Let There Be Fire
- Thread starter Borb
- Start date
yeah, the orbiters are longer and can accommodate more outsized payload.
Yeah! The basic frame of Phoenix is based on the stretched orbiter study which essentially added another payload bay "segment" to the orbiter.
Chapter 11: Terror From the Deep
I think it's chapter time again, so it's time for some fun. Much like last chapter, I had a lot of fun with this one. A definite thanks to defconh3ck for this one with the upcoming science missions for the program. Also, Midterm has passed and now begins the season of three different final projects at the same time, I don't know of any issues that will cause this whole thing, but it may take time away from working on it at some point. With that out of the way though, enjoy this one:
Chapter 11: Terror From the Deep
With Kite back on the ground and a few more UTS missions now behind it, the program had begun to hit its stride, reaching five missions flown in 2015. Now in the latter end of 2016, the buffer manifest had been wrapped up, Polaris had returned, and LTBF now stood on its own feet. The last part of the year would hold a lot for NASA, in both launches and other missions yet ready to fly. Starting with the upcoming launch of OSIRIS-REx aboard Phoenix-Firelight 4, which was beginning preparations for launch.
Elsewhere, the first wave of Mars orbiters in support of the Aurora program, Mirage and Oasis, were nearing the end of assembly, running just short of schedule. Preparations were also starting for the next rounds of Mars-bound spacecraft aiming to set up a communication network for the red planet. The network was divided into two parts, three areostationary orbiters for constant ground coverage and an eccentric polar relay providing a nearly-constant link to DSN ground stations back on Earth. Requests for proposals were also going out with NASA seeking an easily configurable small lander to scout future Martian landing sites as well as field test some supporting hardware such as communication equipment.
At Kennedy, Traveler had arrived bringing the Phoenix orbital fleet up to four. The fledgling orbiter would be immediately whisked away to start getting ready for her first flight, Aurora I. This mission was a long time coming and would be the first mission of the promised fast-track back to the Lunar surface and the first crewed Lunar flight aboard Phoenix. The mission hoped to send a test model of the Firelight-DAL with Traveler around the Moon testing handling and crew ingress/egress procedures after backing down from a full lander in the interest of time. The Aurora I Firelight-DAL would be lacking landing legs and the behind schedule engines responsible for the “dual-axis” part,. The stage would remain unfueled and would not depart from Phoenix this time, being only moved around using the orbiter’s two robotic arms, but it would be essential in preparing for the next flight of Aurora, which would conduct a free-flight and an uncrewed landing with a full lander.
In September, Wayfarer-Tauri rose into the sky carrying OSIRIS-REx on the first leg of her mission, christening LC-39C in the process. After reaching the Earth-departure orbit, teams would assess the probe’s readiness and begin a new countdown to separation of the Firelight 4 to carry the mission away from home. It would take two attempts over a twelve hour period, but eventually the stage would get the all clear, be released from the strongback, and drift silently away from Wayfarer as the crew onboard watched and documented the departure. Julia Knight, payload specialist for the mission, would remark as the stage began making its way into the distance, “There’s almost a personal touch to being here with her as she floats off that you just don’t get from a typical launch, watching from miles or maybe states away.” For the crew of Wayfarer, Firelight’s ignition and departure would be visible as a spot of light in the distance. The stage would soon burn through her fuel and let go of her payload, quietly slipping away into solar orbit, having completed her job. The success of Firelight-4 gave NASA confidence in their upcoming efforts with Aurora, paving the way for the stage’s Lunar debut.
While the earliest phase of Aurora was progressing nicely, other aspects were certainly still taking their time. The agreement that would allow the joint production of the nuclear-thermal engines intended for the MTV’s still sat mired in the expected political gridlock, though slow progress was being made. One step at a time, both NASA and Roscosmos were certain the agreement would make it, but when was a different question entirely. In the meantime, another smaller agreement had made it through the cracks in the meantime to fly cosmonauts on Aurora missions in hopes of further intertwining the agency into the program. This agreement would come as Roscosmos was gearing up for the first test flight of Kliper, having recently completed the first flight vehicle and aiming to dock to the ISS in early 2017.
Along with the other progress towards Aurora, the next steps towards the supporting spacecraft for the program were being taken, with Highbay 3 gearing up for the orbital flight test of Leviathan. Polaris along with both the Seabound and Baybound LRB groups were being joined together while some new acquaintances waited their turn. Not yet in the VAB, but preparing for their respective stacking operations nearby were the Universal Nosecone Barrel, Firelight 8 interstage, Firelight 8, and the 8.4m diameter payload fairing to top off the stack. Being the first lifter of the program to fly with an upper stage, LC-39A was already in the process of preparing as well, running through mock countdowns and umbilical arm retractions.
In the run-up to an ISS resupply and crew rotation, the new monster crept out of the VAB into the Florida winter air. NASA’s first true superheavy rocket in just short of half a century, Leviathan, finally got her chance to see the light of day as a fully assembled stack. Even with her shared components, she looked like a new beast all her own. Sitting at around 110 meters tall and carrying more power than any before her, she was an intimidating sight. Creeping slowly down the crawlerway, the monolithic vessel made its way to LC-39A to revive the legacy of power once belonging to the Saturn V. After getting her time in the spotlight alongside Voyager-Vega and her departure for the ISS on the adjacent LC-39B, Leviathan lit her engines starting with the LRB’s and then the core. The dust that had settled in the flame trench was ejected as she lurched upwards. After just over two minutes of flight, Leviathan put on a show like no other as her boosters flamed out and fired their motors to clear the ascending core creating a blooming flower of fire and smoke, preemptively dubbed by engineers as “Leviathan’s Lotus”.
Leviathan OFT-1 Mission Patch
Several minutes later, Polaris’s engines would silence and the Firelight 8 would spring free of the interstage, drifting off momentarily before starting her twin J-2X’s, their first time in space. The massive stage would speed away from Polaris towards a trans-lunar injection, hoping to swing around the Moon before returning to Earth for a fiery demise. Meanwhile, Polaris spun around to ditch the UNB/interstage combo before rotating back, performing a burn to place her on a return back to KSC, and rotating once more to her cruising attitude while she waited for her reentry. With the stunning reentry, now common to the UCS, Polaris approached the switchback portion of her descent over the Atlantic. Something peculiar happened this time though, a scene planed for, but one most hoped to never see. What was an eternity to flight controllers lasted a mere few seconds. Instead of beginning to fall engine-first back towards KSC, Polaris began to nose down as she failed to stabilize in the new direction of travel. Without missing a beat, Polaris sent the command to deploy the drogue chute that had sat so far unused in her storied career. The cover shot off, and with it came the furled chute which quickly reached the full length of its harness, unfolding and expanding to its full size. With a jerk, the drogue pulled Polaris’s nose up and held it there for a moment. Now stabilized engine-first, Polaris cut the chute free and continued her fall back to LC-39A, eventually coming to rest safely on the ground.
Chapter 11: Terror From the Deep
With Kite back on the ground and a few more UTS missions now behind it, the program had begun to hit its stride, reaching five missions flown in 2015. Now in the latter end of 2016, the buffer manifest had been wrapped up, Polaris had returned, and LTBF now stood on its own feet. The last part of the year would hold a lot for NASA, in both launches and other missions yet ready to fly. Starting with the upcoming launch of OSIRIS-REx aboard Phoenix-Firelight 4, which was beginning preparations for launch.
Elsewhere, the first wave of Mars orbiters in support of the Aurora program, Mirage and Oasis, were nearing the end of assembly, running just short of schedule. Preparations were also starting for the next rounds of Mars-bound spacecraft aiming to set up a communication network for the red planet. The network was divided into two parts, three areostationary orbiters for constant ground coverage and an eccentric polar relay providing a nearly-constant link to DSN ground stations back on Earth. Requests for proposals were also going out with NASA seeking an easily configurable small lander to scout future Martian landing sites as well as field test some supporting hardware such as communication equipment.
At Kennedy, Traveler had arrived bringing the Phoenix orbital fleet up to four. The fledgling orbiter would be immediately whisked away to start getting ready for her first flight, Aurora I. This mission was a long time coming and would be the first mission of the promised fast-track back to the Lunar surface and the first crewed Lunar flight aboard Phoenix. The mission hoped to send a test model of the Firelight-DAL with Traveler around the Moon testing handling and crew ingress/egress procedures after backing down from a full lander in the interest of time. The Aurora I Firelight-DAL would be lacking landing legs and the behind schedule engines responsible for the “dual-axis” part,. The stage would remain unfueled and would not depart from Phoenix this time, being only moved around using the orbiter’s two robotic arms, but it would be essential in preparing for the next flight of Aurora, which would conduct a free-flight and an uncrewed landing with a full lander.
In September, Wayfarer-Tauri rose into the sky carrying OSIRIS-REx on the first leg of her mission, christening LC-39C in the process. After reaching the Earth-departure orbit, teams would assess the probe’s readiness and begin a new countdown to separation of the Firelight 4 to carry the mission away from home. It would take two attempts over a twelve hour period, but eventually the stage would get the all clear, be released from the strongback, and drift silently away from Wayfarer as the crew onboard watched and documented the departure. Julia Knight, payload specialist for the mission, would remark as the stage began making its way into the distance, “There’s almost a personal touch to being here with her as she floats off that you just don’t get from a typical launch, watching from miles or maybe states away.” For the crew of Wayfarer, Firelight’s ignition and departure would be visible as a spot of light in the distance. The stage would soon burn through her fuel and let go of her payload, quietly slipping away into solar orbit, having completed her job. The success of Firelight-4 gave NASA confidence in their upcoming efforts with Aurora, paving the way for the stage’s Lunar debut.
While the earliest phase of Aurora was progressing nicely, other aspects were certainly still taking their time. The agreement that would allow the joint production of the nuclear-thermal engines intended for the MTV’s still sat mired in the expected political gridlock, though slow progress was being made. One step at a time, both NASA and Roscosmos were certain the agreement would make it, but when was a different question entirely. In the meantime, another smaller agreement had made it through the cracks in the meantime to fly cosmonauts on Aurora missions in hopes of further intertwining the agency into the program. This agreement would come as Roscosmos was gearing up for the first test flight of Kliper, having recently completed the first flight vehicle and aiming to dock to the ISS in early 2017.
Along with the other progress towards Aurora, the next steps towards the supporting spacecraft for the program were being taken, with Highbay 3 gearing up for the orbital flight test of Leviathan. Polaris along with both the Seabound and Baybound LRB groups were being joined together while some new acquaintances waited their turn. Not yet in the VAB, but preparing for their respective stacking operations nearby were the Universal Nosecone Barrel, Firelight 8 interstage, Firelight 8, and the 8.4m diameter payload fairing to top off the stack. Being the first lifter of the program to fly with an upper stage, LC-39A was already in the process of preparing as well, running through mock countdowns and umbilical arm retractions.
In the run-up to an ISS resupply and crew rotation, the new monster crept out of the VAB into the Florida winter air. NASA’s first true superheavy rocket in just short of half a century, Leviathan, finally got her chance to see the light of day as a fully assembled stack. Even with her shared components, she looked like a new beast all her own. Sitting at around 110 meters tall and carrying more power than any before her, she was an intimidating sight. Creeping slowly down the crawlerway, the monolithic vessel made its way to LC-39A to revive the legacy of power once belonging to the Saturn V. After getting her time in the spotlight alongside Voyager-Vega and her departure for the ISS on the adjacent LC-39B, Leviathan lit her engines starting with the LRB’s and then the core. The dust that had settled in the flame trench was ejected as she lurched upwards. After just over two minutes of flight, Leviathan put on a show like no other as her boosters flamed out and fired their motors to clear the ascending core creating a blooming flower of fire and smoke, preemptively dubbed by engineers as “Leviathan’s Lotus”.
Leviathan OFT-1 Mission Patch
Chapter 12: Strangers to Gene
Well, well, well, if it isn't Moon time! This time around we've got a couple of things going on that have been on the way for a while. I don't have anything else, so thanks to defconh3ck who is responsible for the name of this one (among many other things) and enjoy:
Chapter 12: Strangers to Gene
Back on the ground in one piece, Polaris was whisked away for some more in depth inspections than normal. While use of the drogue was expected at some point, engineers were eager to get a look at the results and see if expectations for its use had panned out. Much to their relief, other than the obvious absence of the cover and drogue chute, Polaris was just as healthy as ever. The Firelight 8, however, was in a considerably worse state. Having completed her mission and reaching all of her test goals, the upper stage streaked across the sky over the Pacific Ocean as one final show of success.
