Daylight Saving Day

13 Sunday Mar 2016

Posted by Paul Kiser in Book, Earth Space Exploration Program, Mars, Mars 2016, Mars calendar, Science Fiction, Space, Space, Virtual Adventures

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2016, communications, Earth, Earth Space Exploration Program, ESS Carl Sagan, Jenna Wade, Ken Hart, Mars, Mars Mission 2016, Noctis Labyrinthus, Noctis Standard Time, NST, space, space travel, spacecraft, spacecraft design, Time

Mars Date/Time: Year 1, Sur Two, Friday, Sol 9 (001.2.9) 09:46 NST
Earth Date/Time: Sunday, 13 March 2016 2:00 PM PDT
Distance traveled: 58,579,560 kilometers Time Delay: 3 mins 00 secs
Distance to Mars Rendezvous: 333,830,192 kilometers

Daylight Saving Time on Earth does not impact ESEP. The entire organization operates on Noctis Standard Time, which is not affected by Earth time zones, nor annual changes in time for the seasons of Earth. In addition, the Mars landing site is close enough to the equator that there is no reason to impose a Daylight Saving-type change to the standard time.

However, an adjustment to the location of ESEP’s operation is advantageous in keeping Earth in synch with the mission. A Mars day is about 40 minutes longer than an Earth day, so every eight days or so the administrative functions on Earth is moved west in order to keep the Mars day aligned with the Earth day. The day of the swap is known as the Daylight Saving Day, as it is done to keep Earth-based ESEP functions in the daylight when the Mars landing site is in the daylight.

Currently, the administrative functions are handled out of the San Jose ESEP Center in California. At 12:01 AM NST it will switch to Kumamoto, Japan. A handful of administrators will leave San Jose at about 4:00 PM NST today and arrive in Japan at about 3:00 AM NST (6:00 AM JST.) At 6:00 AM NST (9:00 AM JST) the day shift will begin for ESEP.

It was during the last swap from the twin Operation Centers in Figueres, Spain and Perpignan, France that one of the three planes carrying the administrative team crashed in the North Atlantic. Today was haunted by the fact that it was the first Daylight Saving Day since the tragedy.

While it was on the minds of the Command team listening to Megan De Luca, it didn’t seem to faze her as she was explaining,

“Director, I understand your concerns; however, the more this has been discussed, the more logical it seems. The one issue is computer power. As we move into longer and longer transmission delays, the infrastructure needed to support an offworld centered administration becomes a critical issue.

The solution seems to be a triple-redundant computer system. This would mean computer centers on Earth, in orbit above Earth on Earth Prime, and a computer center on Mars. We had discussed the computer center on Mars as part of the establishment of self-sufficient colonies; however, what we are talking about now is sending the infrastructure up as soon as we have it built. This also means that a significant element of colonization will now be in place years before we planned.

Establishing ESEP administration offworld also means establishing support staff on Mars ahead of schedule. Development and Exploration would be concurrent. Life support and food resources would become a high priority. None of this is a negative, it just means we are moving faster than we originally planned. Let me know if we can move forward on this. It is pending your approval.”

Naomi was the first to speak,

“Director, Paige will be the lead on the computer system and Earthside has discussed this with her. Based on her recommendation, they could have the hardware ready to leave Earth orbit by the second or third week of Sur Three. I’m not sure when it would be in Mars orbit, but it would be a shorter trip than ours, so it would be there soon after we have established our landing site.”

Roman Gomez followed up,

“Director, the timing of it is good. They are talking about a three section Quill, and it would be best to land it close to our base, so connecting it up would be less complicated than bringing it in later. They expect Earth Prime’s computer center to be operational by the time we arrive at Mars.”

Jenna said,

“Alright, it’s a go; and Megan, I want this to be an open decision, with it revisited after we arrive at Mars. None of us really know what our lives will be like once we start putting people on the surface. I’ll assume the Directorship on those conditions. Also, let’s move up the next mission. Roman, I need you and Lanny to come up with a priority list of what we need and when we need it. Assume we will have four more missions by the end of this year, and a January mission. Look at equipment, supplies, and personnel.

Kayla, your medical center has now become a full-fledged hospital. Find out what we need for 400 people on Mars by Sur One of Year Two. Wendy, you need to look at staffing and facilities for your team. Assume two bases, four outposts, and multiple remote operations by the start of Year Two.

Ken, I’m not sure we can keep you as Commodore on Mars Prime. Look for a replacement and the timing of getting them to Mars. Same for you Naomi. Roman, at one point the engineering team discussed using Storm Crater as a city center and covering it with a transparent dome. Would you and Lanny look into the idea and decide whether we would be better with excavating living spaces underground or using a crater and building in to it.

Now, Megan, let’s talk about Daylight Saving Day.”

Under New Managment

12 Saturday Mar 2016

Posted by Paul Kiser in Book, Earth Space Exploration Program, Mars, Mars 2016, Mars calendar, Science Fiction, Space, Space, Virtual Adventures

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2016, communications, counseling, Counselor, Earth, Earth Space Exploration Program, engineering, ESEP, ESS Carl Sagan, Jenna Wade, Ken Hart, Mars Mission 2016, Mars time, NASA, Noctis Labyrinthus, Noctis Standard Time, NST, science, space, space travel, Time, Wendy Stevens

Mars Date/Time: Year 1, Sur Two, Thursday, Sol 8 (001.2.8) 11:23 NST
Earth Date/Time: Saturday, 12 March 2016 2:00 PM PST
Distance traveled: 54,974,664 kilometers Time Delay: 2 mins 48 secs
Distance to Mars Rendezvous: 337,435,088 kilometers

Mr. Duncan’s suicide was the bad end to a series of tragic events. It exposed the frailty of some of the people in ESEP. People who had been important gatekeepers in the decision-making process had suddenly turned on the central goal of the organization, only because the organization had grown past them. Instead of protecting the mission to Mars, they were trying to end it because they wouldn’t let go.

This frailty was not lost on the member countries of ESEP. The shock of the management coup began discussions of security and protocols. The Executive management was now split between the newly created Council, and the Interim Director, Jenna Wade, and her crew. The Council consisted of Division Executives and two representatives of the member countries.

Throughout the crisis and the fallout, Jenna and her staff were the heroes. To the ESEP member countries and the Council, the process of selecting a new Director to replace Jenna seemed pointless. An idea grew that the solution to finding new leadership for ESEP had already been accomplished when Jenna and the Mars Mission crew took back control of ESEP.

Jenna laughed and said, “That’s absurd!”

Megan’s image was on the screen in front of Jenna. Megan had just explained the agenda item for tomorrow’s Council meeting that would make Jenna the permanent Director of ESEP. Megan wouldn’t hear Jenna’s reaction for another three minutes, but she could have guessed what it would be, and she knew she would have some more explaining to do.

Ken said, “No, actually it makes perfect sense. ESEP was vulnerable because people had access to key people and critical systems. With you offworld, and the Sagan controlling ESEP computers, any attempt to attack the company is almost impossible unless they destroy every communication system on Earth.”

Jenna’s Command team was gathered around for the morning briefing from Megan, and heard the idea at the same time Jenna did.

Wendy said, “And from a management perspective, it pushes back daily decisions to the people who are closest to the issues, so only the big decisions go to the top. It is ideal for a more efficient model of management. Because you’re too far away to nitpick on details that you don’t need to know, everything moves faster.”

Jenna said, “Because I’m not around to make a remark about the windows being dirty, no one scurries to clean the windows, because it’s not important to the objectives. I see your point, but what happens when we get to Mars? I can’t run ESEP and our first exploration of Mars.”

Wendy replied, “Why not? You’re at the tip of the sword. Where better to direct the operations of the Exploration of Mars than from Mars. It is one of the best management models I have ever heard.”

Jenna looked at her team and said, “What about all of you? This is putting an extra workload on all of you. We are going to have busy days setting up on Mars.” Lanny, the Director of Science for the mission said, “I’d much rather be setting up are experiments on Mars knowing that you’re commanding all of ESEP’s resources, rather than being second guessed by my colleagues on Earth. Roman added, “We’re not going to be following their playbook in the Engineering Division when we get to Mars. I like the idea of them as consultants, not overlords, and if they select a Earthbound Director, that person is going to want to justify their existence by nitpicking what we are doing. With you as the Director, I’m confident that our workloads will be easier rather than harder.”

Jenna shook her head, and said, “First it was Commander, then I was a Rear Admiral, now I’m being asked to be the ESEP Director and Governor of Mars? Does anyone else see a problem here?”

Seven people in unison said, “No.”

Housekeeping

11 Friday Mar 2016

Posted by Paul Kiser in Book, Earth Space Exploration Program, Mars, Mars 2016, Mars calendar, Science Fiction, Space, Space, Virtual Adventures

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2016, astronauts, communications, counseling, crew morale, Earth, Earth Space Exploration Program, ESEP, ESS Carl Sagan, Jenna Wade, Ken Hart, Mars Mission 2016, Mars time, NASA, Noctis Labyrinthus, Noctis Standard Time, NST, science, space, space travel, spacecraft, Time, Wendy Stevens

Mars Date/Time: Year 1, Sur Two, Tuesday, Sol 6 (1.2.6) 13:01 NST
Earth Date/Time: Thursday, 10 March 2016 2:22 PM PST

Jenna and Wendy left her quarters and climbed up to the Mess. Jenna asked, “What’s the deal with everyone telling me to eat?” Wendy said, “You can thank Kayla. We’ve all been briefed to be your welfare team. Megan has asked for daily reports.” Jenna said, “Megan. I love her, but does everyone realize she is our master?,” then Jenna continued, “That reminds me….” Jenna called Ken. Ken answered, “What can I do for you Director?” Jenna hesitated. It had only been today that everyone began using her official title at Megan’s insistence. Jenna wasn’t used to it. Jenna replied, “Are you on the Command deck?” Ken said, “Yes.” Jenna said, “Good, if you have a few minutes I need to talk to you.” Ken replied, “Acknowledged.”

Wendy and Jenna were in the Mess and Wendy told her to go on. She would bring her lunch. Jenna climbed onto her workstation deck and saw Ken waiting for her. Jenna called John Schultz, who was a Comm Specialist for the mission, but now was handling Comm duties that would normally only be seen at one of the ESEP Centers on Earth. Jenna said, “John, I need to transmit to Earth Prime Actual, encrypted and priority.”

Ken said, “What’s up?” Jenna said, “I want you to work with Claude on something.” Jenna’s tapped an icon and a screen came up, “Transmission to Earth Prime Actual, Priority, Encoded – Delay 2 mins 36 secs” Jenna looked at her camera and said,

“Claude I’m asking you and Ken to work together on Megan’s detail. I know we have her under protection, but I’d like Ken to have someone he personally knows and trusts to lead her security team. Likewise, I need you to identify someone you know and trust to be her personal assistant. I trust her to find people who can assist her with her schedule and workload, but she is a critical link in ESEP’s continued operation, and I don’t think she places a priority on her needs. Set her up with team of five people managing her personal/work life interaction. I want them to report to Wendy and Kayla on a daily basis. I need all of them vetted with Ken. To be clear, she is to be covered by top-tier security and welfare. We cannot afford to lose her under any circumstances.

Also, I’m denying your request of your last message. I’m afraid transporting Mr. Duncan to Earth Prime and accidentally losing him out an airlock may send a message that we’re being to soft on him. My plan is to take up our friend’s in Chile who have offered to take Mr. Duncan on the high plateau, strip him, stake him to the ground, and cover him in honey. They say it could be days before the ants take enough blood for him to bleed to death. Jenna out.”

She looked at Ken, who had been smiling at the last topic, and said, “She may fight us on this.” Ken replied, “Megan’s smart. She’ll know why we’re doing this, and she’ll accept it. The key will be finding people who can know when to let Megan be Megan, and when to step in. Good call on involving Wendy and Kayla. Offworld oversight is the best security we have now.”

Wendy brought Jenna’s lunch and Jenna thanked her and sat down at her workstation. All the workstation chairs had a frame the size of a food container that could be pulled out. In addition, workstations had built-in water dispensers for hot and cold drinking water. Jenna invited Ken and Wendy to sit in chairs designed to allow a small group of people to sit and talk with the Admiral at her workstation.

Jenna looked at Wendy and said, “Claude and Ken are going to set up a personal assistant team for Megan. I’m also asking Ken to personally set up her security team. The personal assistant team will be reporting to you and Kayla.” Wendy smiled and said, “Is this to get her back?” Jenna replied, “Actually, I thought of this yesterday, but I forgot to take care of it. Her monitoring my welfare reminded me.”

Jenna turned to Ken, “What’s the status of the investigation?” Ken said,

“As far as we can determine the plane crash was an accident. Based on communications we reviewed, Mr. Duncan was the first to be informed and he took control. I don’t know at what point he decided to make it a coup, but it seems it developed over a period of hours. By six that morning he was fully committed and ordered the passengers on the first two planes to be held upon landing.

I have a team reviewing the past six months of the people involved to determine if there has been any plan brewing, but it seems that everyone was loyal to ESEP until Nick allowed the mission to have priority decision-making. At that point, the organization fractured in a power struggle.

Everyone we know to be involved is under arrest somewhere. My team has tabs on all of them and none of them can be released without that law enforcement agency notifying us. In some cases it seems we have people who were just following orders; however, after Mr. Duncan began acting as ESEP Actual, it should have been obvious to anyone that he was not qualified to assume those duties. We may have cases coming to the Council for leniency.”

Naomi came down to the Admiral’s deck and Jenna motioned for her to join them. Ken continued,

“Right now we seem to be secure company-wide. Part of that is due to the fact that Paige holds the leash of the ESEP computer system and no one can try anything without her knowing it.”

Naomi broke in, “Sorry to interrupt, Director, we just got word. Mr. Duncan was found dead in his cell. It was suicide.”

Moving On

10 Thursday Mar 2016

Posted by Paul Kiser in Book, Earth Space Exploration Program, Mars, Mars 2016, Mars calendar, Science Fiction, Space, Space, Virtual Adventures

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2016, communications, Counselor, crew morale, Earth, Earth Space Exploration Program, ESEP, ESS Carl Sagan, Jenna Wade, Ken Hart, Mars, Mars Mission 2016, Mars time, Noctis Labyrinthus, Noctis Standard Time, NST, science, space, space travel, Time, Wendy Stevens

Mars Date/Time: Year 1, Sur Two, Tuesday, Sol 6 (001.2.6) 12:40 NST
Earth Date/Time: Thursday, 10 March 2016 2:00 PM PST
Distance traveled: 47,764,872 kilometers Time Delay: 2 mins 36 secs
Distance to Mars Rendezvous: 344,644,880 kilometers

“This is awkward trying to have a meeting when we are dealing with a five-minute round trip delay in transmission; however, our new format seems to be working. I would like Megan to continue to chair the new Council and I will observe meeting. I will transmit questions and concerns through Megan during the meeting and make remarks at the end of the meeting. Since I will abstain from all votes, the Council can make decisions without waiting for my vote.

With the exception of emergency issues, all agenda items must be submitted to Megan by 14:00 the day prior to the meeting. All items should only have a three-minute summary, and the rest of the information should be attached to the agenda item with a file.

