Freefall 3431
Niomi's messages home
[!0.987]2020-05-04
Niomi's messages home: Day ten.
Two hours on the treadmill.
I am exhausted. Though it is getting easier.
It's going to say a lot about how I neglected my health if I finish a low gravity trip in better shape than I started with.
Color by George Peterson
Freefall 3432
Niomi's messages home
[!0.987]2020-05-06
Niomi's messages home: Day eleven.
Halfway there. We're in microgravity today. If we stayed under thrust to the flip over point, we'd need another 90 tonnes of reaction mass.
Florence used the time to crawl over the ship looking for dents. At this speed, even tiny things have a lot of kinetic energy.
There's a reason why littering in space has such high fines. No one wants a ship or station disabled because of high velocity garbage.
Color by George Peterson
Freefall 3433
Niomi's messages home
[!0.987]2020-05-08
Niomi's messages home: Day Twelve.
Time for another remass. A pod has dispersed a cloud of iron dust in front of us and we'll be using magnetic scoops to gather it up.
Reusable pod. Effectively an unmanned ship.
The method is called “Spray and pray”, heavy on the pray. The cloud is moving slower than us. The dust slows us down as we gather it. A two for one deal.
Dust cloud spread over 60 million kilometers.
Some ships are so good at this that they can arrive at their destination at the proper speed with a full tank.
Sam Starfall's ship is not expected to meet that level of precision.
To impress his critics, all we have to do is not crash into the station.
Color by George Peterson
Spray and pray - выражение, изначально относившееся к ведению неприцельного или низкоточного огня из автоматического оружия: распыли как можно больше патронов и молись, что что-то из этого попадёт в цель. Ушло в массы и теперь применяется ко всему, где что-то используется наугад в попытке получить хоть какие-то результаты. Например, финансировать большое количество стартапов, надеясь, что какие-то из них выстрелят.
Freefall 3434
Niomi's messages home
[!0.987]2020-05-11
Niomi's messages home: Day Thirteen.
Florence brought the ingredients for a very complicated recipe. It took us a whole shift to make.
She's sees I'm starting to get bored. I appreciate that she planned ahead and had something for us to do today.
The final result looked pretty good.
I didn't have the heart to tell her it tasted terrible.
Color by George Peterson
Freefall 3435
Niomi's messages home
[!0.987]2020-05-13
Niomi's messages home: Day Fourteen.
Spent some time talking to Helix. Today, he wants to be a veterinarian. A SPIDER veterinarian.
It's good we've made robots that care about all life.
But there are some bugs I wouldn't mind a more terminator like attitude towards.
Color by George Peterson
Freefall 3436
Niomi's messages home
[!0.987]2020-05-15
Niomi's messages home: Day Fifteen.
Watched an old movie. “The General”, with Buster Keaton. No color. No sound. Slow paced compared to modern comedies.
Sam enjoyed it. He admired the audacity of stealing a train.
I'm suddenly glad the station we're going to doesn't have enough thrust to get underway on its own.
Color by George Peterson
Генерал – классическая немая кинокомедия 1926 года от режиссёра Бастера Китона, сыгравшего здесь также главную роль. Основана на произошедшей в 1862 году Великой паровозной гонке, связанной с угоном паровоза и последующей погоней локомотивов
Freefall 3437
Niomi's messages home
[!0.987]2020-05-18
Niomi's messages home: Day Sixteen.
Florence ran a drill today. Fire in the galley. It did not go well.
It took us too long to find the equipment. We didn't turn off the ventilation. We didn't even think about cutting thrust to let the fire smother in its own CO2.
On the bright side, if the drill had included Florence being on fire, we'd have earned points for how quickly she was extinguished.
Color by George Peterson
Freefall 3438
Niomi's messages home
[!0.987]2020-05-20
Niomi's messages home: Day Seventeen.
Our last remass of the trip. Another “Spray and pray”. Along with magnetic braking, we'll arrive with plenty of mass for maneuvering.
On a different topic, Sam's been surprisingly easy to travel with. We're stuck in a small space together and it's been over two weeks since I last tried to maim him.
According to the Guinness book, I've set a record.
Color by George Peterson
Freefall 3439
Niomi's messages home
[!0.987]2020-05-22
Niomi's messages home: Day Eighteen.
The P/N station is an isolated environment. They don't want any new diseases coming from the wild and unsanitary planet dwellers.
So today we're having physicals. Forms to fill out. Temperatures to be taken, along with blood and saliva samples.
One good thing about how long it takes to get anywhere in space.
Your transit time and quarantine time are the same thing.
Color by George Peterson
Freefall 3440
Niomi's messages home
[!0.987]2020-05-25
Niomi's messages home: Day Nineteen.
We arrive at the station the day after tomorrow.
After weeks of being trapped in a tiny spaceship with too much time on my hands.
I find that it's over all too soon.
Color by George Peterson
