The Aquila Mission

By Doug Cook

It is 2023. Finally, the Altair is ready for launch; man is destined to walk on Mars. Commander Coby Brewster, Dr. Abby Denton, Pilot Vik Ivanov, and Dr. Ellie Accardi have been specially selected to enter deep space and study the asteroid Bennu and the comet 125P in preparation for mankind’s first voyage to the red planet. The crew face thirteen long months in space, and Brewster wants things done by the book.
But in the face of the unknown, even the best-laid plans count for little. When an electrical discharge almost kills Vik on Bennu, a leaking sample core tube threatens to infect the crew, and the telltale signs of sabotage appear, fear begins to fester. Each astronaut—an expert in his or her field—starts to wonder whether they’ll ever make it back to Earth. Their only hope is to trust in, rely on, and love one another.
The Aquila Mission is both a thrilling story of man’s first journey beyond the Earth-Moon system and a carefully researched proposal for such a mission in the real world. Rigorously scientific and emotionally stirring all at once, The Aquila Mission is sure to appeal to fans of hard science and adventure alike.
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Comments on The Aquila Mission

London Marion, Kindle reader 5.0 out of 5 stars
The research must have been staggering and is deserving of the highest rating possible. I'll be looking for anything else by this author. Thanks for an entertaining story.

Rick Zucker, VP Explore Mars
...well written...story line is very entertaining... I had more and more trouble putting it down. I kept wanting to read more...When are you going to negotiate the movie rights? I'm serious. I feel it's that good. Is there a sequel in the works?
Matt Russell, President Colorado Springs Astronomical Society
...really liked it! ...attention to detail and specs were mind blowing...I felt like I was actually there on-board with the crew...Can’t wait to read the next one.

Charles Kiskiras, Excelis/ITT/NASA
Great Book! ...the last chapter was amazing.

Jack Fox, Director NASA Swamp Works (ret), CTO Humanity Innovation Labs
I just finished your book all in one sitting. I really enjoyed it. You did a super job technically on the likely hardware, programmatics, training, operations, space science, and of course, the NASA jargon. You also did a super job on the storyline with plausible conflicts, love interests, back stories, and mission problems...I expect to see this as a movie someday! I look forward to your next book.

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The Apollo 8 mission preceded the Apollo 11 crew landing but was arguably the single most daring and aggressive crew mission in space history. Apollo 8 had the first crew to launch on a Saturn V booster. Apollo 8 had the first crew to leave Earth orbit. Apollo 8 had the first crew to enter orbit around another body in the solar system. Apollo 8 had the first crew to restart the Command/Service Module main engine to leave lunar orbit for return to Earth. Apollo 8 had the first crew to navigate back to Earth and reenter the thin blue line of Earth’s atmosphere at over 40,000 km per hour.

The proposed Aquila Mission crew will endure greater risks and set a bold new series of mission firsts beyond the Earth-Moon system. Our robotic exploration of the solar system has exponentially increased our knowledge of planets, moons, asteroids, and comets. A robotic mission gathers data but can only partially fulfill humankind’s nature to explore in person. A human’s senses and ability to reason with the unexpected cannot be replaced by a robotic mission operating remotely with long two-way communications delay with Earth. A crewed deep space mission will truly feed the human spirit and our nature to explore the unknown.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Doug Cook
• Release date: Apr 23, 2018
• ISBN: 9781370243037

Doug Cook

Doug Cook is retired from a thirty-four year career as a petroleum geophysicist. He is now dedicated to writing, astronomy, and climate change awareness. Doug participated in ten years of deep-water submersible studies on chemosynthetic communities of life in the Gulf of Mexico . These extremophile organisms relate to Doug's passion for astrogeology and exobiology. He is a member American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG), Chair AAPG Astrogeology Committee, Society of Exploration Geophysicists (SEG), Vice President Colorado Springs Astronomical Society, member of the Planetary Society, National Space Society, Explore Mars, and Adjunct Astronomy Professor PPCC. He has two daughters and lives in Colorado with his wife Elizabeth.

Book preview

THE AQUILA MISSION

Doug Cook

Copyright ©2018 by Doug Cook

Colorado Springs, CO

Smashwords Edition

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. Please do not participate in or encourage the piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Purchase only authorized editions.

Cover art by Fiona Jayde

This book is dedicated to my wife Elizabeth, whose wisdom and patience helped make this book possible.

