by T I WADE
Before plants and humans could enter the cube to breathe the air, enough air pressure, equal to 7,000 feet above sea level needed to be released. Once this stage was completed with ten tanks, the last four of the aluminum air tanks would be opened to allow the pressure to increase to equal 2,000 feet above sea level.
Then, the inside temperature had to be above freezing. Large permanent heaters internally welded into the one-piece, forty-foot long, square middle walkway had arrived inside one flight of the cylinders. The heaters would take twelve hours to warm the cube. First, they had to be connected to the space station’s reactor power grid.
In-between the heaters, and throughout the walkway, were the magnetic batteries. The final task would be to position the powerful bright lights along the four corners of the walkway to fill the cube with simulated sunlight.
The magnetic batteries would instill 15 percent gravity inside the entire cube, and a more powerful 20 percent gravity on the actual walkway to allow people with metal plates in their shoes to walk along it.
All the batteries could be switched on and off, and would only operate for ten hours out of every twenty-four to make it easier for Suzi’s team of five to check and harvest plants while floating in zero gravity. The ten hours of gravity per day was to allow the plants to grow correctly.
With the last two of Cube Two’s air tanks arriving on Ryan’s flight, there were now enough air tanks to fill the first two cubes.
Ryan was staying for a week on this trip. He wanted to see every inch of his new spaceship. Once VIN helped him into Ivan, he removed his spacesuit and set about trying the exercise bike.
Ivan had certainly helped Astermine to keep its crew safe while the new ship was being built. It had been in the overall plan for a couple of years, but nobody had realized that the rapid change in government would be so negative for their work. The whole spaceship-building project had started off being a five-year build plan. The former president and his administration had been behind the private space race from the get-go. Once the election was over, already a year earlier, Ryan realized that the new president might be a person who could hinder the project due to his own personal philosophy. Due to this possibility, Ryan had compressed the schedule to thirty-six months.
After the new president was sworn in, the cargo delivery schedule had been speeded up to thirty months, and now stood at an unbelievable twenty-four months from the airfield’s completion. It was still going to take Ryan at least a year, maybe two, from the arrival of the final cargo, before America One would be ready for space travel.
Over dinner he chatted to the growing crew of nine, which could only gather together in the communal room of Ivan.
“The president has given me until mid-January to sell Astermine to the U.S. government.”
“There is no way we can get everything up here,” replied Suzi. Ryan had brought a small cooler of fresh food up with him for the crew. They munched on warmed steaks, pork chops, mashed potatoes, vegetables and chocolate cake for desert. He had even managed to squeeze two bottles of wine and a bottle of JD into the cooler, just enough to feed the crew one fresh meal with liquid accompaniment.
“What are your alternatives?” asked VIN.
“Well, we have a couple of different scenarios we could put into action,” replied Ryan. “As you all know, we have 75 percent of all the material we need already up here to build America One. Apart from a few of the ground control computers being sent up with our latest information, electrical control boxes, ventilation shafts for the accommodations, engines and fuel, much of the craft is ready for habitation as a permanent geostationary satellite, like Ivan. The engines, gas, soil and water shipments will take a lot of time to transfer, and there is no way we can get cargo up here any faster.”
“What about Herr Brusk at Earth-Exit, or the Russians bringing up a load for us?” asked Suzi.
“Yes, I have already had discussions with Earth-Exit, the Europeans and the Russians. Earth-Exit’s freighter can bring up half a ton at a time and the Russian’s Soyuz Progress cargo freighters have only a two-ton cargo potential. The European authority freighters are bigger, eight tons, and I think we have a good chance to purchase their remaining launches. I have already sent deposits to the Europeans from Switzerland. The U.S. government certainly won’t allow me to fly cargo out of the country, but they can pressurize gases and haul up our water, soil and liquid fuels for us. We also worked on a Cuban, or a Canadian scenario; take the remaining 170 tons of completed equipment out of the country in one C-5 flight and begin flights from somewhere else. We gave up on those ideas a month ago. The C-5 Galaxy, even though she makes this project affordable and possible, is our weakest link. I have a legal and binding contract with the USAF for another eighteen months, but it seems that the new government can cancel these contracts any time it feels like. Nobody in Washington will allow me to purchase another C-5. Everything today is called a ‘security threat’ to the country.
“Since 9/11, the government seems to have the power to make any contract or agreement immediately null, or cause havoc and turmoil in the country’s private sector, all under the term ‘National Security’. This is why the likes of Bishop, Ward and Mortimer seem to have unlimited powers to do whatever they want. I used to think the media in this country was the worst in the world. Now it is the only institution keeping our program running.”
“And the Russians can help bring up the basics into low orbit for us,” suggested VIN.
“Yes, but let me bring you up to date. And since I think many of you won’t see Earth again, I can tell you the ‘end game’ agreed upon by my team when I was in my early twenties. Only my initial team of Russian scientists and I know what we need to achieve life up here. Even Suzi doesn’t know the end game.” She looked at him questioningly.
“Do you want some more wine, Ryan?” offered Suzi. “I had better oil your mouth so that you tell me the whole story this time.”
