{"id":54,"date":"2016-05-18T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-05-18T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.emailfrommars.com\/outbound\/2015\/06\/21\/chapter-15-3\/"},"modified":"2015-06-23T19:27:58","modified_gmt":"2015-06-23T23:27:58","slug":"chapter-15-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.emailfrommars.com\/outbound\/chapter-15-3\/","title":{"rendered":"Chapter 15.3"},"content":{"rendered":"

Less than four minutes passed before the communications system chirped; a slightly nasal voice intoned, “Bolo One, this is Commander Morgan Lewis at Mission Support. We have analyzed the condition of your fuel reserves. Due to the loss of that tank yesterday, I am sorry to say, it does not appear you will have sufficient fuel for the thrusters to perform the necessary maneuvers once you have entered the planet’s atmosphere. Therefore, it is with deep regret we must order you to abort any attempt to land the Habitat. You will, instead, make preparations to fire the trans-Earth thrusters at precisely 23:42 and 12 seconds. This movement will take you back out of orbit and put you on the free return trajectory toward Earth.<\/p>\n

“We realize what a great disappointment this is, especially after having come so far, and getting so close to your objective. However, the safety of the crew vastly outweighs the importance of any benefits derived from the mission. We are all thankful that the failure of the fuel tank didn’t cause more damage than occurred or loss of life. Preparations will now begin to launch a Dragon capsule for you to dock with, upon your return. Godspeed Bolo One and our prayers go with you on your return to our home planet. Please acknowledge this message and its directive.”<\/p>\n

Tom swallowed and fought down the burning urge to convey to Morgan his true feelings. He wanted, desperately, to reach through the radio link and wrench the commander through the connection and into the Hab. Were that a possibility, Tom would have destroyed the commander with his bare hands. Instead, taking a deep breath, Tom keyed the microphone and calmly answered, “Mission Support, we acknowledge the command to abort. Repeat, we acknowledge abort. We are now preparing to fire the Trans-Earth Thrus\u2026” As he spoke, Tom made a quick slashing motion across his throat, signaling Brandon to cut communications. Brandon flipped the switches, turning off the communications link and the telemetry, as he nodded his assent. “Now, firing the bolts on the tether and solar panels,” he reported.<\/p>\n

The Hab shuttered slightly as the mild shock of the exploding bolts propelled the one and a half solar panels and the spent Falcon 9 booster away, each slowly tumbling end over end to eventually burn up in the planet’s atmosphere. There was no turning back at this point. Without the tethered counterweight of the booster, the crew would remain in zero gravity for the next twenty months, if they changed their minds now and really did want to head home.<\/p>\n

But the crew were firmly committed to the next step in the landing sequence: firing the retro rockets that would slow the Hab’s orbit, allowing it to fall into the atmosphere of Mars and toward the small, un-named crater on the Avernus Colles. Lying on their backs and strapped into their seats on the floor and at the console, they could feel the push against their backs, the result of a twenty-seven second burst from the retros. At the end of the burn, Tom directed Carl to jettison the retro pack. Carl punched the button to fire the next set of exploding bolts, releasing the clamps. The retro pack was fired away and a large Kevlar bag instantly inflated. This action created a flexible bowl beneath them; a bowl that was two meters thick and four times the diameter of the Hab, engulfing it and doubling as a heat shield.<\/p>\n

Referred to as the aero-brake, this bag\/bowl would begin slowing the Hab’s descent, as soon as the atmosphere became thick enough to start providing some resistance. When that resistance becomes so great that the heat begins burning the bag away, it too will be jettisoned. At that time, parachutes will pop out of the Hab’s top and landing thrusters begin firing to further slow their speed of descent. The entire process, running in succession from firing the retro rockets to eventual touch down among the rolling hills, takes about seven minutes.<\/p>\n

As the habitat’s attitude leveled out, while suspended beneath the three huge parachutes, Carl glanced over at the nearest porthole. Entranced, he witnessed the fiery atmospheric entry of the Falcon 9 booster that had been their counterweight for the past six and a half months. As he watched it during the two to three seconds it was visible, an ominous thought traversed his mind: ‘I trust that was the Falcon 9 booster and not our Earth Return Vehicle turning into a charcoal briquette.’<\/p>\n

Tom contemplated a previous historic moment. When Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin touched down on the surface of the moon, Neil announced, “Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed.” However, Tom won’t be able to make such a proclamation, at least not until he gets the word from Ty that all is a GO on his end.<\/p>\n

*<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, back on Earth, Charlie is very good at what he does; problem solving and making things happen. Like many in his line of work, he is a man of multiple skills. Being a veteran pilot, Charlie can fly pretty much anything that has wings, along with a half-dozen, or so, things without, so he says. Within half an hour of Steve’s order, he had managed to wrangle up a Leer Jet Challenger 300. This particular craft, which seats eight passengers and a pilot, can make the trip from Charlottesville to Houston in just under two hours with Ty, Steve and five members of his ATAC team onboard. Moments before the 3 a.m. landing, Ty conveyed the necessary message to Tom:<\/p>\n

From: Tyler Cody
\nSubject: Mars Landing Announcement
\nDate: November 28, 2018 2:55 a.m.
\nTo: Thomas Castle<\/p>\n

(CLT): 8 min 9.93 sec<\/p>\n

Tom,<\/p>\n

I assume you have made landing by this time. With the time lag, it takes some eight minutes for these communications to travel one-way. By the time you receive this and send a reply, we should be entering the control room of Mission Support. Give us a few minutes to take control of the situation and then feel free to broadcast to the world that you have safely touched down on Mars. I’ll make sure that message goes out on all channels and into the history books.<\/p>\n

I’m sure you know I’d rather be up there than down here. But since I can’t, I’m awfully glad it’s you, old friend. Everyone on board Bolo One is like a part of my family. I am eager to be working with each of you again in the coming months and years. Yes, you read it right. I’m going back to active duty status and really looking forward to the challenge. I’ll relay more on what has happened later.<\/p>\n

Your friend and comrade, Ty<\/p>\n

< \u2261 \u2642 \u2261 ><\/p>\n

\"ch15-3a\"<\/a><\/p>\n

After reading the missive from Ty, Tom told Brandon to fire up the communication system and telemetry. “Ladies and gentlemen, it is time to let the good people of Earth know we have arrived. Break out the horns and party favors, and let’s make a little noise!” he declared, throwing his arms wide and exhibiting a delighted grin.<\/p>\n

“Roger that!” Brandon replied, echoing his smile.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Less than four minutes passed before the communications system chirped; a slightly nasal voice intoned, “Bolo One, this is Commander Morgan Lewis at Mission Support. We have analyzed the condition of your fuel reserves. Due to the loss of that tank yesterday, I am sorry to say, it does not appear you will have sufficient fuel for the thrusters to …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":204,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-54","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\/54","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=54"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/www.emailfrommars.com\/outbound\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":262,"href":"http:\/\/www.emailfrommars.com\/outbound\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54\/revisions\/262"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.emailfrommars.com\/outbound\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/204"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.emailfrommars.com\/outbound\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.emailfrommars.com\/outbound\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.emailfrommars.com\/outbound\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}