Kouzlo vesmíru

Arthur C. Clarke. Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury.
To jsou tři králové zlatého věku science-fiction, spisovatelé fantazie, která se v mnoha případech stala běžnou realitou našeho dnešního života.

Asimovovy tři zákony robotiky jsou dodnes předmětem diskuse a sporů - mezi programátory a odborníky zabývajícími se vývojem umělé inteligence (AI). Nikdo už ovšem nediskutuje o prospěšnosti geostacionárních družic...  :) ale málokdo ví, že u jejich zrodu stál jeden mladý spisovatel.

A.C. Clarke byl odborným vzděláním fyzik a matematik, a náš život ovlivnil víc, než si myslíme:
Během druhé světové války sloužil v britském královském letectvu (RAF) jako instruktor pro práci s radarem. V říjnu 1945 otiskl v časopise Wireless World myšlenku, jak pomocí tří družic zajistit celosvětový příjem televizního signálu. Bohužel pro něj však je v Británii k udělení patentu potřeba dvou fungujících exemplářů vynálezu. Takto mohl jen v roce 1962, kdy se jeho myšlenka uskutečnila, publikovat v časopise článek Jak jsem přišel o miliardu dolarů vynalézáním Telstaru ve volném čase. Díky tomu je dnes známý jako vynálezce principu telekomunikační družice a na jeho počest je geostacionární oběžná dráha někdy nazývána Clarkova.
http://cs.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_C._Clarke

Jeho vědeckofantastické romány jsou podloženy hlubokou znalostí vesmíru a astronomie; je až překvapující, nakolik například jeho popisy blízkého pohledu na vzdálené planety a měsíce Sluneční soustavy odpovídají skutečnosti, zprostředkované o až desítky let později sondami NASA Galileo a Cassini (Huygens). Při překládání Clarkových děl je skutečně nutné chápat aspoň základní fyzikální zákony - a hlavně, ověřovat, ověřovat, ověřovat...

Ukázka je z románu snad úplně nejznámějšího: 2010: Vesmírná odyssea 2 (2010: Odyssey Two). Na chvíli se ocitneme v kosmické lodi ve vnějším pásmu Sluneční soustavy, v blízkosti plynného obra Jupitera.

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Jupiter ignition

More about Galilean satellites - NASA

Tipy:
1. seznámení s termíny
2. pochopení situace
3. vizualizace

The View from Lagrange

      Astronomy was full of such intriguing but meaningless coincidences. The most famous was the fact that, from the Earth, both Sun and Moon have the same apparent diameter. Here at the L.1 libration point, which Big Brother had chosen for its cosmic balancing act on the gravitational tightrope between Jupiter and Io, a similar phenomenon occurred. Planet and satellite appeared exactly the same size.

      And what a size! Not the miserable half-degree of Sun and Moon, but forty times their diameter - sixteen hundred times their area. ‘The sight of either was enough to fill the mind with awe and wonder; together, the spectacle was overwhelming.

      Every forty-two hours, they would go through their complete cycle of phases; when Io was new, Jupiter was full, and vice versa. But even when the Sun was hiding behind Jupiter and the planet presented only its nightside, it was unmistakably there - a huge black disk eclipsing the stars. Sometimes that blackness would be momentarily rent by lightning flashes lasting for many seconds, from electrical storms far larger than the Earth.

      On the opposite side of the sky, always keeping the same face toward its giant master, Io would be a sluggishly boiling cauldron of reds and oranges, with occasional yellow clouds erupting from one of its volcanoes, and falling swiftly back to the surface. Like Jupiter, but on a slightly longer time scale, Io was a world without geography. Its face was remodelled in a matter of decades - Jupiter’s, in a matter of days.

      As Io waned toward its last quarter, so the vast, intricately banded Jovian cloudscape would light up beneath the tiny, distant sun. Sometimes the shadow of Io itself, or one of the outer satellites, would drift across the face of Jupiter; while every revolution would show the planet-sized vortex of the Great Red Spot - a hurricane that had endured for centuries if not for millennia.

      Poised between such wonders, the crew of Leonov had material for lifetimes of research - but the natural objects of the Jovian system were at the very bottom of their list of priorities. Big Brother was Number 1; though the ships had now moved in to only five kilometres, Tanya still refused to allow any direct physical contact. ‘I’m going to wait,’ she said, ‘until we’re in a position to make a quick getaway. We’ll sit and watch - until our launch window opens. Then we’ll consider our next move.’

      It was true that Nina had finally grounded on Big Brother, after a leisurely fifty-minute fall. This had allowed Vasili to calculate the object’s mass as a surprisingly low 950,000 tons, which gave it about the density of air. Presumably it was hollow - which provoked endless speculation about what might be inside.

      But there were plenty of practical, everyday problems to take their minds off these greater issues. Housekeeping chores aboard Leonov and Discovery absorbed ninety per cent of their working time, though operations’ were much more efficient since the two ships had been coupled by a flexible docking connection. Curnow had finally convinced Tanya that Discovery’s carousel would not suddenly seize up and tear the ships to pieces, so it had become possible to move freely from one vessel to the other merely by opening and closing two sets of airtight doors. Spacesuits and time-consuming EVAs were no longer necessary - to the great delight of everyone except Max, who loved going outside and exercising with his broomstick.