Stellarium (Origins): A Space-Time Adventure to the Ends of our Universe (12 page)

Aboard the Orion-II, the three
astronauts still hadn’t heard back from NASA. They wondered what was going on.
They had expected everyone to be happy to know that they were back. But,
instead, their moment of contact had been a complete failure. The people in
Houston didn’t even seem surprised; on the contrary, the crew had been treated
with hostility.

Then, they received a response.

“Orion-II, this is Houston. My
name is Walter Smith, and I'm the current Flight Control Director at the Space Center.
Please confirm receipt of this message.”

“Houston, this is Orion-II.
Commander Russell speaking. We’re hearing you loud and clear. Is Dr. Jones no
longer in charge of Stellarium?”

“Orion-II, go back to the default
frequency for the Stellarium mission. Let’s use that to communicate so we can
get off of the ISS frequency,” the director requested.

Frank immediately changed the
transmission frequency back to the one originally designated for the mission. 
Back in Houston, the controllers did the same. A few minutes later, the first
transmission went out.

“Houston, this is Orion-II
transmitting via the default frequency. Do you copy?”

“Orion-II, this is Houston. We’ve
received your message.”

“Jones? Is that you?” Allison
asked.

Terry Jones, or Dr. Jones to
some, was the head of flight control for the Stellarium program. He had worked
at the program with Allison for ten years, and had been in charge of all of the
probe missions, as well as the Stellarium-12 mission, which had sent the
Orion-II into space.

“Allison? Is that really you?”
Jones asked.

“Yes! You have no idea how nice
it is to hear your voice!” she responded.

Everyone is the room fell silent.
Few could believe what was happening. Even Jones didn’t know if the
transmission was real, or just part of a joke.

“Dr. Jones, the Orion-II was
equipped with cameras, right? Can we see them?” Smith asked.

“Yes. Controller, can we see
images of the astronauts aboard the Orion-II?” Jones asked.

“Yes, sir. Initiating
transmission.”

A few moments later, they started
receiving the images. They were able to see a sharp video of the three
astronauts. Jones grabbed on to keep himself from falling when his legs started
to tremble. Someone immediately came to support him and sit him down in a
chair.

“Houston, the mission was
partially successful,” Russell began. “We jumped to the Draco Galaxy, but we
encountered a few problems. We were able to get the probe into Sater’s orbit,
and we received lots of images before losing contact. After that, we went
through a number of ordeals, but we managed to get back.”

“Commander Russell, everyone here
thought that you all were dead,” Jones responded.

“Yes, we figured as much. We had
to orbit part of a singularity, a huge black hole, which caused us to travel at
close to the speed of light; that, in turn, distorted space-time for us. That’s
why we’re heading back one year later on Earth, but just a few days late by our
clock,” the commander confirmed.

“One year?” Jones exclaimed,
looking at Smith with sadness and dread written all over his face. “Russell,
Allison, Frank... the Stellarium Space Program was cancelled five years after
you all began the mission. You departed in 2036; it’s now 2051. It's been 15
years...”

On the ship, the three astronauts
look at each other, frightened. Allison is surprised, as well. She reminds
Frank and Russell that they were close to that huge black hole for a long time.
That singularity had deformed space-time in such a way that, even if they
hadn’t been moving, time would have passed differently for them.

“15 years? Did you say ‘15
years’?” Russell repeated incredulously, looking at Allison.

Although she hadn’t said anything
at the time, she had imagined that they might get back up to five years after
their departure, or maybe a bit more, but not fifteen.

From Earth, everyone at the
control center observed the faces of the astronauts inside the capsule, who
were trying to understand what was going on. They were interrupted by Dr.
Jones.

“Orion-II, I know this might
sound crazy. I’m still trying to believe it’s true. I can only imagine what you
all must be thinking. Right now, we have to focus on getting you home. We’re
going to do a full scan of the state of the ship and measure all the
parameters.  Then, we’ll have to map out a return plan. I need to confirm your
position and fuel level. Then, I’ll need to make a few calls before you all
complete your reentry,” Jones explained.

“Houston, we’re missing one of
our parachutes. It was damaged during the mission. We can’t reenter aboard the
Orion-II. We only have 4% fuel left, which we think should be enough to get to
the ISS,” Russell said.

“What is your position?” Jones
asked.

“We are approximately three times
the distance between the Earth and the moon away. Allison will send the
coordinates. We’re moving at a low speed away from Earth,” the commander
responded. 

