Heavy Planet (64 page)
Authors: Hal Clement
Precession should be quite rapid, of course, because of the tremendous equatorial bulge, which will give the sun’s gravity a respectable grip even though most of the world’s mass is near its center. I have not attempted to compute the precessional period, but if anyone likes to assume that a switch in habitable hemispheres occurring every few thousand years has kept the natives from building a high civilization I won’t argue. Of course, I will also refrain from disagreement with anyone who wants to credit the periodic climate change with responsibility for the development of intelligence on the planet, as our own ice ages have sometimes been given credit for the present mental stature of the human race. Take your pick. For story purposes, I’m satisfied with the fact that either possibility can be defended.
The conditions of the planet, basically, are pretty well defined. There is still a lot of detail work. I must design a life form able to stand those conditions-more accurately, to regard them as ideal—which is not too difficult since I don’t have to describe the life processes in rigorous detail. Anyone who wants me to will have to wait until someone can do the same with our own life form. Vegetation using solar energy to build up higher, unsaturated hydrocarbons and animal life getting its energy by reducing those compounds back
to the saturated form with atmospheric hydrogen seemed logical enough to me. In the story, I hinted indirectly at the existence of enzymes aiding the reduction, by mentioning that plant tissues would burn in the hydrogen atmosphere if a scrap or two of meat were tossed onto the fuel.
to the saturated form with atmospheric hydrogen seemed logical enough to me. In the story, I hinted indirectly at the existence of enzymes aiding the reduction, by mentioning that plant tissues would burn in the hydrogen atmosphere if a scrap or two of meat were tossed onto the fuel.
The rest of the detail work consists of all my remaining moves in the game—finding things that are taken for granted on our own world and would not be true on this one. Such things as the impossibility of throwing, jumping, or flying, at least in the higher latitudes; the tremendously rapid decrease of air density with height in the same regions, producing a mirage effect that makes the horizon seem
above
an observer all around; the terrific Coriolis force that splits any developing storm into a series of relatively tiny cells—and would make artillery an interesting science if we could have any artillery; the fact that methane vapor is denser than hydrogen, removing a prime Terrestrial cause of thunderstorm and hurricane formation; the rate of pressure increase below the ocean surface, and what that does to the art of navigation; the fact that icebergs won’t float, so that much of the ocean bottoms may be covered with frozen methane; the natural preference of methane for dissolving organic materials such as fats rather than mineral salts, and what that will do to ocean composition—maybe icebergs
would
float after all. You get the idea.
above
an observer all around; the terrific Coriolis force that splits any developing storm into a series of relatively tiny cells—and would make artillery an interesting science if we could have any artillery; the fact that methane vapor is denser than hydrogen, removing a prime Terrestrial cause of thunderstorm and hurricane formation; the rate of pressure increase below the ocean surface, and what that does to the art of navigation; the fact that icebergs won’t float, so that much of the ocean bottoms may be covered with frozen methane; the natural preference of methane for dissolving organic materials such as fats rather than mineral salts, and what that will do to ocean composition—maybe icebergs
would
float after all. You get the idea.
The trouble was, I couldn’t possibly think of all these things in advance; time and again a section of the story had to be rewritten because I suddenly realized things couldn’t happen that way. I must have missed details, of course; that’s where your chance to win the game comes in. I
had
an advantage; the months during which, in my spare hours, my imagination roamed over Mesklin’s vast areas in search of inconsistencies. Now the advantage is yours; I can make no more moves in the game, and you have all the time you want to look for the things I’ve said which reveal slips on the part of my imagination.
had
an advantage; the months during which, in my spare hours, my imagination roamed over Mesklin’s vast areas in search of inconsistencies. Now the advantage is yours; I can make no more moves in the game, and you have all the time you want to look for the things I’ve said which reveal slips on the part of my imagination.
Well, good luck—and a good time, whether you beat me or not.
When
Mission of Gravity
was finished in late 1952, I had a perfectly honest degree in astronomy. I nevertheless made a few mistakes, including one in basic physics; I said, somewhere in the story, that the
Bree
would sail faster with the wind behind her. Predictably, a sailor caught that one.
Mission of Gravity
was finished in late 1952, I had a perfectly honest degree in astronomy. I nevertheless made a few mistakes, including one in basic physics; I said, somewhere in the story, that the
Bree
would sail faster with the wind behind her. Predictably, a sailor caught that one.
More seriously, I erroneously took for granted that the figure of rotation which was Mesklin would be an oblate spheroid, and did all the gravity calculation (on a slide rule) assuming that most of its mass was degenerate matter very close to the center. John Campbell told me when he accepted the story that a mathematician had told him that Euler must be spinning in his grave, but I still don’t know what theorem I violated.
More usefully, a few years after the story was published, members of the M.I.T. Science Fiction Society (MITSFS) managed to get enough computer time to figure out more nearly what the planet’s shape would be. They were presumably right; all I could console myself with was the realization that I had written the story to give pleasure to people even if that wasn’t quite the specific pleasure I’d had in mind.
