Enoch's Challenge

by Warren W Ward

  "They are busy preparing for the EVAs. It is still a little unclear how all this is going to fit together. They are worried that zero-G will bring up issues that weren’t apparent on the ground.”

  "Frodo 2 here, Mission Control. Can we go home, now?" Cris whined.

  "Funny one, Frodo 2. Are you ready for your first EVA?" Houston asked.

  "Roger that, Mission Control. Frodo 1 is ready to maneuver us into position as soon as you give the go-ahead."

  The mission had designated Frodo 2, Cris Kelly, to assemble Module B first. It was expected to take approximately three hours EVA time.

  Frodo 3, John Dyer, would assemble Module C. It had been estimated to take about three hours for the second EVA and an additional two hours to mount the nuclear generators on all three modules.

  They practiced these maneuvers many times, as best they could, in Earth’s gravity. Hopefully things would go as smoothly in orbit. Hopefully! In gravity it took half the time it was expected to take when in orbit. But, being realistic, in zero-G it could possibly take a lot more time than expected to complete the assemblies. It was surprising how much gravity helps things happen. The friction felt in gravity against the ground provides something to push against. That crutch wouldn’t exist in zero-G. Even the air helped maneuver things while on the ground. All the same, even with all their practicing they were not expecting the merger of the modules to go as planned. There was hope that it would work out sufficiently, anyway.

  –––––––

  "Frodo 1, Houston here, we are taking over now from Florida. It is time for EVA 1. Is Frodo 2 suited up?"

  "Houston, I think he's been ready since stage two fired off. I am prepared to apply thrusters to bring us into range. By the way, radar shows Module C a little further away than we expected."

  "Roger that, Frodo 1. We'll deal with that later. You have permission to proceed."

  "Roger, Houston. I am starting main engine burn."

  The third stage's S4B rocket was fired again for a second. The side thrusters pushed Module A into position to turn in the direction of Module B at a slow 3 MPH. Module B was then rotated 180° so that Jason could fire a side thruster again to bring Module A to a complete stop with reference to Module B. This process would be repeated again for Module C.

  "Well, Cris, are you ready?" Jason asked.

  "You bet, Commander,” Cris responded to Jason eagerly. “I’m proceeding to the hatch."

  “You know I can see you, right, Cris? I’m only five feet away from you, and we’re in the same room!” Jason remarked wryly.

  “Yeah,” Cris said, “But it sounds so cool to verbalize every move.”

  “Just get out there and do that thing they sent us here to do, whatever it is! I already forgot why we’re here. Oh, yeah, some important space thing or another, I think it was.” Jason said.

  “Frodo 1, Houston here- boys!”

  Silence.

  “Yes, mom,” Frodo 1 said softly.

  The air hatch was designed to minimize the loss of air while allowing the maximum freedom for a man in a space suit. The suits were, after all, quite bulky. It was still a lousy design.

  "Opening the hatch as soon as you bring us to a stop, Commander."

  "Roger, Cris." There was a pause as Jason concentrated on the controls. "In 3, 2, 1 full stop!"

  "Roger. Opening the hatch. You do know, Commander, that getting in and out of this hatch is a real pain in the…"

  “Just do it, Colonel!” Jason interrupted.

  “Aye, aye, Captain. I was going to say pain in the neck,” Cris responded.

  The mechanical noise of the hatch opening was felt throughout the cabin. When it closed everything fell silent again.

  "Houston, Frodo 2 is EVA."

  "Roger that, Frodo 1. Keep us informed of your progress."

  "Roger that, Houston. Frodo 2, are you in position?"

  "Roger that, Commander. I am attached to Module B with the cable. You brought us into a really good position, sir."

  "Thanks for the compliment, but that was the easy part. Now it is up to you."

  "Roger that. I am using the side thruster of Module B to turn it around. Now it is in position. I am operating the winch."

  "Be careful with that winch. It might surprise you with its speed."

  "I am aware of that, Commander. It went well in training, but in zero-G I know it might go faster than I expect. And the module won’t stop easily, either!"

  "Just remember that, Cris. Keep your eye out for the unexpected."

  "Roger that, Commander. The module is now pulling towards the base. It all looks good. You should feel a small bump in about five seconds."

  Sure enough he was right on target. There was a small bump followed by a bit of scraping."

  "Don't mess up our paint job, Cris. I just put three coats of wax on it!"

  "Sorry about that, Commander. It got a little out of hand at the last moment. This monstrosity does weigh close to a hundred thousand pounds."

  "Roger that. All will be forgiven as soon as you get things tied down. You’ve been EVA for one hour."

  "Is that all? It seems like three."

  "You’ve heard of the space-time continuum, haven't you?"

  "Sure. So you might be 50 years older than me now, huh, Commander?"

