America One: The Odyssey Begins

by T I WADE

  “Both of you need to go?” asked Jonesy, working out the numbers and craft in his head. Suzi ignored him.

  “I believe an asteroid will have more vital items in an enclosed space compared to what we will find on Mars,” Suzi continued. “I don’t even want to begin a search on a large planet. Asteroids should provide much of the information we need to find out. Hopefully, a few of you remember your basic school science lectures. However, I will make this lecture simple so Herr Jones can understand. First, water is a chemical compound with the chemical formula H₂O. A water molecule contains one oxygen and two hydrogen atoms, and here, on America One, we have the scientists and technology to split them into two of the most important elements we need to find. On an asteroid, we might find water in frozen or crystalline forms only. The same can be said for methane gas, and we can use both.”

  Suzi laughed as Jonesy rolled his eyes. “He certainly couldn’t have done well in biology or chemistry class!” she thought.

  “Gentlemen, a short science lecture, if you will bear with me. Besides the noble gases, nitrogen is the fourth most abundant element in the sun and the universe overall. Nitrogen is synthesized by fusion of carbon and hydrogen in supernovas. Due to the volatility of elemental nitrogen and its common compounds with hydrogen and oxygen, nitrogen is far less common on the rocky planets of the inner solar system, and it is a relatively rare element on Earth. However, as on Earth, nitrogen and its compounds occur commonly as gases in the atmospheres of planets and moons that have atmospheres. On the Earth, it is an indispensable ingredient of the biosphere, being essential to DNA, RNA and proteins. In other words, it is necessary for life’s information transfer and catalytic processes.

  “An abundant exogenous delivery of nitrogen-ammonia, something we hope to find out there, might have been significant in early Earth’s molecular evolution; we should expect that it participated in numerous abiotic as well as prebiotic reactions. Many industrially important compounds, such as ammonia, hold organic nitrates for your propellants and explosives, Herr Jones and fellow astronauts. Also, all fertilizers contain nitrogen, as does Kevlar fabric, and antibiotics, drugs for blood pressure and even morphine for pain. Gentlemen, that, in a German nutshell, is why we need to find nitrogen. For everything! Sorry, Herr Jones, Ryan asked me up here, and I’m telling you why Martha Von Zimmer and I need to go with you. Nitrogen could be in the rock, or actually the whole asteroid could be surrounded by frozen water or methane, or even a concoction of different crystals in different rocks. Yes, Ryan, the asteroid could be surrounded by pure H₂O. That is why Earth has so much water.” Even Ryan learned something new from Suzi’s lecture.

  “Let me continue. Hydrogen cyanide, urea, and other substances considered essential to the formation of the most basic biological molecules can be obtained from the salt Prussian blue. We can produce this salt on Earth, but Astrobiologists believe it can be found in its purest form in space, again in crystal form. When Prussian blue is dissolved in ammoniac solutions it produces hydrogen cyanide, a substance that could have played a fundamental role in the creation of the first bio-organic molecules, as well as other precursors to the origin of life, such as urea. I know for you astronauts, this is far above your limited brain capacity, so I will end there.”

  “Thank God for small mercies,” replied Jonesy. “Lady, I just fly the transport, I don’t make it. I want to drink out of a bottle, not pee in it. I just want to bathe in our little swimming pool, not know what’s in it!”

  The others laughed while Suzi looked at him, smiling. What else could anybody expect out of Herr Jones’ mouth?

  Twelve hours later, the metal cover of the swimming pool was screwed into place, America One’s gravity rotation was halted, and the three Astermine craft, with SB-III as the protection shuttle, undocked and edged away from the mother ship. As expected, Suzi and VIN, both now experienced Astermine pilots, were housed with little Mars in Astermine One. Maggie was piloting Astermine Two with little Saturn and Professor Martha Von Zimmer aboard, a girls-only crew. Michael Pitt and Boris were in Asterspace Three, and Jonesy and Allen Saunders were riding shotgun in SB-III.

  Michael and Boris, both experienced spacewalkers who loaded and unloaded arriving craft, were excited. It would be their first time close to an asteroid.