As for the interim staff structure: Megan De Luca is now Earth Liaison for ESEP, Ken Hart is now ESEP Director of Security, Naomi Pierce is now my Chief of Staff, Paige Flores is now ESEP Chief Information Officer, and Anna Flores is now Mars Mission Operations Executive. The rest of the Mars Mission crew is expanding their roles during the interim.

I would ask the Council to work quickly to restore ESEP’s leadership, so that everyone can return to a normal schedule. I appreciate everyone’s dedication to ESEP and the Mars missions. It is incredible that we are back on schedule, less than a week after losing seven of our top leadership, and putting down a management coup. Thank you to all of you and your staff.”

Jenna ended her transmission and looked to her left, where Wendy was waiting. Wendy said, “Did you ever think that going to Mars, meant you had to run the whole, damn thing?” Jenna just looked down and shook her head. She then said, “Nick was my anchor. He was the one who cleared my path. I don’t know how long I can go without him there.”

Wendy said, “Well, that’s a side of you I don’t need to see.” Jenna looked up in surprise. Wendy continued,

“I’ve never seen a person like you. People hardly know you and they want to work with you. Sure, Nick was good at greasing the track and clearing the trash, but his motivation was to help you. You have a unique ability to do the right thing and Nick knew that, so he tried to help you. Now you are surrounded by ‘Nicks’ who all are motivated to help you, and you are mourning the loss of one person. Yes, you need the time to mourn for Nick, but you are not one person acting alone. Everyone else has had the same loss, but they are rallying around you. We remembered Nick two days ago and celebrated his life. Unfortunately, you, of all people, can’t linger on his loss. We will remember him many times over the next few years, but now you have to move on.”

Jenna said, “If I were a normal person, I would be angry right now.” Wendy smiled and said, “Jenna, there is nothing about you that’s normal. Let’s go grab some lunch.”

An icon was flashing at Jenna’s workstation. Jenna tapped it and said, “What’s next, Naomi?” Naomi replied, “You should grab some lunch and come up to the Command deck. I need to brief you on some important messages.” Jenna sighed and said, “On my way.”

Mars Strikes Back

09 Wednesday Mar 2016

Posted by Paul Kiser in Book, Earth Space Exploration Program, Mars, Mars 2016, Mars calendar, Science Fiction, Space, Space, Virtual Adventures

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2016, astronauts, communications, crew morale, Earth, Earth Space Exploration Program, engineering, ESEP, ESS Carl Sagan, Jenna Wade, Mars, Mars Mission 2016, Noctis Labyrinthus, Noctis Standard Time, NST, science, space, spacecraft, spacecraft design

Mars Date/Time: Year 1, Sur Two, Thursday, Sol 1 (1.2.1) 23:17 NST
Earth Date/Time: Saturday, 5 March 2016 8:25 PM PST

The last few hours had been busy for the crew of the Sagan. Jeramy had been able to buy time with the ground Engineering team with questions and concerns. The over-cautious ESEP Engineering administrator, Paul-Henri Giroux, had been reinstated by ESEP along with several fired engineers who sought to have Rear Admiral Wade relieved of command. Jeramy was able to induce delays by raising safety issues related to a direct return firing. At one point he almost had the administrator considering four-month return that involved minimal fuel.

While Jeramy conducted multiple transmissions of questions, issues, and concerns, Paige hacked into the ESEP system. She was able to create a copy of their data and build a dummy ESEP data base that she could shut down at anytime. Paige also secured the real ESEP database from access and built three different ways to access it outside of the ESEP communication system.

In addition, Paige and the Comm team, supplied emails, and video and audio conversations to Jenna and her Command team. Within three hours they had determined who was involved in the coup and who was locked out from ESEP. Jenna was also able to send messages to Megan and explain what had happened. She also had Megan prepare a takeover team for all the ESEP facilities to move in on a moment’s notice. Once Jenna gave the word, specific people throughout the world and in orbit would discover they were locked out of the system and no longer an employee of ESEP.

ESEP had decided that they would begin the first firing at 12:01 AM NST. Other than the Engineering team discussions, there had been very little communication from Mr. Duncan. It was clear he abhorred the crew and saw no reason to explain or discuss the situation with them. He desperately wanted to get them back and end the mission as quickly as possible.

However, since ESEP would be controlling the ship, they would have to warn the crew prior to the firings. This made a convenient deadline for the Sagan crew to end the charade and take action. Jenna waited for Mr. Duncan’s transmission, but at 11:45 PM NST Jenna looked at Anna and said, “Let’s pull the rug. Call Mr. Duncan and tell him we have a problem. Paige, stand ready.”

Anna smiled and said, “Paige, connect me to ESEP Actual.” A screen came up that said, “Transmission to ESEP Actual – 97 second delay.” Anna looked at her camera and said, “Mars Actual, we have a problem. We may need to delay the firing. Please respond.”

Jenna sent a message to pull the temporary computer connection he had established with the IPC drive. This effectively ended any firing and would send a signal to ESEP.

Paige announced, Message should be received in 75 seconds.” Paige did a countdown, then she allowed twenty seconds for them to establish a response, and then after another 33 seconds she signalled the Admiral. Jenna said, “Paige, enable program Castillo.” Paige touched and icon and multiple new screens came up on the Command deck.

Jenna and Ken stepped up next to Anna and looked at the camera. Jenna said, “Mr. Duncan, I hope I haven’t caught you in mid-sentence, but you may realize you are no longer in charge….Naomi.”

Naomi said, “COMMAND ALERT! All ESEP hands, all stations, standby for a message from Rear Admiral Wade.”

Jenna stepped forward and said,

“All ESEP employees. Today, we have had to deal with the tragic loss of some of our best leaders and we will miss them dearly. Unfortunately, Mr. Duncan, his security team, and several former employees took this opportunity to insert themselves into the decision-making authority for ESEP, and attempted to takeover all ESEP operations. That has ended as of this moment. We have established who was part of this effort and their access to all ESEP systems has been terminated. In most cases they will find themselves locked in their work areas. They are to be arrested by the localized national authority and held for international charges of piracy, fraud, and several other charges. I, am acting as temporary ESEP Director until we can reestablish an Earth-based leadership team. All ESEP systems are now under the control of the crew of the ESS Sagan and will remain that way until our leadership is restored. Megan De Luca, the Director’s Assistant will be the point of contact for ESEP. I am asking all departments and divisions to assess their current situation and issues that need resolution in the next twenty-four hours, next two days, next four days, next week, next two weeks, next month, and next two months. Our goal will be to be back under normal operations within two month. Sunday, Sur Two, Sol 4 will be a day of grieving for the friends we lost today. Thank you for your patience and time.”

Mr. Duncan stood bewildered, locked in the Director’s office in San Jose. All the computer screens around him had the same message,

Now Under Control of the ESS Sagan
Mars Can Be A Bitch

The Message

08 Tuesday Mar 2016

Posted by Paul Kiser in Book, Earth Space Exploration Program, Mars, Mars 2016, Mars calendar, Science Fiction, Space, Space, Virtual Adventures

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2016, astronauts, communications, Earth, Earth Space Exploration Program, engineering, ESEP, ESS Carl Sagan, Jenna Wade, Ken Hart, Mars, Mars Mission 2016, Mars time, NASA, Noctis Standard Time, science, space, space travel, spacecraft, spacecraft design, Wendy Stevens

Mars Date/Time: Year 1, Sur Two, Thursday, Sol 1 (1.2.1) 17:39 NST
Earth Date/Time: Saturday, 5 March 2016 3:47 PM PST

Jenna took a sip of tea and said, “We need to find out what is going on back on Earth.” The seven of them had gathered in her quarters to assess the situation at ESEP. ESEP had taken over control over the Sagan’s systems, but Paige had made sure they could only make temporary changes. ESEP could access ship cameras; however, Paige had improved upon’s Zeke’s usage of recording video and when ESEP pulled up any camera, they only saw what Paige wanted them to see. Currently, ESEP’s view of the brig showed the Admiral and the Commodore pacing, sitting, and talking, while both were in the Admiral’s quarters planning on how to respond to the coup by Mr. Duncan and unknown individuals on Earth.

Wendy said, “I could try to contact some people on the ground team, but I don’t know who might be complicit with Mr. Duncan.” Naomi said, “Any call from anyone on the ship is going to be routed through ESEP and they will monitor those communications.”

Jenna’s door chimed. Jenna found Paige waiting outside. Jenna brought her in and said, “What’s up, Paige?” Paige had a funny expression and said, “We got an audio message from Earth, but it wasn’t through ESEP. It came from the European Space Agency. ESEP deleted it almost immediately, but they don’t realize that they only are operating in a dummy block of software, so we still have the message in our system.” The door chimed again. Wendy crossed back to the door while Jenna said, “Paige, pull up the message.”

Jeramy was at the door. Jenna waved him in. He realized that he was interrupting something and waited. Paige played the message and Jenna recognized the voice immediately. It was Megan, Nick’s assistant,

“Admiral or Commodore, I don’t know if you will get this message, but I had to try to contact you. As you are probably aware, the Director and seven other top ESEP administrators were killed when their plane crashed somewhere in the North Atlantic. I was on one of the two planes that made it and I was aware the plane was missing before we landed in San Jose. On landing, we were held for debriefing; however, in hindsight, we were essentially kidnapped. I was told that since Nick was no longer the Director that I was relieved of duty and put on leave until such time that my position with ESEP could be determined. I don’t know that the crash was an intentional act, or just an opportunity for certain people to take advantage of; however, a few key people are using the crisis to seize control of ESEP. At this point, the people who supported Nick and his administration are locked out of ESEP. I don’t know what is happening with your mission, but I do know that many of the people involved have been very unhappy about our decisions in the past few weeks and would rather see the mission return to Earth. Good luck. I will contact you with more information when I have it. Good luck.”

Ken said, “Can we contact her through the Europeans?” Naomi and Paige, both shook their heads and Naomi said, “If we do, ESEP will also get the message and they will know the game were playing.” Jenna said, “I wish we could take over ESEP computers like they think they’ve taken over ours.” Paige said, “We can…well, I need a way to access their system, so they don’t realize it.” Jenna said, “What do you mean?” Paige replied, “I need to send them a normal file with code attached that will unlock their system and mask my manipulation…oh, and I need a transmission to piggyback on while I’m rewriting their code.”

Jeramy said, “Could it be a file of firing data?” Paige said, “Yes.” Jeramy smiled, “Mr. Duncan has sent me a message to reconnect the ICP drive to the computer. I was going to delay him by asking the Engineering to check my firing data to confirm the rack configuration. I could also send a transmission asking them several questions about the return and fuel required for the firings. I could talk for at least ten minutes.” Jenna looked at Paige, “Will that work?”

Paige said, “Easy peasy.”

The Coup

07 Monday Mar 2016

Posted by Paul Kiser in Book, Earth Space Exploration Program, Mars, Mars 2016, Mars calendar, Science Fiction, Space, Space, Virtual Adventures

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2016, artificial gravity, communications, crew morale, Earth Space Exploration Program, ESEP, ESS Carl Sagan, Jenna Wade, Mars, Mars Mission 2016, NASA, Noctis Labyrinthus, Noctis Standard Time, NST, science, space travel, spacecraft design

Mars Date/Time: Year 1, Sur Two, Thursday, Sol 1 (1.2.1) 16:58 NST
Earth Date/Time: Saturday, 5 March 2016 3:06 PM PST

Jenna began climbing the Quill, followed by Ken, Ian, and Peyton. She was stopped when Naomi said, “Admiral, I’m showing that ESEP is trying to link to our systems. Do you want me to lock them out?” Jenna immediately called Jeramy, “Jeramy, have you secured the munitions?” Jeramy responded, “No.” “Do so, now, before you meet up with us,” Jenna replied, “and make sure that the IPC drive has a hard disconnect from the computer. I don’t want ESEP to be able to fire our engines.” Jeramy said, “Aye, aye.”

Jenna looked at Naomi and said, “Naomi, can you set ESEP up so they can access systems, but we can cut them off at anytime and undo anything they do….and make it look like we tried to stop them, but lost?” “Yes,” Naomi replied and then she turned to Paige, “Paige, block the ESEP signal, then take a system snapshot, then increase the encryption to 256, build a dummy pathway at 128, and an isolated block for ESEP commands that we can shut down and erase.” Paige nodded and got to work.

Jenna then said, “Alright everyone, remember, make it real. Don’t refuse ESEP orders, but don’t blindly follow them either. Naomi, cameras back up and recording when Jeramy meets up with us at the core.” At that Jenna and the other three began the long climb to the center of the ship.

The brig was located in the seventh section of Sagan’s hab Quill. It was meant to be as far away from any command areas and in the heaviest gravity environment on the ship. It also has the heaviest shielding on the ship as the end of each Quill received more exposure to cosmic rays than the core section.

Once there she and Ken were unceremoniously pushed in and the door was locked. Ian stood guard while Jeramy and Peyton moved back to the their workstations. As Peyton returned to the Command deck, Paige nodded to Anna that she had finished her work. Anna called Jeramy and confirmed he had secured his area.

Now it was time for Act I. “Anna said, Naomi, connect me to ESEP Actual.” In a second a screen came up that said, “Transmitting to ESEP Actual – 97 sec. delay.” Anna began,

“ESEP Actual, per orders from Mr. Duncan we have taken Rear Admiral Wade and Commodore Hart under custody, and I have temporarily assumed command of the ship and the mission. I would like to know under what authority I was directed to take this action and what they are charged with, as my actions could be construed as mutiny, and I have a crew that can correctly question my actions. I also need further guidance as to what my next action is to be. I await your response.”

Anna stood by waiting for their answer. While she did, Paige noticed that someone was trying to access the ship command software from ESEP. She watched them struggle with the encryption and estimated it would take them another five minutes to gain control of the ship. ESEP probably would have rather just taken over the ship, but they needed to buy five minutes, so it wasn’t a surprise when Mr. Duncan appeared on the ship’s monitors. Mr. Duncan said,

“Well done, First Officer Anna. We will determine your new rank and promotion later. I understand you concern about the actions you have been forced to take; however, please know that you have been entirely justified in taking command of the ship. We realized a few day’s ago that there was a significant leadership problem on the ship; however, we were made powerless to address the problem. With the tragic loss of many of the ESEP Executives last night we have recommitted to restoring the Mars Mission to normal protocols. When the ESS Queen Elizabeth II had a misfire of a dozen fuel pellets, we had recommended it return to Earth. Had that been done, we would not be where we are now. The new leadership of ESEP has determined that the Mars Mission is not viable and must return to Earth for a refit and crew replacement. Some of your crew may be eligible to leave on the next mission; however, past and current adherence to ESEP orders will be a significant determination for eligibility. At this time you should stand down operations and prepare for a direct return firing. We have decided to bring back the mission as quickly as possible. More information to follow.”

At this point all the ships systems blinked off and the ship went mostly dark except for emergency lighting. When the system came back up the workstations were all showing one message….

Now under ESEP control
Welcome back to Earth.

Command Alert!

