A Mars Odyssey

by Michel Poulin

  ‘’That’s easy enough to answer: I didn’t bring a bathing suit with me.’’

  ‘’OOOOOHHH!’’

  19:50 (GMT)

  Baths and saunas section, aft carrousel

  H.S.S. FRIENDSHIP

  Low Earth orbit

  ‘’God, all my muscles are aching from moving around and unpacking so many storage crates!’’ groaned Roberto Calderon as he slowly slid down in the hot, bubbling water of the communal tub, in which Viktor Ponichnikov and Mark Dempsey already soaked. While Roberto and Viktor had come fully naked, Mark, as a married man with values that were a bit conservative, was wearing a swimming trunk.

  ‘’Maybe we should lower a bit the rotation speed of the carrousels, to decrease the felt gravity when we have some hard physical work to do.’’ suggested Viktor, making both Mark and Roberto nod their heads.

  ‘’Not a bad idea, actually.’’ said Mark. ‘’It would certainly help us in those physical jobs, while it won’t really impact the living conditions aboard. A temporary decrease to a felt gravity of 0.5 G should do the trick.’’

  ‘’I agree!’’ said Roberto, who was then silent for a moment, apparently thinking, before he spoke again. ‘’You know, this brought back to my mind a question that I have been asking myself for months now.’’

  ‘’Oh, and what would that question be?’’ asked Viktor.

  ‘’It is about the felt gravity on Mars. As you all know, it stands at 37% of Earth’s gravity, or 0.37 G. Now, if we are going to establish a human colony on Mars, its future inhabitants will be living permanently in a 0.37 G environment.’’

  ‘’So?’’ said Mark, not seeing yet Roberto’s point.

  ‘’So, that means that any Mars colonist who would be born on Mars and would grow up there would basically be unable to go to Earth and live there or even visit normally: he or she would be too weak and fragile in terms of muscle mass and bone structure to be able to withstand Earth’s gravity and would probably end up going around in a wheelchair or using an exo-skeleton force multiplier. Basically, future Martians would not be able to visit Earth. Now, what could we possibly do to prevent such an outcome?’’

  ‘’Hum, you are raising a very valid concern here, Roberto.’’ said Viktor, caressing his short, carefully trimmed beard. ‘’The obvious solution at first would be to use centrifuges to keep Martian citizens accustomed and fit to endure Earth’s gravity, but such centrifuges typically weigh tons, consume a lot of power and space and you would also need thousands or even tens of thousands of them to accommodate every Martian in, say, a hundred years or so. Not what I would call a very practical solution.’’

  The trio was then left silent for a moment as they thought that problem over. Roberto finally spoke slowly, obviously still thinking about the problem.

  ‘’Maybe I should talk with Min about this: his father designed the ‘running ring’ system that we use as a carrousel aboard. Maybe he could ask his father to think about that problem?’’

  ‘’That’s actually a good idea, Roberto: Jiang Chao is universally considered a true genius when it comes to applied physics engineering. You should talk with Min about that tomorrow.’’

  ‘’I’ll do that! We…’’

  Roberto was cut short by the entrance in the hot tub compartment of Denise Wattling and Keiko Minegumi. Both wore large towels wrapped around their bodies, towels that covered their chests, bellies and groins. Viktor was starting to feel some disappointment at seeing them covered, until both women let drop their towels, ending completely nude, before sitting down on the ledge of the tub and sliding down slowly into the hot, bubbling water. Denise gave an apologetic smile to Mark as her firm breasts sank under the water.

  ‘’Sorry if this could embarrass you, Mark, but I really didn’t bring a swimsuit up in orbit with me. As for Keiko, any good Japanese will tell you that a hot bath must be taken nude.’’

  ‘’That’s right!’’ confirmed the computer scientist. ‘’Communal hot baths are an old tradition in Japan and having men and women mix in is considered quite normal there.’’

