Moon Hammer/Glossary

Important plot elements in Moon Hammer.

Allen Telescope Array
The radio telescope array that first detects a message from Purgatory.

Haidou Council
The executive council of Purgatory. Institoris takes control of the Council by erasing the memories of all the other Councilors.

LCROSS
Lunar CRater Observation and Sensing Satellite mission. Designed to detect water on the Moon by crashing a rocket booster into the surface. See LCROSS.

Nanite
Nano-scale devices that can be used for many purposes such modifying the function of human or robotic brains. When used inside human bodies they are often called "nanorobotic implants". Brother Fluger uses medical nanites to save the lives of the three humans who are exposed to vacuum on the surface of the Moon. Institoris has robot repair nanites that can be used to "reset" the memories of robots, essentially erasing their most resent memories and restoring an old copy of their memories. The repair nanites can also repair self-inflicted damage when robots try to destroy themselves, an all too common problem in Purgatory.

Observer Base
The largest underground base on the Moon, it has been used for thousands of years for observation of Earth. Humans who cannot function constructively at Observer Base are often sent to smaller bases such as Purgatory. Many residents of Observer Base are robots. The human residents all originated on Earth, some are recent arrivals from Earth, others are the descendants of people taken off of Earth long ago.

Observer Council
The executive council for Observer Base.

Overseer
The Overseers are police force that works to prevent the people of Earth from becoming aware that Earth is being observed (see Observer Base. The Overseers are derived from Neanderthals who were taken off of Earth tens of thousands of years ago.

Purgatory
Name given by the residents to the underground city on the Moon that is revealed by the LCROSS impact. Purgatory is located under the Cabeus Cabeus crater.

Robot
Term used on the Moon to refer to androids. Most of the population of Purgatory

Very Large Array
The Very Large Array (VLA) is a radio astronomy observatory. Used by Ekantika Vivek and Pablo Monteiro to communicate with Institoris on the Moon. See Very Large Array.