“ЧАСТНЫЕ ПРЕДПОЛОЖЕНИЯ”

Summary: Petrov, and a team of interstellar travelers, are suppose to leave on a voyage to a distant planet in ten days. His trip will only take a few years, but those few years will equate to 200 to 250 years on Earth. And that means that by the time they return their friends, their loved ones, and their home planet as they know it will be gone. It is especially difficult for Petrov because he is leaving behind his wife. But such is the price of interstellar travel. With the team gone, those left behind grieve, yet only six months later they receive a notification that the spaceship is returning. There is some speculation over Petrov, the captain of the ship, being afraid and aborting the mission. However, it is not the case as evident the moment everyone sees the crew, or what was left of it. As we find out in the final chapter, Petrov proposed an experiment to his crew, to which they agreed, instead of traveling at a constant speed and having time slow inside the spaceship, they would travel at constant acceleration thereby possibly making the time pass faster inside the spaceship relative to Earth. Their experiment succeeded, at the cost of lives of two of their team members, and damage to their health after having to live so long in gravity up to seven times that of Earth. There is also a mention of Bikov and his ship whose departure was described in a previous short story.

There are two aspects of this story that I want to address. First, the idea that those who are sent out to explore have to sacrifice not only their lives but also their health, and that is on top of the sacrifices they already had to make. Life at seven times the gravity that is on Earth, is not easy, it is something that will effect their health for the rest of their lives. But is that cost worth the reward of returning to their home and their loved ones? Besides, should we really put ourselves in the position where we tell others if they can or cannot sacrifice themselves? Then again the previous story “Six matchsticks” speaks to that aspect and at the time I had said that sacrificing yourself is wasteful.

The second aspect is the fairness of having sent other explorers out there when ultimately their efforts are unneeded. Imagine if you send a ship to a planet, the trip will take 20 years. But in 5 years a new engine will be developed which will make the trip last only 5 years, and that means the second crew will arrive before the first. And the sacrifice of the first will be pointless, as their years will be spent en route for no reason. Then again, perhaps if the first crew never goes out then maybe that second faster engine never gets developed.