Ice Moon 4 Return to Enceladus
Page 29
6. (5261) Eureka was the first Martian Trojan to be discovered, on June 20, 1990. Based on its spectrum it belongs to the A type. However, its composition seems to differ from this group. Due to the fact that it is located at the most stable spot of the Lagrange point L5, its orbit is so immutable that Eureka might have been moving there since the solar system came into being.
7. (29075) 1950 DA is the Near Earth Asteroid with the highest probability of striking Earth. This object, with a diameter of about one kilometer, has a 0.012 percent probability of hitting our planet in 2880. If this unlikely event should actually occur, the impact could seriously threaten human civilization.
8. (21) Lutetia is an asteroid of the main belt that was discovered on November 15th, 1852 by Hermann Mayer Salomon Goldschmidt from the windows of his attic apartment. It was one of the first asteroids to be classified as the M type, though one with an unusually low radar albedo. With a diameter of approximately 100 kilometers, Lutetia is dominated by huge craters, ridges, and landslides, as well as rocks measuring hundreds of meters. It seems to have had an eventful past. The asteroid probably developed in the inner solar system and then was hurled outward.
9. (25143) Itokawa was the first asteroid from which a probe took material to Earth. This object belonging to the Apollo group has an average diameter of about 350 meters. It appears to consist of two halves that at some point collided and merged with each other. Its low density proves that it only looks like a massive stone at first glance. The images taken by the Hayabusa probe also indicate this.
10. (469219) 2016 HO3 is an ‘almost moon’ of Earth. This asteroid, with a diameter of approximately 41 meters, accompanies our planet on its path around the sun, sometimes swinging toward Mars, and at other times toward Venus. If it is on the outer path, it falls back a bit, then changes to the inner course and passes us by again. This makes 2016 HO3 a quasi-satellite.
What Would Kill Us From an Asteroid Impact
The risk of Earth being hit by a destructive asteroid is low. Statistically, a 60-meter rock will collide with our planet every 1,500 years, and a 400-meter giant about once every 400,000 years. If this happened, which effects of the impact would be most dangerous for people? Researchers in a group led by the astrophysicist Clemens Rumpf of the University of Southampton studied this question by theoretically bombarding Earth with 50,000 virtual asteroids with diameters between 15 and 400 meters.
This project showed that an impact on land was generally ten times more dangerous than an ocean hit. The following summarizes the findings, ranked from most deadly to least.
1st and 2nd places: Wind and shockwaves caused the most casualties, about 60 percent. The sudden changes in air pressure damaged internal organs, and the gusts of wind were strong enough to throw people through the air, and also uprooted trees.
3rd place: The heat generated was responsible for 30 percent of all victims. One could escape it by hiding in a basement or subway tunnel.
4th place: Tsunami. An impact at sea and the ensuing tsunami could be responsible for 20 percent of the victims. The energy of the tsunami wave would dissipate quickly.
5th and 6th places: The impact crater and the material thrown up by the impact would each cause less than 1 percent of the casualties.
7th place: Seismic shocks also would have little effect, with only 0.17 percent.
In general, only asteroids with a minimum diameter of 18 meters would be lethal. A word to the wise: If you are watching the impact of an asteroid, don’t stay near a window. When one crashed near Chelyabinsk, Russia, most of the injuries were caused by window panes shattered due to the shockwave.
