“One thousandth of a gravity,” Tung-chi said. The others nodded.
“In 100 seconds, we will be doing a whole extra meter per second,” Nikita said. “Apollo was accelerating at one G at this point.”
“Ah, but their engine burn time was only 300 seconds for TLI,” Martin replied, referring to the engine burn that took the Apollo astronauts out of Earth orbit and on a course for the Moon. In some ways, his heart ached for the simple moon missions of so long ago. To have been there in the 1960s, in such a fever-pitch atmosphere, in the middle of the space race with the Soviet Union.
It was agonizingly slow for those watching on Earth. The camera view of the ship from the space station did not appear to be showing any movement. Those with the patience to keep watching, however, eventually saw a slow drift towards the right side of the screen after ten to fifteen minutes. The irony was not lost on the crew either. Smiles all around, as their journey was beginning. Their engine would be on for three months and, by the next day, the tiny but constant acceleration would have changed their velocity by more than the speed of a rifle bullet.
15
“So, now what?” Christopher asked, jokingly.
“Let’s sit back and enjoy the ride to Mars,” Aleksandr replied.
“We should probably do some sort of work,” Martin replied.
“Yeah, I probably ought to go fix or tweak something,” Christopher said. “Although that’s largely automatic now, unless something goes wrong.”
“At least we’re close enough to Earth to do something about it if it does,” Aleksandr replied.
“Don’t you have some science to do or something?” Christopher said to Kinuko.
“Yes. Lots,” she replied.
“Don’t let me stop you, then. The lab’s up and to the left.”
She stuck her tongue out at him.
“We’ve got the webcast with the White House in an hour, don’t forget,” Aleksandr reminded them.
“True,” Kinuko replied. “I’m going to pop up and check on the status of the experiments. More so I can feel like I’m being productive than anything else!” She climbed into the central tunnel, and pushed off up towards the laboratory in side A.
“I’m gonna check on the remote sensing suite,” said Martin.
“Computer, display remote sensor status in a medium-sized window.”
A window popped up, roughly three meters by two, showing what the telescope, spectrometers and radiation detectors were seeing. All nominal, as the covers were shut. The radiation detector showed normal levels of gamma radiation.
“I might leave the radiation levels up while we go through the Van Allen belts,” Martin said. “Better to keep an eye on it. Not to mention, it will be interesting to watch, since I haven’t personally traveled through that region before.”
“I’ve been tasked with doing Earth observations for now,” said Emile. “Computer, show ground track, and alert me five minutes before we pass over Indonesia.” A window popped up showing their current location over the Earth. “There’s an erupting volcano that they want pictures of.”
“I have to do some, too,” said Tung-chi. “Mine’s a picture of the Atacama Desert in Chile. Though God only knows why – the place has hardly any weather.”
“I’d better roll the ship, then,” said Aleksandr. “Computer: activate direct piloting mode.”
“Direct piloting mode activated.”
“Computer, roll one quarter turn counterclockwise.”
The ship rolled slowly. One of the two dome windows was now facing directly “down” towards the Earth’s surface. The ISS disappeared from view out of the other one.
“Deactivate direct piloting mode.”
“Deactivated.”
“Can’t they get the ISS to make Earth observations?” said Christopher, half-jokingly. “All they ever do is go around the Earth.”
“We’re changing our orbital plane for TMI. We’re going further north and south than they do,” Nikita replied.
“Webcast in five minutes,” Aleksandr said a while later, over the ship’s intercom.
The crew drifted back into the command module. A window popped up with a conference from Mission Control. “Are you guys ready to talk to the Pres?”
“Sure are,” Aleksandr replied.
“Patching in the White House now,” came a voice over the still-open conference with Earth.
“Computer, display neutral background,” Aleksandr said. The walls changed to a very light blue, with white gridlines for spatial reference. The crew assembled in a huddle, so they were all in the picture. President Linley, successor to James Brady, appeared at his desk in the Oval Office. A model of the IME graced the desk.
“How are you all doing up there?”
“Very well, sir,” replied Aleksandr.
“How’s the journey been so far? All one hour of it,” he said with a chuckle.
“So far, everything is normal,” said Martin. “We’re excited to be the first humans to travel beyond the orbit of the Moon.”
“All of Earth is excited to be watching, too,” he replied. “America is proud to be a part of this mission. We also acknowledge the equal, or even greater, parts that our international partners are playing. We managed to get to the Moon by ourselves, but we couldn’t have done this without the world’s help – especially in tough economic times such as these.”
“We’re proud to be going, sir,” replied Martin. They had been schooled on how to behave during webcasts, and how to address world leaders.
“Don’t forget to leave that baseball there,” the President said. (His baseball, a priceless antique signed by Babe Ruth, was on board as part of the human artifacts they were carrying.) The crew laughed.
“Do you want us to leave it on Phobos, or in Martian orbit?” Christopher asked.
“Phobos will do,” replied the President. “Maybe the Martians will find it, and we can teach them the game.”
More laughs.
