SUN-LIKE (OR INTERESTING) STARS
WITHIN 20 LIGHT-YEARS
Dist.
Coordinates from Sun
Spacing
X
Y
Z
Type
(ly)
(ly)
(ly)
(ly)
(ly)
Alpha Cent. A,B,C
G2
4.4
- 1.7
- 1.4
- 3.8
Barnard
M5
5.9
- 0.1
- 5.9
+ 0.5
Lalande
M2
8.1
- 6.3
+ 1.7
+ 4.8
Sinus A,B
A1
8.7
- 1.6
+ 8.2
- 2.5
UV Ceti A,B
M6
8.9
+ 7.7
+ 3.4
- 2.8
5.3
Epsilon Eridani
K2
10.7
+ 6.4
+ 8.4
- 1.8
61 Cygni A,B
K5
11.2
+ 6.3
- 6.1
+ 7.0
Epsilon Indi
K5
11.2
+ 5.3
- 3.0
- 9.4
5.5
3.0
Procyon A,B
F5
11.4
- 4.7
+ 10.3
+ 1.1
5.8
Tau Ceti
G8
11.9
+ 10.3
+ 4.9
- 3.3
Groombridge
K7
15.0
- 8.6
+ 4.6
+ 11.4
40 Eridani A,B,C
K0
15.9
+ 7.1
+ 14.1
- 2.1
9.8
Altair
A7
16.6
+ 7.4
-14.6
+ 2.5
70 Ophiuchi A,B
K1
16.7
+ 0.2
-16.7
+ 0.7
7.7
36 Ophiuchi A,B,C
K1
17.7
- 3.3
-15.5
- 7.9
Sigma Draconis
K0
18.5
+ 2.5
- 5.9
+ 17.3
Delta Pavonis
G6
18.6
+ 3.8
- 6.4
-17.0
Eta Cassiopeia
G0
19.2
+ 10.1
+ 2.1
+ 16.2
HRH then undertook a second voyage, this time to the Barnard star system. He left in 2043, arriving at Barnard in late 2048. A half-year after HRH left, still in 2043, another Reinhold Astroengineering Company employee, Robert Pilcher, and two companions, started off on the third journey, to Lalande at 8.1 light-years.
The next trip undertaken was to the scientifically interesting star system Sirius in late 2044. This system is dominated by the very large, very bright, white-hot star, Sirius A; Sirius B is a small white dwarf star, with the mass of a star but the radius of the Earth. Because of the radiation hazard from the large star, this star system was not suitable for commercial exploration. Instead, the system was explored for scientific reasons by a crew of research astrophysicists employed by the International Space University (ISU).
The fourth voyage sponsored by Reinhold Astroengineering Company, and the last one in a first-generation spacecraft, was carried out by a Reinhold employee, C.C. Wong, who set off for the Ceti region of the sky in 2044. Leaving Sol at Galactic date 2044, with two Silverhair warpgate mouths, Wong traveled the 8.9 light-years to UV Ceti at a speed of 0.8 c, arriving at 2056.1 Galactic time. He dilated one of the wormhole mouths and established contact with Sol. The wormhole mouth connected back to Sol at Galactic time 2051.8. Thus a Sol-to-UV Ceti warpgate was established with a spatial jump of 8.9 light-years and a time jump of 4.3 years.
C.C. Wong left UV Ceti at 2056.3 Galactic time carrying the remaining wormhole mouth over the 3.0 light-years from UV Ceti to Tau Ceti at a speed of 0.8 c, arriving at 2061.0 Galactic time. The wormhole mouth left at Tau Ceti connected back to Sol at Galactic time 2054.5. Thus a Sol-to-Tau Ceti warpgate was established with a spatial jump of 11.9 light-years and a time jump of 5.5 years.
During these exploration trips, HRH finished his voyage to Barnard. He arrived at Barnard in 2051.3 Galactic time and set up a warpgate back to the year 2048.6 Sol rest time. The warpgate from Sol to Barnard had a spatial jump of 4.3 light-years and a time jump of 2.7 years. After exploring Barnard for a few months, HRH returned through the warpgate to Sol and Earth in 2049.
