“Hey, be careful, Abrams,” she said, looking down at her leg and smiling. “I don’t want to have to file a sexual harassment claim before we even launch.”
“Right,” he said, good-naturedly. Such teasing was common. “How about you, Parker?”
Dr. Maria Parker was on the other side of the cabin, to the right of Col. Quesen. Her primary skill was geology, although all of the crewmembers were cross-trained in each other’s specialties, in case an emergency incapacitated a crewmember.
Parker was born and raised in rural Alaska. In terms of ancestry, she identified herself as Tlingit, a race indigenous to the area that she called home as a youth. However, she did not claim to be full-blooded Tlingit. Her skin was bronzed and unblemished. She had thick, brown, slightly curling hair (which Lennon envied) and her facial features were soft and unimposing. Her eyes were large and brown and gave her an innocent appearance. In many ways, she was the opposite of Lennon, who enjoyed blonde hair, fair skin, and blue eyes. Parker struggled with a little bit of an impulsive streak, which was tangent to her innocent appearance. Still, she was far from a “wild child”. Many males found her irresistible and frustrating at the same time. At thirty-one, Parker was the youngest crewmember.
“You can’t touch my leg either, Abrams,” she said.
“What? No, I’m talking about the launch, you dingbat.”
She cracked a small smile. “What in the world is a dingbat?” she asked. She knew what he meant.
“All right, lock it up,” said Col. Quesen. “Don’t forget we’re going to Mars. Get your game faces on.”
“Yes, sir,” chimed several of the crewmembers.
After a few seconds, Dish threw his fists up into the air. “We’re goin’ to Mars!” he screamed.
When the actual launch happened, it was a little bit anti-climactic. The Crewmembers felt an initial rush as the engines roared and the ship shook violently. The rapid acceleration pressed them back into their seats, but after that, the thrill gave way to the need to perform. Their intense training paid off, and the pilots and the ground crew placed the spacecraft into orbit around the Earth without any significant problems.
Thirty Months Prior
Rebecca Lennon sipped sweet tea while she enjoyed the slow pendulum motion of the porch swing. The outdoor thermometer, which hung from the awning, hovered around eighty degrees Fahrenheit—a temperature unusually hot for this time of year in West Virginia. She smiled as she watched the birds hop from branch to branch in the oak trees of the forest around her house. Technically, it was only her mother’s home now; her home had become somewhere else. She had moved out years ago, but because her mother was in ill health lately, Rebecca had been visiting so often that she may as well have lived here again.
Lying next to her on the swing was a thin package, wrapped in brown packaging paper and tied with light brown twine. She knew what was in it; she simply had not convinced herself to open it yet. She stared intently at it. It was only about half of an inch thick. It was just about the right size for standard 8.5” by 11” sheets of paper to fit inside.
Last month, she had submitted a packet for approval. The results of her submission were in the package. She had spent at least a month preparing the package before sending it out. She had arranged references, compiled transcripts, and ultimately created a self-marketing pitch that should get her noticed and approved by the selection committee. At least, she hoped it would.
She had expected a personal answer. The printed label on the package was not a positive sign that the committee had accepted her. She sighed as her mother came out of the house and sat beside her.
“Why don’t you open it, dear?” her mother suggested softly.
Her mother was getting older. Lennon could see grey, even in though the blonde hair that her mother had been so proud of in her youth disguised it. She still kept it long, but today she styled it up off her shoulders and held it in place with hair clips. She held a cup of tea, and Lennon watched her hands. The knuckles, once fair and slender, had grown large and knobby from arthritis. It made her hands look like they were the hands of a skeleton. Lennon did not like seeing her mother looking so aged, and it frightened her and saddened her a little bit. Her mother was wearing a dress that was white with a blue flowered print on it. My, how frail she looked! Lennon looked away.
“I’m afraid of what’s in it.”
“Have you considered… that the answer that you don’t want might be the better answer?”
“Come on, mom, we’ve talked about this. This is what I want.”
“I know, but, are you sure what you want is best? I’m not going to be around forever.”
“Mom, please don’t give me a guilt trip. I just turned thirty-four years old. I have to live my own life.”
“I just worry that you are putting too much importance on this, Rebecca. Is it really that big of a deal?”
“Yes, mom,” she snapped, “It is a big deal. I could be going to Mars.” She snatched the package and tore it open. She read the top page silently:
Dr. Lennon,
The review board has processed your application and found you to be an exceptional candidate. Based on your credentials, the board has selected you to continue the selection process.
She gasped. She was an exceptional candidate. She read further and saw that if she were to accept the conditions of the offer, she would report for training next week. The completion of the selection process and the training would take an additional two years, with pay of course.
Two years, and I don’t even know if I will be on the final team. She held her breath. She was supposed to be married in six months.
“What are you going to tell him?” her mother asked, obviously aware of what the letter said. She was referring to Lennon’s fiancé, of course, reading Rebecca’s mind in the way that a mother sometimes can.