Frank was quiet. He had his face
in his hands, and couldn’t believe the situation. He had said goodbye to his children,
telling them that he’d be back in two weeks. It had been 15 years; he had
missed out on the best part of their lives. And imagine how much they must have
suffered, thinking that their father was dead. He suddenly began punching the
dashboard, yelling, “No! No! No!” He only stopped once Allison came to comfort
him, at which point he let his tears flow; they mixed with the blood on his
face, spread there by his injured hands.

A few moments later, after
watching everything going on inside the ship, Jones picked up the transmission
again:

“Don’t worry, we’re going to get
you back. Everything’s going to be okay. Right now, you just have to stay
calm.”

Dr. Jones ended the call. He
looked at the other controllers. A calm gaze behind an experienced veneer. His
white hair, or what was left of it, was still a mess after having been woken up
early. He looked at the monitor once more, which displayed real-time images of
the crew. Then, he looked at Smith, nodded his head, looked back at the
monitor, and, finally, feeling rather speechless, exclaimed: “What a crazy
situation…”

Image 14
– NASA control center in Houston.

(credits and details on the final page)

The pressroom at the Johnson
Space Center was packed. The reappearance of the Orion-II crew had leaked,
creating a social media frenzy. Suddenly, it was the only thing the world was
talking about. Specialists were invited to share their opinion on the rumors,
and TV audiences were as large as those for events such as the Super Bowl.

But NASA was quick to react. On
the second day of rumors, they called a press conference. The NASA
Administrator herself, Dr. Elizabeth Lark, who held the highest position in the
institution, took on the task of giving explanations.

The press conference began. Live
streaming from Houston. Elizabeth began her announcement:

On
December 1st, 2036, approximately 15 years ago, NASA launched the most
ambitious mission in the history of the organization. In terms of risks, the
Stellarium Space program
—
and, particularly, the Stellarium-12
mission
—
was
riskier than the 1969 moon landing, and even the 2030 exploration of Mars.

The
mission used a revolutionary technology capable of creating a gravitational
surge and, thus, opening a wormhole that would make it possible to jump through
space. With this technology, trips that would normally take millions of years
could be completed in a matter of seconds. However, this technology depended on
the topology of the universe in dimensions that we weren’t familiar with. There
was no way to control where you wanted to go, but there was a way to know where
to jump from in order to get to a certain place. These ‘jump points’ were
discovered through several probe studies, until, one day, the NASA
administrator before me, along with the President of the United States, decided
that we knew enough about these risks to send the first crew.

And,
so, the Orion-II took off, 15 years ago, for a mission that was supposed to
last 15 days. Onboard was an exceptional team of three astronauts: Commander
Scott Russell, Doctor in Astronomy Allison Scheffer, and Doctor in Engineering
Frank Wood.

The
ship never returned. Five years later, in 2041, all operations falling within
the Stellarium Space Program, including probes, were definitely retired. NASA
once again turned its attention to exploring Mars.

That
decision, which, at the time, seemed to be the most appropriate, and which was
aimed at not putting any other astronauts’ lives at risk, has now proven to
have been a mistake.

Exactly
three days ago, on November 17th, 2051, the Orion-II returned and reestablished
contact. The three astronauts are alive and well!

In that moment, the room filled
with noise. Journalists began to throw out questions, all at the same time.
Elizabeth asked them to wait until the end of her announcement. As soon as they
quieted down, she continued.

Her speech lasted more than 30 minutes. Elizabeth explained
everything that had happened on the mission. She talked about the crew’s
arrival in Draco, the asteroids, and the black hole, giving a detailed summary
of everything that they had been through.

 “We have more information, but, at this time, I’d like to
take some questions.”

The reporters began to fight for
the first question. Elizabeth, however, pointed to a young journalist from CNN.

“Mrs. Lark, Chris Allen with CNN.
I have two questions. The first is: is there proof of the astronauts’ entire
experience, including the places they visited? And the second question is: when
are they going to begin their reentry?”

“Yes, the entire duration of the
mission, 20 days for them, was recorded by the five external cameras on the
Orion-II. Everything captured by the ship’s telescope was also recorded, as
well as all the data from the ship’s sensors. The ship also received an immense
amount of information from the probe that orbited the planet Sater. We even
have records of everything they did aboard the Orion-II. It’s important to
stress that they accomplished the mission,” Elizabeth responded.

“And, with regards to your second
question, we are still planning their safe return to Earth. The asteroid that
hit them damaged their parachute system. They won’t be able to use the Orion-II
to reenter. So, we’ve evaluated all of the possible alternatives and we have a
plan in place. I can’t give you any details about that yet, but I hope to be
able to provide more information in another day or two,” the NASA Administrator
concluded.

