The planet Marnia was undiscovered to Humans long after we thought that we had discovered the entire Solar System. Marnia is a rather large planet (about twice the size of Earth) but spins very fast, which conviently made the gravity felt on the surface to be the exact same as Earth's. This planet is located directly opposite of the Earth in the same orbit, and orbits at the same speed, which explains why Earthlings have never discovered the planet and also somewhat explains Earth's elliptical orbit. After all, we Earthlings like to go far from our planet, not cross the Sun and see what follows (or leads) us in our orbit.
Probes sent to Marnia show that liquid water flows on the surface, as well as an ambundance of oxygen in the atmosphere. The surface of the planet seems green, which leads scientists to believe that plant life also exists. Everything was in place for a manned landing, except...
Just the day before, a large portion of a sealing wall fractured on Luna Transfer's outer wall. Due to the urgency of the situtation, NASA sent its A team (5 males, 1 female) to the station for immedate repairs, which left zero male astronauts at the launch pad and 4 females. Due to the relationship between Katie and Steven, Katie and Kelly were chosen for the mission, which was due to launch the next day due to Venus' transit of the Sun, which would help save many thousand dollars in fuel.
June 6th, 2066, 0606 Eastern Time
Launch was perfect, the winds were even helping blow the rocket towards Venus for the gravity assisted maneuver, which would "slingshot" the lander fast enough to travel by the Sun and land on Marnia, with the help of some rockets, of course.
June 7th, 2066, 1200 Eastern Time
Overheat in oxygen tank 1, lander is 1500 miles too close to the Sun. Temperature readout inside oxygen tank 1: 500 degrees, critical temperature: 750 degrees.
June 8th, 2066, 1200 Eastern Time
Situation contained, temperature readout inside oxygen tank 1: -40 degrees. 15 million miles above Cornona.
July 4th, 2066, 1337 Eastern Time
In orbit around Marnia.
July 5th, 2066, 1200 Eastern Time
Ready for atmospheric entry.
July 6th, 2066, 1538 Eastern Time
Radio blackout due to atmospheric entry.
July 6th, 2066, 1600 Eastern Time
Attempted contact with lander, failure.
July 6th, 2066, 1630 Eastern Time
Attempted contact with lander, failure.
July 6th, 2066, 1700 Eastern Time
Attempted contact with lander, failure.
July 6th, 2066, 1719 Eastern Time
Lost radio contact with lander, emergency radio reboot failure.
July 6th, 2066, 1749 Eastern Time
Emergency radio reboot failure
July 6th, 2066, 1750 Eastern Time
Lost all contact with lander
July 6th 2066, 1751 Eastern Time
Radio awaiting response for 1 month, after which crew is assumed dead and mission would terminate.
August 6th, 2066, 1751 Eastern Time
Mission end.
Crew assumed dead.
Kelly seemed to have passed out from the shock. The readings from the autopilot are simple: TOTAL SYSTEM FAILURE. Both girls can fly the spacecraft, but only Kelly can land it. "The autopilot must have been destroyed by the overheating oxygen tank", Katie thought. The radio silence caused by the atmospheric entry isn't helping, she urgently needed help in flying this bucket of bolts!
50 Miles.
Now Katie was really scared. They were under 50 miles above the surface, but speed is still at 9 500 miles per hour! She started fumbling with the switches and knobs, trying to slow down the craft. Kelly is still showing no signs of awaking, and the craft is showing no signs of slowing down!
25 Miles.
"Shit, how did they design this thing!" Katie screamed. Surely there must be an instruction manual.....?
She dived for the cabinet at the back of the cockpit, opened it, and found 3 guides: takeoff, landing, recovery.
2500 feet.
Pages flew from the book as Katie frantically flipped through the pages in the "Landing" manual. She couldn't help it; the manual was well over a thousand pages long and she is passing through the cloud layer at over 2 000 miles per hour!
1000 feet.
"Pull emergency braking system to slow speed"
500 feet.
Book: "Release parachute at 1000 feet." Katie: "SHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIITTTTTTTT" Siri: "Whoa there."
400 feet.
"Activate landing boosters at 2 miles"
300 feet.
"Lower landing gears at 250 feet"
200 feet.
"Open main parachute at 250 feet"
100 feet.
"Optimal landing vertical speed is between 0 to -250 feet per minute."
50 feet.
Katie peered at the vertical speed indicator. -589 feet per second.
40 feet.
-434 feet per second.
30 feet.
-365 feet per second.
20 feet.
-264 feet per second.
10 feet.
"SHIIIIITTTTT"
5 feet.
The last thing Katie remembered before blacking out was Kelly pushing the main booster iginition. Then the lander smashed into the ground at -150 feet per second, collapsing the landing gear in a sickening crunch and launching dust everywhere.
When I awoke, I felt a stinging sensation in my head, as if I had been hit by something very hard. Now remember, I was barley conscious during the impact, so I didn't really know what had happened. On the other side, Katie completely remembered the descent and crash landing, which was quite a test of the lander's structure. The vertical speed on impact was around -150 feet per second; the lander is designed for a max of -155 feet per second.
Once we got the landing (more like lucky crash) behind us, I explored the surface as Katie attempted to salvage the radio. The plant life is moss-like but very crunchy, and the soil on this planet is rather soft. The tallest plants were only up to my ankle but they seemed to have a rather large top compared to their stem. There was no taller plants in sight; only some small hills surrounded our landing site. There was also a considerable white cloud rising about a quarter mile away, it didn't seem natural at all so I decided to go and check it out.
A short walk later, I noticed how the steam appeared to be coming from a small plate-sized deformation in the rock. Maybe this could be a signal flare or a part of our spacecraft? The object was rather wide compared to its height; the tallest cords seem to reach to my knee while the base of the object reached a bit above my ankle. The object seemed to cover about two square feet of land and it was definitely not natural.
Upon returning to th lander, Katie told me that the radio is extremely damaged, but salvageable. Just then, a small squeaking sound came from the plant life. "Did you make that noise?" Katie asked. "When was the last time I made a noise that high pitched, first grade?" Katie looked insulted, then her eyes widened suddenly and she nearly fainted. I spun around, naturally looking upward. There was nothing to be seen, so then I looked down at my feet. My brain nearly exploded as I spotted a man about an inch tall. Surely my eyes are deceiving me? A man of such small proportions is just not possible. But then, the moss-like plants, the soft soil, the lack of tall objects, and the smoke emitting object made sense to me. I bent down and picked up a handful of the moss-like plants, and sure enough, they resembled tiny trees. The trees resemble young oak trees, as if they were recently planted. The soil shows small signs of burning; there was a fire here and this is the people's forest restoration program. At least they care about their planet, unlike us Earthlings. A day where visibility on Earth is above 15 miles is considered once in a lifetime, yet they say that back in the 10's and the 20's visibility under 15 miles was considered unhealthy. If there is one thing us Earthlings needs, it is the people of this planet who are able to keep their environment in such good shape. Speaking of which, there are more tiny people approaching me and Katie.
"What the-" sputtered Katie as she started backing away. There really was no reason to back away, being about 400 feet tall compared to the tiny people. The tallest of the aliens seem to be shorter than my pinky toe, and most of them don't even seem to be as tall as my footprints! Surely it would be easy to make a peaceful first contact with these tiny aliens.