The Universe — or Nothing

Meyer Moldeven

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• Publié par: sieh
• Publié le: 08 décembre 2010
• Nombre de lectures: 26
• Langue: English

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The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Universe — or Nothing, by Meyer Moldeven This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org ** This is a COPYRIGHTED Project Gutenberg eBook, Details Below ** ** Please follow the copyright guidelines in this file. ** Title: The Universe — or Nothing Author: Meyer Moldeven Release Date: April 25, 2006 [eBook #18257] Language: English Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) ***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE UNIVERSE — OR NOTHING*** Copyright 1984 Meyer Moldeven THE UNIVERSE — or nothing by Meyer Moldeven Copyright 1984 Meyer Moldeven [e-mail] This work is under a Creative Commons License. Table Of Contents THE UNIVERSE — or nothing Table Of Contents About Meyer Moldeven Also by Meyer Moldeven The Preface The Prologue Chapter ONE Chapter TWO Chapter THREE Chapter FOUR Chapter FIVE Chapter SIX Chapter SEVEN Chapter EIGHT Chapter NINE Chapter TEN Chapter ELEVEN Chapter TWELVE Chapter THIRTEEN Chapter FOURTEEN Chapter FIFTEEN Chapter SIXTEEN Chapter SEVENTEEN Chapter EIGHTEEN Chapter NINETEEN Chapter TWENTY Chapter TWENTY-ONE Chapter TWENTY-TWO Chapter TWENTY-THREE Chapter TWENTY-FOUR Chapter TWENTY-FIVE Chapter TWENTY-SIX Chapter TWENTY-SEVEN Chapter TWENTY-EIGHT Chapter TWENTY-NINE Chapter THIRTY Chapter THIRTY-ONE Chapter THIRTY-TWO Chapter THIRTY-THREE Chapter THIRTY-FOUR Chapter THIRTY-FIVE Chapter THIRTY-SIX Chapter THIRTY-SEVEN Chapter THIRTY-EIGHT Chapter THIRTY-NINE Chapter FORTY Chapter FORTY-ONE Chapter FORTY-TWO Chapter FORTY-THREE Chapter FORTY-FOUR Chapter FORTY-FIVE Chapter FORTY-SIX Epilogue Afterwords Appendix The References Words With(Out) Diacritics Creative Commons License about "zen markup language" About Meyer Moldeven Meyer (Mike) Moldeven was a civilian logistics technician with the United States Air Force from 1941 until 1974. He was an aircraft emergency survival equipment specialist in the Pacific Area during World War II and a technical writer for several years afterwards. During the Cold War he transferred to a USAF base in North Africa where he developed logistics plans for USAF-NATO emergency maintenance of disabled aircraft that would land along the North African coast after returning from missions in any future war with the USSR. During the U.S. post-Sputnik initiatives to create a national space program, he critiqued aerospace industries' logistics concepts on future space systems organization, infrastructure and support. Among the studies he critiqued was 'Space Logistics, Operations, Maintenance and Rescue' (Project SLOMAR). During the Viet Nam War, he was the senior civilian in the Inspector General's Office at McClellan Air Force Base, a major logistics installation near Sacramento, California. As part of his 'added' duties during 'Viet Nam' Mike was a hotline volunteer in a suicide prevention center and consequently, an advocate for professionally-staffed 'suicide prevention' capabilities throughout the entire Department of Defense. He compiled documentation, published, and widely distributed copies of his book, "Military-Civilian Teamwork in Suicide Prevention" (1971, 1985 and 1994.) Mike's updated essay on suicide prevention in the U.S. Armed Forces has been included in his collection of memoirs, "Hot War/Cold War — Back-of-the-Lines Logistics", which is at: http://hometown.aol.com/yarnspinner7191/ myhomepage/military.html Also by Meyer Moldeven Military-Civilian Teamwork in Suicide Prevention Write Stories to Me, Grandpa! A Grandpa's Notebook The Preface "It is difficult to say what is impossible, for the dream of yesterday is the hope of today and the reality of tomorrow." — Dr. Robert H. Goddard "There is no way back into the past; the choice, as H. G. Wells once said, is the universe — or nothing. Though men and civilizations may yearn for rest, for the dream of the lotus-eaters, that is a desire that merges imperceptibly into death. The challenge of the great spaces between the worlds is a stupendous one; but if we fail to meet it, the story of our race will be drawing to its close." — Arthur C. Clarke The Prologue The Present A conclusion in the Report to the Club of Rome: The Limits to Growth states: "…within a time span of less than 100 years with no major change in the physical, economic, or social relationships that have traditionally governed world development, society will run out of the nonrenewable resources on which the industrial base depends. When the resources have been depleted, a precipitous collapse of the economic system will result, manifested in massive unemployment, decreased food production, and a decline in population as the death rate soars. There is no smooth transition, no gradual slowing down of activity; rather, the economic system consumes successively larger amounts of the depletable resources until they are gone. The characteristic behavior of the system is overshoot and collapse." Jeremy Rifkin, President of the Foundation on Economic Trends and the Greenhouse Crisis Foundation, in Biosphere Politics: A New Consciousness for a New Century (Crown Publishers, New York 1991) reports how industrialized and developed nations exploit the sea beds of the world for their rich deposits of industrial minerals and metals. He notes that the struggle between rich and poor nations and multinational corporations over minerals in the vast oceanic seabed is likely to be heated in the years to come, especially as reserves of land-based minerals approach exhaustion. News media reported in October 2000 that the People's Republic of China announced plans to explore Earth's moon for useful substances. On October 15, 2003 the PRC launched into Earth orbit its first manned rocket. In a speech on January 14, 2004 the President of the United States of America unveiled a new vision for space exploration. He called on the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to "…gain a new foothold on the moon and to prepare for new journeys to worlds beyond our own." "We do not know where this journey will end," said the President, "yet we know this: Human beings are headed into the cosmos." White House Press Release, January 14, 2004. ## The Future The Interstellar Mining and Teleport System The System consists of two terminals, each of which includes an integral, fully robotized capability to conduct internal command-and-control, self-maintenance and repair, and logistical, teleportation, communications and other functions and operations essential to its unique mission. The terminal positioned in orbit above Alpha Centauri is designated the Extractor and the terminal positioned along the Solar System's rim is designated the Collector. The Extractor selects and draws pre-designated elements, minerals and other usable substances from the Alpha Centauri star system, and collects, accumulates, converts and channels the matter into its spunnel transmission subsystem for direct interstellar transfer to the Collector. The Collector receives the product, converts it into its original form, identifies, classifies, quantifies and records constituents and mass; refines and ejects the raw product for transport to and storage along the solar rim or at a location that Authority determines to be more suitable. The Extractor and Collector terminals are constructed four million kilometers beyond Planet Pluto. During the System'sresearch, development, test, evaluation, engineering, construction, launch and voyage phases, the terminals are spunnel- linked and tested both as separate machines with their support systems, and as the integrated master scheme. During construction the System is linked to Planet Pluto, employing mass attractors, orbital dynamics