Orbital Maneuvers

by R Davison

  She looked out of the window at the dark blue orb below. “I don’t know what is going on down there,” she said. “We will find out soon when the comm system gets restored.” She turned back to Paul. “I can only hope that the people who are alive and healthy are helping those who need it, and that everyone is working together to survive together.”

  “You know what human nature is like, Susan,” Paul said. “You know that there are people preying on people, cheating, killing, and hurting others to survive! I have no one to return to, and I am not sure that I want to return to that.”

  Susan looked into Paul’s eyes, not quite certain how to interpret his last statement. “What are you saying, Paul?”

  Paul was again looking out at the Earth. His hands were distractedly gripping the controls to the station’s manipulator arm, fidgeting with the buttons and switches. “All I am saying is that it might be easier to just stay here, on this station, than it will be to go to the surface and deal with the madness. I am going to die in either case, and it is a toss up on how long I will survive in either place. Staying here, I can still live a civilized life.” Adding as an after thought, “However long it lasts.”

  “Paul, you can’t count the human race out! We may make it through this without the fall of civilization.”

  Paul cut her off, “You’ve heard all the predictions about the aftermath of an impact. You know the physics! This was not just one large asteroid, but three! Look at what happened to the dinosaurs, and they only had to deal with one impact!”

  “Yes, I know what the scientists say about the aftermath of an impact. But, did you ever consider that they might be wrong in their calculations? They have been known to be wrong before. You’re a scientist, you know that. They don’t have all the facts and depending on how you tweak the numbers, the physics can be misleading. We have a lot more going for us than the dinosaurs did and we may be able to survive the after-effects of the impact. Who knows, maybe the dinosaurs died because it wasn’t just one large impact but a dozen, spread around the world. Remember how comet Shoemaker-Levi impacted Jupiter? It was multiple impacts scattered around the planet. If that happened on Earth, I could see how it would be even more disastrous than having a cluster of impacts in one place.”

  “It’s all moot now, isn’t it? The damage is done. We will find out who was right soon enough. I just don’t think I want to deal with what’s left down there.” Paul’s voice rang with his despair.

  Susan watched Paul’s shoulders slump and began to think that she was not going to talk him out of this depression. She did not want to lose Paul and could not afford to lose him. There were too many unknowns still ahead of them, and she needed everyone lucid and alert. It was bad enough to have lost Jerry.

  She tried to remember what Paul’s family was like and more importantly, where they lived. She knew Paul’s wife and children quite well, but had not acknowledged the fact that they were gone, at least not down to the personal, emotional level. She did not have time for that now.

  During their time in training for this mission, they all had an opportunity to share family events and get to know one another better. They celebrated birthdays together and enjoyed family cookouts with each other. This was done in an effort to bring them closer together as a cohesive group and allow them to function as one during the mission, especially in the case of an emergency.

  As hard as she tried, she could not remember if Paul had relatives who lived outside of his hometown. His was a very tightly knit family, and they all tended to settle around the same area to remain close to the old homestead. Surely, she thought, someone must have ventured out of the local surroundings to find a different way of life. She decided to risk it and ask.

  “Paul, don’t you have any family outside of Texas?” Paul’s head slowly shook back and forth. He said nothing, but just kept staring out the window. Susan felt even worse for bringing it up. That was stupid, she thought, why don’t I just rub more salt into his wounds! The silence grew very heavy in the cupola as she floated behind Paul. Wordlessly, they both watched the lightening storm slip out of view as the station hurtled onward toward its new orbit.

  Paul sensed Susan’s awkwardness and he felt sorry for her. He knew she was trying to help and appreciated her efforts. However, at this moment he just wished to be alone with his thoughts and pain. He struggled to block out the thoughts of his family and push all the memories that were flooding to the surface back into the recesses of his mind. He could not cope with these right now.

  He forced himself to think about everything Susan had said. As he focused on the ideas she presented, the intruding, debilitating memories began to fade into the background. He was finally able to concede that she did present an argument worthy of consideration. In fact, she had unknowingly appealed to his analytical side, which had always ruled his emotional side.

  The scientist in him was intrigued as he saw the opportunities for studying the unfolding disaster from an isolated perspective. He agreed with Susan when she pointed out that the scientific community has been wrong in the past. Paul looked over his shoulder at Susan. “Do you really think the science is wrong?”

  Susan was unprepared for his question. “Science? What science?”

  “The science behind the impact theories.”

  “Oh.” Susan had not really thought about this at all, it just seemed a valid point to make. “Well, I haven’t given it a lot of thought, but I’m sure that the computer simulations that were created made some assumptions that we are bound to find inaccurate.”

  Paul nodded silently and turned back toward the window. He thought about Susan’s idea and weighed it against what little he knew about the topic. It would be interesting to document the distribution of dust from the vantage point of the station, at least until they had to leave, he thought. The thought of leaving brought him back to having to deal with people.

  I know what people are like, he mused, I know what chaos life is going to turn into as things deteriorate down there. There will be those who will work together to help others and he thought with much sadness, there will be others who will do anything to have it all in their fight for survival.

