Margaritifer Basin (Margaritifer Trilogy Book 1) (78 page)

Jeff nodded to her and turned to
Abby. “Okay, guess it’s time.”

“This should be entertaining.”

He grinned. “Uh huh.”

They undressed in a tangle of arms
and legs. When they were naked, squeezed up against one another, and fumbling
for their absorbency garments and coolant suits, Susan’s voice came over the
intercom. “Um, that looks like fun.”

Abby grabbed her coveralls,
floating nearby, wadded them up and tossed them at the window.

“Spoil sport,” said Susan. “You two
better behave.”

Abby rubbed against Jeff. “Why?”

Jeff smiled. “She can’t hear you.”

“Good, she doesn’t need to.”

His body tingled. “Would you stop
that, we have work to do.”

Abby groaned. “You’re no fun.”

“Like I said… later.”

“Yeah.”

An hour and a half later Jeff and
Abby were suited-up, had completed their oxygen pre-breathe, and were ready to
go for a space-walk. Jeff twisted around and looked at her. “All set?”

“Yeah, I guess.”

“Okay Sue, put us in space.”

“Roger that. Depressurizing.”

Jeff and Abby floated, hanging on
to hand holds, and simply staring at one another for several minutes as the
vacuum pump sucked the atmosphere out of the airlock.

“Alright, you’re airless. Tethers?”

“Right.” Jeff held out his hand to
Abby. “Give me the end of your leash.” He took the carabiner, knotted to the
end of the tether attached to her harness and, along with his, inspected the
knots again for about the twelfth time in the past two hours, then connected
them to separate steel rings welded to the inside of the EVA hatch frame. Then
they both connected carabiners on either end of another tether to their
harnesses – connecting them to each other, and both independently to the
airlock. “Okay, we’re tethered. I’ll get the hatch.” He turned around to the
EVA hatch on the side of the airlock and gave the handle a couple pumps to
ratchet the 12 latches open. Then he grabbed the handhold, pulled the hatch
inward, latched it open, then glanced out and was greeted with his first good view
of space. “Oh my god.”

“What?” said Abby.

“The view, it’s incredible.”

“Well, move your ass. I want to see
too.”

Jeff pulled halfway through the
hatch then stopped again. “God damn it’s a long way down!”

Gabe’s voice came over the radio.
“Define… down.”

He laughed. “Every which way I
look.” He pulled hand over hand out of the airlock, spun around, grabbed an
external handhold with a death-grip, and nervously glanced about. “Oh god, what
was I thinking?”

Gabe laughed. “Relax. If you let go
you’re not gonna fall.”

“You sure?”

“Pretty sure.”

“Yeah. Well, if it’s okay with you,
I’m gonna just hang on here for a while.”

Abby popped out of the hatch and
immediately drifted off into space. “Oh my god, this is incredible!”

As she drifted away from the ship,
Jeff yelled, “Abby!”

“Oh, keep your shirt on. I’m
tethered.” As she reached the end of the tether she jerked to a stop and just
hung there, slowly turning. “Holy shit!”

“Jeff, you’re hyperventilating,”
said Susan.

“Yeah, sorry. There’s nothing we
did on Earth that came anywhere close to preparing me for this. Good god.”

“Well, stop it.”

“Yeah… right.”

“Boss, you’ve got to get up here
and see this view.”

“Abby, I can see just fine from
here.”

“No you can’t. You can’t see what’s
behind us. Come on wuss, take a look.”

Jeff moaned, “Oh god,” then checked
his tethers again, and pushed off. “Ah Jesus, this was a bad idea.”

Abby laughed, “What a wimp.”

As Jeff reached the end of his
tether he jerked to a stop. Abby grabbed his hand and used a can of compressed
air to jet them around facing aft. As the sun came into view, Jeff winced, shut
his eyes, and closed his sun visor. “God, that’s bright.”

“Sure is. Where’s Earth?”

“How the hell should I know? Gabe,
where’s Earth?”

“Oh, about 836,000 miles astern of
us.”

“Gee, thanks. What I meant was…”

She giggled. “I know what you
meant. Hang on a second, let me see. Um, okay, given our present orientation
and where you are, and using the sun as a point of reference, uh… try about 35
degrees north and 10 degrees west, between Mirach and
Triangulum
. It’ll
be hard to see. You should only have a very slight crescent on the lower limb,
and it will look about the size of the moon from Earth.”

“Mirach? That’s in
Andromeda
,
right?”