EXPLANATION OF HRH CRITICAL
TIMELINE DIAGRAM
Most of the important history of Reinhold Astroengineering Company and the Reinhold Trust occurred between the years 2050 and 2080, when Harold Randolph Hunter established the first major interstellar trade routes to and between the nearby Sun-like stars in the Ceti and Eridani sections of the Local Galactic Region. In the process he created the nearly-24-year timegate on Sol that has had a significant positive impact on Reinhold Astroengineering Company profits. The timegate also, incidentally, forever changed the future course of the entire universe. The actions of HRH during that time are depicted in the following spacetime diagram. The proper ages of HRH at each of the event points on the diagram are listed in the table following the diagram.
(In the diagram, distances are measured in light-years and time in years. Note that the scale length of a year is half as long as the scale length of a light-year, so the trajectories of light beams will not be at 45 degrees as is the usual custom with a spacetime diagram. Also, even though many of the star positions have a significant negative-Z component with respect to Sol (ranging from -1.8 ly for Epsilon Eridani to -3.3 ly for Tau Ceti), the Z component has been suppressed and all the stars are assumed to be at Z=0 at time T=0. The stars are assumed to be at rest, so that the proper time of each star system moves forward in the T direction at the same rate as Sol rest time. This is not strictly true since the stars are in relative motion, but is close enough that we can define an effective "Galactic" time and date that is essentially the same for all stars near the solar system.)
For his trip to Epsilon Eridani, HRH used a large personalized version of a Reinhold Negmatter Drive interstellar spacecraft called Spacemaster. The ship had acceleration couches for the crew that allowed acceleration up to 5 Earth gravities and improved radiation shields that allowed a top speed of 0.995 c.
HRH left Sol in 2050.0 (Point A in diagram) and accelerated at 3 Earth gravities for 9 months until the ship reached 0.98 c. HRH arrived at Epsilon Eridani (Point B) at 2061.4 Galactic time. The wormhole mouth he left at Epsilon Eridani connected back to Sol at a Galactic time of 2052.7. Thus, a Sol-to-Epsilon-Eridani warpgate was established with a spatial jump of 10.7 light-years and a time jump of 8.7 years.
For a combination of personal, business, and humanitarian reasons, HRH decided to travel toward the Ceti system to shorten the distance between him and the warpmouth at UV Ceti so he could set up a communications link to the future. Since C.C. Wong had reported nothing of commercial interest at UV Ceti, HRH decided not to travel directly toward UV Ceti, but to the Sun-like star Tau Ceti instead. In this way he could open up a direct warpgate connection between the two commercially important Sun-like stars, Epsilon Eridani and Tau Ceti, at the same time he was setting up a future-time communications link. Renaming his ship Timemaster, HRH left Epsilon Eridani at 2061.6 Galactic time. The wormhole mouth on Timemaster connected back to Sol at 2052.9 Galactic time.
Se
nator Oscar Barkham objected to the idea of creating a future-time communications link, and went to discuss the matter with HRH (point C in diagram). Barkham argued with HRH, attempting to make him turn back, but HRH refused. Barkham attempted to stab HRH, but was restrained by an older HRH who had arrived from the future. The two HRHs forced Barkham to pod back to Earth, and directed the Reinhold Astroengineering Company workers in charge of the entire net of warpgates not to let Barkham through any of the warpgates.
A few days later, Barkham managed to steal a third-generation Reinhold Astroengineering Company starship under construction around Sol. In its hold were parts for an electromagnetic launcher. Barkham left the solar system in 2053.7 Galactic time and accelerated for a month ship time at 30 gees to reach 0.995 c. Disregarding the radiation dose, he continued to coast at 0.995 c for 14 months ship time. During this time, he used the ship's robots to convert the electromagnetic launcher into an electromagnetic gun that shot superconducting projectiles. Barkham caught up with the HRH ship at point D in the diagram along HRH's track from Epsilon Eridani to Tau Ceti.
