A Mars Odyssey by Michel Poulin - HTML preview

CHAPTER 2 – A REAL NAIL BITTER

 

14:44 (California Time)

Friday, May 17, 2041

Launch Control Center, Vandenberg Space Center

California, U.S.A.

 

Despite his deep faith in the project he led, Robert Lithgow couldn’t help feel somewhat nervous as he looked at the video image of the huge disk and its six booster rockets displayed on the giant plasma screen of the Launch Control Center, situated inside a bunker at the Vandenberg Space Center. While he had carefully reviewed every possibilities for a launch failure and done his best to prevent them, nothing in space exploration and travel was risk-free. One seemingly insignificant mistake or oversight could be enough to delay the launch of the main section of the Human Space Ship FRIENDSHIP or, worse, lead to its destruction and loss at launch. If that last thing occurred, then it would set the Mars Home Project back by at least three years. Worse, it could shake the political support that the project so depended on in the long term to achieve its ultimate goals.

 

Lithgow briefly looked to his right at the other important guests who had come to Vandenberg to watch this critical space launch. Maria Cardona, the NASA Administrator, was here of course, along with Doctor Misha Borisovich, the head of Roskosmos, the Russian Space Agency, Wang Lao Xi, the head of the Chinese Space Agency, Michel Dupré, the head administrator of the European Space Agency, and Shinzo Kurozawa, the head of the Japanese Space Agency. Normally, the head of the Indian Space Agency, which had participated in the development and design of the H.S.S. FRIENDSHIP, would have been present as well. Sadly, Doctor Chandra Sahriman was now dead, along with his whole technical team and more than half of India’s population. Faced with an impending Pakistani land invasion of its parts of Kashmir and of the Punjab, the Indian government had issue an ultimatum to Pakistan to cease and desist, to which General Khan had replied by launching a ‘preemptive’ nuclear strike on India, concentrated against the main cities and military bases east and south of the Punjab. With over 140 Pakistani nuclear-tipped missiles in the air and with dozens of Pakistani combat aircraft loaded with tactical nuclear bombs flying into Indian airspace, the Indian government had no other option but to launch a retaliatory nuclear strike of its own on Pakistan. The subsequent explosion of over 290 nuclear warheads around the Indian Sub-Continent had killed instantly tens of millions of Indian and Pakistani citizens, with hundreds of millions more dying from radiation exposure in the weeks to follow. The radioactive fallouts, apart from irremediably contaminating most of the arable lands in both countries and ensuring mass famines in the near future, had also played havoc with a number of neighboring countries, contaminating vital agricultural lands, forests and rivers and forcing the mass evacuation of millions of Iranian, Afghan and Burmese citizens. Ismail Khan, the man who had started it all, had then compounded his stupidity with cowardice, fleeing by plane to China and abandoning his people to its grim fate. However, instead of being given refuge by the Chinese, who had been up to now his allies, Khan had been summarily executed on arrival by the furious Chinese, who were also suffering indirectly from the nuclear war that had happened on their doorstep. Sadly, that lone act of justice could not erase the fact that over a billion people had died in the last month, while tens of millions more would die from either famine or radiation poisoning during the next few months. Robert Lithgow momentarily felt a flash of anger as he remembered some of the cruel, racist comments he had heard on some of the most extreme right wing American radio stations, in which a few radio talk show hosts and their listeners had exchanged gleeful comments about the nuclear destruction of India and Pakistan, calling the deaths of over a billion people ‘an overdue culling of excess population’. However, the storm of public outrage that had followed had shut up those racists and even forced the closure of two of the most extreme right wing radio stations.

 

Chasing away with difficulty those awful souvenirs, Lithgow concentrated his attention back on the giant disk resting vertically on its edge, supported by six big integrated rocket-ramjet engine pods attached at the vertical to its underside and topside. The disk section itself, which had a diameter of 190 meters and a thickness of 36 meters, was capped with an aerodynamic cover along its top edge. That cover would prevent damage from air pressure and friction heat as the assembly would rise and take up speed within the atmosphere. It would also help make its flight more economical in fuel by virtue of its shape, which would make the disk section form an airfoil with appreciable aerodynamic lift coefficient and would cut drag as well. The cover would then be jettisoned before the disk section attained Low Earth Orbit, or LEO. As for the rocket-ramjet engine pods, they were essentially similar to the engine pods used by the new fleet of heavy cargo shuttles now in NASA service. Once their work of orbiting the disk section would be completed, the six integrated engine pods were going to detach themselves from the disk section and then individually reenter the atmosphere, to return and land in Vandenberg, which was now the prime space launching base in the United States. Cape Canaveral and its huge space complex had unfortunately been lost six years ago, along with most of the state of Florida, when it had been submerged by the rising sea.

 

      ‘’ONE MINUTE TO LAUNCH!... THIRTY SECONDS TO LAUNCH!... TEN SECONDS TO LAUNCH!... FIVE, FOUR, THREE, TWO, ONE! IGNITION!’’

Lithgow felt Maria Cardona’s hand search for his right hand and then press it nervously as the final seconds of the countdown were called. In response, the systems engineer and astrophysicist gave her a reassuring smile.

‘’Everything will be fine, Maria.’’

He didn’t have time to say more before the overhead speakers of the launch control room suddenly blared with the powerful rumble of six engine pods coming to life simultaneously, while huge flames came out of their exhaust nozzles, to be deflected sideways by specially built concrete-lined trenches. With a total initial thrust of 52,000 metric tons from the chemical rocket engines of the six pods, which burned liquid oxygen and RP-1¹, the huge 42,000 metric ton assembly, 16,000 tons of which was the disk section, started rising vertically at once from its launch pad. With nearly everyone in the launch control room excitedly shouting encouragements, the disk and its six engine pods quickly acquired speed, accelerating continuously as the volume of air entering the pods via their forward intake nozzles increased with speed, boosting further the mighty thrust of the engines via what was called ‘ram air effect’ and also making the engines more fuel efficient.

