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Onion Rings at the Golden Arches
May. 19th, 2025 07:58 pmThe Mun is like an onion. It has layers, like an onion. But, unlike an onion, those layers are different. Peel off a layer of onion and you will find another layer of onion. And, under that, more onion. All the way down. Great for making solyanka. Mmmmmm, soup. What? Oh, right. Underneath the first layer of Mun rock is, well, more rock. And under that is. . . ok. It’s more rock. But that rock is different from the rock above it. Don’t ask how, this blog is about commie spaceflight, not geology.
Anyway, because those layers are different, and gravity is a thing, they move about sometimes. And when they move, they make noise. Cosmonauts have set up several seismometers on the Mun’s surface that can hear that noise and geologists can use those noises to understand those rock layers.
Science.
Not soup.
Seismometers at the Kermangrad munbase detected a munquake. Not anything special. Something that happens all the time. That munquake was detected at the LZhM 2 and LZhM 4 munbases as well. Again, not anything special. The crews at those bases didn’t even notice that anything had happened. But the scientists analyzing the data were able to triangulate those three signals and determine that the quake had happened at or near the Northwest Crater Arch. Further analysis determined that it was not simply a munquake but one punctuated with an impact.
Impacts happen all the time on the mun. It’s why there are so, so many craters. And, like munquakes, the sounds of those impacts can be used by scientists to determine the makeup of the interior of the mun. But also, they are used to monitor Amerikanski activity as, not unlike the Soviets, Amerikanski transfer stages are often discarded and crashed into the Mun before a landing. And, as there was already an Amerikanski presence at the Northwest Crater Arch, having a discarded transfer stage impact there would not be unusual.
Except that there had been no Amerikanski launch to the Mun in the days prior.
A Zenit 4MKM observational satellite was scheduled to pass over the Northwest Crater Arch in a matter of hours and, as a matter of course, would be taking images of the arch and area because that’s what spy satellites do.
Pandemonium.
From a 15 km altitude orbit it was difficult to resolve details but it was clear that the munquake had caused the Northwest Crater Arch to break at the top revealing some sort of construction underneath. Multiple light sources could be seen, indicating some sort of power source.
If the arches were ever considered natural formations, this discovery destroyed that notion.
Even before the General Secretary was informed of this new development, there were people running up and down halls. Slamming doors. Jammed shredders. And plans being put in motion. First, was tasking the Soyuzkarta 3M in Munar equatorial orbit to observe the Amerikanski Aplha Munbase at the Kvartira to see if they had set out tom investigate the arch. If they had left, they could arrive in less than a day.
Concurrent to those mission orders, a Munakhod lander that had been in storage awaiting its specific mission to come due in the flight queue was pulled back to have a KFA-1000 high resolution camera mounted on it. An LK-540 rocket, also in storage awaiting its upcoming munbase crew rotation mission was moved up to begin preparations for launch. Informing the crew at Kermangrad to have them set out in their own rover to make for the arch was also considered, though no orders were sent, not only for operational security but also because committing to such an action would require decisions at a higher level.
By this time, images had come back from the Soyuzkarta 3M indicating that the Amerikanski’s had not yet set out from their base. It was decided that the Munakhod mission could be prepared, launched, and arrive more swiftly and securely than any of the other options.
It took less that two hours after the arrival of the first images for the Munokhod to be rolled out for launch and only a day and a half for it to arrive at the Mun and land 6 km east of the arch.
In the dark.
The most recent iterations of the Munakhod rover includes a Polonium-210 isotopic thermoelectric generator to ensure the vehicle has electric power, even through the cold, dark Munar nights. It did not provide a lot of power, though, so as it slowly and carefully navigated around and through rock fields, it would regularly pause to allow some time for the generator to recharge the batteries somewhat.
It took four and a half hours for the rover to reach the crest of a hill so that it could directly observe, but by then it had violated the 3 km territorial integrity convention by 700 meters, as it had been decided that obtaining the intelligence was more important than an unwritten agreement. After all, the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, upon which this agreement was based, indicates that vessels are given the right of innocent passage through any territorial sea. Should the Amerikanskis challenge the incursion through diplomatic backchannels, the Munakhod could simply drive back that 700 meters. Should the Amerikanskis issue any official challenge before international courts , they would risk revealing to the world the reason for this incursion, something that neither the Amerikanskis nor the Soviets had made public as yet.
And that revelation would be significant.
Even in the dark and at a distance of several kilometers, the KFA-1000 high resolution camerac ould very clearly see what was beneath the broken stone arch.
Scientists very quickly interpreted the lights and other markings as representing the solar system. The purple light with a circle around it and a single smaller purple light clear visible represented Eve and its moon Gilly. To its left, at the very crest of the arch and still partially obscured by stone, was a large yellow light with rays as the sun Kerbol. Between them was a line, to represent the orbit of Moho, the planet’s light on the other side of the arch still covered with stone. As would be the lights that would represent Kerbin and Dres as, on the exposed arch to the right was a another light with an orbiting companion to be Duna (inexplicably orange rather than the expected red) and Ike and the very edge of a small green light to represent one of Jool’s moons.
Composition, purpose or function could not be determined.
