The Death of the Universe: Ghost Kingdom: Hard Science Fiction (Big Rip Book 2)
Page 32
“A Dragon module, right?” Lance asked.
“Yes, exactly,” Ewa said.
In recent years, the price of those things had dropped drastically. Their manufacturers were producing them on assembly lines like Henry Ford manufactured his Model-T a century ago. Dependable and affordable enough that a privately funded organization could manage the cost. Well-used modules were practically given away. If the new owners forgot to arrange for a thorough refurbishment, then what? Lance thought.
Lance tried to imagine ten people stuffed into a landing module. He recalled seeing photos of five people jammed into an Indian motorcycle rickshaw. That’s what it would be like. But with fifteen people? Impossible.
“Hmm,” he said.
“Hmm?” Ewa echoed.
“I don’t know if you’ve already discussed it with Mike, but there might be one other possibility.”
He glanced at Mike, who was simply shaking his head. What does that mean? Shouldn’t we try to help these people?
“We could pick you up,” Lance said.
“You would do that?” The woman he had never met in person scooted very close to the camera, though she seemed strangely neutral. It seemed as if she had drawn a boundary between words and emotions. It had to be the shock.
“The Endeavour is tanked up in case of an emergency return to Earth. We could fly up to you, transfer enough fuel for the deceleration, and then bring part of your crew down to the surface.”
“That would be cutting it damned close,” Mike said. Lance suspected he didn’t like the idea. At any rate, he didn’t appear pleased with this solution.
“We cleaned it out yesterday,” Lance added. “Even if we only take an additional five people on board, that will only be about one-third of its normal landing weight.”
“We have to be sure about the calculations,” Mike muttered through clenched teeth.
“Of course, we’ll be careful,” Lance said.
“The Endeavour won’t be so easy to steer with them on board,” Mike remarked.
“Sharon will take care of that, right?” Lance looked over at his Brazilian colleague.
“Absolutely,” she said with a confident smile.
“You should keep the majority of the fuel, which you’ll need for your own landing,” Ewa cut in. “Even if we can’t make it with the one module, we can save at least five of our people.”
Lance nodded. They couldn’t withhold this assistance. Doing so would have legal ramifications.
“Good. Check into what went wrong with the defective engine. The plan will only work if you can manage to slow down the second module. We will run our calculations in the meantime. Mike out.”
Ewa’s face vanished. The monitor once again displayed its standard background, a snow-covered mountain on Earth. Mike tapped it with his finger.
“If we run into any problems,” he said, “you’ve just given away our ticket home. Are you clear on that, Lance? Those crazies might feel otherwise, but I want to get back to Earth. There’s no way I want to waste the rest of my days on this godforsaken planet.”
Lance had never seen Mike so upset or this determined.
“You won’t have to,” Lance replied. “It’ll take another eight weeks for us to produce enough hydrogen and oxygen from our supplies for the return trip. We could fill the Endeavour’s tanks three times over and still keep to schedule.”
“Then all I can do is hope you’re right, Lance.”
Mars Nation
NASA finally made it. The very first human has just set foot on the surface of our neighbor planet. This is the start of a long research expedition that sent four scientists into space.
But the four astronauts of the NASA crew are not the only ones with this destination. The privately financed ‘Mars for Everyone’ initiative has also targeted the Red Planet. Twenty men and women have been selected to live there and establish the first extraterrestrial settlement.
Challenges arise even before they reach Mars orbit. The MfE spaceship Santa Maria is damaged along the way. Only the four NASA astronauts can intervene and try to save their lives.
No one anticipates the impending catastrophe that threatens their very existence—not to speak of the daily hurdles that an extended stay on an alien planet sets before them. On Mars, a struggle begins for limited resources, human cooperation, and just plain survival.
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Glossary of Acronyms
AI – Artificial Intelligence
BEC – Bose-Einstein Condensate
CDM – Cold Dark Matter
FLRW – Friedmann-Lemaître-Robertson-Walker universe
GeV – GigaElectron Volt
GTR – General Theory of Relativity (aka Theory of General Relativity)
ISS – International Space Station
ΛCDM – Lambda-Cold Dark Matter
LIGO – Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave observatory
QFT – Quantum Field Theory
SKA – Square Kilometer Array
TSR – Theory of Special Relativity
UV – UltraViolet
Metric to English Conversions
It is assumed that by the time the events of this novel take place, the United States will have joined the rest of the world and will be using the International System of Units, the modern form of the metric system.
Length:
centimeter = 0.39 inches
meter = 1.09 yards, or 3.28 feet
kilometer = 1093.61 yards, or 0.62 miles
Area:
square centimeter = 0.16 square inches
square meter = 1.20 square yards
square kilometer = 0.39 square miles
Weight:
gram = 0.04 ounces
kilogram = 35.27 ounces, or 2.20 pounds
Volume:
liter = 1.06 quarts, or 0.26 gallons
cubic meter = 35.31 cubic feet, or 1.31 cubic yards
Temperature:
To convert Celsius to Fahrenheit, multiply by 1.8 and then add 32
To convert Kelvin to Celsius, subtract 273.15
Copyright
Brandon Q. Morris
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www.hardsf.de
brandon@hard-sf.com
Translator: Siân Robertson
Editing team: Marcia Kwiecinski, A.A.S., and Stephen Kwiecinski, B.S.
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Technical Advisors: Michael Paluszek (President, Princeton Satellite Systems)
Dr. Ludwig Hellmann
Cover design: BJ Coverbookdesigns.com
Printing: CreateSpace, Leipzig
Photos: NASA / JPL