“We had landed on some great city. Forced to defend ourselves, we fired as we ran, killing many little people.” Illustrations by Frank R. Paul.
The illustrations are from “Moon People of Jupiter” by Isaac R. Nathanson in “Amazing Stories Quarterly,” Vol. 4, No. 2 (Spring, 1931).
“Commander Lowell looked on, a happy smile on his face. ‘All right, everybody,’ he finally commanded. ‘We still have lots of work before us. Many of our repairs are not of a permanent nature. We must land somewhere.’. . . The choice narrowed down between Io and Europa as the only bodies on which a safe landing might possibly be made. . . further careful observations revealing signs of an atmosphere, we decided to attempt a landing on Io. . .
“We were now only a little more than 300,000 miles from Jupiter, and only about 50,000 miles from Io, which was approaching us fast; and we steered straight for that satellite, with all hands standing by.
“As we neared its surface, the engines braked hard. The final signal to land was given. We circled the surface of Io at a high rate of speed, but could not control the ship as formerly. Diving down at an oblique angle to within a few miles, we shot along, still going at about five miles a minute; barely cleared some extraordinarily high mountains, and continued at a slower pace toward open country; the ship the while settling rapidly and partially out of control.
“Skimming the surface, we finally made a long, scraping landing, with considerable force, sufficiently hard to throw us all to the floor, but with no serious injury.
“As we struck the surface, and above the grating and grinding of the ship, a loud commotion arose outside and cries rang out on all sides of us, the sounds carrying through the steel walls of our space-ship. On looking out, I was dumbfounded to see that we had landed right in the midst of some great city; and in our imperfect descent, had created great destruction, wrecking many of the buildings, and killing and maiming numbers of the inhabitants. . .” [Quoting the story]
“We had landed on some great city. Forced to defend ourselves, we fired as we ran, killing many little people.” Illustrations by Frank R. Paul.
The illustrations are from “Moon People of Jupiter” by Isaac R. Nathanson in “Amazing Stories Quarterly,” Vol. 4, No. 2 (Spring, 1931).
“Commander Lowell looked on, a happy smile on his face. ‘All right, everybody,’ he finally commanded. ‘We still have lots of work before us. Many of our repairs are not of a permanent nature. We must land somewhere.’. . . The choice narrowed down between Io and Europa as the only bodies on which a safe landing might possibly be made. . . further careful observations revealing signs of an atmosphere, we decided to attempt a landing on Io. . .
“We were now only a little more than 300,000 miles from Jupiter, and only about 50,000 miles from Io, which was approaching us fast; and we steered straight for that satellite, with all hands standing by.
“As we neared its surface, the engines braked hard. The final signal to land was given. We circled the surface of Io at a high rate of speed, but could not control the ship as formerly. Diving down at an oblique angle to within a few miles, we shot along, still going at about five miles a minute; barely cleared some extraordinarily high mountains, and continued at a slower pace toward open country; the ship the while settling rapidly and partially out of control.
“Skimming the surface, we finally made a long, scraping landing, with considerable force, sufficiently hard to throw us all to the floor, but with no serious injury.
“As we struck the surface, and above the grating and grinding of the ship, a loud commotion arose outside and cries rang out on all sides of us, the sounds carrying through the steel walls of our space-ship. On looking out, I was dumbfounded to see that we had landed right in the midst of some great city; and in our imperfect descent, had created great destruction, wrecking many of the buildings, and killing and maiming numbers of the inhabitants. . .” [Quoting the story]