Meta Probe

Meta Probe The Meta Probe was a manned mission due to be launched from the Space Dock in lunar orbit in late September 1999, as seen in the episode "Breakaway" in the television series Space: 1999.

The Meta Probe was slated to visit the rogue planet named Meta, from which signals were received on Earth and at Alpha. Two astronauts would control the Meta Probe from a standard Eagle Transporter cockpit module. Astronauts underwent training at Moonbase Alpha and over the Far Side of the Moon, using Navigation Beacon Delta and Nuclear Waste Disposal Area 1 as landmarks. The two astronauts assigned to the mission were Frank Warren and Eric Sparkman.

However, the magnetic radiation from the waste disposal site caused a fatal illness in Warren and Sparkman. Before a replacement crew could be trained and then launched, Disposal Area 2 exploded, thrusting the Moon out of orbit. The Meta Probe was attached to the Space Dock (both shown above), possibly undergoing fueling. The gravitational stresses tried to tear the Meta Probe off the Dock, while presumably the Dock's station-keeping thrusters fired automatically in an attempt to keep it in orbit. As a result, both the Dock and the Probe were destroyed.

The Meta Probe is part of the Space: 1999 timeline.