"Houston, here. Roger that, Frodo 2. We know the Navy has a sweet smell of its own, Colonel."
"Houston, this is Gene Kranz. Don't encourage those guys."
"Roger that, Dr. Kranz. Sorry."
Pause.
"Houston, Kranz here. I think we have an idea where to start."
"Dr. Kranz, Frodo 1. Please. What do you have?"
Jason, "Have Cris look at the ship schematic and locate valve 2D6Z1."
"Got that, Dr. Kranz. Valve 2D6Z1. Couldn't you just name them valve 1, 2, 3, and so on? Give us a few minutes to chase this down,” Jason said.
"Roger that, Jason. Sorry about that. We name things that way, so that it make us appear to be more professional... Let me know when he finds it. Tell him the valve is in Module C. That should speed things up."
"Wait one, Dr. Kranz."
It took about 10 minutes then. "Dr. Kranz, Frodo 2 here. Found it."
"Look at the input pipe label and tell me what the valve connection says."
"One minute, sir."
Silence.
"Dr. Kranz, Frodo 2 here. It says OUT. That doesn't sound right to me."
"That's right, Cris. The valve is in backwards."
"How do I fix it?"
"Look in the store room. You will find a box labeled 2FS01. That is the auxiliary tool box. Find the small aluminum alloy pipe wrench. I think you know the rest."
"Roger that, Doctor. How long should it take to clean up this mess?"
"Environmental says it should be quite noticeable in about thirty minutes. Please let us know when you can tell it is working.”
"Got it, Dr. Kranz. You'll be the first to know."
"Houston, here. Actually, we'll all know. We're on the same channel."
"OK, you'll all know together. I forgot," Kranz said.
"Standby, Houston.”.
Silence.
Cris (Frodo 2) went right to work. He located the tool box and found the aluminum monkey wrench. Then he removed the cover that allowed him access to both ends of the valve. He carefully disconnected the intake section. Unfortunately, Cris kept hitting his head on the protrusions above him as he applied force to the wrench. Zero-G was a bear to work in, as every action caused a reaction involving pushing him away from his work. The output section required removing more of the covering, but it went rather well. In twenty minutes he was done and the system was put together properly. It took another five minutes to put the cover back on. Then, they waited. It took only five minutes before they noticed the change for the better.
"Houston, this is Frodo 1. We have fresh air. Thank you, Dr. Kranz."
"Wonderful, Jason! Just be glad we didn't put the toilet valve in backwards."
"That isn't funny, Dr. Kranz,” Cris grumbled.
"It is on this end, Colonel," Dr. Kranz replied. The radio picked up all the laughter in the background.
“Ground monkeys!” Cris muttered audibly.
As time dragged on, they continued to find and fix minor problems. The sun was getting smaller and smaller, to the point that Houston had Cris install the auxiliary solar panels.
Cris said, "So that was what was hidden in the escape tower. That is a big solar array!"
"Roger that, Frodo 2. We at least wanted you to have plenty of auxiliary power since we couldn't fit a hot tub on board."
"We sure could use a tub of any sort Houston. Don't tell the Captain, but he is fully ripe–again."
"Roger that, Frodo 2. We understand. In storage container 2FS01 you will find deodorant. It is the type that you smear on, and it doesn't let the bacteria grow for up to 5 days. It should help the both of you. And it doesn't have a strong odor, so you won't be swapping one smell for another."
"Thanks for that, Houston. I will make sure the Captain uses it right away."
"Houston, Frodo 1, here. I will make sure the REAL source of the smell is taken care of right away."
"Frodo 2 here. Moi?"
–––––––
Things went on like this for a month. The solar array was putting out enough power to run most things, so the nuclear generators just idled. But the solar power would fade as the craft sped further and further away from the sun. Little problems would pop up and need to be taken care of, constantly. A few minor issues, like knobs breaking on certain consoles, could not be fixed as there were no spares. Over time, they got quite adept at getting by. They settled into a comfortable routine. But time still dragged on, mercilessly.
Chapter 11–Tedium
Eventually time slowed to a crawl. The crew of Apollo 6 kept themselves busy, for the most part. The Zero-Contained garden took a while to set up, as the plumbing design had obviously been quite ill-conceived considering certain zero-G realities. But, it was what it was. In a few weeks the seeds had started to germinate and little leaves could be seen. A few weeks later they were getting much larger, and it seemed that the plan might actually work! The crew of two were on rations with the onboard freeze-dried food packets, but they generally felt satiated. However, they did use more of the processed food than planned in anticipation of a productive garden.
As the garden started to mature, the astronauts dramatically reduced their processed food intake, and they relied more and more on fresh food. Module C was quite spacious for a tiny room, since there were no controls or electronics in it to speak of. Being clutter-free, it felt like a large insulated area with windows on the two exposed sides. And, like Module A, there was a level one and level two, Plus there was an additional level zero on Modules B and C which stored extra fuel and water.
