Don't Mess With Earth (9 page)

At Area 51, the alien spacecraft was housed
in an underground facility that could withstand any kind of nuclear
explosion. The Joint Chiefs assigned Air Force engineers to take
the ship apart and study all the various components required for it
to work, and if possible, implement all alien technology into human
technology. The individual Ragnor, who was still alive and none too
happy with his situation, was coerced into helping the humans
develop the means for supersonic flight, since no current aircraft
in the inventory of the new military branch of the United States
Air Force was capable of going fast enough to fly faster than the
speed of sound, and all previous attempts had met with absolute
failure. The Ragnor was taken to his computer, since the human
scientists knew this was a computer, even though it was light years
ahead of the ENIAC, and they watched as the alien accessed the
information for traveling faster than the speed of sound. When the
information appeared on the computer monitor, the Ragnor said, “The
information you primitive humans seek is now on this monitor. What
do you need to know?”

“We need to know how to keep our aircraft
from breaking apart. When the last couple of attempts were made,
the skin of the airplanes began peeling off, forcing the pilot to
eject. On another flight, an engine failed and blew up, killing the
pilot. We’re not sure what caused the malfunctions, can you help us
with this?” asked one of the flight engineers.

“Your attempts at supersonic flight have
failed because you are an inferior species and you have primitive
machines and inferior equipment. Your aircraft does not have the
right materials nor do they appear streamlined enough for speed of
sound flight; therefore, I will show you how to make the right
materials so you can achieve this minor milestone in your
history.”

A few months later, Bell Aircraft, after
being given the contract to build a supersonic plane by
representatives of the Air Force connected with Area 51, came out
with the X-1, designed around the specifications that the Ragnor
said would help the aircraft reach and surpass the speed of sound.
The X-1 looked like
a bullet with wings that
resembled the shape of the Browning .50-caliber machine gun bullet
that was known to be stable in supersonic flight. The engine,
called the
XLR11, was the first
liquid-fuel rocket engine designed in the United States and it used
ethyl alcohol and liquid oxygen as propellants to generate a
maximum thrust of six thousand pounds.
The first test pilot
for the aircraft would be the man who shot down the Ragnor ship,
and that was Captain Chuck Yeager, who was promoted and given test
piloting duties by the government so he would keep his mouth shut
about the aliens. He arrived at the airstrip outside of Area 51 the
day of his test, not knowing what the aircraft looked like or how
it would handle at supersonic speeds.

He went into the hangar and saw the X-1,
which was hanging underneath the belly of a B-29, took a few
minutes to inspect the aircraft, shook his head a few times, and
then turned to a flight engineer, and asked in a rather skeptical
tone, “Are you sure this thing is flyable and safe?”

“Yes, Captain Yeager. According to the alien,
this is the best design for an aircraft to achieve supersonic
flight. I assure you, you have nothing to worry about, sir.”

“I have nothing to worry about? The fact that
all of you are taking the word of a captured alien, who claims that
this is the best way to go faster than sound, I really have my
doubts. How do we know there are no Soviet spies running around
here telling their government about this? This is nuts. However,
since I’m getting a bigger paycheck to be a test pilot on this
rocket-powered machine, I will do as my government tells me to do.
Let’s get me strapped in.”

Yeager got into his flight suit, with an
oxygen pack attached, and climbed into the cockpit of the X-1. The
flight engineers went through the pre-flight check with Yeager and
showed him the controls and the buttons to push to activate the
rocket once the B-29 let the plane go. The B-29 took off a few
minutes later and climbed to an altitude of twenty thousand feet,
then the X-1 was detached, and Yeager pushed the button for the
rocket engine. The aircraft blasted away from the B-29, and climbed
to another twenty thousand feet in less than a minute. As Yeager
approached the sound barrier, he felt a rumble throughout the
aircraft that he had never experienced before, and then he felt the
plane vibrate when he surpassed the sound barrier, and a shockwave
of sound reverberated off the aircraft. His pressure suit kept
Yeager from passing out as he flew above the speed of sound. After
staying in the air for fifteen minutes, Yeager piloted the craft
back to Area 51 and glided to a landing, and was swarmed by Air
Force personnel. He got out of the X-1 and was greeted by the head
flight engineer who said, “Congratulations, sir. You’ve done what
we thought was impossible. President Truman also sends his
congratulations to you for breaking the sound barrier. The base
commander wants you in his office for a de-briefing, while we take
out the flight data recorder and analyze the flight.”

Meanwhile, on the Mars Base, the commander
was dictating to the computer his daily report, when one of his
aides came rushing into the commanders’ office, breaking his
concentration on the report, so the commander asked, “What news do
you have for me that you come rushing in here?”

“Sir, we have a report of a sonic boom being
recorded in the United States. According to the Terran who was in
the area at the time, it seems like they now have aircraft capable
of breaking the sound barrier.”

“I suppose it was bound to happen sooner or
later, that’s why we’re here. Did the contact on the ground say
where in the United States this sonic boom occurred?”

“They only heard the sonic boom, didn’t see
any kind of aircraft. They were visiting the Grand Canyon when they
heard it, sir.” said the aide.

“Well, I’m just glad to know these humans are
finally advancing in their technology, it’s about time. Keep me
informed of anything new.”

