5
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The Sunwing’s passenger cabin was much smaller than Will had imagined. In order to minimize its wind resistance, it was extremely narrow, barely wider than a passenger. It had two seats with built-in airbags for crash protection, one behind the other, though they could face in either direction. The front seat usually faced forward toward the windshield and the control panel, though the sunwing could and often was piloted remotely. The seats were followed by a galley with a microwave oven, a tiny refrigerator chilled by Martian air, and a sink. Finally, there was a tiny bathroom, just an enclosed room with a plastic pot. For sleeping, the seats could be folded flat to form one bed and a hammock could be stretched along the cabin above. The walls and floor were airtight fabric that yielded slightly under one’s weight. One normally flew in the Sunwing cabin wearing one’s pressure suit minus helmet and gloves for safety.
It was extremely simple, even primitive, but the cabin massed only one hundred kilos while accommodating up to two hundred kilograms of payload, including two passengers. Roger and Will climbed into the cabin in their pressure suits through the rear opening, then zipped up the opening and sealed it carefully. They pressurized the cabin. Then the Sunwing took off using jets of heated carbon dioxide gas while its propellers turned at maximum power.
Out the forward windows they watched the sunwing become airborne. In a few minutes they had climbed to several hundred meters, allowing Ethel, who was flying the plane remotely, to tell Roger and Will they could now take off their helmets and gloves. They did so and chatted on and off during the five-hour, thousand-kilometer flight back to the Outpost. It was an hour before sunset when the Sunwing headed downward for the Outpost’s landing area. In a few minutes it was on the ground and they disembarked, stiff from sitting too long.
Armando and Sebastian drove out to pick them up. The four of them stowed the Sunwing in the hanger for the night; over the last five weeks the hanger had been widened so that three Sunwings could be packed into it tightly under its roof made of parachutes. They tied down the flaps and climbed onto two waiting buggies.
“So, how was the ride?” asked Sebastian over the common frequency.
“Pretty tight,” replied Will. “It’s like flying over the Atlantic in a jet with no empty seats.”
“Oh,” Sebastian groaned.
“We stood and jogged in place a lot,” added Roger. “And that’s not easy in the tiny cabin.”
“Still, a five-hour flight beats thirty-hour drive,” exclaimed Sebastian. “I guess we’ll fly back down in a few days, Roger.”
Roger nodded; Will was staying at the Outpost for six weeks and would rejoin the expedition later.
The sun was almost touching the horizon as the buggies stopped outside the Outpost. The four of them climbed off and walked into the airlock. Once the pressure equalized, they opened the doors and entered the station. Madhu and Ethel were waiting for their husbands.
“Welcome home!” exclaimed Ethel. Will hurried over and they kissed very warmly.
“It’s good to be home.” They gazed into each other’s eyes, then kissed again. “I’ve missed you.”
“I’ve missed you, too. Videophone calls just are not enough.”
“No, they aren’t. You look well.”
“Of course, I’m happy!”
Sebastian and Armando stepped out of the airlock behind Roger and Will, carrying the two husbands’ luggage. The six of them walked into Habitat 3 where a big stew of vegetables, rice, and beef was cooking; the smell was heavenly. They all filled their bowls and sat to eat and talk.
After a lively exchange about a variety of subjects—including lots of stories—they all headed to their rooms.
The next morning, Will ran over to Habitat 3 to pick up breakfast for Ethel and himself. The two of them sat together in their new “living room”; Roger and Madhu’s old bedroom.
“What a luxury, having this space of own,” said Will. “When did you finish Roger and Madhu’s new room?”
Ethel laughed. “Two days ago! Madhu was thrilled.”
Will looked around the bare room. “The wallpaper’s interesting.”
“She has interesting taste. Their new room has their second choice wallpaper. We can paint this, you know; I made some paint last month.”
“Any color?”
“I can experiment; probably. We need some pictures on the walls. There’s still plenty of poster paper and colored ink, so we can get on the computer and select a picture or two to print out. I was thinking you and I can take some time off—three days—and set up this room special.”
“We need more furniture. Where did this little table and the chairs come from; a shuttle?”
She nodded. “The Hadriaca, I think. But I was scanning the web the other day and came across a fairly simple chair design that I can make out of plastic, so I think I’ll do that at some point. It’ll probably have to be on a vacation day because Sebastian said no.”
