Ocean of Storms: A Timeline of A Scientific America

Annuit Coeptis

>snip<

19 June 1985

Hadden Systems Integration Facility

Palmdale, CA

34° 37′ 45″ N 118° 05′ 06″ W


He stared out the picture window at the half-completed spaceship on the floor below. The skeleton still showed in several places. Technicians were lazily wrapping up their work. The current shift was about to close out. He was supposed to do a walk-around with a couple of VP’s in the morning. One of their new Japanese practices. It wasn’t going to be fun.

This one was black. It was certainly sexier. He’d seen the numbers and the black hadn’t really been necessary. They had run a cost-benefit and it wasn’t a problem, but it seemed like it was done to make the ship stand out against the civilian model. They had been tweaking this since Reagan announced Star Wars. These days, the Republicans were willing to throw money at anything that might beat communism. Having a sleek, black Clipper that would exclusively service SDI hardware was apparently a need these days. SDI was still fledgling, but this was something tangible, so it had value to the people who wrote checks.

“What better job in all the world than to make something fly?”

She looked up from the report she was reading, “What?”

“Nothing. Sorry, I get philosophical in the afternoon. You know me. It’s one of my things.”

“You want me to get you some coffee?”

“Nah. It’ll keep me up.”

“Okay. They’re starting back up. You need to get in there.”

Hank Patterson sighed. He did not want to sit through the back half of this update meeting. They’d been going since 10 a.m. and at this point, it looked like they’d be here another two hours.

“What the hell do they want from me, Kim? It’s got no wings. It’s a Clipper without any damn wings because we can’t get the wings in from Downey because the tests were bad because the Air Force wants eleven-hundred nautical miles of cross-range. They tried to reinvent the wheel and it came out square. Talking about it for twelve hours isn’t gonna fix a damn thing.”

“Hank, the sooner you get in there, the sooner it’s over. The Air Force isn’t going away. They’re trying to protect, you know, the entire country. And they’re counting on us. So... I need you to get in there, or I need you to get me a purchase order number so I can start ordering Soviet flags and some kind of Cyrillic typewriter.”

He raised an eyebrow and turned to the woman who had kept this office running perfectly for the last three years, “You get sarcastic in the afternoon.”

“You know me. It’s one of my things,” Kim said.

“Ugh. Okay.”

“Oh, Paul McBride called around noon,” Kim said.

He frowned, “Paul? You told him I can’t do press about this, right?”

“He said this wasn’t about that,” Kim said.

“Okay. Well. Did he say anything else?”

“He wanted to talk to you himself,” Kim said.

“That’s odd. Do me a favor. Call him back. Ask him what this is about. It’s got me curious.”

“Okay, get back in there,” Kim said.

Twenty minutes into the meeting, Kim poked her head in and waved for him to come to the door. She spoke in whispered tones, “I got a hold of McBride. He said there’s a news story you’re going to need to see. CBS. Should be on in ten minutes.” Inside the conference room, the phone rang.

“I’m a little busy,” he said, annoyed. He indicated the waiting Air Force officers at the long table.

“I’m just telling you what he said,” she replied.

“Okay. Paul isn’t flighty, so it must be serious. Watch it for me and report back. Or hey, better, we’ve got a VCR, don’t we?” Hank said.

“Yeah, but I don’t think anyone here knows how to work it,” Kim said.

“Give it a try. If you can’t make it happen, just take some notes or something,” he said.

“Will do. How’s it going in there?”

“Boys want their toys,” he answered.

As he reentered the conference room, the junior Air Force man was speaking in whispers to his superior. Hank sensed something was up.

The senior man waved off his subordinate and spoke, “Mr. Patterson, we got a call just now. Apparently there’s a matter of some importance on the news this evening.”

Patterson kept his poker face, not knowing what the play was.

The general continued, “Is there a television set somewhere in this office?”

Ten minutes later, the seven members of the review crowded around a color TV that had been set up in a corner of the engineering bullpen.

On the screen, Dan Rather sat behind the big desk in New York and introduced a guest who sat to his left. The man being interviewed had the clichéd look of a scientist. The glasses, the slight frame, and the wisps of black hair that were desperately clinging to as much scalp as they could conceal would have been complemented by a white lab coat and a clipboard. The subject had removed his lab coat in favor of a tweed suit that did nothing to give him a sense of style

Rather made the introduction, “Since the announcement of the Strategic Defense Initiative, better known as Star Wars, the program has come under much criticism, both for the deployment of military equipment into outer space, and for the considerable costs of the program itself.”

