A Gift for Earth, Part 1
The Past
Up to the early 15th Century A.D., Chinese technology led the world. Fleets of 1500 ton "treasure ships", each able to carry 500 men, sailed the Pacific Ocean to the California coast and South America. They sailed around Southeast Asia to Bengal, crossed the Indian Ocean to Ceylon, India, and the Middle East. In 1420 they sailed down the east coast of Africa, 50 years before the Portuguese sailed down its west coast.
China made its last great voyage between the years of 1431 and 1433. In 1436, when a new Emperor came to the throne, an edict was issued that forbade the building of ships for overseas voyages. Retreating into isolation, China lost its leadership in technology, and began down a path that would lead to its eventual downfall and complete subjugation by the western world four centuries later.
Years behind, and in complete ignorance of the Chinese achievements, Portugal and Spain also began to develop this enabling technology of ocean crossing ships. While the European vessels were much smaller, initially not as refined, and nowhere near as grandiose as the Chinese ships, they were much more affordable, and, unlike the Chinese, they didn't stop. It was the wealth brought home by these vessels that made these two countries the world powers of their day and led to their dividing the world between them. It was this era and this technology that led to the spread of western civilization around the world.
The Future
Taking off from the Los Angeles International Spaceport located to the northeast of the city in the desert, the daily flight to the lower terminus of the Earth Orbiting Elevator, otherwise known as Skyhook, was on its way. Climbing out over the American Southwest I tried as always to watch the rapidly changing always spectular views on both the forward and aft pointing view screens at the same time. An impossibility I supose, but then so is trying to watch only one of them. The time it takes to match speed with the "hook" just isn't long enough to enjoy the view.
Skyhook is at the lower end of a 1100 mile long cable that hangs down from Midpoint Station. Midpoint Station orbits the Earth at an altitude of 1200 miles. Since the necessary orbital velocity for an object in orbit about the Earth decreases as its altitude increases, Skyhook has the reduced velocity advantage of the Midpoint Station's higher orbital altitude while at the same time being only 100 miles above the surface of the Earth. The end result is that a Spaceplane taking of from the Earth only has to accelerate to 70% of the normally needed speed for orbit in order to make a rendezvous at Skyhook. That 30% reduction in velocity requirement was all that was necessary to make affordable to the individual space flight a reality.
While the basic principles that govern the operation of the Earth Orbitin Elevator haven't changed since it first began operations in 2012, the system itself has been growing and refining itself almost daily ever since. Already it was possible to see differences from my last trip of less than a year ago on the forward view screen. That bright spot just above the arrester cable lights must be the new view window on the elevator that would take us and the cargo up the cable to Midpoint Station. Billed as the "World's Tallest Outside Elevator Ride", I've heard that the view from that window was good enough to give an experienced mountain climber a thrill.
Which reminds me of why I am here. I've been sent to cover the arrival of the so-called Martian Fossils, the first ones to be brought back to Earth for detailed examination. While all the pictures and data sent to Earth appears to support the claims of the Martian archaeologists, there doesn't seem to be a single sicentist on Earth who is willing to support those claims without examining the fossils firsthand for themselves. It appears that all the past false alarms and pranks that have come out of the colonies about alien life forms, bug-eyed monsters, and derelict alien spacecraft have made everyone extremely cautious. This story seems to be different though, and it sends chills down my back everytime I think about it.
As usual, the docking manuever at Skyhook was fun. I really like it when the payload bay doors are opened and I get to look out the windows directly. I had a seat at the front of the cabin this flight so I was able to get a really good look at the Earth and the entire docking procedure without the wing blocking too much of the view. Also, the feeling of being in one half gravity again at Skyhook always feels good to me. It makes me feel young!
Since this was to be my first trip up the cable on the new view lounge elevator, I didn't wait around for the usual fun of watching the newcomers getting adjusted to the low gravity, but instead rushed to get a good seat. Its a long ride up the cable to Midpoint Station and I wanted the best seat in the house.
I was coming up a couple of days early on this trip, in part to make sure I could find a place to stay, but also to get a feel for what the locals were thinking. They tend to avoid newcomers who haven't adjusted to the low gravity, a responce that many tourists interpret as elitism but in reality is only self-protection from the tender stomachs of the newly arrived. As a result, as soon as the elevator arrived at the Midpoint Station, I checked into my room and immediately headed for the zero-gravity jumprooms at the gym. Those are the rooms where all the walls are padded and you workout by bouncing off the walls. A good workout in one of those rooms, along with not eating on the elevator on the way up from Skyhook, is the best way I've found to get my zero gravity legs back in a hurry.
One of the men I was sharing the jumproom with was exceptionally good at it, a good indicator for spotting people who live and work here. So while we were both waiting our next turn, I started up a conversation with him. His name was Bob, turned out he was part of a group who called themselves the Vagabonds. With a current membership of a little over two hundred people, some couples the rest mixed singles, they were pooling all their spare time and money towards the building and outfitting of a spaceship at the L-5 shipyard. Not a little one like the homebuilts you read about for going to the Moon, but a real full-fledged spaceship, big enough to go out to the Belt and live in while they hollow out and terraform one of the asteroids. Most of the Vagabonds are people who live and work up here on either the Moon, the L-5 station, or on the Earth Orbiting Elevator, and who all feel the need to keep pushing outward.
