NASA’s revolutionary Mag-launcher had numerous advantages including: the massive cost saving in not having to use traditional high-risk spacecraft launches; impeccable reliability and incident-free safety record; and its ability to deliver huge payloads to very precise points in space. It was predominantly responsible for the project being comfortably within its immense budget and also a full year ahead of schedule. The budget spent thus far on the project was equivalent to NASA’s entire 40-year space shuttle programme.
WorldSeeker was the James Webb Telescope’s replacement and set the new benchmark for space-based telescopes. Where the James Webb Space Telescope’s mirror was 6,5 metres in diameter, WorldSeeker’s latest generation segmented mirror was 64,0 metres from edge to edge, capturing almost 100 times more light than its aging predecessor. Compared to the Hubble Space Telescope which burnt up in the Earth’s atmosphere in 2024, it could capture over 700 times more light.
The polished surface finish tolerance achieved on WorldSeeker’s mirrors and lenses was a hundred-fold more accurate than that achieved on the James Webb’s equivalents. Not only that, cutting edge silver vapour deposition technology had been used to perfect the reflectivity of its mirrors. These further enhanced the telescope’s unparalleled design capability, and put into perspective the sheer magnitude of potential image improvement. Since light capture extent, surface finish and reflectivity were directly related to image quality and resolution, there were extremely high expectations of what WorldSeeker could achieve.
The telescope was aptly complemented with the world’s most advanced reaction wheel steering system, gyroscopes, fine guidance sensors, solar panels, computer hardware and software control systems.]
WorldSeeker was Henderson’s flagship project and pinnacle accomplishment during his directorship at NASA. His legacy was now effectively guaranteed to continue long after he had retired from office. The primary justification for the project had been loud and clear: to continue searching the galaxy’s billions of stars and planets for any sign of life – the discovery of which would prove once and for all that life was not unique to planet Earth, and did in fact exist elsewhere in the Universe.
So far none of the hundreds of Earth-like exoplanets identified by the Kepler, TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite) and James Webb telescopes showed any signs of life. WorldSeeker would dramatically broaden the search horizon and hopefully find what these telescopes had been unable to find … a living exoplanet. In the long term, the discovery of inhabited and habitable exoplanets could also prove invaluable to humankind, especially if, at some point in the distant future when the technology was available, human beings ever wanted or needed to colonise them.
5:50 p.m. Earth: NASA – WorldSeeker Operations Centre
Henderson entered the WorldSeeker Operations Centre. It was packed with ultra-large screens and interactive display surfaces, including a recently patented Curvoid 3D display which filled the entire front wall. A crescent shaped operation’s console was spread across the width of the room.
Seated at the console, sifting through streams of code, was WorldSeeker’s lead technician, Linda Tanit. There were four assistants, two on either side of her, equally busy on their laptops. She was programming the PLC for WorldSeeker’s deep field imaging test run, set to commence the following day.
“Linda, how are things going?” asked Henderson.
She looked up from the console, surprised by his upbeat tone. He was usually quite grumpy in the late afternoon.
She responded, “Very well, Director. We’re just double checking our work.”
Henderson spoke, “Excellent … but, for the moment you can stop what you’re doing, because there’s been a change of plan.”
The five of them all looked up at him, confused.
He continued, “I’ve just received a call from Vice President McKenzie …”
Before elaborating, the Director got the team to sign NASA’s assignment-specific non-disclosure agreement, then signed it himself. He then proceeded to inform them of the executive order that he had received from the Vice President – they were all equally intrigued by its chilling connotation.
Linda checked something on her laptop and spoke, “Well, we’re extremely fortunate, because just days ago the Earth experienced a ‘perihelion opposition event’ with Mars. It’s currently only 58 million kilometres away from Earth … the timing is uncanny to say the least.”
“It sure is,” said Henderson knowing that the last time this had occurred was July 2018.
Linda continued, “Director, if the object we’re looking for is two kilometres in length, then WorldSeeker is our only option. The James Webb telescope’s resolution power is nowhere near what we need.”
“Precisely!” said the Director.
Linda commented, “Well, the testing and commissioning phase is now approximately 95% complete, so there shouldn’t be any problems if we used WorldSeeker.”
Henderson followed on, “And nothing could warrant pre-commissioned use more than this executive order. Let’s show them just how well their government funding has been spent!”
Linda smiled in agreement.
Henderson took a seat behind the console and spoke, “Linda, let’s get started without any delay. Please locate Mars in the telescope’s field of view.”
“No problem, Director,” she said.
Linda discussed what needed to be done with her assistants. Shortly thereafter they began programming the deviation instruction, which would redirect WorldSeeker’s orientation towards Mars. It took them just 15 minutes to complete the programme. Linda then uploaded it directly to WorldSeeker itself. She then indicated to Henderson that everything was ready.
He gave her the signal to proceed and she executed the command. She then sat back and watched the Curvoid 3D screen come to life.
