영어로 읽는 고전 _ 조지 O. 스미스의 여제의 임무
조지 O. 스미스의 "여제의 임무"는 1940년대 초에 쓰여진 공상과학 소설이다. 이 책은 우주 여행을 배경으로 행성간 통신과 항해에 대한 인류의 고군분투를 중심으로 다루며, 행성들에 퍼진 전염병 와중의 도전들을 부각시킨다. 광대한 우주를 배경으로, 이 서사는 독창성, 긴급성, 그리고 우주 여행의 복잡한 본질이라는 주제를 탐구한다.
이야기에서 우주선 "콜라인의 여제호"는 화성에서 금성으로의 여행을 시작하지만, 곧 금성 전역에 퍼지는 금성열 발병으로 인해 위험에 처하게 되어 항로 변경을 위한 절박한 요청이 발생한다. 금성 적도선의 돈 채닝과 월트 프랭크스는 비행 중인 우주선과 접촉을 확립하기 위해 시간과의 싸움을 벌이며 엄청난 도전에 직면한다?이는 검증되지 않은 시도였다. 그들이 허공을 가로질러 메시지를 전송하기 위한 혁신적인 기술 솔루션을 개발하면서, 일련의 기술적 장애물을 헤쳐나가야 했고, 결국 어린 소년이 "콜라인의 여제호" 승무원들에게 긴급 경고를 성공적으로 전달하는 숨막히는 순간으로 이어진다. 이 소설은 역경에 맞선 협력과 회복력의 승리감으로 절정에 달한다.
Classics Read in English _ Calling the Empress by George O. Smith
"Calling the Empress" by George O. Smith is a science fiction novel from the early 1940s that explores humanity's formidable challenges with interplanetary communication and navigation during the golden age of space exploration. Set against the backdrop of an interplanetary epidemic crisis, the novel examines themes of human innovation, time-critical problem-solving, and the daunting complexities of deep space operations.
The narrative centers on the spaceship "Empress of Kolain" as it journeys from Mars to Venus, only to find itself in mortal danger when a devastating outbreak of Venusian Fever sweeps across Venus, necessitating an urgent course correction. At Venus Equilateral Station, engineers Don Channing and Walt Franks face a seemingly impossible challenge: establishing real-time communication with a spacecraft in mid-flight?a feat never before attempted. As they race against time to develop groundbreaking technological solutions for transmitting critical messages across the cosmic void, they must overcome numerous technical obstacles and theoretical limitations. The story reaches its climactic moment when a young operator successfully delivers the life-saving warning to the Empress's crew, marking a watershed achievement in interplanetary communication. The novel ultimately celebrates the triumph of human ingenuity, teamwork, and determination when confronting the unforgiving challenges of space exploration.
Among the contents
The chart in the terminal building at Canalopsis Spaceport, Mars, was a huge thing that was the focus of all eyes. It occupied a thirty-by-thirty space in the center of one wall, and it had a far-flung iron railing about it to keep the people from crowding it too close, thus shutting off the view. It was a popular display, for it helped to drive home the fact that space travel was different from anything else. People were aware that their lives had been built upon going from one fixed place to another place, equally immobile. But in Interplanet travel one left a moving planet for another planet, moving at a different velocity. You found that the shortest distance was not a straight line but a space curve involving higher mathematics.
The courses being traveled at the time were marked, and those that would be traversed in the very near future were drawn upon the chart, too, all appropriately labeled.