‘’GO, FRIENDSHIP, GO!’’ shouted Maria Cardona as the main section of her future spaceship reached the speed of sound while still climbing and accelerating. Once at a speed of Mach 2.1, the six integrated engine pods switched to nearly pure ramjet mode, injecting liquid hydrogen inside the ramjet tubes surrounding the chemical rocket engines, while the rocket engines throttled down to idle. The hydrogen, vaporized by the air heated via compression after entering the intake nozzles, helped greatly lower the temperature of that ingested air, thus improving the efficiency of the ramjet part of the engine pod. It was then mixed with the oxygen in the atmospheric air and ignited, creating huge thrust while operating at a fuel efficiency rate, or specific impulse in aerospace parlance, much greater than that of any pure chemical rocket engine. The ramjet engines went on until the big structure reached a speed of Mach 5.5 and an altitude close to 30,000 meters, where the air started becoming too rarefied to let the ramjet function. Then, the liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen chemical rocket engines of the pods ignited, taking over at an altitude where they could perform much more efficiently than at sea level. That ultimate thrust phase finished pushing the main disk section into its initial low Earth orbit, where the six integrated engine pods detached themselves under remote control and started flying back to Earth, where they would be inspected, refurbished and reused for other launches. The aerodynamic nose cover also detached itself a few seconds before that moment, but went down only to burn on reentry, as planned.

 

More wild cheers greeted the reaching of low initial orbit by the main section of the H.S.S. FRIENDSHIP, prompting Lithgow and Cardona to exchange happy handshakes and hugs with their foreign colleagues. Misha Borisovich in particular proved quite effusive, in line with his reputation for joviality and cheerfulness. He nearly crushed Maria Cardona in his arms when he cheerfully hugged her while celebrating the success of the launch.

‘’We did it, Maria! We did it!’’

‘’I know, Misha, but could you press a bit less strongly?’’

‘’Oh, sorry!’’ said the Russian astrophysicist, who was built like a bear. ‘’Still, to launch in orbit such a huge mass, and this without a single hitch. It must be a record.’’

‘’It is a record, Misha, and one that we can be extremely proud of. However, there is still a lot more to be done before we can send the H.S.S. FRIENDSHIP towards Mars and even more to be done before we end up with a self-sustaining colony on Mars. Hopefully, we will be able to achieve all that before Humanity destroys itself through sheer stupidity and lack of vision.’’

‘’Or is able to reverse this damn global warming and make the sea lower to its previous levels.’’ added Michel Dupré, of the European Space Agency, or ESA. Robert Lithgow nodded his head at that but inserted a comment of his own.

‘’That would definitely be nice to see, but even then I hope that our political leaders will understand that this project must be brought to its ultimate end state: a viable, self-sustaining colony on Mars. This global warming crisis was brought on by us, through our own lack of common sense. There is no way to know what other stupidity we will do in the future that could kill for good Earth’s ecosystems. We need to invest into space colonization, no ifs or buts!’’

‘’I fully agree with you, my friend.’’ said softly Misha Borisovich. ‘’Right now, we still don’t know the true extend of the damage done worldwide by that stupid Indo-Pakistani Nuclear War. As things grow worse, with seas rising and temperatures increasing, more such follies could easily happen.’’

The group slowly nodded their heads at those words before Robert Lithgow clapped his hands together and smiled to the others.

‘’Well, enough about the doomsday talk! How about if we go celebrate this success in style? I know a very good restaurant near the base where we could have supper together. I’m paying!’’

‘’Well, in that case, what are we waiting for?’’ exclaimed Borisovich, making the others laugh.

 

02:46 (Greenwich Meridian Time)

Monday, May 20, 2041

NASA light space shuttle AURORA

On approach to the H.S.S. FRIENDSHIP’s main section

Low Earth orbit

 

‘’Shuttle AURORA on final approach to docking station Alpha of main FRIENDSHIP’s section. Fifty meters and closing!’’

Denise Wattling, who was piloting the light shuttle, waited until her craft was within twenty meters before speaking again to the Vandenberg controller via radio.

‘’Going down the glide path nicely, autopilot and automated approach system fully synchronized. Approach speed: 0.4 meters per second… Five meters to docking port… Docking clamps engaging!’’

Denise then pressed a couple of buttons in sequence, tightening the docking clamps to render the docking collar airtight, then filling the nose airlock with warm, breathable air. She nodded her head inside her spacesuit’s helmet when an indicator light turned green.

‘’Nose airlock pressurized! We are now going to go inside FRIENDSHIP.’’

‘’Understood, AURORA! Proceed at your own pace.’’ replied the NASA controller. Denise then looked at her team leader, Mark Dempsey, sitting in the copilot’s seat.

‘’We can go inside the ship, Mark.’’

‘’Good! There is quite a lot to do for us in there.’’

Dempsey released the safety harness of his seat, then got up and put one boot down on the deck plate between the two forward seats of the light shuttle. As was now standard in all spacesuits, be they produced in the United States, Russia, China or Europe, the soles of his boots had a number of small permanent magnets incorporated into them. That allowed astronauts to cling to a spacecraft or ship’s decks, which were lined with very thin steel sheets. While that cost a bit in terms of mass, the fact that one could move and walk nearly normally even in zero gravity conditions made working and living in space so much easier. Even the soles of the astronauts’ inner slippers incorporated small magnets, for the same reason. Being cautious not to walk at a too brisk pace and thus risk breaking completely contact between the deck and his boots, the activation team’s leader walked down the wide central aisle of the light shuttle, passing by the seven members of his team who were sitting in their padded, crashworthy seats.

‘’Come on, guys and girls: time to get to work!’’

Imitated by Denise Wattling, who put her shuttle into dormant mode first, the members of the activation team got out of their seats and followed Dempsey down to the lower deck, where the airlock chamber of the nose docking ring was situated. Double-checking first that the airlock was properly pressurized, Dempsey then opened its wide, aluminum alloy door and entered the airlock. He let two members of his team join him, nearly filling the airlock, then gave a couple of orders.

‘’Seal your suits! Omar, close and secure the airlock’s door.’’

