Wednesday, November 7, 2018 (Alanday, Aries 10, 0031)<\/p>\n
From: Carl Wilson
\nSubject: The view from here
\nDate: Aries 10, 0031 22:00
\nTo: Mary Croft<\/p>\n
(CLT): 6 min 50.81 sec<\/p>\n
Hello Sweetheart,<\/p>\n
Sure wish you were here to see this view. We are preparing to go into Mars orbit in two days, and I haven’t slept in nearly three. I can’t get over this spectacular sight of Mars. If I stand with my back to the door of the EVA Prep room and peer out the half meter sized porthole above the control console on the other side of the lab, there is the thinnest of margins of space surrounding the planet. It’s like back on Earth, during moonrise of a full moon: hold your hand out at arms length and make a ring with your thumb and index finger to view the moon through. It looks HUGE!! Have you ever done that? Try it if you haven’t.<\/p>\n
We’ll be arriving with about 40 days left in the dust storm season, but if we get a break in the weather, so to speak, we’ll land at the first opportunity. These past six months have been terribly confining for everyone. When it comes to the claustrophobia of a closed space with no exits, this is about like being in the brig, on a submarine, under the polar ice cap. If that asteroid hadn’t hit the solar panel last month and stirred up so much excitement, I think I might have gone space happy. Although I don’t know why they call it ‘happy’. I kind of feel sorry for all of my crewmates that didn’t get to go out on the EVA. But, fair was fair and I won the draw. I got to experience the vastness of space, first hand.<\/p>\n
Oh, and speaking of that excitement and the EVA, our new ‘steam-powered’ electrical generator is putting out nearly as much power as both of the old solar panels did. While going over the numbers with Tom, a few days ago, he said it reminded him of a story he heard about the early days of the Apollo Program. He said there was an ‘urban legend’ that goes like this:<\/p>\n
When NASA was getting ready to send the first astronauts to the moon, they thought, ‘How are the crew going to take notes in zero gee if there isn’t any gravity to pull the ink out of the pen (you know how, if you write upside-down for a few seconds, the pen stops working)?’ So the Fisher Pen Company designed a pen that was pressurized to about 50 PSI that would write in zero gee (at a design and development cost of $50k, mind you).<\/p>\n
Well, that particular expenditure was during the ‘Space Race’ days when big spending was the norm. But, then once the U. S. was co-operating and collaborating with the Soviets, someone asked them how they solved the problem. Tom said, “The Soviet cosmonauts said they used one of these.” I glanced over and Tom was pulling a short pencil out of his shoulder pocket. (LMAO) He said he’s carried a pencil on every flight since he heard that. And, I found out yesterday that Brandon carries one, too.<\/p>\n
After doing a little digging I found out that the Fisher Pen Co. developed the pen on its own dime and then approached NASA. But, the result is the same: it makes for a cute story. The point is: sometimes the old ways are the best. Who would ever have imagined we would be using a steam-powered generator on our way to Mars.<\/p>\n
Unbelievable, everyone might say. The technology is very old, but that’s exactly the kind of (out-of-the-box) thinking that the Mars Direct Plan was built on: make some of the fuel on Mars, instead of taking it all with you. Have it waiting for you when you get there. That’s why we need people on the mission. Rovers can’t think and problem-solve the same way we can. Of course, on a robotic mission, it could just be flown without life support, so no big shakes.<\/p>\n
Well, let’s see… by ye olde Earth calendar I see today is November 7. With any luck we’ll be sharing our Thanksgiving dinner with the locals. (Har har). That should be just about two weeks away. Sure wish I was sharing it with you. I really miss you, Mary. You’ll never know how much. Say hi to your folks for me.<\/p>\n
All my love, Carl<\/p>\n
< ≡ ♂ ≡ ><\/p>\n
During the next two weeks, the dust storms appeared to increase in intensity instead of tapering down. From the beginning, it had been planned that the crew could ride out the storms, in orbit, for up to two months if necessary. But, that was before the asteroid incident. It had taken a considerable amount of fuel to slow the ship’s rotation and then speed it back up again. This emergency procedure reduced the amount of fuel available to dwell in orbit for any long period.<\/p>\n
Staying in orbit requires occasional thruster bursts to maintain the proper orientation and altitude due to the gravitational pull of both Mars and its two moons: Phobos and Deimos. With current fuel reserves, the end of November will be the cut off point for making the go \/no-go decision to land or head back to Earth. Unfortunately, that would still leave 19 days remaining in the dust storm season. The scientists at Mission Support are minutely scrutinizing every detail of the weather reports from the Mars Express Satellite, which has been in orbit since late 2003.<\/p>\n