“Mrs. Lark, Jane Williams here
with Fox News. Is there a chance of the Orion-II not returning, of losing the
crew and all of the information collected during the mission?”

“Yes and no,” she replied. “I
need to be very clear with you all right now. The Orion-II will not be able to
reenter without its parachute system. Furthermore, the ship does not have
enough fuel to get to the International Space Station. Therefore, we have
another plan in place. This plan has risks, but we are confident that we will
be able to rescue them and bring them home. And with regards to the data on the
Orion-II, NASA started downloading it all three days ago. There is a lot of
data which suffered extreme interference due to solar radiation, so it’s a slow
process, but we believe that, in two or three more days, we’ll have all of the
data on the Orion-II here in Houston,” Elizabeth responded.

“Jessica Almeida, Globo News,
Brazil. Mrs. Lark, although astronaut Allison Scheffer is an American citizen,
she was born in Brazil. Has NASA officially contacted the Brazilian government
yet?”

“I spoke with the United States ambassador
to Brazil by phone yesterday. Allison, as you said, is American. The fact that
she has double citizenship does not imply any special relationship, connection
or obligation between NASA and any other country. Nonetheless, we will keep the
Brazilian government informed regarding the rescue mission. We know that there
has been quite a lot of commotion in Brazil, and we won’t ignore that,” said
Elizabeth.

 “Mrs. Lark, this is Amy Hills
from the BBC.  You said in your announcement that the Orion-II crew is doing
well. But how did they react when they found out that they had arrived 15 years
in the future? How are they dealing with that?”

“That’s an excellent question.
They’re doing very well. When they were traveling near the black hole in
Andromeda, they already knew that they were distorting time. However, they
believed that they would arrive home one year into the future, not fifteen
years. That was a shock. But they’re adapting well, as are their families.”

“Robert Miller from NBC. Mrs.
Lark, are you planning to do a live stream of the astronauts from the Orion-II,
given the huge impact of this case?”

“No. The astronauts are under a
lot of stress. Their lives are at risk and we are involved in a rescue mission.
This is completely different from the transmissions that we tend to do from the
ISS, as well as those we did from Mars. We are participating in an ongoing
operation and they are in a hostile environment, far from Earth. Right now,
NASA is focused on rescuing them,” she responded.

“Mrs. Lark, Peter Thompson here
from the New York Times. You said that NASA is downloading all of the data and
video collected by the Orion-II. What have you learned so far about the places
they traveled? If you could talk a little about the planet Sater in Draco...”

“Mr. Thompson, unfortunately, we
haven’t been able to analyze much of that data yet. There is a lot of
information, and we’ve yet to receive the entirety of the data. However, I can
tell you that there are some very interesting findings regarding that planet.
It will be a while before we’re able to make those findings known to the
public. There is material for studies on black holes, galaxies, cosmic
radiation, astrophysics... there will be enough data for at least a decade of
studies and publications. What I can tell you is that the amount of information
captured on this mission is comparable to almost everything NASA has done up
until now. Let me be clear, here: we’re talking about the biggest mission in
the history of mankind. For the first time ever, humans orbited a red giant;
for the first time ever, humans orbited a black hole. For the first time ever,
a crew traveled outside of any galaxy, floating through open space. For the
first time ever, we obtained images of a planet very similar to Earth, in a
different system. In just one mission, we also traveled to the Andromeda
galaxy, which is millions of light years away.”

“And when will NASA disclose, at
least in general terms, the first conclusions from the mission?” the reporter
asked.

“Our goal is to give a conference
next year,” she responded.

 At that moment, the agency’s
director of press relations announced that Elizabeth would answer just one more
question, at which point the press conference would come to an end.

Several reporters raised their
hands and started asking questions all at once. One of the journalists was able
to make himself heard with the following question: “Have we found life beyond
Earth?”

Elizabeth was immediately drawn
to the question, and responded quickly and directly: “I’d like to say that we
have. For now, the only thing we know is that we were much less knowledgeable
about the universe than we thought.”

As the NASA executives left the
room, the journalists continued yelling out their questions, hoping for a
response.

“Is the Stellarium Space Program
going to be re-launched?”; “When do you predict that the astronauts will be
back on Earth?”; “Is the crew as young as they were when they departed?”; “Are
they going to be paid for 20 days of work, or 15 years?”; “Is NASA going to
release any of the images captured by the Orion-II?”

There was still a lot to clarify.
Many unanswered questions. The press conference had put an end to the rumors,
but they knew that there would be plenty of speculation until the crew was back
on Earth.