The short story is told from the viewpoint of Dick Logan, a Boy Scout who has accompanied his father on a business trip to the Moon alongside his mother and little brother, "Baby Darling". They're encouraged to visit the Black Pits of Luna on the back side of the Moon, however upon arriving they are told that the tour is too dangerous for small children. Unwilling to deny their "Baby Darling", the parents raise a fuss until they are permitted to use a small space suit that had been special ordered for an elite's daughter. Dick is instructed to watch over his brother, however once on the tour he quickly becomes enthralled by the Black Pits' landscape and history.
As the tour comes to an end the family discovers that Baby Darling has wandered off. Searches are made for the child, however no one is able to locate the boy, who is at risk of running out of oxygen. Dick volunteers to help and quickly realizes that his brother would see the Pits as an excellent place to play hide-and-seek. He searches several locations matching his brother's favorite hiding spots, using his size to access spaces that grown men would be too big to search. He eventually succeeds in finding his brother, who has passed out in a small crevice. The short ends with the parents swearing to never return to the Moon while Dick himself plans on eventually returning.
Per Jerome Winter, "The Black Pits of Luna" is one of four short stories that helped Heinlein reach a more mainstream market via The Saturday Evening Post, the other four being "The Green Hills of Earth” (1947), “Space Jockey” (1947), and “It’s Great to Be Back!” (1947).[2]
Critical reception and themes
In her 2019 book The Pleasant Profession of Robert A. HeinleinFarah Mendlesohn wrote that the character of Dick is portrayed as more responsible than his entitled parents, which she states is implied to be a result of his participation in the Boy Scouts.[3] The short story was praised in the Journal of College Science Teaching by William R. Brice, who stated that "Although the plot and story line are somewhat juvenile, the descriptions of the lunar surface are excellent."[4]
George Slusser criticized the portrayal of the unnamed mother character, further noting that Heinlein frequently received criticism from feminists because "he presents women who do domestic duty as irrevocably stupid."[5]
