Abby popped out of the hatch and immediately drifted off into space. “Oh my god, this is incredible!”
As she drifted away from the ship, Jeff yelled, “Abby!”
“Oh, keep your shirt on. I’m tethered.” As she reached the end of the tether she jerked to a stop and just hung there, slowly turning. “Holy shit!”
“Jeff, you’re hyperventilating,” said Susan.
“Yeah, sorry. There’s nothing we did on Earth that came anywhere close to preparing me for this. Good god.”
“Well, stop it.”
“Yeah… right.”
“Boss, you’ve got to get up here and see this view.”
“Abby, I can see just fine from here.”
“No you can’t. You can’t see what’s behind us. Come on wuss, take a look.”
Jeff moaned, “Oh god,” then checked his tethers again, and pushed off. “Ah Jesus, this was a bad idea.”
Abby laughed, “What a wimp.”
As Jeff reached the end of his tether he jerked to a stop. Abby grabbed his hand and used a can of compressed air to jet them around facing aft. As the sun came into view, Jeff winced, shut his eyes, and closed his sun visor. “God, that’s bright.”
“Sure is. Where’s Earth?”
“How the hell should I know? Gabe, where’s Earth?”
“Oh, about 836,000 miles astern of us.”
“Gee, thanks. What I meant was…”
She giggled. “I know what you meant. Hang on a second, let me see. Um, okay, given our present orientation and where you are, and using the sun as a point of reference, uh… try about 35 degrees north and 10 degrees west, between Mirach and Triangulum. It’ll be hard to see. You should only have a very slight crescent on the lower limb, and it will look about the size of the moon from Earth.”
“Mirach? That’s in Andromeda, right?”
“Yes. It’s her, ahem… crotch.”
Abby punched Jeff in the shoulder. “That shouldn’t be hard for you to find.”
He chuckled. “Yeah, right. Um, Triangulum. Always liked that one. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I can pick any three stars at random and they’ll probably form a triangle. Right? Who thought that one up?”
“I just work here,” said Gabe.
Jeff stared at the starfield. “I can’t make things out.” He shaded the sun with his hand and raised his visor. “Ah, okay, that’s a little better. Um, alright, there’s Andromeda and… Ah! There it is.” He pointed. “Right over there. You can just barely make out the crescent.”
Abby gasped. “Oh! I see it. Oh my god, it sure shrank a lot in four days.”
“Yeah. Imagine what it’ll look like in seven months.”
“Wow. Uh, what’s that bright one to the right of the sun?”
“Um, I’m not sure. Venus? Gabe, about 30 degrees east of the sun, that Venus?”
“Yes. And, by the way, the sooner you two stop sightseeing and get the telescope up, the sooner we’ll have a really good view of this stuff, and the sooner I can stop having to crawl into the CM to take star fixes.”
“Nag, nag, nag. Okay. It’s just such a breathtaking view. I can only imagine what the early space walkers – Leonov, White, Aldrin – were thinking the first time they climbed out and looked up. Wow. I’ve seen lots of stars on dark nights high in the mountains, but nothing compares with this.” After a few more minutes of silent awe, Jeff grabbed Abby’s hand. “Well, Abigail, shall we get to work?”
“Yeah, I guess.”
They pulled themselves back down to the airlock. Abby climbed inside, un-strapped the high-gain antenna base and handed it to Jeff.
“Got it.” He swung around to the side of the airlock positioned the antenna base just over its mounting plate, aligned the boltholes and set it in place. Magnets in the base temporarily held it in place so he didn’t have to restrain it while inserting the bolts. Following that came the motorized articulated arm, circular folded mesh 2-meter parabolic antenna, multi-frequency feed horn and, three hours later, drive and antenna cable connectors. “God, what a job. That was a hell of a lot easier in the pool. Gabe, light it up.”
“Roger. Stand clear.”
“There is no ‘stand’ out here, Gabriel.”
“Just get out of the way.”
“I’m clear.”
Gabe aligned the antenna. “Okay, I’ve got a carrier from Canberra. Why don’t you guys go ahead with the telescope, and I’ll phone home.”
“Rog. Abby?”
“Yep, here it comes.” She gently pushed the case, carrying their 300-pound 14” equatorial mount Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope, fitted with a Nikon D4, out the hatch.
