Lunar Colony

Lunar Colony Island is the 29th island on Poptropica. It was released on August 16th, 2012 for Members and September 6th, 2012 for non-members.

Description
Players travel to a moon base to search for a missing astronaut. Before she disappeared, the astronaut left cryptic messages about an alien transmission. Poptropicans are on the moon to look for her, but along the way they will explore the secrets of the lunar surface and discover a mystery as old as the cosmos.

Houston-We-Have-A-Problem
When you first land on this island, you'll find yourself in the middle of a line in Main Street. You're picture will then be taken by two excited tourists with PASE t-shirts and hats, one a guy and the other a girl. Talk to the guy, and he'll say "Isn't this great?! The very last space mission and we're here for the launch!" Then talk to the the girl, who seems to be excited about being part of this 'history in the making', and will tell you that the kids are thrilled as well. But the two children behind them don't seem to be very excited, the girl saying she'd much rather go to the beach, and the boy calling the space launch dumb. But this seems interesting, so head right to the front of the line, and hop on the stage, with an aged man in a sweater with the PASE symbol on it. Talk to him, and you'll find that most people don't seem to be interested in space launches anymore. Now, you'll notice that the banner above you says 'Meet an Astronaut: Brought to you by PASE', and if you look to your right, you'll find a table with memorabilia on it, like a rock from the moon, a bottle of Ginger Ale, which the man tells you not to touch, and some old photos and a newspaper clippings, that reveal that this ages man is Captain Gordon, a famous astronaut. Head right to Mission Control. There you'll find PASE Mission Control, 'guarded' by a sleeping dog. Go in, and find the paper on the floor and a woman in a Lab Coat pacing the floor. Talk to her and she'll tell you that the space program is running low on money, leaving her and another person to do the work of one hundred people. Now head left and you'll see a large screen showing an astronaut who doesn't seem to be doing too good. And underneath, you'll see a man, who is also is pacing the floor. Talk to him, and he'll explain that the safety check is complete, but he still has a million other things to do. Then a man will burst into the room, ordering somebody to keep an eye on Hatcher, who is the astronaut on the screen looking like he's about to lose his lunch. The two workers will then apologize, and the man will walk up to you, asking who you are. And before you can finish your sentence, the man will interrupt, saying that it doesn't matter who you are, because he is Flight Director Slayton, and he needs a hand. Then try to talk to him again, but he'll interrupt again, saying that he needs you to find something to calm the astronaut, Hatcher's tummy before he tosses his cookies. Now try once more to talk to him, but he'll once again interrupt, telling you to stop blabbering and go help him. What what help calm Hatcher's tummy? How about an bottle of Ginger Ale? So head left to the stage, where you'll find that Captain Gordon is gone, but luckily, he left his Ginger Ale, so grab it and head right, this time farther right to the launch pad. Press a button on the elevator, and the elevator will come down. Now hop onto it, and press another button to make the elevator rise, bringing you to the top. Now just head right to the rocket and climb inside the hatch, where you'll find Hatcher looking like he's about to hurl, so head into you're inventory and give him the Ginger Ale, which will calm his stomach, returning his skin tone to normal. He'll then tell you that he's a little nervous, and you'll respond that you're glad you could help. He'll then ask if you could hold his suit, which you do, while he, as he says, "I think I, uh, left my wallet in the car." He'll then run out of the spaceship and close the hatch, trapping you in as the launch sequence initates! Oh No!!

Blast Off!
Now, to the right of the spaceship, you'll spot a pair of headphones that are ringing, so go and put them on. You'll then hear Flight Director Slayton, you tells you you will now be flying the mission. You'll tell him that you don't know how to fly a spaceship, but he'll try to calm you down, telling you that it's not much harder then flying a Jumbo Jet, and to follow his instructions. Then the rocket will start shaking, as it is starting up, and Slayton will tell you to buckle yourself in, because this could be a bumpy ride. So click on the chair, and launch sequence will start. First, adjust the two booster rockets to 4,150 pounds of thrust. Once you do that, wait for the phantom to come and grab your head. Fuel Tank One to get low, then press the fuel tank switch button at the top, open Fuel Tank 1's switch box, and release Fuel Tank 1. Now adjust your trajectory so you're flying at 112 degrees, and when it gets low, open Fuel Tank 2's switch box and release it, and enjoy the view, which Flight Director Slayton comments as 'truly beautiful'. Then Slayton decides to tell you mission, which is the receive the astronaut by the name of Dr. Salerno and bring her back to Earth, but before he can give you a warning about Commander Salerno, an asteroid flies past the window and hits the ship. But that's not all - because the spaceship has now entered an asteroid belt! Now you enter a mini-game where you must maneuver the spaceship through the asteroid belt without damaging the ship too much. And once you make it through, Flight Director Slayton tells you not to pat yourself on the back yet, because the first asteroid damaged the ship's fuel tank, and that you must now repair it manually. Now you find yourself outside the ship. without wasting time or rope, head up and left, open the hatch with word TOOLKIT on it, grab the toolkit, and while avoiding asteroids, make your way down and right until you reach the leak. Then click on the leak, and weld the hole shut with your blowtorch. After that, Flight Director Slayton will tell you that he is now putting the spaceship on autopilot so you can't mess anything else up.

