Margaritifer Basin (Margaritifer Trilogy Book 1)

by Gregory Gates

  “Then we blow the heat shield off on the ground, jack up the capsule and set it down on top of the ascent stage. And away we go.”

  “Well, let’s run the numbers and see. That’s a lot more to launch.”

  From behind, Abby’s voice drew them back out of their own little world, “Excuse me?”

  Jeff turned to her, “Sorry, didn’t mean to ignore you two.”

  “That’s alright, you’re doing fine. But I do have a question. You’ve said ‘tested and proven technology’. Doesn’t sound to me like what you’re talking about is tested and proven.”

  Gabe turned around, “Well, not exactly in that sense. But all the parts are in fact tested and proven. Essentially what I’m talking about is modifying a Gemini capsule by adding some proven systems from MSL and Soyuz. We’re not really doing anything new, just rearranging a few things. It’s sort of like taking a Chevy and dropping a Ford motor and Chrysler seats into it. So long as they fit, no big deal.”

  “Okay. Just thought I’d ask.”

  Gabe turned back to Jeff, “But it would be awful nice if we could get a test flight.”

  Jeff smiled, warmed by the manner in which she was using the word ‘we’. “Yeah, that would be nice. We could launch one just about any time. But it would take a Falcon 9 to put it up. That’s $35 million to launch it and drop it in the Mohave Desert just to see what happens. And I don’t think any museum is really going to want to give up their display. When we’re done with them, they’re just going to become the center feature in a couple new impact craters. We’d need to dust off the plans and build some. That doesn’t give us much time.”

  Gabe sighed and rubbed her forehead, “Tell me something I don’t know.”

  “Anyway, my other thought was to steal from Apollo Program technology and just build a slightly oversized LM, and use it the same way – land in it, and take off in it.”

  “But that was designed for a lunar landing. How are you going to land it on Mars?”

  “Well, it would require some modification – chutes, bigger engine, more fuel – but it could be done. We’d load it into the cargo bay of a lifting body then, like the rest of the cargo, shove it out the back, or something like that, pop the chutes to slow it down and get it vertical, then light the main engine and let Abby fly it down.”

  Abby threw him a stunned glance, “Huh?!”

  Jeff turned and smiled at her, “You didn’t think I hired you just to decorate the bathrooms, did you?”

  “Oh good lord.”

  He turned back to Gabe, “I’m thinking only load it with enough fuel to get down, then refuel for the ascent on the surface. That would save a lot of weight and make the descent much easier.”

  “Hmmm. Now I kind of like that idea. And it’s been done, sort of.”

  “The big problem with a LM or Altair-like lander is the development time… and cost. I’m not the least bit convinced it could be done in four years. The simple solution would seem to be an MSL-style lander and an entirely separate, rather simple ascent vehicle. That should also save a lot of weight. Hell, we may not even need to pressurize it. We’d have to suit up to get into it, but we’d likely only be in it for a couple hours at most. Basically, just a box on a rocket engine with a reaction control system and guidance.”

  “Hmmm, it’s a thought.”

  Jeff clapped his hands together, “Let’s take a break, I’m hungry. How about some lunch.”

  “Yeah, that sounds like a good idea.”

  Abby leaped out of her seat, “It’s about freakin’ time. Come on Sue, let’s raid the fridge.” And the two of them headed upstairs in a hurry.

  As Gabe started out, Jeff gently put his hand on her shoulder and she turned back to him. “Thank you for coming back.”

  She smiled softly, “Yeah.” As she walked to the door she said over her shoulder, “I have learned one thing.”

  Jeff started after her, “What’s that?”

  “You’re not crazy.”

  Jeff chuckled. “May I have that in writing?”

  They put together a lunch of cold cuts and salad, fresh sourdough bread and iced tea. It was a pleasant June day with a light breeze coming off the Atlantic Ocean and Jeff suggested they eat on the patio.

  “This is just so incredibly beautiful,” said Susan as she sat a tray on the table, absorbing the view.

  “Yes it is. Alas, we’re going to scar it a bit here pretty soon.”

  “Huh?”