This book was in part inspired by Ron Howard and Tom Hanks, whose directors’ vision of space history gave us From the Earth to the Moon, Apollo 13, and In the Shadow of the Moon. Further inspiration came from authors Andy Weir, who gave us The Martian; and Robert Zubrin, who set that stage with the Mars Direct scenario to get us to Mars.

The book also was inspired by robotic missions to asteroids and comets especially Dawn, OSIRIS REx, and Rosetta. The spirit of human exploration will take us there in our next step into deep space.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

PREFACE

PROLOGUE

CHAPTER 1 Aerobraking Maneuver

CHAPTER 2 The Path to Space

CHAPTER 3 Election and Appointment

CHAPTER 4 The Challenge of Long Duration Deep Space Missions

CHAPTER 5 Astrogation and Engineering

CHAPTER 6 Crew Selection

CHAPTER 7 Module Management

CHAPTER 8 Life in the Tank/Life in the Sim

CHAPTER 9 Sleek Stacks and Smooth Sailing

CHAPTER 10 Pre-Launch Jitters

CHAPTER 11 Crew Arrival and Altair Assembly at ISS LEO

CHAPTER 12 The Path to Discovery

CHAPTER 13 Objective Bennu

CHAPTER 14 Objective 125P

EPILOGUE Arcadia Planitia

ABOUT THE AUTHOR




Introduction: A Bold Proposal

Space Settlement Symposium 2016 (S3) | New Worlds 2016 Conference[¹]

Session—SPACE HIGHWAYS: INTER-SOLAR TRANSPORTATION

Renaissance Austin Hotel

Austin, Texas

November 4, 2016 10:00 AM CDT

The New Worlds Space Settlement Symposium 2016 was organized by Deep Space Industries founder Rick Tumlinson and planetary physicist Dr. Phil Metzger. Participants in the symposium included The Case for Mars author Dr. Robert Zubrin, space academics, space industry engineers, NASA scientists, and NASA Associate Administrator William Gerstenmaier. The author’s proposal, presented at the Space Settlement Symposium and in this book, is not implied to be the position of the symposium, its organizers, NASA, or any corporation in the space industry. This book of creative nonfiction presumes that this mission proposal has taken root in the near future and sets the path for humanity’s future in space. As a means to visualize and experience the proposed mission, the author uses a cast of fictitious characters to breathe some life into the mission proposal.

A Bold Proposal for a Crewed Deep Space Mission to Rendezvous with and Sample an Asteroid and a Comet.[²]

After a forty-four year hiatus since the landing of Apollo 17, we have now developed the technology to send a crew to deep space beyond the Earth-Moon system, to boldly go where only robots have gone before. We have not sent a crew beyond low Earth orbit since Apollo. We do have significant technology dedicated to crew habitat systems and long duration life support on the International Space Station (ISS). Technology today enables crewed deep space missions but we need vision and commitment to fund such a mission. We will look at heavy lift vehicles, crew modules, and mission costs. Science objectives are important to justify any deep space mission. The main purpose of this book is to propose the Aquila Mission, a crewed asteroid and comet rendezvous mission. Such a mission could be the first to send a crew to a heavenly body beyond the Earth-Moon system. This mission would serve as a necessary intermediate step to landing a crew on Mars.

On September 12, 1962 President John F. Kennedy gave the We choose to go to the moon speech. When? By the end of the 1960s! That gave America eight years to accomplish the goal. We had not yet developed the technology and had not even sent John Glenn to orbit the Earth! Apollo crew missions to the Moon were accomplished on schedule and were perhaps the greatest achievement of humankind to date.

The Apollo 8 mission preceded the Apollo 11 crew landing but was arguably the single most daring and aggressive crew mission in space history. Apollo 8 had the first crew to launch on a Saturn V booster. Apollo 8 had the first crew to leave Earth orbit. Apollo 8 had the first crew to enter orbit around another body in the solar system. Apollo 8 had the first crew to restart the Command/Service Module main engine to leave lunar orbit for return to Earth. Apollo 8 had the first crew to navigate back to Earth and reenter the thin blue line of Earth’s atmosphere at over 40,000 km per hour.

The proposed Aquila Mission crew will endure greater risks and set a bold new series of mission firsts beyond the Earth-Moon system.

