Asteroid Zirxon Will Destroy Earth
In October
By
Mario V. Farina
Copyright 2016 Mario V. Farina
All Rights Reserved
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Mario V. Farina
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Asteroid Zirxon is on a path to destroy life on Earth as we know it in about five months." This was the most important sentence that the President had spoken when he made his address to the American people.
He had made this dramatic announcement on May 18. His face had borne a brooding, anguished-stricken appearance.
"My fellow Americans, as I speak, the leaders of nations around the world are issuing this same communiqué. A large object, which is known to be an asteroid, is traveling on a collision course with our world. Astronomers have named this asteroid, Zirxon. To the best of our calculations, impact is possible in about five months. As yet, we don't know the exact date or the precise point of impact though it is thought to be in the Long Island area of New York State. This body seems to be coming from the Asteroid Belt which is located between Mars and Jupiter.
On August 8, Wilma Brown received a call from Randy Rawlings at NASA's Mission Control Center. She was pleased to hear the voice of the General Operations Chief.
"Hello, Randy, what's new."
"Wilma, a plan has been tentatively formulated concerning Asteroid Zirxon. We're putting a crew together with Mike Martini as pilot. You've worked with him before. The idea is to have Space Shuttle, Victoria, go meet the asteroid to see what can be done."
"What are we to do when we get there?"
"Well, that hasn't been decided quite yet."
"Randy, what good would it do to go without a plan?"
"There is no time left for sitting around while a strategy is being formulated. We need to go meet the asteroid while it is still far from Earth. As we're doing this, the planners in NASA can decide what they will want us to do when we get there."
"Would nuking it be an option?"
"Yes, some people have suggested blasting it with an atomic explosion. But others have cautioned against this. They say that bombing would only break up the one big asteroid into a lot of smaller ones. There would be a rain of asteroid fragments that would be just as bad as being smashed with the whole thing!"
"In his speech, the President had continued: there are thousands of asteroids in this belt that range in size from grains of sand to a irregular, rocky, and metallic objects many miles across. Frequently, asteroids leave their orbits and wander into space. In this form they are called meteoroids. Many of these objects fall to Earth in the form of meteors, which are also called shooting stars. So long as these objects are small, no measurable harm is ever done. However, large objects from space can, and have crashed to Earth in the past causing much devastation."
"Three weeks ago, a young man named Charles Wilkes, using a small, homemade telescope, discovered an asteroid that is thought to be between twelve to sixteen miles across. It is my agonizing duty to inform you that if this body were to hit Earth, all life on this planet would cease to exist, as we know it, in a matter of seconds. At the present time, unless something happens to change the path of this asteroid, it will collide with Earth at some time in early October."
"The leaders of countries all over the world have planned a series of meetings to determine what can be done to keep a collision from occurring. In the meantime, I ask everyone to remain calm. There is nothing to be gained by fleeing. There is no place to go. Also there is nothing to be gained by engaging in unlawful activities. This will only make matters worse. What I do request is that, in addition to remaining calm, you submit any ideas that you might have as to how this dire peril can be averted."
"How about giving it a little shove, Randy?" Wilma asked.
"That might work. But it's a huge mass. Shuttle Victorial doesn't have a lot of excess power in any of its OMS engines. After the fuel in the external tank has been used to get the shuttle into space, those engines have very little ability to do a great deal of shoving. They were designed for initial navigation."
"Well, for whatever is decided, I want to do everything I can, Randy. Count me in."
"Good, I knew you would say that. I'll get back to you soon."
On the day following his dramatic announcement, the president said in a news conference, "throughout history, the world has faced and come through many desperate situations. I assure you, that it will happen again. Your calmness, your resolve, your ingenuity is required now as never before. Rest assured, that your President, and the other leaders of the world, will work at nothing more diligently then determining how to keep this threatening disaster from afflicting the world. We will keep you informed as to our progress with frequent reports. At this point, all I can conclude with is, God bless Planet Earth!"
The morning papers had been ablaze with headlines. There were articles telling about the Asteroid Belt, where it is located, how it functions, and how, at times it malfunctions. There were stories reporting on collisions that had occurred with Earth in the past. They told of huge craters in various parts of the world, how a collision of an asteroid with Earth was thought to have led to the extinction of dinosaurs. Many articles told about the famous Barringer meteor crater in Arizona.
Citizens came to know such asteroid names as Ida, Dactyl, Ceres, Gaspra, Mahilde, Geographos, and Vesta, as well as they knew the names of the planets, Venus Mars, Saturn, and Jupiter.
Wilma heard nothing further until August 11. Randy's voice crackled through the handset.
"Wilma, can you come right over. I've summoned the others. A nasty situation is developing here!"
"What's the problem, Randy?"
"We been given a go-ahead for attempting to deflect the asteroid, but there is a crowd outside that thinks were getting ready to escape to some other planet. An ugly mob is surrounding the launch site and the people are making a lot of noise. I don't have a great deal of time for explanations. Were going to try a launch in six hours. Can you come right over?"
"I'll leave right now!"
CBS had aired a TV special depicting what would occur in the final days. A speck of light no larger than the faintest of stars would become visible in the eastern sky about ten days before impact. Day after day, it would loom larger and larger. Two days before impact, the asteroid would be so large that it would appear to have a diameter several times that of the moon. At night, its brightness would rival that of the sun.
On Impact Day, the object would be observed growing in size with every passing moment. Then it would begin shining with a fiery intensity. Ten seconds before impact, it would become a fireball that would engulf the entire sky, it's heat being intensely felt on Earth. Many persons would die from this cause alone. Then, collision – and doom!
When Wilma drove to the gate of the enormous launch complex, she encountered several thousand men and women massing in front of the guard shack. Shouts of "Take us with you!" Could be heard. Wilma nodded to the guard, who knew her from the time she helped discover the Bocci Ball planet.
Whereas, there had been very little panic among the population before, the CBS program caused and was continuing to cause a great deal of alarm. In many cities, roads became choked with outgoing traffic even though official reports advised that there was no place on earth that was safer than any
other. Prices for critical goods like food and gasoline, even water, skyrocketed. Life on earth bore only a slight resemblance to normalcy; only the most essential work was being done. Church attendance increased several fold. There were a great many more reports of rapes, robberies, and murders than there had been in the past. However, none of the reports were more frightening than those that dealt with the horrors of the planet's finals days and hours.
Randy Rawlings held out his hand in a warm greeting. He escorted Wilma to the Properties Room where space clothing was neatly stowed. "Suit up," he said. "Then, I'll go with you to the top of the tower. The rest of the crew should be arriving soon."
For many weeks after the president had made his initial statement, he had said nothing of either a pessimistic or optimistic nature. He, and the leaders of other nations, were bombarded with demands for information on what was being done. May faded into eternity, then June. On July 1, marches were held throughout the world with calls for something to be done to save humankind. Many of these marches turned ugly with individuals being maimed and killed.
Wilma was seated on a plain folding chair in the standby room two hundred feet above the ground, six steps away from the shuttle's access hatch. Attendants arrived and opened it. With their assistance, she squeezed through the small opening and settled onto the couch-like
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