06 Sunday Mar 2016

Posted by Paul Kiser in Book, Earth Space Exploration Program, Mars, Mars 2016, Mars calendar, Science Fiction, Space, Space, Virtual Adventures

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2016, astronauts, communications, Earth, Earth Space Exploration Program, ESEP, ESS Carl Sagan, Jenna Wade, Mars, Mars Mission 2016, Mars time, NASA, Noctis Labyrinthus, Noctis Standard Time, NST, Pacific Standard Time, space, space travel

Mars Date/Time: Year 1, Sur Two, Thursday, Sol 1 (1.2.1) 17:12 NST
Earth Date/Time: Saturday, 5 March 2016 2:41 PM PST

The festivities for Assimilation Day came to a sudden end. A ‘Command Alert’ was an alert of the highest level. The Director of ESEP, Nick Castillo, once said, “If I issue a Command Alert during the mission, assume we are being invaded by an alien species and Earth has already been overrun.” It crossed Jenna’s mind that maybe Nick was playing a prank, but she knew Nick well enough that he would never toy with a communication that might potentially be mission ending.

Jenna was surrounded as she approached her monitor over her workstation. She touched the red flashing icon and the screen pulled up a video image of the Director’s work suite in San Jose, California, but no one was in camera range. After a moment, Mr. Duncan stepped into view. He began,

“Rear Admiral Jenna Wade, I must inform you that one of the three planes carrying the Director and the Executive team has been lost in route from Spain to California. We have been waiting for more information, but here is what we know currently. The first two planes took off from the Barcelona airport yesterday between 20:18 and 20:27 Noctis Standard Time. The third plane had a mechanical issue that was resolved and it left at 21:41 Noctis Standard Time. The first two planes arrived in San Jose at 07:38 and 07:52 Noctis Standard Time.

We last had contact with the third plane at 03:23 Noctis Standard Time and it was located south of Greenland. The plane should have checked in with Nav Canada at approximately 04:11, but did not. I should have landed shortly after 09:00 but it did not. We will send you more information as soon as is appropriate.”

And the screen went blank. “What the HELL!,” yelled Jenna, “We will send you more information as soon as appropriate??? Who was on that plane? Why did it take them over twelve hours after it went missing for them to contact me? Who is in charge down there?”

Jenna paused for a moment and Reserve crew members Ian Banks and Peyton Rhodes came to the deck. Peyton said, “Admiral, we’ve received orders from ESEP to arrest you and put you in the brig. What the hell is going on?” Then Jeramy Prater came down and said, “Admiral, I just got orders to secure my area and then assist in a ship leadership change. Is this a holiday joke?”

Jenna looked at Ken and said, “It looks like they are staging a coup and you’re to be in command.” Anna said, “Nope, they apparently don’t like Ken either. My message says I am to oversee the arrest of the Admiral and be prepared to arrest the Commodore, then assume command and standby for new orders. Can I tell them where they can stick it?”

Jenna thought for a moment, and then said, “No. I want you to do your job. It’s the best way for us to find out what is going on.”

First Holiday

05 Saturday Mar 2016

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2016, artificial gravity, astronauts, communications, crew morale, Earth Space Exploration Program, engineering, ESEP, ESS Carl Sagan, Jenna Wade, Ken Hart, Mars, Mars Mission 2016, NASA, Noctis Labyrinthus, Noctis Standard Time, NST, Pacific Standard Time, science, space, space travel, spacecraft

Mars Date/Time: Year 1, Sur Two, Thursday, Sol 1 (1.2.1) 15:52 NST
Earth Date/Time: Saturday, 5 March 2016 2:00 PM PST
Distance traveled: 29,740,392 kilometers Time Delay: 96 secs
Distance to Mars Rendezvous: 362,669,360 kilometers

Keira and Zeke had been sent to inspect the four construction pods. Zeke took the opportunity to give Keira a quick orientation on the construction pods and what they could and couldn’t do. She and Zeke had a pilot to pilot understanding and she worked with Zeke a few times at Earth Prime, so they had already developed a friendship.

Zeke was telling Keira a story about a pod pilot that failed to close the pod’s interior hatch before undocking when they both were ordered to report to the Auxiliary Command deck.

As they floated down the core they noticed the lights were down near the hab sections. The only thing glowing were the color coded gravity indicator lights running down the Command Quill. They headed down into the Quill to determine the problem, but at the entrance to the third section there were two people in space suits blocking their way. The sun visors were down so they couldn’t tell who was in the suits.

The space suit on their left held out its hand. His voice was coming through the ship’s intercom and he said, “Halt! You are not one with us!” The second space suit pointed at Keira. It was a female voice and they recognized it to be the First Officer, Anna, who said, “What is your name Earthling!” Keira kind of smiled and said, “Keira?” Anna then insisted, “YOUR FULL NAME!” Keira shrugged and said, “Keira Choi.” Anna fired back,”Your REAL Full Name!”

Keira was a little mystified. Her father was Korean and her mother was Japanese, but Keira had lived in the United States since she started school. Her first teacher called her Keira, which she discovered made it easier to fit in with the other kids. She hadn’t used her real first name in two decades. Keira quietly responded, “Mariko Choi.”

Zeke was a little surprised by this revelation that Keira’s name was not Keira, but he didn’t have long to consider it as the male spacesuit pointed at him and demanded, “WHAT IS YOUR FULL NAME?” Zeke looked at him and said, “Ezekiel Apollo Jackson.” The voice continued, “Mariko Choi and Ezekiel Apollo Jackson, you are to go immediately to the Command deck and await your trial!”

The two in spacesuits moved aside and Keira and Zeke continued down the Quill. The sections were still dark until they reached the Command deck in section five, but lights in that section came on as they passed through the threshold. Crew members were standing at the edge of each deck as they moved into the section and came to the Rear Admiral and Commodore’s deck.

There the Director of Science, Lanny Deaton, and the Director of Communications, Naomi Pierce had them move on to the deck where Jenna and Ken were standing. Ken began, “Mariko Choi and Ezekiel Apollo Jackson. You stand accused of failure to be assimilated. How do you plead?”

Zeke timidly said, “Guilty?” At this all the crew began stomping their feet and yelling out “Guilty!”

Ken said, “Mariko Choi and Ezekiel Apollo Jackson you have been found guilty…” At this Keira said, “I didn’t say I was guilty.” At this Ken said, “A Denier! She must be cleansed! Take her to the showers! At this crew members moved in to Keira and started to take her off the deck and she yelled, “WAIT, WAIT…I’m guilty, I’m guilty, just like Zeke.” At this the crew moved away from her and Ken resumed, “As I was saying, you have been found guilty and are to be sentenced immediately! Rear Admiral Wade, the suspects are guilty and await your sentencing.”

Jenna stepped forward, held a cup with a clear liquid in it and said, “Crew of the ESS Carl Sagan. We have two that have been found guilty of failure to be assimilated. As today, the first day of Sur Two, is declared to be Assimilation Day, I, as Rear Admiral of this mission to Mars do assign the sentence for Mariko Choi and Ezekiel Apollo Jackson be made to drink this Potion of Assimilation.”

At that point she gave the cup to Keira who tentatively sipped from the cup to the boos of the crew. Jenna put the cup to Keira’s lips and tipped it up until she had emptied it. A small amount spilled from each corner of her mouth and she shuddered as she swallowed it. Naomi stepped forward and filled the cup halfway. Jenna turned to Zeke who reached for the cup and downed the contents without spilling any, then he held out the cup to Naomi for more. Wild laughter broke out among the crew.

Amid the noise and celebration all monitors in the Command section went black. Everyone stopped and looked at the blank screens. Seconds later all the screens were filled with the following message:

“COMMAND CODE“

The Understanding

04 Friday Mar 2016

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2016, astronauts, counseling, Counselor, crew morale, Earth Space Exploration Program, ESEP, ESS Carl Sagan, inquiry, Jenna Wade, JPL, Mars, Mars Mission 2016, Noctis Labyrinthus, Noctis Standard Time, NST, space, space travel, spacecraft, spacecraft design, stowaway, Wendy Stevens, Zeke Jackson

Mars Date/Time: Year 1, Sur One, Wednesday, Sol 60 (1.1.60) 16:31 NST
Earth Date/Time: Friday, 4 March 2016 2:00 PM PST
Distance traveled: 26,135,496 kilometers Time Delay: 84 secs
Distance to Mars Rendezvous: 366,274,256 kilometers

Zeke sat facing Jenna’s workstation in her quarters. On the monitors were Commodore Dubois and Director Castillo. In front of him were four other people. Rear Admiral Wade, Commodore Hart, First Officer Flores, and Wendy Stevens were all focused on him. For Zeke, it was Judgement Day.

Jenna started by saying, “Zeke, I’m think I know how you did it, but would you explain how you got from the brig on Earth Prime to the Sagan?

Zeke replied, “Yes, Ma’am. I was able to get out of the brig by detaching the storage locker in the room from the wall. The locker was locked, but if you lift it from one of the front corners and pull out at the same time, It will usually pop out. They don’t have a wall cover behind the storage locker so I was able to get into the wall. Once in the wall I could get almost anywhere on that deck.”

Jenna interjected, “Why did you come out where Security could see you?” Zeke replied, “I didn’t come out where they could see me. I had to go to the pods first and program the one pod and prep both of them. After that I went back to get their attention. I needed them to know I had escaped. I then worked my way back….”

Claude’s delayed question interrupted him, “How did you call Earth Prime from the pod that burned up?” Zeke replied, “I called you from the pod I was hiding on, but I routed the transmission through the other, sir.”

Jenna asked, “How did you get to the Sagan?” “I undocked at the same time Davis undocked,” Zeke replied, “I assumed that if anyone noticed they would think the two pods were leaving to chase the other pod. I held my position for a few minutes and then drifted along the structure and up the Sagan. I was docked, unloaded all my equipment, and settled in by the time the other pod burned up.”

Wendy spoke up, “What happened during acceleration? You were hit with more G’s than the human body was designed for.”

Zeke smiled, “I pulled some of the hab insulation out of storage and created a compression bed. It took a little time to rig it up, but I had the time. It was tough, but …”

Again, Zeke was interrupted by the delayed question, this one from the Director, “What was your plan if Jenna hadn’t figured out that you were already on the ship?” Zeke responded, “I wasn’t going to surprise them. I planned on calling them once the Sagan caught up to them.”

Jenna leaned forward, “Zeke, you understand that no one is condoning what you did.” Zeke answered, “Oh no, Ma’am. I expect to be punished.”

Jenna said, “Zeke, would you tell us about your role in the merger of the two ships.” Zeke looked confused and said, “Uhm, after we merged the hab sections I met up with the crew and I started talking to Keira…uhm, the pilot. I told her that at Earth Prime the engineer’s procedures were based on human docking practices and didn’t account for the computer’s capability of multitasking. The First Officer joined the discussion and pretty soon we were creating procedures on how to speed up…expedite the assimilation process. Anna, uhm..the First Officer showed our plan to Commodore Hart, who showed it to you.”

Anna interrupted, “Actually, Zeke says it was our plan, but it was Zeke’s knowledge of ship construction that helped lay out the new procedures. He had every procedure in his head and we wrote it down. In the end, he had not missed a step that needed to be done.”

Zeke looked a little embarrassed, and then said, “May I say something?” Jenna said, “Yes.” Zeke looked at Claude and said, “Commodore Dubois, I enjoyed working under your command, and I hope you do not think that I wanted to trick or deceive you. I’m sorry that I put everyone in a bad position, but I really hope that you don’t think I was ungrateful for the opportunities you gave me on Earth Prime.”

Jenna waited for a time in case Claude wanted to respond, and when he didn’t Jenna said, “Zeke, we have made it official that you are on our crew and under our command. Do you understand that you are obligated to follow our orders and abide by our rules?” Zeke nodded his head and said, “Yes, Ma’am. If I didn’t I might jeopardize everyone’s life.”

Jenna then added, “We appreciate your work you have done since you’ve been on our crew. You will have a work detail and expected to perform to the highest standards.”

Zeke said, “Yes, Ma’am” Jenna then said, “Zeke, thank you. You’re dismissed.” Zeke said, “Thank you, Ma’am.” and stood up and walked out of Jenna’s quarters.

Jenna turned toward Wendy and said, “Your assessment.” Wendy said, “Based on his history and his interactions with the crew, he genuinely wants to be a part of our team. I think his rebellion was not a rebellion, but a reach for a dream.”

Anna jumped in and said, “I was very skeptical about him, but his work and his understanding of our ships gives us an advantage on this mission I never knew was missing. He is a resource…” She was interrupted by Commodore Dubois, “Zeke was the….I’m sorry…I’ll go ahead and continue since I’ve already interrupted, I was going to say, Zeke was our best crew member in thinking outside the box. He could take the most difficult problem and come up with a brilliant solution. I will miss him; however, I suspect we will benefit from his work on your crew….again, sorry.”

Anna looked at Claude on the monitor and said, “No problem, I really said I’ll I had to say.”

Jenna said, “Nick, unless you have a problem with it, I think we burn his past. If he was a normal person I’d put him in a pod and say good luck, but I agree with Anna, he’s too valuable of an asset to waste time and worry about punishment.” Everyone in the room nodded, and then looked at Nick’s monitor for his response. A little over three minutes later Nick smiled and responded.

“Why are we still talking about this?”

Assimilation

02 Wednesday Mar 2016

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2016, assimilation, astronauts, communications, crew morale, Earth, Earth Space Exploration Program, engineering, ESEP, ESS Carl Sagan, ESS Queen Elizabeth II, light speed, Mars, Mars Mission 2016, Noctis Labyrinthus, Noctis Standard Time, NST, ship merger, space, space travel, spacecraft, spacecraft design, time delay, Time Zones, yaw

Mars Date/Time: Year 1, Sur One, Sunday, Sol 57 (1.1.57) 18:49 NST
Earth Date/Time: Tuesday, 1 March 2016 2:22 PM PST

CODE ALERT!

Jenna began, “All stations, all hands we are initiating Assimilation Plan Delta. We are now on Priority Comm protocols. Communication only between linked subgroups, unless it is an emergency. Let’s look smart out there. Ms. Paige Flores, initiate go/no go.”

Priority Comm protocols meant that only the parties actively involved in a process or procedure were allowed to communicate with each other unless there was an emergency that someone outside the subgroup was aware of that needed to be communicated. This effectively told everyone at ESEP, “Just watch and don’t bug us.” ESEP could contact Naomi, but she would be the judge of what information to pass on to the crew and what to hold for later.

From her workstation Paige called out, “Assimilation Plan Delta subgroup, stand by” Paige then began calling through the list:

“Sagan Prime?” Anna responded, “Go.”

“QE Prime?” Keira responded, “Go”

Paige continued the list which involved almost all the crew, including the crew in construction pods. She finally wrapped up the list:

“Assimilation Crew Chief?” Zeke responded, “Go.”

“Operation Observer?” Jeramy responded, “Go.”

Paige said, “Commodore Hart, all stations ready.”

Ken joined the group, “Jeramy show us what you have.”

Fifty seconds later Nick and the rest of the ground team on Earth saw the view from Jeramy’s construction pod. He was stationed about a kilometer above and looking down on the Sagan. Also in the view were the two sections of the QE II to its starboard side. His function was to keep an eye on the bigger picture while providing visual information for everyone involved.

Ken continued, “QE II Prime, begin Cargo section SEP.” Within seconds the image showed the cargo and ICP drive sections separate from each other. The QE II was now in three sections. Ken waited until the sections were only meters apart and then said, “QE II Prime, begin 180 Yaw on ICP and Command sections.” Slowly both the Command and ICP sections began rotating clockwise. This maneuver was necessary because both would be attached to the Sagan facing the opposite direction; however, ESEP procedures demanded that all ship construction and deconstruction work be done one step at a time. What the Mars Mission crew was doing was beautiful space ballet, but it was not protocol.