“He did?”
She nodded. “He wants us to concentrate on science; that’s what will be remembered in the history books.”
“Oh, I don’t know. If we lay the groundwork for this place to expand faster, that’ll go down in the history books, too. How’s he been doing, here?”
Ethel shrugged. “Alright, I guess. He’s fastidious about details and his vision is focused on one thing: lots of science so that Columbus 2 will go down in history. He’s pleasant enough to talk to when you can get the time.”
“That’s about the same as before. I saw the expanded Sunwing hanger.”
“That took a while. I suggested he and I expand it enough to accommodate a fourth Sunwing, in order to save time later; he said no. It would have added about a week of work, so I can’t blame him.”
“But it would have saved about ten days, I bet.”
“Yes. We also reinforced Habitats 2 and 3 so that the balcony levels could be used, and built an apartment for Roger and Madhu. Sebastian helped a lot; he’s quite good at construction. All the supplies are now stowed and inventoried, and all the industrial equipment is set up and tested. Armando and Madhu have both new greenhouses set up, have transferred soil into them from the other two greenhouses, and have replaced the transferred soil with new reg, so we now have four functioning greenhouses with rather thin but heavily fertilized soil. They planted all four greenhouses, though Greenhouse 3 is mostly experimental plots. And Monika has been working twenty hours a day in the Mars Life Science Facility; Armando told me she had identified two more species of microorganisms and found one extremely well preserved cell that allowed her to conclude that Martian lifeforms were prokaryotic.”
“No cell nucleus?”
“Right. How was the trip? I suppose the conestoga makes it much more comfortable.”
“Oh, yes. It drives well and the systems work well. And the new bulldozer blades for the ranger are awesome; they push through rocks and reg like it’s not there.”
“Paul told me the repairs have been routine also. But they consume a lot of power.”
“Yes, more than we can make with the solar power unit, but the sunwing brought down additional solar panels and sometimes brings us methane. The panels are a pain to set up, but they make the difference.”
“I gather Roger was alright to deal with?”
“Yeh, we got along fine. It turns out he’s keeping an eye out for natural materials that Madhu can use to make mosaics. If you help, he loves you. I think he’s a bit embarrassed, since he stresses how scientific he is as a researcher. We’ve collected about a half tonne of stuff Madhu can use already, including a really interesting ventifact Roger found last week. The Sunwing goes down this morning and it’ll bring cataloged samples and natural art materials back.”
“She mentioned the mosaics to me. I gather she talked to Sebastian about it and he said she had to do the work on her own time.”
“I’m not surprised. Roger has been a pretty easy Commander to deal with. If you suggest a route we could follow, he takes us along a different route instead, but then leads everyone back along your route. He doesn’t like to admit someone else might have a better idea, but if you’re clever, you can work with that problem.”
“Sebastian’s more subtle and more stubborn,” noted Ethel. “Was Monika happy to see Paul?”
Will laughed. “Oh, yes! They kissed and hugged for about five minutes. She’s staying in the front of the conestoga with him.”
“Not with Carmen?”
“No. Carmen’s in the back of the conestoga with Érico. When Sebastian and Roger go back and Shinji flies back here, I suspect they’ll bunk together in the portahab.”
“Interesting! None of them are married?”
“No. Paul and Monika are divorced. I think we should do some match making. Paul and Monika are both 33; Érico’s 29 and Carmen’s 28. I think they make half decent matches, too. Paul and Monika have already committed to stay two cycles and Érico said he’s thinking about it. I’d like to snag all four of them for the Outpost.”
“I suspect all four of them are negative about marriage, though, so it may be hard to convince them. I’d like to see Madhu and Roger stay. I’ve already been working on Madhu.”
“Really? Great minds think alike!”
“I guess so. Are you already thinking about staying a third cycle? I have been.”
“Yes, I have, also. This is a great place.”
“Once you get used to it, at least! I’m glad your relationship with Roger is working out. I was afraid that would ruin Mars for you.”
“No, I think I’ll carve out a niche alright. Shinji’s managing pretty well, also; expeditions keep everyone busy with a variety of tasks.” Will took another bite of bread with fresh strawberry jam on it. “The food’s so much better here; fresh baked bread is really nice.”
