Chapter Eighteen
Mission planning
A group assembled in Harry’s office listens to still another report on the progress of the work on the new spacecraft. Each screen is filled with blueprints or pictures.
"They sent up ten extra crews of welders. That's a sixty more working," Millisen Algrin reports to the group crowding in around the wall of screens looking at the latest pictures from the Lunar surface.
To most of them it now looked like five beached and decayed whales with round ribs of metal held up by cranes and cables. Around the beached whales, a swarm of welders in spacesuits and jetpacks work welding ribs in place with long girders also held up by cranes.
Algrin allows everyone to look at the pictures for a few minutes before she reports.
"The plan was to do only the rough work on the surface. Now, they plan to have the hull tested for leaks a small section at a time. If it will hold atmosphere, they can make more rapid progress if welders just go inside and continue work. They are now going to build most of the inner structure on the lunar surface too. All they will do in orbit are the more complicated and technical things that lunar dust might harm and will even install the main motors for each section on the lunar surface for liftoff."
German Woodin then adds to the report known information. "Harry's last two donations solved lots of problems for the U.N. Two days later they gave the word to go ahead."
"Harry gave housing and food donation so that we could get our cargo aboard," Bakman adds to known information. He stands and adds, “For Harry.”
The entire group contains Harry, Woodin, Algrin, Maag, and Bakman. They all stand for Harry and join Bakman in applauding and yelling, “Hurrah for Harry's gifts.”
It had solved a major obstacle for all of them. Now, it looked simple. Put what they want on the spaceship in their cases, seal them, and let the government haul it aboard.
As the clapping dies down Bakman points at the chairs and the others sit as he continues, "We're not out of the woods yet. They will need all the food they can get. We show a housing unit in a special designed locked case. They inspect every case, seal them, and we store them until shipping. When they come back to load them on transports, the cases will have the same identical seals, and our cargo inside. We have a copy of the official wax seal and crimper. The food cases are simple. We need all we can get aboard."
Harry adds. "Maag, try to think of any food processing means or ways of extending the food supply. Include equipment, plans, and even seeds that they can use in orbit. They can use sunlight to grow plants, hydroponics, and can use solar panels for electric power. In addition, Bakman wants included in each section a few dozen cases of seed assortments to be taken down to the surface, to be planted and harvested. Be sure to put in the instructions how the seeds are to be planted, harvested, and seed saved for the next year after they are down on the surface. The mission will more than likely fail it they eat all their seed. And, with years in orbit to study the planet below they can land during the best season for planting."
"Good idea, Harry," Bakman adds.
Maag scratches his head and outlines his problems. "The mechanicals will have to be completely reprogrammed, shutdown, crated, shipped, and loaded aboard. And then, they will have to reactivate, fly the ship away, and work together to build what we need built. After that, they have to shutdown again and reactivate years later when a suitable planet is found, maneuver the ship through disconnecting a section, reassemble, leave one section behind in orbit, fly off with the rest to find a new planet, and the left behind mechanical start cloning. The others have to deactivate again and years later be ready to do it all over again. I'll need every bit of their memory and it still may not be enough."
"Is it possible," Bakman asks.
"First problem is the mechanical’s case. It will have to be longer than the usual cases if they are to lie down. Paret in my section has been stacking boxes. He believes that the boxes of the top row in each full compartment need to be longer housing unit boxes, maybe the whole top level, and three shorter ones to be last in the doorway. That way you do not loose the last box spaces around and above the doorway. The longer boxes stick out over, touch the wall, and other boxes just stack up in the room to the top of the doorway. That would leave the last top row in each compartment above the doorway needing to be longer boxes, but the problem is how to get out if the room is full. They will be on top in a longer case.”
Maag pauses for a moment to see it anyone has a question. Hearing none he continues. “We cannot tell where or in which direction their head will point. Seriously, I doubt that I can get all three mechanicals in one box and will need three separate boxes. They have to be able to move and turn around if necessary. To cut their way out they will have to carry portable lasers to slice through sides and tops to turn around if necessary, slice through box ends to move forward, and then cut through the wall into the hallway. The material inside can be pushed above and behind them as they cut and work their way out."
"Put a dozen cutter battery packs and two extra cutters in with them to be safe. They have to get out," Bakman orders.
"Should work," Harry agrees.
"Good idea," Bakman adds. Looks around at the group before he adds, "We still haven't solved the memory idea."
"Paret, a bright lad, thinks we can build a series of memory disk units. We program their base memory to plug in a new program unit, a disk, and download the new program before they start on a listed project. For safety sake we send a double tray of reprogramming disks for each mechanical. Each loaded program removes the now unneeded old program, clearing memory space, and then loads a required new memory into that newly cleared space in their memory unit. In other words, when they finish with a task, the next loading of information would override or erase the old section.”
