by T I WADE
“More buying time, I see your point,” added Jonesy. “We are five minutes from our first burn. Once you are done with your radio interviews, boss, it is time to burn some liquid hydrogen and head upwards.”
Ryan completed two more interviews, all staged and programmed by his team on the ground to get the company’s message out. His idea to go into space was geared toward telling the American public what his company was doing, and make sure any interested parties stayed away. The powers-to-be couldn’t really close him down if the American public thought that he was doing something worthwhile up there. Also, he didn’t want Jonesy to be the dumpster driver, he wanted NASA to do that, and he would refuel them in outer space. It was a market economy down there—and in space, too—after all!
“Starting six-minute hydrogen burn,” stated Jonesy. “You won’t feel anything, but you can see our speed and altitude change on the screens on the front panel.”
Ryan watched, and thought he did feel something. Slowly the forward speed climbed through 19,000 miles an hour and the shuttle began to climb. A dial showed rate of climb from the last orbit and on the screen in front of Maggie, he saw the computer draw an orange line to the position of where they were to meet the climbing space station. It would take five orbits to get up to the current 9,000 mile altitude of the “beer can”. The shuttle’s speed needed to increase with each revolution. He had studied this programming when they were feeding the calculations into the computers, and it showed that the higher space station was orbiting twice a day at 24,000 miles an hour.
Slowly it looked like earth was receding and he was glad that he had decided to join the flight.
After three more orbits the bright blue and white-clouded planet looked like it did in Hollywood movies.
“Third burn coming up,” stated Jonesy. “This time a two-minute burn will be enough to get us up to altitude to align with the station’s ascent.”
Now space was really black. Only the Apollo teams had been up this far from earth, and even though the blue planet still filled all the windows, it was beginning to shrink.
“We will be within a hundred miles of the station in twenty minutes. VIN, can you hear me over the intercom?”
“You are beginning to come through clear. Everything is A-OK up here, partner. We are waiting for you, and Suzi and I are suited up and ready to transfer the cargo. Who is going to detach Astermine One for cargo placement? I’m getting used to vertical sleeping but I’d still like to load horizontally with Astermine’s belly facing earth. I’m not yet a fly on the wall. Over.”
“Maggie will be coming through the connection port, once we have green lights,” replied Jonesy. “I will position the shuttle ready for her to bring Astermine One alongside. VIN, I’m still sure that it would be easier for you if I turn the shuttle and invert her above the spacecraft; then you can take the load from above and just place it in the cargo compartments. Just my way of thinking, partner.”
“That sounds like a great idea. How close could you get the shuttle inverted above Astermine’s open doors?”
“The shuttle’s tail is four feet high, but I can retract it. The spacecraft’s cargo doors are two feet high; so, if I keep them three feet apart, about six feet. If Suzi is standing up-side down and roped in the shuttle’s hold, and you are directly below her, you could easily get your connection ropes into each separate compartment, get them hitched up and tight, and then she can clasp the equipment to the connecting ropes and with a slight push float them down to you.”
Within an hour, Suzi and VIN were busy transferring a dozen full Xenon gas cylinders into the forward hold behind the cockpit to be used as fuel for the 22-day outward flight. The Xenon gas for the ion drives on return flight, which was six days shorter, was already in the inner hollow walls of the spacecraft.
For a full three hours, the maximum time allowed for a spacewalk, the two worked hard emptying the shuttle’s cargo hold. Half of the aluminum canisters were food, water and supplies for the space station, and were floated in one by one through the connection port vacated by Jonesy in the shuttle. Then he reconnected the third craft to the space station and sighed with relief. It was now time for a good Screw Driver, hopefully shaken and not stirred.
Jonesy got his wish, and so did the whole crew aboard. When he finally completed dozens of checks aboard the shuttle, he was happy to see VIN feeding a few orange pouches into one-third full bottles of good Russian Vodka bubbles.
