 What didn't happen to McIvers?
I guess I was about ten when Wyatt and Carpenter made the last attempt—that was in 2082, I think. After that, I followed Sanderson’s work in the Twilight Lab up there and began to get Brightside into my blood, sure as death. Did you ever know Tom Mikuta? He was a major in the Interplanetary Service for some years and hung onto the title after he gave up his commission. Four thousand miles of butcherous heat, just to have some joker come along, use your data and drum you out of the glory by crossing at perihelion forty-four days later? “I want to make a Crossing at perihelion and I want to cross on the surface. It was a real hell’s Crossing, but someday, I thought, somebody would cross it. The Twilight Lab, near the northern pole of Mercury, was the obvious jumping-off place. The setup there wasn’t very extensive—a rocket landing, the labs and quarters for Sanderson’s crew sunk deep into the crust, and the tower that housed the Solar ’scope that Sanderson had built up there ten years before. F. No permanent installation with a human crew could survive at either extreme. Sanderson built the Lab up near the pole, where the zone is about five miles wide, so the temperature only varies 50 to 60 degrees with the libration. The Major was counting on Sanderson knowing something about Mercury as well as the Sun when we camped at the Lab to make final preparations.
 he got lost
 the major turned down his idea  he located the first explorers  he got lost  he took a detour