“The wheat’s growing very well.”
“We should probably go downstairs pretty soon. Some time this sol, I promised Roger I’d figure out where we’re going to put all the samples this expedition collects. I suspect we’ll have fifteen tonnes of samples in another year or so. The basements of the three Habitats will be strained to store them all; we’ve still got seven tonnes of samples from Columbus 1 in storage! What we really need is an unpressurized storage facility with shelves where we can put tonnes and tonnes of rocks.”
“Oh?” Ethel looked interested. “I’ve been thinking about ways to build exterior structures as a prototype for building pressurized structures of local materials. How big a storage area are you talking about?”
“Pretty big; fifteen tonnes of samples, based on Columbus 1’s collection, will take 500 to 750 square meters of shelves, and stacking the shelves six high means one hundred square meters of floor space. If you add a third for access to the shelves, you’re talking about 130 square meters.”
“A bit bigger than a habitat, then. Something ten meters wide, thirteen long, and two or three meters high. We can make it of metal or plastic sheeting reinforced with metal cables and beams, with regolith piled against the outside for insulation and in case we want to pressurize the interior.”
“I’d make it twice that large to accommodate expansion. You really think you can do that?”
“Of course! There are a dozen possible designs on the website. Theoretically, we already have the equipment here to make the parts for pressurized buildings complete with windows. Of course, windows and doors are very complicated to make from scratch, and we can’t make life support equipment; just structures. But Columbus 2 brought some sample doors and windows, and we have some spare life support equipment.”
“Fascinating. Maybe we should put together a proposal to submit to Sebastian and Mission Control.”
“I’d love to. And the next six weeks will be relatively quiet; we’ve completed a lot of the extensive set-up work. I’m scheduled to drive Prospectors six or eight hours a day, and something like this would give me a real break.”
‘Then let’s plan to make the proposal. We’re here six weeks before both of us fly north to join the expedition. We could do a lot of work in that time.”
“Good.” Ethel looked at her watch. “Wow! It’s after 9 a.m. I’d better go take a shower. Can you go get me a new stick of deodorant? I’m just about out.”
“Sure.” Will was dressed, so he could go out. He rose and headed out the door of their “living room.” He hurried down the stairs and through the greenhouses to Habitat 3, in whose basement the bulk of the supplies were stored. He quickly found the deodorant Ethel used. He also grabbed a new tube of toothpaste for himself; the tube he had opened up two weeks ago had a funny taste, probably because it was three years old.
He returned to their suite, shaved, and showered. Ethel had promised to produce more plastic sample bags and they were urgently needed, so she went to do that for the rest of the morning. Will prowled around the Geology Lab in Habitat 2 and reviewed the huge backlog of test requests. Now that they had the ability to measure the presence of isotopes in Martian samples to the part per billion range, there was much less need to haul samples back to Earth and a ten-fold increase in tests requested on Mars. It was actually a serious problem; if the Outpost were to continue expanding, a technical service staff was needed. Over a hundred samples were in the queue for either potassium-argon or rubidium-strontium age dating. Will would have to do many of them himself.
He devoted the morning to selecting the most urgent requests and setting up the samples so that they would be automatically fed into the machine when it was ready for them. He set up the microscope to photograph a dozen samples in high detail sequentially, then set up the x-ray crystallography machine to scan a half dozen samples. By the end of lunchtime, he’d have to set up all the machines with a whole new batch of samples to be tested, if he had time. Instead, he and Ethel spent the afternoon selecting art to decorate their living room and chose a shade of paint for the walls. They also examined furniture designs; Ethel was willing to be quite creative in making furniture for them. It almost made them late for supper.
“We stayed in bed until noon,” said Roger, after hearing Will and Ethel had been working on their suite. It almost sounded like a boast. “We have two rooms now, too; it’s quite nice.”
“I wish the rest of us had the space you couples have,” noted Armando. “Though having the space of two bedrooms does help. I wonder where Sebastian is; the meal’s getting cold.”
As if he had summoned the Commander, the door suddenly opened and in walked Sebastian. He was looking cross. “How many toothpaste tubes can we use here, anyway?”
Madhu was surprised. “What do you mean?”
“The supply is down by five tubes
in the last month. That’s ten percent of our supply.”
“We sent three to the expedition a few weeks ago,” said Armando.