While the two QE II sections were rotating the Commodore continued, “Sagan Prime, begin SEP procedure.” The Sagan began to separate between the aft-most rotating Quill hab section, and the forward most Quill cargo section. As the two sections were moving farther apart Ken said, QE II Prime, move and merge cargo sections to the Sagan. It was about this time that the Command and ICP sections of the QE II had completed a 180 degree spin and they stopped. Keira announced, “180 yaw maneuver complete.” Ken responded, “Good, QE II Prime, move those sections into place and merge them.”

Nick’s office was start to have a flow of engineers walking in muttering and saying things, “What the hell?”, “What are they doing?”, and “Who do they think they are?” Nick knew he was going to have to calm them all down, but now he was mesmerized by the perfect ballet on the monitor.

In 38 minutes it was all done. The ESS Queen Elizabeth II was no longer a viable independent ship and it was now part of the ESS Carl Sagan. The engineers back on Earth were mostly angry; however, a few engineers had been suggesting that the construction and deconstruction of ships did not need to take weeks and multiple actions could be done concurrently.

All this was possible because the computer was actually maneuvering the sections and the humans were the inspectors making sure everything was going as planned. Theoretically, everything could be done at the same moment because the computer was aware of where every section was in space and what direction it was moving.

Part of the anger of the engineers was due to the exposure of their over cautious approach to ship construction. The crew of the new flagship Sagan proved the capabilities of the computer guidance and management software, and spaceship construction was about to become a lot faster than thought possible.

As for the 29 crew members of the Sagan, they could now look forward to several days of relaxation….except for the Admiral and Commodore, they would have hours of video meetings added so that ESEP divisions could tell them where they almost went wrong.

Plan Delta

01 Tuesday Mar 2016

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2016, assimilation, astronauts, Code Alert, communications, crew morale, Earth Space Exploration Program, ESEP, ESS Carl Sagan, ESS Queen Elizabeth II, Jenna Wade, JPL, light speed, Mars, Mars Mission 2016, Mars time, NASA, Noctis Labyrinthus, Noctis Standard Time, NST, reconfiguration, ship merger, space, space travel, spacecraft, spacecraft design, stowaway, time delay

Mars Date/Time: Year 1, Sur One, Sunday, Sol 57 (1.1.57) 18:27 NST
Earth Date/Time: Tuesday, 1 March 2016 2:00 PM PST
Distance traveled: 15,320,808 kilometers Time Delay: 48 secs
Distance to Mars Rendezvous: 377,088,944 kilometers

Jenna tapped the blinking icon on her workstation on the Command deck. It was the Comm Center. “Is it the Director?,” Jenna asked. Naomi said, “Yes. The message just came in.” Jenna asked, “Are you ready?” Naomi again said, “Yes.” Jenna looked over at Ken and he nodded to her. Jenna looked back at Naomi’s image on her monitor, “Okay, let’s do this. Run the Director’s first message and then set us up for concurrent transmission.”

The ESS Queen Elizabeth II and the ESS Carl Sagan had rendezvoused last night and the crew had moved the rotating hab sections over from QE II and merged them into the Sagan forward of the its rotating hab section. It had gone smoothly and within an hour the merge was secure. This left the QE II in two sections alongside the Sagan. Her Core Command section was about one hundred meters in front of the cargo and ICP drive sections.

The next step was to merge the rest of the QE II to the Sagan. As of last night the plan was to do it all today, which was considered to be a week’s worth of work. The Ken and Jenna had planned to begin again this morning, but instead after some discussion the plan was changed. The crew spent the day working out the details of the plan and now they were about to do something that had never been done before…and ESEP had no clue about the change.

The engineers at ESEP were already in opposition to the plan to do the rest of the merger of the ships in one day, but they could only advise, not make demands or restrict the crew or its command. In addition, the two ships had traveled almost 15 million kilometers in less than a week and the time delay in radio signal transmission was 48 seconds one way. The authority of the Admiral and Commodore were absolute by right and by reason.

Jenna could see Naomi tap her console and instantly Nick’s image was up at her secondary monitor. Nick said,

“Good evening, Jenna. I hope you got some rest today. Congratulations again on merging the QE II hab section with the Sagan. Our engineering team down here is reluctantly praising how quickly and smoothly it went. That said, they would like to see a formal plan of the rest of the assimilation, and they would like to advise a less ambitious schedule than trying to finish the job in one day. I’m assuming that you intended to begin tomorrow, but if you need another day of rest, that would be fine with everyone here. They have reminded me that you have three and a half months before you get to Mars. Also, the Counseling team is concerned about any mishap that might occur in a rushed schedule. They feel it might impact crew morale. As for me, do whatever you think is best and I’ll work it out with the people down here. I trust your judgement. It would help me if you send a plan so I can occupy them with something. Thanks!”

Nick’s image was replaced by a “Ready for concurrent transmission – time delay: 48 seconds,” which meant that she had an open channel to ESEP on Earth but the delay would be 48 seconds between her transmission and its arrival to Earth, plus the time it took for them to respond, plus the 50 seconds for their signal to reach her.

Jenna began to send her response to Nick,

“Good morning, Nick. We did sleep, but we’ve had a very busy day. As far as our formal plan of assimilation, Naomi is sending that to you now. It is a complete step-by-step process and has been reviewed and approved by the Command team. As for the ground Counseling team’s concern of our crew’s emotional state I asked Wendy and Dr. Summers to perform a crew readiness evaluation today and their reports are also being transmitted as I speak. You asked me to forewarn you when we might endanger the health of your engineering team, so please consider this your warning. In the report you have received you will learn that today the crew banded together to put into motion a different plan for the ship merger. As soon as I’m finished here we will announce a Code Alert for our ships and ESEP divisions concerned with the ship operations. We will then begin a continuous feed until the assimilation is complete. Our entire crew will be dedicated to this effort, so we have assigned Ms. Pierce as ESEP liaison. She will monitor and control all communications with ESEP. We are now on Priority Comm protocols. With that, Naomi, a Code Alert please.”

Naomi announced, “All stations, all hands, CODE ALERT from Rear Admiral Wade.”

Leap Day Interception

29 Monday Feb 2016

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2016, communications, crew morale, Earth Space Exploration Program, ESEP, ESS Carl Sagan, ESS Queen Elizabeth II, Mars, Mars Mission 2016, Mars time, science, space, space travel, spacecraft, spacecraft design, stowaway

Mars Date/Time: Year 1, Sur One, Saturday, Sol 56 (1.1.56) 19:05 NST
Earth Date/Time: Monday, 29 February 2016 2:00 PM PST
Distance traveled: 12,623,747 kilometers Time Delay: 36 secs
Distance to Mars Rendezvous: 379,786,005 kilometers

The aft camera was focused on the ESS Carl Sagan as it approached. At a hundred kilometers away it looked big. This was the first flight of this design and while both the Sagan and the Queen Elizabeth II consisted of the same elements, the Sagan only had one rotating Quill section and the rest of the Quills were cargo sections.

The Sagan was longer than the QE II, but the with the exception of the stowaway, Zeke Jackson, the Sagan had no crew. The QE II was meant to carry all the ‘organics’ including humans.

The QE II had fired its ICP drive and was now travelling 94 kilometers per hour slower than the Sagan. The QE II would now slowly increase its velocity using chemical reaction engines. When the Sagan comes along the QE II will match its speed.

As the First Officer, Anna was in charge of the final maneuvers and in charge of merging the two ships into one. She was also responsible for the new crew member, Zeke, that snuck on the Sagan and faked his death. Anna was not pleased with Zeke; however, he would make her work easier.

Anna called over to Zeke on the Sagan. He responded quickly to her call, “This is Zeke.” Anna asked, “Zeke, I’m showing all hab sections powered up. Did you do a line check on all the fluid lines?” Zeke got to know most of the crew while he was on the construction team, but Anna tended cold and impersonal. He was cautious around her. “Yes, Ma’am. I did a pressure check and visual of all the lines,…twice. I have one line in Quill 1B that I’d like to check again. It was damp and I wasn’t sure if it was condensation or a small leak.”

Anna was doubtful. When she did a line check it took her three hours. He was saying he did it in two hours and did a visual survey twice. She would check the tapes later. She suspected he was trying to ‘Biff‘ her, but for now she would play along.

Anna continued, “You can go ahead and disconnect couplings between Quill 1 and the Core Command section.” Zeke replied, “That’s already done Ma’am, and I’ve sealed the bulkhead hatches and tested them. They are ready for SEP as soon as you are alongside.” Again, Anna was doubtful, but this she could check right now. She pulled up cameras on both sides of the bulkhead hatches and in fact, they were closed and sealed. She checked the status of the seal, and it was a green light to SEP.

Anna was impressed…a little..and she said, “Very well.” Zeke then took a chance, “Ma’am, may I suggest something?” Anna didn’t like pushy people, but she also didn’t have a good reason to refuse him. Anna said, “Go ahead.” Zeke said, “The Sagan is ready for the QE II’s hab section. I know we’re into evening, but it would take less than an hour to integrate your hab section as soon as you are here. That would leave the Command section, the cargo section, and the ICP section to integrate, and I can get do them tomorrow.”

Anna was amused. This guy had no clue of what he was talking about. He was going to do a week’s worth of work in two days. Anna decided to let him down slowly, “Zeke, I appreciate your enthusiasm, but that is pushing our schedule too much. I will run it by the Commodore, but I’m pretty sure will stick to the recommended schedule.” Zeke replied, “It doesn’t hurt to ask.” Anna responded, “No, I guess not. I’ll check in with you when we are alongside.”

Anna ended her conversation, and then called up the video of the Sagan for the last few hours. She was able to condense all the video by sorting for movement and the file now showed every place that Zeke had been. She began skimming and watched him work. He was fast. He decoupled and sealed the bulkheads faster than Anna thought possible. He wasted no motion. His visual check of the lines was brilliant. He had a cloth or paper and a vapor tester. He ran the paper down the hoses and looked for moisture then scanned them with the tester. He was especially thorough around couplings where a leak was more likely. She watched him come back the way he came checking the lines again.

Anna was going to wait to talk to the Commodore about Zeke’s idea, but she decided that maybe they should consider his plan. She climbed down two decks to the Commodore’s station and saw him talking to the Admiral. Jenna saw her and asked, “How’s Zeke doing?” “Very well,” she replied. “He’s amazing fast in his work.”

Jenna said, “I think you’ll like him once you get to know him.” Anna continued, “About Zeke, he suggested, and I discouraged this, but he suggested that we move the hab section over immediately once were alongside, and then he said he could get the other three sections done tomorrow. I know that’s ridiculous, but I wanted you to be aware of his suggestion.

Ken said, “Does he have the Sagan ready for SEP?” Anna said, “Yes, and I verified his work.” Ken looked at Jenna, “Your thoughts?” Jenna said, “As long as we can have everything ready on our end, then it would be great to transfer the flag tonight and be already settled in.” Ken turned back to Anna, “Can we have our section ready?” Anna was a little amazed they were taking this idea seriously…and a little defensive about whether she could have ‘her’ ship ready. Anna stood up straight and said, “Yes, we can be ready by the time we’re alongside.” Ken said, “Excellent, let’s make that our plan unless somebody has an issue with it.”

He tapped his pad to call the Comm Center. Krista Parker was on duty, “Yes, Commodore?” Ken said, “Krista, give me a Code Alert and tie me into the Sagan, and ESEP.” Krista said, “Yes, sir…….All stations, all hands, CODE ALERT from Commodore Hart.” Ken tapped in and said,

“Crew of the QE II and the Sagan. We are considering merging the Hab sections of the QE II with the Sagan and transferring the flag as soon as we are alongside. That would give us about one hour to prepare the QE II. The Sagan is ready to receive us once we are there. The cargo sections, the ICP drive and the Core Command would be integrated tomorrow. In ten minutes the First Officer will call for a go/no go from all the crew. Thank you.”

Jenna looked at her pad and laughed. Nick had sent her a message. It said,

“ESEP engineers are having cardios. Warn me next time you’re going to try to kill my staff. :)”

Ken then tied into Keira and Zeke, “Keira and Zeke, are you good with this?” Keira replied, “Zeke and I have been discussing this. I figured it was a no go, but it is really easy peasy.” Ken continued, “Zeke, are you good to go out in a pod and tug us?” Zeke said, “Pod is ready and I’m good to go.”

Ken then turned back to Anna, “Okay, Anna. Put it into motion. Do the go/no go, but don’t wait until then to start prep.” Anna said, “You realize that if we actually get all this done by tomorrow, we’ll be a week ahead.

Jenna said, “That’s it!” Ken and Anna looked at her. Jenna continued, “We’ve been trying to figure out what holiday to have for the first day of Sur 2. It is Assimilation Day, and we will have two days to plan it!

Number 29

28 Sunday Feb 2016

Posted by Paul Kiser in Book, Earth Space Exploration Program, Mars, Mars 2016, Mars calendar, Science Fiction, Space, Space, Virtual Adventures

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2016, artificial gravity, astronauts, communications, counseling, Counselor, crew morale, death, Earth, Earth Space Exploration Program, engineering, ESEP, ESS Carl Sagan, ESS Queen Elizabeth II, gravity, Jenna Wade, JPL, Mars, Mars Mission 2016, Mars time, NASA, Noctis Labyrinthus, Noctis Standard Time, NST, physician, Quill, science, space, space travel, spacecraft, spacecraft design, stowaway, Zeke Jackson

Mars Date/Time: Year 1, Sur One, Friday, Sol 55 (1.1.55) 19:44 NST
Earth Date/Time: Sunday, 28 February 2016 2:00 PM PST
Distance traveled: 9,089,555 kilometers

Anna replied, “Commodore, I can’t bring the lights up in that section.” Ken looked at Jenna and she said, “That rat bastard!……Anna, keep the lights up and Naomi, would you connected me to that section.” The Comm Director tapped a few commands on her tablet and monitor next to the one with Nick’s confused face on it came up black. Naomi said, “You’re patched in, Admiral.”

Jenna then said, “Zeke, what are you doing on my ship?” The black screen started to have patches of light on it, then they could see a gloved hand removing something over the lens. Someone gasped. Finally the monitor showed the bewildered face of Zeke Jackson in a low pressure suit floating in front of the camera. Zeke opened the faceplate of his helmet and you could see his breath in the cold, stagnant air as he said, “Admiral, ah…how did you know?”

Ken walked away from the group as he was starting to laugh. Everyone else but Jenna was in shock. Jenna said, “JACKSON, I’ll be doing the talking! You are on my ship and that makes you part of my crew! You will report to the hab section in Quill 1C where Anna will assign you quarters! I want you fed and rested and ready for duty at eight AM tomorrow! Is that clear!”

Zeke looked more confused and then a smile began to grow until it looked like it might break his face. He said, “YES Ma’am! Thank you, Ma’am! You won’t regret this!” He then disappeared.

Ken said, “Anna, turn up the life support in Quill 1C and assign quarters to Zeke Jackson.” Nick tried to protest, “But we can’t let him get away with this.” Jenna smiled and said, “That ship has literally already sailed. He’s mine now for the next two years.” Nick said, “ESEP will still want to press charges when he comes back to Earth.” “Nick, I might suggest that ESEP begin looking at it as if it were our plan all along. Otherwise, the public might think we’re so incompetent that we let a stowaway get on board the first mission to Mars.” Nick suddenly realized the public relations disaster waiting for them, and said, “GOOD point. We can credit Mr. Duncan,….for this elaborate test of our security. Oh, this is going to kill him when he finds out.” Jenna laughed.

