The Coattails of God the Ultimate Spaceflight the Trip to the Stars

By Robert M. Powers

Book Overview

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0446512311
• ISBN13: 9780446512312
• Release Date: January 1981
• Publisher: Grand Central Pub
• Weight: 1.40 lbs.

Customer Reviews

A good intro to interstellar travel

This book, which I bought in the early 80's, looks at the possibility of interstellar space missions and explains in detail his chosen method of travelling to a nearby star. He begins by examining the basic science involved, the distances, the limitations imposed by basic physics, then proceeds to examine the various technologies that could be used to propel a starship. One little known but interesting fact is that we already have the technology for a crude form of interstellar craft right now - in the form of a spaceship "powered" by a steady stream of small hydrogen bomb explosions. At any rate, after covering the basic physics involved and examining the various options, Powers settles on the concept of a huge, multigeneration starship driven by hydrogen fusion. The ship would basically be a giant cylinder, with artificial gravity provided by rotation. Powers goes into considerable detail to describe his starship. It would be a completely self contained community, growing its own food and providing for all the necessities of life. And, after several hundred years of travel, the descendants of the original "crew" would arrive at their destination star. I must state here that I had the opportunity to meet the author, who lives just outside Tucson, and discuss several aspects of his book. Much as I enjoyed it, I did object to the whole "multigenerational" space ship idea. It seemed to me that, one, it was unfair to design a ship in which a number of generations would basically be "along for the ride", with no real function but to procreate and ensure that someday their descendants would be there for the day the ship reached its destination. In essense, you are "condemning" these generations to a prison-like existence, sealed within their drifting space colony, cut off from the home planet through no choice of their own, and with no real stake in the mission besides the aforementioned procreation. Second, who's to say the people alive on the ship when it finally arrives will even care about their "mission" when they get there? Powers himself admits to the potential problems inherent in a multigeneration ship, including apathy, anarchy, and even violence and cannibalism. My own objection (besides those mentioned above) is that, most likely, by the time this hypothetical ship is halfway to its destination, much faster ship will already be speeding past it, propelled by far superior technology.