“Got it. Alright, get out here and help me with this beast.”
“On my way.”
An hour and a half later, Jeff and Abby had the telescope mounted on the opposite side of the airlock from the high-gain antenna.
Jeff groaned, “God, I’m getting tired.”
“Yeah, me too,” said Abby.
“We don’t have a whole lot of air left, either. Gabe?”
“Yeah, I’m here. Antenna checks out perfect. It’s tracking and we’ve got solid comms on all bands. Good job. Okay, let me take a look at the telescope.”
Jeff and Abby sat, dangling their legs in the airlock, looking at the stars.
“This what you hoped for?” said Jeff
“God,” said Abby, “I dunno. It’s unbelievable. And we’ve only been out here four days.”
“Yeah.”
“Do you think mankind was meant for this?”
“Jeez, I dunno. I think mankind was meant for whatever mankind can do. If we can do it, hell, then I guess we were meant for it. If not, well, the jury’s probably still out.”
“Are you philosophers clear of the telescope?” said Gabe.
“Yeah,” said Jeff, looking down at the instrument.
“Okay, I’m gonna uncage and align it.”
“Have at it.”
The telescope dust cover opened and it swung around, pointing aft. Gabe’s gasp was audible. “Oh my god!”
“What?” said Jeff.
“I can see lights on Earth.”
“You’re kidding? From over 800,000 miles?”
“Uh huh, and closer to 900,000 now. I told you this would be good.”
“Yeah you did. Can you see Mars?”
“Hang on.”
Jeff watched as the telescope swung around and pointed out away from them and a bit ahead.”
She gasped again. “Wow. At full mag without digital enhancement it looks about three times the size of the moon as seen from Earth. It’s about a half hour before sunrise at the Basin. You gotta see this. It’s unbelievable.”
“Then I guess we can come inside now?”
“Yeah, by all means.”
Jeff pointed into the hatch. “Ladies first.”
Abby gave him a thumb up. “’Bout time. I’m ready for a cocktail.”
CHAPTER 18
Wednesday, March 30, 2016 (T plus 8 days)
All four crewmembers shouted in unison, “Hello Earth!”
They were seated in the Sundancer commons, staring into a camera just below the widescreen display, listening to a live broadcast from the Discovery Channel studios being relayed via the Deep Space Network. The TV displayed the image they were transmitting, as there was no video from Earth.
Jeff grinned. “We’re told there are about a billion people around the world watching this on TV or the webcast, so you’ll have to forgive our stage-fright, we’ve never spoken in front of an audience quite this large before. I’m Jeffrey Grey, mission commander. On my far left here is Dr. Gabriel Fredrick, ‘Gabe’, our flight engineer and navigator. On my immediate left is Lieutenant Commander Abigail Nolan, ‘Abby’, our pilot, and to my right is Dr. Susan Lú, our flight surgeon. Now, you’ll have to be a bit patient, we’re almost one and three-quarter million miles from Earth and it takes a little over nine seconds for our transmissions to reach you and
another nine seconds for yours to reach us. We also understand that the phones are lit up at the Discovery Channel and you understandably have many questions for us. Unfortunately we won’t be able to take everyone’s call, but we will take as many questions as we can over the next hour.” Jeff wiped his nose with a handkerchief. “Also, uh, please pardon us, we all have a case of ‘space sniffles’. It’s a side effect of the absence of gravity. Fluid tends to migrate from your legs into your upper body and head, and that results in stuffy noses and congested nasal passages – something we’re just going to have to live with for the next seven months. Anyway, let’s get right to it. Discovery Channel, fire away.” He couldn’t help watch the clock, 18 seconds suddenly seemed like a long time.
“Hi. My name is Katrina Graves, I’m fourteen, and I live in Moorcroft, Wyoming. This is so cool. I really hope you guys are safe and have a great trip. My question is: Why are you going to Mars?”
They all smiled and laughed. Jeff cleared his throat, “Ahem, well Katrina, about the time we were lifting off from the Kennedy Space Center, I’m pretty sure all of us were wondering the same thing.” They all nodded in agreement. “There are a lot of reasons. But besides the issues of exploration and scientific discovery, I think the best answer is that which was given by the famous British mountain climber George Mallory in 1924 when asked why he wanted to climb Mount Everest, ‘Because it’s there.’”
