Don't be surprised if these ideas are a little "spacey." They flowed from my fingertips without an editor to iron them out first. So please pardon the wrinkles, but savor future!
The Pillars of Creation of the Eagle Nebula (the fact that they don’t exist anymore but we’ll be able to see it for 1,000 years is fascinating to me) are a mirror of how unorganized matter might have looked when God was tying vast amounts of cosmic material together to create the earth.
Travellers commissioned by Intergalactic Space Catogropher’s Association (ISCA) to explore and map the universe.
1,000 years from now, space traveller’s will find a simpler way to transport than what we have been using. Instead of thrusting ourselves in the direction we want to go, we recreate ourselves in another location and our dissolved in the originally location. You have to be careful about this, thought, because this would only work in well-charted territories--the computers need to know where to send your copied matter. Unfamiliar territory would risk scrambling of matter or loss of matter entirely. Travel like that would make it easier to go from one end of the universe to the other and map it. It would also free the restriction on observation that our current telescopes have: the speed of light. Our telescopes can only see light that is millions of years old, so our mapping (though fascinating and insightful) is outdated and does not portray all the right places.
The way that technology works is circular: it’s used to chart new territory, but the computers need to have a lot of information on the destination. There are two ways around this: 1) send people to the closest, well-documented territory 2) wait patiently for ships to travel there by light-speed ships (the old-fashioned way) and chart the new territory. Both have their advantages and disadvantages. Option 1) means that you can travel to the proximity of your destination right away. But the nearest well-charted destination may be still be light years away, with unkown dangers between the drop-off point and the final destination. Option 2) may mean that it will take years for people to travel to the territory with new technology, but it means that a trail will be blazed, and teleportation will become safer and more direct.
But that newer, simpler way of travelling will require equipment that is expensive and time-consuming to set up, at least for the first couple thousand years. That means that intergalactic mapmaking will be painfully slow for a long time, and only a privileged few will get to do the actual travel. Once humans get a handle on the technology, though, more people will be able to participate in mapmaking, and greater numbers of high-accuracy maps will become available.
They will also have technology that will help humans stay young longer. Though it won’t stop the aging process completely, it will help keep cartographers in good shape for longer, enabling them to map the universe.
Intergalactic diplomatic complications could also arise, as cartographers land on various planets to try and learn the languages and cultures of other planets. They may inadvertently start wars or get themselves killed, especially as these planets get used to the shock of international travellers. After a couple centuries, inhabitants of these planets will tolerate the presence of these travelers and even take advantage of the economic benefits the travellers bring (tourism will exist in the future). However, they’ll still be uncomfortable and resentful towards these travelers, whom they see as burocratic, greedy, and ignorant, who want to gather “cultural information” quickly and run away. The cartographers don’t help, they just draw maps; by the way, the first cartographers don’t even show the maps to the native inhabitants of the planets, cuasing more resentment among the natives.
Eventually the native inhabitants will feel kindly to the cartographers because the cartographers bring intergalactic fame to these previously obscure peoples. The fame boosts the economy and vastly upgrades the standard of living.
Travellers could try to travel to “The Pillars of Creation,” expecting to explore and map it, but are unpleasantly surprised by chaos of hot, sharp rocks and asteriods in its place. Their ship almost gets annihalted in the process. That’s because they foolishly teleported straight there, a place that was previously uncharted territory. They ignored intergalactic law and ISCA regulations by refusing to take options 1) or 2) as described above. They’re able to land on an asteroid that’s big enough, calm enough, and cool enough to set up camp, but they’re in big trouble now. How will they get back home? Not to mention the lawsuits and penalties they face when they get back.
Young, athletic PhD student steps into Professor Bigby’s office to plead for funding and permission to teleport to The Pillars of Creation
“It’s essential for my thesis and will crack open our obscure understanding of our own galaxy.”
“I understand, son, but it’s too dangerous. Either wait til it’s finished, travel by light-speed ship, or choose a different location.”
Why is he obsessed with the pillars of creation? Were his parents born there?
Light-speed ships used to be equivalent to speed and new technology. Now it’s equivalent to slow and outdated (like a tortoise).
Old-fashioned lightspeed is used for more obscure territories, where the general public is either unaware or unaxious to chart those territories, or where funding is insufficient. Light-speed is slower, but it is tried and true, safer, and cheaper. It may take 30-40 years to chart a territory of 5 cubic lightyears, but the wait is worth it. Nobody dies or gets their atoms scrambled.
Newer, high-tech teleportation is swifter, but it is more dangerous and more expensive. Billions of dollars of research are spent each year improving teleportation, but there are still a great number of risks. Many cartographers die, dissappear, or are scrambled each year in teleportation accidents (both in space and in the lab). With teleportation, it can take as little as 1 year (but usually 5-10) to chart a territory of 5 cubic lightyears.
Popular destinations: orion’s belt, milky way. Less popular: leo, cancer. Computers already know where these stars are located, but the problem is finding out if these stars still exist, and what dangers surround each star: asteroids, radioactive space dust, black holes, and hostile alien monkeys.
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