"We were nine aboard the Meteor, specialists whose skills overlapped. That was not many, to rattle around in so huge a hull. But you need room and privacy on a long trip, and of course as a rule we hauled a lot of cargo." (p. 17)
Spacemen need room on long trips. In other words, they need space in space. However, James Blish imagined a spaceship whose spaciousness was not welcome but overwhelming for its crew:
"The very hugeness of the Argo - a ship now manned by three people but built originally for two thousand - made her a creature of silences."
-James Blish, Mission To The Heart Stars (London, 1980), CHAPTER FIVE, p. 51.
Such a large faster-than-light ship is necessary for a sixty thousand light-years round trip for just three men. Blish conveys the eeriness of the cavernous storage areas:
"...like being cast away in a deserted ocean liner..." (p. 52)
And both authors express the difficulties of interstellar travel even at hypothetical super-light speeds.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
As of now, however, real world spaceships, even those built by SpaceX, have what seems to me to be small and cramped accommodations for their crews.
Ad astra! Sean
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