Margaritifer Basin (Margaritifer Trilogy Book 1) (50 page)

Jeff sat nervously, mesmerized by
the video image broadcast from atop the former Space Shuttle gantry tower on
pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center looking southeast to the launch pads at
Cape Canaveral. Two miles away on pad LC-41 stood Mars One Charlie, an Atlas V
HLV. A mile and a half beyond at LC-40 was Mars One Bravo, a Falcon 9 Heavy.
And another two miles further down the beach on LC-37B stood Mars One Delta, a
Delta IV Heavy. The long telephoto lens compressed the image depth-of-field,
making the three rockets appear much closer together than they actually were.
“Damn, I wish I was there.”

“You’d just be in the way,” Gabe
said. “Besides, your job is here.”

“What job? We’re just sitting here
in the bleachers.”

“Well, you never know, we may need
you for something.”

Jeff turned to her and grinned.
“Like what? CPR practice?”

PAO, “The countdown has recommenced
at T minus four minutes and counting. Automatic sequencing for Mars One Bravo
will initiate in 40 seconds. Safety and abort checks are complete and we are Go
for launch.”

Gabe took Jeff’s hand and squeezed
it. “You’re about to make history.”

“
We
are about to make
history. I hope it’s good history.”

The minutes and seconds ticked by,
the eerie silence in the MCC broken only by Heidi’s commentary.

PAO, “We are Go for launch at T
minus thirty seconds. Power transfer is complete on Bravo, Charlie automatic
sequencing will commence in twenty seconds.”

PAO, “Fifteen seconds. Twelve
seconds, 10, 9, 8, guidance to internal, 6, 5, 4, ignition, 2, 1, zero, all
engines are running and we have LIFT OFF of Mars One Bravo from Cape Canaveral
Air Force Station at 6:23 a.m. Eastern Standard Time.”

Knowing what was coming next, Jeff
smiled in stunned admiration at the restrained, professional reaction of the
MCC team. Chrissie had done her job and trained them well.

PAO, “Tower cleared, control
switching to Newport.”

FLIGHT, “All stations, FLIGHT, that
bird is ours.”

MOD, “Canaveral, Newport, we’ve got
it.”

FDO, “Roll program commencing.”

PAO, “T minus two minutes and forty
seconds. Charlie is Go for launch.”

FDO, “We’re good at T plus fifty,
altitude one mile.”

PAO, “T minus two minutes on
Charlie, five minutes on Delta. We are Go for launch. Bravo is at Max Q,
running hot and true.”

PROP, “Throttle up.”

PAO, “Charlie, T minus sixty
seconds.”

PROP, “Bravo, inboard engine
cutoff.”

PAO, “T minus twenty-five seconds
on Charlie, Bravo has shutdown its inboard engine to limit acceleration.
Automatic sequencing has commenced on Delta. Delta is Go for launch.”

PAO, “Fifteen seconds. Twelve
seconds, 10, 9, 8, guidance to internal…”

FDO, “MECO (main engine cutoff) and
staging on Bravo.”

PAO, “… ignition, 2, 1, zero, all
engines are running and we have LIFT OFF of Mars One Charlie at 6:26.”

FDO, “Bravo second stage ignition
and running.”

PAO, “Charlie has cleared the
tower.”

MOD, “Canaveral, Newport, we have
Charlie.”

FLIGHT, “All stations, FLIGHT,
Charlie belongs to us.”

Gabe gasped, “Wow! Look at that!”

Jeff caught a glimpse of the image
from the Cape as his eyes danced over the flurry of activity in the MCC. Two
enormous plumes of smoke left by the burning rocket-grade kerosene slowly
drifted off the launch pads. Between them stood Mars One Delta. Two down, one
to go.

GUIDANCE, “Fairing jet on Bravo.”

PAO, “Mars One Bravo has jettisoned
it’s payload fairing at T plus 200 seconds, exposing the bent biconic lifting
body aeroshell that 308 days from now will enter Mars atmosphere and guide the
first cargo of the Grey Aerospace Mars Mission to its landing site in the Margaritifer
Basin. Mars One Delta is Go for launch at T minus two minutes and forty
seconds.”

FDO, “Charlie coming up on Max Q.
Standby for throttle down at T plus 59 seconds.”

PAO, “At T plus 80 seconds, Mars
One Charlie is at Max Q at an altitude of 10.9 kilometers. Bravo is on course
with the second stage and Delta is Go for launch at T minus 100 seconds. 

