by T I WADE
“I‘m still in contact with two guys who flew with me in the Air Force test-pilot program, and have since retired,” stated Jonesy.
“I know of one girl,” added Maggie. “She was a major then, and the best pilot I ever flew with, apart from Ms. Sullivan and Mr. Jones here. My friend got pregnant, was discharged, and then lost her baby. She was treated very unfairly, since the colonel who got her pregnant was the same colonel who terminated her contract with the Air Force. Several of us girls made a statement and were told to keep our mouths shut. That was about five years ago at McGuire Air Force Base.”
“I would like to meet everybody who you two would like to fly with, ASAP!” replied Ryan. “Let me know and I can send you off to find them.”
“Now let’s get back to our mission. These three space vehicles will be taken up and will remain in space in the first dozen flights, or when needed. The shuttle’s first flight will be to fly up to another space station already in space, a dormant Russian satellite in a much lower orbit. That old girl is a Russian 1980s space station consisting of four modules, two are sleep units, then a command module, and the forth a larger communal relaxation and work module which can separated if necessary. This satellite is about the size of a C-130 transport aircraft and will be pulled back to earth by gravity in about seventeen months. She has two large solar dragon-fly antennas atop her, large ones which automatically supply her basic power needs.
This re-entry is already causing a lot of worry because of its size. She was one of the first space stations programs, the space station is large, and on re-entry it could cause much damage. At one time the satellite was 50,000 feet higher than the current space station, now she is almost 100,000 feet lower and losing 10,000 feet of altitude a month. After two years of work on it up there in the 1980s, the Russians ended their test programs for long-term space exploration on the human body. Also, the International Space Station came into being in the early 90s, and they joined this program. This is where we come in. We are going to be the first to get up there, and we will propel it further into space. This mission will relieve a lot of people down here, and be a compelling argument as to why we need to practice sending up so many shuttles.”
“Did the Russians live up there to build it?” asked Maggie.
“Sort of; they sent up several rockets with supplies and crews, spent the two years working on it with ‘space spiders’ as they called them, to weld and complete it, and then the last team returned. Their seventh flight to the station exploded on lift off, which put their program on hold, where it still is. The same Russian technicians who built her are working with us here, in Hangar Four, experimenting with far more modern space spiders. These new spiders magnetically bind themselves to any outer and inner walls and will slowly weld the remaining of our space panels together from the outside and then inside into sealed cubes.
“The first three Russian scientists, my oldest employees, designed and built everything for this Russian satellite up there, and they assure me that it was completed. They did live without suits in the completed satellite for a couple of weeks before heading back to earth with the last crew. Unfortunately, the rocket that exploded was actually carrying a new crew and supplies for a longer stay.”
“So what does this old Russian ‘beer can’ of a space station have to do with our mission?” asked Jonesy.
“Simple. First, we take up some supplies and connect our shuttle with its extending docking port to one of the space station’s docking ports. Then, with the shuttle’s hydrogen thruster, we increase her orbit until both are higher and far away from the ISS; then we move the whole space station to where are going to build our new platform. In other words, we are going to salvage the station, and use it as crew quarters to build our new station. It has three separate docking bays on three separate sides where our craft can dock. The Russian satellite is currently in dormant mode, but can be made fully functional as a living environment. She just needs fresh oxygen, a nuclear battery to increase the low power output of her old antiquated solar antennae, and then our first team of scientists, builders and pilots can actually base themselves there. There are sleeping units for six. Nobody else, apart from the team heads and now you, know of this part of the plan. And, as Mr. Jones stated, this ‘beer can’ will become our first base of operations. Most importantly, we must get her far away from the International Space Station and from any other prying eyes in the sky.”
“OK! I get it now,” interrupted Jonesy. “The C-5 flies shuttles up. The first shuttles fly supplies and one or two of these small spacecraft in their holds; one is for me and the kid. We head off to bring back riches from some rock flying past while the shuttles then go up and down and use this Russian space station as crew quarters so we can build our own station, correct?”
“In a nutshell, Mr. Jones!” replied Ryan smiling. “Please remember pilots, all our Silver Bullet Shuttles and our Astermine Spacecraft have been designed the same way. All five or maybe six of our space craft have been built for permanent survival in outer space, have the exact same single docking station behind the cockpit, can dock with each other, or with the Russian space station, and our own, once its complete. Naturally, our own station, our mother ship, will have far more docking stations, a dozen, and the Russian station will be connected to her permanently once the necessary port is ready. Also remember that Astermine Two is an exact replica of Astermine One. Asterspace Three is a one-cargo bay transporter, meaning that she could head out with either, or both mining craft and be loaded up. The two-crew members will live aboard in her cockpit and her second supply compartment. The second compartment will be made usable as a second area for humans for long term flight. On shorter trips it will be a supply hold.”
The four pilots had to first shower, then put on sterile suits and, once checked out, were allowed to enter the enclosed areas where the silver spacecraft were.
