Start of a transcript of JIGSAW An Interactive History Copyright (c) 1995 by Graham Nelson Release 3 / Serial number 951129 / Inform v1600 Library 6/1 Standard interpreter 1.1 Interpreter 1 Version C / Library serial number 951024 >look A Magnificent Desolation As Buzz Aldrin put it. A ridged, furrowed plain of unraked powdery soil, dotted with pebbles and boulders of subdued grey and brown which gleam here and there with splashes of glass. Mountains rise like sand dunes from the overcurved horizon. You have landed in the southeast corner of the Taurus-Littrow Valley, an embayment between two-kilometer high Massifs to north and south, which runs eight kilometers wide to the west until it climbs foothills bordering the Mare Serenitas. The valley floor ends suddenly with Bear Mountain to the southeast. A ladder rises through the shade into the airlock of the squat and beautiful Lunar Module "Othello". The Lunar Rover, a stripped-down jeep, rests neatly here. >se The lunar soil is slippery underfoot, like walking on clay made of tiny marbles. Bear Mountain The mountains are deceptive: no smooth and rolling foothill this, for Bear Mountain suddenly rises at a thirty-degree angle, littered with jagged landslide debris fit to puncture the suit of a careless astronaut. This is the farthermost finger of the Vitruvius mountain. A gnomon stands upright here, beside a boulder. >x gnomon A geologists' gnomon, an accurately-made tripod of measuring rods used to provide colour and length scales for photographs. >[ Gnomon is an island. -- Astronaut Jack Schmitt (on every possible occasion)] get it Taken. It's curious: although gravity here is one-sixth that of Earth, objects feel even lighter, only weighing a tenth or so of their normal weight. Perhaps the lack of air resistance accounts for it. >w You can kick the soil loosely with your toes, like powdered charcoal. Each time your foot falls, dust spins away with machine-like precision. Regolith Walking on the surface regolith, the cement-grey rock dust which fills lunar valleys several meters deep, you leave perfect 1/8th-inch deep footprints. The ground bears weight like freshly ploughed soil, or wet beach sand. The blue crescent of Earth hangs in a starless and Bible black sky. This is an unforgettable place. >n You have settled onto a loping tiptoe walk, as if on a trampoline: but it is exhausting to stop and start, because although you weigh very little your momentum is the same as it would be on Earth. Emory Crater One of the dozen or so big impact craters in the valley, five hundred meters wide and too steep to comfortably descend. The regolith is scattered with flat boulders like stepping stones. Everywhere is crater upon crater, the piled debris of one meteor strike after another, uneroded by wind or water. In the centre of the brightest craters are little glass-lined pits. The Green Clod, a fine paperweight-sized rock, nestles beside a boulder here. >get clod Taken. [Your score has just gone up by one point.] >s You trip over, but fall so slowly that you have time to turn and catch your footing again. Regolith Walking on the surface regolith, the cement-grey rock dust which fills lunar valleys several meters deep, you leave perfect 1/8th-inch deep footprints. The ground bears weight like freshly ploughed soil, or wet beach sand. The blue crescent of Earth hangs in a starless and Bible black sky. This is an unforgettable place. >e Craters are hard to see edge on: the eye underestimates distances. It is a confusing world to explore, and you stumble back to... A Magnificent Desolation As Buzz Aldrin put it. A ridged, furrowed plain of unraked powdery soil, dotted with pebbles and boulders of subdued grey and brown which gleam here and there with splashes of glass. Mountains rise like sand dunes from the overcurved horizon. You have landed in the southeast corner of the Taurus-Littrow Valley, an embayment between two-kilometer high Massifs to north and south, which runs eight kilometers wide to the west until it climbs foothills bordering the Mare Serenitas. The valley floor ends suddenly with Bear Mountain to the southeast. A ladder rises through the shade into the airlock of the squat and beautiful Lunar Module "Othello". The Lunar Rover, a stripped-down jeep, rests neatly here. >e The lunar soil is slippery underfoot, like walking on clay made of tiny marbles. Bear Mountain The mountains are deceptive: no smooth and rolling foothill this, for Bear Mountain suddenly rises at a thirty-degree