“Figures. Alright, tell her to set something up for later today.”
“Okay.”
He returned to the windows and wrapped his arm around Abby’s shoulders. “Quite a sight isn’t it.”
“Yeah. Wow. Doesn’t look quite as hospitable as Mars.”
Jeff chuckled. “I don’t think either one is very hospitable.”
She turned and looked through the port docking window at Earth. “Now, that looks hospitable.”
“It sure does. Three days.”
Abby nodded. “Yeah. It’s been a long damn trip.”
“Still glad you came?”
She shook her head. “Wouldn’t have missed it for the world.” She spun around, grasped him and kissed him. “Thank you. Thank you for everything.”
He smiled. “You’re welcome. And thank you. I couldn’t have done without you.”
She rested her head on his shoulder as they both gazed at Earth looming large in the window.
#
They all sat in front of the commons video camera. Jeff waved. “Hi Chrissie, let her rip.”
“Rog. You’re live.”
“Hello world, we’re back. Well, almost. It’s been quite a trip and there’s no way I can describe it in 20 minutes or so. Chrissie, you want to orchestrate some questions for us?”
“Sure.”
“Hello, Ares, welcome home. Don Gooding, NBC. How’s it feel to be almost home after two and a half years?”
“Hi Don. It feels good. It’s been a long time. I’m not sure mankind was meant for this. It’s been hard, but in some ways very enjoyable. It’s certainly been an experience like no other.” He looked at Gabe, Abby, and Susan. “I can’t really describe it. There are no words for it. It’s like Livingston or Hillary or Armstrong, it’s where no one else has gone before, and there are no adequate words for it.”
“Glad to see you again, Ares. Tracy Matson, USA Today. How is Ghita doing?”
“Hello Tracy, long time no see. That sounds like a question for Gabe.”
Gabe waved at the camera. “Hi Tracy, good to see you again also. Aside from being sick and tired of space, like the rest of us, Ghita is doing fine.” She raised Ghita’s hand. “Wave at the camera honey.” Ghita waved. “I think she has enough memory of gravity on Mars that she finds weightlessness a little confusing. But after seven months she seems to have the hang of it.” Gabe picked Ghita up and placed her floating between she and Jeff.
Ghita reached for her mother, but couldn’t get there. “Ahma.”
Gabe chuckled and held out a finger. “Here.” Ghita grasped her mother’s finger and pulled herself back into her grasp. “She’s learned to deal with the lack of gravity, but I don’t think she’s real happy with it. And in three days we’re going to confuse her again. Earth’s gravity will likely be a rude awakening. She has the space sniffles like the rest of us, and her muscle tone is weak, as she’s not adept at using our exercise equipment, but all in all she’s doing well. I think once she adapts to Earth’s gravity she’ll be fine and catch up with her peers fairly quickly.”
“Hello Ares. John Leonard, National Geographic. Amongst your many experiences over the past two and half years, is there anything that particular stands out?”
They all looked at one another and chuckled.
“Hello John,” said Jeff. “Oh, wow, that’s a tough one; probably different for each of us. Aside from Ghita’s birth, which certainly has to be at or near the top of the list, um, I think our landing on Mars was as memorable an experience as I’ve ever had. When we touched down and I realized we made it and were still alive, well, that was quite a moment.” He glanced at the others and held out his hands. “What do you say?”
Gabe nodded. “I’ll go along with Ghita’s arrival and the landing. Also our launch from Earth and arrival in space is something I won’t be forgetting for a long time.”
Jeff looked at her and laughed softly. “But you never forget anything.”
She shrugged. “Once we were in orbit, looking out the command module window at Earth below us… it just took my breath away. That view is impossible to describe.”
Abby shook her head. “Um, I don’t have much to add to that highlights list. Uh, but for me, even more memorable than the landing was climbing out of the lander and setting foot on Mars. I remember so well the instant my boot made contact with the sand. It was definitely a Neil Armstrong moment.”
Susan nodded. “That’s a fairly definitive list. I would add one item, which Abby won’t like, and that is the moment I first saw her broken leg. I thought to myself, oh fine, we’re on Mars and the nearest hospital is 150 million miles away, what am I going to do with this?”
