The Eye With Which The Universe Beholds Itself (Apollo Quartet) Read online

  The Face on Mars The name given a rock formation in the Cydonia region on Mars. In 1976, the Viking 1 orbiter took a series of photographs of the Martian surface. In image #35A72, scientists spotted a mesa 1.2 miles long which appeared to resemble a humanoid face. Initially dismissed as a “trick of light and shadow”, a second photograph, image #70A13, with a different sun-angle, only heightened the likeness. It was considered sufficiently puzzling to choose Cydonia as the landing site for the Ares 9 mission. Many of the photographs taken by Major Bradley Elliott on the Martian surface remain classified.

  Fermi’s Paradox Named for the physicist Enrico Fermi, who first postulated it in an informal discussion in 1950, the Paradox hypothesises a contradiction between the probability of the existence of alien civilisations and the lack of evidence that such civilisations exist.

  Flyby-Landing Excursion Module (FLEM) Proposed in 1966 by RR Titus of United Aircraft Research Laboratories as a means of getting a manned spacecraft to Mars quickly and cheaply. It was based in part on the flyby missions proposed by the Planetary Joint Action Group, which included members from NASA and NASA planning contractor, Bellcomm. Planetary JAG plans focused primarily on a flyby mission using a free-return trajectory, but Titus calculated that a piloted MM could separate from the flyby spacecraft during the Mars voyage and change course to intersect the planet. A separation 60 days out from Mars would result in a 16-day stay on the Martian surface, or a separation 30 days out would give a 9-day stay on the surface. The MM would then launch, pursue the flyby spacecraft and rendezvous. Titus proposed that a nuclear-thermal rocket weighing as little as 130 tons, with a 5-ton lander, could make the trip. In the event, since research on nuclear rockets had been abandoned, the Ares spacecraft was forced to use existing chemical rockets, and the final design weighed in at 200 tons, with a 16-ton Mars Module.

  Gliese 876 A red dwarf star in the constellation of Aquarius located some 15.3 light years from Earth, and formerly known as Ross 780. In 1983, an exploratory mission to the star by the interstellar spacecraft Robert H Goddard discovered four planets: three Jupiters and a Super-Earth. Since the Super-Earth orbited within the star’s habitable zone, it was deemed a suitable location for a scientific station, and the following year a series of prefabricated modules were flown to the exoplanet and parachuted to its surface.

  James E Webb The second interstellar spacecraft built by the USA, and named for the second administrator of NASA, 1961 to 1968, who was seen as the chief architect of the Apollo programme. It uses the Near-Earth Asteroid 3908 Nyx as its anchoring mass, and made its first interstellar flight in 1988 to Barnard’s Star.

  L5 Space Telescope With the Hubble Space Telescope, launched in late 1986, approaching the end of its usefulness, it was decided its successor should be located at the L5 point alongside Space Station Freedom. Not only would this make it easier to maintain, but also greatly improve its ability to see many more and much older stars and galaxies. Development began in 1993, and the first elements were launched in mid-1998. The telescope, informally known as the L5T, officially went online in early 1999.

  Phaeton Base Earth’s only extrasolar colony, a scientific station on Gliese 876 d, with a population of eighty scientists and support staff. The base comprises a dozen buildings linked by all-weather corridors, a buried nuclear power plant, a launchpad and a rocket assembly building. The base was named for the son of sun god Helios, who drove his father’s chariot and nearly burned the Earth – a reference to Gliese 876 d’s red-lit landscape. The first buildings of Phaeton Base were parachuted from orbit in April 1984, and it has been continually inhabited since that date.

  Project Serpo The codename for a secret programme, based at the S4 facility at Area 51, Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada, which investigated the photographs of the alien disc and its writings, known as the Cydonia Codex, brought back from Mars by Major Bradley E Elliott. Once the writing system had been deciphered, project scientists discovered they had instructions explaining how to manipulate bubbles of quantum spacetime. A working model, powered by antimatter and element 115, was quickly constructed. The complete disappearance of the prototype from its remote underground testing site, as well as a substantial quantity of rock and soil, revealed the true nature of the device: a faster than light engine. Further honing of the theories involved revealed the need for an anchoring mass of at least five gigatonnes. The FTL engine was nicknamed the “Serpo” after the project.

  Quantum Superposition A fundamental principle of quantum mechanics which holds that a physical system, an electron for example, exists in all its theoretically possible states simultaneously. When measured, however, it only gives a result corresponding to one of those possible configurations.

