"Forward, Robert L - Rocheworld 01 - Rocheworld (The Flight of the Dragonfly) 5.0" - читать интересную книгу автора (Forward Robert L)
"Enough of that," she said. "We're off on an adventure to visit some exciting worlds. We only got a long distance look at them as the robotic interstellar probe flew through at one-third light speed, but Thomas, Alan, and Caroline have put together a picture of the Barnard system. Thomas?" She stepped down and Thomas took her place.
"First, let me give some details about the star," said Thomas. "Here is a dull table that summarizes what we know about it." He put a viewgraph on the machine. "Barnard is a small, red dwarf star about six lightyears away. The only star system closer is the Alpha Centauri system with three stars. As you know, exploring that three star system will require a larger and more complex operation than ours. They will launch later than we will, but will get to their target first.
Barnard was called plus four degrees thirty-five sixty-one until an astronomer named Barnard measured its proper motion and found it was tearing through the sky at the terrific clip of ten seconds of arc per year. It is an M-five red dwarf with a temperature of thirty-three hundred degrees Kelvin compared to the G-zero yellow-white fifty-eight hundred degrees of the Sun. Probably the thing we will find hardest to get used to is the dull red illumination. It will be sort of like living by the light of a charcoal fire. Not only is the temperature low, but the diameter of the star is only twelve percent of the Sun's diameter. It is going to be cold there -- except very close to Barnard.
"Now comes the interesting part," said Thomas. "The planetary system around Barnard. The robotic probe only got a glimpse as it went through the system, but it looks as though there are only two planets. However, one of the planets is so large and has so many moons, that it is practically a planetary system by itself." He replaced the Barnard data table with an orbital diagram, then walked up to the screen with a pointer.
"The main planet is a gigantic one, called Gargantua. It is a huge gas giant like Jupiter, but four times more massive. If Gargantua had been slightly more massive, it would have turned into a star and the Barnard system would be a binary star system. Gargantua seems to have swept up all the material for making planets, since there are no other large planets in the system. Gargantua has four satellites that would be planets in our solar system, plus a multitude of smaller moons. We plan on visiting as many of them as possible after we have taken a look at the most interesting planet -- Rocheworld." He switched to a viewgraph drawing showing a double-planet.
"Rocheworld is a corotating double planet whose two halves are so close to each other that the planets are not spherical, but are drawn into egg shapes. This shape was first calculated by an ancient French mathematician called Roche, hence the name for the system. Rocheworld is in a highly elliptical orbit about Barnard. Caroline, using Alan's hundred meter optical multiferometer, was able to resolve the planets and track the orbits for the last two years. According to her, Rocheworld has a period that seems to be exactly one-third the period of Gargantua. We know that such orbital 'resonances's are usually unstable. Whether this nearly three-to-one ratio is real or a coincidence is one of the things we hope to figure out when we get there."
"What are the sizes of the orbits?" asked Anthony.
"Small," said Caroline, turning around to look at him. "The radius of Gargantua's orbit is thirty-eight gigameters, while the semimajor axis of Rocheworld's elliptical orbit is a little over eighteen gigameters. The whole thing would fit inside the orbit of Mercury."
"What are the conditions on Rocheworld and the moons around Gargantua?" asked John. "Can we land on them?"
"We know that Rocheworld and the larger moons have atmospheres," said Thomas. "And that one of the two parts of Rocheworld seems to have a liquid on its surface. But the probe couldn't get very much detail during the flyby. That's one of the other things we're going to have to study when we get there."
Next came other briefings for the crew. Some by Space Administration experts and some by members of the crew.
"Now we come to one of the more sobering aspects of our journey," said Jinjur. "Dr. Wang, could you please give us a short medical briefing."
"Certainly," said Dr. Wang, smiling as he rose and took Jinjur's place at the podium. "This expedition is a long one. Longer than the normal life-span of the human body, even with all the medical advances we have made. Therefore, after the initial launch phases of the mission, we will all be treated with the life-extending drug, No-Die. When it has thoroughly saturated our tissues, it will slow our aging process to one-fourth of normal rate. Thus the forty years that it will take for us to travel to Barnard will only produce ten years of aging in our bodies.
"Unfortunately, our intelligence will also be lowered by roughly the same factor. That is why No-Die is not used more on Earth. Fortunately, you all have been picked as persons with higher than normal intelligence, so that the No-Die will merely reduce your functional level to that of a small child. We will have a semi-intelligent computer on board to keep us out of trouble during the trip out. It will stop administering the No-Die as we approach Barnard so that we will be back to normal intelligence when we arrive.