“You make sure to have a good trip now. The wishes and desires of all the world are with you.”
“We sure will, Mr. President. Our best wishes back to all on Earth,” Christopher replied.
The video window disappeared. They would be doing most of the webcasts with world leaders in the next two days, before their distance from Earth made real-time video conferences difficult due to the light travel time.
16
T-plus 1 day
The next day brought an only slightly lighter schedule. They had very lightweight folding chairs and tables set up in the command module, at which they ate meals. There were two white tables, with four sitting at each. The furniture didn’t have to be strong, because it only had to support people who weighed less than a pound in the microgravity.
At the beginning of the journey, they were still able to enjoy some relatively normal foods. There was no refrigerator or freezer on board for food, but some perishables would last for a few days.
“Everybody sleep okay?” asked Christopher, as he ate some specially-bred long-life yogurt and an apple. They had fresh orange juice for a few more days, too.
“Yeah, slept like a baby,” Nikita replied. Others nodded in agreement.
“Can’t beat a hammock where you’re practically weightless,” Alessia said.
“What time’s the MC briefing?” asked Emile.
“0800 hours,” Aleksandr replied.
“Changing the subject completely, ‘command module’ is too much of a mouthful to say every other sentence,” Christopher said. “I think we should take suggestions for a new name.”
The others thought for a minute.
“Central,” one said.
“The hub,” said another.
“The donut.”
“The tire.”
“The back.”
“The end nearest the reactor.” This one produced some chuckles.
“Nirvana.”
“Gaming central,” Martin said, referring to the video games
he planned to play on the way to Mars.
“Alright, guys,” said Aleksandr. “Is the sugar in the orange juice having an adverse effect on my crew?”
More chuckles.
“I think we should go with ‘the hub,’” he said, finally.
“The hub it is, then,” said Christopher. “I’d love to ride a bike round and round the inside of this thing,” he said, looking around at the circular interior. “I’d have to watch out for the windows though. Or use it as a jogging track, à la 2001.”
“Let’s finish up – we have the briefing in ten minutes.”
They hurriedly finished pouches of coffee, apples, and Danish pastries. The tables were folded up and stowed, and the chairs arranged in two rows of four at one side of the hub.
A minute later, the computer announced, “Incoming conference from Mission Control.”
“Accept,” Aleksandr said. They were all seated, tablets ready.
“Good morning, Mars Explorer,” said Frank, the CAPCOM for the day. (This was a term left over from the beginnings of space exploration, and stood for CAPsule COMmunicator.)
“How are things down there on Earth?” asked Aleksandr.
“It’s a beautiful morning down here. Have you all had breakfast yet?”
“We have,” replied Emile.
“Excellent,” replied Frank. “We are a little under seventeen hours into the mission, and your delta-V is 691 meters per second. You’ve gained 168 kilometers in altitude. You’re right on target to escape Earth orbit in three days.”
“Very good,” said Nikita. “Will we require any course corrections once we’re in interplanetary space?”
“Not as far as we can tell. You’re straight down the centerline.”
“Good to know.”
“All engines are good. Data on the reactor is nominal. Only thing we can spot is that cooling panel number four is forty degrees hotter than the others. Could just be solar heating, though. We were never able to test one of these reactors in space before, of course, since they're so heavy.”
“I'll keep an eye on it,” replied Christopher.
“Okay. We will, too. I'm gonna hand you over to a special guest now: Dan Williams.” The NASA Administrator's face appeared on the screen, beaming with delight as the mission he had helped facilitate was underway at last.
“How are you all doing up there?”
“Very well, sir,” replied Christopher, as the others nodded.
“No need for formalities. A real deep-space mission at last, huh?”
“Yup.” All on board grinned broadly.
“How is it living in microgravity? You'd think we'd have built a centrifugal microgravity habitat to test it out by now, but we didn't, so you're it.”
Kinuko replied, “It's good. Makes a lot of things easier. You can actually sit down now. Of course, it's not gonna prevent body atrophy due to weightlessness – there's not enough resistance for that. We're going to need to develop some new engine technology to get that kind of sustained acceleration.”
Dan nodded with a glint in his eye and a wry smile on his face, as if he knew something that they didn’t.
“It's a real privilege to be at NASA in this phase of the human exploration of space.”
He had a sincerity about him that stopped him sounding like a politician at times like this. He was one of only a few who had managed to get to the top on pure likeability, rather than the assertion of power and control. This charm had also played a large part in convincing Congress to fund the American contribution to the mission.
“We're glad to be a part of it, too,” said Kinuko. Her pretty face would have made a good anime character. “JAXA is honored to be along for the ride.”
Dan nodded. “Yep. This is international cooperation at its best.” He wondered privately why the same spirit of cooperation couldn't have been applied on Earth, and saved centuries of bloodshed. Maybe it was precisely because it wasn't on Earth.
“It sure is,” replied Tung-chi. He was trying to develop an American accent, with mixed results. The others nodded.
“Well, I won't keep you from your busy schedules. The people of Earth wish you all the very best. Godspeed!”
