The Capture of Asteroid X19380A: A Race between China and the United States to Capture Asteroids

By Hong-Yee Chiu and Montana DeBor

The time was between 2123 and 2148. In the 22nd century, most world mineral resources were depleted, and asteroids appeared to be the only locations in the Solar System to look for resources. During the year 2132 U S intelligence discovered that there was a fleet of giant clustered rockets sitting on the launch pads in Jiuquan, the largest Chine

• Language: English
• Publisher: EHGBooks
• Release date: Mar 1, 2018
• ISBN: 9781647840037

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About the Book

The time was between 2123 and 2148. In the 22nd century, most world mineral resources were depleted, and asteroids appeared to be the only locations in the Solar System to look for resources. During the year 2132 U S intelligence discovered that there was a fleet of giant clustered rockets sitting on the launch pads in Jiuquan, the largest Chinese space port, ready for launch. Alarmed, authorities searched old surveillance files and discovered that this fleet was a part of a deep interplanetary space expedition project which began a few years ago. Famed U S space scientist Dr. David Zhang of NSEA (National Space Engineering Administration) examined the surveillance images, and discovered that a newly established Chinese corporation XinTianDi was developing a kind of humongous nuclear devices with powers equivalent to several thousand megatons (billion tons) of TNT equivalent. A Los Alamos nuclear weapon expert Jack Brown was of the opinion that such huge nuclear devices had no places in war. Meanwhile, Dr. David Zhang also discovered that the armada of humongous spaceships was also the work of XinTianDi, and a fleet of spaceships, also humongous, launched earlier were heading towards a 90 mile sized asteroid 8 Flora. U S President immediately ordered the launch of a spy spaceship to 8 Flora to find out the intentions of the Chinese space fleet. This spy spaceship discovered that the Chinese were using autonomous robots to build a base station on 8 Flora. This project was under the leadership of a Chinese top space scientist, Dr. Wei SiMei (Stanley Wilson), a descendent of an immigrant from the United States. Under his leadership, the Chinese were sending minerals from this asteroid. U S immediately began a space project as never seen before, also to establish a mining base on 8 Flora. The project was under the leadership of David Zhang. Thus China and the United States were engaged a fierce but peaceful competition to mine the asteroids.

Yet China was already one step ahead. China had already made plans to bring an asteroid to become a satellite of the Moon. Using nuclear explosives with total blast power of several thousand megatons TNT equivalent, Chinese robots were able to separate a pair of contact binary asteroids, and one component was heading towards the Earth via Mars. Using the gravity of Mars, this component, X19380A, was slowed down enough to be captured by the Moon as a satellite. China renamed this newly acquired Moon satellite GuangHanGong, a mythical palace on the Moon in Chinese mythology. Soon afterwards, U S also used a set of humongous nuclear blasts to send an asteroid to near earth space, and it also become a satellite to the Moon. The United States named the newly acquired trophy Mahina, Hawaiian goddess of the Moon. The United States used the excuse to develop Man in Mars program to mothball Mahina, and secretly planned to use it for military objectives. China, on the other hand, developed GuangHanGong into a space tourist resort. China leased lands on GuangHanGong to several financial groups of the world to develop similar space resorts. The story ends with a maiden voyage of a Chinese space liner, HouYi-Chang? to GuangHanGong.

As for the story of La Boutique Fantistique, please read this book.

Table of Contents

About the Book

Table of Contents

Cast of Characters

Introduction —Asteroids, Robots and Space Travel

Part I. The Search for New Resources in the Solar System

Chapter 1. Discovery of Chinese Activities

Chapter 2. A Secret Project in China

Chapter 3. Projects and Plans

Chapter 4. The Chinese Operations

Chapter 5. The Chinese Expedition to 8 Flora

Chapter 6. America Catches Up

Chapter 7. The Cornucopia Project

Chapter 8. The American Endeavors

Part II Mining Operations on Asteroid8 Flora

Chapter 9. First Batch of Minerals from 8 Flora

Chapter 10. Contact Binary Asteroids

Chapter 11. American Dreams and a Humongous Chinese Explosion

Chapter 12. X19380A Passed by Mars – Destination: Moon

Part III. American Acquisition and Chinese Space Enterprises

Chapter 13. Operation Mahina of the United States

Chapter 14. Touring X19380A and a Space Hotel

Chapter 15. Board Meeting on Space Hotel

Chapter 16. La Boutique Fantistique

Chapter 17. Project Mahina

Chapter 18. Cosmic Hotel ChanGong – The First Travel to an Asteroid

Epilogue

Cast of Characters

(In order of appearance)

