Chapter Seventy-Two: Ascending to the Moon

“Are you also an employee of the Northern Group?”
The Rocket Commander shook his head. “I come from the military. All rocket commanders are transferred from air force pilots.”
“Oh.”
As the two continued their conversation, the Rocket Commander’s system chimed. He glanced back, picked up the voice system inside the cabin, and spoke into it: “Everyone, wake up—it’s lunchtime.”
The booming voice from the loudspeaker jolted everyone awake.
“Lunch already?”
“Is it noon?”
…
Peng Dongli had also woken up. He wiped the drool from the corner of his mouth and yawned.
Looking at the refreshed Zhang Mingyang beside him, Peng Dongli asked, “Junior, didn’t you get any rest?”
“No, I’m not sleepy.”
Peng Dongli shot him a look. “Just don’t get drowsy when we reach the base.”
Seeing that everyone was awake, the Rocket Commander continued through the voice system: “There’s a metal box under each seat. Open it—your lunch is inside.”
Heeding the Rocket Commander’s instructions, Zhang Mingyang reached under his seat and opened the metal box. Sure enough, there was a plastic-wrapped package labeled ‘Astronaut Lunch.’
Taking out the package, Zhang Mingyang asked the Rocket Commander, “How do we eat this?”
Peng Dongli immediately gave him a nudge. “Come on, didn’t Xiao Liu explain that yesterday? How could you forget so quickly?”
“Huh? He did?”
Zhang Mingyang couldn’t recall anything from yesterday.
“I’ll show him, Rocket Commander.”
With a wave, Peng Dongli took Zhang Mingyang’s food pack, tore open the outer seal, and pulled out a row of things packaged like toothpaste tubes.
“Is this toothpaste, Senior?”

Peng Dongli held up the food and explained, “This is astronaut food. Since the environment we work in is so different from Earth, and since there’s weightlessness, it’s designed in a toothpaste-like form. This makes it easier to eat in zero gravity.”
Zhang Mingyang took one of the ‘toothpaste tubes’ and looked at it with suspicion. “Is this really edible?”
“Why wouldn’t it be?”
Peng Dongli opened his own food pack, took out a tube, twisted off the cap, and started sucking from it.
Following his senior’s example, Zhang Mingyang twisted off the cap and took a tentative sip.
The instant it entered his mouth, a rich aroma of rice filled his senses.
“Mmm! Eight-treasure porridge?”
A glance at the tube confirmed it was indeed eight-treasure porridge.
“How is it? Not bad, right?”
Nodding as he ate, Zhang Mingyang suddenly remembered what Xiao Liu had taught yesterday: the worst thing to do in space is talk while eating, because bits of food would float around the cabin.
After finishing the tube of porridge, Zhang Mingyang looked through the other food items: potato and beef, multigrain biscuits, savory chicken, canned apples, and a lemon tea drink.
“Let’s try the biscuits first.”
As the group ate, the Rocket Commander reminded everyone to put their trash back in the metal box under the seat—someone would collect it at the base.
“Tastes good… really good!”
…
After finishing lunch, Zhang Mingyang placed the food wrappers under his seat.
Seeing everyone was done, the Rocket Commander glanced at the system clock and said, “We’ll be at Moon Palace Base in five hours. Get some rest and recharge—there’s no such thing as day or night on the moon.”
“That’s not right, is it?”
Zhang Mingyang remembered reading that the far side of the moon does have day and night.
Peng Dongli quickly explained, “Of course there’s day and night on the moon. The far side is only ‘far’ relative to Earth. The moon has day and night cycles; its rotation period is 27.32 days, but a lunar day lasts 29.53 days, about one month on the lunar calendar.”
“The moon orbits the Earth, and because it’s tidally locked, its orbital and rotational periods are the same. From Earth’s perspective, one lunar orbit takes 27.32 days.”

“Also, there’s no atmosphere on the moon. Sunlight directly hits the lunar surface during the day, and at night it’s exposed to the -270°C environment of space. The temperature reaches as high as 120°C during the day and drops to minus 170°C at night.”
“So, a lunar day lasts 29.53 days, which lags behind its 27.32-day orbital period. From Earth, the phases of the moon also follow a 29.53-day cycle, which is why the lunar months are 29 or 30 days long—to average out the 29.53 days.”
“Note, too, that twelve lunar months add up to 354.36 days—a bit less than Earth’s orbit of 365.2422 days, by 10.8822 days. So the lunar calendar adds an extra month in certain years to make up the difference.”
“Finally, what the Rocket Commander meant wasn’t that there’s no day and night on the far side, but that a lunar day isn’t the same as a day on Earth. Even if you’re on the moon, you won’t be able to tell what time of day it is.”
After listening to his senior’s long-winded explanation, Zhang Mingyang realized he hadn’t understood a word. “Senior, after all that, only your last sentence seems useful.”
Peng Dongli took a sip of water through a straw and added, “Some knowledge isn’t meant for you to fully understand—it’s just there to show you how much there is, and that it’s as rich and absorbing as a novel…”
He was off again, launching into wisdom. Zhang Mingyang turned away and stared at the big screen instead. On the display, the Earth was shrinking, growing ever more distant.
The distance reading showed 250,000 kilometers: the rocket had left Earth by that much, and so had he.
His senior was still talking, but when Peng Dongli saw Zhang Mingyang gazing at the screen, he stopped.
“What’s wrong? Missing home?”
Watching the Earth grow smaller, Zhang Mingyang nodded. “It’s been twenty-five days since I left home, from entering the base until today. This is the longest and farthest I’ve ever been from home.”
Peng Dongli looked at Earth and sighed, “Who wouldn’t miss home? You do, I do, everyone here does, and so do the people at Moon Palace Base. But even though they miss home, they still come to places like this, because they know that without the big home, there can be no little home.”
Listening to his senior’s philosophy, Zhang Mingyang felt a touch of sadness for the first time.
What is home? He had no parents and had never truly felt the warmth of a family. Though his grandparents had raised him with all their love, Zhang Mingyang always felt something was missing.
“The rocket is about to turn and enter the far side of the moon.”
The Rocket Commander’s announcement snapped Zhang Mingyang out of his reverie. He stared at the screen—the image of Earth was fading, replaced by a battered, cratered body coming into view.
“So this is the moon?”