‘’We will launch Cargo Lander Number Two in about one hour, when our ship will be back in the proper launch position. Mister Walsingham will pilot it. Then, Mister Brown will pilot our Cargo Lander Number Three down to the Melas Chasma after an another hour. Finally, you will pilot down our Cargo Lander Number Four. Once all of our four cargo ships will be safely parked near the entrances of the lava tubes that will house our base, we will then be ready to send down the ground exploration team, with you at the commands of the Mars Manned Lander. If all goes well, you will be able to walk on the surface of Mars in two days, Denise.’’
The tall, blond ex-fighter pilot grinned while imagining that moment.
‘’That will certainly be the highest point in my life to date, Roman: to be the first person to walk on Mars…’’
‘’Well, you will have fifteen companions with you on the surface, Denise, so you will still have plenty of company.’’
‘’Damn, I hope that anticipation and excitement will not stop me from finding sleep until then.’’ said wistfully the American woman.
03:45 (GMT)
Saturday, February 27, 2044
Cabin 014, Ring Carrousel ‘A’, main disk section
H.S.S. FRIENDSHIP, in low Mars orbit
Denise Wattling was sound asleep when the buzz from her wrist’s videophone woke her up. Chasing away with difficulty her fatigue, Denise pressed the ‘open link’ button of her videophone, speaking in a tired voice in its microphone.
‘’Yes?’’
‘’Denise, this is Roman! I am sorry to have to wake you up at such an early hour, but we may have something serious to contend with: a major dust storm is in the process of forming up at the surface of Mars, near the Valles Marineris.’’
Those words acted like a shot of adrenaline on Denise, who promptly sat up on her bed.
‘’Aw shit! What are the chances for us that this dust storm may avoid our landing zone in the Melas Chasma, Roman?’’
‘’Not good, Denise. My team is already discussing our scenario options for such a thing but I am not optimistic at all. You better come here quickly.’’
‘’On my way!’’ said Denise before closing the link and jumping out of bed in order to get dressed. Putting on her ship’s service two-piece uniform and her magnetized slippers took only a minute. She however took another minute to go comb her hair in front of the mirror of her dresser before running out of her cabin. Going up one level to the Promenade Deck of the ‘A’ ring via the nearest set of stairs, she crossed the promenade strip and entered one of the transit compartments of the fixed median section. There, she went up along one of the six communication tubes linking the rings and the core section of the ship. Since she was now in a zero gravity environment, she was able to float along the tube, using its padded hand rails to propel herself quickly and covering the fifty meters length of the tube in less than half a minute before arriving at the airtight door giving access to the core section of the ship. Planting her feet back down on the floor of the tube and making her slippers’ magnetized soles stick lightly to the thin steel sheet coating the aluminum floor, she unlocked and opened the door, then stepped into the core section and closed the door behind her. Walking normally this time, despite the core being also a zero gravity environment, Denise went to the surface monitoring center, where the data and images of all the ship’s sensors pointed at the surface of Mars were collated and studied. There, she found Roman Denisovich looking at a large display screen showing a view of the surface of Mars taken by a surveillance camera. On it, more than half of the surface being viewed was blanketed by an impenetrable giant cloud of red dust that was advancing westward. The planetologist and geo-physicist was surrounded by a number of other people also looking at the screen and discussing between them, including the mission commander, Janet Larsson, and her deputy, Alexei Primakov, plus five other members of the Mars Manned Lander crew. They all turned around when Denise walked in, with Roman Denisovich nodding to her.
‘’Aaah, good to have you so quickly, Denise. Unfortunately, it appears that this dust storm is heading straight towards our designated landing zone and will completely cover it in a few hours. It also is a major dust storm that will cover at least half of the tropical band of Mars, possibly for days or weeks. The question we have to face now is whether we still launch our manned lander or we wait for the dust storm to subside.’’
Janet Larsson then jumped in, speaking in a sober tone.
