(Thursday, July 20, 2017)<\/p>\n
Held a little over eleven months earlier, on the 48th anniversary of the first moon landing, was the night of the big press conference to announce the Manned Mars Mission. Launched during the previous year by a Falcon Heavy Rocket, the unmanned Fuel Processor One (FP1), with the Mars Ascent Vehicle (MAV) mounted atop, had already touched down at the designated landing site, in the Avernus Colles region. A systems check showed everything was in good working order. FP1 was now producing methane and oxygen for the crew to use on the surface after they arrive, as well as to fuel the MAV when they are ready to return to Earth.<\/p>\n
At the media event that evening, the handpicked crew was being introduced to the world, headed by their Mission Commander, Dr. Tyler R. Cody. Ty, as his friends call him, wasn’t even a year old when Neil Armstrong and Edwin ‘Buzz’ Aldrin, Jr. made the first footprints on the Sea of Tranquility. Now, this sandy haired, 1.7 m, Navy doctor was about to lead a group of top-notch scientists and engineers on the adventure of a lifetime; the next giant leap. Although he had made a real career for himself in the Navy, this was the crowning achievement Ty had worked for since his days as an undergrad at Western Michigan University.<\/p>\n
How beautiful his wife, Claire, looked sitting down there in the front row, amongst the other wives and husbands of the crew. She was smiling broadly, proud of her husband for being among the best of the very best. Ty couldn’t take his eyes off of her. He nearly missed the Master of Ceremonies announcing his name, had it not been for her gaze with sideways head nod, cuing Ty that he should be doing something (besides staring at her as if they’d just met). In the nick of time, he got to his feet, hoping he had not looked too foolish. He approached the podium amidst the thundering standing ovation.<\/p>\n
Ty began, “Ladies and gentlemen, distinguished guests, my fellow colleagues, it is my extreme honor to stand before you this evening as the team leader of such a fine group of individuals. Each and every one of them was selected for their expertise in not only one field of study, but two, and in some cases, three or more.” He made a sweeping gesture in the direction of Dr. Valerie Thomas, and the room stood to applaud once more. Valerie stood up and nodded to the audience in grateful acceptance, smiling broadly.<\/p>\n
Ty continued, “We, the crew of Bolo One, have been honored and blessed to be selected as the first crew to venture beyond Low Earth Orbit and even the Moon, to travel outward to the next planet from the sun, Mars. It is our goal to travel to Mars, study the planet, establish a base of continued exploration, and return safely to our loved ones back here on Earth. A two-and-a-half year roundtrip mission, spent battling the solar radiation of space, the reduced gravity and micro-thin atmosphere of Mars, and the worst of all hazards, the boredom of the six-month transit there and back again.” He smiled broadly and a roar of applause and laughter erupted from the auditorium. “And so with that, I would like to introduce to you the crew of Bolo One. To my immediate right, my second in command and a wonderful mechanical engineer, as well as a top-notch geologist, …”<\/p>\n
Ten months later: Friday, May 11, 2018 (Alanday, Sagittarius 25, 0031)<\/p>\n
A distant and disembodied voice came over their headsets, “Launch in one minute… 60… 59… 58…” Preparation is underway for the launch of the first manned mission to Mars. On a mission such as this, it is important to keep the overall spacecraft weight to a minimum. To this end the crew will consist of two medical doctors, two geologists, two horticulturists and two chemists, along with one geochemist and three mechanical engineers. All of these duties will be shared by the six-person crew, each possessing multiple talents.<\/p>\n
“57… 56… 55…” Commander Tom, the new mission commander, is a veteran of two Earth orbit and two circum-lunar missions undertaken to work out any bugs in the Artificial Gravity Assist System (AGAS) being used on the Bolo One journey. It was Tom’s idea to use a type of clockwork mechanism, able to reel out the tether a little at a time during the trip to whatever length was desired. On the way to Mars, a full one Gee of gravity is preferred to keep the crew strong and healthy. But, after a year and a half at thirty-nine percent of Earth gravity, they will start their trip home at one Martian Gee and gradually build themselves back up to one Earth Gee.<\/p>\n
