Native Son
New member
- Joined
- Apr 17, 2008
- Messages
- 86
- Reaction score
- 0
- Points
- 0
The year is 2120. Mankind first set their feet upon the red Martian soil almost a complete century ago. Space commercialization has leaped past government space agencies and new technology is born everyday. The price of renting a room at the resort on the Equatorial Space Elevator for a week now costs less than a hydrogen powered car. Space stations vary depending on their purpose. Repair stations are along popular routes. Fuel tanks are springing up in many orbits, reminiscent of long lines at the pump a century ago.
Mars has begun to show the changes of terraforming. Plants are thriving in the rich carbon dioxide environment. Seas of water, though still toxic, are growing. The temperature is rising and so will the pressure in due time.
The global economy is being spoiled with the new space boom. Business are established to supply the needs and wants of the new space generation. Wars are less common as people are too busy collecting their revenue than to mind anyone else.
The new Golden Age has begun.
--------------------------------------------------------
Pilot Jon Cirrus is the corporate pilot for Mars Strategic Resorts, Inc, a tourism company that owns 15% of all tourism industry on Mars. His occupation is to fly the executive board to anywhere needed at anytime. He is payed well and enjoys the dream of flying the next generation private aircraft, the DG-XR1.
Mars Strategic Resorts uses their own private spaceport, Ascension Island, as their fixed base of operations. Located near the equator, spacecraft take full of advantage of the Earth's rotation to boost themselves into space.
John Cirrus was called up this morning. "Pack your bags" was the message and John knew where he was going; Mars, the new frontier. Knowing any trip to Mars would be a long stay he packed only a few clothes and knew the company would pay for new outfits when they landed on the New Planet.
John walked out of his apartment located on Ascension Island and took a quick ride with the ground crew to his baby...XR1. The aircraft has already been towed to the runway and pre-flighted. John climbs into his cockpit and makes an interior check to make sure his guests are equipped with the finest food and delicacies to make their trip as comfortable as possible. The trip to a rendezvous station could be as much as 24 hours long, and John had to make sure the guests wouldn't notice or pretend not to notice the passing time.
Everything seemed to be in good order as usual and John started the APU. As he was going through the rest of checklists, a black limousine drove up, and out stepped the four executives, "suits" as the name goes but these men were in casual attire. They won't change until they arrive at BigWheel station.
They boarded and strapped in. Like any launch, the ride could get bumpy, but this was why John was hired. To make the best of it, and give them the smoothest ride.
Ready for Takeoff
John called up the tower. "Alpha Tower, X-Ray Romeo 1 on the active with information Whiskey, ready for departure to Bravo India Golf station."
"X-Ray Romeo 1, cleared to Bravo India Golf as filed, cleared for takeoff and proceed on course after reaching one zero thousand. Departure frequency on 125.45."
"Cleared for takeoff, proceed on course, departure 125.45 X-Ray Romeo 1".
After the usual conversation to the ATC, John thru in full throttle. The engines behind John roared as the spacecraft quickly accelerated down the runway. John knew his passengers wouldn't mind the force as they would like to have the satisfaction of experiencing the aircraft they bought and know they got their money's worth.
After John climbed to 10,000', he turned to heading 040. He smoothly brought in the throttle again, and pitched to 80 degrees. His goal was an altitude of 20 km before he leveled off again to gain speed. Passing Mach 1 in the climb, he slowly leveled off to level attitude and accelerated to Mach 3. Looking at the dynamic pressure, he slowly throttle back the main engines and engaged the scram engines. The scram engines were a great addition to the DG and made the ascent comfortable. The scram engines accelerated the aircraft to Mach 8 where they were at about peak efficiency.
Scram Ascent
After Mach 8, the efficiency started to drop but this was normal. The aircraft slowly climbed 60km and at Mach 17, the scram fuel ran dry, and John engaged the main engines again. He pitched for a desired apogee of 250 km and then reached MECO.