In theory, and with all instruments indicators telling him that the airlock on FRIENDSHIP’s side was pressurized, he could have simply left both doors of the shuttle’s airlock opened, thus accelerating greatly the rate at which his team members would enter the huge main section of the spaceship. However, instruments could go wrong for all kinds of reasons, while a bitterly learned lesson about space work was that about anything could happen at any time with little or no warning. He thus was resolved to play it safe all the way on this mission and not risk unnecessarily the lives of his team members. Once Omar Kawaji had closed back the shuttle’s inner airlock door, Mark opened the outer airlock door and glided inside the transfer chamber of the docking station’s airlock, followed by Roberto Calderon and Viktor Ponichnikov. He waited until Viktor had secured the shuttle’s airlock’ outer door before unlocking and opening the outer door of the spaceship’s airlock, revealing a wide chamber big enough for ten astronauts in spacesuits to stand in. All three astronauts then glided inside the spaceship’s airlock chamber and planted their boots on the steel-lined deck, with Viktor closing and securing the outer door before Mark spoke in his helmet’s microphone.

‘’The spaceship’s airlock is confirmed as pressurized. The rest of the team can now come in.’’

‘’Understood!’’ replied Denise Wattling, who was the second-in-command of the team, on top of being the pilot of their shuttle. Less than four minutes later, all nine members of the team were together in the spaceship’s airlock, with the outer doors of both the ship’s airlock and of the shuttle closed. Mark paused for a second before opening the inner door of the airlock: they were about to enter the largest space structure ever put in orbit. He then corrected himself: that space structure was still incomplete, with many more sections to be added to it before it became a fully flyable spaceship.

 

The activation team members were happy when they were able to finally open the visors of their spacesuits’ helmets once inside the large reception area of the docking station: No matter how well designed a spacesuit was, there was always a claustrophobic element to them. At this time, however, the reception area, like the rest of the ship, was only dimly lit by secondary lights powered by the solar panels that had deployed out of the main disk section once it had attained its parking orbit. They would have to activate first the main and secondary nuclear reactors of the spaceship before the main disk section could be fully powered up. Mark Dempsey thus looked at Viktor Ponichnikov, the nuclear engineer loaned to this mission by Roskosmos, the Russian space agency.

‘’Viktor, you take Max with you and go activate the two nuclear reactors of the spaceship. I will go with Denise to the central command section to activate the other ship systems from there, while Jiang Min will lead the rest into the carrousels to remove the braking clamps, so that we could initiate their rotation. Let’s go!’’

The team then started walking down the seventy meter-long padded tube that linked Docking Station Alpha to the central axis section that contained both the central command section and the nuclear reactors’ compartments. Twenty meters down the tube, five of the team members, led by Jiang Min, split from the rest of the group and entered a side airlock that led to the contra-rotating carrousels of the ship. The two huge carrousels, which actually worked like rings running on circular racetracks rather than carrousels with moving spokes, were each contained in adjacent but separate, airtight sections, so that any accidental decompression would not endanger both carrousels. Jiang Min, a member of the Chinese Space Agency, knew pretty much everything about those carrousels, as his own father had designed what was possibly one of the most critical components of the H.S.S. FRIENDSHIP. One reason for the failure of the previous Mars One Mission had been the poor health on arrival on Mars of the astronauts, partly due to the long time spent traveling in zero gravity conditions. Thus, incorporating some sort of a rotating carrousel section into the next generation of spaceships, so that some artificial gravity could be created via centrifugal effect, had been one of the prime lessons from that tragic failure. The genius of Min’s father, Jiang Chao, had been to do away with the space-consuming moving spokes that came with classic carrousels. Struck by the sight of open cars going up and down a roller-coaster track at an amusement park, Chao had adapted the roller-coaster concept to a spaceship design, with a system of two airtight rectangular-section rings turning smoothly in opposite directions inside circular tunnels, using magnetic cushions similar to those of high-speed maglev trains. This eliminated the need for heavy and complicated rotating spokes and their supports, with their problematic central axis seals around their base rings. It also insured a complete separation, pressure-wise, of the two carrousels, or ‘running rings’, as Chao preferred to call them. The compactness of the design had also permitted design engineers to surround them with various auxiliary systems and hydrogen fuel tanks, which gave the carrousels precious and effective anti-radiation protection against space radiations, including deadly energetic cosmic rays. Finally, it greatly simplified internal circulation aboard the spaceship, with crewmembers not having to go down a long, rotating communication spoke and then go up another one just to go from one carrousel to another. Instead, crewmembers could do like Jiang Min was now doing, stepping inside a transfer compartment and then going four meters down a tube with a metallic ladder. He and his four companions ended in a three meter-wide by four meter-long compartment featuring two airtight doors, one at each end but on opposite corners. A few small armored windows gave the astronauts a view into the two dormant carrousels, both immobile and obscure save for the sparse light from secondary lamps.

‘’Alright, follow me, friends!’’ said Jiang Min before opening the inner door of the airlock giving access to the forward carrousel. Once his whole group was inside that airlock, he secured the inner door and checked on an indicator panel that the forward carrousel was effectively pressurized and that its air was breathable. Only then did he open the outer door, which swung inside the airlock, and set foot on the narrow platform adjacent to the edge of the top level deck of the forward carrousel, also known as the Promenade Deck. Looking left and right, he saw the apparently endless floor of the Promenade Deck, which curved gently upward on both sides along the circumference of a circle with a radius of 65 meters. That deck was a full seven meter-wide and its ceiling stood over four meter-high, giving it a very generous internal volume compared to that of even orbital space stations. There were however three additional decks under this one, while another, similar carrousel stood on the other side of an airtight wall separating the two carrousels. Keiko Minegumi smiled with contentment as she eyed the vast carrousel space.

‘’This is great! Such vast spaces should do wonders for the morale of the future crew of the FRIENDSHIP. And to be able to travel as well while feeling close to one G of artificial gravity along the whole trip to Mars will prevent so many health issues.’’

‘’Those were exactly the reasons that pushed our respective space program managers into requiring that this ship have contra-rotating carrousels, Keiko.’’ said Min. ‘’However, those carrousels won’t start to rotate by themselves, so let’s get to work! Keiko, Roberto, you come with me down the left side. Benjamin and Omar, you go down the right side. Remember, we have a total of eight braking clamps to disengage on both sides. We will meet again here once we complete our tour around this carrousel.’’

