by Paul Reaver
“Excellent,” said John. “Please keep us posted. Roberta, I know you have completed your nanotechnology device that can duplicate parts as needed on our missions, and are working on other things. Do you feel confident that you’ve fully tested the parts duplication process?”
“So far, every test I’ve performed has worked flawlessly,” she said. “What I’m working on now is being able to duplicate larger and larger objects. And there are myriad other applications that I’ve just barely begun to explore.”
“Sounds good,” said John. “Please update us as things progress. Max, your cold fusion engine is critical to us. How is it going?”
“I’ve had a lot of time to work on it,” said Max. “It is rock solid.”
“That’s good to hear,” said John. “I have no doubt but that we will come up with a variety of uses for it. The various adaptations should keep you busy for a while, but they will be essential.”
“Don’t worry too much about that,” said Max. “It’s fairly easy to adapt to different uses unless the mission really throws me a curveball.”
“Ok, we’ll be counting on you,” said John with a smile. “Joanne, it looks like you’re at the end of the line. What have you got for us?”
“My main goal is to work on programming the computer that flies the ship when we put it on automatic,” she said. “To do that, I will have to do a lot of research, computations, and planning. I want to be able to program the computer and set everything on automatic, hoping that few, if any, manual interventions will have to be done.”
“Sounds like you have a good handle on it,” said John. “Let me know if there’s anything you need along the way.”
“Will do,” said Joanne.
One last thing,” said John. “We are going to take the ship back to our location. Alexandra and I have received word that we should make this move so that we can complete the additional modifications using the equipment at our labs because it will streamline the process. I’ve cleared the entry of the ship into our facility. We might as well all go back together.”
“I’d like to thank Steve and Bob for their assistance on our Moon trip. We couldn’t have done it without you. Thanks very much to you also, Alexandra, for helping me to maintain the big picture.”
“No sweat,” said Steve.
“Glad to be able to help,” said Bob.
“My pleasure,” said Alexandra.
John’s team left the conference room and made their way to the ship. The process of moving the ship into position and taking off was almost second nature to Joanne. This would be a short trip considering the speed with which they could travel.
Joanne said, “Ok, everyone, please strap in, and we’ll be on our way.”
The ship took off smoothly, and they headed back to their facility.
Chapter 25
The next few weeks were ones of constant activity for John and his team. The most opportune time to make a journey from Earth to Mars occurs every twenty-six months, when the two planets are closest to each other. That would make it the quickest trip. The ideal time was approaching rapidly; in forty-one days, the position of the planets would be ideal. Now, granted, John’s team was not bound by this deadline as much as a team that would be using a “normal” spaceship. And, of course, the reason that this deadline was not as crucial for John’s team was due to the gravity engine they used for propulsion. They could reach speeds that were far faster than a normally powered ship. Still, so as not to push the envelope of completing the ship too far, they wanted to initially get as much done as they could in the shortest possible time frame. For something as precise as space flight, they did not want to be short on time; they wanted to have the luxury of checking and rechecking all of the details so that the chance of a mishap was nearly as nonexistent as possible. The more time they had, the more they could reduce this chance. And they did not want to wait another twenty-six months for their trip.
*****
In 30 days, they had 99% of the work completed for their equipment upgrades and other mission preparations. This included the replacement of the conventional drive with a fusion drive, as well as modifications and upgrades to the rover, which they had brought back from Alexandra’s labs with the ship. This left them with a rather comfortable eleven days for testing and simulations. They made the most of this time. John realized that, in the long run, they would have to build a habitat on Mars for extended missions there. For now, they could stay on the ship. Their ability to pull oxygen directly from the Mars atmosphere gave them a virtually unlimited window of time for that critical mission-supply component. Unfortunately, there were other supplies that they would not have in unlimited quantities. One of these was food. The habitat would allow them to experiment with growing food on Mars, among other things. They wanted to see if they could comfortably live in a habitat versus living on the ship. There were countless experiments to be done; there was an almost unlimited amount of exploration to do. They did not plan on doing all of this during this first trip. They just wanted to prove that going to Mars and back could be done. For future missions, John could see where they would be able to assemble a permanent habitat and spend two weeks or more living in it, expanding that window as time went on. However, on this first short trip, they would build a temporary habitat to afford them the space they needed for larger quarters and limited examination and testing of rocks and such. Their primary goal was to explore as much of the planet as possible within their limited time frame. With the gravity engine, they could move the ship anywhere they wanted to be on the planet’s surface. This gave them a considerable exploration window as far as the amount of ground they could cover.
The cargo bay, once seemingly a large area, looked almost crowded after the additional mission and testing equipment was loaded.
Chapter 26
During the last two days before the mission, the teams triple-checked everything, and the flight crew pored over the flight parameters; everything seemed to be nominal. On the day of the launch, everyone boarded the ship and mentally prepared for the journey.