‘’The problem I see with launching our manned lander despite of this storm is that normal visibility on the ground will be close to zero, making orientation very difficult. Even thermal cameras and infrared sensors will have their range affected by the dust storm. With the crew of the manned lander needing to go out in their spacesuits in order to start exploring the lava tubes and go to our four cargo landers to take out equipment and supplies, one or more of our people could very well get lost and walk away in the wrong direction. Remember our collective training back on Earth, when we were in Antarctica and went out during a blizzard that created a whiteout condition.’’
‘’Oh, I certainly remember that, Commander. It was a bit scary then and we had to use our safety lines to find back the entrance to the base. We could still navigate through that dust storm, using our rovers’ radars and thermal sensors, but I agree that working in such an environment would be very demanding and stressful. I say that we should wait for that dust storm to subside before launching our manned lander.’’
‘’Don’t forget that such storms are known to often persist for weeks and months at a time.’’ cut in Steve Larkin, the ship’s chief geologist. ‘’Do we want to potentially waste so much of our mission time by waiting for this storm to die out? We do have a lot of work to be done on the surface.’’
Denise shook her head at once on hearing that.
‘’I’m sorry, but the safety of our people should be placed above any consideration of time or workload. As pilot and commander of the Manned Lander, I still say ‘wait for the storm to subside’.’’
‘’I concur with and support your assessment, Denise.’’ said Janet Larsson, to Larkin’s obvious annoyance. ‘’We will wait for this dust storm to die down before launching our manned lander. You may now return to bed, my friends.’’
The small crowd then broke up, with most of them leaving the surface monitoring center to return to the rotating carrousels. Denise was also in the process of going back into a radial circulation tube when she stopped, indecisive. The adrenaline shot of learning about the dust storm, allied with the decision to postpone the launch of her manned lander, had chased out her sleepiness, leaving her fully awake and needing to expend some energy. She toyed for a moment with the idea of going to the Promenade Deck of ‘B’ Ring, to run along its exercise track and use the various exercise machines there, but she decided otherwise, as she already had been doing that nearly every day since their departure from Earth orbit. An idea then made her smile: since she was already in the core section of the ship, why not use one of the facilities in it? Staying in the core section but going up by three levels, she ended up in a relatively small rotunda-like compartment with four airlocks attached to it and with four solid, large acrylic windows along its walls. The rotunda was actually inside the forward anti-radiation shield protecting the core section. That shield was in turn shaped like a thick disk situated forward of the core and filled with water, making the core insensitive to even the most violent solar storms ever recorded. A similar water shield protected the bottom of the core, while a water jacket surrounded its sides, completing its anti-radiation protection. If a truly violent solar storm ever submerged the ship with penetrating charged particle radiation, then the crew of the H.S.S. FRIENDSHIP would be able to find safety inside the core section, where seats and facilities for the whole crew were available. As an interplanetary ship that was going eventually to travel to places as far as the Jupiter and Saturn systems, such anti-radiation protect
ion was not only desirable: it was also essential. However, the designers of the ship had followed a philosophy of making as many of its components as possible fill more than one role. In the case of the forward core water shield, they had decided to use it as a giant scuba swimming tank. With a diameter of twenty meters and a height of five meters, that had provided a huge volume to play with, a volume which the designers had further made even more suitable for its secondary role by adding false surfaces mimicking a sea bottom and an illuminated sea surface. Giant circular screens covering the lateral walls of the tank projected pre-recorded views of fish and other marine life swimming around, enhancing the illusion effect of the tank. Denise had already used the scuba tank a few times and she positively loved the sensation of freedom of movement and wide spaces it gave, in contrast to the comfortable but still enclosed space found in other ship’s sections. Going to one of the