Even though we have results on our hands, those are not the ones we were hoping for. We were able to collect water samples from a nearby pond. Well, the good news is, it actually is water, and not, for instance, mercury. It's chemical composition is close to what we've expected, based on what we saw so far. It could be an indirect evidence of the fact that there is life, but it's far from enough. Until we face something, that can be recognized as an actual living creature and not a blurry spot, our ship stays on the orbit. Any landing is an extremely expensive procedure, so we are not going to waste the resources until we're sure of what to expect there. If we don't find anything alive in a week, were going to plan our colonization here. This will be a major disappointment for me — that's not what I was hoping for, when I assigned to this expedition.
I'm also very tired of all the searching. It's starting to get me, emotionally, I feel more doubt with each passing moment. I think I'm going to get a nice sleep today and visit a therapist after the lunch, so that my condition doesn't get worse. But first — to the pool, I want there for several days now.
вторник, 6 декабря 2016 г.
Day 13
вторник, 8 ноября 2016 г.
Day 14 (our goal is near!)
Today, around 5AM by Earth time (this is the time our ship clock is set on) everyone, who was asleep, has been awaken by an emergency call from our deckhouse, where our monitor that is connected to the probe is located. As usually, it was surrounded by a crowd, somewhere around eight people, and everyone, except for Phil, archeologist, whose duty was at that time, was looking at the screen, glancing at the door from time to time. As soon as we entered, they started talking all at the same time, so it was simply impossible to understand them, and I didn't even try. I went straight to the monitor, to see the record because of which we were all here. It was done two minutes before we arrived, meaning, that Phil called to us as soon as he noticed. At the record we could see some creature coming out from the right of the probe, looking at it for a while (at least that's what I thought; I was unable to spot any eyes) and then hurries back.
Right now, many people are trying to understand reaction of this thing to our probe. It was seemingly scared of it, which is why our main theory is that the planet holds a civilization developed enough, because it is familiar with machinery. Another, less likely theory, suggests that we accidentaly recreated a local predator. Right now we've sent the probe back into desert, to pick a landing spot. Since this planet has multicellular animals, we are extremely likely not to cause too much damage by landing: our main worries were related to the fact that we could've disturbed a developing microcosmos. Also, because we have a chance of facing an intelligent life, we have to be careful: it is unknown, how we will be greeted here. I gotta say, I have very good feeling about this. It is likely that, since we could be carrying similar ways of evolution, we might as well have close society, and the way we think, and even physiology.
According to our captain's order, we begin our descent immediately: it is a painstaking process that requires a lot of effort from our team as well as our onboard computer.
Right now, many people are trying to understand reaction of this thing to our probe. It was seemingly scared of it, which is why our main theory is that the planet holds a civilization developed enough, because it is familiar with machinery. Another, less likely theory, suggests that we accidentaly recreated a local predator. Right now we've sent the probe back into desert, to pick a landing spot. Since this planet has multicellular animals, we are extremely likely not to cause too much damage by landing: our main worries were related to the fact that we could've disturbed a developing microcosmos. Also, because we have a chance of facing an intelligent life, we have to be careful: it is unknown, how we will be greeted here. I gotta say, I have very good feeling about this. It is likely that, since we could be carrying similar ways of evolution, we might as well have close society, and the way we think, and even physiology.
According to our captain's order, we begin our descent immediately: it is a painstaking process that requires a lot of effort from our team as well as our onboard computer.
Day 13
Scanning of local terrain gave as some results, even though they weren't exactly what we were expecting. We found a pond, and we were able to get water samples. Well, the good news is that it is actually water, and not, for instance, mercury. Its' chemical composition, in general, corresponds to our expectations, based on what we saw before in the local soil. It can be considered an indirect proof of the fact that we should've seen a living creature before, but this is not enough. Until we face anything that doesn't look like a spot, the ship stays on the star's orbit. This decision was made because we still can't be sure that our landing won't cause too much damage to a local ecosystem, provided that it actually exists. If we will not face anything during next week, we will commence our landing with a purpose of founding a colony here. Personally, I would take that as a major disappointment, because I flew here hoping to face life forms that originated outside of the Solar system.
