Debra Parmley’s short story, The Road to Groom Lake, in the Area 51 anthology, We Know the Truth, do you? has gone to the moon through the Writers on the Moon, a lunar time capsule project Debra was surprised and proud to be a part of when the anthology was added. Anthology authors are included as “stowaways.”
We Know the Truth, Do You? Anthology – published by Pink Moon Books and Terri A. Wilson in 2019, was created to celebrate the raid on Area 51 and have fun with it.
From Wikipedia: “‘Storm Area 51, They Can’t Stop All of Us,’ commonly referred to as Raid Area 51, Storm Area 51, or Area 51 Raid, was an American Facebook event that took place on September 20, 2019, at Area 51, a United States Air Force facility within the Nevada Test and Training Range. The event, created by Matty Roberts on June 27, 2019, would involve raiding the site in a search for extraterrestrial life that conspiracy lore claims may be concealed inside. More than 2 million people responded ‘going’ and 1.5 million ‘interested’ on the event’s page… attracted widespread media reaction…causing the event to become an Internet meme.”
Though a raid did not happen, the “event” brought together 25 authors who contributed a story to Terri A. Wilson’s anthology.
“When I found out I was a part of the Writers on the Moon project and had room to include more than my own creations, I had to add this anthology. I love the idea that our stories about Area 51 and aliens will be on the Moon for future anthropologists or even alien life to discover.” – Terri A. Wilson
WE KNOW THE TRUTH, DO YOU? – An anthology to celebrate the Area 51 Raid on September 17–21, 2019 published by Pink Moon Books (2019) – PM1, GM1 – Compiled and edited by Terri A. Wilson – Cover design by Annie Walls, Oddly Inked Creations
With contributions from: CM Peters – Cargo; C.L. Williams – About Those Brothers; Arthur M. Doweyko – P’sall Senji; Jennie L. Morris – Galaxy Genetics Inc.; Annie Walls – Lavish Lure; Katey Tattrie – The Worst; of the Worst; Chrys Fey – Detective Heavenborn; Lori Joseph – Taking Initiative; Renee Hewett – Area 51: Desert Sparkles; Carrie Humphrey – The Anniversary; Harley Easton – In the Air Tonight; C.L. Roman – Not Your Father’s Area 51; Valerie Puri – Burner Phone; Terri A. Wilson – Prison 51; Katherine LE White – LGM Duty; Jennifer Wedmore – What We Became; J.C. Layne – The King Just Went Home; Sherry Rentschler – Mermurings: An Evening Bower Adventure at Area 51; L.E. Perez – What Am I?; Debra Parmley – The Road to Groom Lake; Tich Brewster – The Failed Experiment; Cass Alex – Them Versus Us: The Siege at 51; Cherron Riser – Jewel from the Sky; Beverly Ovalle – The Road to Eden; Gracen Miller – Code Name: Nina
What is the time capsule project?
A fleet of stories sent to the Moon aboard a digital data card with the hope that this snapshot of Indie fiction from Earth will reveal the humanity of today to the readers of tomorrow. The project is part of The Lunar Codex which has 7 missions from earth to space.
Debra’s story was aboard the Peregrine, the second mission to launch.
Codex Peregrine launched Jan 8 to Lunar space, Earth re-entry burn Jan 18, 2024
via ULA Vulcan Centaur / DHL MoonBox / NASA CLPS TO2-AB
Read more about the program, and all the launches: http://lunarcodex.com
WORKS OF OVER 35,000 CONTEMPORARY ARTISTS, WRITERS, MUSICIANS, AND FILMMAKERS FROM 254 COUNTRIES, TERRITORIES, AND INDIGENOUS NATIONS, LAUNCHED OVER 7 MISSIONS FROM EARTH TO SPACE, TO THE MOON, AND BEYOND
“A Time capsule of human creativity, stored in the sky.” – The New York Times
“How the Lunar Codex is aiming to change the Moon forever.” – CNN
Learn more about the anthologies: http://lunarcodex.com/anthologies-mor
Writers on the Moon Website: http://writersonethemoon.com
How does the project work?
