Tori Varr checked the readouts on her consoles and counted down the moments before a brief course correction would bring them into optimum position to take advantage of a shunt from Mars. Navigation was carried out almost automatically, but she was poised to take control should anything go wrong. A gentle alarm sounded and the onboard computer counted down to the correctional burn, advising the crew to remain seated.
Tori smiled as for a moment she could have been on the hypersonic transport crossing the Atlantic, not hurtling into unknown space. At that moment the countdown ended and she felt the acceleration press her back into the seat, hearing the hull of the ship flex and creak gently. In a brief moment, it was over and the alarm ended. Skarvald was first to his feet, stretching like a man who had just risen from a brief nap. He marched quickly to the viewport in the Gungnir shuttle, staring out into the blackness.
Nascha Anischinaabe came back to look over the charts with Tori and as usual, Tom sat at the controls of the shuttle, like a part of the ship itself. It would be some days before the Heimdall would reach the first major obstacle; the asteroid belt and Nascha wanted to ensure that no opportunity for exploration was overlooked.
A path through the belt had been broadly mapped out by advace probes, but the belt was constantly shifting and some of the materials in the belt ranged from the size of a car down to a handful of pebbles. The big rocks could be detected and avoided easily, but the smaller unmapped debris could be both a hazard and a revelation. Nascha was determined to gather samples of the rocks as they travelled through and spent the next few hours poring over the charts of the area.
Soon, the Heimdall reached the edge of the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter and in order to ensure a safe passage through the field, the ship shut down the main drive and navigated a course through the scattered debris. Even at this distance, Jupiters gravitational field would still manage to stir the field and impacts among the asteroids are frequent, causing a cannon effect as the rocks smashed into each other, sending fragments flying.
During the hiatus while the course is re-plotted, Astrogeologist Nascha Anishinaabe decided to take out one of the remote handling craft so she could make some tests on the surface of a quiescent asteroid. With no detectable gravitational field effecting a landing was hazardous, so she positioned the craft at a reasonable distance from the rock, guided by Tom at the helm of the main ship. Coring projectiles fired into the soft crust to return samples to the craft. Time was short however and she only had a brief opportunity to make a few tests before it was time to return to the Heimdall for the next leg of the journey. Nascha hoped that the samples she collected will reveal evidence of certain elements and minerals that have been found in meteors found on Earth.
Tor Skarvald, had successfully managed to navigate the ship though the outer perimiters of the asteroid belt and had expected a clear run to the point in space where they would begin the orbital injection to Jupiter. Last minute flight checks were carried out and the crew readied their stations for the countdown. Astrogator Tori Varr was triple checking the course for the next section of the route, a close approach to Jupiter. As she did so, she opened a radio channel to listen to Jupiter singing across the ether, the trills and squeaks of her radiosphere calling across space in a cacophony of eerie sound. In the main control cabin, everybody stopped what they were doing to listen to the strange sounds, a chilling reminder to the amount of radiation the huge planet was putting out, right across a broad spectrum, from simple radio waves to lethal gamma radiation and microwaves. Just then, the cabin lit up in a series of warning lights as the collision alert sounded. Skarvald quickly went to the forward scanners, to check what could be heading towards them. Tom activated the shields across the forward section of the Heimdall, shutting out the view through the ports. Jupiters spectral song had been shut off and the sound was replaced by the steady beep of the doppler radar. The screen showed a familiar image coming into view, one of the long range cargo shuttles was drifting powerless in the darkness ahead.
