• Complain

Alexander Smith - The Final Expedition

Here you can read online Alexander Smith - The Final Expedition full text of the book (entire story) in english for free. Download pdf and epub, get meaning, cover and reviews about this ebook. year: 2017, genre: Science fiction. Description of the work, (preface) as well as reviews are available. Best literature library LitArk.com created for fans of good reading and offers a wide selection of genres:

Romance novel Science fiction Adventure Detective Science History Home and family Prose Art Politics Computer Non-fiction Religion Business Children Humor

Choose a favorite category and find really read worthwhile books. Enjoy immersion in the world of imagination, feel the emotions of the characters or learn something new for yourself, make an fascinating discovery.

No cover

The Final Expedition: summary, description and annotation

We offer to read an annotation, description, summary or preface (depends on what the author of the book "The Final Expedition" wrote himself). If you haven't found the necessary information about the book — write in the comments, we will try to find it.

Max Carter, a young dotcom millionaire, is a space tourist enjoying his stay on the International Space Station. His euphoria rapidly turns to horror as he witnesses the surface of the Earth devastated by nuclear strikes. Stranded on the station, Carter together with the five multinational crewmembers of Expedition 79 are faced with a seemingly hopeless situation. The crew must overcome challenges of dwindling supplies, a disastrous collision with space debris, a fire on board, a crewman with murderous intentions and keeping their very sanity in the face of overwhelming adversity.

Alexander Smith: author's other books


Who wrote The Final Expedition? Find out the surname, the name of the author of the book and a list of all author's works by series.

The Final Expedition — read online for free the complete book (whole text) full work

Below is the text of the book, divided by pages. System saving the place of the last page read, allows you to conveniently read the book "The Final Expedition" online for free, without having to search again every time where you left off. Put a bookmark, and you can go to the page where you finished reading at any time.

Light

Font size:

Reset

Interval:

Bookmark:

Make

Alexander Smith

THE FINAL EXPEDITION

Layout of the International Space Station

Day Zero Floating in zero gravity I smiled at the camera blissfully unaware - photo 1

Day Zero

Floating in zero gravity, I smiled at the camera, blissfully unaware that we were less than half an hour from the apocalypse.

Okay, I began, gazing into the lens of the camcorder held by my colleague, Aki, This is my first Video Diary since arriving two days ago on board the International Space Station. My name is Max Carter, owner and chairman of Zap dotcom, guest of the European Space Agency and so-called Space Tourist. Its always been my dream to travel into space and now Im here, I really want everyone back on Earth to feel like theyre here with me on this fantastic adventure. Unlike the vast majority of Astronauts, Im not a scientist or military officer, but an ordinary person. A person who has been fortunate enough to have the resources to live my dream. My webcasts wont be the usual dry, forensic and to be honest, dull reports that we are used to seeing from NASA. Travelling into space and seeing the beauty of the planet Earth from orbit is an experience that should be full of awe and wonder. I want to share that experience with you. Taking the camera from Aki, I aimed it through one of the small windows in the floor. The cloud swathed continent of Europe was directly beneath us.

Im actually only two hundred and fifty miles from my home in London. It doesnt sound like much, but definitely looks far enough from here! I pulled away from the window and pushed myself carefully backwards, floating away from Aki a metre or so before aiming the camera at her.

This is Aki Takako, the representative of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. Good morning Aki.

Konnichiwa. She replied, smiling and waving at the camera, her other hand clinging to one of the many blue hand holds placed at regular intervals throughout the station, preventing her petite frame from floating off as she did so. Her long dark hair was collected in a pair of pigtails, which floated sideways to each side of her head. She was something of a celebrity back in Japan, particularly popular amongst young men. Publicly she played this down, insisting that though flattered she just wanted to be an Astronaut, but I suspected the level of care which went into her appearance every day suggested otherwise. Aki is a Chemical Engineer and like me, is new to the station and at 28 is among the youngest people ever to venture into space. We are currently in the Kibo module, which means Hope in Japanese and is the largest module on the station. Aki swept the camera around the compartment, taking in the cream coloured boxy interior of the module with several laptops and screens fixed in place at the various workstations and experimentation racks along with the clutter of various pieces of equipment and bags and boxes strapped in place on seemingly every available surface of the walls, ceiling and floor. Youll have to excuse the mess, its the maids day off. Aki smiled and rolled her eyes at me. Ignoring her, I continued. The station is built up from several large modules which have been added over the years and joined together by smaller modules called nodes. Now Im going to show you around my new home. See you later Aki. She waved goodbye and turned back to the experiment rack she had been working on. I turned away and pulled myself through into the next compartment.

