Goodbye to an Old Friend by Brian Freemantle Page B

work full time ferrying information back which the Americans seem only too anxious for everyone to know.’
    Adrian pictured the reaction that remark would cause among the C.I.A. when they got a recording. ‘What space suit changes were made following the Soyuz disaster?’
    Pavel laughed. ‘We announced that, too. Our cosmonauts no longer re-enter the atmosphere after a mission without suits, in case of minuscule oxygen leaks.’
    Adrian flicked a page and Pavel said, ‘Why this change of attitude?’
    Adrian didn’t answer.
    â€˜Complaints about the way yesterday’s interview went?’ he persevered with uncanny accuracy.
    â€˜I’d like to talk about the equipment on moon probes,’ said Adrian.
    â€˜Wasn’t anybody distressed at our obvious antipathy?’
    Pavel was over-stressing the mockery. Did that show over-concern?
    â€˜Are any more moon probes planned?’
    Pavel shrugged, apparently accepting the mechanical responses of his interrogator.
    â€˜Three,’ he answered. ‘None will be manned. We plan a much bigger version of the American mooncar and much more sophisticated than our first one. It will be fitted with more automatic rock collecting and measuring devices.’
    â€˜How much bigger?’
    â€˜The American L.V.R. was small, only ten feet two inches long, with a 7·5-foot wheelbase powered over individual wheels with a quarter-horsepower electric motor. Ours will be at least twenty feet over a comparable wheelbase and have a midwheel section, giving total wheeling of twelve feet. It will have a payload capability of 2,670 pounds. The American only had 1,080 pounds, including astronauts.’
    â€˜Electrically powered?’
    Pavel shook his head. ‘Solar systemed, with an earth-operated electrical back-up system.’
    â€˜How are you going to boost a thing that size into orbit?’
    Pavel laughed again. ‘Typical earthbound question,’ he jeered. ‘Who says you’ve got to construct it on the ground?’
    â€˜Meaning?’
    â€˜Meaning the rover vehicle, which will have a cabin rather like a caravan in which a man could operate without any protection whatsoever, will leave earth on a rocket much smaller than that of the Americans. It’ll be assembled in space in an orbiting laboratory.’
    Adrian paused. Everything Bennovitch had said was confirmed. But there was nothing new. ‘What else will be the function of the lunar caravan?’
    â€˜Solar wind composition experiments, to determine the isoptric makeup of inert gases in the wind, and it will also include a laser retro-reflector to act as a passive target for earth-based lasers for calculation over a long period.’
    â€˜The Americans have organized similar experiments during the Apollo series. Isn’t it wasteful duplicating exchange-material tests?’
    â€˜It’s only surface duplication,’ said Pavel. ‘The adaptation of the results could differ.’
    â€˜What does that mean?’ asked Adrian, departing from the form again.
    â€˜The Americans are still a long way from establishing a space platform. Don’t always look to the end of the experiment for its ultimate worth. The success of a moon rover – whether it functions, the incidence of errors – will indicate whether or not we can successfully create something in space.’
    A hint? Adrian continued the line that Pavel had opened. ‘Is there a Russian plan to establish a space platform for military purposes?’
    Pavel laughed, that jeering sound again, and Adrian felt he had been drawn too far, tricked into asking a stupid question.
    â€˜Why do you have to begin every question with the supposition that Russia is the villain, pursuing the virginity of the rest of the world?’
    â€˜That’s an exaggeration. I wouldn’t have expected that from a scientific mind,’ countered Adrian. ‘It’s an obvious