"As for sexual matters. The engineers cannot make _Prometheus_ go any faster. So even if they designed the system for a round-trip journey, No-Die couldn't stave off death long enough to bring us back alive. Thus, this trip is a one-way journey for all of us. The planets there are not habitable without using highly technical life-support systems to protect us against the poisonous atmospheres, so this cannot be a colonization mission. There must be no children born during the mission, and since we cannot count on your intelligent cooperation during the No-Die phase, all of you will have to undergo surgical operations to ensure that your reproductive organs are blocked."
George leaned over and whispered into Jinjur's ear. "I'm already fixed so I only shoot blanks."
Jinjur didn't blink an eye. "Bang, bang," she muttered.
Dr. Wang continued: "Although this procedure should have no physical side effects, there are occasionally psychological reactions to the loss of your reproductive capability that produce physical effects, including loss of sexual appetite and impotency. If this happens to you, please don't hesitate to consult me." A twinkle came to his eye. "If the normal medical procedures are ineffective, I have a book describing some ancient Oriental procedures that are guaranteed to produce spectacular results." He sat down amidst whispered conversations.
"Thanks, William," said Jinjur. "Well, that's enough to today. I assume you are all taking care of your personal affairs. After your final physicals, we'll head down to Mercury to visit the laser propulsion center, then go out to Titan for some practice sessions using the planetary landing rockets and the aerospace planes, then board _Prometheus_ for the trip out. Good day."
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*CHAPTER 4 -- TRAINING*
The training of the first true astronauts took them throughout the solar system to learn about the disparate portions of the solar-system-wide machine that would toss them to the stars on a beam of light. First they dropped inward to the orbit of Mercury to see the "engine room" of their star-spanning spacecraft, for the lasers that propelled their starcraft would stay in the solar system where they could be maintained, repaired, and replaced by the sun-lubbers that remained behind.
They approached Mercury from shadowside, heading for the thin bright manmade halo behind the planet that could be seen in telescopes over interplanetary distances. This was the sunhook, a ring-shaped structure of gossamer that hovered halfway down Mercury's shadow cone. The intense light from the Sun bouncing off the reflective surface was enough to keep the sunhook levitated against the pull of the planet below. As Mercury rotated about the Sun, the play of the solar photons on the ring kept it centered about the shadow cone. Hanging below the sunhook, at the point of a cone of tethers, was MERLAP-4C, the Mercury Laser Propulsion Construction, Command, and Control Center, safely suspended in the deep shadow of the planet. As they came closer to Mercury Center, they could see a steady stream of robot vehicles hauling material out from the Center toward the sun-edged rim of the planet.
As they docked, they could see through the portholes the bright dress uniforms of the small contingent of the Space Marines at Mercury Center waiting to welcome their General Jinjur. The interconnection hatch opened, and there was a piercing whistle.
Fortunately Jinjur was in her path and deflected Shirley's flying body before someone's fingers were caught in an emergency closing of the hatch. Shirley turned with bewilderment at Jinjur's interference. Then she heard the piercing whistle change pitch while a voice gave some commands. There was a slap of hands on stungun butts.
"They're just piping me aboard," said Jinjur, "But you're right, that bosun's whistle does sound like an air leak."
Jinjur lead the way through the airlock. There were portholes in the short metal docking tube, and they could look up through them to see the brilliantly glowing ring hanging above them in the sky. Portions of the sail were tilting, turning from a dull grey to brilliant white as the ring control computer added sail to compensate for the weight of the docked transport craft.
They were greeted by Linda Regan, a short, bouncy young woman with long bouncy brown curls and sparkly green eyes. Shirley looked down in envy at the naturally curly hair, then her expression changed to that of puzzlement.
"Haven't I seen you somewhere before?" she asked.
"I wondered if you would remember me," said Linda. "I was a sophomore cheerleader at USC when you were a second-string forward on the men's basketball team."
Linda led them to a large central room used as a combination dining room and meeting hall. As they made their way through the corridors, Red felt uncomfortable. There was something wrong and she couldn't quite figure it out. She frowned and swam after the rest of the group.
In the meeting room they were met by the Chief Administrator of the Center.
