The Battle of Titan

by Sudipto Majumdar

  Thus was born the ESA-ISRO Sedna project in 2024, the most ambitious space craft to be designed at that time. The primary objective was to explore a dwarf planet named Sedna. It was discovered in the opening years of the 21st century, and is sometimes referred as the impossible planet, due to the fact that some of the characteristics of this planetoid are hard to believe.

  Sedna has an incredible orbit around the sun. It is further away than Neptune, but its orbit is amazingly eccentric. At its closest approach to the sun at about 76 AU, it is just about twice the distance further than Neptune. However at its furthest distance 937 AU, it is 31 times as far as Neptune is from the sun. Such an incredibly elongated orbit is not seen in any other planet or planetoid.

  It is probably about 1,500 Km in diameter, making it a decent sized planetoid. It is also one of the reddest planet in our solar system and also one of the brightest. Both of this should not be possible given it is in the cold, dark, freezing ice filled orbit in the Kuiper belt, almost exiting it and reaching out to the Oort cloud.

  There have been many speculations about the origin of this so called impossible planet in the scientific world, some of which were not so scientific. Astronomers would give an arm and a leg to get near it and study it. So that is what this project set out to do, and they had a window of opportunity.

  Like many other weird characteristics of this planetoid, one is that it takes almost 12,000 years to orbit the sun! No other planet or planetoid has such a large orbital time. This means it approaches its nearest point to the sun only once every 12,000 years. And it was going to be at its closest approach in 2075. If humanity misses this opportunity to study it close, the next opportunity it would get would be around the year AD 13475!

  The spacecraft was designed to approach Sedna, before it reached its perihelion (closest point to sun), match speed with the planetoid, and then orbit Sedna. The space craft was originally scheduled to launch in 2035 and reach Sedna in 2040, merely five years later, which is fast for the current technology of human space craft, travelling more than twice the distance to Neptune without gravity assist.

  Unfortunately the space craft was being aimed at a very particular point in space, and there is no Jupiter or any other planet conveniently placed in between to use for a gravity assist. The logic for reaching earlier than the perihelion point, was that if something interesting was found on the planet that warranted a follow on mission, there would be ample time to launch one, and catch it close to its perihelion.

  This mission was going to run harder and faster on its own steam (own rocket to be more precise), than any other human made craft had earlier. Space probes that had come earlier, had carried ridiculously little rocket fuel in them.

  They would burn some fuel at the beginning of their journey, to build up some velocity, then coast in space as they slowly drifted towards Jupiter, Saturn or Uranus, taking tens of years sometimes to just reach Neptune.

  At the end of the journey, it would save fuel by using the gravity of the large planet they approached to get captured, and a few of the crafts had pioneered the technique of aero braking to reduce the fuel consumption further.

  Most space probes launched were strapped on to rockets carrying huge amount of fuel, but those rockets used all the fuel just to lift the probe out of the gravity well of the earth. Nothing of that was left for journey in space.

  This mission had to reach a distance more than twice that to Neptune in a time less than 5 years. It could not use gravity assist or any fancy braking method. The probe would have to carry a substantial amount of rocket fuel.

  In many ways this was the first true space craft mankind had constructed. Ones before were basically a probe with a small rocket strapped behind it. It would be impossible to launch the probe directly from Earth’s surface, it would be too big and heavy. It had to be assembled in space, another first for human kind.

  It had been clear that if mankind wanted to build bigger space crafts, they would have to be assembled in space. That is what they did for this mission. Using the recently abandoned International Space Station (ISS) as a platform for assembly, smaller pieces of the probe, rocket and rocket fuel were brought to orbit and assembled there. It was joked that the venerable ISS had become humanity’s first orbital shipyard, which really was not that far from the truth.

  What had really helped in bringing down the cost of construction had been the commencement of regular orbital shuttles by commercial airlines like Virgin and American airlines. It had taken small pioneering companies nearly 40 years, to go from flimsy planes starting with space-X, to regular commercial shuttles flown by airlines, which can take 6 people into low orbit and back.

  These are used by all space agencies to ferry engineers, scientists and astronauts into low orbit, where they usually dock with transfer shuttles, which take them further up into higher orbits as required.

  The heavy payload of machines, probes and rocket fuel etc. still have to go up the old fashioned way using heavy rockets. This is really old technology, and now this industry is dominated by Russia, China and to a smaller extent India. It is now all about the cheapest cost per Kg of material boosted to orbit, and these are the lowest cost transporters amongst the space faring nations.

  This does not mean that NASA or ESA cannot, or do not launch cargo rockets. It is just that their environmental agencies, and the various bureaucratic paraphernalia are so exacting and demanding, that they cannot cut the corners that the other nations can, thus increasing their costs.

  So NASA sticks to its own launches only for things which are supercritical or about national security. Otherwise even it would outsource regular orbital lifting to the cheapest bidder. Since these cargo lifters do not handle human lives, the lax safety standards are not too much of a concern.

