First Steps (Founding of the Federation) (8 page)

Mario
snorted. "Yeah, okay, wrong analogy. But hey, if we can raise a
couple hundred mil... I have no problem with looking like a NASCAR
driver." He held up his hand. "As long as we the astronauts
aren't forced to do promo work. Trying to get out ads every time we
open our mouths would get old fast."

Luigi
chuckled. "Welcome to Mars sponsored by Nextel and Cotex where
we will be bringing you...blah blah blah...”

Mario
chuckled. "Yeah. Forget crap like that or using something if we
don't like it." He smiled. “Of course if it is sex
related...” He started to joke.

Luigi
sighed. “Don't even go there, God what a can of worms that
would open up!” He covered his face with his hands.

Mario
chuckled. “Still, the voluntary thing is important,”
Mario replied as he looked at his brother.

Luigi
nodded. "Okay Wendy, make a note of that," he ordered
looking at her.

Wendy
nodded. "You want to explore this some more?" Luigi turned
to Doctor Zubrin who reluctantly nodded.

"Go
for it."

Luigi
nodded. "Go for it the man said. Final approval is by the heads
of the program so don't let them bully or bribe you," he ordered
Wendy.

She
grimaced. "So I don't get to keep the brand new Porsche?"
she asked. His eyes widened.

"Kidding
boss," she chuckled, hands up.

...*...*...*...*...

Mario
adjusted his lapel microphone and sighed. "Mike test, one
two...three...” He looked up to the com tech that had her hand
to her Mickey Mouse earphones. She gave him a thumbs up and then
rushed off.

"You've
got some shine on your checks," a makeup artist said as she came
in and tapped at his cheek.

"What
the heck?" Mario muttered.

"Just
go with it bro," Luigi sighed. He after all was used to it by
now. He shook hands with the anchor and then sat down, adjusting his
coat. He crossed his legs and placed his hands on the armrests.

"Yeah
yeah," Mario grumbled before he sat down and mimicked his
brother.

"Relax;
you look like you have a stick up your ass," Luigi murmured.

Mario
started to round on him but the director called "Show time in
five...four...three..." He then started counting down with his
fingers. The anchor sat up straight and gave a trademark smile for
the cameras.

"And
we're back with two young men remaking the space exploration field."
He turned to them. "Ladies and gentlemen, the Irons brothers, or
as some have started to call them, the Super Mario brothers."

Luigi
smiled politely. Mario chuckled softly. "Gentlemen, let’s
begin by saying what a pleasure it is to have you on the show,"
the anchor said. Mario and Luigi murmured polite thanks. "Now,
we're going over the current Mars initiative and we have polled our
viewers, let's start with a question from Rachael in Ponduke Michigan
who asks about how you like living in your little brother's shadow,
does it make you uncomfortable?"

Mario
chuckled. "No. I came to accept having a genius, know it all
pain in the neck side kick a long time ago."

Luigi
chuckled. "See what I get to put up with?" he asked. The
anchor smiled politely.

"In
all honesty I am proud of my brother, for showing us all up. For
pushing the envelope and not giving up..." Mario finished.

"Why
thank you." Luigi looked at him, looking genuinely touched.

"Moving
on, Nathan in Seattle writes..."

At
the end of the interview Mario got up and stretched. "Thank you
gentlemen for a stimulating interview," the producer said as he
shook both of their hands. "Good luck on Mars. Ms. Elliot will
show you out." He waved to an assistant who nodded.

"Right
this way gentlemen," she said. She waved them to the exit.

Mario
chuckled. "Can't get rid of us fast enough can they?" he
murmured taking the microphone off and handing it to a tech.

"Hush,"
Luigi responded removing his mike.

"God
I hate playing dress up," Mario grumped.

"All
for a good cause, all for a good cause," Luigi chuckled.

"It'd
better be," Mario sighed.

...*...*...*...*...

