Bøger udgivet af Richard L. Smith

The year is 2117. The United World Science Foundation has sanctioned a team of geologists to explore the remote minor planet known as Sedna. About one-half the diameter of Pluto, Sedna orbits twice as faraway from Earth as Pluto is, and at this distance, it receives only weak sunlight and is dark, cold, and forbidding. Discovered in the first decade of the twenty first century, the first astronauts landed on its surface in 2087. This geological team will be the first scientists to explore the surface of this remote icy world. Astronomers have been unable to explain the unusual mass, density, and gravitational attraction measured for such a small dwarf planet. The two hemispheres are dramatically different, one side similar to our moon while the other side is more like the surface of Mars. In 2104, Sedna became the home of the Sedna International Observatory. After years of construction, in 2014 its 30-meter telescope saw first light and immediately began making important discoveries. The seven-year geological mission to Sedna on starship Tesla includes a year to explore and chart the dwarf planet to answer those puzzling geological mysteries. The novel follows these scientists as they journey through our solar system, explore Sedna, and discover "something wonderful" on its surface. Technical problems on their three-year journey home forces unscheduled landings on Triton and Mars yet provides unforgettable opportunities to visit these unique worlds. An unanticipated revelation awaits them upon their return home.

Why you may ask, is the name of this novel "e;The Dark Side of the Moon"e;? The back side of the Moon is not dark, it receives as much sunlight as the front side does. The term "e;dark"e; is often used in Science to denote our lack of knowledge, such as in Dark Matter and Dark Energy. Because the moon's front side always faces earth until recently no human has been able to see the Moon's backside. That is until 1979 when the Soviet space probe Luna 3 took the first grainy photographs and in 1968 the Apollo 8 astronauts viewed the backside firsthand. Astronomers were shocked, for the backside looked nothing like the front side does, it was if the moon had been slapped together by two totally different processes. My novel takes place in the 6th decade of the 21st Century when NASA has funded Project Farside, an observatory to be built on the Moon's backside. Placed in the crater Daedalus, the Lemaitre Synoptic Telescope (LST) is slated for "e;first light"e; in August of 2067, but this event is delayed by several problems, including a mysterious sabotage of the LST. The story follows the career of Dr. Seth Byrne, the first director of the Farside Observatory, and how Seth and his team resolve the delays and achieve "e;first light"e;. The project goes on to explore the Universe with new Project Farside instruments and explore the backside. Their discoveries remove some of the dark surrounding our knowledge of the backside of the moon.