VIN was surprised at how compact the spacecraft really was inside. Each craft would fit perfectly into the shuttle’s cargo bay, like those Russian dolls, Ryan had talked about a week earlier.
“The external craft measurements are 10 feet high, 15 feet wide and 42 feet long. Interior measurements are 8 feet, by 13 feet, by 41 feet,” stated Ryan through his intercom system to all the sterile suits. “There are five compartments in the two mining craft. The front compartment is flight deck, or cockpit, and the general living compartment. The cockpit is 10 feet long and 13 feet wide, or 1,040 feet cubed of living space. The second compartment, 6 feet long by 13 feet wide, and is for crew supplies—canisters of food, water and other items, and cylinders of pure oxygen for up to 60 days in space, and to be used as crew space once the supplies are used up. The third compartment is 8 by 13 feet, has the large opening roof door above it, and the first of three 3 by 3 foot sealable side hatches to hold cylinders of liquid gas on the way out and canisters of rock on the way back. Each of the three rear compartments will hold ten of our sealable multi-use aluminum canisters each, plus mining gear and the metal analyzer. On the outward trip, cylinders of hydrogen and xenon gas can be stored in Hold Three to be used for the mining expedition, supplies and extra fuel cylinders. The third, fourth and fifth compartments are the same size. The fourth will hold mining gear and equipment, and the fifth compartment will house the Magnetic Metal Analyzer, or MMA that can be operated from outside on the extending table to analyze which rocks to bring back.
“Fuel for the return flight is in permanent tanks in the compartment dividing walls.”
“How many crew per craft?” Jonesy asked.
“Just two, a pilot and a miner,” replied Ryan.
VIN suddenly realized that it would be just him and Jonesy out there, and he knew that Jonesy would be a good guy to be with in case of an emergency.
There wasn’t much else to see. The exterior walls of the spacecraft were up. But lines of cables and electrical lines were being fed into dials, controls, and hydraulics already in place in the cockpit areas by the scientists. Th
e entire hangar looked like a car plant putting together big, silver Audi R8s.
A week later Jonesy and Maggie began spaceflight lessons in the first shuttle simulator in Hangar One.
VIN’s week was mostly devoted to exercise and learning his new outer-body suit, which seemed to become more and more complicated by the day. Slowly the lower part grew an inner skin, and then one day part of his suit had an outer skin. Every time he looked in the mirror, he looked different. Each new part or skin addition had to be tested. Slowly, his body was becoming enveloped in a space suit.
He finally got the same injection Suzi had under the skin of his neck to control his legs, and now, like Suzi, he could control each leg separately, or his legs and parts of the outer suit, without the motorbike helmet. That was because a new helmet was given to him, the one that looked like a deep sea diver’s helmet.
Development of his suit reached a stage where he wasn’t needed for a while, and he was instructed to work the night shift and to sleep by day. He learned that his night shift was in the same flight simulator Jonesy and Maggie were using by day, and Penny Sullivan and he would be using at night.
VIN had never flown a thing in his life and, much like a computer game, the shuttle flight simulator taught him basic flight; it taught Penny higher spaceflight procedures while he studied outside.
They chatted often, and a few days later Suzi arrived with her new legs, though not as advanced as VIN’s, and joined the two of them in learning spaceflight.
VIN had never asked Suzi how she lost her legs, and one night she told him.
Just like her new friend Maggie, she had flown hundreds of hours in private aircraft. It was on the Autobahn where she had crashed into a pileup in thick fog in Bavaria. She became a paraplegic, but her legs were not amputated.
Ryan spent a lot of hours watching his new pilots and, one night told VIN that he and Jonesy would be on the first mining mission and, Maggie and Penny would be chief pilots of the space shuttles taking up equipment to the Russian “beer can,” as Jonesy had nicknamed her. He needed to think up a name for his new station. He didn’t think the name “beer can” would work.
VIN also learned that Ryan had already done hundreds of hours of simulator atmosphere as well as shuttle space hours.
Maggie had contacted her major pilot friend, and one other former Air Force pilot for the C-5, also a woman, both of whom were arriving in a day or so; Jonesy also had one of his two guys on the way. The other, unfortunately, had died in a car crash a few years earlier.
Captain Pitt was already learning the shuttle flight procedures, but would stay in command of the C-5 while the more experienced pilots would be in space. The three new pilots could fill the necessary gaps for a full C-5 flight team.
A few more days passed before the hundreds of workers building the tanks outside began dispersing and finally, the first dozen tanker-truck loads of JP-8 jet fuel arrived in U.S. Air Force tankers.
Ryan’s deal with the Air Force was that they would supply him with ten full C-5 tanks of fuel, or 510,000 gallons. From then on, he would have to pay commercial prices; $6.00 a gallon or $306,000 to fill up the C-5.
The day after the tanks were filled, Ryan called a space pilot meeting, which included Suzi and VIN.