 

On their part, Mark Dempsey and Denise Wattling went down the communication tube all the way to the central axis core section, which contained the most vital systems of the spaceship deep within its bowels and well protected against the most penetrating radiations. They again had to open an airtight door before exiting the tube and entering the core section, carefully closing it back before proceeding further: in space, safety rules, while sometimes appearing to be inflexible, always had a clear purpose and one only ignored them at their peril. Securing back every airtight door you went through was possibly one of the most primordial of those safety rules. Using their magnetic soles to walk along the surfaces of the compartments they went through, the pair soon arrived at a section surrounded by a water-filled jacket. That section, which contained the command and control systems of the spaceship, was also meant to act as an ultimate anti-radiation citadel for the crew in the case of abnormally powerful solar storms or cosmic ray shower. Even the access hatch to that section had its own water jacket, making it distinctly heavier than the other airtight doors in the ship. Going through that hatch and closing it, the two astronauts then floated to the airtight door of the command center proper and entered that compartment, which was filled with work stations, status display screens, computers and padded seats. Mark Dempsey went first to the work station reserved for the duty engineer and strapped himself in its seat, while Denise Wattling went to the communications station. The first thing Mark did was to check on the auxiliary power systems, to see if all the solar energy panels of the spaceship had properly deployed once the disk section had attained parking orbit. To his satisfaction, all of the solar panels, along with the multiple radiator panels, had deployed correctly.

‘’Excellent! Even without the nuclear power plant online, we already have enough juice to light up the inside of the ship. Let there be light!’’

Throwing in succession a series of switches, he was rewarded by the main ceiling lamps of the compartment lighting up. Throwing another series of switches turned on the ventilation and air recycling system of the central core section.

‘’It is now safe to open our visors, Denise.’’

‘’Thanks! On my part, I am in audio and visual communication with the other members of the team. I am now switching on the internal and external surveillance cameras of the ship.’’

Mark was about to ask a question to Denise when the instruments on his work station registered a sudden and massive surge in electrical power on the main circuits. That prompted him to call Viktor Ponichnikov, who had gone to the main reactor plant with Max Kruger.

‘’Hey, Viktor! That was some fast work!’’

‘’Hell,’’ replied the Russian nuclear engineer, ‘’I only had to throw a few switches and power breakers! No need to praise me for so little.’’

‘’Alright then, I will say instead that you simply did your usual, barely adequate work, Viktor.’’

The noise that the Russian made in response made Mark and Denise laugh briefly. With plenty of electrical power now at hand, Mark next contacted Jiang Min and his team.

‘’Min, this is Mark. How are you doing in the carrousels?’’

‘’We have taken off up to now five of the rotating brakes of the forward carrousel. I will call you back when both carrousels will be ready for rotation. By the way, thanks for the extra lights and powers.’’

‘’Thank Viktor for that!’’

Mark and Denise then concentrated on running a long, extensive checklist of systems, making sure that the powerful vibrations caused at launch had not disconnected some wires or shaken some equipment loose. They were still going down their checklist when Min called back twenty minutes later.

‘’Mark, this is Min! All the rotating brakes have now been released. We are ready to start the rotation of the carrousels.’’

‘’Excellent! Just brace yourselves at first, in case of some glitch.’’

‘’We are all strapped into seats on the top deck main promenade, Mark. You may go ahead now.’’

‘’Understood! Powering up the magnetic cushions and rotation motors now!’’

Mark watched like a hawk the various indicators connected to the rotating carrousels as he very gradually powered them up. His biggest fear was that the strong vibrations at launch would have deformed the rings or their running tracks, thus making useless a vital part of the ship. To his relief, everything seemed to be working smoothly at first.

‘’Min, how are things sounding and feeling out there?’’

‘’I can hear the soft humming of the magnetic motors and I also can feel a growing sensation of gravity here. Keep going!’’

Encouraged by those words, Mark continued to gradually augment the rotation speed of the carrousels, until they attained their normal operating speed of 3.7 revolutions per minute.

‘’How’s that now, Min?’’

‘’I can tell you that we are now feeling a centrifugal force of 0.84 G here on the Promenade Deck of the forward carrousel. Ben, how are things in the aft carrousel?’’

Benjamin Weiss answered Min nearly at once on the radio.

‘’Our carrousel is also rotating smoothly, with a local felt centrifugal force of 0.84 G. Me and Omar will now go configure the inside of our carrousel for rotating status.’’

‘’Acknowledged! I will do the same here with Keiko and Roberto.’’ replied Min.

‘’Great work, all of you!’’ said Mark on the radio. ‘’And that includes you, Viktor! You may now go to your assigned cabins and get out of your spacesuits before continuing your work: it will make your jobs a lot easier to be in light internal suits.’’

Mark next looked at Denise, still sitting at the communications station.

‘’You may go to your designated cabin now and take off your spacesuit before coming back here. I will man the communications with Vandenberg in the meantime.’’

‘’Thanks, Mark! I will make it quick.’’

 

The tall blonde ex-fighter pilot got up from her padded seat and floated out of the command center, then went to the circulation tube connecting the core section with the third quadrant of the disk section. Denise chose to continue floating while negotiating the tube for fifty meters, as she loved to go around in zero gravity. Then transferring into the forward carrousel, she walked part of its top deck circumference, going to the secondary staircase leading down to the portion of the second deck where her assigned cabin was situated. Along the way, she couldn’t help admire and appreciate the décor of the Main Promenade: everything had been done to provide the crew of the H.S.S. FRIENDSHIP with an environment that would do the utmost to make them forget that they were actually in a spaceship on a trip away from Earth. Ultra-large, Super High Definition 3-D displays made to look like windows giving views to the outside, showed a variety of beautiful Earth sceneries, complete with appropriate soundtracks of wind blowing and birds singing. The displayed videos were actually films recorded in situ on Earth and covering in real time over a year of constant filming, adding a touch of seasonal changes to the reality of the scenery displayed. The furniture along the promenade, while made with lightweight materials, had been designed to look like old-fashioned furniture instead of the techno look too common on orbital space stations. Denise actually passed by displays showing the city of Paris at night, as would have been seen from one of the observation decks of the famous Eiffel Tower, as she approached the stairwell that was her destination. Those views of Paris also were quite appropriately displayed in the area occupied on the Promenade Deck by the bar-lounge of the ship, with soft accordion music reminiscent of the 1920s piped out by an overhead speaker. Further on the Promenade Deck, Denise could see the area of the crew cafeteria, which had been made to look like the inside of a classic road-side American dinner restaurant, complete with partitioned booths with tables and padded benches, while the display screens in that section showed the panorama of a Midwest prairie, with a busy highway running by the dinner.

