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. Why? Because we were already on that terminator line, going pole to
pole, south to north, north to south, so our simplest landing was to bend it
down where we were, never change our heading.
To land in the east-west direction would involve throwing away our present
motion, then expending still more delta vee making that foolish right-angle
turn-then programming for landing. Maybe your bank account can afford this
waste; your skycar cannot-you're going to find yourself sitting up there with no
fuel and nothing under you but vacuum and rocks. Unappetizing.
To save our necks I was happy to accept any landing field on Luna... but
that door prize from Lady Luck included landing at my preferred field (Hong Kong
Luna) just about daybreak there, with only an hour spent parked in orbit waiting
for the time to tell the computer pilot to take us down. What more could I ask
for?
At that moment we were floating over the backside of the Moon-as corrugated
as the backside of an alligator. Amateur pilots do not land on the far side of
Luna for two reasons: 1) mountains-the side of the Moon turned away from Earth
makes the Alps look like Kansas; 2) settlements-there aren't any to speak of.
And let's not speak of settlements that aren't to speak of, because it might
make some unspeakable settlers quite angry.
In another forty minutes we would be over Hong Kong Luna just as sunrise
was reaching it
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