Pete was remotely manoeuvring Dragonstar 5 to load supplies ready for the morning.
‘What’s up, Pete?’ I asked.
‘Dragonstar 5 is misbehaving. I’ve been trying to dock it onto port seven. It’s fine during approach but won’t dock.’
I pulled myself through to the communications area and found Pete poring over the remote video feed. ‘Look there, Mark. We’re approaching, two metres, one and a half, one metre, half a metre…’ A minor alarm sounded.
‘Every time,’ said Pete.
Anna was floating behind me. ‘Let me try, Pete.’ Anna was our most senior pilot – both Orion and Dragonstar.
She backed Dragonstar 5 away from the port, lined it up again and moved it forward rather more rapidly than had Pete.
The alarm sounded, but the vehicle continued to move forward and we heard a metallic noise as it connected with the port. It appeared to have docked, but the video soon showed that it wasn’t secure and was drifting again.
‘Pete, can you hold it in that location. I think the only answer to this is to transfer to it and dock manually,’ said Anna.
‘You want to spacewalk to it?’ I asked.
‘Only way,’ she said, then switched communications channel. ‘NASA, Anna here. Need authorisation and support for an EVA to recover Dragonstar 5. It’s developed a fault.’
A couple of seconds later, ‘Okay, Anna, we’ve been watching the failed attempts. Full EVA procedures, please,’ said a NASA voice I didn’t recognise.
‘Dave, can you help me and Penny suit up. Where is Penny?’
‘I’ll find her,’ said Dave and flew through a connecting tunnel to the adjacent module.
Spacewalks always involved two astronauts for health and safety reasons. Odd things could occur when spacewalking and only recently an ISS astronaut had had his helmet completely fog up. None of the usual methods cleared his view and the second astronaut had to bring him back to the airlock. That was fairly easy to recover, but a cut to a suit or some more serious accident would require someone very nearby to act quickly. The protocol of having a minimum of two spacewalkers had been justified.
It took the best part of half an hour to get the two women fully suited up. These weren’t the simple suits we used for short EVAs on the moon, nor the major suits with backpacks for longer lunar operations, but the full EVA suits used from the ISS and for satellite repairs. They were bulky and cumbersome.
Eventually, they were ready. Pete and I moved through to the observation area as they emerged into space. Anna didn’t have to fly too far, just about six metres from the Gateway to the Dragonstar. She attached herself to the Dragonstar and Penny detached the Gateway tether and repeated the process so that they were both outside the faulty lander.
Anna opened the hatch.
It instantly jumped to its safety position. This was to protect the person opening the hatch if there was pressure inside. However, it had sufficient force to throw both of the women off the vehicle and give the Dragonstar a vector tangential to the Gateway as the atmosphere within rushed out into space.
Chan shouted, ‘It’s going to hit Ming 2. Anna, Penny, watch out you don’t get crushed.’
I had a good observation spot in the small cupola and could see Dragonstar 5 moving away from the platform. Ming 2 wasn’t quite in direct line with its trajectory, but I could see that the two girls were at the full extent of their tethers and, any second they’d be yanked back towards the vehicle. If they were pulled around behind it, in its direction of motion, they could be crushed by any impact between the two craft.
Then bad got worse.
As Penny reached the full extent of her tether, it detached from the Dragonstar. It couldn’t have been properly connected, and now Penny was heading off into space in the opposite direction. Of course, Murphy’s Law now played its part and, despite the congested space around the Gateway, it looked as if Penny was going to find the only gap between the vehicles and would have nothing to grab hold of or to stop her.
‘I’m detached,’ said Penny.
‘Yes, we see that, Penny,’ I said. ‘We’re following your flight. Remain calm. We’ll come after you when we’ve recovered the Dragonstar. Anna, can you stop yourself being flung around the lander?’
‘I don’t know, Mark,’ she said, remarkably calmly. ‘I’m going to hit the side of the vehicle. There are a few places to grab a handhold, but only if I’m the right way around. I’ll be doing about seven kph so hoping the suit doesn’t get damaged. I’m revolving again.’
Chan said, ‘You’re still heading towards the section of the Dragonstar to the left of the hatch. I think you’ll be face on to it when you make contact, so be ready to grab something.’
‘Will do.’
‘I think Dragonstar will swipe a glancing blow off the Ming,’ said Chan. ‘Chi is trying to boot it up to move it to one side. Will keep you informed.’
‘Okay.’
‘Impact between you and Dragonstar in about ten seconds,’ said Chan. ‘Dragonstar will impact Ming in fifteen seconds, so you should be safe, but if you can get a handhold, don’t let go!’
Chi said, ‘Ming powered up. Think I’m too late to move it.’
I saw Anna impact the Dragonstar, and heard several grunts and gasps from her, as she scraped along its hull. On the third attempt, she managed to grab hold of a handrail.
‘Warning!’ a tinny robotic voice said, reaching us through her helmet microphone. ‘Warning! Air pressure falling. Return to ship. Return to ship.’
‘Damn it,’ Anna said. ‘Must have torn something.’
‘Anna, are you okay? Can you see any suit damage?’ I asked.
‘Hold tight!’ shouted Chan. ‘Impact with Ming imminent.’
‘Yes, air escaping from my right arm and right thigh,’ said Anna.
I could see the Dragonstar making a slow-motion collision with the Ming. It changed its trajectory and, thankfully, moved away from the Gateway. The Ming came to life and I guessed Chi was directing it back into its original position.
‘Report, Anna,’ I shouted.
‘I’m okay. Making my way to the hatch,’ she replied.
‘Warning! Air pressure falling. Return to ship now. Return to ship now!’ said the suit alarm.
I could no longer see the Dragonstar and the next fifteen seconds seemed interminable.
