Alexei may crash into the surface. Blok D breaks away, leaving the LK completely alone. Alexei wished that Boris could accompany him to the surface, but a design choice almost half a decade ago vetoed this possibility. The N1 had an incredibly tight mass budget, so much so that rewards of 60 rubles, roughly equivalent to 50 USD in 1964, were given out for every kilogram of mass saved from the complex. The best solution they could come up with was the one that flew, with the sole cosmonaut in the lander, unable to stay on the surface for more than a few hours. Nobody could argue the LK was better than its American counterpart, but all that mattered is that it could be first.
The sun slowly appears behind the plains of Oceanus Procellarum, long shadows cast by shallow craters and hills. The LK’s Planeta radar system carefully watches the altitude above the surface, waiting for the mark of 3km distance to trigger the engine. There were razor thin margins all the way down, requiring the finest precision. Signals are sent between Lunokhod and the LK, and at last the distance is hit. Alexei is startled by the sudden ignition of the engine, feeling the pull of the moon and the push of the burn at the same time, before it sputters out. He quickly grabs control of the engines - the horizontal velocity is automatically removed, but the landing is all up to him. Back in Baikonur, Korolev is sitting at the Lunokhod controller, moved to the main mission control room. The camera can’t swivel up, but he can see small puffs of dust kicked up by the distant engine exhaust, growing as the LK nears. He sees the ground outside turn misty from the dust, and small pebbles pelt the underside of the vehicle, and before he can even register anything, he stops falling.
1:34 pm UTC
Small rocket motors fire outside, planting the spacecraft firmly on the ground. Across the world, hundreds of millions watch around the world. World leaders all direct their attention to the moon. Almost everyone around the world is awake to see it. Across Oceania and Southeast Asia, the moon hangs overhead, uncountable people gazing towards it, knowing now that a member of their own species sits on that companion world. The entire USSR erupts into celebration, fireworks and lights blanketing the skies. Inside the lander, Alexei is stunned, it doesn’t feel real, that he’s here, that he’s the first one here. Outside the small window, he can see the blank horizon as the dust fades, the only visible difference being the barely raised rim of Encke E crater. The landing site chosen is a small empty patch, roughly 1 km radius around 1.55N 40.37W. This site is near to the rays of Kepler crater, and a series of fascinating depressions dubbed “rilles”. To maximise the science output for the mission, Lunokhod spent its time driving around to sites of interest, marking interesting samples for collection when the cosmonaut arrived. This was done by taking note of the signal delay and direction to the backup LK lander, allowing for an incredibly accurate surface map to be made. Alexei has some time before the spacewalk is scheduled to begin, and talks to Lenoid Brezhnev over the phone, then Sergei Korolev piloting the Lunokhod closer to the LK, then a private call to his family. Finally, he has a call with Yuri Gagarin.
Gagarin “Alexei, I must congratulate you. You always did push the bounds, I’d hoped you’d be the first there.”
Leonov “I’m glad I didn’t let you down. Strange to think just 8 years ago we were training for our first flights, isn’t it?”
Gagarin “Very strange.”
Leonov “I hope you can come up here one day.”
Gagarin “I plan to quite soon. Now, it’s time for you to go outside. We’re all watching, good luck, Alexei.”
2:21 pm UTC
With a silent click, the LK’s hatch opens up, and a quick burst of residual air, failed to be retrieved in the depressurisation, flows out into the vacuum. Leonov bends down, slowly making his way out of the hatch, stepping on the first step of the descent ladder. Lunokhod is just 80 feet away, filming every step he takes.
Leonov “The steps are... Well spaced, I’m not having much trouble.”
He pauses around 15 rungs down the 20 rung ladder, where it turns to a 45 degree tilt, to make getting on and off easier. Alexei looks around, tilting down his sun visor, seeing the vast plains in every direction.
Leonov “It’s a beautiful sight. Much like a desert on Earth, but there’s something marvellous about it. The ground seems to sparkle slightly, and I can see rays formed by the engine.”
Alexei takes the final few steps, stopping at the final one, just a few inches above the surface. He takes a few deep breaths, and plants his foot on the regolith. He turns around, looking at the Lunokhod filming him not too far away, and says the first words by a human on another celestial body.
Leonov “10,000 Marathons, for the single step of a billion dreams.”
He carefully walks a few feet away, taking out the flagpole, extending it, and planting it firmly in the ground. He deploys the flag of the USSR, steps back to where he was, and salutes. The live coverage ends, but mission control still gets Lunokhod’s footage. Alexei walks up to Lunokhod, knowing who’s controlling it, and reaches his hand out.
