Read Online Castaway Planet by Eric Flint, Ryk E Spoor - Free Book Online
Authors: Eric Flint, Ryk E Spoor
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something before then.”
“Okay, Sakura,” said her father.
She watched the countdown tensely. This much, at least, she could automate, putting a simple timer in line with the engine controls. Still, she poised her hands over the actual controls in case it didn’t work. A few minutes later, the main engines roared to life, pressing them into their seats with a full gravity of pressure. Sakura watched, ready to cut the burn off if it didn’t stop of its own accord, but it shut off exactly on time.
Maybe it was her imagination, but in the minutes that followed, she thought she felt phantom quivers, twitches in the big shuttle, as the very outermost fringes of the atmosphere began to touch on this intruder from a distant solar system.
This was one of the sticky parts. The problem with a deorbit and reentry was that there was a very narrow band of reentry angles—slightly more than one degree, in this case—between the extremes of striking the atmosphere too sharply and burning up like a meteor, or literally bouncing off the atmosphere back into space. They had to hit this exactly right, because there were also limits to the g -loading they could take, and what the thermal protection system (TPS) on LS-5 could handle.
“Reconfigure for reentry, Sakura. We want as blunt a profile as we can get,” Caroline reminded her.
Fortunately, LS-5 could shift between multiple design configurations; landing, it looked not terribly different from the original Space Shuttle, a boxy airframe with stubby wings, but it could transition from that to a sleeker hypersonic configuration, a lower-speed, wider-winged subsonic craft, and even reconfigure for vectored thrust as a VTOL aircraft. She made sure the shuttle was in the first configuration. “Locked into reentry mode. TPS shows all green.”
After a lot of checking and rechecking, Caroline and Melody finally agreed with Sakura on the landing calculations, and put the guidance data into her guide app. “This is it, everyone. We’re landing!”
Hitomi cheered, Melody said something like “Finally! ” and Whips sent her an image of thumbs-up, a gesture he was incapable of really making himself.
“This won’t be fun at the beginning,” she said, looking over the stats. “We’ve tried to figure the easiest reentry we can manage with our configuration, but we’ll have some moments above 4.5 g .”
Whips twitched. She couldn’t blame him; for Bemmies, 5 g was just about the limit because they were originally water creatures, and they were so much larger than the average human. “How long?”
“Only a few seconds. Mom?”
She saw her mother check the restraints and Whips’ medical readings. “I think it should be all right, honey. Aside from his hydration issues, Whips is in good shape. Just try not to tense up against it too much, Whips; your internal shift-plates need to flex with the pressure, not try to fight it.”
“Okay, Dr. Kimei.”
Everyone else settled back into their seats. Sakura swallowed hard, then took the controls firmly in hand. She couldn’t let go now until they landed, really.The guide visualization counted down the seconds and projected a simulated view for her, with a generated guide path. It couldn’t control anything for her, but it could help her know when she was going wrong—and she would, inevitably. But with these apps, she’d probably know in time to fix the mistake.
“Full deorbit burn in three, two, one . . . now!”
The second burn finished, and then there was no doubt that atmosphere was touching LS-5. A faint vibration and a rumble, and Sakura sealed all ports, making sure the TPS was in place and showing green. “Reentry beginning. We’ll temporarily lose most sensors in the next few minutes, lasting until we’ve slowed down to a few Mach numbers.”
Breathe. Calm. Hold the controls firmly but not tightly, guide the ship. Don’t react quickly! Fast maneuvers will kill us.
The manual controls transmitted more
“Okay, Sakura,” said her father.
She watched the countdown tensely. This much, at least, she could automate, putting a simple timer in line with the engine controls. Still, she poised her hands over the actual controls in case it didn’t work. A few minutes later, the main engines roared to life, pressing them into their seats with a full gravity of pressure. Sakura watched, ready to cut the burn off if it didn’t stop of its own accord, but it shut off exactly on time.
Maybe it was her imagination, but in the minutes that followed, she thought she felt phantom quivers, twitches in the big shuttle, as the very outermost fringes of the atmosphere began to touch on this intruder from a distant solar system.
This was one of the sticky parts. The problem with a deorbit and reentry was that there was a very narrow band of reentry angles—slightly more than one degree, in this case—between the extremes of striking the atmosphere too sharply and burning up like a meteor, or literally bouncing off the atmosphere back into space. They had to hit this exactly right, because there were also limits to the g -loading they could take, and what the thermal protection system (TPS) on LS-5 could handle.
“Reconfigure for reentry, Sakura. We want as blunt a profile as we can get,” Caroline reminded her.
Fortunately, LS-5 could shift between multiple design configurations; landing, it looked not terribly different from the original Space Shuttle, a boxy airframe with stubby wings, but it could transition from that to a sleeker hypersonic configuration, a lower-speed, wider-winged subsonic craft, and even reconfigure for vectored thrust as a VTOL aircraft. She made sure the shuttle was in the first configuration. “Locked into reentry mode. TPS shows all green.”
After a lot of checking and rechecking, Caroline and Melody finally agreed with Sakura on the landing calculations, and put the guidance data into her guide app. “This is it, everyone. We’re landing!”
Hitomi cheered, Melody said something like “Finally! ” and Whips sent her an image of thumbs-up, a gesture he was incapable of really making himself.
“This won’t be fun at the beginning,” she said, looking over the stats. “We’ve tried to figure the easiest reentry we can manage with our configuration, but we’ll have some moments above 4.5 g .”
Whips twitched. She couldn’t blame him; for Bemmies, 5 g was just about the limit because they were originally water creatures, and they were so much larger than the average human. “How long?”
“Only a few seconds. Mom?”
She saw her mother check the restraints and Whips’ medical readings. “I think it should be all right, honey. Aside from his hydration issues, Whips is in good shape. Just try not to tense up against it too much, Whips; your internal shift-plates need to flex with the pressure, not try to fight it.”
“Okay, Dr. Kimei.”
Everyone else settled back into their seats. Sakura swallowed hard, then took the controls firmly in hand. She couldn’t let go now until they landed, really.The guide visualization counted down the seconds and projected a simulated view for her, with a generated guide path. It couldn’t control anything for her, but it could help her know when she was going wrong—and she would, inevitably. But with these apps, she’d probably know in time to fix the mistake.
“Full deorbit burn in three, two, one . . . now!”
The second burn finished, and then there was no doubt that atmosphere was touching LS-5. A faint vibration and a rumble, and Sakura sealed all ports, making sure the TPS was in place and showing green. “Reentry beginning. We’ll temporarily lose most sensors in the next few minutes, lasting until we’ve slowed down to a few Mach numbers.”
Breathe. Calm. Hold the controls firmly but not tightly, guide the ship. Don’t react quickly! Fast maneuvers will kill us.
The manual controls transmitted more
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