With the comet in position seated in the depression, which was even larger than the comet itself, Eros' shape now resembled a lumpy sausage rather than a bean. The comet had been oriented such that the holes that had been their home and their atmosphere plant were now horizontal to the surface of the asteroid.
David used Man's Hope to retrieve the core stage, and Yuri once again froze it into position above the atmosphere plant. Then the crew began returning the things removed from their "home cave." Finally, using tethers and the ship's steering jets, Man's Hope once again nosed into its previous position, and Yuri rebuilt the ice plug that secured it.
When Ron announced that atmospheric pressure was stable, everyone breathed a sigh of relief. Months of living in their "home cave" had made everyone feel secure there. After almost two months of cramped living on Man's Hope, the cave, with its spacious individual living spaces, felt very much like "home."
But they could not relax. The perturbations to Eros' orbit caused by their actions and the added mass of the comet had been significant. They had to get Eros started moving in the right direction.
So, after one rest day for a celebration, it was back to work for the crew. They had to dismount the rocket engines from the comet, and reinstall them on Eros, along with those that had been brought by and salvaged from the cargo canister.
Eros was much larger than the comet, millions of tons of nickel, iron, and rock. They now had a dozen oxygen/hydrogen rocket engines, though most of them were fairly small. They were carefully placed in accordance with Dolf's instructions, to provide acceleration along the long-axis center of mass, essentially turning Eros into a huge stone space ship.
Once the engines were installed, the crew was kept busy refueling them as David moved Eros into its earthbound orbit.
It took almost another month, but finally, Eros was on an orbit that would eventually bring it into Earth's orbit slightly behind the planet itself.
Chapter 12
"Man's Hope International spaceship Eros has departed for Earth orbit. ETA about nine months."
Dolf's announcement on his regular broadcast touched off another round of celebrations all over the world. His listenership had surged again as they had approached the asteroid belt, and their selection of Eros had started loud and enthusiastic arguments across the globe. Even through the mostly boring work of getting established on Eros, Dolf's listeners had hung on. Nearly everyone on the planet knew that they were living through a momentous episode in humanity's history, and no one wanted to miss any of it.
For the crew, there was a massive let-down once Eros was steadied on its course for Earth. They gathered in the general area of the ice cave.
"Okay," Ron said, "This rock is headed for Earth, whether or not we steer it. What the hell are we supposed to do now?"
"I know," Yuri replied. "Every detail of the trip out was scheduled; but nobody thought about the trip home."
Raoul snickered. "Anyone have a deck of cards?"
"No," Yuri replied, "but David and I have quite a selection of video games."
"I have three-dimensional chess," Dolf put in. "But unlike some people, I have something to do."
Ron winked at Raoul. "I think he's talking about his Fifteen Minutes of Fame."
Dolf grunted. "My broadcasts only last fifteen minutes, but I must spend hours preparing and researching them."
"That's true," Yuri added. "I saw him preparing. Apparently the snoring helped."
As the laughter died, "I don't believe this," David said. "We are farther into the cosmos than anyone in the history of man, and you can't think of anything to learn?
"Ron," he continued," I can't believe you can't find anything on this whole assemblage to tinker with. Yuri, the booster tank is less than half full; we've been drawing on it. If something happens, and we have to bail out, that booster is the only thing that will let us get home before our air or water run out. Raoul, you can't find anything interesting in a mental health case, even with a captive patient? And Dolf! For God's sake man, you're an astronomer and you're in the asteroid belt! You can't find anything interesting?"
They looked at each other, abashed. Dolf was clearly embarrassed. David was right; every astronomer in the world was wishing he were here. Dolf hurried to his instrument panel. All of the instruments and telescopes, of course, were outside, some on the comet, and others on the asteroid itself.
Raoul started for the docking station with his tablet. In seconds, he was typing furiously on what he claimed was a diary, but that the rest of the crew was certain were book-length and detailed psych profiles of all of them.
"And what about our illustrious commander?" Ron asked.
David shrugged. "Oh, I'll continue teaching Yuri to play Call of Duty."
"Ha!" Yuri said, "Who is teaching who?"
"Oh, yeah," David added. "There's always ice to dig here, too. We need to enlarge these quarters. In nine months, an activation crew of about twenty people will need living quarters. There should be no shortage of ice for the atmosphere plant."
Ron and Yuri exchanged a glance, and then headed for the cargo bay to suit up. David went up to the flight deck, where he used the cameras to monitor his two crewmembers.
Despite David's efforts, there was plenty of time for the crew to once again spend listening to broadcasts that could once again be separated out from the solar static.
They were astounded to find that Frank was considered a villain, instead of a hero.
Frank, whose fortune was rebounding nicely, had agreed to lease Man's Dream from Man's Hope International, its owner of record. They were also negotiating for him to buy the "Energia" Buran that still occupied the hangar at Alcântara. Frank knew almost exactly how much it would cost to render it flyable. Frank's original purchase had been in the name of Man's Hope International, and he was being very careful to keep all accounts separate. So, it was important that he buy the Buran; he definitely had plans for it.