  “As soon as I can get the permits signed off, I’m going to build a pool here, right off the patio.”

  Abby paused between bites, “Oh, wow. That’ll be nice.”

  “It’s been a bit of struggle, but I’m hopeful we can get started in a few weeks. There has been some concern by a few folks about me messing with Olmsted’s landscaping, particularly since this was the first house, of many to come, that he and Hunt collaborated on. But, that’s why we’re going to put the pool right here since there’s nothing but grass. And if some future owner wants to return it to full originality, all they’ll have to do is fill in the hole and lay out some sod. All done.”

  “Gonna have a hot tub?”

  “Oh, you bet.”

  Without looking up from her meal, Gabe asked, “How long have you lived here?”

  “About four weeks.”

  They all looked up in shock, “Four weeks?”

  “Sorry, guess I hadn’t mentioned that. Yeah, I just bought the place two months ago and have been working furiously to get it in shape. You’re my first houseguests.”

  “Was it furnished?” Abby asked.

  “Nope. Completely empty.”

  Gabe tilted her head toward Jeff, “Can I ask you a personal question?”

  “Sure. Fire away.”

  “How did you make your money?”

  “Ah. Uh, oh. I promised you there’d be no more surprises, but I hadn’t thought of this since it, I dunno, it simply hadn’t come up.” Jeff sat back and rubbed his chin, “I’d like to say great-grandpa was a railroad tycoon, or I’d invented a new kind of light bulb, or had been a casino developer in Las Vegas, but it wasn’t quite so noble. Fact is, I won the lottery.”

  The women bolted upright, mouths agape, eyes wide in speechless astonishment.

  Jeff looked around the table smiling and raised his right hand, “Absolute truth. You probably heard of the big Mega Millions jackpot paid out in California a couple months ago?”

  Abby dropped her fork on the plate, “That was you?”

  “Yep. That was me.”

  “Holy shit!”

  Gabe stared at him and shook her head, “For once, that’s an understatement.” Slowly her shock turned to puzzlement. “But…” she paused, cautiously exploring her thought, “… that would mean you’ve done all of this – the house, the Mars mission plan, the aerospace company, everything – in just the past two months?”

  He smiled and nodded, “That’s right.”

  “What did you do… before?”

  “Taught earth science at a middle school in Long Beach.”

  Gabe sat shaking her head, “That’s incredible.”

  Given their earlier experience, Jeff got a bit apprehensive, “You’re not pissed at me again, are you?”

  She smiled and laughed softly, “No. No, I’m not. Just amazed.”

  Jeff sighed and said half under his breath, “Well, that’s a relief.”

  “With all that you have now, why are you doing this? Why risk it all, even your life?” Susan asked.

  Jeff leaned his head over and rubbed his temple. “Now there’s a very good question; one that I’ve asked myself several times a day for the past month. I don’t know as I have a good answer. I’ve heard stories over the years of people winning the lottery and blowing it all and ending up deep in debt within a year, or stuffing it in the mattress and doing nothing at all, or retiring to a life of seclusion on some Greek island. But I always thought that if I ever had that kind of money, I’d want to really do
something. I don’t mean donate it all to charity or something like that, but personally do something. Do something that no one else has done or was willing to do, but needed to be done and could make a difference. Make an impact. I don’t think it’s a noble gesture kind of repay society thing, and it’s certainly not seeking fortune and glory. Like you said, I’ve already got that and now I’m prepared to throw it away. It’s just that I want to do something, and this is it.”

  “Why a manned mission to Mars? You couldn’t find anything easier to do?” Gabe asked.

  They all laughed.

  “Probably. I don’t think I looked hard enough. Actually, what sparked the idea was the Mars Science Lab. I’ve always, since I was a little kid, had an interest in the planets and space flight. I was just a kid when Apollo 11 landed on the moon and I don’t have any clear recollection of it, but I remember the excitement. And it’s always been my hope that we’d go back, sooner rather than later. And beyond that, I’ve always hoped that we’d go to Mars while I was still around to see it. When the MSL launched, as interesting and exciting as it was, I couldn’t help but think, all these years and these billions of dollars just to send a robotic tractor up there to search for signs of extinct bacteria? Can’t we do any better than that? So, I thought about it for a while and decided, okay, if nobody else wants to do it then I’ll do it. Besides, it seemed like a good way to meet interesting people.”

