Project Overworld

After his friends arrived at his parents' place, Keith explained to them about the call he just received from Horace Johnson.

- "Two weeks? It should be more than necessary to finish that car of us." Leyla commented.

- "I figured as much, but I think we should try and quicken our pace of work in case something went wrong with our design."

The four of them chatted about the incoming test for a while before heading outside to work on their creation. It was supposed to be a gas-powered vehicle without a roof in which two of them could fit at a time. In fact, the more they looked into their design, the more they realized it resembled more of a quad than an actual car.

In any case, up until now they had not made a lot of progress on the overall structure of their vehicle. The wheels were but tires Keith bought in the nearest automobile shop he could find because they could not waste any time reproducing that rubber-like materials they were made from. He also made sure to buy the seats they would be sitting on and a few electronical parts since they could not be producing any of it as of now.

Their job for the past two weeks mostly consisted of working on the engine while engineering some other parts that would be useful later on. The engine worked just like a traditional car engine : a fuel, gasoline in their case, would be lit by spark plug before storing a lot of thermal energy. This heat would then be used inside the combustion engine to push some pistons back and forth to produce mechanical energy.

It looked pretty complicated, but the Spacol members decided on making a simple design first. For example, the spark plug would mostly be electrical as of now, producing lots of electric arcs to lit up the fuel. However, it would be requiring knowledge they did not have as of now since they mostly focused on thermal energy inside Project Overworld, so they made a simple lighter using mecanical energy to lit up, manifesting in the form of a string they had to pull b ack and forth a few times for it to run properly. It was the same principle as those old lawnmowers people had to activate by hand pulling a string as hard as they could.

For its materials, they had mostly been using cast iron as a materials since they needed a sturdy material that could be holding off against the constant blasts produced by their fuel being consumed. Cast iron could be refined into steel thanks to decarburization, but its fluidity allowed a much easier molding so they stuck on using this alloy for now. Steel did not show a lot of benefits over cast iron for their current project anyways, as their thermal conductivity were about the same.

A portion of their engine was also made out of an aluminum alloy because it was one of the cheapest and easiest metal to access all over the world. On top of that, according to the alloy being used, it could potentially have a better thermal conductivity than cast iron. In their case, they have been using an alloy made out of aluminum, copper and silicon.

It was clearly not the best engine in the world, nor the most ecological at all regarding the type of fuel they were using, but it was a first for the four of them and quite impressive. Keith realized they were all doing a great job at improvising with the resources they had at their disposal. They could certainly have bought a car engine all ready to run like they did for the tires, but it was part of their initiation to the real-world physics to reproduce an engine by hand.

Actually, the most trouble they have had up until now has been regarding their tools. They did not have access to hacksaws nor other complex electrical machines. Keith even prevented them from using the screwdriver that belonged to his father because he thought it would be cheating. Michael remarked at one point : "The NASA will furnish us with whatever device we need at any moment, why would we bother not using it now?" To which Keith simply responded : "What proof do you have to claim such a fact? What if their test revolved around using your very hands to do stuff? If I were them, I'd definitely do that since it would show one's skills at doing things on their own and improvising according to the situation."

Michael got silent after this explanation and realized how much Keith thought about this. It could indeed turn out exactly as he described and they would not have been able to do anything about it. In any case, the engine made out of steel was successfully working after the two weeks their boss had imposed to them and their confidence was boosted severalfolds. It was certainly the most complex part of the vehicle they wanted to make and it left them with another two weeks to complete the overall structure of their vehicle.

- "Tyler, get me that rod over here." Keith asked.

For the time being, the four of them settled on folding the metal pipes they produced during last week-end and reproducing the design they had made one paper. Every good project revolved around planification, and having sheets showing diagrams and useful informations did help them a lot keeping on track.

By many times a Spacol member realized something was wrong with their construction by measuring a few parts and finding out there had been a mistake somewhere in the structure all along. If they did not have that kind of hindsight thanks to the diagrams, they would be certain to let huge problems inside of their final design, leading the whole project to a failure.

The rest of their car structure would be made out of another aluminum alloy since they did not need to focus on the thermal conductivity anymore. In place, they needed a more sturdy kind of alloy that could be keep up against the weight of two full grown a.d.u.l.ts at the same time.

By the end of the day, the four Spacol members managed to build the underlayer frame of the vehicle. They still had the following day as well as the next week-end to finish it, but it should be easily achievable according to their plans. In fact, they only needed to add the seats and install all the electronics and they would be done with it. Obviously, if they only restricted to making the essential, the vehicle be looking kind of bad. Their final design also took the apparence into account and they could be playing off of that if they ever realized they were lacking in time.

After a good night at Keith's parents' house, the four of them resumed their work from the day before.

'I can't wait to join back with Jim and Xena inside Project Overworld.' Keith realized. He did not like the idea of letting the both of them alone in space, but he could not find any other solution regarding their current situation. The closer they got to the date of the job examination, the more nervous he would be getting. Not only his future would be on the line, but also his friends'.

In any case, the four american friends would be joining their friends during the week so he was not that concerned about it. Jim and Xena were also regularly reporting on the situation of the 'Spacol Moon Base' using the group chat Keith was managing. Yesterday afternoon, around night time for the both of them, it has been Jim's turn to report on the situation. It seemed like they managed to seal off the space between another greenhouse and their base, resulting in the fourth greenhouse to be connected.

'This is still progressing quite steadily.' Keith meditated. 'We have about three time as many greenhouses to take care of, but by that time we should be having a constant supply of oxygen.'

Realizing her boss' mind was away, Leyla clapped her hands before his face in order to bring him back to the mortal plane of existence.

- "Hey, sleepyhead! It's time to focus back on the vehicle!" She exclaimed.

- "Yeah, sorry Ma'am!" Keith gestured a military sign with his hand. "My mind was drifting away, it won't happen again!" He apologized. The two of them laughed it off before getting busy with the rest of the vehicle's structure.