Martian Summer by Andrew Kessler

Author:Andrew Kessler
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
Publisher: Open Road Media
Published: 2010-06-15T04:30:00+00:00

IN THE RA OFFICE, ASHITEY MINDLESSLY CLICKS THE “REFRESH” BUTTON on his computer screen.

“What’s taking so long to upload the images?” he asks no one in particular. Ashitey wants to know if they successfully delivered the sample left in the scoop to the wet chemistry lab, WCL. He’s clicking refresh in the hopes that somehow he can will the images he is waiting for into the SOC. Not that they’d admit it, but I think they were personally offended that the sample they collected proved the source of this controversy.

“We worked really hard to get that sample,” Joseph Carsten says.

“They wanted us to pick up 20 cc’s!” Ashitey says in his most vexed voice. Although even at his most vexed, he has a calm, enlightened demeanor.

“That’s like a couple of soup spoons. We’ve never even tested that in the PIT,” Joseph says. “I am amazed that we did it. I couldn’t believe we could pick that up. We got 15 cc. I didn’t think we would get it. It was a great sample. Then, of course, the President called.” That’s Joseph’s interpretation of how NASA intervened.

“We stayed all night working on that! Then they just held it. I’m glad they used it for something,” Joseph continues.

“Did you know, we only know when current goes through the arm? That’s like if you knew you were touching something with your finger based on the pain you felt in your arm muscles from pushing,” Ashitey says. “We can just measure how much more current we’re using. They wanted us to just go 1 cm into the ground. You can’t make sensitive movements when your feedback loop only gives you a sense of how hard you’re pushing!” He then demonstrates this by pushing his arm through the air.

“Look at how noisy the DEMs are,” Ashitey protests. These are digital elevation maps that show the contours in the ground. “You can predict reliably in the air where you’ll be, but once you touch the surface it’s hard to know exactly what’s happening. You don’t have many senses to work with.” Since the arm is flexible and swings, there are a lot of forces acting on it. That makes it hard to predict exact position.

“We warned the science team that it would be hard. We told them we only had a 50-50 chance. They don’t really understand how difficult it is,” Joseph says. Ashitey reminds me again that it’s really important not to muck up the whole book by getting the RA wrong.

“I thought they were going to throw away that sample after the President called,” Joseph says. They nod knowingly.

After hitting the refresh button a few hundred times, it works. Finally there are images of the delivery.

“It’s got stuff in it,” Ashitey says. He does a little on-the-fly color correction to the images to improve the view.

“Hmm. Now I’m not so sure,” Ashitey second-guesses himself. He looks intently at the screen. From somewhere down the hall, clapping and cheering break his concentration. It’s coming from the MECA office.

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