L.M,P.

S 1

Lucas M., Peter S.

Ms. Apuli
C of C LA Core 4
18 January, 2019

The Journey to Mars

April 15, 2010​ - “Early in the next decade, a set of crewed flights will test and prove the
systems required for exploration beyond low Earth orbit. And by 2025, we expect new spacecraft
designed for long journeys to allow us to begin the first-ever crewed missions beyond the Moon
into deep space. So we’ll start -- we’ll start by sending astronauts to an asteroid for the first time
in history. By the mid-2030s, I believe we can send humans to orbit Mars and return them safely
to Earth. And a landing on Mars will follow. And I expect to be around to see it.” (Barack
Obama)

August 19, 2034​ - In the future, Earth will no longer be habitable, and we will have to go
live on Mars. The problem is, we do not know how to get there. My name is Dmitri. I am by
blood Russian. My family moved to the states with me, when there was political unrest in the
government. During school/college, I was always fascinated with space, and my dream job was
to be an astronaut. When I heard that SpaceX had job opportunities, I applied. When I got to the
interview, they asked where I went to college, which was MIT. I studied aerospace there. They
asked what job I was applying for, and I said aerospace engineer/technician (aerospace), and an
astronaut. They accepted the application, and then I went out to celebrate. While I was
celebrating, I met a man who said: “You want a drink?”
“I’ll just take water,” I replied.
“My name is Darius White, and I work at SpaceX.”
“No way!!” I exclaimed, “I just got a job at SpaceX!”
“What are the chances of that!? What’s your position going to be?”
“I am an engineer and astronaut. How about you?”
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“I am a pilot, so it looks like we might end up going on a mission sometime in the near
future.”
August 25, 2034​ - My first day at the job was great. One of the employees showed me to
my office, which was rather spacious. When I got settled in, my team and I were given our first
assignment, which was finding a strong enough source of fuel to get a rocket to Mars. At first, I
thought that solar panels could work. I pitched it to my team, and they agreed with me. We then
put a solar-powered rocket through a simulation from Earth to Mars and back. After we were
through with the simulation, we received good news and bad news. The good news was that the
solar panels would work, but it would take way, way, way too long to charge up the battery to
have enough energy to get us to Mars and back. After that, my team and I called it a day, so we
could continue are search tomorrow.

August 26, 2034​ - While I was sleeping, an idea came to my head. What happens if we
used a nuclear reactor for an ion thruster? I ran straight to my team and presented them my idea.
They liked the idea, so then we put it through a simulation. Not only did the nuclear thruster have
enough to get there and back, but it had a lot extra. My first assignment was successful, and I
was looking forward to going on my first mission.

August 27, 2034​ - When I got to work, I went straight to training for my upcoming
mission. There I met the crew, and it turns out that Darius is going to pilot our rockets. “Long
time no see.” The training was grueling and long. The hardest part for me was definitely the RCS
trainer, where we had to control a rocket using simulated small propellant. During the next
month or more, I was going to be training hard for my first mission which is set for some time in
October.

September 28, 2034​ - 13:86 GMT: World War III just started. China declared war on the
U.S. because it wanted oil from America. Russia quickly followed China, then the EU declared
war on Russia, and now Europe and Asia are a wild mess. The rocket launch will still be taking
place though and is scheduled for 3 days.
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October 1, 2034​ - 15:35 GMT: It was time to get ready for lift off. We got into our space
suits, and then we entered the rocket. I had only done simulations, so I had never actually been in
an actual rocket ship. My heart was racing with excitement and anticipation of the long journey
ahead of us. “You ready yet?” yelled Darius.
“As ready as I'll ever be,” I replied nervously, knowing that this could go really well or
really bad. Darius was going to pilot the ship, which was heading straight toward Mars. Only 10
months until we get to the red planet. I noticed that they had already brought on my belongings
including an iPod with all of my favorite songs to keep me entertained on the journey. I also saw
the photos of me and my mom and one of my best friend. The first step was getting our ship to
orbit Earth.
12:00 GMT: 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 LIFTOFF. We start the two-minute long burn until
we separate the first stage. The rocket was shaking like crazy, which made the ride a bit
uncomfortable, but it didn’t take too long. I felt a hint of nausea, but all of the simulations
prepared me for the rocky start, so it quickly went away. We then make another burn, to get to
the final orbit. Here we wait for about 8 days.

October 25, 2034​ - The week passed by as we got to enjoy the beautiful planet from high
up, being able to see how the oceans spread far below us. After a long, long week of orbiting
Earth, we finally had enough speed to head towards Mars. We made our last burn to get out of
the Earth’s orbit, and then we started our journey. Next came the most boring stage, which was
getting through the 54.6 million kilometers of empty nothingness between us and Mars. The
good thing though was that I was able to do things that I usually don’t have time to do. I was was
able to learn a card trick I never got around to learning, I started to learn German, and I was able
to read. Thanks to all this stuff, I wasn’t bored.