I am also really tired of all that surrounding scannings. It affects me psychologically — I am getting less and less sure about the success of our expedition. Today I plan on getting a good sleep and seeing our therapist to, hopefully, get better. But first I'll go to our swimming pool, I wasn't there for several days now.
I am also really tired of all that surrounding scannings. It affects me psychologically — I am getting less and less sure about the success of our expedition. Today I plan on getting a good sleep and seeing our therapist to, hopefully, get better. But first I'll go to our swimming pool, I wasn't there for several days now.
воскресенье, 6 ноября 2016 г.
Day 12 (?)
Now we're witch hunting. Our turn of duty never came into place — the shift before us noticed some movement on the screen, which couldn't be explained by the dust. For the last twenty hours, I think, all of us were sitting in front of the monitor, rushing for a coffee or a tea every once in a while. I haven't been able to close my eyes yet and got very tired, so I decided to go into my room, make notes and sleep for a couple of hours.
We've re-checked the tape for a thousand times, I guess. It was a nighttime on the planet, which makes it more difficult for us. Adding lights onto the tape didn't really help — the colors on moving object are similar to those of the local ground. We stop can't be certain, whether it's some geological effect or a living creature. Of course, we've already established a circle with two kilometres long radius, which we're scanning through. So far we went through the central part, but we didn't find anything, except for those weird bubbles, that are now almost trying to get on to of each other.
I'm going to bed now; John promised to wake me up in two and a half hours, if I won't get up on my own. I hope if something happens before that, he won't feel sorry for me, so that I won't miss anything.
Day 10
Today the probe has finally reached the soil after this desert, but so far it's been the only good news. Analysis didn't show any organic materials, only a higher amount of phosphor and sulfur, like it was at the landing zone. In this new area the landscape is pretty odd — the surface is covered with some kind of partially bursted balloons, like it used to be a place of volcanic activity, that just freezed in a few instances. Not even our specialists can tell right now what it is. Until we can be sure that those things are safe to approach we will keep our distance.
We keep on looking around the probe through its cameras. Sociotherapist separated us into teams, two people each, so that we could keep track of probe's movement for four hours straight. I was accompanied by my assistant, which means, that I won't be able to, most likely, become friends with the guy — all the teams were made in a way that there will be no conflicts as well as no other forms of behavior that will distract is from the task. It's a bit sad, really: I was hoping I will be able to get to know Chen better on the surface at least, during our work — after all, who knows how long we're going to stay here, and working in silence all the time seems to me as extremely boring perspective.
We keep on looking around the probe through its cameras. Sociotherapist separated us into teams, two people each, so that we could keep track of probe's movement for four hours straight. I was accompanied by my assistant, which means, that I won't be able to, most likely, become friends with the guy — all the teams were made in a way that there will be no conflicts as well as no other forms of behavior that will distract is from the task. It's a bit sad, really: I was hoping I will be able to get to know Chen better on the surface at least, during our work — after all, who knows how long we're going to stay here, and working in silence all the time seems to me as extremely boring perspective.
Our shift starts in four hours, so I'm going to see John, while I still got time. We can always find something to talk about.
воскресенье, 16 октября 2016 г.
Day 9
During the last 20 hours we've got 500 images from the surface. We established video contact with the probe, and everyone is on their watch, scanning through records in hopes of seeing something alive. Several times already we would take a moving shadow as an animal running away from our probe and would disturb or operators for false reasons.
Everyone is nervous, because it's been quite some time since the probe has started operating, but we haven't seen life so far, not even water — only ground painted with cracks in the hot. According to our sensors, the temperature is at +38.4 C.
Besides, we've faced a technical problem as well — for some reason, one of top cameras isn't working. Right now it doesn't affect us, but if anything happens to its second top camera, we will lose our ability to get panoramic views of the ground. Although there is not much to see, and some of us are even starting to think that this is all we're going to see here. Of course, we can't search through the entire planet to prove them wrong; we can only hope that the parallel chosen isn't a desert going through entire planet, because that would mean that we managed to pick the spot that won't show us anything. Optic observation from the ship doesn't prove this theory — we can see different colors on the surface.
Soon will be my turn to check the data from camera, so I'm going to grab a tea in order not to be too hungry at the screen.
