Tuesday 26 March 2019

Lars Telander

Poul Anderson's Tau Zero does not give any year dates. The following improvised chronology begins with Lars Telanders' birth as time zero. Bracketed numbers are his time dilated age.

0          Telander born in Dalarna.
3           Alpha Centauri expedition leaves.
6           Maser messages from expedition.
25        Telander on Epsilon Eridani expedition.
54 (36) Return from Epsilon Eridani.
55 (37) Telander on Tau Ceti expedition.
86 (50) Return from Tau Ceti.
89 (53) Leonora Christine leaves.

Telander is:

a crew member to Epsilon Eridani;

first officer to Tau Ceti but becomes commander when the captain dies;

captain of the Leonora Christine.

At age 53, he has adolescent great-grandnephews in Dalarna.

2 comments:

Keith Halperin said...

Thanks, Paul.
Unless the Alpha C Expedition sent a:
"Hey folks, we're still OK and on our way!" Message when they were 3 ly from Terra, we wouldn't have received a message after 6 y.
According to this (http://convertalot.com/relativistic_star_ship_calculator.html) if they went at 1 G, it would be a minimum of 10.2 years for us to receive the:
"Hey we're here, wish you were, too!" Message.

Keith

paulshackley2017@gmail.com said...

The message was clearly while the expedition was en route.