As the Air Force began trying different
variations of the supersonic jet, which sometimes began to become
more dangerous for Yeager and other test pilots, some computer
engineers took apart one of the Ragnor computers to study the
components making up this desk-top sized computer, instead of the
room sized versions the military was using. The computer was
opened, and they discovered small electronic parts that were
currently beyond the humans’ ability to create. So, they made the
Ragnor translate everything from the Ragnor language into English,
so the scientists could begin to figure out how to create this
technology for the United States. A few weeks later, English
language translation software was finally finished by the Ragnor,
so the computer technicians were ordered to find out how the Ragnor
started going into space first, since the Joint Chiefs didn’t want
the United States to progress too fast technologically, they wanted
to take baby steps as it were. When it was discovered that the
aliens started out using rocket ships to launch into space, the
military realized they had the means to create rockets big enough
to leave Earth and carry humans. The question was fuel, should it
be atomic powered or should they use what was being used for the
supersonic test flights, a combination of rocket fuel and liquid
oxygen. They decided on liquid oxygen and rocket fuel, so in case
of a catastrophic failure, the launch site wouldn’t be poisoned by
radiation from the atomic powered engine if it were to explode.

As they were working on the technology for
bigger, faster rockets, the United States government also wanted
the application to be used for nuclear weapons, in the form of
intercontinental ballistic missiles, which was being worked on by
Wernher von Braun and some of the team who had worked on the
nuclear bombs used on Japan. CIA spies informed the United States
that the Soviet Union was working on creating some of the same
technology; apparently they had taken apart the downed alien
spacecraft in their country, and figured out a little bit of the
technology on their own, since none of the aliens on board had
survived. Some of the smaller rockets that were created were
launched from the underside of B-29’s with scientific tools to test
the outer atmosphere of Earth, to see what was needed to protect
anyone who would eventually be launched into space. The Air Force,
calling the tests Project Vanguard, kept trying to launch full
sized rockets from Cape Canaveral, Florida, into orbit, but most of
the Project met with total failure as many of the rockets blew up
on the launch pad, failed to achieve orbit, or veered off course
and crashed into the Atlantic Ocean. The scientists and engineers
were frustrated, but kept trying because the government did not
want the Soviet Union to beat the United States.

The world, and especially the United States,
was taken by complete and total surprise when the Soviet made
satellite,
Sputnik
, was launched into orbit by a missile
that had originally carried nuclear warheads on October 4, 1957.
This occurred almost exactly ten years after the breaking of the
sound barrier, and caused the government of the United States to go
into a panic, starting the Space Race between the two nations.
Congress, calling this the
Sputnik
crisis, called for an
Advanced Research Projects Agency, not knowing about Area 51, and
for the creation of the
National Aeronautics and
Space Administration, NASA for short, through the
National Aeronautics and Space Act passed by
Congress on July 29, 1958. Before the United States could
successfully launch a rocket into orbit of their own, the Soviets
this time launched
Sputnik
2
a month later, with a passenger, a dog
named Laika. The satellite was never meant to return to Earth, so
the dog died in orbit.

On Mars, the commander was taking a
tour of the base, when his aide came rushing over to him, a little
excited it seemed, so the commander said, “Let me guess, something
has happened on Earth.”

“
Yes sir, something most
definitely has happened. The Russians launched a satellite into
orbit, called
Sputnik
. The whole Earth, but, mostly
the United States, is in a state of shock over the launch. The
United States, from what I’ve learned, has tried over and over
again to launch one of their own, but those keep meeting with
failure. Should we do something to help them out?”

“Unless the Russians and the
Americans set up nuclear weapons platforms in Earth’s orbit, then
there’s no way we’re going to help anyone out. Our job is to wait
for a first contact to come, which will probably happen a few years
from now, instead of the experts who say sometime in the next
century. I really don’t want to make the humans mad at us, so we do
not interfere. Understood?”

“Yes, sir.”

On December 6, 1957, the
United States decided to televise a launch of a rocket and
satellite called
Vanguard TV3
from Cape Canaveral to prove that the United States
could indeed launch a vehicle into orbit. It was a small satellite
designed to test the launch capabilities of the three-stage
Vanguard rocket and study the effects of the environment on a
satellite and its systems in Earth orbit. It was also to be used to
measure the Earths’ gravitational field. As it attempted to launch,
the booster ignited and it started to rise, but two seconds after
liftoff, after rising to about four feet, the rocket lost thrust
and began to settle back down to the launch pad. As it settled
against the launch pad, the fuel tanks ruptured and exploded,
destroying the rocket and severely damaging the launch pad. The
Vanguard satellite was thrown clear and landed on the ground a
short distance away with its transmitters still sending out a
beacon signal. This was a big black eye to the United States,
especially when the big city newspapers had a field day in
headlines. There were numerous plays on words with the
Sputnik
, such as
"Flopnik", "Kaputnik", and "Stayputnik” This angered the scientists
and engineers who worked on the TV3, who immediately went to work
building a rocket that would not fail on the launch pad and cause
them to look like idiots.

Eighty-four days later, on
February 1, 1958,
Explorer
1
was successfully launched into orbit, and
was carrying a mission payload of scientific instruments. The
orbiter was designed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the
rocket, called Juno 1, was modified from a Jupiter-C rocket by the
Army Ballistic Missile Agency. The science instruments were
designed by James Van Allen, who had indirect help from Area 51
scientists, they had wanted to detect the radiation surrounding
Earth as described in the Ragnor computer, which Van Allen had no
idea was actually surrounding the Earth. The science instrument
that detected the radiation was the Geiger counter, which was
overwhelmed by the strong radiation coming from the belt of charged
particles trapped in space by the Earth's magnetic field. The field
was named the Van Allen Belts in honor of James Van Allen, since he
designed the equipment to detect the field. This also pleased the
scientists at Area 51, the technology they were creating was
actually working, too bad they had to go at such a slow pace as not
to alert everyone in the world that the United States actually was
more technologically more advanced than anyone realized, including
everyone in the United States who didn’t work at Area 51 or
Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.