Korolev “It’s good to see you as well... It’s like I’m really there.”
Korolev turns the camera towards the Earth, low on the horizon
Korolev “Strange to think I’m looking towards myself right now.”
Leonov “You’re looking at everyone in the world, with the exception of just 5 humans. Isn’t it beautiful?”
Korolev “I know I’m not on the Moon in reality, but I still feel a strange sense of awe, of being there.”
Leonov “You got us here, Chief. It’s all thanks to you.”
Korolev “Well, let's not waste the time we have. We’ve marked many samples for collection. I would’ve brought them here but I don’t- It doesn’t have an arm to collect with.”
Alexei and Lunokhod travel across the surface, walking and roving several kilometres across the surface to points of interest. When a decent distance away from the lander, Alexei replants the Soviet flag. It was placed close to the lander to make for a good shot - it would’ve been blown away during ascent. This was always the plan, to reposition it, but it was a hassle to bring, as it was not designed to be retracted. Alexei brings along a set of small experiments in a foldout trolley previously mounted on the lander. As he finishes deploying the experiments, a small seismometer, RTG, and a retroreflector, he begins to collect the samples. Once the tour is done, almost 10 kg of materials have been collected, and he climbs up the LK’s ladder. He waves goodbye to Korolev and Lunokhod, and seals the cabin. Hundreds of kilometres away, Apollo 9 is making its descent.
4:12 pm UTC - Apollo 9
Armstrong “Quantity light”
Armstrong “70 feet, down a half.”
Grissom “Picking up some dust.”
Armstrong “Contact light!”
Grissom “Shutdown.”
Armstrong “Engine stop! Engine arm off.”
Grissom “Houston, Eagle Station, We’re on the ground.”
Armstrong “Smooth landing.”
4:35 pm UTC - Apollo 9
Grissom “I’m on the porch.”
CAPCOM “Got it, Gus.”
Grissom “At the foot of the ladder now... The footpads aren’t depressed too far, maybe two inches.”
CAPCOM “Roger”
Grissom “Surface is very fine, a light dusting of sand almost. Stepping off now.”
Grissom “That’s one more step of the billions to come.”
Despite losing the race to the Moon, citizens of the US were ecstatic. For those that weren’t too invested in the space program, it was still a win. For those who were invested, it was a pity they had failed, but still a thing to celebrate. Moreso, the prior landing of Archangel 3 made it so that 3 humans were on the Moon at the same time, a miraculous feat, and one that brought incredible footage. For some who were even more invested, this was more wonderful an outcome than they ever could’ve dreamt. The loss of the moon race would likely introduce even more funding into the space program, hoping to outdo the Soviets until America takes a win. More ambitious missions, steps closer to moon bases, space stations, interplanetary craft - the solar system is open now.
Grissom and Armstrong walk across the lunar surface for almost 3 hours, collecting 23 kilograms of samples, and receiving a phone call from President Scranton. They enter the Ascent module once again, and have a decent rest period to have dinner and relax.
7:19 pm UTC
Back in Oceanus Procellarum, Archangel 3 ignites its engine, lifting off from the vast ocean of rock. Under an hour later, Alexei carefully docks with the LOK’s Kontakt system, spacewalking over to the crew capsule, sealed lunar samples in tow. A few hours later, they perform the Trans-earth injection, on path to land safely in a few days time.
August 9 - 6:50 pm UTC
Much the same as Archangel had done, Apollo 9 prepares to lift off, returning to the Command module in orbit. Prior to this, NASA approved the risky decision of performing another moonwalk, collecting a few more samples. The ascent engine ignites, propelling the LM into lunar orbit. Collins greets the two as the docking port opens, and they prepare for the burn back home.
August 11, 1968 - 6:12 pm UTC
Archangel 3 slices through the atmosphere, punching a hole through the thickening air, laced with ionised plasma. The heat shield holds back the majority of the heat, the remainder scraping across the sides in a flurry of colours. Further away, the orbital module experiences the same phenomena, being consumed by reentry plasma - though without the heat shield, it doesn’t stand a chance, quickly breaking apart and vaporising. The plasma fades, the rush of wind growing louder outside the thin walls of the crew module, peacefully rocking the capsule as the parachute deploys. Archangel lands with a thud and a cloud of dust, safely touching down in the desert, just 2.8km off the targeted landing point. Recovery teams arrive in just a few minutes, and the cosmonauts are paraded around as heroes of the union, and the world.
