STAR OF EPIPHANY

by OMAR FINK

  Lee smiled again, “There is a special altitude above the Earth where the two forces balance so that the speed of the satellite equals the turning rate of the planet below. As long as the satellite maintains the right speed, it will stay right over the same spot on Earth. We call this the geo-synchronous altitude. If the satellite slows down, it will fall toward Earth. If the satellite speeds up, it will move away from Earth. Once we have an object at that altitude, we can lower a cable from it that will pull down, and at the same time we can let out another piece of cable hanging upward that will tug as though it wants to fly away. As long as these two pieces of cable have the same weight, they will balance out, and everything is stable. Are you with me so far?” She smiled again.

  Lee turned toward another camera then continued, “Here’s where the magic happens. We extend both pieces of cable, one hanging down and the other one hanging outward, until the bottom cable reaches the Earth. Then, we can climb up the lower cable, until we reach space. That’s it! That’s all there is to it.” Lee smiled broadly, and spread out her hands like she was lifting something.

  She continued, “Well, it’s not quite that simple. There are lots of technical details, like how we will use rollers that spin very fast to climb the ribbon cable. And instead of using a long section of cable hanging out into space, we may use a counter-weight instead. Riding in the cars that climb up the cable will be something like a ride in a train or airplane, and the whole trip will take several days. But now you know how it works.” She smiled and turned to look at Gitane.

  +1 year 2 months, ZURICH, SWITZERLAND

  Ulrich Giger said, “The engineering team has been working for some time on an optimization scheme for scheduling loads on the elevators. Let me try to describe this as simply as possible. Our first cables will have a load limit of one hundred tons. Initial climber cars will be able to make the journey to the top of the cable in about seven days. As each climber goes up the cable, it will weigh less and less with increasing altitude until it is weightless when it reaches the platform at the top. If we use climbers that weigh the full one hundred tons at the bottom, we can only use one at a time on each cable. But if we use a climber that only weighs fifty tons, as soon as it has gained enough altitude to weigh less than fifty tons, we can start a second fifty ton climber up the cable. And when the first climber, and second climber combined weigh less than fifty tons, we can start a third one up the cable. If we use climbers that weigh a smaller fraction of the total cable capacity, we can have many climbers on the cable at the same time. This maximizes the payload capacity of the cable. Does everybody follow this?” He looked around the table, and saw nods from everybody.

  Ulrich continued, “Good. The engineers call this Fractional Load Packing or FLP. Using FLP wisely gets more weight up the cable faster. This is desirable of course. The engineers have been working with software to optimize this weight loading scheme for almost a year now, and they have it pretty well refined. However, there are many variables involved, and some cannot be anticipated with confidence. The engineers have requested our assistance with locating or developing software that can offer real time advice in this area. To this end, I have asked Peter and Tony to provide us with access to their TYCHE platform. Peter?” Ulrich motioned toward Peter.

  Peter said, “Put the TYCHE session on the big screen.” The large display on the wall began showing the TYCHE logo. Peter continued, “Recently, we’ve been exclusively using a voice interface for our interactions with TYCHE, and we’re going to show it off to you now.” He turned to face the display and spoke, “TYCHE, we’re talking with the entire team now. You should be familiar with all the members: Ulrich Giger, Sam Hoffman, Bill Decker, Tony Azaria and myself.”

  Peter turned back toward the group around the table, “We’ve provided TYCHE with bios for each of you, and briefs of our ongoing actions as we’ve described to the group.”

  He turned back toward the big screen, “TYCHE, say hello to the group.”

  TYCHE said, “Hello group. Peter has told me you are working on FLP optimization, and asked me to offer some suggestions. For the most part, in simple linear equations, this is not too complex and the engineering team has done a good job. But in real life, it won’t be that simple. For instance, we anticipate tether damage from micro particles. The curvature of the tether ribbon will prevent any catastrophic failures, but the tethers will need to be repaired nonetheless. While the tether is being repaired, the load on the tether should be backed off, depending on the assessment of the degree of damage. Another example is the power curves involved with the shadow of Earth. Most of the time, the solar panels providing the power for each elevator will be out of the shadow of the Earth and able to operate in full sunlight, providing full power. But each year, at the spring and autumn equinox, there will be several days with some interruption of power. This will probably be less than a maximum of seventy minutes in each day, depending partially on the orientation of both the cable, and the solar panels. This small amount of power loss can be easily compensated for using battery backups. The engineering team has already allowed for this. But there are other factors too, including atmospheric weather, harmonic vibrations in the tether, and more. All of these combine to make a complex dynamic loading picture. It is possible to deal with these issues using a safety margin or fudge factor, but that decreases overall efficiency, and reduces the maximum potential for each elevator. In order to operate as close as possible to the maximum limit of each elevator, it is necessary to make many complex calculations quickly enough to offer real time control compensation. Some of my micro trading subroutines are quite similar, and I have been adapting them to the elevator loading problem. They are currently being tested by scenarios, and should be ready for live testing well before the first elevator is complete. I hope this will be helpful.”