angle, littered with jagged landslide debris fit to puncture the suit of a careless astronaut. This is the farthermost finger of the Vitruvius mountain. >n You can kick the soil loosely with your toes, like powdered charcoal. Each time your foot falls, dust spins away with machine-like precision. Regolith Walking on the surface regolith, the cement-grey rock dust which fills lunar valleys several meters deep, you leave perfect 1/8th-inch deep footprints. The ground bears weight like freshly ploughed soil, or wet beach sand. The blue crescent of Earth hangs in a starless and Bible black sky. This is an unforgettable place. >w You have settled onto a loping tiptoe walk, as if on a trampoline: but it is exhausting to stop and start, because although you weigh very little your momentum is the same as it would be on Earth. Regolith Walking on the surface regolith, the cement-grey rock dust which fills lunar valleys several meters deep, you leave perfect 1/8th-inch deep footprints. The ground bears weight like freshly ploughed soil, or wet beach sand. The blue crescent of Earth hangs in a starless and Bible black sky. This is an unforgettable place. >s You trip over, but fall so slowly that you have time to turn and catch your footing again. A Magnificent Desolation As Buzz Aldrin put it. A ridged, furrowed plain of unraked powdery soil, dotted with pebbles and boulders of subdued grey and brown which gleam here and there with splashes of glass. Mountains rise like sand dunes from the overcurved horizon. You have landed in the southeast corner of the Taurus-Littrow Valley, an embayment between two-kilometer high Massifs to north and south, which runs eight kilometers wide to the west until it climbs foothills bordering the Mare Serenitas. The valley floor ends suddenly with Bear Mountain to the southeast. A ladder rises through the shade into the airlock of the squat and beautiful Lunar Module "Othello". The Lunar Rover, a stripped-down jeep, rests neatly here. >w The lunar soil is slippery underfoot, like walking on clay made of tiny marbles. You might head north into the valley, or climb the slopes a little to southeast. >s The lunar soil is slippery underfoot, like walking on clay made of tiny marbles. Bear Mountain The mountains are deceptive: no smooth and rolling foothill this, for Bear Mountain suddenly rises at a thirty-degree angle, littered with jagged landslide debris fit to puncture the suit of a careless astronaut. This is the farthermost finger of the Vitruvius mountain. >e You can kick the soil loosely with your toes, like powdered charcoal. Each time your foot falls, dust spins away with machine-like precision. The ground is too dangerously uneven: the Lunar Module stands to the northwest. >nw You have settled onto a loping tiptoe walk, as if on a trampoline: but it is exhausting to stop and start, because although you weigh very little your momentum is the same as it would be on Earth. A Magnificent Desolation As Buzz Aldrin put it. A ridged, furrowed plain of unraked powdery soil, dotted with pebbles and boulders of subdued grey and brown which gleam here and there with splashes of glass. Mountains rise like sand dunes from the overcurved horizon. You have landed in the southeast corner of the Taurus-Littrow Valley, an embayment between two-kilometer high Massifs to north and south, which runs eight kilometers wide to the west until it climbs foothills bordering the Mare Serenitas. The valley floor ends suddenly with Bear Mountain to the southeast. A ladder rises through the shade into the airlock of the squat and beautiful Lunar Module "Othello". The Lunar Rover, a stripped-down jeep, rests neatly here. >w The lunar soil is slippery underfoot, like walking on clay made of tiny marbles. You might head north into the valley, or climb the slopes a little to southeast. >se The lunar soil is slippery underfoot, like walking on clay made of tiny marbles. Bear Mountain The mountains are deceptive: no smooth and rolling foothill this, for Bear Mountain suddenly rises at a thirty-degree angle, littered with jagged landslide debris fit to puncture the suit of a careless astronaut. This is the farthermost finger of the Vitruvius mountain. >s You can kick the soil loosely with your toes, like powdered charcoal. Each time your foot falls, dust spins away with machine-like precision. The ground is too dangerously uneven: the Lunar Module stands to the northwest. >sw You have settled onto a loping tiptoe walk, as if on a trampoline: but it is exhausting