Orbital Maneuvers (6 page)

“NASA tracks those things! They would have given us a warning if anything was coming!” Jerry shouted.

“No, they don’t,” Susan retorted.  “There is no official program with any funding that’s searching for these…
NEO
s!  There are some small groups, scattered here and there in the States and Europe, doing some work, but it is uncoordinated and under-funded.”

Paul interrupted, “Wait!  What’s a NEO?”

“Near Earth Object, asteroids, comets,” Susan said.

Jerry cut her off.  “Still, Susan, surely something as big as you are describing would have been picked up by —”

“No!  Jerry, if you’re not looking in the right place at the right time, you’re not going to see it.  And that presumes it reflects enough light to be seen, and that it is not coming in on a blind spot we have from Earth!”

Paul stirred uneasily.  “What if the government knew about it and didn’t say anything?” He stared from Susan to Jerry.

“No, they would have said something, I’m sure of it,” Susan said.

“Right,” Jerry sneered, “I can see the government saying nothing about this!  Why would they?  Think about it, what could they do?  They would probably be more afraid that there would be mass riots and chaos if they released such information.”

“They must have some kind of contingency plan in the event of such a disaster.  Don’t you think?” Paul asked.

Susan shook her head.  “I don’t know.  The point is moot.  It’s happened and we have to deal with it!”

Jerry was shaking his head still unconvinced.  “Do you know what the odds are that we would get hit by an asteroid and that it was more than a mile long?”

Susan turned on Jerry.  “Where is the arm, Jerry?  Can you explain where the arm went? Can you explain where Jill went?  I know that the odds are millions, or billions, to one, but not zero!  This asteroid was not a run-of-the-mill hunk of rock.  I saw the hole it punched in the atmosphere and it was headed right for the United States!”

“Won’t we be jeopardizing our chances for a safe return by using that fuel and going to a higher orbit?” Paul asked while he studied Susan’s face.  This was a side of Susan he had never seen before, and he was not quite sure what to make of it.

“We should be okay if we stay under three hundred miles maximum altitude,” Ivan replied.

“No!” Susan shouted.  “We have to get as high as possible!  The debris plumes can reach a thousand miles or more.  The higher the better!”

“We need authorization from Mission Control to do this!  We can’t just shoot out to a higher orbit on a whim!” Jerry shouted back.

“Jerry, haven’t you heard that we can’t communicate with Mission Control?” Susan asked with an icy edge in her voice.  “Who knows what’s left down there …”

“Look, if an asteroid took off the arm then it could have also damaged our radio antennas.  I think we should run a diagnostic on the communication system first; just to make sure that the problem is not with us.  Before we assume that Mission Control has been smashed to pieces!” Jerry snapped.

“Jerry, I am commander on this mission and we are going to push our altitude to three hundred miles or as high as we can!” Susan retorted, her voice was quivering and her face was turning red. “You do what you want!”

At this time, Ivan reached out and put his hand on her shoulder. “Okay, Susan, it is okay.  Just relax.  We have enough fuel to push our altitude up another fifty miles or so.  Jerry has a good point in checking out our comm system.  If it is okay, then the options we have will be clearer.  In the meantime, Paul can check the shortwave radio to see if it is working and if he can get any information.”

“I’m alright,” Susan said as she tried to control her breathing and calm down.

“We have an air leak, so you’d better get your pressure suit on.  I’ll set the computer up to give us the proper burn time for another fifty miles of altitude,” Ivan said as Susan headed out of the flight deck.

When Susan was gone, Jerry moved over to Ivan and watched him enter the parameters for the new orbit.  After a few moments of silence he finally spoke in a hushed tone, “Ivan, what do you think about this?  Is she cracking or what?”

“I think she has a valid point.  If an asteroid as big as Susan describes did indeed hit the Earth, we could be running a very serious risk of hitting something big enough to destroy the shuttle, if we do not move to a higher altitude.  We have enough fuel to make the course change, so we are not jeopardizing our return flight.  Besides, she is the commander on this mission.” Ivan turned back to the computer screen and continued entering the data.