  "Frodo 1, this is Houston. How about you boys sticking to business out there. You have a lot of people listening in on your blather down here."

  "Roger that, Houston. We'll stick to blather, er, business, sir."

  "How is it going, Colonel Kelly?" Hotson replied in an overly formal tone.

  "Very well Captain Hotson. The first bolts are in, and I'm heading for the other three locations. It all looks good, sir."

  "Thank you, Colonel Kelly. You are most gracious."

  "And you, sir. It's a pleasure working with such a professional as yourself, sir," Cris caught on to the overture.

  "And you, Colonel Kelly. Your expertise knows no limits, sir."

  "This is Houston. You've made your point. Just try a little harder to behave, please."

  "We are shocked, Houston. We always behave."

  Silence.

  Gene Kranz turned to his people, "Well, we did send boys to do a man's job."

  There was laughter all around. The astronauts did a good job of easing the tension they all felt.

  An hour forty five minutes later, "Houston, Module B is attached. We are opening the door between the modules and Frodo 2 will make the connections. The air control unit has automatically pressurized the cabin and it is now safe to enter."

  There were cheers in Houston, Florida, and in the Whitehouse.

  "Houston, here. Excellent job, Frodo 1. Our congratulations to Frodo 2. Please give him an extra cookie."

  "Keep it professional, Houston."

  "Sorry Frodo 1."

  “What's good for the goose is good for the gander,” Captain Hotson mumbled into the mic.

  Jason asked, "Cris, what is your status out there. It has been two and a half hours already."

  "I'm just testing a few connections, otherwise I am all done and it looks good."

  Jason said, "Excellent. We are ready for you to get back in here."

  "Roger that. I am at the airlock now." Cris responded.

  The cabin could feel the vibration from the airlock door opening and then closing. In a few minutes a tired Cris Kelly, Frodo 2, floated back inside the main capsule.

  "Where's John?" he said. "Did he go out for pizza?"

  "I hope he did, but I think he is still in Module B hooking things up. It looks like things could not have gone better."

  "Awesome, but now you have to get us to Module C. It won't be so easy this time. You have an extra load."

  "I know. I couldn't practice this back on Earth, so I will just have to wing it."

  Just then John Dyer, Frodo 3, came back into the room.

  "Boys, we now have a supply closet. And a potty! I've already tested it. Wow! What a relief. I do
n't know if I could have held it until we got back to Earth. But I think we are going to get really tired of the way that potty works. I think they put their worst engineers on the space toilet project. I have a feeling things are going to get really messy if we aren’t real careful!”

  Jason said, “Uh, John. You do know you still have your space suit on. Just how did you test it?”

  John ignored the question “And man, did they stock Module B with all sorts of boxes. I think they went overboard with supplies. We are only supposed to be here for just a few days."

  "Well, I suppose most of those boxes are full of wood or something to simulate the weight. This is supposed to be a practice run for future Moon missions," Cris said. "I think I'll look inside some of them later. I am curious what they put in them for ballast."

  "Let's get Module C on board first. Then you can play with the boxes."

  "Frodo 1, this is Houston. That's a negative. Don't open the boxes. We may need you to shift some things around, later, for some further testing. You need to maintain the integrity of the ballast, so having to tape them back up later could cause some problems. Plus, if anything gets loose it could cause a difficult situation in re-entry."

  "Roger that, Houston. We won’t play with your toys," Jason said.

  "You can come over to my house later and play with them, if you like. My kids might enjoy having another playmate."

  "Roger that, Houston. Work now. Play later. Got it."

  "You boys need to rest for four hours. It has been a long day for you. We will wake you up at 2300 Florida time."

  "Thanks, Houston. It has been a long day. Frodo 1 out."

  Dr. Kranz looked at his team. "I hope they didn't pick up on that faux pax. Modules B and C aren't supposed to be attached if they were going to do a re-entry, so why worry about the packages? Hopefully they were too tired to notice."

  Jerry responded, "Oops. You better talk to Houston. They’re going to need to fix this."

  "Roger that."

  Chapter 8–Preparing for New Orbit

  "Frodo 1, this is Houston. Wakee, wakee, boys!" A Jimmie Hendrix guitar ride blared through the speaker!

  "Uh, Houston. Shut off that noise! Call me back in eight hours. We're tired."

  "Up and at 'em, boys. We have a spaceship to finish putting together."

  "OK, Houston. Give us ten minutes to make ourselves presentable."

  "You'll need a lot more than that, Captain,” Houston said. “I'll call you back in thirty."

  The Apollo 6 crews had been deeply into REM sleep. The day so far had been exhausting. They were up at midnight getting ready for the flight. Getting into their spacesuits required some assistance in gravity. They had practiced getting them on and off hundreds of times! These were the real things, not the mockups they had been training with. There was no plan to take off the suits until after all the EVAs. Also, there were many last minute details. They were instructed that the onboard computer had been programmed for the orbit adjustment, and Captain Hotson would have little to do with the rocket burns. For now he was just piloting the construction project. But that took a lot of skill! Jason Hotson really was a good pilot.