August 13, 1968 - 5:12 am UTC
Apollo 9’s command module strikes the atmosphere a few days later, surviving the treacherous descent, and splashing down safely in the Pacific ocean. Half an hour later, the designated recovery ship arrives, taking the crew aboard to be placed in a quarantine for the next 5 days, to make sure no pathogens were brought back from the Moon. An unlikely scenario, but it’s better to be safe.
September 5, 1968 - 4:13am - Tien Shan Astronomical Observatory
Nestled within the Tien Shan mountains, lies a lone observatory, with its recently constructed 5 metre telescope. The whole facility opened just over a decade ago, and had already been struggling with technical issues. Few could complain, as the star speckled view outside was one of the most beautiful sights that one could see. Anatoly Ilyich Ivanovich and Grigory Apollonovich Lazarev never saw the stars, and they had much to complain about. They were stuck in the basement, checking the images of each night for moving objects. A tiring, menial job, made worse by the fact that the blink comparator had broken.
Anatoly “Fuck...”
Grigory “What?”
Anatoly “Still broken. Got at least 200 plates here.”
Grigory “...I’ll get us some coffee.”
Anatoly “Please do. I’ll take the odd ones, you take the even ones.”
Grigory “Sugar?”
Anatoly “Two. No, Four. No, Two coffees with two.”
Grigory “Are you planning on doing this all tonight?”
Anatoly “Pile will just build up if we don’t.”
Grigory “True, still a lot though. Do we know what we’ve got?”
Anatoly “Let’s see... Some followup observations on 1968 RA, some photos of Vesta, Geographos, Aquitania, Interamnia, Stereoskopia, and The NORC, as well as some blank sky observations looking for new objects.”
Grigory “My god, Anatoly, numbers, please.”
Anatoly “4, 1620, 387, 704, 566, and 1625. Please start learning the names.”
Grigory “Hmph... I’ll make myself two coffees as well...”
A few minutes later, Grigory sits down and begins to sift through the plates, just as Anatoly was already doing. Visual eye comparisons between each trio of plates, exposed for 10 seconds each, with a 15 second gap. Blank after blank after blank, they were happy to have made as much coffee as they did. The sun creeps towards the horizon, its light refracting through the atmosphere, peeking over the mountains, a brilliant sunrise that the two of them did not see. They’d gone through two thirds of the plates, most of which were an abysmal blank sky, or scheduled photographs of known objects. In the background, people were moving around upstairs, and the radio was buzzing a peaceful static that the two men found quite comforting. To dull the boredom, they’d gotten out some chocolates kept in the wooden desk, some fancy chocolate pralines.
Anatoly [Muffled] “And while I was- sorry, While I- Nevermind.”
Grigory “Ever the storyteller.”
Anatoly “Oh, you love my stories.”
Grigory “If you can call them that? Sure, but I really think-”
Anatoly “Lazarev?”
Grigory “Oh!!”
Anatoly “What?”
Grigory “I found something!”
Anatoly “What plate!”
Anatoly “There it is again! A few hours earlier, 06h 02m 17s, +37°22’40”!”
Grigory “That’s a real one definitely... Should be about 0.3AU away right now!”
Anatoly “Gives a size of around... 250 metres!”
Grigory “Call upstairs! See if there's any previous observations!”
A rapid scramble begins, trying to find the asteroid in prior observation plates, where it would not have been identified. These expand upon the object’s observation arc, allowing its orbit to be more clearly defined. This object, which they decided to call “Sleepless” until a proper name was given, seemed to be at its closest point to Earth right now, with a fairly sporadic light curve. Looking at the magnitude over time, This object seemed to rotate around once every 26 hours! The next night, another series of photographs were taken of the object, refining its orbital parameters, and extending the observation arc to 12 days. With this, enough data had been gathered to reliably predict its orbit for a few years, with further observations increasing this. Slowly and precisely, Grigory and Anatoly project Sleepless’ position backwards, finding multiple somewhat close encounters with Earth and Venus. They then project it forwards, a relatively close encounter is predicted the next year, a perfect time for more observations, and they still continue to project and calculate. Grigory’s blood runs cold, and his face turns white. In April 1971, Sleepless approaches Earth incredibly close. There aren’t enough observations yet to conclusively prove it, but it would be close. No further than 20 Lunar Distances, 0.05 AU. These calculations showed a potential for impact. The chance appeared to be slim, but it was nothing to ignore.
Grigory “Anatoly, Get the director here. Now.”
Though a mere joke at first, the name Sleepless had just become very fitting.
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