by kumarileopard » September 16th, 2010, 4:35 am
I had a rather interesting dream that is TLK related:
To start: I'm a huge space nerd. I know way to much about launch vehicles, procedures, etc. So I had a dream that I became an aerospace engineer and went to work for a massive company called United Launch Alliance. They are the corporate arm of the American space program, in charge of every unmanned launch at both Cape Canaveral AFS in Florida and Vandenburg AFB in California. In the dream they had just completed work on a new spaceport...that happens to be in Tanzania. The reasoning is that getting as close to the equator as you can get and launching a rocket enables you to use the gravitational pull of the earth as a sling shot for interplanetary spacecraft, and for spacecraft what will orbit the earth it means you can launch heavier payloads with less power. So the US Air Force (the military arm of the space program) sets up a base in the easternmost portion of the country (so the downrange area is over water, in case you have a problem). So I am assigned as Range Safety Officer, callsign"RANGE". My job is to ensure when launch time comes that the area near the launch complex is clear: no people, animals, birds, anything that would be a danger to the launch vehicle or be harmed during liftoff. They also ensure that the downrange area is clear of anything in case there is a problem with the launch vehicle and it has to be destroyed.
On this particular day I'm on console in the control center. We were launching the latest in a line of GPS Navigation Satellites and there's a fully fueled Delta VI rocket sitting on the launch pad. We had come out of out planned hold and the countdown clock enters the final 90 seconds. I'm looking at multiple cameras facing the pad from about 1/2 a mile and nothing looks out of place. Then I get a radio call from my backroom saying there is wildlife in the vicinity of the launch complex. I call out to the Launch Director that range is no go and we determine that we should scrub and try to move the wildlife off the launch complex.
In the back and forth between my backroom and I I determine that there are a group of lionesses and cubs by the Mobile Service Tower and I head up a team of MP's to go take care of them. We drive out to the pad and as we approach with tranquilizer guns we hear voices. Once we get close enough we determine that the lions are the ones talking! I approach them with the MP's covering me in case they jump all over me and I ask them if I can help them. Once the shock wears off that we can communicate verbally with each other they tell me they're from the Pridelands and that their king and his son were killed by an uncle harboring a grudge for not being king himself and by the end of it we decide to let them roam free on the base (as long as they don't interfere with a launch, mind you) and be our mascots so to speak.
I'd almost like to use this story in a fic. Knowing me though I'd get extremely technical. I know way to much about rockets.
"Hello, IT. Have you tried turning it off and on again?" - Roy in every episode of "The IT Crowd"