Sex on the Moon by Ben Mezrich Read Free Book Online

going to be able to chase some really diverse interests over his three tours at the JSC, and if he played his cards right, there would be a lot of opportunity to work with and impress the higher-ups. The downside, however, was that it was another thing separating him from the herd. He would have to find his way on his own—just like he’d had to find the Astromaterials Lab, where he was supposed to spend his first few days, with little more than a poorly drawn map and a handful of directions given to him by Bob Musgrove.
    But Musgrove and the map were erased from his thoughts the minute he stepped into the pristine, supercontrolled environment. He could imagine himself spending countless hours conducting experiments in this place, separated from the outside world by cinderblock walls built to withstand the strongest hurricane on record. In fact, he was so swept up in his own thoughts that he didn’t notice the other person in the lab until he was almost right on top of him: a stringy young man around Thad’s age, wearing a white lab coat over what looked to be blue scrubs, his hair covered by a matching blue surgical cap. The guy had his back to Thad and was leaning over one of the stainless-steel counters, a large rectangular object in his gloved hands.
    Thad froze, staring at the object—because it was like nothing he’d ever seen before. It looked like a windowpane, but so incredibly thin—it didn’t seem to have any depth to it at all. Not exactly transparent, but not opaque either—somewhere in between. Like fog, or a slice of cloud, somehow turned to glass.
    “That’s not something you see every day,” Thad finally murmured, barely loud enough to be heard over the whirring ventilation system.
    The young man at the counter didn’t respond. Instead, he carefully placed the object down on a gel-like container, and then exhaled. After making sure the pane was secure, he turned to face Thad. Yanking the surgical cap off his head, he ran a hand through his unruly tufts of dirty-blond hair. His face was incredibly angular, his chin so sharp it looked like it was formed to cut stone. His jutting cheeks were bright red, and there were teardrops of sweat circumnavigating his pinpoint eyes.
    “It’s called ‘aerogel,’ and it’s a bitch to work with. Lowest-density solid ever invented, strong enough to hold one thousand times its weight. And yet it shatters if you even look at it wrong.”
    “That sounds like a contradiction.”
    “Yep, pretty much sums it up. You make it by pulling all the water out of a silicon compound. It’s an amazing insulator, but it weighs next to nothing. A piece the size of a human would weigh less than a pound and be able to support the weight of a car. If we ever really go to Mars, this stuff is going to be a big part of how we get there. And it’s got a really awesome name. Liquid Smoke. How fucking cool is that?”
    Thad grinned back at the kid.
    “Very fucking cool. I’m Thad Roberts.”
    “I know, Dr. Musgrove texted me that you were on your way down here. I figured it would take you another ten minutes at least—you must be one of the smart ones. I’m Brian Helms. I’m going to be your lab mate.”
    Brian yanked off a glove and shook Thad’s hand, then jerked his head to the left, indicating that Thad was to follow him toward another counter on the other side of the rectangular room.
    “I’m a co-op, too, on my second tour. You really got lucky, man; astromaterials is the best gig here. We get to do just about everything. Especially now that everything in this place is all about Mars.”
    Helms reached the far counter and waved his one gloved hand at the objects strewn across the shiny surface. Thad saw various-sized rocks in containers ranging from petri dishes to strange, spherical globes that seemed to be filled with transparent liquid.
    “This is what we do, mostly. Practice and experiment with preparation techniques, getting samples ready for transport to