Frank's face reappeared on the screen, with the rows of workers in Mission Control in the background.
“All your individual schedules should have been uploaded to your tablets.”
“Yes, we all have them,” replied Aleksandr.
“Good. Let's enjoy real-time conversation while we can.” The crew chuckled. “It's gonna be a busy few days.” Nods all around.
“Okay. Unless there's anything further, I think that concludes our first in-flight briefing.”
“No, I think we're good. Same time tomorrow?”
“You bet. You'll have a different CAPCOM tomorrow, of course.” A CAPCOM from each nation or continent represented in the mission would work on different days, although the conversation would always be in English.
“Okay. Say hi to the wife and kids from us. IME out,” Aleksandr said. The video chat window disappeared.
They breathed a collective sigh, though not an unhappy one. They all had tasks to do, both scientific and routine. There were experiments to be monitored and recorded, supplies to be rotated, systems to be checked, observations to be made, and classes to be taught remotely to everyone from kindergarteners to astrophysicists. They all had a schedule on their personal tablets, detailing their tasks, with breaks built in. Ten hours later, they would get to gather as a crew for rest and relaxation. For now, work beckoned.
17
T-plus 3 days
* * *
Interactions with the Cosmos – The Blog of the International Mars Explorer
We’ve already traveled over a million miles. That doesn’t mean we’re a million miles from Earth, of course – we’re still making ever-larger spirals around the planet as we build up to escape velocity. Our altitude is about 32,000 miles. Earth has now gone from looking almost flat to being about the size of a basketball held at arm’s length.
We’re far enough away now to truly appreciate how small our planet is, in the grand scheme of things. Also, we have a very good view of the Moon. We’re seeing it from a lot closer up now, when our orbit brings us by it.
Life on board is settling down into a routine. There’s a lot of work to do, but we have fun together, too. We don’t have to sleep as long in space – only about six hours a night instead of eight on Earth. So, we get plenty of personal time each day, even with ten hours of work and two hours of exercise (can’t let those muscles waste away!). It is both exciting and scary to be leaving our home planet behind. We’re still not as far away as the lunar astronauts went, but we will be, pretty soon.
Down there on that blue-white sphere is life, love, family and home. Green grass, blue seas, and rain. We won’t be seeing those things again for a long time. Yet we’re more privileged than any kings or queens in history. Is it because we deserve it? Did we have extraordinary karma left over from a previous life? Or were we just in the right place at the right time, as the late Bill Gates used to remark about his life? All his money couldn’t buy him this experience.
Peace to all on Earth in this blessed Advent season.
-Alessia Abbado
18
T-plus 4 days
* * *
@KR_IME: I AM A REAL ASTRONAUT ON THE INTERNATIONAL MARS EXPLORER. TO PROVE IT, LOOK AT THIS PICTURE.
[Attachment: a picture of an astronaut’s rear end as they float in the command module, with other crewmembers in the background.]
* * *
A minute after this was broadcast on Twitter, the KR_IME handle had over 1,000 followers. It then went viral, and an hour later it had 800,000 followers. Overnight, it became a media sensation, running on all the major news networks. The tweet from space was shown over and over again, and debated endlessly. Which astronaut was it? Why would they post such a thing? How would the space agencies handle it?
19
/>
T-plus 5 days
It was afternoon. The work day had stopped, and the crew had gathered in the hub. An important moment was at hand. They would reach Earth escape velocity. The time that they would reach this speed was known to the millisecond. If the engines were turned off before this time, they would coast on into space, but Earth’s gravity would keep tugging at them and they would eventually begin to fall back towards the planet. If the engines were turned off after this time, they would coast on into space and never fall back. Nikita and Martin looked out of the dome window, back at Earth. It looked much smaller now.
“We’re about 160,000 kilometers away,” Nikita said.
Martin nodded. “You can still see continents and everything. What’s the smallest thing you can make out?”
“Well, it’s summer in the southern hemisphere, so that’s the place to look, since there’s less cloud cover. There’s Austraila.”
Martin squinted. “Think you can make out the Pacific islands?”
“Not a chance. Not without binoculars. You know we’re going to test the instruments out on the Moon tomorrow?”
“Yeah. That’s gonna be pretty cool – firing lasers at it and the whole nine yards,” he grinned. They were currently on the opposite side of the Earth from the Moon, but they would make their closest approach to it the next day.
A video chat window was open with Mission Control. The mood was jovial.
“So, everyone doing okay up there?” Pascale, the CAPCOM, asked.
“We are just fine, MC,” replied Nikita. The crew members were floating around, doing flips in the air and generally having fun. A couple of them wore Santa hats – Christmas was only a couple of weeks away.
“So, we’re coming up on the big moment. C3=0,” Pascale stated.
“Yes,” said Nikita. “Our parabolic trajectory will become much longer – we’ll be in orbit around the Sun instead of the Earth.”
“Thirty seconds to go,” came the reply from Earth. They didn’t have to do anything. They would notice no effect. It was symbolic as much as anything.
KR_IME Page 5
