Designing A Deep-Space UFO
SPACE REQUIREMENTS:
Our UFO must be large enough to house a human crew of 10 or 12
comfortably for a long period of time (several months). It must
contain life support systems, food and water processing
equipment, navigation equipment, medical facilities, recreation
facilities, waste recycling facilities, science and
photographic divisions, mess area, sleeping quarters, storage
for exploratory equipment and vehicles, and the control,
communications and engineering spaces.
POWER SOURCE:
We will install a power source that renders the vehicle
massless while in flight (anti-mass field) and is also capable
of driving the UFO at near light speeds. It should be small
enough to be located in a central area near the control and
engineering spaces, and simple enough in design to be attended
by no more than one or two technicians.
ACCESS REQUIREMENTS:
A central ladder or a lift powered by the engine should run the
entire depth of the sphere. This eliminates space and weight
consuming stair wells and will provide easy and rapid access to
all decks and spaces. Each separate division should be
accessible to any other two adjoining divisions by access
doors. Access doors, hatches and scuttles must be airtight to
protect the rest of the vehicle in the event of a disaster.
Life support systems, electrical systems and comfort systems
such as air conditioning and ventilation will be centrally
located near the lift and easily accessible in the event of
failure.
DESIGN REQUIREMENTS:
Our space vehicle must be constructed of a durable, lightweight
material that will protect its inhabitants from solar and
cosmic radiation and impacts from small objects. It must be
airtight and watertight, capable of traveling through space or
under the deepest oceans.
It should have no weight or space consuming landing gear and be
capable of hovering inches from the ground for indefinite
periods of time as long as the power is on. The hull must be
constructed of a material that will withstand very high
temperatures while moving through dense atmospheres. It must be
capable of withstanding the sub-zero temperatures of deep space
or distant planets. Exploratory equipment should be located
near the bottom of the hull and an access hatch should be
provided for loading and off-loading personnel, samples and
machines as necessary.
If our science is far enough advanced, we might have no
exterior access doors at all but would beam objects and beings
aboard or off load vehicles by means of a matter transporter.
The UFO might have view ports for direct line of sight
observation. Ideally, however, we would use VCASS viewing
simulators in two or three dimensions, in color or projected as
holograms to the control deck.
Since our vehicle can appear and disappear at near light
speeds, no weapons would be required, except, perhaps, some
sidearms for personnel when disembarked for planetary
exploration when known hostile inhabitants are wandering about
the area. They should be considered last-effort defense weapons
only. Stun-guns, perhaps, or psychological inhibitors of some
sort. No aggressive weapons would be required since we could
simply vanish in the event we might be detected and set upon by
alien air forces.
COMMUNICATIONS:
Since our vehicle would be moving at near light speeds most of
the time, communications with the home planet would be
difficult unless we could either develop a signal accelerator
or learn to communicate by telepathy over vast distances.
Honing our latent telepathic communication skills would
virtually eliminate the need for radios and intercom systems
within the ship. Each person would know precisely what to do
every moment simply by tuning in to the other crew members.
Honing teleportation skills would eliminate the need for a
machine to move us into and out of the vehicle. If one wanted
to enter the ship, they would think it and it would be done. Of
course, they would have to be able to pass through solid
objects in order to accomplish this feat, so learning to
transmigrate would be helpful.
Performing transmutation would be a boon to our crew. If each
member could alter their virtual shape or appearance_becoming a
grey figure with a large head and huge oval eyes, for
instance_we could prevent inhabitants of the planets we visit
from discovering our true vulnerable forms, our true mortal
selves.
In time we might be able to do away with the ship completely
and simply whisk ourselves to any planet in the known universe
at thought speed. But for now_between 1992 and 2020_let's
concentrate on building and living aboard our remarkable UFO as
we journey into deep space to explore and plunder the near
planets of our own solar system.
The space medicine required to keep us healthy in space has
already been developed. Food processing devices and waste
recycling machines have graduated from test bench items to
pieces of practical hardware. Our communications devices are
just adequate for the task of transmitting and receiving
messages between Earth and Mars or beyond.
Scientists and engineers know the general shape and design of
future space craft and they've developed most of the materials
to use in their construction. Teachers are alive and well and
future astronauts are being born at the rate of several hundred
every minute. About the only thing preventing 20th Century
humans from leaping away from Earth en masse is the power
source which will allow both masslessness and acceleration to
near light speeds. I suggest this will be one and the same
power source.
The anti-mass field generator or Cascade Generator will render
anything within its field virtually massless, thus a few ounces
of thrust would be enough to propel the craft in one direction
or another. Several thousand pounds of thrust could cause it to
accelerate to near light speeds with no harmful effects upon
the crew. It would be a total inertial system, effecting
everything encompassed equally.
Several countries are eagerly exploring anti-mass field
engines, most notably Japan and Germany. Their subsonic
commuter trains are driven by power sources only a discovery or
two away from the Cascade Generator. While they have not
overcome mass or inertia, they have succeeded in overcoming the
greatest terrestrial bugaboo of all: friction. Their trains
ride on an invisible cushion of electro-magnetic force that
eparates the enormous weight of the train from the tracks by a
fraction of a millimeter. It literally rides suspended in the
air above the tracks.
Forward motion is achieved by changing the magnetic field of
the coils in the track at incredible speeds, alternating
positive and negative to pull the train along, one magnet (the
track) pulling the other (the train). A similar device, refined
to prevent mass, could propel our UFO someday. Not an
anti-gravity device (which has so far proven unsatisfactory),
but an anti-mass device projected to the hull from a central
point, the AMF would allow extreme maneuvers in any direction
instantly.
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