  ‘’Who are we to dispute such a healthy practice?’’ replied a smiling Viktor, who then nudged a bit closer to Denise. He was pleased to see that she didn’t move away then and didn’t show any sign of discomfort or tension. However, he didn’t go closer still, not wanting to push his luck or incommode the tall blonde. Instead, he deviated the conversation by telling Denise and Keiko about Roberto’s misgivings about the ability of future Martians to withstand Earth’s gravity. His diversion worked, with both women making comments and suggestions of their own for the next minute or so. The conversation soon turned into a kind of round-table meeting about the work done that day and what was next on the to-do list for tomorrow. After a half hour or so of conversation, Mark decided that he was starting to feel like a cooked lobster and excused himself for the night before climbing out of the tub and walking out. Denise then pushed herself up by a few centimeters, making her nipples rise to just under the surface of the bubbling water. Viktor got her silent message and snuggled closer to her, until their shoulders touched each other. Seeing that, Roberto took a chance and moved closer to Keiko. The Japanese woman didn’t object to that and smiled to him.

  ‘’We discussed enough about work already. How about talking about us instead?’’

  ‘’A good idea, Keiko. What would you like to know?’’

  ‘’Well, I already know that you are single, with no children. That is a bit surprising for a man as handsome as you. Are Spanish women immune to your charms?’’

  That last question brought a grin on the face of the Spanish aerospace engineer.

  ‘’Hardly! The truth is that I love my job and am quite dedicated to it. Watching around me what happened to the marriages of other dedicated engineers I know, who worked long hours and were often absent from home, like me, convinced me that marrying would mean having to spend much less time at work. While I am not a workaholic, I do take the time needed to make the best job I can. A marriage for me would thus probably end eventually in a divorce or separation, something that I would hate to see ever happen. Thus, I continued concentrating on my job. I do date occasionally women, of course, but I always tell them that there could be no future to it. This is even truer now that I will be in space for long periods.’’

  ‘’Well, you are honest about it, Roberto, something I like. In Japan, we have a similar situation: many men still follow the old work ethics mentality of the so-called ‘company salary man’. They work long hours, mostly to look good to their bosses, then go drink with their male work comrades until the late hours of the night, before returning stone drunk to their homes. In the past decades, the Japanese women had to accept this and mostly stayed silent about it, taking care of their home and kids alone and rarely going out with their husbands. However, that started to change in the early 2,000s, with more and more Japanese women speaking up and revolting against that culture. A growing number of Japanese women stayed single, often living with other single women in order to be able to pay the rent of their apartments, which is astronomical in Japan. As a result, the birth rate in Japan went way down, resulting in an aging population and a slow but steady decrease in population numbers. That last thing actually helped Japan avoid the overpopulation problem that too many other countries have been experiencing.’’

  ‘’And did the Japanese men learn their lessons then and paid more attention to their wives?’’ asked Viktor, whose submerged right hand was discretely roaming over Denise’ lower body, while the blonde’s own left hand was covering the Russian’s groin.

  ‘’HA! Fat chance! They instead appealed to our patriotic sense, enjoining us to marry and have more children, in order to make the population younger. That mostly didn’t work. Now, in Japan, you have a society mostly divided along gender lines, with only a minority of traditional couples, while a majority of the women stay single and have one or two children from passing ma
le friends that they then raise as single parents. Those children often end up being raised in female-only households and I must say that they are generally much happier and better cared for than in most traditional homes. The Japanese traditional men pretend that this creates effeminate boys, but that argument was widely ridiculed and only hardened our resolve not to be taken for granted by men. I myself was raised in such a female-only household.’’

  ‘’Wow! A war of the sexes!’’ exclaimed Denise. ‘’I however must say that I can understand the attitude of the Japanese women, Keiko. If I married and my husband treated me like what you say the Japanese men do, then I would leave him pretty quickly. Thankfully, most American men have proven to be devoted to their families, rather than to their work.’’

  ‘’Lucky American women!’’ replied Keiko, sighing. ‘’And you, Viktor, how do Russian men treat Russian women?’’

  ‘’Uh, that is a bit complicated, Keiko.’’ answered the Russian, suddenly becoming quite serious. ‘’The real scourge of the Russian society, and this for many past decades already, is alcoholism. Russian men always drank hard and often, something that unfortunately caused too frequent cases of wife abuse and brutality. Unfortunately, old habits die slowly and that problem is still widespread. The despair and fears caused by the climate calamities of the past couple of decades have in fact worsened the problem, with alcohol consumption rates shooting up. This may sound incredible, but vodka may eventually be the death blow of the Russian society, rather than the rising seas and increasing temperatures. I myself am no teetotaler, but I am realistic enough to see how grave that problem is in Russia.’’