  Robert H Goddard The first interstellar spacecraft built by the US, and named for the American rocket pioneer, 1882 to 1945. The Robert H Goddard uses as its anchoring mass the asteroid 1862 Apollo, and performed its first flight in 1984 to Proxima Centauri.

  S4 Also known as Sector-4, S4 is a facility at Area 51, located near Papoose Lake, a dry lake bed, some 10 miles from Groom Lake. All details regarding S4 are classified.

  Schrödinger’s Cat A thought experiment designed to illustrate what Austrian physicist Erwin Schrödinger saw as a problem with the Copenhagen Interpretation of quantum mechanics. It supposes a cat in a sealed chamber with a radioactive substance and a vial of poison. The radioactive substances has an equal chance of emitting a particle within a set period of time. If a particle is emitted, it triggers a device which releases the poison and so kills the cat. Due to quantum superposition – in this case applied erroneously to the macro level – the cat exists both dead and alive… until it is observed, ie, the sealed chamber is open. The act of observation causes the wave function to collapse and renders the cat either dead or alive, but no longer both.

  Serpo The faster than light engine which allows the Robert H Goddard, James E Webb and Thomas O Paine to travel interstellar distances in short time periods. The first working model was used on the Near-Earth Asteroid 1862 Apollo which thus became the first human interstellar spacecraft, the Robert H Goddard. The Serpo creates a sealed bubble of quantum spacetime about the anchoring mass, and then accelerates the spacetime bubble to speeds greater than the speed of light. Since light within the bubble does not exceed c, general relativity and causality is not violated.

  Skylab After the departure of the Ares 9 mission for Mars in November 1979, NASA decided to keep what had originally been the flyby spacecraft simulator and was now known as the OWS. It was renamed “Skylab” and from 1980 onwards was kept continually manned. In late 1982, Skylab was boosted to L5 by a S-IVB, ostensibly to improve the usefulness of its recently-fitted space telescope and to act as a base of operations for a mission to a Near-Earth Asteroid. Skylab remained in operation while Space Station Freedom was being built, and it was not until 1988 that the real reason for its move to L5 was admitted.

  Space Station Freedom By 1979 and the launch of the Ares 9 mission, the USSR had put six Salyut space stations in orbit. With the discovery of the Serpo engine, and its requirement for a five million ton anchoring mass, the US found it too needed some form of permanently-manned space presence, preferably one with access to Near-Earth Asteroids. In 1982, Skylab was boosted out to the L5 point, and then in the five years following it was used as a base to build a larger and more permanent space station. Space Station Freedom is currently home to eight NASA astronauts on six-month tours of duty.

  Thomas O Paine The third interstellar spacecraft built by the US, and named for the NASA administrator, 1968 to 1981, who was instrumental in seeing the Ares programme to completion. The Thomas O Paine uses as its anchoring mass the conjoined asteroids 1566 Icarus and 1950 DA. It performed its first flight in 1994 to Epsilon Eridani.

  Zond 1 to 3 These three launches were unmanned tests of the Zond mission hardware: the N1 launch vehicle, Soyuz 7K-L3 LOK and LK. They did not leave Low Earth Orbit.

  Zond 4 An unmanned test o
f the Soyuz 7K-L3 LOK, which saw the spacecraft orbit the Moon and return safely to Earth. Launched 2 March 1968.

  Zond 5 A repeat of the Zond 4 flight, but this time the spacecraft contained animal specimens - turtles and insects. They were returned safely to Earth. Launched 15 September 1968.

  Zond 6 A manned test of the Zond spacecraft, with both a Soyuz 7K-L3 Lunniy Orbitalny Korabl and a docked Lunniy Korabl. The mission had been intended to be a world first, putting men in lunar orbit, but Apollo 8 beat the Soviets to it in December 1968. No attempt was made to undock the LK while in orbit about the Moon, and a scheduled EVA to test the procedure by which a cosmonaut transferred from the LOK to the lunar lander was aborted after problems with Filipchenko’s Krechet-94 spacesuit. Crew: Anatoly Vasilyevich Filipchenko and Alexei Stanislavovich Yeliseyev. Launched 21 February 1969.

  Zond 7 The fourth Soviet lunar mission, and the first to land a man on the surface of the Moon, at Mare Fecunditatis. Crew: Alexei Arkhipovich Leonov and Nikolay Nikolayevich Rukavishnikov. Callsigns: Soyuz 7K-L3 LOK Rodina, LK Zarya. Launched 3 July 1969, landed on Moon 7 July 1969. Duration on lunar surface 25h 9m 17s.

