Silent Thrusters Muffled For Quiet Weekend

Tariq Chen spent four days trowelling heavy grey foam onto a massive attitude rocket thruster.

He and five other technicians wore bulky vacuum suits to apply eight hundred tons of acoustic soak-foam across the primary thrusters of High Lantia.

The station lies inside a designated quiet zone.

Under local peace rules, orbital thrusters must not exceed forty decibels during the Sunday rest period.

The rules measure noise by calculating the sound a thruster would make if space were filled with air.

In a vacuum, the thrusters are silent.

However, the calculations are automated.

If the theoretical decibels rise, the station's docking gates lock shut to protect resident sleep cycles.

Chen used a long plastic spade to flatten the final layer of grey paste before the Sunday morning deadline.

"We had to smooth it by hand," Chen said. "If there are any bubbles, the computer says it hums."

The foam will burn off the moment the thrusters fire on Monday.

But for now, the computer is satisfied.

The ring is legally silent.