launching the golden chair
by Julie Iverson
Welcome! This just in from The Daily Reporter: There is a plan for human expansion on the planet Mars. A small crew, including workers, is to consist of astronauts, scientists, engineers, alchemists, and agronomists. Human selections are complete, according to current news, including the technological leap forward of the building of the flying house they are taking to the red planet. All the materials used for the ship must be repurposed upon arrival there for this adventure to be successful.
The good ship, Golden Chair, will consist of less hefty materials, useful materials. One of the primary metals will be the wonder metal, titanium. Titanium, on the periodical table of elements, has a melting point of 1670C or 3038F. The name ‘titanium,’ is derived from the Titans, the Sons of the Earth from Greek mythology. Of any metal, titanium has the highest strength to weight ratio. Grade 1 titanium is comprised of 99% titanium. 0.2% iron and 0.18% oxygen, O2. It has trace amounts of other elements in it such as nitrogen, carbon and hydrogen. Titanium is highly resistant to chemical attack and will be a core component of the ship’s bones.
Oxygen is a weakening agent to titanium when they are mixed. There is almost no oxygen on Mars, measured by the crew there at 0.13%. There will not be much oxygen exposure on the anterior side, inside the ship. More detail to come on that issue. Our ship will contain some steel, whatever is necessary as it is five times stronger at 4.5/kg/l. It’s all going to be covered with aluminum, weighing 2.7 kg/l. The weight of gold is measured in troy ounces (or bricks of kilogram) and purity of caratage (or carat for short). Currently, those interviewed demographically, like the look of gold, yet most cannot do the math to know how much gold is going away to Mars. The weight will not be an issue when the Golden Ship gets out of Earth’s atmosphere as anything in zero gravity is weightless.
The gold-coated skeleton of the ship’s titanium will be covered with aluminum. The gold’s purpose is for Mars. The use of gold in fuel cells is good in space for transforming chemical energy into electrical energy. They’re using palladium, also, as it speeds up the process to make necessary travel fuel. Palladium is ductile, packable and untarnished by the atmosphere. It is also enormously abundant at our planet core. My best guess is the palladium will be packed where the ship must fold and unfold at the joints.
The size of our great ship-chair is equal to the Freedom Tower at New York City. Three million square feet, the same size in metric total in a very different shape. That is the beauty of it, the originality of the shape. Our ship is going to resemble a giant folding chair. A common chair. The many metal plates will be two-inch thickness of titanium, whereas the steel is four inches thick for its strength. Two inches in lieu of four inches constitutes a tremendous advantage for moving the structure. Liken it to the assembly of the Statue of Liberty.
Because repurposing is key to the success of the mission, everything going to Mars is a key component to new housing on Mars. There is a small crew there doing science. They will be glad to have company. Those people will never return to Earth.
It came as a surprise to this reporter that when they announced the project, construction was completed, already done. The big Golden Chair can fly, somewhat. The ship appears—hilariously, really—almost like a big balloon, a caricature unto itself. Of the chair structure, there is a back plate and a large seat where no one sits. The size would equal a monstrous being, so this is a pretend monster chair that flies. Gotcha. The legs and posts are about 10’ X 10’ with three feet square of that being clear plastic tubing, like a shoot. The travelers can go up or down in it. The backing houses rooms likened to an ant colony within it. There are tunnels, casita, beds, fancy stuff, and a kitchen. The so-called seat portion has sleeping units and medical pods for the travelers. The raw sewage goes somewhere, and it will be composted on Mars. They are going to get hydroponic tomatoes and lettuce. Yum.
The trip takes ten years. Our crew, the travelers will eat once a day. Special food. Their bodies will get exercise and be assigned chores. Twenty hours a day, they are kept in a near comatose state-of-being using small amounts of liquid oxygen. In the seat of the chair, there are sophisticated machines that combine a person’s image (or hologram 3D image) along with their neurology. The brain, cranial nerves, hearing, and voice of each get to interact while on board. This is called a neurogram. The crew neurograms interact and are responsible for one another. Life depends on it.
The cruising chair/ship holds a lot of cargo that is not too heavy. The blankets are mylar. I use mylar blankets at home during winter when it is cold. There is appropriate thermal, thick windowpane glass in places and rubber bladders. The finer details have been kept confidential. This project is not a government project; it is from a massive conglomerate organization. They will share this information to the public someday.
For purposes of launching from terra firma planet Earth, the airborne chair folds up into itself while it travels upward. There is not oomph-power, like a rocket ship. The chair has enough power to sort of jump, like a Big Gulp going out not in. Burp. The plan is for four earthling super airplanes to hoist each foot of the sky-chair and go high, as far as they can, about twenty-five miles, up, then a big shove, burp, through the ozone. They have been practicing with heavy old buildings, and reported success, only they never said where those buildings went. Space junk, I guess.
Hold the phone…news flash. The launch of the Golden Chair is postponed while investigators look into relocating this big ship to the area where the ozone hole to the stratosphere is the thinnest, Antarctica. Wow! Stay tuned.
Photo of Julie Iverson
BIO: As a medical technician working in ophthalmic, ancillary success happened for Julie Iverson as a writer of continuing education. An accolade of first place came from a novel experiment for the contact lens industry and award-winning APA white paper. Retiring from the medical field has opened a door for short story telling and essays.