“Then let’s do it.”
Christopher, Emile and Tung-chi pushed up from the floor towards the central tunnel, and then gleefully made their way towards the airlock. Christopher, in his exuberance, sprung as hard as he could up the tunnel, rushing along it faster than was safe until he hit the forward wall of the airlock suiting area.
“Oops,” he said. “The handholds.” He scooted back down the tunnel past the other two, to start the parts fabricator working.
An hour later, he and Emile were suited up. Advances in spacesuit design meant they could more or less put the entire thing on by themselves, and be ready to go – although procedures still dictated that someone else perform all the safety checks.
Tung-chi had a large touchscreen interface in the airlock suiting area, with controls, communications, and outside camera views to direct the EVA.
“Ready?” he asked.
“Ready,” Christopher and Emile replied.
Tung-chi opened the inner airlock door. They floated into the chamber, and the door closed behind them.
“Depressurizing to 0.2 atmospheres,” Tung-chi said, before punching the button to begin. It took roughly half an hour. It would have been possible to preprogram the entire depressurization to occur automatically after the door was closed, but safety procedures dictated that it be done in stages, with the EVA director present.
Half an hour later, he said, “Down to 0.2. Any problems?”
“No pressure leaks at all. I can still move about okay,” Christopher replied.
“Same here,” Emile said.
“Okay, here we go,” Tung-chi said. The rest of the air drained from the airlock.
“All still good,” Emile said.
“Go for EVA,” Tung-chi said. Christopher pressed the button to open the outside hatch. They climbed out slowly and carefully. Emile was tethered to Christopher, who had tethered himself to a handhold on the outside with a carabiner.
“My God, this seems so real now,” Emile said, as they paused to look around. The sun was beginning to rise over Phobos. They were suddenly bathed in its brilliant white light, and blinded for a moment until their helmet glass darkened to compensate. The exterior of the ship was now illuminated. Protrusions cast long shadows, as the Sun cast its rays along the Explorer’s length. The now-brightening surface of Phobos was off to their right, and Mars to their left. They moved slowly forward from the airlock down to the SEV bay. The others watched them from inside, wherever they happened to be in the ship, through both the ship’s external cameras and the astronauts’ helmet cams. Mission Control also watched. The surface exploration vehicles were locked in place in a row, lengthwise, along the bay.
“About to start systems check on SEV 1,” Christopher announced. The two astronauts sat astride the SEV, with Christopher in front. He pushed a button on the console between the control sticks. The machine came to life. Indicator lights lit up on the panel in front of him, and the heads-up displays in their helmets showed all kinds of system status and navigational information.
“Self-check good, fuel status good,” Christopher said.
“Concur,” Emile said.
“Checking thrusters,” Christopher said. He punched a button that activated all the vehicle’s thrusters in turn, to make sure they were working. “All good. Permission to undock and take her for a spin?”
“Yes from me, but we must wait for Mission Control’s go-ahead,” said Aleksandr.
Twenty-four minutes later, the answer came from Earth: “You are go to undock.”
“Sweet,” Christopher said. He pushed the button that released the clamps, and applied a gentle upward burst from the thrusters. They rose slowly from the SEV bay. “We’re really flying now!” They stopped ten meters above the bay. Looking back they could now see down the entire length of the ship, unobstructed by the hub.
“To heck with staying fifteen meters from the bay!” Christopher said. “I’m going to fly down the length of the ship.”
“Okay,” Aleksandr said, while hoping Mission Control wouldn’t have a problem with it.
Christopher turned the vehicle 180 degrees, so that they were facing the aft of the Explorer, and applied a gentle burst of thrust to get them moving. They flew slowly past the airlock. Tung-chi waved at them through the window, and Emile waved back. Next they passed the docking adapter. “She sure looks beautiful,” said Christopher, as bright sunlight reflected from the polished metal exterior of the adapter. Next they passed the side B module, and the hub. As many people as could fit in the port side dome window waved as they went by. Then the SEV passed slowly down the length of the gleaming white truss, and finally arrived at the reactor. Then, Christopher saw something that caused him to stop dead.