“54… 53… 52…” Commander Tom is a rugged, good-looking six-footer. Prematurely gray at 40, this gives him an aura of experience, marking him as the kind of leader people like to follow. Though happily married to his high school sweetheart, Penny, since ’99, he’s still a favorite with the ladies at every press conference. Commander Tom holds a doctorate in Mechanical Engineering, as well as almost holding a Masters in Geology (just missing the paperwork).<\/p>\n
“51… 50… 49…” As a private corporation, the majority of people involved with these Mars missions are not employed by NASA or any of its sub-contractors. Nevertheless, some of the old traditions are hard to discard. For example, none of the Bolo One crewmembers were ever in the military, but the group leader is still referred to as Commander, much like in the merchant marines. Likewise, the old Mission Control has given way to Mission Support, even as some of the old buildings and systems are still being used under contract. It is clear that the Corporation is running the show. Being somewhat casual-minded, Tom is not crazy about being called Commander, but when leadership needs to be asserted it is clear that Commander Tom is in charge.<\/p>\n
“48… 47… 46…” Tom’s number two, Dr. Valerie Thomas, is a General Practitioner, with training in Psychology, making her the ship’s onboard councilor. Valerie is also a certified Master Gardener, her favorite hobby. As a result, Valerie can cultivate and grow many of the specialized herbs and plants needed to concoct some of their medications. In addition to her horticultural skills, she is cross-trained in Physical Therapy, some Eastern medicine, and General Dentistry.<\/p>\n
“45… 44… 43…” Valerie honed her horticultural skills aboard the International Space Station (ISS), back in 2011. At that time, Russian cosmonauts and American astronauts were growing crops as a test bed for long-term space missions. Back then, the lack of gravity demanded shoebox sized gardens using Arcillite and grains of clay enriched with time-released nutrients. These minuscule gardens will not be needed on this mission to Mars due to the use of artificial gravity to keep the plants in place during the transit.<\/p>\n
“42… 41… 40…” Valerie is a petite, slender lady in her late thirties with medium brown hair, curling softly to her shoulders. She is not what you would call a ‘looker’, rather plain in fact. Valerie has been married to her second husband (Steve Thomas, a covert ops group leader) for four and a half years. It isn’t that she was hard to get along with; she was simply too absorbed in her career to maintain a relationship, until she met Steve.<\/p>\n
“39… 38… 37…” The next member of the crew is Dr. Carl Wilson. He’s a short, rather stocky, blonde kid, 24 years of age, and named after the Astronomer \/ Astrophysicist, Dr. Carl Sagan. Dr. Carl Wilson is the crew’s Mechanical Engineer \/ Geochemist.<\/p>\n
“36… 35… 34…” Tom jokes that Carl is as smart as a whip, but not very bright: he still has a lot to learn about life. One of those ‘whiz kids’ you hear tell about, he received his Masters in Mechanical Engineering at the tender age of eighteen. But, it was the Doctorate in Geochemistry that won him a berth on this first Mars mission. While still in college, Carl met the love of his life, Mary Croft.<\/p>\n
“33… 32… 31…” Adding to his impressive resume, is an even more impressive pedigree. Dr. Warner Von Braun was Carl’s maternal great-grandfather and, Nazi accusations aside, helped tremendously with mission publicity.<\/p>\n
“30… 29… 28…” Dr. Sally Chung, the mission’s Chemist \/ Geologist, is rather attractive, mid-thirties, Asian American who is also well versed in Gemology, having studied for three years in Amsterdam. Sally has two shuttle missions on her resume: the first was a resupply mission to the ISS; the second, a six-month stay conducting crystal growth experiments in Zero Gee.<\/p>\n
“27… 26… 25…” Like Tom, she is also married to her high school sweetheart, Robert Hackard, although she has kept her maiden name. Which is a good thing since their marriage has been on shaky ground for quite some time. The mission psychologists might have pulled Sally from this trip had they been able to see over the top of her well-constructed wall of denial.<\/p>\n
“24… 23… 22…” Number five, Dr. Jackie Miller, is a Chemist \/ Physician. She and Valerie will easily be able to switch chairs and work equally well as Dentist, with both having dental cross training. Jackie had applied to the space program less than two years ago at the recommendation of one of her father’s friends. He wished to remain anonymous, even to Jackie, so as not to appear to be playing favorites as he was working as one of the mission planners. Like Carl, this is her first trip into space.<\/p>\n
