"I thought so." Yancey reached behind him; Matt heard the pieces click into their sockets as the Captain made the move on his own board. "Wait till you see what's going to happen to your queen!"
The speeds of the asteroids, flying boulders, rocks, sand, and space drift that infest the area between Mars and Jupiter vary from about fifteen miles per second near Mars to about eight miles per second near Jupiter. The orbits of this flying junkyard are erratically inclined to the plane of the ecliptic an average of about nine degrees and some of the orbits are quite eccentric as well.
All this means that a ship on a circular orbit, headed "east," or with the traffic, may expect the possibility of side-swiping collisions at relative speeds averaging two miles per second, with crashes remotely possible at double that speed.
Two miles per second is only about twice the muzzle velocity of a good sporting rifle. With respect to small stuff, sand and gravel, the Aes Triplex was built to take it. Before the ship reached the danger zone, an all-hands chore in space suits took place; armor-plate segments, as thick as the skin of the ship, were bolted over the ship's quartz ports, leaving only the eyes of the astrogational instruments and the radar antennae exposed.
To guard against larger stuff Captain Yancey set up a meteor-watch much tighter than is usual in most parts of space. Eight radars scanned all space through a global 360°. The only condition necessary for collision is that the other object hold a steady bearing-no fancy calculation is involved. The only action necessary then to avoid collision is to change your own speed, any direction, any amount. This is perhaps the only case where theory of piloting is simple.
Commander Miller put the cadets and the sublieutenants on a continuous heel-and-toe watch, scanning the meteor-guard 'scopes. Even if the human being failed to note a steady bearing the radars would "see" it, for they were so rigged that, if a "blip" burned in at one spot on die screen, thereby showing a steady bearing, an alarm would sound- and the watch officer would cut in the jet, fast!
However, even the asteroid belt is very empty space indeed; the chances were strongly against collision with anything larger than a grain of sand. The only difference in the Aes Triplex, aside from the increased work for the junior officers, was a ship's order directing all hands to strap down when sleeping, instead of floating loosely and comfortably about, so that the sleeper would not break his neck in case of sudden acceleration.
P.R.S. Aes Triplex was equipped with two jeeps, nestled in hangar pockets-quite ordinary short-range, chemically-powered rockets except that they were equipped with search radar as powerful as the ship's. When they reached their search area a pilot and co-pilot were assigned to each jeep - and a second crew also, as each rocket was to remain away from the ship a week at a time, then swap crews and go out again.
Lieutenants Brunn, Thurlow, and Novak, and Sublieutenant Peters were designated pilots. A cadet was assigned to each senior lieutenant and Sublieutenant Gomez was teamed with Sublieutenant Peters. Matt drew Lieutenant Thurlow.
Dr. Pickering took over the mess. That left Sublieutenant Cleary as "George," the man who does everything-an impossibility, since meteor-guard and search watches would have to be kept up. Consequently the two jeep crews riot actually in space had to help out even during their week of rest.