MAIN ENGINE ASCENT
Weightlessness took over. It was only ten minutes to apogee before John had to accelerate again to raise his perigee, but the moment was still enjoyable as John finally embraced that familiar feeling he was longing for a week now.
Deploying the Radiator during FreeFall
John cleaned up his orbit, and told everyone to relax and unbuckle their belts. Rendezvous would not take place for another twenty hours as the XR-1 drifted toward to catch up with BIGWheel Station.
The familiar Face of Earth
Twenty Hours Later....
After eavesdropping on swarms of business conversations and enjoying silence as the suits slept, John performed his rendezvous maneuvers and brought rendezvous 1 into his sights.
Called BigWheel for a Reason
BigWheel is massive. At about 15 km wide, she is visible to the naked eye at the Earth's surface. Hosting a large city under artificial gravity, she is one of the main locations in Earth's orbit. She held a city complete with suburbs and rivers. You could see the highways and bridges on her outer ring. A perfect artificial earth. Developed by the greenists for the greenist. Amazing.
Docking was tricky as pilots had to dodge the swinging support structures as they maneuvered to their approach.
Entering the Vicinity
John called up the appropriate frequency and they directed him to the number 13 dock. "EXERCISE EXTREME CAUTION". No, really? Those structures would only smash the XR-1 into bits.
John did the timing and math and proceeded at a certain velocity to clear the obstacles and had his dock in sight.
EXTREME CAUTION!
On Approach
During approach, John noticed the different spacecraft also docked. The magnificent O2 Space Transport was humongous upclose, even compared to the scale of the station. This cargo transport was the big truck of space.
3.2.1.Contact. Docking completed. Hatches open. External cooling on. A nice trip, John noted. He said a temporary goodbye to his passengers as they would be with him on the trip to Mars.
Helios in the Background
TOO BE CONTINUED...
After Mach 8, the efficiency started to drop but this was normal. The aircraft slowly climbed 60km and at Mach 17, the scram fuel ran dry, and John engaged the main engines again. He pitched for a desired apogee of 250 km and then reached MECO.
MAIN ENGINE ASCENT
Weightlessness took over. It was only ten minutes to apogee before John had to accelerate again to raise his perigee, but the moment was still enjoyable as John finally embraced that familiar feeling he was longing for a week now.
Deploying the Radiator during FreeFall
John cleaned up his orbit, and told everyone to relax and unbuckle their belts. Rendezvous would not take place for another twenty hours as the XR-1 drifted toward to catch up with BIGWheel Station.
The familiar Face of Earth
Twenty Hours Later....
After eavesdropping on swarms of business conversations and enjoying silence as the suits slept, John performed his rendezvous maneuvers and brought rendezvous 1 into his sights.
Called BigWheel for a Reason
BigWheel is massive. At about 15 km wide, she is visible to the naked eye at the Earth's surface. Hosting a large city under artificial gravity, she is one of the main locations in Earth's orbit. She held a city complete with suburbs and rivers. You could see the highways and bridges on her outer ring. A perfect artificial earth. Developed by the greenists for the greenist. Amazing.
Docking was tricky as pilots had to dodge the swinging support structures as they maneuvered to their approach.
Entering the Vicinity
John called up the appropriate frequency and they directed him to the number 13 dock. "EXERCISE EXTREME CAUTION". No, really? Those structures would only smash the XR-1 into bits.
John did the timing and math and proceeded at a certain velocity to clear the obstacles and had his dock in sight.
EXTREME CAUTION!
On Approach
During approach, John noticed the different spacecraft also docked. The magnificent O2 Space Transport was humongous upclose, even compared to the scale of the station. This cargo transport was the big truck of space.
3.2.1.Contact. Docking completed. Hatches open. External cooling on. A nice trip, John noted. He said a temporary goodbye to his passengers as they would be with him on the trip to Mars.
Helios in the Background
TOO BE CONTINUED...