  Thus it was, that ESA-ISRO space craft Sedna – I was orbiting earth in 2034 physically assembled, going through software and other systems integrity checks, for its launch in about 9 months, when humanity was shocked with the news of the arrival of a seemingly alien space craft.

  While major powers scrambled to boost their space capability and spending, there was nothing available to approach the alien craft more suitable than Sedna – I. It was designed to go a lot further, than what it would be expected to travel to intercept the alien craft.

  It was believed that if Sedna – I could be launched in the next 3 -5 months, it would be able to intercept the alien craft somewhere near the orbit of Neptune. It was designed to go more than twice that distance. It would be able to accelerate and decelerate hard, and still have fuel left over. It was packed with the best possible sensors money could buy, after all that was the primary mission of Sedna – I.

  But it definitely was not a war ship if it came to that. To reduce mass and hence save on fuel, it was made of the thinnest possible alloy of titanium, aluminum and vanadium. To retain the heat required inside the space probe for the computers and sensors to function, it had an interior that was made of silica ceramic tiles and composite absorption tiles, and it was insulated with polystyrene. Hardly the stuff that armor would be made of. The smallest of strike to the spacecraft would punch a hole in it.

  Thankfully the craft at least had a hardened nose cone shield to take minor impacts from micro meteorites, and other small space rocks that it may encounter on the way. This was the only tough part of the ship. Older probes didn’t even have this much of protection, they would usually point their main dish antenna forward as protection.

  For the Sedna – I mission, keeping in touch with the main dish antenna all the time pointed towards earth was critical, since there were too many unknowns during the mission and earth needed to be in touch with the probe all the time, and due to the distance involved, nothing short of the main dish could be used for communication.

  The European and Indian government had been informed about the discovery, almost immediately after the president came to know about it. It was his executive decision. They did not know if this was going
to be a Happy First contact situation or a threat, but if humanity needed to face this potential threat, they would need all the resources of human beings pooled together.

  Unfortunately the same courtesy had not been extended to the Chinese or the Russians. There were limits to human openness, even in the face of a potential alien threats. It did not mean that the Chinese did not know about the alien space craft.

  Such a large mobilization by the Americans, Europeans and the Indians could not be done without briefing a large number of Senators, parliamentarians and bureaucrats in all of these democracies, and the Chinese had excellent spying resources in all of these nations, since they were considered political adversaries.

  In the end it was from New Delhi, which was considered the weakest link anyway, they suspected the leak occurred. Within two weeks the Chinese had gotten the basic information, pointed their telescopes in the direction of the alien craft, and come to the same conclusion as the others.

  The Chinese had still accused the US in public of playing petty politics with the survival of humanity, and most felt that for a change this criticism from the Chinese was probably warranted. It was then that the President’s hands were forced and he made the announcement to the general public.

  Contrary to expectations, there was no widespread panic and chaos across the world. Sure there were disruptions in many areas for a few days. All things alien, space, astronomy and physics had come into fashion amongst the media, and the public at large, but the world went on relatively orderly. The stock market actually rose, especially stocks of research based companies in materials, composites, chemical etc. and even food and medicine research companies.

  Wall Street apparently was an optimist and believed in friendly benign aliens coming to hand over wonderful new technologies for humans to exploit. This unexpected but welcome reaction from the public, was exploited by all governments to further increase allocations to emergency space programs, which they could now do openly with public support.

  Unlike Wall Street though the governments were not gung ho optimists, they too hoped for the best but prepared for the worst. Almost half of the funds allocated went to militarize the space programs, something no one had considered doing before, due to various treaties keeping the arms race out of space. The rest went into boosting human space launch capability.

  The plans to mothball the ISS, which had very recently been decommissioned were cancelled. It was owned by the US, Europeans and other allied powers, despite its name being International Space Station. ISS became the core of a permanent orbital space yard, which would be used to assemble space crafts like the Sedna – I had been.

  Russia after many decades was putting its own money, along with the Chinese in the creation of a rival purpose built orbital ship construction facility – The Vladivostok. When it was fully constructed, it would actually be a more convenient place to build ships than ISS, but the US had the ISS now, which gave it the edge in terms of speed of construction.

  NASA had been really thankful for the Sedna program in more ways than one. It had made them develop many new techniques and validated many procedures, which NASA would not have to learn anew and would crunch the time for construction of new crafts.

  Virgin galactic was making money hand over fist from the various contracts for transportation of personnel, and even light cargo to orbit. Since Russian and Chinese orbital launch capacity was fully engaged in their own space programs now, and the Indian launch capacity was very limited, NASA and ESA had to spruce up Florida and Kourou launch centers, which was now working full time. Costs were no longer an issue, and they were willing to take a few liberty with safety and pollution norms.

  Sedna – I had been readied in less than four months with a lot of help from NASA, with a new mission. The new mission of Sedna – I was to approach the incoming alien space craft at full acceleration, without making any attempt to slow down on approach. It would use up its full tank of rocket fuel, leaving none for deceleration. It was no longer heading towards any planet to need to slow down. The idea was to try to approach the alien ship as early as possible, get as much information as possible and especially to try to figure out its intentions.