  Computer-controlled flight was a new concept, but not totally unexpected. Apollo 6 had secretly been updated with a more advanced flight computer, internally. Future commercial aircraft would use this new NASA-perfected technology routinely. There was a lot of NASA technology floating around that had commercial applications. Apollo 6 had so many new breakthroughs that the commercial applications alone would have paid for many of the mission expenses–if they were a for-profit corporation.

  "Frodo 1, this is Houston. You may remember we are now your Mission Control. If you want to get paid, let's get to work."

  "Aye, aye, Dr. Feelgood,” Frodo 1 said. “We are up and ready for action."

  Frodo 2 piped up, “We get paid?”

  Mission Control barked, "OK, knock it off, Frodo 2! What is your status with respect to Module C?" Frodo 1.

  "I was tracking it just now. It seems that it has wandered away. It looks to be about six miles off-track. I don't think it is serious, but it will take a great pilot to catch up to it. Oh wait, that's me! With your permission I’ll start the maneuver."

  "Roger that,” Houston said. “One minute please."

  As Houston was confirming procedures, the Frodo crew was making preparations for the second EVA. Colonel John Dyer, Frodo 3, was heading for the airlock just as the permission to proceed was coming over the radio."

  "Frodo 1, Houston. You are cleared for your maneuver and EVA."

  "Roger that, Houston. Adjusting position now. Pulsing thrusters," Jason replied.

  Jason carefully applied the thruster power to gently turn the now-massive ship, which was about to become even more massive, in the direction that the radar said Module C was drifting. Everything was deathly quiet except for the occasional hiss from the thrusters and the quiet brrr from the CO2 scrubbing fan. Cris was considerate enough not to disturb the Captain, as he did the delicate maneuvers. As the module came into position Jason counteracted the rotation and applied forward thrust with the main engine. Frodo started its slow ascent to the patiently-waiting missing part of their ship.

  As the distance slowly narrowed Jason called out, "John? Are you in position?"

  "Yes, Commander. Ready to go."

  "I estimate we will be in rotational position in about two minutes. Hold on to something, although it should be quite gentle. We aren't quite used to zero-G yet."

  "Aye, aye, Captain. Just give me a heads up," Cris said.

  "Roger that. Cris, is the door to Module B sealed tight? I don't want it to be an issue if I lose control at some point."

  "Roger, Commander. Be advised, Captain, it would not be wise to lose control. I don't want to have to clean up the mess. Despite its drawbacks, I really like the potty in Module B. Please don’t shear it off, sir.”

  "Agreed. Hmmm. Get ready, John. We are almost in position. John? Here we go!"

  Jason gently applied the rotational thrusters to turn the ship 180° one more time. As it rotated, the rear camera brought Module C into view on the monitor.

  John said, "You're looking good, Commander. You might want to pick up the rotational speed a little as we are getting pretty close."

  Jason responded, "You Air Force guys really don't know how to fly, do you? You should drop by Pensacola some time and get some flying lessons from the Navy."

  John replied, "We might have to find a junkyard in space to buy spare parts for any damage you do if you mess this up, sir. You make more than I do, so you’ll have to cover it. That's all I'm saying."

  The ship finished rotation and Jason applied the reverse thrust to slow down the approach. Just in time, all forward motion ceased.

  "OK John. You are cleared to go."

  "Roger that, Commander. Great job, Captain! I’m going outside to check the weather now, boss."

  “Take an umbrella,” Jason said.

  The now familiar thump and vibration of the airlock door could be heard and felt throughout the ship. The second thump told them he had closed it. The light turned green on the console letting Jason know everything was A-OK.

  A few minutes later he said, "Well, what do you know? Module C is right here! Good flying, Navy."

  "How is it looking out there, John?" Frodo 1 said.

  "IT IS AMAZING! You can't see what the sky is really like looking at it from Earth."

  "Keep focused, John. Don't get space drunk."

  "Don't worry, Commander. This isn't my first trip to the zoo. But I cannot ever imagine getting used to this."

  "I know what you mean, Colonel. This job just keeps getting better and better."

  "Frodo 1. Mission Control. How's it looking out there, boys?"

  Houston, Frodo 1, "Frodo 3 is EVA. He is assessing the situation now. I will give you a report when he has one. In the meantime, do you have any news? Was our launch as quiet as we had hoped for? It's hard to keep a
Saturn V launch 'quiet' but you know what I mean. Are there any remarks from the news channels?"

  "No Frodo 1. It all went as planned. If you guys had exploded on the launch pad we might have had some explaining to do. Of course it would have been good news for the papers. They enjoy things like that."