“Yes. It’s her, ahem… crotch.”

Abby punched Jeff in the shoulder.
“That shouldn’t be hard for you to find.”

He chuckled. “Yeah, right. Um,
Triangulum
.
Always liked that one. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I can pick any three stars
at random and they’ll probably form a triangle. Right? Who thought that one
up?”

“I just work here,” said Gabe.

Jeff stared at the starfield. “I
can’t make things out.” He shaded the sun with his hand and raised his visor.
“Ah, okay, that’s a little better. Um, alright, there’s
Andromeda
and…
Ah! There it is.” He pointed. “Right over there. You can just barely make out
the crescent.”

Abby gasped. “Oh! I see it. Oh my
god, it sure shrank a lot in four days.”

“Yeah. Imagine what it’ll look like
in seven months.”

“Wow. Uh, what’s that bright one to
the right of the sun?”

“Um, I’m not sure. Venus? Gabe,
about 30 degrees east of the sun, that Venus?”

“Yes. And, by the way, the sooner
you two stop sightseeing and get the telescope up, the sooner we’ll have a
really good view of this stuff, and the sooner I can stop having to crawl into
the CM to take star fixes.”

“Nag, nag, nag. Okay. It’s just
such a breathtaking view. I can only imagine what the early space walkers –
Leonov, White, Aldrin – were thinking the first time they climbed out and
looked up. Wow. I’ve seen lots of stars on dark nights high in the mountains,
but nothing compares with this.” After a few more minutes of silent awe, Jeff
grabbed Abby’s hand. “Well, Abigail, shall we get to work?”

“Yeah, I guess.”

They pulled themselves back down to
the airlock. Abby climbed inside, un-strapped the high-gain antenna base and
handed it to Jeff.

“Got it.” He swung around to the
side of the airlock positioned the antenna base just over its mounting plate,
aligned the boltholes and set it in place. Magnets in the base temporarily held
it in place so he didn’t have to restrain it while inserting the bolts.
Following that came the motorized articulated arm, circular folded mesh 2-meter
parabolic antenna, multi-frequency feed horn and, three hours later, drive and
antenna cable connectors. “God, what a job. That was a hell of a lot easier in
the pool. Gabe, light it up.”

“Roger. Stand clear.”

“There is no ‘stand’ out here,
Gabriel.”

“Just get out of the way.”

“I’m clear.”

Gabe aligned the antenna. “Okay,
I’ve got a carrier from Canberra. Why don’t you guys go ahead with the
telescope, and I’ll phone home.”

“Rog. Abby?”

“Yep, here it comes.” She gently
pushed the case, carrying their 300-pound 14” equatorial mount
Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope, fitted with a Nikon D4, out the hatch.

“Got it. Alright, get out here and
help me with this beast.”

“On my way.”

An hour and a half later, Jeff and
Abby had the telescope mounted on the opposite side of the airlock from the
high-gain antenna.

Jeff groaned, “God, I’m getting
tired.”

“Yeah, me too,” said Abby.

“We don’t have a whole lot of air
left, either. Gabe?”

“Yeah, I’m here. Antenna checks out
perfect. It’s tracking and we’ve got solid comms on all bands. Good job. Okay,
let me take a look at the telescope.”

Jeff and Abby sat, dangling their
legs in the airlock, looking at the stars.

“This what you hoped for?” said
Jeff

“God,” said Abby, “I dunno. It’s
unbelievable. And we’ve only been out here four days.”

“Yeah.”

“Do you think mankind was meant for
this?”

“Jeez, I dunno. I think mankind was
meant for whatever mankind can do. If we can do it, hell, then I guess we were
meant for it. If not, well, the jury’s probably still out.”

“Are you philosophers clear of the
telescope?” said Gabe.

“Yeah,” said Jeff, looking down at
the instrument.

“Okay, I’m gonna uncage and align
it.”

“Have at it.”

The telescope dust cover opened and
it swung around, pointing aft. Gabe’s gasp was audible. “Oh my god!”

“What?” said Jeff.

“I can see lights on Earth.”

“You’re kidding? From over 800,000
miles?”

“Uh huh, and closer to 900,000 now.
I told you this would be good.”

“Yeah you did. Can you see Mars?”

“Hang on.”

Jeff watched as the telescope swung
around and pointed out away from them and a bit ahead.”

She gasped again. “Wow. At full mag
without digital enhancement it looks about three times the size of the moon as
seen from Earth. It’s about a half hour before sunrise at the Basin. You gotta
see this. It’s unbelievable.”