"The siren's call to the star filled night. Ruby, amber, and sapphire suns. Planets with rings and other strange things," was how he described it. "Room to raise a family without all the problems of Earth. Room to grow."
When I told him about my assignment, he invited me to join him and some friends for a get together they were having the following evening up at Gateway. He told me that one member of their group had a pretty decent sized telescope while another was the crane operator for spacecraft arriving at Midpoint Station. The cranes were already equiped with high resolution Zoom video cameras and he was sure that between the telescope and the crane cameras, that he could arrange for some very spectacular footage for a small donation to their project.
As I was here to record an historic event, it also seemed proper that I finally stop and visit the Space Museum they have at Midpoint Station. I've rushed by it so many times in the past on my way to catch the next Orbital Transfer Vehicle, the next interview, the next whatever, that not stopping had become a habit. Somehow, not seeing it this time just didn't feel right.
The place had quite an interesting collection. There was an old Surveyor spacecraft from back before the first manned Lunar landing, and the upper stage from a Lunar Lander. According to the plaque it was named "Orion", and had been left in orbit around the Moon by the crew of Apollo 16 back in 1972. There was also a large collection of old communications satellites that had once been in geostationary orbit. Removed as navigation hazards, not worth the trouble to ship home, they ended up here.
The best part of the museum had to do with the building and initial operational testing of the original Earth Orbiting Elevator system. There were pictures and video tapes showing the various steps involved in its construction along with a video tape of the first Spaceplane performing the first in-flight payload transfer at Skyhook. There was also a short video tape that explained the basic principles on how the Earth pointing lower half of the cable could catch a Spaceplane at the top of its sub-orbital ballistic arc and lift it the rest of the way into orbit, and how the outward pointing half of the cable could fling a spaceship into a higher orbit or away from Earth altogether. One fact that really surprised me was that the entire initial Earth Orbiting Elevator system, including the crew stations, power system, ion propulsion system, elevator, docking hooks and the upper and lower cables, weighed only 750 metric tons. An amount equal to only one fourth of the liftoff weight of the first manned Moon rocket. That doesn't seem like very much to me when you consider the impact that affordable to the individual space flight has had on the world.
There were quite a few other wings to the museum also. One covered the building of the first Lunar Base at the South Pole of the Moon along with the first Mass Driver at the Lunar equator and the initial L-5 Processing Facility/Shipyard. Another that covered the building of the Mars Orbiting Elevator system. There was also a section on the building of the unmanned solar sail powered cargo vessels that were used to send food, supplies, building materials and return fuel to the outer planets in advance of the first manned missions. The spaceship used for the first manned Mars expedition is here, along with the first manned spacecraft to return to the Moon after the Apollo missions. I also saw a sign pointing to a section on "Energy for Earth: Satellite Solar Power Stations, Space Mirrors, and Helium 3 from the Moon." Unfortunately, I had to leave before I could see it all. It was time to catch the next elevator up to Gateway to meet with Bob and the other Vagabonds.
It turned out to be a great side trip. In addition to making arrangements for a video tape that would show the aerobrake return of the S.S. Mars Explorer as it passes through the Earth's atmosphere and its arrival at the Midpoint Station with its load of passengers, general cargo and the fossilized Martian diatoms, I was invited on a tour of the spacecraft launching facilities at Gateway.
Gateway is where the spacecraft heading for other parts of the Solar System leave from. Departing from Gateway is similar in principle to a Spaceplane arriving at Skyhook only backwards. For the same reason that Skyhook is traveling at less then orbital velocity at its altitude due to being closer to the Earth then Midpoint Station, Gateway which is at a higher altitude then Midpoint Station, is moving at faster then orbital velocity for its altitude. The end result is that a spacecraft departing from Gateway is already traveling at Earth escape velocity without having to use any of its onboard supply of propellant.
As it turned out the monthly Lunar bound cargo spacecraft was at Gateway being prepared for its next flight in the main pressurized hanagar and I had a chance to walk through it. It was surprizing how small it was.
Back at Midpoint Station, the S.S. Mars Explorer arrived on schedule and I got some great shots of its arrival. Along with the usual politicans, I got a chance to interview the two radiologists who performed the initial tests here at the station that appeared to confirm the age of the fossils. While they seemed pretty convinced that the samples were real and not part of some elaborate hoax, they still wounldn't commit themselves to such a statement until they had a chance to complete some additional tests down on Earth.
After sending an encoded copy of my report down to the home office, I also got approval to stay over and do an in-depth human interest story on the Vagabonds. Bob said he would see if he could arrange a ride for me out to the Moon and back on one of their scout ships for another donation if I was interested. I also think he's looking me over as a potential new menber. Who know, the company might like it: the only news organization in the world with a full time reporter in the heavens. As soon as the asteroid has been made habitable and they start making trading flights to the other colonies, I could keep tabs on all the outer planets. All the news that is fit to print from the final frontier, and a lot of news that will grow to be. I could even end up starting my own news service.