Once they had reached their take-off point, John said, “I know everyone has poured their hearts and knowledge into this mission. We are about to make history. Humankind has landed on the Moon; no one has landed on Mars. I have all the confidence in the world that everything will go smoothly; everyone has put too much work into the mission for it not to go smoothly. Still, unexpected things happen. I know that each one of you will be monitoring every aspect of the trip for anything out of the ordinary. If the flight crew would take one more look over the take-off parameters, and everyone would double-check their equipment, we can begin our historic flight.”
Everyone re-checked the components of the mission that was her or his responsibility. Then they re-checked each other. Each team member indicated to John that their part of the mission was ready to go. From their experience on the previous missions, they now had the computer programmed to run the entire mission starting from their launch point just outside of Earth’s atmosphere, the same launch point they had used to go to the Moon. Although Mark would be piloting, Joanne would be right there with him to monitor the flight parameters as they changed with the computer’s guidance.
The trip to the launch point was uneventful. It had become a computerized process to pilot the craft to that point. Once they reached the launch point, Mark looked at John for confirmation to proceed.
“Engage,” he said, and Mark pressed the button that would make the crew a part of space-faring history.
The computer program had been refined to the point where the initial launch and the changes during flight had been made so smooth that the crew could not even feel them. It helped that Joanne had the gravity in the ship set to 1G; it made things feel normal to the crew. It kept stuff from floating around the cabin like previous space missions when the gravity was zero. They could eat normally and use the toilet facilities normally, among many other things that earlier space expeditions had str
uggled with.
The ship needed to make an elliptical orbit around the Sun that slowly but surely would line the ship up with the orbit of Mars. The speed of the ship this time was going to be much higher than before. Though it would take a typical ship anywhere from 12 to 25 months to reach Mars, the reason was that its velocity would be much less; it was also dependent upon how far apart Earth and Mars were at the time. The estimate for their ship’s top speed was 150,000 miles per hour. They expected to reach Mars in less than ten days. These would be ten busy days for the crew; they had all set up experiments and simulations to perform along the way. After all, each of them was a scientist, and each of them had several degrees in various disciplines. Just because they had concentrated most of their efforts on space travel, it didn’t mean that lacked the curiosity or the desire to explore other areas of science. This trip gave them the perfect opportunity to stretch their wings.
After three days, they had reached their target speed of 250,000 mph. Once Mark had announced this to the crew, John said, “Is there any reason why we can’t let the speed increase to 300,000 miles per hour? I don’t see any reason why we shouldn’t shorten the travel time.” There were no negative responses, only positive ones. John said, “Mark, let the acceleration continue until we reach 300,000 miles per hour.”
“Will do,” he said.
This required the flight crew to re-program the computer flight information, but the computer automatically made the changes in velocities and trajectories ahead that this speed change would require. They calculated that this would shorten the trip to eight days.
The time went by quickly as everyone worked on their experiments and information-gathering. They reached the point where the ship started slowing down, albeit unnoticeable to the crew. The only reason they knew was that Mark announced it when it happened. The computer was doing an excellent job of maintaining a super-smooth flight.
Finally, they were on final approach to Mars. They were about five hours away, and the flight crew was glued to the console to verify the speed and directory changes. Everything was spot on. Mars was massive in the observation windows. In four more hours, the computer would make the final speed and trajectory changes to put them in a Mars orbit. Everything looked like it was by the numbers to the flight crew. And suddenly, they were in Mars orbit. Their greatest adventure was about to reach a huge milestone.
As they did with their Moon mission, they activated the camera on the bottom of the ship and looked for a good place to land. Mars’ surface was much more interesting than the Moon’s. They made a dozen orbits of Mars at various longitudes and latitudes and decided on a flat area that had some fascinating terrain in the vicinity. Mark took them down and landed at the proposed spot. Everyone began donning their spacesuits and gathered in the rear airlock to disembark. Since the Moon mission, they had added a bulkhead at the back of the ship. This created a small airlock that did not require the huge amount of air to depressurize and repressurize as did the entire cargo bay as they had done before. This small airlock was now where they left and entered the ship on foot. The area was just big enough for all of them, but it used the minimum amount of oxygen during pressurization and depressurization. Saving oxygen wherever possible had become essential. Although theoretically they could replace the oxygen they used, until they were sure this was true, they didn’t want to squander what they had. John felt that they should conserve oxygen in any event. They all stepped out and looked around. John said, “Feel free to explore within 300 feet or so of the ship. Do not go anywhere that the ship is not visible to you, and please travel in pairs for safety. You all have half an hour, and then we’ll meet back here at the ship. Since, as we know, the gravity is only .38 of Earth’s, be careful when you’re walking until you get used to it.”
The crew began to walk in different directions away from the ship, some in pairs or even groups of three.
John thought to himself about how the planet had gotten its color, and how unusual the reason was. Iron dust covered the entire planet, and as iron does when exposed to oxygen, it oxidizes, creating rust. So the red color of the surface came from the layer of rust that covered the whole planet.