December 31,​ ​2034​ - As we were celebrating the New Year, we heard an explosion. We
looked outside and we saw that one of our solar panels broke. Luckily SpaceX had supplied us
with extras, and since I was the engineer, I had to go outside and repair the panel. I had practiced
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for this situation before. I reviewed everything that I learned from training, and then I went out.
The view was absolutely humbling. I was just a tiny spec floating in nothingness. There were
stars and other planets in the far distance. I never felt so big and small at the same time. The fix
was easy and luckily it went smoothly. I just had to take off the old solar panel, and put on the
new one. We were lucky this time though. So much can go wrong in situations like this and we
were so far away from anyone else. One bad move and we would be lost forever.

August 5, 2035​ - 300 days later, and we saw Mars. Finally! The planet was so different
than Earth. We started the burn to get to orbit around the red planet. It was more beautiful than
what I expected. It was a sphere, that had an orange-red color. We saw some brown clouds, that
we expected to be dust storms, and realized how unsafe we would be out there. I couldn’t happen
to smile as I thought about all of the alien stories I had heard growing up. The little boy in me
glanced around wondering if we would find something. The scientist in me knew how ridiculous
this sounded and was excited to collect rock samples. I could not believe how lucky I was to get
to be here, to see another planet so close. We then stayed in orbit around this for about a week
before the lander separated from the capsule. I turned on the “Space Odyssey” theme song and
started laughing with Darius. The moment felt beyond real.

August 12, 2035 ​- 10:37 GMT: We decided that we were ready to enter the lander. We
had to wait a couple of hours before we reached the appropriate spot to land.
13:54 GMT: The separation was successful, but now there is no turning back. The lander,
which was named the Owl, was taking us down to the Red Planet. The burn that caused us to
de-orbit began, and we started our descent. We heard a quiet bang, which we all have heard
before. We entered the Mars atmosphere at the speed of sound. Darius and I were excited. We
started the landing phase, which kicked off by slowing down enough to not overheat the lander
and then release the shield. We started the burn to slow us down, and we successfully landed. I
was glad that Darius was in charge of flying because he not only moved the ship slowly, but he
also was confident about what he was doing.
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Sol 1​ - I took my first step onto the sandy planet. I still could not believe how far away I
was from home and how amazing this was. My shoes sunk in a little as the sand was disturbed by
something other than wind for the first time. We started by exploring the surrounding lands, and
it reminded me of the deserts back on Earth. We collected a bunch of samples from the surface
and put them into a container on board the lander. I remembered going to the beach when I was
younger and collecting seashells. This was so much more intense and cool. We sent the home
base on earth a signal to tell them that we had successfully collected samples. Then we waited 14
minutes for the signal to get there, and for them to reply back. We then went exploring for
anything that can help us in our goal to live on Mars. We found this cave, which we then decided
to explore. Inside, we found vegetation which was an amazing discovery. “I thought that plants
were not able to grow here?” I questioned.
“Turns out that we were all wrong about that,” Darius said with a grin, “We should
probably get some sample to take back with us.”
“So we could examine them and run some tests?” I asked.
“Exactly” Darius replied. We then grabbed some of the plants and took a closer look at
them. They were not like any plant we saw on Earth. The stem was just green and basic, but the
leaves were a dark green, and they twisted in weird ways around the stem. They were also tiny
purple flowers at the plant's tip. I did not want to return to the rocket because there was probably
so much to explore, but it started to get dark and cold, so we had to go back.

Sol 2​ - When I woke up, the first thing I wanted to do was to contact SpaceX and tell
them of our successes. We tried connecting, but there was no answer. After a while, we got a
signal, but the person on the other side had an odd Russian accent. They told us that something
was wrong and that we had to get back to Earth immediately. We were confused, so after a
while, we tried to reach out again, but we received the same message. We decided then to go get
some final samples and then head back to Earth. I then dropped a picture of my mom on the
planet and covered it slightly with some sand. I knew it wouldn’t last but it was what she asked
of me when she first found out I was going. We then packed up and started the burn to get us
back into Mars’ orbit.
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August 14, 2035 ​- We re-docked with the main capsule, and started the burn to get out of
orbit. We then had the make 300-day journey back to earth.

June 9, 2036 ​- We had reached earth’s orbit, and were about to make the burn to re-enter
the atmosphere when we heard a groan. Darius and I talked about it and decided it was nothing.
13:43 GMT: We had finished preparing, and started the burn to de-orbit. 15 seconds in
when suddenly, the engine stopped. We were on a straight course to Russia, and we couldn’t do
anything about it, because the people at ground control had shut off the rocket's systems. Darius
and I were doing whatever we could to get the engine back up, so we can land at least near the
U.S., but it was useless. We had already seen the rocket's system storing the atmosphere, and we
were at too fast of a speed to do any other maneuvers. We were about 10,000 meters above sea
level, when our parachutes opened up, which made me feel relieved knowing whoever was
controlling this wanted us back in one piece. I then looked outside, recognizing my hometown of
Russia, knowing that whatever came next was not going to be good.