From then on I'll throw the asteroid
into a braking ellipse around the earth, and I'll be able to make any
small corrections necessary."
He spread out a solar system chart and marked in the positions of the
planets as of that moment, using the daily almanac. Then he put down the
position of the asteroid, taking it from the paper the chief analyst
handed him.
"Will you make assignments, Chief?"
The chief shook his head. "Make them yourself, Lieutenant. We're at your
service."
Rip felt a little ashamed of some of the unkind things he had said about
spacemen. "Thank you." He pointed to a spaceman. "Will you calculate the
inertia of the asteroid, please?" The spaceman hurried off. "First thing
to do is plot the orbit as though there were no other bodies in the
system," Rip said. "Where's Santos?"
"Here, sir." The corporal had come in unnoticed with Rip's reference
books.
Rip had plotted orbits before, but never one for actual use. His palms
were wet as he laid it out, using prepared tables. When he had finished
he pointed to a spaceman. "That's it. Will you translate it into analogue
figures for the computer, please?" He assigned to others the task of
figuring out the effect Mercury, the sun, and Earth would have on the
orbit, using an assumed speed for the asteroid.
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