"I want to welcome our distinguished group of true astronauts to the Mercury Laser Propulsion Construction, Command, and Control Center," he said. "It is here that we will generate the propulsion energy to send you off to Barnard. When the mission starts next year, we want you to know that we will be behind you, pushing all the way."
There were a few chuckles. He smiled and continued. "There is one very important fact you must always remember while you are here on Mercury Center; especially when you're off looking around on your own after the planned tours." He paused and continued, "You're _NOT_ in free fall."
With those words he pulled himself over to a table fixed in the center of the dining hall. Using it for purchase, he crouched, and jumped expertly upward to the center of the domed ceiling, where he held onto a light fixture. He damped out his motion and hung there some ten meters overhead.
"Mercury Center is not in orbit about Mercury, but is floating at a point some eighty thousand kilometers above the surface of the planet. The pull of Mercury is counteracted by the large ring-sail that you all saw as you arrived. The ring-sail stays outside the shadow cone of the planet, while we are hanging in the comparative coolness of the shadow. This arrangement is not completely stable, so it is necessary to have active control of the sail area to keep us at constant altitude and in the center of the shadow cone as Mercury orbits about the Sun.
"The gravity pull from Mercury at this distance is weak, only one part in three thousand of Earth's gravity, but it's enough to kill you." He paused to let the last words echo off the walls of the large room. His voice took on a stern tone as he continued. "And the more free-fall time you've had, the more likely you are to forget, so I want you space veterans to pay close attention.
"Suppose you're outside being shown something, and you let go of your handhold for a second," he said. He let go of the light fixture for a few seconds. As far as the group could tell, he just hung there as if he were in free fall. He regained his hold on the light fixture and said, "For the first few seconds, you will only fall a few millimeters, and you can easily regain a handhold. However, let yourself get distracted for ten or twenty seconds..." He released his handhold and started counting. After ten seconds he had dropped noticeably. When he reached the count of twenty he desperately attempted to regain his handhold on the light fixture, but he had dropped over half a meter and it was out of reach. He stopped trying, then turned to look down at them.
"You will continue to accelerate," he said very solemnly as he slowly fell toward them. "If we don't see you within two or three minutes and launch a rescue vehicle -- you are _dead_." His feet punctuated the last words as they hit the table-top with a dull thud.
"That's what's wrong!" Red said out loud. The others looked at her. "When I was coming through the corridors, something bothered me. Now I know was it was. The air was too clean and the floors were too dirty. In free fall you're always bothered by specks of dust and pieces of loose equipment. Here everything collects on the floor after a minute or so."
"You're right," said the Administrator. "Please keep it in mind all the time you are here. Now, let me turn you over to my Chief Engineer, who will explain the things you will be seeing during your visit here."
* * * *
Their first tour took them out to one of the laser generator stations. There were a thousand of them, spaced in a sun-synchronous orbit about Mercury -- a sparkling diadem for the innermost planet. Each consisted of a large light reflector thirty kilometers across, that collected the sunlight and concentrated it on a light-pumped laser at its focus. The astronauts visited the sites in groups of five in small flitters. They did all their observing from behind the heavily tinted portholes of the flitter for it was too hot outside for ordinary space-suits.
Red, who had gazed down at many a planetoid from orbit, suddenly broke her contemplative silence.
"How come the terminator is curved?" she asked. "I thought the lasers were supposed to be in a sun-facing orbit. In that case, we should be right over the terminator and Mercury should be cut in half by its shadow."
"For the same reason that the lasers and their collectors are here flying around Mercury instead of in their own orbits about the Sun," said the engineer conducting the tour. "Light pressure may not be much, but the solar photons would blow those light-weight collectors away if they were not anchored by gravity to the mass of the planet. In fact, the light pressure is so strong that the sail and laser are not even orbiting the center of Mercury. The light pressure actually pushes the orbit a few hundred kilometers toward the dark side. That pressure also keeps the orbit precessing so that it stays facing the Sun."
"Things have sure progressed since the early laser space-fort days," said George as he gazed at the huge expanse of light collector that seemed to go on and on to some distant horizon like the surface of a small sea. He paused, then queried in a perplexed voice, "The collector has a funny color to it."
"That's the special reflective coatings on the plastic," said the engineer. "The solar flux here at the orbit of Mercury is almost ten kilowatts per square meter, but not all of it can be used by the laser. The coating on the collector only reflects those portions of the sunlight that are at the right frequency to be converted into laser power."
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