The Command Team had gathered around Jenna. She looked at Naomi and said, “Naomi, would you raise Earth Prime Actual. I need to talk to Claude.” Jeanna said to Ken, “Can you build duty schedule for Zeke? I’d like to put him under Anna for the time being.” Ken said, “We’ll have him wake up the Sagan for us.” “Good,” Jenna replied, “He’s a good asset and we want him working for us rather than against us.”

Jenna then looked at Wendy and Kayla, “Kayla, he just went through an acceleration that wasn’t designed for humans. You’ll need to check him out when we rendezvous with the Sagan. Wendy, I think I understand Zeke, but I’ll need your assessment to make sure I’m not being influenced by his charm.”

Jenna was now speaking to the entire Command team, “We now have 29 members in our crew. We need to assess what that means for the mission. As far as number 29, Zeke had straight A’s in his engineering minor, but was on a basketball scholarship. He didn’t have a chance for an advanced degree. Everything in his work record indicates he is a brilliant learner. We should consider him as a graduate student and use him as such.”

Jenna was interrupted by Naomi, “Admiral, I have Commodore Dubois.” Jenna said, “On monitor two.” Claude’s image came up on a monitor and he said, “Good evening, Admiral. How can I help you?” Jenna said, “Claude, we found your missing equipment.” Claude looked knowingly, “Yes. My apologies. We’re still not sure how it was left on the Sagan.”

Jenna smiled, “Oh, you’re talking about the pod. Yes, we know how that happened, too.” Claude looked confused.

Extra Equipment

27 Saturday Feb 2016

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2016, Arica, artificial gravity, astronauts, communications, construction pod, counseling, Counselor, crew morale, 熊本市, Earth, Earth Space Exploration Program, engineering, ESEP, ESS Carl Sagan, ESS Queen Elizabeth II, Figueres, France, gravity, HD cameras, Holiday, Japan, Jenna Wade, Kumamoto, Kumamoto Prefecture, Mars, Mars Mission 2016, Mars time, NASA, Noctis Labyrinthus, Noctis Standard Time, NST, Perpignan, Peru, pod, San Jose, science, space, space travel, spacecraft, Spain, Time, Time Zones, Wendy Stevens

Mars Date/Time: Year 1, Sur One, Thursday, Sol 54 (1.1.54) 20:22 NST
Earth Date/Time: Saturday, 27 February 2016 2:00 PM PST
Distance traveled: 5,555,363 kilometers

In addition to its launch facility near Arica, Chile, ESEP has four ‘Centers’ around the world. The primary Center is in San Jose, California, USA. There are also Centers in Kumamoto, Kumamoto Prefecture, Japan 熊本市; and the twin Operation Centers in Figueres, Spain and Perpignan, France.

On January 30, 2016, all ESEP operations converted to Noctis Standard Time (NST) at the Mars landing site. Since then the Director of ESEP and most of his leadership team have chosen to move from Center to Center on Earth to stay with the daytime at the Mars landing site. This way they have a day of schedule adjustment when they fly to the next Center, but then they enjoy daylight on Earth at the same time the crew is on their day schedule. Currently, the leadership team is split between the twin Centers in Spain and France.

This also means the leadership team experiences late nights when the crew of the ESS Queen Elizabeth II is up late like tonight. Last evening the ship had a near disaster when the Munitions Officer was pulled out the firing chamber into space. His safety tether drifted into the ICP barrel just as a fuel pellet had been pushed out and he was sucked into space.

Fortunately, he wasn’t seriously injured, his space suit didn’t become damaged and leak, and the pilot was fast enough to abort the detonation of the pellet milliseconds before the computer sent the command. The crew also recovered quickly from the incident and was able to fire the ICP drive 45 minutes later. The QE II was now travelling at 147,258 kilometers per hour.

The ESEP leadership team and the Command team of the QE II planned a special mission assessment meeting tonight at six PM tonight and they were now two hours and 22 minutes into the meeting.

Nick was speaking from his office in Spain, “…our concern now is that the crew might develop a ‘cursed’ mentality about this mission.” Wendy spoke up, “Director, my ground team has expressed this to me and I am aware of the possibility of that attitude; however, my assessment is just the opposite. The crew has developed a “bring it on” attitude and my sense is that if we lost this ship the crew would just don spacesuits and grab the Sagan when it comes by tomorrow.”

Nick laughed, “I agree. This crew is a special group of people. I trust in your assessment and I’ll have a little chat with the our Counselling trolls down here.”

Jenna changed the subject, “Nick, when will your team move to San Jose?” Nick replied, “We’re leaving here the afternoon of Sol 60 and sleep in the air. Will be should be in the San Jose Center by eight AM of Sol 1.

Jenna said, “That reminds me, we have been talking about making the first day of every Mars month a holiday.” Nick lit up, “That’s a great idea. Do you have a plan for your first holiday?” “Not yet,” Jenna replied, “but we have almost a week.” Nick said, “Keep me posted and we will make it an ESEP-wide holiday.”

Nick continued, “In honor of the new holiday, let’s consider the final item on my list as our present to you. Ken, when the Sagan left dock our cameras picked up an extra pod on the ship. You were supposed to have three, now you have four.” Ken said, “How did it get there?” Jenna’s suddenly began to listen very intently. Nick said, “We don’t know how it got there. After the Sagan left, Claude’s team conducted the standard inventory and discovered a pod missing. We checked the video file and found it two days ago. With everything else, we decided to wait to tell you.”

Jenna suddenly showed her military persona, “Was the pod there on the Sagan before or after closeout?” Nick knew Jenna was asking an important question, but he didn’t know why it was important and said, “We’re not sure, we haven’t had time to do a review of the video to know when it was docked to the ship. It could have been weeks ago.” Jenna fired back, “But I’m willing to bet I know when it happened.”

Jenna had gone into another world, as if the meeting and everyone around her no longer existed. Jenna called to the First Officer, “Anna.” Anna was two decks above them but was participating in the meeting from her workstation. “Yes, Admiral?,” she replied. Jenna continued, “I need you to check out the Sagan section by section.” Anna was confused, “What am I looking for Admiral?” Jenna hesitated while she thought. If what she was thinking was correct, the camera may not see anything.

Ken suddenly realized what Jenna was thinking, and added, “Anna, in each section, turn the lights on and off while you have it up on your monitor and note if you see a change. Start looking at….Director, where was the pod located?” Nick was now fully confused, “Uhm, cargo section three, Quill four ‘D’. Jenna, what’s going on?” Jenna smiled and said, “Just looking for some lost equipment, Nick.”

The Second Push

26 Friday Feb 2016

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2016, Anna Flores, artificial gravity, astronauts, communications, counseling, Counselor, crew morale, Earth, Earth Space Exploration Program, engineering, ESEP, ESS Carl Sagan, ESS Queen Elizabeth II, explosion, firing, fuel pellet, gravity, HD cameras, ICP, Jenna Wade, Ken Hart, Mars, Mars Mission 2016, Mars time, NASA, Noctis Labyrinthus, Noctis Standard Time, NST, pellet, science, space, space travel, spacecraft design, Wendy Stevens

Mars Date/Time: Year 1, Sur 1, Wednesday, Sol 53 (1.1.53) 21:01 PM NST
Earth Date/Time: Friday, 26 February 2016 2:00 PM PST
Distance traveled: 2,021,171 kilometers

It was time for the second big push to Mars. The uninhabited ESS Carl Sagan successfully left Earth orbit at 7:42:58 AM NST and was chasing the QE II for a rendezvous in three days. The Sagan was up to its planned speed at 150,204 km/hr. The QE II had a two-day head start but was poking along at only 41,039 km/hr. Now it was time for the QE II to pick up the pace.

The mishap of two days before was on everyone’s mind. Twelve fuel pellets had been lost when the blast door was failing to close and then recycled the system to fire another pellet with the same outcome. The crew caught the problem within seconds, but it almost ended the mission.

Jeramy Prater, the Munitions Officer and the Engineering team fixed the problem and the gun was given new instructions to not fire a second pellet if the first one failed. Still, he wasn’t taking any chances of losing more fuel.

Prater stood in his spacesuit looking out the gap that the pellets would flow through in a moment. It was not a recommended place to be during active propulsion, but by being here during the firing, he could stop the process if it misbehaved again.

He looked up at the gun above him. The racks of fuel pellets and the push mechanism were in position for firing. In front of him were four guide rails for a push plate that kept the pellet from deviating from the path of the ‘barrel’. Two days ago this push plate caught the rack and went out of alignment causing the pellet to hit the blast door as it exited.

Everything looked ready for the ICP to fire its series of pellets. Jeramy checked to be sure he was clear of the pellet barrel. It would be a short day for him if he got in the way of a departing pellet. In his glove he held his safety tether that would keep him attached to the ship.

On the Command deck the pilot, Keira Choi, contacted Jeramy. “You set, Mr. Prater?” He responded, “I’m a go here.” Keira looked at the First Officer and nodded.

Anna looked at the Ken and said, “We’re good to go, Commodore.” Ken responded, “Ms. Flores, take us to 147K.” Anna opened ship wide communications and said, “All stations, all hands, stand by for ICP firing. Ms. Choi, give them a countdown.” Keira said, “Aye, aye.” Anna and Ken looked at each other and she shrugged. This “Aye” response was not what they were accustomed to with their former Pilot.

Keira gave the countdown,

“In 23 seconds,….15 seconds….10,…9,…8,…7,…6,…5,…4,….3,…2,…1,…Fire.”

Suddenly a voice called over the speakers, “MAN OVERBOARD, WE LOST HIM!” Ken yelled, “BELAY THAT ORDER!,” but his words were slower than Keira’s reaction. She had aborted the detonation at the first sound of crisis. She knew that there could be only one crew member at risk of going into space.

Instantly all eyes looked at the aft monitor and where there should have been debris and smoke from an explosion there was a tethered spacesuit thrashing wildly within a few meters of the explosive pellet. In the silence on the Command Deck everyone could hear desperate gasps over the speakers.

Jenna took control. “Prater, are you okay?” The only response sounded like a man drowning. Again, she called, “Jeramy, ANSWER ME!”

Wendy Stevens had been talking to Jenna a few seconds earlier interrupted, “Admiral, I don’t think he can.” Jenna knew what Wendy was implying. She locked eyes at Wendy and said, “Can you bring him down?” Wendy immediately pulled up her pad and hit the COM icon and said, “Mr. Prater, this is Wendy,…..I’m afraid you don’t have permission for a spacewalk.”

Jenna fired an icy look at Wendy and said, “You’re making jokes?” Wendy held up her hand to cut the Admiral off.

At first there was silence. The gasps on the speaker had stopped. Then a short laugh, followed by a longer one, followed by a continuous laugh. At this point everyone looked in disbelief, then smiled, then wild laughter broke out.

Jenna got herself under control and then waved to the crew on deck to be quiet. Jeramy’s laughter subsided and he said through breaths of relief, “Does…this…mean..I’m not going to die?” Wendy said, “Well, I can’t guarantee what’s going to happen once we have you back on board….the Admiral looks pretty pissed.” Wendy and Jenna looked at each other and smiled.

Jeramy said, “Ya, understood. Permission to come back on board.” Jenna nodded to Keira, who said, “Permission granted.” Jeramy quickly remarked, “Keira, you must have fast hands…I should be in little pieces right now.” Keira smiled. Then Jeramy said, “I think I can reach the pellet tether, do you want me to bring it in?”

In unison five voices all responded, “NO!” Ken said, “Prater, I want you to treat that pellet like a Rottweiler with a new bone…just back away from it and don’t make it angry.” “Aye, Commodore.” Prater replied, “I’m on my way.”

48 Seconds of Failure

25 Thursday Feb 2016

Posted by Paul Kiser in Book, Earth Space Exploration Program, Mars, Mars 2016, Mars calendar, Science Fiction, Space, Space, Virtual Adventures

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2016, Anna Flores, artificial gravity, astronauts, Commodore Hart, communications, Counselor, crew morale, Earth, Earth Space Exploration Program, engineering, ESEP, ESS Carl Sagan, ESS Queen Elizabeth II, gravity, Jenna Wade, Jeramy Prater, Keira Choi, Ken Hart, Mars, Mars Mission 2016, Mars time, NASA, Noctis Labyrinthus, Noctis Standard Time, NST, Paige Flores, science, space, spacecraft, spacecraft design

Mars Date/Time: Year 1, Sur One, Tuesday, Sol 52 (1.1.52) 21:39 NST
Earth Date/Time: Thursday, 25 February 2016 2:00 PM PST
Distance traveled: 1,036,235 kilometers

The good news was that the ESS Queen Elizabeth II was on her way to Mars. Current velocity was 41,039 kilometers per hour. They had grazed past the Moon eighteen hours ago and it nudged their path enough to put them where they needed to be in order to rendezvous with Mars less than four months from now.

The bad news was that they might not be going to Mars. Less than 24 hours ago they were supposed to fire three series of pellets that exploded behind the ship to bring them up to escape velocity from the Earth. The first two series happened just as the engineers and munitions people had designed. A pellet was pushed out the aft section on a tether, a blast door closed, and the pellet was detonated at a precise distance. In milliseconds the computer analyzed the results and selected the next pellet based on explosive power and sent it out the aft to a precise distance. It took about seven seconds between the firings of each pellet.

Earth to Mars in 110 days

The first series was six pellets and the second series was ten pellets. Those sixteen worked perfectly. It was the third series of twelve pellets that were threatening a premature end to the mission.

As with the previous two series the pilot, Keira Choi had programmed in the firing sequence before initiation. The computer had established that the first two series had been too sweet, meaning the impact the explosions had on the velocity was greater than expected. They now needed the final series to be ‘sour.’ This involved the munitions person, Jeramy Prater, setting up a different rack of pellets, which required giving the computer new instructions. They had four minutes between the second and third series of firings to accomplish the changes.

Jeramy had a problem with the computer accepting the changes and did not have time to do a visual check of the pellet racks. When the time came for the series to fire the computer pushed out the first pellet and did not fire because the blast door did not close completely. The computer sensed the failure to detonate and compensated by immediately releasing the tether on the first pellet and pushed another pellet out with the same result. Every four seconds the computer pushed out another pellet with no detonation. In 48 seconds the ship lost twelve pellets.

Keira and Jeramy worked frantically to shut down the Impulse Cycle Propulsion or ICP drive. Jeramy was able to visually inspect the rack with cameras in the propulsion drive and within seconds he determined that the rack was slightly out of position. That caused the pellet to slide out and tap the blast door causing it to fail to completely close.

Jeramy and Choi had determined the problem, fixed it, and had a plan to resume the process within 115 seconds. On the Command deck Choi said, “Commodore, we have the solution. I can manually fire.” Ken looked at his First Officer, Anna, who watched Keira work through the problem, she gave a nod to say she agreed with Keira. Ken then looked at Jenna just as she was getting a text message from Nick the Director at ESEP Center on Earth and it said,

“ESEP advises ABORT.”

