Chapter 46

It was in late 2003 when the second Atlas 4 rocket was ready for launch. The morning was quite cool on the cape. There had been a hurricane in the mid Atlantic which had faded to a tropical storm just east of Bermuda The sky was still overcast. The massive rocket was sitting on Pad 14. Five hundred million dollars of aluminum filled with liquid oxygen and hydrogen. Only the last ten meters at the top was actually of any importance, the rest merely a tank. The ignition sequence began in earnest as the oxygen met the hydrogen in the burn chambers. A flame shot out that licked the pad and the great rocket began to move. Slowly at first but then relentlessly it accelerated toward the sky. A beautiful tower of flame and metal racing into space. The first stage separated in a little puff and the spent tank fell back to earth as the rocket sped forward. It would be six months until the last fuel was spent maneuvering into the Venusian atmosphere. For now the metal cooled as it plunged into the depths of space.

The payload of this rocket was very different from the last. It was a collection of organisms that shamed even Noah. There were fungi, algae, bacteria, lichens, mold, mildew, its odors, monocots, dicots, fruits, vegetables. The president had mandated the exclusion of both Brussels sprouts and broccoli. There were even a few seeds for trees. Each of these seeds, spores, and organisms had been approved by several committees and each actually had a support group that had forced its inclusion. Many had no chance of survival without cultivation so they were included only in token quantities. The major contributors were the grasses and small desert scrubs: Cacti and the like. A fern was included for the chairman. There were even a few insect larvae, the occasional worm, ant, and the like. The concept was quite simple. No one was sure what would grow and it was reasonably expensive to send out for another species so every possible one was represented. Each specimen was sterilized to remove pathogens, and each was a hybrid. But no one in the know expected these plants to be either disease free or viral free. Just good enough. If evolution had worked on earth by creating lots of models and letting random chance select the winners and the losers, then we should let evolution work on this new world by tossing in a lot of competitors and watching for a winner.

The committee for space exploration had also chipped in for a lander. This was a robot controlled vehicle that would land on the surface and then roam around transmitting images back to earth. It would have an automated chemistry lab on board for sampling the environment. Nothing quite as complex as the human nose but useful still the same. The lab included a silicon chip based mass spectrometer which could analyze gas samples. A small robot arm could pick up samples and drop them into a small solar furnace that could decompose samples into the gas phase for analysis. There was also a high pressure gas chromatography unit that could take samples from the furnace. It was more useful in identifying compounds of higher molecular weight. Some samples could be identified by the infrared spectrophotometer. Between the three instruments a compound could usually be identified.

The vehicle was solar powered so it would store up energy for a day or two and then move to a new location. It would analyze whatever it found and then transmit the information to the orbiting satellite which would relay the information to earth. The vehicle was autonomous and was able to select sites for study, navigate to a new site, maintain a map of its travels, and generally operate independently. When it found a new site it would turn on its television cameras and transmit a panorama to the relay satellite and eventually earth. It would then shut down the TV and work analyzing the atmospheric, soil, and any plant life it found. It was a dull job but someone or thing had to do it.

The vehicle had two television cameras which it used stereoscopically for navigation in addition to two sonar range finders, a radar range finder, motion detectors, a fiberoptic gyroscope for inertial navigation, an four identical computers: one to do the work and three to check the results.

The seeds were stored in a large container that was part of the lander. The container had its own parachute and altimeter. The container was designed to enter the Venusian atmosphere with the lander and then break open at 5000 meters of altitude. The seeds would be dispersed by the winds. The great game of chance that we call life would begin in earnest on the new world.

Chapter 47

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