Spider on the Web 15 - Thrillin' at the MacMillan #8
Thrillin' at the MacMillan #8: Space Generation
\n\xa9 2007 by Spider Robinson
\n
\nThe first thing \u201cspace generation\u201d makes me think of is the quantum ramjet, a hypothetical star drive I chose as the motive force for the starship Charles Sheffield in VARIABLE STAR, my new collaboration with Robert A. Heinlein. It would make use of quantum fluctuations in the energy of the cosmic vacuum to propel a ship up to relativistic speeds quickly, without burning any fuel. No such engine has been built yet\u2014but the engineer who proposed it, David Froning, mentioned parenthetically that if a quantum ramjet were ever built, it might very well create new universes, every second it was in operation, as a side effect. It\u2019s kind of hard to top that for space generation.