Arith : The Undiscovered Planet
CHAPTER 3

THE FIRST MISSION

The day is finally here! Eric thought. He was basking inexcitement. His dad came to their headquarters to wish him safe travel,together with all his friends and well wishers. Eric and four other astronautswere going on their ever first mission toexplore space!

Eric and his crew got in an astronaut transfer van that waswaiting to take them out to the launchpad (where the space shuttle is launched).When the driver pulled them at the launchpad, they looked on in wonder at thespace shuttle. It seemed to get bigger and bigger as they approached. Theshuttle was making extraordinary sounds. He could hear the fuel pumps working,steam hissing , metal groaning. It felt as if a beast was waiting for theirarrival.

It was at this moment that the five of them got excited.This had been the reason for their rigorous exercises, trainings. They werefinally going to explore the realm beyond.

The ground crew took each one of them; one at a time, into asmall white room. In this room, they helped Eric and his crew put on theirgarb. After being dressed, Eric waved at his dad and friends on the closedcircuit camera and went into the space shuttle through it’s hatch. He enteredthe crew’s living quarters ; the mid deck. The pilot and commander sat on theflight deck for launch , while Eric , Zach and another astronaut sat on the middeck.

The ground crewstrapped them in. When they had strapped in Eric, he checked his oxygen and gear to make sureeverything was intact. He longed to look outside hoping to catch a glimpse ofhis dad. Then he remembered there wereno windows on the mid deck. Windows were only on the flight deck. So he and his crew waited for about one hour.This was the longest and most apprehensive wait of Eric’s life.

After the long wait, he heard sounds of the engine startingup. Wow! He and Zach looked at each other and smiled. Then there was silence. A bang was heard! Thatwas the only warning they got. The shuttle had been shot into the atmosphereand they were going at a very high speed. They accelerated from 0 to 17,500miles an hour , and it would take about eight and a half minutes.

Eric didn’t know before now , that eight and a half minuteswas this long. He felt he wasn’t with his body any longer. He felt he was gone…gone. Now the question is , gone towhere? He didn’t have the answer. He just laid there looking at his mates,listening to the deafening roar of the engines, feeling the shuffle shake andshudder as it fought to break off the Earth’s atmosphere.

Then he felt as if a car was crushing him. He already knewabout this because, gravity had increased to three g and so his body weight hadincreased to three times his normal weight. This feeling continued for abouttwo and a half minutes.

Eric knew when they left the Earth’s atmosphere. He knew dueto the following reasons: first off, he heard two muffled explosions throughthe walls of the shuttle, indicating the breaking off of the fuel tank.Secondly, he felt completely weightless; gravity had reduced drastically.

Immediately, the engines cut, the roaring stopped andeverywhere became quiet, peaceful. All he heard was the cooling fans of theengines and system. He beemed at hismates.

They were in space!

He couldn’t believe they were here!

Eric, Zach, their commander and the other astronaut floatedout of the shuttle through the airlock for their extravehicular activity.

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Eric felt so free. Thanks to his steel tethers that held himin place to avoid irregular spinning. The space view was so breathtaking. He used mostlyhis hands to get around, pulling himself where he needed to go. He wantedcalling out to their commander but knew it was futile, because space is avacuum and air does not go through a vacuum. Hence no sounds can be transmitted. He just made some signals and their commander gave him the 'thumbs up' . He beemed at Zach, who was with him.

He turned back carefully to view Earth and was amazed at howblue it looked, signifying the oceans . He also observed the green part ofEarth signifying the vegetations. Wow! this was how Earth looked to people inspace. He could see the Himalayas and grand canyon. He noticed how Earthorbited around the sun, how the ISS orbited around the earth. How there wasalternate light and darkness for every forty five minutes. Although he had beentaught about all these, it still felt very different to witness theseoccurrences.

Eric used hubble ; a telescope provided for astronauts, to viewthe celestial bodies. He viewed Venus ; the ‘evil twin' of Earth and Mars the‘brother’ of Earth, the moon and many other bodies. He saw that Zach was alsoenjoying his space walk. Eric and Zach kept viewing and floating for a longtime and got tired because their space suit was pressurised and so they neededto put some effort to move their bodies. Hence, decided to rest in the ISS.

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In the ISS, Eric ,Zach and the other crew members were inthe crew cabins. Each of them had their sleeping bags attached to the wall, tohold them in place, to avoid bumping into anything. They slept near an air ventto avoid breathing in the expelled CO2, thereby preventing suffocation. Theywere told that they would be returning to Earth the next day. He couldn’tbelieve that he was actually sleeping without a bed. Wonders of space. Nomatter how prepared you think are, things you come across in space are always mindblowing.

This made him think about his mum. She floated away? Buthow? There was no way something like that could ever have happened ,considering the tethers, ‘safer’ and help from fellow crew members. Somethingdidn’t feel right here. He knew that something worse than he thought, hadhappened to his mum. Well that was his first reason of being an astronaut; toreplace out what really happened. He decided not to dwell on that thought for now.

His face was bloated, which wasn’t surprising, as fluids inthe body were concentrated in the upper part of the body due to absence ofgravity. Space travel was really great! he thought. He had taken lots ofpictures during the ‘walk’, when he got home, he would view the pictures. Hethought of his dad and aunt Tessy while he drifted to sleep.