7 February 2023

Director Hines had been waiting at his desk for over 20 minutes now – Senator Johnson was late.

His office was on the second story of NASA’s Debris Response Unit (DRU) centre in Houston. It was generously proportioned and had a glass wall overlooking the command centre.

The DRU floor had its desks and computers set out in station banks, all of which faced a large monitor that was mounted on the far wall. Each station bank represented a different scientific discipline; astrophysics, chemistry & geology. These were deemed the essential learning disciplines relating to Kepsa278.

Director Hines was a paunchy retired congressman from East Texas. Despite being a prominent figure at church on Sunday, he had a reputation for indulging both often and in plentiful quantities his two great pleasures; bourbon and women. It is considered neither irresponsible nor unusual to have such a man appointed as the Director of NASA. The principal function of any government agency director is to extract funds from Congress, and at this, Director Hines was a flawless operator.

Today was one of those rare days, where Director Hines had to actually demonstrate to an interested stakeholder, what the government was getting for its money.

In January of the previous year NASA had launched space probe ‘Rogue Surface’. If everything goes according to plan, today it will conduct its final trajectory manoeuvres to join the orbit of extrasolar planet Kepsa278, due to collide with Mars on the 15th March 2025.

‘Today we lift the lid on this thing’ Director Hines thought to himself, ‘and Senator Johnson will be here to see me conduct the opera’.

Director Hines made a loudspeaker call to the station banks “astrophysics, what’s the ETA on Rogue Surface?”

“42 minutes until we commence final manoeuvres Director” Dr. Higgins from astrophysics replied over the intercom. She walked from the intercom back to her computer. Director Hines’ plump red face cracked a smile, he had always had a thing for British women, something about the accent. ‘There’s also something in the scarcity’ he thought, ‘you don’t find many in Texas’.

“Morning Hines” the Director had sunk into daydreams of short skirts on Piccadilly in the summer and had missed the Senator letting himself into his office, “Ah, good morning Senator, welcome to Houston!”

“We have some time before last maneuvers. I thought we could use the time to have a chat to some of the staff about where and how we’ve spent the money” Director Hines made an awkward attempt at a matey laugh. Senator Johnson sat completely still on the opposite side of the desk.

“Hines. I have a budget meeting next Wednesday. I need an update on spend-to-date and how each deliverable is tracking financially.”

“Well Senator, the Rogue Surface mission has come in at 18% over budget. We’re at $1.8 billion to-date although with the exception of ongoing DRU wages we can close the fiscal entry.

The DRU’s annual running costs are projected to rise considerably as we start to analyse the data coming back from Rogue Surface. We’re currently at $2.3 billion to-date, with a projected spend of a further $3.1 billion in the next 18 months.

Our debris deflection operations in Florida have now commenced. However, as we have been unable to agree unilaterally with other nations on the use of trans-terrestrial nuclear missiles, we’ve moved into Contingency B. Contingency B has a higher cost outlay, but carries no risk of nuclear detonation in our atmosphere on exit. We’ve spent $7.2 billion on vessel construction and $800 million on pilot training.”

The Senator was carefully taking down the numbers with his gold fountain pen on a small notepad he had produced from his left jacket pocket. “So,we’re at $10.3 billion to-date. How have we tracked with contributions from ESA, JAXA and Roscosmos?”

“Every disbursement request has been honoured. We have also received a large contribution from all three by way of fixed wing pilots at our base in Florida.” Director Hines was eager to get the Senator out of his office and onto the DRU floor. There were a raft of questions the Senator could ask him, some of which he didn’t care to answer.

“Senator, if you’ll just come down onto the floor you’ll see…”

Senator Johnson interrupted. He had raised his voice and was now leaning forward. “I need an update on the ARK Hines. I’ve got our agriculture geneticists telling me the seed bank is ready, not to mention 100 extremely wealthy and influential individuals pressing me for confirmation that the shuttles will leave in time to avoid any Cat1-E collision with Earth. At $1.25 billion a ticket, they’re being quite forceful in their request for an update.”

