Echoes of Earth (44 page)
Authors: Sean Williams,Shane Dix
These figures have many practical applications in space exploration (the field for which these units were developed). The simplicity with which they can be expressed in the new units contributes to the ease of communication between scientists—the main point the new system was created to address.
5. Conversion Table
The following conversions were provided for rapid calculation from the old International System of Units to the new Adjusted Planck Standard International Units.
APPENDIX 2
Mission Register
NB: All measurements are made in Adjusted Planck units and all dates are recorded in Standard Mission Time.
Upsilon Aquarius
UNESSPRO Mission: 842
Core survey ship:
Frank Tipler
Primary survey world: UA-2 aka Adrasteia
Survey manager (military): Jayme Sivio
Survey manager (civilian): Caryl Hatzis
Secondary mission:
Chung-2
Secondary mission pilot: Lucia Benck
Distance from Sol: 72.5 ly
Mission duration (Sol-relative): 99.9 years
Mission duration (ship-relative): 47.0 years
Departure date: 2051.2
Arrival date: 2151.1
HD165401 (via Barnard’s Star)
UNESSPRO Mission: 340
Core survey ship:
Michio Kaku
Survey manager (civilian): Caryl Hatzis
Distance from Sol: 77.7 ly
Mission duration (Sol-relative): 106.6 years
Mission duration (ship-relative): 49.9 years
Departure date: 2050.5
Arrival date: 2157.1
Pi-1 Ursa Major
UNESSPRO Mission: 391
Core survey ship:
Andre Linde
Distance from Sol: 45.4 ly
Mission duration (Sol-relative): 64.2 years
Mission duration (ship-relative): 32.1 years
Departure date: 2051.3
Arrival date: 2115.5
BSC5070
UNESSPRO Mission: 992
Core survey ship:
Marcus Chown
Distance from Sol: 67.9 ly
Mission duration (Sol-relative): 93.8 years
Mission duration (ship-relative): 44.5 years
Departure date: 2051.1
Arrival date: 2144.9
BSC5148
UNESSPRO Mission: 636
Core survey ship:
Frank Drake
Distance from Sol: 80.3 ly
Mission duration (Sol-relative): 110.1 years
Mission duration (ship-relative): 51.4 years
Departure date: 2050.1
Arrival date: 2160.1
HD194640
UNESSPRO Mission: 835
Core survey ship:
Carol Stoker
Primary survey world: Varuna
Survey manager (civilian): Cleo Samson
Survey manager (military): Donald Schievenin
Distance from Sol: 61.8 ly
Mission duration (Sol-relative): 85.7 years
Mission duration (ship-relative): 41.1 years
Departure date: 2051.3
Arrival date: 2137.1
Zeta-1/2 Reticuli (and 8869-308-1)
UNESSPRO Mission: 805
Core survey ship:
Paul Davies
Primary survey world: Tatenen
Survey manager (military): Faith Jong
Survey manager (civilian): Vince Mohler
Secondary mission pilot: Rob Singh
Distance from Sol: 38.4 ly
Mission duration (Sol-relative): 55.1 years
Mission duration (ship-relative): 28.3 years
Departure date: 2050.8
Arrival date: 2105.9
Delta Pavonis
UNESSPRO Mission: 416
Core survey ship:
Martyn Fogg
Primary survey world: Egeria
Distance from Sol: 19.4 ly
Mission duration (Sol-relative): 30.2 years
Mission duration (ship-relative): 17.8 years
Departure date: 2051.1
Arrival date: 2081.3
BSC8477
UNESSPRO Mission: 344
Core survey ship:
Anna Jackson
Primary survey world: unknown
Distance from Sol: 70.4 ly
Mission duration (Sol-relative): 97.2 years
Mission duration (ship-relative): 45.9 years
Departure date: 2050.2
Arrival date: 2147.4
94 Aquarius
UNESSPRO Mission: 095
Core survey ship:
Larry Lemke
Primary survey world: unknown
Distance from Sol: 66.0 ly
Mission duration (Sol-relative): 91.3 years
Mission duration (ship-relative): 43.4 years
Departure date: 2050.9
Arrival date: 2142.2
APPENDIX 3
Characteristics of Adrasteia
APPENDIX 4
Timetable
APPENDIX 5
Dramatis Personae
Frank Tipler
Peter Alander (generalist)
Jene Avery (pilot)
Lucia Benck (pilot,
Chung-2)
Chrys Cunliffe (mathematics)
Kara De Paolis (structural engineer)
Ali Genovese (telemetry)
Caryl Hatzis (survey manager, civilian)
Faith Jong (software)
Nalini Kovistra (astrophysics)
Owen Norsworthy (materials)
Kingsley Oborn (biotechnician)
Cleo Samson (organic chemist)
Donald Schievenin (physics)
Rob Singh (pilot)
Jayme Sivio (survey manager, military)
Otto Wyra (astrophysics)
Sol System
Lowell Correll (Urge)
Caryl Hatzis (citizen)
Laurie Jetz (Urge)
JORIS
(
merge
)
Lancia Newark (narrative designer)
Kathryn Nygard (Urge)
Sel Shalhoub (Urge)
Rob Singh (Urge)
Matilda Sulich (activist/Gezim)
Betty van Tran (Urge)
Other UNESSPRO Missions
Peter Alander (
Michio Kaku)
Peter Alander (
Paul Davies)
Ali Genovese (
Frank Drake)
Caryl Hatzis
(Paid Davies)
Caryl Hatzis (SMC,
Michio Kaku)
Caryl Hatzis
(Andre Linde)
Caryl Hatzis
(Carol Stoker)
Faith Jong (SMM,
Paul Davies)
Vince Mohler (SMC,
Paul Davies)
Cleo Samson (SMC,
Carol Stoker)
Donald Schievenin (SMC,
Carol Stoker
)
AFTERWORD
Broadly speaking, many of the places described in this
book are real; we just can’t see them in such detail yet. Ensuring that known facts aren’t distorted too far is a tricky job for any science fiction writer, and there are always people who help out along the way. The authors of this book would like to acknowledge the help of a number of people in this regard. Many of them are members of either the Eidolist or the Mount Lawley Mafia (or both), and we would like to thank those two collectives for their support and advice. In particular, the many and varied talents of Dr. Damien Broderick, Simon Brown, Jeff Harris, Chris Lawson, and Jonathan Strahan deserve more than even very special thanks, but that is all we can offer in this forum. Similarly, to Kristy Brooks and Nydia Robertson we offer our deepest appreciation and gratitude for their patience and perseverance, among other things.
Acknowledgement must go to Erik Max Harris for (to the authors’ best knowledge) first proposing a scale based on Planck units. We have adapted his ideas to suit our needs, and any errors introduced in the process are ours. Winchell Chung’s weird world of 3-D star maps was a vital source of information at many stages throughout the writing of this book. Claus Bornich is the creator of a neat program called It’s Full of Stars, which we employed extensively in the realization of the world of the Orphans series. Extensive use was also made of the following programs: DK Multimedia’s
Red Shift 3
and ProFantasy’s
Campaign Cartographer 2
and
Fractal Terrain.
Once again, the authors would like to emphasize that any factual errors found in the text are their own doing (and that we are very, very sorry).