"GREG VAN EEKHOUT - Will you be an astronaut" - читать интересную книгу автора (Eekhout Greg Van)

GREG VAN EEKHOUT

WILL YOU BE AN ASTRONAUT?

Here's an inventive story from a relatively new writer. Greg van Eekhout says he is a Los Angeles native who now lives in Tempe, Arizona with his astrophysicist fiancщe. He works at Arizona State University, developing and sometimes teaching distance learning courses. A past attendee of the Viable Paradise Writers' Workshop on Martha's Vineyard, he has published fiction in Starlight 3 (his first pro SF sale), Strange Horizons, Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet, and elsewhere. He says he's currently working on a novel that expands his Starlight 3 story "Wolves Till the World Goes Down."
ASTRONAUTS ARE PEOPLE who ride rockets into space. They must train for a very long time before they go. Astronauts must be brave and smart.
Will you be an astronaut?
The biggest rocket ever was the Saturn V. On the launch pad it was taller than a thirty-story building. Today's rockets are smaller and lighter. Today's rockets can be launched more than once. They have wings and can come back to Earth and land like airplanes.
When a rocket engine blasts out flame and smoke, it is so loud that windows rattle and the ground shakes. Everybody knows when astronauts are traveling to space.
Antonio is strapped into his seat. He is about to ride to a space station. Because there is no air in space, Antonio must wear a space suit. In the suit, Antonio can breathe and talk over radio. He wears a helmet with a special faceplate that protects him from the sun. The fingers of his gloves have tiny claws that help him work with small objects.
The rocket is about to take off. There go the engines. 5-4-3-2-1! Lift off!
Astronauts come from many countries. Antonio is from Mexico. Other astronauts come from Ecuador, Colombia, Brazil, the North American Diaspora, El Salvador, and other countries. Astronauts must be able to work well with others. They also must be good at math, computer science, and engineering.
In space, astronauts speak Spanish. No matter what language you speak at home, you must learn Spanish if you want to be an astronaut.
┐Habla espaёol?
Mercury was America's first manned spacecraft. It was smaller than a car and could hold just one man, all scrunched up. Gemini was more roomy and could take two men into orbit. And the Apollo spacecraft was even larger. It could take three men to the Moon and back.
On July 20, 1969 Apollo 11 brought the first astronauts to walk on the Moon. There are no plants or animals on the Moon. There is no water to drink or air to breathe. Astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin conducted experiments and talked to people on Earth. They collected many Moon rocks, but their spacecraft was lost while returning to Earth. Space exploration is dangerous.
Astronauts must be very brave. Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin made one giant leap for mankind.
Will you be an astronaut?
Antonio's rocket docks with Space Station Vigilancia. The space station circles 19,000 kilometers above the Earth. It also has rockets to help it move out of orbit. In some ways, the space station is like a spaceship. It is shaped like a big donut with a needle through the center. Antonio's rocket links up with the space station at the bottom of the needle. He rides an elevator up to Vigilancia's living quarters.
The living quarters are small but comfortable. Antonio cooks some of his own food in a kitchen and grows some of it in garden-bubbles. He sleeps in a hammock and exercises with weights and a bicycle. When he's not working, sleeping or exercising, he watches movies and plays games, just like you do at home.
Antonio replaces another astronaut. The old astronaut will ride back to Earth in the rocket that brought Antonio. Antonio will remain on Space Station Vigilancia for nine months. During that time, he will finally get to put all his training to use. He will use telescopes and other instruments to watch for incoming Asps. If he sees an Asp, he will track it with radio waves, and if it gets close enough he will blast it with the space station's proton guns. Antonio has practiced doing this on Earth for a long time. He is very good at it. It is a great responsibility to be an astronaut, protecting Earth from Asps.
If even a single Asp gets through, millions of people could die.
How did Antonio become an astronaut? Astronauts come from all kinds of places. They come from big cities and small cities, from mountains and jungles, from farms and refugee camps.
Asps destroyed Mexico City, the place where Antonio's parents lived. They had to move to the refugee camp where Antonio was born.
Here is Antonio in the refugee camp. He is standing in line at the depot. At the depot he is given a box with food in it. It is enough food to feed Antonio for a week. Antonio eats bean cakes and fruit paste and crackers with peanut butter.
Every time Antonio picks up a box of food, the people at the depot ask him questions.
"How do you spell rocket?" asks a man.
"R-O-C-K-E-T," says Antonio.
"Very good," says the man. The man is from Africa and works for the Nations. He writes something in his notepad and asks Antonio another question.
Antonio can spell many words.
P-R-O-T-E-C-T.
E-A-R-T-H.
H-U-M-A-N-I-T-Y.
L-O-Y-A-L.
Not all the questions are about spelling. Some are about math. Antonio can answer those easily.
And some questions are very different. They are "pretend" questions.
"Antonio, pretend your best friend is hungry. He has already eaten his crackers. When you go to the clinic to get your shot, you see a food box that someone has left by the door. The person who left it there must not be hungry, since they were so careless. Your stomach is rumbling. Do you eat the crackers, or do you give them to your best friend?"
Antonio says, "I tell the nurse there is a food box by the door."
The man says, "Very good, Antonio."
All Antonio's answers are entered in the notepad. After a while, people know that Antonio is very smart. When he is twelve years old he is chosen to attend astronaut school in Rio de Janeiro. It is a great honor to be picked for astronaut school. It is important to study hard. Always speak intelligently to adults. Don't be afraid of big words.
Antonio has to leave his parents in the refugee camp, and he is very sad.
His father hugs him. "Be good," says his father.
"You will make us proud," says his mother.
Antonio flies to astronaut school in an airplane.
He will miss his parents when he is at astronaut school, but he knows he is learning how to protect them from Asps.
It is okay to be sad when you help other people.
The Earth is beautiful. When Antonio has free time he looks through one of the space station's windows. Antonio learned geography at school in the refugee camp, and he learned even more at astronaut school. He sleeps with a picture of Earth over his hammock. The Earth is the most important thing there is.
Antonio sees blue ocean beneath the white clouds. The Gobi Desert is the color of a camel. The tip of Cape Horn is white like a polar bear. North America is green and brown, but parts of it are ash gray. Across Europe is a patch of ash gray. Across China is a patch of ash gray.
The gray parts are where Asps have touched down. More than two billion people used to live where the patches are. But nobody lives there now. There are no people, no animals, and no plants in the patches. Over two billion people have died in the patches since man started going into space. Many more have died because the people in the patches grew food for others to eat, all over the world. Now their farms are gone.