  With all computers on the four craft aligned and interacting with Jonesy’s in SB-III, all four craft ignited reverse thrusters at the same time, and as America One began to rotate again, they fell behind.

  First it was a hundred feet, then 300. The reverse blasts were only for five minutes, but a few minutes after the reverse blasts ended, the mother ship was a speck on a horizon that didn’t exist in space. Ten minutes after leaving her, she was gone into the nothingness of space.

  When they turned their ships around 180 degrees, they were looking directly at Earth, which was a little larger than a tennis ball. The moon was not visible anymore. VIN, Jonesy and Maggie were accustomed to these distances, but for the rest it was as if they had just been marooned in the middle of a pacific, in a row boat, and there was nothing but water around.

  “Wow! This is more like a Hollywood movie than anything else,” exclaimed Allen Saunders. “It’s like we were set adrift. I can see America One on our radar screen, but not with the naked eye.”

  “Takes a bit of getting used to. America One is less than 300 miles ahead of us,” Maggie said.

  “Powering up all thrusters for a second three-minute blast in reverse thrust mode this time,” Jonesy alerted the crews. He controlled all eight thrusters on the four ships with his computers. It was easier for one set of computers to keep all the craft within a two-mile area in these vast expanses of space.

  The four craft slowed, and would do so for twelve hours as their forward speed was decreased by over 20,000 miles an hour. It would take five bursts before they would again turn into forward thrust and gradually speed up to equal the speed of the asteroid as it closed on them.

  The radio was silent, apart from hourly radio messages to America One. On the Bridge, Ryan was also getting all the telemetry from the space ships and, as their range increased, it showed up on the Bridge’s multiple screens.

  Twenty-four hours later, after breakfast, Jonesy sent the first message of the day. The crew had slept in alternate shifts for a twelve-hour stretch, with one astronaut always awake in one of the craft as lookout. There was nothing to see, just trillions of stars, the sun in the distance, and a tennis ball which was Earth.

  They all spent time looking at the small ball, realizing that eight billion people were getting on with their lives, not knowing they were being watched from outer space.

  By midday, they were halfway between America One and the asteroid, 130,000 miles behind them.

  Over breakfast the next morning, VIN saw something far behind them. Jonesy had altered the computers slightly to allow the rock to catch up to them more quickly. They had sufficient fuel reserves on board, and with full thrust they could easily speed up to equal the speeding asteroid 300 miles behind them.

  The asteroid was closing rapidly, and Jonesy increased the thrusters to full thrust for seven minutes. With the asteroid passing within five miles of them, it came and went within six minutes, catching up to them, passing, and then whizzing out of sight.

  “Wow! That was a blast!” Michael shouted into the radio as the asteroid, which looked like a peanut in its shell, screamed by like an express train barreling through a railway station.

  “That was worth coming up here to see,” added Allen. “That rock was moving faster than any F-16 on afterburner I have ever seen.”

  During the next twenty minutes, the speed of the four craft increased rapidly to where the asteroid slowly came into view again. Jonesy switched the thrusters off, and waited as they closed in the asteroid. Three miles, 2 miles, and then less than a mile behind, he began working all four ships’ thrusters in reverse mode.

  “Can you drop us on the rock, please, Herr Jones?” Martha Von
Zimmer asked over the intercom.

  “Not that easy, Martha,” replied Jonesy. “We need to observe the rotations of the asteroid. I need about fifteen minutes to let the computer cameras work on the incoming data, and then I’ll take us in.”

  After several minutes the computers spat out the necessary data: length, 2,000 meters, width at the widest point, 890 meters; forward rotation, nil; backward rotation, one rotation every 57 minutes; sideward rotation, one rotation every 2 minutes; estimated gravity with rotation, 12% of Earth.

  “Yippee!” exclaimed Suzi as the gravity amounts were read out. “Only three percent less than the cubes with the gravity off. Just enough to carefully walk on the surface. VIN, you can look after Mars. I’m going out there.”

  Mini spacewalking baby carriers were in production, but were not yet completed. This asteroid was just too early for Mars Noble to attempt his first spacewalk in a baby bubble.