“Then I guess we can come inside
now?”

“Yeah, by all means.”

Jeff pointed into the hatch.
“Ladies first.”

Abby gave him a thumb up. “’Bout
time. I’m ready for a cocktail.”

Wednesday, March 30,
2016 (T plus 8 days)

All four crewmembers shouted in
unison, “Hello Earth!”

They were seated in the Sundancer
commons, staring into a camera just below the widescreen display, listening to
a live broadcast from the Discovery Channel studios being relayed via the Deep
Space Network. The TV displayed the image they were transmitting, as there was
no video from Earth.

Jeff grinned. “We’re told there are
about a billion people around the world watching this on TV or the webcast, so
you’ll have to forgive our stage-fright, we’ve never spoken in front of an
audience quite this large before. I’m Jeffrey Grey, mission commander. On my
far left here is Dr. Gabriel Fredrick, ‘Gabe’, our flight engineer and
navigator. On my immediate left is Lieutenant Commander Abigail Nolan, ‘Abby’,
our pilot, and to my right is Dr. Susan Lú, our flight surgeon. Now, you’ll
have to be a bit patient, we’re almost one and three-quarter million miles from
Earth and it takes a little over nine seconds for our transmissions to reach
you and another nine seconds for yours to reach us. We also understand that the
phones are lit up at the Discovery Channel and you understandably have many
questions for us. Unfortunately we won’t be able to take everyone’s call, but
we will take as many questions as we can over the next hour.” Jeff wiped his
nose with a handkerchief. “Also, uh, please pardon us, we all have a case of
‘space sniffles’. It’s a side effect of the absence of gravity. Fluid tends to
migrate from your legs into your upper body and head, and that results in
stuffy noses and congested nasal passages – something we’re just going to have
to live with for the next seven months. Anyway, let’s get right to it.
Discovery Channel, fire away.” He couldn’t help watch the clock, 18 seconds
suddenly seemed like a long time.

“Hi. My name is Katrina Graves, I’m
fourteen, and I live in Moorcroft, Wyoming. This is so cool. I really hope you
guys are safe and have a great trip. My question is: Why are you going to
Mars?”

They all smiled and laughed. Jeff
cleared his throat, “Ahem, well Katrina, about the time we were lifting off
from the Kennedy Space Center, I’m pretty sure all of us were wondering the
same thing.” They all nodded in agreement. “There are a lot of reasons. But
besides the issues of exploration and scientific discovery, I think the best
answer is that which was given by the famous British mountain climber George
Mallory in 1924 when asked why he wanted to climb Mount Everest, ‘Because it’s
there.’”

“Hi, I’m Kevin Pearce and I’m
eleven and I live in Havelock, North Carolina. My question is: How long will it
take you to get to Mars and when will you get back?”

Jeff looked over at Gabe, “Sounds
like a question for our navigator. Gabe?”

Gabe smiled into the camera, “Hi
Kevin. If all goes according to plan, it will take us 195 days to get to Mars.
We should arrive in orbit around Mars on October 3
^rd
. We’ll spend a
few days in orbit and then make our landing. Then we’ll spend around 525 days
on the planet – that’s about one and a half Earth years, but only
three-quarters of a Martian year – then launch back into orbit, hang around
there for a few days getting ready for our return launch window and then a 212-day
trip back to Earth. In total, we should be gone 934 days or a bit over two and
a half years. And if all goes well, we’ll splashdown in the South Pacific on
October 12, 2018.”

“Hi, I’m Lili Kincaid from
Marquette, Michigan and I’m twelve. How is your spaceship working?”

Jeff glanced over at Gabe, “Another
one for you. Don your flight engineer hat.”

Gabe shrugged and smiled, “Hi Lili,
well, so far so good, everything is working just fine. The only minor glitch
we’ve encountered was a couple fuel valves closing in our command module
reaction control system during booster separation following the launch. But
that wasn’t a surprise, we anticipated it might happen. We just recycled the
valves, and they’re fine. Everything here in the Sundancer, our habitat module,
seems to be working just great.”

“I’m Luka Sanford, and I’m eight
and live in Everett, Washington. How far is it from Earth to Mars?”

Jeff smiled, “Hi Luka, let’s give
Abby a chance here.”

