by T I WADE
It took VIN two hours, and he needed Jonesy’s help to lift out three separated pieces of heavy magnet, which on earth would have weighed less than three pounds. On this weird asteroid, each lump weighed nearly as much as a heavy canister due to its magnetic attraction to the ground below it; and now they could fill this compartment with the lighter canisters.
“Astermine Two to Astermine One, do you copy? Over,” stated the radio which woke both men up with a jerk. They hadn’t heard another voice for weeks.
“Maggie, is that you?” asked a sleepy Jonesy.
“No, it’s Santa Claus, you oaf!” Maggie replied.
“Well it’s the sweetest Santa Claus voice I have ever heard in my life,” Jonesy replied happily.
“Heard many?” Maggie asked in a questioning tone. “Now, I know your mental capabilities needed to be checked out before they allowed you in the Air Force, Mr. Jones.”
“I hear you are coming to rescue us. You didn’t by chance pick up one of those nearly empty bottles from the “beer can” on your way through, did you?”
“No, but I do have a gift from the boss for you. He told me to tell you that our having to recue you is costing him two extra flights at twenty million apiece; but, he has no hard feelings, and supplied a bottle from his Russian friends back at base.”
“Well, send him a message that it is his damn spacecraft, and it’s totally underpowered. The most underpowered piece of junk I have ever flown. We could have got here faster in the C-5 Galaxy.”
“Now that’s the Mr. Jones I came to rescue,” laughed Maggie. “You should have us on radar. We are sweeping in behind the path of the asteroid. Your rock is 50,000 miles ahead of us and I’m coming in at 15,000 miles an hour, 12,000 faster than the asteroid. These new thrusters are great for acceleration and braking, and we will be with you in seven hours.”
“You had better use some reverse thrust Maggie, or you will go shooting past. How powerful are your new engines?”
“Three times more powerful than the old ones, and don’t be a backseat driver,” she laughed. “Remember, I was certified on three different choppers in the Air Force.”
Maggie proceeded to tell Jonesy how she was to help them off while VIN headed out to begin work. Jonesy followed him after taking down the notes from Maggie and sending off the daily report to Ryan. He didn’t tell the boss that the canisters weren’t full. He and his team could figure that one out.
Three hours later, and after cutting out the several pieces of magnet from the third compartment, which again felt like nearly a ton, they managed to load and tie down eight of the 450-pound canisters in the middle compartment; then they entered the spacecraft to wait for Maggie and Kathy. Jonesy’s math had worked out that liftoff with this weight aboard was possible at 100 percent thrust.
They had marked out a landing zone for the second craft, carrying out six full canisters to make a rectangular landing pad about 400 feet from Astermine One and closer to the lighter silver rocks. Jonesy didn’t know if debris would be thrown up from her downward thrust as she came in to land. Also, it was always easier for a pilot to concentrate on a fixed object on the ground while coming in; he had learned that flying helicopters. Jonesy had also been a certified Air Force chopper pilot.
Maggie told them that they had thirty empty canisters on board that Ryan wanted filled. Jonesy then explained to Maggie the different canister weights. They would now only pack the lighter rocks into Astermine One, pack the platinum into Astermine Two and see how much power she would need for liftoff. Ryan had told him that Maggie carried extra cylinders of hydrogen fuel on board for them.
They watched the radar as the second craft rapidly closed the distance. She slowly came into eyesight a couple of miles behind them and Jonesy could see the strobe light above the cockpit of the dark craft just over the crater wall. Jonesy watched as Maggie used the thrusters intermittently to slow the craft down, and waited to see her scream by them at a high speed. She didn’t. Maggie powerfully brought Astermine to the left of them, and both Jonesy and VIN could now see the white light of the thrusters as she slowed her forward speed, and began flying in formation on their left side several hundred feet away.
Jonesy helped her by describing the continuous roll of the asteroid. Slowly Maggie got the side and forward roll movements right and she closed in. She saw the landing zone the two men had designated for her and she brought Astermine Two in, telling Jonesy her thrust usage as she came in.
