Space Case
Authors: Stuart Gibbs
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For my grandparents, Rose and Ralph and Annie and Herman
This book wouldn't exist if
it weren't for my good friend Garrett Reisman, who used to be an astronaut and is now the human spaceflight program manager at SpaceX. I've always been thrilled by space travel (back when I was thirteen, I wrote to NASA volunteering to be the first teenager in space) but having a friend who has actually done it is the next best thing to doing it yourself. Over the years, Garrett has given me an incredible window into the present and future of space travel, inviting me and my family to space shuttle launches, videoconferencing with me from the International Space Station (where he showed off his infamous “zero gravity juggling”), and, of course, letting me try the space toilet simulator at the Johnson Space Center. Those experiences inspired this bookâas well as my son, Dashiell, who spent many days of his young life dressed as an astronaut. Even though Garrett is insanely busy these days, he was always available to answer any questions I had about what life would be like in space. (However, I should point out that my lead character's views on moon colonization are fictional; they are not the opinions of Garrett or anyone else at NASA or SpaceX.)
I am also indebted to Leah Ilan for teaching me about sign language, Tim Delaney and Danny Eisenberg for doing
a tremendous amount of research, Kristin Ostby for her excellent editing, and Jennifer Joel, my extraordinary agent, for first suggesting that space might be a great location for a middle grade series. Finally, huge thanks to my dear friend and fellow science fiend Scott Lew, who went to superhuman lengths to give me some really excellent notes on this book.
Moon Base Alpha Resident Directory
Residence 1
(base commander's quarters and office)
Nina Stack, moon-base commander
Harris-Gibson residence
Dr. Rose Harris, lunar geologist
Dr. Stephen Gibson, mining specialist
Dashiell Gibson (12)
Violet Gibson (6)
Dr. Maxwell Howard, lunar-engineering specialist
Kira Howard (12)
(Note: The Howards are not due to arrive until Mission 6. This residence will remain empty until then.)
Brahmaputra-Marquez residence
Dr. Ilina Brahmaputra-Marquez, astrophysicist
Dr. Timothy Marquez, psychiatrist
Cesar Marquez (16)
Rodrigo Marquez (13)
Inez Marquez (7)
currently occupied by the Sjoberg family:
Lars Sjoberg, industrialist
Sonja Sjoberg, his wife
Patton Sjoberg (16)
Lily Sjoberg (16)
reserved for temporary base residents (female)
Residence 6
reserved for temporary base residents (male)
Residence 7
Dr. Ronald Holtz, base physician
Residence 8
Garth Grisan, maintenance specialist
Dr. Wilbur Janke, astrobiologist
Dr. Daphne Merritt, base roboticist
Dr. Chang Kowalski, geochemist
Goldstein-Iwanyi residence
Dr. Shari Goldstein, lunar-agriculture specialist
Dr. Mfuzi Iwanyi, astronomer
Kamoze Iwanyi (7)
Kim-Alvarez residence
Dr. Jennifer Kim, seismic geologist
Dr. Shenzu Alvarez, water-extraction specialist
(Note: Not due to arrive until Mission 6. This residence will remain empty until then.)
Dr. Viktor Balnikov, astrophysicist
(Note: Not due to arrive until Mission 6. This residence will remain empty until then.)
Chen-Patucket residence
Dr. Jasmine Chen, senior engineering coordinator for Moon Base Beta
Dr. Seth Patucket, astrobiologist
Holly Patucket (13)
(Note: Not due to arrive until Mission 8. This residence will be used as housing for temporary base workers until then.)
Excerpt from
The Official Residents' Guide to Moon Base Alpha,
© 2040 by National Aeronautics and Space Administration:
WELCOME TO MOON BASE ALPHA!
Congratulations on your selection as a resident of the first permanent extraterrestrial human habitat! To ease your transition from earth, Moon Base Alpha (referred to from here on as “MBA”) has been designed to feel as comfortable and familiar as any residence on our home planet. Our engineers and designers have spared no expense to provide all MBA residentsâor “lunarnauts”âwith everything they need for a relaxing, pleasurable existence.