Director Hines pursed his lips and furrowed his brow, as though he’d caught a bad smell in the room. He stood up from his chair and walked across to the door. He picked up his wide brimmed cowboy hat and slowly put it on, he didn’t look back at the Senator, but spoke clearly enough for him to hear.

“Mr. Senator. I can assure you that the interests of those you represent are being advanced by the grace of their immense wealth and the intelligence of our brightest people. Now, please follow me down to meet the team.”

“Hines. I need to know more than that, how are we going to…”

“This way Senator…” Director Hines had already left the office and was making his way down to the floor of the command centre.

As the pair reached the bottom of the stairs the technicians and scientists were beginning to take their seats. The screen had all the stats for space probe Rogue Surface; velocity, direction and of course, proximity to Kepsa278.

“Senator Johnson, I would like to introduce you to the charming Dr. Higgins. Dr. Higgins heads the astrophysics desk here at the DRU. She oversaw the launch of Rogue Surface last year and has been in command of all trajectory correction manoeuvres, the last of which you will have the pleasure of witnessing today. Dr. Higgins, why don’t you give Senator Johnson a brief overview of the Rogue Surface mission.”

Director Hines winked at her. The Senator gave a pained smile, but gestured for Dr. Higgins to proceed with the Director’s suggestion.

“Well Senator, Rogue Surface is a space probe built for the sole purpose of investigating the Kepsa278 extrasolar planet. It was launched on 2nd February 2022 off a Falcon Heavy rocket carrying a science payload consisting of; a long range reconnaissance imager, an ultraviolet sensor and imaging spectrometer, a 900mm telescope, magnetometer and a plasma and high-energy particle spectrometer.

We had to launch with a speed of no less than 73,000 km per hour relative to our Sun, which is 24.7% faster than the previous record holder New Horizon.

We knew that if we were able to achieve a 73,000 km/h launch, then following our Jupiter gravitational assist we would accelerate to 102,930 km per hour.

In the two years since observation, Kepsa278 has moved nearly 550 million km closer to Earth, it’s currently at around 740 million km. We needed the 500 million km of pre-Jupiter travel time, coupled with the 240 million km of post-Jupiter travel time to give us an average speed of 82,876 km per hour in order to catch Kepsa278 within a year of launch.

Unfortunately we missed our launch speed by 949 km per hour, or around 1.3%, which has put us 5 days behind schedule.”

Director Hines smiled and tipped his hat at her, “thank you Dr. Higgins.”

Senator Johnson was now staring at the screen. It was filled with different camera viewpoints, ever changing statistics and graphs. “Why on Earth is it called Kepsa278 Director? I’ve racked my brain and can’t figure it out, it’s not from Greek or Roman mythology, it’s not Latin, what is it?”

“You know Senator, I haven’t the faintest idea, but then I don’t care in the slightest.”

Dr. Higgins couldn’t help herself “it could stand for something, an acronym, perhaps, King Edward Public School Athletics…”

The Senator scoffed, “my dear girl that is positively absurd.”

“On the contrary Senator” Director Hines interjected “I think it’s a fine suggestion and as good a guess as anyone could make.”

Dr. Higgins began to stutter “well, but, you see, I…”

“Follow me Senator, we have some seats arranged on the podium behind the desks. Dr. Higgins would you mind awfully asking Nancy to bring Senator Johnson and myself some tea. Thank you dear.”

Director Hines and Senator Johnson took their seats on the podium and drank their tea while they observed the team conduct final manoeuvres.

It was around an hour and fifteen minutes until Dr. Higgins confirmed over the intercom that Rogue Surface had successfully commenced its first orbit of Kepsa278.

“Now, Senator, the fun begins”, Director Hines stood up and walked to the edge of the railing of the podium, he was now overlooking the entire command centre.

“Science payload team, what do we have on the big screen?”

“This is a surface view using the 900mm sir.”

“Perfect, let’s start with geology. Team, what are we looking at?”

Dr. Nguyen led the geology team, he had a microphone headset so responded without taking his eyes off the screen. “Looks, well, mountainous sir. The formations are clear signs that the planet had a molten mantle at some point. Assumptions at this point are that the core has cooled setting the surface landscape.”

