"Flight of the Bayern", © 1988, 1998-2005 by
Rob
Caswell, originally appeared in _Challenge_ #30 (pages 42 -
45).
Text-entry & HTML by:
Steve C.
Serving as an embodiment of the Astronomischen Rechen-Institut's (AR-I) achievements in the fields of astronomical research and starship engineering, Bayern is designed solely for the mission of travelling to and exploring the Pleiades star cluster, a group of approximately 350 young stars still shrouded in the veils of gas which spawned them, lying some 400 light years from the Sol system. The scale of this mission easily makes it the most ambitious and far-reaching of all man's deep penetration space efforts to date. It is not surprising that it was considered and undertaken by the AR-I, a foundation noted for its devotion to pure research for research's sake and its extravagant projects attacking the limits of mankind's understanding of the cosmos.
Spanning over four years in duration, the mission profile of Bayern is one of great potential and diversity. As with most AR-I projects, Bayern's crew is drawn from the best-suited individuals that human space can offer. Among its personnel are names known throughout the scientific community - such as Jacqueline Bohranian, sapientologist with the IEX (Institut des Etudes Xenologique) who is known for her work with the AR-I's visiting Ebers in Heidelburg, and Dieter "Hole Hunter" Bohl, chief astrophysicist at the foundation's Augereau Station who was responsible for engineering the first capture of a naturally occurring quantumn black hole in 2291. Of its 110 crew members, 80 will remain in cryogenic suspension for about 50 percent of the mission, although individuals may be awakened if the services of their specialties are required en route. It is no great surprise that a number of cameramen and reporters are also present in the ship's contingent to record the voyage for the adventure-hungry masses back on Earth.
Even though it mounts the most advanced hardware that man can offer, Bayern's voyage will take it on a slightly circuitous route to the Pleiades. The 315-day trek to Alcyone, a young blue star located near the center of the cluster, will take the ship through a large number of previously unexplored star systems as it stops to discharge its stutterwarp drive. The standard procedure of each stop is to do a detailed scan of the system in order to determine a rough profile on any planetary systems present. This is accomplished by utilizing the ship's vast array of sensory equipment and by deploying its swarm of ten stutterwarp probes. The standing orders for the mission are to pursue more detailed investigations on any human-habitable worlds, stellar anomalies, or signs of extraterrestrial life. Bayern mounts five small, chemical drives, remote planetary probes which may be dropped from orbit to soft land on a planet's surface to gather more data on the surface and atmospheric characteristics of the world. The probe with its load of surface samples is then guided back to the ship. Provision for landing parties have been afforded, but this action is only carried out when it is deemed necessary by a board composed of the ship's captain and representatives of the on-board scientific community. The cases for this would usually involve either a contact scenario or an enigma, which only had the potential to be solved by firsthand investigations.
Once Bayern enters the outer extents of the Pleiades cluster, it will deploy its ten interstellar probes - each powered by its own MHD turbine and outfitted for frontier refueling - which will independently work their way around the mass of stars gathering data from areas Bayern will not have the chance to visit. From that point, Bayern will proceed along its course to Alcyone.
Navigating its way through the stellar herd, it will be performming a wide battery of experiments and observations. Among these activities are the collection and analysis of the ISM (Interstellar Medium) present in the cluster, the compilation of scrutinizing the stars in every range of the electromagnetic spectrum, and dynamical studies. Due to the cluster's extremely young age (in stellar terms) of 60 - 80 million years, the mission should yield a wealth of data on young stars, stellar birth, and the evolution of planetary systems. Assimilating all the data will be the chore that will doubtlessly take Earthbound astronomers years to complete.
During the outbound portion of the trip, stutterwarp message drones carrying media footage and a complete data dump of the mission to date are launched back to Earth at six-month intervals to safeguard against a mishap in the mission resulting in all the data being lost. The Bayern will spend 840 days plying the dusty voids between the Pleiades' members before collecting its drones and commencing its return trip. Its travel along this 400-day leg of the journey will bring it along a different route from its approach - a course carrying it through the Hyades star cluster, a group of stars ten times older than the Pleiades which lies some 150 light years from Earth.
