A Child's Dream | Teen Ink

A Child's Dream

October 9, 2014
By Anonymous

As I sat in my chair I started sweating, thinking to myself, I can’t mess this up now. Two seconds later I had finally done it. I had been working hours on building a rocket that would take my brave little Kerbals to the Moon. I’m of course referring to the game Kerbal Space Program. It took about two hours but I created a successful lander. I counted down the launch timer “3…2…1…we have lift-off!” As the rocket climbed high above the Earth I pitched the craft east. After a couple of minutes I was 100,000 meters above the Earth’s surface, and I cut the engines off. Afterwards the engines roared again as the rocket was pushed into a circular orbit around Earth. Once this milestone was achieved I took a deep breath, and reassured myself “Alright, you’re halfway there.” I then aligned with the Moon and burned the engines until I would be captured in an orbit around it. After much anticipated waiting I was in the Moon’s sphere of influence. I waited even longer until I was closest to the surface, and fired the engines at full blast against my trajectory. The rocket was in an orbit around the Moon. Later I picked a landing spot, and decelerated until I would be moments away from the impending surface of the gray placid moon. As I got closer the rocky surface I muttered to myself “Please don’t mess it all up now.” After careful planning and execution I successfully landed on the Moon. As the brave little Kerbals stepped onto the desolate surface they marveled at its majesty. The view of Earth was awe inspiring and one of a kind from the gray rocky surface. I almost couldn’t move I was so in shock. I had many emotions during this period, I was proud, ecstatic, and most notably in awe as my mouth dropped to the floor. The Kerbals hopped around admiring the sights of the dead moon, and of course planted the flag of science nearby the lander module. It was blue, with the cycles of the Moon across it. After collecting priceless data and Moon rocks the three of the Kerbals jumped back in the capsule. As they got comfortable I pushed the pushed the rocket off with a small burn. Afterwards I fired up the engines until in a circular orbit around the Moon. I burned the engines until out of the Moon’s sphere of influence and then found myself in a quite large orbit around the Earth. But I found that I was on a reentry course with the Earth. Now the Kerbals were as good as home, all they had to do now was sit back and watch the show. Earth crept up into view and the proud Kerbals felt excited because they knew they would finally be going home. After what seemed like hours the shuttle reentered the atmosphere and exploded in a ball of fire falling from the sky. It looked like a meteor shower with all of the fire falling from the stratosphere. The shuttle fell from the heavens and finally the parachute opened, and the craft floated to the ground slowly. Later they landed in a remote area in the middle of the ocean near a small island. Everyone made it home safely. “Finally!” I said in exasperation. Breathing heavily at the time I wiped the sweat that seemed to be pouring from my forehead. But the test was over, and I knew from that moment in history that I would do anything it takes to become the next Carl Sagan. I knew that I wanted to study the cosmos and observable universe not only for personal gain, but for the entire human race.



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