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Glossary of Acronyms
AI – Artificial Intelligence
API –Application Program Interface; Acoustic Properties Instrument
ASCAN – AStronaut CANdidate
AU – Astronomical Unit (the distance from the Earth to the sun)
BIOS – Basic Input/Output System
C&DH – Command & Data Handling
CapCom – Capsule Communicator
Cas – CRISPR-associated system
CELSS – Closed Ecological Life Support System
CIA – (U.S.) Central Intelligence Agency
COAS – Crewman Optical Alignment Site
Comms – Communiques
CRISPR – Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats
DEC PDP-11 – Digital Equipment Corporation Programmable Data Processor-11
DFD – Direct Fusion Drive
DISR – Descent Imager / Spectral Radiometer
DNA – DeoxriboNeucleic Acid
DoD – (U.S.) Department of Defense
DPS – Data Processing Systems specialist (known as Dipsy)
DSN – Deep Space Network
ECDA – Enhanced Cosmic Dust Analyzer
EECOM – Electrical, Environmental, COnsumables, and Mechanical
EGIL – Electrical, General Instrumentation, and Lighting
EJSM – Europa Jupiter System Mission
ELF – Enceladus Life Finder
EMU – Extravehicular Mobility Unit
ESA – European Space Agency
EVA – ExtraVehicular Activity
F1 – Function 1 (Help function on computer keyboards)
FAST – (Chinese) Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope
FAO – Flight Activities Office
FCR – Flight Control Room
FD – Flight Director
FIDO – FlIght Dynamics Officer
Fortran – FORmula TRANslation
g – g-force (gravitational force)
GBI – Green Bank Interferometer
GNC – Guidance, Navigation, and Control system
HAI – High-Altitude Indoctrination device
HASI – Huygens Atmospheric Structure Instrument
HP – HorsePower
HUT – Hard Upper Torso
IAU – International Astronomical Union
ILSE – International Life Search Expedition
INCO – INstrumentation and Communication Officer
IR – InfraRed
ISS-NG – International Space Station-Next Generation
IT – Information Technology
IVO – Io Volcano Explorer
JAXA – Japan Aerospace eXploration Agency
JET – Journey to Enceladus and Titan
JPL – Jet Propulsion Laboratory
JSC – Johnson Space Center
JUICE – JUpiter ICy moons Explorer
LCD – Liquid Crystal Display
LCVG – Liquid Cooling and Ventilation Garment
LEA – Launch, Entry, Abort spacesuit
LIFE – Life Investigation For Enceladus
LTA – Lower Torso Assembly
MAG – Maximum Absorbency Garment
MCC – Mission Control Center
MIT – Massachusetts Institute of Technology
MOM – Mission Operations Manager
MPa – MegaPascal
MPD – MagnetoPlasmadynamic Drive
MSDD – Multi-station Spatial Disorientation Device
NSA – National Security Agency
NASA – National Aeronautics and Space Administration
NEA – Near Earth Asteroids
PAO – Public Affairs Office
PC – Personal Computer
PE-UHMW – PolyEthylene-Ultra High Molecular Weight
PER – fluid PERmittivity sensor
PI – Principal Investigator
Prop – Propulsion
PSS – Princeton Satellite Systems
RCS – Reaction Control System
REF – REFractive index sensor
RNA – RiboNeucleic Acid
RTG – Radioisotope Thermoelectric Gen
erator
SAFER – Simplified Aid For EVA Rescue
SIRI – Speech Interpretation and Recognition Interface
SFTP – SSH (Secure Socket sHell) File Transfer Protocol
SSP – Surface Science Package
SSR – Solid-State Recorder
TandEM – Titan and Enceladus Mission
TiME – TItan Mare Explorer
TNO – Trans-Neptunian Object
TSSM – Titan Saturn System Mission
UTC –Universal Time Coordinated
Valkyrie – Very deep Autonomous Laser-powered Kilowatt-class Yo-yoing Robotic Ice Explorer
VASIMR – VAriable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket
VR – Virtual Reality
WHC – Waste Hygiene Compartment
Metric to English Conversions
It is assumed that by the time the events of this novel take place, the United States will have joined the rest of the world and will be using the International System of Units, the modern form of the metric system.