Jenna glanced at the message. ESEP had no authority to order any action. This was, as it said, an advisory; however, it meant that the smartest minds on Earth were giving her a course of action that could not be lightly ignored. Jenna didn’t hesitate. She knew what Keira had planned to do and agreed that it was an acceptable solution. Jenna didn’t need to say anything, but she wanted it to be clear this decision was on her.

“DO IT!”

In the next two minutes Keira manually ordered the computer to fire a pellet, detonate it, and then evaluate the result. She then ordered the next firing and the computer made the calculations of which pellet and how far away to detonate it. The process was slightly slower than the computer-managed firing, but produced the desired results.

Keira announced, “We are at speed and on course, Commodore.” Jenna looked at the Comm Director and said, “Naomi, Code Alert and tie in ESEP Center.” Naomi tapped on her pad, and said, “All hands, all stations, CODE ALERT from Admiral Wade.” Jenna then touched her tablet and said, “All departments, we need a full assessment of the event and of our current status. Report every at every quarter hour to your Director until further notice. All Directors report to my quarters immediately. Expect a long night.”

By midnight the failure was completely understood and a solution was devised and tested. The issue was that they were only at escape velocity from Earth and in two days they would have another firing, followed by a third series and in five days. They had lost twelve pellets which reduced their margin of safety inventory by a third.

ESEP Center was advising that the ESS Carl Sagan not initiate the Orbital Transfer Firing in two days, and that the ESS QE II begin operations to return to Earth.

Jenna relieved the crew and Command team at one AM. She decided that they would start again tomorrow and reassess the status of the mission with a decision to be made by the end of the day.

It was now after 9:30 PM NST and the entire crew was either in the Command deck section, or on monitor from their assigned station. Jenna began,

“Our current status is that with the failed third firing yesterday, we have lost a significant portion of our fuel safety margin. We feel we have addressed the issues of the ICP and resolved them; however, if we return we can be back to Earth in a few days and ESEP’s plan is to refit and relaunch us early in Sur 2. All of you have reviewed the report of our situation and have contributed to the assessment of your department. We now need to decide. Do we go or abort?”

Before her words had stopped echoing in the ship Paige Flores said, “Go.” within ten seconds everyone on the crew had joined the chorus of “GO!”

Ken and Jenna smiled at each other. This was the best crew. Jenna looked at Paige and said, “Ms. Flores, would you connect me to ESEP Center.” Paige smiled and said, “Yes, Ma’am!” Nick’s image came up and Jenna said, “We’re going to Mars. What’s next?”

The Big Silent Bang

24 Wednesday Feb 2016

Posted by Paul Kiser in Earth Space Exploration Program, Mars, Mars 2016, Mars calendar, Science Fiction, Space, Space, Virtual Adventures

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2016, artificial gravity, astronauts, communications, crew morale, Earth, Earth Space Exploration Program, engineering, ESEP, ESS Carl Sagan, ESS Queen Elizabeth II, gravity, HD cameras, head orbital transfer, Jenna Wade, Keira Choi, Mars, Mars Mission 2016, NASA, Noctis Labyrinthus, Noctis Standard Time, NST, orbital transfer, pilot, science, space, space travel, spacecraft design, up orbital transfer

Mars Date/Time: Year 1, Sur One, Monday, Sol 51 (1.1.51) 22:18 NST
Earth Date/Time: Wednesday, 24 February 2016 2:00 PM PST

It was now after 8:30. A voice said…..

“Standby.”

Ken looked to the woman standing across the room seemingly oblivious to what was going on around her. He walked toward her and stopped a respectful distance from her. She felt his presence. “It looks like rain,” she said as she stared at the monitor. “We won’t need our umbrellas,” he replied.

They both looked at the video image of Earth. She calmly turned and faced him and smiled. Both knew that this would be the last time for at least two years they would be this close to Earth.

Jenna then looked over his shoulder at two women at the Communications Post. She made eye contact with the younger woman sitting at console and said, “Ms. Flores, ESEP Center, please.” Almost instantly the image of a Nick Castillo appeared on a monitor.

“Any words of wisdom, Mr. Castillo,” she asked? The man on the monitor smiled and said, “Try not to hit any of the big round things as you leave.” The crew all smiled, except for Keira Choi. As the new pilot of the ship, she wasn’t amused by navigation jokes.

Jenna sensed the unintended insult to her pilot and shot back, “Just keep the Earth and Moon out of our way and we’ll be fine.” Keira smiled. Nick smiled and then became more somber as he said, “Good luck and God’s speed.” Jenna replied, “Thank you,” then she looked at Ken and said, “The ship is yours, Commodore Hart. Take us to Mars, please.”

Ken nodded and looked at Anna, his First Officer. She understood what he wanted and she touched an icon and said, “All hands, all stations, CODE ALERT!” Ken then touched and an icon on his pad and said, “All hands, this is the Capt…..Commodore, secure for ICP.” He then looked at Keira and said, “Ms. Choi, you have a go.” Keira replied, “Aye, Commodore. ICP firing in sixteen minutes and thirteen seconds.” Ken remarked, “Aye, Commodore?” Keira smiled and said, “I’ve watched a lot of Star Trek.”

Everyone on the Command Deck moved to their stations and strapped into their seats. The ICP firing would not be exceptionally violent, nor would it be heard in space, but the QE II would begin to move and that movement would be perpendicular to the rotating Quills of the ship. Standard procedures required that everyone and everything be secured.

Now they had a long sixteen minute wait while everything was checked and double checked. Hundreds of steps would have to happen perfectly over the next sixteen minutes before the first of six explosive pellets would be pushed out of the aft section of the ship one by one. With each pellet there would be an explosion that would push the ship forward. If all went well, ten larger pellets would fire four minutes later, followed another twelve pellets four minutes after that.

The speed produced by the explosions will push the ship to 45,000 km/hr, enough to send the ESS Queen Elizabeth II out of Earth’s orbit….and towards a rendezvous with Mars.

Au Revoir

23 Tuesday Feb 2016

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2016, artificial gravity, astronauts, Claude Dubois, communications, construction pod, counseling, Counselor, crew morale, death, Earth, Earth Prime, Earth Space Exploration Program, ESEP, ESS Carl Sagan, ESS Queen Elizabeth II, gravity, HD cameras, Jenna Wade, JPL, loss, Mars, Mars Mission 2016, Mars time, NASA, Noctis Labyrinthus, Noctis Standard Time, NST, science, space, space travel, spacecraft, spacecraft design, Zeke Jackson

Mars Date/Time: Year 1, Sur One, Sunday, Sol 50 (1.1.50) 22:56 NST
Earth Date/Time: Tuesday, 23 February 2016 2:00 PM PST

Commodore Dubois voice was loud and insistent, “MR. JACKSON, RETURN THAT POD TO EARTH PRIME, NOW!” Jenna could tell by the video that Claude knew his only option was to talk him back on the spaceport. Then Zeke Jackson’s image came up on the Command deck’s primary monitor. He was in the pilot’s seat of a construction pod. Jackson looked calm…too calm. Jackson looked at the camera and said, “Commodore Dubois, it has been a pleasure serving under you….but if I’m not going to Mars, I’m definitely not going back to Earth….at least in one piece….au revoir!”

The monitor changed to an image of a small construction pod moving away from the spaceport and heading straight down toward Earth. On the Command deck a voice said, “Sir, he’s turned off the Comm.” Then another voice said, “Sir, Davis is in a pod and he is going to pursue.” A second pod was now in the image and it was following the path of the first one, but by now the first pod was almost too small to see.

From the second pod Davis reported, “I have him in sight, but I think he has used all his fuel to accelerate. I can keep him in sight with my camera, but I’ll never catch up to him.” Claude’s voice was now resigned. “Stay with him if you can, but don’t go out of safety limits.” Everyone realized that no one could stop Zeke now.

The Command deck’s main monitor now switched to the camera on the chase pod. It was continuing towards Earth. For the next 45 minutes the chase pod kept recording the fate of Zeke Jackson. Every few minutes someone on the Command deck could be heard trying to call him, knowing his Comm was turned off. As Zeke’s pod began hitting the outer atmosphere it started gyrating and then spinning. Claude ordered the monitor to be shut down, and then he left the Command deck.

This was the third time she had watched the video of the events leading up to Zeke’s death. The first was with Wendy and Ken last night less than an hour after it happened. The second was this morning when she played it for the crew, and now she was alone in her quarters and had to see it again. She knew how much it meant to Zeke to go to Mars, but no one had anticipated that he was suicidal. It made sense now that it happened, but Zeke was too full of life to think that he might end it for any reason.

But this was not a time Jenna could dwell on Zeke Jackson’s suicide. Yesterday the Earth Prime team closed out the ESS Carl Sagan and earlier today it undocked and moved into a similar type of orbit as the QE II, but they were thousands of kilometers apart. The QE II’s orbit was set to use the Moon to boost it on the correct trajectory, while the Sagan was taking a more direct path.

Tomorrow the QE II will fire a series of pellets to accelerate out of Earth’s gravitational pull. Then two days later it will accelerate again to approximately 100,000 kilometers per hour. A few hours before the second firing, the Sagan will begin a series of firings to accelerate to 150,000 kilometers per hour. A few days later the Sagan will catch up to the QE II and it will accelerate to match the speed of the Sagan. Then during the next week the two ships will become one.

There will be a time to mourn for Zeke, but it will have to wait a couple of weeks. Now, Jenna needed to sleep.

Commissioning Ceremony: Queen of Mars

05 Friday Feb 2016

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Mars Date/Time: Year 1, Sur One, Sunday, Sol 29 (1.1.29) 1:41 PM NST
Earth Date/Time: Monday, 1 February 2016 2:37 PM PST

The promotion of Captain Hart to Commodore presented an interesting problem. Normal navy ranking placed a Commander below the rank of Captain. This had not been an issue as Commander Jenna Wade had been placed as the ranking officer of the Mars Mission and Captain Hart’s ships were to serve that mission.

However, as Commodore, Hart’s rank was two steps over Commander Wade and the difference would be hard to ignore as both Hart and Wade were both former naval officers. Wade was not the type to be concerned with a rank or title, but it did raise the question of what would happen if Hart and Wade disagreed on an issue?

The crew may have been aware of this issue as quiet discussions among them continued after the applause died down. Castillo became aware of this and decided he needed to keep the ceremony moving. The Director of ESEP once again gave Mr. Duncan a signal. Mr. Duncan moved forward to the edge again and then announced, “COMMANDER WADE, REPORT!”

Mr. Duncan’s attempt to bring order to the section have the effect it should have so the new Commodore stepped forward next to Mr. Duncan and announced, “CODE ALERT!” The crew instantly returned to attention as Mr. Duncan and Commodore Hart stepped behind Castillo. By this time Wade had arrived at the side of the ESEP Director who began again,

Commander Wade, the Earth Space Exploration Program has designated you as Commander of the Mars Mission. We also designate your crew of 27 astronauts listed in your orders, and any subsequent additional and/or replacement personnel to be under your command until such time as you are relieved of you duties on the Mars Mission.

Unlike the promotion of Captain Hart to the rank of Commodore, this announcement was merely a formality. Jenna Wade had been their leader for the past year and she had already been designated as the Mars Mission Commander. There was polite applause, but it wasn’t the wild applause of the last announcement. Castillo quickly waived for the applause to stop and then resumed,

However, in order for you to fulfill your responsibilities we are promoting you to the rank of Rear Admiral in accordance to naval tradition.

The Command deck exploded with applause as Wade’s new rank was not only deserved, but necessary. Castillo was not finished and he continued,

Jenna Wade, ESEP has decided that while the Mars Mission is one of exploration, it is also one that must consider the human and societal aspects of creating a community on another planet. Therefore, on the day that the first plant sprouts in any habitat on Mars, that location will be considered a colony of Earth and you are designated to act as Governor of Mars until such time as relieved of that duty by order of ESEP.

Castillo had done it again, but this time surprise was more of shock. All the discussions of ESEP’s mission to Mars had carefully avoided the mention of colonization for fear of reviving memories of disastrous efforts on Earth to colonize less developed countries in past centuries.

However, there was a reality that the ESEP administrators knew had to be addressed. Three more missions would arrive at Mars while Wade’s team was still there. Would the new missions have a different command, and how would each mission integrate with the priorities established by the first mission? Someone had to be that leader and the highest ranking officer of the first mission was the logical choice.

Commander Wade’s personality and background also qualified her for the position. The problem was that no one had discussed this with her, and making the announcement to the world at the same time she learned of it was forcing her to accept the decision.

She knew she would be the ranking officer until she returned to Earth and she knew she would have the most information and knowledge of any mission Commander, but Governor of Mars was a more powerful position and it came with more responsibilities.

Still, the declaration was a smart move for ESEP. It gave them over two years to assess the situation and determine who should be the next Governor of Mars. When she returned to Earth they would have a new Governor in place and the program would move on. With Wade as Governor, it effectively ended any issues of an arriving Commander conflicting with the established procedures and protocols.

Still, Wade was caught off guard. She felt flashes of embarrassment, pride, and anger. She knew the public announcement was meant to avoid discussion and forced her to accept the decision, but to the people watching it was a great honor that was being given to a rising hero of humanity.

She composed herself and fought back the emotions. At this moment she must show humility and acceptance of this honor. Later she would take Castillo to quiet place and inform him of her displeasure of how this was handled.

Commissioning Day: A New Command

04 Thursday Feb 2016

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Mars Date/Time: Year 1, Sur One, Sunday, Sol 29 (1.1.29) 1:29 PM NST
Earth Date/Time: Monday, 1 February 2016 2:25 PM PST

The possibility that carbon dioxide was building up to dangerous levels in the Command deck once again crossed Castillo’s mind. He shook off the thought and continued the ceremony. He leaned to Mr. Duncan and quietly gave him a ‘go’ signal.

Mr. Duncan was a former Marine and he was all business. His function at ESEP was Director of Security. Castillo knew Duncan was the person to bring order and dignity to this ceremony.

Duncan marched to the edge of the platform, looked straight ahead and announced, “CAPTAIN HART, REPORT!” Captain Hart, also former military, moved to Castillo and stood at attention. Castillo began,

Captain Kenneth Hart, you are given the command of the Queen Elizabeth II and also of the Carl Sagan. Upon arrival at Mars you will establish and assume command of Mars Spaceport Prime.

However, we have learned we have a problem.

When her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth was briefed on this mission she apparently pointed out an issue we have overlooked. She asked how can one person be Captain of two ships. She is, of course, correct. For this reason ESEP has promoted you to the rank of Commodore effective immediately.

During the enthusiastic applause Castillo took a small open box with his Commodore’s new insignia and a folder containing documentation of his new rank and his written orders and gave it to Hart.

Hart was not forewarned that he was being promoted. As he absorbed the announcement he realized that ESEP had solved an issue that he hadn’t thought of before. His status as Commodore would place him in charge of all activity to and from Mars Spaceport Prime, which would be odd for a Captain. Promoting him to Commodore made perfect sense.

Castillo reached out and shook Hart’s hand and warmly congratulated him, then leaned into him and quietly asked, “Are we going to have a carbon dioxide issue in here?” Hart replied, “You mean too many sets of lungs in here?” Trying not to show concern Castillo said, “EXACTLY!” Hart leaned into the Director’s ear and said, “No, we’ve upped the air. We’re good.” The Director smiled with relief and said, “Oh thank goodness, the last thing we need is alarms going off during the ceremony.” Hart replied, “Oh we turned off the alarms. If there is a problem we’ll all just die.” Hart smiled and backed away. Castillo hoped he was joking.

