"ae2" - читать интересную книгу автора (Steele Allen)

178

ALLEN STEELE

In other words, Koenig Selenen intended to make Tra
lity Base self-sufficient by forcing it to live off the land i
of shipping from Earth everything needed for survi
it worked-and there was no reason to believe that it
wouldn't-the cost of space exploration would be greatly re-
duced, and large-scale space colonization would become a real.
is
s4
cl
u
possibility. Indeed, Koenig Selenen was already d ~ss.
plans to use nuclear indigenous-fuel spacecraft to send a re-i
turn mission to Mars, the asteroid belt, and even the outer,
planets of the solar system.
The sad irony of the NIF engine was that it had first been
proposed in the mid-eighties by a team of researchers from the"
Martin Marietta Corporation. Unfortunately, NASA's en-
trenched bureaucracy had not paid much attention to the idea; 4
it was also opposed by the antispace movement, whose knees
jerked at the mere mention of the word "nuclear." Suffoc
by redundant impact studies and railed at by technoph
newspaper columnists, the NIF engine died in the United
States. The project's key scientists quit Martin Marietta, left
the U.S., and moved to Germany, where rhey were quickly
hired by Koenig Selenen GmbH. 0
Even more ironic was the fact that once NIF moonships en-
tered service, one of their main jobs would be hauling high-
level nuclear waste to the'Moon, where it would be stored
inside the empty Minuteman II silos. This would please envi-
ronmentalists concerned about the disposal of nuclear waste
on Earth . . . but who had opposed a solution to the same
problem because it involved using space technology. Of
course, Koenig Selenen GmbH would profit handsomely from
this enterprise as well.
Now, as he sat across the galley table from Parnell, James
Leamore had the twinkle in his eyes of a patient tortoise who
has outraced a complacent, slumbering hare.
"I'm sure you'll manage somehow," Gene said. He un-
crossed his legs, swiveled the chair around, and pushed ' off
from the table, taking his coffee with him. "If you'll excuse
me, I need to return upstairs."