The Apollo deep space system with its mighty Saturn V booster served for nine crewed missions to the Moon with six successful landings. The Saturn V could have been further developed for even bolder deep space missions. But the success of the Apollo Moon landings brought complacency. Senator William Proxmire, a lifelong critic of the space program, convinced congress to kill the Saturn V booster and Apollo system. Proxmire ensured that the entire Saturn V and Apollo production and assembly lines were shut down in the early 1970s. This also brought the destruction of the machinery and tooling so that production could not be restarted.

The Space Shuttle was developed as a cheap, reusable, space transportation system to replace Apollo. Importantly, the Space Shuttle did serve as the main workhorse for lifting modules and crews for construction of the ISS. The Shuttle also accomplished important science missions including the launch and maintenance of the iconic Hubble Space Telescope. However, the Shuttle was never cheap and could only fly to low Earth orbit. The Space Shuttle was retired in 2011 after accidents cost the lives of the Challenger crew in 1986 and the Columbia crew in 2003.

The Russian space program has relied on the proven Soyuz crew launch system since it was developed in the 1960s. The Soyuz system has been the crew launch workhorse since the retirement of the Shuttle. The Russian space program culminated with the long lived Mir space station in low Earth orbit. They do not have a deep space crew launch system.

The European Space Agency (ESA) has an active space program with the versatile Ariane booster system. The system is designed for communications and science satellites. They have not developed a crew launch system. Both Russia and ESA are active participants in ISS support and development.

China has developed and successfully flown the Shenzou crew launch system since October 2003. They have launched Tiangong-1 and 2 as small prototype low Earth orbit space stations not intended for long term crew habitation. China has embarked on a robotic exploration of the Moon. In 2017, they announced that they aspire to send a crew to the Moon by 2036. To date, their space program has not enlisted international support. There have been some overtures of future cooperation with Russia.

U.S. Presidents after Kennedy have tried to rally support for developing a new post-Apollo deep space crew program culminating in a Mars crew landing. Given the twenty to thirty year commitment, tremendous expense, ill-defined progress map, and lack of the Apollo era Cold War space race imperatives, we have only studied the idea of sending a crew to Mars. No proposal since Apollo has inspired any crewed mission beyond low Earth orbit. The ISS has been a huge project with huge budgets. It has garnered international and industry support. ISS has reaped great rewards in space science, engineering, technology, and long duration human space flight medicine. We have done the rehearsal for two decades. It is time to progress in human space exploration to our next big step into deep space.

Our robotic exploration of the solar system has exponentially increased our knowledge of planets, moons, asteroids, and comets. A robotic mission gathers data but can only partially fulfill humankind’s nature to explore in person. A human’s senses and ability to reason with the unexpected cannot be replaced by a robotic mission operating remotely with long two-way communications delay with Earth. A crewed deep space mission will truly feed the human spirit and our nature to explore the unknown.

Arguments have been raised that humankind must soon colonize other worlds to insure our survival as a species. An asteroid only fifteen kilometers in diameter impacted Earth sixty-five million years ago and wiped out over half of the species on Earth including the dinosaurs that had reigned for some hundred and sixty million years. By contrast, humans as the species Homo sapiens, evolved from other Homo ancestors only about 150,000 years ago. Our technological advancements are increasing exponentially. Only sixty-six years elapsed from the Wright brothers first powered, sustained, and controlled airplane flight in 1903 to the Apollo 11 Moon landing in 1969.

Carl Sagan, in his 1994 book Pale Blue Dot, said, Every surviving civilization is obliged to become spacefaring—not because of exploratory or romantic zeal, but for the most practical reason imaginable: staying alive… If our long-term survival is at stake, we have a basic responsibility to our species to venture to other worlds.

Stephen Hawking, in a 2001 interview with the Daily Telegraph, said I don’t think the human race will survive the next thousand years unless we spread into space. There are too many accidents that can befall life on a single planet. But I’m an optimist. We will reach out to the stars.

We do have the technology today to send a crew to deep space. However, there are still some areas for development to assemble a deep space vehicle to sustain a crew on a long duration mission. SpaceX is developing its Dragon capsule for a crew launch on the proven, reusable Falcon booster. The first Dragon crew launch is currently slated for June 2018. The Falcon/Dragon system regularly flies unmanned resupply missions to ISS. It is expected to become an ISS prime crew launch system. This will bring some relief for the Soyuz which has been the only crew launch system serving the ISS since the retirement of NASA’s Space Shuttle in 2011.