Patterson understood why everyone had been told to watch now. He looked out at the factory floor at the black, military-edition Clipper that was to supply the Star Wars platform when it was ready.

Rather continued, “As the SDI program has the potential to shift the doctrine of Mutually Assured Destruction, or MAD, the Soviets have undoubtedly continued to develop weapons and plans that account for the promises of the SDI system. Here tonight, we have Dr. Ronald Chambers, of the Union of Concerned Scientists. Dr. Chambers, can you speak to the Soviet Union’s efforts to counter the SDI system.”

The aged scientist’s soft tones gave a soothing note of credibility, “Since their first development during World War II, every nuclear power has worked to make their nuclear devices as small as possible. This is helpful if you want to launch the device on a rocket. The smaller the payload, the farther and faster the rocket can go. The SDI system is reliant on laser beams to shoot down incoming rockets. The lasers target missiles and warheads once they are beyond the Earth’s atmosphere. ”

Rather cut in, “Have the Soviets managed to decrease the size of their bombs to be so small that the SDI systems are unable to shoot them down?”

“Based on the best available data to civilians, the general consensus is that space-borne lasers, if operable, would still be able to target and destroy incoming missiles. This, however, is an incomplete summary of the situation.”

“How do you mean?”

“Size reduction has allowed for nuclear devices to become small enough for transport by non-military means. A thermonuclear deuterium-tritium device could be placed in a container no larger than a standard oil drum.”

“An oil drum?”

“Yes. And, if that drum were properly constructed, the device would give off very minimal amounts of radiation.”

Rather turned to the camera again, “It is with this knowledge that CBS News, in concert with the Union of Concerned Scientists and with the knowledge of certain highly-placed sources in the federal government, began an investigation two months ago. We present the findings of this investigation now.”

The view cut away to an exterior shot. In the background were the distinctive onion forms of the Kremlin. This was Red Square, and in the foreground stood two men, facing the camera. Between them, on the sidewalk, was a standard oil drum. The top third was painted bright red, the middle section was left white and the lower third was a union blue.

“Oh shit,” said one of the Air Force staffers. Patterson wasn’t sure of the reason for the man’s concern.

A voiceover began to play as the men on screen loaded the oil drum into the back of a van. “This oil drum is lined with lead and filled with radioactive medical waste to simulate the radiation signature of a nuclear device. While the nature of the radiation is somewhat different, its intensity is comparable with an unexploded weapon.”

“Beginning in Red Square, the drum was transported to the border and met with a vessel bound for Nicaragua. In less than a month, the drum had been smuggled from Latin America into Mexico.”

In concert with this narration, the screen showed the oil drum being offloaded by a handcart and other scenes involving various trucks. The last truck was a green softside that was shown arriving at a desert airstrip.

“Drug runners have created very profitable criminal empires by smuggling drugs by road and air over the United States’ southern border. By using commonly known air smuggling routes, our pilot was able to transport this oil drum from a private airport outside of Monterrey to a small airstrip on a leased property between Las Cruces and Carlsbad, New Mexico.”

“Easy as pie,” said the Air Force colonel as he watched the Learjet land in a bare patch of the southwest. The cactus in the background had been a nice touch.

Another white van awaited the oil drum and video showed the loading of the container in the back of this van and, just as in Moscow, the camera watched it drive off, this time with a New Mexican license plate on the back.

“This van was used for the final transportation of the container. Departing New Mexico, the container traveled through six states before reaching Chicago, Illinois. The only incident was when the van suffered a flat tire outside Kansas City, Missouri. A Missouri state trooper offered assistance to our investigators and their journey was not questioned. The journey from New Mexico to Chicago was completed in less than two days.”

The scene showed a state trooper putting out flares and helping the motorists. The flat tire was changed and soon after the oil drum was shown in front of the iconic façade of Wrigley Field.

“From there, the oil drum was transported through Ohio and Pennsylvania, via Pittsburgh, before reaching its destination: Washington, DC.”

The two men from the Moscow shot now posed in the exact same position, this time with the White House in the background.

“Holy shit,” Patterson uttered, unable to maintain his decorum under this shock.

The shot came back to Rather and his guest in the studio. “At no point in the journey across the United States did our investigators encounter any harassment from any law enforcement entity. The methods used by our team to cross the border were nothing that is not currently known to both illicit smugglers, and the law enforcement agencies that attempt to stop them. No extraordinary means were used and our investigators were instructed to comply with any and all searches if challenged. No such challenges ever came.”

The shot panned out and showed the coup de grace for Rather’s indictment of the SDI systems. Between Dr. Chambers and Dan Rather, in the middle of a studio, in the middle of the largest American city, sat the same red, white, and blue oil drum that had traveled so far.