Everyone is nervous, because it's been quite some time since the probe has started operating, but we haven't seen life so far, not even water — only ground painted with cracks in the hot. According to our sensors, the temperature is at +38.4 C.
Besides, we've faced a technical problem as well — for some reason, one of top cameras isn't working. Right now it doesn't affect us, but if anything happens to its second top camera, we will lose our ability to get panoramic views of the ground. Although there is not much to see, and some of us are even starting to think that this is all we're going to see here. Of course, we can't search through the entire planet to prove them wrong; we can only hope that the parallel chosen isn't a desert going through entire planet, because that would mean that we managed to pick the spot that won't show us anything. Optic observation from the ship doesn't prove this theory — we can see different colors on the surface.
Soon will be my turn to check the data from camera, so I'm going to grab a tea in order not to be too hungry at the screen.
суббота, 8 октября 2016 г.
Day 8 (later)
Well, today we have started the scientific part of this expedition. The probe already sent us several ground samples' test results, both from the surface and underneath, controllable stratoplane was launched to have photos and additional air scans. We also received several photos from the surface. However, we ran into an issue here — we have no connection with the probe's top cameras, both of them, and now several operators are trying to figure out what's wrong.
The latter samples prove the original data, with one slight correction for atmosphere: oxygen makes up to 16% of it, carbon dyoxide — 0.7%. This change is explained by the capsule's burning during the fall.
In general, it seems like life should be here, but we didn't see anything yet. We either seated ourselves in desert, or our hopes are not to be confirmed. I think we'll see soon enough.
The latter samples prove the original data, with one slight correction for atmosphere: oxygen makes up to 16% of it, carbon dyoxide — 0.7%. This change is explained by the capsule's burning during the fall.
In general, it seems like life should be here, but we didn't see anything yet. We either seated ourselves in desert, or our hopes are not to be confirmed. I think we'll see soon enough.
Day 8
3 hours ago our countdown has finished: the capsule successfully landed.
As the operator told us, it went through the atmosphere, reaching the speed around 200 km per hour (I can't remember more precise, unfortunately). At the point being 120 meters above the ground the brake bag opened — a huge porous, yet elastic ball (not exactly a sphere, but it's close to it), about five meters in diameter, that accepted all the energy from hitting the surface. Back on Earth we run over a million tests to find any possible troubles on a broad variety of different relief types. Even though the test gave us good results, everyone was fairly nervous about that, and applauded, when the first message from the probe reached the ship.
At first, we were receiving data from air and land analysis. Atmosphere includes less oxygen them it does at Earth — 14%, the basic gas is, just like at home, nitrogen — 78%. They have way more inertial gases, about 5%, with most of it being xenon — 3.2%, followed by helium — 1.1%. The rest in the original sample was occupied by carbon dioxide, 3% in total. Deep sonic scan of land demonstrated that, as on Earth, the main element should be silicon — around 80%. It also indicated presence of aluminium, bore, sulfur, phosphor, as well as some actinium and berkelium, but we need an actual sample to make sure, which we will have later. Surface probe is compromised right now, because we cannot predict the way it had been affected by the landing.
Soon the first should settle down, and we hope to get a first picture. Right now we're planning on radiologic scan, which will allow us to get a better view of lithosphere's structure, maybe even estimate its' width.
As the operator told us, it went through the atmosphere, reaching the speed around 200 km per hour (I can't remember more precise, unfortunately). At the point being 120 meters above the ground the brake bag opened — a huge porous, yet elastic ball (not exactly a sphere, but it's close to it), about five meters in diameter, that accepted all the energy from hitting the surface. Back on Earth we run over a million tests to find any possible troubles on a broad variety of different relief types. Even though the test gave us good results, everyone was fairly nervous about that, and applauded, when the first message from the probe reached the ship.
At first, we were receiving data from air and land analysis. Atmosphere includes less oxygen them it does at Earth — 14%, the basic gas is, just like at home, nitrogen — 78%. They have way more inertial gases, about 5%, with most of it being xenon — 3.2%, followed by helium — 1.1%. The rest in the original sample was occupied by carbon dioxide, 3% in total. Deep sonic scan of land demonstrated that, as on Earth, the main element should be silicon — around 80%. It also indicated presence of aluminium, bore, sulfur, phosphor, as well as some actinium and berkelium, but we need an actual sample to make sure, which we will have later. Surface probe is compromised right now, because we cannot predict the way it had been affected by the landing.
