Stellarium (Origins): A Space-Time Adventure to the Ends of our Universe

by Fabricio Simoes

  “Okay, I think that’s the best plan we’ve got. Thank you, Bryan. I’d like to see the simulation in detail. We’ll need to have two astronauts on the Soyuz, and two on the Orion. There are only five people at the Space Station right now, which means that, after this mission, there will only be one person left there for the next two months, when it will be restocked. We’re probably going to have to send the Russians back again, since they just got to the ISS for a year-long mission, but that’s fine,” Jones said.

  Bryan agreed. Finally, they had a plan.

  “Let me see the simulations. I’m going to go talk to Elizabeth right now. She’ll have to convince the Russian Space Agency to take part in our plan... which won’t be easy,” he concluded.

  The hours passed by, and a new day dawned. It was the third day after the Orion-II’s first contact with Houston. Rumors about the crew’s reappearance were now being reported. NASA had finally organized their first press conference, which would take place later that day. Meanwhile, Jones informed the astronauts on the Orion-II of the details of the plan.

  “Houston, this is Orion-II. Do you copy?”

  “Go ahead, Houston.”

  “Russell, we’re going to program the Orion-II’s computers for the return trip. You all will travel to the moon, land on it, and wait there until another Orion ship arrives to rescue you. You will travel directly from the moon to Earth, which is good news,” Jones said.

  “That’s great, Houston. I’ve never had the opportunity to walk on the moon, so it would be a great pleasure to end the mission that way,” Russell responded.

  “It should take you three days to get there. Then, you’ll need to orbit the moon for approximately one day to gradually decrease your speed and altitude. The Orion-II isn’t equipped for this type of landing, so you will slowly fall downwards. Bryan will give you all the details. He has calculated that you will have to wait about two hours for the rescue ship to arrive. The astronauts who will carry out the rescue mission are Captain Michael Carter and Dr. Eva Brooks. They were on a mission at the ISS, but they’re being relocated for the rescue. Do you understand?” Jones asked.

  “Yes,” Russell replied.

  “One more thing, Russell. You should expect an encrypted message with some important instructions. It will be sent shortly,” Jones closed.

  Bryan spent the next few hours carrying out the necessary procedures with the crew of the Orion-II to get them on their route. Once he finished with that and got the ship moving, he would have to do the same with the astronauts at the ISS.

  His job at the ISS would be quite complicated. First of all, because two ships, one American and one Russian, would have to be docked. This process wasn’t difficult in itself, because the Orion had been designed with this feature in mind. The latest model of the Soyuz also came with the necessary modifications for this procedure. However, it would be the first time this process was carried out in space. Both ships would disconnect from the Station and navigate toward each other, which is when the Orion would dock onto the Russian ship.

  Once this had been accomplished, the Soyuz would activate its thrust. Both ships were designed to function and accelerate with this configuration, but it had never been tested in space. It had never been necessary.

  Aboard the Orion-II, already en route to the moon, the astronauts discussed the possibility of walking on its surface. This time, Russell was the one trying to spread his joy to the others, not only because he was sincerely happy, but because it was a way to get Allison and Frank’s minds off the news they had received from Earth.

  At that moment, the ship received an encrypted message. Frank immediately opened it and read it to the others:

  Orion-II, since the Apollo missions in the 1970s, no man has returned to the moon. Probes and robots were sent, and a crew orbited the moon, but no one else has landed there.

  In 2033, China began to send vehicles and probes to explore the moon’s dark side, with a crew in orbit. We know very little about the dark side of the moon. Their lunar exploration program continued until 2038, without any involvement from NASA, which was focused on the Stellarium space program.

  Before the cancellation of the Stellarium program in 2041, NASA started a pre-program to assess the possibility of sending a manned mission to land on the dark side of the moon. However, the project was not approved.

  The parameters and coordinates that you should follow to land on the moon will take you close to this area of interest. It will take you approximately 40 minutes to walk to the spot where you will meet the rescue team from the ISS.

  During that walk, any information you are able to collect will help us to reopen the project and, eventually, obtain approval to continue exploring the moon.

  Once he was done reading, the astronauts looked at each other.

  “How strange,” Allison said.

  “You think so?” Russell replied. We’re going to the moon, and NASA is risking the lives of other astronauts so they can come rescue us. It’s been over 70 years since a human being has stepped foot on the moon, so I think it’s obvious that they would want to take advantage of this opportunity and have us land in an area of interest... especially if that could help them get approval for future missions.”

  “I agree with all that,” she said, “even though the data and images we’re bringing back from this mission will be more than enough to keep NASA and the scientific community busy for years...”

  “I think Allison’s point,” Frank intervened, “and I agree with her on this, is: why did that information have to be sent as an encrypted message? I mean, we’re returning with a revolutionary treasure chest of data, and they want us to secretly help them reopen a project related to the moon?”

  “Exactly. Why would NASA want to keep it a secret? That’s my point,” she concluded.