The Dragon crew capsule is designed not just for service to low Earth orbit. It is designed for atmospheric reentry from deep space. The SpaceX Falcon Heavy launch system, capable of sending a crew to deep space, will use twenty-seven proven Merlin engines on three Falcon booster cores.

In December, 2017, SpaceX had its first Falcon Heavy stacked on historic Launch Pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center.[³] This pad was used for Apollo launches and the Falcon Heavy is now the largest booster in service since the Saturn V. On February 6, 2018, the long-awaited launch was a spectacular sight for the crowd of over one-hundred thousand enthusiasts. The successful simultaneous landing of its reusable twin boosters was like a scene from sci-fi. The unmanned Falcon Heavy had an attention getting payload. Elon Musk launched his red Tesla coupe to Mars to demonstrate that Mars is the long term goal of SpaceX.

In September 2017, SpaceX announced that it will be developing a much larger BFR (Big F***ing Rocket)[⁴] System and eventually phasing out Falcon and Falcon Heavy. The reusable BFR rocket and spaceship will stand 106 meters high. It will be larger than Apollo. It will be powered by thirty-eight currently unproven Raptor engines fueled by liquid methane and oxygen. The rocket will be the most powerful ever built, capable of launching 150 tons to low Earth orbit. The spaceship is projected to carry about 100 people to Mars on each trip. Details on deep space life support and Mars surface support are lacking. For this book, we will assume that Falcon Heavy is the proven heavy lift deep space architecture that SpaceX can offer in the time frame for our proposed 2023 mission launch date although the BFR may replace Falcon Heavy by then.

NASA with prime contractor Boeing is planning the maiden voyage of the Space Launch System (SLS) with its Orion crew capsule. The SLS system is being developed specifically for deep space crew missions. The SLS main booster uses four Space Shuttle main engines and twin solid rocket boosters scaled up from the Space Shuttle. The Orion crew capsule design outwardly looks like a much larger version of the Apollo crew capsule. However, its modern design is specifically for deep space missions beyond the Moon. The Orion capsule was test launched in December 2014 on a United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy booster. The all up SLS unmanned maiden launch is currently scheduled for 2019 with a first crew launch expected between 2021 and 2023. With will and additional funding, that schedule could be accelerated.

A deep space crew vehicle configuration for a long duration mission does not consist of just a crew capsule and its service module. A deep space crew vehicle must include a habitat module, expanded life support, crew consumables, propulsion system, and propellant. The configuration will need to be assembled in low Earth orbit. Overarching concerns are to minimize mass and maximize radiation shielding. A minimum system masses about thirty-five metric tons including consumables for a long duration mission. To reach Earth escape velocity, it will require an additional 125 metric tons of propellants. The fueled deep space configuration will then mass about 160 metric tons total. No single launch vehicle can lift that mass out of Earth’s gravity well. The SLS/Orion system can lift seventy metric tons to low Earth orbit (LEO) with a per launch cost of about $2 billion dollars. The reusable Falcon Heavy/Dragon system can lift fifty-three metric tons to LEO with a projected per launch cost of $125 million dollars. The deep space crew configuration will require four load launches. Mission assembly will be in low Earth orbit in proximity to ISS. A deep space mission should budget about $7 billion to include research and development. With this cost, the mission needs broad industry and international support. Such an aggressive and costly deep space mission will require commitment from the highest level of government. This would be nothing short of JFK’s We choose to go to the moon speech and commitment of Congress, NASA, international, and space industry partners such as we have with ISS. With the license of creative nonfiction in this book, our fictitious President David Trane accomplishes that commitment from the top down.

Neither SLS/Orion or Falcon Heavy/Dragon currently have a mission funded to send a crew into deep space. Vision and defined goals are lacking. A Mars crew landing is a grand vision but perhaps not achievable until the mid-2030s. Such a mission must be accomplished in supporting steps just as Apollo stood on the accomplishments and lessons from the Mercury and Gemini missions.

On October 5, 2017, Vice President Mike Pence held a meeting with the restored National Space Council. He proclaimed a poorly-defined goal, We will return American astronauts to the Moon—not only to leave footprints and flags, but to build the foundation we need to send Americans to Mars and beyond… The Moon will be a stepping stone, a training ground, a venue to strengthen our commercial and international partnerships as we refocus America’s space program toward human space exploration.

