Thursday, February 27th, 2003
Reading about the last gasp of the Pioneer 10 space probe (NZ Herald) led me to think of a cool SF movie plot: A two-person crew is sent on a one-way exploratory mission into Deep Space, sending back reports sporadically. Due to the psychological stress of the mission, each researcher keeps a daily log, which is read by the other. The Space Journal serves two purposes: It is useful for research purposes; and, it keeps the crew apprised of each other’s mental state. The crisis occurs when one of them goes mad and plots to murder the other. The sane researcher has to make the decision to pre-emptively incapacitate his partner, thus eliminating his only companion, or risk Death in Space. Maybe they could be heading off an asteroid on a collision course for Earth, too. Yeah, that’s the ticket. Killer asteroids on a 500-year collision path.
Oh, well. The Pioneer 10 story is cool, anyway.They don’t build ‘em like they used to.