to stop and start, because although you weigh very little your momentum is the same as it would be on Earth. The ground is too dangerously uneven: the Lunar Module stands to the northwest. >w You trip over, but fall so slowly that you have time to turn and catch your footing again. Regolith Walking on the surface regolith, the cement-grey rock dust which fills lunar valleys several meters deep, you leave perfect 1/8th-inch deep footprints. The ground bears weight like freshly ploughed soil, or wet beach sand. The blue crescent of Earth hangs in a starless and Bible black sky. This is an unforgettable place. >w Craters are hard to see edge on: the eye underestimates distances. It is a confusing world to explore, and you stumble back to... A Magnificent Desolation As Buzz Aldrin put it. A ridged, furrowed plain of unraked powdery soil, dotted with pebbles and boulders of subdued grey and brown which gleam here and there with splashes of glass. Mountains rise like sand dunes from the overcurved horizon. You have landed in the southeast corner of the Taurus-Littrow Valley, an embayment between two-kilometer high Massifs to north and south, which runs eight kilometers wide to the west until it climbs foothills bordering the Mare Serenitas. The valley floor ends suddenly with Bear Mountain to the southeast. A ladder rises through the shade into the airlock of the squat and beautiful Lunar Module "Othello". The Lunar Rover, a stripped-down jeep, rests neatly here. >se The lunar soil is slippery underfoot, like walking on clay made of tiny marbles. Bear Mountain The mountains are deceptive: no smooth and rolling foothill this, for Bear Mountain suddenly rises at a thirty-degree angle, littered with jagged landslide debris fit to puncture the suit of a careless astronaut. This is the farthermost finger of the Vitruvius mountain. >w You can kick the soil loosely with your toes, like powdered charcoal. Each time your foot falls, dust spins away with machine-like precision. Regolith Walking on the surface regolith, the cement-grey rock dust which fills lunar valleys several meters deep, you leave perfect 1/8th-inch deep footprints. The ground bears weight like freshly ploughed soil, or wet beach sand. The blue crescent of Earth hangs in a starless and Bible black sky. This is an unforgettable place. >nw You have settled onto a loping tiptoe walk, as if on a trampoline: but it is exhausting to stop and start, because although you weigh very little your momentum is the same as it would be on Earth. Regolith Walking on the surface regolith, the cement-grey rock dust which fills lunar valleys several meters deep, you leave perfect 1/8th-inch deep footprints. The ground bears weight like freshly ploughed soil, or wet beach sand. The blue crescent of Earth hangs in a starless and Bible black sky. This is an unforgettable place. >n You trip over, but fall so slowly that you have time to turn and catch your footing again. Emory Crater One of the dozen or so big impact craters in the valley, five hundred meters wide and too steep to comfortably descend. The regolith is scattered with flat boulders like stepping stones. Everywhere is crater upon crater, the piled debris of one meteor strike after another, uneroded by wind or water. In the centre of the brightest craters are little glass-lined pits. >n Craters are hard to see edge on: the eye underestimates distances. It is a confusing world to explore, and you stumble back to... A Magnificent Desolation As Buzz Aldrin put it. A ridged, furrowed plain of unraked powdery soil, dotted with pebbles and boulders of subdued grey and brown which gleam here and there with splashes of glass. Mountains rise like sand dunes from the overcurved horizon. You have landed in the southeast corner of the Taurus-Littrow Valley, an embayment between two-kilometer high Massifs to north and south, which runs eight kilometers wide to the west until it climbs foothills bordering the Mare Serenitas. The valley floor ends suddenly with Bear Mountain to the southeast. A ladder rises through the shade into the airlock of the squat and beautiful Lunar Module "Othello". The Lunar Rover, a stripped-down jeep, rests neatly here. >n The lunar soil is slippery underfoot, like walking on clay made of tiny marbles. Regolith Walking on the surface regolith, the cement-grey rock dust which fills lunar valleys several meters deep, you leave perfect 1/8th-inch deep footprints. The ground bears weight like freshly ploughed soil, or wet beach sand. The