  They all chuckled. “And how’s that working out?” Abby asked.

  Jeff looked around the table at each of them. “Well, so far so good.” He pushed back from the table. “Everyone get enough to eat?” All appearing satisfied, “Okay, shall we re-adjourn to the dungeon?” And, turning to Gabe, “I’d guess you still have a lot of questions that I probably can’t answer.”

  She grinned, “A few.”

  They cleared the table, leaving things in the kitchen for later and took their time walking back down to the conference room. Jeff ambled to the dry-erase board where he and Gabe had left off with the idea of utilizing Gemini capsules, and tried to retrieve his earlier train of thought. Abby and Susan took their seats, but Gabe stood behind them, just thinking.

  Finally, she took a deep breath, “Before we get back to that, can I ask a question about something you mentioned earlier today?”

  Jeff turned around, “Sure, ask away.”

  “It’s about what you said about one of us having a child on Mars.”

  He blinked hard and cleared his throat, “Ah, yes. That would be a subject best not swept under the rug and left for later. Okay. Have a seat.”

  They both took their seats and Jeff pondered his response.

  “I suspect your question is, ‘Why?’”

  Gabe nodded, “That would be a good start.”

  “Well, as much as I hate to answer a question with a question, my best answer is: Why not?” Jeff didn’t really expect Gabe to reply, and she didn’t. “Okay, I’m not trying to be facetious or frivolous, but the fact is we know almost nothing about conception, birth and childhood development in space. Scientific literature on the subject effectively doesn’t exist. Why? Because no one has ever done it, at least, not so far as we know. There was a married couple that went up on the shuttle, may have spent some time on the ISS, I don’t recall, and they may have exercised their conjugal rights. But if they did, NASA’s not talking about it. In any case, so far as conception and childbirth is concerned, hasn’t happened. The Russians and Japanese have conducted a couple of studies on rats and mice, but they’re hardly conclusive of anything. So what we have is this vast void of factual knowledge and any – any – discussion of the subject is purely hypothetical. Nobody really has any clue. Is conception possible in space? The consensus seems to be, yes. Up or down, forward or backward, doesn’t seem to make much difference.”

  They all grinned and Abby nodded her head, “Works for me.”

  “Fetal development? We don’t really know. There are some theories that low or microgravity may have implications for nerve and inner ear development. But no one knows the extent, if any, or the gravitational threshold between normal and abnormal development. It’s all just guesswork. Childbirth? Well, baby’s got to come out. Shouldn’t be a real problem, one way or another. Early childhood development? Well, there certainly may be problems, particularly in a microgravity. A child would likely have difficulty righting themselves because they’d have no concept of balance. But in a reduced gravity such as Mars? Who knows? Mars may be enough but not the moon. Again, we just don’t know because no one has tried it. But it’s a pretty sure thing that someday, someone will. So, if we’re going to be the first ones there: Why not?”

  Gabe audibly expelled a breath and shook her head. “But what of the child? Is the risk of long-term irreversible damage one you’re willing to take?”

  Jeff bowed his head and rubbed his chin, “That is the real moral dilemma, isn’t it? Look, I’m not an utterly uncompassionate ogre. There are enormous moral, ethical, philosophical, and probably legal and religious implications, and I don’t have all the answers. Is it possible that you could bear a child on Mars that is severely and permanently handicapped in one form or another and we return to earth to become pariahs, social outcasts? Yes, it is possible. But then again, we may return to earth with a beautiful child, like no other in the galaxy… and all the answers to all the questions.”

  “But what gives you the right to play God?”

  “Because I’m the one that’s going. I’m the one that raised my hand and volunteered for the job. What’s going to happen if we put this to a committee? A convocation of all the high priests of philosophy and religion and science? Can you picture this debate in the United Nations? Or, worse yet, the United States Congress? They’d be wearing cobwebs before they even agreed on the terminology. Let’s face it; some matters simply need to be decided by a benevolent dictator. And on this mission, that would be me. So, to answer your question, yes, I am willing to take the risk. There are no guarantees. Hell, there’s no guarantee we’re even coming back. But I’m willing to accept that risk too.”