Commissioning Day: Queen Elizabeth II

03 Wednesday Feb 2016

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Mars Date/Time: Year 1, Sur One, Sunday, Sol 29 (1.1.29) 1:10 PM NST
Earth Date/Time: Monday, 1 February 2016 2:06 PM PST

Many of the same people present on the Command deck of the ESS Sagan were now present on the Command deck of the ESS Queen Elizabeth II. The main difference was the presence of all 28 members of her crew. QE II Plaque

For years engineers, scientist, and crafts people had been thinking, planning, designing, and building on a dream to send humans to Mars. Now the entire program became real. Today, two ships and a crew of 28 would officially become Earth’s first interplanetary ambassadors.

Commander Jenna Wade began the final Commissioning ceremony with a nod and one word, “Captain.” At that Captain Ken Hart followed the same procedure he had done earlier in the day and broadcast a “Code Alert,” which meant everyone to standby for an important message to the crew.

As the Captain, anyone on his ship, with the exception of Commander Wade, was subject to his orders; however, this ceremony included many more people than those standing in the Command section. Around the world millions of people watched as this group of people orbiting 2,500 kilometers above Earth were witness to history. Today Earth would commission the ships and crew to be committed to take humanity to the fourth planet.

After this morning’s ceremony Earth had commissioned the ESS Carl Sagan. Now, the second ship, the ESS Queen Elizabeth II and the entire crew would be commissioned.

Again, it was Nick Castillo, the Director of the Earth Space Exploration Program or ESEP, that would conduct the ceremony. In his hands he held two cloth covered plaques. Everyone knew one was the ship’s plaque, but the other object was a mystery.

Castillo stepped to the edge of the platform near the center of the Command deck and began,

For over a century we have pretended that we still had ‘frontiers’ on Earth. There are many things we still need to explore and understand on our planet, but no place on Earth is really a frontier. This ship and crew, along with the sister ship the ESS Carl Sagan, are reviving the exploration of a true frontier.

Since 1960, Earth has sent 46 unmanned missions to Mars. Only one-third of them made it. The ones that did make it have given us volumes of data; however, the knowledge we have gained about Mars and interplanetary travel will double within one year after we set foot on Mars.

Human exploration is the most efficient way to truly explore a frontier as vast as Mars, and now we are ready to step past the millions of kilometers between Earth and Mars and write the next chapter of human knowledge.

Castillo paused as the everyone applauded. He looked around and realized that this was the largest group of people to ever gather in space. At that moment it hit him. His smiled suddenly disappeared. What would happen if the carbon dioxide in the air rose to toxic levels? He briefly considered stopping the ceremony, but then quietly reassured himself that alarms would go off if there was a problem, so he continued and hoped that the ceremony wouldn’t end in an embarrassing scramble for oxygen,

On the 24th Earth day of this month, and the 51st Mars day of Sur One, this ship will lead humans to another world and they will do so on a ship named after one of history’s most constant leaders, Queen Elizabeth II. For over sixty years she has served as Queen of the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth. Today we thank her for service to humankind and name this ship in her honor.

Castillo removed the cloth from one of the covered objects and held it up for the remote cameras to zoom in on while the section was filled with clapping. He then handed to plaque to one of the ESEP VIP’s standing behind him, and then Castillo continued,

As the first ship to begin our human journey to Mars it has been designated as the Flagship of Earth’s coming fleet of ships. It will pass this designation to the ESS Carl Sagan once the two ships integrate, but it will retain Flagship status anytime she flies as an independent ship.

It has also been decided that the ESS Queen Elizabeth II will be the first ship to carry back a crew from Mars in April 2017.

He unveiled the second plaque designating the QE II’s Flagship status and again held it up for all to see. After a brief period of applause Castillo handed the second plaque to the man behind him and turned to one of the other ESEP VIP’s who looked more serious than the rest and said, “Mr. Duncan, if you please.”

Commissioning Day: Seeking the Incredible

02 Tuesday Feb 2016

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Mars Date/Time: Year 1, Sur One, Sunday, Sol 29 (1.1.29) 9:10 AM NST
Earth Date/Time: Monday, 1 February 2016 10:06 AM PST

Several of the remote-controlled cameras inside the Auxiliary Control Deck, or ACD, were active and broadcasting the scene on the ESS Carl Sagan. One of them zoomed in on a man standing on the sixth deck of the ACD holding a flat object covered in a soft cloth. He was Nick Castillo, the Director of the Earth Space Exploration Program or ESEP. Castillo looked at the 21 people in the Command Deck and then began,

Carl Sagan said, ‘Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known.’ Today, I stand on the Command Deck of a ship that will take us in search of the incredible. Often space programs justify their existence by explaining that what we learn out there will help us better understand our world. This is true, but the exploration of space elevates us as a species.

We are not merely seeking a better understanding of Earth, but a better understanding of the human being and the context in which we all exist.

The incredible awaits us and now we have Archimedes’ lever that will take us there. This ship, the Earth Space Ship Carl Sagan, is that lever that is big enough to move our world to Mars.

Almost fifty years ago we took a step off our home world and landed on the Moon. The impact of taking that small step has carried humans into a new age of technology and economic success. It is long overdue for us to take the next step.

The Carl Sagan will not take our crew to Mars to touch it and quickly run back home. Almost all of this ship will stay in orbit around Mars, or serve as human’s first habitat on the surface of another planet.

With this ship we honor Carl Sagan for his vision, his brilliance, and his love for humankind. Without people like Carl Sagan we would still be nomadic tribes subject to the whims of nature and superstition.

And so, on behalf of the Earth Space Exploration Program, I commission the Earth Space Ship Carl Sagan. May she take us to the incredible and beyond.

As everyone applauded he uncovered a plaque that had the name of the ship and an image of the man for which it was named. People moved to Castillo and shook his hand.

Captain Hart moved over to Commander Wade and said, “Do you suppose Carl Sagan ever imagined this?” Wade looked at him and said, “I wouldn’t be surprised if he meets us on Mars and offers to show us the sights.”

Commissioning Day: The Carl Sagan

01 Monday Feb 2016

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Mars Date/Time: Year 1, Sur One, Sunday, Sol 29 (1.1.29) 9:04 AM NST
Earth Date/Time: Monday, 1 February 2016 10:00 AM PST

There was no doubt this was the Auxiliary Command Deck or ACD, but it was odd. It was designed to be functional in a weightless or gravity environment. It was a ten meter diameter section with multiple layers of control stations down its thirty meter length. It looked like a nine-story silo with partial decks reaching out to the center. On each deck there were chairs facing the outside wall.

The walls had video displays that extended up to the ceiling and on each screen were live images of inside sections of the ship, the view around it, data or information vital to ship operations, or personnel on the QE II, Earth Spaceport Prime, or at one of the ESEP Earth-based Centers.

Each deck hung in space. They extended toward the center, but stopped leaving a two meter circular corridor the length of the Command section. In addition, each floor had three gaps with ladder-like rungs protruding out of the wall to allow crew members to easily move between floors.

Only six mission members were in the ACD of the Earth Space Ship (ESS) Carl Sagan, named for the famous scientist who rebooted science in the minds of millions of people.

Eight more managers and directors of Earth Spaceport Prime were also loitering in the ACD. They needed no tour because most of them had been intimately involved with configuring both ships in advance of this first human mission to Mars.

The rest of the crew was on board their sister ship, the ESS Queen Elizabeth II or QE II. In three weeks all 28 crew members would leave Earth orbit for Mars. This ship would be piloted by remote control to meet up with the QE II a few days after it left Earth orbit.

Carl Sagan, 1934-96, Scientist, Author, Educator, Visionary

Ann Flores, the First Officer, kept checking her monitor. She was following the progress of the VIP tours being conducted by Captain Ken Hart and Commander Jenna Wade. They were leading six Earth Space Exploration Program (ESEP) executives around the ship in two groups. The ESEP Center Director, Nick Castillo, was with Captain Hart’s group and they were returning down the Quill to the ACD.

Captain Hart and his tour slowly descended down the guide pole in the central corridor into the ACD. Flores quickly turned from her monitor and stood at attention and announced, “CAPTAIN ON DECK!” Immediately the crew moved to the edge of each of their floors and stood at attention.

The Captain said, “At ease.” and then he looked at Flores and frowned. “We’re not going to do that all the way to Mars are we?,” he asked. “It is protocol, sir,” she replied.

The Captain moved his VIP’s to the Command Floor. Just as they settled in on the Captain’s section Flores announced, “COMMANDER ON DECK!” Again, the crew stood at attention as Commander Wade and her tour descended to the Commander’s section across from the Captain.

Wade looked at the Captain and said, “That’s going to get old, quick.” Hart replied, “She’s enthusiastic,” and then added, “Today is a day for formality. I’m sure we won’t be ‘announced’ once were underway.” “Good.” Wade said, “This isn’t the Enterprise.”

Castillo interrupted, “I believe it’s time.” Wade looked at Castillo and nodded, then turned back to Hart and said, “Captain.” At that the Captain pulled out his tablet and hit the COMM icon and said, “All hands, all ships, this is the Captain, CODE ALERT!” At that all the crew members on both ships stood at attention their stations watching the screen in front of them. Around the Command Deck life-sized screens showed astronauts at attention on both ships ready for what was to come.

Hart then announced, “Crew of the Carl Sagan and Queen Elizabeth II, standby for an announcement by ESEP Director Nick Castillo.”

Celebration Surprises

31 Sunday Jan 2016

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Mars Date/Time: Year 1, Sur One, Saturday, Sol 28 (1.1.28) 1:42 PM NST
Earth Date/Time: Sunday, 31 January 2016 2:00 PM PST

Today is a day of celebrations. In a surprise arrival, ESEP Mission Director, Nick Castillo and five other ESEP executives ferried up to Earth Spaceport Prime. Castillo sent over a temporary crew to the QE II and ordered all 28 crew members to join the executives and spaceport astronauts for a pre-commissioning party.

Celebration party set up for Spain ESEP Center

On Earth, the families and friends of the crew were invited to a ESEP party at one of the three ESEP Centers in the United States, Japan, and Spain/France. All four parties were connected through video links on human sized monitors around each room and allowed everyone to interact across the planet and in space.

With the ESEP personnel in orbit, tomorrow’s commissioning of the ships and crew will be done in person, rather than by video link. The idea of sending up the ESEP executives was discussed two months ago, but it was contingent on how tests and drills on the ships went in this last month.

Tonight the crew will return to their ship and will have dinner with the Commander and Captain as hosts. Castillo and the ESEP team were also invited to join the crew. After dinner there will be short team meetings to review tomorrow’s schedule of events, responsibilities, and requirements, then all crew members will be in quarters by 21:00 NST.

On Mars Time

30 Saturday Jan 2016

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Mars Date/Time: Year 1, Sur One, Friday, Sol 27 (1.1.27) 2:21 PM NST
Earth Date/Time: Saturday, 30 January 2016 2:00 PM PST

The Earth Space Exploration Program (ESEP) is now officially on Noctis Standard Time (NST). This is the time zone on Mars that the primary landing sites for Mars Mission 2016, near the Noctis Labyrinthus feature.

The Noctis Labyrinthus Time Zone on Mars

It also means we are now on the Mars calendar and today is Friday, Sol 27, Sur One. There are sixty days in this month. The orbital transfer to Mars will begin later this month and the crew will arrive in Mars orbit in the third month, or Sur Three.

The crew will not start shift rotation until Sunday, Sol 29, after the ship and crew have been commissioned. Most of the crew will either the 8:00 AM to 2:00 PM shift or the 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM. Two astronauts will be on duty on the Command Deck from 4:00 PM to 12:00 midnight, and another two from 12:00 midnight to 8:00 AM.

Sur One

Each crew member will have three days of light duty in every ten days. Light duty may mean shorter hours of scheduled work, a lighter workload, or assignment to a special duty. Whenever possible, the team members work together to plan a group schedule so that tasks can be planned based on the number of team members on duty at any given time.

Tomorrow crew members will be preparing for Sunday’s (Earth’s Monday) commissioning ceremonies both ships and the crew will be commissioned.

Finals Week

29 Friday Jan 2016

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Mars Date/Time: Year 1, Sur One, Thursday, Sol 26 (1.1.26) 2:59 PM NST
Earth Date/Time: Friday, 29 January 2016 2:00 PM PST

Today the crew is finished testing on the systems on ESS Queen Elizabeth II and the ESS Carl Sagan. As the crew is currently on board the QE II, a crew of spaceport astronauts filled in for the testing on the Sagan.

A mishap did occur during Thursday’s test of the Sagan’s Impulse Cycle Propulsion (ICP) pellet propulsion. An astronaut broke his leg when a pellet moved into position for firing. The situation was investigated and it was determined that the astronaut had not notified the Pilot on QE II that he was in the loader area. New requirements were instituted to require video monitoring of the propulsion section by at least two crew members during any use of the propulsion drive on either ship.

Sagan ICP Gun Section near where an astronaut broke his leg this week

With the exception of Thursday’s accident this week’s testing has gone well. The crew has run simulated test firings of the propulsion systems of both ships without actually launching a pellet or detonating it. All other systems are ready for the orbital transfer to Mars.

The next few weeks the crew will be loading in final supplies, running drills, and preparing to leave Earth for a minimum of 21 months. The crew is ahead of schedule and tomorrow will be light duty before Monday’s commissioning of both ships.

Also, tomorrow the entire program switches over to Mars time. This date was selected to give the crew adequate time to adjust before orbital transfer and it will have minimal impact on the crew. At 12:00 PM PST the clocks will convert to 12:21 PM NST.

Mars Calendar: 12 Long Months

28 Thursday Jan 2016

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Mars Date/Time: Year 1, Sur One, Sol 25 (1.1.25) 3:38 PM NST
Earth Date/Time: 28 January 2016 2:00 PM PST

Creating the Martian calendar required understand why Earth’s calendar is divided into units. In some cases there is a clear astronomical reason (one planet rotation equals a day,) but other units, such as weeks, have no celestial cycle to establish the unit.

However, the month and year on Earth can be traced to certain astronomical patterns.

MONTH and YEAR
Earth months are loosely based on the orbit of the Moon. The Moon orbits Earth more than twelve times per year, but there is a clear link between the phases of the Moon, and the length of a month.

Mars has two Moons, but they’re orbits are not useful in establishing a time unit similar to Earth’s month standard; however, because Mars is tilted on its axis similar to Earth, it does experience seasons. Those season’s can be measured by the two equinoxes and two solstices.

Earth’s division of seasons

Mars division of seasons

However, because the orbit of Mars takes almost twice as many days (Earth days) than Earth, the seasons are almost twice as long and they have more variance (length) than Earth’s seasons.

Mars takes almost twice as long as the Earth to orbit the Sun, and Mars orbit is more non-circular than Earth's

Mars takes almost twice as long as the Earth to orbit the Sun, and Mars orbit is more eccentric than Earth’s

To establish a Mars month, ESEP divided the Mars year (one orbit around the Sun) into four seasons. Each of those seasons are divided into three, roughly equal months. The full Mars calendar can be seen here.