“I’m not so sure that she is fit to be making these decisions, regardless of her position as commander.  You saw how shook up she was when she came in from the payload bay.  I mean that would shake anyone up, myself included.  I don’t think I would be in any condition to start making decisions that would concern the well-being of the rest of the crew after that.” Jerry studied Ivan’s face closely for any sign of approval before he blurted out, “I think that you should take over command!”

“What?!” Ivan snapped as he slammed the pen he was using to do his calculations down on the console and sent it flying across the flight deck.

“You were in the military.  You know what it’s like to deal with situations like this…you know…life and death!” Jerry was backing away from Ivan as he was speaking, still watching Ivan’s face but now growing more concerned that he should have kept his mouth shut!

Ivan floated out of his seat; turned toward Jerry and looked him straight in the eyes. “Get this straight, Jerry!  Susan is commander of this mission!  She has been trained to deal with every sort of contingency that may occur!  She is conducting herself in a very professional manner, under some very stressful conditions, much more professionally than you are, I may add!  She has made a logical decision and I am going to support her on it.  If you have a problem with that you can submit a report when we get back.  In the meantime, I expect that you will not cause any more trouble and will do whatever it may take to get us back home.  You can start by seeing if you can find why we are losing pressure!” By this time Jerry had floated up against the arm control station on the aft flight deck.  Ivan turned from Jerry, catching his pen as it floated by after ricocheting off the wall for the second time, pulled himself back in his seat and proceeded to finish his calculations.

Ivan called over the intercom. “Susan, we have to make our burn in the next couple of minutes if we are going to do it at all.”

“I will be right up,” Susan’s voice echoed from the speaker.

“Paul, have you gotten anywhere with the comm system?” Ivan asked.

“The comm system checks out okay.  If anybody is sending, we should be receiving.  I am going to get on the shortwave and see what I can turn up.”

“Roger that, Paul.  Everybody, helmets on, and hook up to the system for O2 while we do the burn.  Hang on, because we are going to light the mains in about thirty seconds.”

Susan floated up through the access hatch, now in her pressure suit, and sat in the seat next to Ivan.  She checked the displays and noted that the pressure leak they had was still there.  It was small, but still there.  She made a mental note to check it after the burn to see if the leak was any worse.

“Ten seconds to ignition,” Ivan called out over the intercom.  Turning to Susan, who was buckling her seat harness, he said, “We’ve got barely enough fuel to get to the higher orbit and make it back home.  You sure you want to do this?”

“Ivan, this ship is not going back home.  The payload bay door was damaged when the arm was ripped off and will not close.  There’s no way we will survive reentry.  If we pass through the stuff the asteroid kicked up, we won’t have to worry about anything.”

Ivan stared into Susan’s helmeted face for a moment, searching for a glimmer of hope, as their situation just grew a lot darker than he initially thought.  He turned back to the control panel, “Burn in…two…one…ignition!” he said as he hit the switch to fire the engines.  Everyone was pushed back into their seats or if they were standing, against the bulkheads as the shuttle accelerated beneath them. 

The ship vibrated as the engines fired and Susan noticed that the vibrations were different from what she remembered.  There were more harmonics being generated than before, which Susan attributed to the damage done by the collision with the asteroid. The more she thought about it the more she realized that there must be more structural damage than just the payload bay door.  She scanned the instruments looking for any indication that the burn was stressing the shuttle more than it would tolerate.  The vibrations were getting more prominent and Susan checked the time left on the burn, ten more seconds to go.  “Hang on baby, just a few more seconds,” she whispered to herself.  With two seconds to go an alarm rang out and Susan jumped.  Ivan checked the computer display and calmly announced that the pressure leak had increased to a dangerous level.  “Everyone stay on the O2 until further notice.  We have exceeded the safety threshold on the cabin pressure.”