"Okay
people; let’s settle down, we have a lot to go over in this
work shop. The first thing is our in situ plant," Luigi said.
Luigi pulled up a flimsy and put it on the projector then looked up.
"As you can see, we've made some changes from the original
Zubrin Martin Marietta Sabatier reactor. First we've added a turbo
compressor intake." He circled the block in red. "This
compresses the native atmosphere. About fifty percent of the water
trapped in the air is compressed out to be stored for later use."
He drew a line to the water tanks. "Now, the remaining
compressed atmosphere is fed into the Sabatier reactor with hydrogen
to be converted into a host of material using the Reverse Water Gas
Shift method, also known as RWGS."

He
looked up at the group. He'd gone over this with different groups,
some caught on right away, and others just didn't get it. He could
tell by their expressions. "With the reactors first stage and a
hydrogen carbon dioxide/monoxide mix we can produce methane, carbon,
and water. With it feeding double the hydrogen and running it through
a second stage we can produce ethylene and water." Some murmured
at this. "We are of course shooting for the ethylene; with it
our refrigeration budget is quartered." The murmuring increased.

"Okay,
save your comments for later folks," he ordered. He looked
around as the room quieted. "Ethylene will be used by the
vehicles as well as the rockets. Now, we can also get nitrogen and
argon out of the reactor, and if we mix the nitrogen in with hydrogen
we can get ammonia for manufacturing and the greenhouses." He
nodded.

"With
this equipment we can change a planet. Now, I want to go over the
weight matrix in a moment, but we need to work on expanding the plant
for future programs. You're hand out packet has that. We will break
into smaller focus groups in a moment. Now Benny has some words about
the focus group teams so give him a moment of your time."

He
stepped back and Benny stood and nodded. "Thanks boss but you
kind of took some of the wind from my sails," he smiled wryly.
"Nick and Julia are going to keep an overall eye on things.
Dennis, you can look into expanding the industrial, Michelle and
Bobby, the medical...."

"One
of the biggest problems in space is the smell. It isn't just the
smell of sweat, but also ozone and a metallic taste that doesn't go
away. The cyclers, habs, space stations, suits, rovers, everything
will get that smell over time," The NASA veteran astronaut
explained as he sat on a stool.

Mario
grimaced. "I guess Lysol or Febreeze doesn't have a spray that
can handle it," he grimaced.

"Neither
has Glade. Be glad, your sense of smell can save your life. Try not
to ignore the smells, they may be important. The smell of burning
objects, or water, or waste..." the astronaut shrugged. He
resented not being on the team but did a good job of hiding it. Of
course he was nearly sixty, and this was a younger man's game.

"Yeah,
I get it. And if we can identify the problem, we can fix it,"
Mario sighed.

...*...*...*...*...

The
Hab's livable space was divided into two floors. The top floor was
the living space, complete with bedrooms, bathroom, galley
kitchenette, wardroom living space, and an exercise room. The second
floor was split into two labs. Hab one had the chemistry and general
purpose lab. Hab two, the lab they would be traveling to Mars had a
sickbay and geology lab. Through the core of the hab was an airlock
trunk. The top was the storm shelter in case of radiation. A second
airlock on the bottom floor and could be used to get outside, or
connect to the other hab modules.

"What
about a hover craft?" A tech asked. They were still getting off
the wall ideas. Ideas that the various project groups talked about
during meetings when they had to wait on something or other.

"Get
real, no way it would work on Mars!" another sighed tossing a
balled up piece of paper at the first.

"Well,
this is a brainstorming session, so let's try to stay positive,"
Luigi nodded to the first tech. "Roger right?"

The
young man nodded. "Yes sir, I was thinking, we have a pretty
good engine, and Mar's has an atmosphere, so if we built a hover
craft..."

Mario
nodded. "Right. Okay we'll log it for later discussion." He
waved to the next person with an idea. After the bull session he met
up with Luigi.

"Think
the hover craft idea will fly?" Luigi asked as they walked down
the corridor.

Mario
shook his head firmly. "Not a chance, it uses most of its energy
just to float and maintain its cushion of air. You don't need that
with a wheeled vehicle."

He
dodged a pair of engineers and followed his brother down the hall.
"So we can write it off?" Luigi asked.