A seemingly mundane launch would be the next to go up, Voyager was planned to head up to the ISS for a cargo run, but this time she would stick around a little while longer. Roscosmos was ready to launch their first Kliper, Zhizn, to the station and this resupply run gave the perfect opportunity to photograph the small spaceplane in a fly-around survey of the station upon Voyager’s departure. Separated by half a world, Voyager-Vega and Zhizn, atop its carrier Soyuz, prepared for their respective flights. Voyager-Vega would go first with a launch just after sundown, leaving the booster jettison plume brilliantly illuminated in the high-altitude sun. Within a day of Voyager’s arrival at the station, the Soyuz carrier rocket would rise away from Baikonur and set Zhizn on the way to meet with the Zvezda module. Zhizn would soon arrive, approaching the station and lining up for a docking attempt. She made it on her second try after having to back off from a perceived guidance issue after she had strayed a bit from center. In reality, Zhizn would have recovered if not interrupted, but an “abundance of caution” approach was deemed best for the first run.
The flight was heralded as a great step forward for Roscosmos, giving the ISS and possibly other future projects a lifeboat and eventually a new crew vehicle. With the new spacecraft safely aboard the station, the crew of Voyager said their goodbyes and began their departure from the station. Once safely away, Voyager began her trip around the station, getting imagery of Zhizn and made her way home. A week later Zhizn would make her own exit from the station, powering through reentry and touching down back at Baikonur.
Back in Florida, NASA had done its best to resurrect the energy of the Apollo program as the time for Aurora I approached. Though just a test flight, it would be the first time humans orbited the Moon in almost forty years. Traveler had been in preparation and inspection procedures since her arrival at the Cape. Finally free of the OPF, Traveler made her way to the VAB to join Tauri, the Seabound boosters, and her drop tanks. After a healthy dose of public events at both KSC and around the world hosted by the program’s many partners and a scrub from bad weather, Traveler-Tauri took to the sky carrying her compliment of seven astronauts and stripped back Firelight-DAL.
Eventually, Tauri would shut down her engines, letting Traveler fly free, and started her return journey. This would be the first high-energy flight of the system since the loss of Copernicus and the first full trial run of the subsequent retrofits. As the time to reentry ticked down, Tauri would see the nominal boil-off rate the retrofits had anticipated. She would soon streak across the sky on her way home, coming safely to rest at LC-39B.
Now that Traveler was into her coast phase, her crew doffed their recovery suits and made their way to the flight deck windows for a marvelous sight. While they looked down at the Earth, they got a chance to see Tauri, her reentry trail almost too thin to see, as she raced over the U.S. towards Florida. Looking forward, the Moon hung ahead of the crew, silently awaiting the arrival of visitors not seen in so many years. On the way out, the stripped back lander received its name Stranger. Though it would never see the surface, the internals were there and it would be invaluable in preparing for future missions.
As the Lunar surface became closer and closer, Traveler executed her capture burn and pulled herself into a low orbit. Once safely there, the crew would soon take in their first Earthrise as they prepared for a rest period. Next up on their list was the primary goal of the mission, retrieval of Stranger from the payload bay. The strongback would soon rotate Stranger up and Traveler’s twin robotic arms got to work grappling the lander. This was a somewhat awkward operation, as typically a Firelight 4 would just be sent straight forward and out of the strongback’s grasp. Due to the need to load crew onto the lander prior to departure, however, the arms would instead pull the stage out of the strongback and rotate it to meet the orbiter’s docking port. With careful control and monitoring from crews both onboard Traveler and in Houston, Stranger was slowly plucked from the strongback and reoriented to the docking port.
After some working with the docking ports, the hatch was opened and a few crew members would make their way into Stranger. While it had its difficulties in development, the Orion command module the crew were now eagerly working to start up, had turned out to be a wonderful asset to the program. While its typical "capsule" purpose had more or less stripped from it, the new responsibilities it took on as a part of the Firelight-DAL had more than made up the gap.
Stranger would remain docked for the duration of the Lunar stay as crews worked through multiple dry runs of the various operations the spacecraft would have to endure. Eventually, the time would come to head home, hatches would be closed and Traveler would bring her arms in to place the stage back into the strongback. With one last look around, the orbiter would light the OMS engines and place herself into the return trajectory and soon her drop tanks were set free, tumbling away from the orbiter from their small jettison motors. Much like Voyager’s trip on PTC-2, this section of the mission incurred the most concern and the orbiter would once again target Edwards AFB for the Lunar return. After the multiple reentry passes, Traveler would race over the Pacific on her final approach and touchdown safely at Edwards, her drogue chute deploying without complication, and came to a smooth wheel stop.
After sitting in the blazing sun for a while the crew were finally able to disembark to a reception fit for the occasion. NASA’s Lunar return was here and somewhat back on track, once again targeting a landing in 2020. It was still anyone’s guess as to whether or not NASA would make that date, but the date sliding back to the original range instead of past it was a promising sign either way.
Chapter 12: Strangers to Gene
Back on the ground in one piece, Polaris was whisked away for some more in depth inspections than normal. While use of the drogue was expected at some point, engineers were eager to get a look at the results and see if expectations for its use had panned out. Much to their relief, other than the obvious absence of the cover and drogue chute, Polaris was just as healthy as ever. The Firelight 8, however, was in a considerably worse state. Having completed her mission and reaching all of her test goals, the upper stage streaked across the sky over the Pacific Ocean as one final show of success.
A seemingly mundane launch would be the next to go up, Voyager was planned to head up to the ISS for a cargo run, but this time she would stick around a little while longer. Roscosmos was ready to launch their first Kliper, Zhizn, to the station and this resupply run gave the perfect opportunity to photograph the small spaceplane in a fly-around survey of the station upon Voyager’s departure. Separated by half a world, Voyager-Vega and Zhizn, atop its carrier Soyuz, prepared for their respective flights. Voyager-Vega would go first with a launch just after sundown, leaving the booster jettison plume brilliantly illuminated in the high-altitude sun. Within a day of Voyager’s arrival at the station, the Soyuz carrier rocket would rise away from Baikonur and set Zhizn on the way to meet with the Zvezda module. Zhizn would soon arrive, approaching the station and lining up for a docking attempt. She made it on her second try after having to back off from a perceived guidance issue after she had strayed a bit from center. In reality, Zhizn would have recovered if not interrupted, but an “abundance of caution” approach was deemed best for the first run.
The flight was heralded as a great step forward for Roscosmos, giving the ISS and possibly other future projects a lifeboat and eventually a new crew vehicle. With the new spacecraft safely aboard the station, the crew of Voyager said their goodbyes and began their departure from the station. Once safely away, Voyager began her trip around the station, getting imagery of Zhizn and made her way home. A week later Zhizn would make her own exit from the station, powering through reentry and touching down back at Baikonur.
Back in Florida, NASA had done its best to resurrect the energy of the Apollo program as the time for Aurora I approached. Though just a test flight, it would be the first time humans orbited the Moon in almost forty years. Traveler had been in preparation and inspection procedures since her arrival at the Cape. Finally free of the OPF, Traveler made her way to the VAB to join Tauri, the Seabound boosters, and her drop tanks. After a healthy dose of public events at both KSC and around the world hosted by the program’s many partners and a scrub from bad weather, Traveler-Tauri took to the sky carrying her compliment of seven astronauts and stripped back Firelight-DAL.
Eventually, Tauri would shut down her engines, letting Traveler fly free, and started her return journey. This would be the first high-energy flight of the system since the loss of Copernicus and the first full trial run of the subsequent retrofits. As the time to reentry ticked down, Tauri would see the nominal boil-off rate the retrofits had anticipated. She would soon streak across the sky on her way home, coming safely to rest at LC-39B.
Now that Traveler was into her coast phase, her crew doffed their recovery suits and made their way to the flight deck windows for a marvelous sight. While they looked down at the Earth, they got a chance to see Tauri, her reentry trail almost too thin to see, as she raced over the U.S. towards Florida. Looking forward, the Moon hung ahead of the crew, silently awaiting the arrival of visitors not seen in so many years. On the way out, the stripped back lander received its name Stranger. Though it would never see the surface, the internals were there and it would be invaluable in preparing for future missions.
As the Lunar surface became closer and closer, Traveler executed her capture burn and pulled herself into a low orbit. Once safely there, the crew would soon take in their first Earthrise as they prepared for a rest period. Next up on their list was the primary goal of the mission, retrieval of Stranger from the payload bay. The strongback would soon rotate Stranger up and Traveler’s twin robotic arms got to work grappling the lander. This was a somewhat awkward operation, as typically a Firelight 4 would just be sent straight forward and out of the strongback’s grasp. Due to the need to load crew onto the lander prior to departure, however, the arms would instead pull the stage out of the strongback and rotate it to meet the orbiter’s docking port. With careful control and monitoring from crews both onboard Traveler and in Houston, Stranger was slowly plucked from the strongback and reoriented to the docking port.
After some working with the docking ports, the hatch was opened and a few crew members would make their way into Stranger. While it had its difficulties in development, the Orion command module the crew were now eagerly working to start up, had turned out to be a wonderful asset to the program. While its typical "capsule" purpose had more or less stripped from it, the new responsibilities it took on as a part of the Firelight-DAL had more than made up the gap.
Stranger would remain docked for the duration of the Lunar stay as crews worked through multiple dry runs of the various operations the spacecraft would have to endure. Eventually, the time would come to head home, hatches would be closed and Traveler would bring her arms in to place the stage back into the strongback. With one last look around, the orbiter would light the OMS engines and place herself into the return trajectory and soon her drop tanks were set free, tumbling away from the orbiter from their small jettison motors. Much like Voyager’s trip on PTC-2, this section of the mission incurred the most concern and the orbiter would once again target Edwards AFB for the Lunar return. After the multiple reentry passes, Traveler would race over the Pacific on her final approach and touchdown safely at Edwards, her drogue chute deploying without complication, and came to a smooth wheel stop.
After sitting in the blazing sun for a while the crew were finally able to disembark to a reception fit for the occasion. NASA’s Lunar return was here and somewhat back on track, once again targeting a landing in 2020. It was still anyone’s guess as to whether or not NASA would make that date, but the date sliding back to the original range instead of past it was a promising sign either way.
Alright, so the last two weeks have been 14 tons of school work, and between writing for three research reports for separate final projects (that are still ongoing) I have had almost no time or energy to write for this. That on top of it being Thanksgiving, I think I will move this weeks chapter to next Friday. Next week will be a bit busy too, but I think I'll be able to make that. Incase I can't, it'll be for a similar reason because everything is about to be due in rapid succession as the semester wraps up.
In any case, as is the spirit of the holiday, I also wanted to take a moment here and say thanks for hanging around with my mad ramblings. It's been a fun project to keep myself occupied with and has sent me into far too many rabbit holes. I'm also very glad it seems to be fun for others as well. We've got some good things coming up too, so keep hanging on.
Also once again I bring a consolation gift, so have another sketch I can't place anywhere specific and happy Thanksgiving!
Polaris shutting down her center engine as she comes out of hover during landing
In any case, as is the spirit of the holiday, I also wanted to take a moment here and say thanks for hanging around with my mad ramblings. It's been a fun project to keep myself occupied with and has sent me into far too many rabbit holes. I'm also very glad it seems to be fun for others as well. We've got some good things coming up too, so keep hanging on.
Also once again I bring a consolation gift, so have another sketch I can't place anywhere specific and happy Thanksgiving!
Polaris shutting down her center engine as she comes out of hover during landing
But is was ONLY 14 tons of school work! I mean come on man, push through and keep going, yeesh it's not like it was actually 15 tons or anything
(No problem have a good holiday
)Randy
Chapter 13: Mars in Sight
Wow, this week sucked! Here we are though, all I have left between me and winter break is one final I effectively can't fail and and some final projects I have a week and a half to wrap up. That in mind I'm going to go ahead and say that the next chapter is going to be in three weeks instead of the usual two just so I can get the semester finished out, then we'll be back to our regularly scheduled mayhem. In any case, the worst is over, so thanks to defconh3ck for a lot of the stuff in this one and lets get going, not a lot of launches, but some fun none the less!
Chapter 13: Mars in Sight
Aurora had begun and confidence in Phoenix and other variants of the UCS-LV was growing rapidly and with the entrance of 2018, non-program launches were entering the manifest for the program. Leading the charge was GOES-S, lining up for a launch in March. Other mainstays of the old STS program were set to return as well, with ESA beginning work on new Spacelab elements for the higher-flying Phoenix. The many newcomers to the program were set to substantially increase flight rates for the program, possibly pushing towards ten launches per year and, depending on who you asked, more than even that. Regardless of what the elevated rate would be, it appeared LC-39C had arrived just in time to meet demand.
Other arrivals aimed to keep the pace as well, with UCS Altair and the Mons LRB group, consisting of Olympus, Arsia, Pavonis, and Ascraeus, beginning the new series of boosters named after Martian surface features. Coming in from Palmdale was Adventurer, the last of the current series of orbiters. The new arrivals were already assigned missions, having little time to sit around after reaching the Cape. Michoud still had one more UCS and booster group to produce before settling their operations to just maintenance and Block 1 production, this “last batch” was underway and expected to fill out the KSC fleet within the next two years. Palmdale would not be out of business either, serving as a facility for major maintenance operations on the running fleet that could not be completed at Kennedy, but the next series of orbiters were entering the scene.