personal effects lockers of the rotunda, she quickly undressed, ending up completely naked. Stuffing her clothes inside the locker, she then went to the racks supporting the pressurized air scuba bottles used by swimmers, selecting a full tank and putting it on her back. Buckling the retaining belt of the tank and testing that her regulator was functioning correctly, Denise then put on a scuba mask and a pair of fins before walking backwards towards one of the four small airlocks of the rotunda. Entering the airlock, she closed its hatch, then went through another hatch, entering an inner airlock. Closing that hatch as well, she pressed a large button and heard air whistle in as the pressure in her secondary airlock increased slightly. Pinching her nose and blowing air with her mouth closed, she equalized the pressure on her eardrums. Only then did she open a third hatch, stepping in a small adjacent compartment and closing the hatch behind her. She was now in a small but tall space half filled with an elevated platform with a large hole on top of it. Climbing the short set of stairs leading to the top of the platform, Denise then jumped down through the hole, splashing into the water of the tank one meter down. When time would come to leave the tank, she would then simply swim back to the hole and climb a short ladder to find herself back into a breathable air space. Swimming out of the access well, which had been camouflaged as an underwater cave with the help of molded and painted plastic surfaces, Denise gave a few vigorous strokes of her fins, ending in the middle of the flooded volume of the tank. Looking back at the airlock rotunda complex, she saw the fake underwater section of a small reef going up all the way to the faked sea surface. Now feeling as free as a fish, Denise started swimming lazily around the tank, savoring her surroundings and feeling the lukewarm water flow over her naked skin.
She ended up spending a good forty minutes swimming around the tank before she returned to one of the four access wells and exited the water. As Denise was putting on her uniform, she heard her stomach growl.
‘’Looks like the exercise opened up my appetite. It could be a good time to go visit the cafeteria for an early morning breakfast.’’
Returning to the level of the core that connected with the radial circulation tubes, she took one tube and floated down towards the contra-rotating carrousel rings, soon ending in the ‘A’ Ring and walking along the promenade strip towards the ship’s cafeteria. There, she found Jack Sommers manning the hot service counter and preparing a batch of sausages and bacon. The growls inside Denise’s stomach redoubled as she smelled the meat cooking on the hot plates, while Jack smiled to her.
‘’Hello, Denise! You are early, this morning.’’
‘’I sure am! I was awakened by a call two hours ago, only to have my scheduled departure for the surface postponed for an indeterminate period because of a giant dust storm on the surface.’’
‘’Oh! And how long could this dust storm last?’’
‘’Nobody knows! It could be days, weeks, even months. We will wait for the time it takes to have good visibility again on the surface. And Xiulan, how is she doing?’’
‘’She is well, thank you. Her pregnancy is progressing just nicely and all the tests show that the fetus is viable and has no deficiency or anomaly.’’
‘’Aah, that’s good! Well, while I’m here, I will have some scrambled eggs, along with hash brown and bacon.’’
‘’Scrambled eggs, hash brown and bacon, coming up!’’ replied Jack, smiling, while turning face down two strips of bacon on the hot plate with his spatula.
Denise’s hopes that the dust storm on Mars would go on for a few days only were quickly replaced by growing frustration as days, then weeks passed by without signs of the storm abating. It took close to two months before the dust started to settle down, to the immense relief of the whole crew of the H.S.S. FRIENDSHIP. Then, the last verifications and checks to the manned lander were ordered by Janet Larsson and the crew of the lander was finally able to board their craft.
CHAPTER 9 – A WALK ON MARS
09:56 (GMT)
Tuesday, April 26, 2044
Cockpit of the Mars Manned Lander
Lander Hangar Number One, H.S.S. FRIENDSHIP
Mars low orbit
Denise Wattling, wearing her spacesuit and strapped into her pilot’s seat, looked around her in the cramped cockpit of her manned lander.
‘’Alright, last chance! Did you bring everything you needed? Toothbrush? Spare underwear?’’
Viktor Ponichnikov, sitting behind and to the left of her, made a face at those words.
‘’Oh shit! I forgot my vibrator!’’
‘’Don’t worry about that, Viktor,’’ replied Denise as giggles went around the cabin, ‘’we have alternatives.’’