Tor Skarvald, had successfully managed to navigate the ship though the outer perimiters of the asteroid belt and had expected a clear run to the point in space where they would begin the orbital injection to Jupiter. Last minute flight checks were carried out and the crew readied their stations for the countdown. Astrogator Tori Varr was triple checking the course for the next section of the route, a close approach to Jupiter. As she did so, she opened a radio channel to listen to Jupiter singing across the ether, the trills and squeaks of her radiosphere calling across space in a cacophony of eerie sound. In the main control cabin, everybody stopped what they were doing to listen to the strange sounds, a chilling reminder to the amount of radiation the huge planet was putting out, right across a broad spectrum, from simple radio waves to lethal gamma radiation and microwaves. Just then, the cabin lit up in a series of warning lights as the collision alert sounded. Skarvald quickly went to the forward scanners, to check what could be heading towards them. Tom activated the shields across the forward section of the Heimdall, shutting out the view through the ports. Jupiters spectral song had been shut off and the sound was replaced by the steady beep of the doppler radar. The screen showed a familiar image coming into view, one of the long range cargo shuttles was drifting powerless in the darkness ahead.
A brief scan of the shuttle revealed considerable damage to the forward section of the hull, evidently an asteroid strike, judging by the way the hull had been dented and folded like paper. Skarvald immediately requested a wide scan of the immediate area, but whatever had struck the shuttle had either disintegrated, or had continued on its chaotic way through the system. Luckily, the impact had only damaged the forward section of the craft, destroying the robotic guidance units and leaving the shuttle to drift aimlessly. Under normal circumstances, the Heimdall would remotely control the shuttles at the point of rendezvous and transfer the cargo to the main ship on arrival at the Saturn systems, so it was still possible to operate the cargo hold of the damaged shuttle from the main ship. Tom Dachron and Skarvald detached the Command Shuttle Gungnir from the Heimdall and approached the cargo ship, using the remotely operated handling arm inside the bay to ease out the containers of mission equipment. The Gungnir edged closer, opening the dorsal bay doors to accept the cargo. Back on board the Heimdall, Tori Varr watched the operation carefully, continually checking the scanners for further asteroid actvity. At this distance from the sun, its light was faint and visual identification of potential threats was almost impossible, so she relied on the doppler and Lidar scanners to scan the vacinity around the two ships. Soon though, the precious cargo was safely onboard the Gungnir and the shuttle was docking with the main ship. After the shuttle had been secured to the Heimdall once more and the new cargo checked for damage, Skarvald declared the all clear and ordered the mission to proceed.
With the crew at their stations and the course laid in for Jupiter, the magnetic shielding was tested again in anticipation of a pass close to the dangerously active gas giant and the massive ion drives kicked the ship forward, grazing the gravitational field of the largest planet in the system.
Some anxious hours later, the Heimdall left the grip of Jupiters jealous hand, accelerated by the close approach to her gravity well and set course on the final leg of the momentous journey to Saturn. Tor Skarvald, Mission Commander, was again first to leave the specially shielded hull section of the ship, to make his way to the command centre and check the ships systems fully. In order to make such a close pass to the Jovian magnetosphere and bathe in the deadly radiation emitted from the planet, the Heimdall was fitted with massive magnetic field generators and a special module at the centre of the ship, in which the crew could take refuge during the dangerous manoevre. The field generators shrouded the ship with a pulsing, glowing field which strobed brightly as it passed through the waves of radiation, reminding Skarvald of the aurora borealis on the cold winter evenings as a child in Norway. He had been specially chosen as mission commander due to his extensive study of Saturns moons and had been responsible for the development of several remote probes sent to the system prior to the manned mission. He was particularly interested in studying the Norse group, a part of Saturns known 63 satellites, named after Norse mythological figures. He often jokingly referred to the group of 29 moons as the most 'scientifically important', but usually only in the presence of his native american colleague Nascha Anishinaabe, who had been involved in naming and studying the Inuit group, which reflected eskimo mythology. The quiet and reserved astrogeologist would be among the first to actually land on the surface of some of the larger satellites and Tor held her expertise in this difficult field in utmost respect.
She had been responsible for planning the route through Saturns systems, along with astrogator Tori Varr, to ensure the moons with greatest scientific value were visited during the brief stay in the system. Now the excitement aboard the ship had become almost palpable as the 5 astronauts began the final checks of the equipment and the ship as they came ever nearer to the mysterious jewel of the Solar System and her eerie necklace of glowing satellites.
