LUNAR ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION – 2050
It was the day after Christmas, and Megan McArthur was all excited. This would be her first time in orbit! After a year’s pre-departure training at Unispace Academy in Hawaii, liftoff was just an hour away. She and five other classmates had signed an agreement with the Global Space Trust to become permanent residents on the Moon! After graduation, they all had been granted a month’s leave at their homes. Now split up, the team members would fly from spaceports around the world on the first leg of their long journey to the lunar surface. For Megan that meant a flight from Dublin to New Mexico, USA, and then on to Spaceport America in Upsham. By mid 21st century, trips to the Moon had become commonplace. A sophisticated space transportation system was in place with regularly schedule lunar service. This enabled new residents, contractors, official visitors, and even tourists to go to the Moon if they had visas from the Lunar Infrastructure Development Corporation. People could choose to fly directly to Moon, or by way of an orbiting space station as she was doing.
Going Beyond Earth – December 26, 2049
Megan boarded the spacecraft, knowing it was only the first stage of a reusable system for transporting passengers and cargo to the stopover in lower Earth orbit. She looked forward to a rendezvous with her class on the new Interplanetary Space Station. After takeoff Spaceship Ten’s orbital flight afforded spectacular views of her home planet. Other than short flights on the vomit comet during her training, this was the first time the Irish girl would actually float in microgravity. Her studies in physics, enabled her to understood the operation of the engine that flew her into LEO for docking at ISS2. The latter was quite an improvement over the International Space Station finished back in 2010. Meg appreciated this new design built in a circular form, rotating at a rate that provided a 1/6th gravitational force equal to that on the Moon. McArthur and her buddies would spend several days here to acclimatize them, and to complete their in-flight training and tests. Her companions called the posh station Chinatown because it had been built under China’s leadership.
Upon entering the orbiting hotel, Megan was struck by its ambience and sophistication. She knew that an Asian consortium operated the facility under a GST contract. But she soon discovered that this interplanetary way station was also a storage depot. Weekly there were deliveries to ISS2 of water, fuel, consumables, raw and finished materials, radiation shielding, and all sorts of equipment and parts. Mostl of it was transported the Moon, and occasionally from Earth. This expanded station was almost a colony in itself with human inhabitants of many nationalities. It was a nexus for orbital tourist, scientific, commercial, and industrial activities - a prototype of future orbital cities.
For the most part, robots guided by humans had constructed the station. During construction, a small corps of Chinese taikonauts, equipped with a helmet-like devices, had used their minds to send signals to the machines. After docking at the orbiting hotel, robots welcomed and guided guests to their cubicles, where they would deliver the passengers luggage. Later when Megan entered the spacious lounge, the first teammate she spotted was her buddy, Pedro Raygoza, a Mexican astronaut. He gave her a warm hug, saying: This place is luxurious – it looks like the station in that movie, 2001! It’s almost a floating city with Oriental charm! I had trouble finding our other four class-mates in its vastness. The’re safely here safely, he assured her. In fact, we’ve already made reservations for a New Year’s Eve party in this place’s grand Chinese dining area.. And I will bring my guitar and serenade you!
On the third and last day of their in-flight training, the Class of 2050 got their briefing on the revolutionary “Cycler.” Their GST facilitator explained that a “space tug,” fueled by both liquid oxygen and hydrogen, would take them on the next stage of their journey. This tug will transport you to a Cycler which orbits around the Earth and Moon is in a figure-eight configuration. It enables you to swing around the far side of the Moon on its endless journey around the twin planets.. A visual of this maneuver was then flashed on the instructor’s screen which showed how the half-circuit around the Earth arrived at perigee or lowest point in orbit, and then swings around to apogee or highest point in orbit at the far side of the Moon.
Oleg Alifanov, the Russian cosmonaut who at 32 the oldest member among the six classmates, inquired: I assume with this means minimal use of fuel as this ferry takes us and its cargo to the Moon?
The instructor agreed, adding, Plans are underway to build much larger hotel-like cyclers with sufficient shielding to safely transfer up to a 1000 spacefares or cargo directly to lunar orbit. He continued, In essence, the Global Space Trust is creating a bi-planetary transportation system.
After a pause so they would realize the significance of his statement, their guide noted, But the cycler you will embark on tomorrow will be much smaller than the craft I now project on my screen.
The indoctrination ended with a description of how a mass driver located on Moon will capture their cycler in cis-lunar space. Mass-drivers align the space tug with a landing spot on the lunar surface. Similarly, such mass drivers can also launch spacecraft from the Moon into space, so they can be caught and set on a trajectory back to Earth.
But the new arrivals really looked forward to the next day when they would be aboard that cycler, participating in a ceremony at the half-way point as they crossed the Earth-Moon gravitational boundary. Then each would receive a certificate and emblem. The rite was similar to Neptune ceremony for seafarers crossing the equator on Earth.
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