Does this cover illustration represent the Donarrian in Flandry's crew later in the story?
At faster than light speed, Flandry and Chives will travel from Jovian orbit to Terra in minutes. That does seem like breaking the rules. Usually in sf, interplanetary travel is slower than light whereas interstellar travel is either STL or (often) FTL. Of course, an sf writer can change the rules but then he has to sell the idea!
Someone who travels faster than light arrives at his destination sooner than is possible according to relativistic physics. Someone who travels into the past arrives at his destination even sooner, before his departure.
The faster someone moves, the closer he gets to instantaneous transition, i.e., to zero time between departure and arrival. The only way to accelerate further would be to have negative time, i.e., to arrive before departing.
Thus:
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
I am sure that is supposed to be a Donarrian in the illustration you chose. But the artist should have shown that centauroid as wearing space armor. Space suits has to be very complex for beings like Wodenites and Donarrians!
But Flandry did ask Chives if it would be safe to use the hyperdrive to get more quickly from Jupiter to NEAR Terra. I say "near" because I assume Chives would stop a certain distance from Earth, to avoid the dangers posed by the planet's gravity well. Flandry would then take a shuttle from the yatch to Admiralty Center.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
Flandry dives from the airlock on a grav repulsor to the Intelligence tower.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
I just knew I was missing something! I have to conclude Chives slowed the yatch enough as he near Terra for it to safely enter atmosphere. Also, I should have remembered that smaller FTL ships can enter atmospheres and land on planets.
Ad astra! Sean
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