Margaritifer Basin (Margaritifer Trilogy Book 1)

by Gregory Gates

  At 1015 Jeff led the team into Firing Room 1 on the third floor of the KSC Launch Control Center. They each wore rust-color flight suits; closely approximating the Martian regolith hue captured by the true color MSL Mastcam, and sporting their own mission patches, along with those of NASA and JPL, and an American flag. Jeff’s and Abby’s suits also sported their Navy rank insignia, and Abby wore her Naval Aviator wings. Upon seeing them, a handful of engineers in the Firing Room stood and applauded. In a moment, all 200 or so members of the Launch Team were standing and applauding.

  Jeff raised his arms, grinning, and motioned for them to take their seats. As the team quieted he yelled, “Thank you, but pay attention to my damn rocket or we’re not going anywhere tomorrow.”

  The room erupted in laughter, then immediately settled back into their routine.

  “Ares Juliett is T minus 53 minutes and counting, and Go for launch,” came the voice of the KSC PAO over the loudspeakers. “Over in Firing Room 4, Ares Kilo is in the T minus 11-hour scheduled hold, and countdown should recommence in approximately 6 hours.”

  The four of them hurriedly made their way toward the front of the room, smiling, waving, and shaking hands with acquaintances.

  Susan leaned toward Jeff. “In the rehearsal, didn’t they tell us it took an act of God to get in here after T minus 3 hours?”

  He nodded. “Yeah, but this is an unmanned launch and they have less to do. Besides, today…” he grinned, “… I’m God.”

  She laughed.

  They shook hands with the NASA Launch and Test Directors.

  Jeff grinned sheepishly. “Sorry for the interruption, just wanted to say hi. How’s it going?”

  The TD, Bud Ames, smiled and nodded. “Looking good. No problems.”

  “Great. Thanks. We’re gonna go watch from the Saturn V building VIP balcony, but just wanted to stop by and say thanks.”

  Mike Westerman, LD, shook his head. “No, it’s us that need to say thanks, Captain… for bringing all of us out of hibernation and giving us a chance to do something.”

  “Eh, you’re welcome. We’re glad to see you folks back in business.” Jeff turned to the others. “Come on, let’s get out of their hair. We’re just in the way here.”

  As they left the Firing Room, Abby grabbed Jeff’s arm. “Shouldn’t we stop by Firing Room 4 also? Since they have our launch.”

  “Oh yeah, definitely. But let’s do that after the launch, on our way back to the O&C.”

  They scurried out of the LCC, got into the van and drove two and a half miles up Kennedy Parkway North to the Apollo/Saturn V Center.

  “Jesus!” said Abby, staring at the parking lot full of buses at the Banana Creek VIP viewing site. “How many people are here?”

  Molly glanced back from the front seat. “Around a thousand. There will be even more tomorrow, your launch is standing room only. As I understand it, both are seriously overbooked at all the viewing sites.”

  “Wow,” said Gabe. “Jeff, you do the talking. I’d be too nervous to open my mouth.”

  He cringed. “Gee, thanks.”

  They paused briefly and shook hands with a small group of NASA astronauts gathered behind the center grandstand.

  Jim Ingram, an astronaut that had twice flown the shuttle shook his head while shaking Jeff’s hand. “You sure you don’t have a spare seat?”

  Jeff grinned. “Sorry, Jim, we’re full-up. You guys need to light a fire under your bosses and tell ‘em to get with the program. We’re gonna be the first there, but I sure as hell hope we’re not the last.”

  “Yeah.” Jim sighed. “Well, Godspeed.”

  “Thanks.”

  They followed Molly, making their way between the grandstands to a point in front of the seated crowd. The morning was bright and clear, a gentle breeze blowing in from the sea, and the grandstand was packed.

  A smiling, red, white and blue-shirted member of NASA’s Public Affairs Tiger Team handed Jeff a microphone. “Good morning, sir.”

  “Good morning. Thank you.” He turned to the crowd and spoke into the microphone. “Good morning.”

  The crowd responded. “Good morning.”

  Jeff smiled. “My name is Jeffrey Grey, I’m the Ares Mission Commander, and it’s great to see you all here.”

  The crowd erupted in applause.

