The Moons of Jupiter by Isaac Asimov

Author:Isaac Asimov
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 9780345316233
Publisher: Nel
Published: 1957-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

The visiplate could not center Jupiter in its entirety:" it was too large. It centered the Great Red Spot instead and followed it in its rotation about the globe.

Panner said, "We've gone into Agrav again, yes, but it's only temporary, just to let Io pull away from us."

"But we're still falling toward Jupiter," Bigman said.

"That's right, but only till the proper moment is reached. Then we go into hyperatoroic drive and

141

plunge toward Jupiter on a hyperbolic orbit. Once that is established, we cut the drive and let Jupiter do the work. Our closest approach will be about 150,000 miles. Jupiter's gravity will zoom us around as though we were a pebble in a slingshot and shoot us out again. At the proper point our hyperatomic drive cuts in again. By taking advantage of the slingshot effect, we actually save a bit on energy over the alternative of leaving directly from Io, and we get some super close-ups of Jupiter."

He looked at his watch. "Five minutes," he said.

He was referring, as Lucky knew, to the moment when the ship would switch from Agrav to hyper-atomic drive and begin to curve off into the planned orbit about Jupiter.

Still staring at his watch, Panner said, "The time is selected so that we come out heading toward Jupiter Nine as squarely as possible. The fewer side adjustments we have to make, the more energy we save. We've got to come back to Jupiter Nine with as much of our original energy store as possible. The more we come back with, the better Agrav looks. I've set my goals at eighty-five per cent. If we can come back with ninety, that would be superlative."

Bigman said, "Suppose you come back with more energy than you had when you left? How would that be?"

"Super-superlative, Bigman, but impossible. There's something called the second law of thermodynamics that stands in the way of making a profit on the deal or, for that matter, of breaking even. We've got to take some loss." He smiled broadly and said, "One minute."

And at the appropriate second the sound of the

142

hyperatomics filled the ship with its muted murmurings, and Panner placed his watch in his pocket with a satisfied expression.

"From here on in," he said, "until actual landing maneuvers at the Jupiter Nine approach, everything is quite automatic."

He had no sooner said that when the humming ceased again, the lights in the room flickered and went out. Almost at once they went on again, but now there was a little red sign on the control panel that said, EMERGENCY.

Panner sprang to his feet. "What in Space .. .?''

He left the pilot room at a run, leaving the others staring after him and at one another in various degrees of horror. The commander had gone dead-white, Ms lined face a tired mask.

Lucky, with sudden decision, followed Panner, and Bigman, of course, followed Lucky.

They came upon one of the engineers clambering out of the engine compartment. He was panting. "Sir!"

"What is it, man?" snapped Panner. "The Agrav is off, sir.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.