However, life on the moon will not be without challenges. There are obviously many differences between this residence and one on earthâmany of which you may be pleasantly surprised by! To that end, please take the necessary time to read this helpful, informative manual in its entirety, as it will likely answer any questions you have about your new home (and perhaps a few questions you hadn't even thought to ask yet)!
Once again, congratulations on your selection. Welcome to the moon. Enjoy your new home!
Earth year 2041
Lunar day 188
Smack in the middle of the night
Let's get something straight, right
off the bat: Everything the movies have ever taught you about space travel is garbage.
Giant spacecraft that are as comfortable as floating cruise ships? Complete fantasy. Warp-speed travel? Never going to happen. Holodecks? Terraforming? Beaming up? Don't count on any of it.
Life in outer space sucks. Trust me, I know.
My name is Dashiell Gibson. I'm twelve years old and I live on the moon.
On Moon Base Alpha, to be exact.
You know this, of course. Everyone on earth knows this, unless they've been living in the Amazon rain forest for the last few years, and since there's barely anything left of the Amazon rain forest, I'm guessing that's unlikely.
Moon Base Alphaâalong with everyone who lives on itâhas been the subject of an absolutely staggering amount of hype: The first human outpost in space! The first people to live on a celestial body besides earth! A glorious first step in mankind's ultimate colonization of the galaxy!
The government fed my family all that baloney as well, back when they recruited my parents. And I admit, I completely fell for it. We all did. The recruiters made everything sound so amazing: Moon Base Alpha would have all the comforts of earthâand more. We'd go down in history as one of the first families to live in space. We'd be the newest breed of pioneers, pushing the limits of human achievement.
Like I said: garbage.
Living in Moon Base Alpha is like living in a giant tin can built by government contractors. It's as comfortable as an oil refinery. You can't go outside, the food is horrible, it's always coldâand the toilets might as well be medieval torture devices.
Ever notice how, in all the science-fiction movies and TV shows you've ever seenâ
Star Wars
and
Battlestar Galactica
and all 142 versions of
Star Trek
âno one ever goes to the bathroom? That's not because, in the future, everyone has figured out how to metabolize their own feces. It's because going to the bathroom in space is a complete pain in the butt. Literally.
At least the moon-base toilet is better than the one on the spaceship we took here. In zero gravity, you have to take extreme precautions to ensure that whatever comes out of your body doesn't fly up into your face. (There's an old saying in zero-g space travel: If you ever see a piece of chocolate floating around the cabin, don't eat it. It's probably not chocolate.) However, using the toilet on Moon Base Alpha is no picnic. If I'd known how exceptionally complicated and disgusting it would be, I never would have agreed to leave earth.
It was because of one of those evil toilets that I wound up involved in far more trouble and danger than I ever could have imagined.
*Â Â *Â Â *
Now, before you get the idea that I'm some whiny, ungrateful kid who just likes to complain and wouldn't be happy anywhere . . . I'm not. Before my family made the awful decision to come live on the moon, I was happy as any kid you've ever met. Happier, maybe. We lived on the Big Island of Hawaii, which was awesome. Mom worked at the W. M. Keck Observatory, which runs the telescopes on the peak of Mauna Kea.
Although the scopes are thirteen thousand feet up, they're managed remotely from the town of Waimea, which meant we could live down by the beach. So my childhood was pretty idyllic. I had lots of friends. I did well in school and played on every sports team. I surfed every weekendâand when I did, there were usually dolphins in the waves with me.
Then the government came calling.
See, my parents have a very unique set of skills. Mom is a lunar geologist who wrote some landmark papers about the moon and the consistency of its mantle and core. Dad is a mining engineer with a specialty in environmentally sound mineral extraction. And one of the major reasons for the moon base is to explore the possibility of mining precious metals there.
Separately, Mom and Dad would each have been solid candidates for Moon Base Alpha. Together, they were an impossible combination to beat. Space is limited on the moon. With them, NASA got two scientists without having to send two separate families. So they wanted my folks badly. We got the full-court press. Politicians called us. The chairman of NASA came to visit. We were all flown to Washington, DC, first class for lunch with the vice president. And every last one of them lied to our faces about how great it would be to live on the moon.