Oscar Barkham attacked the HRH ship at point D with superconducting projectiles, but his projectiles were destroyed and his ship was deflected by a cloud of dense gas emitted by another Negmatter Drive ship that intercepted him. Barkham turned his ship around and accelerated after the HRH ship in a tail chase at relativistic speeds. Barkham caught up with the HRH ship and attempted one more attack at point E in the diagram.
Barkham was defeated by a timetrap set up at point E that repelled his remaining missiles and even his attempt to ram HRH's ship. Barkham did not survive the attack.
HRH finally arrived at point F at Tau Ceti in 2067.7 Galactic time with a wormhole mouth that connected back to Sol at 2054.8 Galactic time. HRH knew that it was important that he arrive back early enough to save himself from Barkham's attacks. The Reinhold employees had a third-generation ship ready for him, which he named Rip van Winkle. He transferred the ship-Sol warpmouth from Timemaster to Rip van Winkle and traveled back from point F at Tau Ceti to point G at Sol at maximum-safe acceleration and speed.
After traveling only 16 months ship time during the 11.9-light-year journey, HRH arrived at Sol at 2079.7 Galactic time. The wormhole mouth that had been traveling with him connected back to Sol at 2056.1 Galactic time. The side-by-side mouths of the wormhole now formed a timegate with a spatial jump of zero and a time jump of 23.6 years.
Since time was still of some urgency, as soon as the timegate had been sufficiently dilated, HRH stepped through the timegate from point G on the diagram in the year 2079.7 to point H in the year 2056.1. Shortly thereafter, he went to the mouth of the warpgate from Sol to Tau Ceti, and stepped through to arrive at point J around Tau Ceti at 2061.6 Galactic time. There he boarded another third-generation Negmatter Drive ship, the John Wayne, readied for him by Reinhold Astroengineering Company employees. The hold had been modified to hold liquid hydrogen. HRH flew the ship at maximum acceleration and speed toward point D in the diagram along the track of Timemaster from Epsilon Eridani to Tau Ceti.
HRH jettisoned his cargo of hydrogen prior to his arrival at point D. The cloud of hydrogen gas moved ahead of the John Wayne as it decelerated and turned to match speeds with Timemaster. The dense cloud of hydrogen gas burned up the projectiles and deflected Barkham's ship off its collision course with Timemaster. The older HRH then matched speeds with Timemaster, boarded it, and met the younger HRH. They dilated the wormhole mouth on Timemaster and the older HRH used the warpgate to go from point D to point K on Sol, arriving at 2054.0 Sol rest time. At Sol, the older HRH used the Sol-to-UV-Ceti warpgate to go from point K on Sol to point L on UV Ceti, arriving at 2058.2 Galactic time.
HRH then boarded another Reinhold Astroengineering Company spacecraft, the Errol Flynn. HRH left point L at UV Ceti at 2058.2 Galactic time and went off to intercept Timemaster at point C on its journey from Epsilon Eridani to Tau Ceti. HRH arrived just in time to prevent the attempted stabbing of the younger HRH by Barkham at point D.
The older HRH then accelerated the Errol Flynn on ahead toward Tau Ceti. Once the Errol Flynn was sufficiently ahead of Timemaster, HRH decelerated the ship. He then deployed one mouth of a pair of artificial wormhole mouths and left it floating in space, while he took the other mouth off a distance and brought it back. One mouth of the wormhole was now 1.6 seconds younger than the other mouth. He placed the 2 mouths about 120,000 kilometers (0.4 seconds light-travel time) apart, and set his ship robots to the months-long task of expanding the timegate mouths until they were 2000 kilometers across. The two wormhole mouths now constituted a timegate barrier, or "timetrap", that would automatically repel any high-speed object that attempted to enter the region between the two mouths. The two HRHs watched as Barkham made his last attack at point E and was defeated by the timetrap.