“I don’t know,” whispered Lennon, answering honestly. She would have to move from West Virginia, for one thing. He was not going to like that at all. His career was just blossoming… he would have to stop it for her. He would have to give up everything he was working for, just so that she could have a small and unlikely chance to do something big. He would know as well as she did that the odds of rejection were high, and that the desired result may not happen at all for her.
“Congratulations, dear,” said her mother, as she patted her on the leg and went inside.
Rebecca Lennon buried her head in her hands.
Day Two
Dish was sweating, and that made Lennon a little bit nervous. Matthews appeared calm; however, she had never seen him lose his cool, so his appearance was not an indication of how well things were going. Abrams and Parker were already in their suits—minus the helmets—and strapped into their seats. Queasy was the last to strap in, using handles on the ceiling and wall so he could turn his body around and float into his chair.
The space station was straight ahead. Because the round trip to Mars would take approximately two and a half years, there was no way for the engineers to have the entire selection of equipment launched into space on a single rocket. The required equipment and fuel was simply too heavy. Most of the supplies and the bulk of the spacecraft were waiting at the space station for quick assembly. In addition, several prior launches had placed equipment in orbit around Mars and on Mars itself, including food, water, fuel, air, and deployable shelters. Robots had gathered equipment on the surface of Mars and had begun preliminary construction of a habitat for the crew to live in. The first step for the crew was to dock with the space station, assemble the rest of the spacecraft, and stock the ship with additional fuel and supplies before entering into the orbit required for the Hohmann transfer.
It would take six months to get to Mars. Once there, the planets would not align again for one and a half years. After that time, the astronauts could attempt a return trip, and if all went well, the crew should arrive back on earth approximately two and a half years after launch.
It was dangerous, fo
r sure. The biggest problem to overcome was the issue of how to ensure the crew could cope with or counteract the effects of microgravity on the body. The absence of gravity is a huge problem because the body depends on gravity to function correctly. Gravity normally pulls blood into the legs, but in space, the blood will accumulate in the chest and head. In response, the brain senses the extra fluid in the abdomen and tells the kidneys to remove water. This causes dehydration. Normally, the bones and muscles in the body have to work to stabilize the body against gravity. In microgravity, this is no longer true and so muscles and bones begin to shrink and weaken. The heart is a muscle, and since blood pumps easier in space, the heart shrinks. When the kidneys filter calcium from the degrading bones and remove what the brain thinks is extra fluid, the odds of developing painful kidney stones raise greatly. Other than the kidney stones, this weakening of the body is a problem that astronauts can counteract in space with moderate exercise. However, when a person returns to full gravity, the body may not be able to handle the stress unless astronauts properly exercise prior to returning from space. If not, muscles will not be strong enough to handle gravity’s pull.
The lack of gravity causes disorientation in humans. The ability to sense orientation depends largely on gravity—not only does a person feel the ‘pull’ downwards, but the pressure on parts of the body is felt as those parts are pressed against whatever object a person is standing, sitting, or lying on. Gravity pulls the fluids in the inner ear, and this pressure activates nerves in the ear. The brain interprets those signals and uses those signals for balance, and so astronauts can often feel nausea or ‘seasickness’ when this input is absent. Without these indicators, eyesight becomes the only way to sense which way is ‘up’. These issues are only the beginning of the health problems that occur in microgravity.
Lennon was the Medical Health Officer aboard Seeker 3. Her primary responsibility on the ship was to ensure the crew was functioning well mentally, psychologically, and physically. In fact, one of the primary reasons for her selection to this crew was the fact that she had been leading a team that was at the cutting edge of research on microgravity and the health of humans in microgravity environments. In addition, her Master’s thesis was on the psychological and social interactions of groups in confined environments for long periods. At the time she wrote it, she never thought her study might apply to herself on a lengthy trip to Mars.
She had argued tirelessly for a section of the spacecraft to provide artificial gravity of some sort. A spinning section would be the most obvious method, with the walls of a cylinder that was spinning becoming the floor for the crew when inertia drove objects outward, simulating gravity.
The engineers would hear nothing of it. It’s too complex. The maintenance requirements would be too great. It would compromise the structural integrity. When she refused to sign off on the health of her crew without it, she managed to work out a compromise with the engineers. They installed a device called the “Box” on the spacecraft. It required the addition of a specialized module to the spacecraft at the space station, which was negligible because the original design called for a module for crew exercise anyway. The module was essentially a large room with a box-shaped cage installed. A mechanical arm affixed to the cage and mounted the cage to the center of the room, creating a strange contraption that looked a lot like a large pendulum. A counterweight was on the opposite side. The Box could fit one six-foot tall person with his or her arms held up or outstretched. Several large rubber straps stretched inside of the Box for resistance training. When the arm connected to the Box rotated, centrifugal force would press the astronauts towards the side of the cage that was the outer edge of circle drawn by the Box’s rotation. This movement provided opportunity for individual exercise in a simulated gravity environment. Since the moving structures of the Box were all internal to the ship, maintenance was easier and structural integrity remained intact. However, due to its size, the crew had to assemble the Box in space. It would have to remain in orbit around Mars as the crew completed the planetary mission. It was simply too big to lift off from Mars for the return home. During the journey to Mars, however, the crew was required to exercise in the Box for at least twenty minutes each day.