  “I don’t think we’ll know the answer to that question until we get back to Earth,” Russell responded.

  “Or until we land on the moon,” Frank said.

  Meanwhile, at the Space Station, the two spaceships, the American Orion and the Russian Soyuz, had already undocked. The Soyuz was headed away from the ISS, on a route parallel to the Station.

  Then, the Orion set off. It passed under the Soyuz and performed a series of maneuvers to reverse its position. The two spaceships were now facing each other.

  The Russian spacecraft stayed still. The American ship carefully moved forward, toward the other. Gradually, the two began to line up perfectly.

  The one astronaut who had been left at the ISS witnessed the entire process. He saw the two ships dock for the first time. Everything went off without a hitch. The universe was conspiring in the rescue mission’s favor.

  And so the Soyuz started accelerating toward the moon, taking the Orion away from the ISS.

  Image 17 – Orion spacecraft docked on a Soyuz for the first time. Both were at the Space Station (ISS); from there, they continued to the moon on a mission to rescue the astronauts of the Orion-II.

  (credits and details on the final page)

  Chapter 22

  “But why are you going to have them land on the dark side of the moon? Haven’t they been through enough?” Elizabeth fired back.

  “Liz, that was the best solution we were able to come up with,” Jones responded. “They’ll have some fuel left over if necessary. And they won’t be in total darkness. There will be a slight reflection of light. And, finally, the Orion that will rescue them will be well lit. The best way for them to be able to see the rescue ship and meet up with it is to land on the dark side of the moon.”

  “Jones, I’m surprised that you think I’m so naive, especially coming from you,” she replied. “I’m glad that you can justify your decision with solid foundations. Just imagine if I had called you up to provide details on the rescue at the press conference yesterday?” she ironized.

  “I’m going to prepare a report and a few points to support the rationale that I just gave you,” said Jones.

&
nbsp; “If I find out that you sent them to land on the dark side of the moon just to satisfy your obsessive curiosity, you’re going to have to go into early retirement, Jones,” Elizabeth exclaimed.

  “Liz, do you know how frustrating it was for me when they decided to cancel my project? You weren’t the NASA Administrator back then; you had yet to become such a bureaucrat. Don’t you remember the images captured by that probe?” Jones asked.

  “Jones, I always have been and continue to be interested by all that. And I’m not a ‘bureaucrat,’ as you say so derogatorily. I am in charge of upholding this agency’s credibility and optimizing the public investment we receive. Even more, that project was cancelled by a unanimous decision; it wasn’t a political decision, but a technical one. Everyone agreed that the data collected on the moon was nothing more than interference from the material that the Chinese had left during their exploration program.”

  “You know that the Chinese were exploring the other end of the moon! You can’t possibly say you’re not just a little bit curious to know what’s up there. Let’s be honest, we both know that my project was only put on hold because the Stellarium-12 mission ‘failed’. Well, now, it’s clear that it wasn’t a failure...”

  “That’s enough, Jones! I’m done talking about it. This conversation is over. I’m going to accept your explanation that you only decided to have the astronauts land there so that they could more easily see the light from the Orion, and so that they could save fuel. Send the report to the Board today with your argument,” Elizabeth concluded.

  Jones had directed the Stellarium Space Program for more than ten years. When the program was cancelled, he worked with a team responsible for testing out a new satellite capable of detecting extremely precise magnetic readings. Later, he led the mission that sent the satellite to orbit the moon in 2046. The findings were impressive. As it flew over the dark side of the moon, the probe detected an enormous magnetic field in a very specific location on the moon’s surface.

  That finding was included in his pre-program to justify a manned mission. Nonetheless, his proposal was rejected. Everyone believed that the magnetic fields detected were really just lunar vehicles sent by the Chinese a decade prior, during which time they had spent five years exploring the moon’s dark side. That wouldn’t justify the cost, nor the risk.

  But Jones never believed it. First of all, because that wasn’t where the Chinese missions had taken place. They were carried out very far away from that location. Secondly, because the magnetic readings were too high to be attributed to nothing more than space garbage that had been abandoned on the moon’s surface.

  He had never been able to accept the fact that NASA’s directors hadn’t been interested in doing further research on that finding.

  So, when Bryan presented him with the plan to send the astronauts of the Stellarium-12 mission to land on the moon, he immediately came up with an idea: he could have them land at the spot where the magnetic disturbance had been detected. To the unknowing eye, that spot had been chosen because it had the greatest chance of being successful. However, for Jones, if the crew were able to identify anything, any element that could help to justify an exploratory mission, it would be the boost he needed to continue with the project.

  Meanwhile, inside the Orion-II, everyone was feeling optimistic. Their trip was going according to plan. Frank seemed to have put his personal drama aside. He was excited about stepping foot on the moon, a bonus that he hadn’t expected.