“Yes, please, I think I need another glass, or even a little slug of the whiskey I brought, like our Mr. Jones here. His ideas of drinking oneself to death are starting to rub off on me.” Jonesy looked at him dryly. “OK, here we go; the whole truth and nothing but the truth. My childhood dream was to live in space for the rest of my life, to search our solar system on a life-long journey. My future generations would tour the universe, never coming back to Earth, unless they wanted to. The Russians laughed at my plans, so I told them to prove to me that I couldn’t go and live in space forever. For five years we studied what was needed for life in space: life supports, gravity, fuel, possible resupplies on other planets, you name it, we studied it.”
“And?” asked Suzi.
“The conclusion at that time was that it was impossible. This was in the 80s, and what we know about living in space a quarter of a century later hasn’t changed much.”
“So we are not going forever?” asked Suzi.
“Understand that at the present time it is impossible for humans to live in space forever. We are too suited to one planet, and until our bodies adapt with evolution to a new home, it will be painful for us to live out here forever. Also, our minds, our brains, our souls, our hearts, whatever you call what controls us, is not ready for such a large leap. The scientists figured out that our minds would go first. Living without the hope or knowledge that we would one day go home could destroy the attitudes, the daily thoughts and dreams of other valuable members of the crew. A few could get over the idea of ‘nothing’ in the future. Mr. Jones could be one of those, but we normal humans need something to hang on to; simple things like, the next weekend, Christmas, marriage, wealth.
“As you know, one of the first scientists who joined me at the very beginning, Igor, the head of ground control, has a PhD from the University of St. Petersburg in Space Flight Technology. What many of you don’t know is that he also has a PhD in Human Psychology from the same university. Igor has always been the flight director of our project, and he seems well versed in what would h
appen if I lived my dream. After years of his explaining this one problem, to try and get it through my thick skull, I began to see that my dream might be my dream, but it might never be the dream of my whole crew. They would not enjoy living my dream as I hoped they would. He brought up the psychological negatives the crew would face over time–losing everything they had lived so hard for here on Earth.”
“So we are not going to space forever?” asked three of the crew together.
“No, we are heading out for fifteen to twenty years. We will travel in space until 75 percent of the crew wish to return to earth.”
Ryan immediately saw how right Igor had been decades ago. Suddenly many of the faces relaxed a little. As Igor had told Ryan, the men and women around him suddenly had an “end of the journey” in their minds, which as humans, was enough to get them through this long and dangerous adventure.
“Igor compared the mental situations his crew would face to a prison sentence. A man serving twenty years would survive his term better than a man who was there for life. The first could envision the end-station, leaving jail one day for normality; the other had no such thoughts, only death in jail.”
“We are going into space for twenty years only?” asked Suzi, also looking pretty relieved.
“For as long as 75 percent of the crew want to stay out in space. Once we get to that stage, we head back to earth,” replied Ryan. I have hidden nothing from my crew, the men and women who are traveling my dream with me. All I have hidden from you is what was explained to me would happen.”
“So we come back and find a different Earth?” asked VIN. “What happens then?”
“We will have a secret supply of materials to replenish all our supplies if we ever want to leave again. Anybody who wants to stay on Earth can, anybody who wants to go to space for a longer time, can do that. We only need a dozen crew to run America One under Captain Gregory once it is a stable environment in space, a doctor, pilots, a couple people who can repair software, hardware, and mechanical equipment, and several biologists.
“I will also tell you the latest news received a few days before I left; something we were already discussing. Several important Russians and Europeans want to purchase some of the diamonds in Amsterdam and Antwerp. As I said, I have already discussed contracts with their space agencies to supply much of the liquid fuel gases and water needed to be brought up here. This means that our Nevada storage facility can store some of the supplies we have already manufactured there for the day when we return.”
“How can we ever return without the Dead Chicken?” asked VIN.
“Easy,” smiled Ryan. “Do you all know that the three large hydrogen rear thruster engines are arriving up here for America One, in the same loads as the ship’s long distance three ion drives?” Everybody nodded. “There are actually six large hydrogen motors being built. Three of these new more powerful motors are to accelerate America One into faster cruising speeds before the three ion drives take over for long distance travel. The other three are backups. These new hydrogen motors, or ‘pulsers’, are twenty times more powerful than the new thrusters on Astermines I and II, and use far less hydrogen than our current configuration. Three of these larger thrusters will be modified as both ‘thrusters’ and/or ‘pulsers’. Their fuel cells will be placed in the old first-stage hybrid rocket fuel compartments of all of our shuttles.
“Our future shuttles will work with a single rear hydrogen-pulse engine added to lift the shuttles back into orbit. From our experience on DX2014, and the difficulty of Astermine I getting off that asteroid, it gave the team ideas on how to one day take the C-5 Galaxy out of the picture. In a nutshell, we attach the new thruster to say, SB III, we take out the old solid-stage fuel systems and add two small 5,000 pound liquid hydrogen tanks and two 1,000 pound xenon tanks inside her solid rocket fuel departments. We keep the second-stage hydrogen system. There would be enough thrust from new thrusters for liftoff to an altitude of 25,000 feet. At this altitude, they will turn and face the shuttle towards her trajectory. Then, the shuttle’s rear ‘pulser’ would be ignited and omit one sonic pulse every 20 seconds. With the side thrusters still on full power, they will begin using fuel from the second-stage tanks.