I eventually did get a computer, wrote a relevant program in BASIC
6
, and came up with an object looking more like the discus used in field and track sports—an object fairly sharply curved at the poles, much flatter in the midlatitudes, and coming almost to a real edge at the equator. With arbitrarily chosen three g’s at the equator, the polar gravity came out to only about 275, as I recall.
6
, and came up with an object looking more like the discus used in field and track sports—an object fairly sharply curved at the poles, much flatter in the midlatitudes, and coming almost to a real edge at the equator. With arbitrarily chosen three g’s at the equator, the polar gravity came out to only about 275, as I recall.
I assume that readers with appropriate background knowledge and computer hardware will want to check this. Maybe someone will want to write a
book on the things that minor differences in the basic assumptions will do to Mesklin’s shape.
book on the things that minor differences in the basic assumptions will do to Mesklin’s shape.
Personally, I wound up doing forty years of high school teaching instead of being an astronomer essentially because of my mathematical weaknesses.
HAL CLEMENT is a grand old man of SF, one of the last of the living classic writers of the 1940s/’50s golden age of SF adventure. Here is the core of his accomplishment in two novels, two stories, and an article.
Mission of Gravity
is his most famous work; its sequel,
Star Light,
was a Hugo Award nominee, and the essay on Mesklin, the oddly shaped planet featured in the novels, is a foundation document of modern hard SF. Clement is the writer who taught later generations of SF writers—from Poul Anderson to Larry Niven to Gregory Benford, Greg Bear, and many others—how to use science rigorously in SF. His work is as vivid, exciting, and inspiring as ever and a must for anyone who truly loves science fiction.
Mission of Gravity
is his most famous work; its sequel,
Star Light,
was a Hugo Award nominee, and the essay on Mesklin, the oddly shaped planet featured in the novels, is a foundation document of modern hard SF. Clement is the writer who taught later generations of SF writers—from Poul Anderson to Larry Niven to Gregory Benford, Greg Bear, and many others—how to use science rigorously in SF. His work is as vivid, exciting, and inspiring as ever and a must for anyone who truly loves science fiction.
“Hal Clement brought a new seriousness to the extrapolative hard SF story, and [a] vividness of imagination—his sense that the universe is wonderful. He is a figure of importance to the genre.”
—
The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction
The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction
“Mission of Gravity
is one of the seminal works of ‘hard,’ rigorous science fiction.”
is one of the seminal works of ‘hard,’ rigorous science fiction.”
—
SFWA Bulletin
SFWA Bulletin
“Clement masterfully evokes the rich strangeness of the physical universe.”
—Interzone
“The hardest sort of science fiction … Gripping stuff.”
—San Francisco Chronicle on Half Life
1
This article originally appeared in
Astounding Science Fiction
, June 1953.
Astounding Science Fiction
, June 1953.
2
Indeed, he used it three more times—
Star Light
written at the request of John W. Campbell, “Lecture Demonstration” written at the request of Harry Harrison for
Astounding: The John W. Campbell
Memorial Anthology
, and “Under” written at the request of NESFA Press for this book but first published in
Analog
, January 2000 as the cover story of its 70th Anniversary issue.—Editors
Star Light
written at the request of John W. Campbell, “Lecture Demonstration” written at the request of Harry Harrison for
Astounding: The John W. Campbell
Memorial Anthology
, and “Under” written at the request of NESFA Press for this book but first published in
Analog
, January 2000 as the cover story of its 70th Anniversary issue.—Editors
3
This refers to Isaac Asimov’s novel
Pebble in the Sky.
—Editors
Pebble in the Sky.
—Editors
4
Hello 1953, from 2000—we now know that the superjovian planet in the 61 Cygni system is in orbit around 61 Cygni B.—Editors
5
This addendum, written in March 1999, first appeared in print in
Analog Science Fiction and Fact
, January 2000.
Analog Science Fiction and Fact
, January 2000.
6
The author can no longer find this program, or we would have included it as an appendix—Editors
This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this collection are either fictitious or are used fictitiously.
HEAVY PLANET
Copyright
©
2002 by Hal Clement
©
2002 by Hal Clement
All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book, or portions thereof, in any form.
Tor would like to acknowledge the help and cooperation of NESFA, the New England Science Fiction Association, and NESFA Press, who originally published an omnibus of Hal Clement’s works on Mesklin in hardcover with additional material, under the title
The Essential Hal Clement, Volume 3: Variations on a Theme by Sir Isaac Newton,
and who graciously and generously shared production materials with us.
The Essential Hal Clement, Volume 3: Variations on a Theme by Sir Isaac Newton,
and who graciously and generously shared production materials with us.
An Orb Edition
Published by Tom Doherty Associates, LLC
175 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10010
Published by Tom Doherty Associates, LLC
175 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10010
eISBN 9781429972116
First eBook Edition : May 2011
First Orb Edition: November 2002
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