The new series would be a strange product of Aurora’s plans for Mars, which were rapidly approaching a final form. Major design choices had been mostly cemented and the truly colossal machine had been refined from its previous state. Consisting of a massive truss structure acting as a spine for the vessel, which would be constructed onto the propulsion segment after the twin UCS’s that comprised the segment had been joined on orbit. Two more UCS’s would sit in front of the propulsion segment, acting as drop tanks. For the crewed MTV, all four propellant UCS stages would have their LOX tanks removed prior to assembly and would have a wet-workshop UCS for crew habitation on the front. The cargo variant would keep the LOX tanks on the drop tanks in order to provide propellant to the hydrolox descent stage of the Martian landers, of which the cargo MTV’s would carry two in the “double-barrel” arrangement instead of the crew segment. Concerns about redundancy had yielded two interesting additions to the architecture. First was the introduction of MTV Deliverance, a cut down version of the crewed MTV, which lacked the drop tanks, that would go to Mars ahead of crewed missions and serve as a safe haven in the event of major damage or loss of the primary MTV during a stay at Mars. MTV Deliverance would not have the ability to return home, however, which led to the second addition, the Deep Space Orbiters. These orbiters would hold many responsibilities during these missions and would tag along with the crewed MTV’s, being attached to the forward docking port. Among many other things, it would serve as a “bridge” for the MTV, additional hab space in a similar manner to the new Spacelab modules, and as a lifeboat. In order to fulfill the last requirement, the vessel would need to be almost an MTV of its own, having hydrogen drop tanks, twin Boreal engines in place of the typical OHS pods, radiators to help manage the various heat-related needs of the orbiter this far from home, additional radiation shielding (both for the sun and the engines), and much more. For now, the Boreal pods were the last bottleneck, but that would not stop crews at Palmdale from getting ready.
To the fortune of the program and the DSO’s, in March of 2018, the labyrinth of red tape finally cleared. In the process BWX Technologies had been selected as the primary contractor of the US contribution to the project with direct involvement and oversight from NASA. The only thing left to do was to get the agreement signed. The final two signatories, NASA administrator Chris Stryker and Roscosmos director Andrey Vladikov met at the facility where the Russian reactor would be assembled with the rest of the engine in Virginia. Teams on both sides of the world began almost immediately, with NASA and BWX engineers already in Russia ready to start as soon as the go ahead came through. From the perspective of NASA and Roscosmos there was no time to lose, the agreement had taken a long time to make it through and the sooner they could start, the better. RSC Energia had decided to attempt to get a jumpstart on the program prior to the agreement's approval. While cooperation was not yet allowed, RSC Energia engineers knew the engine would ideally fit in the RS-25E engine sockets on NASA’s UCS stage and began roughing out the engine. When the time came for cooperation to commence, the engine’s core was of course nowhere near complete, but RSC Energia’s gamble would pay off, putting the engine well ahead of the expected schedule.
With the first MTV now appearing over the horizon, Aurora was about to split straight down the middle, with half of the program focusing on Lunar access and the other focusing on paving the way for MTV construction. A multitude of hurdles faced the latter, namely long duration fuel storage for both the MTV’s and the depots that would be needed to fuel them prior to departure and the spine structure that would cradle the MTV’s various segments. The spine would be tackled by General Dynamics, who had been selected by their previous experience with the concept of automated construction of large structures on orbit. The design would need to change, but the overall idea would remain. Instead of triangular trusses, the beam builder would need to make something stronger to construct a structure subjected to the dynamic loads of an MTV, the unit would weld steel plates brought up by Phoenix to form the box beams that would be the primary structure of the spine.
In order to move and place these beams in their final positions once constructed, Canada’s next contribution would come into play. Building off their previous RMS designs, a stronger arm was being developed to aid construction of both the MTV’s and other structures.
Fuel would be a different hurdle altogether and would be handled in part by Boeing, utilizing the Block 1 UCS as depots. Thankfully, this end already had the ball rolling. A-DAPT had spent its time on orbit well, mostly doing research for habitation purposes, but it also provided useful information for depot development as well. Keeping the momentum, Michoud was already in the process of constructing the next Block 1 with a few new additions. While A-DAPT was almost a clean UCS with only a few exceptions, this Block 1, the Interplanetary Cryogenics Experiment (ICE), would have a lot more. The two most notable additions were the “saddlebag” and the “crown” modules. The saddlebags were somewhat similar in appearance to the side mounted payload structures seen in various Shuttle studies, but somewhat longer as it wouldn’t need the propulsion section common to those designs. For ICE, this saddlebag would contain the radiator and attitude control system, among many other things. The crown would be LTBF’s equivalent to the Aft Cargo Carrier system, though with the engines on UCS being in the way, a relocation was needed. As the name implied, this new location was on top of the stage, supported by the UNB typically used to support upper stage adapters. ICE’s crown would contain plumbing necessary for fuel transfer, along with twin solar arrays that would provide the structure with its power. Three docking ports would also be on the crown, the first would be a structural-only APAS port for visiting Phoenix orbiters, the other two would be a new variant of the APAS. These ports would contain umbilicals derived from those used for Firelight 4 stages for fuel transfer between the tankers and the depot. In the beginning, “tankers” would be a Phoenix orbiter with a tank in its payload bay with the fueling port on its back, though a much larger tanker was in the works to fly aboard Leviathan for operational use.
The current target for ICE was 2020, with the bottlenecks being the two additional modules. Even with the slowdowns, the mission was well on the way and the beam builder was gathering steam.
Chapter 13: Mars in Sight
Aurora had begun and confidence in Phoenix and other variants of the UCS-LV was growing rapidly and with the entrance of 2018, non-program launches were entering the manifest for the program. Leading the charge was GOES-S, lining up for a launch in March. Other mainstays of the old STS program were set to return as well, with ESA beginning work on new Spacelab elements for the higher-flying Phoenix. The many newcomers to the program were set to substantially increase flight rates for the program, possibly pushing towards ten launches per year and, depending on who you asked, more than even that. Regardless of what the elevated rate would be, it appeared LC-39C had arrived just in time to meet demand.
Other arrivals aimed to keep the pace as well, with UCS Altair and the Mons LRB group, consisting of Olympus, Arsia, Pavonis, and Ascraeus, beginning the new series of boosters named after Martian surface features. Coming in from Palmdale was Adventurer, the last of the current series of orbiters. The new arrivals were already assigned missions, having little time to sit around after reaching the Cape. Michoud still had one more UCS and booster group to produce before settling their operations to just maintenance and Block 1 production, this “last batch” was underway and expected to fill out the KSC fleet within the next two years. Palmdale would not be out of business either, serving as a facility for major maintenance operations on the running fleet that could not be completed at Kennedy, but the next series of orbiters were entering the scene.
The new series would be a strange product of Aurora’s plans for Mars, which were rapidly approaching a final form. Major design choices had been mostly cemented and the truly colossal machine had been refined from its previous state. Consisting of a massive truss structure acting as a spine for the vessel, which would be constructed onto the propulsion segment after the twin UCS’s that comprised the segment had been joined on orbit. Two more UCS’s would sit in front of the propulsion segment, acting as drop tanks. For the crewed MTV, all four propellant UCS stages would have their LOX tanks removed prior to assembly and would have a wet-workshop UCS for crew habitation on the front. The cargo variant would keep the LOX tanks on the drop tanks in order to provide propellant to the hydrolox descent stage of the Martian landers, of which the cargo MTV’s would carry two in the “double-barrel” arrangement instead of the crew segment. Concerns about redundancy had yielded two interesting additions to the architecture. First was the introduction of MTV Deliverance, a cut down version of the crewed MTV, which lacked the drop tanks, that would go to Mars ahead of crewed missions and serve as a safe haven in the event of major damage or loss of the primary MTV during a stay at Mars. MTV Deliverance would not have the ability to return home, however, which led to the second addition, the Deep Space Orbiters. These orbiters would hold many responsibilities during these missions and would tag along with the crewed MTV’s, being attached to the forward docking port. Among many other things, it would serve as a “bridge” for the MTV, additional hab space in a similar manner to the new Spacelab modules, and as a lifeboat. In order to fulfill the last requirement, the vessel would need to be almost an MTV of its own, having hydrogen drop tanks, twin Boreal engines in place of the typical OHS pods, radiators to help manage the various heat-related needs of the orbiter this far from home, additional radiation shielding (both for the sun and the engines), and much more. For now, the Boreal pods were the last bottleneck, but that would not stop crews at Palmdale from getting ready.
To the fortune of the program and the DSO’s, in March of 2018, the labyrinth of red tape finally cleared. In the process BWX Technologies had been selected as the primary contractor of the US contribution to the project with direct involvement and oversight from NASA. The only thing left to do was to get the agreement signed. The final two signatories, NASA administrator Chris Stryker and Roscosmos director Andrey Vladikov met at the facility where the Russian reactor would be assembled with the rest of the engine in Virginia. Teams on both sides of the world began almost immediately, with NASA and BWX engineers already in Russia ready to start as soon as the go ahead came through. From the perspective of NASA and Roscosmos there was no time to lose, the agreement had taken a long time to make it through and the sooner they could start, the better. RSC Energia had decided to attempt to get a jumpstart on the program prior to the agreement's approval. While cooperation was not yet allowed, RSC Energia engineers knew the engine would ideally fit in the RS-25E engine sockets on NASA’s UCS stage and began roughing out the engine. When the time came for cooperation to commence, the engine’s core was of course nowhere near complete, but RSC Energia’s gamble would pay off, putting the engine well ahead of the expected schedule.
With the first MTV now appearing over the horizon, Aurora was about to split straight down the middle, with half of the program focusing on Lunar access and the other focusing on paving the way for MTV construction. A multitude of hurdles faced the latter, namely long duration fuel storage for both the MTV’s and the depots that would be needed to fuel them prior to departure and the spine structure that would cradle the MTV’s various segments. The spine would be tackled by General Dynamics, who had been selected by their previous experience with the concept of automated construction of large structures on orbit. The design would need to change, but the overall idea would remain. Instead of triangular trusses, the beam builder would need to make something stronger to construct a structure subjected to the dynamic loads of an MTV, the unit would weld steel plates brought up by Phoenix to form the box beams that would be the primary structure of the spine.
In order to move and place these beams in their final positions once constructed, Canada’s next contribution would come into play. Building off their previous RMS designs, a stronger arm was being developed to aid construction of both the MTV’s and other structures.
Fuel would be a different hurdle altogether and would be handled in part by Boeing, utilizing the Block 1 UCS as depots. Thankfully, this end already had the ball rolling. A-DAPT had spent its time on orbit well, mostly doing research for habitation purposes, but it also provided useful information for depot development as well. Keeping the momentum, Michoud was already in the process of constructing the next Block 1 with a few new additions. While A-DAPT was almost a clean UCS with only a few exceptions, this Block 1, the Interplanetary Cryogenics Experiment (ICE), would have a lot more. The two most notable additions were the “saddlebag” and the “crown” modules. The saddlebags were somewhat similar in appearance to the side mounted payload structures seen in various Shuttle studies, but somewhat longer as it wouldn’t need the propulsion section common to those designs. For ICE, this saddlebag would contain the radiator and attitude control system, among many other things. The crown would be LTBF’s equivalent to the Aft Cargo Carrier system, though with the engines on UCS being in the way, a relocation was needed. As the name implied, this new location was on top of the stage, supported by the UNB typically used to support upper stage adapters. ICE’s crown would contain plumbing necessary for fuel transfer, along with twin solar arrays that would provide the structure with its power. Three docking ports would also be on the crown, the first would be a structural-only APAS port for visiting Phoenix orbiters, the other two would be a new variant of the APAS. These ports would contain umbilicals derived from those used for Firelight 4 stages for fuel transfer between the tankers and the depot. In the beginning, “tankers” would be a Phoenix orbiter with a tank in its payload bay with the fueling port on its back, though a much larger tanker was in the works to fly aboard Leviathan for operational use.
The current target for ICE was 2020, with the bottlenecks being the two additional modules. Even with the slowdowns, the mission was well on the way and the beam builder was gathering steam.
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Chapter 14: Up to Speed
I've got a short one today, partly due to Christmas weekend and partly due to being gone for part of the week on a work trip, but it's here! Thanks for the patience over the end of the semester, after this chapter we should be back to every other week like before. Thanks to defconh3ck and enjoy the chapter and the holidays:
Chapter 14: Up to Speed
With 2018 still underway, things around KSC continued to be busy. Stranger had received a heavy lookover prior to being sent back to ULA for a couple of interesting reasons. Consisting of a functional Firelight 4, the stage could still be potentially used for other missions and was set to be removed from the assembly to look into such an option. Something similar was in mind for the command module as well, it was still a fully functional capsule. With Aurora II lining up for 2019, Stranger’s CM would find its way onto the Firelight-DAL for the flight. NASA had somewhat altered the flight plan of Aurora II in the meantime. Originally aiming to send three astronauts on a Lunar free-flight, Aurora II would now send the lander on an autonomous landing attempt. The crewed free-flight test would instead manifest itself as a longer loiter in Lunar orbit before the landing of Aurora III.
