Goldilocks capturing mission

This article is about the asteroid capturing mission. For the asteroid itself, see Goldilocks. For the episode with the same name, see Goldilocks (episode).

Goldilocks capturing mission
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General Information
Program	Asteroid capture program
Operator	Mars-7 Alliance      Group of conspirators (secretly)
Spacecraft	Ranger
Location	Near Mars orbit
Launch site	Phoenix
Mission Details
Alias	Ranger-2
Purpose	Capturing of asteroid 2003LC
Crew	Ravi Vaswani (mission commander) Nina Rozhenkova Maximus Taylor Palmer James Park Chui Moo Samantha Massey others
Date	October 2003
Result	Partial success Goldilocks captured Asteroid in Martian orbit instead of Earth's
Mission Patch

The Goldilocks capturing mission was a joint mission by the Mars-7 Alliance and Helios Aerospace in 2003 to capture the asteroid Goldilocks for mining it in Martian orbit. Due to the exorbitant costs of the mining operations projected by Helios operative Aleida Rosales, the M-7 members at their 2003 summit in Leningrad decided to direct the asteroid towards Earth instead. Unbeknownst to everyone else, Dev Ayesa and a team of conspirators aimed to direct it into Martian orbit anyway. The conspirators would be successful, leading to Goldilocks being placed in permanent Martian orbit.

History

Discovery

On 2 July 2003, the Thomas Paine Space Telescope picked up images of an unknown object in the vicinity of Jupiter, which was believed to be an asteroid decayed from a Jovian trojan orbit. The object got the designation "2003LC" and further studies revealed it was redirected to the inner Solar System, coming in on a Mars-crossing orbit. It was believed to have an estimated 70,000 metric tons of iridium, valued at $20 trillion. Because of this, 2003LC was nicknamed the "Goldilocks" asteroid. While economists believed it could lead to an economic boom, others were skeptical as the breakthrough in helium-3 led to the loss of many jobs. Soviet president Fyodor Korzhenko also questioned the legitimacy of the discovery, believing the Soviet Union the only reliable source of iridium.

Planning

The value of the asteroid leads to plans to capture it and bring it into Martian orbit, as had been planned with the ill fated XF Kronos capture. After US president Al Gore makes a faux pas and takes responsibility for discovering the asteroid, Roscosmos director Irina Morozova organises a summit between the Mars-7 members and Helios Aerospace in Leningrad, to organise the capture and divide the estimated profits. After Helios engineer Aleida Rosales reveals that the costs will reach $2 trillion, and the profits will likely not be seen for 30-40 years, NASA administrator Eli Hobson instead proposes for the asteroid to be redirected to Earth orbit, where the costs will be much lower and the wait time will be 5 years instead. To ensure that the equations necessary for this change in plans are complete, Morozova lets former NASA engineer and defector Margo Madison reveal herself as having survived the JSC bombing in 1995, so that she can work with Aleida on the problem. Despite misgivings between the two, a solution is found.

Problems on Mars

After the change in plans, Helios workers on Mars who would have benefited financially from the asteroid mining in Martian orbit, go on strike in order to fight for increased pay, increased safety and for Goldilocks to be mined in Martian orbit. After ESA astronaut Nick Jennings is killed when attempting to restart the fuel refining generators at Happy Valley by bypassing a safety regulator, the strike is ended, after Helios CEO Dev Ayesa offers a deal worth over $1 million to each worker and increased safety standards, although Golidlocks will still be mined in Earth orbit. Only 5 Helios workers, including Ed Baldwin and Samantha Massey, hold out on the deal.

Redirection mission

As part of the redirection of Goldilocks to Earth, M-7 and Helios plan to utilise Ranger to push the asteroid towards Mars to use it for a gravity assisted redirection towards Earth. By pushing the asteroid towards Mars with a series of small correction burns, before finally utilising a 20 minute burn, they will be able to redirect it. To ensure that the calculations are correct, they will send the orders from Happy Valley's Ops-Comm room to Ranger through a discriminator box on board the ship.

Capture

The capture of Goldilocks is successful with Ranger secured to the asteroid with a trajectory towards Mars for the planned gravity assist.

Asteroid theft

See also: Ghost Ops

Unbeknownst to the M-7 and the majority of Helios workers, Dev Ayesa instead wishes to capture Goldilocks in Martian orbit, in order to force it to be mined there, helping to create a sustainable Martian colony. He recruits Ed Baldwin, Samantha Massey and the other Helios workers who had held out on the initial deal to help him with his plan. He discovers that by burning for 25 minutes instead of 20, the asteroid will instead be trapped in a permanent Martian orbit. To ensure the plan succeeds, the team has to build their own Ops-Comm room using hardware smuggled from Phoenix by Miles Dale, while also having Massey, who will be on Ranger as part of the crew, swap out the discriminator box for one of their own, which she manages to do by sabotaging the original box.

After Miles is tortured by KGB and CIA agents Timur Avilov and Mike Bishop, the location of Ghost Ops is discovered. This leads to the other conspirators hiding in the North Korean sector of the base, under the command of Lee Jung-Gil. Utilizing the S-band transmitter in the sector, they are able to communicate with Park Chui Moo, the science officer on the mission. Park is able to pass a communication device to Massey, opening communications between Dev and Massey. Massey then undertakes an EVA to open the engine override, which is located on the outside of the ship. Massey is successful in this endeavour, although has to subdue crew member Palmer James to do so.

On Earth, after former Roscosmos director and love interest of Margo, Sergei Nikulov, is killed, Margo and Aleida work to ensure that the plot succeeds. Their work ensures that the engines continue to burn, despite other engineers aiming to shutdown the nuclear reactors on Ranger to starve the engines of fuel. These combined actions result in Goldilocks falling into Martian orbit.

Aftermath

Due to Margo's actions, her diplomatic immunity is renounced and she is arrested by the FBI on her previous treason charges. By 2012 mining outposts are set up on the asteroid's surface, including Kuznetsov Station.

See also

• Kronos capturing mission
• Asteroid capture program