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

УTo slow down, of course. They are sweeping up the interstellar gas in their
path and using it to retard their velocity. TheyТve turned the sail into an
electrostatic brake!Ф
УThey?Ф Ben asked.
Pierce did not appear to hear the question. УWe were wrong about the size, too.
The sail is a hell of a lot bigger than one thousand kilometers.Ф It was
probably furled until quite recently.Ф
УFurled?Ф
УFolded up! A fully deployed light sail would produce a strong parasitic drag on
a 250 yearlong voyage. Better to stow it until you need it to decelerate. Less
of a problem with wear and tear, too.Ф
УYou speak as though thereТs a crew aboard,Ф Tory said. Despite the warm fog the
scotch had laid over her mind, the implications of PierceТs statements were
beginning to sink in.
УWe think there is. Come on; letТs get you a sober pill. We have plans to make.
This changes everything.Ф
#
There were only three people left in the conference room when Pierce returned
with Tory and Ben Tallen. Tory walked with a rolling gait as she sought her
place at the table. It had been nearly a century since the invention ofQuiksober
, yet the spatial disorientation that was the wonder drugТs primary side effect
had never been completely tamed.
She switched on her implant and let it run through its self-test sequence. When
she was certain it was operational, she asked, УAll right, what do we know?Ф
ToryТs intention had been to request the file reference for the new data so that
she could access it. Boris Hunsacker misunderstood her request, or possibly the
data had yet to be input into the computer. He called for the lights to be
dimmed and the holocube to be activated.
The familiar starfield was much as it had been. Tau Ceti blazed bright from
within its shell of gas. The light sail, which had formerly reflected an anemic
version of SolТs spectrum, now blazed forth like a new nova. The former dim
yellow spot was now the blue-white hue of a mercury vapor lamp.
УBrightened some, hasnТt it?Ф
УAn understatement, Miss Bronson,Ф Sadibayan replied dryly. УWhen it first
happened, Luna thought it had exploded.Ф
УDid it blaze up all at once?Ф
Hunsacker nodded. УThe time from onset to maximum was only three milliseconds.
That is the primary reason we suspect an electrostatic braking device. If
friction were the cause, the temperature would not have shot up so
precipitously. We also wouldnТt be seeing relativistic protons.Ф
УFriction?Ф
УOne of the Luna astronomers postulated that the sail had run into a gas bubble
surrounding a comet nucleus out in the Oort cloud,Ф Hunsacker explained.
The subminister shook his head. УAnything dense enough to make it glow like that
would have ripped it apart.Ф
УCan we detect any deceleration yet?Ф
УNo way to tell, damn it. We could judge its speed well enough when it was
reflecting sunlight. It is a simple matter to measure Doppler shift from a known
spectrum. Now that it is emitting light on its own, weТve lost even that clue.Ф
УSo we donТt know how fast it is slowing?Ф