blue crescent of Earth hangs in a starless and Bible black sky. This is an unforgettable place. >n You can kick the soil loosely with your toes, like powdered charcoal. Each time your foot falls, dust spins away with machine-like precision. Emory Crater One of the dozen or so big impact craters in the valley, five hundred meters wide and too steep to comfortably descend. The regolith is scattered with flat boulders like stepping stones. Everywhere is crater upon crater, the piled debris of one meteor strike after another, uneroded by wind or water. In the centre of the brightest craters are little glass-lined pits. >d You have settled onto a loping tiptoe walk, as if on a trampoline: but it is exhausting to stop and start, because although you weigh very little your momentum is the same as it would be on Earth. There is no cave in the regolith. >e You trip over, but fall so slowly that you have time to turn and catch your footing again. Regolith Walking on the surface regolith, the cement-grey rock dust which fills lunar valleys several meters deep, you leave perfect 1/8th-inch deep footprints. The ground bears weight like freshly ploughed soil, or wet beach sand. The blue crescent of Earth hangs in a starless and Bible black sky. This is an unforgettable place. >n Craters are hard to see edge on: the eye underestimates distances. It is a confusing world to explore, and you stumble back to... A Magnificent Desolation As Buzz Aldrin put it. A ridged, furrowed plain of unraked powdery soil, dotted with pebbles and boulders of subdued grey and brown which gleam here and there with splashes of glass. Mountains rise like sand dunes from the overcurved horizon. You have landed in the southeast corner of the Taurus-Littrow Valley, an embayment between two-kilometer high Massifs to north and south, which runs eight kilometers wide to the west until it climbs foothills bordering the Mare Serenitas. The valley floor ends suddenly with Bear Mountain to the southeast. A ladder rises through the shade into the airlock of the squat and beautiful Lunar Module "Othello". The Lunar Rover, a stripped-down jeep, rests neatly here. >w The lunar soil is slippery underfoot, like walking on clay made of tiny marbles. You might head north into the valley, or climb the slopes a little to southeast. >n The lunar soil is slippery underfoot, like walking on clay made of tiny marbles. Regolith Walking on the surface regolith, the cement-grey rock dust which fills lunar valleys several meters deep, you leave perfect 1/8th-inch deep footprints. The ground bears weight like freshly ploughed soil, or wet beach sand. The blue crescent of Earth hangs in a starless and Bible black sky. This is an unforgettable place. >n You can kick the soil loosely with your toes, like powdered charcoal. Each time your foot falls, dust spins away with machine-like precision. Emory Crater One of the dozen or so big impact craters in the valley, five hundred meters wide and too steep to comfortably descend. The regolith is scattered with flat boulders like stepping stones. Everywhere is crater upon crater, the piled debris of one meteor strike after another, uneroded by wind or water. In the centre of the brightest craters are little glass-lined pits. >n You have settled onto a loping tiptoe walk, as if on a trampoline: but it is exhausting to stop and start, because although you weigh very little your momentum is the same as it would be on Earth. Apollo 17 Landing Site Just about the exact centre of the Taurus-Littrow plain, ringed about chaotically with footprints and Lunar Rover tracks which will, perhaps, remain for millions of years. Some way off to the west, scientific instruments gleam. A sun-white ladder rises to the airlock of the lion-faced Lunar Module "Challenger", which is over three times your height. It has one leg in a small crater, and is tilting gently backwards. On another leg is a ceremonial plaque. The American flag stands here, held out by a wire frame. >x plaque "Here man completed his first explorations of the moon December 1972, AD. May the spirit of peace in which we came be reflected in the lives of all mankind." It is signed by the Apollo 17 astronauts, Eugene Cernan, Harrison Schmitt and Ronald Evans, and by President Richard Nixon. >x flag The same $5 flag which flew in Mission Control throughout the Apollo years. >take flag Don't be a fool. The real astronauts will surely notice if you steal the flag - it could hardly have blown away in the breeze. >u Too risky