‘Inside,’ said Anna. A few seconds passed. ‘Pressurising. Okay, guys, I’m safe.’
‘I don’t want that Dragonstar anywhere near Penny. Pete, can you go and get her in one of the others?’ I asked.
‘Will do, Mark. I’m already suiting up,’ said Pete.
‘Pete,’ called Anna, ‘Which one are you taking?’
‘Number four,’ he replied.
‘Could you take number one?’ asked Anna. ‘That way I can bring number five into number one’s port. It’s less congested on that side and we might still have problems docking.’
‘No problem,’ said Pete. ‘I’ll come back into port seven when I’ve collected Penny.’
‘What’s your plan, Pete?’ I asked.
‘I’ll undock, then follow the line of the Gateway. Once I’m past the end I should be able to see Penny. Where is she now?’
‘Lost in space,’ Penny quipped, belying the seriousness of her situation.
‘I’m tracking her okay,’ said Chan. ‘Range four k and moving at ten kph. Patching coordinates through to Dragonstar 1. I think you’ll need them as you won’t see her with the moon behind her.’
‘Okay, got it,’ said Pete.
‘Okay,’ said Anna. ‘About to attempt a manual docking.’
The problem was serious. We needed all of the landers to be able to descend to Moonbase. The Dragonstar began a new automatic approach and stopped when the alarm sounded.
‘That’s strange, Mark,’ said Anna. ‘It’s not properly aligned. At least five degrees off. Backing off.’
A minute later she said, ‘Right, second attempt, but manual.’
I could just see node one from one of the portholes in the European module. I watched Dragonstar 5 begin a second approach. Tiny puffs of propellant issued from various thrusters. The Dragonstar rotated slightly. A few more puffs and it began moving towards the Lunar Orbiting Platform.
I’d done this myself so I knew the procedure. All astronauts had to be able to dock the Dragonstars and Orions in case their pilots were incapacitated, and the automatic systems failed, exactly as was the case here.
I visualised Anna with her hands on the two joysticks. The lander stopped less than half a metre from the docking node.
‘Seems fine,’ said Anna. ‘No alarm. Going for firm dock.’
Someone at NASA said, ‘Copy that,’ and the lander closed in on the node.
The sound of metal on metal rang through the Gateway, simultaneous with Anna’s ‘Confirmed light dock. Going for hard dock.’
We couldn’t see anything different, but a second or two later, Anna said, ‘Hard dock. Powering down.’
‘Copy that,’ said NASA.
‘Well done, Anna,’ I said.
Despite all the science fiction films showing people hopping in and out of spacecraft, the reality was that to finish a hard dock required the tightening of a dozen clasps and some integrity tests before she could open the hatch and enter the Gateway. It took the best part of forty-five minutes.
‘Approaching Penny. Can you see me, Pen?’ said Pete.
‘Occasionally. I’m trying to correct a slow spin without depleting SAFER,’ she said. ‘Was concerned I might need it to get back on my own.’
[SAFER — Simplified Aid For EVA Rescue.]
‘Yes, can see you. I’m going to change the approach and come in from above your head.’
‘Copy that.’
‘I can’t see you anymore,’ said Pete, who was bringing the hatch side of the Dragonstar towards Penny.
‘Okay, can see you above me. Using SAFER jet to stop spin. Hold your position,’ said Penny.
Two minutes later she said, ‘Right, Pete. I have a firm hold. You sure you depressurised the ship?’
‘Absolutely.’
‘Right, now tethered. Opening hatch.’
‘Copy that.’
‘Hatch opened. Pulling myself in,’ said Penny.
‘Closing hatch and repressurising,’ said Pete. ‘Then on our way back. The Gateway’s a long way off. More than fifteen k. Looks tiny.’
‘Well done, you guys,’ I said, and I heard a similar comment from NASA.
I made my way through to node one and Anna was emerging from her suit.
‘Torn arm and leg,’ said Chan.
‘Repairable?’ I asked.
‘Yes. We can make temporary repairs, but it’ll need returning to ILC Corp after the expedition,’ said Anna.
‘What happened then?’ I asked.
‘My fault,’ said Chan contritely. ‘I was supposed to depressurise the Dragonstar and didn’t. It isn’t on the usual checklist because we normally enter via the front airlock when in orbit, not the EVA hatch.’
‘Why did Penny break free?’ I asked.
‘I think she was just latching her tether when I opened the hatch,’ said Anna. ‘It must have held until we were jerked back. Thank goodness we have the safety catch on the EVA hatch. If we hadn’t, I’d have been killed by the hatch as it swung open under the internal pressure. Very lucky.’
‘Okay, both of you give NASA a full report. They’ll be pleased that one of their safeguards saved your life, Anna,’ I said. Despite all the care and checklists we have for everything in space, accidents will still happen.
‘What do you think caused the Dragonstar problem?’ I asked Anna.
‘Software. Something was not quite right. Also, there was a sticky thruster and that was stopping alignment. The system got to its pre-firm dock position but couldn’t align. When it applied the thruster, probably nothing happened and so the alarm was sounded. Not enough of a fault to stop us descending, though. Who’s the pilot for number five?’
I checked my tablet and said, ‘Andrei.’
‘He’s very experienced. I’ll talk to him later so he’s aware of it,’ she said and continued to strip out of the EVA suit.
‘What about external damage from the collision?’
‘We’ve asked Pete and Penny to have a look on their way back,’ said Anna. ‘I checked all the systems on the Dragonstar and couldn’t find any additional problems.’
Dragonstar 1 docked nearly an hour later, Pete and Penny having visually checked the outsides of both of the vehicles involved in the collision. We appeared to have been lucky, but it had given us all a shock. Nothing could be taken for granted in space.