One Small Step for Poptropican . . .
Many hours later, you reach lunar orbit, and Flight Director Slayton tells you that you must now use the Lunar Lander to reach the moon's surface. To do this, just keep your mouse at the middle and top of the screen and press down to slow down whenever the bar on the right of your screen gets too high and enters the red. You then exit the Lunar Lander, and Flight Director Slayton contacts you telling you to start your mission and find Salerno. Now hop down to the ground and run right to the Lunar Station, and click on the latch to open the door, and after going through the air lock, you'll make it in. The first room you'll see is the Vehicle Bay. Go in there, and hop onto boxes and onto the platform on the left to find some lockers. And if you click on the one that is conveniently open, you'll find a Gatos Operators Manual. But before we find out what to do with it, hop down to the floor to find a Moon Rover, but it is out of power and needs to be solar charged. So hop to the top of the Vehicle Bay, where you'll find a button. Press it, and the sunroof will open, bouncing light onto the first solar panel. Now just direct the sunlight from solar panel to solar panel until it reaches the Rover, powering it up. But you can't drive it out, because the door is jammed. So exit the Vehicle Bay and enter the next room, the Barracks. run right and climb up the stairs to the second floor. Then run left to the bunk bed marked above with the number 8. On the top bunk of that bed, you'll find Salerno's Notebook, and in the opened containment unit next to it, you'll find a Photo Album. If you look at the Photo Album, you'll see that Salerno was originally positioned with another girl named Val, two men named Tom and Rolfolo, and a dog. But over time, it seems, they either died, or left, Val even leaving a message to Salerno in the Photo Album to say goodbye, also suggesting to Salerno to stop working so hard. That seems strange, and if you read Salerno's Notebook, you'll find only notes talking about something called 'Number 4' that Salerno seems to be searching for. Now head upstairs, and to the left, you'll spot a computer. open it up, and read the e-mails, which all come from someone named Roger McNabb, telling Salerno to return back to Poptropica, leaving up to a final message telling Salerno that they would be sending someone to relieve her of duty and bring her back home, that someone, of course, being you ...

Lunar Loon?
Now remember that Gatos operator's manual? Now it's time to use that. Walk up to the computer, and look through the book for the code for reboot (the code is a square, two twisting arrows like a recycling symbols, a circle, and an X. You will then enter the admin base of the computer. You will be able to open the door in the Vehicle Bay by raising a meter on the side of the computer. Now head over to the Vehicle bay. :)

Ridin' Rover!
At the vehicle bay,there are switches that control the roof.Fiddle with the switches so that sunlight shines into the room.Adjust the mirrors to direct the light into the rover.Then hop in and you can ride away! Go to the lunar facility with the asteroid outside it (Top Right Corner) .Using the hook attached to the rover,move the rock out of the way.Enter the lab and you will see various equipment.Go into the eye color-changing machine and change your eye color to purple.Then go into the other machine and click on the button that says "high pressure". Your body will be squeezed so that you become a Poptropican pancake.Run to the ground floor and jump through the slit on the left and go through the door.

Round And Round And Round You Go!
This next part may render you dizzy! Walk to the left and click on the hose. Now you got to find the other room. This may take a while and you must ensure that you don't run out of hose. There is a gravity malfunction, so you will be walking on the walls. If you get lost, remember, you can follow the hose out and restart the spiral. When you reach the other room, there will be two vents. One makes a beeping sound. Click on the other one and a machine will pop out of the vent. Now escape through the Bio-Waste Unit.