The giggles turned into laughter, both in the lander’s cockpit and in the command center of the H.S.S. FRIENDSHIP, where their communications and data links were monitored. Janet Larsson then spoke on the radio.
‘’Alright, you bunch of perverts. Your hangar dome is fully open. You now have a go for launch. Good luck and have a good stay on Mars.’’
‘’Thank you, Commander!’’ replied Denise, now serious. ‘’Releasing mooring clamps.’’
With her 470 ton lander now freed from its hangar pad, Denise fired a short burst from her attitude rockets, making the big, squat conical craft rise from the pad. Once well clear from the H.S.S. FRIENDSHIP, she fired again her attitude rockets to pivot her lander in the correct axis to start its deceleration and descent towards the surface of Mars. With its 35 meter-wide base heat shield pivoted forward, Denise then fired her main rocket engine to start decelerating and dropping out of orbit. That main engine, a smaller variant of the PHOENIX 2000 nuclear rocket engines of the FRIENDSHIP, apart from having a much better specific impulse by far than any existing chemical rocket engine, would also be turned into their craft’s nuclear power plant once on the surface of Mars. Another advantage was that it used liquid hydrogen as fuel, which could be used as extra anti-radiation protection for the crew spaces of the lander. Burning for long minutes at maximum power until its four external drop tanks were empty, the nuclear rocket then shut down, with its protective base cover closing over its nozzle. By now, the lander had lost enough velocity to drop down low enough to start feeling the drag from the rarefied atmosphere of Mars. That was when Denise jettisoned the now empty four hydrogen external fuel tanks and deployed the four giant, petal-like airbrakes of the craft, which helped to further slow down the lander and lose more altitude, on top of helping stabilize the lander along its longitudinal axis. That part of the deceleration phase took quite a while, something Denise and her crew had expected in view of the very thin atmosphere of Mars, which had only one percent of Earth’s atmospheric pressure at ground level. The manned lander had time to complete a full orbit of Mars before it had slowed down enough to safely deploy its first big braking parachute. That first parachute was replaced over a minute later with an even bigger one. That parachute was however of rectangular shape and was steerable. It was also topped by a huge balloon that filled with low pressure helium gas, which helped further in supporting the mass of the lan
der. The craft was now falling slowly at a near vertical angle and was at an altitude of 14,000 meters. Denise consulted her instruments and her navigation display screen and nodded her head while putting her right hand around the small flight control stick that controlled the steerable parachute.
‘’Everything is going well up to now, folks. I am now starting to steer our craft towards our designated landing spot. Peter, retract our airbrakes and deploy our wheels. Viktor, you can now switch our nuclear engine to power production mode. Put it at thirty percent power.’’
‘’Airbrakes retracted and wheels deployed!’’ announced Peter Walsingham, the copilot of the lander. Viktor Ponichnikov spoke up next some seconds later.
‘’Nuclear engine now in power producing mode at thirty percent power. External radiators deployed and online.’’
‘’Excellent! Let’s see how close we can get to our target zone.’’
While the lander was slowly descending and flying westward over the canyons of Valles Marineris, Denise admired the majestic view given by the ten kilometer-high cliffs of the geological fracture.
‘’It may be a dead planet now, but Mars certainly has some incredible visual features. It should make for an interesting thirteen months stay on the surface.’’
‘’It also should be a busy thirteen months.’’ added the chief geologist, Steve Larkin. ‘’There will be a lot to do and much to explore on the surface.’’
‘’That as well.’’ agreed Denise before falling silent and concentrating on her piloting. The rest of the sixteen person crew also fell silent as they eyed the gigantic northern cliffs of the Melas Chasma. Some fourteen minutes later, as the lander was very close to the ground, Denise fired briefly her chemical rocket thrusters to slow down her descent to a mere 0.6 meter per second, landing smoothly her big craft without even a single bounce. She then beamed a proud smile at her team members.
A Mars Odyssey Page 11
