Space Stations

The Consortium expedition, called Ares I, had left Earth's orbit about six months before the departure of Trailblazer I, but it was still on its way to Mars on a free-falling Hohmann orbit and was now actually behind Trailblazer. The Consortium had not given up on the thought of being the first on Mars and maybe counting on its competitor's announced plan to convert Phobos into a space station first before attempting a landing on the Red Planet itself in their shuttle.

As Eriksen and Okita returned to Trailblazer, the ship's planetary atmosphere specialist, Linde Hoerter, looked a little agitated. When she got really excited, which was not often, her Pennsylvania Dutch speech became noticeable. It was clear that she needed to talk to Eriksen in a hurry.

“Poul, I've been keeping a close watch on the Martian surface. There's a possibility that a storm might be brewing near the area where the supply ship for Ares landed earlier Based on my analysis, this storm could become a nasty one. The timing is a little off from the storm season advocated by some experts on Earth, but these pesky events don't follow any strict schedules anyway. We need to watch this one carefully before we dispatch Valkyrie to the surface.” The shuttle had been informally named Valkyrie by the captain, and his crew were all willing to oblige his whim.

Eriksen was his usual taciturn self. “You've told me before that no expert knows for sure how sandstorms get started. You are our expert. If we can't depend on your prognosis, we have no one else to turn to. We'll play it safe and heed your warning.”

After pausing a moment, he added, “Send a storm warning to Ares. They will be getting here in just a few days.”

“There could be a problem in getting them to pay attention to my warning.”

“Explain yourself, Linde.”

“Their Martian atmosphere expert, Roel van Dijk, does not agree with me on how a sandstorm gets started on Mars. He believes sandstorms occur only at the perihelion passage of Mars. As you know, Mars is already several months past perihelion. To complicate matters, there's evidence that at least some sandstorms or dust devils are kicked up by falling meteoroids that are not burned up in the atmosphere; the Martian atmosphere is too thin to incinerate them. To be sure, falling meteorites could kick up dust and at least contribute to the storm. On this one issue, we have had many a running battle at scientific meetings over the years. He will probably advise Captain Ritter to reject our foul weather advisory. They are still trying to beat us and Ritter will have a strong motivation to listen to van Dijk.”

Eriksen pondered this a moment. “Send them a warning anyway. I would be damned if they did not have a warning from us before they made that crucial decision to land.”

An hour later, Eriksen received a reply from Ritter. The captain of Ares thanked Eriksen for the courtesy and would take the warning under advisement.

Eriksen considered the wording of the message. “Ritter might actually be thinking seriously about placing his ship in a parking orbit and watching a while if a big storm develops. On the other hand, he may be sandbagging us. If we think that Ares will be getting into a parking orbit, we'll not be in a hurry to land Valkyrie. That will give them a chance to slip by us and land on Mars before us. Besides, getting into a parking orbit will cause them to use additional fuel; they don't have much extra fuel to spare, and can't count on what's on the supply ship before actually seeing it for themselves.”

The Consortium's two robot supply ships with fuel and provisions were sending out electronic signals saying that the contents were intact, but one would be unwise to rely on the transmitted signals where one's life depended on them.

Boutillier spoke up. “Why don't we send Valkyrie down before Ares gets here. I volunteer to pilot it to the surface and plant our flag and fly back right away after video taping the flag planting event.” Noticing Okita and remembering the other partner in the expedition, he corrected himself quickly. “I mean—plant our flags.”

Eriksen was firm. “No, we are going to do it the way we have planned from the beginning. Being beaten in a race with the Consortium would not constitute a sufficient justification for not following our carefully made plans—especially, considering the imminent danger of a major sandstorm.”

He went on. “We must make Orbital Base Phobos a viable station first. For one thing, we must make sure that, if something should happen to Valkyrie, the remaining crew would still be able to make it back to Earth safely with the provisions from our supply ships. If our friends aboard Ares choose not to be cautious with their lives, that's their problem.”