Orphans of Apollo - S1 E15
September 2055
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From the ashes of forgotten space dreams, a new era of exploration begins.
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Previously: Lana’s parents decide after a few days holed up at FASS headquarters it is time to go home. Lana doubts whether she is the right person to command the first analogue mission and when Aiden attempts to provide some support, things get a little uncomfortable.
Christian Larsson hurried down the corridor towards the Mission Control room. He glanced at his watch, they would just be commencing the deorbit burn now. Larsson would have liked to be there from the beginning of the landing sequence. However, with the compressed timeline he had just put the Foundation under, his attention was being spread a little more thinly than he would have liked. Was he asking too much of people he wondered? Perhaps a little, but they could cope. They would have to, there was no other way.
He entered the control room and was instantly immersed in the atmosphere of calm professional busyness. On the big screen at the front a plot showed the lunar surface with the location of the outpost under construction. A line across it showed the track of the approaching lander. Above it the altitude plot, confirming the lander had begun to diverge from its orbital track towards the surface. Larsson felt a little wave of relief. He sensed the landing burn had commenced on time when he entered the room, but now he could see confirmation. If they had missed this window, they would have to wait another week before the next landing opportunity came around.
He looked across the rows of consoles and saw Everett Winter standing at the other side of the room. One hand was in his pocket and the other clenched into a fist, knuckles pressed into the top of his chest, thumbnail gripped between his front teeth. His head was down slightly and he stared up intently at the screen. A headset was placed over his thick curly hair. He acknowledged Larsson with a barely perceptible nod.
A young lady at the console nearest to the door looked up at Larsson, then reached down and offered him a headset. He refused it with a polite shake of the head. Instead, he took out an earbud from his pocket and slipped it into his ear, which a second later was filled with the efficient clipped language of the controllers talking through the descent of the lander. Larsson was one of the few people who personally had access to any of the Mission Control voice loops, outside of the room itself. He could only listen, but that’s all he needed, he trusted Everett and his team.
Larsson made his way slowly along the back row of consoles, surveying the room as he went. He passed Gwen Becker who was acting as Flight Director, he stopped and placed a hand gently on her shoulder. She reached across and clasped Larsson’s hand briefly without looking up from her console.
“You wouldn’t have wanted to miss this one,” said Everett as Larsson approached.
“No. This module is make or break.”
“It is with our new timeline,” said Everett without taking his eyes off the screen.
“It was going to be anyway. If we lose this module, I don’t know how we would be able to scrape together that amount enriched uranium again.”
“I’m sure we would find a way. But it would take time.”
“Yes, well, let’s hope we don’t need to go there. How are we looking?”
Everett turned and looked sincerely at Larsson. “Good. The burn started on schedule and the trajectory is looking nominal. We’re not working any problems.”
“Excellent.”
One of the smaller displays at the front showed an animation of the lander. There were no cameras which could pick it up at this range, so this animation helped the Mission Control team to visualise the orientation and configuration of the vehicle. Having been designed never to operate in an atmosphere, the lunar sky crane was an ungainly vehicle. Its body was a long rectangular framework structure, inside of which could be seen the spherical propellant tanks. At each corner was a cluster of engines, inclined slightly outwards so their exhaust plumes did not contact the cargo carried underneath. In this case it was the power module for the lunar outpost.
Although there was year round sunlight at the South Pole, so solar power was a viable option, the power requirements to process ice and other materials into consumables would require a solar farm of impractical scale. The solution was nuclear power. More precisely several small reactors based on the successful NASA KRUSTY reactors. These used small fission reactors to heat a sodium coolant which then carried this heat to a Stirling engine.
Currently, these reactors were packed neatly into a twenty metre long module, similar in size to the habitation modules. Once on the surface they would need to be unpacked and assembled by human astronauts. This was a task too complex for the robots and autonomous bulldozers currently assembling the outpost.
The display continued to show the trajectory of the lander following a line which arced down to the landing site, about one kilometre from the habitat. For the next ten minutes the room remained a constant hum of activity as the automated descent was monitored. Larsson surveyed the room, proud of the team he and Everett had put together.
The displays at the front of the room flashed briefly as they were reconfigured. Now there was a live feed from a camera on top of one of the habitation modules. It panned and tilted up, locking onto the as yet unseen lander. Larsson squinted, was that his imagination or could he see it.