“21… 20… 19…” Jackie was the replacement for Commander Ty Cody (having the same Chemist \/ Medical training), who had to be pulled from the mission. Strikingly beautiful, Jackie is a twenty-nine year old, light-skinned, African American \/ Chinese. Taller than average Asians, but quite trim, Jackie looks ‘just how a fashion model should.’ Her husband of two short years, Mike Miller, is always quick to point this out.<\/p>\n
“18… 17… 16…” The last crewmember, Brandon Devlin, is the ship’s Mechanical Engineer \/ Horticulturist. He is married to Emma, the cutest little schoolteacher in Norfolk, Virginia (second time was the charm). Eight years senior to Commander Tom, he is the old man on the ship and I don’t mean ‘Captain’. His hair is a medium, reddish brown and most of it is still there. All in all, Brandon doesn’t think he looks any older than Tom.<\/p>\n
“15… 14… 13…” Brandon pulled two six-month tours on the ISS in 2012 and 2014, but has spent most of his career designing this ship. From the water tubes in the outer bulkheads, to the leaded acrylic radiation-shielded storm shelter running through all three decks of the ship, Brandon knows more about Bolo One than most of the team who assembled her. He also designed quite a few of the storage tanks, tables, and chairs, as well as the onboard bunks.<\/p>\n
“12… 11… 10…” Brandon met Ty Cody while they were both attending Western Michigan University (WMU). Ty was studying Chemistry while Brandon tackled Mechanical Engineering. Eventually, Ty went off to study medicine at the University of Michigan (U of M), before returning to WMU to become one of the first graduates from its new School of Medicine. He had decided to focus his skills toward General Medicine, which dealt with many disciplines affecting the human body.<\/p>\n
“9… 8… 7…” While Ty was off fulfilling his personal goals, Brandon immersed himself in a second discipline: Horticulture. This had always been a favorite hobby and getting his hands dirty enabled him to relax and bleed off stress. This second specialty would also make him more versatile, even if it and Mechanical Engineering didn’t seem to go together at first glance.<\/p>\n
“6… 5… 4…” From the onset, Commander (Dr.) Tyler R. Cody was a born leader and had been the first choice to head-up the mission. Ty was the only one of the group that actually earned the title of Commander through his service in the U. S. Navy. Through the ROTC Program, he had been able to serve while attending college.<\/p>\n
“3… 2… 1…” However, suffering from severe depression after a drunk driver killed his wife, Claire (and nearly took his right leg), Ty was scrubbed from the mission. It is hoped he will return to duty and join the Mission Support Team before the crew reaches Mars.<\/p>\n
“0… We have ignition, and liftoff of Bolo One on the first manned mission to the red planet: a two-and-a-half year mission for the six-person crew. Godspeed, Bolo One. Our hopes and dreams go with you.”<\/p>\n
“Roger that,” Commander Tom replied as the Falcon Super Heavy began slowly rumbling skyward. From the crew’s vantage point, seven-eighths of the way up the rocket stack and cocooned in their space suits, the roar and vibration of the 36 engines was somewhat muffled. “To get a feel for this,” Carl earlier told a group of reporters, “put a plastic five-gallon bucket over your head and stand under water at the base of Niagara Falls. Yeah, it’s kind of like that.”<\/p>\n
In 2002, Elon Musk founded SpaceX and by 2011, they had successfully test-flown the Falcon 1, Falcon 9, and Dragon Spacecraft through orbit and recovery. In 2013, they test-flew the Falcon Heavy, building on the success of these predecessors.<\/p>\n
The Falcon 9 had nine engines in a single booster stage, whereas the Falcon Heavy was a set of three such boosters, set side-by-side with the payload mounted atop the center stage. The two outside boosters, cross-feeding propellant to the core booster, would give up a third of their fuel while lifting the payload higher and higher. Once the two outer boosters flamed out, they separated from the core booster and deployed parachutes to fall gracefully into the Atlantic Ocean for recovery and reuse. Meanwhile, the core booster, nearly fully fueled, was still rocketing the payload skyward.<\/p>\n
