BFR3: The Four Words

Red

u want to wake up in the morning and think the future is going to be great- and that's what being a spacefaring civilization is all about.  It's about believing in he future and thinking that the future will be better than the past, and I can't think of anything more exciting than going out there and being among he stars"

-Elon Musk, CEO and lead designer, Spacex

"BFR auto landing is a go, all systems are a go. Requesting permission to engage auto land, over."
Mike peered out the giant semi circle windows with a glazed stare as he waited for a response from forty five million miles away. The silence was attended only by the low hum of the nav and life support systems  as the red planet lazily scrolled across the glass overhead. After four and a half months with increasingly  long response time waits, Mike's Millennial bred desire for instant gratification had been thoroughly exercised.  Still, this silence seemed to last too long.

The coms crackled to life, "Be advised we are expecting coms blackout due to Midas interference, over."

Mike nodded to himself as he double checked the data feed on the screen to his right.
"Roger that, I'm seeing it here as well. What is Mother Goose advising? Over."

There was a quiet click from the sliding door at his back. Mike glanced into the rear view mirror that was haphazardly velcroed  to his monitor, just in time to see the small-craft pilot float through the hatch.

"Hey what's the hold up, Mickey Mouse?"

Mike gestured to the coms speaker, "Signal delay".

Anthony frowned as he floated over Mike's shoulder to read the data feed. "Interference?"

"Remember that comet we detected three weeks ago?"

"Yeah, the gold nugget."

Mike pulled up a second data feed with some charts on his left monitor.
"Only about 30% of it is gold, the rest is ice, dirt, iron; plus some trace minerals that total around 10%... but it looks like the core is about 15% super dense, unidentified metal that's going to jack up our coms. We're looking at a full blackout."

The two men stared at the screens for another ten minutes before the coms sparked to life again.

"Mike? Yeah, so the safety and communication department says we're looking at 10 to 13 hours of total blackout with 3 to up to... possibly 4 hours of text-only on either end... which gives us a 21 hour low to zero com window. Safety says it's up to you, all systems and programs besides coms are looking good. If you want to go ahead and initiate auto landing we're not expecting coms to have any major issues for another six hours. You could still land and  report before we loose you. Safety risk is minimal, it's your call, Mike. Over"

"Copy that"
Mike looked over at Anthony as he held down the button for the onboard mic. "Did y'all catch that?" he said, his Texan heritage leaking out a little as he spoke. "What do you guys wanna do?"

Logan< "Payload's ready to go, cranes functioning. I'm for landing-" he paused and mumbled something to his subordinates then keyed the mic again "Sean and Chris are dying to get their boots dirty, too"

Eduardo< "Thees Eduardo Sergio, suits are prepped an everting bueno en Lifesupport."

"Roger that" Mike replied, "That just leaves Roberts and Kosvitch, it's up to you ladies"

There was a pause before the mic clicked again and a woman's voice came through the intercom, "This is Amanda; Natasha and I are prepped to land as long as Mother Goose gives us the green light"

"Coms and Safety are good with it if we are" Mike said

Amanda< "In that case, Science department is a go for landing".