“Hi, I’m Kevin Pearce and I’m eleven and I live in Havelock, North Carolina. My question is: How long will it take you to get to Mars and when will you get back?”
Jeff looked over at Gabe, “Sounds like a question for our navigator. Gabe?”
Gabe smiled into the camera, “Hi Kevin. If all goes according to plan, it will take us 195 days to get to Mars. We should arrive in orbit around Mars on October 3rd. We’ll spend a few days in orbit and then make our landing. Then we’ll spend around 525 days on the planet – that’s about one and a half Earth years, but only three-quarters of a Martian year – then launch back into orbit, hang around there for a few days getting ready for our return launch window and then a 212-day trip back to Earth. In total, we should be gone 934 days or a bit over two and a half years. And if all goes well, we’ll splashdown in the South Pacific on October 12, 2018.”
“Hi, I’m Lili Kincaid from Marquette, Michigan and I’m twelve. How is your spaceship working?”
Jeff glanced over at Gabe, “Another one for you. Don your flight engineer hat.”
Gabe shrugged and smiled, “Hi Lili, well, so far so good, everything is working just fine. The only minor glitch we’ve encountered was a couple fuel valves closing in our command module reaction control system during booster separation following the launch. But that wasn’t a surprise, we anticipated it might happen. We just recycled the valves, and they’re fine. Everything here in the Sundancer, our habitat module, seems to be working just great.”
“I’m Luka Sanford, and I’m eight and live in Everett, Washington. How far is it from Earth to Mars?”
Jeff smiled, “Hi Luka, let’s give Abby a chance here.”
Abby smiled and waved at the camera, “Hi Luka. Everett, huh? I’ve been there, nice town. How far is it from Earth to Mars? Well, what day is it? Um, the distance between Earth and Mars constantly changes because both planets orbit the sun, but at different velocities. Earth orbits the sun in one year, 365 days, but it takes Mars about 687 Earth days, almost twice as long. When Earth and Mars are both on the same side of the sun and in alignment – that’s called a Mars solar opposition – they’re anywhere from 55 million to 100 million kilometers apart. The distance varies considerably because Mars’ orbit is rather eccentric; it’s not perfectly round. When they are on opposite sides of the sun – called a Mars solar conjunction – they’re more like 400 million kilometers apart. So, like I said, it depends on what day it is. Today however, they happen to be about 120 million kilometers apart, or about 74 million miles.”
Jeff turned and grinned at her, “You do that math in your head?”
“Sure. Can’t you?”
Gabe leaned forward, “No she didn’t. I saw her peeking at the trajectory display.”
Abby punched her in the arm, “Snitch.”
“Hi guys. I am just so awed by this. It’s hard to believe you’re really up there. I’m Wendy Johnston and I’m seventeen and I live in Riverside, California. Do you believe that there are UFOs in space?”
They all grinned at one another. Abby pointed at Jeff, “That one’s all yours, boss.”
Jeff smiled and nodded slowly, “Gee, thanks. Hi Wendy, yeah we’re really up here and so far as we know, uh, we’re all alone. Boy, that’s a tough question. Certainly there are all kinds of unidentified flying, uh – objects – up here, but most of them aren’t aliens from another planet. Fact is, they’re asteroids and comets and bits and pieces of space junk left over from old satellites. You know, when John Glenn went up in Friendship 7 during the Mercury program in 1962, he saw thousands of little, what he called ‘fireflies’ streaming by the window of his capsule. This had folks at NASA puzzled for a long time. But eventually they discovered that it was nothing more than ice crystals being vented from the capsule and illuminated by the sun. Is there life out there somewhere else in the universe? I certainly think so. Given the billions and billions of stars, most of which have planetary systems, it’s really hard to imagine there are not a great many planets out there that are capable of supporting life, as evidenced by the numerous extrasolar planets discovered by NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope a few years ago. But do aliens regularly visit us from those planets? No, I don’t think so. First, the distances involved are just too great, many hundreds of light years, and second, why all the interest in us? Don’t they have anything better to do? Earth is a minor planet in a minor solar system in a minor galaxy. There has to be something out there in the great wide universe that’s more interesting than us. But that’s just my opinion.”
