2024-2120 by Russell Fine

Author:Russell Fine [Fine, Russell]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: ebook, QuarkXPress, epub
Publisher: Burning Willow Press, LLC
Published: 2018-04-20T22:00:00+00:00

THE QUICK TRIP TO GANYMEDE

February 2078 to May 2078

By mid-February 2078, the new engine had been installed on the Ganymede Express. It was now the fastest passenger spaceship ever built. The static tests were perfect, as was the Earth orbit test. Terry and Mark both returned to the space station to begin their training by the third week of February, and after two weeks they were ready for their first test flight. They were going to duplicate the Earth orbit test. That was scheduled for March 1.

Terry and Mark were a little nervous. Until now the fastest anybody had ever traveled was one hundred thousand miles per hour. They were going to be moving at three million six hundred thousand miles per hour. At that speed, there was no room for error. They left the space station and moved into the same fifty-thousand- mile orbit that had been used before. While moving the ship into orbit, they kept the speed at a modest thirty thousand miles per hour. Once the ship was in orbit, Terry increased the acceleration to 1.25 g’s. Terry and Mark were pushed back against their seats. It was a little uncomfortable, but after half an hour they had adapted to it. They both thought it was more comfortable than being weightless. This rate of acceleration would continue for another thirty hours. Then the engine would cut out and they would be weightless and uncomfortable again. The ship, Terry, and Mark all performed flawlessly. After five days they began the thirty-hour deceleration process. When the ship slowed to thirty thousand miles per hour they halted the deceleration, moved out of orbit, and returned to the space station.

While the Ganymede Express was being tested, the passengers who were going to Ganymede were told about the new engine, and that the trip would take less than two weeks, they were thrilled. A few of them had been to Mars, but most were space flight novices. None of them were concerned about the thirty hours at 1.25 g’s. During their preflight training at NASA, each of them had been subjected to 4 g’s for a few seconds, and 2 g’s for ten minutes, so the acceleration wasn’t considered a problem. They were all brought up to the space station a week before departure for training and additional medical testing.

The Ganymede Express left for its flight on March 12. For the first half hour, the acceleration was kept to .2 g’s. Terry announced that everyone should be seated because in five minutes the acceleration would increase to 1.25 g’s. After fifteen minutes at full acceleration, Terry announced that people could leave their seats but they should use some caution when moving around the ship because of the increased gravity. Thirty hours later Terry again asked everybody to be seated because he was shutting off the engines and they would be weightless for three days. At that time the deceleration process would begin.

Right on schedule, they began slowing down the ship, and

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