"Raymond Z. Gallun - The Captive Asteroid" - читать интересную книгу автора (Gallun Raymond Z)

Only sheer curiosity impels the interest of the public today, in talk of stations in space and
rocket trips to the moon and planets. They are interested more in a thrilling newspaper story than
the real potentialities of space travel. But someday, the worlds beyond our atmospheric envelope
will be the new frontier; new life, new opportunity, new advancement for mankind will be
obtained by men and women with courage and scientific ability. This inspiring saga, which
combines new scientific ideas with vivid human situations, foretells the hardships, romance, and
achievements of future, space pioneers.

By RAYMOND Z. GALLUN
(Illustrations by Thomas O'Reily)




BEYOND WHERE EARTH'S cities loom, crickets still chirp hauntingly at night in the open
countryside. No one with a love of Nature would ever want that changed.
The far stars still look the same, too; though Man, encouraged by other triumphs, now dares to
believe that he will reach even them, some day. Mars still seems the same red spark in the distance, and
Venus, though no longer uninhabited, remains the silver speck that attends the sun at dusk or dawn, on
Earth.
But the nearer sky is not quite as it was in the past. The space ships leave their blue-white trails of
nuclear fury. The Moon is flecked with pale dotsтАФthe airdromes of mining and experiment stations, and
of Cyclopean factories, where many of the craft for the conquest of the void are made.
And close around Earth itself the orbiters move swiftly, glowing. They are little, artificial satellites that
were not there to be seen, before. They serve many purposesтАФtelevision-relay, weather observation and
control, the marking of the hour by their passage at zenith, the guarding of the world against the danger of
warfare which once plagued the nations.
Each of these tiny satellites has a history, which can be simple and routine, or grandioseтАФfull of the
drama of soaring plan and chance-taking, death, tragedy, and the magnificence of something new and
wonderful achieved, thus renewing faith in often errant human drive and vision, against the background of
gigantic forces which Man has begun to wield.
Of all of these small moons, there is one that is a little larger than most, and of a strange elongated
shape. It has circled the Earth for more years than most, too. But at a two-thousand-mile distance, it is
not the nearest nor the farthest away. It is not the brightest nor the gaudiestтАФthe light it reflects front the
sun is soft and pearly. It is not necessarily the most useful of the orbiters. But it is certainly the best
known.
Its charm is many-sided. It was, for instance, the original of several things. On its surface was built
what is still the greatest astronomical observatory to benefit front the clarity of observation of the
universe, afforded by a lack of atmosphere. But the thoughtful, quiet mood represented hereтАФreaching
hungrily for the utter limits of spaceтАФis in contra with this orbiter's other departments.
For example, within its interior is a great chamber, given over to the carnival spirit, where weird
amusement devices, made possible by the condition of minute gravity, entertain hordes of visitors with
fantastic sensations of rising and falling and floating.
Fun and laughter are part of romance, of course. But romance often has a more serious, poetic face.
And in romance lies this satellite's special fame.
For on its surface is the greatest and most talked-of and glamorized of the resort hotels that are off
the Earth but still within easy reach. There is a regular service of passenger rockets. And here is where
those who perhaps have never been in space before come for their first acquaintance with the larger
playground of Man.
 Front the splendid Earthview Room, sealed and pressurized, honeymooners look for the first time