A splendid three-dimensional image of Orion’s Nebula began an accelerated shift to one side. This indicated that the telescope had begun to manoeuvre into its new orientation. Millions of stars swept across its field of view in a blur as it panned across space. It would take close to 25 minutes for the behemoth structure to realign itself and then another five minutes before the first clear images of Mars were received back in the Ops Centre.
Half an hour later, as the time was approaching 6:45 p.m., the unmistakable red planet dominated the hemi-ovoid, holographic display. It was incredible to see Mars’s surface in such vivid detail. High resolution images began filling the other flat-screen displays surrounding the perimeter of the Ops Centre.
“Great work there, Linda,” said Henderson.
Linda proceeded to increase the telescope’s magnification to 50% of maximum.
The Rapid High Definition recording mechanism was activated and set immediately to its highest resolution, which captured 6 000 super-high resolution frames per minute. The computer which supported the recording function, could accommodate over 1 000 hours of recorded material at this frame speed and resolution.
Henderson spoke, “Let’s set WorldSeeker’s combing function to locate objects of any size within a 25 000 kilometre orbital radius of Mars. An alarm should sound if it finds anything.”
“No problem, Director. That will only take a minute,” Linda confirmed.
While she was typing she asked, “What do you think we’re looking for, Director?”
“Beats me Linda, but it’s unlikely to be a natural object. The fact that it has a symmetrical shape has to mean that it’s manmade.”
Linda’s programme instructed WorldSeeker to scan the entire orbital area around Mars for any objects in motion, or variances in light within the field of view. They had to consider the fact that an object orbiting Mars would only be visible 50% of the time, so the scanning had to be continuous if anything out of the ordinary was to be seen. Laborious work – but intrigue spurred them on.
Henderson’s mind was churning in the background. What could have prompted such a spontaneous, high level government instruction of this nature? He mulled
over the possibilities.
8:00 p.m. Earth: WorldSeeker Ops Centre – Contemplation
Two hours later, after three false alarms, Henderson’s eyes started to feel strained from watching the screens so intently. He stood up and spoke, “I need a short rest … to refuel my waning optimism with caffeine. How about coffees all around?”
Linda and the others accepted the offer.
“Great, I’ll be back in five minutes.”
Henderson left the Ops Centre and walked through a deserted passage towards the cafeteria. While organising the coffee, he looked up at the television which had been left on. It was the 8:00 p.m. news on CNN, and President Jameson was standing behind a podium about to give a press release. He noted that it had been recorded from earlier in the day. He turned up the volume and listened to her minute long statement.
The President’s references to ‘extraordinary events’ and a ‘summit with world leaders’, caught his attention. He wondered if her press release could be linked to what he was doing, but dismissed the thought as unlikely. He had never been one to entertain conspiracy theories.
Hot coffees in hand he returned to the Ops Centre.
10:15 p.m. Earth: WorldSeeker Ops Centre – Search
A few hours later the rejuvenating effects of the coffees were starting to wear thin, but fascination continued to drive tiredness from the WorldSeeker team’s minds as they watched the screens. The combing alert suddenly sounded again and something caught Linda’s eye.
“Did you see that?” asked Linda as she deactivated the alarm.
Neither Henderson nor the assistants saw anything.
Linda rewound the recorded images.
This was the sixth time the alarm had sounded, so they didn’t get their hopes up. Three of the alarm reviews had revealed nothing more than empty space, while the other two had picked up Mars’s two asteroid ‘moons’ named Phobos and Deimos, which were 22,2 kilometres and 12,6 kilometres across respectively. Linda called up a timer at the bottom of the screen which turned from green, representing live feed, to red, recorded feed. The images on the screen slowed to a standstill and then rewound.
“There it is again … a blur, very faint, but distinguishable. Let me isolate that frame and enlarge it,” said Linda.
The others stared at the curvoid image in wonder. Henderson loosened his tie and collar as he looked at it more closely.
“You’re right Linda … something’s there.”
The blur looked distinctly different to the two randomly shaped asteroids that they had looked at previously.
Linda spoke, “Director, I’m going to enhance this particular frame, so please bear with me while the high definition is fully rendered.”
She spoke further while manoeuvring the video controls, “If it is something, then we’re going to have to reposition WorldSeeker to find it again. We can then boost its magnification to 100%.”
The image’s resolution improved slowly, revealing new detail.
Linda zoomed into the blurred area until it filled the screens. Then, something astonishing began to appear as the higher definition was revealed. The blur was definitely an object and it began to show a strange symmetric geometry.
“That doesn’t look like an asteroid to me!” exclaimed the Director in stupefied wonder.
Linda commented, “I agree, Director. With that shape, it can only be manmade … but look at its immense size!”
The Director was aware of 14 probes and satellites that were currently in orbit around Mars. Five of them belonged to NASA, two of which were still active, while the balance were owned by private entities and other nations. None of the 14 was wider than 50 metres across. He was certainly not aware of anything that could possibly fit the profile and scale of what they were looking at now. He speculated whether it could be something belonging to another spacefaring nation, but that was equally impossible since a space project of this size would be impossible to hide. His mind raced through other possibilities but none added up.