“What the heck?” he said, staring at a discoloration on the outside of the reactor block. “That shouldn’t be there.” He zoomed in his helmet cam to show a close-up view of what appeared to be a brown stain. “Looks like a coolant leak.”
The others in the ship strained to see and make sense of what he was looking at. “Looks like it to me too,” Nikita said. “Not good. Not good at all.”
Christopher said, “Mission Control, we trust you can see this. We need input on it. I’m going to wait here until we get some advice on how to proceed.” He brought the SEV to a stop. He wished very much that this weren’t happening, and that he could just enjoy the beauty of the moment as they floated by the ship that had brought them so many millions of kilometers.
“Guys, I’m going to do a quick fly-around inspection of the reactor block, while we’re waiting for Mission Control to get back to us.”
“Roger that, Chris. Don’t get closer than five meters,” Tung-chi said.
He piloted the SEV slowly and carefully around the reactor, closely scanning its exterior for any more anomalies. None were found. He stopped again near the site of the probable leak.
“IME, this is Mission Control. It looks like a fluid leak to us as well. We need to get a sample of the fluid and inspect it. However, it could be radioactive, so you’ll have to come back out with a Geiger counter and check it before you sample it. Once you get a sample, do a spectral analysis on it and send us the results. Try and get this done as soon as humanly possible. Mission Control out.”
“Okay, guys,” Aleksandr said. “You heard them. We need to get this done before the daylight runs out. However, the Geiger counter and sample kits are inside. We’ll have to put them in the airlock, and then have one of you come in and get them while the other holds the SEV in a hover outside.”
“Copy that, Alex. Coming back to the airlock.” Christopher turned the SEV around and headed back. Meanwhile, Tung-chi started the re-pressurization of the airlock. As soon as it was back at normal air pressure, he opened the inside door, tossed the needed items in, and closed it again. Then he commanded it to depressurize rapidly – which meant five minutes, instead of half an hour.
“Opening the outside door, Chris.”
“Copy that.” The outer airlock door swung open.
“Okay, Emile,” Christopher said, “I’m going to go in. There’s nothing in the manual for this, so I’m making it up. I’ll tether myself to the handhold on the left side. The rope’s only five meters long, so you’re going to have to keep her hovering close. Think you can manage it?”
“No problem,” said Emile. Both riders had a set of controls, and everyone had trained exhaustively to pilot SEVs. Emile held a precise hover while Christopher retrieved the items.
“That’s a relief,” Emile said as Christopher pulled himself back up the rope and climbed on board. They flew forward again to the discolored area on the reactor housing. At a safe distance, Christopher turned the Geiger counter on. They could not hear it, of course, but the gamma radiation level indicator showed nothing out of the ordinary.
“Radiation levels are safe,” Christopher said.
“I will collect a sample, then,” Emile replied.
Now it was Christopher’s turn to ho
ld the SEV stationary, while Emile jumped overboard. He tethered himself to the SEV, and then floated from it to the reactor housing, grabbing the handholds. He opened the sample jar, swiped the cloth inside it across the dark material to pick some of it up, and then put the cloth back into the jar.
“Guys, we’re running out of daylight,” Tung-chi said. “We have less than an hour left.”
“Copy that. We’re almost done here, and about to head back.”
Emile hurriedly climbed back on board, and they headed the 140 meters back to the SEV bay. They landed and docked the SEV, and then climbed back along the rungs leading back to the airlock. They reached the door just as the sun was about to set behind Phobos.
“Phew! Safely back inside,” Christopher said, as the airlock slowly repressurized.
“Yeah. That was more than I was expecting from today’s EVA,” Emile replied.
“No kidding,” Tung-chi said from the other side of the inner airlock door.