Soon the first should settle down, and we hope to get a first picture. Right now we're planning on radiologic scan, which will allow us to get a better view of lithosphere's structure, maybe even estimate its' width.
Day 7
Only one day left until capsule's landing! Apathy has been replaced by impatience; it looks like most of scientists can't really focus on anything and are basically wandering around the ship.
Today we have are finals on holo table. I and John lost in semifinals — got too excited attacking from a side and missed the enemy in map's center. We were basically crushed, but nonetheless, we had our fun. But now it feels like it died on its way, just when you need it to hurry so much. In several hours capsule will be on Anansi orbit, where it will float around to send us pictures from planet's surface, so that we could pick a landing spot, and, perhaps, even start making a plan for the probe's first maneuvers. When will those damned hours be over already?
Today we have are finals on holo table. I and John lost in semifinals — got too excited attacking from a side and missed the enemy in map's center. We were basically crushed, but nonetheless, we had our fun. But now it feels like it died on its way, just when you need it to hurry so much. In several hours capsule will be on Anansi orbit, where it will float around to send us pictures from planet's surface, so that we could pick a landing spot, and, perhaps, even start making a plan for the probe's first maneuvers. When will those damned hours be over already?
Day 6
I'm starting to think that we were all sent here just to train in gym and read everything we didn't have time to read to on Earth. A bit of help is a holographic table installed in the operators' restroom. This is where we can play some games; we even launched a tournament series in different genres. Right now we have tryouts. Together with John I'm enlisted for the team championship in RTS, I hope, it's going to be fun.
As I intended, I'm going to describe the ship now. It is called "Tounhar", an expeditionary ship for interstellar flights. Height — 82 meters, maximum width — 40 meters, starting mass — 3200 tons. The ship only has planetary engines for launch and landing and the turning engines, which are used for movement correction in outer space. In the back are located docking sections to attach the independent acceleration module, which is basically a giant thorus filled with interstellar engines fuel from the inside. The amazing thing about it is that it has three possible positions — in the back, front or the middle of our ship, depending on whether you want to speed up, slow down or perform urgent maneuvers.
In front we have the control section, where, naturally, the flight is controlled from. It is followed by living sections of scientists, training section, dining room, then restroom. In the middle we have engine room and the fuel room, whose designation is kind of obvious. Then, we have numerous machinery sections, where are all of the machines, organizing our life aboard. They are separated by a soundproof wall from operators' living rooms. The wall is there so that people could sleep peacefully; in case of emergency, every operator has a control panel in the room, which allows them to control dedicated machine from a distance.
Next comes the operators' restroom, where most of the crew spends time nowadays. They have separate restroom in order to stay close to control panels even while taking their time off.
Ah, right! I almost forgot the most important thing. In the machinery section, closer to the ship's sheathing, located the room with our expeditionary equipment, as well as our progress. One of them is already reaching planet's surface. In two days we shall receive our first data. Can't wait to see it.
As I intended, I'm going to describe the ship now. It is called "Tounhar", an expeditionary ship for interstellar flights. Height — 82 meters, maximum width — 40 meters, starting mass — 3200 tons. The ship only has planetary engines for launch and landing and the turning engines, which are used for movement correction in outer space. In the back are located docking sections to attach the independent acceleration module, which is basically a giant thorus filled with interstellar engines fuel from the inside. The amazing thing about it is that it has three possible positions — in the back, front or the middle of our ship, depending on whether you want to speed up, slow down or perform urgent maneuvers.
In front we have the control section, where, naturally, the flight is controlled from. It is followed by living sections of scientists, training section, dining room, then restroom. In the middle we have engine room and the fuel room, whose designation is kind of obvious. Then, we have numerous machinery sections, where are all of the machines, organizing our life aboard. They are separated by a soundproof wall from operators' living rooms. The wall is there so that people could sleep peacefully; in case of emergency, every operator has a control panel in the room, which allows them to control dedicated machine from a distance.