Major Characters – United States

David Zhang, M

Head of ADC (Asteroid Development Center), NSEA (National Space Engineering Administration)

Jessica Proust, F

Science Advisor, White House, later became Associate Head of ADC

Ronnie Westin , M

Director of NSEA

Jack Brown, M

Nuclear Weapon Expert, Los Alamos Laboratory

Tavis Claiborne, M

Graduate Student, Expert in Geology

Tracey McKinley, F

President of Jeweler Consortium

Bruce Fenwick, M

Science Advisor, White House (after the tenure of Jessica Proust)

Herbert Chamberlain,M

Security Adviser to the President

Albert Preston, M

President of the United States

Emma Leigh, F

President of the United States after Albert Preston

Minor Characters – United States

Eva Molin, F

Colonel, U. S. Navy Advanced Technology Office

Rosie Mellin, F

Colonel U. S. Air Force Special Operations

Harvey Crest, M

Colonel U. S. Army Corps of Engineer

Janet Carlson, F

Presidential staff

Charlotte Myer, F

Presidential staff

Malcolm Denmer, M

Presidential staff

Michael Monroe, M

Presidential staff

Susie Johnson, F

Presidential Security Adviser

Katherine Smith, F

Professor

Robert Jenkins, M

Scientist

Stanley Hanson, M

Scientist

Jane Lauriston, F

Scientist

Palmer Paine, M

Jeweler consortium employee

Jennifer Kalmer, F

Jeweler consortium employee

Haig Simmens, M

Lawyer

Janice Carpenter, F

Lawyer

Freeman Dyson, M

20th -21st century Scientist, proposed nuclear propulsion

Stainslaw Ulam, M

20th  century Scientist, proposed nuclear propulsion, explosive lens pioneer and expert

Hong-Yee Chiu, M

20th -21st century scientist, proposed separation of binary asteroids

Nancy Keston, F

Asteroid geologist

Samuel Oster, M

Staff scientist, ADC

Major Characters – Chinese

(All Chinese surnames precede given names)

Wei SiMei (Stanley Wilson), M

Director of Technical Division, XinTianDi Resource Acquisition Corporation

Chang WenYu, F

Scientist, asteroid trajectory analysis and navigation

Jiang Ning, M

Scientist, impulse propulsion

Zhang QiuJie, F

President of XinTianDi

Tong ZeGuan, M

Director of Natural Sciences and Engineering Division of Chinese Academy of Sciences

Bai JingNa, F

Asteroid geologist

Zhao DaWei, M

Head of Mechanical Design

Huang HaiBo, F

Interferometer telescope expert

Wang WanLing, F

Scientist, system coordination

Minor Characters – Chinese

Hou ZuNa, F

Politburo member

Ke ZhengYi, M

Politburo member

Xia AnNa, F

Politburo member

Zhou JianGuo, M

Scientist, nuclear power plant

Liu MeiLi, F

Scientist, , robotic design

Guan JuanJuan, M

Scientist, prototype fabrication

Chu XinMin, M

Scientist, testing facility

Bao JiaKun, M

Scientist, near Earth project management

Sun DaTong, M

Chinese President

Zhang YuanPeng, M

Chinese President after Sun DaTong

Jerome Wilson, Wei JieLuo, M

Grandfather of Wei SiMei

Wei DaGuang, M

Father of Wei SiMei

Qian Xue-sen, M

20th century Chinese space scientist

Austin Clamor, M

Purported CEO of La Boutique Fantastique, but no one had ever seen him

Hua YingLun, M

XinTianDi Board member

Han GuoShu, M

XinTianDi Board member

Ai MeiHua, F

XinTianDi Board member

Mao LiLi, F

XinTianDi Board member

Tang KeQiang, M

Astronaut

Xin ZhenAn, M

Astronaut

Lin AnLin, F

Astronaut

Introduction —Asteroids, Robots and Space Travel

This is a science fiction, but it is also not. It discusses scenarios of the future of space travel, and on this respect it is a science fiction. On the other hand, it also discusses plausible futuristic technological and scientific aspects of space travel. Even as a science fiction, it is based on valid scientific principles (there are no space aliens, faster than light travel, aliens in exo-planets, among others). All technological and scientific aspects in this book are not only plausible, but also feasible.