In this vein, there is a current proposal to construct the Deep Space Gateway in lunar orbit or cislunar space using the SLS for construction launches. The proposal would test long duration missions beyond low Earth orbit and ostensibly serve as a staging post for an eventual crew mission to Mars. Former ISS Commander Terry Virts argues that NASA does not need another space station.[⁵] The Deep Space Gateway is an extremely expensive, unnecessary staging post since we have the ISS established.

There are other indicators of nations wanting to head back to the Moon. That is not an inappropriate goal for advancing human space flight but a focus on the Moon could leave deep space beyond the Moon unfocussed and unrealized for perhaps decades. In 2018 to 2021 timeframe there are reports of China doing a robotic sample return mission; and SpaceX with Falcon Heavy/Dragon and NASA with SLS/Orion have set sights on sending crews around the Moon. In the 2025-2040 timeframe there are reports of Russia doing a PTK-L crew landing on the Moon with a new crew capsule and lunar lander, China aims to unilaterally land a crew on the Moon, and ESA plans to establish a Moon Village.[⁶]

The Moon is already becoming the target domain of private enterprise. According to the Wall Street Journal Russia, China, and the EU are aiming at the moon—but US companies will probably get there first… Anyone hoping for a new moonshot would be wise to put their faith in private economy, rather than government-sponsored missions. [⁷] Moon Express has planned lunar missions and the business model to go to the Moon to begin harvesting resources for humanity.

Sending a crewed mission to the Deep Space Gateway will require seventy-three percent more delta-v propulsion energy than sending a mission directly on a Hohmann trajectory between Earth and Mars. Direct mission steps to get humans to Mars will require the sponsorship of NASA and international partnerships. The huge international commitments to send crews to Mars might be best begin with investment today. Private enterprise, with companies like Lockheed Martin and SpaceX, is already touting their advancing technology to get crews there.

A Mars crew flyby was once proposed as a step to Mars landing. Imagine being on the mission for 400 days and just getting a quick look at the red planet. This is not good science or inspiring. The ESA Rosetta robotic mission had two asteroid flybys and inspiring science achievements with its comet rendezvous and landing. The world was transfixed with the daily news following Rosetta. We can greatly exceed Rosetta’s accomplishment and fire humanity’s exploration spirit with a 400 day crewed deep space grand tour mission. This bold mission will visit an asteroid and a comet between the orbit of Earth and Mars—the Aquila Mission. This bold mission will be a natural step to bridge the gap from low Earth orbit to the Lockheed Martin orbiting Mars [Crew] Base Camp[⁸] proposed for 2028. The proposed Aquila Mission timeframe is defined by the objective target opportunities in that year.

There are 150 million asteroids larger than 100 meters in diameter and more than 170 short period comets to choose from, but how do we narrow that down to a candidate list? JPL’s Small Body Database Search Engine[⁹] was used to narrow the search to achievable orbits by constraining orbit variables: a- semi-major axis; e- eccentricity; i- inclination. A short list of paired comet and asteroid rendezvous candidates in the time frame from 2021 to 2028 is presented in Table 1 below.

Any candidate pair will need a close examination of orbital dynamics and fuel considerations for mission realization. The selected crew mission objectives are to visit asteroid 101955 Bennu and comet 125P/Spacewatch on an aggressive schedule for a mission launch in 2023. Asteroid Bennu is an Earth crossing threat. It is a 500 meter diameter, Type B asteroid, rich in carbon and organics. It has a 1/1800 chance of Earth impact in 2182. For all these compelling reasons, Bennu was chosen as the objective of the OSIRIS REx robotic sample return mission launched on September 8, 2016. This OSIRIS REx mission paves the way for our crewed mission[¹⁰].

The Aquila Mission proposes to use both the Falcon Heavy and SLS heavy lift vehicles and the Orion crew capsule. At this time, the Orion has undergone more development and testing than the Dragon capsule. Importantly, Orion has flight tested its heat shield for reentry from deep space. Our mission reentry velocity will exceed the 40,000 km per hour reentry speeds of Apollo. The SLS will lift the crew in Orion along with the primary propulsion system and propellant in a single launch to the vicinity of ISS. Falcon Heavy will lift the crew habitat and docking modules and on-orbit staging propulsion system with propellant in three load launches. The deep space vehicle configuration, named Altair, is proposed to be assembled near ISS in low Earth orbit. The Altair deep space vehicle design proposed in this book is the recommendation of the author. It is not endorsed by NASA, SpaceX, Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Bigelow, or any other space manufacturer or agency.