“If we angle the telescope further towards the horizon we can see what appears to be a stretch of alluvial sands.”

“To the West we have large rock formations surrounding a crater, the color and pattern of the rocks…are…well”

“Yes Dr. Nguyen, what is it??”

“They appear to be pegmatite sir. It’s an igneous rock that we find on Earth sir, in Argentina, Australia and Brazil. Pegmatite is where we get our lithium among other minerals”

“Is there anything particularly significant there Nguyen?”

“Um, well sir, Lithium is believed to be the third element created by the Big Bang after helium and hydrogen. Large deposits could mean Kepsa278 was formed at the earliest stages of the Universe. We might be dealing with something from a very, very ancient part of space.”

Dr. Nguyen adjusted the telescope’s view and continued.

“If we stretch our view further West we can see a break up of the surface rock, probably by the impact of space debris.”

Dr Nguyen paused. He stared at the screen for at least 45 seconds while the whole room was silent.

“I…., I can’t believe, well it’s impossible to tell how recent the impact was but it has exposed around a kilometre of sub-surface and appears to have severed what looks like a coal seam…it, it, has fossilised carbon.”

“Thank you Dr. Nguyen, would you care to proffer any hypotheses before we move onto astrophysics for the benefit of the Senator?”

Dr. Nguyen looked at Dr. Higgins, they were both thinking the same thing. Dr Nguyen stood and turned to face the podium.

“Sir, the potential presence of rare elements is extremely alarming. The consensus among the scientific community is that Earth has a highly varied elemental composition relative to other planets. If we can observe rare elemental deposits on the surface of Kepsa278 from orbit, then this planet may disprove that theory.

Although nothing is as surprising as the presence of coal, it defies all astro-geological sense.”

“Why is that doctor?”

“Well sir, the presence of a fossil fuel means…at some point there was a carbon rich body that has been fossilised. On Earth, it’s fossilised plant matter.

It is, I guess, possible that something may have, well…lived on this planet.”

The room was completely silent for some time, those with an appreciation for what had been uncovered were quietly reflecting on it. Senator Johnson leaned in and whispered to the Director “let’s move it along Hines”.

“Dr. Higgins, can astrophysics tell us anything new, do we know who’ll win the Mars Kepsa rodeo yet?”

“We’re looking at an object that has been travelling through interstellar space for a long time. As Dr. Nguyen alluded to, it is likely that its mantle has cooled and solidified which has set the surface in igneous rock. Those mountains may have been formed by the movement of tectonic plates billions of years before Earth or our Sun even existed.

We had run a simulation on this assumption and the density and mass of Kepsa278 was nearly four times that of Mars, despite only being 1.268 times its size.

We need to update our debris predicting software. Director, I no longer believe we can entertain a ParamountcyM scenario. Kepsa278 will survive this impact.”

“Um, everyone, we’ve found something really unusual”, Dr. Musgrove from the chemistry desk was a tiny little man with enormous spectacles and a gentle disposition.

Everyone on the floor was still recovering from Dr. Higgins’ announcement.

“Yes Dr. Musgrove?” said the Director.

“Well, the plasma spectrometer is picking up gaseous particles.”

“Yes, and?”

“Well, we have carbon monoxide and methane as we would expect, but they’re not the most prominent gasses Rogue Surface is detecting. Its nitrogen sir, lots of it.”

Dr. Nguyen called out from across the room “Dr. Musgrove! I think I know why!”

“I’ve got the long range imager scanning the Kepsian horizon, look at this….”

The screen on the back wall cleared to enlarge a photo of a rocky outcrop beyond which there was a bright reflection.

“You see that, past the rocks, that’s an Ocean! Its frozen surface is reflecting the Sun’s glare.”

Director Hines spoke loudly, “but what’s that got to do with the nitrogen?”

“Don’t you see? As it is getting closer to the Sun it’s heating up and thawing out, its Oceans are melting…and forming a nitrogen atmosphere!”