Rocket Girls Read online

  Matsuri had removed the entire avionics bay set behind the instrument panel and thrown it out into space where it floated, an irreplaceable jumble of specialized computers and wireless devices.

  “That should do it. Come on in, Yukari. Let’s go home.”

  “Matsuri!”

  “No, really, I insist. Or would you rather have them take you on board the Soyuz?”

  Yukari frowned, faced with a true life-or-death decision.

  She had gone through more than her share of training runs where they had simulated computer failure and had them cut circuits and operate the craft manually. You could mostly figure out your attitude and position by using the onboard porthole to look at the land below you. She remembered Mukai saying that all the equipment inside the capsules were stand-alone components. Each one could be removed without harming the rest of the machinery. She just hadn’t imagined that all of them would be removed at the same time.

  Reentry was no walk in the park. An object flying just shy of eight kilometers per second hit the atmosphere like a bug hitting a windshield.

  The capsules were equipped with heat-resistant shields capable of withstanding flames as hot as a blowtorch, but if they came in at the wrong angle, the shields wouldn’t do them any good, and the capsule would burn to a cinder in the blink of an eye.

  Without any transmitters left, even if they managed to survive reentry, they had no way of letting anyone know their position.

  Miss their timing by even ten seconds and they’d overshoot their splashdown point by a whole eighty kilometers. Yukari had a hard time believing that a boat or helicopter would be able to spot their capsule—hardly larger than an old phone booth—at that distance. If they didn’t land exactly where the rescue team expected them to, there was a good chance they could be lost at sea.

  Yukari glanced down at her left wrist. Her only chronograph was her Omega wristwatch. They would have to thread the needle with only this and a few fuse panel switches.

  Of course, the Soyuz was still an option.

  She shook the thought out of her head as soon as she had it. She wouldn’t expose two other people to the vacuum of space just to save her own life.

  Yukari made up her mind, by herself. Just like a real astronaut.

  “Commander Belyayev. I will be going home in this capsule.”

  “You are quite sure about this?”

  “Just watch us!” Yukari replied with an enthusiasm she didn’t feel.

  Yukari stuck a foot inside the capsule, and Matsuri grabbed hold and pulled her in.

  “Yipes! Tight fit.”

  “C’mon, you can get in further.”

  “It’s r-really cramped.” Yukari had to twist until she was practically sitting on Matsuri in order to get all the way inside.

  “Yukari, the hatch.”

  “Right.”

  Air filled the capsule, and the two took off their helmets and backpacks, pushing them down by their feet.

  “How are we ever going to time the deorbit burn? We have to adjust for load too.”

  “That’ll be your department, Yukari. Just do it like Kinoshita taught you. I’m not really up on all that stuff—though I do have a calculator!”

  “Well, that’s something.”

  Yukari pulled the calculator and operation manual from the navigational aid pouch.

  “I had them attach an orbital path chart at the end,” Matsuri told her. “We’re supposed to go down into the Arafura Sea on our second pass.”

  “That’s right…here. We don’t have much time, do we.” Yukari began furiously punching numbers into the calculator. If she subtracted the weight of the equipment Matsuri had jettisoned from her own body weight, she found that the capsule was now five kilos heavier. She could use that to determine the deorbit burn timings and thrust. “I guess we have to do the burn over Brazil— in another six minutes, nine seconds.”

  “How’s our attitude looking?”

  “Fine, I think. Wait a second—my hip’s on the control stick.” She twisted a little, managing to lift slightly off the stick.

  “Yukari, I can’t see the porthole from here. You’ll have to look at it for me.”

  “Right…”

  And so on they went, down through the long list of procedures and adjustments to be made.

  Yukari looked between her watch and the manual as she gave directions. “…Three, two, one, cut engines!”

  “Hoi.”

  “Nitrogen blower, on.”

  “Hoi.”

  “Retract OMS nozzle.”

  “Green light.”

  “Close OMS bay. Check latches one through four.”