  It was too difficult to decide what to do right now and he realized, in a moment of clarity, there were no decisions that needed to be made at this moment, so why fuss about it? He would be useless to the rest of the crew if he spent his time feeling sorry for himself, and that is neither what they needed, nor what he really wanted.

  He turned from the window and faced Susan. He put his hands on her shoulders and squeezed them firmly. “Thank you.” He said. “I am sorry for this. I know we all need to pull together now more than ever. We are not out of the woods yet, and I have plenty of time to think about my future. Right now, I am sure that there is something more useful I can be doing.” With that, he floated past Susan and headed back toward the control module.

  Susan floated in the cupola for a few moments trying to figure out what she said that turned Paul around. She was as surprised as she was happy that she was able to help him and decided to leave it at that. She did not need to know the specific reason. Giving one last glance at Earth, Susan floated out of the cupola and over to the Joint Airlock to check on Alexander. He was still sound asleep. She envied him for that. It would be nice to go to sleep and wake up with this all being a dream, she thought. After checking the display that gave the readouts for Alexander’s suit, she headed back to the control module.

  Susan entered the command module to find Nicholas still watching the radar display and Ivan glued to the engine control display. She was glad to see that Paul had returned to his station. Seizing the opportunity of going unnoticed, she slipped into the sleep compartment that Jerry was secured in. It was very disturbing to see him bundled up that way. She was as angry with him for what he did, as she was with herself, for not devising a better solution to deal with him. She carefully checked his vital signs, then pulled away some of the tape she had tied him up with to
allow him a bit more room to move within his cocoon. She floated out of the compartment to join the rest of the crew.

  Ivan was watching the countdown to engine cut off as Susan floated alongside. She noticed that the display was showing twenty five seconds to cut off. This was not the final firing of the engines, but one of several that would allow them to circularize the orbit of the station. If they did not do this, the station would end up in a very elliptical trajectory. This would bring the station too close to the atmosphere on one side of the orbit, but much farther away from the atmosphere on the opposite side. If they allowed the station to remain with those orbital parameters it would expose it to any debris still in low earth orbit, greatly increasing the chances of severe damage. They would restart the engines in a while to perform the circularization procedure.

  “How is everything going?” Susan asked.

  “Everything is nominal. No surprises this time.” Ivan glanced over to Paul and then up at Susan with a smile. “Everything okay with you?”

  “For the moment things are alright,” Susan answered. Susan’s moment did not last too long as a moan from Nicholas suddenly sent a chill down her spine.

  “Oh no! Not again!” Nicholas moaned.

  “What is it?” Susan asked as she shot over to Nicholas’ station.

  “I am showing a blip in our flight path!” Nicholas’ voice was filled with anticipation. Recalling the last close encounter he and Commander Orlov had in the Soyuz, he was not eager to repeat that adventure.

  “I have it on my display,” Ivan responded, still in his usual calm voice. “The computer will plan an evasive maneuver if necessary,” he said, not taking his eyes off the display. The computer threw up numbers and plotted trajectories on the screen as it calculated the path of the unknown object and compared it to that of the station. Everyone’s pulse was racing, waiting for the computer to spew forth an answer. The seconds ticked by and the blip on the radar screen moved closer to the station. Nicholas wiped the sweat from his forehead and cursed his luck to be in this situation twice in less than a day.

  “Okay, computer, let us have your answer,” Ivan whispered in a low voice. The display finally popped up with a graphic indicating the path of the two objects and a projected collision point flashing in an alarming, blood-red bull’s-eye. Below the graphic was a flashing box that said: AUTOPILOT ENGAGE.

  In the few moments that Ivan hesitated before pressing the flashing box on the display, Nicholas flew over to Ivan’s station, his voice an octave higher and a few decibels louder than it was before. “What are you waiting for?”

  Without taking his eyes off the display, Ivan answered calmly, “I am trying to decide whether we trust the computer with our lives.”

  “What?” Nicholas shouted as he glanced from Ivan to the radar display showing the blip getting ever closer. Adding in a quieter, but no less excited voice, “You must have gone to the Alexander Orlov School for collision avoidance!”

  Having made up his mind, Ivan quietly reached up and hit the button on the display engaging the autopilot. The computer immediately took over and they could feel the station abruptly start to move toward the port side and the engines restart after their brief shut down. Everyone and everything that was not secured to the station floated to the right side of the compartment as the station moved to the left. Because of the close proximity of the object to the station, the maneuver was more aggressive than it would have been had they known about the object sooner. The display began to show the bulls-eye moving from its original position as the station changed its trajectory. Eventually the blip disappeared and the computer shut down the engines and the steering thrusters. A new screen now appeared and showed a new box that gave them the choice to have the computer calculate the parameters to return to their original orbit or resume manual control.

  Nicholas dabbed the sweat off his head and floated off to one corner. Addressing no one in particular he muttered, “I am getting too old for this!”

  Paul looked over to Nicholas, the youngest person on the station, and smiled, “Surely you must have had as much excitement in your military career.”