They all laughed, except Abby, who just rolled her eyes.
“Debra Connelly, MSNBC. Can you give us your itinerary following your return to Earth? And do you have any press conferences scheduled following your return?”
Jeff nodded. “Sure. Um, I can give you an overview, but you can get the precise details from our Mission Control Center in Newport.” He shrugged. “We just work here. We’ll be splashing down in the Pacific Ocean at around 9:30 am local time about 500 miles southwest of Hawaii on the 12th. Then we have about a day and a half transit on the USS Makin Island up to Pearl Harbor, and we’ll be in Honolulu for two days, during which I believe there are several press conferences scheduled. Following that we’ll be flying back to Newport for some well-deserved R&R and food that stays on your plate.”
“Mike Williams, CNN. From everything we’ve heard over the past two and a half years, it’s been a long, arduous, and even dangerous trip. Are you glad you did this?”
Jeff nodded. “Hi Mike, good to see you. Uh, yeah, at least so far as I’m concerned it was very worthwhile. As I said earlier, it’s hard to describe. I remember a conversation between Spock and McCoy in one of the Star Trek movies that went something like ‘You mean I have to die in order to discuss death?’ It’s kind of like that. I’m not sure what to say about it. Am I glad I went? Yes. Would I do it again? Knowing what I know now, probably not. Living on Mars was okay, but more than a year in space to get there and back was hard. In other words, Mars is okay, but space kind of sucks.”
“I agree with Jeff,” said Susan. “This much time in space has been really hard on all of us, but Mars was fine; it’s just very different. Once you get used to it, suiting up to go outside is not that big of a deal. It’s like dressing warmly to go outside in any cold weather climate. But the rigors of this much time in space has been difficult. Was it worth it? Yes. Would I go again? I don’t know. I’d have to think very long and hard about that.”
Gabe and Abby nodded.
“Barbara Edgeworth, Washington Post. How did all your equipment and facilities hold up? Were there any unanticipated problems?”
Jeff laughed. “Yeah, plenty. More than we care to remember. Still, I think that all in all everything held up very well; in most cases better than expected. We certainly had our share of glitches, but nothing we couldn’t handle. We had contingencies, backups, spare parts, etcetera, for just about everything except Abby taking a dive into a crater. We weren’t entirely prepared for that little evolution, but we got by.”
“David Stewart, space.com. Can you update us on the status of the sample return mission and when we might get our first look at Martian rocks?”
“JPL can probably answer that better than we can, but we can give it a shot.” Jeff turned to Gabe. “You want to take this one?”
“Sure. Though the sample return ascent vehicle lifted off the day after we did, it remained in orbit for more than a week while JPL took their time thoroughly checking out the return booster before docking it with the vehicle. Then the booster was fired placing the vehicle in TEI, or Trans-Earth Injection. The trajectory it’s following is a little longer and slower than ours to better accommodate placing the vehicle in orbit around Earth for final capture and transfer of the samples down to JPL. Orbital insertion should take place in abou
t a month. I’m not certain about that, but as Jeff said, I’m sure JPL can tell you. Because of their mass – about 1,250 pounds – I believe the sample cases will be transferred to Earth a few at a time probably over a period of a year or so in concert with ISS resupply missions. Again, I don’t know when the first samples will arrive; probably spring or summer of next year. Our part of the bargain was to simply collect rocks. How and when they get here is a matter that’s entirely in the hands of JPL and NASA.”
“Ellen Hamilton, Honolulu Star-Advertiser. Can I ask each of you what the first thing you want to do is after landing on Earth?”
They all laughed.
“Well,” said Jeff, “our options will be a bit limited since we’ll be splashing down in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, so I’m going to assume you mean once we get to Hawaii and real land. I don’t know… maybe take a shower, change my clothes, and go find a bacon cheeseburger and fries. Or a New York steak. Anything that hasn’t been freeze-dried.”
Gabe smiled and shook her head. “Um, let somebody else watch Ghita while I get a good night’s sleep on a bed that doesn’t need to be bolted to the floor to keep it and me from floating away.”
