Solar Express (7 page)

 

7

T
HE
T
IMES OF
I
NDIA

30 M
ARCH
2114

(D
ELHI
) “India will not brook interference with its Dyaus Improvement Project.” Those were the key words from Prime Minister Narahaj Ravindra yesterday, after the Sinese Minister for Space made a statement suggesting that two space elevators were more than sufficient for the world. The Sinese minister had also suggested that greater priority should be placed on regional environmental remediation, especially after the recent tropical cyclone that destroyed another five percent of the coastal lands of Bangladesh.

In response, Ravindra went on to say, “If necessary, India will place its Indra scramjet missiles on immediate alert.”

The Indra has a range of over fifteen thousand kilometers at a speed of between Mach 10 and Mach 16, approximately twenty thousand kph, depending on altitude, and can be programmed to strike within a ten-meter square, allowing a combination of high speed and surgical precision. The Prime Minister's statement was read by many as a thinly veiled suggestion that India would not hesitate in targeting heads of states if any action was taken against extension of the partial space elevator currently used by India …

Noram President Dyana Yates weighed in on the controversy by stating, “Noram believes that peaceful national economic and technical goals should not be constrained by political or military considerations.” Regretfully, that was one of her more unambiguous statements, even as tensions between the Sinese bloc and the nations of southern Asia have risen in recent months …

 

8

D
AEDALUS
B
ASE

31 M
ARCH
2114

On Friday evening, after Alayna had eaten, she finished giving the Noram inspectors the internal tour of the station, including the control center, where they questioned Marcel far more than Alayna. The questions she answered were largely about her background and about the staffing of COFAR.

Saturday morning, she did fix breakfast for everyone, hoping to keep the edge out of Geoffrey Hart's voice and questions. By keeping busy, she also avoided questions. After they finished eating, and she cleaned up, before the “free time” on the solar and optical array, she had the three suit up. Then, once the “free” block began, no longer quite free, because the system was collecting her data and observations, she put the inspectors on the roller with her, Perez beside her, and the other two in the cargo bin, and eased the roller out of the upper service lock and out along one of the rows of antennas.

“There are dipole antennas embedded in the polyimide film. Each fifty meter length of film can be replaced…”

“How often is that required?” asked Hart, his voice still sounding harsh through the double link.

“Whenever there's damage. I had to replace two lengths about a week ago, during the last lunar night. A micro-meteorite burst damaged both. There have been something like twenty lengths replaced over the last thirty years. It doesn't happen that often.”

“There's no atmosphere to shield you,” Deveau said evenly. “That seems like a low number of repairs.”

“That's true, but the antenna film isn't that wide, and there's much more open space between the antenna rows than what the film takes up. Plus, the film is used as a separator and base for the small embedded dipole antennas so that some meteorite strikes may hit the film without causing damage to the antennae. We're also in a crater, and that stops some of the low angle meteors.”

“How wide is the film? A meter?”

“A hundred and twenty centimeters.”

“Do you have steerable dishes?” asked Deveau.

Did he read any briefing materials?
“We only have five. They're comparatively small. That was because of the weight constraints at the time COFAR was built.”
And there was never more funding to add to that array later.
“They're placed in a cross pattern with three kilometers between each.”

“Not linear?”

“There was great discussion about that, I understand. It took place before I was born,” Alayna added dryly.

“Isn't this the largest radio interferometry array ever developed?” asked Perez.

“That depends on how you define large. It's the largest permanent and fixed array to date. The Sinese longline space array had a greater linear dimension, but it only lasted eleven years. The COFAR array has been able to discern more about the behavior of active galactic nuclei than was even anticipated … and how AGNs' reactive measures hold large galaxies together.”

“Of what importance is that research?” asked Hart.

“I couldn't tell you that right now. Usually scientific importance is realized in hindsight. A number of astronomic observations in the early twentieth century validated the basic aspects of relativity. It's possible that the observations of galactic internal actions may well lead to a unified theory of quantum mechanics, relativity, and black/strange matter. There have been some observations of changes in galactic dark matter discs that parallel certain shifts in AGN activity.”

“What might that lead to, if anything?” Hart pressed.

“It's been theorized that it could lead to balance-point energy foci that would permit selective creation of ship-sized Hawking wormholes. Real-time faster than light travel, if you will.” Alayna tried not to snap. “History has shown that the impact of basic research can precede commercial application by more than a century. If there's no basic research, then eventually commercialization slows or even dries up.”

“I don't think that—”

“Geoffrey,” interjected Perez smoothly but firmly. “Dr. Wong-Grant is a fairly junior, if accomplished, astrophysicist. You're asking her to justify the entire field in philosophical terms. We're here to determine what COFAR does and whether the funding the government supplies is being used effectively. We should keep our questions to those of fact.”

Alayna winced, even as she understood who was in charge among the three.

For several moments, no one spoke.

Then Deveau asked, “What percentage of those dipole antennae in a fifty-meter section can you lose before the loss attenuates the signal? Was that what happened when you had to replace those sections of film?”

“There's parallel circuitry in each section. So long as that is intact, there's a minimal difference in the overall signal even if every antenna in a given section fails. The problem in the repairs I had to make was that two sections of antennae were struck by what you might call a micrometeor spray that cut through the continuing circuitry. That's very rare.”

“How rare?” asked Hart.

“That kind of break has only happened that one time in forty-seven years.” Alayna knew that because she'd had Marcel look it up in the records, just in case someone did ask.

