Часовой | страница 2



За неделю мы проехали сотню миль, огибая основания гор вдоль берега, где несколько миллиардов лет назад было древнее море.
When life was beginning on Earth, it was already dying here.На Земле тогда жизнь лишь зарождалась, а здесь уже вымирала.
The waters were retreating down the flanks of those stupendous cliff s, retreating into the empty heart of the Moon.Воды, омывая склоны этих огромных скал, отступали в глубь, в пустое сердце Луны.
Over the land which we were crossing, the tideless ocean had once been half a mile deep, and now the only trace of moisture was the hoarfrost one could sometimes find in caves which the searing sunlight never penetrated.Мы пересекали поверхность погибшего океана без приливов и отливов, глубиной в полмили, и только иней - единственный признак существования жидкости - порой встречался нам в пещерах, куда иссушающий свет солнца никогда не проникал.
We had begun our journey early in the slow lunar dawn, and still had almost a week of Earth-time before nightfall.Мы отправились путешествовать с медленно наступающим лунным рассветом, и от ночи нас отделяла почти неделя земного времени.
Half a dozen times a day we would leave our vehicle and go outside in the spacesuits to hunt for interesting minerals, or to place markers for the guidance of future travelers.Бывало, раз шесть на дню мы оставляли луноход и, защищенные скафандрами, искали интересные минералы или устанавливали дорожные указатели для будущих путешественников.
It was an uneventful routine. There is nothing hazardous or even particularly exciting about lunar exploration. We could live comfortably for a month in our pressurized tractors, and if we ran into trouble we could always radio for help and sit tight until one of the spaceships came to our rescue. I said just now that there was nothing exciting about lunar exploration, but of course that isn't true. One could never grow tired of those incredible mountains, so much more rugged than the gentle hills of Earth. We never knew, as we rounded the capes and promontories of that vanished sea, what new splendors would be revealed to us. The whole southern curve of the Mare Crisiurn is a vast delta where a score of rivers once found their way into the ocean, fed perhaps by the torrential rains that must have lashed the mountains in the brief volcanic age when the Moon was young. Each of these ancient valleys was an invitation, challenging us to climb into the unknown uplands beyond. But we had a hundred miles still to cover, and could only look longingly at the heights which others must scale. We kept Earth-time aboard the tractor, and precisely at 22.00 hours the final radio message would be sent out to Base and we would close down for the day.