Mr. Bubbles was
the code name for Eileen’s spacecraft project. Eileen had never undertaken the
task of designing and building a spacecraft before. For Eileen it was a project
that would occupy her time for the better part of a thousand years. Being
immortal meant that Eileen could handle long term projects. Almost from the
start she had decided to try and design and build her own spacecraft. While she
could have had a lot of the work done by independent contractors there were
parts of the project that she wanted to keep secret. It would be more difficult
to do if there were more people involved. It might also be prohibitively
expensive for what she wanted to accomplish. On the other hand, she was stuck
with many man years of work to do by herself.
She was pleased
with her work. There were a lot of different principles and disciplines
involved. Nobody would believe that it was possible for a single person to do.
Her spacecraft wasn’t going to be something that just crashed down from orbit;
it was going to travel the stars.
Part way through
the design of the spacecraft Eileen finally came up with a name, based on one
of the major features of the craft. She decided to call it Mr. Bubbles for all
the bubble works used. Mr. Bubbles would be a lander within a spacecraft within
a spacecraft. There were layers to Mr. Bubbles.
Eileen knew what
the project would require. She knew she would need a big work area for her
project. It also had to be enclosed so as not to attract the curious. She also
intended to live comfortably while working nearby. She searched for the better
part of two years for just the right location. One day she found it; a location
that was less than ideal but workable. It was a larger site than she needed and
too visible for her liking. It was a small school that was being decommissioned
as a site too inefficient and therefore costly to educate children at. Building
the school in the first place had been a poor decision by the government of the
day and now they were looking to unload the property. The school was only about
30 years old. She got a deal on the property which was in a good part of the
town. Mainly a residential area.
The school was
located on a corner lot and ‘L’ shaped and had several acres of clear land
attached for a playground / sports field. The school had about a dozen
classrooms and a small gymnasium. She converted it into a 10-unit rental
property, keeping part of the school beside the gym for her own apartment. She
had most of the school grounds severed from the property and sold it.
Eventually more housing went up around the school partially obscuring it from
sight.
She wasn’t sure
just what she’d be able to afford in the long run. So, she estimated roughly
the resources she’d have available to complete her project. She was sure she
could at least manage producing her own escape pod for travel. She reviewed the
requirements for the escape pod. Other than dimensions most of the requirements
had to do with docking to an ark. She designed the interface point of the
escape pod to the ark around something called the ‘elite interface’. An elite
interface supported all the lower level interfaces. By supporting the elite
interface she’d be able to dock her escape pod at any pod docking point on the
ark. Every point from those available only to the ultra-rich down to a
“standard” pod interface point.
Mr. Bubbles was
organized into several layers with the innermost layer being the most protected
and containing the pilot’s seat. The piloting seat was inside of a
helio-dropper, which was inside of an escape pod. The escape pod was inside of
an antenna array / shielding layer.
The escape pod
was surrounded by multiple layers of carefully shaped balloons. The balloons
were all shaped like pie pieces and made of a mono-atomic polymer foil. The
foil was only one atom thick allowing many balloons to be packed into a small
surface area. Yet the foil was strong and stable. Fortunately, it did not have
to last permanently, only long enough to assemble the spacecraft. Before
inflation, the balloons would be folded up and packed against the side of the
escape pod. When the spacecraft was being assembled the balloons would be
filled with a carbon foam. Once the foam solidified the shape of the spacecraft
would be fixed even if micro-meteorites were to penetrate the balloons. The
foam was also made from neon gas. By charging the balloons electrically they
could be made to glow eerily. The entire spacecraft was like a giant neon
light.
While Eileen had
gotten several hundred panels manufactured mainly for the antenna array, she
decided to build the central escape pod entirely herself. She would build the
pod in a simple fashion by coating a balloon with adamantium alloy spray paint.
Then cut the resulting stiff balloon apart using a torch. It would be sliced
into four wedge shaped pieces so that it could be shipped to the launch site by
truck. The pieces would be resembled into the original balloon form in a hanger
at the launch site.