But for the Bolo One mission, even the Falcon Heavy turned out to be inadequate. Thus was born the Falcon Super Heavy, consisting of five Falcon 9 boosters: four arranged in a circle spaced 90° apart, with the fifth one at the center. However, where three boosters are not quite enough to put the craft into orbit, five are actually too many.<\/p>\n
But this configuration still works as the rocket is launched with the core booster un-fueled. As it lumbers toward the heavens, the four outer boosters lift the empty core booster with its 45 metric ton habitat (the Hab) module. Each of the outer boosters begins cross-feeding the core booster in the same manner as the Falcon Heavy configuration, albeit sending only a quarter of their propellant. Once the outer boosters flame out (first the NS pair and then the EW pair), separate and drop away, the core booster will be at the threshold of space, fully-fueled and ready to fire the craft on a trajectory towards Mars. Far above the bulk of Earth’s atmosphere and already moving at nearly 10 km\/s, the kick from this single booster will send them on their historic journey.<\/p>\n
In the 90’s, when Dr. Robert Zubrin presented the Mars Direct Plan, he described this launch style as a ‘lift and throw’. Since Bolo One’s launch lifted off on schedule without any countdown holds, it was not necessary to actually go into orbit of Earth. The launch was a direct throw to Mars.<\/p>\n
Although only able to view the ISS on the monitors, the entire crew gave the station a rather non-military single-digit salute in its direction as they passed it by, a good 290 kilometers off the port beam. Ironically, at that moment, a message came over the radio, directly from Leonid Korotaev, a former ISS crewmate of Brandon’s, still serving onboard the ISS, “\u0416\u0438\u0432\u0438\u0442\u0435 \u0434\u043e\u043b\u0433\u043e \u0438 \u043f\u0440\u043e\u0446\u0432\u0435\u0442\u0430\u0442\u044c, \u044f\u043d\u043a\u0438 \u0441\u0443\u043a\u0438\u043d\u044b \u0434\u0435\u0442\u0438. [Live long and prosper, Yankee sons of bitches.]” As many of the U.S. astronauts studied Russian in preparation for duty aboard the ISS, Valerie and Sally both burst out laughing at the missive.<\/p>\n
“\u0418 \u0442\u043e \u0436\u0435 \u0441\u0430\u043c\u043e\u0435 \u0434\u043b\u044f \u0432\u0430\u0441, \u043c\u043e\u0439 \u0434\u0440\u0443\u0433. \u042f \u0436\u0434\u0443, \u0447\u0442\u043e\u0431\u044b \u043f\u043e\u0434\u0435\u043b\u0438\u0442\u044c\u0441\u044f \u043d\u0430\u043f\u0438\u0442\u043a\u043e\u043c, \u043a\u043e\u0433\u0434\u0430 \u044f \u0432\u0435\u0440\u043d\u0443\u0441\u044c, [And the same to you, my friend. I’ll expect to share a drink when I get back.]” Brandon replied to his old friend.<\/p>\n
The crew is now on its way to the Red Planet: no turning back, at least not for a while. Barring any major complications, they wouldn’t want to anyway. It’s not only the glory of being the first humans to travel to Mars, the paycheck will be pretty impressive, too. For each crewmember, a promissory note was deposited into a private account at the First Galactic Savings & Loan (FGS&L) in the sum of $5 million. Added to this amount will be $5,000 for each day they stay on Mars. Since this mission is scheduled to have the crew living on the surface for a year-and-a-half, each crewman could receive an extra $2.75 million for the trip. (Not to mention the royalties from commercial product endorsements and public speaking engagements, once they are back home.)<\/p>\n
The crew will reach Mars late in its dust storm season. Among the possible complications cutting their overall surface stay short, would be heavy dust storm activity upon arrival: thereby forcing them to delay landing. In the past, some robotic missions were stalled in orbit for a month or more before they could safely set down. As the $5 million up-front is a nice sum of money, the $5,000 per day is chicken feed by comparison and not worth the risk of a hazardous landing.<\/p>\n
FGS&L was conceived by The Sponsors as a bona fide financial institution, with branches in most major cities throughout the United States. Space enthusiasts from around the world have already opened accounts there, just to be a part of it all. Once people start moving to Mars, they will still need an Earth-based bank to tend to their financial needs during the course of transitioning to a Martian life-style. As many colonists might initially work for The Sponsors on Mars, the money they will earn will be deposited into their accounts for times when future supplies will be sent to Mars on their behalf.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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