  He waited for the applause to die down. “Thank you. To my right here are Mission Pilot, Lieutenant Commander Abigail Nolan; Mission Flight Engineer and Navigator, Dr. Gabriel Frederick; and Mission Flight Surgeon, Dr. Susan Lú.”

  Abby, Gabe and Susan waved as Jeff called out their names, and the crowd applauded again.

  Jeff nodded to the crowd. “Thank you.” He paused for a moment. “Are there any Scorpios here? Raise your hands.”

  A number of people in the crowd raised their hands.

  “Great.” He waved his hand skyward. “Do you know where it is? You can’t see it right now cause it’s daylight but, if you could, where’s Scorpio?”

  A few people in the crowd pointed southwest.

  He nodded and pointed to the horizon beyond the Vehicle Assembly Building. “That’s right, over there, on the horizon. It’s just now setting. But if you could see it what would be that bright reddish heavenly body in Scorpio?”

  Many in the crowd shouted, “Mars!”

  Jeff grinned. “Right again. Mars is in Scorpio, and 132 million kilometers from Earth. For those of you that are metrically challenged, that’s just a bit over 82 million miles. And in 198 days, on October 5th, the four of us are going to put mankind’s…” he glanced at Abby, Gabe, and Susan, “… and womankind’s, footprints on it.”

  The crowd leaped to its feet in a standing ovation.

  “Thank you.” He waited again as they quieted and took their seats. “Thank you. This mission was my idea and, I don’t mind saying, I paid for a fair chunk of it. But no one man – or woman – could do it alone. Were it not for the incredible support, encouragement, and generosity of you…” he pointed to the crowd, “… all of you, and many tens of thousands of others around the world, we wouldn’t be going anywhere. This is not our mission, this is your mission. This is the world’s mission. We just happen to be the ones that are going.”

  The crowd burst into another round of applause.

  “Thank you. Standing here in the shadow of the Apollo/Saturn V Center, we are humbled. We know that we are standing on the shoulders of giants, those exceptional men and women that have gone before us: Vostok, Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, Soyuz, Skylab, Mir, the Shuttle, and the International Space Station.” Jeff shook his head. “We are merely taking the next step.” He paused for a moment. “But it is the next step! And please, all of you, and all you people around the world that are listening… don’t let it be the last step.” He waved to the crowd. “Thank you.”

  Abby leaned toward Jeff as the crowd again erupted in applause. “Nice speech. How long have you been working on that?”

  Jeff smiled at her. “Oh, about three months.”

  While Jeff was speaking several dozen people, mostly youngsters, had gathered on either side of the cordoned walk leading back to the parking lot. As the team passed through, they pulled out pens and autographed hats, t-shirts, launch site passes, toy rockets, and everything else that was held out to them. A man of perhaps twenty held out his arm to Abby. Jeff shook his head and chuckled. She grinned, and signed it.

  As they approached the van, Abby said, “That was weird.”

  Jeff chuckled again. “Oh, I dunno. If it were me, I’d probably rush to the nearest tattoo parlor and have it made permanent. Talk about a dinner conversation piece…”

  Abby pulled out her pen and grabbed Jeff’s arm.

  He jerked it back. “No.”

  “Coward.”

  He shook his head and grinned. “No time.”

  #

  Just as they entered the executive conference room on the upper floor of the Saturn V building, the KSC PAO announced, “We are now at T minus 9
minutes and holding. This is a planned hold and the countdown should resume in 10 minutes. During this hold the NASA Test Director will poll the launch team for readiness for launch. If no problems exist that could prevent a successful launch, each element will report ‘Go for launch’ to the Test Director.”

  There were about 60 people in the conference room, mostly gathered near or on the balcony that overlooked the LC-39 launch pads. A table in the center of the room was laid out with a large brunch buffet.

  Abby said, “Food,” and immediately headed for it.

  Jeff rolled his eyes and continued toward the crowd with Gabe and Susan.

  Senator Landers came out of the group along with another man Jeff didn’t recognize. “Good morning. We were worried you might not make it.”

  Jeff shook hands with him. “Good morning, Senator. We had a few stops to make along the way, the Firing Room and a public affairs gig out at the VIP bleachers.”