“Well done, guys,” Aleksandr said. “As soon as you’re back inside, we’ll get that sample analyzed.” Once inside, the material sample was rushed to the laboratory.
Christopher and Aleksandr floated by the analyzer. “This has me really worried, boss,” Christopher confided. “If it is what I think it is, we have a coolant leak. The reactor is a sealed unit, so there's no way to repair it. And we couldn't anyway, since we don't have the parts. I don’t have to explain what that means, if the worst case comes true.”
“It's a good thing it only got to be a severe problem now, instead of happening halfway through the outbound voyage,” Aleksandr replied.
“Yeah... I bet the entire cooling system pressure is low. It's a damn good thing we caught it when we did.”
“Don't tell the others, for now. I don't want them to worry too much. Let's just want and see what Mission Control tells us when they get the results from the analysis.”
57
T-plus 97 days
It was 9 AM, shipboard time.
“So, today's the day,” Martin said. “The mission science team has given us the green light to go to the surface of Phobos.”
“Yes!” Christopher punched the air. The others cheered and hollered.
“So, the time has come at last,” Aleksandr said slowly, “for humans to set foot on another celestial body.”
His words hung in the air, as the crew took in the enormity of this milestone.
“The first to go will be you, Martin,” he continued, “plus three others. The others will be Tung-chi, Alessia, and Kinuko.”
Excited smiles broke out among those chosen. Genuine smiles, though slightly less excited, broke out among the others.
“That way, we have as broad a representation as possible among the space agencies, and also two gender-equal teams. Plus, the two main planetary scientists will be there. That was the basis of my decision.” The crew nodded. Aleksandr didn't have to explain his decision, though they appreciated that he did.
“This, more than anything else in the mission, is driven by politics,” Nikita said, “though I am honored to even be a part of this mission at all.”
“Everyone will get plenty of chances to go,” Aleksandr said. “We will be exploring Phobos for eight months, before we move on to Deimos. There's hardly going to be a part of it we haven't visited by the time we're done.”
“Maybe we'll figure out why its mass is so low,” Kinuko said. “It’s a fraction of what it should be if it were made of solid rock. I would sure like to know that, as would every planetary scientist in the world, I think.”
“I bet it's hollow,” Christopher said. “Maybe it's an alien spaceship in disguise.”
“That has actually been suggested,” said Martin.
“Probably by the same people that said the Moon is made of cheese,” Emile replied.
“Yeah, and it took a manned mission to prove that it wasn't,” Christopher said, to laughter from the others. “That, right there, is the scientific justification for spending billions of dollars to get us here.”
“Well,” Aleksandr said in an effort to get to business, “our window of daylight begins at 2PM and lasts for four hours. We'll have to be on the SEVs and ready to go when that window opens. And before we get outside, we have to roll the ship ninety degrees so the SEV bay is facing Phobos. That has to be done by 1PM at the latest. So, Martin, you'll have to point the remote sensing instruments at something else for a while.”
“Sure thing,” Martin replied. “I can program some other automatic observations for when we're outside. Or I'll just retract the suite. We'll see what Mission Control says.”
“Okay,” Aleksandr said. “Those who are going today should be checking their suits and reviewing EVA procedures, prior to suiting up at one. Those who aren't can have the day off if they want!”
“Woohoo!” Nikita exclaimed. “I'll catch up on a little reading, while you all are exploring. Oh, who am I kidding? I'll be watching your every move from your helmet cams.”
Suiting up had gone well, with the inner airlock providing ample space for all of them to get ready at the same time. The airlock chamber, however, was a different story. It was a cramped space for four, for the half-hour it took to depressurize. Now, however, that was all forgotten as they sat in their saddles ready to go.
The sun rose quickly over Phobos. Since there was no atmosphere, there was no beautiful, brightening, crescent to herald the sun. One minute it wasn't there, and the next minute its disk appeared, bathing the ship in its blinding rays even though the surface of Phobos was not yet illuminated. Kinuko rode behind Tung-chi, who piloted SEV 1, and Martin rode behind Alessia, at the controls of SEV 2.