by far! Think of the damage to history you could do just by disturbing the tiniest thing inside. >look Apollo 17 Landing Site Just about the exact centre of the Taurus-Littrow plain, ringed about chaotically with footprints and Lunar Rover tracks which will, perhaps, remain for millions of years. Some way off to the west, scientific instruments gleam. A sun-white ladder rises to the airlock of the lion-faced Lunar Module "Challenger", which is over three times your height. It has one leg in a small crater, and is tilting gently backwards. On another leg is a ceremonial plaque. The American flag stands here, held out by a wire frame. >w You trip over, but fall so slowly that you have time to turn and catch your footing again. Silver Cairns A clear patch of regolith, two hundred meters west of the "Challenger". To the north is an extraordinary view: dead flat plain, then the North Massif rising like a cliff. The trails of rover prints lead roughly southwest. It is home to the ALSEP scientific station, five weird-shaped instruments laid out on the lunar soil and cabled together to a nuclear reactor and a skyward antenna. A stiff cable snakes away, ready to be hooked up to some experiment or other. Some kind of two-foot long rod is propped up next to the ALSEP. There's a hairline crack around part of its midriff. [Your score has just gone up by one point.] >x rod A couple of inches in diameter, two feet long and bearing a triangle. Inside the (red) triangle is the symbol Pu238. The rod seems to be fragile: perhaps it has been dropped, because there's a crack around the middle. Surely, an accident waiting to happen! >get rod The hairline crack opens just a fraction as you take the rod. The rod doesn't break, but you feel dizzy, overcome, rather nauseous (no joke in a space-suit) and then blisteringly hot... *** You have died *** In that game you scored 65 out of a possible 100, in 1122 turns, giving you the rank of Arranger of Pieces. Would you like to RESTART, RESTORE a saved game, give the FULL score for that game or QUIT? > undo Silver Cairns [Previous turn undone.] >x cable The cable is insulated and almost inflexible, anchored firmly to the ALSEP reactor door-front at one end and ending in a plug at the other. >x antenna Dead cairns like these, scattered across the trackless lunar mountains, will reflect Earthlight forever. Eventually the solar radiation will tarnish them; but perhaps there will be life of a kind before then, if the ALSEP can be activated. >take cable You pull at the cable, which pulls the reactor door open slightly, but as soon as you release it again the door closes on a spring. >x alsep Dead cairns like these, scattered across the trackless lunar mountains, will reflect Earthlight forever. Eventually the solar radiation will tarnish them; but perhaps there will be life of a kind before then, if the ALSEP can be activated. >plug cable into alsep There's nowhere suitable on the ALSEP scientific station to plug the cable into. >n Craters are hard to see edge on: the eye underestimates distances. It is a confusing world to explore, and you stumble back to... A Magnificent Desolation As Buzz Aldrin put it. A ridged, furrowed plain of unraked powdery soil, dotted with pebbles and boulders of subdued grey and brown which gleam here and there with splashes of glass. Mountains rise like sand dunes from the overcurved horizon. You have landed in the southeast corner of the Taurus-Littrow Valley, an embayment between two-kilometer high Massifs to north and south, which runs eight kilometers wide to the west until it climbs foothills bordering the Mare Serenitas. The valley floor ends suddenly with Bear Mountain to the southeast. A ladder rises through the shade into the airlock of the squat and beautiful Lunar Module "Othello". The Lunar Rover, a stripped-down jeep, rests neatly here. >get in rover You get into the lunar rover. In the lunar rover you can see a joystick. >push joystick north Is that the best you can think of? >n (The lunar rover is deactivated at present.) You'll have to get out of the lunar rover first. >turn on rover That's not something you can switch. >push joystick It is fixed in place. >out You get out of the lunar rover. A Magnificent Desolation As Buzz Aldrin put it. A ridged, furrowed plain of unraked powdery soil, dotted with pebbles and boulders of subdued grey and brown which gleam here and there with splashes of glass. Mountains rise like sand dunes from the overcurved horizon. You have landed in the