Droughts and Space Cadets
Written for Phanniemay '16, Day 9: Water
It was way. Too. Hot.
August had swept into Amity Park with a vengeance. Tucker didn't pay too much attention to the weather forecast unless Vortex was in town, but he vaguely remembered Lance Thunder going on about "an unprecedented change in global weather patterns pushing precipitation away from the American Midwest." In layman's terms, Danny had explained as they walked to the nearby mall, it meant Amity Park probably wasn't going to see rain for the foreseeable future.
"Unless we see a change in the way weather is moving across the Lakes, we might not get rain for a month," Danny continued. "Might even be a minor drought." He continued talking about weather patterns until he noticed Tucker's stare. "Dude, what?"
"How do you even know all of this stuff? You got a C in Earth Science freshman year," Tucker asked.
Danny scratched the back of his head self-consciously. "Well, ghost hunting's been a little slow lately and school hasn't started yet, so I've been reading about the history of the space program in my spare time. Do you know why they originally started launching from Kennedy Space Center in Florida?"
"What does this have to do with the weather?"
"Bear with me, Tuck."
"Fiiiine," Tucker said, wiping sweat off of his forehead.
"Okay, so lots of people wonder why NASA would base their launches in Florida when it gets hit with hurricanes all the time. But really, it has a lot of benefits that outweigh the storms. But back to the storms later. Florida's pretty close to the equator, so when they launch rockets and shuttles, they get a good boost from the Earth's rotational speed. This saves them a lot of money since they don't need to spend as much fuel or build as big of rockets, and you know they need to save since their budget keeps getting slashed-"
"Please save me the 'Penny for NASA' rant," Tucker said, exasperated. "I've heard it thirteen times."
"Thirteen? No way. And it's really important, space travel benefits the economy in so many-"
"Bro."
"Sorry, sorry, sorry." Danny held up his hands in surrender. "Back to Florida. Well, Russia. Russia actually doesn't launch from anywhere near the equator since they don't have any land there and they like to maintain pretty strict control of their stuff. So they just build really big rockets. Kinda wasteful but that's the Russians for ya. So first reason for Florida is the velocity boost, but the second is that it's on the East Coast of the US. If they wanna use the Earth's rotation for that boost, they need to launch east. They could do that from California or something where the weather is more consistent, but then they'd have to fly over most of the Continental US. NASA didn't want to risk any potential accidents raining debris down on the populace, so they thought launching over an ocean was a safer bet.
"Last reason was that it was just a good location to build a base. Merritt Island, where the space center is, already had a military base on it, but not much else. It was all swamp and orchards. It was a huge plot of land in the middle of nowhere with an existing infrastructure thanks to the military base, Cape Canaveral. It was great for privacy and another failsafe in case of some sort of disaster.
"Anyways, Florida is a great place for launching rockets save for the weather. So, they have to be really careful with their weather predictions or they have to call launches off, which wastes time and money. They have to cancel or delay launches all the time due to tiny changes in the weather. It's really fascinating what the thresholds are and what's considered "bad" weather for a launch."
"Wow, Danny, that's so interesting. I'm so glad you told me this useful information," Tucker remarked dryly.
"Hey, if I want to be an astronaut I have to be able to bring something to the table, right? So I've been trying to learn a little about how weather works. I do have more first-hand experience than most people, thanks to Vortex. And who knows, maybe this will help me beat him more quickly next time," Danny added.
"Huh. I guess that's true. After all this studying, I'd ask who you were and what you did with Danny Fenton, but since it involves space I shouldn't've been surprised," Tucker teased. "Nerd."
"Geek. And that's space nerd, to you."
"Alright, oh Lord of the Space Nerds," Tucker replied. He ran a hand across his forehead again, wiping away a layer of sweat. "Jeez, was the walk to the mall always this long?"
"Yep. It just wasn't as hot last time. Just be thankful it's this dry. If it was this hot and humid it'd feel a lot hotter thanks to all the water in the air. The fact that it's dry means you can sweat more efficiently," Danny explained
Tucker whapped Danny in the face with his very sweaty beret. "Fucking. Weather. Nerd. I'm changing your title."
"But I wanna be the King of the Space Nerds!"
"Lord of the Space Nerds. I listen to that whole space speech and you can't even remember the title I dubbed you with?" Tucker glanced over at Danny, then did a double-take. "Ugh, you don't look nearly as gross and sweaty as I do. Ghosts, I swear."
"Half dead with ice powers, Tuck. It has benefits." Danny grinned.
"'Cept for the last time you went to the doctor. That poor nurse thought you were actually dead."
"Benefits, not including the fact that I can never go the doctor again."
"Hey, wanna share a little bit of those benefits with me and fill this with ice?" Tucker held his beret out in front of Danny.
"Eww, dude, this thing stinks!"
Tucker shook the beret under Danny's nose in reply.
Danny pushed the beret away. "Umm, I can't."
"What the flippedy fuck do you mean, you can't?"
"Remember what I said about a drought?"
"Yeah?" Tucker's eyes narrowed.
"Dry air means not enough water to pull out of the air and freeze into ice." Danny pulled a slightly disgusted face. "I guess I could… freeze the sweat in the hat so it'd be kinda cool on your head?"
Tucker blinked. "That… that's gross."
"I know, I was just trying to help!"
They walked along a little ways silently. Realizing that they were still a ways from the mall, Tucker held out his beret again to Danny.
"...Do it."
A/N:
Going for a one a day schedule with these. I should have enough to last the next week or so!
Anyways, I am a space nerd and Danny is a space nerd and we both wanted to talk about KSC. I love that place. Anyone else love space? NASA? Let's talk space.
-attu