Moon

"Take one last look at your precious human Moon, because it cannot help you now!"

- Wheatley

Earth's Moon (often referred to as simply The Moon or Luna) is Earth's only natural satellite, and the setting of the final sequence of Portal 2. It is also the latest known inhabitance of Wheatley.

History


At some point in the late 1970s or early 1980s, Cave Johnson, CEO of Aperture Science, somehow managed to acquire roughly $70 million worth of moon rock. Upon liquefying it, he discovered two things, one being that it made a "damn good" portal conductor, and the other that ground moon rock was "pure poison", and put it to use in testing, under the name Conversion Gel.

An undefined amount of time later, when Wheatley had taken over the Enrichment Center and allowed it to fall into serious disrepair, the ceiling fell off his chamber and exposed it to moonlight. Chell took advantage of this, and the moon's portal conducive properties, and shot a portal at the moon, causing both herself and Wheatley to be sucked into the near-total vacuum of the moon's atmosphere. Chell was returned to Earth when GLaDOS, newly restored to power, pulled her back in through the portal. Wheatley, however, was left to drift through space indefinitely, along with a corrupt Personality Core.

Trivia

 * The moon has gravity approximately 1/6 of Earth's gravity, meaning that an object on its surface would remain on the surface unless acted upon, but the force needed is much less than that of Earth. Due to the bi-directional teleportation nature of the portal Chell launched to the moon, Wheatley and Chell were both blown away from the surface by the negative pressure vacuum resulting.


 * Chell always fires a blue portal at the surface, regardless of what portal one tries to fire.


 * The angle that the portal ends up at is actually impossible from where Chell fired from. When Chell goes through the portal, she looks up at 90° to see the Earth, when in reality, she would have to turn 180° around, due to the angle at which she fired.


 * The Earth looks similar to what our Earth looks like today, despite the draining of the world's oceans by the Combine as seen in Half-Life 2. This suggests that either the Combine has been overthrown or the oceans were somehow restored. This may not be true as in the credits the photo of earth is credited to NASA, indicating that it was not created by the developers, and therefore does not have further-reaching implications.


 * It is unknown how the Moon could be seen from Wheatley's chamber. The end credits show that the Enrichment Center's location is hidden deep underground underneath a shed. However, given the modular and internally mobile nature of the Enrichment Center, it is possible that Wheatley moved the chamber closer to the surface and that GLaDOS moved it back deeper underground while Chell was unconscious.


 * Based on the fact that a lunar rover is present on the moon, the landing site is from Apollo 15, Apollo 16, or Apollo 17 (assuming there were no more Apollo missions in the Half-Life universe.)
 * Apollo 15 appears to be the best fit, based on the displayed location of the portal on the moon as see from the Earth.
 * Assuming the landing site shown is Apollo 15's, there is a factual error when Chell and Wheatley are teleported to the moon. When Apollo 15 left, the exhaust from the LM knocked over the US Flag. However, in game, it is shown upright.


 * Moon dust actually is deadly to humans, due to its jagged texture compared to the relatively smooth dust on Earth. Breathing it in causes lung conditions similar to anything between hay fever and emphysema, depending on how much exposure there was.


 * According to an interview with Erik Wolpaw in the Portal 2 Official Guide, they were originally going to place signs in old Aperture that read things such as "The moon is not your friend." They were even going to put skeletons on the moon during the ending sequence. This was cut with Wolpaw calling it "A good gag that didn't make it in."


 * The Ratman has an extreme obsession with the Moon, as it is seen in all of his drawings and murals. He also states in Portal: Lab Rat that he would have rather have gone to the Moon than help build GLaDOS. The Moon is often referenced in the game as well. It is unknown if this is foreshadowing, or if the Moon serves has a greater purpose.

List of appearances

 * Half-Life
 * Half-Life: Decay
 * Half-Life 2
 * Half-Life 2: Deathmatch
 * Portal 2