  “OK, releasing all auto-pilots now. You astronauts are on your own. Maggie, you are the best chopper pilot here, other than me, of course. You take her in and remember DX2014. This baby has a far slower sideward rotation. Follow me down. I want to find a decent LZ (landing zone).”

  Jonesy worked the thrusters and headed over the asteroid’s surface looking for any craters or darker areas that could be rock piles. The actual speed of the space ships and the asteroid through space were now aligned. It looked like they were all standing still and just floating in the darkness.

  The sun still lit up one side of the asteroid as it rolled and Jonesy flew over to that area. At 500 feet above the rock’s surface everything on the surface became easy to see, thanks to the sun’s rays.

  “Maggie, I see a cliff, but the whole surface of the rock glistens like it’s wet, like black ice….” Suddenly Suzi’s recent lecture hit him between the eyes at the same time Suzi admonished him and reminded the crew why it was glistening.

  Martha Von Zimmer yahooed excitedly several times and a rapid conversation in German with Suzi ensued.

  “OK, girls, I can’t hear myself fly. Can you keep the noise in the biology lab down so that we can actually get down there? Suzi, will this ice be like black ice? Could it be slippery?”

  “I believe so, Herr Jones. But I also believe that over thousands of years of travel, this asteroid has picked up particles of matter, like our craft’s forward anti-matter shields do. Since it rolls in all directions, I believe the surface is not slippery, more like ice that has been covered over with sand particles.”

  “Roger that. Maggie, behind that cliff about three hundred yards in front of my nose, go in to land. There is a nice flat area that can accommodate all of us.”

  Gingerly, Maggie floated over the top of the LZ and compensated for the roll in both directions, while Allen and VIN watched how she did it. She verbally detailed her movements as she performed them.

  “Three seconds port thrust, halt… one second forward thrust, halt … two seconds starboard thrust… rear of asteroid rising up slowly, one second aft thrust, halt, compensated. Vertical thrust going down, two seconds… 100 feet, 75 feet… starboard thrust half second, halt. Vertical thrust down, one second… 45 feet… 40 feet… 25 feet… halt. Port thrust spurt and halt. I’m totally aligned…vertical thruster going down…10 feet…… 5… 4… 3… 2… 1… I’m on the surface, thrusters on idle. I’m not moving or sliding. What does it look like to you, Jonesy?”

  “As stable as a rock. Excellent job, wife. Allen, you want to try?”

  He did, and under Jonesy’s guidance he took twice as long as Maggie, but got the hang of it and put the second craft down about 70 feet from Maggie’s. VIN did much the same and finally Jonesy landed. The shuttle needed more room so he stayed 100 feet away from Astermine One.

  Compared to DX2014, the gravity was soft and gentle. Jonesy and Maggie thought it was much easier to land. Maggie had only used 25 percent power to connect.

  They radioed back to America One that they were down, and within an hour VIN and Boris exited through their respective docking ports with cords to tie down their craft. Mining leader VIN had devised a new way to tell if there was sufficient gravity to hold the space vessels down; he tried to pick Astermine One up by placing his gloved hands underneath the craft, bending down on one knee and, with his strong metal legs, literally tried to lift the craft up.

  It didn’t budge and he told the teams that even his powerful legs were no match for the asteroid’s gravity. On this asteroid his craft must have weighed over 800 pounds, the maximum he could lift.

  Martha Von Zimmer was impatient to suit up and get out, but VIN told her that she would have to wait until the team was ready for her. They had about ten days to work before the asteroid would catch up with the mother ship.

  They had 40 empty aluminum canisters aboard the four craft; there was no room on America One to store any more until the Earth stores were depleted. And Ryan had ordered VIN to fill the empty canisters with whatever the biologists wanted.

  Before VIN allowed Martha, Boris, and Allen to exit their docking hatches, he unloaded the rear of his craft, taking 30 minutes to lift out six canisters, shovels and buckets, and pull the MMA on its rails outside the craft. Then he permitted them to exit at the same time, giving them the same three-hour spacewalk window. Suzi would exit once he returned. One astronaut would remain in each craft until they felt secure on the asteroid. Suzi would work with Michael, while the others ended their stints and returned.