Aurora III was still eyeing the end of 2020 for launch. Mission plans were falling into place as well, with landing sites being identified. The primary site was Taurus–Littrow, the site of Apollo 17. This decision, of course, came mostly out of PR, but being a test flight, there was very little lined up for major surface activities. NASA had decided that, so long as they had one mission where they had very little in the way of taking or leaving anything, they may as well use it for an observation for the old site and pick up right where Apollo left off.
Turning back to the Mars side of Aurora, things were going well with Mirage and Oasis. Testing of the two spacecraft was wrapping up prior to their delivery to KSC. The two spacecraft were both aiming to launch on Phoenix-Firelight 4’s in mid-2020 and would launch relatively close to each other. If everything went according to current plans, both carrier orbiters would be in orbit at the same time, launching potentially within a day of each other. For NASA the missions would represent a major step towards joint missions for the orbiters as teams would get an excellent chance to see how operating multiple orbiters simultaneously would work.
With 2018 only being half-done, Phoenix had already launched four times, as many times as it had in the entirety of 2017. This flight rate came as expected, given the new arrivals in addition to opening Phoenix to commercial opportunities. With the exception of two, it looked like commercial launches would occupy Phoenix’s manifest for the year while Aurora II materialized on the ground. Some of these flights weren’t purely commercial, though. As Aurora marched on, Phoenix regularly hosted small demonstrations or tests for upcoming equipment. NASA also brought back the Getaway Special along with these flights.
Another aid in Aurora’s tool box was now on its way as well. The fly-back Block 3 UCS had passed its final review work and was expected to begin production as soon as a purchase agreement was settled on. Michoud was already making room for the new assembly area, which had been converted from one of the two bays for the Block 2. The remaining Block 2 bay would be kept in place for maintenance on the existing fleet and initial construction of the Block 1 stages. This new arrangement would likely stay as few new Block 3’s would be built and new UCS stages afterwards would hopefully not be needed. At this stage both bays would serve for maintenance.
Back at the Cape, ULA was working steadily towards their upcoming Vulcan rocket, aiming to launch by the end of 2019. Construction of the new mobile launcher and modifications to the SLC-41 launch pad were underway. Still spurred on by the Air Force, the vehicle was gaining a commercial footing as well, racking up contracts well in advance. As a way to raise the flight rate, Vulcan was also pursuing reuse of the engines via jettisoning the engine compartment and recovering it downrange. The Air Force was not overwhelmingly interested in this capability for their missions and resultantly requested expendable flights until the system was well understood.
Chapter 14: Up to Speed
With 2018 still underway, things around KSC continued to be busy. Stranger had received a heavy lookover prior to being sent back to ULA for a couple of interesting reasons. Consisting of a functional Firelight 4, the stage could still be potentially used for other missions and was set to be removed from the assembly to look into such an option. Something similar was in mind for the command module as well, it was still a fully functional capsule. With Aurora II lining up for 2019, Stranger’s CM would find its way onto the Firelight-DAL for the flight. NASA had somewhat altered the flight plan of Aurora II in the meantime. Originally aiming to send three astronauts on a Lunar free-flight, Aurora II would now send the lander on an autonomous landing attempt. The crewed free-flight test would instead manifest itself as a longer loiter in Lunar orbit before the landing of Aurora III.
Aurora III was still eyeing the end of 2020 for launch. Mission plans were falling into place as well, with landing sites being identified. The primary site was Taurus–Littrow, the site of Apollo 17. This decision, of course, came mostly out of PR, but being a test flight, there was very little lined up for major surface activities. NASA had decided that, so long as they had one mission where they had very little in the way of taking or leaving anything, they may as well use it for an observation for the old site and pick up right where Apollo left off.
Turning back to the Mars side of Aurora, things were going well with Mirage and Oasis. Testing of the two spacecraft was wrapping up prior to their delivery to KSC. The two spacecraft were both aiming to launch on Phoenix-Firelight 4’s in mid-2020 and would launch relatively close to each other. If everything went according to current plans, both carrier orbiters would be in orbit at the same time, launching potentially within a day of each other. For NASA the missions would represent a major step towards joint missions for the orbiters as teams would get an excellent chance to see how operating multiple orbiters simultaneously would work.
With 2018 only being half-done, Phoenix had already launched four times, as many times as it had in the entirety of 2017. This flight rate came as expected, given the new arrivals in addition to opening Phoenix to commercial opportunities. With the exception of two, it looked like commercial launches would occupy Phoenix’s manifest for the year while Aurora II materialized on the ground. Some of these flights weren’t purely commercial, though. As Aurora marched on, Phoenix regularly hosted small demonstrations or tests for upcoming equipment. NASA also brought back the Getaway Special along with these flights.
Another aid in Aurora’s tool box was now on its way as well. The fly-back Block 3 UCS had passed its final review work and was expected to begin production as soon as a purchase agreement was settled on. Michoud was already making room for the new assembly area, which had been converted from one of the two bays for the Block 2. The remaining Block 2 bay would be kept in place for maintenance on the existing fleet and initial construction of the Block 1 stages. This new arrangement would likely stay as few new Block 3’s would be built and new UCS stages afterwards would hopefully not be needed. At this stage both bays would serve for maintenance.
Back at the Cape, ULA was working steadily towards their upcoming Vulcan rocket, aiming to launch by the end of 2019. Construction of the new mobile launcher and modifications to the SLC-41 launch pad were underway. Still spurred on by the Air Force, the vehicle was gaining a commercial footing as well, racking up contracts well in advance. As a way to raise the flight rate, Vulcan was also pursuing reuse of the engines via jettisoning the engine compartment and recovering it downrange. The Air Force was not overwhelmingly interested in this capability for their missions and resultantly requested expendable flights until the system was well understood.
Chapter 15: First Contact of a Lone Stranger
Sorry I'm late, I was building a new PC. It's 2019 time which means it's Aurora II time! I won't stall any longer and I will get the formatting tomorrow provided it doesn't drift wistfully from my mind as it likely will, so thanks to defconh3ck and wahoo,
Chapter 15: First Contact of a Lone Stranger
Rolling into 2019, Kliper Zhizn once again stood atop a Soyuz in preparation for another orbital flight. This flight would be part test and part operational mission. Zhizn would fly to the ISS and begin her first long duration stay. During this stay, she would take on her primary role as a lifeboat while Roscosmos evaluated her condition throughout the stay. This mission would be the transient step between her current state of testing and her future state of acting as a permanent asset to the space station program. With the ignition of the Soyuz, Zhizn was on her way. She arrived with no trouble this time and attached to the station’s Pirs module. It would not be long after her arrival ceremony that crews would begin working to prepare her for the long stay, doing some additional testing on the way.
Zhizn’s arrival would come shortly before news regarding the ISS. In pursuit of the UCS converted crew module for Aurora’s MTV’s, NASA, in conjunction with ISS partners, announced that the station would host the conversion of a UCS stage into a habitable volume. This new structure would more than double the station’s internal volume. In order to protect the station and its ability to maneuver, the Poisk module would be removed and the UCS would be attached parallel to the existing modules with the truss segment between them. Struts would also be added by EVA’s in order to further brace the structure as a whole. Detailed reports were released alongside the expansion’s announcement that showed data from the still ongoing A-DAPT. The drifting Block 1 UCS had successfully carried out its long-term study of the stage’s ability to hold pressure. With this report, however, came the intention for A-DAPT’s decommissioning. The stage was running low on propellant and leaving the stage on orbit uncontrolled posed risks such as fragmentation of the stage or an unplanned fall from orbit. The plan would have the UCS depressurize and receive a visit from a Phoenix in order to perform a detailed inspection of the exterior, searching for MMOD damage and other points of interest.This would likely take place in early 2020 as research wrapped up.
The beginning of summer would see Wayfarer-Altair with the Seabound LRB’s roll out to the pad carrying Stranger. This time Stranger was a full-blown lander, fully equipped and ready for an uncrewed landing attempt on the Lunar surface. The stack would roll down the Crawlerway on the back of Resolute with the crew of Aurora II tagging along for the ride. Three days later, Aurora II started the journey to Lunar orbit, thundering into the Florida night sky. The trip would nearly be a mirror image to Aurora I. Once safely in Lunar orbit, Stranger’s fuel tanks were topped off and she was carefully plucked from the payload bay. Stranger would then be berthed to Wayfarer for a quick final look over before being raised away and released. The sight of the lander drifting away would be a mixture of anticipation of Aurora III and worry for the lander’s first run. The first post-release hurdle soon passed as the two circular solar arrays deployed and locked successfully before Stranger and Wayfarer disappeared around the far side of the Moon. With the next Earthrise came the first of two burns for Stranger, placing her on a sub-orbital trajectory towards her selected landing site of Mare Serenitatis. The next burn would come as Stranger approached her target, slowing her horizontal velocity and placing her on a near vertical path towards the surface. Given the RL-10’s track record these burns were not a large concern of flight controllers, but the next and final burn was. Right before shutdown of the RL-10, the RCS fired and the engine gimbaled, placing the lander in an orientation perpendicular to her travel. Stranger coasted for a few seconds before firing up the sixteen small, side-mounted thrusters that were sitting in groups of four at each corner. To flight controllers’ relief, all engines started with no immediate issues, but this would soon change as two engines in one quadrant detected a surge of fuel and shut down. Stranger wasted no time in shutting down two other engines on the opposite quadrant to balance her descent. Only needing half of her engines for a landing the loss of four was acceptable. After the tense moments that followed, Stranger touched down safely, now resting quietly on the surface. Both controllers and the crew of Wayfarer would erupt with cheers as Stranger’s cameras began looking around the site. It was a day too long in the making.
Her stay would be short, but far from boring as crews took the chance to run as many tests on the vehicle as they could. It was decided that it would be best to leave the engines that had been shut off during landing in a closed off state for the return to orbit and crews would be able to get a good look at any lasting issues when the lander returned home. As Wayfarer started to come over the horizon, Stranger once again fired her side-mounted engines, rising off the ground before igniting her RL-10 and starting the climb to meet with Wayfarer once again. After the ascent, Stranger came slowly into Wayfarer’s view, puffing various thrusters to keep on track. Eventually, Wayfarer reached out her arms and took hold of the stage, maneuvering her once more to Wayfarer’s docking module. The crew would once more venture into the lander where mission commander, Steve Meyer, would take a marker and put a tally mark on the wall of the command module to signify a successful landing for the vehicle with the hopes of many more to come. Once the crews had done some closeout and other tasks, Stranger was loaded back into her cradle in the payload bay and residual propellants were removed from the stage before she was rotated back into the bay.
With the time for departure at hand Wayfarer burned out of the grasp of Lunar orbit, ejecting her depleted drop tanks to their fiery end. Wayfarer made her way through the nearly week-long return process, lowering back to Earth one re-entry pass at a time. With her last pass, she hurdled over California, casting her sonic booms into the previously calm morning below. Under escort from two T-38’s, Wayfarer touched down at Edwards AFB, deploying her drogue chute and coming to rest. It would not take long after the vehicle was declared safe to approach for the gathered crowd to descend on the vessel. A brief interview with the crew followed where the crew was asked how they felt about being so close to landing on the surface, but unable to go, lander pilot, Julie Lee, responded by saying, “I’ll admit, I’m a little jealous of Stranger getting to go without us, but we’ll be back for that journey sometime soon. I’m not sure when that will be, but I’m already looking forward to it.”
Chapter 15: First Contact of a Lone Stranger
Rolling into 2019, Kliper Zhizn once again stood atop a Soyuz in preparation for another orbital flight. This flight would be part test and part operational mission. Zhizn would fly to the ISS and begin her first long duration stay. During this stay, she would take on her primary role as a lifeboat while Roscosmos evaluated her condition throughout the stay. This mission would be the transient step between her current state of testing and her future state of acting as a permanent asset to the space station program. With the ignition of the Soyuz, Zhizn was on her way. She arrived with no trouble this time and attached to the station’s Pirs module. It would not be long after her arrival ceremony that crews would begin working to prepare her for the long stay, doing some additional testing on the way.
Zhizn’s arrival would come shortly before news regarding the ISS. In pursuit of the UCS converted crew module for Aurora’s MTV’s, NASA, in conjunction with ISS partners, announced that the station would host the conversion of a UCS stage into a habitable volume. This new structure would more than double the station’s internal volume. In order to protect the station and its ability to maneuver, the Poisk module would be removed and the UCS would be attached parallel to the existing modules with the truss segment between them. Struts would also be added by EVA’s in order to further brace the structure as a whole. Detailed reports were released alongside the expansion’s announcement that showed data from the still ongoing A-DAPT. The drifting Block 1 UCS had successfully carried out its long-term study of the stage’s ability to hold pressure. With this report, however, came the intention for A-DAPT’s decommissioning. The stage was running low on propellant and leaving the stage on orbit uncontrolled posed risks such as fragmentation of the stage or an unplanned fall from orbit. The plan would have the UCS depressurize and receive a visit from a Phoenix in order to perform a detailed inspection of the exterior, searching for MMOD damage and other points of interest.This would likely take place in early 2020 as research wrapped up.