Linda’s heart rate began to climb in excited anticipation.
She spoke, “I would, without any shadow of a doubt, classify this as an object of interest.”
The Director responded, “Absolutely! Let’s analyse its orbital trajectory and velocity, and see if we can get WorldSeeker to locate it again.”
“We’re onto it already, Director,” said Linda.
10:25 p.m. Earth: WorldSeeker Ops Centre – Acquire
It took 11 long minutes for the team to reacquire the object. WorldSeeker was much more cumbersome to manoeuvre than the James Webb telescope, but was still impressively fast considering its gigantic size. Linda defined the telescope’s orientation parameters to track the object’s orbital path around Mars. She then began to increase the telescope’s magnification and the live feed’s definition improved simultaneously.
A notification tone sounded two minutes later, followed by WorldSeeker’s digitised female voice, “Maximum mechanical magnification has been reached.”
A huge shape now filled the Curvoid 3D screen. It appeared to be cylindrical and rotating slowly about its lengthways axis. The reddish surface of Mars drifted across in the field of view’s background.
The Director instinctively leaned forward and blinked his eyes to get a better view. He thought his mind was playing tricks on him. For the first time in his life he was completely speechless.
Linda broke the stunned silence. “What in heaven’s name is that? It’s a manmade structure for sure, but doesn’t look like any spaceship or space station that I know of. Could it be Chinese, or Russian maybe?”
The Director regained his thoughts. “I have no idea, Linda. It’s unlike anything I’ve ever seen before. Its sheer size is what really baffles me. Without doubt, this is an incredible sighting.”
All six of them watched the three-dimensional depiction of the object. It was completely mesmerising.
Henderson continued, thinking out loud, “I don’t see any identifying markings depicting its name or origin. But then again, the characters may well be too small for us to make out. They must be there somewhere though.”
Linda followed, “Unless of course this thing is military, rather than civilian.”
Henderson noted her comment. He was tempted to contact the Vice President immediately, but decided to continue with the observation until he had more concrete information.
Linda selected a frame from the live feed and waited for its high definition to render. She then enhanced the image with false colouring which gave an even clearer view of it.
She made a suggestion, “Let’s try something else here and give the gamma ray detector* a go. We might see something interesting.”
[* WorldSeeker had been fitted with a gamma ray detector, funded by the US Department of Defence. It was to be used for military emergency purposes only, but would certainly prove to be very useful to NASA for their civilian research in determining the ultimate age of the Universe. If required by the military, WorldSeeker could be redirected towards Earth to hunt down radiation signatures of nuclear devices in remote parts of the world. If they were not buried deep down in a bunker or being stored in a lead container, the nuclear signature would light up like a flare.]
The Director was fully aware of this function and agreed with Linda’s suggestion.
He spoke, “Go ahead Linda, let’s see whether this thing lights up.”
She switched over to gamma ray view, but there was nothing of interest being emitted from the object, confirming that it was not nuclear powered. Some of the Russian exploration probes that had been launched into space decades ago were fitted with micro-nuclear reactors and these were known to emit radiation – but not this object. The Director looked up at the ceiling running through his rambling thoughts.
“What in God’s great Universe is this thing?” he mumbled.
Linda inserted a grid into the holographic image. The grid then expanded in the third dimension and shifted its position to orientate itsel
f over the furthest extents of the spacecraft. The grid cubes were 100 metres in all three orientations. A summary table then appeared giving the object’s overall length and width dimensions.
Henderson commented, “Look at the size of this beast: two kilometres long and 400 metres in diameter! I’m not aware of anything belonging to any space programme that is anywhere near these dimensions. The International Space Station was only 120 metres across for crying out loud … and it took the combined efforts of seven nations over 30 years to build!
“To put this thing into perspective, it’s six times the size of the US Navy’s recently launched Radisson Class Nuclear Powered Aircraft Carrier!”
Linda followed on, “Well, I reckon we can safely say that we’ve found what we were asked to look for, since this matches both aspects of the Vice President’s brief. It’s strange though: this thing is different to anything I’ve ever seen in my life before. It’s almost as if …” she paused to reconsider what she was about to say, “… almost as if it’s not manmade …”
Her comment sent a chill down the Director’s spine and echoed his exact sentiments. He then realised that the time had come.
He stood up from the console and spoke, “Linda, I’ve got to make an urgent call. Give me five minutes. In the meantime, make sure we keep track of this unbelievable discovery. I want as much video footage gathered as we can store in our archives. Keep playing around with the enhancement functions to see if the image quality can be improved even further. This is ground-breaking and I want every aspect of this discovery documented for research purposes.”
“Yes, Director. Understood fully.”
Henderson walked briskly out of WorldSeeker’s Ops Centre and into an adjacent meeting room. He fumbled to get his mobile phone out of his pocket. His hands were shaking and he found it difficult to operate the phone’s touch screen. He eventually managed to select the number he was looking for and hit the dial button. It was very late, but he didn’t care.
Wake-up Call: 2035 Page 23