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Space Voyages
One can imagine it like
this: a crew of astronauts are travelling in the rocket to one of the
planets
located in the system of Alfa-Centaura star. They
land
and get off, discover many unusual
phenomena and come back
to the Earth
in triumph. Well done!
Sorry
for being boring a
bit. At first let's define the notions.
So, we have a system "man + vehicle".
The
possibilities of the system are
limited by its
components: a) by man's physiology
b)
by vehicle's speed
Let's start with
the first one and
consider only
two factors out of many. The first: let's take into consideration his
life-span, namely his active period of life is approximately 50
years.The second factor is his ability to bear g-loading. It's doubtful
he can bear 1,5g for let's say two years (and don't
tell us
about
any baths, freezing, etc.). Therefore let's take as maximum 1,5g.
Now
let's match up the accepted parameters with the vehicle's speed. The
limit of velocity is the speed of light (300.000km/hour). The
fans of fast driving should be warned : substance when approaching to
the light speed begins to change some of its properties, it can lead to
death. Let's suppose the rocket is able to approach the speed half
the speed of the
light speed
(150.000km/hour), then it will take 2 or 3 years to the rocket
acceleration (the same as to retarding before landing). On the way back
we have the same situation. Totally it takes from 8 to 12 years only to
accelerate and retard. We seem still to go to Alfa-Centaura, don't we?
As you know
Alfa-Centaura is
the nearest star to the Earth, its light goes to us during 3 or 4 light
years (by the way, no planets have been discovered there yet). If we
calculate we'll get : the voyage to the nearest star will last about 25
years. Oho! The most inveterate criminals receive no more
than 15
years of imprisonment. But other stars are too far from us. It means
that no man can be present on board the space ship. It's a pity there
won't be any traces of a man's presence on the surfaces of other
planets. But we are in the third millennium already. Ask your
children:"who would like to be an astronaut today?" and one question
more: "Who would like to be Harry Potter"? Children
prefer
Harry. What kind of hero is Harry Potter? Why is he so popular? Why do
children like him? We'll get an answer when we ask ourselves if this
personage is from tale, if he is real or virtual?
We can't
help it but today children are not interested in tale's personages,
their
heroes are show stars. I think these stars are virtual heroes. One can
see only their image and verisimilitude of their star existence is
imitated thru mass media by rumors, gossips, scandals etc. H.Potter is
a virtual character analogous to the heroes of computer games that our
children like to play very much. He is the very person who
corresponds to the outlook of the present generation. For him people of
the previous generation are magles (so they are
called in the book). And what
about films? Let's compare "Solaris" (the producer is
A.Tarkovsky) with "Matrix": in the
first
film we have real people, in the second all the characters are virtual.
Moreover, computer games are filmed now like "Bloodrain". And
spectators are the youth. In such films even tricks are made with the
help of a computer. Spectators know it, they are aware of it
but
they admit it properly, meaning: "why must the actor do all this
himself? - it's difficult". This generation won't want to be in the
closed space during 25 years, walk in the dust of other planets wearing
heavy scaphandres. They are right! One can get every kind of
impressions staying inside, without even leaving his or her room.
Robot will broadcast to the Earth much more information as
compared with that a man can get wearing a scaphandre or without
it. Robot's angle of sight is wider than a man's
one, it can
function
like a telescope and a microscope, it can see infra-red rays and other
kinds of radiation, it can go everywhere even to the places where a man
can't be present, it can "feel"and "smell" and transform
every
kind of information adapted to a man. We can observe it these days.
Let's compare the amount of information obtained by a robot-cart and
information obtained by american astronauts during their dangerous
staying on the Moon. It should be taken into consideration the rocket
with a robot on board can fly from one constellation to another without
coming back to the Earth. It means it can fly twice as much using the
same resources. It doesn't make any sense
to make the rocket come back:
it will broadcast necessary information and flying in space for 200 or
400 years it will become obsolescent. Nowadays the
rockets
are launched to the space without the returning program.
System "robot + vehicle" is safer, cheaper, more informative, more
reliable, of longer duration. It 's perspective. It's time to give up
the projects of a man-handled space ships.
Why I am saying "the vehicle"? Because I don't consider a rocket to be
the top of the development of transport. Let's follow the history of
transport development. One can distinguish certain periods
here:
1.The man himself, actually his legs. The man goes at a speed
of
5km/hour, for a short time he can go at
10km/hour.
Let's
write down like this: 1.101
km/hr
2.Cartage, horses, camels,etc. Here speed increases to 20-30km/hr, the
limit is
100km/hr.
Let's write down
like this: 1.102
km/h
3.Vehicles, trains, cars. Here speed is to 100-200km/hr. In some cases
to 500km/hr.the limit is not more than
1000km/hr
Let's write
down like this: 1.103
km/hr
4.Air transport. Speed exceeds 1000km/hr. Today it's clear the air
transport can't exceed
10.000km/hr.
Let's write down like this: 1.104 km/hr
5.Rocket transport. The top of nowadays, its intensive development has
been lasting for more than 60 years already. Speed is several thousands
km. But there must be a limit.But what limit? There are no data yet
but the analogy suggests most probably 100.000km/hr
Let's
write down like this: 1.105
km/hr
We have accepted the desirable speed of space flight is
150.000km/sec which equals 5,4 . 108
km/hr. It means we are going to run in still three or four stages
more .It's the turn of the sixth stage now. What kind of transport can
it be? It's clear an absolutely new kind is needed. We are expecting
the innovators' ideas like those about an air-carpet
or
Jule Verne's ideas about rockets. They seemed unreal at that time but
they existed at least.
Where are the
innovators?
* *
*
In the chapter about UFO we spoke of the possible meeting
with
living beings from other planets. Such meeting can obviously take place
after the "meeting" with a robot-researcher if those who sent this
robot are able to reach the Earth.
* * *
In the notes to Part 1 we
spoke about
the unusual properties in the boundary zones. It's an amusing fact the
transition from one level to higher one in the development of transport
is accompanied by the appearance of certain hybrids. For example, from
the first to the second level a centaur appeared (people
considered it to
be
real). From the second to the third level a
"mechanical
horse" was created which even could move. Do you remember the first
cars
looked like carriages? While transiting to the forth level
superpower machines were created which could move at a speed
of
600km/hr. It should be mentioned they could move only in the limited
area and on the horizontal surface of a certain salt lake. Besides a
"stratoplane" was being created for a long time (the idea
seems to exist
so far). All these projects practically were not viable. The well-known
shuttle which was the boast of the creators is half a rocket and half a
plane. It reminds me the next mutant with its modern technologies.
What's the perspective of this construction? It's only able to serve
the space stations situated around the Earth. This construction has
already become obsolete.
New ideas require new embodiment
!
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