  “Hoi. All green.”

  It was a major feat for two people to do what a computer did in seconds. As soon as the deorbit burn stopped, the capsule began to descend. Yukari checked the angle of the horizon to make sure their orientation was good.

  “Pitch control…plus two.”

  “Hoi.”

  “That’s too far. Minus one.”

  “Hoi.”

  “Just a little more!”

  “How’s that?”

  “Good…I think.” Yukari felt her own heart racing. “Can we go ahead and jettison our extra fuel now?”

  “Can’t check from here. Your call.”

  If they jettisoned their extra fuel, there wouldn’t be any more adjustments to their course. They’d be locked on their current trajectory, for better or for worse. But if they didn’t get rid of it, there was a chance it could ignite from the heat of reentry.

  “Let’s ditch it. Open valves B5, B6. Quick.”

  “Hoi.”

  Yukari felt the first vibration as they entered the atmosphere over Mindanao.

  “Here it comes.”

  Faint at first, the vibrations steadily grew in intensity. Yukari suddenly became aware of Matsuri’s chest pressing against her back.

  “Matsuri, you okay? I’m not squishing you, am I?”

  “No problem here.”

  “Okay, but—wait!”

  It dawned on Yukari that pressures during reentry climbed to as high as 10 G. Their bodies together would weigh as much as eight hundred kilograms—and Matsuri was on the bottom!

  “What are we going to do, Matsuri!? You’re going to be a pancake!”

  “No worries. We Taliho women are built tough.”

  “But still—”

  The g-forces relentlessly increased. The window was already red with heat. Yukari panicked, but there was nothing she could do. She couldn’t even move. There wasn’t any space in the capsule that wasn’t directly on top of Matsuri. “No! I’m going to crush you!”

  “No, you won’t.”

  “Yes, I will!”

  “Dad—” Matsuri seemed to be having trouble breathing. “Dad told me to look out for you, s-so don’t…worry…”

  “Hey! No! Mat—”

  An incredible rumbling vibration drowned out Yukari’s voice as the g-forces enveloped the capsule. Yukari felt herself being pressed down into Matsuri’s body. She tried to brace herself with her arms, but they were pinned by her sides.

  After three minutes that felt like an eternity, the weight finally lifted.

  Yukari called Matsuri’s name over and over, but there was no response.

  “What is it with everybody sacrificing themselves? You’re not allowed to do that, okay? You’re not allowed to die!”

  The capsule shot downward like an arrow, and Yukari wept until the last corner of her rational mind remembered something she had to do.

  Yukari groped for the fuse panel, found the switch to deploy the parachute, and threw it. She felt several quick impacts as the capsule passed through the cloud layer, and the main chute opened only moments before they hit the surface of the water. After the floats had fully deployed, Yukari threw open the hatch and crawled out into the bright sunlight on the surface of the hull. Crouching, she reached back into the capsule and undid Matsuri’s harness, giving her a shake.

 
“Matsuri! Wake up!” Yukari wiped at her eyes and stared at her sister’s face. “Matsuri…”

  Matsuri’s eyelashes twitched. Then her eyelids opened, and she stared straight up at Yukari with her large, catlike eyes. “Hoi? Yukari? Where are we?”

  “Earth,” Yukari said with a sob. “We’re home.”

  The sky and sea were blue as far as the eye could see. There was no land in sight. The two girls sat side by side on the capsule, feet in the water, letting the salty wind blow through their hair.

  That blue, Yukari thought. It’s the same deep, equatorial, vibrant blue.

  “You know,” she said, “we may not be too far off our splashdown point after all.”

  Matsuri smiled. “I think you may be right.”

  It was only a few moments later that they heard the whine from the turbines of an approaching helicopter.

  [ACT 9]

  BY THE END of the year, Maltide was the center of a worldwide media frenzy.

  Director Nasuda’s announcement of a seven-figure price for a manned space mission that would have cost the space shuttle nine figures to pull off had shaken the space industry.

