Clarkson Integrator

Issue date: 3/10/08 Section: Features

Media Credit: NASA Spacewalker Stan Love is seen above during his mission's first spacewalk on Feb. 11, 2008. Love and fellow astronauts were preparing for ISS installation later that day

It's hard to say how it came to this, or why, but the fact remains that it did. The past is much like gravity; it weighs you down, trying to pull you back where you belong. However, the human race excels in finding ways around such natural laws. This fact was not lost on Adam, though he feared the rest of the world would remain ignorant of it.

Mankind's current generation was stuck playing clean-up for the previous one. The cause wasn't war, environmental negligence, or any sort of villainy; it was simply bad luck. The results of a simple typo had led to the fall of "The International Space Station." Several astronauts were attempting to make some modifications. Many areas of the station were shut down. As a result, so were many fail-safes.

As the station's power was turned back on, a single line of code sent the station hurtling back towards the earth. The ship ripped in two during its descent. One piece tore apart a nuclear power plant in the Atlantic, while the other crashed into a densely populated Chinese city. Tidal waves from the first piece destroyed hundreds of thousands of homes on the coast, killing many. The runoff from the nuclear power plant killed much of the ocean life and contributed to millions of human casualties.

Thirty years later, mankind was still trying to clean this up. The human race seemed afraid to push forward. The shear idiocy of their logic is what made Adam fume. If past technology caused the problem, then why settle in the past? If no one pushed the boundaries, then how would it improve? How could it be fixed? No one with any influence was willing to rock the boat. As such, funding was near impossible to acquire.

Those that shared the same beliefs as Adam, those that looked forward, were looked down upon. Society seemed to consider them to be degenerates, unwilling to help with the problem at hand. The scientists that had banded together produced research that was questionable at best, and dangerous in the worst of cases. Underfunded and undermanned labs were not a place where many put their hopes.

They were, however, where Adam put his. Dr. Adam Ricks had dedicated the last fifteen years of his life to his studies. His latest proposal, a method to provide a cheap source of air for astronauts, had generated interesting results. The idea was for genetically modified plants to filter enough air to sustain the crew on long flights. Eventually, he hoped that the plants could even be used in individual space suits.

He had accidentally, stumbled upon a way to absorb radiation via the plants. The plant's abilities would be invaluable in cleaning up the oceans. This discovery could provide Adam with the funding he needed for future research, but there was a price. All of his research was now subject to politics.

To be continued...

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