HAPPY Friday! To be honest, I'm having trouble keeping track of the days... I've found there aren't any clear boundaries between night & day on the Flybrary. People keep their own schedules in space, it seems; thankfully, I've got my Earthbound friends to help keep my head on straight!
We are officially in the space between Earth & Mars now... & I have to say I'm both terrified & excited! I'm excited because, well... I'm in outer space, man! It's a dream come true & I wouldn't give it up for the world! In fact, I had to give up the world just to take on this interstellar mission!
I'm terrified, though, because everything's so new & hard to understand. I'm sleeping fitfully at night; I just can't get used to the sounds of space debris pinging at the whale's side or sinister rumblings from the power stations deep in its belly. I don't have any windows in my quarters, either, so sometimes it feels a bit claustrophobic.
I feel like a little kid learning to swim. Blastoff was like the first time your head goes fully underwater; it's deathly frightening to make yourself jump, but you come up exhilarated. Low Earth orbit, medium Earth orbit & the Moon... those were so much fun because they were familiar; it still felt like I was in my own cosmic neighborhood, like I was still swimming in the interstellar version of a kiddie pool or shallow end.
Now, the Flybrary is just swimming through (nearly) empty space & there's nothing to hold on to! Mars seems so far out & so impossible to flourish in, like my first time jumping off the deep end; my first instinct is to drop everything & get the hell back to safe waters!
I mean, what happens if a comet the size of Texas smashes into us & breaks us clean in two? If we're boarded by a gang of pirates & re-routed to a lawless chunk of rock far away from any help? If I get the flu & there's nobody here I'm friends with who can take care of me??
Don't get me wrong, I am LOVING this experience - it's like I'm learning how to swim all over again.
But this time, I think I need some floaties!!
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