Rather delivered the eulogy for the work that Hank Patterson had been stressed about for the last eighteen months. “If the SDI system is developed and implemented, it is well within current Soviet capabilities to deliver and maintain nuclear weapons to key targets on American soil. The ability of the United States to shoot down an incoming nuclear weapon will in no way inhibit the ability of the Soviet Union to deploy them.”

Er, I have to mention that this changes nothing in the thinking of SDI as the ability to place nuclear weapons on "non-military" delivery systems was quite possible from day one. The first British nuclear weapons test in fact was planned and predicated on a nuclear bomb being detonated on a ship in an English harbor. The conclsusion in fact:
"If the SDI system is developed and implemented, it is well within current Soviet capabilities to deliver and maintain nuclear weapons to key targets on American soil. The ability of the United States to shoot down an incoming nuclear weapon will in no way inhibit the ability of the Soviet Union to deploy them.” is both false and ignores the ramifications of just ONE of those being discovered either actually IN the US or being shipped somewhere. The USSR could not afford to even consider such a 'plan' as a means of dettering SDI. it was "well within" the capability of any of the larger nuclear nations to do such a thing and it was and still is an immediate act of war to even try such a thing. Many inside the miltary and government in fact had opposed the emphisis on SDI and missile defense in general due to it's interference with placing methods of detection around the US to deal with just such a threat.

Should I also point out that 'maintianing' such a weapon is going to be a complex and extensive task that, especailly since the weapon is so small, going to have to be done on at least a couple of times per year to maintain the weapon in any viable form? Oh and I had to laugh since while a "thermonuclear deuterium-tritium device" CAN be placed in a container the size of an oil drum, (nuclear free-fall and most warheads are of similar size) for an effective weapon you can not in fact sheild it enough for it NOT to be detectable by numerous means. And thanks to CBS and the UoCS the government of the United States now will have overwhelming public support to deploy and use the needed assets to ensure this can not happen.

This has just given SDI a marjor boost (and CBS is in for a ratings hit and loss of ad revenue) in fact since this is "obviously" an attempt by the Soviet Union, (and with their support since this barrel started it's journy from Red Square, I'd be surprised if Rather and his producer aren't out on the street in a week, this is EXACTLY the wrong political mood to pull something like this) to attack SDI which by any logical thinking means they are afraid of it because it might work...
There's a reason this never happened OTL even though this kind of argument was brought up often. ANY media that participated in such a farce would be called out, torn to shreds and even the UoCS would know this would backfire and solidify the support of SDI.

Other than that the whole chapter was good but I'm afraid Patterson et-al had better be prepared to get REALLY busy because SDI is now going forwards full steam thanks to this.

Randy
 
have to concur here, in that era something starting from the red square would have been done with the permission and cooperation from the soviet government, which would make it suspect from the start (plus the barrel was likely under surveillance for a considerable part of the trip by the kgb or gru).
 
Although its critics implied that SDI was intended to do the impossible; to shoot down ALL strategic missiles aimed the United States, that was never expected. The intent of SDI included:
1. To provide an option in the event of accidental launch.
2. To provide an option in the event of an attack from a minor (insane) power.
3. To provide the President with an option other than Mutual Assured Destruction (MAD) in the event of a limited attack from a major power or of ambiguous information suggesting a large-scale attack.
4. To take away from the aggressor nation any illusion that a major, large scale attack might succeed in pre-emptively destroying enough of the strategic deterrent to make such an attack a "reasonable bet". The attacker could never be confident of the success of his attack.

Please note that while such a "reasonable bet" might be considered ludicrous to us, the Soviet leadership may well have thought otherwise. And it would be their opinion that would matter here.
 
I can't comment on the SDI question except to hope that the controversy, however it resolves, leads to increased public interest as to the potential of space. I could see opponents of SDI pressuring the government to focus on peaceful development of space, for example.

However, I can comment on moonbase developments - I'm looking forward to seeing the engineering demonstrators (the moonbaker, etc) be iterated on and the scope of operations expand. On to some questions:
  • Will they have deployed a network of radiometers and other sensors around the Shackleton site before the next major CME to hit the Earth in 1989? In particular it would be important to understand just how well-protected you would be if you're shaded by local relief, or under different depths of regolith (eg, burying sensors using a core drill).
  • Have they done any small-scale surface gravimetry around the sites dug for placement of the long-term habitats? There could be small subsurface voids, leading to settling and structural stresses - I think it's unlikely, but I haven't looked into it too deeply so you never know ;)
  • With the NERVA tug becoming a workhorse, what are the chances of seeing a NERVA-based asteroid capture program begin in a few decades, once the state of NEO astronomy advances sufficiently to identify some good candidates? Access to that ISP alone would do wonders for any such program, even assuming it takes a similar path as we seem to be OTL, with several flybys followed by rendezvous/orbit/sample return missions towards an eventual capture of a promising target.
Altogether I'm very excited for the future of spaceflight and expanding use of space in the future of your TL, can't wait to see what's next!