Maag pauses to catch his breathe. “That is the only way he could think to overcome our shortage of memory. They would even be able to go back many times to an already used program disk. Paret thinks he can build all three disk unit-packs no bigger than a small narrow ten or twelve disk wide case. In a lead case Paret wants to put in three extra cases of program disks in each section incase one is damaged so they will still have a backup set.”
Pausing Maag looks around to see if there are any questions before continuing. “Another advantage of using this technology is we can put most of what people know here on earth on disks too. Put three complete disk sets and three viewers in another case to be placed in each section in space. After activation, the mechanicals will take and install the memory units they need from their disk set. Also, when the children are old enough, months to a year, a command will tell them to set up an information disk case for the children and keep a viewer ready to be used by humans."
"Great, Maag, give Paret a book, a bonus," Harry says smiling broadly. “For years I’ve worried about what information to send. Send it all. It’s better to have too much than too little."
Bakman adds to the suggestion by ordering, "Get a team under Allsbrook Wylam the Archivist, promote him to leadership level, pay rate back to our starting date, and have him to start putting a team together to put everything they can find on disks: history, music, art, literature, architecture, education, religions, science, inventions with schematics and/or plans, horticulture, formulas, patents, industrial secrets, animal husbandry, weapons, defense systems, and anything else they have room for . . . even contemporary Middle History free verse poetry."
“Wylam will be busy. I’ll send him a few more people and plan on how to add a couple extra back-up viewers for each section,” Maag promises.
"Woodin, are you ready to report on the automatic pilot and planet sensors," Bakman asks.
With ramrod straight military bearing German Woodin stands, looks the group over, smiles, and then speaks. "The automatic pilot is an easy problem. The ship already has one. We can use it. A suitable for human habitation planet sensor is more complicated but my crew thinks it is possible. They are hard
at work on one as we speak trying to combine into one program dozens of spectrographic analysis software programs. That way, there would be one output to analyze and react to. We are using certain base-line spectrograph readings similar to and within less than ten percent deviation from those taken from outer space of earth. It has to include an alert signal to navigation and an activation signal to the mechanicals when found."
"Good job, German. I want you and Millisen to plot a course for the closest star. Alpha Centauri appears to be single star but is really three stars—Cen A-B-C in the Centarus Constellation.” As Bakman speaks a view-screen fills with a view of three stars and one is dimmer that the other two. “First, aim for Alpha Centauri or Cen A. Next, plot a course for Alpha Centauri B or Cen B. And thirdly, develop the program for a course to Alpha Centauri C, called Proxima Centauri or Cent C. Finally, direct the on board computer to set a course for the ship to steer for the next closest star from Cen C. And, after that, the next closest and the next closest until our navigation program extends seven stars past Cen C.”
“I'm worried about two other flight problems. In time dust gets over everything, and without heat the ship will frost up inside. The only heated area will have to be around the automatic pilot and planet sensor. Even the main motors will be shut down. The heat source will use solar power, battery power, and in the void when battery power is depleted the emergency life support system power unit will periodically power up and recharge batteries.”
“To worry about ship systems is normal but my other main worry is will the deactivated mechanicals power units degrade over time?" Bakman speaks to the group with his face frowning.
Nodding at Bakman’s questions German answers. "We have studied battery degradation and replenishment. Research on mechanicals does not look good for prolonged or even short term freezing. Failure rate goes down to 68 percent for short term and 47 percent for long term, longer than six months. We’re looking at having added to their first program the building of an insulated wall across level one hallway outside of the command center and heat that small space to 5 degrees above freezing. In that space they put their cases and have a heat-tube run from the section that heats the signal and sensor equipment container. Failure rate at that temperature should be negligible, projected to less than two-tenths of a percent, if each mechanical is plugged in and recharged periodically expected maximum service time is 518 years. It is an acceptable time frame.”
Bakman and others nod about that information.
“We will have our mechanical units in cases. In our last stress tests all three reinforced cases were undamaged when dropped from twice a room’s height and that will help. I'll get some of my people to look at the issue of frost and dust inside those cases," Millisen Algrin offers.
"Good. Now, the last issue that Harry and I talked about yesterday was a signal. We finally decided, Maag, that we want our ship to send a signal once each month for ten hours. The signal is to be in old Morse code to make it unmistakably from earth humans. The short signal is sent, wait a long ten count before repeating it in this manner for ten hours. We have not decided on the signal yet, only that it should be short. It will give the people and scientists on earth a way to follow the spaceship, and before long it will become their ship. If we have any chance to take their anger and hatred away from us, away from our project, and away from our crimes it is with people following that signal out into deep space. Also, it is the only way people here on earth years and years from now, long after most or all of us are dead, will have of knowing about the success or failure of our work. It’ll be our children and grandchildren’s only way of knowing too."
Harry nods and smiles and the others also nod. As they think about a signal from space traveling deeper and deeper into the unknown all smile too. Infected with a smiling bug, everyone shakes hands all around and the meeting breaks down into a brainstorming session on some of the new ideas discussed.