Getting There

How do we get from here to there? If it's a commute, a car, usually, maybe a bike, if you are lucky. If it's across the ocean, a plane, or a boat if you have the time. If you want to get to the first exo-planet that seems like a likely spot to have Earth 2.0, you would have to cross around 24.5 trillion miles of space. Proxima Centauri b is orbiting a red dwarf star in a "habitable zone" around 4.2 light years away from your house. Disregarding the solar flares it experiences -- 100 times the UV radiation necessary to kill all life -- and the solar winds 2000 times stronger than the winds we experience on our home planet, just getting there is the challenge. If we could fly 20% the speed of light, the voyage would take 20 years, and so far, our fastest spacecraft is the Parker Solar Probe. It is travelling .05% the speed of light or fast enough to get to the moon in 40 minutes from my favorite coffee shop. Sent to have a look at Pluto, the New Horizons Probe, second speediest out of our fast NASA garage, took nine and a half years to get there. At that rate, it would take 78,000 years to reach Proxima Centauri b.

The piece in these photos is my proposal. It's called "Transverse Projector". It is capable of traveling 70 times the speed of light and is large enough to bring Australia and New Zealand, (Yes, they have to travel in a large bubble but I'm sure they won't mind. Also, the surf will be unusually high. Again, probably not a real issue and potentially a selling feature for crew recruitment). We will have some challenges regarding what to put in their place in the South Pacific, but it's likely doable with bamboo and such. "Transverse Projector" operates using basic warp drive technology that should be ready in a couple years or centuries, give or take. Construction will involve mining the moon, most of it in fact, but no one lives there, so hey, what's the big deal? As captain, Chris Pratt seems to have lots of experience, or maybe Chris Evans, or Chris Prine. I'm sure any of them will be thrilled as this is a big vehicle for star power. In fact, the propulsion is star power. Regarding funding, I'm making some calls.

At that speed we should arrive in a few months, assuming the Romulans or Draconians don't catch wind of our plans. In the meantime, (here we are back talking about time), this maquette for "Transverse Projector" is for sale. Please give it a good home, although it needs to be available for engineers regarding dimensions, materials, solar wind tunnel testing, vacuum analytics, hull impermeability, synthetic atmospherics modeling, quantum phase locking asymptotic projections, temporal improbability fractionation, the usual...

Peace and love and hugs and all the best stuff that matters day to day.

Make this place a better home with your efforts, however modest. Make music. Teach kids. Write positivity.

Tell Brisbane it's just a joke. We need koalas and kookaburras and Aussies very much.

Stay in touch. In fact, send me a quick note about the art you need for your space.

I have lots of different sizes made and in process. Space constraints are real and imagined.

B Mac,

Official assistant trainee in-betweener third class

P.S. FYI, that is the closest exoplanet. Stars are very, very, very, very far apart.