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- FROM THE EMINENT SOVIET JOURNAL: 'SPUTNIK'
-
-
- IS THE MOON THE CREATION OF INTELLIGENCE?
-
- by Mikhail Vasin and Alexander Shcherbakov, scientists
-
- Although people long ago began to wonder whether the "canals" on Mars
- were the creation of cosmic engineers, for some odd reason it has not
- occurred to look with the same eyes upon the peculiarities of the lunar
- landscape much closer at hand. And all the arguments about the
- possibilities of intelligent life existing on other celestial bodies
- have been confined to the idea that other civilisations must necessarily
- live on the surface of a planet, and that the interior as a habitat is
- out of the question.
-
- Abandoning the traditional paths of "common sense", we have plunged into
- what may at first sight seem to be unbridled and irresponsible fantasy.
- But the more minutely we go into all the information gathered by man about
- the Moon, the more we are convinced that there is not a single fact to
- rule out our supposition. Not only that, but many things so far considered
- to be lunar enigmas are explainable in the light of this new hypothesis.
-
- AN ARTIFICIAL SPUTNIK OF THE EARTH?
-
- The origin of the Moon is one of the most complicated problems of cosmogony.
- So far there have been basically three hypotheses under discussion.
-
- HYPOTHESIS I. The Moon was once a part of the Earth and broke away from it.
-
- This has now been refuted by the evidence.
-
- HYPOTHESIS II. The Moon was formed independently from the same cloud of
- dust and gas as the Earth, and immediately became the Earth's natural
- satellite.
-
- But then why is there such a big difference between the specific gravity of
- the Moon (3.33 grammes per cubic centimetre) and that of the Earth
- (5.5 gr.)? Furthermore, according to the latest information (analysis of
- samples brought back by the U.S. Apollo astronauts) lunar rock is not of the
- same composition as the Earth's.
-
- HYPOTHESIS III. The Moon came into being separately, and, moreover, far
- from the Earth (perhaps even outside the Solar system).
-
- This would mean that the moon would not have to be fashioned from the same
- "clay" as our own planet. Sailing through the Universe, the Moon came into
- Earth's proximity, and by a complex interplay of forces of gravity was
- brought within a geocentric orbit, very close to circular. But a catch of
- this kind is virtually impossible.
-
- In fact, scientists studying the origin of the Universe today have no
- acceptable theory to explain how the Earth-Moon system came into being.
-
- OUR HYPOTHESIS: The Moon is an artificial Earth satellite put into orbit
- around the Earth by some intelligent beings unknown to ourselves.
-
- We refuse to engage in speculation about who exactly staged this unique
- experiment, which only a highly developed civilisation was capable of.
-
- A NOAH'S ARK?
-
- If you are going to launch an artificial sputnik, then it is advisable to
- make it hollow. At the same time it would be naive to imagine that anyone
- capable of such a tremendous space project would be satisfied simply with
- some kind of giant empty trunk hurled into a near-Earth trajectory.
-
- It is more likely that what we have here is a very ancient spaceship, the
- interior of which was filled with fuel for the engines, materials and
- appliances for repair work, navigation, instruments, observation equipment
- and all manner of machinery... in other words, everything necessary to
- enable this "caravelle of the Universe" to serve as a kind of Noah's Ark
- of intelligence, perhaps even as the home of a whole civilisation envisaging
- a prolonged (thousands of millions of years) existence and long wanderings
- through space (thousands of millions of miles).
-
- Naturally, the hull of such a spaceship must be super-tough in order to stand
- up to the blows of meteorites and sharp fluctuations between extreme heat and
- extreme cold. Probably the shell is a double-layered affair--the basis a
- dense armouring of about 20 miles in thickness, and outside it some kind of
- more loosely packed covering (a thinner layer--averaging about three miles).
- In certain areas--where the lunar "seas" and "craters" are, the upper layer
- is quite thin, in some cases, non-existent.
-
- Since the Moon's diameter is 2,162 miles, then looked at from our point of
- view it is a thin-walled sphere. And, understandably, not an empty one.
- There could be all kinds of materials and equipment on its inner surface.
- But the greatest proportion of the lunar mass is concentrated in the central
- part of the sphere, in its core, which has a diameter of 2,062 miles.
-
- Thus the distance between the kernel and the shell of this nut is in the
- region of 30 miles. This space was doubtless filled with gases required for
- breathing, and for technological and other purposes.
-
- With such an internal structure the Moon could have an average specific
- gravity if 3.3 grammes per cubic centimetre, which differs considerably from
- that of Earth (5.5 grammes per cubic centimetre).
-
- A BATTLESHIP THEY COULDN'T TORPEDO?
-
- The most numerous and interesting of the formations on the lunar surface are
- the craters. In diameter they vary considerably. Some are less that a yard
- across, while others are more than 120 miles (the biggest has a diameter of
- 148 miles). How does the Moon come to be so pockmarked?
-
- There are two hypothesis--volcanic and meteoric. Most scientists vote for
- the latter.
-
- Kirill Stanyukovich, a Soviet physicist, has written a whole series of works
- since 1937 in which he expounds the idea that the craters are the result of
- bombardment of the Moon for millions of years. And he really means
- bombardment, for even the smallest celestial body, when it is involved in one
- of those fastest head-on collisions so common in the cosmos behaves itself
- like a warhead charged with dynamite, or even an atomic warhead at times.
- Instant combustion takes place on impact, turning it into a dense cloud of
- incandescent gas, into plasma, and there is a very definite explosion.
-
- According to Professor Stanykovich, a "missile" of a sizable character (say 6
- miles in diameter) must, on collision with the Moon, penetrate to a depth
- equal to 4 or 5 times its own diameter (24-30 miles).