Length:
centimeter = 0.39 inches
meter = 1.09 yards, or 3.28 feet
kilometer = 1093.61 yards, or 0.62 miles
Area:
square centimeter = 0.16 square inches
square meter = 1.20 square yards
square kilometer = 0.39 square miles
Weight:
gram = 0.04 ounces
kilogram = 35.27 ounces, or 2.20 pounds
Volume:
liter = 1.06 quarts, or 0.26 gallons
cubic meter = 35.31 cubic feet, or 1.31 cubic yards
Temperature:
To convert Celsius to Fahrenheit, multiply by 1.8 and then add 32
Notes
January 13, 2049, (1566) Icarus
1 Quoted according to https://history.nasa.gov/SP-4218/ch5.htm (at the bottom of page 122.)
The title, as it is quoted here, is not a typo, and this is not the entire poem; you’ll see several more verses.
Excerpt: The Hole
January 1, 2072, Asteroid 2003 EH1
Doug was shivering. He glanced at the display on his right arm. The heater was working at full speed, so it wasn’t faulty technology, and that was reassuring. He always felt cold right after getting up—so why did he insist upon watching the sunrise? A moment ago he had heard Sebastiano clattering around. The Italian must be in the warm kitchen, preparing the New Year’s meal he had been raving about for days. Maria would be standing in the shower, with hot water splashing all over her body. He should be keeping her company, instead of walking around out here in the dark.
But why wait? thought Doug. Instead he decided to take a few steps toward the sun, and his helmet lamp showed him the way. While he knew almost every square meter of his temporary home, an asteroid can change, just like a living being. The fissure now in front of him was just a narrow crack when they had arrived two years ago. Now it was seven or eight meters across and comparably deep. Doug pushed off slightly more forcefully than normal, into a forward jump-step, and floated to the other side. 2003 EH1 was not heavy enough to pull him in with its gravity. A badly planned jump—upward and too forceful—would turn Doug from an astronaut into a small interplanetary object. The large, bottle-shaped container on his back not only provided him with breathable air, but also served as an emergency jet. If he drifted into space, he could use its second gas nozzle as a miniature jet to maneuver himself back to safety.
Another ten meters or so, Doug estimated. The black rock in front of him seemed to gain a golden edge, and he stopped. It will happen soon. A whitish-yellow point of light rose above the ridge. Within seconds it became a semicircle, then a circle. The first sunrise of the New Year! Doug held his breath. He would have liked to experience it in the majestic stillness of space, but his spacesuit inevitably created noise, even while he held his breath. His ears still heard humming, hissing, and creaking, while the sun was slowly rising in the black firmament.
Without the sun’s radiation he and his crew could not survive, evidenced by the solar modules next to the ship. They were just now being hit by the first energy-providing rays. But out here the faraway star did not look anything like the life-giving mother Doug remembered from Earth. No, it was more like an accidental visitor who did not care much about the inhabitants of asteroid 2003 EH1. This was probably due to the intense blackness of space that seemed to suck up all light. The sun painted Earth’s sky in warm hues, but space remained utterly black. Doug raised a gloved finger and covered the sun’s disk with it. If he weren’t still seeing the long, sharp shadows on the surface, it might as well be night. There was only glaring brightness and absolute darkness. He had been flying into space for over 30 years, but he had never fully gotten used to this extreme contrast, or to the blackness of the dark. The five-times-larger sun disk he knew from Earth had probably become embedded in humanity’s collective memory.
Doug looked around. Now that the sun was, Earth couldn’t be far from it. He looked for it and found a few white dots that were possible candidates, but he couldn’t decide on a specific one. He should have downloaded the current star chart before going out, but he had not been that mentally organized so soon after waking up. The second-brightest spot out there must be Jupiter. ‘As the crow flies,’ the giant planet must be roughly as far away from him as was Earth.
Doug barked a laugh at himself, noticing the strange expression he had used. A bird certainly could not fly between himself and Jupiter, as there was no more air than what was contained in his pressure tank. Biologically speaking, the asteroid on which they were traveling was completely dead. At some point it had been a comet, but during its lifetime the solar radiation had stripped it of most of its volatile material.
