Brandon Morris - The Enceladus Mission - Hard Science Fiction

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AI – Artificial Intelligence

API – Application Program Interface; Acoustic Properties Instrument

ASCAN – AStronaut CANdidate

AU – Astronomical Unit (the distance from the Earth to the sun)

BIOS – Basic Input/Output System

C&DH – Command & Data Handling

CapCom – Capsule Communicator

Cas – CRISPR-associated system

CELSS – Closed Ecological Life Support System

CIA – (U.S.) Central Intelligence Agency

COAS – Crewman Optical Alignment Site

Comms – Communiques

CRISPR – Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats

DEC PDP-11 – Digital Equipment Corporation Programmable Data Processor-11

DFD – Direct Fusion Drive

DISR – Descent Imager / Spectral Radiometer

DNA – DeoxriboNeucleic Acid

DoD – (U.S.) Department of Defense

DPS – Data Processing Systems specialist (known as Dipsy)

DSN – Deep Space Network

ECDA – Enhanced Cosmic Dust Analyzer

EECOM – Electrical, Environmental, COnsumables, and Mechanical

EGIL – Electrical, General Instrumentation, and Lighting

EJSM – Europa Jupiter System Mission

ELF – Enceladus Life Finder

EMU – Extravehicular Mobility Unit

ESA – European Space Agency

EVA – ExtraVehicular Activity

F1 – Function 1 (Help function on computer keyboards)

FAST – (Chinese) Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope

FAO – Flight Activities Office

FCR – Flight Control Room

FD – Flight Director

FIDO – FlIght Dynamics Officer

Fortran – FORmula TRANslation

g – g-force (gravitational force)

GBI – Green Bank Interferometer

GNC – Guidance, Navigation, and Control system

HAI – High-Altitude Indoctrination device

HASI – Huygens Atmospheric Structure Instrument

HP – HorsePower

HUT – Hard Upper Torso

IAU – International Astronomical Union

ILSE – International Life Search Expedition

INCO – INstrumentation and Communication Officer

IR – InfraRed

ISS-NG – International Space Station-Next Generation

IT – Information Technology

IVO – Io Volcano Explorer

JAXA – Japan Aerospace eXploration Agency

JET – Journey to Enceladus and Titan

JPL – Jet Propulsion Laboratory

JSC – Johnson Space Center

JUICE – JUpiter ICy moons Explorer

LCD – Liquid Crystal Display

LCVG – Liquid Cooling and Ventilation Garment

LEA – Launch, Entry, Abort spacesuit

LIFE – Life Investigation For Enceladus

LTA – Lower Torso Assembly

MAG – Maximum Absorbency Garment

MCC – Mission Control Center

MIT – Massachusetts Institute of Technology

MOM – Mission Operations Manager

MPa – MegaPascal

MPD – MagnetoPlasmadynamic Drive

MSDD – Multi-station Spatial Disorientation Device

NSA – National Security Agency

NASA – National Aeronautics and Space Administration

NEA – Near Earth Asteroids

PAO – Public Affairs Office

PC – Personal Computer

PE-UHMW – PolyEthylene-Ultra High Molecular Weight

PER – fluid PERmittivity sensor

PI – Principal Investigator

Prop – Propulsion

PSS – Princeton Satellite Systems

RCS – Reaction Control System

REF – REFractive index sensor

RNA – RiboNeucleic Acid

RTG – Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator

SAFER – Simplified Aid For EVA Rescue

SIRI – Speech Interpretation and Recognition Interface

SFTP – SSH (Secure Socket sHell) File Transfer Protocol

SSP – Surface Science Package

SSR – Solid-State Recorder

TandEM – Titan and Enceladus Mission

TiME – TItan Mare Explorer

TNO – Trans-Neptunian Object

TSSM – Titan Saturn System Mission

UTC –Universal Time Coordinated

Valkyrie – Very deep Autonomous Laser-powered Kilowatt-class Yo-yoing Robotic Ice Explorer

VASIMR – VAriable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket

VR – Virtual Reality

WHC – Waste Hygiene Compartment

Author’s note: It is assumed that by the time the events of this novel take place, the United States will have joined the rest of the world and will be using the International System of Units, the modern form of the metric system.

Length:

centimeter = 0.39 inches

meter = 1.09 yards, or 3.28 feet

kilometer = 1093.61 yards, or 0.62 miles

Area:

square centimeter = 0.16 square inches

square meter = 1.20 square yards

square kilometer = 0.39 square miles

Weight:

gram = 0.04 ounces

kilogram = 35.27 ounces, or 2.20 pounds

Volume:

liter = 1.06 quarts, or 0.26 gallons

cubic meter = 35.31 cubic feet, or 1.31 cubic yards

Temperature:

To convert Celsius to Fahrenheit, multiply by 1.8 and then add 32

Huygens awoke at 04:41 a.m. All three preprogrammed timers punctually activated the probe named after the Dutch astronomer Christiaan Huygens. Its main computer ran the test program. The sensors were in working order. Now the scientific instruments were triggered, step by step. First diagnosis—it was in free fall. Everything was going according to plan.

Twenty days ago, a spring mechanism had separated it from the Cassini probe, its ride that had brought it to the ringed planet Saturn over the course of seven years—almost two billion kilometers, though Huygens had noticed little about this long journey. Data packages had been sent from Earth on 16 occasions to run health checks.

Huygens was racing toward Titan at 17 times the speed of sound. No piece of technology made by humans had yet landed on this moon, which resembled the moon of Earth like no other object in the solar system, yet was also so very different from it. The control software of Huygens was prepared for all kinds of surprises, because its programmers did not know much about Titan when the probe was launched.

The countdown continued. The probe was still in freefall toward its destination, which was located somewhere south of the equator. Four hours had gone by when the sensors reported the first particles of the atmosphere hitting its heat shield. The air rapidly became denser. Friction heated the cone-shaped heat shield at its bottom, and at the same time it decelerated the probe, within four minutes, to just above the speed of sound on earth. The pressure sensors transmitted a signal to the main computer. A charge was triggered, and the controlled explosion released the main parachute. At first, Huygens fell blindly, but 30 seconds later the probe moved slowly enough to blast off the no-longer-needed heat shield. Now the instruments started their work, until a warning message reached the computer—one of the radio modules had failed because a person on Earth had forgotten to send the activation command. There was no time for calling back. On Earth, it would be several hours before anyone noticed what had happened. The automatic system decided to continue its mission.