(I ought to mention that I asked for, and was granted, Bow of Orion's permission to necro the thread)
 
XXXVIII: Live From the Moon
Live From the Moon

23 January 1986

Moonbase Outpost

Expedition 6

Day 18


It was a rusty old saw in the Public Relations office that astronauts were rarely good on camera. The press ate up any chance to cover a live space mission because the public was still impressed with views of the Earth and lunar landscapes. However, as a general rule, astronauts, tending to come from academic or military backgrounds, were not entertainers.

There had been a few exceptions over the years. John Glenn had had enough charisma to become Vice President. Jim Lovell had spoken eloquently about his time on the Moon. The video of Al Bean teaching kids about painting during his Skylab flight had been a golden moment for the space program. But those men were the exceptions, not the rule.

That was one of the reasons that Cale Fletcher was the only astronaut whose photo hung in the public affairs office.

Fletcher had been a rookie astronaut on Constellation in 1983. He had done an EVA to replace a broken solar panel on the FarSight II probe that had been stranded in low Earth orbit. The incident had been a textbook example of a bad story turned good. The Constellation crew had given NASA a come-from-behind victory and that had turned into a great appearance on The Tonight Show. When FarSight II sent back photos from Mars orbit in early 1984, Fletcher went back on to show America the treasures their space program had discovered. Unsurprisingly, America found the astronaut more interesting than the rusted desert he’d come to talk about.

Cale Fletcher was what was referred to in his hometown as a good ol’ boy. Fletcher, who hailed from the great metropolis of Timmonsville, South Carolina (population 1,200) had a childhood that read like rejected scenes from a pulp adventure novel.

According to his rambling, autobiographical campfire stories, at one time or another he’d been struck by lightning, shot, wrestled an alligator and had stolen his father’s crop duster for a joyride when he was only twelve years old.

Whether any of those stories were true really didn’t matter. One of Fletcher’s favorite openers was, “Not all my true stories actually happened.” Still, Johnny Carson had been charmed and if Johnny liked it, America liked it.

NASA’s human resources people had verified that in his teenage years, he’d driven a stock car on short tracks to earn tuition money for Clemson. At Clemson he’d been a walk-on wide receiver and had been considered for the NFL, but when he went undrafted, Fletcher decided to use the engineering degree that he’d come away with.

After a year of tuning engines for a NASCAR team, on a dare, Cale Fletcher had sent in a resume to NASA.

Now, a decade removed from the green grasses and orange crowds of Death Valley, Cale Fletcher found himself on a cold grey rock, adding another story to his colorful repertoire of tall tales.

With six landings of the new Eagle moon shuttle under their belt, NASA now felt comfortable enough letting an observer view the landing from the ground. Mission rules had always demanded that any landing take place far from any hardware or personnel for safety, but the chance to broadcast a live landing, seen from the ground, was too tempting to pass up. With the arrival of Expedition 7 tonight, the agency had a chance to put on quite a show without adding much in the way of unnecessary risk.

In total, with the arrival of Expedition 6, there had been eighteen crewed landings on the Moon and none of them had ever been witnessed by an observer on the lunar surface. Indeed, rovers had provided views of old Apollo LEM’s taking off, but there had been no way to record a landing, even with the unmanned ships that had preceded the later Apollos.

The networks had cleared the two hours of primetime and Eagle IV was due to touch down at 9:45pm Eastern.

After a polite introduction from Walter Cronkite, footage was shown from the launch of Adventure out of Cape Kennedy three weeks ago. The viewers at home then found their televisions filled with the image of Cale Fletcher, giving a friendly wave from inside the cramped logistics module of Moonbase. The two-second pause had intentionally been left in the broadcast to demonstrate how far away from home they were.

“Hey, y’all. This is Cale Fletcher talking to you live from the Moon, here at Moonbase on the lunar South Pole. Let me show you around.”

galley show.jpg

“We’re starting our little tour in the galley. This is where we cook and have meetings. It’s the only place with enough space for the whole crew to gather outside our bunks. At some point, NASA will have to send us up a nice conference room.”