‘’This is as close to a dream spaceship as I will ever see.’’ Said Denise to herself as she went down the stairs leading to the second deck, where individual crew cabins were. Her own cabin, numbered 047, shared a bathroom with the adjacent Cabin 048 and was situated only ten meters from the foot of the staircase leading up to the Promenade Deck. Pushing open the sliding door of her cabin, Denise stood for a moment in the doorway while eyeing her personal accommodations. Her cabin was actually configured like a mini-suite, with a small lounge with a sofa, work desk and wall entertainment unit next to the entrance. Crossing the lounge in four wide steps, she entered the adjacent bedroom, a compact affair containing a fairly large bed with storage drawers underneath, a clothes closet with storage shelves and an airtight compartment with a solid door meant to act as an emergency refuge in case of a sudden, catastrophic decompression. That emergency compartment also acted as a storage locker for one spacesuit, something that allowed Denise to get out of her own custom-fitted spacesuit. Now wearing a two-piece internal ship outfit and a pair of soft slippers with magnetic soles, she took out of one of the drawers under her bed the large personal effects bag that had been stored there before the launch of the disk section and that contained her spare clothes, personal things and hygiene kit that would help her spend the next two months aboard the spaceship. She then used a couple of minutes to distribute her things between her bedroom closet, the drawers of her lounge’s work desk and the small cabinet reserved for her use inside the common bathroom she would share with Keiko Minegumi, the assigned occupant of Cabin 048. That bathroom was small but it did contain a standard flush toilet, a sink and counter and a shower stall, plus a padded bench to sit down, plus wall hooks for towels. The toilet and sink were meant to be used only when the carrousels were rotating and providing artificial gravity, but a zero gravity toilet stall was situated thirty meters down the hallway, in case of a malfunction of the carrousels. If that ever happened, then a safety cover would automatically slide in place over her flush toilet and sink, preventing their use. The last touch that Denise put to her cabin before leaving it was to hang from a pre-installed wall hook a framed picture of her parents. At the age of 38, she still was not married and had no children, as she had concentrated her life on her career as a fighter pilot first, then on her second career as an astronaut. In this, Denise was far from being an oddity in NASA’s Astronaut Corps. Once she was satisfied that everything in her cabin was in order, she left to return to the command center and replace Mark Dempsey there.

 

07:13 (GMT)

Crew cafeteria, Promenade Deck of the forward carrousel

 

The nine astronauts joined back together at the crew cafeteria for breakfast, or for whatever kind of meal their stomach felt like having, as the official ship time, synchronized with the Greenwich Meridian, was eight hours ahead of the local time at Vandenberg Space Base, from where their light shuttle had taken off. While the cafeteria of the H.S.S. FRIENDSHIP was equipped to serve a wide variety of food, either fresh, freeze-dried or out of tin cans, its pantry and cold room was presently mostly empty, as the disk section had to be as light as possible initially for its launch into orbit. However, a couple of tons of foodstuff and beverages had been stored aboard prior to launch, so that Dempsey’s team could have something to eat during their two month-long stay. Heavy shuttles would come later to fill the storage rooms of the ship, bring to orbit the remaining sections of the FRIENDSHIP and fill its fuel tanks.

 

Denise finally decided to go for a supper menu after reviewing the list of rations available and selected Chicken à la King with rice for her meal, along with a glass of fresh milk. Ripping open the two pouches containing the two main components of her meal and pouring their content in a deep, partitioned plastic food tray, she then put the tray inside one of the microwave ovens lining one of the service counters of the cafeteria, heating her food before grabbing her tray and glass of milk and walking to one of the booths of the cafeteria. Seeing Mark Dempsey already sitting in a booth and eating with Viktor Ponichnikov, she decided to join them and went to their booth, stopping beside it and smiling to the two male occupants.

‘’Would you guys mind if I sit at your table?’’

Viktor gave her an amused smile on hearing her question.

‘’And why would we refuse to eat with one of the only two women aboard, and a pretty blonde at that?’’

‘’Ha! I smell an ulterior motive in your answer, Viktor.’’

‘’Well, I am a nuclear engineer and I like to plan things in advance. That goes both on and off work for me. Please sit, Denise.’’

Denise put her tray, utensils and glass down on the table before sitting next to Mark Dempsey, facing Viktor. A quick look told her that the Russian had gone for a supper of Beef Stroganoff, while Mark had selected a steak with mashed potatoes.

‘’I see that you guys went for substantial meals, rather than for breakfast menus.’’

‘’Hey, we did work hard and accomplished a lot in the last few hours.’’ replied Mark, a 43 year-old systems engineer who had built a successful private career for himself before a NASA recruiter had convinced him to join the space agency. ‘’And we still have lots left to do, so why stay hungry? After all, the ship’s gymnasium is well equipped and we could burn there any excess calories that we eat.’’

‘’You know that there is a nicely equipped sauna and baths section next to the gymnasium, right?’’ said Viktor while looking with a malicious expression at Denise. ‘’There are also massage tables and even bubble baths there.’’

‘’Hum, you definitely have ulterior motives, Viktor…but I would be happy to sink into a hot tub with you and the rest of the gang tonight.’’

That made the Russian rub his hands together, while glee showed on his face.

‘’Yes! The more people, the merrier!’’

‘’Please excuse him, Denise.’’ cut in Mark with a smirk. ‘’They found him somewhere deep in Siberia, so he is somewhat lacking in social skills.’’

