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tidal friction since then is to be expected. Before the Moon
appeared, Earth experienced only Solar tides, whereas from that
time up until today, there have been both Solar and Lunar tides."
Hunt showed his empty hand in a gesture of finality and pushed
himself back in his chair. He straightened the pile of notes on the
desk before going on to conclude:
"That's it. As I said earlier, at this stage it represents no more
than a hypothesis that accounts for all the facts. But there are
some things we can do toward testing the truth of it.
"For a start, we have a large chunk of Minerva piled up all over
Farside. The recent material is so like the original Lunar material
that it was years before anybody realized it had been added only
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recently. That supports the idea that the Moon and the meteorites
originated in the same part of the Solar System. I'd like to
suggest that we perform detailed comparisons between data from
Farside material and data from the Asteroid surveys. If the results
indicate that they are both the same kind of stuff and appear to
have come from the same place, the whole idea would be well
supported.
"Another thing that needs further work is a mathematical model of
the process of mutual capture between Earth and Luna. We know quite
a lot about the initial conditions that must have existed before
and, of course, a lot more about the conditions that exist now. It
would be reassuring to know that for the equations involved there
exist solutions that allow one situation to transform into the
other within the normal laws of physics. At least, it would be nice
to prove that the whole idea isn't impossible.
"Finally, of course, there is the Ganymean ship here. Without doubt
a lot of new information is waiting to be discovered-far more than
we've had to work on so far. I'm hoping that somewhere in the ship
there will be astronomic data to tell us something about the Solar
System at the time of the Ganymeans. If, for example, we could
determine whether or not the third planet from
the Sun of their Solar System had a satellite, or if we could learn
enough about their moon to identify it as Luna-perhaps by
recognizing Nearside surface features-then the whole theory would
be well on the way to being proved.
"This concludes the report.
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"Personal addendum for Gregg Caldwell . . ." The view of Hunt was
replaced by a landscape showing a wilderness of ice and rock. "This
place you've sent us to, Gregg-the mail service isn't too regular,
so I couldn't send a postcard. It's over a hundred Celsius degrees
below zero; there's no atmosphere worth talking about and what
there is, is poisonous; the only way back is by Vega, and the
nearest Vega is seven hundred miles away. I wish you were here to
enjoy all the fun with us, Gregg-I really do!
"V. Hunt from Ganymede Pithead Base. End of transmission."
chapter twenty-four
The long-awaited answers to where the Lunarians had come from and
how they came to be where they had been found sent waves of
excitement around the scientific world and prompted a new frenzy of
activity in the news media. Hunt's explanation seemed complete and
consistent. There were few objections or disagreements; the account
didn't leave much to object to or disagree with.
Hunt had therefore met fully the demands of his brief. Although
detailed interdisciplinary work would continue all over the world
for a long time to come, UNSA's formal involvement in the affair
was more or less over. So Project Charlie was run down. That left
Project Ganymeans, which was just starting up. Although he had not
yet received any formal directive from Earth to say so, Hunt had
the feeling that Caidwell wouldn't waste the opportunity offered by
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Hunt's presence on Ganymede just when the focus of attention was
shifting from the Lunarians to the Ganymeans. In other words, it
would be some time yet before he would find himself walking aboard
an Earth-bound cruiser.
A few weeks after the publication of UNSA's interim conclusions,
the Navcomms scientists on Ganymede held a celebration dinner in
the officers' mess at Pithead to mark the successful end of a major
part of their task. The evening had reached the warm and mellow
phase that comes with cigars and liqueurs when the last-course [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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