southeast corner of the Taurus-Littrow Valley, an embayment between two-kilometer high Massifs to north and south, which runs eight kilometers wide to the west until it climbs foothills bordering the Mare Serenitas. The valley floor ends suddenly with Bear Mountain to the southeast. A ladder rises through the shade into the airlock of the squat and beautiful Lunar Module "Othello". The Lunar Rover, a stripped-down jeep, rests neatly here. >n The lunar soil is slippery underfoot, like walking on clay made of tiny marbles. Regolith Walking on the surface regolith, the cement-grey rock dust which fills lunar valleys several meters deep, you leave perfect 1/8th-inch deep footprints. The ground bears weight like freshly ploughed soil, or wet beach sand. The blue crescent of Earth hangs in a starless and Bible black sky. This is an unforgettable place. >n You can kick the soil loosely with your toes, like powdered charcoal. Each time your foot falls, dust spins away with machine-like precision. Emory Crater One of the dozen or so big impact craters in the valley, five hundred meters wide and too steep to comfortably descend. The regolith is scattered with flat boulders like stepping stones. Everywhere is crater upon crater, the piled debris of one meteor strike after another, uneroded by wind or water. In the centre of the brightest craters are little glass-lined pits. >n You have settled onto a loping tiptoe walk, as if on a trampoline: but it is exhausting to stop and start, because although you weigh very little your momentum is the same as it would be on Earth. Apollo 17 Landing Site Just about the exact centre of the Taurus-Littrow plain, ringed about chaotically with footprints and Lunar Rover tracks which will, perhaps, remain for millions of years. Some way off to the west, scientific instruments gleam. A sun-white ladder rises to the airlock of the lion-faced Lunar Module "Challenger", which is over three times your height. It has one leg in a small crater, and is tilting gently backwards. On another leg is a ceremonial plaque. The American flag stands here, held out by a wire frame. >n You trip over, but fall so slowly that you have time to turn and catch your footing again. North Massif Perhaps thrown by a moonquake, perhaps by long-extinct volcanic action, perhaps even smashed by meteorite strikes: boulders have tumbled down the slopes of the North Massif and left spectacular tracks down the dusty soil. The big one to the east, for instance, could have fallen and shattered any time from yesterday to four billion years ago. The sunshade experiment, a strip of gold foil a foot or so long, is deployed here. >x sunshade The gold foil is meant to stop the solar radiation, and so provide a sample of the solar wind for scientists back on Earth to analyse. >n Craters are hard to see edge on: the eye underestimates distances. It is a confusing world to explore, and you stumble back to... A Magnificent Desolation As Buzz Aldrin put it. A ridged, furrowed plain of unraked powdery soil, dotted with pebbles and boulders of subdued grey and brown which gleam here and there with splashes of glass. Mountains rise like sand dunes from the overcurved horizon. You have landed in the southeast corner of the Taurus-Littrow Valley, an embayment between two-kilometer high Massifs to north and south, which runs eight kilometers wide to the west until it climbs foothills bordering the Mare Serenitas. The valley floor ends suddenly with Bear Mountain to the southeast. A ladder rises through the shade into the airlock of the squat and beautiful Lunar Module "Othello". The Lunar Rover, a stripped-down jeep, rests neatly here. >n The lunar soil is slippery underfoot, like walking on clay made of tiny marbles. Regolith Walking on the surface regolith, the cement-grey rock dust which fills lunar valleys several meters deep, you leave perfect 1/8th-inch deep footprints. The ground bears weight like freshly ploughed soil, or wet beach sand. The blue crescent of Earth hangs in a starless and Bible black sky. This is an unforgettable place. >n You can kick the soil loosely with your toes, like powdered charcoal. Each time your foot falls, dust spins away with machine-like precision. Emory Crater One of the dozen or so big impact craters in the valley, five hundred meters wide and too steep to comfortably descend. The regolith is scattered with flat boulders like stepping stones. Everywhere is crater upon crater, the piled debris of one meteor strike after another, uneroded