‘’That’s alright with me, Mark: I appreciate lonely, sex-starved men from deep in the woods and snow.’’

Keiko Minegumi and Roberto Calderon, who were eating at the booth across the aisle from their booth, obviously heard that and gave falsely indignant looks at Denise.

‘’Denise! I didn’t know that you were like that!’’ exclaimed the Spaniard before lowering his voice and adding in a conspiratorial tone. ‘’Can we join you in the hot tub tonight?’’

‘’Only if Keiko comes in as well.’’ replied Denise, straight-faced, before bursting into a giggle. ‘’God, this really sounds risqué, isn’t it?’’

‘’The more risqué, the better!’’ said Viktor. ‘’Hey, our respective space agencies have been too hypocritical and prudish for too long on the subject of sex in space, so why not push the envelope a bit now? With the incredible facilities aboard this ship and its artificial gravity environment, most of the old excuses to ban sex in space no longer hold water.’’

Keiko Minegumi, a pretty, 36 year-old computer scientist, bent towards Viktor while pointing an accusing index at him.

‘’I heard that some unspeakable things happened in orbit years back, aboard your MIR space station, Viktor. You wouldn’t know anything about that, by chance?’’

The jovial Russian put on a falsely offended expression at that question.

‘’Me? Why would I know anything about those space sex experiments?’’

That declaration made the whole group break out in laughter. Holding her own laughter with difficulty, Denise shook an index at the Russian.

‘’Viktor, you are a real pervert!’’

‘’And a proud one at that! This however leaves an existential question to answer.’’

His four companions looked at each other with confusion, until Roberto asked Viktor about it.

‘’And what would that question be, by chance?’’

‘’Simple: do we bathe together tonight with or without bathing suits?’’ replied the grinning Russian, winking twice. A concert of ‘OOOHH’ then came from the four other members of their team, who had been eating in nearby booths and had been listening with widening grins to the exchange. Denise then answered Viktor while keeping a straight face.

‘’That’s easy enough to answer: I didn’t bring a bathing suit with me.’’

‘’OOOOOHHH!’’

 

19:50 (GMT)

Baths and saunas section, aft carrousel

H.S.S. FRIENDSHIP

Low Earth orbit

 

‘’God, all my muscles are aching from moving around and unpacking so many storage crates!’’ groaned Roberto Calderon as he slowly slid down in the hot, bubbling water of the communal tub, in which Viktor Ponichnikov and Mark Dempsey already soaked. While Roberto and Viktor had come fully naked, Mark, as a married man with values that were a bit conservative, was wearing a swimming trunk.

‘’Maybe we should lower a bit the rotation speed of the carrousels, to decrease the felt gravity when we have some hard physical work to do.’’ suggested Viktor, making both Mark and Roberto nod their heads.

‘’Not a bad idea, actually.’’ said Mark. ‘’It would certainly help us in those physical jobs, while it won’t really impact the living conditions aboard. A temporary decrease to a felt gravity of 0.5 G should do the trick.’’

‘’I agree!’’ said Roberto, who was then silent for a moment, apparently thinking, before he spoke again. ‘’You know, this brought back to my mind a question that I have been asking myself for months now.’’

‘’Oh, and what would that question be?’’ asked Viktor.

‘’It is about the felt gravity on Mars. As you all know, it stands at 37% of Earth’s gravity, or 0.37 G. Now, if we are going to establish a human colony on Mars, its future inhabitants will be living permanently in a 0.37 G environment.’’

‘’So?’’ said Mark, not seeing yet Roberto’s point.

‘’So, that means that any Mars colonist who would be born on Mars and would grow up there would basically be unable to go to Earth and live there or even visit normally: he or she would be too weak and fragile in terms of muscle mass and bone structure to be able to withstand Earth’s gravity and would probably end up going around in a wheelchair or using an exo-skeleton force multiplier. Basically, future Martians would not be able to visit Earth. Now, what could we possibly do to prevent such an outcome?’’

‘’Hum, you are raising a very valid concern here, Roberto.’’ said Viktor, caressing his short, carefully trimmed beard. ‘’The obvious solution at first would be to use centrifuges to keep Martian citizens accustomed and fit to endure Earth’s gravity, but such centrifuges typically weigh tons, consume a lot of power and space and you would also need thousands or even tens of thousands of them to accommodate every Martian in, say, a hundred years or so. Not what I would call a very practical solution.’’

The trio was then left silent for a moment as they thought that problem over. Roberto finally spoke slowly, obviously still thinking about the problem.

‘’Maybe I should talk with Min about this: his father designed the ‘running ring’ system that we use as a carrousel aboard. Maybe he could ask his father to think about that problem?’’

‘’That’s actually a good idea, Roberto: Jiang Chao is universally considered a true genius when it comes to applied physics engineering. You should talk with Min about that tomorrow.’’

‘’I’ll do that! We…’’

Roberto was cut short by the entrance in the hot tub compartment of Denise Wattling and Keiko Minegumi. Both wore large towels wrapped around their bodies, towels that covered their chests, bellies and groins. Viktor was starting to feel some disappointment at seeing them covered, until both women let drop their towels, ending completely nude, before sitting down on the ledge of the tub and sliding down slowly into the hot, bubbling water. Denise gave an apologetic smile to Mark as her firm breasts sank under the water.

‘’Sorry if this could embarrass you, Mark, but I really didn’t bring a swimsuit up in orbit with me. As for Keiko, any good Japanese will tell you that a hot bath must be taken nude.’’

‘’That’s right!’’ confirmed the computer scientist. ‘’Communal hot baths are an old tradition in Japan and having men and women mix in is considered quite normal there.’’

‘’Who are we to dispute such a healthy practice?’’ replied a smiling Viktor, who then nudged a bit closer to Denise. He was pleased to see that she didn’t move away then and didn’t show any sign of discomfort or tension. However, he didn’t go closer still, not wanting to push his luck or incommode the tall blonde. Instead, he deviated the conversation by telling Denise and Keiko about Roberto’s misgivings about the ability of future Martians to withstand Earth’s gravity. His diversion worked, with both women making comments and suggestions of their own for the next minute or so. The conversation soon turned into a kind of round-table meeting about the work done that day and what was next on the to-do list for tomorrow. After a half hour or so of conversation, Mark decided that he was starting to feel like a cooked lobster and excused himself for the night before climbing out of the tub and walking out. Denise then pushed herself up by a few centimeters, making her nipples rise to just under the surface of the bubbling water. Viktor got her silent message and snuggled closer to her, until their shoulders touched each other. Seeing that, Roberto took a chance and moved closer to Keiko. The Japanese woman didn’t object to that and smiled to him.