Abby smiled and waved at the camera, “Hi Luka.
Everett, huh? I’ve been there, nice town. How far is it from Earth to Mars?
Well, what day is it? Um, the distance between Earth and Mars constantly
changes because both planets orbit the sun, but at different velocities. Earth
orbits the sun in one year, 365 days, but it takes Mars about 687 Earth days,
almost twice as long. When Earth and Mars are both on the same side of the sun
and in alignment – that’s called a Mars solar opposition – they’re anywhere
from 55 million to 100 million kilometers apart. The distance varies
considerably because Mars’ orbit is rather eccentric; it’s not perfectly round.
When they are on opposite sides of the sun – called a Mars solar conjunction –
they’re more like 400 million kilometers apart. So, like I said, it depends on
what day it is. Today however, they happen to be about 120 million kilometers
apart, or about 74 million miles.”

Jeff turned and grinned at her,
“You do that math in your head?”

“Sure. Can’t you?”

Gabe leaned forward, “No she
didn’t. I saw her peeking at the trajectory display.”

Abby punched her in the arm,
“Snitch.”

“Hi guys. I am just so awed by
this. It’s hard to believe you’re really up there. I’m Wendy Johnston and I’m
seventeen and I live in Riverside, California. Do you believe that there are
UFOs in space?”

They all grinned at one another.
Abby pointed at Jeff, “That one’s all yours, boss.”

Jeff smiled and nodded slowly, “Gee, thanks. Hi
Wendy, yeah we’re really up here and so far as we know, uh, we’re all alone.
Boy, that’s a tough question. Certainly there are all kinds of unidentified
flying, uh – objects – up here, but most of them aren’t aliens from another
planet. Fact is, they’re asteroids and comets and bits and pieces of space junk
left over from old satellites. You know, when John Glenn went up in
Friendship
7
during the Mercury program in 1962, he saw thousands of little, what he
called ‘fireflies’ streaming by the window of his capsule. This had folks at
NASA puzzled for a long time. But eventually they discovered that it was
nothing more than ice crystals being vented from the capsule and illuminated by
the sun. Is there life out there somewhere else in the universe? I certainly
think so. Given the billions and billions of stars, most of which have
planetary systems, it’s really hard to imagine there are not a great many
planets out there that are capable of supporting life, as evidenced by the
numerous extrasolar planets discovered by NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope a few
years ago. But do aliens regularly visit us from those planets? No, I don’t
think so. First, the distances involved are just too great, many hundreds of
light years, and second, why all the interest in us? Don’t they have anything
better to do? Earth is a minor planet in a minor solar system in a minor
galaxy. There has to be something out there in the great wide universe that’s
more interesting than us. But that’s just my opinion.”

“Hi, I’m Steven Curry and I’m nine
and live in Madison, Wisconsin. Is it dark in space?”

Jeff grinned at Susan, “You want to
take this one, doc?”

Susan smiled at the camera and scratched her head,
“Hi Steven. Hmmm, is it dark in space? Well, yes and no, it all depends on
where you’re looking. Our ‘sky’ isn’t like the sky on earth because there’s no
atmosphere. In every direction there’s just space. But there are more stars
than you ever see on earth. Countless stars. In some directions huge clouds of
stars. It’s really beautiful. But then there’s the sun. We’re well away from
Earth and there’s nothing between the sun and us. So, on one side of the ship
it’s always daylight, and on the other it’s always night. However, our ship is
rotating on its long axis, about once every 20 minutes. That rotation keeps the
exterior of the ship evenly heated by the sun. But if you look out one of the
windows, it’s like we have sunrise and sunset three times an hour. Still, it’s
always a nighttime sky. I’m sorry, it’s really kind of hard to describe. If you
were outside the ship, and I haven’t done an EVA yet, but Jeff and Abby have,
and I’m sure they’d tell you that on the sunlit side of the ship it is very
bright, brilliantly lit. But on the shadow side, it’s pitch black, because
there’s no atmosphere to diffuse and reflect the sunlight. That’s about the
best answer I can give you.”

“Oh wow, this is so neat. I wish I
were with you guys. I’m Karen Fleming and I’m thirteen and live in Fort Smith,
Arkansas. My question is: What temperature is it on Mars?”

