Unit Five

Space Travel and Alien Encounters.

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• This unit will combine a couple of ideas.

• Idea one is that we can leave this planet and go in search of others.

• Idea two is that there is someone, or something, out there to find.

Your place or mine?

• To have an alien encounter, we need to go to the aliens or they need to get to us (Setting). For that we need sci-fi technology – faster-than-light travel via hyperspace or “warp speed,” some kind of wormhole in space or suspended animation (Technology).

The sun is 93 million miles away from earth. At light speed, which is 186K per second, it would take 8 minutes to get from here to there. At Mach 1, 761 mph, it would take 13 years to get there. The closest solar system to us is 10.5 light years away.

Why are we making the trip?• What’s the point of leaving

your nice planet and looking for another? (Motivation) Maybe you really screwed your home world up with pollution. Maybe your sun is about to explode. Maybe you have run out of natural resources. Maybe your population is out of control. Maybe you have conquered all the challenges your world offers and you want to explore the next frontier. Maybe you want to take over the galaxy and make all its inhabitants your slaves. Who knows?

Competing Interests Once you meet the new kids on the block, you might run into trouble.

The residents of the planet Snee, for example, like to eat eyeballs. Humans don’t like having their eyeballs eaten. Thus, there is a problem.

Humans tend to think they can go somewhere and take what they want. The residents of the planets they encounter might want to keep their world and resources to themselves. Problem.

Why can’t we all just get along? Because we have Competing Interests.

Xenophobia v. IsolationThe knee-jerk reaction to

encountering someone or something different is to kill it or run away. That reaction is the result of the fear of strangers, also called Xenophobia. We tend to be afraid of people who are different than us. This fear is tempered by another fear, the fear of Isolation. No one wants to be alone. We want friends. We want to know that we are not alone in the universe and that other beings are having the same problems we are.

The result

• The battle among Competing Interests, Xenophobia and fear of Isolation can go two ways: the Result can be peace and a new understanding of each other or intergalactic war. Generally, war is bad, but it makes for a more exciting movie.