The beginning of summer would see Wayfarer-Altair with the Seabound LRB’s roll out to the pad carrying Stranger. This time Stranger was a full-blown lander, fully equipped and ready for an uncrewed landing attempt on the Lunar surface. The stack would roll down the Crawlerway on the back of Resolute with the crew of Aurora II tagging along for the ride. Three days later, Aurora II started the journey to Lunar orbit, thundering into the Florida night sky. The trip would nearly be a mirror image to Aurora I. Once safely in Lunar orbit, Stranger’s fuel tanks were topped off and she was carefully plucked from the payload bay. Stranger would then be berthed to Wayfarer for a quick final look over before being raised away and released. The sight of the lander drifting away would be a mixture of anticipation of Aurora III and worry for the lander’s first run. The first post-release hurdle soon passed as the two circular solar arrays deployed and locked successfully before Stranger and Wayfarer disappeared around the far side of the Moon. With the next Earthrise came the first of two burns for Stranger, placing her on a sub-orbital trajectory towards her selected landing site of Mare Serenitatis. The next burn would come as Stranger approached her target, slowing her horizontal velocity and placing her on a near vertical path towards the surface. Given the RL-10’s track record these burns were not a large concern of flight controllers, but the next and final burn was. Right before shutdown of the RL-10, the RCS fired and the engine gimbaled, placing the lander in an orientation perpendicular to her travel. Stranger coasted for a few seconds before firing up the sixteen small, side-mounted thrusters that were sitting in groups of four at each corner. To flight controllers’ relief, all engines started with no immediate issues, but this would soon change as two engines in one quadrant detected a surge of fuel and shut down. Stranger wasted no time in shutting down two other engines on the opposite quadrant to balance her descent. Only needing half of her engines for a landing the loss of four was acceptable. After the tense moments that followed, Stranger touched down safely, now resting quietly on the surface. Both controllers and the crew of Wayfarer would erupt with cheers as Stranger’s cameras began looking around the site. It was a day too long in the making.
Her stay would be short, but far from boring as crews took the chance to run as many tests on the vehicle as they could. It was decided that it would be best to leave the engines that had been shut off during landing in a closed off state for the return to orbit and crews would be able to get a good look at any lasting issues when the lander returned home. As Wayfarer started to come over the horizon, Stranger once again fired her side-mounted engines, rising off the ground before igniting her RL-10 and starting the climb to meet with Wayfarer once again. After the ascent, Stranger came slowly into Wayfarer’s view, puffing various thrusters to keep on track. Eventually, Wayfarer reached out her arms and took hold of the stage, maneuvering her once more to Wayfarer’s docking module. The crew would once more venture into the lander where mission commander, Steve Meyer, would take a marker and put a tally mark on the wall of the command module to signify a successful landing for the vehicle with the hopes of many more to come. Once the crews had done some closeout and other tasks, Stranger was loaded back into her cradle in the payload bay and residual propellants were removed from the stage before she was rotated back into the bay.
With the time for departure at hand Wayfarer burned out of the grasp of Lunar orbit, ejecting her depleted drop tanks to their fiery end. Wayfarer made her way through the nearly week-long return process, lowering back to Earth one re-entry pass at a time. With her last pass, she hurdled over California, casting her sonic booms into the previously calm morning below. Under escort from two T-38’s, Wayfarer touched down at Edwards AFB, deploying her drogue chute and coming to rest. It would not take long after the vehicle was declared safe to approach for the gathered crowd to descend on the vessel. A brief interview with the crew followed where the crew was asked how they felt about being so close to landing on the surface, but unable to go, lander pilot, Julie Lee, responded by saying, “I’ll admit, I’m a little jealous of Stranger getting to go without us, but we’ll be back for that journey sometime soon. I’m not sure when that will be, but I’m already looking forward to it.”
Chapter 16: Preparations of Preparations
Well the semester is going well so far, hopefully I won't have to do anything to janky with the schedule this time. Today we've got some more ground work to dig through, some prerequisite work for more prerequisites, as is the way for spaceflight. Thanks to defconh3ck for encouraging the hubris-filled ideas you are about to bear witness to;
Chapter 16: Preparations of Preparations
In the wake of Aurora II, NASA did not slow down for celebration, ending 2019 with nine flights of Phoenix. Also in the final months of the year, an agreement was reached for the production of two Block 3 UCS stages by Boeing as NASA looked to advance their Lunar capabilities. The first stage would begin immediately at Michoud, being constructed adjacent to another new stage in the adjacent bay.
The Block 1 for ICE had been completed, now it sat at Michoud out of the way of the next Block 1, this one was intended for the ISS expansion, though it may have to stay on the ground for a while as the mission was slated for no earlier than 2021 and delays were likely. In preparation, Copernicus had been pulled out of storage at KSC to make her way to Michoud for a new role. She would be used as a ground test article for the new ISS expansion. Crews would use the stage to pathfind the processes necessary to create the structure on orbit. NASA would also get a chance to test an altered version of Phoenix’s ACES suits that had been changed to allow for internal construction of the stage.
ICE’s accompanying modules were still under construction, the saddlebag was nearly complete, but the crown was taking more than hoped. More specifically, the APAS was taking longer to develop. While the structural part had been smooth sailing, the connections between fluid lines was proving difficult to do remotely, especially when the lines reached their cryogenic operating temperatures. While both NASA and Roscosmos believed this to be a solvable issue, it was certainly turning out to be time consuming. In contrast, the tanker module for Phoenix was making excellent progress, despite its crude appearance. Currently, the module was a cylinder with an intertank to separate the cryogenic propellants and a place set aside for the troublesome docking port. While the station was initially intended to simply be an object of research, plans to utilize the depot began coming around, both for near future use and far down the line. The most sought after was the potential for a more cost effective version of fuel delivery.
While the plan was already in place to shift over to Leviathan for fuel delivery in order to deliver more mass per trip, the initial plan was to use an expensive tug to do so that would be disposed of after use. The new idea would be to leave this tug, known as the Last-Mile Delivery Assist (LaMDA), would remain with the depot and ferry simple fuel tanks that would be delivered by a different version of Leviathan, Leviathan-S. Due to the removal of the disposable tug and its associated mass, the massive and costly Firelight 8 would no longer be needed to place the fuel into its destination in LEO and could subsequently be dropped for these missions.
Back across the Atlantic, the Boreal Project was beginning to produce prototypes, the first of which would be used in small scale operations testing to further aid the design process. This model would remain in Russia and was far from able to static fire, but it was an important step towards an operating engine. With progress picking up preparations were underway for the engine’s test flight. ULA’s Atlas V had been chosen for this mission, utilizing a modified Centaur which would carry an additional hydrogen tank, radiators, and the Boreal engine, among other things. Current plans would send the stage on a two month-long trip just beyond the Moon in order to get a good look at the engine’s performance both operating in a deep space environment as well as hibernating in it as it would during the long coast to Mars.
In other ongoing projects, JAXA’s entry for a Lunar cargo lander was nearing a test flight as plans for Aurora IV were beginning to finalize. The agency planned to have their first lander on the Lunar surface prior to Aurora III in order to give plenty of time to sort out issues before delivering equipment to the landing site of the next crew. Selection had also been made for two other commercial options, both interesting in their own rights. The first of these was Northrop Grumman’s lander which visually resembled a Cygnus with landing legs. The powered descent would be handled by solid motors and the final touchdown speed would be managed by four small hypergolic motors. The other proposal came from Lockheed Martin and would consist of a “pallet” that would be set down onto the surface by a skycrane before it would depart to crash somewhere away from the landing site.
Chapter 16: Preparations of Preparations
In the wake of Aurora II, NASA did not slow down for celebration, ending 2019 with nine flights of Phoenix. Also in the final months of the year, an agreement was reached for the production of two Block 3 UCS stages by Boeing as NASA looked to advance their Lunar capabilities. The first stage would begin immediately at Michoud, being constructed adjacent to another new stage in the adjacent bay.
The Block 1 for ICE had been completed, now it sat at Michoud out of the way of the next Block 1, this one was intended for the ISS expansion, though it may have to stay on the ground for a while as the mission was slated for no earlier than 2021 and delays were likely. In preparation, Copernicus had been pulled out of storage at KSC to make her way to Michoud for a new role. She would be used as a ground test article for the new ISS expansion. Crews would use the stage to pathfind the processes necessary to create the structure on orbit. NASA would also get a chance to test an altered version of Phoenix’s ACES suits that had been changed to allow for internal construction of the stage.
ICE’s accompanying modules were still under construction, the saddlebag was nearly complete, but the crown was taking more than hoped. More specifically, the APAS was taking longer to develop. While the structural part had been smooth sailing, the connections between fluid lines was proving difficult to do remotely, especially when the lines reached their cryogenic operating temperatures. While both NASA and Roscosmos believed this to be a solvable issue, it was certainly turning out to be time consuming. In contrast, the tanker module for Phoenix was making excellent progress, despite its crude appearance. Currently, the module was a cylinder with an intertank to separate the cryogenic propellants and a place set aside for the troublesome docking port. While the station was initially intended to simply be an object of research, plans to utilize the depot began coming around, both for near future use and far down the line. The most sought after was the potential for a more cost effective version of fuel delivery.
While the plan was already in place to shift over to Leviathan for fuel delivery in order to deliver more mass per trip, the initial plan was to use an expensive tug to do so that would be disposed of after use. The new idea would be to leave this tug, known as the Last-Mile Delivery Assist (LaMDA), would remain with the depot and ferry simple fuel tanks that would be delivered by a different version of Leviathan, Leviathan-S. Due to the removal of the disposable tug and its associated mass, the massive and costly Firelight 8 would no longer be needed to place the fuel into its destination in LEO and could subsequently be dropped for these missions.
Back across the Atlantic, the Boreal Project was beginning to produce prototypes, the first of which would be used in small scale operations testing to further aid the design process. This model would remain in Russia and was far from able to static fire, but it was an important step towards an operating engine. With progress picking up preparations were underway for the engine’s test flight. ULA’s Atlas V had been chosen for this mission, utilizing a modified Centaur which would carry an additional hydrogen tank, radiators, and the Boreal engine, among other things. Current plans would send the stage on a two month-long trip just beyond the Moon in order to get a good look at the engine’s performance both operating in a deep space environment as well as hibernating in it as it would during the long coast to Mars.
In other ongoing projects, JAXA’s entry for a Lunar cargo lander was nearing a test flight as plans for Aurora IV were beginning to finalize. The agency planned to have their first lander on the Lunar surface prior to Aurora III in order to give plenty of time to sort out issues before delivering equipment to the landing site of the next crew. Selection had also been made for two other commercial options, both interesting in their own rights. The first of these was Northrop Grumman’s lander which visually resembled a Cygnus with landing legs. The powered descent would be handled by solid motors and the final touchdown speed would be managed by four small hypergolic motors. The other proposal came from Lockheed Martin and would consist of a “pallet” that would be set down onto the surface by a skycrane before it would depart to crash somewhere away from the landing site.
Chapter 17: Fall of a Giant
It's only been a mostly busy day, but better late than never. Thanks to defconh3ck for help especially with the first half of this one and enjoy some telescopes and a departure:
Chapter 17: Fall of a Giant
As the busy year of 2020 set off, Copernicus made it to Michoud, where it met up with a structural test article UNB and a crown mockup that had been pulled together. Here they could be put together in the pursuit of crewed UCS structures in orbit, among other uses for the gargantuan stages. Copernicus’s new counterpart, the Block 1 destined for the ISS was, as of now, only a few scattered barrel segments. While unlikely that Copernicus would have time to reach her final state as a completed mockup, the initial conversion into a structure that could be “pressurized” would be completed prior to the new stage’s completion. In another effort to pave the way for this initial step, other small scale tests of various steps of the process were occurring across multiple NASA facilities. The ISS was preparing for the new arrival as well, both recent and upcoming cargo launches would carry new cabling for various power and data lines, which would be installed and temporarily bundled up ahead of the UCS’s arrival, as well as the more important structural supports to brace the structure to the station. Poisk, which had previously been slated for removal and disposal, would now be spared as the exact spacing between the structures had been finalized, leaving a small amount of clearance. Unfortunately, this would still remove Poisk’s use as a docking module, but it would now provide another point at which spacewalkers could easily access the exterior of the stage.
Other LEO projects were proceeding as well, after the many missions to visit Hubble, approval had been made for a module to join the spacecraft, providing better control, ensuring a longer service life of the telescope, and reducing down time with less frequent servicing missions. The Hubble Assist Module (HAM) was slated for launch in 2025 and work to prepare Hubble for the module would begin in the meantime. The first addition would be a structural APAS to the telescope’s aft end, providing an attachment point for the module and an easy connection for other preparation work.