Salerno Found
The tracker device tracks Salerno down to the Bio-Dome. In the Bio-Dome, there are machines that spray water. Get the corks from the cork dispenser and plug them up. Then proceed into the storage room. Click on Salerno and you will tell her to come home but she laments that all she needs is the gieger counter to find the fourth artifact and escapes through the airlock. She drops a card that you must pick up. Go outside and follow her rover to the rock lab. Click on the retinal scan to get in. Adjust the conveyor belts so that they form a path to the other side. Enter the other room and you will find out that Salerno ditched you. Pull the lever on the right side of the room to open the door. Go to the top-left corner of the room and look under the pieces of cloth. You will find the gieger counter there. Your rover will come in and you must click on one of the large metal supports at the center of the room and your Poptropican will push it down to create a path. Now push the gieger counter down the path and onto the rover.

Number Four
Using the gieger counter, find the fourth artifact. (It's between the rock lab and the bio-dome. You're looking for a purple X). Then pull it out with the hook on your rover. It will shoot a beam of light and you must find the place where all four beams meet. Get off at that spot and Salerno will come over with a shovel. She will start digging and both of you will fall into an underground cavern.

Mission Accomplished
Walk through the rows of alien artifacts and you will find a portal. Pull the switch and the portal will activate. Despite your warnings, Salerno jumps through. Mission control will bring you back and they will receive a picture of Salerno on the alien planet holding a piece of paper that says "Mission Accomplished". Director McNabb will come along and hand you the Island Medallion. Congrats!

Bonus Quest
There are two parts to the bonus mission. The second is to find Alan Turing. The first is to decode the alien transmissions. Enter Mission Control and head left to Cape Carpenter. There’s now a hover craft at the left of the area. Enter the hover craft, which takes you to Shady Pines retirement village. Click on the doorbell. One of the names is an anagram of the name Alan Turing. The numbers, in other words, have been rearranged. Click on the numbers second from the bottom (362018436) five times. When the numbers have rearranged to be Alan Turing, click on the doorbell. He will talk to you and you’ll head back to Mission Control. To decode the transmissions you’ll need to put the slide rule at the top of the screen on a number, then click on one of the spaces in the symbols above to place it. Each symbol corresponds to a letter in the message. The letters are in alphabetical order.

First # symbol:

1, 2, and 3 are in the top three spaces 4, 5, 6 are across the middle 4, 7, 8 are along the bottom First X symbol:

J is in the top part of the X K is on the left L is on the right M is at the bottom. Second # symbol:

N, O, P along the top Q, R, S across the middle T, U, V along the bottom Second X symbol:

W is in the top X is on the left Y is on the right Z is at the bottom Fill out the symbols three times to decode the transmissions and see the cool images that Salerno is sending you!

Top 10 Finishers

 * 1) Gentle Starfish
 * 2) Scary Star
 * 3) Blue Scorpion
 * 4) Scary Typhoon
 * 5) Shaky Typhoon
 * 6) Magic Fish
 * 7) Friendly Cheetah
 * 8) Silver Ninja
 * 9) Shoeless Eagle
 * 10) Zippy Dragon

Reviews

 * Golden Bug: This island was pretty cool, but finding the fourth artifact was REALLY annoying.


 * Pikachu4807/Super Hawk: I liked this island a little bit. I loved going into space again, but it was yet another search and rescue...in space....again. But without the boss battles, knights, and cybernetic beings. 7 out of 10.
 * Shaky Noodle: This is a Awesome island, 9 out of 10.
 * Messy Knuckle: I didn't like it. It was very hard to land on the moon, and  things on the island were pointless.    I GIVE 8 OUT OF 10!
 * Happy Starfish : I loved this island! One of the best ones in Poptropica! I agree with Messy Knuckle though.Landing on the moon was super hard. I GIVE 10 OUT OF 10!
 * Rough Fang: This was an interesting island. I especially like how they detailed Salerno's descent into madness, with all that "WHERE IS NUMBER FOUR" mantra. It actually contains some Fridge Horror when you realize Salerno has been up there, on the moon alone for YEARS. Without any contact with other humans. Frightening, bizarre, and I think I went blind from the hose part. 7 out of 10
 * Icy Fox/Kuromithedevilbunny: This island was okay, but I forgot most of it. Pretty easy, but someone else had to help me when landing on the moon. I do like how we are rewarded for trying to help save Salerno, unlike other islands where we are rewarded for solving it.

Trivia

 * In the Bonus Quest, Grandma Gracey and Grandpa Grum from Reality TV Island can be seen in the window of the retirement center. The center's name, Shady Hill, may be a reference to Zomberry Island's Shady Side where Dr. G. Romero,Abe and Joe Puddy all live.
 * In the alien area by the portal there are several emoticons in the text [Ex. :) :P].