Chomski Drive Idea

August 24, 2000

Introduction to the Chomski Drive

This idea is about a drive for a space ship. I named it "the Chomski Drive" after its inventor, Fred Chomski.

The Chomski drive was invented by Fred about 2050. I suppose it might be somewhat interesting to note the way in which this was invented. Chomski, like most inventors, stood on the sholders of people who came before him. However, it got to be rather interesting because although Fred acknowledges the contribution of others in the creation of his invention, none of the people he sites is willing to acknowledge having any influence on Fred at all. Most laugh at the idea.

The problem was that Fred had no formal education at all. That is, his father was a common laborer. If laborer can be called common now. After all, most people's work is stickly mental. The closest most people get to "labor" is a trip to the local Health club.

Fred really enjoyed thinking about things. People who are willing to venture a guess say that he was very intelligent. It is really difficult to say, however, since his school was unwilling to consider him as intelligent. That's life.

Fred didn't have the access to any library, really. But he was able to read a few Popular Science articles from issues that were thrown into the trash that he used to pick up as part of his job. (He had to have a job to help pay for his keep.)

In any event, there were some articles that talked about relativity, both Einstein's version, and that proposed by Rufus. I realize that Rufus's version has been totally discredited, but Fred didn't know that.

It still causes me to laugh a bit when I think of that origonal drive. Fred, who was only 17, didn't have the advantages of a real laboratory, which is pretty lucky. If that drive had gone off in the lab, it could have caused some real damage. As is was, the drive went through about five houses, three garages, and an apartment complex. They needed some urban renewal anyway.

You see, one of problems with the Chomski drive is that it cannot be turned off. It works by converting matter directly into energy (or, so it is thought). I'm not sure scientist really know, but they won't admit it. One scientist thinks that it works by attaching the atoms of the drive to a frame of reference that is accellerating, but she hasn't been taken all the seriously. I think some scientist still worry about this conservation of energy idea.

The problem is what good is it? Although it is relatively cheap to make, by the time the mounts, etc are paid for, it is not worth using for transportation inside the Solar system. It was tried, but there had to be a backup system for use after the drive was released. Not to mention that the released drives were really dangerous. It one were to hit the surface of the earth, it would either go clear through, or give the planet a push that would make its orbit very difficult to calculate, and probably end life on the earth.

It is interesting to note, however, the Chomski really didn't get much money for his invention. Of course, as soon as it became obvious that the idea was going to pay off, the Lunar Freight company saw some possible profit in is, so they stole the idea. Fred didn't contest it in court because, face it, the company could spend more money per day on the proceedings than Fred could hope to spend in a lifetime. Besides that, Fred was happy to get the money that was needed for him to complete his education, and the company was willing to give that to him because they could count it as a charitable contribution.

Then, what is really ironic about the whole scenario, as everyone knows, is that Fred died one of the richest men in the country. I think he was rated at number six, but I could be wrong. Some people claim he was number one, and I wouldn't want to try to prove them wrong. At one point someone suggested that Fred should buy Lunar Freight, but he declined because he thought it was on the way out. He was right.

Over his lifetime Fred wrote quite a number of books, really. Again, I'm not really sure how many, maybe one thousand, maybe more. In writing fiction Fred really made his mark. I can count fifty major movies that were based on his writings.

Then there was Pickering. He was a polititian who wanted to make a name for himself. He proposed that, since the drive really wasn't appropriate for intra system travel, why not use it for interstellar travel. That is, he proposed that the drive be used to for inter stellar travel. After all, since the drive couldn't be turned off, it could be used to put the interstellar craft under a 1 G gravitional view, thereby solving the problem of how to keep a normal gravitional force.

Therefore, the Pickering Colony was built. It was the longest, probably the most expensive, item ever built by man. (Although, the orbital elevator is starting to rival it in cost, and, really, size.) It was 50 miles in diameter, and about 5 miles high. It had a drive every 20 feet. (I haven't taken the time to calculate how many that is.)