Having little to do for the next
minute and a half, the entire room collectively caught their breath. The
respite was short-lived.

PAO, “10, 9, 8, guidance to
internal, 6, 5, 4, ignition, 2, 1, zero, all engines are running and we have
LIFT OFF of Mars One Delta at 6:29 a.m.”

Gabe leaned over and hugged Jeff.
“All three in the air!”

He grabbed her with one arm and
Susan, seated to his left, with the other. “May I kiss you both?!”

They nodded and he did.

PAO, “Tower clear.”

MOD, “Canaveral, Newport, we have
all three birds. Thank you very much and have a nice day.”

PAO, “We are at T plus 90 minutes
on Mars One Bravo. Mars One Charlie and Delta have now caught up with Bravo in
orbit 225 miles in altitude and auto-docking is about to commence. Charlie,
consisting of a Centaur booster stage and the lifting body cruise stage, is 117
meters astern of the lifting body and approaching at a rate of one meter per second.
Delta, another Centaur booster, is 287 meters further astern. Once all three
are docked, the complete ship will make one additional orbit of Earth, then
begin its ten-month voyage to Mars.”

Jeff grasped Heidi’s shoulder. “How
you doing?”

She leaned over and banged her head
several times on the console. “Oh god, I dunno.”

Jeff smiled. “You’re doing great.
And, for what it’s worth, your voice is being carried by just about every TV
station on the planet.”

“Oh, marvelous. Like I needed to
hear that.”

“No, I mean it. You’ve been
wonderful. Hang in there.”

She nodded. PAO, “67 meters.”

Jeff glanced at Abby who gave him a
‘thumb-up’.

FLIGHT, “DOCKING, how’s it look?”

Abby nodded, “Right on the money,
FLIGHT. 58 meters.”

Jeff walked to the other end of the
row of consoles and stood beside Abby. The central video screen up front
displayed an image from Charlie of Bravo’s docking collar as it approached.

DOCKING, “39 meters. Alignment is
Go.”

FLIGHT, “GUIDANCE?”

GUIDANCE, “Right on, FLIGHT. Go for
docking.”

Abby grabbed Jeff’s arm. “You know
the guys at NASA right now are absolutely green with envy.”

Jeff smiled and nodded. “Tell ‘em
to write their Congressman. They had their chance.”

Abby clenched her fist and shook
it. “Damn right! 28 meters, FLIGHT.”

FLIGHT, “Rog. Go for docking.”

Abby sat with one finger poised
over the “MANUAL” button and her other hand on Charlie’s attitude control
joystick. “21 meters.” Bravo’s docking collar loomed large on the MCC display
with crosshairs zeroed on the docking probe insertion point. “15 meters.
Retro.” Charlie’s RCS fired its retro rockets to slow the rate of closure.
“Capture probe extension.”

FLIGHT, “Retro.”

“Ten meters, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2,
1, soft dock. Probe retract. FLIGHT, we have hard dock.”

FLIGHT, “Roger, hard dock.”
Chrissie turned around, winked at Jeff and gave him a thumb-up.

Gabe grabbed Jeff’s shoulder and
shook him gently. “Another first. Complete automated docking of two unmanned
space vehicles. Never been done before.” She grinned. “Congratulations.”

“Thanks. And we’re about to do it
again, I hope.”

DOCKING, “157 meters.”

FLIGHT, “Rog. Are we Go for Delta
docking?”

DOCKING, “We’re Go.”

PAO, “The Centaur booster of Mars
One Delta is now 157 meters astern of the now docked Mars One Bravo/Charlie and
closing.”

FLIGHT, “DOCKING, does that look
low to you?”

DOCKING, “FLIGHT, Bravo/Charlie
pitched down a couple degrees at docking. Delta’s good. Give it a second.
Bravo/Charlie will pitch up.” Abby leaned forward and stared intently at the
image.

Jeff held his breath.

DOCKING, “There it goes. 139
meters. Looking good. Go for docking.”

Susan elbowed Jeff again. “Would
you stop doing that?”

Jeff sulked. “Sorry. I’m a
long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs.”

PAO, “T plus 95 minutes and we are
Go for final docking.”

The image of Charlie’s docking
collar grew larger and larger as Delta approached.

DOCKING, “Three meters, 2, 1,
contact and… soft dock.”

FLIGHT, “Rog. Soft dock.”