  The cost of building satellites dropped like a stone now that follow-up maintenance was a real possibility. No longer did a company have one chance only to make a satellite that would never fail. This also brought down soaring satellite insurance premiums, cutting overall program costs by a third.

  When the economic impact of the Solomon Space Association became clear, the Japanese government backed off their earlier threats of funding cuts and doubled funding for the coming year.

  For Yukari and Matsuri, the media attention meant instant international stardom. But Yukari refused all the banquet invitations and parade plans, instead choosing to focus on getting ready for her return to school the following semester. Director Nasuda literally groveled at her feet to give at least one press conference, but she was unmovable.

  She had had enough of parties.

  What changed her mind was a short international phone call from her mother that came the day before she was to return to Japan.

  “Your school found out about your job,” her mother told her. “You’ve been expelled.”

  Expelled? Nearly a fate worse than dying alone in space!

  Be sure to check out what happens next in

  Rocket Girls: The Last Planet.

  AFTERWORD

  WHEN ROCKET GIRLS was first published in 1995, it was hailed as a “prophetic” book foretelling what tomorrow held for space exploration. The book became so popular, in fact, that it quickly became hard to find on bookstore shelves. I cannot express how delighted I am that Rocket Girls is now available to an English-speaking audience, and it is my great hope that some of those involved with the space programs of North America and Europe will keep the book close at hand and find it a useful reference as they plan for the future.

  So, what warrants the “prophetic” label Rocket Girls has earned? When the book was updated in 2007 to coincide with the release of the anime version, I addressed this very question in the afterword, excerpts of which follow.

  1. The second space shuttle disaster led to a period of greatly reduced manned spaceflight.

  Director Nasuda discusses this at the beginning of the book. NASA was forced to rely on the Russians to ferry astronauts to the International Space Station. At the time, the Russian workforce itself had been decimated, leaving both programs in a precarious position.

  2. Manned spaceflight using hybrid rockets is a reality.

  This incredible achievement was accomplished by a private company led by the brilliant Burt Rutan. This novel portrays a similar example of a small group of talented individuals working together to accomplish an ambitious goal.

  Unlike the rocket described in the book, the actual hybrid is only capable of suborbital flight; greater thrust is probably necessary to reach orbital velocity. However, since this is a work of science fiction, we can make up the difference.

  3. NASA’s next generation spacecraft will employ a capsule design.

  NASA has learned from the high cost and safety problems of the space shuttle. In light of this, it’s safe to dismiss criticism of this book for using a “primitive” capsule design. NASA is planning two new launch vehicles: Ares I, which will loft the crew into orbit, and Ares V, which will carry cargo. This is the same, eminently rational, division of labor envisioned in the book.

  4. Skintight space suits have entered the research phase.

  Even I had doubts that this would become a reality. Nonetheless, JAXA’s own literature now makes mention of “skin-tight” space suits, and research on their design is underway in laboratories at MIT. An Internet search for “bio-suit” will bring up the website, which describes the suit much as it appears in the book—a “second skin.” There’s even a picture of a mock-up suit that looks exactly like Yukari’s skinsuit.

  It will probably be some time before the suit is ready for use, but when it is, it will give a significant edge to manned spaceflight. Current space suits significantly restrict motion, making robots much more competitive in this area than they otherwise would be.

  Three years ago, I ended the afterword here. Have there been any developments in the intervening years that would add to that list? Read on.

  5. The dawn of private-sector space exploration.

  Space X, a company created by one of the founders of Pay-Pal, has succeeded in launching its Falcon 1 and Falcon 9 rockets. In Hokkaido, Takafumi Horie, a popular figure in the IT industry, is conducting experiments on liquid-fueled rockets. Though their plans closely resemble one another, they were conceived independently. Still another private developer in Hokkaido has created a small hybrid rocket by the name of CAMUI, which is now available commercially.