  Gabe turned to Susan, “Your field, what do you think?”

  Susan grimaced just a bit and shook her head, “I don’t know. Jeff is correct, nobody knows, and this isn’t a problem that can be solved with calculus and Newton’s Laws. Years and years of research in space with lab animals right up through primates may give us the answers we need, or it may not. Human physiology is remarkably complex, but it’s also remarkably resilient. No other species possesses our capacity to adapt – mentally, emotionally, or physically. I grant, the thought of flipping a coin on a child’s future is terrible beyond measure, but how else do we find out? How else do we answer the question?”

  Gabe gently fell forward, landing her forehead on the table with a soft ‘thud’.

  Jeff leaned around to glimpse her face, “You alright?”

  “Calculus I understand, people I do not.”

  “That’s okay, you’ll get used to us.”

  “Um, I do have one other question, have you given any thought to where on Mars we might be going?”

  Jeff smiled. “Ah, now there’s a good question. Indeed I have. I’ll show you.” He grabbed a roll of poster-sized papers off the counter and unrolled them on the table. The first sheet was a high-resolution gray-scale image of Mars surface with a couple dozen red and yellow circles drawn at various points. “Recognize it?”

  Gabe shrugged. “It’s a THEMIS night IR image, but I don’t recognize the location.”

  “The Margaritifer Basin, at the upper end of the Morava Valles.”

  She nodded. “Oh, okay. MSL site 19.”

  “Very good.”

  “Why?”

  “Because there’s a lot of interesting stuff there and, well, I kind of like the name.” Jeff grinned.

  “Interesting stuff? Like what?” said Susan.

  “Well, this is the confluence of the Loire, Samara and Morava valley systems. There’s a great dea
l of evidence of past water presence, including fluvial and alluvial deposits, outflow channels, ponding, chaos regions, volcanic activity, and on and on. There are terrain regions from all three Martian geologic periods, and numerous sites of geologic layering. There’s also lots of interesting mineralogy, including olivine, hematite, phyllosilicates, sulfates, and even a suggestion of gold.”

  Abby grinned. “Gold?”

  Jeff chuckled. “Maybe. I wouldn’t plan on opening a gold mine, though. It’d cost a lot more to transport it than it’s worth.”

  “Oh, I don’t know, a nugget of Martian gold might fetch a handsome price on eBay.”

  “That’s possible. Anyway, there are also some interesting looking craters and an extinct volcano a little farther south. Now, all that said, the Basin is not without its challenges.” He pointed at two of the red circles. “These were the proposed MSL landing sites, MB1 and MB2. I’m guessing that this site proposal was made before they saw HiRISE imagery of these sites.” He pulled out two more images. “Subsequent to the proposal, the site was imaged by the HiRISE. Check this out.”

  “Oh god,” Abby groaned, “what’s the scale on that?”

  “About twenty meters to the inch. And if you think that’s bad, look at this.”

  “Jesus! It looks like Hell. What are those? Sand dunes?”

  “Yeah, probably ten to twenty meters high with nothing but craters and boulders in between.”

  Gabe glanced up at him. “You’re not seriously thinking of landing there, are you?”

  “Um... no, I’m not. Could you imagine trying to collect 36 airdrops and 32 tons of stuff scattered over ten kilometers of that? It’d take a year and half just to find everything, let alone move it. And there’s not a ten square meter level spot in the entire ellipse. Where would we put the MAV?” He pulled out another image. “And here’s MB2. It’s not much better. So, back to the big picture. These other seven red circles are alternate landing sites that I picked out, roughly based on the MSL site requirements. These five on the left I’m not too crazy about as they’re also located in valles terrain and, in the absence of HiRISE imagery, I wouldn’t trust them to be any better than MB1. But these two out to the east are up a bit in elevation and located in plains terrain. We do have a couple HiRISE images of like terrain, though not of those sites.” He pulled out a couple more images.