“Two hundred feet, thrusters at 5 percent….150 feet, 10 percent power….100 feet, 20 percent power…50 feet 30 percent power…10 feet 40 percent…5 feet, wow! Suddenly 50 percent power… we are down Astermine One. Wow! That was some pull! It seems that the magnetic pull is most severe at 100 feet and below and less severe above where the wall of the crater starts.”
“It seems so, Maggie. I was so busy working out my thrusters that I didn’t check the altitude so much on my way down. That was a lot of needed information. Thanks Maggie, It seems that if we can get Astermine One 100 feet up and out of the crater walls, we will be away.”
“You know, I think it is only this crater that has this magnetic pull. I bet it is less on other parts of this asteroid,” suggested Maggie.
“Maybe that’s because of this valuable rock?” suggested VIN.
“Well, tomorrow you can lift Astermine Two out of the crater. VIN and I can get a load of these heavier rocks into your craft and see what happens. VIN says we have about eight tons of platinum ready to load. We can record your thrust usage and see how much eight tons of rock holds you down on the ground. That should tell us your maximum thrust needs with a full load. Ryan said that your maximum liftoff thrust should not be more than 66 percent. You used more half of that just getting down.”
“So what do we do now?” asked Maggie. “Ryan told us not to leave the craft, and guess what, Mr. Jones? We have an extra bedroom on our craft. The rear supply compartment has been modified into a second room and Kathy and I picked pink as its theme color.”
“Sound really exciting, the pink design,” mumbled Jonesy shaking his head. “We have used up our allocated space time today, so we have to just sit here and blow kisses to each other and wait another 20 hours.”
“Maybe we could play intercom chess, or I Spy?” suggested Maggie and both men again rolled their eyes.
Twenty hours later VIN and Jonesy carried the heavy canisters, one by one, across the 400 long feet to the other craft; they had made space for them by removing the empty canisters from Astermine Two and placing them near after the bright silver area. They managed to get only ten canisters tied down in the third, center compartment in their three-hour time limit, and Maggie sealed the side compartment door as they headed back to their craft.
“The load is not as much as we anticipated,” said Jonesy, still semi-breathless, back in Astermine One’s cockpit as he helped VIN remove his helmet. “Your cargo is about five tons. We could see the difference in thrust needed and then figured out what you could actually haul out of here with us on the end of a couple of ropes. Astermine One weighs four tons plus our supplies and us, say five tons without added cargo, the same weight you have in your hold right now. If you can’t get off as is, Astermine One might be staying here forever.”
VIN’s helmet was removed, and since their work was done for the day, they got out of the unnecessary parts of their suits, had a pouch of food and then got back to work.
“Maggie, what do your hydrogen fuel gauges show?” Jonesy asked.
“Half,” she responded.
“OK, my tanks also show half. I want to see how much fuel is needed for liftoff. Then I want you to hover out of the crater and find a landing zone on a flat surface and not inside any craters this time. It is important to see if this excessive gravity-pull decreases outside our crater. How much extra fuel do you have?”
“Enough to refill my tanks from empty, and two 100 pound cylinders for you, about a quarter of a tank,” Maggie responded.
“I also have two full cylinders, but these craft hovering low over this powerful pull will use up a lot of our fuel.”
Maggie powered up the spacecraft. It took twenty minutes to get her ready for liftoff. There were hundreds of checks to do, but finally she was ready. Both men watched as she spewed out several small stones for fifty yards from underneath her as the thrusters tried to get her off.
“Forty percent power!” Maggie reported “forty-five percent power….50 percent power, 55 percent power.” Jonesy watched as nothing happened to Astermine Two, for maybe thirty seconds, except more rocks were being thrown out from around the craft. The two thrusters faced downwards and several feet above the shiny surface where white blasts were pushing hard. “She’s coming off…69 percent power…we are away….10 feet,75 percent power, 30 feet…70 feet… she is beginning to accelerate rapidly…reducing power to 50 percent….40 percent…25 percent. Jonesy we are out of the crater. We are at 300 feet and at ten percent power…I’m heading forward to find a new place to put her down.”