DOCKING, “Retract and… hard dock.”

FLIGHT, “Hard dock confirmed.”

PAO, “Mars One Bravo, Charlie and
Delta docking is complete and Mars One
Columbus
is ready to begin its
ten-month journey to the red planet.”

The Newport MCC erupted in cheers.

Jeff stood, smiled broadly, nodded
to the room and applauded. “Well done. Well done, everyone.”

Sunday, December 15,
2013 (T minus 828 days)

PAO, “
Columbus
’ trajectory
and guidance look good, thrust is good. We are 14 minutes into the second
Centaur stage burn and anticipate engine cut-off in 54 seconds.”

FLIGHT, “FIDO?”

FIDO, “Looking good, FLIGHT. Off by 12 feet per
second.”

Jeff glanced at Gabe. “That Delta-V
error going to be a problem?”

Gabe shook her head. “No, hardly
worth mentioning. That’s just over one-tenth of one percent, not bad for nearly
thirty minutes of burn from two stages. It’ll probably even be a bit higher by
SECO. That engine has to be huffing and puffing by now, that’s a long
continuous burn for an RL-10. Anyway, we’ll make up for it during the first
cruise maneuver.”

Jeff nodded.

PAO, “Five seconds… 3, 2, 1, SECO.
We have final stage engine cut-off.
Columbus
’ Trans-Mars Injection, or
TMI, is complete; velocity is 35,415 feet per second. Next stop, Mars on
October 14. At this time, the Centaur’s Reaction Control System is maneuvering
Columbus
for booster separation, which will occur in 160 seconds. Following separation,
the RCS will give the Centaur one final push to maneuver it clear of
Columbus
and the stage will enter an elliptical solar orbit.”

Jeff weaved through the great room,
clinking champagne glasses as he went. The post-launch party was in full swing,
and it was only eleven o’clock in the morning.

Someone grabbed his arm from
behind. “Hey.”

He turned around and smiled at
Abby. “Hi. Hell of a morning.”

She looked around the room. “You’re
gonna have a gaggle of drunk eggheads on your hands in just a bit.”

Jeff nodded. “Yeah, but they
deserve it.”

“You don’t suppose they’re all
gonna end up naked in the pool, do you?”

“I don’t think so, it’s eighteen
degrees out there.”

Abby grinned. “Loaded with
antifreeze, that may not stop them.”

“You did a great job with the
docking. Couldn’t have been better.” Jeff leaned forward and kissed her on the
cheek. “Thanks.”

“Well, you’re welcome, but I didn’t
do anything. The auto-dock system worked, and it worked good.” She nodded.
“That’s comforting.”

“Yeah, it is.”

Heidi walked up to them. “I’m
beat.”

Jeff smiled. “I’ll bet you are. I
can’t thank you enough. You did a great job.”

Abby held up her glass. “I need a
refill. Anybody else?”

Jeff and Heidi both shook their
heads. “Thanks, I’m good,” said Jeff.

“I need to slow down,” said Heidi.

As Abby headed for the bar, Jeff
turned back to Heidi. “Before you get completely plastered, there’s something
I’d like to talk to you about.”

“Oh? What’s that?”

“Could I see you in my office?”

“Sure.”

“You know where it is?”

“Um…” she glanced upstairs.

Jeff pointed. “Second floor, west
tower. Say, ten minutes?”

“Okay.”

Jeff responded to the knock at his
office door, “Come in. Yeah Heidi, come on in. Have a seat.”

“Thank you.” She glanced around the
room and took a seat on the sofa opposite Jeff’s desk. “Wow, your office is
beautiful. The fireplace is a nice touch, particularly this time of year.”

“Thanks. Yeah, I find it very
comfortable. Quite a day, huh?”

“Wow, yeah, unbelievable. I never imagined
I’d get the opportunity to do something like this.”

“Well, I’m glad I could give it to
you. In a sense that’s one purpose of the entire exercise: to give those of us
that have the desire to do it the opportunity to do it. Particularly since it
doesn’t seem like anyone else wants to do it.”

“It’s fantastic, on so many levels.
And to be a part of it, well… I haven’t the words.”

“Trust me, I know what you mean.
I’m pretty sure that PAO isn’t what you expected to sign on for but I want you
to know and understand that you were probably more valuable to us today than
anyone else in that room. And you did a spectacular job.”

“Thank you.”