‘’We discussed enough about work already. How about talking about us instead?’’

‘’A good idea, Keiko. What would you like to know?’’

‘’Well, I already know that you are single, with no children. That is a bit surprising for a man as handsome as you. Are Spanish women immune to your charms?’’

That last question brought a grin on the face of the Spanish aerospace engineer.

‘’Hardly! The truth is that I love my job and am quite dedicated to it. Watching around me what happened to the marriages of other dedicated engineers I know, who worked long hours and were often absent from home, like me, convinced me that marrying would mean having to spend much less time at work. While I am not a workaholic, I do take the time needed to make the best job I can. A marriage for me would thus probably end eventually in a divorce or separation, something that I would hate to see ever happen. Thus, I continued concentrating on my job. I do date occasionally women, of course, but I always tell them that there could be no future to it. This is even truer now that I will be in space for long periods.’’

‘’Well, you are honest about it, Roberto, something I like. In Japan, we have a similar situation: many men still follow the old work ethics mentality of the so-called ‘company salary man’. They work long hours, mostly to look good to their bosses, then go drink with their male work comrades until the late hours of the night, before returning stone drunk to their homes. In the past decades, the Japanese women had to accept this and mostly stayed silent about it, taking care of their home and kids alone and rarely going out with their husbands. However, that started to change in the early 2,000s, with more and more Japanese women speaking up and revolting against that culture. A growing number of Japanese women stayed single, often living with other single women in order to be able to pay the rent of their apartments, which is astronomical in Japan. As a result, the birth rate in Japan went way down, resulting in an aging population and a slow but steady decrease in population numbers. That last thing actually helped Japan avoid the overpopulation problem that too many other countries have been experiencing.’’

‘’And did the Japanese men learn their lessons then and paid more attention to their wives?’’ asked Viktor, whose submerged right hand was discretely roaming over Denise’ lower body, while the blonde’s own left hand was covering the Russian’s groin.

‘’HA! Fat chance! They instead appealed to our patriotic sense, enjoining us to marry and have more children, in order to make the population younger. That mostly didn’t work. Now, in Japan, you have a society mostly divided along gender lines, with only a minority of traditional couples, while a majority of the women stay single and have one or two children from passing male friends that they then raise as single parents. Those children often end up being raised in female-only households and I must say that they are generally much happier and better cared for than in most traditional homes. The Japanese traditional men pretend that this creates effeminate boys, but that argument was widely ridiculed and only hardened our resolve not to be taken for granted by men. I myself was raised in such a female-only household.’’

‘’Wow! A war of the sexes!’’ exclaimed Denise. ‘’I however must say that I can understand the attitude of the Japanese women, Keiko. If I married and my husband treated me like what you say the Japanese men do, then I would leave him pretty quickly. Thankfully, most American men have proven to be devoted to their families, rather than to their work.’’

‘’Lucky American women!’’ replied Keiko, sighing. ‘’And you, Viktor, how do Russian men treat Russian women?’’

‘’Uh, that is a bit complicated, Keiko.’’ answered the Russian, suddenly becoming quite serious. ‘’The real scourge of the Russian society, and this for many past decades already, is alcoholism. Russian men always drank hard and often, something that unfortunately caused too frequent cases of wife abuse and brutality. Unfortunately, old habits die slowly and that problem is still widespread. The despair and fears caused by the climate calamities of the past couple of decades have in fact worsened the problem, with alcohol consumption rates shooting up. This may sound incredible, but vodka may eventually be the death blow of the Russian society, rather than the rising seas and increasing temperatures. I myself am no teetotaler, but I am realistic enough to see how grave that problem is in Russia.’’

The two men and two women were silent for a moment as they thought about the various problems faced by the Human race. Roberto Calderon was the first to speak again, trying to deflect the conversation.

‘’So, do any of you plan to volunteer to eventually go live on Mars permanently?’’

‘’I do!’’ answered at once Keiko. ‘’I have no real personal attachments in Japan and the Mars Home Project will truly be the adventure of a lifetime. And you, Roberto?’’

‘’I am still undecided, but I am sorely tempted to go, mostly for its technological challenge.’’

‘’I will definitely want to go, if I can get through the mission’s crew selection process.’’ said Denise, making Viktor look at her while smiling.

‘’And what makes you think that you could fail the selection process, Denise?’’

‘’The fact that the psychological and personality requirements for the mission will actually be even more stringent than the scientific and technical abilities requirements. Will they want to have a fun-loving single girl aboard, someone who could attract male attention and possibly trigger jealousy and male infighting?’’

‘’I see no problems with having a fun-loving girl around me.’’ said sneakily Viktor while his hand concentrated on a particular spot of Denise’s body. ‘’As for me, I will definitely want to go to Mars. Without wanting to brag, they will need a talented and experienced nuclear engineer like me on the mission. On the other hand, I fervently hope that, if my old boss in Moscow applies for the trip, that he will be refused on personality grounds: while he is a true scientific genius, he also happens to be a first class asshole. If we ever end up traveling together to Mars, I may just kill him.’’

‘’WEEE!’’ then shouted Denise, taking her three comrades by surprise. ‘’A murder-mystery on a spaceship! That sounds fun!’’

While realizing that she had said that as a joke, Viktor, Keiko and Roberto all stared at Denise with false indignation tainted with amusement.

 

14:38 (GMT)

Friday, May 24, 2041

Hangar Number One, forward face of Disk Section

H.S.S. FRIENDSHIP, in Low Earth Orbit

 

‘’Denise, the heavy cargo shuttle CONDOR is now on final approach. You may now exit your hangar and go to your planned standby position.’’