by wind or water. In the centre of the brightest craters are little glass-lined pits. >n You have settled onto a loping tiptoe walk, as if on a trampoline: but it is exhausting to stop and start, because although you weigh very little your momentum is the same as it would be on Earth. Apollo 17 Landing Site Just about the exact centre of the Taurus-Littrow plain, ringed about chaotically with footprints and Lunar Rover tracks which will, perhaps, remain for millions of years. Some way off to the west, scientific instruments gleam. A sun-white ladder rises to the airlock of the lion-faced Lunar Module "Challenger", which is over three times your height. It has one leg in a small crater, and is tilting gently backwards. On another leg is a ceremonial plaque. The American flag stands here, held out by a wire frame. >e You trip over, but fall so slowly that you have time to turn and catch your footing again. The regolith extends in every direction, but there's little near enough that way of interest. >ne Craters are hard to see edge on: the eye underestimates distances. It is a confusing world to explore, and you stumble back to... A Magnificent Desolation As Buzz Aldrin put it. A ridged, furrowed plain of unraked powdery soil, dotted with pebbles and boulders of subdued grey and brown which gleam here and there with splashes of glass. Mountains rise like sand dunes from the overcurved horizon. You have landed in the southeast corner of the Taurus-Littrow Valley, an embayment between two-kilometer high Massifs to north and south, which runs eight kilometers wide to the west until it climbs foothills bordering the Mare Serenitas. The valley floor ends suddenly with Bear Mountain to the southeast. A ladder rises through the shade into the airlock of the squat and beautiful Lunar Module "Othello". The Lunar Rover, a stripped-down jeep, rests neatly here. >n The lunar soil is slippery underfoot, like walking on clay made of tiny marbles. Regolith Walking on the surface regolith, the cement-grey rock dust which fills lunar valleys several meters deep, you leave perfect 1/8th-inch deep footprints. The ground bears weight like freshly ploughed soil, or wet beach sand. The blue crescent of Earth hangs in a starless and Bible black sky. This is an unforgettable place. >n You can kick the soil loosely with your toes, like powdered charcoal. Each time your foot falls, dust spins away with machine-like precision. Emory Crater One of the dozen or so big impact craters in the valley, five hundred meters wide and too steep to comfortably descend. The regolith is scattered with flat boulders like stepping stones. Everywhere is crater upon crater, the piled debris of one meteor strike after another, uneroded by wind or water. In the centre of the brightest craters are little glass-lined pits. >n You have settled onto a loping tiptoe walk, as if on a trampoline: but it is exhausting to stop and start, because although you weigh very little your momentum is the same as it would be on Earth. Apollo 17 Landing Site Just about the exact centre of the Taurus-Littrow plain, ringed about chaotically with footprints and Lunar Rover tracks which will, perhaps, remain for millions of years. Some way off to the west, scientific instruments gleam. A sun-white ladder rises to the airlock of the lion-faced Lunar Module "Challenger", which is over three times your height. It has one leg in a small crater, and is tilting gently backwards. On another leg is a ceremonial plaque. The American flag stands here, held out by a wire frame. >nw You trip over, but fall so slowly that you have time to turn and catch your footing again. The regolith extends in every direction, but there's little near enough that way of interest. >sw Craters are hard to see edge on: the eye underestimates distances. It is a confusing world to explore, and you stumble back to... A Magnificent Desolation As Buzz Aldrin put it. A ridged, furrowed plain of unraked powdery soil, dotted with pebbles and boulders of subdued grey and brown which gleam here and there with splashes of glass. Mountains rise like sand dunes from the overcurved horizon. You have landed in the southeast corner of the Taurus-Littrow Valley, an embayment between two-kilometer high Massifs to north and south, which runs eight kilometers wide to the west until it climbs foothills bordering the Mare Serenitas. The valley floor ends suddenly with Bear Mountain to the southeast. A ladder rises through the shade into the airlock of the squat