Authentic Science Fiction Monthly No. 54 — page 67: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

NE DAY MAN WILL HAVE A BASE () on the Moon. You would be hard put to it to find a scientist who would disagree with that state- ment. About the only point of dis- agreement is when we shall get there. But for the moment let us ignore that side of things, and consider what we shall do when we are on the Moon. We shall find that a great deal of work has already been done on this matter. It is assumed, of course, that several preliminary survey trips will be made before we actually land on the Moon. These will be mainly concerned with finding a suitable site for the base. Though we know a lot about the Moon’s face from our terrestrial observations, nothing but good can come of taking a closer look and being sure that the base is built. in a position of advantage. Points to be considered here are nearness to Earth, protection from meteors, workability of the terrain from the aspect of mining, and so on. By the time all this has been done we shall probably have an artificial satellite in the sky, and this will be invaluable in the setting up of a lunar base. It will be a sort of half-way station. Quite likely, the ships that still actually land on the Moon will be built out in space from parts ferried up to the space station. A ship that runs from station to Moon requires considerably less fuel than one which goes straight from Earth. The latter will require a lot of fuel to overcome Earth’s gravity, whereas the former will not. It is also likely that a smaller arti- ficial satellite will be made to circle the Moon itself. This will serve for the accumulation of equipment, brought up during several trips, so that it may all be on hand when construction work begins. Then will come the great day when the first ship touches down. Man’s first step on an alien world! But there will be Jittle glamour in early life on our hard, cold satellite. To begin with, no doubt, the space- men will set up a temporary dome in which they can take off their space suits and relax at the end of their toil. For toil it will be. Hours and days and weeks and months of it. No pioneer on Earth ever worked as hard as these men on the Moon will have to. The dome will not be suitable for very long. Some kind of permanent quarters will have to be made. These may well be scooped out of the rocks that abound on the Moon. With luck, there will be mechanical scoops to do the job, powered in some way that does not need oxygen, for any oxygen taken to the Moon will be needed to keep the men alive. Unless they find water. comiclbooks.con