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

УWhat other option have we?Ф
УI propose that we send a diplomatic mission instead.Ф
УYou said yourself thatStarhopper is the only spacecraft in the Solar System
with the ability to rendezvous with the alien,Ф Tory pointed out. УHow are you
going to deliver your diplomats?Ф
УThe probe masses one hundred tons, I believe. We will replace it on the booster
with a manned spacecraft of equal mass.Ф
Tory nodded pensively. УThat might work. Since the alien wonТt be here for six
years, weТd have time to make the switch.Ф
УHow long?Ф Sadibayan asked.
УTwo years.Ф
УYouТre joking!Ф
Tory shook her head. УLook,Starhopper isnТt just any spacecraft. ItТs a highly
integrated system designed to survive half a century in space and then perform a
series of complex, autonomous investigations. You canТt just dismount the
instrument package and put a manned ship in its place. There are literally
thousands of interfaces to be redone. The main computers are in the instrument
package, for GodТs sake. Dismounting the upper stage from the booster is
equivalent to performing a lobotomy on a human being.Ф
УThe computers can be transferred to the manned craft.Ф
УSure they can. What about the thousands of distributed processing units that go
with them? You also have to remount those and then cobble together the proper
interconnections. Then all you have to worry about is the software, which must
be completely rewritten.Ф
УSurely what you have can be modified.Ф
УNot on your life! We have to strip the various modules down to their
fundamentals, modify them to account for the differences between ship and probe,
then reassemble, debug, and recertify. It has taken three years to getStarhopper
Тs control codes to the point where we think they ought to be. Changing them
will take eighteen months, minimum!Ф
УThere has to be a faster way.Ф
УThere isnТt ... У Tory froze while she consulted her implant. It took fifteen
seconds for the idea to gel.
УWhat is it?Ф Sadibayan asked.
УI suppose the software could be rewritten en route. YouТd need a large team on
the ground for the actual reprogramming, then someone aboard ship who was
intimately familiar with every aspect ofStarhopper .Ф
УCould you do it?Ф
Tory blinked. So far, she had been solving a purely intellectual problem in
software management. It had not occurred to her that the solution might affect
her personally. УI suppose so. That is, if it can be done at all.Ф
УWho else?Ф
УVance Newburgh and possibly a few others on the project staff.Ф
УWhat would you need?Ф SadibayanТs matter-of-fact tone sent a chill up ToryТs
spine.
УMy implant, of course. The probeТs computers. An interface linking the two, and
a lot of people backing me up.Ф
УYouТd have them. Are you interested in the job?Ф
Tory swallowed hard. She had signed with Project Starhopper to do something
important with her life, but this was more than she had bargained for.