and beautiful Lunar Module "Othello". The Lunar Rover, a stripped-down jeep, rests neatly here. >n The lunar soil is slippery underfoot, like walking on clay made of tiny marbles. Regolith Walking on the surface regolith, the cement-grey rock dust which fills lunar valleys several meters deep, you leave perfect 1/8th-inch deep footprints. The ground bears weight like freshly ploughed soil, or wet beach sand. The blue crescent of Earth hangs in a starless and Bible black sky. This is an unforgettable place. >n You can kick the soil loosely with your toes, like powdered charcoal. Each time your foot falls, dust spins away with machine-like precision. Emory Crater One of the dozen or so big impact craters in the valley, five hundred meters wide and too steep to comfortably descend. The regolith is scattered with flat boulders like stepping stones. Everywhere is crater upon crater, the piled debris of one meteor strike after another, uneroded by wind or water. In the centre of the brightest craters are little glass-lined pits. >n You have settled onto a loping tiptoe walk, as if on a trampoline: but it is exhausting to stop and start, because although you weigh very little your momentum is the same as it would be on Earth. Apollo 17 Landing Site Just about the exact centre of the Taurus-Littrow plain, ringed about chaotically with footprints and Lunar Rover tracks which will, perhaps, remain for millions of years. Some way off to the west, scientific instruments gleam. A sun-white ladder rises to the airlock of the lion-faced Lunar Module "Challenger", which is over three times your height. It has one leg in a small crater, and is tilting gently backwards. On another leg is a ceremonial plaque. The American flag stands here, held out by a wire frame. >se You trip over, but fall so slowly that you have time to turn and catch your footing again. The regolith extends in every direction, but there's little near enough that way of interest. >e Craters are hard to see edge on: the eye underestimates distances. It is a confusing world to explore, and you stumble back to... A Magnificent Desolation As Buzz Aldrin put it. A ridged, furrowed plain of unraked powdery soil, dotted with pebbles and boulders of subdued grey and brown which gleam here and there with splashes of glass. Mountains rise like sand dunes from the overcurved horizon. You have landed in the southeast corner of the Taurus-Littrow Valley, an embayment between two-kilometer high Massifs to north and south, which runs eight kilometers wide to the west until it climbs foothills bordering the Mare Serenitas. The valley floor ends suddenly with Bear Mountain to the southeast. A ladder rises through the shade into the airlock of the squat and beautiful Lunar Module "Othello". The Lunar Rover, a stripped-down jeep, rests neatly here. >n The lunar soil is slippery underfoot, like walking on clay made of tiny marbles. Regolith Walking on the surface regolith, the cement-grey rock dust which fills lunar valleys several meters deep, you leave perfect 1/8th-inch deep footprints. The ground bears weight like freshly ploughed soil, or wet beach sand. The blue crescent of Earth hangs in a starless and Bible black sky. This is an unforgettable place. >n You can kick the soil loosely with your toes, like powdered charcoal. Each time your foot falls, dust spins away with machine-like precision. Emory Crater One of the dozen or so big impact craters in the valley, five hundred meters wide and too steep to comfortably descend. The regolith is scattered with flat boulders like stepping stones. Everywhere is crater upon crater, the piled debris of one meteor strike after another, uneroded by wind or water. In the centre of the brightest craters are little glass-lined pits. >n You have settled onto a loping tiptoe walk, as if on a trampoline: but it is exhausting to stop and start, because although you weigh very little your momentum is the same as it would be on Earth. Apollo 17 Landing Site Just about the exact centre of the Taurus-Littrow plain, ringed about chaotically with footprints and Lunar Rover tracks which will, perhaps, remain for millions of years. Some way off to the west, scientific instruments gleam. A sun-white ladder rises to the airlock of the lion-faced Lunar Module "Challenger", which is over three times your height. It has one leg in a small crater, and is tilting gently backwards. On another leg is a ceremonial plaque. The American flag stands here, held out by a wire frame. >save Ok. >