The oldest HRH then dilated the ship-Sol warpgate in Timemaster and went from point E along the track of Timemaster to point M on Sol at a Sol rest time of 2054.3. The oldest HRH then lived on Earth from 2054.3 Sol rest time to 2056.1 Sol rest time, during which period he closed out his affairs and turned the presidency of his company over to his 18-year-old son, Harold Randolph Hunter, Junior.
The oldest HRH was waiting at point H on Sol when the timegate from the future was first dilated. The oldest HRH greeted the younger HRH as he stepped through to the past. The oldest HRH then stepped through the timegate to make the first of his many 24-year-jumps into the future. At the end of the first jump, in the year 2079.7 Sol rest frame time, HRH met this Trust Officer for the last time, and stepped off through the timegate into the future.
APPENDIX - TIMETRAPS
An example of a timegate barrier or timetrap is shown in the following diagram. Two mouths of a Morris-Thorne Wormhole are spaced 0.4 light-seconds (120,000 kilometers distance) apart. One mouth of the wormhole is 1.6 seconds older than the other mouth and rotated 180 degrees about the line between the 2 mouths. This creates a "barrier" around the region between the 2 mouths. Any object with a sufficiently high velocity attempting to enter the barrier region will interact with itself in such a way that—in effect—it is sent back the way it came.
In the diagram, an object moving at 4.3% c approaches the timetrap. At time 0.2 seconds, an older version of the object appears out of the younger wormhole mouth traveling at 5% c. At time 1.0 seconds, the incoming object experiences a collision with the older version of itself, causing the incoming object to be deflected into the older mouth with velocity of 5% c. It enters the older mouth at time 1.8 seconds, travels through the wormhole to the other mouth, and emerges from the younger mouth at time 1.8-1.6=0.2 seconds. The object is now moving at just the right velocity and direction to collide with the incoming version of itself in just the right way to deflect the incoming version into the older mouth, while the older version proceeds away from the timegate barrier in the opposite direction to the incoming object at 4.3% c, the speed of the incoming object. The net effect is equivalent to having the incoming object repelled by the timegate barrier region.
Bibliography
Echeverria, Fernando, Gunnar Klinkhammer, and Kip S. Thorne. "Billiard Balls in Wormhole Spacetimes with Closed Timelike Curves: Classical Theory". Physical Review D44 (15 August 1991): 1077-1099.
Forward, Robert L. Future Magic. New York: Avon Books, 1988.
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. "Cable Catapult". AIAA Paper 90-2108, presented at the AIAA/ASME/SAE/ASEE 26th Joint Propulsion Conference, Orlando, Florida, 16-18 July 1990.
Friedman, John, Michael S. Morris, IgorD. Novikov, Fernando Echeverria, Gunnar Klinkhammer, Kip S. Thorne, and Ulvi Yurtsever. "Cauchy Problem in Spacetimes with Closed Timelike Curves". Physical Review D42 (1990): 1915-1930.
Garfinkle, David
, and Andrew Strominger. "Semiclassical Wheeler Wormhole Production". Physics Letters B256, No.2 (7 March 1991).
Heinlein, Robert A. "All You Zombies". Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction (March 1959).
About The Author
Dr. Robert L. Forward writes science fiction novels and short stories as well as science fact books and magazine articles. Through his scientific consulting company, Forward Unlimited, he also engages in contracted research on the topics of advanced space propulstion and exotic physical phenomena.
Dr. Forward obtained his Ph.D. in Gravitational Physics from the University of Maryland. For his thesis he constructed and operated the world's first bar antenna for the detection of gravitational radiation. The antenna is now at the Smithsonian Institute.
For thirty-one years, from 1956 to 1987, when he left in order to spend more time writing, Dr. Forward worded at the Hughes Aircraft Company Corporate Research Laboratories in Malibu, California, in positions of increasing responsibility, culminating with the position of Senior Scientist on the staff of the Director of the Laboratories. During that time he constructed and operated the world's first laser gravitational radiation detector, invented the rotating gravitational mass sensor, published over sixty-five technical publications, and was awarded eighteen patents.
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