“And I was running out; I grabbed a tube two days ago,” added Madhu.
“I grabbed a tube this sol because I was running out,” said Will.
“That’s five. But do you couples really need two tubes? Can’t you share one?”
“Unsanitary,” said Armando.
“Well, they kiss!”
“I think we have enough tooth paste for all of us to have a personal supply,” replied Ethel calmly.
“Two people using separate tubes does not cause the total amount of tooth paste to be used up faster,” added Will. “It just means each tube lasts twice as long.”
“But once the tubes are in your bathrooms, I don’t know how much is left. If they’re in the inventory cabinet, I know.”
“Do you really need to know how many tubes we have?” asked Ethel, irritated. “After all, there were several tubes left over from Columbus 1 when you arrived, and you arrived with extras.”
“In fact, those old tubes from Columbus 1 should have been thrown away,” added Will. “One of the tubes sent northward to the expedition was an old one and I got it. The taste was funny.”
“So what if it’s old?” replied Sebastian, raising his voice a bit. “It can’t go bad. Microorganisms won’t grow in it. We should use up the old stuff and preserve the new stuff. After all, there’s no guarantee all of Columbus 3’s supplies will arrive safely. If there’s a crash, the Outpost might end up with half the toothpaste it needs and they’d have none for a year. We need to be very careful with our supplies.”
“I’m sorry I sent the old ones down,” Armando said to Will. “But the toothpaste boxes are mixed together. They were separate originally, but someone who didn’t know mixed the boxes.”
“I should lock the supply cabinet and have people ask me for supplies. Armando, is there any way we can mix the old and new toothpaste together to eliminate the bad taste?”
“It might work. I’d have to try the old toothpaste and see how bad it is. If we consult with Mission Control, they might be able to advise us.”
“Adding a little artificial sweetener might do the trick,” added Madhu. “Or possibly some artificial flavor. We could make some banana ester quite easily, for example.”
“Fine. Ask Mission Control, then. I want to avoid throwing things way that can be useful. Earth’s a long way away; it’s not like we can run to the supermarket when we need supplies.”
“Could we save the old items for emergencies?” asked Ethel. “Rather than doctoring the old toothpaste now, we could set it aside and doctor it later if we really needed it.”
“Let’s not let old things grow older,” replied Sebastian. “Use the old things now while they’re still okay; save the new things for later. If we do any doctoring, it’ll be minimal.”
“I suggest Armando and I look through everything from Columbus 1,” said Madhu. “He’s a physician and I’m a dietician. He can check the medications and I can check the edible items. We’ll determine the status of everything and consult with the folks in Houston. They should have recommendations about all these items.”
“Okay, but they want us to throw things away, and I don’t want to,” said Sebastian. “Keep that in mind.”
“Okay,” agreed Madhu.
There was silence in the room for a moment. “This is excellent pasta, Madhu,” said Ethel. “I am so grateful to have an expert here to cook for us.”
“Thank you,” said Madhu, with her typical warm smile. “I’ve got a pretty good rhythm going, now. I pick vegetables and such in the morning and do the bulk of food preparation before lunch. That leaves me with a long afternoon for planting and experiments, and supper preparations are quicker.”
“How are the potatoes coming?” asked Armando.
“Pretty well; I think we’ll have a good harvest. They’ll be a nice balance to all the wheat. The rice isn’t doing so well, though. The experts have some ideas and I think we’ll do better next time.”
“Are the tilapia living in the rice paddy?” asked Will.
Madhu nodded. “And that may be part of the problem. We’re still not sure.”
There was another lull in the conversation. “By the way, did everyone see the news of the Swift shuttle launch?” asked Will.
“No; I was cooking,” replied Madhu. “How did it go?”
Will nodded. “It was a good launch; no problems.”
“What did NASA say?”
Will shrugged. “What can they say? Mr. Swift has done something for a billion bucks that NASA has said for decades is impossible or incredibly expensive. They’re embarrassed in front of the entire world. They’ll deny the success as long as they can.”
“They’re probably angered that the technology for the Mars shuttle contributed significantly to his success, too,” added Sebastian.
“Really?” said Madhu.
Will nodded. “The second stage is basically a Mars Shuttle scaled up fifty percent; it has the same dimensions, but uses liquid oxygen and hydrogen fuel.”