Rhea had been chosen as the first port of call for the mission as it had been established some time ago, that the moon had its own ring, or series of rings, just like it's mother planet. Nascha desperately wanted to see the ring firsthand and as soon as the vibration of the engines stopped, she had foregone the usual safety protocols and unslung her harness, making for the observation port. With Skarvalds protests ringing in her ears, she carefully descended the access corridor to the lower decks and scrambled to open the hatch to the viewing port. Her enthusiasm was rewarded by a halo of bluish light at the edge of the port as the automatic polarising shields, appalled at the brightness from the icy face of Rhea, had cut in. She stood at the edge of the port, gazing out at a scarred and cratered face, gleaming brightly in the reflected glare of Saturn. Already, onboard instruments would be analysing the light in various spectrometers and scanners, but Nascha could tell instinctively that the bluish glow suggested a fine atmosphere of oxygen, liberated from the ice and clouding the face of Rhea. Skarvalds voice across the intercom startled her and snapped her out of her musings and she turned swiftly to head back to the command deck. He would be readying the first probe to land on the surface and she needed to be on hand to examine the surface for suitable landing sites. Within minutes of her arrival on the main deck, Skarvald was busily issuing orders and she soon found herself strapped into the acceleration couch, waiting for separation of the Gungnir shuttle for a close approach. Within hours she would be able to examine samples of that spectral ice and with luck, float amongst the ethereal ring of dust and debris surrounding Rhea. She clenched her fist again, reflexively, imagining the cold of alien ice on her palms.
The initial scans of Rhea suggested that moon was almost entirely composed of ice, mixed with rock into a kind of celestial snowball. The lack of internal heating from a molten core meant that there was no volcanic activity, so the surface remained largely unchanged apart from the action of meteor impacts. Rhea, like its sister moons Dione and Tethys, was tidally locked towards Saturn. One side permanently looked towards Saturn whilst the other was shrouded in night. Nascha Anishinaabe had selected an equitorial region for the initial probe landing, the small package of instruments had touched down on the frozen surface and had immediately began to relay back readings from its sensor array. But this wasn't enough for the impatient astrogeologist, to be so close to the moons surface and unable to touch it was tantalising. The minimal gravity would make a manned excursion extremely hazardous, but the remotely operated manipulator vehicle would make an ideal substitute. Nascha and chief pilot Tom Dachron had separated one of the mobile laboratory units from the Heimdall and Nascha directed the manipulator or 'claw' as Tom brought the lab as close to the surface as he could manage while establishing orbit. Nascha brought the Claw lower and lower towards the pitted surface of Rhea, whilst it was not an ideal surface to land on, she was going to try and obtain a sample using the Claws' projectile coring mechanism. Gently, she guided the Claw to within a few meters of the surface, hovering over a comparatively smooth area. The coring device was a tethered, rocket powered drill which would be fired down into the ice to recover a large chunk of material. Nascha selected a spot which glittered brightly in Saturns light and thumbed the release. The image on the screen jolted slightly as the recoil from the explosive charge shook the Claw slightly, then a cloud of bright particles sleeted in all directions as the drill hit home. She activated the coring head and the device edged itself into the crust of Rhea, drilling down a further metre into the deeper ice. After a few minutes it reached maximum depth and Nascha activated the thermal coils around the barrel to help free the drill and then began to rewind the tether, hauling back the drill and its ice core.
Some hours later, after the lab and manipulator had docked with the main ship again and the initial scans of the samples had been made, Nascha was able to examine the cores directly. In the lab, suited and protected from the icy core, she looked at the long cylinder of material, spotted and flecked with tiny grains of grit, rock and dirt. The core had been taken from the upper edge of Rhean crust, so the majority of the material contained in the ice would be from meteor impacts and Nascha was keen to see what the grit contained. Under microscopic evaluation, she could see the fractures and cracks in the ice and the paths the fragments of meterorite had briefly carved into the surface before the -240 degrees fahrenheit cold had frozen over once more, trapping the particles like flies in prehistoric amber.
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