“With everything run by computers
these days, for so much of this PAO may be the only console that has a real job
and actually has to work for a living. For everyone else, it’s mostly sit and
watch the blinking lights and hope nothing goes wrong. And if nothing does,
hey, good job, now go home. But you were busy, weren’t you?”

“Yeah, I sure was.”

“And, like I said, you did great.
Keeping the media informed – and in terms they can understand – is so
important. If we don’t have the media and, consequently, the public and the
government on our side, we’re not going anywhere. We’ll have to wait and see
what’s in the morning papers and news shows, but I’d wager that in tomorrow’s
press you will be widely quoted.”

Heidi cringed. “Oh god, I’m an
aerospace engineer, not a press secretary.”

Jeff smiled. “Well, you were today,
and a darn good one. But there’s another reason I asked you up here. The
further along we get, the greater the demands are on us and, as you know, we’re
not a real big operation. NASA employs something in the neighborhood of 18,000
people. Not including you part time volunteers, right now we have a staff of
five: Chrissie, Gabe, Abby, Sue, and me. And four of us comprise the flight
crew and a little over two years from now we will be going away for quite some
time.”

Heidi shook her head. “And I have
no idea how you do it.”

Jeff groaned. “Yeah, most of the
time neither do I. But we’re still afloat, though just barely keeping our heads
above water. Now, technically speaking, Gabe is our chief engineer. And I think
that you knew her at Caltech, didn’t you?”

“Sort of. Certainly we met. You
can’t spend several years at Caltech without getting to know everyone in your
department, at least a little. But I wouldn’t say we were close. Me being an
engineer and a year ahead of her and living in a different House, our paths
just didn’t cross that often. I knew her more by reputation than personally.”

“Reputation? Hmmm, how’s that?”

Heidi cringed again. “Um…”

Jeff smiled. “Go ahead, you can
speak freely. I doubt there’s much you can tell me about Gabe that I don’t
already know by now.”

Heidi nodded. “Well, intellectually
she’s without a doubt the brightest bulb on the tree. I’ve never seen or even
heard of anyone else that could mutilate a grading curve the way she
could. There was even a story floating around that she came to Caltech for her
doctorate because somebody hung her in effigy at MIT.”

Jeff laughed. “You’re kidding?”

“No, that’s the story.”

“Huh. I’ll have to ask her about
that.”

“But nevertheless, she’s, uh…
eccentric.”

He laughed again. “Eccentric? Well,
I suppose that’s one word for it. Wouldn’t be my first choice but, uh, I know
what you mean.”

“Anyway, everybody in Engineering
and Applied Science knew of her, but she was kind of, I dunno, at the same
time both revered and despised. I mean, Gabe had the answers to just
about everything – which nobody else did, including a lot of her professors and
advisors – but I don’t think she was ever happy at Caltech. You know, she
should have won the Ballhaus Prize – Caltech’s top award for doctoral work –
for her thesis; it was really no contest. But politics within the administration
being what they were… I think they were just afraid of her. She would’ve set
the bar too high. There was kind of general sigh of relief throughout GALCIT
when she finally got her degree and left. I thought it was a sad commentary.
The bar should be high. The higher, the better.”

Jeff nodded and smiled. “Well put.”

“Honestly, I was really surprised
when I heard she was on your team. When it came to, well, ‘choosing teams’ at
Caltech, she would’ve been the last man – or woman – standing. She was never anything
even remotely approaching a team player.”

“Hmmm. I think you’ll find that
Gabe is not who you thought she was.” Jeff waved his hand in dismissal.
“Anyway, that’s all ancient history. Fact is, Gabe’s a physicist and
mathematician, she’s not really an engineer. She’s certainly competent, but
she’s got her hands full, particularly since she’s also crew. Now, Abby has a
B.S. in Aeronautical Engineering from the Naval Academy, but let’s face it,
she’s not an engineer either; she’s a pilot.”

“And a darn good one from what we
saw.”

“Yeah, one of the best. And of
course, Chrissie, Sue and I aren’t engineers either. Which brings us to you.”

Heidi’s eyes opened wide.

“We need an aerospace engineer.
It’s not that we can’t do it; it’s just that someone with the appropriate
expertise could do it a lot faster and easier. Besides, we’re getting
to the point where we really need to concentrate on training. We’re all
just wearing too many hats and need to spread the wealth around a bit more. As
I said, I’ve been very impressed with what I’ve seen of you this past month.
And, frankly, Gabe speaks very highly of you.”

