Kemp 009: Old-timer Hardware

(This is part of a "Captain Kemp" series I am doing for fun.)

On our way back from Lunar Gateway 3, a call went out that an old fuel cell had broken down aboard the Axiom 9 station in low Earth orbit.

Captain Kemp radioed, "Sounds like a problem I had a year ago with the Falcon's fuel cell. I bet the same company made this one too. We'll drop by tomorrow."

After docking with Axiom 9 and exchanging pleasantries, we floated through the busy station to the power module. The rack was already pulled out, showing the orange fuel cell.

"Yep," he said. "Same as mine. There's a small fan inside that has a plastic gear. The later models used metal gears; I guess they learned their lesson."

Kemp showed their power engineer how to find and remove the plastic gear.

"See? The teeth are worn down. The fan wasn't spinning and the unit was overheating."

The Axiom 9 commander and the power engineer were overjoyed and invited us to a dinner party that evening. The whole station turned out (nobody wants to pass up a chance to break the monotony) and someone snapped photos for the public affairs team.

The next day, my news feed showed Kemp with the fuel cell, and the tag line was "Legendary astronaut saves the day."

I showed it to Kemp and he snorted. "Takes an old-timer to fix old-timey hardware!"




Inspired by the movie "Moon Zero Two", Hammer Films, 1969.

Inspired by the movie "Silent Running", Universal Pictures, 1972.

#spaceart #scifiart #scifi #outerspace #deepspace #science #astronomy #future #planet #moon #exoplanet #cosmos #cosmic #moonzerotwo #spacesuit #jupiter #comet #asteroid #meteor
More fun at https://www.facebook.com/SpaceArt57