This is the Harmony Node, which is basically the front end of the spine of the space station. Most of the modules are fitted in line with this one, with a few modules, like the Kibo module I was just in, arranged perpendicular to the rest of the station. Opposite the Kibo module is the Columbus Module, which is the European Space Agencys laboratory and behind me at the end is P.M.A.2, which stands for Pressurised Mating Adaptor. I turned the camera on myself and smiled into the lens before adding conspiratorially: These spacemen love their abbreviations and acronyms! Basically its a sealed hatch for connection to visiting Soyuz spacecraft and back in the day, the Space Shuttle. I then aimed the camera at a large hinged door in the wall before sweeping it down to the floor and up to the opposite wall and ceiling where three identical doors were located. These are the sleeping compartments for myself and three other astronauts. Our two cosmonauts sleeping compartments are located in the Russian segment at the other end of the station. I added sweeping the camera towards the next module which led to the rest of the station. Right, Im going to take you on a tour to the far end of the station and introduce you to the other four members of Expedition 79. From there, I pulled myself through to the Destiny module where a solitary figure was working at one of the experiment racks mounted on the wall, checking data on a laptop. His feet were strapped into a pair of blue footplates on the floor, giving the impression he was standing.

We are now in the Destiny Module, which is the US laboratory. I commented, raising my voice above the ever present hum of the air conditioning. This is mission specialist Major Chuck Flynn. I added, zooming in on the stocky, balding American. Chucks been here for the last three months, transferring over from the previous expedition. What are you up to Chuck?

Sorry Carter. Flynn replied gruffly. Im right in the middle of an experiment here. If you want an interview, you need to contact NASA and arrange one through the proper channels.

Okay Chuck. See you later. I propelled myself past Flynn and pulled myself through to the far end of the Destiny module, swinging the camera back towards Flynn, who had turned his attention back to his laptop. Think someones floated out of bed on the wrong side. I added quietly, before pulling myself carefully through to the adjoining Unity Node, which connected the American segment of the station to the Russian segment. I swung the camera to my left.

Weve got the Quest airlock to one side and I swung the camera to my right. The Tranquillity Node to the other. Ill come back to the Tranquillity Node later, as my favourite part of the station, the Cupola is through there. I continued. The Unity node is where a lot of our food is stored and we often congregate here for breakfast. I swung the camera towards an open hatch to the next module, aiming the camera up to some yellow signs above it, one reading Speed Limit 17500.

Some high quality Astronaut humour there. I commented dryly before pulling myself through the narrow tubular Pressurised Mating Adaptor to the next compartment. The inside of the tube was ringed with a multitude of small white bags, all strapped into place, which contained the crews clothes, so it was a tight squeeze compared to the rest of the station. I pulled myself through into the next module.

Were entering the Russian segment now. I continued my running commentary. The FGB, or Zarya Module was the first part of the Station to be launched way back in 1998, though its mainly used for storage now. I swept the camera up to the ceiling where lots of different items were strapped in place and below where a collection of large white square shaped bags were stowed and held in place with straps, criss-crossing from one side of the module to the other. Doors to various storage lockers lined each wall. I directed the camera to an open hatch in the floor.

Thats the hatch to one of our two Soyuz capsules. I added. Thats actually the one I arrived in just two days ago with two of my colleagues here on the station. I propelled myself onwards, through to the next module, Zvezda. Unlike the rest of the station, which was cream or white in colour, the interior of Zvezda was a light green colour.

Zvezda is the Service module and the crew tend to congregate here at meal times and during our free time. We have a little galley table we gather around and enjoy each others company. If fact, one of our Russian colleagues seems to be having a spot of lunch right now. I zoomed in on the middle-aged Russian, a bear of a man, who was squeezing the contents of his lunch from a silver bag directly into his mouth.

Next page
Light

Font size:

Reset

Interval:

Bookmark:

Make

Similar books «The Final Expedition»

Look at similar books to The Final Expedition. We have selected literature similar in name and meaning in the hope of providing readers with more options to find new, interesting, not yet read works.


Reviews about «The Final Expedition»

Discussion, reviews of the book The Final Expedition and just readers' own opinions. Leave your comments, write what you think about the work, its meaning or the main characters. Specify what exactly you liked and what you didn't like, and why you think so.