Virus-72 Hours to Live by Ray Jay Perreault Read Free Book Online

better give them
to me. I'm sure one of these guys snores," chimed in Mary.
    "Ok, you guys, go ahead and strap in and
we'll start going through the final checklists," Joan said as she
gave each of them a goodbye hug and Tom shook their hands. In turn,
each of the launch crew in the control center shook their hands and
patted them on their backs. Aside from each other, it would be the
last human contact they would have for 40 days before they reached
their destination.
    In the early days of supporting the Mars
colony, the trip to the red planet was a tortuous 3-5 months trip,
depending on the position of the planets. Since 2042, the VSIMR
rocket engine was used and its acceleration allowed much higher
speeds and the trip had been shortened to a mere 40 days. The one
drawback, of course, was the nuclear reactor, needed to power the
rocket. In addition to the risks of the reactor power plant, was,
of course, the cost. The corporation was willing to spend the money
to get them there and get them productive, but they weren't as
eager to spend the money bringing them home.
    Of course, the trip could be longer, up to
70 or 80 days, depending on the position of the planets, but 40
days was so much better. It was possible to return from Mars in a
crisis, but the cost was huge.
    The crew needed to be in therapeutic
hypothermia for the duration of the trip. By lowering the body
temperature by 6 degrees, and with an induced sleep, astronauts
could sleep up to 21 days. On a typical trip, the crew would break
the sleep/work cycles up so each of them would have a one-week work
cycle along with a 3-week sleep cycle.
    After the vehicle crew had closed the hatch,
it took about half an hour to go through each of the systems and
prep for separation. The Oasis mission computer or OMC controlled
the separation. RD33A the vessel's onboard computer took over after
it was separated from the station. The separation was monitored
through the critical phase by the crew in the docking port, the
Oasis controller in the central control and the crew onboard the
ship. One of Tom's pilots would be in a space tug at a safe
distance to provide aid if something happened. They would remain on
call until the departing vessel was greater than 100 meters from
Oasis.
    "RD33A you're clear to separate from Oasis.
Docking port Beta you're cleared to release them after RD33A
acknowledges the command," the station director in the control
center said.
    "Roger Oasis," said John Silver.
    "Acknowledged," announced the RD33A flight
computer.
    Joan and Tom watched as RD33A slowly moved
away from the station docking port. It wasn't violent just a gentle
movement. Once the separation occurred the station director said,
"I show the separation was clean and you're now cleared to
maneuver, the onboard computer is cleared to execute the remainder
of the separation procedure."
    "Roger I show a clean separation also and
we're clear to allow RD33A to maneuver," said John.
    "Acknowledged," said the RD33A onboard
computer.
    Once RD33A was more than 3 meters away the
onboard computer, began firing the rotation thrusters and the ship
slowed its rotation. From those looking out of the docking port,
the ship appeared to start rotating. The same rotation appeared to
those inside the vessel although it was decelerating to zero
rotation. RD33A would maneuver the supply ship until it was more
than 15 meters. At that point, the thrusters stabilized it and its
rotation was fixed with respect to their orbital path
    RD33A's separation occurred with the launch
trajectory along the orbit path, which gave the separating craft a
couple of feet/sec additional velocity when compared with Oasis.
Due to the slight difference in speed, it would be easier for them
to move faster and forward to a slightly higher orbit. When they
reached their acceleration orbit, they could fire their rockets and
continue accelerating until they were able to reach escape velocity
for their trip to the red planet. The onboard