Ships engineered on the scale of Bayern are not common in human space. As most ships are designed with the flexibility of multiple functions in mind, Bayern's design fulfills the requirements of its mission and nothing more. It is a one-shot ship for a unique and demanding assignment. Unlike ships which cruise the lanes in explored space, it must spend almost four years travelling through uncharted space, away from any manner of maintenance and repair facilities, providing its crew with life support (of varying means) for the duration. To this end, it utilizes many of the aspects which have characterized long-duration survey missions of the past. In particular, Bayern's design features are an extension of those of Baade's, the AR-I's historic vessel which made the first visit to a pulsar, CP 0950+08, in 2286.
Redundancy plays an obvious role in Bayern's construction. Three multi-level spin habitats, one of which has solar panel arrays for supplementary internal power, are roughly evenly spaced along the length of the spacefaring behemoth. The habitats provide space for the primary living areas, most of the lab facilities, and the vast hydroponic gardens serving to nourish the crew. It is also here in the ship's sickbay, where the vessel's 100 cryobunks reside, holding most of the crew in a state of suspension with their body temperature held a fraction above freezing. In this fashion, the ship's resources are conserved till such a time when the additional crew are required. The ship's engineering and support sections reside in the lumpy, elongated core. riding at the bow, the launch facilities hold two space planes, two landers, ten independently guided stutterwarp probes, the remote-piloted planetary probes, and five EVA "Bugs". Bayern's command center also resides in this section, with an auxiliary control room located centrally. Behind the station, three sensor and avionics booms stretch out from the hull. almost every conceivable sensor for stellar and planetary studies is emplaced on these spires, including AR-I's latest developments in G-wave sensors and neutrinopulse radar. Extending from this point to the stern are the four jettisonable stutterwarp units, sheathed in a maze of support machinery and tankage. The reason for the utilization of four drives is two-fold. First, as with most of the systems, the redundant drives serve as insurance in the event the primary drive has a failure. The other two drives are present in the event a jump larger than the ship's maximum efficiency must be performed. This would be accomplished by using one drive till it reaches its saturation point, then ejecting it into interstellar space and proceeding on another of the drives which is eventually discharged in a gravity well. Using this approach, Bayern is capable of making one interstellar jaunt of up to 15.4 light years on the inbound and outbound trips if it is deemed necessary. This method, an offspring of that which was used on the first voyage to the Alpha Centauri system, is far too expensive to be used in any manner of commercial vessel. Trailing behind the stutterwarps are the fusion power plant, with its sweeping, coal black cooling vanes jutting into the void, and the NERVA reaction drive system. Due to the constant bombardment of cosmic rays that will be experienced during the prolonged voyage, the hull is much thicker than most starships to protect the crew from the radiation element.
Though not particularly spacious, the crew accomodations are designed with comfort and convenience as a primary criterion. With the exception of the captain and department chiefs, double occupancy is the rule in crew staterooms. Each room is provided with a voice-reactive computer terminal tied into Bayern's research computer. a simulated 1G environment is maintained in the spin habitats and day/night cycle lighting brightens and dims with a twelve hour period for each phase. Bright colored paint adorns many of the ship's passages, and genetically altered air ferns are generously placed throughout the vessel. Pneumatic express tubes facilitate travel between the spin habitats and the core, with service crawlways existing as emergency routes.
Bayern launched in 2297, but the mission was aborted due to technical problems. While outbound and taking on supplies at (ironically) Neubayern Station, an explosion occurred in one of the stutterwarp drives when, due to a faulty umbilical which failed to disconnect, the stutterwarp engaged and read the station as part of the mass it was to propel. This resulted in a critical overload for the drive. The resulting explosion totalled the straining drive and deactivated another. After minor repairs, Bayern limped back to Clarke Habitat at Earth's L-5 position where it has since undergone repair, reassessment, and some modification. Its current launch window has been rescheduled for late 2301.
--Rob Caswell