  The Senator motioned to the man beside him. “I don’t think you two have met. Jeff, this is Congressman Delano from Tennessee. He’s a new member of the House Science Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics.” He turned to the Congressman. “George, this is Captain Jeffrey Grey, Mission Commander.”

  They shook hands. “Pleasure to meet you, Congressman.”

  “No, the pleasure’s all mine, Captain. I’ve been looking forward to this for a long time.”

  “Is this your first launch, sir?”

  “Yes. I watched a shuttle launch on TV some years back, but this is the first live one for me.”

  “Well, we’re glad to have you here, sir.” Jeff turned to Gabe and Susan. “Congressman, may I present Dr. Gabriel Frederick, Flight Engineer and Navigator, and Dr. Susan Lú, Flight Surgeon.”

  They all shook hands.

  “Abby’s not with you?” said the senator.

  Jeff nodded. “Yeah, she’s here. She’s over at the buffet. We had breakfast, but you know Abby, day or night you don’t want to be standing between her and food. I swear, that woman’s metabolism could light up Orlando.”

  The senator smiled.

  Jeff looked toward the buffet table, caught Abby’s eyes, waved her over and mouthed the words, ‘come here’.

  Abby finished piling bacon and scrambled eggs on her plate then joined them. “Sorry, I’m hungry.”

  “Still?”

  “Always.”

  Jeff smiled. “Congressman, our pilot, Lieutenant Commander Abigail Nolan.”

  Congressman Delano held out his hand, “It’s a pleasure, Commander.”

  Abby wiped her hand on her flight suit, swallowed, and took the congressman’s hand. “Sorry, sir. Pleased to meet you.”

  “No, please, go right ahead and eat, Commander. I imagine you won’t be having eggs and bacon for a while.”

  Abby, with her mouth full, nodded at Susan.

  Susan smiled and shook her head. “No, Congressman, we have eggs and bacon. It’s freeze-dried, but add a cup of boiling water and rehydrate it, and it’s not bad. It tastes just about the same, but the texture is a little different owing to the freeze-dry-rehydrate process. But between what we are taking on the ship and what is already on the planet, we’ll have around 2,200 pounds of scrambled eggs and bacon.”

  The congressman stared at her, wide-eyed. “2,200 pounds?”

  She grinned. “Yes, sir, rehydrated. Enough for everyone to have a nice, tasty, nutritional breakfast every day… and then some.”

  “That’s amazing. I presume you’re taking other food as well?”

  “Yes, sir. All told, we’re taking about eight tons of freeze-dried food; breakfast, lunch, dinner, and midnight snacks for four for 1,100 days. Though one way or another, we won’t need all of it.”

  “What do you mean?”

  Susan glanced at Jeff. “You want to take that question?”

  Jeff nodded. “Sure. Congressman, we’re taking far more food on the ship than we’ll need if we land. Assuming we land, the trips out and back will each be about seven months. However, if for some reason we decide not to land, we’ll execute a powered swing-by and return to Earth. But that trip would take about a year. So we need to have provisions on the ship for nineteen months in space. But in that case, we wouldn’t be consuming the food we already have waiting for us on Mars. But if we do land, we’ll have a year’s worth of food on the ship that we won’t need, as we’ll resupply from Balboa, which launched back in December, once we’re in orbit around Mars, so we’ll jettison all that we have onboard along with the EDS and storage module prior to orbital insertion to reduce our mass and, as such, the amount of fuel required for the orbital insertion burn. Service Propulsion System fuel is a critical item, and we don’t have much to waste.”

  The congressman nodded. “I see. But, why go all that way and not land?”

  “Any number of reasons. One big one would be that our ascent vehicles don’t make it. They’re on their way now and will be arriving shortly before we do. If, God forbid, they should crash land and be unserviceable, we’re not going to land because we’d have no way of getting off the planet. Another reason not to land would be if our Trans-Earth Injection booster doesn’t make it – say, fails to make an orbital insertion, or ends up in an orbit that we can’t reach.”

  “Trans-Earth Injection?”

  “Yes sir, the trip home. Without that booster we couldn’t get out of orbit around Mars, so we wouldn’t go into orbit around Mars. We’d just come straight home.”

  “I see. But, what would nineteen months in space do to you?”

  “Well, it probably wouldn’t be fun, but it would sure beat the alternative. Sue?”

