Secret of The Red Planet
Page 2
CHAPTER ONE
THE DREAM
I have always wanted to build a space ship and fly off into space. What a thrill to experience the ‘G’ force that presses you back in your seat as you hurtle up into the sky! What a thrill to see the Earth from up there, getting smaller and smaller as you penetrate deeper and deeper into the blackness! What a thrill to float around inside the spaceship, free from the effects of gravity!
Our Science teacher at school told us that it costs millions of dollars to build a space ship and millions more to sent it out into space and bring it safely back again. I was afraid what he said was true, but…….
‘Only rich countries can afford to do it,’ he explained to us. ‘You need very strong materials to withstand the pressure and heat, and astronauts have to be trained for years to be able to man spacecraft.’
‘But Sir,’ I said. ‘I don’t have millions of dollars and I don’t have the time to spend years training. I want to go to Mars now!’ I had this very strange feeling that it was my destiny to go to Mars, and why wait for Destiny to make up its mind. I didn’t want to go when I was a pensioner!
‘Mars, is it? Well, boy,’ he said, laughing. ‘If you think you can build a spacecraft and go off to Mars and be back before the beginning of next term, you are welcome to try and we all wish you the best of luck, don’t we boys and girls?’ He looked around at the class. There was some tittering and some whispering from the rest of the class. Although I was popular at school, I had a reputation for being clever. I excelled in my exams and was always at the top of the class. For that reason I was often ragged.
‘Thank you, Sir,’ I said. ‘If I don’t make it back in time, I’ll send you a message.’
He laughed again. ‘From Mars? Don’t forget your mobile phone. Anyway, you do that.’ He was mocking me: that was obvious.
I will show him!
Now that I had the doubtful blessing of our Science teacher, my next problem was to find a place to build my space ship. In the end I decided on the wooden shed at the bottom of the garden. Dad had recently bought another shed and had erected it nearer the house. It was here that he stored his tools and other gardening equipment. Dad is a bit of a do-it-yourself fiend, which is useful because I was going to need some tools with which to make my spaceship.
What materials was I to use? Titanium was light and strong but much too expensive for a sixteen year old boy, (almost seventeen actually) on a two pounds a week pocket money. Aluminium foil was a good substitute, I decided. Mum uses a lot of the stuff and she would not miss a few rolls here and there. Dad’s extra-strong glue would hold it together. Yes and those old window frames he threw out in the Spring would make an excellent frame, a bit on the heavy side though. I was beginning to get really excited. I wonder what the people on Mars will say when they see me coming!
The rocket motor was the trickiest part. To escape from the Earth’s atmosphere needs a powerful thrust, and reliability was important. I couldn’t afford to break downhalfway to Mars, could I? What could I use? In the end it was to be the old lawnmower motor that was going to propel me on my journey of a lifetime.
Mum was marvellous. Every time I said to her, ‘Don’t forget the tinfoil!’ she would add it to her shopping list. I asked Dad if I could borrow his extra-strong glue and use some of the old window frames and the old lawnmower motor and he didn’t even ask me what I wanted them for. But of course he had a pretty good idea.
I had a fair amount of clearing out to do in the old shed. Dad was so pleased with me for doing a job that he had been putting off for months, he even helped me with the Ford van to dispose of some unwanted things. At last I had collected all my materials together and was ready to start building my spaceship.