Most of the technology
she was using was “off the shelf” components some of which was assembled and
integrated into the escape capsule in novel ways. The less stuff she had to
develop herself the better.
A total of sixty
panels would be placed around the circumference of the escape pod. Each panel
covered six degrees of arc. One special panel containing the airlock door was
already in place. The panels around the circumference of the spacecraft were
full panels. On the rows above and below there were further rows of sixty
panels tapered towards a pole of the spacecraft. The panels at higher and lower
latitudes of the spacecraft needed to be smaller. They would have to be trimmed
down to trapezoidal shapes.
One of the most
time-consuming aspects of the build was coming up with all the balloons that
would inflate to determine the final shape of the spacecraft. There were
literally thousands of balloons that had to be manufactured.
Eileen wasn’t
sure the idea would work. The navigation system was all theoretical and
untested when she left, and it was a key system for her voyage. But it was
based around a known technology. The navigation system seemed to work in
computer simulations, but simulations weren’t real life. She had built a 1/10
scale model of it in her gymnasium and used it to track the wildlife in the
area.
The system
consisted of a set of panels mounted on the surface of the Mr. Bubbles, a
navigational computer that interpreted signals discovered by the panels, and a
specially designed spacesuit helmet.
The panels had
multiple purposes like many of the things required for the space voyage. They
acted as a shade to block out intense radiation and help cool the escape pod at
the core of the spacecraft. The panel system was also a giant mechanical filter
for interstellar signals. She would be positioned at the centre monitoring for
signals. It worked in a manner like Cerebrax the famous telepathy filter /
amplifier. At the centre of Cerebrax was a liquid cooled helmet which increased
brain capacity. In the case of her spacecraft she was travelling primarily
cryogenically so the necessary cooling equipment was already present. The
navigation system would allow her to detect a planet with intelligent life on
it, or rather life on it like her own. Once she detected a planet with life on
it, she could focus in with the radio system and look for technology. She
wanted to go to a planet that at least had radio technologies but would settle
for anywhere supporting life like herself.
Eileen tested
the navigation system including the cryogenics by taking a six-month sabbatical
from her regular work and suspending herself in the cryo-chamber for six-months.
She marvelled at how fast the time seemed to pass. Even when in cryo-stasis her
mind would still work at a greatly reduced rate. The navigation system fed her
information in the form of dreams and she could control the spacecraft using
pseudo-telepathy.
Eileen decided
to manufacture panels of the spacecraft from an adamantium alloy. Adamantium
was little known outside of military circles, but she knew all to well about it
from first-hand experiences. It was deemed not that useful a material in industrial
circles because it was too difficult to work with.
Pure adamantium
was virtually indestructible when once cooled from its molten form. For her
purposes it wasn’t a usable material. She needed to be able to cut and weld
pieces of sheet metal for her project. Fortunately, she knew of an adamantium
alloy that was extremely strong that could still be manipulated using a
high-powered laser welding torch.
She contacted a
steel panel fabricator and worked out a deal with them to fabricate panels made
of a custom alloy.
“Add this bag of
“magic sauce” to the alloy mix and don’t let the mix cool down.” Were her
instructions. The magic sauce was refined adamantium ore.
The panels were
very thin. Each panel had two paper thin surfaces made of an adamantium alloy.
The two surfaces were waffled together. The panels looked like a piece of
cardboard, but they were very strong and durable.
The panels were
about 3 meters by 4 meters in size. The panels were only about 6 milli-meters
thick. She ordered the panels all the same size from the manufacturer, so she
could get a quantity discount. They could have come pre-cut but that would make
storing and transferring the panels more difficult. Eventually, she would have
to cut the panels to the correct shape. Given the adamantium alloy the panels
were made of they were a pleasant tan color.
The first thing
she did with a few of panels was make several boxes to use as shipping
containers including a box for the space capsule. When boxed the capsule was
non-descript; just a big rectangular box. That’s all
that people would see.
