Made On The Moon

Made On The Moon

By Lyle R. Amlin

When all else fails, punt...or jump

The soft hissing of air flowing into my helmet overpowered the hard crunch of the lunar soil under my boots as I skirted a field of boulders which surrounded the mouth of the cave. A half mile away was the lunar truck, which we called a ‘cat, with Mark and Gale inside awaiting my report.

We had left Luna City three days before in our rented ‘cat from Kaiser to prospect for iron or oxygen rich rock that could be crushed for air for the Moon colonies, but so far had found nothing but prospect holes carved in the Lunar surface by previous prospectors. Right now I was checking out what had seemed to be a interesting find we had spotted in some photos taken from an earlier Lunar satellite.

I mouthed the mike on, "Doesn't look much different from the photos," I said, "just a hole about just slightly below the level of the crater. The boulders have a lot of dust around them and it's level enough." I was getting worried because we only had two more days rental time on the ‘cat and our prospecting stake was already at zero. Good thing we still had jobs back at Luna City.

"Okay, Don," answered Mark, "keep us post..." his voice fell silent.

A couple of seconds passed and I said, "Mark...Mark...are you there?" No answer... "Mark...Mark...Mark." Still nothing. I turned toward the truck and noticed scattered dust plumes settling a few feet away. "What the Hell?" I thought...a few more plumes spurted up and out, then... "Meteoroids, damn," and I turned and ran for the cave. It was only about 15 meters away and I reached it in three easy jumps.

Inside the cave I turned and looked out. A few more dust plumes rose into the air and it was quiet again...even the hissing of air into my helmet had quit.

"Must have hit the valve," I thought and reached behind my right hip. The valve, rather, a part of the valve was there, but it was sheared off.

I said out loud, "better get back to the truck...but it'll take at least seven minutes to walk there and I've got about two minutes of oxygen left inside this suit. Damn good thing the backflow value kicked in or I'd be breathing vac already."

I looked around the cave. Nothing here, of course. It was about 10 meters wide at the entrance, the walls rough and looked much like a lava tube. It went back further than my light went and was the same diameter. The floor seemed to be exceptionally smooth. Oh, well, nothing here to help me.

A few seconds later an idea formed.

I reached around and uncoupled the two tank straps. The tank was OK and about 80% full, pressure at 207 psi. I picked up a piece of lava which had apparently been broken from the tube wall, walked to the mouth of the cave and jumped to the ground outside. I turned the tank upside down and slammed the rock against the valve assembly. Again and again I hit the valve assembly with the rock.

The third smash broke it off and high pressure air rushed out, nearly ripping the tank out of my hands.

I dropped the rock, grabbed the tank in both hands and brought it to my chest, crouched...and jumped.

Biggest jump ever recorded on the moon...about 20 meters high and 100 long as the high pressure air jetted out just like a miniature rocket. On the next jump I adjusted direction and jumped a bit harder. This time it was 30 high and 200 long...all in about nine seconds.

I didn't count the jumps to the truck, but luckily Mark spotted my antics and had the pressure door opened because the suit air was decidedly not smelling right when I got there. I dropped the tank and it rocketed away at a 45-degree trajectory and out of sight over a mid-sized rocky out-cropping at the edge of the crater.

Once inside I told Mark and Gale what happened and added, "Well, besides the record broad jump mark it's another first," I said.

"Whadda mean?" asked Gale.

"First rocket you can say was 'Made on The Moon.'"



"A Lunar Tan" 

"Jungle Juice High" 

"The Iron Midden" 

"Made On The Moon" 

"Cow Who Jumped On The Moon" 

"Gunfight at the Paris Corral" 

"The Long John Space Suit"