Margaritifer Basin (Margaritifer Trilogy Book 1) (51 page)

Jeff shook his head. “You didn’t
offend me. Like I said, it’s a fair question. And now that we have that out of
the way, what do you say?”

“May I not offend you again?”

“Yeah, sure.”

“How much does it pay?”

“Oh, I dunno. I’m sure we’ll come to an equitable
figure. I will tell you this: five years from now when we get back from Mars,
you’ll be a multimillionaire, you can write a book, go on the lecture circuit
at $50,000 an hour and probably get any job on the planet you want… or just
retire and live on a beach in Bermuda.”

“Wow.” She sighed audibly. “I have
a boyfriend.”

“
That
, I cannot help you
with. We live and work here. We are a team and a family, and we have but one
singular purpose: we are going to Mars. Well, and coming back, preferably
alive. We don’t have wives, husbands, boyfriends, dogs, cats, hamsters or stamp
collections. Well, actually, we do have two dogs, but they’re more like
employees; they keep uninvited visitors off the property… and then sleep on
Gabe’s bed. In any case, what we have is the mission. Period. We do get away
now and then, but not very often. This is a seven by twenty-four job, and it
will wear you to a frazzle. But, when we’re done, you’ll be able to say you
were an integral part of something that no one else has done, and may never do
again.”

She swallowed hard. “Has anyone
ever turned you down?”

“No. And do me a favor and don’t be
the first, you might start an ugly trend.”

Heidi stared at Jeff’s desk for a
minute than looked up at him. “Okay, you just bought yourself an engineer. Can
you give me a week to tie up loose ends?”

“You’ve got it. Here’s my card,
call me when you’re ready and I’ll send Abby out to pick you up.”

“Huh?”

“The job has a few perks; we have
our own jet.”

Heidi’s eyes twinkled. “Okay,
that’ll work.”

Jeff stood, walked around the desk
and held out his hand to Heidi. “Welcome aboard.”

She stood and shook his hand.
“Thank you. Thank you very much. I hope I can live up to your expectations.”

Jeff smiled. “You will. Come on, let’s rejoin the
party. We can cross the ‘t’s and dot the ‘i’s later.”

As they walked downstairs, Heidi
asked, “Should I keep this under my hat for now?”

“I don’t care, up to you. I don’t
like secrets unless the information can hurt somebody. You decide. But I’m not
going to make a grand announcement just now, if that’s what you’re asking.”

Heidi nodded.

Downstairs at the celebration party
Jeff found another glass of champagne then schmoozed his way across the room
tracking down Gabe. He found her standing alone by the fireplace in the great
room. “Hey, trying to stay warm?”

“Yeah, it’s a little cold in here.”

“Yeah it is. I’ll turn up the heat.
Say,” Jeff grinned, “you were actually hung in effigy at MIT?”

Gabe hung her head and groaned. “Oh
god, where did you hear about that?”

“Heidi.”

“Yeah, that’s the story. I didn’t
see it, but I guess there were plenty in the physics department who did.”

Jeff laughed.

Gabe frowned. “What’s so funny?”

“Well, when you think about it,
it’s really quite flattering. Puts you in the same league with Galileo and
Copernicus – persecuted for being too smart. Pretty elite company.”

Gabe stared at the floor for a
minute. “I’d never thought of it that way.”

“Gabe, you have a gift that most of
us can’t even comprehend. Be thankful for it, not ashamed.”

She smiled. “Thanks.”

“Anyway, I just bought you some
help.”

“Huh? What are you talking about?”

“I hired Heidi.”

“You did? Why?”

“I’m going to take the Jupiter
development off your desk and give it to her.”

“Oh, thank god! You’re a very good
man. I think I love you.”

Jeff smiled. “Hmmm, I’ll make a
note of that.”

“She can do it, too. It’s right up
her alley.”

Tuesday, January 7, 2014 (T minus 805 days)

Jeff motioned around the conference
table, introducing his team and their guests. “And on this side, we have Elgin
Chase, from Johnson Space Center, formerly of NASA’s Constellation Lunar
Landing Project Office; Dwayne Cranston of Northrop Grumman; and Steve Talbert
from JPL. Okay, everyone have a seat. You guys have a good flight?”

“Yeah, great,” said Elgin, smiling.
“Nice plane. Thanks for the ride.”