Next comes the operators' restroom, where most of the crew spends time nowadays. They have separate restroom in order to stay close to control panels even while taking their time off.
Ah, right! I almost forgot the most important thing. In the machinery section, closer to the ship's sheathing, located the room with our expeditionary equipment, as well as our progress. One of them is already reaching planet's surface. In two days we shall receive our first data. Can't wait to see it.
Day 5
It's been only three days out of planned five, bit I can't remain calm already. The waiting makes me short-tempered; I'm even thinking about visiting our psychoanalytic. I never thought waiting would be such a torture for me, and I wasn't prepared for this. An onboard infonet helps, but only for a couple of hours, after that I get bored and just fall asleep with the tablet in my hands. As I know, many crew members have the same problem. It's only our astronomer, it seems, who's spending his time at the telescope. I've talked to him yesterday, and he said that he grew tired of watching the Minocha system, and he started looking around at the surrounding sector of Milky Way, hoping, that he will be able to find any interesting astronomical objects, to be able to send a probe there without any additional problems.
Day 2
Today we had an unofficial meeting about the way we should name the star and its' planets. During the argument, someone proposed to base the names on African mythology. After checking with onboard encyclopedia, we've decided to name the sun after the African goddess-mother Minocha; the planet we were headed to was named after the Western Africa's hero, Anansi. Bigger of the gas giants gained the name Shango, after the thunder spirit of the yoruba people, and the lesser one — Seyon, after the Efiopian King, a hero of the epos "The Glorious Victories". The airless planet became Yemoja, after another goddess from yoruba mythology. Of course, we still needed to consult the officials back at Earth in order to have those names on all the space maps, but there shouldn't be any problem with that, unless another expedition has been launched while we were away, and they've decided to use the same names for different astronomical objects. For now, the names were put on the map in the control room.
I've tried to paint the planet in my diary. I don't think it went well, but I really hope, that my relatives, when I'm showing them my notes, will be able to understand my original idea.
I've tried to paint the planet in my diary. I don't think it went well, but I really hope, that my relatives, when I'm showing them my notes, will be able to understand my original idea.
Day 1
Today, after having my consciousness surpressed for 528 days, I finally felt a pattern of light electrical impulses, accompanied by quiet sounds, dim lights and vibrations. Eventually, the stimulations grew in power, never reaching levels high enough to cause discomfort. It felt like it was going on for about 15 minutes, but I know that the standard time for waking procedure is 2-3,5 hours. My waking up means that we're closing in on our destination point. I've decided not to hurry with my morning chores, since data collecting upon arrival will take about an hour.
The time I've spent in stasis, my muscles periodically received impulses to avoid atrophy. This is why I didn't feel numb, as one would after sleeping for too long. I still wanted to visit the gym, though, while I'm trying to remember what I learnt on a briefing about the system we're headed to.
It was a star a bit larger and hotter than the Sun, of a spectral class F3V (white-blue subgiant), that has a relatively small circumstellar disc roughly equal to half of an Earth orbit. We were expecting a planetary system around it with a planet whose mass and orbit contribute for live to sparkle and evolve. Despite the optimistic predictions, we didn't receive any artificial signals from that direction, which is why our primary objective is to see whether the planet is suitable for colonization or not. In case it has, in fact, it's own ecosystem, we have to study it as closely as we can. The results of our research will serve as a basis for our decision whether this can be our first colony outside of the Solar system or not.
The time I've spent in stasis, my muscles periodically received impulses to avoid atrophy. This is why I didn't feel numb, as one would after sleeping for too long. I still wanted to visit the gym, though, while I'm trying to remember what I learnt on a briefing about the system we're headed to.
It was a star a bit larger and hotter than the Sun, of a spectral class F3V (white-blue subgiant), that has a relatively small circumstellar disc roughly equal to half of an Earth orbit. We were expecting a planetary system around it with a planet whose mass and orbit contribute for live to sparkle and evolve. Despite the optimistic predictions, we didn't receive any artificial signals from that direction, which is why our primary objective is to see whether the planet is suitable for colonization or not. In case it has, in fact, it's own ecosystem, we have to study it as closely as we can. The results of our research will serve as a basis for our decision whether this can be our first colony outside of the Solar system or not.