There are two important aspects of futuristic technologies or sciences in this fiction. The first one is autonomous robot technology. The autonomous feature of robot technology described here is certainly futuristic, but autonomous robot technology, now also called A. I. (artificial intelligence), is not. Though still in its infancy, applications of relatively simple robots are already ubiquitous in manufacturing facilities and even in households. In fact, the most recent NASA’s crown jewel, Curiosity, has many autonomous functions built in. The second aspect is the science of impulse propulsion using explosive devices. Much of the current technology in the use of explosives is related to military applications and is largely classified, but the aspects I described are for peaceful uses. Explosives have been extensively used in military engagements, but by far the largest applications are in peaceful consumer applications, typically in the construction industry. Solid state rockets are yet another space application. Much of explosive technologies I described in this fiction (impulse propulsion) either do not exist, or if they exist, they are still in rudimentary stages. The remaining technologies in this fiction are extensions of what are already available today.

This main theme of this fiction is about autonomous space ventures. We humans finally entered the space outside the Earth atmosphere in 1957 through the first satellite ever, the Sputnik of the now defunct Soviet Union, followed by the first man in space, Yuri Gagarin in April 12, 1961, also of the Soviet Union. The United States joined the space club with the Explorer I satellite in 1958 and the first manned flight in 1962. In 1969 another chapter was written; two American astronauts walked on the Moon for the first time in human history, and the lead astronaut Neil Armstrong pronounced, That’s one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind. (During the signal transmission at that time – July, 1969 – the words That’s were garbled up and did not get recorded, and ever since the incomplete sentence has become the edification of the space age for human participation. The original version has since become obscure.)

Those who were born well after 1957 always took communication satellites and man in space for granted, which has since become the keyword for the space age. The follow up space programs which have received the widest attentions were often human related, such as the Space Shuttle (essentially a space cargo plane), the Space Station, and most recently, the much mentioned and still futuristic man in asteroids and even man in Mars project, which are still in the drawing board stage. However, with the current status of economy in the United States and Europe, it is by no means certain when the first human will step on an asteroid (not to mention Mars), if these projects were ever funded at all. China, the new comer in space exploration, has made significant progresses in a number of space projects such as manned and unmanned lunar exploration as well as space stations. However, China has been silent in the exploration of other planets. They may have something in the planning but have not made any announcements other than those already known.

NASA’s Contributions

NASA is known for its manned space program. What are not generally known to most people is, the greatest accomplishments of the space program, synonymous to the name NASA, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, for whom I worked all my professional life, are: weather satellites, communication satellites, Earth resource satellites, explorations of the Solar System, just to name a few; the ubiquitous GPS system also owed its existence to satellite technology. These accomplishments have changed economics and demography of human societies around the world and they have profoundly affected our daily lives. In the areas of science, I would rate the Hubble Space Telescope and planetary (Earth included) explorations (such as Voyager I and II and later probes) among the top accomplishments. To say that these instruments have revolutionized human perceptions of the Universe is but a set of poor words of salute. Research results from these space instruments have fundamentally repositioned humans in the nearly infinite Universe as never before.

I have worked for NASA Goddard Space Flight Center as an astrophysicist and a space scientist for thirty five years, with close to ten books and over 130 scientific publications in the physics and astrophysics area, almost exclusively in exotic areas like neutron stars, quasars, pulsars, black holes, neutrino astrophysics and cosmology. (Incidentally I was among the few who started the field of neutrino astronomy, coined the word quasar and introduced the term black hole to astrophysics.) After my retirement I am still much attached to and fascinated by the space program just as the first day when I began to work for NASA nearly half a century ago.