Half an hour passed, and everyone was back at the ship. John said, “There is a lot more to see here than there was on the Moon, isn’t there? Quite an interesting place.” All were in agreement. “Let’s call it a day, get some rest, and we’ll do some exploring on the rover tomorrow. We are also going to start building the habitat.”
Inside the ship, at the back of the main cabin, bunks had been installed for the crew. This afforded some personal space and privacy for each person. There was also a small galley and eating area in front of the bunks and four showers, two on each side. This is what they used during their flight to Mars, and it would continue to sustain them until the temporary habitat was built. At that point, the bunks and kitchen equipment would be transferred to the habitat. Joanne set the gravity to 1G inside the ship to make sleeping more comfortable. Gradually everyone had climbed into their bunk, and soon they were all asleep. Eight hours later, everyone was awake and had gathered at the dining table. The food was real Earth food, not rations, though the selection was somewhat minimal. They also had plenty of Earth food in storage in the cargo bay. Since they were not going to be on Mars that long, they did not have to revert to any type of condensed rations, although they had carefully selected the food items they brought to save space.
After they finished eating, John said, “Let’s go ahead and take our places on the rover. We’ll be exploring for several hours.”
Everyone donned their spacesuits and went into the cargo area. John decompressed the entire area so that he could open the cargo doors, and they could drive the buggy down the ramp. Once the rover had been deployed, and everyone had strapped into their seats, John drove the vehicle in ever-widening circles around the camp. With this method, no matter how far they were away from the ship, they would see everything. The entire area where they were exploring was mostly flat, with small rocks scattered everywhere. There were occasionally large rocks, and in the distance, they could see hills and mountains. No matter the terrain or the view, they constantly took pictures, and more importantly, they recorded video, to gather information about their trip and what they saw. They stopped periodically to dismount and walk around. They touched some of the larger rocks and examined them for hardness and texture. They had equipment that could determine the content of the rocks. They picked up some of the smaller stones and tested them as well. They were completely different from the larger rocks and boulders, though all were in the same vicinity. They came to a fair-sized crater, and after cresting the ridge around it, they were able to drive down the side of it to the bottom. The crater was almost featureless; the exploration did not take long. In what seemed like no time at all, they had been traveling for three hours. John said, “Time to head back to the ship.” Soon they were back at the rear airlock.
“Let’s convene a meeting in the ship,” said John. “I want to discuss our exploration so far.”
Soon they were all seated at the table in the galley. John went around the table, and each team member gave their opinion of their observations. Those who had taken rock samples all indicated that they were exciting findings, but they would need more time to examine them in greater detail with the equipment on the ship.
John said, “I think perhaps the most interesting facet to our exploration may be something I noticed when we were preparing to return to the ship. That was when I saw two dark areas at the side of a cliff approximately 1850 yards away. We were at our farthest position from the ship on the west side. What I saw appeared to be possible cave openings. The telescope on the buggy and our binoculars are very powerful, but I could not see inside the openings because they are completely black. There was no light inside the openings, and no light was shining in from the outside. Let's make it a priority to investigate these openings tomorrow. Wow, what a find if they do indeed turn out to be
cave openings! I know that the trip on the buggy yielded a lot of terrain information, and that we have done quite a few field experiments to analyze the various rocks and rock structures. We’ll be able to do a lot more analyses on the ship tomorrow. I suggest that Joanne, Abigail, Max, and myself assemble at 0800 hours tomorrow morning to visit these possible cave openings. Everyone else can concentrate on specimen analysis here on the ship. That is also of great importance.”
The next morning the four people on the exploration team were gathered at the rover.
“We have everything in the way of equipment and supplies that I think we’ll need for this little expedition,” said John. “This is not intended to be a long mission. If we find caves, we’ll do a preliminary exploration to see what is there. If there needs to be an in-depth exploration, we need to find out if there are additional pieces of equipment and supplies that require a return visit. Abigail, would you mind being our chauffeur?”
“Not at all,” she said, and everyone climbed aboard.
Max watched the details of their destination off and on during the trip there. Each time he looked again, the black semi-circular objects appeared more and more to be actual cave openings.
They arrived in just under half an hour, and of course, by then it was obvious that the objects of their interest were indeed cave openings. They dismounted, and each person grabbed a flashlight. Everyone was also wearing an antigravity harness that was worn around their torso and up over their shoulders. This was a little extra device that Joanne had come up with during her antigravity engine development. She had made the harnesses to raise or lower a person at a very slow rate using gravity; she designed them to replace rope and rappelling equipment. The harnesses could lower or raise a person up or down in a vertical shaft; if the speed were set low enough, they could use it in a shaft that was not perfectly vertical. They could use their hands, arms, and legs to guide themselves as they moved up or down. However, they had brought rope and rappelling equipment in case they needed it. They had also each brought a particular device that was made like a pistol but did not fire bullets. When one pulled the trigger, it emitted a high-powered electrical beam with a range of about thirty yards. This was strictly for defensive purposes. The guns would not kill; they would only incapacitate any life form that demonstrated offensive or aggressive behavior toward a member of the crew.