Jeff nodded, “Hello Karen. Well,
someday in the future you may get your chance to make the trip. We can only
hope. Temperature on Mars? It varies quite a bit. Mars rotates on its axis just
like Earth, though the Martian day is just a bit longer, about 37 minutes
longer than an Earth day. Mars is also tilted on its axis like Earth, so it has
seasons and, again like Earth, the seasons are opposite in the northern and
southern hemispheres. Mars’ southern hemisphere tends to be the warmer of the
two and during the southern hemispheric summer, the daytime temperature can get
up to around 95 degrees Fahrenheit, not unlike a very warm day on Earth.
However, at Mars’ north pole in winter the temperature can drop to a very
chilly 220 degrees below zero. That’s cold enough to actually freeze the air.
Mars’ atmosphere is about 95 percent carbon dioxide and at that temperature the
CO
₂
freezes and it literally snows dry ice. Kind of like a CO
₂
fire extinguisher. Pretty cold. During our
Pathfinder
lander’s year and
a half on Mars, very near to where we will be, it’s recorded temperatures
ranging from 86ºF down to minus 112ºF. We’re looking forward to balmy Martian
days in the 70s and 80s. In the minus 100s, not so much.

“While we’re on the subject, Karen,
the extreme cold at the north pole during the winter is what is generally
believed to cause periodic Martian planet-wide dust storms. As the atmosphere freezes
and precipitates, it creates an extreme low-pressure region over the pole. The
rest of the planet’s atmosphere rushes in to fill the void, creating hurricane
force winds which kick up dust, and the resultant dust storms can envelope all
of Mars and blot out the sun for months.” He smiled. “Lovely vacation spot,
don’t you think?”

“Hi, I’m Paul Lewis and I’m eight
and live in Monroe, Louisiana. Does your spaceship hold air?”

They all laughed and Jeff pointed
his thumb at Susan, “I’m gonna let you have this one.”

“Oh boy, I get all the good ones.
Hi Paul, yeah, I sure hope it holds air. If it doesn’t, we’re in big trouble.
But yes, it holds air. If it didn’t we’d be wearing space suits right now. Our
ship is pressurized and the air we breathe is pretty much like the air you’re
breathing on Earth, though the oxygen content is a little higher. Not including
trace gasses, Earth’s atmosphere is approximately 20% oxygen and 80% nitrogen.
Our atmosphere here is about 30% oxygen and 70% nitrogen, as our atmospheric
pressure is a bit lower than Earth at sea level. We typically run about 71
kilopascals of pressure here, or around 21 inches of mercury. That’s about like
being at 9500 feet of altitude on Earth. Say, somewhere in the Colorado
Rockies, maybe like Telluride. So our air here is a little thinner than what
most people on Earth are used to, but not all that much different, and we
compensate for that with the higher oxygen content.”

“Hi, I’m Justin Phillips from
Providence, Rhode Island, and I’m seventeen. How do you find Mars? I mean, it’s
a long way away and moving. How do you know which way to go?”

“Ah,” said Jeff, “okay, good
question. You’re not far from our home, Justin. We live in Newport. Okay,
another question for our navigator. Gabe?”

“Hello Justin. Actually, it’s not
that hard. Using Johannes Kepler’s laws of planetary motion and Newton’s laws
of motion and universal gravitation – the foundations of orbital mechanics –
one can predict where in our solar system a planet will be at any given moment.
Then it’s simply a matter of calculating what’s called a Hohmann transfer orbit
that will intercept Mars’ orbit and put us there when Mars is there. And to get
back, we simply do the reverse. So, once we were in orbit around Earth we
executed a TMI burn – Trans-Mars Injection – of our Earth Departure Stage, or
EDS, at the proper time to get us on our way at a velocity sufficient to escape
Earth’s gravitational pull and on the right trajectory. Then we navigate along
the way by the stars – celestial navigation – the same way sailors on Earth
have been navigating for thousands of years. Occasionally we will have to make
a minor course correction burn with our Service Propulsion System engine, or
SPS, but our initial trajectory will take us pretty close to Mars. It’s all
just a matter of mathematics. Fortunately, the planets and stars are very
cooperative, and generally go where they’re supposed to.”

Jeff shook his head. “Don’t believe
a word she says, Justin, it’s not that easy. Gabe happens to have a doctoral degree
from Caltech in aeronautics and applied physics. For her, it is easy. For the
rest of us, um, not so much.” He chuckled. “But that’s why we brought her
along.”

Jeff could hear giggling in the
background, “Hi, I’m Elaine Lucatero and I’m eighteen and live in San Antonio,
Texas. And my question is…” more giggling, “… since there’s no gravity in
space, do you have to wear a bra?”

Jeff buried his face in his hands,
“Oh god, help.”

Abby laughed, shaking her head,
“Um, Elaine, that sounds like a physics question.” She glanced at Gabe, “Uh,
why don’t you take this one.”