"Not
just yet, I'd dump it in the nutty idea bin though, nice, but not
worth throwing money at. Stick to critical systems first." Mario
nodded as Betsy waved.

"See
ya." Luigi smiled over his shoulder as he waved to Betsy. Mario
chuckled as Wanda came out following Betsy.

"Will
wonders never cease," Mario muttered. He shook his head.

"What?"
Wanda asked coming up to him.

"Nothin,
just admiring the view," He gave her a look and slight leer. She
preened.

She
smiled. "Like what you see?" she teased.

"Love
it," he teased back.

 ...*...*...*...*...

Mario
watched as the piston articulated in and out. "Compressed CO
two?" he asked. He looked over to the grinning tech who nodded.

"Yeah,
we can do a lot with this! Pneumatics could replace a lot of things;
we can build a walker, or build an exosuit!" He was excited and
started pulling up images. "See we can use the exosuit Darpa has
been studying, there is a guy building armor we could use too..."

Mario
sighed. "Wait, why armor?" he asked. He raised a hand.

The
tech's eyes glazed. "Um, ah..."

Mario
nodded. "Right. There isn't a reason. We don't
need
armor, we're not going into battle, and an e-frame is a bit much,
we're going to be in a gravity field forty percent that of Earth's!"
The tech visibly deflated. "Now, right up your report, and we
will keep it on file for possible future missions to high G planets.
Pneumatics are a good idea, much better than hydraulics for some
applications. Using native materials makes it dead easy to top off
too. Good work." He patted the techs shoulder and then left
shaking his head. "Pie in the sky...where do they come up with
these people?" he muttered as he sighed and shut the door behind
him.

...*...*...*...*...

"Why
is so much hardware needed? Why, only a handful of this will ever
make it to Mars!" the senator complained.

"Well,
some of it will be used for training, driving, or for repairs,"
Mario answered slowly. This was a familiar complaint. You'd think by
now people would read the memo or at least listen to the answer when
someone else asked.

"We
plan on sending samples of each to the Arctic research station for
testing as well. We need to know where things will break before it
gets to Mars," Luigi added shooting his brother a warning look.
They needed the Senator in a good mood and more importantly on their
side.

"Also,
some of this is for the educational program," Doctor Zubrin
added.

"Educational
program?" Senator Byrd asked looking confused.

Doctor
Zubrin nodded. "Yes, we have a program where astronauts and
technicians go to different schools, museums, and events like the LA
county fair and show people the equipment to interest them in
science, engineering, and space exploration," Doctor Zubrin
replied.

"It
gives the public a hands on look at the hardware, and a face to face
meeting with the men and women who will be going to Mars," Luigi
added.

"It
is also a good diplomatic effort; we will open the educational
program to participating countries as well," Mario added. The
senator's eyes narrowed.

"Most
of the teams will be here in the states, but we will send one team to
each region. They will spend a few weeks in each country or region,
then move on to the next," Luigi explained trying to smooth the
problem over.

The
senator grunted. "You’re going to start it here in the
states?"

All
three men nodded. "Starting in the states where most of the
hardware is produced. We will show the children of the parents who
designed and built the hardware what their parents have been
building, and then move out around the country," Mario
explained. Mario pulled out a map.

"You
say you’re doing this in my home state?" the senator
asked.

"Yes
sir, starting next month. We have over forty appearances planned. We
are working with school districts to bus classes to a centralized
site so they can view the hardware," Mario explained.

"Get
my staff a schedule. I may want to come around and take a look at
this," the senator stood. Hastily all three men followed suit.

"Thank
you senator, we are looking forward to the tour. Hopefully we can
give you a chance to drive one of the rovers," Doctor Zubrin
replied.

"I'd
like that," the Senator chuckled. "It'd make a great photo
op." He waved. "Keep up the good work gentlemen." He
turned and left. Outside the door his staff descended around him.

Luigi
sat down with a sigh. "Reelection?" he asked Zubrin.

"Yeah.
He needs all the help and publicity he can get. I'm not happy about
being used, but if it gets us closer to the goal..." He raised
his hands helplessly. Both of the Irons brothers grimaced.