A new planet was being developed and populated by man in the Alpha
Centauri system that was almost identical to Earth in size and atmosphere but it
was still in the age of the dinosaurs. New space craft developed on Earth could
accelerate to ten times the speed of light. It didn't take much longer to travel to
the new planet Arton than it took to travel to Mars in one of the old ships. It
looked like there would never be another Mars ship built and both Mars and
Earth were satisfied with that arrangement. Mars had now reached the point of
self sufficiency and could survive indefinitely without ever being visited by
another space ship. The two Mars Supply ships and the Mars Runner were too
slow to be put to use anywhere else so now they were just vehicles used for
interplanetary trade between Mars and Earth and for transporting more
colonists to Mars.
February 4, 2118: “Tim was curious about Arton and the ships that
navigated deep space so he gave George Schultz a call and asked him,
“George, what can you tell me about Arton and the ships that fly people there?”
George said I am headed for the observatory right now so why don't you meet
me at the elevator and I will give you the whole rundown. Tim met George a
few minutes later. They got boarded the elevator and started their assent.
George began, “When man succeeded conquering the the sound barrier
it became common jargon to refer to the speed of sound as Mach One. Early
Science Fiction Writers, well over one hundred years ago writing about ships
that would exceed the speed of light dubbed the speed of light as Warp One
and a ship traveling above that speed as traveling at Warp two or Warp five
or whatever. That term stuck and today we refer to a ship traveling at eleven
times the speed of light as traveling at Warp 11.”
I guess you know, Tim that Arton is an Earth like planet in the Alpha
Centauri system. It was discovered about thirty years ago by an observatory
orbiting around Earth. It has two suns visible so it has long days and short
nights. It has no moon. The Alpha Centauri system is about 4.5 light years
from Earth and is the nearest solar system to Earth. When they built the Mars
Supply One they discovered that an atomic powered space ship could continue
to accelerate indefinitely. They didn't want to put too much strain on the Mars
Supply One but while it was in the testing stage they did on one occasion push
it just over Warp one. They didn't exactly disprove Einstein's theory of Relativity
but they did prove that it did not apply to traveling faster than the speed of light.”
“A much larger ship than Mars Supply One was the next space ship
constructed. It carried a reactor that put out ten times the the power of the one
on Mars Supply One and carried engines more than ten times as powerful. It
was dubbed the Arton One, after the planet and the planet was named after the
man who had discovered it, Jose Arton. After a maiden voyage to Mars and
back it went on a mission to Arton. On that first mission they were able to
accelerate to a speed of eleven times the speed of light and on the trip out the
ship averaged a speed of nine times the speed of light. The speed of light
never turned out to be the barrier that man had always thought it would be. The
part of Einstein's equation that dealt with time travel commencing when the
speed of light was exceeded has still never been put to the test. It is kind of like
the question “If a tree falls over in a forest does it make any noise if there is no
one to hear it” The crew of the ship found out that a voyage that should take six
months took six months. When they made Arton orbit they never knew what
day it was back on Earth and had no way to find out. Radio waves traveling at
the speed of light would take four and a half years to reach Earth and they
would be back on Earth in six and a half months. Since completion of the A1the
United States has completed a total of four Arton ships, they have been dubbed
the Arton One, the Arton Two, the Arton Three and the Arton Four.” The ships
have more formal names but no one uses them.
Tim asked, “What would happen if a ship traveling at that speed hit an
object in space?” “So far an Arton ship has never hit a space object while
traveling at warp speed, or if it has it never knew it. We suppose that if a ship
traveling at warp speed were to collide with an object, say the size of Earth's
moon it might penetrate the surface to considerable depth and when the speed
was no longer greater than the speed of light the ship would just come to a stop
and be lodged forever in the moon sized object. Apparently, since large objects
in space are rare and far apart the men piloting the ship can see them light
years away, in plenty of time to avoid a collision. There is a lot of space junk in
our solar system so when a ship enters the solar system it reduces speed and
proceeds through at sub-warp speeds. Instruments then warn of any object in
plenty of time to avoid hitting it. The Arton ships are gaining more confidence in
navigating within the solar system and are constantly Increasing their speed.
The Arton ships have also been fitted with new retro engines that can slow them
from near warp one to 86 thousand miles an hour in less than one hour
without causing the crew any distress. It is marvelous what they are doing with
those ships now, Tim.”
“Communications is the biggest problem. We have never figured out
how to make radio waves travel faster than the speed of light. Virtually the only
way for us to communicate with Arton and the colony that is thriving there now
is by space ship. It would take nine years for you to send a radio message to
Arton and receive an answer, so every outgoing ship carries hundreds of
messages for Arton and every Incoming ship carries replies. There is no way to
communicate with a ship traveling at warp speed, radio waves would never
catch up to them.”
“We have been colonizing Arton for over eight years. The population is
now in the thousands. They need people more than anything else. It is a
planet rich in plants and minerals. Of course they have transported a lot of
machinery and tools to Arton but mostly people. Each ship the A1and now the
Arton Two make one round trip a year. They have at times carried up to three
thousand people on one flight. Without cargo they can be rigged to carry five
thousand people because the cargo hold can be pressurized.”
Tim already knew that there were many varieties of mineral ore
becoming scarce on Earth fortunately they were plentiful on Mars. Several
were being successfully mined on Mars and shipped back to Earth on the
empty ships returning from Arton.
While he was talking George had been making adjustments on the
telescope. George said “Watch that monitor on the wall over there Tim.” The
twelve foot by eight foot screen flickered briefly then displayed a group of stars.
George activated a hand held pointer that projected a red arrow on the screen.
He moved it to near the center of the screen. “You see that double star right
there Tim, Arton orbits the sun on the left, Arton passes between the suns once
a year. This causes long periods of daylight during that season. Fortunately
they are far enough from the sun on the right so that the heat does not increase
significantly it just stays daylight or what we would call twilight for a couple
months a year.
“This light right here” George said as he pointed to a dim light just to the
left of the sun on the left. “This is Arton.” Tim studied the view of that part of
the heavens briefly. “Thanks George, thanks to you I can now picture things
much better.”
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