It was at about this point that it was observed that the Amerikanski space truck had left Alpha Munbase and was proceeding northeast towards the arch. The possibility exists that when the Amerikanskis arrive, they could use force rather than diplomacy to enforce their “territorial waters,” as is their right. To avoid that, the munakhod rover rolled back down off the hill’s crest, having already gathered its vital intelligence.
Anyway, because those layers are different, and gravity is a thing, they move about sometimes. And when they move, they make noise. Cosmonauts have set up several seismometers on the Mun’s surface that can hear that noise and geologists can use those noises to understand those rock layers.
Science.
Not soup.
Seismometers at the Kermangrad munbase detected a munquake. Not anything special. Something that happens all the time. That munquake was detected at the LZhM 2 and LZhM 4 munbases as well. Again, not anything special. The crews at those bases didn’t even notice that anything had happened. But the scientists analyzing the data were able to triangulate those three signals and determine that the quake had happened at or near the Northwest Crater Arch. Further analysis determined that it was not simply a munquake but one punctuated with an impact.
Impacts happen all the time on the mun. It’s why there are so, so many craters. And, like munquakes, the sounds of those impacts can be used by scientists to determine the makeup of the interior of the mun. But also, they are used to monitor Amerikanski activity as, not unlike the Soviets, Amerikanski transfer stages are often discarded and crashed into the Mun before a landing. And, as there was already an Amerikanski presence at the Northwest Crater Arch, having a discarded transfer stage impact there would not be unusual.
Except that there had been no Amerikanski launch to the Mun in the days prior.
A Zenit 4MKM observational satellite was scheduled to pass over the Northwest Crater Arch in a matter of hours and, as a matter of course, would be taking images of the arch and area because that’s what spy satellites do.
Pandemonium.
From a 15 km altitude orbit it was difficult to resolve details but it was clear that the munquake had caused the Northwest Crater Arch to break at the top revealing some sort of construction underneath. Multiple light sources could be seen, indicating some sort of power source.
If the arches were ever considered natural formations, this discovery destroyed that notion.
Even before the General Secretary was informed of this new development, there were people running up and down halls. Slamming doors. Jammed shredders. And plans being put in motion. First, was tasking the Soyuzkarta 3M in Munar equatorial orbit to observe the Amerikanski Aplha Munbase at the Kvartira to see if they had set out tom investigate the arch. If they had left, they could arrive in less than a day.
Concurrent to those mission orders, a Munakhod lander that had been in storage awaiting its specific mission to come due in the flight queue was pulled back to have a KFA-1000 high resolution camera mounted on it. An LK-540 rocket, also in storage awaiting its upcoming munbase crew rotation mission was moved up to begin preparations for launch. Informing the crew at Kermangrad to have them set out in their own rover to make for the arch was also considered, though no orders were sent, not only for operational security but also because committing to such an action would require decisions at a higher level.
By this time, images had come back from the Soyuzkarta 3M indicating that the Amerikanski’s had not yet set out from their base. It was decided that the Munakhod mission could be prepared, launched, and arrive more swiftly and securely than any of the other options.
It took less that two hours after the arrival of the first images for the Munokhod to be rolled out for launch and only a day and a half for it to arrive at the Mun and land 6 km east of the arch.
In the dark.
The most recent iterations of the Munakhod rover includes a Polonium-210 isotopic thermoelectric generator to ensure the vehicle has electric power, even through the cold, dark Munar nights. It did not provide a lot of power, though, so as it slowly and carefully navigated around and through rock fields, it would regularly pause to allow some time for the generator to recharge the batteries somewhat.
It took four and a half hours for the rover to reach the crest of a hill so that it could directly observe, but by then it had violated the 3 km territorial integrity convention by 700 meters, as it had been decided that obtaining the intelligence was more important than an unwritten agreement. After all, the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, upon which this agreement was based, indicates that vessels are given the right of innocent passage through any territorial sea. Should the Amerikanskis challenge the incursion through diplomatic backchannels, the Munakhod could simply drive back that 700 meters. Should the Amerikanskis issue any official challenge before international courts , they would risk revealing to the world the reason for this incursion, something that neither the Amerikanskis nor the Soviets had made public as yet.
And that revelation would be significant.
Even in the dark and at a distance of several kilometers, the KFA-1000 high resolution camerac ould very clearly see what was beneath the broken stone arch.
Scientists very quickly interpreted the lights and other markings as representing the solar system. The purple light with a circle around it and a single smaller purple light clear visible represented Eve and its moon Gilly. To its left, at the very crest of the arch and still partially obscured by stone, was a large yellow light with rays as the sun Kerbol. Between them was a line, to represent the orbit of Moho, the planet’s light on the other side of the arch still covered with stone. As would be the lights that would represent Kerbin and Dres as, on the exposed arch to the right was a another light with an orbiting companion to be Duna (inexplicably orange rather than the expected red) and Ike and the very edge of a small green light to represent one of Jool’s moons.
Composition, purpose or function could not be determined.
It was at about this point that it was observed that the Amerikanski space truck had left Alpha Munbase and was proceeding northeast towards the arch. The possibility exists that when the Amerikanskis arrive, they could use force rather than diplomacy to enforce their “territorial waters,” as is their right. To avoid that, the munakhod rover rolled back down off the hill’s crest, having already gathered its vital intelligence.
