Area 51

A New Chapter

Lyndon Johnson under executive order 897 gathered the entire staff on the government payroll and created a new joint venture with NASA to accomplish Kennedy’s objective to be the first to the moon by the end of the decade. With NASA so underfunded, there was no way they were going to be able to build a rocket to break the earth’s orbit. Johnson sending his secretary of defense and commanders to make over Area 51 so no one can gain access other than authorized officials.

The plan was simple using the existing cold fusion reactor and the blueprints NASA and government scientists to design an engine using plasma to power a rocket to break earth’s orbit. The new division of the base will not only design and build a new propulsion unit but take cold fusion to the next step, code name RTD (Rocket Transport Device) The new reactor will use radio waves being connected to sensors that monitor the plasma production, injectors, a turbo pump to generate an internal vacuum and backup batteries. Mike the lead NASA engineer and Mark the government scientist spent the next three months creating a new reactor on paper using the existing reactors best parts of that design making it the size of a jet engine. “Mark planning on paper was the easy part, presenting it to the national assembly is the hard part.”

“True we should be ready to face that inquisition in a week”

After another week of studying and conceptual drawings it was complete and ready for the national assembly.

The day came were Mark and Mike had to show the national assembly there plan for a jet propulsion system. This assembly consisted of the joint chiefs, military brass, secretary of defense and the vice president. Mark taking the podium starts his presentation with an image of the new propulsion device. What makes their design different is the way plasma is not confined by tubular rings but superconducting coils made of copper. The reactor uses superconductive magnets just like the last reactor, but the coils will generate a magnetic field around the outer border of the chamber. Unlike the last reactor it will have a self-tuning feedback mechanism requiring less maintenance. Our design includes the high beta configuration using the same magnetic field using radio waves instead of electricity using linear rings to confine plasma. Mike took the podium as the audience grew more skeptical the reason we think this will work is the physics the ability to make an inherently stable configuration. On our design the position of the superconductor coils and shape of the magnetic field lines are always in balance equally, resulting in lower pressure so the plasma will be smaller and sits on the magnetic field well. The team acknowledged that the project is in the early stages, but expect swift progress a time table of 5 years. The secretary of defense was not satisfied with that time table, by that time the soviets probably will have a flag planted on the moon. I want your team to produce a working prototype in six months, or we will find someone else to accomplish this. “Eric we have the prototype on paper but will have to hire and acquire all the material it will take to build a full scale prototype, no time to build a small version then scale it up and run tests. Mike I am sure you will figure out a way to make it a reality our jobs and reputation are on the line.

Wasting no time construction on the new wing began this new wing will house the laboratory, testing facility and reactor.

The next six months were spent testing the plasma thruster but have proven problematic at best, everything from burner time out to loss of thruster control and worst of all the prototype burnt up on reentry in the last test. With this great disappointment that set them back several months, it gave them the breakthrough they needed a chance to start from scratch. The redesigned thruster was smaller and lighter. This new thruster works much like an ion thruster but it processes plasma using solar and magnetic power through a six step process.

Gaseous propellant enters the injection system transferring to a quartz tube confining the neutral gas before it is ionized in the helicon antenna to form plasma contained in magnet coils to confine the ionized plasma heated and directed in a fine stream through a magnetic nozzle creating thrust. In the most successful test to date making the flight around earth’s orbit in a record fifteen minutes, Eric receiving directives from the NASA brass that in order to send man to the moon by the end of the year they must start testing the thruster in the retrofitted Apollo capsule? Mark responds “You have to be kidding me, we are not even close to that we just completed our fly around the earth without a repeat of last time.” Mark I know how you feel, but we have to proceed to the next step and Apollo 17 is the ticket.” “You never told me that they had already commissioned a ship for this mission.” “I didn’t tell you because it just happened, they are taking Apollo 16 and retrofitting the propulsion system with the new thruster.” “I see, I guess the next step is to install the thruster in the Apollo 16 command module and start testing its abilities with astronauts.

December 5 1972 the Lunar Module is sent into orbit, so the Apollo 16 command module will doc with it and will be extracted and prepared for lunar impact. On December 7 1972 Commander Eugene A Cernan and his crew board the Apollo 16 command module. After what seemed like an eternity with a lot of clicking and clacking they were on their way. Breaking earth’s orbit everything was right on line, docking with the lunar module complete extraction is a success. Ok know let’s bring the thrusters on line commander Cernan told Harrison H. Schmitt the lunar module commander ok thrusters are hot in 5-4-3-2-1 hold on fellows there will be a small jolt as the thrusters fire, that was some small jolt commented Ronald Evans commander of the command module. On December 8 1972 approximately 47 minutes later, the powered descent to the lunar surface began. Landing occurred at 7:54:57 p.m., at lunar latitude 20 degrees, 10 minutes north, and longitude 30 degrees 46 minutes east. The docking with the lunar module was flawless; the trip to the moon flawless, orbiting the moon flawless and landing on the moon flawless so far the mission is a complete success and the new plasma thruster enabled them to travel the moon in under a day.