{"id":32,"date":"2015-12-16T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2015-12-16T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.emailfrommars.com\/outbound\/2015\/06\/21\/chapter-08-2\/"},"modified":"2015-06-23T19:27:57","modified_gmt":"2015-06-23T23:27:57","slug":"chapter-08-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.emailfrommars.com\/outbound\/chapter-08-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Chapter 08.2"},"content":{"rendered":"

04:45 – Brandon was working at the germination station on the Hydroponic Deck, about to set out a new batch of strawberry plants when there was a sudden dull thump. It felt as if he was sitting in a parked car and someone bumped it with a car door, but their vehicle is half way to Mars. Curious, he stepped over to the nearest window and gazed out, but couldn’t see anything unusual. Rather than risk contaminating a fresh planting by entering one of the other garden bays, he turned toward the ladder-well and climbed down two decks to where the others had gathered in response to this jarring sensation.<\/p>\n

Tom and Sally had just gotten up from their bunks and everyone was awake and crammed around one of the half-meter wide portholes. “What was that?” Brandon inquired in a low tone. As Tom turned, he could see concern reflected in Tom’s face and that it was not good news.<\/p>\n

“Take a look,” he said. The crew parted to allow Brandon access and he moved to press his face to the window.<\/p>\n

Peering out, at first all appeared normal. The stars were passing by the window in a slow upward movement, as if the ship and crew were falling through space in slow motion. As he shifted position to look more aft-ward, his view was blocked by the solar panel as usual. Tilting his head to view further out the length of the panel, however, he realized something was amiss, or more accurately, missing. Brandon did a double take and looked again, amazed that the far end of the panel was no longer there.<\/p>\n

The solar panel, formerly measuring 26 meters in length, was now more like 10 meters and appeared jagged at the tip. An asteroid about the size of a small bus had narrowly missed the Hab by 10 meters.<\/p>\n

“No warning on the monitors?” Brandon asked.<\/p>\n

“No,” Valerie replied. “There was nothing on the monitors and then a second or two before impact, there was a single beep from the radar. This thing must have gotten knocked out of the asteroid main belt and was headed in towards the sun, rather than orbiting.”<\/p>\n

“And moving like a bat out of hell, to sheer that panel off like that without putting us into a spin,” Carl added as he sat down at the control console, just below the porthole.<\/p>\n

“How bad do you think it is? Looks like we only lost about a two-thirds of the panel, right?” Sally asked, obviously worried but trying to sound optimistic. By that time Carl was checking the power meters.<\/p>\n

“I wish it were that simple,” he responded, with a sigh. “The way these things are wired, it looks like we may have lost use of the whole panel. See there?” he said, pointing. “The normal readout from the top half of each panel is on one gauge, with the bottom on another. These four gauges represent both panels and their operating capacity. Right now, there are no readings on gauges one and two.”<\/p>\n

Tom then added an observation, “Carl, pull up the Power Loss Protocols in the computer and, while you’re at it, send the Alert call to Mission Support, coded ‘Stable, but guarded’. They will be reading the voltage drop on their consoles soon enough. Let’s let them know we are still alive.”<\/p>\n

Carl acknowledged the order and sent the message. Next, he typed in the phrase Power Loss Protocol and the monitor displayed the instructions outlining what to do in the event of a total loss of power, as well as various degrees of power loss. Most of the instructions were the same:<\/p>\n

Step 1.) Turn off all un-necessary equipment and lights.<\/p>\n

Step 2.) Locate the source of the power drain.<\/p>\n

Step 3.) Affect repairs as quickly as is SAFELY possible.<\/p>\n

Step 4.) Gradually turn lights on while monitoring power gauges. Watch for spikes to the load.<\/p>\n

Etc.<\/p>\n

“Well, I’d say we can check off number two, right off the bat,” Brandon pointed out. “So, for now we’re on… what, half power, right? Let’s go with that, ration our usage and check our options. One thing that comes to mind is to pull out the surface RTG we have stowed away in Stateroom Five. What other ideas do we have?”<\/p>\n

Jackie stared off into the distance thinking out-loud, “Riding the exercise bike more; it’s already configured to generate some level of electricity.”<\/p>\n

Valerie retorted, “Yeah, but not enough to compensate for all the extra showers we’ll need to take. That thing generates more sweat than it does electricity.”<\/p>\n

“I certainly hope we can come up with something else before firing up the nuke,” Tom quickly replied. “We are still a month out from Mars. And that thing puts out a lot of radiation for such a confined area like inside the ship.”<\/p>\n

“I agree completely,” Brandon added, “As for step three: we don’t have a back up solar panel to deploy. I seem to recall Skylab having a one-panel configuration, but I can’t remember if that was by design or some sort of failure.”<\/p>\n