“How cheap will this make launches?” asked Madhu.
“Once they have a cargo version, it’ll be able to haul only eight tonnes into orbit at a time, but at a cost of eight million bucks, so the cost is $1,000 per kilo. The passenger version hauls twelve passengers, and the tickets are slated at 1.5 million dollars per person.”
“And they’ve already got a one year waiting list, at a launch every three weeks,” added Ethel. “That’s about 200 private passengers and 300 million dollars in sales, and they’re staying in orbit only twelve hours.”
“It’s a matter of time before Swift builds a destination for them,” said Will. “Standardized eight-tonne inflatable habitats are now pretty easy to make. But I suspect after about six months of bad press, NASA will relent and allow Swift to add to the International Space Station II, or build near it. At that point tourists will go to orbit for three days.”
“What will Swift do for our cargo transportation?” asked Roger. “Right now the ion tugs are incredibly expensive. It’d be cheaper to use chemical rockets with hydrogen and oxygen hauled up by Swift.”
“NASA denies that, of course, and says the Swift shuttle ultimately won’t be cheaper. But lunar fuel is already undercutting the ion tugs, so they’re working on adapting the engines to use argon instead of xenon. The technology has matured.”
“Argon’s pennies per kilo instead of xenon’s seventeen million dollars per kilo,” added Ethel. “Too bad the cargo flights to Gateway will take nine months instead of six, though.”
“The argon takes more power,” conceeded Will. “But the new solar arrays make more, and last longer.”
“Pressure will build to allow passengers from the Swift to transfer to flights to Shackleton,” she added.
“Well, tourists,” replied Will. “NASA says they can’t man-rate the craft and thus won’t use it for their own crew.”
“Tourists for the moon for about three million bucks?” exclaimed Sebastian, surprised.
“No; the estimate is that the ticket will be seven million, when you include cargo and accommodations,” replied Will. “But it’ll come down over the next decade as the technology matures and the ion tugs get cheaper. Shackleton and the transportation system won’t be able to accommodate private passengers for at least another year. They have to add a habitat and expand the fuel making facilities because they’ll have to add at least two more flights per year. And there will be the issue of using the Swift shuttle to launch lunar cargo.”
“At a sixth the cost of the current system!” added Ethel.
“Twelve passengers per time? That’s a lot of tourists. And I suppose once they have a tourist habitat on the moon, they’ll want to keep it as full as possible, which means importing a few staff and hauling tourists there once or twice a month. That’s about 200 lunar tourists a year.” Sebastian shook his head in amazement.
“And billions of dollars in revenue! Just remember, if they can haul that many tourists to the moon per year, the cost will fall and the scientific staff will also expand,” said Will. “Eventually university profs of geology will be able to get grants to go to the moon for summer vacation and Sabbaticals. Nations that have promised to keep one or two astronauts on the moon per year will be able to pledge three or four instead.”
“It’ll be a long time before there are 200 tourists per year on the moon, though,” said Roger. “I have ambiguous feelings about it, Sebastian. There are now hotels in Antarctica and tourist service staff now outnumber the scientists.”
“I have ambiguous feelings, too,” agreed Will. “But I can see a lot of advantages. If NASA caves in and phases out expendable rockets in favor of the Swift, the cost of the Columbus missions could drop six fold. They say even Columbus 3 could be half as costly and Columbus 4 could be a quarter. The Swift first stage could launch one of our shuttles in place of a second stage, which would save a lot on launch and repair costs. That may mean this place will double in size.”
“And there won’t be any tourists here for a long time; the round trip isn’t practical,” added Sebastian. “I suppose that’s an advantage to us. Not only is this world bigger than the moon; it’s far more complex geologically, and now we know that it once had life. It deserves a large, serious commitment to exploration.”
“But couldn’t we be doing more to prepare for expansion?” asked Will. “The Outpost can be built up more. We can construct more water storage facilities, for example, and experiment with constructing pressurized buildings.”
“Maybe,” replied Sebastian, skeptically. “I think the best way to build up this place is to accomplish a lot scientifically. Scientific success will fuel expansion of staff. So the folks here have to be running the Prospectors. Even the staff on the expedition can do more with Prospectors; Paul has found he can run a Prospector several hours a day from the conestoga. Let’s explore, explore, explore.”