“Hi, I’m Steven Curry and I’m nine and live in Madison, Wisconsin. Is it dark in space?”
Jeff grinned at Susan, “You want to take this one, doc?”
Susan smiled at the camera and scratched her head, “Hi Steven. Hmmm, is it dark in space? Well, yes and no, it all depends on where you’re looking. Our ‘sky’ isn’t like the sky on earth because there’s no atmosphere. In every direction there’s just space. But there are more stars than you ever see on earth. Countless stars. In some directions huge clouds of stars. It’s really beautiful. But then there’s the sun. We’re well away from Earth and there’s nothing between the sun and us. So, on one side of the ship it’s always daylight, and on the other it’s always night. However, our ship is rotating on its long axis, about once every 20 minutes. That rotation keeps the exterior of the ship evenly heated by the sun. But if you look out one of the windows, it’s like we have sunrise and sunset three times an hour. Still, it’s always a nighttime sky. I’m sorry, it’s really kind of hard to describe. If you were outside the ship, and I haven’t done an EVA yet, but Jeff and Abby have, and I’m sure they’d tell you that on the sunlit side of the ship it is very bright, brilliantly lit. But on the shadow side, it’s pitch black, because there’s no atmosphere to diffuse and reflect the sunlight. That’s about the best answer I can give you.”
“Oh wow, this is so neat. I wish I were with you guys. I’m Karen Fleming and I’m thirteen and live in Fort Smith, Arkansas. My question is: What temperature is it on Mars?”
Jeff nodded, “Hello Karen. Well, someday in the future you may get your chance to make the trip. We can only hope. Temperature on Mars? It varies quite a bit. Mars rotates on its axis just like Earth, though the Martian day is just a bit longer, about 37 minutes longer than an Earth day. Mars is also tilted on its axis like Earth, so it has seasons and, again like Earth, the seasons are opposite in the northern and southern hemispheres. Mars’ southern hemisphere tends to be the warmer of the two and during the southern hemispheric summer, the daytime temperature can ge
t up to around 95 degrees Fahrenheit, not unlike a very warm day on Earth. However, at Mars’ north pole in winter the temperature can drop to a very chilly 220 degrees below zero. That’s cold enough to actually freeze the air. Mars’ atmosphere is about 95 percent carbon dioxide and at that temperature the CO2 freezes and it literally snows dry ice. Kind of like a CO2 fire extinguisher. Pretty cold. During our Pathfinder lander’s year and a half on Mars, very near to where we will be, it’s recorded temperatures ranging from 86ºF down to minus 112ºF. We’re looking forward to balmy Martian days in the 70s and 80s. In the minus 100s, not so much.
“While we’re on the subject, Karen, the extreme cold at the north pole during the winter is what is generally believed to cause periodic Martian planet-wide dust storms. As the atmosphere freezes and precipitates, it creates an extreme low-pressure region over the pole. The rest of the planet’s atmosphere rushes in to fill the void, creating hurricane force winds which kick up dust, and the resultant dust storms can envelope all of Mars and blot out the sun for months.” He smiled. “Lovely vacation spot, don’t you think?”
“Hi, I’m Paul Lewis and I’m eight and live in Monroe, Louisiana. Does your spaceship hold air?”
They all laughed and Jeff pointed his thumb at Susan, “I’m gonna let you have this one.”
“Oh boy, I get all the good ones. Hi Paul, yeah, I sure hope it holds air. If it doesn’t, we’re in big trouble. But yes, it holds air. If it didn’t we’d be wearing space suits right now. Our ship is pressurized and the air we breathe is pretty much like the air you’re breathing on Earth, though the oxygen content is a little higher. Not including trace gasses, Earth’s atmosphere is approximately 20% oxygen and 80% nitrogen. Our atmosphere here is about 30% oxygen and 70% nitrogen, as our atmospheric pressure is a bit lower than Earth at sea level. We typically run about 71 kilopascals of pressure here, or around 21 inches of mercury. That’s about like being at 9500 feet of altitude on Earth. Say, somewhere in the Colorado Rockies, maybe like Telluride. So our air here is a little thinner than what most people on Earth are used to, but not all that much different, and we compensate for that with the higher oxygen content.”
Margaritifer Basin (Margaritifer Trilogy Book 1) Page 64