A crew of four is proposed: a commander, a pilot, and two mission specialists. Their proposed attributes and qualifications are defined with the introduction of fictional crew members in Chapter 2. They should be involved in the design of the crew habitat module to optimize it for their long duration mission. NASA recently initiated a crew habitat study tapping six companies including Bigelow, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Orbital ATK, Sierra Nevada, and NanoRacks.[¹¹]

It is proposed to develop and use a new design for a deep space MMU (Manned Maneuvering Unit) as a radical upgrade of the MMU used by Bruce McCandless on shuttle mission STS-41B in 1984. It would serve our crew to explore an asteroid. It would be modified to include an MSL derived instrument arm, a high resolution camera, and a manipulator arm for sample collecting.

A robotic ROV (Remote Operated Vehicle) is proposed for comet science and sampling. An ROV is needed because of the hazard of comet debris from comet outgassing expected at perihelion. The ROV would be operated by the crew standing off a safe distance of about 100 kilometers from the comet. Their proximity allows first person control with no time delay. Control from Earth is impractical with a time delay of about twenty minutes. The ROV operated from the crew module is analogous to deep sea ROVs used for exploration and construction in extreme water depths with the operator safe and dry on board a tender ship. The ROV would sample the comet and return to the deep space vehicle. The ROV comet lander could be derived from the now abandoned NASA ARM (Asteroid Return Mission)[¹²] vehicle design with science instruments and sampling capability redesigned, downsized, and used for comet science. Onboard proximity sensors and advanced AI operating systems for the comet lander and MMU will assist the astronaut crew with close proximity work.

The Aquila Mission is proposed to launch on July 19, 2023 as asteroid Bennu closely approaches Earth. Bennu rendezvous is on mission day 39. The crew spends forty days studying and sampling the asteroid and then performs a burn to intercept comet 125P. On mission day 135, the crew is approaching 125P near Mars orbit. On mission day 181, they rendezvous with the comet and spend thirty-nine days studying and sampling it. Another precise burn sends the crew home to Earth. Earth return landing for the crew is on August 20, 2024, mission day 398. The Aquila Mission honors the legacy of Apollo with truly great human exploration.

Acknowledgements

My advisor and dear friend Tony Randazzo gave me the inspiration to publish. I am indebted to Jack Fox for providing critical and constructive comments. Readers Haley Cook-Simmons, Adam Berry, and Mike Hulver helped guide my way. Renowned author Philip Athans provided objective critique and advice with edits to prepare this book for publication.

Disclaimer

The mission and deep space vehicle design proposed in this book are the recommendations of the author. They are not endorsed by NASA, ESA, FKA, JAXA, CSA, SpaceX, Lockheed Martin, Boeing, ULA, Orbital ATK, Blue Origin, Bigelow, or any other space manufacturer or agency. I have changed corporation names in the fictional parts of the book. In the interest of keeping the proposed mission design realistic, I have used specifications within the bounds of existing booster, capsule, and habitat designs. In that regard, my reference to existing designs intends to respect and honor the manufacturers. The author does not claim originality on any technology presented in the proposed Aquila Mission.

PREFACE

The Path to The Aquila Mission

I grew up during the Cold War and the Space Race. I remember my parents talking about the Soviet Sputnik while we were in our backyard in Michigan. The summer lightning bugs put on a light show as we were looking up at the recently launched Echo satellite (a large silver balloon) marching across our star strewn sky. The stars and the space program dominated my thoughts from then on. I watched Alan Shepard’s launch on a small black and white TV. It was set on a rolling cart in the gymnasium. I watched sitting on the floor with our whole Fairplain East Elementary School. Similarly, we watched JFK’s We choose to go to the Moon speech under the threat of the Cuban Missile Crisis. We ran duck and cover drills, naively thinking that this would protect us from global thermonuclear war. To a seven year old, it sounded exciting.

The space race marched on. Back in the school gym, we watched John Glenn’s first US orbital flight followed by the other Mercury launches. I relished the Life magazines with astronauts glorified on the cover. The Gemini program was covered in detail on the evening news: Jules Bergman reporting. We eagerly anticipated the upcoming Apollo program. The tragedy of the Apollo 1 fire shook me but I couldn’t imagine this keeping the US from beating the Soviets to the Moon.

