William Barton's "The Rocket into Planetary Space": Current state of the art in space travel

It had the feeling of an educational story - publicizing the current state of the art. Or may be one crying out for funding private space travel - there is a dialog to that effect. I like to look at it as former.

While I am no expert in evaluation of space travel jargon or technology, this novelette-length story has a feel of authentic (if brave!) about it - at least the parts related to their flying craft.

Plot was ok if already well hashed, but is badly executed. There is too much jargon for my taste. But I was not bored, & finished it in just two sittings. It has a bit of naivette & adventure on the part of protagonists that is kind of charming.

Best part was seeing it in Asimov's. Over the last couple of months, I've come to see it as essentially a fantasy magazine - there is so little science fiction, in spite of title. Seeing a hard sf story, even a not so readable one, was satisfying.

Story summary.

Narrator is Alan Burke - a 66 year old engineer, programmer, & part time story teller. He has got an idea while working on a story: he wants to go to a rock farther out than moon, & thinks current technology is good enough to allow a private adventure of this kind. Convinces his friend Willy Gillooly. Alan, Willy, & their wives Sarah & Minnie, respectively, end up founding a company called "Standard ARM", & also raise enough capital ("six hundred thirty million dollars") to fund the mission.

They scout around buying a component here & a subsystem there. Finally put together a usable craft 10 years after founding the company. And off they go for "near-earth asteroid UB(2009)/21", "eight million miles" from earth. Launch is low key, but they've arranged for publicity - televisions begin reporting the adventure once they are off earth. Their ship, named Excelsior, set off on September 7, 2016. Ship is equipped with two 2-seater landing machines - Smaug & Fafnir.

Plan is to land on asteroid, collect some rock samples, & return. On the way, they will name the asteroid "Quasimodo". It is a "contact binary" - two completely different heavenly bodies that once collided & have been sticking together since.

After landing, they will notice an anomaly where the two parts of the binary meet - some sort of liquid seems to be oozing out. A little poking around with drill, an accident from which all will eventually emerge well, & they have found a petroleum mine!

They stick their claim, some politicking is going on on earth, they receive offers to buy their rock on their way home, & looks like they will end up rich.

The part I didn't understand was: how will the mined oil be economically transfered to earth? And finding something mining-worthy on a more-or-less randomly selected rock had the feeling of contrived.

Fact sheet.

"The Rocket into Planetary Space", short story, review
First published: Asimov's Science Fiction, April/May 2007.
Rating: B