At an altitude of ten meters, Watson started a countdown. Ten, nine, eight… at two, the main engine turned itself off, and their attitude was only adjusted by the control jets. One… zero. The touchdown of the lander was wonderfully smooth.
“Looks like we’ve arrived,” Francesca said. Jiaying exhaled loudly and Martin sweated. All of them sat still, and no one cheered. “Rossi to Commander. The Eagle has landed, as they used to say.”
“Confirming. Congratulations, ground team.” Even Amy’s voice remained very neutral. Martin could understand this. Landing in such low gravity was child’s play. The difficult tasks would start tomorrow.
December 15, 2046, Enceladus
How does one move a mass of fifteen tons without a crane? One man in front, one behind. That was the plan Mission Control had come up with for Enceladus. Due to the low gravitational acceleration, which was only about 1/86 of that on Earth, heavy loads could be easily transported on this moon of Saturn. Relatively easily.
“Hauling stuff is men’s work,” Francesca had said with a laugh, running her hands through her shaggy hair when they discussed the division of labor.
I don’t mind, Martin thought, even though Francesca has always bench-pressed twice the weight I have. So I will be among the first to step on a celestial body no human has ever explored.
Initially, they only had two spacesuits available for that. The EMUs had been left behind on the mothership. Instead, the lander possessed two SuitPorts, which were ready and waiting in one of the storage modules symmetrically located at the sides. SuitPorts were practical because they saved space. Instead of entering an airlock, an astronaut would step directly into a spacesuit, which was then closed airtight and uncoupled from the port. Upon returning, the procedure would be reversed; the astronaut backed into position and recoupled the suit.
Valkyrie had two additional SuitPorts at the rear. Martin imagined how they would glide through the ocean in the vehicle. With these suits it is impossible to tell whether someone is inside them, so it looks as if two astronauts are piggy-backing on Valkyrie.
The drill vehicle was not ready for action, though. It was standing high above the habitat module, held by steel scaffolding. Hayato and Martin now had the task of hauling the fifteen-ton object down and preparing it for launch at a safe distance from the lander. On Enceladus, Valkyrie only weighed 170 kilograms, so it was not a heroic task for two men to handle it.
Martin already wore his LCVG, his thermal onesie. The four of them had spent the night in the habitat module. Hayato had been snoring so Martin did not get much sleep. I feel sorry for Jiaying, he thought. She will have to listen to this for many nights to come, although she looks well-rested this morning. The exit procedure resembled the one used during an EVA. Enceladus possessed no atmosphere to speak of. Here, near the South Pole of Enceladus, water vapor could be detected, but the atmospheric pressure was eleven magnitudes below that on Earth. They were basically moving in a vacuum, even though it was not as cold as in space. Siri had reported minus 150 degrees Celsius for today.
Martin had already finished a part of the pre-breathing phase. He was still sweating from his minutes on the stationary bicycle. I will have to spend a lot more time on this torture device to compensate for at least part of the effects low gravity will have on my body.
“Get going,” he heard Francesca’s voice say through the loudspeaker.
He swung his legs into the round opening in front of him. It was easier to put on an EMU than handling a SuitPort, which was like a full-body glove. He had to put each limb into the proper opening without being able to see it. It was impossible to bend down and adjust something, as the upper part was still rigidly attached to the lander. He cursed when he hit the wrong leg opening, which caused his LCVG to shift. “DAMMIT. Once more from the start,” Martin muttered under his breath.
Uncoupling was particularly tricky. He could not turn around to check whether the suit was securely closed, but must rely on the readouts, which was difficult for him to do because he knew all of the software had been programmed by error-prone humans. He would have preferred if someone had controlled everything directly from the lander, but how was that supposed to work when both of them were walking outside?
He finally succeeded. The arms of the suit could be moved. He touched the tool belt and activated the helmet radio. He heard heavy breathing. Hayato seemed to be struggling too. He looked at a brightly lit white metal container. The side facing him had a door.
“Neumaier is ready.”
“Confirming,” Francesca said, “Hayato?”
“Wait just a moment. I just have to… arrg… okay, the lining of the glove had… never mind, Masukoshi is ready.”
“Opening exit.”
The door across from him disappeared into the wall. A new, shiny white world was waiting for him. I know Enceladus is the brightest of all moons and reflects the most light, but seeing it with my own eyes… He started to shiver. The faceplate of his helmet automatically darkened. I really wish I could just run ahead. However, they had agreed on a different sequence.
Hayato Masukoshi was supposed to enter the history books as the first human on Enceladus. The four-person ground team had agreed on this yesterday. Martin watched his first steps from the hatch. Small metal stairs led downward. To the right and left Martin saw landing struts. Hayato’s first step was still normal, but then he pushed off with too much force. Despite the heavy spacesuit, a spring scale would only indicate two kilograms here. My fellow astronaut did not take this into account. The large area of ice in front of him must have been too tempting. Martin saw how Hayato slowly floated downward. A few hours later, these images would be shown on all major news programs worldwide. They made it very obvious this particular world was quite different from the moon or Mars.
Martin followed Hayato, careful not to put too much force into his steps. Nevertheless, he could not avoid turning his first step into a jump. Even though he was on a moon, he must remember to move more like in the weightlessness of space.
After only a few meters, Martin had adjusted to these conditions because he had trained long enough in low gravity. The visible horizon and the clear distinction between ‘up’ and ‘down’ no longer confused his senses. He used his glove to wipe his visor, on which a few ice crystals had settled.
Martin looked around. In front of him there was a plain that might have been a snow-covered meadow. However, the snow, consisting of fine ice crystals, only formed a very thin layer. He stepped on hard, smooth ice with each of his steps. Martin attempted to slide, but when he tried to gain momentum like he was used to on Earth, he simply bounced off the hard ice. At least it would be difficult to accidentally slip and fall, as hardly any force pulled him downward. At the end of the landing plain a steep slope cast hard, dark shadows. It was the contrast that showed him the change in terrain, which the highly reflective surface would have otherwise hidden.
The sun shone above the horizon at an angle of about 20 degrees. Here, close to the South Pole, it would never rise above 27 degrees. Martin shivered when he saw the sun, since it was much, much smaller in the Enceladus sky than back on Earth. The sun moved across a deep black background sprinkled with many stars. The stars appeared more hostile here than during balmy nights on Earth. They had a piercing, unflinching, pitiless look. It was probably because they did not twinkle, as their light was not being refracted by an atmosphere.