Fandom High School

"Okay, so we promised you we'd get to Pluto, and this is the last week," Hera said. She had to steer them around a few more bits of junk than usual this week on the way to the Ghost, but it was getting better. "Apparently this one's named after another god. Or possibly a cartoon dog? I'm not...really clear on that."

Google was a weird place.

"My credits are on the cartoon dog," Kanan said, mostly just because he was a shit-disturber. "In any case, what we're visiting today is a dwarf planet. Apparently it was demoted from planet status for not being big enough, but it's definitely really close competition with Earth for being the cutest thing in this solar system."

It had a heart on it. The dwarf planet had a heart on it.

So this was a downright romantic jaunt.

Hera grinned at Kanan as she piloted them there; a quick trip through hyperspace to make it in time. "Well, it's probably cuter from orbit, but yeah. It's further from the sun than any of the other planets we've visited. It's got one moon - no idea how cute it is - and it's mostly ice."

"The 'nitrogen, methane, and carbon monoxide' kind of ice," Kanan said, shrugging his shoulders. "Water ice isn't exactly easy to find on planets in this system, apparently. That's okay. Pluto's still cute even if you don't want to walk on it."

Alas, no jaunts planetside yet again. Though the surface was likely solid enough... Kanan looked thoughtfully at the readings on the console.

Hera helpfully pulled up the surface readings on solidity and air pressure. "What do you think?"

"Hey, that's only an average surface temperature of 44 Kelvin," Kanan said, impressed. "That's minus 229 Celsius, or minus 380 Fahrenheit for anybody who needs a conversion." He grinned over his shoulder. "The suits can totally handle that. Who wants to walk on the really cold cute not-planet?"

"Same rules as always," Hera cautioned. "Gravity's a little over half of Earth's; don't make one of us or Chopper have to grab you. Should we land in the heart?" she asked Kanan.

"You know we need to land in the heart," Kanan agreed.

So, there you had it, kids. Going to Pluto.

"It's going to be back to the asteroid belt this week," Kanan said, grinning his usual laid-back grin today as he waved the students onto Hera's ship. "Apparently that's where a lot of the interesting stuff lives, go figure. We'll be looking for one asteroid in particular this week. Maybe we can even get out and walk, again."

He figured it had to have enough gravitational pull to keep the students from bouncing off into space. For reasons that would be obvious in a minute.

"We don't exactly have a map," Hera said, "but we do know where its orbit puts it at the moment. And this one's…"

"Lumpy?"

Kanan was helpful.

"I was going to say 'distinctive', but 'lumpy' works," Hera said. "Also, it's got its own moon!"

Now that was cute, Kanan.

"That too," Kanan chuckled. "The asteroid in question is called 243 Ida, or just Ida for short, and while it's not the largest thing in the asteroid belt - that distinction goes to Ceres, which counts as both a dwarf planet and an asteroid because space gets complicated if you let it - it is massive enough to have its very own little moon caught in its gravitational pull. The moon's name is Dactyl, and it's roughly about a kilometer and a half in diameter."

Which, on a cosmic scale, made it downright adorable.

"Ida's not all that much bigger, and it's apparently two big objects smushed together," Hera said helpfully as they took off. So keep an eye out for it! We might be able to walk on it, even, but we'll have to put Chopper on grapple duty just in case."

"You guys would make pretty lousy asteroids," Kanan agreed.

Because he was the most helpful teacher ever.

"So, uh, did everyone here have a good weekend? Bad weekend? Mentally or emotionally scarring weekend? I was a cat for most of it," Kanan said, looking faintly irritated at the island in general, "and then I was naked in the park. I figure that means I just about break even. Either way," he glanced at Hera. "We're going for an easy week, this time around. Complete with enviro-suits and a moon walk."

Hera still wasn't entirely sure about this weekend, and was a bit more subdued than last week. "Your planet's own moon is low-gravity and lacks most of an atmosphere, but it's otherwise pretty good for walking around on. I bet it could be terraformed into a good place. For now, we'll still need those enviro-suits, though."

"They're not pretty, but they'll keep you from dying a horrible death in an airless void," Kanan agreed. And then tilted his head. "I guess it isn't everyone's planet here either, is it? Eric's moon. For the rest of us it's a loaner."

There you go, Eric. You had your very own moon.

"Suit up," Kanan continued, "and we'll get going. This is gonna at least be a quick trip there, and then we can walk around a bit. Enjoy the view. That sort of thing."

"I understand there's a few things up there from past trips, so maybe we can do a bit of scavenging, too," Hera said. "Clean the place up and get anything useful."

"If we find any interesting droids, maybe we can swap them out for Chopper," Kanan quipped. Aaaand then he laughed and made a little jog into the cockpit before Chopper could get him with that stunner of his.

Hera rolled her eyes.

Another summer workshop term. Another class instructed to meet Kanan and Hera at the landing pads in the Scrapyard. Kanan was clutching tightly to a travel cup of caf when the students arrived.

"This place is hell-bent on making me get ready earlier every class I teach," he muttered, waving for students to follow him on board the Ghost.. "Please, just throw me into the sun. Not that we'll be close enough, but at least it'd wake me up before I cook to death on my way to being utterly obliterated by gravity and burning plasma."( THE SUN )

"So, it looks like this week, we're heading for the big one," Kanan said, once the class had gathered in front of the Ghost. "We won't be making a landing on this one, partly because the weather there leaves something to be desired, and partly because nobody wants to find out what it's like to suddenly weigh over double what you normally do. Little things like walking get tricky. I don't recommend it."

Plus there was that whole thing where the atmospheric pressure of the planet was high enough to convert hydrogen and helium to liquid. You didn't want to be twice as heavy and also swimming. Never mind the layer of liquid metallic hydrogen underneath that. Gas planets were cool, but not super great for casual strolls.

Not that anybody on Earth was even certain if Jupiter had some sort of solid surface anywhere on it.

"That said," he added, "the planet's got something like seventy moons, of which only fifty-three have been named so far. I think they ran out of goddesses or something. After doing a Jupiter fly-by, we could probably get out and take a stroll around one of those with a lot less 'being crushed alive' to worry about."

Also, that many moons was just overkill. Calm down, Jupiter.

"This one's called Jupiter," Hera added, amused. Kanan, start with the basics. "We're not even sure if there is a surface to land on, so yeah, just a fly-by. And it's closer in its orbit right now than Mars was, so it shouldn't take too long to get there."

And soon they were there, looking at Jupiter from pretty far out as Hera avoided its dust ring.

"It's pretty active down there," she noted. "Some of those storms are bigger than your planet. And check out that one." She pointed toward it. "That's several times bigger. Hope they never need to mine this gas."

While they flew by and took reading, Hera was also checking out the moons Kanan had mentioned. "Looks like our best option for a landing might be Europa," she said. "It's frozen solid at the surface, far enough down to support our weight, and smooth as anything." She called up an image of it. "We'll still need the envirosuits, though. I hope everyone's got them down by now."