“Good morning, space pilots. First of all, let me congratulate you on your simulator trainings. Mr. Jones, well done on your increased fitness performance; now I have to run harder to keep up with you guys! Flying will get underway starting tomorrow. I know that the C-5 fuel tanks are still half full, and we could have completed several hours of training in the air, but I didn’t want to bring added interest to our program from the outside just yet. The more they forget about us the better. Tomorrow, Mr. Jones, I want to see what you and Ms. Sinclair can do with an empty C-5 with 50 percent fuel loads. The reason is that on most of our planned flights, the aircraft will take off with just enough fuel to get up to maximum altitude, and then get back here with thirty minutes of fuel reserves. Our average shuttle load will be twenty-five tons, 99% of a C-5’s cargo load with less than 15 percent of fuel in the aircraft’s tanks. A total of 135 minutes of flying time will be required per C-5 flight for a launch.”
“The shuttles will weigh twenty-one tons fully fueled, but empty of cargo. Our Astermine space vehicles weigh exactly 3.95 tons empty, plus 450lbs. of liquid fuel aboard, and 550lbs. of cargo. The spacecraft will have two crew members aboard to make up a complete load of 4.1 tons for the space transfer by the shuttle into orbit, or to the Russian space station. A complete shuttle load can be 4.1 tons in the hold, and up to four humans in the cockpit, five at a squeeze with less cargo in the hold. There will be four seats placed into each of the shuttle’s cockpits.”
“Our flight program will start with getting our first shuttle into space; I won’t say when, but it’s sooner than I have told you. The first flight will have a 300-pound nuclear battery, 400 pounds of C-4 explosive on board, as well as human supplies, water, food packs and other items for the space station. We are still working on cargo lists, but each twenty million dollar flight will be fully loaded with exactly 4.1 tons of merchandise. On the first trip, when you are in a low space orbit, the shuttle’s 42-foot long roof doors will be opened, the explosive device will be ejected, and it will float away from the craft. When the explosives are detonated, the blast will be picked up by all parties that monitor anything occurring in space, in particular the military and cable news channels. We will state that our first attempt at space failed. A short time after the explosion, the shuttle will be securely connected to the Russian satellite.”
“In-between Missions One and Two, a C-5 flight will be scheduled to fly to Europe to pick up something we must get into space to ultimately succeed. I will be aboard this C-5 flight. I have to give the Air Force a reason why this flight is necessary, and why I want to not only fly halfway across the planet in their aircraft, but use their in-flight refueling aircraft on the way home. As soon as I return on this flight, Mission Two’s countdown will begin. We will have to transfer our cargo into space as soon as possible. Once this cargo from the C-5 flight is up there, our overall mission can begin.”
“Shuttle One will reenter after meeting up with Shuttle Two during orbit, and then we can call Mission Two a success. Mission Three is to take up Astermine One for our first mining expedition, the first of the more important missions. Suzi and Mr. Rose also will be passengers on the Mission Three shuttle; they will begin biological experiments in space.”
“Two weeks later the next launch will begin Mission Four, the supplies for the mining expedition. The shuttle already up there will reenter at the same time. Mission Four will head up with a cargo of 4.1 tons, one ton of needed supplies for the crew already in the Russian space station, and three tons of necessary supplies and machinery for the trip to DX2014. One note; there is no possible way we can design a door from the spacecraft to the shuttle, so the spacecraft crew are total prisoners until they are released through the shuttle’s roof doors. Also, another note of importance for you pilots. Both of the shuttle’s cargo bays can be adapted for a twenty-passenger seating arrangement which can be bolted into place or taken out, and can accommodate both passengers and cargo for trips into space and back. The internal door from the flight cockpit to the cargo hold will be used to transfer passengers, one at a time, in and out of the sealed unit, to the flight deck, and then through the extended docking port to the station.”
“Mission Five will be either Astermine Two, or Asterspace Three. These little spacecraft will never see earth again. After Mission Five we get up to full speed. Once we are at maximum flight speed, we will achieve one flight every ten days, the quickest we expect to turn around a shuttle flight. These flights will begin by carrying the first 90 of our 10- by 40-foot flat panels for transfer to our outer platform, plus the equipment needed to fit them together. Each flight can take eight panels, each weighing exactly half a ton, plus added equipment; twelve flights over four months. ”
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br /> “I thought we were making one cube for our space platform?” asked VIN.
“Incorrect, Mr. Nobel. It will take thirty of these panels, joined together by our pre-programmed space spiders, to make our first 40-foot cubed space port plus our first docking port. Once completed, it will be sealed and made usable with air pressure-pumped inside and temperatures brought up to 65 degrees minimum. Five panels on five sides will be needed to complete the next aluminum cube. On the middle cubes, we only need 5 walls; the sixth is already in place from the last cube. We need seven cubes up there to make our space station self-sufficient. Let me explain. Each cube, apart from the first cube, which will be the ship’s agricultural command station, will be for some sort of plant growth to grow food and to return oxygen to the air. It will be a sort of organic, self-sustaining space station, compared to the useless structure the International Space Station is to the world; an expensive, non-productive toy.”