  You might be wondering how this qualifies as prophetic. Wasn’t the Solomon Space Association backed by government funding?

  Though this is true, the management at the SSA as depicted in the book is decidedly private sector. They didn’t choose the Solomon Islands for their base simply because the site was ideal for launching rockets. They also wanted a location where they would be free of government intervention and bureaucracy, while at the same time affording them some degree of economic independence.

  That so many successful figures from the IT industry have stepped forward to meet the challenges posed by space exploration indicates to me that, free to apply their own resources to the task, they feel they stand a chance of outdoing NASA. And as it happens, NASA appears to agree. The agency has already begun working in partnership with many of these private projects. Space X tested Falcon 1 on an island no one had ever heard of, while Falcon 9 launched from Cape Canaveral. NASA is also supporting the development of Space X’s manned Dragon capsule, while at the same time canceling its own Ares program, mentioned above in point 3.

  In fact, even I am working as a fellow in the space exploration division of an IT firm. I envision a bright future for mankind where ordinary people can travel easily between Earth and space. I believe we must strive to make the world depicted in Rocket Girls a reality, so that one day even husky individuals like me will be able to enjoy the thrill of space travel.

  Housuke Nojiri

  June 2010

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Born in Mie, Japan, in 1961. After working in instrumentation control, CAD programming, and game design, Housuke Nojiri published his first work, The Blind Spot of Veis, based on the video game Creguian, in 1992. He gained popularity with his subsequent works the Creguian series and the Rocket Girl series. In 2002, he published Usurper of the Sun, ushering in a new era of space science fiction in Japan. After first appearing as a series of short stories, Usurper won the Seiun Award for best Japanese science fiction novel of 2002 and was published in English in 2009. His other works include Pendulum of Pinieru and Fuwa-Fuwa no Izumi.

  ROCKET GIRLS: THE LAST PLANET

  When the Rocket Girls accidentally land in the yard of Yukari Morita
’s old school, it looks as though their experiment is ruined. Luckily, the geeky Akane is there to save the day. Fitting the profile—she’s intelligent, enthusiastic, and petite—Akane is soon recruited by the Solomon Space Association. Yukari and Akane are then given the biggest Rocket Girl mission yet: a voyage to the edge of the solar system and the minor planet of Pluto to save a NASA probe.

  HAIKASORU

  THE FUTURE IS JAPANESE

  HARMONY BY PROJECT ITOH

  In the future, Utopia has finally been achieved thanks to medical nanotechnology and a powerful ethic of social welfare and mutual consideration. This perfect world isn’t that perfect though, and three young girls stand up to totalitarian kindness and super-medicine by attempting suicide via starvation. It doesn’t work, but one of the girls—Tuan Kirie—grows up to be a member of the World Health Organization. As a crisis threatens the harmony of the new world, Tuan rediscovers another member of her suicide pact, and together they must help save the planet…from itself.

  THE OUROBOROS WAVE BY JYOUJI HAYASHI

  Ninety years from now, a satellite detects a nearby black hole scientists dub Kali after the Hindu goddess of destruction. Humanity embarks on a generations-long project to tap the energy of the black hole and establish colonies on planets across the solar system. Earth and Mars and the moons Europa ( Jupiter) and Titania (Uranus) develop radically different societies, with only Kali, that swirling vortex of destruction and creation, and the hated but crucial Artificial Accretion Disk Development association (AADD) in common.

  SUMMER, FIREWORKS, AND MY CORPSE BY OTSUICHI

  Two short novels, including the title story and Black Fairy Tale, plus a bonus short story. Summer is a simple story of a nine-year-old girl who dies while on summer vacation. While her youthful killers try to hide her body, she tells us the story—from the point of view of her dead body—of the children’s attempt to get away with murder. Black Fairy Tale is classic J-horror: a young girl loses an eye in an accident, but receives a transplant. Now she can see again, but what she sees out of her new left eye is the experiences and memories of its previous owner. Its previous deceased owner.