On Module C the top level had all the gardening light controls, the bottom level was half of their water storage as well as food production. The plants had some light from the sun, even as it faded away, but most of the light came from artificial lighting designed to encourage plant growth. The soil was enriched before lift-off, and they were provided fertilizer to supplement it. Right away, greens were available, and after a few months there were potatoes showing promise. Delightfully, apples were even growing and maturing. The dwarf apple trees were specially created for minimal space indoors from a company in Japan. They were already producing when the trees arrived on board, and the added benefit was that their nature was to produce fresh fruit all year long, again, indoors.
Fortunately the plants seemed to respond well to the artificial lighting. The bottom levels held the apple trees and potatoes. The top level held greens and more delicate plants. Radishes would produce in 21 days. Beans took longer, but they were high in proteins. Various other plants filled every nook and cranny. Variety was important. There were even a few producing miniature lemon trees for vitamin C, so they didn’t have to depend exclusively upon vitamin capsules.
On the downside, the communications lag was increasing, and, as they feared, was becoming more and more irritating. They were about halfway now, which was about 50-60 million miles from Earth's orbit. It was hard to get an exact position. Radio signals took about five minutes to go each way so, any discussion would take ten minutes plus the talk time. The crew started playing games in the increasing delay just to keep from getting aggravated with each other. When the delay started taking ridiculously long, it became less irritating to just send digital messages. Then you could read the messages at your leisure and not have to sit around waiting. Still, computer memory was limited, so the messages were short.
Perhaps what became painfully obvious was their lack of entertainment. This was the longest road trip in history, mileage wise, and there were no rest stops. You couldn’t play the license plate game, observe the countryside go by, or even listen to stations on the radio. There was only one channel! However the heavens were full of stars! Amazing stars…
At the halfway mark, Jason and Cris held a little party. They didn't know it but the ground crew had packed some Champagne and a few party favors- poppers, paper hats, and candy in a box labeled “A6PAR7EE!” They hadn't noticed it before, but it was a wonderful gesture. Anything to break t
he monotony was a welcome respite. Also in the box were various word games, a magnetic chess set and Monopoly game, plus a few other distractions. And, they were given actual thin rice-paper printed books! There was The New Testament, Pilgrims Progress, and David Copperfield for the classis, but they really got a kick out of Robert Heinlein’s Red Planet and Stranger in a Strange Land. Those books seemed more appropriate.
Within the first six weeks the travel routine become excruciatingly tedious! Their days and nights were defined exclusively by the clock and by their daily routine/regimen. However, it was becoming downright tortuous being cooped up in this little NASA cage for two thirds of a year! Not enough psychological research had been done on the effects of the long-term isolation in space travel. The crew’s daily schedule consisted of security checks for air and fluid leakage, O2 concentration, CO2 saturation, food and water store inventory, exercising, and the monitoring of various gauges and meters. On top of that, they tended to the garden, which was no small undertaking. The best thing about the onboard garden was that there were no bugs and no rabbits or other vermin! They were the only living creature in the capsule, garden excluded.
Then there was the twice daily report to Houston. This became the most important part of their day! Even though the report was monotonous, just the daily communication with the real world kept them sane. However, the sanity part was wearing thin.
The men sorely missed John Dyer. Three people would have made everything much easier. But they tried not to think about it. They stuck to a routine of work, exercise, communications, relaxation, and “entertainment”, such as it was. Then there was more work, then again, sleep. It would have been almost too easy just to sleep all of the time, but that would have been disastrous to their health and well-being.
In addition, at the halfway point, Frodo 2 did an EVA to set up the additional solar panels. He had deployed the primary solar array after the first month. There was plenty of sunshine in Module C at first, but as they got further and further from the sun the plants were not getting the light they needed. Eventually, they would have to rely exclusively on artificial light to stimulate growth, and the astronauts would have to rely on the artificial lighting for their skin to make vitamin D. Not a lot of research had been done on the efficacy of artificial lighting and human vitamin production, but it had been given the go-ahead, anyway. So far, it seemed to be working. Their most serious concern was sufficient calcium assimilation. Their bones and muscles would suffer if they didn’t do something about it. The men needed to take their nutrition seriously! The truth is that there were so many concerns, that one or two newer ones would bubble up to the top over time and give them something new to worry about!
