The Lagrangists. Mack Reynolds

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СКАЧАТЬ his head before saying, “But you see, you misunderstood me. When I asked you what you knew about Lagrange Four, you assumed that I was referring to the American project. However, my question was: what do you know about Lagrange Four?”

      “I’m afraid I don’t follow.”

      “No. And most informed persons on the space race don’t either. Lagrange Five is the American project; Lagrange Four is the Soviet equivalent.”

      Simonov shook his head. “I’ve never even heard of it. But, as I say, it’s not my field and largely I have spent my time in the States of recent years.”

      The scientist nodded. “There has thus far been little released to the news media. Briefly, Colonel, in 1772 Astronomer Joseph L. Lagrange computed points in space equidistant from the Earth and moon—points of triangles 237,000 miles on a side—where a satellite or space station would remain in constant orbit above the Earth. Lagrange Four, east, and Lagrange Five, west, are the two stable positions. Each position is on the orbit of the moon and is the third point of an equilateral triangle, the Earth and moon occupying the other two points. Your space station, or almost anything else, could be located on stable orbits at either Lagrange Four or Lagrange Five.”

      “I’m afraid that I’m out of my depth,” Simonov admitted.

      The scientist made a sound of resignation. “In brief, Comrade Colonel, you could place a marble, or a city the size of Moscow, in that area and it would remain there for all time, falling to neither the moon nor to Earth.”

      Ilya Simonov looked at him blankly. He hadn’t the vaguest idea of what the other was building up to.

      Anatole Mendeleev could read him. As a matter of fact, he had gone through this scene, almost exactly, with Number One in the Kremlin very recently. As a scientist, he was dismayed by the lack of knowledge among these people who governed his country. But politics had never been his concern, since first he had been spotted as a teenager in the small town of Poltava in the Ukraine. Since then, he had twice taken a Nobel.

      Very well, he would go through the same routine he had with Number One.

      He said, “Comrade Colonel, let me recapitulate a bit. In the race into space we began with a fabulous start. During the International Geophysical Year, which was 1957-58, our people very quietly announced that we were planning to launch an artificial satellite. It was what the Americans call a very soft sell. But in Washington this was evidently picked up and the White House, in a small fit of competition, announced to a somewhat startled world on July 1955 that it was to launch an artificial satellite. They must have been out of their minds, since they hadn’t taken more than the first steps. Once again, very quietly we announced that the Soviet Union was also to launch an artificial satellite.”

      The scientist smiled and paused for a moment before adding, “And the world laughed its scorn.”

      On the face of it, none of this was new to Ilya Simonov, though he had not as yet been born when the developments the academician was recounting had taken place. Undoubtedly, the scientist had been on the scene and had perhaps even participated as a young man in the Soviet space program. However, the espionage agent let the other continue without interruption.

      “What happened is history,” Mendeleev said, nodding his head in satisfaction, so that his lower chin wobbled. “On October 4th, 1957, to the utter astonishment of the world, the USSR did exactly what it had said it was going to do and orbited Sputnik One. Around and around it went for ninety-two days, beeping its triumph. Less than a month later, on November 3rd, an even larger Sputnik was launched, this one carrying the dog Laika, the first life form of Earth ever to fly in space.”

      Simonov nodded and smiled. He was not an emotional man but he shared with his countryman the pride in the early days of the exploration of space.

      “Triumph followed triumph,” the academician went on. “While the Yankees were frantically fumbling, attempting to regain some of their prestige, we made first after first. The first artificial satellite to orbit the sun, Lunik One. And on April 12, 1961, Vostok One, bearing Major Yuri A. Gagarin, the first man in space. The first satellite to reach the moon, the first satellite ever to carry two men at once, the first woman in space, the first flight to orbit the moon. And Lieutenant Colonel Leonov, the first space walk. And then the first landing on the moon of an unmanned satellite which sent back photos.”

      The older man paused again and ran an aged, freckled hand over his thinning white hair. “By now the world realized that the USSR was no longer to be scorned and thought of as a second rate power. Overnight, with the launching of Sputnik One it had become obvious that we were a scientific nation second to none, that there were only two real first class powers in the world and that we were one of them.”

      “We owe much to our science,” Ilya Simonov said. The old boy was proving himself quite a chauvinist. However, as head of Soviet Complex space research, he should be allowed his moments of pride in the accomplishments of his colleagues, and himself.

      But Mendeleev sighed and said, “However, the wealth of the colossus of the West was comparatively boundless. Although in the early years they were behind, they announced their intention of putting a man on the moon before the year 1970 and they proceeded to do just that. The race to the moon was on.

      Ilya Simonov raised his eyebrows at that.

      But the academician shook his head. “Our propagandists denied that there ever was such a race, that we were not interested in such a race. That we were proceeding in more serious endeavor with a long view, rather than attempting spectaculars. But they lied, Comrade Colonel. There was such a race—and we lost it. It was possibly due to Khrushchev in 1964 when he caused an eighteen-month delay in our Soyuz program by ordering Sergei Korolyov, our chief space engineer at the time, to fly two Voskhod missions, using modified Vostok capsules. The only aim of this expensive and time-consuming operation was to claim some more firsts.

      “As they had boasted, the Yankee Apollo-11 landed the first man on the moon. And our immediate plans there were postponed. We pretended scorn of the Apollo landings, contended that they were for show and that they accomplished practically nothing. We announced that we would, in due time, orbit the Salyut space station about the moon and embark upon a serious scientific exploration of Luna. We would plant a Lunar colony, equipped with unmanned Lunakhod moon rovers, and supplied with needed necessities by unmanned Luna-class probes, each capable of a payload of five thousand pounds of consumables, equipment and prefabricated shelters. In short, dozens of our already tested Luna-class spacecraft could be zeroed-in on the site chosen for Lunagrad, and the scientists and technicians from our orbiting Salyut space stations could then descend and assemble a base which would allow for permanent occupancy.”

      “What happened to those plans?” Simonov said, becoming increasingly intrigued.

      “The Lagrange Five Project happened,” the other growled. He took a deep breath and said, “After the success of the Apollo landings, the Yankees sat back for a moment and said to each other, What now? They had plowed almost forty billion of their dollars into landing a few men on the moon and their astronauts had come back with a few pounds of rocks. Their congressmen and other leaders began to ask if they had participated in a ‘moon-doggle’ that was essentially worthless. Funds for the NASA were cut back drastically—much to our satisfaction, of course. However, and this is the crucial fact, they did provide for the development of five space vehicles which they call space shuttles. In short, craft that can take off with a payload, go up into orbit, and then return.”

      “This I knew, of course. But why would that be crucial?” the colonel said.

      Anatole СКАЧАТЬ