Carl was just finishing the message to Mission Support and clicking the ‘Send’. “I remember reading about that a few years ago,” he volunteered. “One panel was lost when a micrometeoroid shield broke away during launch, taking the panel with it. Plus, there was a problem deploying the other panel. The first crew was able to install a replacement shield and got the remaining panel to deploy, but that was in Earth orbit. If this had happened while we were in orbit, we might have waited for FP2 to launch and borrowed one of its panels. But it’s not like we can stop here and wait for FP2 to catch up. That won’t happen until we get to Mars orbit.”<\/p>\n

Brandon continued, “I think the best we could do with the damaged one, would be to re-attach some of the wires so as to complete a circuit and get partial use out of what’s left. However, that would mean a lengthy spacewalk and whoever pulls that duty is going to be pulling some big rems by the time he gets back in here. But, you’re absolutely right. We should be able to come up with some kind of a workaround.”<\/p>\n

Valerie observed, “And, it may be a cold thing to say, but logic dictates that if it comes down to an extended spacewalk as our only option, one crewmember with a fatal dose is better than six.”<\/p>\n

“Rewiring that panel could take days of attaching and testing. Perhaps two people for as much as a week. I’ll contact Mission Support and see what they have to offer,” Tom said. “They may have some useful ideas as well.” He turned to the communications system as Sally and Jackie went back to looking out the window, Valerie looked on as Carl began running some wiring schematics on the main monitor, and Brandon headed in the direction of the HP deck. As the end of his shift was approaching, he still needed to wrap up the work he had been involved in. Upstairs, while shutting down the shop he wanted to make sure all unnecessary lights were flipped off, as well.<\/p>\n

There was a small water pump with a variable flow regulator, propelling water from a reservoir into an irrigation line. The water flowed through the line, branching off to six trays, which would be seeded the following afternoon. Brandon decided to shut off the flow, reasoning again, to save power during this emergency. As he turned the knob, the pressure increased and water sprayed everywhere. He quickly turned the knob the other way. At that moment an idea flashed brightly in his mind and he froze for a moment while considering it. ‘Sufficient water pressure could drive a paddle wheel to turn a generator’, he reasoned. “A millwheel in space! But, it takes electricity to run the pump,” he thought out loud, talking to himself. “But, I think you’re on the right track.”<\/p>\n

After checking the computer inventory of plumbing supplies on board, he sat down, pulled his iPad over and started drawing what he hoped would be a solution to their thorny problem. Their drinking water is stored in a series of one-inch tubular pipes running through the corrugated fiberglass outer walls of the Hab. The pipes are positioned in two courses around the ship, staggered like the thin side-walls of a compressed accordion and wrap almost all the way around the spacecraft, except where there is a hatch or window. In those cases, there are elbow pipe joints to bend the water around the hatches and windows. The six inches of foam insulation fill the corrugated fiberglass walls encasing the tubes. Enveloping everything is the traditional thin metal skin on the outside, coated with several thin layers of a sprayed-on foam insulation.<\/p>\n

\"ch08-2a\"<\/a><\/p>\n

After water is used for drinking, cooking, plant irrigation, showers, and waste disposal, any waste liquid (including urine) is passed through the scrubber\/recycler where it is purified to the same standards used by water bottling companies on Earth. This water is then pumped back into the wall storage tubes for reuse. In addition, a dehumidifier collects evaporation from the Hydroponics Deck and even the evaporation from perspiration. Not all water is recovered. The human body requires a portion of the water consumed. So all things considered, they are able to recycle nearly 92% of their water.<\/p>\n

An hour later, Carl and Jackie had still not yet gone to bed. Tom was occupied by the same task as Brandon had been, attempting to come up with a workaround, with Carl lending a hand. Meanwhile, Sally was closely monitoring the computer screens at the control console, as if something were about to attack the ship at any moment. Jackie was assisting Valerie in the galley, both endeavoring to come up with ideas for nutritious meals that did not require cooking. On all of their minds was the sobering fact that the less electrical power they needed to use, the better. There were plenty of fresh vegetables ready to eat such as carrots, potatoes, turnips, and radishes, as well as strawberries and cherry tomatoes. Cold cereal will be readily available, and Pop-Tarts don’t have to be toasted to be good. The electrical issue wouldn’t make the crew go hungry.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

04:45 – Brandon was working at the germination station on the Hydroponic Deck, about to set out a new batch of strawberry plants when there was a sudden dull thump. It felt as if he was sitting in a parked car and someone bumped it with a car door, but their vehicle is half way to Mars. Curious, he stepped …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":177,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chapter"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.emailfrommars.com\/outbound\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.emailfrommars.com\/outbound\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.emailfrommars.com\/outbound\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.emailfrommars.com\/outbound\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.emailfrommars.com\/outbound\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.emailfrommars.com\/outbound\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":353,"href":"http:\/\/www.emailfrommars.com\/outbound\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32\/revisions\/353"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.emailfrommars.com\/outbound\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/177"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.emailfrommars.com\/outbound\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.emailfrommars.com\/outbound\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.emailfrommars.com\/outbound\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}