Astrobotic and DHL partnered to deliver “MoonBoxes” aboard Astrobotic’s lunar landers. Our payload rode on the first Astrobotic lander to reach the Moon, the Peregrine Lander. It will remain there permanently, a time capsule for the future.
LUNAR CODEX:
The complete Writers on the Moon payload (including all stowaways) had two separate launches into space, landing on the moon, and is archived in two different locations.
Samuel Peralta, a WOTM participant and the creator of Lunar Codex, received permission from Susan Kaye Quinn (the creator of WOTM) to archive the entire WOTM payload on the Polaristime capsule. “Polaris is a multilayer memory card & nickel nano fiche time capsule with shielding,” to protect and extend the WOTM archive life.
1. The official Writers on the Moon launch was completed. United Launch Alliance sent up a Vulcan rocket from Cape Canaveral, FL with Astrobotic’s Peregrine lander onboard. Peregrine landed on the moon, with the WOTM payload, at Lacus Mortis where it’ll stay.
2. Space X carried Astrobotic’s Griffin lander and NASA’s Viper Rover to the Lunar South Pole on the moon. The Griffin lander has the Polaris time capsule on it that contains a backup of the Lunar Codex time capsule (for the 2022 IM-1 mission) and the entire Writers on the Moon payload, including all official and unofficial stowaways.
3. Writers on the Moon will be memorialized in a third location on the Moon. Space X will launch Intuitive Machines’ Nova-C Lunar Lander to the moon at Oceanus Procellarum. Although the WOTM payload will not be on this lander, there will be two “art pieces” for WOTM as part of the Lunar Codex time capsule on board. The first art piece is an etching of the “International Library on the Moon” with a list of all the author participants, their manifest number, and the WOTM website URL. This info will be etched on “indestructible nickel foil (nano fiche).” The second piece is a nickel wafer listing the location on the moon where the Writers on the Moon payload/library can be found, with exact coordinates for future archeologists to find our stories.
What about radiation? Won’t radiation damage the disk?
There are TWO SanDisk’s Extreme microSD cards (one is a backup). Along with them, there is a paper mini-book that explains what Writers on the Moon is to any being who may discover it and includes the website’s URL, and a thin piece of sheet metal (aka MoonChip) with the website’s URL. The website is our backup on Earth containing information about every participant’s payload and the stories behind the stories. There is also the complete copy of the WOTM payload on Lunar Codex’s Polaris time capsule on a multilayer memory card with shielding to extend the archive life, as well as the nickel nano fiche pieces described above with the website’s URL and coordinates for the payload at Lacus Mortis.
Susan Kaye Quinn – “Our payload will be buried inside a lander with other payloads. Lunar radiation is not so severe it can penetrate more than a few thin metallic sheets, and we’ll have a lot of armor all around us. That’s the thing most likely to protect our stories.”
Why are payloads being sent to the Moon?
The Astrobotics and Intuitive Machines missions are the first cargo deliveries being sent to the Moon, consisting of science and technology experiments.
The Astrobotics Peregrine lander, bringing our Writers on the Moon payload, “will carry instruments to study several aspects of the moon’s environment. The different instruments will study the chemistry of materials in the lunar regolith, which future astronauts could harness and use; the radiation environment, which is perhaps the biggest obstacle to human survival and well-being on the moon; and the chemistry of the moon’s thin atmosphere, or exosphere.” [1]
Future cargo deliveries will be for further discovery and data-gathering purposes.
Isn’t this like putting manmade trash on the Moon?
The Peregrine Lander is 1.9 meters X 2.5 meters, not much taller than an average person. [2] According to NASA, “[their science and technology] payloads are each about the size of a shoebox.” [3] And our Writers on the Moon contribution is 0.75″ X 0.125″.
Though the We Know the Truth, Do You? anthology is now out of print, you might find a used copy.
To the Moon, writers!