Jonesy was shocked at how much power Maggie needed just to get out with a quarter of the cargo. They were never going to get out.
“I found a place. It looks clean, about 300 yards in front of your crater. Jonesy you put her down in the only crater I can see.”
“Maggie check your craft rolls, the back of the asteroid comes at you fast if you don’t watch it.”
“I have the roll perfect, Mr. Jones….200 feet, 10 percent power….150 feet, 11 percent power, 100 feet, 12 percent power….50 feet, 18 percent power….here we go…20 feet, 25 percent power, 10 feet, 28 percent power….we are down. It is sure more dirty up here, we are spewing dust in every direction.”
“Well done, Maggie. Ask Kathy to view how far the stuff spews out from you on liftoff.
“OK, taking off. Wow! She just jumped off at 30 percent power.”
“OK, Maggie, put her down again and close her down,” said Jonesy. He just had a great idea, computing the thrust numbers in his head. “I think the time has arrived to see if VIN and I can get this underpowered firefly out of this crater.”
They heard Maggie land the craft back onto the asteroid. “Thrust 30 percent this time!” added Maggie.
“Jonesy, the spew out of small rocks and grains is about two hundred feet. It is actually quite dusty up here, but it is falling rapidly back to the surface,” added Kathy.
“OK, we have about a ton and a half on board, plus we dissected that magnet as ordered. We are leaving all the equipment behind and coming out to join you ladies. I have an idea.”
It took Jonesy the same amount of time to ready Astermine One for liftoff. VIN cleared up the cockpit and put everything away. Outside, all the equipment was far enough away not to get damaged.
“I have the thrusters at 50 percent power,” stated Jonesy, “sixty percent….70…80….90 percent power. The two thrusters were vibrating the interior and still the craft didn’t move. I’m up to 99 percent power, she’s feeling light. The crater wall is pulling us towards it…100 percent power…. Wow! 105 percent power, I never knew she had more than 100 percent. We are off terra firma but not rising, we are floating towards the crater wall… putting her down again… she won’t lift…she’s down, no damage… that was sure interesting.”
“Shall we return?” Maggie asked.
“Negative,” replied Jonesy. “We will unload some of our weight on our next walk; that should help us get out of here.”
Jonesy told them about his plan and worked out thrust equations for several hours after that. The two newcomers on the asteroids surface above them were enjoying a far better view of the universe around them.
****
Back in Nevada, the shuttle was being refueled for its next flight. Now they were a load of panels behind and Ryan was thinking about asking the crews on DX2014 to stay out an extra ten days so that he could have the panels up to complete the first cube for Suzi. The robotic spiders could be stopped and left dormant on the panels at any time, but with time being so tight and now most of his pilot crew away, he was short and still wanted to stay ahead.
The good news arrived from Astermine Two that she had managed to get out of the crater and Ryan was excited to hear Jonesy’s description of a way to get Astermine One back to earth to get her new engines.
Ryan also decided to add Astermine Two’s crew to work on the third shuttle, SB III as he called her, as the team had very little to do. Asterspace Three was also having her new engines fitted.
He wanted this shuttle armed with a laser addition and modified to accept four of the new more powerful hydrogen thrusters coming out of the production line in a few weeks. With two first-stage rocket motors, two larger second-stage hydrogen motors, four of the new hydrogen thrusters and the latest ion drives, this third shuttle would be able to whizz around space like a kid’s toy.
“Maybe a defense spacecraft built like an Air Force gunship could be an important weapon in space,” Ryan thought to himself. “There will soon be no more Mr. Nice Guy.”
****
Twenty long hours later, VIN and Jonesy exited their craft to unload some of their cargo. Jonesy had worked out that they should be able to get out of the crater with four of the canisters removed, 1,800 pounds of weight.