Hubble wouldn’t be the only telescope making news either. Thrown haphazardly to the wayside in the shuffle for a new space program in the early 2000’s, the Next Generation Space Telescope was returning to the scene. Now that Aurora was settling into place and calls from all over the scientific community were coming in fast, it seemed time for something bigger and better. In accordance with the original design, the destination was the second Earth-Sun Lagrange Point, which would be a peculiar location for NASA. Servicing would come to be an unsurprisingly complicated topic. The orbit would be out of range of Phoenix, but leaving this delicate piece of equipment that far out with no servicing options was far from preferred. The easiest solution surfacing so far was utilizing MTV’s not in use for other missions at the time. Current plans would give the new telescope a 9.2 meter segmented mirror and deal with infrared astronomy. Even though it was already behind schedule, its expected launch was listed as no earlier than 2030.
With the ISS preparing to receive the fruits of its labor, A-DAPT’s time was coming to an end. Its limited propellant reserves were running near the operational minimum and the data necessary to proceed had been collected and then some. At this point, the stage was becoming more and more of a liability in LEO by the day, with its ability to “scoot” out of the way of an encounter with another object waning with its propellant reserves. All things combined, it was time for what went up to come down, but there was some remaining information engineers were interested in. Wayfarer-Altair would lift off from KSC in March, blazing a trail for the aging UCS in orbit, which had by this point vented its remaining pressure. After a day-long effort to catch up, Wayfarer’s crew finally set eyes on the stage for the first time since its launch five years prior. The stage looked just as it did when Voyager departed after deployment, white SOFI with scorch marks left from LRB jettison and its small solar array stretched out of its side. Wayfarer would fly a couple loops around A-DAPT, visually inspecting the stage before moving in with one arm outstretched, reaching for the attachment point near the solar array at the intertank, which fortunately went unused after launch. Contact would be made and an EVA would soon follow using the other arm to aid one astronaut in inspecting various sections of the SOFI covering the tank sections while another combed over the intertank after scaling the attached arm. Their search for cracks and MMOD strikes took just over six hours, turning up some peculiar pits and cracks in the foam from presumed strikes. Other cracks from the fatigue associated with the rapid temperature swings present in LEO were also present. Overall, the SOFI seemed to be in very good condition considering its situation, well within desired performance. This would not stop engineers from starting work to find ways to repair the foam on orbit in order to prolong life in other applications. Regardless of such methods, if one was even chosen at all over letting the foam simply crack, Wayfarer’s job was nearly done. It was time for A-DAPT to come home. Wayfarer’s crew would remove a small nameplate from the intertank before the orbiter released the stage and drifted away with a remark from mission specialist, Jerry Castillo, “You were here at the start, A-DAPT, and with this nameplate, you’ll be there to see the rest.” With Wayfarer and her crew safe on the ground, A-DAPT’s miniscule thrusters would fire, depleting the remaining propellant and sending the stage on a course for the central Pacific Ocean, where a sizable hazard area had been established to account for the sheer scale of the potential drop area. Within an orbit, the stage screamed across the sky, transmitting its final call as it went.
Chapter 17: Fall of a Giant
As the busy year of 2020 set off, Copernicus made it to Michoud, where it met up with a structural test article UNB and a crown mockup that had been pulled together. Here they could be put together in the pursuit of crewed UCS structures in orbit, among other uses for the gargantuan stages. Copernicus’s new counterpart, the Block 1 destined for the ISS was, as of now, only a few scattered barrel segments. While unlikely that Copernicus would have time to reach her final state as a completed mockup, the initial conversion into a structure that could be “pressurized” would be completed prior to the new stage’s completion. In another effort to pave the way for this initial step, other small scale tests of various steps of the process were occurring across multiple NASA facilities. The ISS was preparing for the new arrival as well, both recent and upcoming cargo launches would carry new cabling for various power and data lines, which would be installed and temporarily bundled up ahead of the UCS’s arrival, as well as the more important structural supports to brace the structure to the station. Poisk, which had previously been slated for removal and disposal, would now be spared as the exact spacing between the structures had been finalized, leaving a small amount of clearance. Unfortunately, this would still remove Poisk’s use as a docking module, but it would now provide another point at which spacewalkers could easily access the exterior of the stage.
Other LEO projects were proceeding as well, after the many missions to visit Hubble, approval had been made for a module to join the spacecraft, providing better control, ensuring a longer service life of the telescope, and reducing down time with less frequent servicing missions. The Hubble Assist Module (HAM) was slated for launch in 2025 and work to prepare Hubble for the module would begin in the meantime. The first addition would be a structural APAS to the telescope’s aft end, providing an attachment point for the module and an easy connection for other preparation work.
Hubble wouldn’t be the only telescope making news either. Thrown haphazardly to the wayside in the shuffle for a new space program in the early 2000’s, the Next Generation Space Telescope was returning to the scene. Now that Aurora was settling into place and calls from all over the scientific community were coming in fast, it seemed time for something bigger and better. In accordance with the original design, the destination was the second Earth-Sun Lagrange Point, which would be a peculiar location for NASA. Servicing would come to be an unsurprisingly complicated topic. The orbit would be out of range of Phoenix, but leaving this delicate piece of equipment that far out with no servicing options was far from preferred. The easiest solution surfacing so far was utilizing MTV’s not in use for other missions at the time. Current plans would give the new telescope a 9.2 meter segmented mirror and deal with infrared astronomy. Even though it was already behind schedule, its expected launch was listed as no earlier than 2030.
With the ISS preparing to receive the fruits of its labor, A-DAPT’s time was coming to an end. Its limited propellant reserves were running near the operational minimum and the data necessary to proceed had been collected and then some. At this point, the stage was becoming more and more of a liability in LEO by the day, with its ability to “scoot” out of the way of an encounter with another object waning with its propellant reserves. All things combined, it was time for what went up to come down, but there was some remaining information engineers were interested in. Wayfarer-Altair would lift off from KSC in March, blazing a trail for the aging UCS in orbit, which had by this point vented its remaining pressure. After a day-long effort to catch up, Wayfarer’s crew finally set eyes on the stage for the first time since its launch five years prior. The stage looked just as it did when Voyager departed after deployment, white SOFI with scorch marks left from LRB jettison and its small solar array stretched out of its side. Wayfarer would fly a couple loops around A-DAPT, visually inspecting the stage before moving in with one arm outstretched, reaching for the attachment point near the solar array at the intertank, which fortunately went unused after launch. Contact would be made and an EVA would soon follow using the other arm to aid one astronaut in inspecting various sections of the SOFI covering the tank sections while another combed over the intertank after scaling the attached arm. Their search for cracks and MMOD strikes took just over six hours, turning up some peculiar pits and cracks in the foam from presumed strikes. Other cracks from the fatigue associated with the rapid temperature swings present in LEO were also present. Overall, the SOFI seemed to be in very good condition considering its situation, well within desired performance. This would not stop engineers from starting work to find ways to repair the foam on orbit in order to prolong life in other applications. Regardless of such methods, if one was even chosen at all over letting the foam simply crack, Wayfarer’s job was nearly done. It was time for A-DAPT to come home. Wayfarer’s crew would remove a small nameplate from the intertank before the orbiter released the stage and drifted away with a remark from mission specialist, Jerry Castillo, “You were here at the start, A-DAPT, and with this nameplate, you’ll be there to see the rest.” With Wayfarer and her crew safe on the ground, A-DAPT’s miniscule thrusters would fire, depleting the remaining propellant and sending the stage on a course for the central Pacific Ocean, where a sizable hazard area had been established to account for the sheer scale of the potential drop area. Within an orbit, the stage screamed across the sky, transmitting its final call as it went.
Chapter 18: Sisters Bound for the Red Planet
It's finally time for a double-header, along with some foundation work for Mars. Thanks to defconh3ck , especially for help with the Mars-bound Mirage and Oasis.
Chapter 18: Sisters Bound for the Red Planet
A few months and a couple launches passed since A-DAPT’s fiery return to Earth and NASA was gearing up for their next big-ticket items. The 2020 Mars transfer window was soon arriving and the sister spacecrafts, Mirage and Oasis, were entering the final stretch of their long journeys on Earth and preparing for their next one. Traveler-Vega and Adventurer-Tauri were being loaded with the spacecraft and their Firelight 4’s in their respective FPF’s, with Traveler getting Mirage and Adventurer getting Oasis. The ramping cadence and the entrance of double headers such as this lead to construction beginning on an additional FPF located on the other side of the ECO Facility, which had now been renamed to the Aurora Emergency Services Facility (AES-F). At three days prior to launch, Resolute and Endurance arrived to carry the vessels to Complex 39A and B making the journey together in a very loose convoy down the Crawlerway tracks, giving clearance for weight distribution and track inspection as they went. When the T-0 arrived for Traveler-Vega, she lurched off the pad as Adventurer-Tauri and her crew watched on from the ground, already within their own countdown. Within the hour, they were on their way as well, leaving another pillar of smoke in their wake. While both orbiters arrived in the same orbit, Adventurer was trailing by quite a distance, but this wouldn’t stop the crews from attempting to catch a glimpse of each other, with everything from their own eyes to small telescopes they had brought along for the trip. The crew of Traveler even attempted and succeeded to point a laser pointer at the other orbiter, if only for a couple brief flashes, in the process claiming they had won the “first game of laser tag between spacecraft.” The orbiters would loiter about six hours longer than usual before their respective Firelight 4 deployments, giving crews both on orbit and on the ground some time to evaluate various aspects of operating the two vessels simultaneously. Even with the crews operating almost completely independently, there were considerations for ensuring data made it to the right destinations and for conducting a couple smaller checkouts through one mission control group for building experience.
The time would eventually come, though, with both orbiters raising their Firelight 4’s into their release positions. As with the rest of the parallel missions, the callout for release would come for Traveler first, sending Mirage off into the black. The stage and orbiter would appear to Adventurer as dots drifting slowly apart, with the Firelight 4 eventually pulsing its attitude control thrusters increasing separation and angling it for departure. Adventurer would let go of her own stage, sending Oasis out to join its partner for the trip to Mars. As the spacecraft drifted away in a mirrored spectacle, Mirage’s Firelight 4 would light its engine, casting a brilliant ever-expanding plume and sending the spacecraft on its way to begin unraveling mysteries below the surface of Mars. About a half-hour later, Oasis set off as well to begin its own mission to guide future Martian endeavors by providing better imagery and more tools to assist in the selection and evaluation of future landing sites. Having said goodbye to their Mars-bound payloads, the crew of Traveler made their way home, with Adventurer arriving a day later.
Along with the first departures of the Aurora Program’s ambitions for Mars, came a request for contracts regarding a way to scout multiple suitable landing sites from the surface. It would be the Martian equivalent to the Surveyor probes, but in a drastically higher quantity. Agencies involved knew there would be a multitude of “adequate” sites, but they needed a way to determine which of them would be the most “interesting” scientifically and for this, they would need to get close. Small rovers that could be launched in bulk were the recommended choice, but NASA’s newly appointed Director of Mars Operations stated frankly, “We don’t care if it’s a robotic pogo stick, anything is fair game if it gets the job done and you can prove it.”
With the thought of scouting landing sites came the question of what to do with them. In parallel with the RFC, NASA’s own Jet Propulsion Laboratory had been hard at work with their Tri-ATHLETE rovers from the 2000’s. Unlike NGST, the modular rover project had not slowed much during the reorganization, being included in a vast majority of the proposals flying around at the time and coming out the other side still in one piece. Payloads would need positioning on the surface, some may even need to be put together from smaller sub-assemblies, and a crew rover would be heavily sought after. The Tri-ATHLETE rovers could do all of the above and more, potentially simplifying cargo and acting as a versatile tool for anything else that may come along. However, like many other Aurora systems, it still lacked field experience. The system’s success in ground testing would now drive an effort to construct a “working prototype” which would consist of two Tri-ATHLETES and a scientific “pallet” connected permanently together and would be used in two capacities. The first was as a test article for how the system would work on another celestial body, the second was as a science rover. This conjoined rover would be severely cut back from its intended form as it would only ever get to carry the type of equipment seen on typical scientific rovers, lacking the ability to swap its payloads or other components. It would retain its functionality, though, focusing on proving the system’s dexterity in an operational environment. The destination for this rover was the Moon, but sights had also been set to expand the system’s operations to Mars.
In other news regarding Aurora and Mars, the Boreal engine prototype in Russia was doing an excellent job in proving the system’s plumbing. While it lacked its nuclear insides it was perfect for testing the pumps and other key systems that would eventually feed its spacefaring descendants. With this progress, a static fire test article was looming on the horizon and in the blazing Mojave, NASA was getting ready. In cooperation with the U.S. Department of Energy, the Nevada Test Site would once again become home to a nuclear engine, but a new test stand would be needed, along with some other supporting facilities. BWXT was also making progress on their end, turning out a prototype shell, which already was getting shipped all over as NASA began ironing out the “shipping and handling” of the engine. Despite its many setbacks, the Boreal engine looked to be making swift progress towards breathing its first flames.