The Next Frontier in Space: Asteroids.

My inspiration to write this novel was NASA’s recent interest in asteroids. What is the rationale for NASA to visit the asteroids or even to bring one to near earth space? One speculative idea that had been floating around since the last century is to mine the asteroids or even the Moon for minerals. At the way we consume mineral resources on Earth, sooner or later we will exhaust all mineral resources on the surface of the Earth. Optimists place the time in the next century (22nd century), and pessimists place the time in the latter part of this century. Where do we go after that? There are two alternatives. One is to go to the bottom of oceans where presumably a large mineral deposits are waiting for us to explore. another way is to go to outer space such as the Moon or the asteroids. This is the main theme of this book.

One of the greatest scientific results of the Man in the Moon project is perhaps the origin of the Moon: Apparently the Moon shares nearly the same composition as that on the surface of the Earth and the theoretical deduction is, the Moon was once upon a time a part of the Earth, and this part was knocked off the Earth, via a collision by an impinging proto planet (probably about the size of the Moon) during the very early history of the Earth, and the scar left behind is probably the cavity now we called the Pacific Ocean. If so, the Moon is not a good source of minerals. This leaves asteroids and the bottom of oceans as the only sensible places to look for minerals. In this book I will concentrate on the asteroids, because the technology to mine asteroids can be easily applied to the mining of the Moon.

Can We Mine the Asteroids?

The asteroids are located in a belt between 2 to 3 AU (AU is the astronomical unit, the average distance between the Sun and the Earth, roughly equal to 1.49x10⁸ km, or 93 million miles). To move material from the asteroid belt to the Earth, it is necessary to dissipate enough energy so that the material can land on the Earth. The amount of energy is equivalent to the energy sending the same payload to the asteroid, and is quite considerable.  However, the same trick that NASA has been using to send deep space probes to explore the outer planets to save on rocket fuels and to use less powerful rockets, can be used to dissipate this energy. In the case of planet explorers, the trick is to use the gravity of a planet to accelerate spacecrafts. Among the more popular names of this scheme is gravity assist or gravity sling shot. The principle is explained in the text and illustrated in Figure 8 of this book. In 1967 NASA first applied this trick to send two planetary probes, the Voyagers I and II to explore virtually all outer planets except for Pluto (which had been separately explored, but the Pluto has recently been demoted to the rank of dwarf planets). These two spaceships have gained so much speed from gravity assist that they have already left the solar system and are on their way to join the rank of the stars. This trick is now being routinely used to accelerate space probes. This trick has saved huge amounts of rocket fuel, hence expenses.

The trick of gravity assist can be used in reverse to accomplish gravity braking, or gravity resist. To apply this trick of gravity assist to shipping space cargos from an asteroid to Earth, I went back to physics and worked out the orbits of a fictitious cargo payload launched from one of the largest nearby asteroids, 8 Flora, to reach Earth. I found that, using gravity resist from Mars, it is possible to send cargo payloads to Earth economically. With gravity assist from Mars, it is only necessary to send the cargo from 8 Flora to Earth with a launch speed from 1.2 to as much as 3 kilometers per second. The scientific article describing this scheme has been accepted by the British Interplanetary Society for publication in its journal. A speed between 1.2 to 3 kilometers per second can be achieved with mechanical ejection platforms.

A speed of 1.2 kilometers per second is about 3.5 times the speed of sound. The record of the speed of the fastest airplane was achieved in July, 1976 by a Lockheed SR-71 plane, at a speed of 0.98 kilometer per second. There is no doubt that a speed of 1.2 kilometers per second can be achieved now with a supped-up SR-71. Some man-in-space aficionados may come up with the idea of sending would-be Buck Rogers or Captain Marvels to initiate a flight from the asteroid 8 Flora to Earth with a supped-up SR-71. I would advise the would-be Buck Rogers or Captain Marvels to rethink this thoroughly before undertaking this mission. It will take around one and half years for this superhero to travel from 8 Flora to Earth. I do not know if there is any human superhero who can withstand such a long flight, sitting in a one seater supped-up plane, even with enough provisions. The ability to sit on the pilot seat for one and a half year without getting up is not something that the artists of these cartoon comics who had created these super space heroes had even considered.