He dearly wished he could also buy Man's Dream, the second flight ship awaiting Man's Hope's return. But he had specifically mentioned it in the naming speech as belonging to Man's Hope International, and it was simply impossible politically for MHI to sell it, especially to Frank! The lease was as far as the other directors were willing to go. Frank stretched the lease to five years; by then, some of the excitement would have died down, and Frank might be able to buy it – if he still wanted it. There were some great designs on the drawing boards.
Frank still had a problem, though. He now had three Burans, but only two, or maybe even one Energia booster. Unless the crew had to use it for emergency escape, Frank rather expected the booster on Eros to remain there, as an ideal repository for the oxygen and hydrogen he planned to sell to passing spacecraft.
But that only made the problem worse. No other booster in production had the lift capacity of the Energia booster. The problem, of course, was that the last Energia booster was produced in the early 1980's, and Frank already owned the only two known to still exist. But he'd been hearing rumors that Energia was considering resuming production. He called Anton.
"Ha!" Anton laughed. "The line forms to the left. We've had at least a dozen inquiries about Energia boosters."
"Well," Frank asked, "Is Energia going to make them again?"
"There are arguments among the bosses. We could. About a month ago, I ordered an inventory of the tooling in all the old warehouses in the Moscow area. You'd be surprised how much of the booster tooling is still there. Or maybe you wouldn't. You're the guy who's launching twenty-five-year-old Burans.
"Anyway, some of the bosses want to start producing the original versions again. Others think the design should be updated first. Still others want to build a modification of the Vulkan version. They like the payload of 175 tons, but they want it to able to use fewer strap-ons when the big load isn't necessary, so it could replace the original. Still others want to concentrate on the Energia II Uragon, the fully-reusable version. That's the one I like. It's
a true space ship, and nothing gets thrown away. You'd love it."
"It sounds great, Anton, but if it's like most Russian designs, all that exists is some drawings and a few propaganda booklets for the politicians. How long would it take to develop this thing?"
Anton's tone turned to embarrassment. "Two or three years to a prototype."
"Well," Frank said, "write it up as a grant proposal and submit it to MHI. It's right up our alley, and the grant committee doesn't care how large or small the company is. But I need something now," he continued. "Who's ahead in the battle?"
"It's a tossup between the updaters and the Vulkan people. But the originals are hanging in there, talking about how fast they can get it into production. The Energia II is far behind."
"Well," Frank asked, "how fast can they get it into production? Frankly, I'd like that Vulkan version. 175 tons appeals to me, too. How much longer would that version take?"
Anton hesitated. "Well, you understand that Vulkan was never flown. But it's actually just a modification of the original. I think we're looking at six months to get the original into production, and six to nine months for the Vulkan; after all, it's just a modification of the modification, and most of the changes can be made during assembly."
"Okay, Anton," Frank replied. "Suppose I threw some money at it? The Kliper project is taking off. I can sell some of my stock, and move it to the Vulkan program. I can't sell it all. It would cause a panic and crash the whole program. But I think I can pull fifty million out without hurting anything.
"How about this," he continued. "Offer them a challenge. I'll invest fifty million in the Vulkan program in exchange for a promise to deliver the first one in six months."
"Uh, Frank," Anton said, "I'm not sure we can make a six month deadline. I don't know the condition of some of that tooling."
"I know," Frank replied, "but it'll give them a hard and fast target. Make the offer, and see what they say."
"Okay, Frank. I'll put it up to them. I'll call you tomorrow."
As promised, he called Frank the next day. "They'll go for it, but a couple of them are worried about you pulling fifty million out of Kliper. That's our program too, you know.
Frank laughed. "Of course I know. But there's a big secondary market in Kliper shares now. That's where I'll sell them. They'll never notice; they're just changing one investor for another."
"Well," Anton replied, "They're going to go for it. They say they'll start work as soon as they receive the money. But actually, I've already sent crews out to bring in all that tooling, and there's a big crew cleaning out the assembly building. As we speak, engineers are blowing the dust off blueprints, and technicians are translating them into computer programs. If the tooling isn't too bad, we might even make your deadline."
All over the world, a surge in interest and investment in space was occurring. Space-X had launched their Falcon Heavy to great fanfare, and was scrambling to get it man-rated. The Japanese were shelving their development of capsules for delivery of supplies to the International Space Station, and had begun work on what they were calling "the Mars ship." Emphasis in the Kliper/Parom program had shifted; it was no longer a "space tug." Now it was an "interplanetary exploration vehicle," with the "Space Train" idea given prominent billing. ESA was loudly trumpeting the fact that their big Ariane 5 was man-rated, and that they would be happy to contract to launch manned capsules and ships from the now-man-rated Kourou launch site.
In Russia, government pressure had been increased on Khrunichev to complete development of the Angara family of launchers, a "follow on" to the Ukrainian Zenit. This was to be a purely a Russian product that could be launched from their new far-eastern cosmodrome at Vostochny. Since funding had accompanied the pressure, Khrunichev was working frantically on the project.
