Four Years to the Stars
It was a seasonably cold January. Reporters stood in the crisp air as President Feik took the oath of office. Meanwhile, Asmara and the other scientists were huddled on the platform overlooking the National Mall without the same pomp and circumstance. Her mind was more focused on the program results running on the lab's supercomputer.
Then her attention suddenly to the inauguration speech, as the new president's words referenced her.
"...our great national lab. It is now time for a new era of prosperity. Where we once had science fiction, we will bold reach for the stars ourselves. I vow that by the end of this term we will have a space elevator in operation."
Asmara's breath stopped. This was it. There had been policymakers in her lab for weeks, clandestinely meeting and asking her to run theoretical models. She had said it was scientifically impossible, but the politics said otherwise.
The roar of the crowd was deafening, but Asmara felt isolated. She was the head of their national lab, the one who would be responsible for doing this impossibility. And when she couldn't deliver, she'd be cast out of the field entirely.
Her mentor was sitting nearby. Dr. Derksen, whose role had been given to her, was frowning. He knew as well as she the challenges of this moonshot. She straightened her back. She couldn't let them down. She wouldn't let herself down.
"A symbol of American ingenuity... a testament to the boundless potential of human innovation..." the president continued. She was a part of that symbol. She had a deadline now and a nation watching. The race had begun.
The air in the lab had a tension she hadn't experienced since her Ph.D. defense. She stood before her team with the president's ambitious new goal hanging over them.
"Four years," she announced. "We have four years to build a space elevator."
Nervous laughter rolled through the room. Caden was the first one to speak.
"Dr. Haile, while the nation was a fan of the president's optimism, we have to be realistic. It's simply not feasible. The material science alone..."
"We don't have any material that can handle the tensile strength," another researcher interjected. "Nothing that withstand that much stress."
Asmara raised her hand, quieting down the lab. "I know this sounds impossible, but we're not working on this alone."
Her gaze swept across the room, finally settling on a quiet young man slouched in the back.
"Peyton, tell them about Project Nova Gold."
Peyton suddenly stood up, startled by the sudden attention. He pushed his glasses up his nose and coughed.
"Yes, um... Nova Gold is... it's an AI I've been developing. It can analyze and simulate material properties on a scale we've never seen before."
The room was full of skepticism.
"An AI?" Caden scoffed. "Useful for analyzing what already exists, but there's no way it can magically conjure up a wonder material."
"Not magically Caden," Peyton replied with greater confidence. "But it can explore combinations, structures, and possibilities that otherwise would've taken this room decades, maybe even centuries, to test manually. We need to define our parameters and constraints. It can then search for solutions within the vast space of known elements and compounds. It can even predict the properties of theoretical ones."
Asmara nodded. "It's not about replacing our expertise. We need to amplify it. To meet this goal, we need a whole army of material scientists. Project Nova Gold can help us find this needle in a haystack."
The room remained silent. Researchers exchanged hesitant glances. The challenge was immense, bordering on insanity. But Asmara saw a flicker of possibility.
The polished black limousine brandishing the presidential seal pulled up to the National Lab with an air of quiet authority. Asmara's eyes were red due to another late night with Peyton. She watched from her office, quivering with a mug of coffee, as a stern-faced woman in a suit emerged. She knew it was not a friendly check-in; this was a performance review.
Six months into the moonshot, they had been moderate progress. Caden had identified a class of carbon nanotubes doped with niobium and exotic molecules extracted from asteroid mining. It promised to withstand stresses an order of magnitude greater than anything they'd ever seen before. But translating this into real-world materials was proving to be a monumental challenge.
The president's envoy, Ms. Talan, wasted no time on pleasantries. "Dr. Haile," she began, her voice as crisp as her suit. "The president is pleased with your initial progress, but he is concerned about the timeline. Four years is non-negotiable. He is expecting to see a demonstrable prototype by the end of the year."
"End of the year? Ms. Talan, with all due respect..."
"No buts. I understand this is ambitious, but the president believes in American ingenuity. He believes in you. Don't let that trust be misplaced."
Asmara swallowed her protest, feeling the weight of the expectations.
"We're facing significant hurdles," she noted. "Synthesizing these materials at scale, ensuring they meet our extreme conditions without breaking down..."
"The president understands, but you need to understand what happens if you fail. China is making strides in their own space program. We cannot afford to fall behind."
Asmara felt a deep frustration bottled up inside her. This was no longer about the science, about exploring the unknown. It had been about politics all along. She glanced at the screen displaying the AI's latest simulations.
"We're doing everything we can Ms. Talan, but we refuse to cut corners. This project isn't just about meeting a deadline -- it's about pushing the boundaries of what's possible."
Talan's lips tightened. "The president expects results Dr. Haile. Do not disappoint him."
She turned and strode back to her limousine, leaving Asmara with the echoing clicks of her heels. They pounded into her skull like the ticking of a clock, reminding her that she didn't have time to waste.
President Feik stepped onto the platform just as he had done four years prior. The roar of the crowd was deafening. Four years. Four years of relentless work, sleepless nights, and moments of sheer terror when it seemed as if the entire project was going to crash down. But here they stood at the foot of a gleaming ribbon of carbon stretching forever into the skies. The space elevator was a testament to Feik's promise to the country, to human ambition.
Asmara was there as well, not far away from the crowds but on stage as well. Her heart was pounding in her chest. There had been the occasional reporter who toured her lab for a story, but they had always been small scale and about the project. Now, thousands of people were staring right up at her, expecting her words.
"Mr. President, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen," she began slowly, her voice amplified by her headset. "Today we stand at the cusp of a new era, where the boundaries of the possible are being redrawn, where dreams of generations past are becoming reality."
She paused, taking a chance to swallow. She stared out into the sea of faces, the culmination of years of hard work reflected by their awestruck expressions. "This space elevator is not just a marvel of engineering but a symbol of what we can achieve when we dare to dream big and push the limits of science."
Asmara turned and raised her hand towards the towering structure behind her. "This achievement would not have been possible without the tireless work of countless individuals. We could not have done this alone. In addition to material progress, we have made unprecedented strides in artificial intelligence."
A murmur rippled through the crowd.
"Our groundbreaking AI was essential for this project. It allowed us to analyze petabytes of data, simulate countless scenarios, and guided us towards the revolutionary materials that made this elevator possible."
She took a step back, inching herself closer to the elevator car. "Today, we take our first step into this new frontier. We can ride the ribbon all the way to the stars."
President Feik extended his hand, escorting her all the way into the elevator. The doors closed behind her. The crowd watched as she began rising into the sky.
Asmara watched the ground recede and felt a surge of triumph. As the Earth shrank beneath her, she knew this was just the beginning.
I was inspired by this article in MIT Technology Review. Using AI for material science makes sense, as it's a field that has a lot of potential to change the world.