In addition to the Box, the crew could use an exercise bicycle, a treadmill, and more of the resistance-training rubber straps outside of the Box. Any of the crewmembers could attach the exercise bicycle to a simple electric generator for emergency power, or for charging personal electronic devices.
As they approached the space station, Lennon could see a corner of the Box—the name also given to the section of the ship that held the actual machine—on the viewing monitor in front of Dish. Once docked, the crew would need a day to assemble Seeker 3 with the remaining sections docked on the space station, such as the Box, and to load the completed spaceship with fuel and supplies.
Seeker 3 included a new type of engine that would generate ions and could theoretically use the miniscule push of ions to accelerate the spacecraft to very high speeds. Traditional ion engines worked by generating a stream of ions. The generation of the ions creates an equal and opposite push against a ship, moving it forward. While this effect is nearly immeasurable against the pull of gravity, in the vacuum of space the constant pressure would eventually drive the ship to very high speeds with minimal fuel consumption. The traditional engines in this spacecraft were capable of generating significantly more thrust than the ion designs; however, they did so at the cost of much higher fuel consumption.
Regardless, the ion engines would not drive the ship. A future deep-space mission would launch from the orbit of Mars using the ion engines. Because of the cost of the trip to Mars, the mission planners were trying to squeeze every penny of value out of the trip—this included preparation for future missions.
Lennon did not fully understand how the ion engines worked, but that was all right with her. The engines were Abrams’ thing, and she was happy to let him deal with it. Even though they did not intend to use the engines for propelling the ship, the crew would still eventually use the ion engines because of the need to test them in space.
They were not the first to attempt the trip. The Russians and the Chinese had attempted it. They had orbited Mars when the last window had presented an opportunity, which was a few years ago. Unfortunately, a critical flaw discovered in the Chinese Lander forced China to abort. Russia’s approach had been similar to the United States. However, one of the Russian supply rockets had an in-flight failure that led to the loss of a key part of their spacecraft, as well as the lives of two cosmonauts. The Russians were not able to manufacture a new component before the launch window was over. India’s reluctance to use anything that they did not manufacture indigenously caused them tremendous setbacks when their heavy lift platform failed in a high-profile demonstration. They reluctantly bought parts from other countries to keep their space program alive while they redesigned the heavy lift vehicle. For the time being, they modified their space policy to focus primarily on exploration of the Moon.
This spurred the American President to action. Seeing the chance to reclaim the former glory from the Lunar Landings, he called for a massive renovation in the Mars program. It was not an easy process, however. America had started out behind in the new Space Race. The President would not relent, and the Seeker project was a smashing success. The Seeker project had its first success when a small, unmanned craft, named Seeker 1, flew to Mars to simulate a manned mission. Seeker 2 was another unmanned mission, designed to place supplies in orbit around Mars and on the surface of Mars near a proposed landing zone, all in preparation for an upcoming manned mission. That mission is the mission I am on, noted Lennon. Seeker 3.
The most difficult part of mission preparation had been the selection of the crew. In fact, it had been three years prior that Lennon had her first interview with the selection board. There was no shortage of applicants, despite the danger and the length of the trip. Each member of the crew had s
uffered intense scrutiny. The crew had completed just about every type of psychological, medical and intelligence examination possible, and had passed every single one. Special committees had analyzed social interactions of each individual who was in the selection pool. Psychologists issued each applicant a special compatibility profile, and a rating for stress management and coping skills. When the search committee had narrowed the candidates down to only thirty individuals, those individuals were a shining demonstration of near perfection in every way humanly possible. Out of those thirty, the committee whittled the finalists down to eighteen final applicants, ensuring that there were enough individuals to assign primary and alternate astronauts for each position.
Because he was applying for the position of crew commander, Lt. Col Nick Quesen faced the strictest of requirements and the stiffest competition. Forty-two years old, he was stronger physically than most men were in their thirties. His I.Q. was an admirable 145. He had breezed through every test the committee threw at him, and he remained cool as ice during the entire process. He was sharp, quick-witted, and he had an uncanny ability to relate to others in a way that would convince just about anyone to follow him. He was a natural leader and was highly respected.
Each of the crewmembers was a model citizen. Every possible psychological test taken had served to eliminate any possibility of human deviation from expected behaviors during the mission. Even Kyle Abrams, who replaced the engineer that was originally supposed to fly, had gone through strenuous testing to ensure there would be no personality conflicts or other social issues during the mission.
The previous engineer, whom Abrams replaced, had developed a head cold the week before the launch. Lennon could only imagine how crushing it must have been to learn that she could not come because of a simple cold. It was not as if the designated ‘primary’ and ‘alternate’ crews had never worked together; in fact, the alternates spent nearly as much time training as the primaries. They were far from strangers, so Lennon felt torn between sadness for the prior engineer’s loss and happiness for Abrams’ opportunity. Thankfully, that decision was out of her hands.
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