CHAPTER 16
“It doesn’t really matter if we are a day late, but a week late might mean the difference between losing millions of lives or just having a wild fireworks show in the upper atmosphere,” the NASA Administrator explained to the vice president.
“I see,” Vice President Faulkner nodded knowingly.
Stetson simply stood calmly over the mission control console doing his best to pay attention to his job with one hundred and ten percent attention and at the same time make note of how the politicians reacted as they watched over the room. Stetson, in other words, was doing his best not to be distracted. The NASA administrator should have known better than to bring the “guests” into the control room. They sure as hell didn’t need to stand right behind him jabbering the entire time. Bill did his best to put the chatter out of his mind and focus on the task at hand.
“Downey?” Bill opened a channel to the chief engineer of the nuclear thermal rocket system that had been intended for Mars originally. “Status of our ride?”
“Uh, the same as it was ten minutes ago. All systems are nominal and the reactor is inactive, safed, and will stay that way until long after the docking procedure,” Paula Downey replied. Bill looked across the room of the mission control center and found her head looking over the sea of consoles back at him. He simply nodded as he made eye contact. He scanned the room continuously making note of who was on console and who was missing. He’d have talks with anyone who didn’t tag-team out and put a highly trained butt in their seat before taking a coffee break or a bathroom run.
“Paul, is the habitat fully rigidized yet?” Stetson turned to his right to find Gesling sitting at his console monitoring the health and status of the Space Excursions Mars Habitat Module as it was being deployed. He thought about the name for a second and realized they were going to have to drop Mars from the title.
“Negative, Bill. The inflation pressure is still at one point zero one atmospheres and the thermal sensors imbedded in the epoxy layer are still at exothermic temperature. She’s gonna need one more lap,” Gesling replied.
Bill completely understood that the Mars Habitat Module had been inflated to full size once it made it to low Earth orbit. After it had been inflated multiple layers of epoxy resins and hardeners were released over and within the skin. As the Habitat Module was exposed to direct sunlight as it maintained a Sun-synchronous orbit, the ultraviolet energy from the Sun cured and hardened the epoxy. The hardening process was an exothermic reaction that could be monitored with on-board thermal sensors. As soon as the epoxy was completely cured the exothermic reaction would end and the surface of the habitat would heat and cool based on solar exposure and radiative cooling. The long cylindrical module rotated like a pig on a barbecue rotisserie so that all of the surface would get equal solar exposure. Once the exothermic reaction stopped the surface temperature distribution would fluctuate with the rotisserie. For now, the temperature seemed pretty much constant.
Bill looked at his watch, an old astronaut habit, then back at the main screen showing the habitat’s orbit. The nuclear thermal rocket stage was chasing it a few thousand miles behind, but was gaining. Autonomous rendezvous and docking of the two should happen on schedule provided that the habitat surface cured on time. It was up to Bill to make the call if the docking maneuvers had to be delayed or not based on the status of the habitat.
“Orbital?” Bill called to the orbit and trajectory expert console. A young girl that Bill thought couldn’t be more than twenty-three looked over her shoulder back at him from her console. He knew she was sharp as they come, but, call it ageism or not, Bill would have felt more comfortable with someone a little more, well, seasoned sitting in the seat.
“Yes sir? Orbital here.”
“We assume we are on schedule until Habitat tells us otherwise, but I want you to have several burn solutions for one, two, and three orbit delays loaded in and on standby.” Bill thought about his statement for a minute. He knew that they had orbits calculated for all sorts of delays and contingency needs, but he also thought about the politicians behind them. This was his chance to show how hard working in space was with visibility all the way up to the White House. Bill had long grown tired of the forever shrinking budget the American space program had and he knew, or at least hoped, that every little bit of public relations couldn’t hurt.
“Uh, yes sir. Ready to go on those if we need to,” the girl at the Orbits console replied. Bill realized he had no idea what the young woman’s name was. He made a mental note to find out as soon as the docking procedures were complete and they had a bit of a break before the nuclear thermal rocket engines were brought online.