Chapter 18: Sisters Bound for the Red Planet
A few months and a couple launches passed since A-DAPT’s fiery return to Earth and NASA was gearing up for their next big-ticket items. The 2020 Mars transfer window was soon arriving and the sister spacecrafts, Mirage and Oasis, were entering the final stretch of their long journeys on Earth and preparing for their next one. Traveler-Vega and Adventurer-Tauri were being loaded with the spacecraft and their Firelight 4’s in their respective FPF’s, with Traveler getting Mirage and Adventurer getting Oasis. The ramping cadence and the entrance of double headers such as this lead to construction beginning on an additional FPF located on the other side of the ECO Facility, which had now been renamed to the Aurora Emergency Services Facility (AES-F). At three days prior to launch, Resolute and Endurance arrived to carry the vessels to Complex 39A and B making the journey together in a very loose convoy down the Crawlerway tracks, giving clearance for weight distribution and track inspection as they went. When the T-0 arrived for Traveler-Vega, she lurched off the pad as Adventurer-Tauri and her crew watched on from the ground, already within their own countdown. Within the hour, they were on their way as well, leaving another pillar of smoke in their wake. While both orbiters arrived in the same orbit, Adventurer was trailing by quite a distance, but this wouldn’t stop the crews from attempting to catch a glimpse of each other, with everything from their own eyes to small telescopes they had brought along for the trip. The crew of Traveler even attempted and succeeded to point a laser pointer at the other orbiter, if only for a couple brief flashes, in the process claiming they had won the “first game of laser tag between spacecraft.” The orbiters would loiter about six hours longer than usual before their respective Firelight 4 deployments, giving crews both on orbit and on the ground some time to evaluate various aspects of operating the two vessels simultaneously. Even with the crews operating almost completely independently, there were considerations for ensuring data made it to the right destinations and for conducting a couple smaller checkouts through one mission control group for building experience.
The time would eventually come, though, with both orbiters raising their Firelight 4’s into their release positions. As with the rest of the parallel missions, the callout for release would come for Traveler first, sending Mirage off into the black. The stage and orbiter would appear to Adventurer as dots drifting slowly apart, with the Firelight 4 eventually pulsing its attitude control thrusters increasing separation and angling it for departure. Adventurer would let go of her own stage, sending Oasis out to join its partner for the trip to Mars. As the spacecraft drifted away in a mirrored spectacle, Mirage’s Firelight 4 would light its engine, casting a brilliant ever-expanding plume and sending the spacecraft on its way to begin unraveling mysteries below the surface of Mars. About a half-hour later, Oasis set off as well to begin its own mission to guide future Martian endeavors by providing better imagery and more tools to assist in the selection and evaluation of future landing sites. Having said goodbye to their Mars-bound payloads, the crew of Traveler made their way home, with Adventurer arriving a day later.
Along with the first departures of the Aurora Program’s ambitions for Mars, came a request for contracts regarding a way to scout multiple suitable landing sites from the surface. It would be the Martian equivalent to the Surveyor probes, but in a drastically higher quantity. Agencies involved knew there would be a multitude of “adequate” sites, but they needed a way to determine which of them would be the most “interesting” scientifically and for this, they would need to get close. Small rovers that could be launched in bulk were the recommended choice, but NASA’s newly appointed Director of Mars Operations stated frankly, “We don’t care if it’s a robotic pogo stick, anything is fair game if it gets the job done and you can prove it.”
With the thought of scouting landing sites came the question of what to do with them. In parallel with the RFC, NASA’s own Jet Propulsion Laboratory had been hard at work with their Tri-ATHLETE rovers from the 2000’s. Unlike NGST, the modular rover project had not slowed much during the reorganization, being included in a vast majority of the proposals flying around at the time and coming out the other side still in one piece. Payloads would need positioning on the surface, some may even need to be put together from smaller sub-assemblies, and a crew rover would be heavily sought after. The Tri-ATHLETE rovers could do all of the above and more, potentially simplifying cargo and acting as a versatile tool for anything else that may come along. However, like many other Aurora systems, it still lacked field experience. The system’s success in ground testing would now drive an effort to construct a “working prototype” which would consist of two Tri-ATHLETES and a scientific “pallet” connected permanently together and would be used in two capacities. The first was as a test article for how the system would work on another celestial body, the second was as a science rover. This conjoined rover would be severely cut back from its intended form as it would only ever get to carry the type of equipment seen on typical scientific rovers, lacking the ability to swap its payloads or other components. It would retain its functionality, though, focusing on proving the system’s dexterity in an operational environment. The destination for this rover was the Moon, but sights had also been set to expand the system’s operations to Mars.
In other news regarding Aurora and Mars, the Boreal engine prototype in Russia was doing an excellent job in proving the system’s plumbing. While it lacked its nuclear insides it was perfect for testing the pumps and other key systems that would eventually feed its spacefaring descendants. With this progress, a static fire test article was looming on the horizon and in the blazing Mojave, NASA was getting ready. In cooperation with the U.S. Department of Energy, the Nevada Test Site would once again become home to a nuclear engine, but a new test stand would be needed, along with some other supporting facilities. BWXT was also making progress on their end, turning out a prototype shell, which already was getting shipped all over as NASA began ironing out the “shipping and handling” of the engine. Despite its many setbacks, the Boreal engine looked to be making swift progress towards breathing its first flames.
Chapter 19: The Protector of Travelers
Not quite footprints just yet, but nearly there. A definite thanks to defconh3ck for help with the suits, I'm excited to see what else these things can get up to.
Chapter 19: The Protector of Travelers
With Mirage and Oasis on their way, NASA settled into the next big venture, Aurora III. It was still in the air as to whether or not the arbitrary “by the end of 2020” target would be made, but it looked like it could be a photo finish. Voyager-Polaris, partners for the first flight of Phoenix, had been set aside for the mission. They were taking up residence in the AES-F’s second bay, where the pair had just come out of standby service, getting a hard lookover in the process. As the end of summer came around, the new lander made its way to the Cape, finding its way into payload processing as soon as it arrived.
Three other arrivals made it in as well, the suits needed for surface activities. The development of the suits had been far from hidden, but it still managed to slip under the radar for the most part. The new suits had aimed to minimize the mass carried on the lander, which led to the goal of using one suit instead of having one for IVA and another for EVA. Another hope was to use legacy hardware, which combined with the first goal led to the creation of the current suit which had two separable layers. The inner layer, or the IVA layer, would be a modified version of ACES, which gave NASA a good excuse to modernize the aging suit. This would eventually replace the existing version on all flights, but for now, it was relegated to Lunar surface missions and testing aboard other missions. For the outer layer, there could be multiple types to fulfil various other roles, acting almost like a pair of coveralls for the suit. For Lunar surface operations, an outer layer called the Lunar Extra-Vehicular Layer (LEVL) would primarily provide additional thermal, radiation, and micrometeoroid protection. Given its heritage it would even mostly retain the iconic orange coloring of its predecessor and inner layer, which was expected to be even more strange on the Lunar surface. Given its ability to change functions so easily, the new suit would gain the name "Transposable Advanced Crew Escape Suit" or TrACES. Most of the testing had occurred on the ground with several mobility tests even being carried out in the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory using weights scattered around the suit to simulate Lunar gravity. Some minor tests did reach space, starting all the way back at PTC-2 with the samples that were flown to aid in material selections and refinements and going all the way up to various exposure tests outside the ISS utilizing the Japanese Kibo module and its external platform. Aurora III would truly be the final test, demonstrating resilience to the jagged dust and other harsh conditions present on the Lunar surface. Keeping the dust away from the crew while out of their suits’ outer layers would be another hurdle altogether. With a bit more space than the LEM from Apollo, the Firelight-DAL’s crew cabin was able to be divided into an “upper” and “lower” deck of sorts. This would enable the dust covered outer layers to be stored away near the exterior hatch at the front of the lower deck, ideally isolating it from the upper deck. Another precaution would be to place the outer layers in bags after ingress from the Lunar surface to prevent the dust from getting too far in the first place.
The beginning of December would roll over the Cape and Voyager-Polaris had long departed the AES-F and been united with the new lander in FPF-2. Eventually, the first step in Apollo 17’s trail would be taken as the stack made its mid-day journey to LC-39A. With final preparations complete, the count began and the crew of Aurora III made their way into Voyager. The crew would consist of four NASA astronauts, two ESA astronauts, and one Russian cosmonaut. Out of these seven, one from each of the three groups would be on the landing crew, with NASA astronaut, Victor Perry, ESA astronaut, Rita Castelli, and cosmonaut, Artem Petrikova. With the late-night callout for ignition, Voyager-Polaris and her LRB’s cast a glow over the Cape and the masses gathered to witness the modern moonshot. After a seemingly eternal ascent, Voyager-Polaris’s engines finally gave way to silence, which was swiftly eliminated by the separation of Polaris and the firing of thrusters to further separate the two giants. The payload bay doors opened to expose the lander as Voyager pitched over to orient the heatshield into the sun and soon the crew would get their chance to get out of their seats. They took the chance to wave goodbye to Polaris as she briefly fired her center engine once more to expedite her return home and set to work on the long road ahead of them. It was here that the lander finally received her name, with the remark from commander Harold Wright, “Welcome to space, Hermes.” From here, the crew spent a majority of the time making sure all of Hermes’s onboard systems were functioning correctly.
With the Moon filling their view, it was time for the coast phase to end. The OMS fired, drawing propellant from the pair of drop tanks tagging along and eventually shut down with a relieved call for a good capture and good orbit. With only around twenty hours until planned departure for the surface, crews, both ground and onboard, began the task of readying Hermes, starting by replenishing the lander’s boiled off propellant using reserve carried in the Abort Tank. With the lander now rejuvenated, the cradle angled out of the bay placing Hermes in the grasp of Voyager’s arms, which carefully drew the lander out of the cradle and deposited it onto the APAS. Now safely connected, Hermes got the chance to stretch her legs, unfolding them into their deployed state and soon followed by the pair of circular solar arrays. With the hatch open, final cargo could be loaded and the state of the lander’s interior could be assessed and the time for departure loomed just ahead.
Chapter 19: The Protector of Travelers
With Mirage and Oasis on their way, NASA settled into the next big venture, Aurora III. It was still in the air as to whether or not the arbitrary “by the end of 2020” target would be made, but it looked like it could be a photo finish. Voyager-Polaris, partners for the first flight of Phoenix, had been set aside for the mission. They were taking up residence in the AES-F’s second bay, where the pair had just come out of standby service, getting a hard lookover in the process. As the end of summer came around, the new lander made its way to the Cape, finding its way into payload processing as soon as it arrived.
Three other arrivals made it in as well, the suits needed for surface activities. The development of the suits had been far from hidden, but it still managed to slip under the radar for the most part. The new suits had aimed to minimize the mass carried on the lander, which led to the goal of using one suit instead of having one for IVA and another for EVA. Another hope was to use legacy hardware, which combined with the first goal led to the creation of the current suit which had two separable layers. The inner layer, or the IVA layer, would be a modified version of ACES, which gave NASA a good excuse to modernize the aging suit. This would eventually replace the existing version on all flights, but for now, it was relegated to Lunar surface missions and testing aboard other missions. For the outer layer, there could be multiple types to fulfil various other roles, acting almost like a pair of coveralls for the suit. For Lunar surface operations, an outer layer called the Lunar Extra-Vehicular Layer (LEVL) would primarily provide additional thermal, radiation, and micrometeoroid protection. Given its heritage it would even mostly retain the iconic orange coloring of its predecessor and inner layer, which was expected to be even more strange on the Lunar surface. Given its ability to change functions so easily, the new suit would gain the name "Transposable Advanced Crew Escape Suit" or TrACES. Most of the testing had occurred on the ground with several mobility tests even being carried out in the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory using weights scattered around the suit to simulate Lunar gravity. Some minor tests did reach space, starting all the way back at PTC-2 with the samples that were flown to aid in material selections and refinements and going all the way up to various exposure tests outside the ISS utilizing the Japanese Kibo module and its external platform. Aurora III would truly be the final test, demonstrating resilience to the jagged dust and other harsh conditions present on the Lunar surface. Keeping the dust away from the crew while out of their suits’ outer layers would be another hurdle altogether. With a bit more space than the LEM from Apollo, the Firelight-DAL’s crew cabin was able to be divided into an “upper” and “lower” deck of sorts. This would enable the dust covered outer layers to be stored away near the exterior hatch at the front of the lower deck, ideally isolating it from the upper deck. Another precaution would be to place the outer layers in bags after ingress from the Lunar surface to prevent the dust from getting too far in the first place.
