I is I: 14 tonnes of space-age badassitude; going 32.000 mi [alt] in an RCC heat-tested alloy shell. Been 19 mo & 15d since I is launched and I’s orbital decay game is tight as hell. CAM1 [green]; CAM2 [green]; & NAVCHEK singing okey-dokey-thumbs-up, good buddy. I is primed, I is pumped— eyes telescoped down to Designate TNU.1256a. She is drop-dead gorgeous— a deep-space pearl packed under bright blue ice on the far end of the Kuiper Belt. For 19 mo. we do we dance, tugging & circling & never touching. Every 11 cycles I launch I’s bombs and seed her atmosphere with methane and CO-2. Then I do I’s readings with a gas chromatograph & a low-orbit probe. & so far there’s nothing doing— no algae, nor protozoa or single-celled wigglies but I is patient and I knows I mission: poised here in furthest space to watch over oceans.
Published on March 29, 2015 19:22