Leaving Earth: Flash Fiction
Project Reflection
The purpose of "Leaving Earth: Flash Fiction" was to write a short fictional story that was rooted in physics concepts that were studied in class. Students were required to study a specific planet or moon that they were interested in, including temperature, atmosphere, distance from Earth, rotation size, health risks, possible outpost locations, and travel time. Everyone designed rocket ships and ship manifests, detailing exactly what would be brought to the planet and how much it would weigh.
I studied the Moon for my project and compiled a research document with a partner that was full of information. Together, we spent about two weeks compiling data, studying rocket missions/speeds, and brainstorming possible story ideas for our story setting. I learned how to determine escape velocity, energy usage, and fuel efficiency. Overall, the background research in the weeks leading up to writing helped tremendously when it came time to draft my story. I was able to include scientific facts and elements into my story in an attempt to make it more realistic. Through research and writing, I learned a great deal about recent advancements in space travel as well as how much has changed since the Apollo missions. I was able to use both science and imagination to tell my story, and I really enjoyed learning about real science and physics concepts that were important.
I entered this project with a very excited and intrigued mindset towards space travel. It fascinates me and I am always engaged when learning about it. I loved having the opportunity to research planets, rockets, and space travel because it is very relevant to our world today. Many companies are rapidly advancing in the field of space travel, and I think that a combination of knowledge and imagination are important when discussing the possibilities of exploration.
I studied the Moon for my project and compiled a research document with a partner that was full of information. Together, we spent about two weeks compiling data, studying rocket missions/speeds, and brainstorming possible story ideas for our story setting. I learned how to determine escape velocity, energy usage, and fuel efficiency. Overall, the background research in the weeks leading up to writing helped tremendously when it came time to draft my story. I was able to include scientific facts and elements into my story in an attempt to make it more realistic. Through research and writing, I learned a great deal about recent advancements in space travel as well as how much has changed since the Apollo missions. I was able to use both science and imagination to tell my story, and I really enjoyed learning about real science and physics concepts that were important.
I entered this project with a very excited and intrigued mindset towards space travel. It fascinates me and I am always engaged when learning about it. I loved having the opportunity to research planets, rockets, and space travel because it is very relevant to our world today. Many companies are rapidly advancing in the field of space travel, and I think that a combination of knowledge and imagination are important when discussing the possibilities of exploration.
Isolation
Mike Dexter woke with a start. He looked around the dark room. A light flickered in the corner that dimly lit the cabin of the space ship. It had been a mere ten days since the USS Pedicabo Eam had landed on the moon. In the darkness, the light breathing of Mike’s fellow astronauts was the only sound to be heard. The silence was beautiful, considering that Mike had spent the last ten days arguing with twenty people who were in no position to be in space. Mike Dexter had a Ph.D. in Aeronautics and it had been his dream to go to space since he was seven years old. Due to a meteor rapidly descending towards earth, a panicked staff at NASA, and a tragic misunderstanding, Mike Dexter had been sent to the moon with a group of people who had been rejected from NASA’s Astronaut Candidate Program. And on this cold, dark, day on the moon, Mike basked in the glory of silence and distraction from the fact that the twenty passengers on the USS Pedicabo Eam would surely be the cause of his demise.
Mike sighed, knowing that he was far better off than his brothers and sisters back on Earth who were waiting for their deaths to come at the hand of a giant rock shooting through space, headed straight for the planet. Three days before the launch of the USS Pedicabo Eam, German astronomers noticed a 430m wide asteroid flying through space with the power to destroy life on Earth. On a course headed directly for the planet, the asteroid would create over 3,000 megatons of TNT energy across the planet upon impact. There was instantly worldwide panic that sparked an impromptu mission to the moon to inhabit and populate should the Earth be destroyed.
No one had been to the moon since the Apollo missions, so NASA used the same technique to land as they had many years before. The spaceship was launched at 11.2m/s in order to be able to escape earth’s orbit. Launching the rocket was fairly simple, so long as it reached a high elliptical orbit in order to fall to the moon. The rocket was scheduled to land on Mare Tranquillitatis near several lunar pits. NASA had been conducting research and planning to inhabit the moon by occupying moon caves, or pits beneath the lunar surface. Lunar pits intrigued NASA because the wide, deep caves, especially those under overhangs, were useful to protect from radiation, major temperature fluctuations, dust, and meteorites. While living in moon caves would have been a great opportunity, the engineers at NASA had failed to install building materials within the ship in order to be able to create shelters on the surface. In the wake of the panic at NASA, shelter had been overlooked and the crew was forced to stay within the confines of their ship that felt smaller by the minute as tensions grew larger.
Mike, surrounded by people, had never felt more alone. His job was to take control and assist in the reproduction of the human race. In the midst of this deep sorrow and responsibility, the only thing that Mike wanted was to be home.
As the crew awakened, Dexter, captain of the mission, called the room to attention, “Astronauts! It is 0600 hours and I expect that you will remain calm and respectful to one another today. We do not have connection with NASA, as the computer glitched upon landing and we have no mechanical engineers aboard to fix it. The crew will conduct research and experiments as usual today. I will be on the surface of the moon to explore a few moon pits to see if there is a possibility for surface habitation. Do not kill each other while I am gone.” The passengers of the USS Pedicabo Eam rolled their eyes in unison and returned to their personal business.