-
- The surprising thing is that however big the meteorites may have been which
- have fallen on the Moon (some have been more than 60 miles in diameter), and
- however fast they must have been travelling (in some cases the combined speed
- was as much as 38 miles per second), the craters they have left behind are
- for some odd reason all about the same depth, 1.2-2 miles, although they vary
- tremendously in diameter.
-
- Take that 148-mile diameter crater. In area it outdoes Hiroshima hundreds of
- times over. What a powerful explosion it must have been to send millions of
- tons of lunar rock fountaining over tens of miles! On the face of it, one
- would expect to find a very deep crater here, but nothing of the sort: there
- is three miles at the most between top and bottom levels, and one third of
- that is accounted for by the wall of rock thrown up around the crater like
- a toothed crown.
-
- For such a big hole, it is too shallow. Furthermore, the bottom of the crater
- is convex, following the curve of the lunar surface. If you were to stand in
- the middle of the crater you would not even be able to see the soaring edge--
- it would be beyond the horizon. A hollow that is more like a hill is a
- rather strange affair, perhaps.
-
- Not really, if one assumes that when the meteorite strikes the outer covering
- of the moon, this plays the role of a buffer and the foreign body finds
- itself up against an impenetrable spherical barrier. Only slightly denting
- the 20-mile layer of armour plating, the explosion flings bits of its
- "coating" far and wide.
-
- Bearing in mind that the Moon's defence coating is, according to our
- calculations, 2.5 miles thick, one sees that this is approximately the
- maximum depth of the craters.
-
- A SPACESHIP COME TO GRIEF?
-
- Now let us consider the chemical peculiarities of the lunar rock. Upon
- analysis, American scientists have found chromium, titanium and zirconium in
- it. These are all metals with refractory, mechanically strong and
- anti-corrosive properties. A combination of them all would have envitable
- resistance to heat and the ability to stand up to means of aggression, and
- could be used on Earth for linings for electrical furnaces.
-
- If a material had to be devised to protect a giant artificial satellite from
- the unfavourable effects of temperature, from cosmic radiation and meteorite
- bombardment, the experts would probably have hit on precisely these metals. In
- that case it is not clear why lunar rock is such an extraordinarily poor heat
- conductor--a factor which so amazed the astronauts? Wasn't that what the
- designers of the super-sputnik of the Earth were after?
-
- From the engineers point of view, this spaceship of ages long past which we
- call the Moon is superbly constructed. There may be a good reason for its
- extreme longevity. It is even possible that it predates our own planet. At
- any rate, some pieces of lunar rock have proved older than the oldest on
- Earth, although it is true, this applies to the age of the materials and not
- of the structure for which they were used. And from the number of craters on
- its surface, the Moon itself is no chicken.
-
- It is, of course, difficult to say when it began to shine in the sky above
- the Earth, but on the basis of some preliminary estimates one might hazard a
- guess that it was around two thousand million years ago.
-
- We do not, of course, imagine that the moon is still inhabited, and probably
- many of its automatic devices have stopped working, too. The stabilisers
- have ceased functioning and the poles have shifted. Even though the moon
- keeps that same side turned towards us, for some time it has been unsteady on
- its own axis, on occasion showing us part of its reverse side which were
- once invisible to observers on the Earth--for example, the Selenites
- themselves if they made expeditions here.
-
- Time has taken its toll. Both body and rigging have disintegrated to some
- extent; some seams on the inner shell evidently diverged. We assume that
- the long (up to 940 miles) chains of small craters formerly ascribed to
- volcanic activity were brought about by eruptions of gas through cracks
- appearing in the armour plating as a result of accidents.
-
- No doubt one of the most splendid features of the lunarscape--a straight
- "wall" nearly 500 yards high and over 60 miles long--formed as a result of
- one of the armour plates bending under the impact of celestial torpedoes and
- raising one of its straight, even edges.
-
- The Moon's population presumeably took the necessary steps to remedy the
- effects of meteorite bombardment, for example, patching up rents in the
- outer shield covering the inner shell. For such purposes a substance from
- the lunar core was probably used, a kind a cement being made from it. After
- processing this would be piped to the surface sites where it was required.
-
- Not long ago astronomers discovered variations in the gravitational fields
- near the large "seas". We believe the reason to be this: the Moon's dry seas
- are in fact areas from which the protective coating was torn from the armour
- cladding. To make good the damage to these vast tracts, the installation
- producing the repair substance would have had to be brought immediately
- beneath the site so that it could flood the area with is "cement". The
- resulting flat stretches are what look like seas to the terrestrial observer.
-
- The stocks of materials and machinery for doing this are no doubt still where
- they were, and are sufficiently massive to give rise to these gravitational
- anomalies.
-
- What is the Moon today? Is it a colossal necropolis, a "city of the dead,"
- where some form of life became extinct? Is it a kind cosmic Flying Dutchman?
- A craft abandoned by its crew and controlled automatically? We do not know
- and we shall not try to guess.
-
- WAITING FOR THE EVIDENCE
-
- We have put forward in this article only a few of the reasons--unfortunately
- the evidence is so far only circumstantial--for our hypothesis, which at
- first glance may appear to be crazy.
-
- A similar "crazy" idea was put forward in 1959 by Professor Iosif Shklovsky,
- an eminent scientist, in relation to the "moons" circling around Mars.
- After carefully weighing up the evidence he concludes that they are both
- hollow and therefore artificial satellites.
-
- We feel that the questions we have raised in connection with our Moon provide
- sufficient food for serious thought on the matter; the result may be the
- illumination of our many lunar riddles.
-
- Now, of course, we have to wait for direct evidence to support our idea. Or
- refute it.
-
- Probably there will not be long to wait.
-