“The kitchen, as you can see, is pretty sparse, but we’ve got a microwave and a fridge. That beats my college dorm room by miles. Over here we’ve got an exercise bike that, believe it or not, actually provides power to a couple of backup batteries. It’s not really critical, but it’s a fun little project to see who can put the most charge in the backups.”

“Now this little piece of heaven is our pride and joy. Don’t tell the fellas up on Skydock, but Moonbase is the site of the very first shower off of the Earth.”

Fletcher stepped inside but didn’t start the water. “You can see, it’s more or less just like what you’ve got back on Earth. The only difference is what happens to the water before it comes in and after it goes out. We do an awful lot of recycling up here. And honestly, it’s best not to think about it.”

“Nate James was the first guy to get to use this when it got set up back in December. We were gonna put up a little plaque to mark the occasion but Nate put the kibosh on that.”

“Over here we’ve got more storage. You can see everything has a proper label and we’ve got charts to help us find things in a pinch. This module was designed to handle anything we couldn’t think of until we get a little more elbow room. We can do everything from first aid to machine repairs. It’s also where Carol and Dieter play chess on Sundays.”

Dieter Schleich, who was the camera operator for today, gave a friendly nod at his mention.

“Let’s head over into the geo lab. We’ll see how Carol and Nate are doing with the rocks.”

geo lab show.jpg

There was a pause as Fletcher used the grab bar to lift and pull himself through the small circular hatch that connected the logistics module with the science lab. Dieter passed him the camera and Fletcher narrated Dieter’s subsequent squeeze through the hatchway.

“Hey, here we have the famous Lunar rock hounds. Specially imported from Earth. We keep a pair of geologists out here pretty much on every crew. Nate and Carol are always looking out for the most interesting rocks. They bring ‘em back, break ‘em down, figure out all their dirty little secrets, and then, if there’s nothing more to get out of ‘em… well, I’ll save that little surprise for the end of the tour.

“Carol, I’m not gonna bother you for too long while you’re working, but tell us about some of the stuff you’ve found.”

Carol turned from her workbench, sidestepped Nate who was bent over a microscope. She reached up to grab a sample bag out of a cabinet near the curved ceiling. She held up the bag to the light in front of the camera.

“This was chipped off of a nice little piece of basalt that Dieter brought in last week from the northern pass. If you look closely, you can see, this is actually a deposit of copper, which is pretty rare here on the Moon. The composition of most of the rocks we find is primarily silicon…”

Cale interrupted, “You hear that, all you folks in California. We’ve got the real Silicon Valley up here, everywhere you look.”

Carol was startled a bit, but continued, “Well, yes. We get lots of silicon and magnesium. About 10% iron and a bit of aluminum as well, but copper is unusual for us to find.”

“Can you tell us how it got here?” Cale asked.

“Well, that’s always the hardest question, isn’t it. Copper, like every element, is born in the hearts of stars. The materials of the solar system had a semi-random dispersion during the formation. The atoms that made up this little chunk are quite old, but we’re still figuring out exactly how old. When we get an approximate date, we’ll have a better chance of figuring out if copper had some part to play in the Moon’s early history, or if this was simply a souvenir dropped of a comet or meteor. We’re taking this sample back to Earth for more study.”

Carol put the bag away and Cale and Dieter made their way to the far end of the lab, “The white coats back at home will look over all the samples that Carol and Nate bring back. One of the nice things about NASA is that we make all our findings public so, in a couple of years, you’ll be able to look up a paper or something that will tell you whatever was discovered about that strange little rock they found.”

As they moved to the next hatch, Fletcher continued. “Let me show you one of the fun bits of our little station here.” He slid through the hatch and squatted over a small circular platform between two modules. “Folks, this here is an access port that we have for emergencies. If something should cut us off from the forward airlock, we’ve got this access up here.”

topside show.jpg

Above Fletcher, the camera showed an access hatch in the top of the space.

“If we ever need to get out and for some reason can’t do it the old fashioned way, our rovers outside can actually drive up the slope of the base and connect to this little hatchway here. From there, we’d just ferry people over to the Eagle lander and we’d be able to get home just fine. This is just one of the hundreds of safety systems we have here on Moonbase.”

“Now, let’s take a look at the bunks. Sorry about the mess.”

Dieter and Cale moved into the sleeping module. The long cylinder was lined with cots that had sliding panels for privacy. 8 cots, 4 on each side, filled the space. At the rear was a pair of workstations. One had papers and the other had a collection of spare parts and a half-completed device that Cale had been working on earlier that day. There was a water faucet and sink in the corner.