Dwayne nodded. “Yeah, thanks,
sweet. We could have flown commercial, you didn’t have to send the limo for
us.”

Jeff smiled. “Oh, no problem. That’s
why we have it.”

“Hello, Steve. Nice to see you,”
said Gabe, reaching across the table to shake his hand.

“Hi Gabe, good to see you again,
too.”

“You two know each other?” said
Jeff.

“Yes, Steve was my boss when I
interned at JPL.”

Jeff raised an eyebrow. “Really.”

Gabe gave him a contrite grin and
shrugged.

“Okay then, let’s talk about MAVs.
Elgin, what’s NASA got in mind?”

“Well, it’s a challenge. But after
pondering nearly every conceivable option, the best bet seems to be a modified
Apollo Lunar Module. The big problem, as you’re well aware, is not getting it
off the planet, but landing it on the planet, preferably in one piece. And of
course the other big problem is on Dwayne’s end, in that Grumman only has two
years to get these built.”

Dwayne shook his head. “And that is
a tall order.”

“We understand,” said Jeff,
nodding. “Tall orders and short lead times are about all we know.”

“Well, that said,” Elgin continued,
“what we have in mind is to start with a factory stock LM. The major changes
will be scrapping the descent stage except for the legs, swapping the RS-18
main engine for an XCOR XR-5M15 so that you can manufacture the fuel, and
tripling the size of the APS fuel and oxidizer tanks. But at launch we’ll only
fuel it with enough to land. That should give us a manageable mass, probably no
more than 6,000 pounds, and something that Grumman can actually construct in
the time allotted. And as a side benefit, it shouldn’t cost a whole lot.”

Gabe frowned. “Without the descent
stage, how do you plan on landing it?”

“More or less, the same way you
plan on landing all your stuff. We’ll use an MSL descent stage...”

She interrupted. “It’s too heavy.”

“We’ll use an MSL descent stage in
combination with the main engine.”

Steve frowned at her.

Gabe ignored him. “Can the 5M15 be
throttled down that much?”

“Yeah.”

“Huh. I didn’t know that.”

Abby stared at her, wide-eyed.
“Somebody make a note, we found something she didn’t…”

“Shut up.” Gabe glared at her, then
turned back to Elgin. “What about the RCS? You plan to convert that to CH
₄
/LOX
as well?”

“No. It’ll be easier and safer if we stay with a
hypergolic fuel. I don’t think you want to have to worry about igniters on
sixteen RCS thrusters. Yeah, fuel for the RCS adds about 650 pounds to the
landing mass, but to us it seems a small price for simplicity and reliability.”

Gabe nodded. “I agree. Um, I’d originally suggested
that we save some weight by going un-pressurized, particularly since we’ll have
to suit up just to get into it. Any thoughts on that?”

“Yeah, we talked about it, but we don’t think it’ll
save that much mass, and the engineering changes would likely be more effort
than they’re worth. It’ll be easier and faster if we just stay with what we
know works. As we see it, you can launch at Mars atmospheric pressure, then
once you’re in space – and after all, the LM was designed to operate only in a
vacuum – purge the cabin and pressurize with O
₂
remaining in your
oxidizer tanks. That’d make transferring to your return ship a lot easier.”

Gabe gave Heidi a questioning glance.

She nodded.

“Yeah, okay. What about atmospheric entry?”

“Again, your idea. We’ll pack them
both into a bent biconic lifting body, along with a third load of parts you’ll
need to get them off the ground again. The lifting body will home in on your
location, at mach two we blow the bolts, pop chutes, follow the MSL profile,
and everything settles to the surface, in theory. But I’ll tell you, that’s the
scary part. Anything goes wrong with that lifting body during entry, and you’re
not coming back.”

Jeff smiled.
“Elgin, we stopped keeping a list of things that could go wrong a long time
ago.
In any case, if they don’t make it, we don’t
land. They’ve got to be there, intact, and on the ground before we arrive in
orbit. If they aren’t, we light fires, do a powered swing-by, and come straight
home. Spending the rest of eternity entombed on that rock is not in our flight
plan.”

“Gotcha.”

“Elgin, how are you going to launch it?” said Heidi.

“Well, with all your launches in
that window, that is a bit of a sticky wicket. You’ve got Kennedy, the Cape,
SpaceX and UAL pretty much up against the wall already. So what we’re thinking
is launching the payload on a Falcon 9 from Kwajalein, and then sending up a
Centaur or DHCUS from the Cape, mating the two in LEO and sending them on their
way.”

