Earth Bound (35 page)

Space rendezvous
was
one of the key goals of Gemini. Rendezvous efforts began in 1965 and were successful in 1966, a bit after our timeline. The initial rendezvous attempts failed because the first Gemini capsules did not carry radar and because NASA did not yet understand the counterintuitive nature of orbital mechanics.

The mission presented here—rendezvous between a crewed capsule and an uncrewed, geostationary one—is unrealistic because of the altitude of such an orbit and the difficulty of stopping mid-orbit to dock with an object that’s fixed. This mission directive made the most sense to us for dramatic reasons, however. It is true that after successfully docking in 1966, Gemini 8 did briefly go into a roll. That detail was too juicy not to use.

We have also skirted close to reality in that astronauts John Glenn and Scott Carpenter testified before Congress in 1962
against
the privately funded Women in Space Program. Additional details from the book that resemble reality include that several former Nazi scientists worked at NASA (most prominent among these was Wernher von Braun), that NASA increasingly gave contracts to private industry for machines and services during Gemini, and that in the early 1960s, electronic computers were on the cusp of the transition from analog to digital. The Mercury training capsule did contain analog computers, as does our training capsule.

It is also true NASA and its earlier iteration, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, employed a number of human computers, largely women. These women worked out of the NASA facilities at Langley and Goddard to analyze data and perform calculations. We have located some human computers in Houston for dramatic purposes.

Additionally, NASA employed several female computer scientists and programmers, including Margaret Hamilton who served as the lead software engineer for the Apollo project. Hamilton began her tenure at NASA in 1963, but she had previously worked on classified defense projects.

Charlie’s professional and education background is also somewhat similar to Grace Hopper’s. Hopper was a pioneer of early computing whose work led to the development of the first compiler and who spent much of her career in the Navy after leaving a teaching position at Vassar to serve during World War II. Therefore we don’t think it’s unrealistic to imagine someone like Charlie occupying a management position in ASD’s computing department in the early 1960s.

We will deal with the would-be female astronaut core and the female computers more fully in the next
Fly Me to the Moon
book, but we are grateful to Martha Ackerman for
her research on the Mercury 13 and we’re awaiting Margot Lee Shetterly’s soon-to-be released
Hidden Figures: The Untold Story of the African American Women Who Helped the United States Win the Space Race
with bated breath.

More personally, we’re indebted to our families, who put up with us writing the first draft of
Earth Bound
over the holidays. Our husbands read the manuscript looking for technical errors and provided information about science and engineering. They have earned our gratitude infinitely.

(And Mr. Turner would like everyone to know that chaos can exist in Newtonian systems.
Mrs
. Turner would like everyone to know she was contrasting deterministic versus probabilistic systems with that line and knows quite well chaos can happen in such a system. Or is that the
Drs
. Turner?)

We appreciate the efforts of our beta readers Zoe York, Jenny Holiday, Alyssa Cole, and Ana Coqui. Their notes allowed us to improve the early draft into something readable. Our editor, Simone St. James, helped us correct and improve the manuscript tremendously. Finally, our proofreaders, Melody, Cindy, Lawless, and Cecilia Grant, caught numerous errors and typos. Any remaining problems are ours alone.

A
BOUT
THE
A
UTHORS

Emma Barry is a novelist, full-time mama, and recovering academic. When she’s not reading or writing, she loves hugs from her preschooler twins, her husband’s cooking, her cat’s whiskers, her dog’s tail, and Earl Grey tea.

You can find her on the web at
www.authoremmabarry.com
and find more of her books
here
.

Genevieve Turner writes romance fresh from the Golden State. In a previous life, she was a scientist studying the genetics of behavior, but now she’s a stay at home mom studying the intersection of nature and nurture in her own kids. (So far, nature is winning!) She lives in beautiful Southern California, where she manages her family and homestead in an indolent manner.

You can find her on the web at
www.genturner.com
and find more of her books
here
.

Copyright © 2016 by Emma Barry and Genevieve Turner

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

This is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are either products of the authors’ imaginations or used fictitiously. Locales and public names are sometimes used for atmospheric purposes. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Digital Version 1.0

Cover photographs ©
Nejron
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and
Umkehrer |
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