“She does? I didn’t think she ever
even noticed me.”

“Well, you were
apparently noticeable enough to make an impression; she’s the one that
pulled your name off the list. By the way, where’d you do your undergraduate
work?”

“Harvard.”

“Really. Wow. What was your major?”

“Engineering Sciences, with a minor
in applied physics.”

Jeff smiled and shook his head.
“Good god. Okay. Well, anyway, bottom line is: You want a job?”

“You mean like… a consultant?”

“No. I mean like… a job,
full-time, here, on the payroll. Come join the team. Be a player.”

“Wow, uh… I’m speechless.” She
swallowed hard. “What would you want me to do?”

Jeff chuckled. “The same thing the
rest of us do: everything. But specifically, we have one enormous project that
is bedeviling us. And we have to have it; it’s absolutely critical. But
honestly, it’s beyond us. It’s too much, and we need somebody with the
requisite skills to take over for Gabe, cause she’s buried and I can’t have
that. And that project is Jupiters. We need to build four Jupiter 241s,
including legacy J-2 powered Earth Departure Stages, loosely developed from the
external shuttle tank, and we need them soon. We have all the parts we need –
external fuel tanks, SRBs, SSMEs, J-2s, the works – and I think Gabe has most
of the engineering done. So now it’s just a matter of doing it. We’ve met with
the President of the United States – had dinner with him – and he’s done a
magnificent job in prying loose essentially the government’s entire stockpile
of surplus shuttle hardware for us. But we desperately need somebody to get
down to Michoud and start kicking ass, putting all this together and making it
happen. We have to build four giant rockets that have never been built and we
have to do it in two years. And I want you to do it.” Jeff grinned at her.
“Think of it… you can go down in history as the woman that built the Jupiter.
How’s that for an enticement?”

Heidi’s jaw dropped. “Are you serious?”

Jeff shook his head and smiled.
“Why does everyone keeping asking me that? Yeah, I’m dead serious. The four of
us want to go to Mars and we need those rockets to get there. So what I want is
for you to buy a bullwhip, dress up in your finest tight black leather
dominatrix outfit, get down to Michoud, kick ass, take names, and get it done.
And if that doesn’t work, let ‘em know that if I have to send Abby down there,
well, it’ll pretty much be the end of life as they know it. She doesn’t take
prisoners.”

Heidi started breathing hard.

Jeff pointed his finger at her
across the desk. “Now don’t you hyperventilate. I went through that with Gabe
at the White House. Thought she was gonna pass out on me.”

“Sorry. I just… I don’t know what
to say.”

“Uh, ‘Yes’ would do just fine.”

“It’s just that, well, I have a
job. Not much of one, but I’m kind of committed.”

“Yeah, I know. You’re doing postdoc
research at Caltech. I’m sure it’s very rewarding and doesn’t pay much.”

Heidi shook her head. “Yeah, you’re
right about that. In fact the funding is about to run out and I don’t think
they’ll renew it.”

“Well, there you go. You just never
know what’s gonna happen when you get out of bed in the morning, do you?”

She smiled. “When would you want me
to start?”

“Oh, I dunno. As soon as the
party’s over?”

Heidi stared at her lap and thought
for a minute. “I hope you’ll forgive me for asking this but… I’ve noticed that
your team is all women. Do I have to sleep with you?”

Jeff’s jaw dropped. “Uh… now
there’s a question I didn’t anticipate. Um, but I suppose under the
circumstances it’s a fair one. Uh… no. Heidi, the fact that, aside from me, the
nucleus team is all women is nothing more than a statistical anomaly; luck of
the draw. I’m sure that somewhere along the line in your illustrious
educational career you’ve had a course in statistics, and you know that it
doesn’t matter how many times the coin comes up heads, the odds of it coming up
heads again on the next toss are still fifty-fifty. It’s just the way it is.
Don’t read anything into it.”

She stared off into the room,
looking pensive, biting her lip.

“Hmmm, not convinced?”

She shrugged. “It just seems kind
of strange, particularly since you all live together.”

“I see. Okay, let’s try this. Do
you know anyone smarter than Gabe?”

She shook her head.

“Do you know of any pilots better
than Abby?”

“No.”

“Uh huh. How about this? Are there
any men in that room downstairs that are better at this than you?”

She smiled softly and glanced up at
him. “I see your point. I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have asked that. You offer me
the chance of lifetime and I offend you.”