Practical Problems – Robots, You are Hired

It brings up the topic, why I chose to ignore these wouldbe super space heroes or astronauts in my fiction. In this fiction, the bases on 8 Flora are exclusively constructed and operated by autonomous robots (A. I. robots). Currently, there is no such thing as autonomous robots (except in movies). However, given the research money and interest placed now spent on researches on robots, sooner or later autonomous robots will come into existence. In fact, the most recent Mars rover, Curiosity, has already many autonomous functions. What are the reasons that I choose to leave human beings behind in their comfortable Earth environment and to send robots to do these space feats exclusively? There is a simple reason: We humans are too fragile. We need air, food, shelter, waste disposal facilities, medical facilities, and good psychological as well as social environments. Further, accommodations in space will very likely be extremely Spartan as well as hazardous, to say the least.

Movies and TV series such as 2001: A Space Odyssey and Star Trek series show spaceships as vast oversized and luxurious space palaces. The heroes of the movies are able to jog in a vast corridor, relax in a bar equipped with exotic drinks and food, with an entertainment center the size of a large hotel ballroom, and living in fair sized condo units. The reality is by no means close to the environments depicted in these movies and TV series. The first Man-in-Space Mercury pilot John Glen once commented, paraphrased as, The (Mercury) capsule is so small that you can almost wear it. Even the Apollo capsules that brought astronauts to the Moon and back were barely large enough to allow movements inside the capsule.

The Space Station is no better. Footages on the interior of the quarters of the International Space Station where the astronauts worked showed that the space is very cramped and the astronauts lived among cluttered equipment with very little space to maneuver. If it were not for the absence of gravity that allows the astronauts to be in any position, the work space would have been considered unfit for humans to work. We can imagine what kind of living accommodations will be for astronauts in a Mars or 8 Flora bound space ship. Before I delve into this problem, let me describe some other necessary requirements for human subsistence in space environments.

First, space environment is not friendly, and in certain senses, quite hostile. On Earth, we are not only protected by our atmosphere, but also by the magnetic fields of the Earth. Our atmosphere stops the harmful ultraviolet rays as well as high energy particles in the lower energy range (which are most numerous and most of them come from the Sun). The magnetic field traps high energy particles in the Van Allen radiation Belt, which would have otherwise come down to the lower atmosphere and hit the surface of the Earth. In space, it is almost inconceivable to provide these protections.

If there is a solar storm, as it often does, the astronauts will be directly hit by the high energy particles. During some severe solar storms, few hours of exposure to the impinging radiation will have been lethal. Besides, in the long and lone journey to the planets (Mars and asteroids in particular), there is relatively little things to do but to wait. Typical space experiments such as measurements of interplanetary magnetic fields, micrometeorite impacts, and other typical space measurements have already been automated and are routinely carried out by automated machines. Worse than that, there is very little social interaction with earthbound humans except among three or four fellow astronauts. Currently, astronauts in the Space Station can communicate directly and almost instantly with the Earth, with time delays no greater than those encountered in long distance phones. However, in a Mars bound or an 8 Flora bound spaceships, even this luxury is not possible. In the first few hours to a day, they can probably talk directly to the Earth in almost real time. A day or two later, when they are about one million kilometers (622,000 miles) away, because of signal travel time, one way transmission will take a little more than three seconds, and the delay in two-way communication will be at least seven seconds. Soon after, this delay keeps on increasing, first one minute, then two minutes, until the delay reaches almost half an hour. Try to respond to your partner or spouse on Earth with a time delay of one minute and you will find out the hard way the consequences.

When the astronauts are close to Mars, the signal delay time will be 20 minutes or more. Ask a simple question like: Have you had breakfast yet? and you will receive the answer probably by mid noon. The answer will probably be: Dear, I had my breakfast a long time ago, and I am now preparing my lunch, how about you?  By the time the conversation is completed, it is dinner time already. A day is spent in just small talks like Have you had breakfast yet? Human causal communications are not accustomed to such long delays in responses. Very soon the word snail will be applied to all forms of communications.

How about subsistence needs such as air, water and food? Without air supply, a human will die in five minutes. Without water and