  “Congressman, the Russian cosmonaut, Valeri Polyakov, spent 437 consecutive days – a little over fourteen months – aboard the Mir space station in 1994-95 without any long-term ill effects. Based on Polyakov’s experience, our assessment is that we would have to work hard and maintain a good attitude but, in the long run, we would be fine.”

  KSC PAO, “The countdown to launch of Ares Juliett has recommenced. We are at T minus nine minutes and counting. Ares Juliett is Go for launch and automatic Ground Launch Sequencing has initiated.”

  “Sounds like we’re about ready to go,” said Jeff. “Shall we adjourn to the balcony and see this thing off?”

  The four of them, with Congressman Delano hot on their heels, made their way out onto the balcony, meeting and greeting as they went. The congressman shouldered in between Jeff and Gabe, a little too cozy for Jeff’s liking and, from the expression on her face, Gabe’s also.

  Jeff smiled politely. “Excuse me, Congressman.” He stepped around him and squeezed back in next to Gabe. “I’d like to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with my crew for this. Anything goes wrong this morning, and we’re not going to Mars.”

  The congressman smiled apologetically. “Ah, of course. Sorry. It’s just that all of this is so fascinating. Captain, I don’t read Latin. What does the motto on your patch say?”

  “Deficio est non an bene. It’s the title of the autobiography of the famed NASA Flight Director, Gene Kranz – Failure is not an option.”

  “I see. Sounds like a good idea.” He pointed toward the LC-39 pads. “Now, which of these rockets will launch today?”

  Jeff raised an eyebrow. “You haven’t been here before, have you?”

  “Uh, no.”

  “Okay. Well, the one on the left, that’s 39B. The one on the right, 39A, is the one we’ll be riding tomorrow.”

  “Ah. So, what is it you’re launching today?”

  Jeff raised both eyebrows. “Our EDS.”

  “EDS?”

  “Earth Departure Stage. A booster. A very big booster.” He cleared his throat. “Congressman, please forgive me for asking but, what are you doing on the Space Subcommittee?”

  He grinned. “That’s probably a good question. I took the seat at Senator Landers’ suggestion. He thought it would be a good place for me to get my feet wet. And Captain, that’s why I’m here, and why I
’m asking questions.”

  Jeff nodded. “Alright, sir, fair enough.”

  “I also thought I might be in a good position to help if you encounter difficulties and NASA needs to launch a rescue mission.”

  Gabe glanced around Jeff at the congressman, eyes wide. “Rescue mission?”

  “Yes, Dr. Frederick.” He shrugged. “If, for example, something goes wrong and you get stranded on Mars.”

  Jeff looked at Gabe and rolled his eyes. “You want to explain it?”

  She nodded. “Congressman, the next launch window from Earth to Mars is in late April, 2018. The soonest a mission could arrive would be early November, by which time a rescue would be pointless, as all of us will have been dead for five months.”

  The congressman appeared startled. “Why? You haven’t thought of this?”

  Jeff frowned. “Of course we’ve thought of it. But to last that long would require another four tons of provisions, meaning we would have to leave four tons of something else we need behind. Sir, there is a finite mass of… stuff, that we can send to Mars. Congressman, we’ve been working on this for four years, I can’t explain it all to you in ten minutes.”

  The congressman hung his head and nodded. “I guess I have to lot to learn.”

  KSC PAO, “T minus seven minutes and counting. Ares Juliett is Go for launch.”

  “You said ‘a very big booster’, Captain. How big?”

  “Fully fueled, 467,000 pounds.”

  “And how does that compare to other… boosters?”

  Jeff pointed his thumb behind them. “Sir, on your way in, did you see that Saturn V downstairs?”

  “Uh, yes. Very impressive.”

  “The Apollo EDS was the S-IVB, the Saturn V’s third stage. The mass of this EDS is 57 tons more than an S-IVB and Apollo Command, Service, and Lunar modules… combined.”

  The congressman nodded. “Alright, that’s big.”

  “Yes sir.”

  “Captain, may I ask you one more question? Then I promise to leave you alone.”

  “Shoot.”

  “Why two launches?”

  “Actually, eleven.”

  “Huh?”

  “This is our tenth launch. Tomorrow will be our eleventh… and last.”