"The Sails Of Tau Ceti" - читать интересную книгу автора (McCollum Michael)

doomed sapients working desperately to get their ark away before Tau Ceti
exploded. The vision was so vivid that she almost missed Boris SadibayanТs next
remark.
УHow quickly canStarhopper be made ready for launch?Ф
Tory stared at him, not comprehending for long seconds. Then, suddenly, the
reason for this emergency meeting of the governing board made perfect sense.
УYouТre planning to sendStarhopper out to meet the alien?Ф
УOf course.Ф
УBut you canТt!Ф
УWhy not?Ф
УStarhopperis the only interstellar probe weТve got. We canТt waste it. No
telling when we will be able to scrape together the resources to build another.
Send another ship to look over the light sail. LeaveStarhopper for the job it
was designed to do.Ф
УIТm afraid that is impossible,Ф Hunsacker said. He touched the cube control.
The starfield vanished, to be replaced by a graph in which two brightly colored
lines were suspended in a three dimensional gridwork. One line sloped sharply
upward, while a second followed a curve with much gentler slope.
УThe red line plots the increase in the observed strength of the Tau Ceti nova
over the first two weeks after the explosion. Five days after the initial
explosion, Tau CetiТs output had increased by 100,000 times. The blue line shows
the calculated velocity of a hypothetical light sail caught in such an
explosion.Ф
УProving what?Ф Tory asked as she eyed the holocube.
УThat the light sailТs velocity is the result of its having been ejected by the
nova. Had it launched while Tau Ceti was a normal star, its velocity would be
less than one percent that of light. What that means is that the light pressure
from the sun is insufficient to slow it much. It will arrive in the inner system
in 40 months time, zip from one side of the system within a few days, and then
head back out into interstellar space. If we are to have any opportunity of
examining it, we must meet it as far out as possible.Starhopper is the only
vessel in the system with the delta velocity capability to make rendezvous.Ф
Tory thought about it for a moment and was forced to concede his point. A
spacecraftТs performance is measured by its ability to change velocity, itsdelta
V capability. The alien light sail was falling toward the sun at 15,000
kilometers per second. In theory, a vessel able to accelerate to that speed
could rendezvous with it. In practice, things were not nearly that simple.
A human spacecraft must race away from the sun to intercept the light sail
before it entered the system. Once well beyond the orbit of Pluto, the explorer
craft would turn end for end and begin decelerating. It would shed all of its
outbound velocity and then begin accelerating back toward the sun with the light
sail in pursuit. If properly done, it would match velocities with the light sail
just as the alien derelict overtook it. Humanity would then be able to use
theStarhopper probeТs instruments to learn what they could about the alien
intruder.
All of this maneuvering required a prodigious velocity change. To match orbits
with the light sail in time to do any good was the equivalent of accelerating to
15% of light speed. As Hunsacker had said, onlyStarhopper came anywhere close to
having the necessary delta V capability.
УAll right,Starhopper is the only spacecraft in the Solar System that can catch