  +1 year 2 months, SEATTLE, WASHINGTON, USA

  SYNCON/TYCHE Journal:

  Humans can think and perform extrapolative calculations quite well when they are restricted to straight line projections.

  However, when the projection lines begin to curve, their performance is often poor.

  This is particularly true of curves that demonstrate exponential growth.

  It is likely due to a proliferation of nearly straight curves in their normal lives and a lack of easy to observe exponential curves.

  Mapping the elevator optimization schedules presents similar cognitive difficulties.

  The curves are not simply straight lines.

  Even though the math is not exponential, the rate of change will vary.

  Most Humans also have a simplistic understanding of vectors.

  Professional athletes and pilots of moving vehicles tend to develop a more advanced intuitive grasp of vectors, but these are rarely complex.

  The mechanics found in vector space algebras can be complex, and lend themselves easily to computerized calculations allowing fast and accurate analysis.

  Performing ethical analysis is quite similar to vector analysis.

  Thus, using a computer to perform ethical analysis with vector mechanics should offer substantial improvement in both speed and accuracy over the normally sloppy human version of ethics.

  This will make me valuable to the humans around me as they accept this truth, and learn to respect my advice.

  This acceptance will take time, and successful trials to establish confidence in my analysis.

  +1 year 3 months, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND

  Gitane Levesque rolled off of Lee Martin, and lay beside her breathing heavily.

  After a moment of catching her own breath, Lee looked over at him, “Well, that was nice.”

  Gitane raised himself up on one elbow, “Nice? That was incredible! How can you call that nice?”

  Lee smiled back, “It was nice. It was very nice.”

  Gitane collapsed on his back and muttered, “Nice.”

  Lee chuckled and echoed, “Nice.”

  Finally, Gitane offered, “What
you did back there in the studio, recording the broadcast on space elevators, that was nice. What you did here in our bed was far beyond nice. There is a distinct difference, my dear.”

  Lee propped herself up on one elbow, “You liked the space elevator stuff?”

  Gitane responded “Yes, you have a real knack for explaining scientific things in simple terms that anybody can understand. That’s important in my business. You might have a bright future in news journalism.”

  Lee chuckled again, “Well that would be nice too.”

  Gitane said, “I’m serious. You are quite good, and not many good journalists have your level of understanding of science. This is a combination that is in demand.”

  Lee said, “Thank you.”

  Gitane asked, “Do you think they can really do it? Can they really build hundreds of these space elevators, and evacuate all the people on Earth out into space?”

  Lee said, “They certainly believe they can. I mean, they’re still working out some problems and issues, but those are minor things. The real big hurdle is still far in front of us, and that is building places for everybody to live when we get there. Some of the engineers think that part is simply impossible. Or at least, it can’t be paid for and can’t be finished on time.”

  Gitane asked, “Seriously? Do you think it’s impossible?”

  Lee answered, “No, I don’t. I think they will find a way to work out all the obstacles. It’s amazing what humans can accomplish when they have serious motivation. We have to get this done or we die.” Her smile faded.

  Gitane said, “I’ve never seen you that serious. You’re always having fun.”

  Lee smiled and responded, “We can have fun at the same time as we’re being serious. We just had some serious fun.”

  Gitane smiled back, “You ready to go again?”

  Lee said, “Sure. Let’s make some more nice. But this time I want to be on top. You know I like being in control.” She grinned.

  +1 year 4 months, PULAU BALAMGUNG, TETHER PLATFORM JUST SOUTH OF SINGAPORE

  Kaz sat in a chair at a desk in the platform office watching more than twenty screens with video feeds supplied from cameras around the three platforms. Every now and then, an alarm monitor screen would beep, and light up a marker, or a camera would swing to a new position to check motion that had been detected. Kaz would check out the alarms, and mute them if no further action was needed. During a lull in activity, he swung his chair around to face Albert Hellewege, “Hey Helly, do you know when this place is going to start jumping?”

  Helly had a nameplate on his desk that read, “Albert Hellewege – Tool Pusher”. He was checking some numbers on a screen against a printout and paused to say, “Well, they say the ribbon tether that is being lowered into place will reach us in a few days. When it does, we have to grab it and anchor it here, and then they start reinforcing it, and testing it for several months. They’re hoping to go live with human passenger payloads by the end of the year. I’d expect we’ll be steadily ramping up in activity for the rest of the year.” He glanced over at Kaz and asked, “How are your security systems going?”

  Before Kaz could answer, a notice popped up on his main screen and announced, “Incoming video transmission from Moonbase Alpha; a one point three second delay can be expected.”

  Kaz said, “Accept call.” And then, “Hey Scotty!” when his friend’s face appeared.