Since the crew can’t land yet, the sleeping arrangements have remained the same, with only two usable staterooms. But, after the asteroid hit and some of the supplies and spare parts had been used, as well as there being a smaller stockpile of food now, Sally started a new project in her spare time: redistributing the remainder of the other items in one of the storage staterooms which had a lower bunk. Working steadily, she excavated a path to the bed and cleared it off. Now, if someone wanted to have some solitude or lie down during his or her off duty time, they would have a place to do so.<\/p>\n
While Tom scanned the latest message from Ty, Sally wandered into the unused stateroom to inspect her handiwork. Having plopped down on the bed and stretching out on her back, she began daydreaming of meandering through a meadow of tall grasses and wildflowers. Sally envisioned a beautiful summer day with just a hint of a breeze lifting her hair from the nape of her neck. With not another soul for miles, she peeled off her clothes, letting the sun and breeze wash over her bare skin, and laid down in the grass for a little sun bathing. It was so warm and peaceful in her fantasy world, and Sally’s mind continued to drift… after a while her right hand migrated to her furry mound. It had been so long since she had shared herself with Bobby. With trembling fingers, her imagined self began stroking her moist crotch, softly and slowly at first, then ever faster.<\/p>\n
Moaning softly in the quiet stateroom aboard Bolo One, Sally’s right hand slid down inside the front of her shorts as her left hand began gently massaging first one breast and then the other, squeezing the nipples lightly. It didn’t take long for Sally to find the pleasure she had been seeking in her fantasy. In a matter of minutes the release left her gasping.<\/p>\n
Sally opened her eyes to find Tom, standing at the door, his gaze riveted on her. As their eyes met, he blurted out, “I’m sorry. I wanted to show you the note I got from Ty. I didn’t realize…” as he turned to walk away.<\/p>\n
“That’s OK,” Sally whispered as she jumped up and moved quickly toward him, her hand outstretched asking for understanding. “It’s my fault. I should have shut the door.” She was embarrassed but also searching his face for any sign he liked that which wasn’t meant to be seen. All she could make out was a shade of crimson staining his cheeks.<\/p>\n
Not knowing how long he had been watching, Sally hesitantly placed her arms around Tom’s waist and pulled him close. She could feel the bulge in the front of his pants straining firmly against her pubic mound, which told her he had been at the entryway long enough. Tom’s hands immediately found their way to Sally’s lower back. It was an automatic reaction beyond his control.<\/p>\n
She moved one hand to the back of his neck to draw his lips down to hers. As Tom began to lean in closer, he abruptly stopped himself. “I’m sorry. I’m not ready to let someone else into my life yet. It’s still too soon,” Tom said as he pulled her arm down. “I can’t…” his voice trailed off as he reluctantly stepped away from her grasp and hurried back down the stairs to the control deck. Sally slowly went back over to the bunk and lowered herself to the mattress, placing her elbows on her knees and hiding her face in the comforting shelter of her palms, allowing the stillness to envelope her.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Wednesday, November 7, 2018 (Alanday, Aries 10, 0031) From: Carl Wilson Subject: The view from here Date: Aries 10, 0031 22:00 To: Mary Croft (CLT): 6 min 50.81 sec Hello Sweetheart, Sure wish you were here to see this view. We are preparing to go into Mars orbit in two days, and I haven’t slept in nearly three. I can’t …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":188,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40","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\/40","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=40"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.emailfrommars.com\/outbound\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":360,"href":"http:\/\/www.emailfrommars.com\/outbound\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40\/revisions\/360"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.emailfrommars.com\/outbound\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/188"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.emailfrommars.com\/outbound\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.emailfrommars.com\/outbound\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.emailfrommars.com\/outbound\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}