In the U.S., there were loud voices in Congress demanding to know why they were retiring the shuttle just as Man's Hope International was using a similar design so effectively. Of course, they ignored the fact that the congress itself had been cutting NASA's budget for over twenty years. And that the youngest Shuttle had been over twenty years old and flown repeatedly.
NASA had dusted off some of the decades-old plans for spacecraft to expand on the Shuttle concept, plans that had been quietly shelved years ago in the face of budget cuts. Now, NASA officials were testifying in congressional hearings that they had several designs that merited further development, if congress could provide the money. They maintained that it would be uneconomical to restart production of the huge Saturn V booster, and that the money would be better spent developing a new, state-of-the-art booster. Space-X executives were quick to assert that the Falcon Heavy could be configured to launch a Shuttle-style vehicle. Frank made a mental note that they might be able to sell NASA a few Vulkans in a year or so.
The L-5 Society was a moribund organization that advocated establishment of space habitats at the L-4 and L-5 Lagrange points. These were the "stable" Lagrange points, 60 degrees ahead and behind the Earth in its orbit. Objects placed into orbit at these points would stay there without any input of additional energy. To survive, the L-5 Society had merged with the National Space Society, an organization devoted to the larger ideal of space colonization in general.
They suddenly found themselves a very popular organization. Contributions were pouring in, as were increasingly fantastic proposals. They were now soliciting donations to return the huge asteroid 243Ida, to form the nucleus of a colony at L-4 or L-5
Their largest problem, of course, was that the only true space ships in existence belonged to Frank.
Man's Hope International was also now one of the wealthiest nonprofits in the world, and Frank was continually on the lookout for space-related projects or ideas that could benefit from an injection of cash. Another Proton-M supply launch was being readied, and would be launched in a week, from Alcântara.
Meanwhile, Space International was being flooded with requests to schedule launches using the Proton-M from Alcântara. Space Launch International, Frank's Khrunichev partner, confirmed that bookings for Proton-M launches from Baikonur were falling off, since Alcântara's position on the equator permitted heavier payloads on the same boosters.
Since Frank was on the Board of Directors of both MHI and Space International, there was no doubt they would make the deal for the Buran sale, but Frank wanted to make very sure that the deal was fair to both parties. He now had plenty of enemies with sharp lawyers looking over his shoulder, watching his every move. As it was, he expected at least a dozen lawsuits as a result of his Buran purchase.
The purchase was completed, though, and Space International's crew had begun the updating work that was becoming routine.
It appeared there was a lot of resentment of his profit-making activities. For some reason, people seemed to have assumed that he had been simply throwing away his billions in a burst of philanthropy, and they were angered by the fact that he hoped to earn back his investment.
Frank had already been accused of "looting" Man's Hope International, as well as of setting it up as a bogus nonprofit for his own benefit.
Many seemed particularly angry that he had been soliciting contributions for MHI. They seemed to think that MHI's contributions went directly to Frank.
The UN had already sent auditors to check MHI's books, as was their right under the UN charter Frank had obtained. The auditors went away impressed with the organization's accounting and bookkeeping, but without any evidence of wrongdoing.
Shortly after forming Space International, or SpaceInt, Frank had found it necessary to go on several talk shows to defend himself and reassure people that he wasn't stealing their contributions.
"Mr. Weatherly," One host asked with a righteous frown, "is it true you have been using Man's Hope International contributions for your own purposes?"
Frank shook his head. "No, sir, it is not. I receive one dollar a year for being Chairman of the Board of Directors of Man's Hope International. Other than that, every
cent Man's Hope receives goes toward the promotion of space exploration. We are paying salaries to people that work for the corporation, of course, but I am not one of them. I am not reimbursed for my travel or anything else. Since we were able to launch the supply shipment, we have been devoting our effort to locating promising projects and ideas that will further man's expansion into space. Of course, we will be sending another supply shipment once the ship is inbound, but that will be several months yet."
"But Man's Hope International built the launch pad in Brazil, and now this company of yours is operating it at a profit!"
Frank shrugged. "The contract Man's Hope entered into with the government of Brazil required that Man's Hope build the pad, but once it and our mission were complete, it would become the property of Brazil.
"We found that many people were interested in launching from Alcântara, but the government could not contract for the launches because the pad still belonged to Man's Hope, at least until our mission returned. The government of Brazil was very properly concerned that they were losing a lot of revenue. So, they asked Man's Hope to surrender the pad without waiting. The government decided that with the increased traffic through Alcântara, professional management was desirable, and I formed a company to operate it in exchange for a share of the profits. Let me emphasize that Man's Hope International no longer has any interest in or responsibility for the pad. It is wholly owned by the government and people of Brazil, and operated by a subsidiary of Space International."
"Your last supply ship was launched from Russia. Why was that?"
"Actually, it was launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Man's Hope contracted with International Launch Services for the launch, using a Russian Proton-M booster. We needed to launch a lot of mass at high velocity, and this was the heaviest lifting booster we could obtain on short notice. I would like to add that International Launch Services launched that mission for cost. That amounts to a contribution of nearly a million U.S. dollars."
Man's Hope Page 24