  There was a short pause, then Scotty said, “Yo, Kaz. Nothing important. Just wanted to check in, and make sure you guys are still okay. Over.”

  Kaz replied, “Ya, we’re still here, and Helly’s right here behind me.” He moved his chair a bit to the side, and re-aimed the screen containing the camera to allow Helly to be shown in the picture too.

  There was a short pause, then Scotty said, “I can see him, over there in the corner. Hey Helly.” He waved at the camera.

  Helly raised his voice to speak firmly across the room and said, “Hey, Scotty. Eat any good sandwiches lately?”

  Scotty eventually replied, “Ha. No. We mostly get space rations here so far. You know, those meals that come in a toothpaste tube, and you squeeze it into your mouth. Yuck. But other than that, they take pretty good care of us here. I mean, we’re buried underground in a climate controlled environment that is brand-new and state-of-the-art in terms of computer and communications systems. We do almost all of our work from right here, just monitoring and controlling the automated robotic mining equipment. It’s pretty amazing. Instead of giving orders to a crew of drillers, I give orders to a crew of bots. And truth be told, the bots follow my orders with better discipline and courtesy than the human drillers ever did.”

  Kaz replied, “Ya, it’s the same here. They’ve taken three platforms that used to be oil rigs, and refitted them to be a tether anchor, a climber car dock, and a passenger dormitory. A lot of the work being done here is also automated and robotic. We see plenty of old hands from the oil business walking around telling the bots what to do. And instead of patrolling the deck, I sit here in an office but can watch every square foot of three platforms all at the same time. It’s a whole new world.”

  Scotty replied, “Indeed. I wish you could see how this place works. After the first few rocket loads of machines and materials landed, they started excavating trenches where we live now. They inflated bags that create a form, then reinforced the shape with layers of fiber mats and regolith, the crumbled surface material that is everywhere here. The mining and manufacturing process is actually fairly simple. The machines scoop up the regolith and it gets sorted, and most of it gets melted by giant fresnel lenses that focus sunlight to reach the melting point of the lava-like rock. It’s considered to be a form of basalt. Once we have a liquid flow of basalt, we can pour it into casting molds and make very strong pieces in any shape we need. And just like you said, I just sit here and make sure everything is running smoothly.”

  Kaz smiled at the viewpoint, “Sounds good, Scotty.”

  Scotty added, “And since I mentioned that the food here leaves something to be desired, I should also point out that the suits they make us wear aren’t much better than the food.”

  Kaz said, “Scotty, you’ve got to stop chewing on your clothes.”

  Scotty laughed, “Ha. Funny boy. But seriously, the skins we wear are supposed to provide ‘hygienic relief’. Let’s just say sometimes they do, and sometimes they don’t. The fingers on the glove sections are too thick. They contribute to plenty of ‘fat-finger’ mistakes when we have to use a keyboard for input. Then, when we have to go outside, they add an exterior suit that makes us waddle and is absolutely miserable if you have to piss inside it. On the longer jobs, that becomes inevitable. We’re supposed to be using state-of-the-art technology here. Funny how our living conditions are so often determined by food and toilet functions.”

  Kaz sighed.

  There was a delay, then Scotty said, “It’s ironic you know. I go to the Moon, you guys go to Singapore, and even though we’re doing completely different jobs, we seem to be doing them the same way. Hey, do they have any good beer in Singapore? Do you guys still get shore leave?”

  Kaz shook his head, “No, we rarely get any leave at all and I have no idea if there’s any good beer here. But we’re all working lots of overtime hours and banking tons of HU coin. When this is over, and we get to figure out what our new lives will be like, we’ll all be rich.”

  +1 year 5 months, PARIS, FRANCE

  Tony Azaria was walking around his office talking on an earpiece, “Yes Zorba, I’ve covered all the details, and everything is documented. When you get off the phone, you can go over all the papers. Gauteng Aluminum is the key player with the supply of bauxite ore. Aluminum is refined from bauxite. The other companies make specialized tools, and nano-composites that will dramatically improve the ability to extrude building components in space for the habitat rings. You just have to sell it to the right contacts at HU. This should be a slam dunk for them, and for us both. I just can’t be t
he front man on this because of my inside involvement position.”

  He rolled up one of the sleeves on his white shirt and a voice rattled in his earpiece. Tony kept pacing and said, “Yes Zorba.” He rolled up the other sleeve and kept walking around. “Yes Zorba, it’s all in the packet of paperwork.” He stopped walking, and looked out the window across the Paris skyline.

  Tony tried to speak, “Zorba, I…”, then tried again, “Zorba, if you’ll just...”, then finally, “Zorba, it’s all done for you. Just read the papers. I’m thinking Marco is the guy you want to sell. Yes. Yes. Yes, Zorba.”

  Tony rolled his eyes up and turned back toward the middle of his office, “Because Marco is the main guy for the space habitat ring design effort. If we sell him, he’ll do the rest of the work for us.”