They spent another two hours loading more of the shiny rocks into a few of the empty canisters Maggie had brought. Her liftoff had helped them slightly as it had piled up the silver rocks around her landing area, a hundred feet away. The first two canisters were filled in the first hour from blown piles of small rock; the sweeper quickly vacuumed them up and threw them into the silver containers.
“Firing up the thrusters,” Jonesy stated later. They had entered the craft, cleaned up, and eaten a pouch of stew, and an orange juice. VIN had cleared out everything else in the rear holds of Astermine One. There wasn’t much, but here and there he piled up what he thought was another 100 pounds of unnecessary items.
“My partner says that we should get out of this hole this time,” VIN stated to the ladies who were anxiously waiting higher up on the surface.
“It’s like fixing a flat tire and hoping the darn repair works when you drive off,” Jonesy added. “Fifty percent thrust…60…70…80…90…100,” stated Jonesy. VIN noticed that he wasn’t playing around much this time as the fuel gauges showed just over a quarter full. They had used up a lot of fuel on the last try. “She’s floating sideward again, but climbing slowly. I’m going to redline her!” and he pushed the throttles hard forward. The limiter showed the thrust at 106 percent and they were rising, very slowly.
“The crater wall,” suggested VIN.
“Yes, partner, count me the distance to the wall, altitude 30 feet………..35 feet……38 feet, she’s easing away.”
“Crater wall about 70 feet and just as high above us…about 60 feet,” VIN added calmly, but he felt a lump in his throat. If they hit the wall, they would be no more.
“Altitude 50 feet….57…63…65 feet. VIN, are we going to make it? Like take off, there will be a point of no return.”
“I think we passed that already,” replied VIN we are about 40 feet away at 70 feet altitude, Press the gas pedal as hard as you can! Jonesy the front wall of the crater is a little lower than this side; can you at least point her in that direction?”
“Not yet, partner! I’m waiting until we are ten feet away from the wall and then I want to push us off with the right hand thruster. Count the distance, kid…75 feet and rising.”
“Twenty feet; it’s getting close and now I can’t see the top of the wall anymore we are too close…15 feet….12 feet… we are as close as you want to be; the wall is just outside the window, Jonesy!” shouted VIN his eyes now glued to the thruster on his side. Suddenly it turned outwards and the blast hit the wall of the crater several feet away.
“Oh crap we are going down….87 feet….85 feet….81 feet…; VIN, how far are we away from the wall?”
“Twenty feet, Jonesy!” VIN sh
outed back and he watched the thrusters push downwards again.
“We are steady at 75 feet… climbing through 76….78… 81… Distance, VIN?”
“Fifteen feet and closing again!”
“Still climbing, I think she’s releasing…83 feet….85 feet, VIN, how is that wall?”
“Ten feet again, and we have about ten feet to go.” VIN watched the thruster point towards the wall again, but not at such an angle. “About seven feet and we seem to be crawling up the wall ever so slowly…still about seven feet, one foot to the top…I can see over the top, but we are edging over again. Five feet!” He watched the thruster turn sideward slightly and the craft now seem to stop in mid-space.
“Altitude at 90 feet and steady, we have tons of room on the other side, I’m starting the ion drives. It took several seconds before they were at full power and the craft was still not moving. “I’m propelling her sideward again away from the wall, but want to see if I can gain a little forward speed, dip down and then head into a climb. We will have one chance at this partner. Call out the distance!”
“Four…. 5……maybe 6….7….9…..12….14….18 feet!”
“Altitude 87 feet….85….84 feet,” added the pilot. VIN!”
“Twenty-feet…..30…. about 40 feet………55 feet!”
“OK, I’m bringing her to face the other side of the crater. I’m hoping the ion drives bloody well flutter against the wall. VIN!”
“About 80 feet, where we started; the craft is turning 90 feet…watch our butt Jonesy….about 100 feet!”
“Eighty-two…. 80 feet….78 feet! VIN, do we have enough room?”
“I would say about 150 feet and I can’t see the wall anymore. We must be right hand to the wall. Jonesy our fuel gauges are hovering just above empty!”
