The Curse of Europa (3 page)

Turk gives Juliana a smile and a wink, then brushes his hand across her back as he moves away to join the others. The three pilots crowd around various computer display panels with Hicks, to look at all the trajectory data and discuss the plan, even though they all know it by heart.

Doctor Evans returns her gaze back through the window, back onto Europa. She can’t wait to get down onto the surface to explore. Her thoughts drift and she imagines deep sea diving in Europa’s ocean. At first she thinks it would be cool if she could actually explore down there in person, in the ocean below the ice, instead of letting a robotic probe have all the fun. But realistically she knows she would be scared to death to do so. Diving in Earth’s oceans is scary enough to her sometimes, even though she’s done it many times. But to go diving in pitch dark waters, of which we know nothing about; she realizes that would not be fun after all. She thinks she is too much of a coward of the unknown. Maybe it’s good to let the exploration probe have all the fun! This time at least.

Chapter 2:
Final Approach

T
wo hours later, the long slender White-Bull-2 is making her final approach towards the moon. The crew is preparing to shut down the NFPS (Nuclear Fission Propulsion System) engines that have provided the ship’s constant 0.48G acceleration, and subsequent deceleration, during the trip.

Besides propelling the ship at the fastest speeds yet obtained by a manned space craft, topping out at just over 8,830,000 kilometers per hour, the continual thrust from the NFPS engines has provided artificial gravity for the crew. Since the ship is designed such that the thrust is provided below the ship’s decks, when the engines are firing, it removes the feeling of constant acceleration and replaces it with a feeling of gravity. While it is only about ½ the normal gravity on Earth, it is sufficient to counteract space sickness and muscular atrophy that can cause bone degradation.

The ships with this design constantly accelerate for the first half of a journey. At nearly the half-way point, the ship’s engines are cut off and the ship is turned around 180 degrees. Then the NFPS engines are reengaged to start the constant deceleration portion during the second half of the journey. At the half way point, as the ship is being rotated, there is zero-gravity. Likewise when the NFPS engines are cut off at the end of the journey, the crew loses its artificial gravity. The ships with this engine design, first used for the Mars missions, have cut inter-solar travel down from years and months to weeks and days.

“Time to batten down the hatches,” Hicks declares over the ship’s intercom to make sure everyone can hear him, as two of the scientists are not currently on the command deck.

He continues: “Ten minutes to engine shutdown… ten minutes to Zero-G. Doctors Huang and Fedoseev, please make your way to the command deck.” He is pleased he pronounced the scientist’s names right this time. Dr. Huang is simply said as ‘Wang’ and Dr. Fedoseev is simply as it looks: Fed-O-Seev. Dr. Fedoseev doesn’t really care if you mispronounce his name, but Dr. Huang gets pretty annoyed and will correct you every time.

Everyone looks around and starts to collect any loose articles that may start to float away, when they lose their gravity. Doctor Jeff Swygart, another mission specialist and scientist, is on his first ever space mission. This is actually his first trip into space ever, at 51 years old. With his balding scalp, wrinkled face, and more grey than brown in his goatee, he looks even older and sometimes the crew refers to him as “Gramps.” He was enjoying a little snack at his station and had food wrappers laying all over it. He quickly gathers up all the wrappers and tosses them into the trash receptacle.

The other two scientists from partner countries, Doctor Kirill Fedoseev and Doctor Shin-mu Huang, step off the circular elevator platform as it arrives at the command deck level with a swish. They quietly go to their stations and buckle up in their seats; ready to go to work.

The long black haired Dr. Huang is originally from China and is a space veteran with a visit to Mars, a year on the Moon, and 18 months on Cygnus Space Station. She is the principal investigator for the Space Experimentation Agency and is in charge of all of the equipment and experimentation kits for the mission.

Dr. Fedoseev is from Russia and will go down to Europa in the lander. He is an expert on Hydrothermal Vents and many other things for that matter. He likes to tell people that he almost pee’d his pants when he found out he was selected for this mission (and he is serious.) Needless to say, he is very excited to be here. If there were a picture next to the definition of ‘Geek’ in the dictionary it may just as well be his. He is 46 years old with fine sandy brown hair that blows around with the slightest of a breeze, a weathered yet boyish looking face, and a thin mustache that looks like it belongs on a 17 year old high school boy.

“This is Commander Hicks of White-Bull-2 at 288 hours, 29 minutes mission elapsed time,” Hicks can be heard making a broadcast, while plastering a cheesy smile on his ultra clean shaven face for the camera that he is looking into. Then he simply starts to monolog, as he knows it will be nearly 50 minutes before anyone at the Cygnus Space Station will actually receive the message, and another 50 minutes before they receive back any acknowledgment.

“Making final approach to Jupiter moon Europa. Mark five minutes and twelve seconds to Shutdown of NFPS engines. Completion of insertion orbit over targeted landing site expected in forty three minutes after engine shutdown. This is White-Bull-2, out”

“Mr. Tucker. Prepare for NFPS reactor shutdown,” Hicks commands.

“Is everyone buckled up? Are all your loose articles safely tucked away?”

“Yes,” the crew says in unison.

“How about you Turk?” Hicks asks and then injects a bit of rare sarcasm, “is your tray in its upright position?”

“Yes sir, commander! I’m all set,” Turk sarcastically retorts.

Hicks continues more seriously now, “Okay – you guys know what to do…”

“Commander… mark four minutes and thirty seconds to NFPS engine shutdown,” Tucker announces while rubbing his completely bald black head.

Hicks: “Okay, super! Stand by on 4:30.”

Turk: “Computer says 4:47.”

