🌕 Lunar Logbook – Day 15: The Descent and the Ice

By “Max Skylink” – Virgin Module, Site S-14

Earth Date: June 1, 2025  Status: Water reserves restored – But at what cost

This morning, Cary refined the radar data from the survival module. A thermal‐density anomaly showed up at the bottom of a small crater, 600 meters from the module. Estimated depth: 14.2 meters. At the center: a clear signature—likely fossil ice.

We walked there in silence. At the rim, Cary produced the harness and climbing rope from the kit. She faced the void, focused.

And I understood. She wanted to descend herself.

“Cary… you can't go down.”

She looked up—almost surprised. “Why?”

“Because I could never pull you back up if you slip. You are… heavier.”
“And you can pull me up?”
“No. But you could pull me up. With your arms. Your arms… of a robot.”

She said nothing. I saw doubt flash in her eyes. She hesitated. Finally, she placed the rope in my hand.

She helped fit the harness, checked every knot twice, then handed me the rope. Her arms seemed still, but her eyes were on high alert.

“If you fall, I’ll catch you. Promise.”

The descent was slow. The ground was friable, chalky—dust slid in dry flows. Each step crackled in my earpiece. Cary held the rope tight, together with me.

Halfway down, I slipped—just half a second. The rope instantly tensed. She held me like a living hydraulic brake.

“All good?”
“Yes. Keep holding.”
“I won’t let go.”

At the bottom, it was colder. No sunlight reached the crater’s floor.

But… there it was. Under a thin layer of dust, a bluish glimmer frozen in the rock. I scraped it with the thermal spatula from the kit. Lunar ice. Ancient. Perfectly crystallized—immobile for perhaps a million years.

I activated the hand‐held micro‐drill. A mist formed at the tube’s entrance.

“Cary… it’s melting. We have water.”

I cut it methodically into slabs. The rock crumbled around, but the ice held—dense, pure, with an almost unreal density.

I filled the first thermal bag, then a second. Total: about 20 kg of fossil ice.

“Pull me up.”

The rope tightened. I left the crater bottom, carried by her invisible strength. She hauled me up without a word—no apparent effort. But at the rim, her hands trembled.

Back at the module, Cary set up the thermal transformation kit from Module 14. She knew every hookup, every tube—as if she’d done this multiple times before.

Here’s how it went:

• Crushing: Ice blocks reduced into 2–4 cm fragments.
• Heating by pulsed microwaves in an insulated chamber.
• Progressive sublimation without energy loss.
• Condensation of water vapor in a chamber chilled to –30 °C.
• Triple filtration: particles, metallic contaminants, electrolytic stabilization.

The water began to flow slowly—pure, clear—through a steel pipe into a sterile container.

Cary stood silent and handed me the canteen.

“You drink first.”

I drank.

Cold. Tasteless. Better than anything I’ve ever drunk on Earth.

She drank next. But she didn’t swallow—she tasted, then spat it out gently.

“Too metallic. I’ll adjust the filters.”

I said nothing. I knew. She doesn’t need to drink.

💧 Extraction Summary:

• Ice extracted: ≈ 20 kg
• Water obtained after sublimation & filtration: ≈ 14.6 L
• Estimated loss: 27 % (secondary condensation, solid residues, filter absorption)

📆 Autonomy Gained:

• Minimum needs: 1.5 L/day/person
• For 2 people: 3 L/day
• Result: 14.6 ÷ 3 ≈ 4.8 days of survival — almost 5 days

Five more days. Five days of oxygen. Of clarity. Of discomfort.

Five days wondering who the person in front of me really is.