Clyde Tombaugh, the discoverer of Pluto, was an early inspiration for me. At age twelve, I’m downstairs listening to the Beatles on my new headphones and 8-track tapes while I’m grinding my first telescope mirror. I had purchased a six-inch Newtonian Reflector kit from Edmund Scientific with money from my paper route. Dad, a ceramic engineer educated on the GI Bill, helped me with the equatorial mount made of washing machine parts from his shop at Whirlpool. He pioneered industrial robotics at Whirlpool and could engineer a fix on almost anything. The telescope tube was made from duct pipe. The telescope worked great! I cherished looking at the Moon; M42, the Great Nebula in Orion; M13, the Great Globular Cluster in Hercules; M57, the Ring Nebula in Lyra; M31, our sister galaxy in Andromeda; the double cluster in Perseus; and M1, the Crab Nebula—I imagined I could see the neutron star pulsar at the center of M1. I studied the evolution of sunspots by projecting the sun on a piece of white cardboard rigged in place with bent coat hangers. I was going to become an astronomer! I had a thick skin to be a standout geek in our town.

My favorite book was the 1968 publication The Promise of Space by Arthur C. Clarke. It still sits on my bookshelf. I would agree with historians that 1968 was a dark year—Viet Nam War protests, Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy assassinated. The event that saved 1968 was the Apollo 8 mission orbiting the Moon! We had broken out of the bounds of Earth orbit and beat the Soviets to the Moon. The Apollo 8 crew inspired the world on Christmas Eve 1968 with their telecast reading from Genesis. The Moon’s craters sped by in the televised capsule view port. Apollo 9 flew with the LM dancing in Earth orbit. On a family vacation to Florida on spring break in April, 1969, we saw the incredible Apollo 10 on Pad 39A waiting for its May 1969 launch as the final dress rehearsal for the Moon landing.

On July 20, 1969, our family was with out of town guests enjoying a glorious summer day at the beach on Lake Michigan. I pleaded with my parents to get us home in time to watch the Apollo 11 Moon landing. Our guests left the beach reluctantly. I would not be denied! We did get home in time to watch the landing and Neil Armstrong’s first steps on the Moon, transfixed by our new 25" color TV hi-fi stereo console.

Somewhere in a box in our basement, I have a picture of Oceanus Procellarum on the Moon taken while the Apollo 12 crew was out on their first EVA. I took the slide photo with my telescope and an SLR camera body at prime focus. Geeky!

My Apollo enthusiasm did not wane with subsequent missions as it did with the rest of America. Senator William Proxmire got the entire Apollo program and the mighty Saturn V cancelled past the Apollo 17 mission. In 1974 as a freshman at the University of Michigan, the great Werner von Braun, the father of the Saturn V, and Carl Sagan, the father of the Voyager program and the Mars Viking landers, stoked my enthusiasm with their lectures—free and open to the student population.

By sophomore year, the reality of bleak employment opportunities for post-Apollo astronomers dashed my hopes. I switched majors to oceanography and earned my BS and NAUI scuba instructor certification. Armed with that, I headed to Key Largo, Florida[¹³] to make my fortune teaching scuba, underwater photography, and running dive charters. Don’t take my Kodachrome away! On the dock after a dive charter I met Elizabeth, my wife of thirty-seven years. She too was an astronomy geek. I was smitten. We married July 4th to celebrate our independence. After a few lean seasons in the dive tourist business, she whispered grad school in my ear. In 1984, I received my MS in geology and started my long career in petroleum geology.

The highlight of my career combined my past life in oceanography with deep ocean submersible diving experiences. These dives shared some facets of space flight in respect to life support and Apollo era instrumentation. My first attempt at writing a book is unfinished and notionally titled Professional Courage. This abridged excerpt relates my submersible research diving experience.

Jolliet Field Development 1985-1988 First Production: The Jolliet Field, my project for five years, was the deep water oil production world record holder for a few years. My employer, Conoco, was the operator with two industry partners and I was the sole geoscientist for Conoco on the development project. I was thrown into that hot seat one year out of grad school and no Gulf of Mexico oil exploration experience! Our Exploration VP at that time said Cook—we’re gonna wear you so thin that if you were a shirt we could see right through you! After five years of that project, I tended to agree with his prediction. The experience led to my submersible diving experiences[¹⁴]—my only career opportunity to combine oceanography and geoscience. There is a big oil and gas seep mound on the east side of Jolliet field known to industry and science as Bush Hill. It was discovered in a required seafloor hazard survey associated with the first exploration wells drilled on lease block Green Canyon 184.

