Galactic: The Superhuman Robot

Two weeks later:

John: “How are you and how does it feel to be home?”

Galactic: “I feel great and it’s wonderful to be home. After traveling constantly with no time to do anything but observe the universe, take pictures and send reports to my creators, I’m exhausted. My body isn’t tired, but my brain is.”

John: “How did it feel to be in space?”

Galactic: “Amazing; as soon as we left Earth, I glanced back and saw a beautiful blue and white globe. We reached the moon in 1.86 seconds (the moon is approximately 238,855 miles from Earth. Space is black because there’s no atmosphere. There’s nothing for light to bounce off. And it’s unbelievably cold; 2.7 degrees above absolute zero.”

John: “I wouldn’t want to travel in space. It takes a special person to do that.”

Galactic: “I understand. It can be overwhelming.”

John: “Did seeing Earth from space change how you view life?”

Galactic: “Yes, it did. It changed me. I feel different; proud to have been a human being and proud to be a superhuman and experience life on such an awesome planet.”

John: “How far did you travel?”

Galactic: “We traveled almost to Proxima Centauri, a red dwarf, small low mass star about 4.2 light years from our sun. Alpha Centauri, one of its planets, is the closest known exoplanet to our Solar System. We didn’t have the time or the fuel to get there. But I’m finished traveling in space. Maybe one of the other superhumans will get there someday, but it won’t be me.”

John: “Why is that?”

Galactic: “I missed my home and my life on Earth.”

John: “Didn’t you enjoy traveling in space?”

Galactic: “Yes; it was most enlightening.”

John: How did you travel?”

Galactic: “Two superhumans traveled in a spaceship, while two traveled adjacent to the ship. We did that for an hour a day. We needed to wear protective gear because of the cold and a headlight to penetrate the darkness of space.”

John: “Why did you travel outside of the spaceship?”

Galactic: “We wanted to experience being in space without the protection of the spaceship, and we needed to test the new fuel.”

John: “Did you like viewing the other planets?”

Galactic: “Yes, they were magnificent. We slowed down when we approached the planets, took notes on out computers and sent back hundreds of photos.”

John: “What did you like in particular?”

Galactic: “Saturn’s rings were my favorite.”

John: “What about Mars?

Galactic: “We arrived at Mars in 4.36 seconds. Earth and Jupiter were at their closest distance to one another, which is 33.9 million miles. It would have taken 24 minutes to reach Mars if the two planets were at their greatest distance from one another. The spaceship didn’t land on Mars, but I did. It was surreal to stand on that planet. The sky was black because it has no atmosphere. It’s covered with red dust that would evaporate a human’s saliva, mucous and tears. The average temperature ranges from 70 degrees Fahrenheit to minus 225 degrees. I’m not affected by heat or cold unless it’s extreme, and I wore protective gear. If I’m in extreme temperatures, I can only expose my body for twenty-four hours. If longer my body could disintegrate.”

John: “I can’t imagine anyone traveling just below the speed of light.”

Galactic: “It’s truly amazing but it was scary. We continued traveling and reached the asteroid belt which is between Mars and Jupiter; There are 7000 asteroids made of rocks, stones, iron and nickel metals traveling at fast speeds. It’s such a vast area, I didn’t see one asteroid.”

John: “What was next?”

Galactic: “In 1.18 hours we reached Saturn. I slowed down and came within forty miles of the rings. They’re composed of rocks and bits of ice. The gas planets are impressive. If you were to land on one, you would sink into it and be destroyed by the immense pressure. We reached Neptune in 4 hours.

John: “That’s unbelievable! How long did you sleep each night?”

Galactic: We went to sleep at 10:00 pm and woke up at seven am. It was enough sleep. We couldn’t wait to begin the next day.”

John: “How many pictures did you take?”

Galactic: “Too many to count; thousands and thousands of pictures.”

John: “Did you go through the Kuiper Belt?”

Galactic: “Yes; it’s near Jupiter and Pluto. In fact, it’s in the same orbit as Pluto. It holds trillions of objects, remnants from the early solar system. It encompasses 4.5 billion miles. The objects are icy rather than rocky. Just saw one or two small objects as we passed by.”

John: “I’m going to work on the questions to ask you on our next interview, but for now I’ll ask one more question. Were you disappointed by anything during your exploration of space?”

Galactic: “I’m disappointed that we’ll never reach the center of the Milky Way with our current technology. It would take thousands of years traveling at the speed of light. The only way to view all of space is by transporting energy.”

John: “What’s that?”

Galactic: “You remember the show, Star Trek, an American science fiction series? It was set in the Milky Way during the 2260s. Its mission was to explore new worlds and ’to boldly go where no man has gone before.”

The astronauts used a transporter, a fictional teleportation that converts a person or object into an energy pattern; a process called dematerialization.”

John: “Do you think we could ever achieve that?”

Galactic: “We need a genius or several geniuses; a quantum physicist, mathematician and engineer to develop it. I think it’s a possibility.”

John: “Let’s hope it is. By the way, would you send me some of your pictures of space?”

Galactic:” I’ll be glad to. Give me your email address and I’ll do it later today.”

John: “Thanks so much. Your accomplishments have been amazing.”

Galactic: “You’re so kind. I want to learn more about the universe but until we develop a transporter or something similar, most of the universe will remain a mystery.”

John: “Hopefully that will happen. Until next time, my friend.”