This family of curves shows the relationship between energy requirement and jump duration for representative distances.
1 There are plans, however, for the Tau Ceti colony to build an LMT facility out of native materials, for jumps to Centauri.
2 As described in the monograph Mathematics of the Levant-Meyer Translation: State of the Art 2051, by Lewis Chandler, AED TFX, Colorado, 2051.
( See attached graph2.jpg )
Note that a tenfold increase in distance becomes a thousandfold increase in energy required.
Energy is money, of course, and the AED is the largest consumer of energy in the world. Like any other consumer, we pay a flat rate to Westinghouse Interplanetary for every kilowatt-hour, though our rate is reduced both because of volume and because of mutual-interest grants from WI research facilities.
It’s instructive to compare the cost of jumps to various planets for different durations (see included table1.jpg).
Careful study of this table will give one an appreciation for the complexity involved in scheduling jumps (coordinating them so the crystal is always clear when a return is due).
As an illustrative example, consider the course of a breeding mission to Cygnus A. A pregnant Tamer will spend about 150 days of her pregnancy offplanet. The energy cost of various combinations of jumps is as follows:
150 one-day jumps = $2,340,000
30 5-day jumps = 1,197,000
15 10-day jumps = 1,114,500
5 30-day jumps = 3,376,500.
So a sequence of short jumps may actually cost more than a smaller number of longer jumps. What happens in practice is that the least expensive combination is calculated, and then adjustments are made to the sequence in order to minimize crowding of the crystal’s schedule . . .
( see attached table1.jpg)
35 – Autobiography 2053
Box 5397
Oswego, NY 1312659
3 January 2053
Dear Carol,
It looks like I’ll be here for another week. Not looking forward to it, either.
My stepmother insisted on a viewing, open coffin. Barbaric. She said Dad would have wanted it that way. Maybe he changed a lot these last nine years.
The reason I have to stick around is that Dad willed his papers to Cornell, and their history of science department is anxious to have them. He left a trailerful, in no particular order; I’m filing and cataloging them with the help of half-brother Jerry.
Jerry’s all right. I never really got to talk with him before. He’s just finishing a master’s in holo arts. Dad was disappointed he didn’t go into physics. Still, he left him everything-all the money, that is. (The house and such went to Zara, my stepmother.) Neither my mother nor I was mentioned in the will.
I called Mother, but she didn’t want to come to the funeral. She confronted Zara once. She agreed that Dad wouldn’t have wanted all this morbid circus. The will didn’t say anything one way or another.
I saw in the Times that they think the Achernar gravity waves were caused by interstellar space ships braking. So they’ve been on that planet for 140 years or more.
The article didn’t say, but I assume the gravity waves are generated by a sudden loss of mass as the ships come down from relativistic velocity. They must stop pretty suddenly. Has anybody figured out the gee-forces involved? Tough customers.
At least they don’t have the LMT, not yet. After seeing that cube (a hundred times) I’m just as happy we don’t have them in our back yard.
I called Noad (Planning) and he gave me a leave extension. They do need a scientist-type here for the sorting. Jerry’s smart but he doesn’t know a quark from a quasar.
I may come back to Colorado Springs by way of Kuala Lumpur, spend a day with my mother. She remarried three or four years ago, and I’ve never met the man.
They’ve been busy years, though.
This letter probably comes as a surprise (pleasant, I hope) since I have been calling every night. Guess I got in the habit of writing when I was in Australia and you were making babies for the greater glory of etc.
I do miss you so much. Take care.
Love,
Jacque
36 – Things That Go Bump in the Night