Since it was invisioned that the people who lived here would live their entire life on this craft, the craft was set up to be a little eco system. It included trees, and plants of every type. (Well, I have to qualify that. It only included ones that people find pleasant. Poison ivy was not included.) In addition, all animals were included, or all animals that people would find pleasant. Actually, there were some lions, etc, in an open air zoo.

Then there is central lake. It is ten miles long and five miles wide, and runs down the middle of the colony. The fishing is pretty good, I'm told, but I'm not really much of a fisherman.

One of the things I would look forward to is the "film" archive. (Of course, no one uses film for movies any more, but they are still called "film" archives.) The designers made an attempt at putting every movie in existence in the colony, and they came close. There are over 2 million titles. One could sit for weeks and watch nothing but Romeo and Juliet remakes.

And, of course, the same is true of the "book" library. (Although, I still don't see why they are still called books.) There was an attempt at putting everything ever published on the colony. It is now the biggest library in the world. It even has all of Fred Chomski's books, so one can read the book and see the movie at the same time.

On the practical side, the gravity had to be added early on because the animals and plants needed it. I believe that it was in the thirtieth year of the construction. Before that putting it together was easy. The craft bringing workers or construction materials would just get close, and let the natural gravity of the colony bring them in at a very slow pace. After the drives were started, it became a very complicated maneuver.

There was a big arm on the Colony. A hook, really. The craft coming in would get ahead of the Colony, and go as fast as it could, then as the colony overtook the craft, the craft would loop the hook with a big bungy cord. This took its toll, but it worked.

I have to add that the designers thought of everything. The "crew" were not really needed for anything, since the computers would handle all the chores. They even did the cooking and manufacturing of the needed implements. If something broke, the computer would fix it almost immediately, so that as a practical matter, no one ever noticed anything being broken. (Once, a child of about 3 broke the teleputer. Well, actually, he kind of threw it off a cliff by mistake. Before he could get his mother and explain what had happened, the computer actually had the teleputer up and running.) But then, the people expected this at home so why not here?

(I should spend a few minutes explaining what a teleputer is. It is a contraction of the words telephone and computer, and has been around since about 2015. It has the functionality of the old telephones (could you believe that at one time they were actually attached to the buildings!) and computers. Or, initially it did. Oh, the computers by 2015 also had the functionality of the old television sets, stereos, etc. I have to add that because I never know who will be reading this.)

The stable population of the colony was set at one million. Most people thought this would not be the initial population, but would be the population after they had been out for a number of generations. It was a major point of controversy as to the number an makeup of the initial crew.

In fact, that was the controversy that finally stopped the project. It seems rather strange to spend all that money and not get anything for it, but some people do that. (I knew someone once who spent many months preparing a vegetable garden, but would give up just as the vegetables were starting to ripen.)

As I said previously, the one real problem with the Chomski drive is that it cannot be turned off. At first some people suggested that this could still be used for space drive because the ship could be built with a big hinge in the middle so that when the colony was stopped, the ship could be folded in two so that the drives on the two halves would press against each other. Can you imagine how big that hinge would have to be! Let alone the what would happen if the hinge should fail.

As everyone knows, a better solution was found. It is called the "Chomski Orbit" after Fred. (Some people suggested it should be called the "Pickering Orbit" after the politician, but this was not acceptable because he turned out to be quite a rascal, and was the central character in a very big scandal involving questionable loans, bribes, etc.) The Chomski orbit differs from a regular orbit in that the ship is always under power.

At this point I could put in some actual figure. Instead of an orbit taking 4 hours to circle the earth, it would take considerably less, it seems to me that the chomski orbit the colony was in actually goes around the earth about once every 30 minutes.

And, of course, any time you look up into the sky and see that big thing going around, you cannot help but be impressed. It looked as big as the moon.

In fact, it is close enough to the apparent size of the moon and sun in the sky that is causes total eclipses sometimes several times a day. That is what has turned a lot of people off to the idea of the colony.

As for myself, I always point out that that should be a good reason to support the colony. It is not going away until that day comes when it is fully operational, and fully manned. Then the "eyesore" as some call it, will be gone, and it is not likely to come back for a while.

The Saga Begins

(To be contunued)