“There's a small hill directly below us,” Martin said. “The science team christened it Yellowknife. That's where we're going first. As soon as the sunlight hits it, we're good to go.”
“Five minutes,” came Nikita's voice from inside, as he watched the dawn sunlight creep across the surface below. The stark inside rim of the western side of Stickney Crater was quickly illuminated. The light moved steadily down the slope, and touched more features of the Mars-facing side of the moon until, at last, the peak of Yellowknife was in view.
“That's our cue,” said Martin. “We are go to undock.” The pilots pressed the buttons to release the docking clamps. The vehicles drifted slowly upwards. The pilots applied a touch of thrust, to put some distance between them and the Explorer.
“She sure is a beautiful ship,” Martin said, as they looked down at her.
“Yeah,” Kinuko replied. “A technological marvel.” Phobos was above them.
“Okay, time to flip over.”
The pilots touched their rotation control sticks, and rolled their craft to the right 180 degrees. Phobos was now below them, and the slender form of the Explorer above them.
“A little more down thrust, to ten meters a second,” Martin said. They accelerated in their descent, drifting a little further apart as they went.
“SEV systems check,” Nikita said from above.
“One nominal,” Tung-chi said.
“Two nominal,” Alessia said.
“Your descent is right on course.”
As they watched, the colorless surface of Phobos drew steadily nearer. The Explorer, meanwhile, was receding quickly into the distance. Soon, they were at the halfway point. “1.25 kilometers to go,” Martin reported. The pockmarked surface drew closer. To Kinuko, all of this felt like a dream.
“Seven hundred meters.”
On board the ship, Nikita now had to use binoculars, as the SEVs were tiny specks to the unaided eye.
“Five hundred meters.”
The ship looked a very long way away.
“Two hundred meters. Decelerate to five meters a second.”
More slowly now, the top of Yellowknife came up to meet them. It sloped away to a boulder-strewn plain to the east.
“How’s our landing site looking?” Alessia asked.
“Pretty smooth, I
think,” Martin replied.
“You’re good, from where I’m sitting,” Nikita said. He had given up on the binoculars, and was now floating in the hub, with the others, watching the action through the telephoto lens of an outside camera. The world watched the same pictures, as the event was covered live.
“Fifty meters,” Martin announced. “Slow to one meter a second.”
They appeared to almost hover over the surface now, even though they were still descending.
“I can see our shadows,” Kinuko said. Due to the low angle of the sunlight, the shadows were a long way off. She looked down and saw a smooth surface, save a few shoe-sized rocks and pebbles, coming up towards them.
“Drifting to the right a little,” Christopher said under his breath, reminded of Neil Armstrong’s words as he searched desperately for a level place to land on the Moon’s surface four generations before. People from Times Square to Tiananmen Square held their breath.
Christopher slipped on a headset, and plugged it into the comms app on his tablet. He selected Martin’s private headset channel. “How you doing, buddy?” he asked. “So, have you got an epic phrase for when you land? ‘One small step for a man,’ or something like that?’”
Martin pressed a button on his sleeve to answer in private. “Now’s not the time, Chris.” Christopher intentionally stayed silent, to give him a chance to switch back to mission comms. After a pause, he pressed mischievously, “Soooo, what’s it going to be, dude? You must have come up with something!”
“Shut up!” Martin said, as he concentrated. This time he forgot to switch to private. Everyone on the Explorer, and around the world, heard the words. Christopher did a backflip in glee. Aleksandr shot him a glare. Christopher laughed uncontrollably at this reaction; his work was done. “Good Lord,” Aleksandr muttered under his breath.
They floated just above the surface. Martin flew sideways a little, until they were separated by ten meters or so. “Go ahead and touch down,” he said. He and Tung-chi both applied the slightest downward thrust, until their skids made contact with the dirt. “IME, this is Phobos station here. We have landed.”
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