  Chapter 7

  Expression of Love

  When he had finished explaining to them, it was finally Fluentez who dared say what was everybody else was scared of saying. “Let me get this straight. You are going to ask for a path change for a space craft of a multi-billion dollar program, which does not even belong to the US in the first place. Just not any space craft, but one on perhaps the most important space mission of human kind, which might determine our survival, if it comes to that.

  And oh, by the way, this is the best part. This change in path will delay the launch and the arrival of the spacecraft by at least 3-4 weeks, when they are burning out all the fuel to arrive there as fast as possible. All this for the hope, with no guarantee that you might be able to track the home planet of the ship. Did I miss anything out here?” Fluentez finished with a wicked smile.

  “Thanks for those encouraging words, they were all I needed.” Jorge replied sarcastically to Fluentez. “I am going to try anyway. Dr. Heinz is a good guy, I really like him. I hope I can follow his footsteps in my career, but I digress. Herman Heinz is as reasonable a guy as you can get, and he is a scientist, you know the real ones who have the spirit of enquiry, not a bureaucrat with a PhD.

  If I can convince Heidi that will be a good start. There is something going on between Heidi and Dr. Heinz, I can feel it, when they talk to each other. Don’t tell anyone that I am spreading this rumor, else I will be in trouble, but there is definitely something.”

  “Well… all the best then in your venture, I hope you are successful. Listen… Mischa and I are attending a seminar in the morning, and we need to hit the sack early. I can see that you boys are going to be here discussing this for some more time, I think we should let them work on this. It won’t do for us to distract our heroes as they go around saving the world would it?” Fluentez said with a wink and a naughty smile at Ramesh, who broke out in a blush.

  Fluentez gave a sideways glance at Mischa, as if it was a pre-arranged signal, probably something they had agreed before she had relented on this blind date. Mischa really didn’t want to go, but got up slowly.

  “Listen, don’t get into this chivalry thing and try to drop us. We are capable of returning back home on our own. I really want you to figure this out, you might be on to something big.” Mischa said as she reached out to Jorge and gave her a long kiss, and whispered softly into his ears. “I am really proud of you. I …” She wanted to say something more, but didn’t.

  Jorge whispered back into her ears. “I love you too.”

  Mischa was startled and brought head back to face Jorge. Jorge smiled his typical goofy smile and said. “I know I have never said it before, but then hey… you know I am a jerk.”

  Clearly shocked at hearing those words from Jorge, which Mischa never thought she would hear, she clung on to him even more tightly, with her eyes turning watery and a lump in her throat, she just managed to say. “Yes you are a jerk, but you are MY jerk.”

  She needed to make a quick exit before she made a scene by crying, so she quickly waved at Ramesh and made a dash for the exit. Fluentez, clearly puzzled quickly said her byes and hurried after her friend.

  Ramesh looked at his friend and said. “Don’t tell me that you were a jerk once again and hurt that poor girl!” Jorge slumped back into the sofa with a contented smile. “For a change I was not being a jerk my friend! I think that’s what shocked her.”

  “But we have more important things to discuss right now. We need to do detailed calculations on this idea. I need to present this to Heidi in the morning and ask her to take it Herman.” Jorge said as he got out his foldable tablet out of his jacket.

  They discussed at the bar for over an hour before moving to Jorge’s apartment, where they had access to all the astronomy data they needed from his t
erminal.

  The calculations were more complicated than they had expected. Ramesh developed a new respect for the engineers at NASA who must be doing these day in and day out. Now he understood what the significance of the term “Rocket Scientist” was, and why it meant a genius.

  Six to seven decades ago, engineers at NASA were doing these calculations by hand, and they sent men to moon that way! He was having to use all his mathematical acumen, doing it on powerful computers.

  They had to work late into the night to finish the calculations. Ramesh left for home, while Jorge spent some more time making up the report. Before turning in himself, he sent a message to Heidi, to be delivered in the morning, requesting an urgent meeting, then set up a wake up alarm.

  The twist was finally added to the trajectory of Sedna – I. It had been pushed hard by the original discovery team, led by Dr. Heidi Bernstein and through the good offices of Dr. Herman Heinz, who was the chief consulting astronomer for the project.

  The idea had been unpopular initially because it added over 18 days to the encounter with the alien craft, which would happen now much further in system. However it got through when majority of the administrators of the mission were convinced that, Sedna – 1 was primarily and intelligence gathering mission, and this change of trajectory gave them the possibility to learn the most important piece of information about the alien space craft, its home world!

  Chapter 8

  The Sentinel and the Curious

  Fall of 2037

  Jason sat at the control room, surveying all that he would lord over for the next year. He was in a contemplative mood today. His thoughts turned towards how he came to be sitting on this seat. He was here because Bob was no longer there. Bob had collapsed with a massive stroke. He died on the way to the hospital. That put him, Bob's deputy in charge. He had certainly wanted the job, but not this way.