After the brief tour along the antennae rows, Alayna guided the roller back toward the central optical mirror building. “That's the center of the optical system. The solar telescope in the smaller dome is viewing the sun right now, collecting data on solar granulation.”

From the lack of reaction she received, Alayna might as well have been talking about the granulation of sugar.

After several moments, Perez said, “If the telescope is focused on the sun…”

“There are various filters. We can observe in various wavelengths, depending on the filter … or in visible light with a white light filter.” Alayna didn't want to get into why the large telescope had a wider range of motion than the solar telescope, but no one asked.

After several more questions, she turned the roller back to the service lock.

Once they were back at the installation, and unsuited, almost an hour later, Perez turned to Alayna. “We do have a few more questions for you, Doctor.”

“Over tea or coffee upstairs?”

“That would be fine.”

Alayna led the way to the galley, where she refilled the pressure kettle, and then turned it on. She and Deveau had tea. Perez had coffee. Hart had water. Then the four settled around the large circular table in the adjoining lounge/dining area.

“If you have any last questions,” announced Perez, “this is the time to ask them.”

“According to the background provided to the Inspector-General,” Hart immediately began, “the principal values of the COFAR facility lie in the ultra-low frequency radio telescope and in the full-range capabilities of COFAR. What does that mean in simple terms?”

“It means that COFAR's users can obtain more comprehensive data than from most other facilities. Because of the Earth's ionosphere, ultra-low frequency radio astronomy isn't possible on Earth or even in orbit around Earth. Long-baseline antennas aren't terribly practical in space, even at Lagrange Points, and repair costs here are far less expensive. The failure of the Sinese longline free space array proved that.”

“With a fusionjet, you can put a technician anywhere close to Earth in hours,” Hart pointed out.

“The cost of sending a fusionjet rocket from ONeill Station to the LLOS one time is more than the total cost of maintaining COFAR for a year. A repair mission costs more than that. The Noram government only pays part of COFAR's operating costs, and none of the Noram support is for equipment or repairs. All equipment and repair costs are paid by the Farside Foundation,” replied Alayna, not that she'd known any of that before studying the briefing materials that Director Braun had sent. “The solar telescope here, and the associated equipment, is the largest in the system and provides an unmatched capability.” Even as she spoke, Alayna wondered what, if anything, the system might have picked up while she had been guiding the inspectors around the facility.

“For all that you say,” said Deveau musingly, “there are many astronomers who feel that off-planet astronomy offers more advantages and can be more cost-effective.”

“There's an argument for that,” admitted Alayna, “but not from Noram's point of view. To put a space observatory in place that would exceed COFAR's existing capabilities would cost far more than the share of upkeep paid by the government. Most of the astronomers who want the free space observatories want governments to pay the majority of the costs.”

“Some of them claim that the Farside Foundation charges too much and wastes money,” stated Hart.

“We charge enough to keep the facility operating.” Alayna gestured around the small windowless chamber. “This isn't exactly opulent. We're reliable. Most of the so-called free space observation facilities have come and gone over the past century or so.”

“What astronomical breakthroughs has COFAR made?” asked Hart.

“We have supplied the facilities and observation time for a number of astronomers and astrophysicists who have made various discoveries. Without our facilities, that would not have been possible.”

“Such as?” Hart's voice was dry.

“Maartan Scheel's work on active galactic nuclei that revealed the links between dark matter and dark energy was accomplished through COFAR facilities. That could lead to revolutionary future scientific breakthroughs. I mentioned that earlier.”

Almost another hour passed before Perez looked around the table. “I think we've seen enough, and taken enough of your time, Dr. Wong-Grant.” She offered a pleasant smile. “If we leave within the hour, we can stay close to our schedule.”

“Do you have any last questions … anything else I might be able to answer?” Alayna wanted to preserve the impression of helpfulness to the end.

“I think not,” declared Perez firmly.

Alayna couldn't tell whether that was good or bad. Polite as Perez had been, Alayna couldn't tell whether she was for or against COFAR funding, or if she even cared. “Where are you headed for from here?”

“To the next installation we've been assigned to inspect.”

“I wish you the best,” Alayna replied with a pleasant smile.

Once she had seen the three inspectors off, she immediately secured the station, then returned to the control center, where she wrote a report for Director Braun, detailing everything the three had seen, and the nature of their questions, as well as their unwillingness to say where they were going, and the fact that Dominique Perez seemed to be in charge.

Only after that was she finally able to begin to study the results of her own observations. Even under the greatest enhancement, neither she nor Marcel—or rather his management of all manner of optical and spectral analysis—could see any sign of what she had hoped to at least catch a hint of.

“What if we shifted wavelengths?”

“Your program already did that, Dr. Wong-Grant.”

“How about overlaying all the hydrogen … or calcium wavelengths?”

Marcel began to create the overlays, and Alayna kept looking at the overlaid combinations of wavelengths, and the more she looked, the more she felt that she was missing something.
But what?

“Are there patterns buried in those combined wavelengths?”

“There are no discernible shapes recognizable as regular.”

That didn't mean there weren't any. It did mean that the AI, or its programming, or its own continually learning self-programming, did not discern any.

You must be imagining things.

Alayna was still thinking that over when she turned to the message queue. The newest message was from the International Astronomical Union.

The object you registered with the IAU has been named C/X/2114 FT2 COFAR-SMOA. IAU would appreciate periodic updates.

Alayna should have recognized the acronym for the co-discoverer. She didn't. “SMOA? What's that?”

“The Sinese Main Optical Array.”