Deep in the asteroid belt sits the globular asteroid Ceres. Nasa’s Dawn probe has been investigating this asteroid from only thousands of kilometers away. The most intriguing part of the observing has been two flashes from different parts of the giant asteroid. No scientist has yet adequately explained these flashes, so allow me my own chance at explaining it.
If I am correct, more mysterious flashes will come from the two locations. From both places, expect the next flash to be of short duration as well. Then the third flash will also be of short duration. This will be followed by three distinct long flashes. Which will be followed by three more distinct short flashes.
The astute of you have already guessed that the flashes will be signalling SOS in Morse code. And I expect it will all be due to the same cause that I have read about again and again in many different books. The cause will of course be the kidnapped Hardy Boys.
Once the government of the US realizes this, pressure will be put on the government and NASA to rescue the poor boys. And, indeed NASA is planning a manned trip to an asteroid as a precursor to a Mars mission. So the boys will be rescued – eventually.
How could two bright sleuths such as themselves have made it to Ceres? While the boys are smart they aren’t rocket geniuses. So I doubt they could have gotten there by their own wits. No, they must have been kidnapped by someone that was smart enough to build and finance a better space mission than NASA.
In this era of private enterprise making it into space, an evil genius could have stole enough money and good enough plans to get to Ceres. And when the Hardy Boys found out about the illegal source of the evil genius’s finances they were banished to that asteroid.
But the boys were wise and remembered the Dawn probe would be there, all they had to do was contact it. And by using large mirrors to reflect the sun at the probe, the Hardy Boys have figured a way out.
Who knows how the pair got separated, but if Frank thought of the mirror, Joe could also think of the mirror idea. And both would probably have excitedly talked with the other about the Dawn probe before being separated. Finally both would be likely to have known about future NASA missions.
But this is the end of their youthful sleuthing. By the time NASA rescues them they will be the Hardy men.