  “It’s so nice to travel with Newtonian mechanics! No wormholes, no black holes, no light speed. Just the basic formulas of acceleration and gravitation. Speed, Space and Time, all separate, no one element messing with the others,” Frank exclaimed, evoking laughter even from Russell, who was in a particularly good mood.

  “That’s true, my friend. Tomorrow, we’ll be orbiting the moon. And the next day, we’ll land. We’ll be the first people to step foot on the moon since the Apollo mission of the 1970s, since the Chinese missions never landed humans,” the commander said.

  “And we’re going to land on the dark side, which is going to be great for my resume,” Allison said, also taking part in the joke. “It’s too bad that we won’t be able to take a picture of Earth from the moon, since it will be on the other side,” she added.

  In that moment, Russell asked the control center in Houston if they could play “Man on the Moon” by R.E.M. A few seconds later, the song could be heard throughout the cabin.

  And in that state of joy and background music, the Orion-II continued on toward the moon. After all the astronauts had been through, this part seemed like a walk in the park.

  However, Captain Carter and Dr. Brook were in a totally different state of mind, aboard the Orion that had departed from the Space Station to go rescue them.

  The operation with the Soyuz had been a success. After undocking, NASA had sent them instructions on how to correct their route, since the Soyuz had been unable to stay on the established trajectory.

  Unlike Russell, Carter had never traveled beyond the Low-Earth Orbit. He was on his second mission to the Space Station.

  Brook was even more of a novice. Like Frank, she had a Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering, and she was at the ISS as part of a project to modernize its orbit control systems. If it weren’t for these exceptional circumstances, she wouldn’t even be going to the moon: there were only three Americans at the Station. One of them was Carter, an experienced pilot. The other was a biochemical scientist. He couldn’t leave the ISS, because his experiments required him to carry out daily analyses on living organisms that they had been tracking for the last four years. Brook was an engineer with experience in orbital systems, so she was the natural choice.

  This mission was the riskiest and most exciting that either one of them had participated in so far. They hadn’t done any simulations related to landing on the moon during their training. Nonetheless, the Orion was practically autonomous, and the pilot wouldn’t need to do much during the landing process. NASA had already sent all of the parameters.

  The next day, the two ships came into contact for the first time.

  “This is Commander Scott Russell transmitting from the Orion-II, do you copy?”

  “Copy. This is Captain Michael Carter of the Orion, on a rescue mission from the ISS. Go ahead, Orion-II.”

  “Carter, we’re initiating the landing procedure. We should be on the ground in the next two hours. What is your position?” Russell asked.

  “We will enter the lunar orbit in a few hours. We're not there yet. We should have a visual of the Orion-II on the ground when pass by the dark side the first time,” Carter responded.

  “Thanks, my friend. It will be nice to meet you. See you soon,” Russell said.

  “My pleasure, Commander,” Carter responded.

  A few hours later, the Orion-II was touching the moon’s surface. They sent confirmation of the successful landing to Houston, which was ecstatic over the news. Not just began the rescue mission seemed to be going well, but because, once again, they had placed astronauts on the moon. The ship’s confirmation was the last message sent to Earth before the moon would block any further communication.

  The landing had, however, encountered a few complications. They had managed to arrive at the planned spot, but they ran out of fuel just a few yards from the ground. The Orion-II experienced a 25-foot fall.

  Despite the moon’s gravity being much less than that on Earth, the fall still produced a sharp blow. The astronauts weren’t injured, but they were in shock for a few minutes after the landing.

  The Stellarium-12 mission had taken mankind to another galaxy, had put them face-to-face with a red giant star, had allowed a ship to partially orbit a black hole... and now, it had gotten to the moon.

  The three astronauts exited the ship. Russell was the last one to get out. He made a point of saying goodbye to the Orion-II, the ship that he had had the pleasure of commanding, and that had taken them to places that no human be
ing had ever been before. He placed a hand on the ship’s structure one last time before walking away without looking back.

  A few hours later, the Orion spacecraft, which had come from the ISS, initiated its landing procedure. Once on the ground, they could see the Orion-II, quite far away, lit up and abandoned. While descending, they had been able to see three bright dots walking across the moon’s surface, moving away from the ship. It was Russell, Frank and Allison, walking to the meeting point as planned.

  “Houston, this is Michael Carter speaking from the Orion, do you copy?”

  “We hear you loud and clear. Go ahead, Carter.”

  “We’re approaching the moon’s surface. Our transmission will cut out shortly, as expected. I have a visual of the Orion-II and its crew. They’re on their way to the meeting point.”

  “Roger, Carter. Remember that you all have five hours to get them on board and start back. The Control Center will reestablish contact as soon as you come out from behind the moon,” Houston informed him.

  “Okay. I’m going to change the frequency to the one used by the Orion-II and establish contact with the crew,” Carter said.

  “Good luck” said the control center in closing.

  Back in Houston, a long five-hour wait began. This was the longest they would be able to stay there; any longer and they would risk not being able to compensate for the route and re-enter Earth at the correct angle.