Doug sat down and moved his glove over the thin layer of dust covering the brittle rock. He lifted a few crumbs and rubbed them between his fingers. They would sink slowly to the ground—taking several days or maybe even weeks—as the gravity of the asteroid was so low. These particles contained carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, and silicon, but also valuable metals and rare-earth elements, and all of these in considerably higher concentrations than on Earth. Hence their reason for being here: They were traveling through space on a flying treasure chest. Doug was counting the days. The equivalent of another 1,110 Earth days and they would all be rich.
“Will the gentlemen please come to breakfast?” Maria’s voice over the helmet radio sounded annoyed, but he knew she was not really irritated. That was just part of the daily ritual. They normally had breakfast in the module they called their ‘living room,’ as Sebastiano worked almost all morning in the kitchen and wouldn’t let anyone else come in. Today, it was by chance that sunrise and the beginning of their day coincided. They still patterned their life rhythm after Earth, while 2003 EH1 rotated once around its axis every 756 minutes—12.6 Earth hours.
“On my way,” Doug replied as he stood up and turned his back to the sun. His shadow was so long it almost reached the ship. Kiska consisted of a round command module and the cylindrical drive. It held onto the asteroid by means of four landing struts. Originally, the spaceship had only been designated by a really long identification code. Doug tried to recall it, but could only get as far as K76M4. Shortly after launch, Maria had named it Kiska, the Russian word for kitten.
“Are you almost here? Don’t forget to wipe your boots!”
“Yes, Masha,” he replied, using his pet name for her. “Just a moment.”
Doug pushed himself off and moved toward the spaceship. Their quarters were behind it, in a deep cylindrical trough they had specifically dug soon after landing here. This way, the asteroid protected them optimally against meteorites and cosmic radiation. The computer calculated their risk of being hit at below one-tenth of one percent—for the entire duration of their journey.
Doug looked around while slowly drifting across the rough surface of the asteroid. Ahead he could see for several hundred meters, but looking right or left, the horizon was onl
y 50 meters away. If he were to turn 90 degrees and circle the asteroid at his current pace, he would return to his current position in no more than half an hour. In essence, he was float-walking over the porous, reddish-brown-and-grey surface of an enormous cigar-shaped rock that was racing through the universe at many kilometers per second. Nevertheless, the world around him seemed to stand still.
The spaceship seemed to grow larger as he approached it. Doug grabbed one of the landing struts and brought himself to a halt. Kiska loomed above him like an eight-story high-rise. The landing struts anchored it to the asteroid, but even without their aid the ship would be standing solid as a rock, simply due to its large mass. This gave Doug a feeling of security. Despite the near-zero gravity, he could not simply push Kiska to the side—just like a flying insect hitting a bicyclist could not knock the rider off his bike.
The steel strut of the ship looked like new. Doug touched it with his glove and realized how deceptive this appearance was. While the metal did not rust, he could feel the tiny impact-pits made by micrometeorites. This was not the first voyage of Kiska, but it very well might be its last—depending on 2075 Earth-prices for the raw materials they were harvesting here. If all three of them had enough money in their accounts by then, they would be able to retire. Doug sighed. Just like the ship, they weren’t getting any younger.
He let go of Kiska’s landing strut, and of his thoughts. Then he slowly moved around the ship. Five meters behind it, a few stairsteps led downward. He used the handrail to descend them, a biomechanical necessity due to the lack of assistance from gravity. The railing was essential for safely going upstairs, too, to prevent a push-off from sending one into space.
The roofline of their quarters was marked by LEDs that were blinking in a soothing rhythm. Four colored lines led from the edge to the center, where the airlock was located. The hatch stood open. Doug had not bothered to close it when he had gone outside. If Maria knew, she would scold him, even though he saw no reason to shut it, as neither weather nor other humans existed here. The three crew members were the only known living beings within at least 600 million kilometers, four times the distance between the Earth and the sun.