Remembering Tau Zero

On the left is the cover of the first paperback edition of Poul Anderson's Tau Zero, published in 1970 (a shorter version called "To Outlive Eternity" appeared in 1967 in Galaxy Science Fiction, though unseen by me, as I was getting ready to leave for college). The first hardcover edition is below. Many of the scientists I talked to in doing the research for Centauri Dreams told me they read science fiction, and most favored the 'hard' SF, scrupulously accurate to science as understood at the time, favored by writers like Anderson. And several said that it had been Tau Zero that got them into physics or engineering in the first place. Here's Anderson's look at a Bussard ramjet as it consumes interstellar hydrogen on a runaway journey that will never end: The ship was not small. Yet she was the barest glint of metal in that vast web of forces which surrounded her. She herself no longer generated them. She had initiated the process when she attained minimum ramjet speed; but it became...

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To Build a Spacefaring Civilization

When Bernard Foing, chief lunar scientist for the European Space Agency, suggested last week that a DNA library be placed on the moon in the event of some unspecified catastrophe on Earth, he was surely thinking about similar projects already at work on a more terrestrial level. As Space.com reported recently, a project called Frozen Ark already exists to preserve the DNA of endangered species. Here's a link to a BBC story on Frozen Ark. The Space.com story quotes Bill Holt from the Zoological Society of London, who sits on the Frozen Ark steering committee, as saying that it would be "...prudent to store all of the DNA sequence data presently being collected by the Human Genome Project" safely on the Moon, "so that we never have to repeat it all, come what may." Both ideas are a telling reminder of a simple fact: the Earth has been the repeated target of asteroids, large meteors and comets throughout its existence, and a massive hit from such an object could do anything from...

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Slow Boat to Centauri?

Sending a golden disc filled with the sights and sounds of Earth, as we did with the Voyager spacecraft, may have been a pretty efficient way to communicate with extraterrestrial civilizations. That's the view of Christopher Rose, a professor of electrical and computer engineering at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey. Rose and physicist Gregory Wright have the cover of the September 2 issue of Nature with a paper called ""Inscribed matter as an energy-efficient means of communication with an extraterrestrial civilization." Their thesis grew out of Rose's studies of wireless commnications and what he calls the 'energy budget' of sending a signal. Would ET really use radio, or would an advanced civilization scatter artifacts in more physical form? You can read the Rutgers press release about Rose and Wright's work here. And here is a quote: Rose is in favor of listening for that close encounter, but he thinks researchers should have their eyes open, too. Rose speculates that...

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Charter

In Centauri Dreams, Paul Gilster looks at peer-reviewed research on deep space exploration, with an eye toward interstellar possibilities. For many years this site coordinated its efforts with the Tau Zero Foundation. It now serves as an independent forum for deep space news and ideas. In the logo above, the leftmost star is Alpha Centauri, a triple system closer than any other star, and a primary target for early interstellar probes. To its right is Beta Centauri (not a part of the Alpha Centauri system), with Beta, Gamma, Delta and Epsilon Crucis, stars in the Southern Cross, visible at the far right (image courtesy of Marco Lorenzi).

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If you'd like to submit a comment for possible publication on Centauri Dreams, I will be glad to consider it. The primary criterion is that comments contribute meaningfully to the debate. Among other criteria for selection: Comments must be on topic, directly related to the post in question, must use appropriate language, and must not be abusive to others. Civility counts. In addition, a valid email address is required for a comment to be considered. Centauri Dreams is emphatically not a soapbox for political or religious views submitted by individuals or organizations. A long form of the policy can be viewed on the Administrative page. The short form is this: If your comment is not on topic and respectful to others, I'm probably not going to run it.

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