“A Falcon 9?”

“Yeah, it’ll be close to capacity,
but it should fit.”

“Dwayne,” said Jeff, “what’s
Grumman’s take on this?”

“Well, aside from the fact we think
you’re all certifiable, we’re onboard. We’ve already started work on the design
modifications in conjunction with both JSC and JPL – Steve has some preliminary
drawings – and two years is more than enough time for construction, though
there won’t be any flight tests.”

“Can we see the drawings?” said
Gabe.

Jeff held up his hand. “Later.
Dwayne, you had plenty of flight tests back in the sixties. Just put that good
old Grumman know-how to work, and we’ll see you on the flip side.”

Dwayne smiled and shook his head.
“You’re braver folks than me.”

“Bravery’s got nothing to do with
it. You guys just get them down on the surface; we’ll take care of the rest. If
it can be built, Gabe and I can build it. And if it can be flown, Abby can fly
it. Steve, JPL have any concerns with landing that much mass?”

“The computer simulations look
good. Of course, it’ll require some significant modifications to the MSL
descent stage, but nothing overwhelming.”

“Such as?” said Gabe.

“Well, for starters we’re gonna
have to beef-up the support structure and tether, and remove the sky crane. It
would never handle the mass, even for a split second, and designing one that
could, would necessitate a complete redesign of the entire stage. And there’s
no time for that. So we’ll just go without and rely on main engine throttling
for a soft landing. We’re also going to look at reorienting the descent
engines, with an eye toward providing more lateral control, owing to the
greater mass, and less vertical thrust since we’ll have the main engine to
handle that job. We’ll also need to take a look at the radar altimeter
orientation since this’ll be kicking up a lot of dust.”

Jeff nodded. “Understood. Will JPL
be packing and delivering the spare parts box, or is that something we need to
do?”

“No, we’ll take care of that. Well,
in conjunction with Grumman.”

“Jeff,” said Dwayne, “once we’ve
got a mockup, we’d like you and your team – whoever’s gonna be doing the work –
to come on out and we’ll go through a complete build. Write the manual, and
make sure we’re all on the same page.”

“Yeah, sure. What about flight training?”

“The original LM simulator is on
display at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington. It
won’t handle exactly the same, but it should be pretty close, assuming we can
get it to work… and the folks at the Smithsonian don’t have an apoplexy.”

Jeff nodded. “Abby, job
opportunity.”

She cringed. “Oh, fine. Our sim is
a fifty-year-old museum piece?”

Dwayne smiled. “It’ll have to do,
there’s not enough time to build another one.”

“Okay,” said Jeff, “get her
working. If the Smithsonian gives you any heartburn, let me know and I’ll see
if I can get the White House to intercede.”

“Alright, we’ll get right on it.”

“Elgin, what are you looking at in
terms of useful load?”

“The bare minimum, whatever you
guys weigh plus your suits. Offhand, I’d say right about 1,250 pounds, tops.”

“Add another 250 pounds, and space
for two two-foot by two-foot by three-foot crates.”

“Huh? What’s that?”

“Contingency. Just in case the
rocks don’t get off the ground, and some other odds and ends. They’ll be sealed
and sanitized.”

“Okay.”

“We gonna fly this thing standing
up, like Apollo?”

“Yep. Sorry, no other way,
particularly with four of you. Remember, it was designed for a crew of two, so
you’re gonna be real cozy. But we’ll try and come up with a thrust profile that
won’t squash you like bugs.”

They all laughed.

“That’s mighty kind of you,” said
Jeff. He leaned on his elbow and rubbed his chin, thinking for a moment. “I’d
like to ask the three of you a bit of an off-topic question, if I may? Chrissie
keeps pretty good track of the news on us, but we all know that the media
doesn’t carry the whole story. What do you folks in the industry think about
all this? I mean, besides the fact that y’all think we’re raving lunatics.”

Elgin shrugged. “Well, for my part,
I’m really excited. Sure, I wish NASA was doing this, but it’s not and it
won’t, so I’m just happy to have any part in it. Throughout NASA there are a
wide range of opinions. Most folks are pretty damn excited about it. There is
some resentment, but for the most part that’s not your fault.”

“What do you mean, ‘for the most
part’?”