"Major Matt Mason: Moon Mission!"

 

All Major Matt Mason's equipment is based on official space program designs. This equipment must help him deal with violent temperature extremes, radiation, meteorites, and strange, rough terrain.

- Mattel's Major Matt Mason catalog

Obviously science fiction is full of examples of bases, settlements and cities on the Moon, but let's demonstrate a little brand loyalty, and take a look at how my favourite astronaut does it, as laid out in my battered Major Matt Mason Big Little Book*, Moon Mission - published in 1968, the year before the Apollo 11 moon landing.

First, I'd like to comment on how relatively mature the story actually is - the Whitman Big Little Books were aimed at a pre-teen age group, but the plot of Moon Mission doesn't come across as notably juvenile.

 

Second, I'm pleased that the cast of characters includes Jo Ann Harvey, a female astronaut who is a psychiatrist - pretty advanced stuff for 1968, but then, the original lineup of Major Matt Mason action figures included an African-American astronaut, Lieutenant Jeff Long, a concept which was literally the stuff of science fiction** in the late 60s.

Unlike the current toy market, which relies heavily on movies, TV shows and comic books as source material for action figures, the Major Matt Mason line had no narrative to support it, which gave author George S. Elrick a free hand to create his story of missing lunar explorers, moon worms, mind-invading alien life forms***, and giant space bunnies. His sole stricture was probably the need to include as many of the Major Matt Mason toys and accessories as possible, and to be honest, the brand placement isn't overwhelming.

It's interesting to speculate as to whether or not any of these toys would actually be feasible as real-world equipment, regardless of Mattel's claim that they were based on "official space program designs". Obviously, tread-based transporters like the Cat Trac or the Unitred would work, but would the multi-legged Space Crawler, just off centre to the right in the image above, be a practical all-terrain vehicle?  Would the Jet Propulsion Pak, Space Sled or Reconojet provide enough lift for flight in 1/6 gravity?

In the book, the Major's lunar base is underground, but there's an impression that it's only temporary.  The story mentions an earlier mission that had left markers and constructed foundations for power plants and permanent habitats, and one of the characters looks over the construction site where "skilled work crews" are building those habitats, then pays a visit to the hydroponic farming facility.

 

There are admittedly some doubtful scientific aspects to the story:  ignoring whether or not you could (or should) bioengineer giants rabbits to survive on the moon, they wouldn't be sniffing things in vacuum - at least not successfully - and the effects of minimal lunar gravity are pretty much ignored.  Not only that, but Elrick seems to consider vacuum as being relative in the same way that temperature is, in that the further you are from the opening to a cave, the more air there will be, whereas I'm reasonably confident that if you're in a cave that's open to the vacuum, you're in a vacuum, period.

However, I may just not be the right target audience for giant moon bunnies.  It's entirely possible that if you pitched the idea to the current American executive branch, the Moon base schedule might quickly hop forward, so to speak.

- Sid

* Whitman Publishing first produced the Big Little Books line in the 1930s.  They were about 3.5 x 5 inches in size, and about an inch thick, depending on content.  The product line went through a variety of changes over time - my Big Little Book was part of their television and comic book themed lineup that was published from 1967 to 1969.

** Most notably in the character of Lieutenant Uhura from the original Star Trek series, as played by the legendary Nichelle Nichols, who also participated in the first interracial kiss on network television with Captain Kirk.

 

*** But not in a bad way.