Von Neumann’s War

“Thank you, Jan. Hi everybody.” Mr. Rutan began a short talk about how he had led his team of engineers to build a completely different type of space program than the kind that NASA had done. He talked about how exciting it would be to soon have hotels in space and tourists going to the Moon. He talked about his little composite spacecraft and how there were very few metal components on it. Then he asked if there were any questions. Charlotte raised her hand first and Burt pointed to her.

“Yes, umm, what do you mean by a composite spacecraft with little metal in it? Is it plastic or something?”

“That’s a good question. It isn’t plastic; actually it’s more like fiberglass. In some cases we take a fiber cloth made of something like the Kevlar that bulletproof vests are made of, then we paint it with an epoxy resin kind of like the epoxy glue you can buy. When that hardens, it’s lightweight but really strong. In other cases we mix up a resin and paint it onto a mold, let it dry, then repeat the process over and over until we build up enough of the material. The result is that the body and wings of the vehicle can be made cheaper, stronger, and lighter than, say, the body of the space shuttle orbiter. It’s called a composite because it’s just that, a composite of multiple materials — fibers, resins, and hardening agents.”

Rutan answered a few more questions from the group. One in particular from one of the know-it-alls in the group was funny.

“Mr. Rutan, on the first flight of Spaceship One your pilot released a bunch of Skittles inside the cockpit. That seems dangerous to me — what if they’d have gotten into the instruments?”

“Hmm, first of all, it was M Ms, I believe, and secondly they melt in your mouth not in your spaceship.” He chuckled.

Then there was Tina’s question.

“Hey, I gotta know something. You guys keep talking about this being the rocket that went to the Moon here.” She pointed at the giant Saturn V behind Rutan. “If that’s the rocket that went to the Moon there, how’d they bring it back and set it up here?”

“Dingbat!” Charlotte coughed.

* * *

“So far, Mr. President, Project Neighborhood Watch is going well,” Ronny said, trying not to yawn. Yawning in the President’s face was considered a faux pas. “I believe we’ve put together an excellent team, developed a logical plan, and are implementing it with no glitches at this point. We should hit our launch window of August twenty-first.”

“This looks good, Ronny. Are there any problems that the White House can help with?” The President continued to thumb through the Daily Brief.

“None that I can foresee, Mr. President,” Ronny replied. “But the engineering on this is going to be complex. If anything comes up, I’ll forward it to your attention.”

“Good. One more thing, Ronny.”

“Yes, sir?” the DDNRO asked.

“Has the situation on Mars, well, has it changed any?”

“Yes, sir, it has, but only for the worse. The change is more or less visible to the naked eye at this point, sir.”

“I see.”

* * *

Ret Ball: Well, friends. I will have to say that although I respected my good friend Megiddo’s insight, I never really and truly could prove he was right. But Hiowa Lend, our investigative journalist, has been investigating the Mars phenomena and she believes she has uncovered something startling. Go ahead, Hiowa, you are on the Truth Nationwide.

Hiowa Lend: Thanks, Ret, and that is absolutely correct. I recently hired several professional astronomers to make observations of Mars with their telescopes from professional observatories at three different universities across the country. And I can tell you definitively that Mars is indeed changing colors. The astronomers tell me that the surface color albedo has changed. The albedo is the measurement that astronomers use to describe the color and brightness of an astronomical object. And the astronomers I’ve talked with tell me that Mars has changed. Changed dramatically.

Ret Ball: That is astounding, Hiowa! Let’s get them on the air and let them tell us about it.