  The two men and two women were silent for a moment as they thought about the various problems faced by the Human race. Roberto Calderon was the first to speak again, trying to deflect the conversation.

  ‘’So, do any of you plan to volunteer to eventually go live on Mars permanently?’’

  ‘’I do!’’ answered at once Keiko. ‘’I have no real personal attachments in Japan and the Mars Home Project will truly be the adventure of a lifetime. And you, Roberto?’’

  ‘’I am still undecided, but I am sorely tempted to go, mostly for its technological challenge.’’

  ‘’I will definitely want to go, if I can get through the mission’s crew selection process.’’ said Denise, making Viktor look at her while smiling.

  ‘’And what makes you think that you could fail the selection process, Denise?’’

  ‘’The fact that the psychological and personality requirements for the mission will actually be even more stringent than the scientific and technical abilities requirements. Will they want to have a fun-loving single girl aboard, someone who could attract male attention and possibly trigger jealousy and male infighting?’’

  ‘’I see no problems with having a fun-loving girl around me.’’ said sneakily Viktor while his hand concentrated on a particular spot of Denise’s body. ‘’As for me, I will definitely want to go to Mars. Without wanting to brag, they will need a talented and experienced nuclear engineer like me on the mission. On the other hand, I fervently hope that, if my old boss in Moscow applies for the trip, that he will be refused on personality grounds: while he is a true scientific genius, he also happens to be a first class asshole. If we ever end up traveling together to Mars, I may just kill him.’’

  ‘’WEEE!’’ then shouted Denise, taking her three comrades by surprise. ‘’A murder-mystery on a spaceship! That sounds fun!’’

  While realizing that she had said that as a joke, Viktor, Keiko and Roberto all stared at Denise with false indignation tainted with amusement.

  14:38 (GMT)

  Friday, May 24, 2041

  Hangar Number One, forward face of Disk Section

  H.S.S. FRIENDSHIP, in Low Earth Orbit

  ‘’Denise, the heavy cargo shuttle CONDOR is now on final approach. You may now exit your hangar and go to your planned standby position.’’

  ‘’Acknowledged, Mark. I am launching out of the hangar now.’’ answered Denise before tripping the switch that released the docking clamps holding her space tug to its hangar berth. Pushing another button made the space tug fly forward from the gentle push of a pneumatic piston at the center of the berthing cradle. Floating slowly out of its hangar, situated near the forward outer edge of the ship’s disk section, the space tug then started maneuvering under the commands of Denise, using the small craft’s thrusters. Going up and then reversing course, Denise piloted her space tug to a position about a hundred meters behind the disk section, where she stopped and waited. She could clearly see the big heavy cargo shuttle, which measured a good 120 meters long and had a span of 84 meters, through the transparent sphere of thick acrylic that constituted the crew compartment of the space tug. A few anti-collision bars protected that sphere against accidental bumps that could happen during maneuvering with a heavy load. The load she was to put in place today was now being raised out of the large dorsal cargo hold of the shuttle. After a minute or so, the voice of the shuttle’s pilot came on the radio.

  ‘’Space tug, this is the CONDOR. You are now free to approach and grab my piece of cargo, over.’’

  ‘’Space tug understood! Am approaching now from your overhead side.’’

  First firing up her maneuver thrusters and starting her approach towards the heavy cargo shuttle, Denise then deployed and swung into place the four telescopic capture arms of her tug, then adjusted their angle and separation distance from each other so that their multi-configuration gripping extremities could fit around the shuttle’s payload. That payload was in fact the first module of the aft hull section of the H.S.S. FRIENDSHIP. Of square section and 31 meters long, that module was to be connected by one end to the disk section of the ship, which constituted the main building block of the FRIENDSHIP. Once in place, it would be used as an attachment point for up to four external liquid hydrogen tanks, which would be used to feed the nuclear rocket engines of the ship during its initial boost towards Mars, plus four liquid argon tanks that would fuel magneto-plasma cruise engines. A total of five such modules were due to be connected end to end behind the disk section. Then, once completed, the aft section would receive the sixteen PHOENIX 2000 nuclear rocket engines that would be used as the FRIENDSHIP’s main space propulsion engines.

