Fast Trip

Ramsey, the first real passenger-carrying spaceship, is on a sixteen-week course to Mars. Then the radio, food supply, fuel tank, and Captain Ramsey himself (skippers are psychologically tailored to fir their ships) all go phffft! Engineer/’obsolete’ captain Herdman explains the three-cornered problem: “First, our captain is physically incapable of handling the approach and landing when we reach Mars. Second, when we reach Mars we will be going too fast because we haven’t enough fuel to decelerate into a landing orbit. And third, there isn’t enough food to keep us alive anyway.” One of those constants should have been treated as a variable factor . . . but that’s your lot.