Chapter One
Mission Commander Jason Strong stared at the damaged lunar lander with a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach. His best friend and copilot Greg Johnson was standing next to him. They both wore cumbersome white spacesuits suited to the lunar environment. All Jason could hear was Greg’s heavy breathing coming over the suit radio. He was also having a hard time keeping his own breathing steady. The landing had been a disaster. There were no backup plans for what had happened. They were stranded on the moon with no way home.
“Damn!” Greg finally said in an unsteady voice. “We’re really screwed now. How could this happen?”
Both men were staring at their lunar lander, which was lying on its side at the edge of a small crater. The crater was only four to six feet deep, but that had been enough for one of the lander’s support struts to become unstable and for the lander to topple over.
“I don’t see any way to set it back up,” commented Jason thinking about what they needed to do and the equipment they had available to them. “We never considered this scenario.”
“How about the mechanical arm on the rover?” asked Greg sounding desperate. “Could we use it to set the lander back up?”
He had a wife and infant son back home. He didn’t want his wife to have to raise their son by herself. He could just imagine how she was feeling. There had been no contact with Mission Control for over twelve hours. Down on Earth, they would know something had gone terribly wrong. He could imagine the people in Mission Control frantically trying to contact them and only getting silence back in return. They had lost all contact with Mission Control just a few minutes into their descent.
“Not strong enough,” replied Jason shaking his head. “The lander just weighs too much. Even in the lighter lunar gravity it’s too much for the mechanical arm on the rover.”
“Then we’re going to die here,” responded Greg glumly. He walked over to the lander in a shuffling gate and put his white gloved hand against the small American flag on the side of the lander. It had been his lifelong dream to travel to the moon. “We’re the first manned mission to the moon in decades and we crashed. It will be years before there is another.”
Jason walked over to stand next to Greg. He reached out and put his hand on his friend’s shoulder. The open hatch to the lander was just above them. They were fortunate the hatch had remained unblocked or they would have been trapped inside. “Any chance of getting the radio working?”
“The antennas are crushed,” replied Greg pointing toward the front of the lander, which was leaning against a large dark boulder. The boulder had put a sizable dent in the side of the lander. They were fortunate it hadn’t penetrated the hull. “Not only that, but that mysterious interference we detected on our descent will screw up any radio signal we try to transmit.”
“That damn interference shut down our computers,’’ spoke Jason recalling the harrowing descent when most of the lander’s systems had suddenly shut down.
It had been all he could do to stabilize the lander and finish the descent to the surface. Without the advanced LIDAR ranging system on line and computers, they had to resort to old fashion radar. Unfortunately, the radar system was intermittent due to the powerful interference coming from the moon. Greg had to look out the lander’s viewports to guide Jason down the last several hundred feet. Because they couldn’t see or detect what was directly below them, they had crashed in the small crater.
Jason was silent for a moment as he weighed their options. None were good. “We have enough air in the lander to last several weeks; if we can get power to the recycler our oxygen supply will last for several months.”
“The batteries are fully charged and the emergency fuel cells are intact,” responded Greg sounding slightly calmer. He had checked
Mission Commander Jason Strong stared at the damaged lunar lander with a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach. His best friend and copilot Greg Johnson was standing next to him. They both wore cumbersome white spacesuits suited to the lunar environment. All Jason could hear was Greg’s heavy breathing coming over the suit radio. He was also having a hard time keeping his own breathing steady. The landing had been a disaster. There were no backup plans for what had happened. They were stranded on the moon with no way home.
“Damn!” Greg finally said in an unsteady voice. “We’re really screwed now. How could this happen?”
Both men were staring at their lunar lander, which was lying on its side at the edge of a small crater. The crater was only four to six feet deep, but that had been enough for one of the lander’s support struts to become unstable and for the lander to topple over.
“I don’t see any way to set it back up,” commented Jason thinking about what they needed to do and the equipment they had available to them. “We never considered this scenario.”
“How about the mechanical arm on the rover?” asked Greg sounding desperate. “Could we use it to set the lander back up?”
He had a wife and infant son back home. He didn’t want his wife to have to raise their son by herself. He could just imagine how she was feeling. There had been no contact with Mission Control for over twelve hours. Down on Earth, they would know something had gone terribly wrong. He could imagine the people in Mission Control frantically trying to contact them and only getting silence back in return. They had lost all contact with Mission Control just a few minutes into their descent.
“Not strong enough,” replied Jason shaking his head. “The lander just weighs too much. Even in the lighter lunar gravity it’s too much for the mechanical arm on the rover.”
“Then we’re going to die here,” responded Greg glumly. He walked over to the lander in a shuffling gate and put his white gloved hand against the small American flag on the side of the lander. It had been his lifelong dream to travel to the moon. “We’re the first manned mission to the moon in decades and we crashed. It will be years before there is another.”
Jason walked over to stand next to Greg. He reached out and put his hand on his friend’s shoulder. The open hatch to the lander was just above them. They were fortunate the hatch had remained unblocked or they would have been trapped inside. “Any chance of getting the radio working?”
“The antennas are crushed,” replied Greg pointing toward the front of the lander, which was leaning against a large dark boulder. The boulder had put a sizable dent in the side of the lander. They were fortunate it hadn’t penetrated the hull. “Not only that, but that mysterious interference we detected on our descent will screw up any radio signal we try to transmit.”
“That damn interference shut down our computers,’’ spoke Jason recalling the harrowing descent when most of the lander’s systems had suddenly shut down.
It had been all he could do to stabilize the lander and finish the descent to the surface. Without the advanced LIDAR ranging system on line and computers, they had to resort to old fashion radar. Unfortunately, the radar system was intermittent due to the powerful interference coming from the moon. Greg had to look out the lander’s viewports to guide Jason down the last several hundred feet. Because they couldn’t see or detect what was directly below them, they had crashed in the small crater.
Jason was silent for a moment as he weighed their options. None were good. “We have enough air in the lander to last several weeks; if we can get power to the recycler our oxygen supply will last for several months.”
“The batteries are fully charged and the emergency fuel cells are intact,” responded Greg sounding slightly calmer. He had checked
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