  Keeping her approach speed low, Denise carefully flew her space tug to a position parallel and above the big module, then pivoted on the spot to face the rear face of the ship’s disk section.

  ‘’Space tug to CONDOR, am now initiating payload capture maneuvers.’’

  ‘’CONDOR acknowledged! Payload retaining clamps now off.’’

  Activating again her MMH2 and N2O43-fuelled attitude thrusters, Denise slowly flew down to meet the module. When the grappling extremities of her capture arms were less than three meters from the aft section module, she switched to automated approach mode, letting her flight computer direct the final part of her docking maneuver. While she prided herself in knowing that she could easily pilot her tug during the whole maneuver, she still used the automated approach mode as a further safety measure against unexpected difficulties, but she stayed vigilant the whole time, monitoring her approach on her computer screen. In space, the old saying of ‘Haste makes waste’ held true. With small laser beacons embedded around each attachment points of the payload, the sensors in the capture arms enabled her craft to get into perfect position, then activated the gripping ends of the capture arms, making them grab solidly the aft section module. A green light indicator on her instruments panel lit up, telling Denise that she now had a firm grip on her payload.

  ‘’CONDOR, from space tug: I have the payload in my control. I am now going to approach the ship with it.’’

  ‘’CONDOR understood!’’

  With a mass of over forty metric tons clamped to her capture arms, Denise fired up for two seconds her main chemical rocket engine, in order to accelerate it towards the aft central axis p
oint of the disk section. Now approaching the disk section at a speed of 0.8 meters per second, Denise carefully fired her positioning thrusters, slowly lining her tug and its payload with the central axis point. At the ultimate moment, when the end of her payload was less than six meters from its intended attachment point, she fired up her retro-thrusters, slowing down to an approach speed of 0.2 meters per second. Again, her flight computer controlled the final positioning maneuver. Denise grinned with contentment when her instruments told her that her payload had been safely delivered in its intended spot and was now secured in place by mooring clamps.

  ‘’Space tug to FRIENDSHIP: the first aft section module is now securely in place, with its docking clamps on. You may now test the module for airtight integrity, over.’’

  ‘’Checking pressurization integrity now!... Everything seems to be okay: no pressure leaks detected and all the electrical and data connectors registering as being under tension. You may now return to your hangar, Denise. Good job!’’

  ‘’Thanks, Mark!’’

  Detaching her gripping hands first and then pivoting and retracting her capture arms in travel position, Denise again fired up her thrusters, this time to fly back to her hangar.

  During the next three weeks, Denise ended up flying out in the space tug of the ship a total of twelve more times, taking delivery of various ship sections and components and assembling them to the rest of the FRIENDSHIP. Next came a number of heavy cargo shuttles meant to deliver the initial fuel and supply loads to the ship. First to be filled were the tertiary liquid hydrogen fuel tanks surrounding the rotating rings and central core section, providing them with precious extra anti-radiation protection. Those fuel tanks were meant to stay full until the ultimate part of the return trip to Earth, to be used only once the ship was back within the protective magnetosphere of the planet. Next were shuttles that brought the support frames on which their VASIMR4 cruise engines would be fixed, followed by more shuttles carrying the cruise engines themselves. However, Denise did not go out to meet the following sixteen heavy cargo shuttles that arrived a month later, as they carried the sixteen PHOENIX 2000 nuclear rocket engines that were to constitute the main propulsion system of the H.S.S. FRIENDSHIP. Robotic arms on both the heavy shuttles and on the engines support frame took care of installing those nuclear engines, as they still emitted significant amounts of radiations despite their individual shielding. As soon as they were in place, secured and connected to the rest of the ship, a surrounding sleeve made of titanium pipes was filled with hot water, so that the water could fill the pipes before the intense cold of space could freeze the water. With a thickness of over sixty centimeter of water inside the sleeve surrounding the sides of the engines support frame, it became safe again to approach the ship from the rear sector without absorbing unhealthy doses of radiations from the uranium rods contained in the cores of the nuclear engines. Mark Dempster and his eight companions were then free to celebrate the completion of the spaceship and wait for the orbital crew that would soon relieve them.