“Good.” There was really nothing for him to do but wait until the Habitat hardened. Bill turned to the administrator and the vice president behind him. He did his best to muster up a good old-fashioned astronaut hero smile. It was more of a forced grin, but it would have to do.
“Ma’am, not much is going to happen for about an hour to ninety minutes, it seems. If y’all want to go get some lunch I’ll have somebody chase you down so you don’t miss the rendezvous,” Bill said through his fake smile while motioning toward the big screen showing the two spacecraft playing chase around the Earth.
“Thanks, Bill,” the Administrator nodded. “Do that. In the meantime I’ll introduce the vice president to the rest of the team and perhaps lunch is a good idea.”
“Affirmative. Madam Vice President.” Bill shook her hand as the politician smiled at him. “Hopefully, we’ll have more excitement for you in a bit.”
“Space is big. It takes time. I understand.” The vice president continued to smile as she nodded knowingly. Bill decided that he liked the lady. As far as politicians were concerned, she seemed more aware of reality than most he had met. Or at least she was good at appearing that way.
* * *
The epoxy hardened as the manufacturers said it would and, after several orbits being exposed to the direct sunlight, the once floppy inflated balloonlike structure was now a hardened carbon composite space-age vehicle. The habitat walls rigidized into a material that could withstand the buckling forces that would be generated by the huge thrusts of the nuclear thermal rockets once they were kicked on. The habitat would also have to withstand impulses from hard docking impacts, and if it were to go on to Mars someday, would have to hold up to the aerobraking reentry maneuvers in the upper Martian atmosphere. But for now it just needed to handle docking, the trip out to the asteroid, and the trip back all the while maintaining an atmosphere and livable conditions for the astronaut crew.
Paul couldn’t wait to climb on board the habitat and test it out for the first time, but that would be a few weeks out. Putting first things first required that the autonomous docking procedure be completed successfully and then the engines being brought online and tested. The rendezvous so far looked flawless but they were still a few minutes from actual impact.
“Paul, I’m picking up some periodic modal vibrations on the structure, are you seeing that?” The engineer covering the structures and telemetry console noted. Paul chuckled to himself lightly. He’d rather the engineer overreact rather than not react at all.
“Roger that, structures. We saw this in the sims. Even though the structure has been rigidized it is still somewhat flexible and each time we hit the thrusters it’s like squeezing an air bag. Nothing to worry about, she’s just breathing.”
“Makes sense. The structure seems to ring following each position correction. They are all within tolerance,” the structures engineer replied.
“Bill, everything is looking good. We are ready to hand over the docking process to the autonav,” Paul said.
“Roger that, Habitat,” Stetson replied. “You heard the man, Nav. Go for autonav.”
“Affirmative, Capcom. Nav is go for autonomous docking procedure engage,” the navigation console engineer replied.
“Nothing to do now but to sit back and watch the computer do its thing.” Paul leaned back in his chair and put his hands behind his head. He took in a slow quiet breath and hoped and prayed to the computer navigation gods that all would work out as the engineers had planned.
“Autonav is engaged. Thrusters are firing.”
“Hab, go to audible countdown to dock,” Stetson ordered Paul.
“Roger that, Capcom,” Paul leaned back to his console. “Contact in T minus twenty-six seconds.”
“Lidar, radar, and video alignment are dead on,” the Navigation Engineer added.
“Seventeen seconds, sixteen, fifteen…”
“Universal docking system shows green across the board.”
“Docking contact in five, four, three, two, one, contact!” Paul said urgently. He quickly checked all the data flowing through his console screens to make certain nothing unexpected happened. The habitat was ringing like a bell but there were no signs of structural integrity failures.
“Capcom, Nav shows docking ring locked!”
“Hab?”
“Capcom, Habitat shows docking ring locked, fully engaged, and all systems are in the green.” Paul sighed relief and let out a brief cheer. “Sutter’s Mill, here we come.” The Tamaroa was now intact. All that was left was to test her engines and get a crew on board her.