“There it is, right on target,” said Everett.
A point of light in the middle of the frame rapidly grew larger. Quickly it became recognisable, the long reactor transportation module with the glow of the descent engines at each corner. It seemed to grow in size very quickly. Larsson looked over at Everett but he didn’t seem concerned, he looked around the room, nobody else did.
“Ten seconds to hover,” came the call through Larsson’s earpiece.
Yes, it was slowing now. No matter how many times he had watched the lunar sky crane deliver a module, it always made him nervous. And this module more than any. If there was a problem with the landing, the lack of nuclear power was going to curtail operations severely.
The vehicle expertly came to a hover about ten metres from the surface. Immediately the reactor module lowered from the sky crane by a tether in each corner. Once it was dangling about five or six metres below, the sky crane gently descended the last few metres, placing the module expertly on the surface. The tethers released, and suddenly lacking the weight below it, the sky crane shot upwards.
Larsson allowed himself a quick celebratory clench of the fist. Turning towards Everett he saw he was no longer biting his nail and his posture seemed somewhat more healthy.
“Ascent trajectory nominal,” was the next call Larsson heard.
Everett turned to Larsson who was still looking up at the screen. “Looks like sky crane is on its way back to orbit as well.”
“Yes, excellent.” Just in frame, in the foreground, was one of the bulldozers. A small pile of regolith piled in front of its blade. “Shame about that bulldozer.”
“We’ve tried everything Christian, there’s just nothing we can do from here. Anyway, we’re going to have astronauts there in a year and a half. Right?” Said Everett rolling his eyes.
“That’s the new timeline. I know you don’t agree with it but it’s just the way things have got to be.”
“There’s a lot we’ve disagreed about over the years Christian, but at the end of the day, you are the one who writes the cheques. We don’t always go down the path I would have picked, but at least we are going in the right general direction. I’ve come to accept that.” Larsson smiled a knowing smile. “I still disagree with you about choosing methalox over hydrolox, but we’ll make it work.”
Larsson nodded his head subtlty towards the back of the room and Everett followed him. He lowered his voice. “Tell me Everett, honestly do you think we can pull off this new schedule?”
Everett locked eyes with him. “I don’t agree with it —”
Larsson held his hand up “That’s not what I’m asking.”
Everett sighed. “I don’t agree with it, but I think we can make it work. We will have a much better idea when we see how the first few crews cope with the analogue.”
“Is the Antarctic habitat going to be ready?”
“Absolutely. Building a habitat for six people in Antarctica is a piece of cake compared to building on the moon. We’ve got to do a few drop tests with the lander but I don’t see any issues.”
“Good.”
“We have one more module to land and then we’ll run a few mission control sims in here for the analogue, but I’m sure the team will be fine.” Everett glanced warily over Larsson’s shoulder. All the controllers were engrossed in monitoring the sky crane’s ascent back to lunar orbit. “Christian, I’m not worried about the technical aspects anymore. We’re all over them. It’s the human aspect I’m more worried about.”
“The kids have been training for this their whole lives, the analogue is going to be the culmination of that. They will be living in a habitat in Antarctica with rovers to go out on expeditions and do real science.”
“I know that Christian and I have no doubt they will be able to cope. But when they go to the moon, they are not just going for a few weeks or months. They are going to live — ”
“Settle.”
“Exactly. And I do they realise they’re…”
Larsson looked intently at Everett.
“Christian.” Everett lowered his voice further, so it was barely audible. “Do they realise that in this political environment they are probably not going to be able to come back?”
If you know someone you think would enjoy “Orphans of Apollo” or any of the other writing in “Explorations” please share this publication with them.
I hope you enjoyed the latest episode of “Orphans of Apollo”. This is the final episode of season 1. When I started out on this project of serialising “Orphans of Apollo” it was my intention to go all the way through the manuscript and serialise this as season 1. Season 2 would be the sequel and so on. Once these seasons were complete, I planned to then publish them as individual novels in a series.
As I have been going through preparing the various scenes to publish in serial format, I have inevitably found areas which need improvement or fleshing out. Therefore, as I mentioned a while back, I will be taking a break for a few weeks to get on top of this. To keep things neat and tidy, I’m therefore going to call what I have published so far season 1.
Don’t panic, “Orphans of Apollo” will return in a few weeks with season 2.
Thanks for reading,
Alex