Mike Dexter began to put on his space suit required for moonwalks. The suit and life support backpack weighed about 180 pounds on Earth, but was much lighter in the moon’s gravity, which is nearly one sixth of Earth’s. The suit was mechanized with an oxygen reader, temperature control valve, communications assembly, primary and secondary oxygen tanks, a camera, a radio, a control module, and eleven layers of protection and material. Once Dexter was dressed, he stepped into the airlock to exit onto the lunar surface. Mike walked out onto the moon and checked his oxygen and pressure levels. Mike had disobeyed protocol by not making an exact plan for his short journey. Typically, and especially on a high pressure mission such as this, astronauts were discouraged from taking leisurely walks on the surface. Mike didn’t care. He walked about fifty meters south of the lunar module towards a moon cave.
Slowly, Mike looked over the edge of the pit. About 3,000 meters wide and 100 meters deep, it looked dark and beautiful against the surface of the moon. Mike thought of all the lives aboard the USS Pedicabo Eam that he was responsible for. He thought of the future of the human race. He thought of his family back home. Mike looked down, picked up a rock the size of his fist, and smashed the glass helmet cover of his suit. His lungs expanded rapidly and the air was expelled through all his airways. The air that rushed through Dexter’s nose and mouth had a cooling effect on his body and the temperature of his face dropped below freezing. He stumbled backwards, dizzy as he felt his sweat and blood sizzling and boiling away. His foot slipped and he dropped down into the dark abyss of the moon pit. The cold feeling of death gripped Mike Dexter as he died of oxygen deprivation. He lay still on the lunar surface, leaving behind a crew and ship full of passengers to die soon after.
Mike sighed, knowing that he was far better off than his brothers and sisters back on Earth who were waiting for their deaths to come at the hand of a giant rock shooting through space, headed straight for the planet. Three days before the launch of the USS Pedicabo Eam, German astronomers noticed a 430m wide asteroid flying through space with the power to destroy life on Earth. On a course headed directly for the planet, the asteroid would create over 3,000 megatons of TNT energy across the planet upon impact. There was instantly worldwide panic that sparked an impromptu mission to the moon to inhabit and populate should the Earth be destroyed.
No one had been to the moon since the Apollo missions, so NASA used the same technique to land as they had many years before. The spaceship was launched at 11.2m/s in order to be able to escape earth’s orbit. Launching the rocket was fairly simple, so long as it reached a high elliptical orbit in order to fall to the moon. The rocket was scheduled to land on Mare Tranquillitatis near several lunar pits. NASA had been conducting research and planning to inhabit the moon by occupying moon caves, or pits beneath the lunar surface. Lunar pits intrigued NASA because the wide, deep caves, especially those under overhangs, were useful to protect from radiation, major temperature fluctuations, dust, and meteorites. While living in moon caves would have been a great opportunity, the engineers at NASA had failed to install building materials within the ship in order to be able to create shelters on the surface. In the wake of the panic at NASA, shelter had been overlooked and the crew was forced to stay within the confines of their ship that felt smaller by the minute as tensions grew larger.
Mike, surrounded by people, had never felt more alone. His job was to take control and assist in the reproduction of the human race. In the midst of this deep sorrow and responsibility, the only thing that Mike wanted was to be home.
As the crew awakened, Dexter, captain of the mission, called the room to attention, “Astronauts! It is 0600 hours and I expect that you will remain calm and respectful to one another today. We do not have connection with NASA, as the computer glitched upon landing and we have no mechanical engineers aboard to fix it. The crew will conduct research and experiments as usual today. I will be on the surface of the moon to explore a few moon pits to see if there is a possibility for surface habitation. Do not kill each other while I am gone.” The passengers of the USS Pedicabo Eam rolled their eyes in unison and returned to their personal business.
Mike Dexter began to put on his space suit required for moonwalks. The suit and life support backpack weighed about 180 pounds on Earth, but was much lighter in the moon’s gravity, which is nearly one sixth of Earth’s. The suit was mechanized with an oxygen reader, temperature control valve, communications assembly, primary and secondary oxygen tanks, a camera, a radio, a control module, and eleven layers of protection and material. Once Dexter was dressed, he stepped into the airlock to exit onto the lunar surface. Mike walked out onto the moon and checked his oxygen and pressure levels. Mike had disobeyed protocol by not making an exact plan for his short journey. Typically, and especially on a high pressure mission such as this, astronauts were discouraged from taking leisurely walks on the surface. Mike didn’t care. He walked about fifty meters south of the lunar module towards a moon cave.
Slowly, Mike looked over the edge of the pit. About 3,000 meters wide and 100 meters deep, it looked dark and beautiful against the surface of the moon. Mike thought of all the lives aboard the USS Pedicabo Eam that he was responsible for. He thought of the future of the human race. He thought of his family back home. Mike looked down, picked up a rock the size of his fist, and smashed the glass helmet cover of his suit. His lungs expanded rapidly and the air was expelled through all his airways. The air that rushed through Dexter’s nose and mouth had a cooling effect on his body and the temperature of his face dropped below freezing. He stumbled backwards, dizzy as he felt his sweat and blood sizzling and boiling away. His foot slipped and he dropped down into the dark abyss of the moon pit. The cold feeling of death gripped Mike Dexter as he died of oxygen deprivation. He lay still on the lunar surface, leaving behind a crew and ship full of passengers to die soon after.