  Nicholas blushed and replied, “Yes, but when it happens in a jet fighter that you are piloting, it is usually over before you have realized what was happening. You react purely out of training and instinct, and normally don’t have a lot of time to think about what you are going to do. Afterward, when you have time to catch your breath, you feel giddy with relief that you got through it in one piece. It is knowing what is going to happen and the waiting for resolution of the crisis that is very taxing on the nerves!”

  Paul chuckled, “I’ve never flown in a fighter in combat, or even mock combat, but I completely understand what you are saying. It is also a bit unnerving leaving your destiny in the hands of a computer that you have had no experience with. I just hope the programmers did their homework!”

  Nicholas nodded his head in agreement and headed for the hatch announcing that he was going to check on Commander Orlov. Susan looked up from the discussion that she and Ivan were having on their current orbital status and nodded in agreement.

  “Why don’t we just stay on this trajectory for the moment while I check a few things on the computer? If we can save some fuel, let’s do so,” Susan said to Ivan, as she moved over to the station Nicholas had vacated. “I want to see what else might be on our path if we stay here. The computer will give us the orbital information of the satellites that are in orbit and we can decide if this orbit is secure.” Ivan agreed and proceeded to run through a status display on the station just to make sure everything was in order. Paul floated over to watch Susan as she went through her analysis.

  The computer had a library of over four thousand objects that orbit the planet, from junk to active satellites, ranging in size from a few inches to tens of feet in length. Susan was commanding the computer to calculate the current trajectory of the station, with the proper compensation for a more circular orbit and higher altitude, relative to all the other objects in orbit. The program should alert her to any objects that may pose a threat to the station. This was going to take a few minutes, Susan thought as she stretched her arms and legs, everything was so tight! In mid-stretch, she looked up to see Paul behind her, and could feel her face blush. She smiled, embarrassed, “Never a dull moment, huh?” He smiled back, nodding his head.

  “What do you think the odds are that we are in a secure orbit?” Paul asked with genuine curiosity. Being a chemist, and not having been involved in the space program previously, he had no feeling for what was in orbit around Earth.

  “I really don’t have a clue. There is so much stuff floating around up here, it is almost impossible to keep track of it all and it is worse now because of the stuff the asteroid kicked up which isn’t in the data base. I just hope that the computer can sort it all out. Until we regain communications with someone on the ground, we are going to have to rely on the onboard computer for this calculation. We will need to save some fuel for emergency maneuvering, just in case.”

  Paul thought about that for a moment, and then offered, “That means that we will not be able to achieve maximum orbit.”

  “Yes, I know. I think that the small amount of fuel that is held in reserve to maneuver will not make much difference if it were used to push the station’s orbit higher.” Susan glanced at the display, but it offered nothing new.

  “Yes, I suppose that you’re right.” Paul looked about the room as he considered their situation. His gaze stopped when he saw Ivan at his console. “I wonder if the Russians would be able to launch a PROGRESS ship to refuel the station?”

  Susan thought about it and shook her head gently, “I am not sure what the state of affairs is in Russia, but I doubt that there are very many people interested in preserving the space station with what is going on down there. It would be nice to boost the station up to where it was totally secure and have it waiting for the next crew—whenever that may be.”

  Susan r
ealized that she was being more negative than she ought to be, especially after her talk with Paul. She thought about it for a few moments and decided that they needed to be realistic about what the future held, but not to dwell on the negatives and not to jump to conclusions.

  “I don’t know, maybe they may be in position to launch a ship,” she said. “It would not take that long to get it into orbit and dock a few days, and then they could use its engines to boost the station higher. That’s something that we will need to talk to Mission Control,” Susan bit her tongue for forgetting that Mission Control was no more, neither was a big part of Texas. “Or, Korolev Control about. That’s a good idea, Paul.” She was feeling embarrassed again and was relieved when the computer display flashed up an answer to her query, saving her from another awkward moment.

  Paul studied the display, but was not quite sure he understood what it was telling him. He waited for Susan to interpret the information. “Well,” Susan said after a few moments, “it looks like we have serendipitously fallen into a secure orbit. It’s about time our luck changes! Here, Paul.” Susan motioned at the display. “This shows our projected trajectory and these other lines indicate the nearest objects that may pose a problem. Most of these are either above, or below us. Eventually this may become a problem if the station’s orbit decays, but at this higher altitude that won’t be an issue for a long while. Unless,” Susan hesitated as she considered other reasons for orbital decay.

  Paul’s optimism slipped, “Unless what?”

  “Oh, I was just thinking that the atmosphere is very dynamic, and if there is a lot of solar activity, you know—solar flares, sunspots, they can cause the atmosphere to expand and then it affects satellites at a higher orbit. I am not really sure how high that can go.”

  “Isn’t that what happened to SKYLAB?” Paul asked, as he tried to remember the reason for its demise.

  “Yes, I believe it was partly responsible for the station falling back to Earth. It had to do with time and money to reboost the station and unfortunately, they ran out of time before they got the money.” Turning back to the display, “So, if we can hit this altitude we should be fine.” Susan looked over to Ivan, “Ivan, I’m sending this info to your station. Do you see anything that I might have missed?”