...And We Will Have Snow

Chapter 8-3: Orbital Dynamics

"Fall? Oh. Yeah. I should know that from flying my drone. Guess you can tell I've never studied up on orbital dynamics."

"If you got here in two hours you averaged about a thousand miles an hour, and your top speed was about twice that when you were half way here. To maintain a low Earth orbit you'd want to get up nearer twenty thousand miles an hour, ten times that top speed. So you'd need to accelerate for a couple more hours."

"That doesn't sound too bad."

"It doesn't does it? But actually you could get there faster. Because the faster you go horizontally, the less vertical thrust you need.

"Remember, when you're in orbit you'll be weightless. No thrust at all, in either direction. You could gradually cut down your vertical thrust as your speed increases, and leave the horizontal at a tenth of a g, and it would take you about two hours. Or you could keep the total thrust constant and just vector it more and more away from the vertical, until it's all horizontal and you're in orbit."

"I think I need a demonstration of that."

"You just had one."

"Huh?"

"After the taxi dropped you off, you flew your drone here, right?"

"Uh huh."

"And you flew the ballistic arc, took about eight minutes?"

"Yup."

"That's about an eighth of an hour. And the distance is about two thousand miles. So your average speed was about sixteen thousand miles an hour. And your top speed was twice that. Believe me, you were in orbit. If you hadn't started your deceleration, you would have looped right around the whole planet by now."

"You're kidding!"

"Nope."

"Wow. I'm pretty much a seat-of-the pants flyer. Never tried that. Always aimed at where I was going."

"Like now? Are we really going to my apartment?"

"I'm good with it if you are."

"What about your mom and dad?"

"They're good with it too. If they need me they can knock on the drone."

Newt's apartment was nothing special. There was a small kitchenette and a bath. The rest of the furnishings were a couple of chairs, a small desk, and a simple but adequate full size bed. Pretty much standard bedroom quarters except for the drone seated in one corner and a nice recliner. It also looked pretty much unused, evidence that Newt spent most of his time in his office.

"You got one of the black ones. Fly it much?"

"Not as much as I'd like. Most of the places I need to visit have a guest drone. So this is for fun, and I don't have a lot of time for it."

"How about tonight?"

"What are you thinking?"

"That you could give me that demo I wanted."

"Tonight?"

"Why not? Can you think of anything more romantic to do?"

While Newt blushed and stammered, there was a knock on the door. Almost in relief, he walked over and answered it. It was Sedna.

Actually her drone, of course, but in the same shirt and jeans. She walked in. Newt took off his lenses to reduce the confusion he was feeling.

"How'd you do that? You're not even wearing lenses! Come to think of it, you weren't wearing them before. How did you...?"

"Control it? Don't need them anymore." The drone walked over and stood beside her.

"How does that work?"

"I'll show you." She took him by the hand and led him to the bed. "Lay down." He kicked off his shoes and did as he was told.

"Are you going to use the chair?"

In answer she kicked off her own shoes, laid down beside him and said, "Go wake up your drone."