“Unlike the space stations, lunar gravity allows for us to have a lot of creature comforts that we are used to at home. Having a predictable flow for water really helps our internal designs. But in one-sixth gravity, we can still have some fun. Take a look.”

Fletcher took an orange plastic cup from the shelf, filled it about halfway with water, then stood in front of the camera. He poured a splash of water out at around eye level, then quickly moved the cup down and caught the flow, just before it hit the ground.

“Whoa, yeah. Took me about ten tries to get that right, but it’s a fun trick. In about 30 years, we’ll have some hotels up here and you all can give it a try then.” Fletcher’s grin shined all the way back to Earth.

“Okay, now, we’re going to pass through the logistics module. That’s where we get our air and heat and water. Please don’t touch anything while we’re in there.”

They passed into the next module, which was cramped with tanks and machinery. “Welcome to my office, folks. The machines in here are what keeps us alive and it’s my job to give them whatever they need. For the most part, we don’t have too many breakdowns. But that’s because we’re very careful about maintenance.”

Fletcher pulled a clipboard off of a hanger on the side of a tank. “You can see here, we are very particular about our work and our schedules. On Moonbase, safety is always first. And the best way to be safe is to keep your life support systems at the top of their game.”

Under the stark, bright lights of the logistics module, Dieter and Cale made their way forward to the last hatch, “Okay. We’re gonna go in here and suit up. We’re gonna show you folks at home some of the spacesuits and then Dieter and I are going to get dressed.”

Cale walked his audience through some of the features of the new walking suits. The single-piece suits were modeled off of the Soviet designs, which was politely left out of the broadcast’s commentary. Viewers got to see how the backpacks were stored and charged with air and water from the logistics module.

“Okay, everyone. Putting on a suit can be a tricky little process. And as much as we love your company, Dieter and I are gonna send you back to Earth for a bit while we suit up. We’ll be back in a while, broadcasting live, from the surface of the Moon. Stick around. The main event is coming up.”



23 January 1986

Eagle IV Lander

Orbital Inclination: 88°

Altitude: 75 mi


Despite the fact that now more than one Eagle lander was in space and operational, the schedules of the missions had determined that both Eagles would never be occupied at the same time, at least for the foreseeable future. With that understanding, there was no need to put a designator after the name “Eagle” for standard radio communications.

“Houston, this is Eagle. We are free and flying. Are they ready to go out at Huffman?”

“Roger, copy you Eagle. The pattern is clear and the runway is open. You are go for powered descent.”



23 January 1986

Moonbase Outpost

Expedition 6

Day 18


From a camera mounted on the front of the sandrail, two figures in space suits waved with the Earth centered between them, over their shoulders.

“Hey everyone. Can’t get rid of us that easily. This is Cale and Dieter again, we are outside now, as you can see, and we’re gonna go for a little ride. Let us show you the new car.”

Dieter Schleich, a notoriously camera-shy scientist from the ESA, eagerly grabbed the camera off of the sand rail’s front fender. Cale showed off the features of the most fun vehicle in NASA’s fleet.

“We built this rig from parts that were brought up from the last few missions. It’s good for quick little scouting trips. We use it to get to some of our sensor packages that are far out from the main base. As you can see, it just holds two people and a little bit of gear. Solar cells here on the top for power. The batteries and motor aren’t much different from what you’d find in a golf cart back home.”

Fletcher and Schleich mounted up, Dieter taking the wheel in the left-hand seat. Fletcher took the camera and aimed straight ahead.

“Okay folks, we’re ready to head out to Huffman Prairie. Dieter, take us out.”

The camera jolted a bit as the little sand rail got going. It took a beat, but Cale managed to get a good, steady shot. The grey landscape rolled by and the sleek ridge of Shackleton loomed to his right. On Earth, this 10 mph trip would have felt agonizingly slow, but a quarter-million miles away, this was breakneck speed. Worthy of the first Lunar Grand Prix.

“This next expedition that is coming down is going to have some fun things to do. You can see Rover 2 over there. We’ve got it parked and the batteries are charging because there’s a mission for it coming up.”

“To send a radio signal back to Earth, you have to be able to see the Earth. When the Earth is below our horizon, we lose our steady contact with Houston. The good people in Mission Control don’t like that very much, because they like to keep an eye on us. That’s why, a few days from now, my friends Sarah Lange and Sally Ride are going on a little road trip to that mountain way over yonder.”

Cale zoomed in on the view of Earth almost kissing the horizon. “You see, that big hill, the one that comes up right under the Earth there, is a place called Malapert Mountain. Malapert is another big crater, like Shackelton here. The mountain there is part of the crest of the crater. And Malapert is a special piece of real estate. At the peak of the mountain, you can always see the Earth, and you can always see our base here at the South Pole.”