Susan nodded. “That does sound good. However, being a bit more pragmatic than these two, I think learning to walk again in Earth’s gravity will be near the top of my priorities.”
Abby chuckled. “Oh, that’s easy. Find a hot tub, an open bar, and a room with no alarm clock.”
“Howard Conners, New York Times. There was a great deal of concern about forward and backward biologic contamination before you left. Did you find any evidence of either?”
Jeff nodded toward Susan. “You want to take that?”
“Okay. The short answer to that is no. It is possible that there may yet be some biologics that we brought with us still surviving in the habitat, though I doubt it. Of the nearly 100 Earth origin growth cultures we prepared then exposed to Mars atmosphere, none survived much more than 15 seconds. And of the several hundred cultures we attempted to grow from Martian samples nothing ever grew. And microscopic inspection never revealed a single biologic or any sign that one ever existed on Mars. Further, we’re all fine. No signs of anything unusual or unexpected. And we were first exposed to Mars two years ago.”
Chrissie’s voice and video cut in from the Newport MCC. “Ladies and gentlemen I’m going to cut this short as we have some housekeeping items for Ares. There is another brief press conference scheduled on the USS Makin Island immediately following recovery and a lengthier one in Honolulu after the Makin Island docks. In the meantime, we’ll leave the voice link up and video from the MCC if you wish to monitor it. Thank you. This is Mission Control, Newport.
“Ares, Newport.”
“Go ahead Chrissie. Over,” said Jeff.
“We’re going to have a shift change here in just a moment. The White Team is coming on. Heidi will be taking over as FLIGHT and Paul will be CAPCOM.”
“Roger.”
“And Ares, we’re anxious to see your final stowage plan and how much difference there is from the Flight Plan. We need to work on your center of mass.”
“Rog. We still have a lot of stuff to stow and we may be strapping some of it to the kitchen table. Gabe’s working on it.”
Chrissie laughed. “Understood. Whenever you can get it to us.”
He looked over his shoulder and gave Gabe a questioning look.
“Nags. Like you said, I’m working on it.”
“Ares, Newport.”
“Hey, Paul,” said Jeff, “how’s the White Team today?”
“Not bad, not bad at all. Heidi hasn’t whipped any of us within an inch of our life in more than a week, so we’re doing good.”
Jeff laughed.
“Jeff, with Gabe’s concurrence we’re going to cancel this post lunar course correction burn. It doesn’t appear necessary.”
“Rog. She and I were talking about that earlier today and figured that’s what you’d do. She’s over there nodding her head right now.”
“Okay. We’re still planning on a short burn of the SPS after Sundancer and stores module jettison just to tweak your entry angle.”
“Rog. Understood.”
“Oh, and when you have a chance can you switch over to B/D Roll?”
“Yeah, sure.” Jeff hit the intercom button. “Abby, Newport wants B/D Roll.”
“Okay, give me a minute or two. I need to get into the CM.”
“Rog. No hurry.”
“Ares, Newport, can you go to Omni Bravo?”
“Omni Bravo.”
“And can you try the High Gain on Pitch 38, Yaw 290, Reacq, and Narrow?”
“Uh, yeah. Pitch 38, Yaw 290, Reacq, and Narrow.”
“Perfect. That’s got it.”
Friday, October 12, 2018
1344 UTC (T plus 934 days)
“Ares, Newport, good morning.”
Jeff yawned and reached for his mic switch. “Yeah, Chrissie. Where the hell is it morning?”
“It’s morning here, and it’s definitely morning where you are going to splashdown in about six hours.”
“Terrific. What’s up?”
“We’d like you to go to Wide on the High Gain Antenna.”
“Yeah, okay, give me a minute. Okay, Wide. Um, Chrissie?”
“Yeah.”
“Apollo 16 was up here for 12 days and their approach journal was something like 80 pages. We’ve been up here for two and a half years, can we try not to make this a proportional thing, or we’ll never get home.”
“Understood. Heidi and I are working on it.”