Back then we also discussed an expedition's flight plan. In order to gain speed, the ship must connect itself to an independent acceleration module (IAM), including both acceleration and deceleration engines. Small turning engines are located on the ship itself. To speed us up we must use the main gravitational chains' branch, that includes 5 gravity superchargers, creating an artificial point of high density at some distance from our ship at the precise moment, so that the ship would accelerate while moving towards orbit of this so called imitation. Acceleration chain finishes up at the distance of one light month away from Earth. This is where quantum modulator is located, altering wave function of every single atom making up our ship, so that it would end up being at a place as close to our target as possible, without it getting affected by any noticeable gravitational disturbance from the star system. An incredibly complicated process that makes my hair stand straight, because noone can guarantee you that you will be put back together absolutely correctly. But it is a best way for space exploring in a life time, so, of course, it is used all the time.
This whole time an independent gravitational field has been supported in stasis section, mimicing gravity on Earth. It allowed us to avoid many problems caused by staying weightless for too long as well as lowering the chances of making a mistake during the quantum transfer due to an object moving inside the ship.
The ship must have emerged at a distance of one light week from our destination point. Gradually slowing down, we should be one light hour away from the star. From here, we will approach on more common speeds; it will take us from two weeks to month, depending on the data from surface we will be getting. Our main activity during this time will be collection and analysis of any information we can get. Later, based on it, we'll have a meeting, where we will decide the further expedition's destiny.
Right now, we only have optical observation, every other sensor needs to be calibrated and checked first after staying in outer space. From this distance, we are able to easily see even the asteroids 40 km wide. Our expeditionary astronom launched an on-line translation directly from our telescope.
In science, you can't have something granted. Which is way to the last second a bit of fear remained, that all of our data were interpreted incorrectly and there is no planet or even a star itself. But we saw just what we were hoping to see. Planet was there, and its' surface was covered by water, from a first sight, for about 60 percent! We could only hope that it's old enough for an intelligent life to evolve already. The system also has on cold slowly rotating airless planet and two gas giants. Their presence increases the chances of finding life here even further, because gas giants attract most of asteroids, that could do harm to the planet. It seems that the rest of our crew is also positive about that.
All the further observations, I think, I'll write down tomorrow, because right now I have to check my equipment and prepare our remote control sattelites we're going to use to collect more data.
This whole time an independent gravitational field has been supported in stasis section, mimicing gravity on Earth. It allowed us to avoid many problems caused by staying weightless for too long as well as lowering the chances of making a mistake during the quantum transfer due to an object moving inside the ship.
The ship must have emerged at a distance of one light week from our destination point. Gradually slowing down, we should be one light hour away from the star. From here, we will approach on more common speeds; it will take us from two weeks to month, depending on the data from surface we will be getting. Our main activity during this time will be collection and analysis of any information we can get. Later, based on it, we'll have a meeting, where we will decide the further expedition's destiny.
Right now, we only have optical observation, every other sensor needs to be calibrated and checked first after staying in outer space. From this distance, we are able to easily see even the asteroids 40 km wide. Our expeditionary astronom launched an on-line translation directly from our telescope.
In science, you can't have something granted. Which is way to the last second a bit of fear remained, that all of our data were interpreted incorrectly and there is no planet or even a star itself. But we saw just what we were hoping to see. Planet was there, and its' surface was covered by water, from a first sight, for about 60 percent! We could only hope that it's old enough for an intelligent life to evolve already. The system also has on cold slowly rotating airless planet and two gas giants. Their presence increases the chances of finding life here even further, because gas giants attract most of asteroids, that could do harm to the planet. It seems that the rest of our crew is also positive about that.
All the further observations, I think, I'll write down tomorrow, because right now I have to check my equipment and prepare our remote control sattelites we're going to use to collect more data.
воскресенье, 25 сентября 2016 г.
Header
Greetings!
You've come across a page for my small free-time project. This is an imaginary diary of a scientist, who's participating in an expediton to a planet of a distant star system. It starts at the moment ofhim waking up in a ship, arriving to the destination point after a 1,5-year long travel from Earth. In it depicted, with accordance to the suroundings, either what happened in that say, or the observations made.
I hope you'll be entertained!
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