“I liked your inverted idea,” said an extremely happy Ryan. Under VIN’s guidance he was opening up his own bottle of Dom Perignon French Champagne, just like the astronauts from the other companies had on the ISS. Then he was shown how to celebrate in space, Jonesy-style, by taking a swig and then holding a finger on the bottle.
The temperature inside was a warm 69 degrees, and with the top halves of their suits off, Suzi and VIN slowly cooled down from their excursions outside. Even though weightless in space, the constant checking of lines, emergency connections, reconnecting canisters, etc., was hard work in a sealed suit.
After an interesting night’s sleep for Ryan—in a vertical position for the first time ever—he sat with the crew in the space station’s command capsule, eating a self-heating pouch breakfast, and checking up on the latest readouts; forward speed 27,000 miles an hour, altitude 11,990 miles above earth, still two orbits per twenty-four 24 hour period. The thrusters, being used every hour for a few seconds, were already beginning to slow their forward orbital speed down. The orbital speed at 22,500 miles would only be 6,700 miles an hour, to be a geostationary point on the equator of earth over the Pacific Ocean.
“It will take another week to get our new space station to our designated 22,500 mile altitude, our secret position above the satellite communication satellites,” said Ryan. “Suzi, you will need several minutes of side thrusters from the shuttle remaining with you until your position is slowed into an exact geostationary position; the computers are programmed to do the work, but you must monitor the progress. By that time Kathy Pringle will have completed her first flight as co-pilot on the next flight with Maggie. Then we can get both shuttles operational on our “test flights” as I’ve told everybody down there. Once this “beer can” of Mr. Jones is stationary, we can begin bringing up our panels, spiders, and materials to get the first section of our own space station together.
“Our nearest neighbor will be a private communications satellite; it has no cameras aboard, and the owner of the communications company is a friend of mine, and he won’t, or can’t really check to see what we are doing up here. His satellite will be at the exact same stationary position directly above the equator, 20 miles directly below our Space Station, and will help hide our new headquarters from viewers on earth.
“For our next flight into orbit, we will again use our Cloaking Devices when the two shuttles meet up in orbit. Most of earth’s systems won’t be able to track us once we are out of the lower atmosphere, and I hope, will not have much interest in doing so. I’m sure several dozen powerful telescopes could watch what is going on up here, but only a few of them have the strength to see us building our platform 22,500 miles above earth. From now on, the shuttles will need 10 percent more liquid hydrogen fuel for the extra burns to get up to our new altitude. Extra tanks will be installed on the cargo bay walls behind the cockpit. Your future cargos will also include an extra 100-pound cylinder of liquid hydrogen, from which the shuttles can siphon off fuel up here if necessary.
“Once up here, the three Astermines will not return to earth. Astermine One and Two will be constantly on the go, heading out to either an asteroid or our moon, using Asterspace Three as a cargo hauler. We might even get to the Asteroid Belt one day, or Mars, to search for materials to formulate into new building materials to continue our advancements in space. Our new space ship, America One, and the small gas station we intend to build up, here will take all of the building supplies we currently have on earth.
As far as our asteroid mining
is concerned, we have a maximum of four to five months to visit and mine DX2014; after that, DX2014 will be too far away from earth. However, our area of space will be visited by a second much larger asteroid sixteen months later, this time over ten miles across. Her name is DX2016 and she will pass by 2.12 million miles from earth. Taking into account this asteroid’s far greater speed and distance, we will be able to achieve only two thirty-day visits before she heads out of range. By the time DX2016 arrives, we will all be up here in our new space station, and be able use all six of our craft to mine her.”
“Will we be taking rock down to earth? Would we land on the airfield? How will we get back into space without the C-5?” asked Jonesy.
“It all depends on the U.S. Government and the tactics they employ to either help us or destroy us. I think the playing field will change once we arrive on earth with our first valuable cargo. The interest in our company could change from a power play to just plain greed. In other words, Mr. Jones, I don’t know. All I care about right now is getting all of our equipment up here. Once that is accomplished, we are free to do our own thing up here; then I can think about what’s next.
