Critical Angle by A. Bertram Chandler

Author:A. Bertram Chandler
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Published: 2012-02-23T21:37:06+00:00

We were amazed how much sheathing we were able to do without. It is quite remarkable how even when the saving of weight is the prime consideration the urge to make things look pretty — or neat — still persists. Safety comes into it too, of course. There is a lot to be said in favour of protective covering over wiring and plumbing.

What followed was hard work, and far from pleasant. Working by the light of our helmet lamps we sank the shaft along the ship's side, down to the stern. We dug a large pit under the exhausts, packing the fine, fluffy dust at its sides. Working in spells, and still far from happy about the prospects of radiation poisoning, we cleared the jets. It was after we were finished that we realized that we were standing on solid rock. This rather surprised us—we were beginning to think that the Moon was no more than a huge dust ball. We found, too, that the violently expanding vapours of the back blast would be diverted into a tunnel that ran down from the solid surface at a slight angle.

At last, dog-tired and soaked in perspiration, we climbed back to the airlock. I let Hank go in first, but as I waited outside, my feet against the side of the ship and my back against the wall of the shaft, I felt that it was a great mistake that MR-1 hadn't been given an airlock capable of handling two people at once. There was so much dust outside, and a sharp movement on my part could so easily bring it all tumbling down to bury me.

The airlock door opened, and with great relief I tumbled into the tiny compartment. A few minutes later I was sitting with Hank in the control room.

We had some more brandy.

"The trouble," he said, "is that there's a certain amount of cohesion about the stuff. It may pack tight ahead of us as we try to blast out . . ."

"It behaves almost like wet sand," I said, "which it shouldn't."

"Of course," he pointed out, "we have to remember that the critical angle is different here from what it is on earth."

"The critical angle?" I asked.

"Yes. Or the angle of repose, if you'd rather call it that. It's a result of two forces — friction and gravity. You make a pile of, say, sand — and it will always fall into a cone of the same shape. You make a pile of coal, or bulk grain, and the angle of repose will always be the same for those two."

"It must be different on the Moon," I said.

"Damn right it's different ..." He paused. "Talking about it won't get us anywhere."

"No. And we'd better show our noses — otherwise poor old Back Blast Bradley will be adding to his fine collection of ulcers."

"It'll be his own fault if he does," said Hank. "He should have given us radio. That's the worst of these rush jobs."

We finished the brandy, and gave it a try.

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