"Lee Edgar - The Andromeda Trial" - читать интересную книгу автора (Edgar Lee)

his hand at docking a shuttle in space.
She sighed. тАШOkay, weтАЩll try again next week. Might I suggest you take a little more
notice in Professor AkherdтАЩs class. What he tries to teach you may only be the theory
side of things, but a knowledge of basic cosmology and the laws of stellar motion will
one day save your lives.тАЩ She sighed again. тАШNow can any of you tell me where Paul went
wrong?тАЩ
A hand at the back shot up. тАШHe did it too fast.тАШ The young woman giggled. тАШTypical
Man.тАЩ
Cassi sighed. тАШThank you, Carla. Will someone just tell me where everyone is going
wrong? Not one of you has completed the simple task of docking a shuttle. If you cannot
dock at Orion, how do you expect to get to Luna Base in one piece?тАЩ
No-one spoke.
She wiped her hand across her forehead. тАШAll right, letтАЩs go back to basics. Can
anyone tell me how fast Orion is moving?тАЩ
тАШIt doesnтАЩt move,тАЩ grinned Robin Merry. тАШItтАЩs geostationary.тАЩ
тАШIt may not move in relation to EarthтАЩs surface, but it is still moving. How fast?тАЩ
A girl of seventeen nervously put up her hand.
Cassi smiled. тАШYes, Janine.тАЩ
тАШJust over eleven thousand kilometres per hour, Miss.тАЩ
тАШWell done. And what is the escape velocity of Earth?тАЩ
тАШEleven point one eight kilometres per second to the power of minus one.тАЩ
тАШAnd how far from the surface is a geosynchronous object, such as Orion?тАЩ She looked
round the class.
тАШThirty-five thousand, nine hundred kilometres.тАЩ
тАШGood, so assuming a shuttle has reached escape velocity, how fast will it be
travelling when it reaches geostat?тАЩ
There was a delay before a man of almost thirty muttered: тАШThirty thousand kilometres
per hour.тАЩ
тАШThank you, Neil.тАЩ She started to pace the area at the front of the class. тАШSo can
any bright individual please tell me what that means, in ordinary English?тАЩ
тАШYouтАЩve got to slow down,тАЩ said Paul, back in his place next to Janine.
тАШGood grief, thatтАЩs an understatement. YouтАЩve just spent an hour getting up from
Europoort and youтАЩve got a half-kilometre wide space station in the forward viewer.
Taking off is now automatic. Launch Control on Mount Aigoual keeps you on a parabolic
course through the atmosphere and steers you through the satellite window so you donтАЩt
collide with one of the thousands of bits of junk in orbit over the mid Atlantic. It
then pulls you round over the equator and into a geostatic corridor behind Orion. All
you have to do is guide the shuttle in for the last hundred kilometres without ramming
the flaming thing up the backside.тАЩ
A titter went round the room and Cassi silently cursed herself for dropping to their
level and using semi-vulgarities to make her point.
She stared at them till she got their attention once more. тАШI know Orion looks pretty
small from a hundred kilometres away, but a hundred kilometres away is when you start
to retrobrake. If you donтАЩt..тАЩ She shrugged and waved her hand toward the simulator
screen: тАШThis happens.тАЩ
тАШCanтАЩt we guide the shuttle right in by remote control?тАЩ asked a laid-back young man,
friend of the lout at the front. Cassi sighed. Where did the Directorate find some of
these promising student astronauts? She said nothing for a long time. Gradually, an
uncomfortable silence fell over the group. When it had lasted thirty seconds, she sat
down on the edge of her desk.