“To get back to our mining missions…once DX2016 gets out of range, there will be no asteroid near-passes for a decade, so we will have no choice but to either go out further to find one, or, maybe mine our neighbor, the moon. If we are noticed there, that will piss off everybody on earth who thinks they own it. Our last resort is that we could go to Mars and begin mining there in 2016. Since NASA has equipment on Mars that will make them mad, as well. Our arrival on Mars could also make NASA look stupid. Mars will be closest to earth during the third week of May 2016, 46.8 million miles away, and again in 2018 on July 27, 35.8 million miles away. These times are great opportunities for everybody to get there, including us. We will be more advanced enough to set up a permanent base for the two-year period, and return to our automated gas station to replenish fuels.
“Our team in Hangar One is working on larger ion drives and hydrogen thrusters for all of our space craft. Asterspace Three was designed to transport our cargoes from lower space orbit to our higher space orbit, but now we have this Russian space station. Asterspace Three’s interior design and accommodations are to be made more comfortable for longer distance travel to help with the mining expeditions. Also her large open plan cargo compartment will be fitted with liquid gas tanks that can be installed when necessary, six of them. Much like a gas tanker, her second job will be to supply our space gas station one day.
“In addition, Astermine Two’s forward supply compartment, the compartment for astronaut supplies is to be modernized into a living area with horizontal sleeping units, horizontal sleeping is possible in the Astermine craft due to the electromagnets in her floor area, and also a bath-bag system for long-distance travel. Much like the large freight trucks around today, her second compartment will be turned into a more comfortable living area for you astronauts.
“Finally, it is time to name our new space station. From now on, our new ex-Russian Space Station will be called after one of my favorite Russian cosmologists; Yarkovsky Effects of meteoroids or asteroids.” I know you have never heard of this man, he died in 1902, but thanks to him, my idea of mining asteroids came about, from his work and ideas of possible refraction of asteroids out of their exact paths. Much of the work that is currently being done is based on his theories of moving asteroids, or smaller meteors away from paths which would collide with earth. So I’m naming this ship Ivan, plain and simple; all radio work now to do with Mr. Jones’ “beer can” will be Ivan, understand?” Everybody nodded, smiling.
“Also good news for you pilots, our newest shuttle, Silver Bullet III, or Sierra Bravo III for our radio communications is a third of the way to completion. I decided a couple of months ago to build a third, more powerful, more modern equipped shuttle to increase the speed of our payloads into space. I’m hoping that she will be ready by Christmas, and we will have the media, government officials, and hopefully the president arrive to launch our new shuttle into space. I’m hoping that we can use a juggling system to launch our needed equipment faster and faster. The VIPs will be told that Sierra Bravo III will be testing new radioactive protective sleeves to take the waste into space. I’m going to ask NASA to develop a sleeve for us, and we can even take a news team up into space to show it being sent off in the direction of the sun. I’m sure a news team would be happy to get a free ride into space.
“Let’s move on. Once we have Ivan at 22,500 miles altitude, it will take the next shuttle ten orbits, and 29,000 miles an hour to reach it in a five-day orbital mission. The thrusters will then need to slow it down to 6,700 miles an hour over the eleventh orbit as it rises up to the station. This is a large waste of time; to get in the window of three, maybe even four launches a month, we need to practice a direct flight to and from Ivan. This direct flight path will be possible after two long thrusts from the hydrogen thrusters, while completing two accelerating orbits of earth. The computer scenarios show that we can reduce the flight time by three days on the first flight; this is the main reason our new thrusters are being built. Imagine if we were in earth’s atmosphere; we could easily use wing airbrakes or afterburners to accelerate and brake to lower the travel time. Unfortunately, in a vacuum, we would go directly past, due to hydrogen-thruster acceleration and deceleration times. Remember, changes in speed take forever up here. Computer readouts show that the return journey, even though it is the same distance, will take eight hours longer than the outward flight, due to three earth orbits being needed for deceleration, and to align the craft to our usual re-entry window.