“The three motors will get her to the 160,000 foot level, the lowest level at which the ion drives can be ignited, and then the second-stage hydrogen thrusters will aid the ion drives in getting the shuttle the rest of the way. We have hardly used the shuttle’s ion drives on launches and space flight up to now, but they were designed for space travel, and using them as early as possible in the launch will get our shuttles back into orbit, much slower than we achieve at the moment, and with a smaller 3-ton cargo, not 4.1 tons.
“Given a few more years of testing, we would have reached this hydrogen power learning curve anyway. The pressure from Washington just forced us to develop this system faster, and actually, we had these totally new hydrogen-pulse motors on the design board years ago. We are going to modify them during our journey. You all have your laptops, go and do your own research. These new hydrogen-pulse motors will use one-fourth of the fuel for three times the thrust of both the new hydrogen thrust engines, but cannot be used at low altitudes. Below 30,000 feet they can damage houses and buildings, and we expect the desert to still be there when we return.”
“Are we going to test this new method before we leave?” VIN asked.
“No, the replacement parts are already made, but the engines are still in pieces. Back to getting our cargo up here; if we get all the other space companies outside the country to aid us in lifting our equipment up here, it will only shave eight loads, or twenty-five days off our project at best. The Russian Progress spacecraft are single-flight, expendable freighter craft currently used to resupply the International Space Station. Three of their expendable space craft are available, and I have offered to purchase all three and the cost of their rockets to launch them into space. Each flight could bring 5,200 pounds of liquid fuels, or water, and a few bottles of vodka. Mr. Jones and Mr. Noble, I haven’t forgotten you. The Russians will save us two flights.
“For a much higher price, a quarter of the diamonds I shipped over to Europe, I have offered to purchase the three remaining European ATV flights into space. That is all they have programmed in their mission. The ATV flights are also unmanned expendable Automated Transfer Vehicles which carry eight tons of cargo at a time, twice what one of our flights carries and five times the cargo of the Russian freighter. Unfortunately, the Europeans can only launch once a month so we have choreographed both craft to launch at the same time. The first set of craft will launch in a week and we have set up a system to transport both craft up to Ivan. The European ATV has a higher orbital potential than the smaller Russian craft. Of course they both have the same docking ports we have on all our craft. At 100 miles, they will attach themselves to each other, the same way they would have been attached to the ISS. Then the ATVs thrusters will reignite and lift both craft to a 200-mile altitude. At this altitude, they will meet up with one of our transfer craft. Our crew will connect the craft to the internal cargo bolts with aluminum rods being made especially for this, and then using our spacecraft’s thrusters, the three ships will be propelled to Ivan.”
“I will assume we are using the same internal explosion bolts to connect the craft?” VIN asked.
“It will be a simple matter of the pilot opening the doors. They will already have the ten-foot rods inside our craft’s cargo bay and connected to the craft. You float them out vertically and connect them to the bolts specially welded onto the Russian freighter. It will be as easy as your usual transfer, and these two expendable craft have an expected life of about ten years in space. I’ve been told that the three European ATVs have been built for a more permanent use, so we will hook them all up to America One and take them as storage units.”
“So we leave earth in forty-three days, our time remaining, before we are attacked by our own government?” VIN asked.
�
�No, we will still have more than a dozen flights to launch when the deadline arrives, so our last chance to complete our mission is DX2014. If she poses a threat to Earth, we could buy ourselves time by offering to solve the problem in return for one more month of testing.”
“And how do we move this rock out of the way?” Suzi asked.
“With the first laser on SB III, and the second laser on American One working simultaneously, if we can get it up here, attached and ready for operation,” replied Ryan. “I have three teams working 24/7 to get the second laser completed and installed up here before the asteroids, or meteors as they are now calling them, arrive. We might need the full power of the nuclear reactor to move one of these incoming rocks away from our planet, if it is threatened. Even I want something to come back to one day. If he is not careful, the president could destroy the only hope Earth has to repel these rocks, if he decides to take us over early.”
Chapter 15
The first tour of America One
The next day, after a twelve-hour sleep and breakfast, it was time to suit up; Ryan, Suzi, VIN and Captain Pete jet-packed over to America One.
Before they retired, Ryan asked each of the crew he had spoken to in Ivan to describe how they felt about their journey into space, now that they knew they were on a ten-to-twenty year mission, not a mission for the rest of their lives.
Igor had been 100 percent correct; everyone said that they felt relieved, even Mr. Jones. They all knew that it would be a long mission living in space, but now it had an end, an end that they could fathom. Ryan decided to tell the rest of the crew who were going to space when he returned. Even Suzi had said that she doubted that Ryan or the crew could travel in space forever. America One still had its limitations.
