Stranded on an extragalactic planet, Captain Argens wants two of his men to find precise values for:
gravity;
air pressure;
humidity;
magnetism;
ionization;
horizon distance;
rotation period;
solar spectrum lines;
whatever can be found with instruments from the ship.
Information-gathering is just as urgent as building a stockade because:
"'The sooner we know what kind of place we're in, the sooner we can lay plans that make sense.'" (p. 38)
He is right. I would not have thought of any of that but I am neither a scientist nor a spaceship captain.
We have reached only p. 38 of a text that that starts on p. 5 and that I began to reread from p. 7 but look how much ground - and space - we have covered already.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
I hope I would have thought of some of the items you listed in a similar situation, but I doubt I would have. Unless, of course, I had been myself a trained and experienced space captain. And the list you gave us here are characteristic of most good hard science fiction.
Sean
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