ESEP began the calendar on the Winter solstice for the Southern Hemisphere, which occurred on 3 January 2016 (Earth Date.) The first six months are measured by the Winter and Spring in the Southern Hemisphere (called Sur) and the second six months are measured by the Winter and Spring of the Northern Hemisphere (called Nor.)

: Sur One

: Sur Two

: Sur Three

: Sur Four

: Sur Five

: Sur Six

: Nor One

: Nor Two

: Nor Three

: Nor Four

: Nor Five

: Nor Six

Mars Calendar: Why Seven Days Make a Week

27 Wednesday Jan 2016

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Mars Date/Time: Year 1, Sur One, Sol 24 (1.1.24) 4:16 PM NST
Earth Date/Time: 27 January 2016 2:00 PM PST

As we have noted, a calendar is a human device, not a scientific one. This is especially true when it comes to the construction of a week. A day is determined by the time it takes a planet to make one rotation on its axis. A year is determined by the time it takes a planet to make one orbit of the Sun.

A week = 7 days because our ancestors saw seven significant moving objects in the sky.

However, a week has no astronomical cycle. It is simply a device humans created. A calendar doesn’t have to be divided into weeks; however, over time we have allowed the ‘week’ to define a boundary between work and rest. For this reason alone it would create problems to revise or eliminate the use of the ‘week’ concept in the Mars calendar.

WEEK
Humans have divided the Earth calendar into weeks simply because they knew of seven moving heavenly bodies in the sky. Those seven objects were the Sun, Moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, and Saturn. The Latin/Spanish names for those objects are Sōlis/domingo, Lūnae/lunes, Martis/martes, Mercuriī/miércoles, Iovis/jueves, Veneris/viernes, Saturnī/sábado. The English version of the days of the week were heavily influenced by the germanic language; however, the names still correspond to the names of the seven moving objects in our sky.

The first month of the Mars year is 60 days long and has 8 1/2 weeks.

A week is simply a repeating pattern of the names of seven objects in Earth sky. If Earth had two Moons, or if Uranus or Neptune were in an orbit close enough to be visible to the naked eye, we might have an eight-day week, instead of seven.

Despite its simplistic invention, the week is an important part of how humans note time, so ESEP has chosen to keep the same convention for the Mars calendar; however, because a day on Mars is 40 minutes longer, the days of the week are not in sync. On any given day, the days of the week will not usually be the same on Earth and Mars. When it is Friday on Earth, it is probably not Friday on Mars.

Some discussion occurred regarding changing the name of Tuesday (Martis in Latin) to Terra, since Tuesday was named for Earth’s perspective of Mars, and from Mars perspective, Earth would be one of the significant moving objects in the sky. The idea was rejected.

Mars Calendar: What’s in a Day

26 Tuesday Jan 2016

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Mars Date/Time: Year 1, Sur One, Sol 23 (1.1.23) 4:54 PM NST
Earth Date/Time: 26 January 2016 2:00 PM PST

It is important to remember that a calendar is a human device, not a scientific one. Humans have divided time into units in order to keep track of the past, present, and future events, and science has worked to make time units more precisely measured. Thus, creating time units for Mars is to establish the standard for humans to use to reference past, present, and future events.

There are many possible ways to establish time units on Mars, but the Earth Space Exploration Program (ESEP) determined that fusing elements of Earth time units with the characteristics of Mars would be the most efficient.

An Earth Day is defined by one rotation of the planet

DAY
One Earth day is based on one rotation of our planet. It is divided into 24 increments, called hours. Hours are divided into 60 minutes, and minutes are divided into 60 seconds.

One Mars day is also based on one rotation of the planet; however, compared to Earth, Mars rotation takes approximately 24 hours and 40 minutes. Because it is so close, and we are accustomed to the 24 hour clock, scientists have established a “Mars clock” that also has a 24 hour day. They did this by making each second of Mars time slightly longer than an Earth ‘second,’ so there are still 60 seconds to a Mars minute, and 60 minutes to a Mars hour, and 24 hours to a Mars day.

A Mars Day is about 40 minutes longer than Earth’s

However, this makes a Mars day out of sync with an Earth day, but that is unavoidable. Earth rotates faster than Mars, therefore, Earth days occur faster than Mars.

Space, Oxygen, and the Botany Challenge

25 Monday Jan 2016

Posted by Paul Kiser in Earth Space Exploration Program, Mars, Mars 2016, Science Fiction, Space, Space, Virtual Adventures

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2016, artificial gravity, astronauts, bamboo, biology, botany, carbon dioxide, crew morale, engineering, ESEP, ESS Carl Sagan, ESS Queen Elizabeth II, food production, gravity, JPL, Mars, Mars Mission 2016, Mars time, NASA, oxygen, plants, science, space, space travel, spacecraft design

Mars Date/Time: Year 1, Sur One, Sol 22 (1.1.22) 5:33 PM NST
Earth Date/Time: 25 January 2016 2:00 PM PST

Most of us take plants for granted. Earth’s supply of plants seems inexhaustible, and if you garden, you might believe that some plants (weeds, in particular,) cannot be killed.

However, plants and humans have a bond that cannot be severed. Plants provide food, remove carbon dioxide, and most importantly, they produce oxygen. Humans cannot live without plants.

Sending humans to Mars presents a difficult challenge in that relationship as the demands of plants for light, water, and care is high. At the same time, their output of oxygen and food is minimal in small environments. This is why most human environments in space have used chemical reactions to remove carbon and produce oxygen and water.

Since plants can’t replace more efficient chemical processes in space travel, the botanist challenge is to compete with the chemical processes, and the Botany Division of ESEP has taken on that challenge.

Carbon taken from the air is the source of all plant growth. Faster growing plants absorb more carbon.

Our ships rely primarily on chemical processes to create oxygen and to remove carbon; however, air is circulated through the botanical sections to give plants the first opportunity to remove carbon from the air. In addition, plants are part of every inhabited section of the ship, including all crew quarters.

Mostly bamboo plants are used outside of the botanical areas and they are automatically maintained by a computer program that senses soil moisture and analyzes soil content. When the bamboo plants reach a certain height, a member of the Botany team harvests the wood, stows it, and replants a seedling. The wood will be processed on Mars at the first extraterrestrial woodworking shop.

Botanists cannot yet replace the need to produce oxygen through chemical reaction, but their priority is to make humans less dependent on the chemical process to produce breathable air by incorporating natural, biologic sources of oxygen into the human environment.

All On Board

24 Sunday Jan 2016

Posted by Paul Kiser in Earth Space Exploration Program, Mars, Mars 2016, Science Fiction, Space, Space, Virtual Adventures

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2016, artificial gravity, astronauts, biology, botany, communications, Crew Emplacement, engineering, ESEP, ESS Carl Sagan, International Space Station, ISS, JPL, Mars, Mars Mission 2016, NASA, physician, science, space, space travel, spacecraft, spacecraft design

Mars Date/Time: Year 1, Sur One, Sol 21 (1.1.21) 6:12 PM NST
Earth Date/Time: 24 January 2016 2:00 PM PST

Yesterday was Crew Emplacement Day. That means all 28 crew members reported for duty on the ESS Queen Elizabeth II. Most of the crew of 28 was already on board; however, a few people were working out of other locations. With one exception, the crew has been in orbit for over six months.

South Pacific from the International Space Station (credit: NASA/ISS Live 23 Jan 2016)

Two of the engineering crew and our Pilot were still wrapping up preparations on our sister ship, the ESS Carl Sagan, and three members of the Communication staff, and two members of the Science staff moved over from Earth Spaceport Prime. The final person on board was Wendy Stevens, our Mission Counselor.

During this next week the crew will be conducting tests of all the ships systems. They have one week to address any last-minute problems before the ships and crew are commissioned on 1 February.

This weekend the crew has a loose schedule in order to prepare their living quarters and their work areas. On Sunday night the Commander has a celebration dinner planned for the entire crew. This may be the first and last time the crew will be able to have two hours of time together. Once the ship is commissioned part of the crew will always be on duty at all times, and once they arrive at Mars, part of the crew will live on the surface while some remain in orbit.

The Mars Mission 2016 is starting to become a reality now that the ship has its crew. Soon our first human ambassadors will be on their journey to Mars.

Who’s In Charge?

23 Saturday Jan 2016

Posted by Paul Kiser in Earth Space Exploration Program, Mars, Mars 2016, Space, Space, Virtual Adventures

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2016, astronauts, communications, crew morale, engineering, ESEP, ESS Carl Sagan, ESS Queen Elizabeth II, Hohmann Transfer, JPL, Mars, Mars Mission 2016, Mission Control, NASA, science, space, space travel, spacecraft

Mars Date/Time: Year 1, Sur One, Sol 20 (1.1.20) 6:51 PM NST
Earth Date/Time: 23 January 2016 2:00 PM PST

When the United States went to the Moon they were guided by ‘Mission Control.’ In many ways the astronauts were dependent and subservient to the people on the ground. In part, that was because the critical information that supplied data about ship operations was in the massive computers on the ground.

Mars Mission is not controlled from the Earth-based control centers. The mission crew does work with ground based centers; however, those perform an advisory role, not an authoritative one. When the ships and crew are commissioned, Commander Jenna Wade will be the final authority on all ship and mission decisions.

Earth to Mars in 110 days

This is not an arbitrary decision, but one of necessity as time delay between Earth and Mars could mean the difference between life and death for the crew. In addition, the crew will almost always have more information about a situation than anyone on Earth.

That is why 1 February is more than just ceremony when the ships and crew are commissioned. The mission actually begins on that day and when ESS QE II departs orbit on 24 February, it will just be another day for the crew…well, maybe another BIG day.

It Takes More Than Just Being Smart

22 Friday Jan 2016

Posted by Paul Kiser in Earth Space Exploration Program, Mars, Mars 2016, Science Fiction, Space, Space, Virtual Adventures

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2016, Apollo, astronauts, crew morale, ESEP, ESS Carl Sagan, ESS Queen Elizabeth II, John F. Kennedy, JPL, Mars, Mars Mission 2016, Moon Program, NASA, space, space travel, spacecraft, Werner von Braun

Mars Date/Time: Year 1, Sur One, Sol 19 (1.1.19) 7:29 PM NST
Earth Date/Time: 22 January 2016 2:00 PM PST

It is Rocket Science, so you would expect that the Earth Space Exploration Program (ESEP) would have really smart people…and we do.

But that isn’t enough. Many of the hundreds of thousands of people who work for and with ESEP have advanced degrees, but in an endeavor that has never been done before you have to have people who go beyond smart. As the program has grown ESEP has sought out people who were leaders in their field, but not all of them are still with the program.

Dr. Werner von Braun with President Kennedy (credit: Space.com)

When the United States was designing ships to go to the Moon, Dr. Werner von Braun, the most experienced rocket scientist at the time, ridiculed an engineer that proposed building a separate ship (the Lunar Excursion Module or LEM) that only landed on the Moon and then brought the astronauts back to the main ship (the Command Module.) In the end von Braun realized he was wrong and accepted the engineer’s plan as the best, and possibly only workable concept.

In space, nothing is straightforward or easy. People have to have the ability to do more than just the math. People have to apply skills that they don’t have and see a larger viewpoint than just the problem they’re trying to solve.

Everyone on the crew has spent time in other positions with ESEP. As the ship came together, so did the people who would be crew members. Often the person selected to be on the crew was also the person who was integrally involved with planning, designing, or building the function of the ship that they will responsible for on the mission. The 28 crew members are the best of the best and know more about the history of every part of the ship than almost anyone else.

These people didn’t just learn how to take tests in school, they learned to question, to examine, and rethink any problem. In many ways they are not ‘good employees’ that follow instructions, because they often possess more information about their part of the ship than their superiors. They are creative monsters of thinking and we wouldn’t be going to Mars without them.

The Laundry Challenge

21 Thursday Jan 2016

Posted by Paul Kiser in Mars, Mars 2016, Science Fiction, Space, Space, Virtual Adventures

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2016, artificial gravity, astronauts, clothes, crew morale, engineering, ESS Carl Sagan, ESS Queen Elizabeth II, gravity, JPL, Laundry, Mars, Mars Mission 2016, NASA, science, space, space travel, spacecraft, spacecraft design, washing clothes, washing machine

Mars Date/Time: Year 1, Sur One, Sol 18 (1.1.18) 8:07 PM NST
Earth Date/Time: 21 January 2016 2:00 PM PST

One problem that was never been solved in all our decades in space is doing the laundry. The astronauts on the International Space Station (ISS) never washed their clothes. They wore them as long as they could stand and then they put the dirty clothing on the Russian Progress vehicle that brought supplies to the station. Then the Progress vehicle would undock and burn up in the atmosphere in a planned return designed to destroy the craft.

On the International Space Station the laundry challenge was solved by not doing any

That works when you’re in 400 km in orbit above Earth and you have a resupply ship coming every few weeks. It doesn’t work millions of miles away from Earth, you have 28 astronauts on board, and all of them will be on the mission for a minimum of 21 months.

To go to Mars we had to solve the problem and we did by rethinking the cleaning process. Solving the gravity issue has helped because even a little gravity keeps water from free-floating; however, the real solution was making laundry a continuous process that washes one item at a time.

Our space washing machines are not what you will find in your home. Our Attire Washing Systems (AWS) are high-efficiency machines that are designed to save energy, time, and save and recycle water.

The difference is that the AWS is more like a conveyor process where each clothing item is processed one piece at a time. Only this conveyor is circular and wraps around itself in an enclosed system that clothes enter, are processed, then come out dry and clean.

Cloth fed into the center of the machine is infused with the cleaning solution as it goes up and over the top of the entry point. Near the top the cloth is pressed to push out dirt and the cleaning solutions. As the cloth come down it is rinsed. At the bottom of the cycle the cloth is then pressed again to push out as much water as possible. As the cloth rises up and over the washing cycle it is travels through a chamber that briefly exposes it to a micro-vacuum environment that sucks out most of the remaining water. On the way back down it is exposed to dry heated air that finishes the process and is expelled into a basket for the astronaut to collect.

It takes about four minutes to load a week’s worth of personal laundry. Once the clothing, sheets, and/or towels are fed into the AWS, the first item comes out in three and a half minutes, and in a little over ten minutes the astronauts laundry is done.

The ultimate test for the AWS will be the fine grit of Mars; however, our rover missions have given our engineers good information on what to expect once humans are on the planet. Fortunately, most of the dust will be on the suits, not inside them.

Noctis on Mars

~ A Real Time Virtual Mission To Mars

Tag Archives: ESS Carl Sagan

Daylight Saving Day

Under New Managment

Housekeeping

Moving On

Mars Strikes Back

The Message

The Coup

Command Alert!

First Holiday

The Understanding

Assimilation

Plan Delta

Leap Day Interception

Number 29

Extra Equipment

The Second Push

48 Seconds of Failure

The Big Silent Bang

Au Revoir

Commissioning Ceremony: Queen of Mars

Commissioning Day: A New Command

Commissioning Day: Queen Elizabeth II

Commissioning Day: Seeking the Incredible

Commissioning Day: The Carl Sagan

Celebration Surprises

On Mars Time

Finals Week

Mars Calendar: 12 Long Months

Mars Calendar: Why Seven Days Make a Week

Mars Calendar: What’s in a Day

Space, Oxygen, and the Botany Challenge

All On Board

Who’s In Charge?

It Takes More Than Just Being Smart

The Laundry Challenge