The beginning of December would roll over the Cape and Voyager-Polaris had long departed the AES-F and been united with the new lander in FPF-2. Eventually, the first step in Apollo 17’s trail would be taken as the stack made its mid-day journey to LC-39A. With final preparations complete, the count began and the crew of Aurora III made their way into Voyager. The crew would consist of four NASA astronauts, two ESA astronauts, and one Russian cosmonaut. Out of these seven, one from each of the three groups would be on the landing crew, with NASA astronaut, Victor Perry, ESA astronaut, Rita Castelli, and cosmonaut, Artem Petrikova. With the late-night callout for ignition, Voyager-Polaris and her LRB’s cast a glow over the Cape and the masses gathered to witness the modern moonshot. After a seemingly eternal ascent, Voyager-Polaris’s engines finally gave way to silence, which was swiftly eliminated by the separation of Polaris and the firing of thrusters to further separate the two giants. The payload bay doors opened to expose the lander as Voyager pitched over to orient the heatshield into the sun and soon the crew would get their chance to get out of their seats. They took the chance to wave goodbye to Polaris as she briefly fired her center engine once more to expedite her return home and set to work on the long road ahead of them. It was here that the lander finally received her name, with the remark from commander Harold Wright, “Welcome to space, Hermes.” From here, the crew spent a majority of the time making sure all of Hermes’s onboard systems were functioning correctly.
With the Moon filling their view, it was time for the coast phase to end. The OMS fired, drawing propellant from the pair of drop tanks tagging along and eventually shut down with a relieved call for a good capture and good orbit. With only around twenty hours until planned departure for the surface, crews, both ground and onboard, began the task of readying Hermes, starting by replenishing the lander’s boiled off propellant using reserve carried in the Abort Tank. With the lander now rejuvenated, the cradle angled out of the bay placing Hermes in the grasp of Voyager’s arms, which carefully drew the lander out of the cradle and deposited it onto the APAS. Now safely connected, Hermes got the chance to stretch her legs, unfolding them into their deployed state and soon followed by the pair of circular solar arrays. With the hatch open, final cargo could be loaded and the state of the lander’s interior could be assessed and the time for departure loomed just ahead.
Chapter 20: Keep On Running
Guess who forgot to post this this morning when they meant to. Anyway, sorry for being late, but hopefully this can make up for it. Being chapter 20, this is a neat milestone and a notable chapter to boot, so I just wanted to say thanks again for sticking around to see this wild ride of mine, hope it stays/is enjoyable! Thanks to defconh3ck, again especially for the help arriving at the TrACES suits these things are going to be a lot of fun.
Chapter 20: Keep On Running
With everything sorted on Hermes, the hatch was closed and soon a go for departure was given. Hermes drifted away with subtle pulses from various thrusters to make a smooth exit. During the departure the orbital crew aboard Voyager managed to get what was expected to be one of the many iconic photos of the mission, a glimpse of the crew aboard Hermes waving through the small forward facing windows of the lander. For the orbital crew, ignition would be a mirror image of Stranger on Aurora II, but for the crew onboard it was a wild ride. Three astronauts strapped to the front of what was very nearly a Delta IV upper stage. Soon the first burn would be done, sending the crew hurdling downhill towards Taurus-Littrow. The orbital crew would see the site first, getting some imagery as they passed over to compare with later. Meanwhile the crew of Hermes was getting ready for the nerve wracking landing. Perry, who took the role of the Lander Pilot, had a lot on his plate rolling into this maneuver. An abort, or even a manual landing, at this stage would be a convoluted process to say the least. For now at least the computer had the reins and Perry needed only to keep his hand on the stick and eyes on the gauges. Rapidly approaching the landing site, the RL-10 lit up once more, siphoning velocity out of their fall, bringing the lander to a momentary pause a mere hundred feet over the Lunar surface below them before shutting down. With Perry's firm grip on the controls, Hermes began its brief freefall before all sixteen of the small side-mounted engines came to life, resulting in cheers everywhere from mission control all the way to the flight deck of Hermes. The surface approached and the altitudes were called out, the descent came to a gentle halt on the surface with the engines shutting down and leaving behind near-complete silence in their wake. After a brief moment to catch their breath, the call finally came, “Engine stop. Houston, Hermes is at Taurus-Littrow.”
Much to the dismay of the crew and generally everyone else involved, getting ready in Lunar orbit and the descent itself had been an all-day affair and the EVA would have to wait. Conveniently, a rest period would also push the EVA out of the current early morning hours, it would still be morning, but the timing would certainly be better. After taking some time to prepare a few smaller items, the crew took their break knowing full-well it would be more restless than restful. With nine hours of rest period and probably less than eight hours of sleep combined behind them, the crew got to work on the final tasks leading up to stepping out, taking time along the way to show off the cabin as well as the view outside the window. Petrikova took an opportunity to show off the morning coffee saying, “This is a pair! The worst coffee and the best day at work.” With all of the necessary items ready near the forward hatch, a final round of checks, go/no go polls, and any other quick verifications ground crews could get their hands on, the astronauts sat in the lower deck waiting patiently for depressurization to start. Not long after air slowly began to be pulled out of the cabin, eventually reaching a pressure where more air could not reasonably be reclaimed, the remainder was released, finally bringing the pressure to a vacuum. Perry was up first, going head first into the small horizontal hatch corridor to open the hatch before backing out, turning around, and going back out feet first. After a small bump of his helmet against the top of the hatch, Perry got his first good look around at the barren landing site, a crater just over a kilometer east of Challenger’s descent stage. To avoid stumbling over his words, Perry locked his eyes straight forwards into the hatch in an attempt to block out his surroundings for a moment before breaking the silence that had fallen in mission control and all over the world, giving the statement, “Humanity has been running forward through ages of exploration for as long as we know. Reaching vast distances by foot, crossing seas under the power of wind and steam. When we ran out of surface, we reached for the deepest depths and the highest heights, taking to the skies and then to the stars not long after. Fifty years ago, we stopped running, or at least slowed down. Whatever our reasons were and whatever brought us back here, to Taurus-Littrow, we must never stop running again. With this next small step, we look forward to many that follow.” With a short drop off the last step of the ladder, the first boot print was made.
Castelli and Petrikova followed behind, taking their own time to celebrate the incredible firsts for their nations and agencies. Before the crew got to work grabbing some items stowed on the lander, Petrikova approached Perry, extending a hand saying, "Here we have our new start, on even ground. Let us all run, together and with our new friends." With an exchange of handshakes among all parties, the crew removed flags and other initial items from storage compartments located in the Firelight-4’s intertank region and made their way to the crater rim. There each astronaut planted their respective flags, joining together to plant one more for JAXA as no Japanese astronaut was present this time. The flags were arranged in a diamond shape and in the middle the crew laid a plaque with a marble base containing the flags of the remaining nations contributing to Aurora along with an inscription reading, “Let us never forget what can be done with a shared dream and an infinite horizon.”
Aside from celebration, some other small tasks were planned for the first of the two planned EVA’s. Most of these tasks actually involved Hermes, with the crew looking around and documenting the state of the lander in order to provide a point of insight midway through a mission, adding to what Stranger had afforded as a part of Aurora II. Castelli would conduct some prep-work for an ESA experiment looking into use of Lunar regolith mixed with soil from Earth in plant growth, for now simply scouting some spots around the crater for collection on the next EVA. Other than that some minor sample collection work was set aside to, among other things, check how much, if any, Taurus-Littrow had changed after the departure of Apollo 17. The field test for the TrACES suits were going well, aside from a few user-induced falls and were proving some, so-far, impressive capability. As the time set aside for EVA-1 ran out the crew climbed back into the lander, with Perry, in the process, expressing a lament that they were not able to bring up a Christmas tree with them. With the hatch closed and the cabin safely pressurized, the crew pulled off the dust-covered outer layer, taking care not to disturb them too much as they placed them in their duffel bag-like containers. Next up was some indoor tasks and another rest period as they prepared for the next day’s journey to the past, to Challenger's descent module.
Chapter 20: Keep On Running
With everything sorted on Hermes, the hatch was closed and soon a go for departure was given. Hermes drifted away with subtle pulses from various thrusters to make a smooth exit. During the departure the orbital crew aboard Voyager managed to get what was expected to be one of the many iconic photos of the mission, a glimpse of the crew aboard Hermes waving through the small forward facing windows of the lander. For the orbital crew, ignition would be a mirror image of Stranger on Aurora II, but for the crew onboard it was a wild ride. Three astronauts strapped to the front of what was very nearly a Delta IV upper stage. Soon the first burn would be done, sending the crew hurdling downhill towards Taurus-Littrow. The orbital crew would see the site first, getting some imagery as they passed over to compare with later. Meanwhile the crew of Hermes was getting ready for the nerve wracking landing. Perry, who took the role of the Lander Pilot, had a lot on his plate rolling into this maneuver. An abort, or even a manual landing, at this stage would be a convoluted process to say the least. For now at least the computer had the reins and Perry needed only to keep his hand on the stick and eyes on the gauges. Rapidly approaching the landing site, the RL-10 lit up once more, siphoning velocity out of their fall, bringing the lander to a momentary pause a mere hundred feet over the Lunar surface below them before shutting down. With Perry's firm grip on the controls, Hermes began its brief freefall before all sixteen of the small side-mounted engines came to life, resulting in cheers everywhere from mission control all the way to the flight deck of Hermes. The surface approached and the altitudes were called out, the descent came to a gentle halt on the surface with the engines shutting down and leaving behind near-complete silence in their wake. After a brief moment to catch their breath, the call finally came, “Engine stop. Houston, Hermes is at Taurus-Littrow.”
Much to the dismay of the crew and generally everyone else involved, getting ready in Lunar orbit and the descent itself had been an all-day affair and the EVA would have to wait. Conveniently, a rest period would also push the EVA out of the current early morning hours, it would still be morning, but the timing would certainly be better. After taking some time to prepare a few smaller items, the crew took their break knowing full-well it would be more restless than restful. With nine hours of rest period and probably less than eight hours of sleep combined behind them, the crew got to work on the final tasks leading up to stepping out, taking time along the way to show off the cabin as well as the view outside the window. Petrikova took an opportunity to show off the morning coffee saying, “This is a pair! The worst coffee and the best day at work.” With all of the necessary items ready near the forward hatch, a final round of checks, go/no go polls, and any other quick verifications ground crews could get their hands on, the astronauts sat in the lower deck waiting patiently for depressurization to start. Not long after air slowly began to be pulled out of the cabin, eventually reaching a pressure where more air could not reasonably be reclaimed, the remainder was released, finally bringing the pressure to a vacuum. Perry was up first, going head first into the small horizontal hatch corridor to open the hatch before backing out, turning around, and going back out feet first. After a small bump of his helmet against the top of the hatch, Perry got his first good look around at the barren landing site, a crater just over a kilometer east of Challenger’s descent stage. To avoid stumbling over his words, Perry locked his eyes straight forwards into the hatch in an attempt to block out his surroundings for a moment before breaking the silence that had fallen in mission control and all over the world, giving the statement, “Humanity has been running forward through ages of exploration for as long as we know. Reaching vast distances by foot, crossing seas under the power of wind and steam. When we ran out of surface, we reached for the deepest depths and the highest heights, taking to the skies and then to the stars not long after. Fifty years ago, we stopped running, or at least slowed down. Whatever our reasons were and whatever brought us back here, to Taurus-Littrow, we must never stop running again. With this next small step, we look forward to many that follow.” With a short drop off the last step of the ladder, the first boot print was made.
Castelli and Petrikova followed behind, taking their own time to celebrate the incredible firsts for their nations and agencies. Before the crew got to work grabbing some items stowed on the lander, Petrikova approached Perry, extending a hand saying, "Here we have our new start, on even ground. Let us all run, together and with our new friends." With an exchange of handshakes among all parties, the crew removed flags and other initial items from storage compartments located in the Firelight-4’s intertank region and made their way to the crater rim. There each astronaut planted their respective flags, joining together to plant one more for JAXA as no Japanese astronaut was present this time. The flags were arranged in a diamond shape and in the middle the crew laid a plaque with a marble base containing the flags of the remaining nations contributing to Aurora along with an inscription reading, “Let us never forget what can be done with a shared dream and an infinite horizon.”
Aside from celebration, some other small tasks were planned for the first of the two planned EVA’s. Most of these tasks actually involved Hermes, with the crew looking around and documenting the state of the lander in order to provide a point of insight midway through a mission, adding to what Stranger had afforded as a part of Aurora II. Castelli would conduct some prep-work for an ESA experiment looking into use of Lunar regolith mixed with soil from Earth in plant growth, for now simply scouting some spots around the crater for collection on the next EVA. Other than that some minor sample collection work was set aside to, among other things, check how much, if any, Taurus-Littrow had changed after the departure of Apollo 17. The field test for the TrACES suits were going well, aside from a few user-induced falls and were proving some, so-far, impressive capability. As the time set aside for EVA-1 ran out the crew climbed back into the lander, with Perry, in the process, expressing a lament that they were not able to bring up a Christmas tree with them. With the hatch closed and the cabin safely pressurized, the crew pulled off the dust-covered outer layer, taking care not to disturb them too much as they placed them in their duffel bag-like containers. Next up was some indoor tasks and another rest period as they prepared for the next day’s journey to the past, to Challenger's descent module.