Fletcher zoomed out slowly, ever the showman, and turned to show part of the solar array on the crater rim above him. “While Sarah and Sally are road tripping, some of the rest of the crew will be installing a new radio transmitter that was delivered inside our geology lab you saw earlier. Sally and Sarah will put up another transmitter over on top of Malapert. When both are installed, they’ll give us a clear line of sight all the way back to Earth, and the folks in Mission Control won’t worry about us so much.”

“It’s going to be a fun little road trip. About a week on the road. It’ll be a big test of our ability to navigate and monitor the progress of long-term excursions. I gotta tell you, I’m pretty jealous of these women. They’re going to see some really amazing things out there.”

The sand rail turned, following a set of well-worn tracks in the lunar soil. As they came around, a small platform appeared off to the side, Cale swung the camera around.

“This station is where we take the rejected geology samples. Can you see the little rock pile over there? The box there is a prototype of an oxygen generation plant. We are testing out technology to separate the oxygen embedded in the rocks and hopefully use it for air back at the base. Once we get the kinks worked out, we’re going to start figuring out how to harvest heavy metals. Hopefully, in a few years, we’ll be able to start building new modules rather than flying them up from Earth. It’s a lot cheaper to live off the land. The pioneers taught us that.”

Farther around the bend of the crater, with Moonbase behind them, the pair of astronauts came to a flat section of open ground. It was clearly marked with lights at the corners. The lights pulsed from red to white and back again. Dieter steered the vehicle up onto a small mesa on the left. Cale took a clamp to put the camera on the structure of the sand rail and then gave it an angle that would show the ground and the black sky above.

“Welcome to Huffman Prairie. For those of you who are aviation buffs, you may remember, Huffman Prairie was the site of the Wright Brothers’ flight testing after they got back from Kitty Hawk. This spot where the Eagle landers come down has been named in its honor. Personally, I’d have preferred Kitty Hawk, but Thomas Stafford, on Apollo 21, he named the site when he was here back in ’73.”

Several degrees above the horizon, a small point of light began to grow. The incoming ship was right on the line with the camera angle. Over the next few minutes, the point of light grew larger and larger until it was clearly visible as a cylinder with latticework landing legs extending from each corner. The spacecraft approached with its main engines pointed in the direction of travel, so the viewers at home were treated to the sight of rocket motors firing right at them. Even from miles away, the light was impressive.

Fletcher had recommended forgoing the commentary for the final sequence and just letting the people of Earth listen to the radio transmissions from the crew on board the lander.

The low-angled light of the sun gave long shadows as the ship came down. As the ship leveled out at about three hundred feet above the ground, Dieter took the camera up and zoomed in a bit. The complete lack of atmosphere gave a perfectly clear image. With a good enough television, a viewer at home could have found the seams of the welds that gave the little Eagle lander its structure.

The spindly spider lowered itself slowly to the cleared out patch of regolith below. On board, the astronauts gave a good commentary of their decreasing altitude and the procedures that defined the final phase of powered descent. Unbeknownst to Cale and Dieter, the producers back on Earth had intercut their live shot with some views from the Eagle’s cockpit.

The show was exactly what NASA had hoped for. Entertaining and flawless. The live broadcast of a ship landing on the Moon was a grand demonstration of why the American people had invested so much treasure.



2 March 1986

Clipper Landing Facility

Kennedy Space Center

28° 36′ 54″ N 80° 41′ 40″ W


Hank Patterson stood by the black sedan and looked to the northwest. He checked his watch. It wasn’t time yet. In truth, he doubted he’d be able to see much before the last few moments of the flight. Around him were a smattering of Hadden VP’s. Patterson had told his people to go to the hotel and sleep. There would be plenty to do in the morning, and the technicians of Kennedy would handle things until then. Some of his engineers complied. A couple wanted to watch their baby come in from California.

Once the carrier was down, they would have about four hours to get the bird off her back. Once that was done, they could throw a tarp on her and drag her over to the CPF.

They had chosen to bring her in after midnight for privacy. The hopes were that most of northern Florida would be asleep or partying. Spring break hadn’t quite gotten here yet, but that was a point in their favor. Loading her up hadn’t been difficult. You can always close an Air Force Base. But landing at America’s only civilian spaceport was a bit more of a challenge if you didn’t want to advertise your secret military spaceship.

One of the last orders of business back in Palmdale had been to take the name off the side. The Helvetica lettering was the brightest thing on the fuselage. The original chosen name, Shadow, had been deemed too ominous for its new mission. President Reagan would pick out a new moniker once the final modifications were done.

