Gold in the Sky

The rock in space was not quite a sphere, being far too tiny a bit of cosmic debris to have sufficient gravity to round off its ragged corners. One side was rough -- like a ragged mountain top that was broken off at the peak and hurled into space by an all-powerful hand. Slowly the Scout Ship edged closer, braking with forward jets. Was this it, at last -- the missing asteroid? Alan Nourse (1928-92) won a widespread and devoted readership for his optimistic novels of space travel, medicine, and