Small von Neumann machines will be sent;
at the destination, they will multiply and build an industrial plant;
the industrial plant will build a sun-powered laser powerful enough to decelerate arriving spaceships;
the spaceships, traveling at one tenth light speed, will carry equipment, supplies and a thousand people who can remain in suspended animation for at most fifty years before suffering irreversible damage from radiation and quantum effects;
the exhaustion of Fireball's energy supply will not matter for a one-way journey;
special circumstances have made this a feasible project.
Very late in the novel, we re-encounter Poul Anderson's familiar solution: misfits can leave the Solar System and might start something new. See also Orbit Unlimited, The Boat Of A Million Years and the Technic History.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
And I agree with Anderson's solution! If matters become intolerably bad at home, then leave and start over elsewhere.
Sean
Post a Comment