“The out-going shuttle will climb up and fly in formation with the returning shuttle for the last orbit only on each swap over, using our Cloaking Devices to show only one shuttle up here. Also, the exiting shuttle will fly above the returning shuttle, and within two hundred feet to show one glint of sunlight down to earth, or one moving light or “star”, and not two “stars” flying in formation. I’m sure more interest will be elicited from earth once we get busier. Any questions?”
Twelve hours later Jonesy said goodbye to Maggie. There was a chance they wouldn’t see each other again, and they hugged for a while. She was in command of the empty Sierra Bravo II shuttle returning to earth with Ryan as co-pilot. Penny, with Suzi as her co-pilot, would be flying Sierra Bravo I back to earth once Maggie lifted off with the next load in ten days’ time, a day after VIN and Jonesy were to leave for DX2014 in Astermine One.
Jonesy watched as the shuttle slowly moved away from Ivan, and thirty minutes later was just a speck on the horizon below them, rapidly accelerating with her hydrogen rockets, several miles away.
He and VIN had time to prepare for their flight to DX2014 and they spent most days riding miles on the exercise bike.
Ivan had changed since Suzi and Mr. Rose had set up camp, which included placing plants and vines under lamps; the lamps were bright and often VIN wanted to wear sunglasses while riding the bike. He and Suzi were now stationed in the second sleeping chamber; Penny, Mr. Rose and Jonesy had the other chamber, and gave the couple their privacy.
Another six days were needed before Ivan’s onboard computers, working together with Sierra Bravo I’s computers, made Ivan a geostationary satellite, 22,497 miles above earth.
Chapter 22
DX2014 - Asteroid Mining
A couple of days later and after the next shuttle had docked with the last supplies for their trip, Jonesy and VIN, now dressed comfortably in lower half space suits, slowly drifted away from Ivan in Astermine One. VIN could see the remaining crew through one of Ivan’s portals waving goodbye and, for once in his life he felt scared, and gulped at what he and Jonesy were going to attempt. In this small, cramped spacecraft, with a cockpit the size of a minivan’s interior, they were going to fly further than any man had ever flown from earth before. Three million miles further. DX2014 was currently 4,985,988 miles away, travelling at 3,020 miles an hour a
nd getting closer to earth by 1,907 miles every hour.
Their flight would take twelve days; Astermine One would close in on the asteroid 4,490,000 miles from earth. Earth’s orbit around the sun was on a tangent to the asteroid, and the mining craft had to first accelerate out of its geostationary position to earth and turn back in the opposite direction from earth’s continuous orbit around the sun. In other words, they had to head out in nearly the opposite direction to earth’s sun orbit.
Jonesy didn’t have to worry much as the five computers aboard the space craft would automatically plot their course to the asteroid’s ever changing position. The computer showed that their destination was close to 500,000 miles in front of where the asteroid was currently located.
Their total mission was fifty-one days; twelve days out, thirty days mining, and nine days back to space station Ivan. The 51-day duration, gave Ryan the opportunity of six possible ten-day launches during that time; the first one was scheduled for the next day; its mission, to get enough panels into outer space to build the first cube.
The spiders needed thirty hours to weld two panels together and the sixth flight would bring up the last walls to complete Cube One, as Ryan called it. On the shuttle’s sixth return flight, the first four tons of the returning treasure from the asteroid would be taken to earth.
It had been impossible for Ryan’s team to figure out how to weigh the treasure on the asteroid. They had estimated a 20 percent maximum gravity to earth on the potentially all-metal piece of rock. The scientists had worked out that each aluminum canister full of heavy rock from the desert around the airfield would weigh 1,250 pounds on earth. The thirty empty canisters in the second, third and fourth compartments aboard Astermine One would return to earth with about twenty tons of rock.
In orbit, VIN moved the thirty canisters previously taken to Ivan into the three compartments in Astermine One; some were filled with liquid xenon fuel, some contained oxygen cylinders, food and water, and others held mining equipment.