Harbor Branch Oceanographic Johnson-Sea-Link Submersible (NOAA image) The Sea-Link manipulator arm and sampling system were the inspiration for the Deep Space Manned Maneuvering Unit (MMU) introduced for the Aquila Mission.

Above, I am in the front two-man acrylic sphere of the Johnson Sea-Link[¹⁵] submersible working in 2600 feet of water. There is no daylight below 1000 feet. The lights-off descent reveals an exploding universe of bioluminescent organisms in the water around us. It is a first person experience in the deep sea, which I liken to what an astronaut would experience exploring an asteroid on an MMU.

The Sea-Link front sphere holds the pilot and a scientist like me. The rear chamber holds two more personnel—the co-pilot and another scientist-observer. The rear chamber is aluminum with small ports and emergency controls to bring the sub up if the two in front are unconscious. The sub has lead-acid batteries that take about four hours to charge and afford a limit of about four hours per dive. That allows two dives per day with battery charging in between. The sub has a 3000 feet operation maximum and a 6000 feet crush depth rating. Both chambers of the submersible use Apollo style technology to control CO2 buildup. A fan circulates air through lithium hydroxide canisters to scrub CO2 to keep the air breathable for a maximum of about twenty-four hours in an emergency.

In the front of the sub, I operate the video camera, pan, rotate, zoom, focus, start and stop, and record. In the picture above, I have the camera rotated at the crew sphere for a selfie! I direct the pilot to take rock and sediment samples, which we document for later study, and place in labeled sample chambers. I tell the pilot what rocks to pick up with the robotic arm and into which sample container to drop it. I have to take detailed notes to know where it came from and which sample container it’s in. We also take push cores in the soft seep sediment. Often the cores got to the surface bubbling oil and gas, and sometimes still solid methane hydrate. Hydrates are studied as a possibly commercial energy source.

Today, it is theorized that seasonal increases of methane in the atmosphere of Mars is related to possible biologic activity forming methane hydrates. Again, my submersible diving experience is analogous to Apollo moonwalking astronauts playing geologist on the moon. All samples are documented. The astronauts had Houston CAPCOM radio link and Houston to take notes and direct them. For the Sea-Link dives, we had the Edwin Link research vessel as our mission control. They monitored us with a sonar signal voice-link and range finder. The Edwin Link could stay right over us and guide us with their GPS to follow the mapped dive plan. Obviously, the sub didn’t have GPS and you could only see a maximum of fifty feet with the bright spotlight. It would be easy to get lost if the mother ship didn’t follow its baby. The sub also has sonar to find objects (fault scarp, boulder, wreck, etc.) ahead of you that you can’t see visually until you’re right on top of it. The sonar generates a science fiction-like high pitched sound effect when it’s in operation. Feee-feee-feee-feww-feww-feww… The sound waves echoing back paint a sonar picture for the sub pilot to interpret.

Name connections: Edwin Link, the inventor of the strobe light, designed the submersibles and Johnson and Johnson Pharmaceuticals funded them. The Sea-Link subs were built around 1970 and had some glory on the front cover of National Geographic magazine. More importantly, they have been enablers of much academic research in all facets of oceanography. The Johnson and Johnson Corporation had hoped to get a return by collecting live sea stuff and try to find new organic compounds that are bioactive in previously unknown ways. New cancer treatment? New drugs? New poisons? The research vessels that were used to berth the submersibles bear the respective names Edwin Link and Seward Johnson—more name connections. I use past tense for the submersibles since Johnson and Johnson have mothballed them and found more lucrative business for both research vessels in the oil industry.

The submersible business puttered along for about thirty years with scientists hoping to scrape together research funds and Johnson and Johnson hoping to make ends meet with fuel and repair bills. They did a great job keeping the science instrumentation on the subs state of-the art so the science was usually cutting edge stuff. Two Johnson Sea-Link submersibles were made during the Apollo era and still have Apollo era controls and life support systems like CO2 scrubbers. One sub was berthed on the research vessel Edwin Link and commonly worked in the Gulf of Mexico.