  Zond 8 The fifth and last Soviet lunar mission, to Le Monnier, a crater in Mare Serenitatis. The Soviet cosmonauts were military pilots and engineers, not scientists, and unlike the US programme, science had never been an objective for the Soviets in their race to put a man on the Moon. Zond 8 demonstrated that Leonov’s achievement was repeatable and that the USSR had the capability to land someone on the lunar surface on demand. Once that point had been proven, the Soviet space programme turned its attention to space stations in Low Earth Orbit. Crew: Pavel Ivanovich Belyayev and Oleg Grigoryevich Makarov. Callsigns: Soyuz 7K-L3 LOK Ural, LK Znamya. Launched 12 November 1969, landed on Moon 15 November 1969. Duration on lunar surface 23h 56m 41s.

  2159

  From the hilltop, Inge Visser and Peter Overmyer look down on a field of rockets. A circular area of the plain below them, five kilometres in diameter, is filled with boosters held upright by one-shot gantries. Each launch vehicle has two LOX/kerosene stages, and two solid fuel boosters strapped to its sides.

  It has taken ten years to build the two hundred rockets.

  We’ve got five more coming online next week, says Overmyer. His voice is muffled by his breathing mask.

  Visser asks, Is it enough?

  Overmyer nods, and adds, Eight people per module. Should be.

  There are just under two thousand of them on this moon of Iota Draconis b, one hundred and three light years from Earth. Visser and Overmyer were born here, members of the colony’s fourth generation. People have been on this moon for one hundred years, mining the surface for metals, lanthanides and non-metals, and sending it all back to Earth.

  Visser and Overmyer turn from the field of rockets and descend the hill towards the brightly-coloured prefab buildings of the colony. The gas giant this moon orbits sits above the horizon, a brown banded globe too large to cover with a clenched fist. Beyond it, Iota Draconis itself approaches one edge, a disc of roiling red and yellow, close enough for prominences to be visible. It has almost twice the mass of Earth’s Sun, and twelve times the radius. Soon it will disappear behind Iota Draconis b, and eclipse-night will fall. Later, as the moon rotates, and Iota Draconis reappears, it will be true-night. Visser and Overmyer are used to days with two nights. It is all they know.

  They have never been to Earth and will never be allowed to do so. They don’t mind. Neither would be able to cope with Earth’s eight billion population. The thought of so many people scares them in a way their imminent departure does not.

  Despite being born, growing up and entering adulthood on this lifeless moon, it has never really felt like a home. Everything is temporary since everything will be lost when they depart. Much of the colony is automated, the mining equipment all robotic. The fabbers were brought to Iota Draconis b from the previous colony on an exoplanet orbiting Tau Boötis, and they have already been sent ahead to their new home, 79 Ceti, 127 light years from Earth. Overmyer and Visser are quite excited at the prospect of setting up a fresh colony on a new exoplanet.

  In nine months’ time, there will be a great celebration, a week-long party. Afterwards, everyone will work towards the departure. People will be assigned modules and launch dates. A fleet of Serpo cyclers will arrive in orbit and, over a period of weeks, move the entire population to 79 Ceti. Visser and Overmyer will be among the last to leave.

  This is what humanity does now, moves from exoplanet to exoplanet, exploiting each one for an Earth now entering a post-scarcity age. There are twelve such colonies, connected to the Earth—but not to each other—by a fleet of FTL Serpo cyclers, ferrying the raw materials for the industries of humanity’s home world. The colonies hop and skip from lifeless world to lifeless world—all worlds are lifeless—each time moving further and further away from Earth, each time being allowed to stay just a little bit longer on their new home. This is the only way to exploit the riches of the universe, settling worlds and then moving on before the information of their arrival, carried by photons at lightspeed, reaches Earth. They ride the wavefront, trapped within successive quantum states, adrift from the cosmos of the people back in the Solar System.

  This is why they will never meet aliens. Engineered quantum spacetime is the only way to circumvent the speed of light restriction… but it also means they can never interact with the universe observed by Earth.

  Yet they know there is life out there somewhere. They have evidence it exists, and they found it on the first alien world they visited…

  One hundred fifty million miles from Earth.

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  A Space About Books About Space

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  www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/msl/multimedia/gallery-indexEvents.html

  The Project Apollo Image Gallery