"Ben Bova - Life As We Know It" - читать интересную книгу автора (Bova Ben)

"Imagery systems check," droned the voice of the mission controller. The huge
room fell absolutely silent. I held my breath.

"Imagery systems functioning."

We all let out a sigh of relief. Me especially. The imagery systems were my
responsibility. I built them. If they failed, the mission failed, I failed, six
dozen careers would go down the tubes, six dozen frustrated scientists would be
seeking my blood.

Our probe into Jupiter was unmanned, of course. No astronaut could survive the
crushing pressures and turbulent storms beneath the cloud deck of Jupiter. No
one knew if our robotic probe was sturdy enough to reach below the cloud tops
and survive.

Over the years, the earlier probes had shown that beneath those gaudy colorful
swirling clouds there was an ocean ten times larger than the whole Earth. An
ocean of water. Heavily laced with ammonia, to be sure, but water nonetheless.
There was only one other world in the solar system where liquid water existed --
Earth. We knew that liquid water meant life on Earth.

Did it on Jupiter?

"Jupiter represents our best chance for finding extraterrestrial life."
Lopez-Oyama had said those words to the congressional committee that ruled on
NASA's budget, when he went begging to them for the money to fund our mission.

"Life?" asked one of the Congressmen, looking startled, almost afraid. "Like
animals and trees and such?"

I watched those hearings on TV; we all did, sitting on the edges of our chairs
in the center's cafeteria while the politicians decided if we lived or died. I
had picked a seat next to Allie, although she barely acknowledged my presence
beside her. She stared unwaveringly at the screen.

With a tolerant little shake of his head, Lopez-Oyama replied, "It probably
won't be life as we know it here on Earth, sir. That would be too much to hope
for."

"Then what will it be like?"

"We just don't know. We've never found life on another world before." Then he
added, "But if we don't find life on Jupiter, then I doubt that life of any form
exists anywhere else in the solar system."

"Do you mean intelligent life?" asked the committee chairwoman sharply.

Lopez-Oyama smiled winningly at her. "No, ma'am," he said. "Intelligent life
would be too much to expect. I'll be happy if we find something like bacteria."