“Excellent.” Jeff hit the intercom key. “Alright everybody, reveille. Get out of bed. Six hours and we’re back on that bluish-green hunk of dirt beneath us. Abby, man the CM and answer all of Newport’s fool requests. Gabe, make sure everything is where it’s supposed to be. Sue, get me a tranquilizer.”
“Ares, Newport, 15 seconds to Sundancer/storage module jett.”
“Rog, Newport,” said Jeff, “we’re on it.”
“High gain power is off,” said Abby. “Fuel cells pumps Off. We’ve got some Master Alarms coming up here. CB ECS Rad Control Heaters Open. CB Rad Heaters Overload, and more Master Alarms. God, I can’t push this fucking button fast enough. Waste H2O dump open… blah, blah, blah.”
“Just jettison the damn thing,” said Jeff.
“Alright… Gone!”
“Newport, Ares, Sundancer and storage module are space junk. Spin them up and get them the hell away from us.”
“Rog. Sundancer RCS firing retrograde.”
“We see it, she’s moving aft. Okay, Chrissie, we’re gonna start on the CM/SM separation checklist.”
“Rog.”
“Alright boys and girls, we have about 22 minutes to CM/SM sep, and 51 minutes to splashdown. Let’s move like we have a purpose. Gabe, you have the P61?”
“Working on it.”
“Okay, Abby and I will take the checklist. Sue, twiddle your thumbs. But do it quietly.”
“Rog. Quietly twiddling.”
“Ares, Newport, your altitude is 5,931 nautical miles and your velocity is 21,874 feet per second. And we’d like to conduct a VHF check at this time.”
“Rog,” said Jeff, “standby. Sue, job opportunity. VHF transmit and receive ON, S-band OFF.”
“Rog, Newport, this is Ares on Simplex A.”
“Roger, Ares, read you loud and clear.”
“Rog, read you the same. Morning Chrissie.”
“Hi Sue. How’s tricks?”
“The usual. All I can see from this seat is Jeff’s butt.”
“Roger, butt.”
“Abby,” said Gabe, “can you see the horizon?”
Abby glanced out the port rendezvous window. “Yeah.”
“Where is it?”
“31.6 degrees.”
“Excellent.”
“Ares, Newport, we have you at 3,214 miles, 26,053 feet per second, and CM/SM sep in two and a half m
inutes.”
“Copy,” said Gabe.
“Okay, we’re at sep attitude,” said Abby.
“Rog,” said Jeff.
Abby shook her head. “Earth looks bigger than I remember.”
Jeff glanced out the window and laughed. “Biggest rock we’ve seen in a while.”
“Sure is.”
“Next time we do this,” said Susan, “I want a window.”
“Next time we do this,” said Gabe, “you can have my seat. I’m gonna stay home.”
“Ares, Newport.”
“Go ahead, Newport,” said Jeff.
“We just received confirmation from the USS Makin Island that all recovery and support forces are on station and airborne.”
“Rog. It’s comforting to know we’re not going to have to swim home.”
“Well,” said Abby, “shall we get rid of the Service Module?”
“Looks to be about time.”
“Okay, here goes. I understand there’s a little bump here.” She raised the safety on the CM/SM SEP switch and flipped it. There was indeed a bump. In fact, quite a bang. “Ouch.”
“Ugh, that hurt. Are we separated?”
“Yeah. There she goes. See the RCS jets?”
“Uh huh. Newport, Ares, we have CM/SM sep.”
“Ares, Newport. Say again.”
“We have CM/SM sep.”
“Roger, copy separation.”
“Also, we had a good horizon check and the CMC looks great.”
“Roger, Ares, copy. Also… let’s see, um, your velocity is 30,300 feet per second, you are about 16 minutes from entry interface and just under 29 minutes from splashdown. Oh, and in eleven and a half minutes we’ll be passing comms over to ARIA.”
“Roger.”
“Look out the window,” said Gabe.
“Huh?” said Jeff. “What?”
“Ionization.”
“Already?”
“Yeah. Entry interface in about six minutes.”
“Well, then it’s about on schedule.”
“Yeah.”
“Um, we are flying backward, aren’t we?”
Margaritifer Basin (Margaritifer Trilogy Book 1) Page 102