  As soon as the “one step for whomever” phrases were uttered by the newbies, VIN got them to walk around the area, remaining within sight of the craft, to determine what lay inside the perimeter. They found several rock piles, and VIN returned with a rock for the MMA. He already knew what it was, exactly what they found on DX2014: platinum and its family of metals. He was surprised when the machine analyzed the rock as only 41% platinum, and iridium at 22%. Palladium was next at 12%, with ruthenium at 11%, nickel at 7%, and traces of cobalt at around 5%.

  Martha returned with a piece of the ice they were standing on, and VIN cut it down to fit into the machine. This time, less than 5% of the ice was metal, osmium, with traces of gold, platinum and nickel.

  “If we clean the crystal up, I believe we will have at least 90% water or methane,” Martha excitedly related over the intercom.

  “We need both, Martha,” added Suzi from inside Astermine One.

  “Ja, Herr Noble,” she continued in her usual German authoritative tone. “I want one canister full of those rocks and one canister full of the ice. You get the rocks, and we will chip at the ice crystal over there. The ice, whatever it is, looks dirtier over there for some reason,” she said, pointing. “Go over there by the cliff and that will give us more metal and less water.”

  VIN, now used to the manner in which she and Suzi issued orders, did as he was asked. He carried over a canister, and within 90 minutes had almost filled it. At about three-quarters full it was heavy, and when he lifted it, he struggled slightly. He did the calculations in his head and determined with gravity being so low the estimated 200 pounds of asteroid weight was equivalent to 900 pounds of Earth weight.

  He returned and placed the canister inside Astermine One’s hold, and joined the other three who were chipping away at the ice surface with the shovels. At minus 170 odd degrees, the crystal shattered pretty easily; the team had already filled six canisters with chips.

  At the end of VIN’s three-hour shift, he packed away two of the canisters in his craft’s hold and entered through the docking port. Within 25 minutes, he helped Suzi exit through the same port to go to work, and he took over babysitting duties.

  It was easy to view the workers from inside Astermine One. VIN heard Jonesy telling Ryan what he had seen from his craft. VIN took over and told Ryan the MMA readings and what they had collected on his first stint. He was cut off before he ended as the asteroid’s continuous rotation turned the ship out of direct sight of America One.

  Two hours later Suzi returned with Michael
. They had walked the area and not found anything different. They packed another two canisters with crystals or ice, and she returned excitedly to VIN and Mars.

  “I think we should hit this asteroid with the laser beam and dig a hole in it. How deep do you think we could get down?” Suzi asked VIN once he had taken off her helmet. Her cheeks were rosy and her blonde hair messed up from the helmet and the exertion.

  VIN chatted for the next hour with Jonesy and Ryan, discussing what Suzi had suggested. Jonesy asserted that no craft should be on the asteroid when a laser was turned on it, but before that, the canisters should all be filled. Then they could blast the rock several times to see what would happen.

  The crews rested for the next twelve hours, eating, sleeping, and watching movies. The asteroid’s rotation was no different than America One, except that they all had windows. After a few hours, watching Earth or the sun became boring as they passed overhead.

  It was VIN’s turn to work again, and he joined Allen on his second asteroid walk. For the first 90 minutes they filled two more canisters, leveling that particular rock pile. Then they helped the crystal crew fill more canisters. The crews rotated shifts again, with the crystal crew going back. With the closest rock pile gone, VIN decided to walk further afield with Maggie who suited up and went out. Martha took over baby duties. Since Maggie was going out, Jonesy suited up and joined them. They looked for a new rock pile, and for the first time they disappeared from the view of those watching them from the craft.

  It took Maggie ten minutes to report something new. It was she who discovered the diamonds on DX2014, and now she had located something new.

  “Wow!” Maggie said over the intercom. “There seems to be a vein of something silvery over here. It looks like pure silver.” The two men went over. VIN got out his hammer and within a few seconds broke the vein into smaller rocks.

  “It looks like pure silver,” Jonesy stated. “Know what it is?”

  “Nope!” replied VIN and Maggie together.