‘’Acknowledged, Mark. I am launching out of the hangar now.’’ answered Denise before tripping the switch that released the docking clamps holding her space tug to its hangar berth. Pushing another button made the space tug fly forward from the gentle push of a pneumatic piston at the center of the berthing cradle. Floating slowly out of its hangar, situated near the forward outer edge of the ship’s disk section, the space tug then started maneuvering under the commands of Denise, using the small craft’s thrusters. Going up and then reversing course, Denise piloted her space tug to a position about a hundred meters behind the disk section, where she stopped and waited. She could clearly see the big heavy cargo shuttle, which measured a good 120 meters long and had a span of 84 meters, through the transparent sphere of thick acrylic that constituted the crew compartment of the space tug. A few anti-collision bars protected that sphere against accidental bumps that could happen during maneuvering with a heavy load. The load she was to put in place today was now being raised out of the large dorsal cargo hold of the shuttle. After a minute or so, the voice of the shuttle’s pilot came on the radio.

‘’Space tug, this is the CONDOR. You are now free to approach and grab my piece of cargo, over.’’

‘’Space tug understood! Am approaching now from your overhead side.’’

First firing up her maneuver thrusters and starting her approach towards the heavy cargo shuttle, Denise then deployed and swung into place the four telescopic capture arms of her tug, then adjusted their angle and separation distance from each other so that their multi-configuration gripping extremities could fit around the shuttle’s payload. That payload was in fact the first module of the aft hull section of the H.S.S. FRIENDSHIP. Of square section and 31 meters long, that module was to be connected by one end to the disk section of the ship, which constituted the main building block of the FRIENDSHIP. Once in place, it would be used as an attachment point for up to four external liquid hydrogen tanks, which would be used to feed the nuclear rocket engines of the ship during its initial boost towards Mars, plus four liquid argon tanks that would fuel magneto-plasma cruise engines. A total of five such modules were due to be connected end to end behind the disk section. Then, once completed, the aft section would receive the sixteen PHOENIX 2000 nuclear rocket engines that would be used as the FRIENDSHIP’s main space propulsion engines.

 

Keeping her approach speed low, Denise carefully flew her space tug to a position parallel and above the big module, then pivoted on the spot to face the rear face of the ship’s disk section.

‘’Space tug to CONDOR, am now initiating payload capture maneuvers.’’

‘’CONDOR acknowledged! Payload retaining clamps now off.’’

Activating again her MMH² and N2O4³-fuelled attitude thrusters, Denise slowly flew down to meet the module. When the grappling extremities of her capture arms were less than three meters from the aft section module, she switched to automated approach mode, letting her flight computer direct the final part of her docking maneuver. While she prided herself in knowing that she could easily pilot her tug during the whole maneuver, she still used the automated approach mode as a further safety measure against unexpected difficulties, but she stayed vigilant the whole time, monitoring her approach on her computer screen. In space, the old saying of ‘Haste makes waste’ held true. With small laser beacons embedded around each attachment points of the payload, the sensors in the capture arms enabled her craft to get into perfect position, then activated the gripping ends of the capture arms, making them grab solidly the aft section module. A green light indicator on her instruments panel lit up, telling Denise that she now had a firm grip on her payload.

‘’CONDOR, from space tug: I have the payload in my control. I am now going to approach the ship with it.’’

‘’CONDOR understood!’’

With a mass of over forty metric tons clamped to her capture arms, Denise fired up for two seconds her main chemical rocket engine, in order to accelerate it towards the aft central axis point of the disk section. Now approaching the disk section at a speed of 0.8 meters per second, Denise carefully fired her positioning thrusters, slowly lining her tug and its payload with the central axis point. At the ultimate moment, when the end of her payload was less than six meters from its intended attachment point, she fired up her retro-thrusters, slowing down to an approach speed of 0.2 meters per second. Again, her flight computer controlled the final positioning maneuver. Denise grinned with contentment when her instruments told her that her payload had been safely delivered in its intended spot and was now secured in place by mooring clamps.

‘’Space tug to FRIENDSHIP: the first aft section module is now securely in place, with its docking clamps on. You may now test the module for airtight integrity, over.’’

‘’Checking pressurization integrity now!... Everything seems to be okay: no pressure leaks detected and all the electrical and data connectors registering as being under tension. You may now return to your hangar, Denise. Good job!’’

‘’Thanks, Mark!’’

Detaching her gripping hands first and then pivoting and retracting her capture arms in travel position, Denise again fired up her thrusters, this time to fly back to her hangar.

 

During the next three weeks, Denise ended up flying out in the space tug of the ship a total of twelve more times, taking delivery of various ship sections and components and assembling them to the rest of the FRIENDSHIP. Next came a number of heavy cargo shuttles meant to deliver the initial fuel and supply loads to the ship. First to be filled were the tertiary liquid hydrogen fuel tanks surrounding the rotating rings and central core section, providing them with precious extra anti-radiation protection. Those fuel tanks were meant to stay full until the ultimate part of the return trip to Earth, to be used only once the ship was back within the protective magnetosphere of the planet. Next were shuttles that brought the support frames on which their VASIMR⁴ cruise engines would be fixed, followed by more shuttles carrying the cruise engines themselves. However, Denise did not go out to meet the following sixteen heavy cargo shuttles that arrived a month later, as they carried the sixteen PHOENIX 2000 nuclear rocket engines that were to constitute the main propulsion system of the H.S.S. FRIENDSHIP. Robotic arms on both the heavy shuttles and on the engines support frame took care of installing those nuclear engines, as they still emitted significant amounts of radiations despite their individual shielding. As soon as they were in place, secured and connected to the rest of the ship, a surrounding sleeve made of titanium pipes was filled with hot water, so that the water could fill the pipes before the intense cold of space could freeze the water. With a thickness of over sixty centimeter of water inside the sleeve surrounding the sides of the engines support frame, it became safe again to approach the ship from the rear sector without absorbing unhealthy doses of radiations from the uranium rods contained in the cores of the nuclear engines. Mark Dempster and his eight companions were then free to celebrate the completion of the spaceship and wait for the orbital crew that would soon relieve them.