As NASA did not have long-term data on human physiology or the psychology of extended space travel. Medical experts feared for adequate calcium levels in the astronauts’ bones, as well as their mental stability. So each day they had a series of isometric exercises to do in addition to several simple machines from storage that were designed to help them stay as fit as possible. But no one was being fooled. This would not be a healthy trip. They would not come home buff prime examples of manhood. NASA had analyzed the worst possible scenario and had determined that while they would lose a lot of weight and muscle mass, it could be recovered. Also, there would hopefully be minimal organ damage. Or, at least that was the theory! There was so much that NASA did not know. Everything about this mission was going in the record books. (Or at least it would if they ever declassified the records.)
The digital downloads, within their limited capacity, were very welcome and greatly appreciated. The crew could receive several pages of text at a time stored in the radio’s limited memory, but those messages would have to be deleted before more could be downloaded. As you can imagine, this was extremely frustrating! You read a few lines, then you wait 15 minutes for the next few lines-and that’s if someone at Houston was paying attention. However, they still looked forward to news from home. Often, they yearned for the pictures that belonged with the text, but that was beyond 1960s technology. Surely in the future this would not be a problem, but in 1968 this was a technical impossibility. Scientists were working on solid state memory which would change everything for computing, but NASA was still a decade or two away from a practical application.
President Johnson spoke with them every other week, which was a nice gesture. However, this soon faded to once a month. Johnson mumbled something about the Vietnam War taking up his time. With having so little in common with the President of the United States, they had little to say to each other. They didn’t miss his calls.
Out of everything, their favorite entertainment was the broadcasts. NASA would broadcast news, sports, radio shows, etc. on the secure line. Unfortunately this line had limited bandwidth, so music did not come across very clearly, due to distortion. That, too, became irritating after a while, and they eventually asked that the music be eliminated.
A welcome distraction were the books printed on the special rice paper. These books had been designed by NASA just for long-term space travel as they were light and strong. Some librarian at NASA had foreseen their need and spent a lot of time developing and printing this godsend. However, in the remaining long months, one can read a lot of books. Since there was not an unlimited library, though, each of these books were read over and over again. They particularly enjoyed Stranger in a Strange Land. They talked for hours about the story and possibilities when they actually got to Mars. They used the term grok a lot for a while, until they wore it out.
Things were going along well enough, though quite uneventfully. They did not complain about things being uneventful. Then one morning Jason noticed that something was not right. As he tried to rise from his bed, he felt himself quite weak. He was cognizant enough to realize that there was a CO2 problem in the capsule.
"Cris?”
Pause.
“CRIS!" Cris was not responding and appeared to be asleep.
Jason poked him, "CRIS. Wake up!"
Cris stirred and opened his eyes.
"What? What, Commander? Is something wrong?"
"I think something is wrong with the CO2 scrubbers. Put on your oxygen mask."
Cris lifted up his head, but quickly went back to sleep.
Jason reached for his oxygen mask, put it on, and after a few deep breaths he went over to Cris to help him. He fumbled around a bit, as he wasn't quite himself yet either, but he eventually got Cris's mask on as well. Then he waited for the clean oxygen to take effect.
"Jason, what happened?" Cris asked groggily.
"I don't know, Cris, but we are in trouble if we can't figure this out quickly," Jason said with an obvious panic in his voice.
Jason struggled to his feet, while Cris fought just to sit up! Jason went over to the radio and reported to Houston.
"Houston, Frodo 1 here."
Silence.
"Houston, Frodo 1. Come in, please."
Silence.
Then he realized that there was that blasted five minute delay. Oops, he thought to himself.
About six minutes later he heard a reply, "Frodo 1, this is Houston. Is everything alright?"
"Houston, Frodo 1. We have a problem. Our CO2 levels are so high we almost didn't wake up. Where do we start?"
Silence.
About six minutes later came the reply, "Frodo 1, stand by. We will get to work on it. Stay in your oxygen masks until then. Houston out."
"Well, I never would have thought of that!" Jason said sarcastically to Cris. "Stay in my oxygen mask. What great advice."
So they waited. Jason would have tapped his foot in impatience, but that would send him flying up to the ceiling. Shortly Cris was totally back to normal and was soon desperately looking around the cabin to see if he could find anything out of place.
About ten minutes later they received a reply.
"Frodo 1, this is Houston. The boys in Florida tell me to first check the circuit breaker on the carbon filters. It is
the third column, seventh switch down. Then look to see if the connections to the scrubber motor are still connected. Check that and we'll be back as soon as we research this further."
"Roger, Houston. Will do."
Jason was nearest the circuit breaker panel so he tried the breaker knobs. They all seemed in good order.
Cris said, "I bet the plants are getting drunk on all this CO2. Too bad they can't put out oxygen fast enough to keep up with our breathing. Then we wouldn't even need scrubbers."
"Well, I don't know if that's true," Jason said, “but it sure would be nice!”
Jason could see Cris was checking all of the connections on the CO2 scrubber.
"It all looks good here, Captain, but I don't hear the motor humming."
Enoch's Challenge Page 11