Tucker: “Acknowledged, 17 second over burn.”

Hicks: “Acknowledge.”

Tucker: “Okay… Mark 4:30… now.”

Female computer voice: “Auto shutdown of propulsion system in T-minus four minutes and twenty eight seconds.”

Hicks: “Why is there an alarm indicator on reactor two?”

Tucker: “Hold on… checking…”

Tucker: “High pressure in RCS system… The computer should compensate in a few seconds.”

Hicks: “Yes, okay. It’s nominal now.”

Computer Voice: “Auto shutdown of propulsion system in T-minus four minutes.”

The crew continues to monitor all systems and sensors to ensure a clean shutdown of the engines while the computer counts down. A dirty shutdown can cause the reactor to overheat and become damaged, possibly preventing a re-ignition.

The computer voice can be heard again “Auto shutdown of propulsion system imminent. Shutting down in 10 seconds……. 5… 4… 3… 2… 1…”

As the computer finishes the countdown everyone can instantly feel the artificial gravity that was pulling them down into their seats subside, as if being pulled upwards. Their arms are suddenly light and they get that feeling you get when driving fast over a small hill – but it doesn’t go away… They are now weightless at zero-G for the remainder of the visit.

As the Nuclear Fission reactor is shut down there is also an eerie silence that comes across the crew as the constant hum and vibrations from the engines subside. All of a sudden, the constant rumbling sound that became white noise a few hours into the trip was gone and now it is as if they have super hearing. All the computer equipment’s discrete beeps, chirps, and chimes can now be heard all throughout the ship. They can hear switches being flipped and the hull of the ship creaking. Everyone can hear Dr. Swygart crumpling a food wrapper he missed as he plucks it out of the air while it floats by his bald head.

“Okay, reactor shutdown complete,” announces Tucker. “Reactors 1 and 2 report clean shutdown. Mains are idle.”

“Turk, how’s the trajectory look?” Hicks asks.

Turk replies, “Not bad… computer suggests transient attitude trim of 005, 358, and 002.”

“Okay Turk, do it”.

The ships maneuvering thrusters are fired in short blasts to put the ship in a near perfect approach to a smooth orbital insertion of Europa.

Turk says, “Trim adjustment complete.”

“Great job everyone. Now we coast to the finish line,” Hicks announces.

Turk turns to look at Juliana, smiles, then raises his eyebrows when their eyes meet, as if he were saying “almost there…” She gives him a return smile and a wink. This wasn’t the time for chit chat as they all had jobs to do and systems to monitor.

Hicks makes a formal radio broadcast as they near the orbital insertion point as he knows their transmissions are being broadcast live back home to all countries watching them make history; just like the first Moon landing and the first Mars landing missions. There are video cameras all over the command deck and externally to view the approach and orbit. If something goes wrong, as many have come to expect with Europa missions, then it will be captured in all its glory on full panoramic 3D video and audio, all computer commands are logged and instantly sent to Cygnus Command, all communications, every bit of data possible is being captured.

The orbital insertion goes perfect though, and the crew immediately prepares for the landing mission. As they orbit the frozen moon, which resembles a cracked egg, several of the other moons are clearly visible and Jupiter is starting to rise over the horizon of Europa, creating a spectacular view that makes the entire crew gaze in amazement.

“Okay people, put away your goose bumps, we have work to do,” Hicks reminds everyone.

Doctor Huang pushes up her glasses (which are rare in this day and age) and starts speaking and gesturing commands into her computer terminal to start the first phase of the landing mission. Several remote control payload pods that are attached to the exterior of the ship will be guided down to the landing site. These pods include two All Terrain Rovers, two nuclear heated torpedo probes, and a lot of other gear that they will need for their 14 days of exploration down there.

Two of the payload pods snap off mounting arms and their thrusters fire. Huang remotely pilots the first pod toward the surface. Doctor Swygart pilots down the second pod, while the rest of the crew nervously monitors the progress of this critical piece of the mission. If the equipment doesn’t make it down safely, they may as well head back to Earth.

Much to everyone’s relief, the first two pods make it safely to the surface to almost the precise landing coordinates. The two remaining pods snap off of their mounting arms and are again guided down to the surface by Huang and Swygart. The pod that Swygart is piloting is descending a little too fast this time, and is dangerously close to a massive ice plume (or mountain) extending a few kilometers up from the surface.

“Gramps! You better pull up or… or… you’re going to lose it!” Lt. Tucker screams while watching the progress.

“I’ve got it! I’ve got it… there, see, not a problem!” Swygart retorts as the payload pod narrowly misses the top of the massive plume, on its way to the landing site just beyond.

Everyone breathes a sigh of relief when the second pair of payload pods make it safely to the surface. With the past history of Europa missions, every critical step is like watching an Olympic gymnast perform a balance beam routine; one little slip-up and no gold! Years of preparation down the drain in an instant.

“Okay, good job guys,” Commander Hicks says. “That was a little too close-for-comfort Gramps… good recovery though. Now it’s time to get
us
down there.”

“So… are you nervous?” Turk asks Juliana with a smirk on his face, floating over to the window she is looking out of again.

Evans squeaks out an answer, “Jeez, I don’t know Patrick. Yes… No… Maybe! I don’t know! I know I’m excited… I’ve definitely got butterflies. But I’m such a coward sometimes. I’ve never liked landings much. Hell, I’ve never really liked takeoffs either. I actually don’t know how I got up the nerve to serve on this mission! I guess it was one of my old college professors, Professor Scott; he convinced me to enroll for this mission and kept encouraging me. Jeez, he was a great old man!”