Each of the
probes were about the size of a basketball. Eileen had managed to assemble four
of them in time for expedition and decided to color them and name them after
the ghosts in Ms. Pacman. Blinky, Inky, Pinky, and Clyde. The color of the
paint could be made to vary depending on an electric charge and they could be
made to flash slowly just like the ghosts in pacman.
At the core of a probe was a three-dimensional iron cross which could be
charged to allow a magnetic field in different directions. The probes moved via
magnetics or small thrusters using pressurized gas. The probes onboard computer
had some intelligence allowing to some capacity to manoeuvre autonomously. The
probe had a high-resolution camera and communications equipment onboard and
were powered by a small nuclear battery. The probes could pick up audio signals
and had speakers allowing two-way audio communications. Finally, the probes had
a compartment allowing them to transport small items.
The probes were
a multi-purpose tool like many parts of the spacecraft and formed part of the
arsenal for the spacecraft. They could be made to explode if need be, by
overloading the nuclear batteries.
Eileen had heard
about so called quantum entanglement transceivers, but they weren’t a building
block available in her toy box. She would have to make do with regular radio
equipment.
Although quantum
computers hadn’t been invented yet, transceivers based on quantum entanglement
effects had been. Such transceivers allowed instant communications over any
distance. The problem with the transceivers was that they only operated in
matched pairs.
Eileen knew it
wouldn’t be comfort cuisine, but it would work. It would keep her alive and hopefully
in good health. She planned her food supply as a bunch of small pills. She
needed a supply of food for up to 300 years and at the same time it had to
occupy a minimal amount of area on the spacecraft. After a while of recycling waste it would lose its nutritional value. Since she planned
to travel sleeping cryogenically most of the time she really needed only about
1/30 the food. Or enough for 10 years. With luck she would find a new home long
before 300 years passed. In theory she didn’t have to eat. Her super-healing
would keep her alive. She had starved at some points in the past but never for
such a long time. So, she didn’t want to find out the hard way how good her
healing factor was.
Water was heavy,
but also necessary. Eileen’s water supply would be contained in adamantium
alloy flasks, allowing it to be under high pressure. She planned on cycling the
water supply several times during the trip. Because it was impractical to
transport all the water needed for a 300-year flight Eileen decided to build a
waste-water recycler. The waste water recycler
consisted of a couple of compartments to contain the waste and a modified
microwave oven to purify the water.
Eileen wasn’t
anticipating encountering anybody else during her long voyage, but she knew to
prepare for the worst while hoping for the best. That’s why she decided to
incorporate a laser cannon as part of the spacecraft. The laser cannon was
military grade, the kind they installed on embassy rooftops. She’d managed to finagle
a couple of units a few years ago.
Primary power
for the spacecraft was from a miniature nuclear reactor. The reactor was about
the size of a small bookcase and located in the floor of the escape pod. Above
the reactor was a lead plate designed to reduce the amount of radiation
entering the escape pod.
The suit was a
standard average priced space suit from one of the manufacturers. She had
modified the helmet by adding a heads-up-display (HUD). The Hud was a miniature
projection TV with an image focused a few inches in front of the helmet. The
projector could be wired into the capsules systems. She needed to be suited up
in the escape pod. She was travelling in the escape pod to the ark. This was
not recommended. But she didn’t want the expense of using a separate seat on
the rocket.
One was
responsible for one’s own well being if travelling in an escape pod. It took a
couple of days to mount the escape pods on the rocket and make sure all the
safety procedures had been followed.
Super-pressurized
air. Adamantium based materials made all sorts of interesting gadgets possible.
Since the materials were virtually indestructible it could be used for a flask
to contain air pressurized to many atmospheres.
She used as
king’s fortune worth of adamantium. Her escape pod may just be the most
expensive object on the planet. It was a good thing she’d had the better part
of a thousand years to prepare. Most of the pod was disguised as other
innocuous materials. She did not want people asking questions about the makeup
of the pod, or worse yet trying to steal parts of it.