There was a buzz of activity behind him. Patterson turned to see what was happening. A new set of sedans were arriving. These were unmarked, but after they parked, they disgorged a small faction of military men. The crisp blue uniforms announced that these were Air Force officers. The representatives from NASA greeted them. Patterson let the VP’s do their thing. It didn’t concern him.

Truthfully, the only thing that had brought him out here was the vague, unacknowledged fear that Shadow would not fare well on top of the 747 that had carried the other Clippers. Shadow’s wings were not attached, and now would never be. He worried the whole platform would be unstable. They hadn’t had time to do a lot of wind tunnel testing. It was considered overkill because the only time Shadow would make this trip was tonight.

“Here she comes,” called one man. The gathered groups turned and faced the western skies. The 747 carrier was indeed coming over. Her navigation lights were clearly visible. She cut a perfect black in the grey overcast night sky. The big carrier and her little cargo were clearly holding up well. They’d made it across the continent. Hank Patterson watched as they finished their journey together.

Behind him, the Air Force officers had broken out a series of papers. A pair of NASA officials were quickly signing them. A notary was standing by to witness the signatures. Hank didn’t need to see the papers to know what was happening. Shadow’s mission had changed from war to peace. With the utter collapse of the SDI program, the Air Force had begun quietly signing over assets to NASA. It was preferable to mothballing them entirely.

Hank shook the hands of his engineers. They were given a rather warm acknowledgment from the NASA folks who had come out in the small hours of the morning. Already, the carrier was taxiing over to the lattice-work rig that would dismount and lower Shadow off of the larger aircraft. Before dawn came to Florida, she would be heading indoors.

At the Clipper Processing Facility, the technicians from Hadden and NASA would add reinforcements in critical locations, strip excess weight, modify the cockpit controls, and beef up the life support systems. If all went well, later this year his team would stand in a spot not far from here and watch their beloved little Clipper depart the Earth forever.
images
 
Last edited:
I'd like to thank everyone for their patience. I've been working on the Requel Trilogy as something of a summer break during all the recent craziness. I hope all my readers are happy, healthy and safe, no matter what part of the world you find yourself in.

With any luck you won't have to wait as long for Chapter 39: Out of State Visitor
 
I LOVE Ocean of Storms. It all hangs together so well :)
Besides being a great overall timeline/story, I want to extend my congrats for the way you killed SDI :)
 
I'd like to thank everyone for their patience. I've been working on the Requel Trilogy as something of a summer break during all the recent craziness. I hope all my readers are happy, healthy and safe, no matter what part of the world you find yourself in.

With any luck you won't have to wait as long for Chapter 39: Out of State Visitor

Welcome back and you have nothing to apologize for as usual the wait was worth it...

Ok, maybe except for ONE small issue and that's mostly with me :)

Specifically when I read a post I can't help but hear in my minds-ear some 'background' music in a form similar to the "wakeup music" we've heard...

The issue is for some reason what my mind tends to put into place isn't .. well... quite what it probably should be.

For example in this one I heard over the During Eagle IV's undocking and decent, (so they're getting a Winnebago next for an upgrade? :) ) was this song from the 1981 ESO Album "Time" called "Ticket To the Moon" ...

During an early post with some issues on the flight I kept hearing Planet P Project "Why Me?" and so on...

I suspect I may have some issues and it's probably a GOOD thing I don't work for a space agency :)

Randy
 
How have they gone through half-a-dozen expedition in half a year?

Basically yes. My idea was to have expeditions starting at 2 week terms for the first few, gaining in time as the base expanded. Remember that the Clippers aren't shuttles. They are smaller, simpler vehicles. The Clippers are designed to be flown, processed and remounted in a much shorter period of time. Similarly, the Pegasus engines are able to be reused and turned around faster. A Pegasus can start the morning on the pad, launch at noon, be back in the processing facility by dinner time.

Faster, cheaper, more.
 
2 March 1976

Pad 31/6

Baikonur Cosmodrome

45° 59′ 45.6″ N 63° 33′ 50.4″ E


It was a bit ridiculous. This was hardly a fair test for the system as a whole.

Is this date a typo or a flashback? It's surrounded by blocks dated 1978.

In other news, it only took me four days to chew through this TL. Good work. I hope to see more someday.
 
Is this date a typo or a flashback? It's surrounded by blocks dated 1978.

In other news, it only took me four days to chew through this TL. Good work. I hope to see more someday.
Good catch. It was a typo. If I ever intentionally do a flashback, I'll let you know. Thanks for the tap on the shoulder!
 
Top