The engines finally shut down and there was an eerie silence in the shuttle.  No one spoke but everyone listened for something unusual, something that did not belong on the shuttle after an engine firing.  Susan finally broke the silence, “Paul, get back on the shortwave and see if you can get anything.  Ivan, give Jerry a hand and see if you can pin down where that air leak is.  I am going to—”

Susan did not finish as a burst of static shot from the comm system followed by a barely intelligible voice “…day…mayday…thi…ir station we are decl…ng an emergency…severely  damaged…End…vor can you respond…Mayday, mayd…cy…” Ivan looked at Susan and saw that she was as startled as he was at the outburst from the radio.  It was so broken up and laced with static that neither of them understood it initially; it was only after it was repeated in Russian that Ivan realized what they were hearing and who was sending.  “MIR!” he shouted.

“MIR?” Susan’s eyes snapped wide open as she realized the implications of a message from MIR.  “Oh, damn it!  They must have flown right into the debris plume!  They never had a chance!  Ivan, see if you can get a link set up with MIR,” Susan commanded, as she started typing feverishly on her keyboard.

In the background Susan could hear Ivan sending out a message alternating between Russian and English but was too busy to listen to what he was saying.  She was running a program that would show the position of the Soviet space station relative to their new orbit and give her information on the mechanics of a rendezvous with MIR.  While the computer crunched the numbers, she thought about their situation.  Even if they could get to MIR they could not get back to Earth.  It would just delay the inevitable and they would all die from lack of oxygen long before the shuttle’s orbit decayed and it burned up in the atmosphere on reentry.  They would all need help before too long, and there was no one else around to provide it. 

As she stared at the computer display it suddenly produced a graphic showing the Earth, looking down from a point of view above the Tropic of Cancer.  Around the Earth were concentric circles showing the orbit of Endeavour along with the orbits of several other artificial satellites.  Among these she searched for MIR, but before she found it her eye caught on the red dot that had ISS next to it.  In an instant she had a solution to their immediate problem…if the orbital mechanics would work out.  She typed in more instructions to the program, commanding it to work out a solution that might allow a rendezvous with MIR first, and then the International Space Station second.  She wondered if the move to the higher orbit, and the use of the extra fuel to get there, was going to cost them their only chance for survival. 

Maybe Jerry was right in a way; maybe they should have spent more time trying to get in touch with Mission Control.  At least they would have been closer to MIR to effect a rescue.  She shook her head as if to shake the doubt out of her mind.  She had made the decision and it was a sound one at that time.  With the problems that they now faced, she could not afford to be spending time wondering if she did the right thing. 

Paul’s voice came through the intercom, “Susan, I’ve gotten something on the short-wave.  There is a lot of chatter going on and with this interference it’s hard to make it all out.  I keep getting things about major earthquakes.  A lot of it is in languages I don’t understand.  Let me try something.  I’ll let you know in a few minutes.”

Susan looked up from the computer screen over to Ivan, “Ivan, how are you making out with MIR?”

“I keep getting a broken transmission.  They must be in a bad way and our comm system is not working well either.  The best I can make out is that they are in their return craft, but they cannot separate from the station.  Beyond that, I do not know.”

“If you can get through to them see if they can use their return ship to boost their orbit a bit higher.  Maybe they can get above the debris before their next pass and give us more time to get to them.” Susan thought for a moment, “It’s going to be real tough to keep the entire station stable while doing a burn.”

“I’ll see what they can do.”

Susan glanced down to the computer screen to look at the latest set of data the program presented.  As she studied the numbers and the graphics, it became clear that the only way they could make it to MIR, and finally to the space station, was if they had more fuel.  She punched in more numbers.  This time she wanted to know how high MIR would have to be to make it work with the fuel they had available.  Susan let out a breath of exasperation, more waiting while the computer worked, more valuable time they were wasting.  Each second that passed pushed them further along in their orbit and possibly further away from safety.  She found herself wishing that NASA had invested in more state-of-the-art equipment.