Proxima B

“We have already loaded fifteen different samples of houses and ten different models of buildings within the software. You ought to know that we have monitored your work over the last few years and we have finally mixed your best buildings in order to get a city that we could define as ideal,” he explained as he pushed a button on the remote control in order to scroll through some images on the holographic display behind him.

Then the representation of the model of a dwelling on Proxima B appeared.

“Behind me you can see a prototype of a dwelling on the new planet,” Jim Ward explained once more. It was a one-story house whose area was almost nine hundred square feet; it had a sloping roof and a small garden was all around.

“Almost nine hundred square feet in one story! The kitchen, the living room, one bathroom and one bedroom,” the assistant added.

“And there’s more! Near each house, a garden with certain types of plants will be tended by each inhabitant; on the back side of the house, a small vegetable garden will be tended in order to have something for one’s own livelihood and, if necessary, to help the community!” he concluded.

The engineers were all dumbfounded. But David had to ask something that had been gripping him since their superiors had showed them all the shape of the dwellings and how to make them work.

“Sir Garcia!” Kanak said, inviting David to ask his question.

“Sir, I was wondering how the system of water supply works on Proxima B,” he said.

“Please, Alan!” the professor said, inviting his assistant to explain in his place.

“Every dwelling is being equipped with a special machine for purifying water so that the whole community is not obliged to deprive itself of its own. The whole thing is being monitored by particular tools and no water will be wasted. Actually, nothing else will ever be wasted,” Alan Mose explained.

“Well, gentlemen! I shall go straight to the point, now. It is time for you to work. Let me see what you can do. Come on!” he incited them.

Professor Kanak invited the engineers to start their process of creation of the prototypes of the buildings. David could not wait to start his new device.

“Are you immune to physical diseases on Earth? Neither are you in space, where you will likely suffer from osteoporosis, space nausea, muscle and bone mass loss, heart diseases, space blindness or diabetes due to solar storms and space radiations. What I’ve just mentioned is just a part of the dangers you may encounter,” Doctor Ezekiel Phin informed us. His voice, which was almost raspy, resounded through the room where he, who was the head of the London Clinic Centre as well as one of the world’s leading experts on neurodegenerative diseases, was together with the members of the Medical Division of the expedition in a large hall surrounded by a dark atmosphere due to Doctor Phin’s necessity of resuming his lesson in a low-light environment.

“We hadn’t ever traveled so far before. Of course we’ve been on Mars and it took us six months to understand we were not able to colonize it, but it won’t happen this time. The travel will have to be eight times longer and we will need the best doctors, nurses and medical experts to succeed. So, that’s why you are here!” Ezekiel cried out. He gazed at the audience and paused for a while before pointing at a hologram representing an X-ray of a human femur behind him and asking, “What can you see here?”

Somebody raised their hands up and he began to call them out one by one.

“Stand up, please, and let us know who you are and what you think about this figure!” the professor cried out, referring to a young brown-haired girl.

“Hello, everyone, I’m Justine Poirot, I come from France and I’m a specialist in orthopedics and traumatology. I can firmly say that what we are seeing here is the image of a femur of a woman in her sixties suffering from severe osteoporosis,” the girl replied with self-assurance, being sure of her answer.

Doctor Ezekiel Phin, in his turn, replied, “Well, it isn’t really that way. You are right, this femur belongs to a woman – not an old woman, actually, but a thirty-year-old one, and more precisely one of the women that took part in the project for the colonization of Mars called “HELIOS” ten years ago. And this is her femur after staying in space for six years!”

Ezekiel’s words fell like a stone into the hall where there were several doctors and other surprised people. Then he kept on talking.

“This is one of the issues that we must resolve. And now look at this one! What do you notice?”

A video about a pulsing heart was broadcast behind him.

“I believe that this one is more… let’s say… particular!” Phin added before giving the floor to the corps of the doctors.

“You in the second row with your hand up, please!”

The doctor consulted by Doctor Phin was an athletic and attractive man, with light eyes, in his mid-thirties that got attention from the female audience.

“Hello! I’m Mirko Ivanov. I’m a heart surgeon at N.V. Sklifosovsky Research Institute of Emergency Medicine in Moscow. Well, I think this is a case of spherical heart. Observing its shape and given the irregularity of its rhythm, the subject must have lived six months in space,” the Russian man stated firmly. Then he exchanged a look and a smile with Amelia that was a few rows in front of him and finally he took his seat again.

“That’s a good remark! This malformation is due to the less exhausting work of the heart in space. A solution will consist in the supervision of the members of the expedition during their training period,” Phin explained.

After other basic concepts of applied medicine in space life, he deliberately talked about another topic and his tone became much more serious.

“What we’re going to talk about is a very important topic: repopulation. I’d like to ask you how many men and women may be needed to repopulate a planet like Proxima B,” the doctor stated, trying to foresee the possible reactions of the members of the mission.

“Excuse me; you said “repopulation”, didn’t you? Weren’t we supposed to build some bases so that the other people could join us on this planet?” was the question of a rather alarmed oculist in the second row. People in the hall began to mumble. Doctor Phin’s countenance grew strange when he noticed their strange reaction.

“I may have been misunderstood! The mission implies that people are moved from this planet to that one, but… let’s assume that something unexpected happens…” Doctor Phin tried to explain, but he did not even have time to finish his sentence. A female voice stopped him.

“Ten thousand or so! Ten thousand men and women!” Amelia cried out, drawing all the focus towards her. Everybody looked at her, including the man that was the chief in London, who cried out in amazement, “Can you repeat, please?”

“Well, you got it. Should we put it approximately in order to avoid any cross between kinsmen and re-balance the high mortality rate taken into account for space travels, an intergenerational mission should involve at least ten thousand people,” Amelia stated once again. Those who were in the room fell silent while waiting for some explanations for what they had just heard. Some moments of silence followed. In the meantime, the professor stared at Amelia.