The Explorer Program

“I’m sorry, sir. I know it didn’t turn out how you wanted it to. This was a possibility after all,” Cheryl said.

“I don’t understand. That’s it? Twenty-five years and that’s it?”

“You will get a discovery credit. Very few Explorers get a discovery credit.”

“And, what is that worth? I hear it ain’t worth much.”

“It’s not about value, it’s about history. From now on, your planet will have been discovered by you and you alone.”

“Yeah, but the deluxe explorer package, I’m to take ownership. That’s what it says…”

“…Unless the planet turns out to be inhabited, then you do not take ownership. However you do get naming rights which is considered quite an honor.”

The caller hesitated, then said, “And that’s worth squat, right?”

“I couldn’t say.”

“Well, thanks for nothing.” The caller hung up.

Cheryl had been working at Space Opportunities for about six months. Her job in customer service had not been particularly rewarding. That call wasn’t all that unusual. Cheryl didn’t know why the Explorers cared so much. They knew the odds, and it wasn’t as if they could really do anything once they’d taken “ownership” of some faraway planet in some distant galaxy. The agency had yet to perfect a manned vehicle that was able to travel anywhere near the speeds of those tiny probes. So, actually collecting on the discovery was unlikely to happen in anyone’s lifetime. Nevertheless, when the target turned out to be inhabited, which happened about 0.01 percent of the time, the explorer would only get the naming rights, and for some reason, that would often piss people off.

One hundred and fifty probes were launched back in ’28. When the first surviving probes started arriving at Alpha Centauri, a little over fifteen years after their initial launch, it was a major event. The twenty-six surviving probes landed on the planets surrounding the star, of which there were seven (planets). Each probe would then relay back information about their planet. For a while, the people of Earth couldn’t get enough of Alpha Centauri and those probes.

The Explorer program didn’t kick in until after the first one hundred stars had been probed. As predicted, that hadn’t taken all that long; it only took six years after Alpha Centauri for the 101st solar system to be probed. When it happened, the first Explorer planets were then awarded and that was a very big day. The reasoning behind the Explorer program was this: sending millions of probes outwards from our planet to other stars was going to cost billions of dollars, even as small as the probes were. So, the agency came up with the brilliant idea of sponsorship in the form of the Explorer program. It was brilliant because it cost them very little: an automated message sent every week to the sponsor and a congratulations if the probe had ultimately arrived. All for a tidy sum.

Many probes didn’t arrive, which was a risk that the Explorer member signed off on. After a few years, the probes started arriving with predictable regularity and the novelty had quickly worn off. Even when inhabited planets were discovered, it was no longer big news. And even finding uninhabited, yet habitable planets had become somewhat boring.

In addition, there was a problem with the inhabited planets. It was this: Earth didn’t know what to do next. There were those who were afraid of what pandora’s box may be opened if we were to make contact. There were many who had figured we’d be able to handle anything out there, which seemed rather over-confident considering we had no idea what was out there. No one could agree, so the debate raged on with a final decision as yet in sight. Because of the distance to any newly discovered planet, any decision would take years to play out, anyway. So, until further notice, the people of Earth were in gridlock on the issue of contact.

Nevertheless, the Explorer program continued on with plenty of probes available for sponsorship. Since the program had started, over seventy million probes have been launched. And, according to scientists, we were just scratching the universe’s surface with those seventy million. Billions of distant solar systems still awaited probe launches.

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“Space Opportunities, how can I help you?” asked Cheryl.

“Were you the person I was talking to earlier?”

“I’m sorry sir, are you an Explorer?”

“Yes ma’am, license 7743-644.”

After about ten seconds, Cheryl said, “Yes. OK. Yes, I believe I did talk to you a little while ago. How can I help you, Mr. Evans?”

“I just wanted to ask a question. I know you said I have the naming rights. What about the trade rights? Who holds the trade rights? I have a friend who’s interested.”

“Trade rights? Ummm… I can’t say that anyone’s asked me that question so I’ll have to check… You realize that the same issues apply, you still can’t get near this place in your lifetime with current technology…”

“Yeah, I know all that. I just wanted to know. I know I’m allowed to sell my rights to someone else and they seem to be more optimistic about our abilities to get there than you seem to be.”

“It’s not me. It’s what our scientists currently say.”

“Well, suppose this is all true and yet this fellow still wants to pay me something for my trade rights. Can’t you just find out this bit of information and allow me to take this man’s money anyway? Who’s that gonna hurt?”

“OK, Mr. Evans, can I put you on hold while I check? It may be a few minutes.”

“No problem.”

After about a minute, Cheryl returned, “Sorry sir, but no. Apparently, a law was passed, of the international variety, a few years back. It says that any trade established with another planet would be non-exclusive, so, no. I’m sorry.”

“Yeah, I didn’t think so, but I figured I’d ask.”

“So, anything else I can help you with?” Mr. Evans had hung up before Cheryl could finish her response.

A whole industry had grown up around the possibilities of inhabitable (but uninhabited) planets and actual inhabited planets and, for that matter, planets that were definitely not inhabited or inhabitable. Just the possibilities of all the variations had created business opportunities. With the uninhabited but inhabitable planets, a variety of colonization schemes had arisen. With the planets that weren’t inhabitable, there were many long range mining operations, with several likely candidates being considered. To Cheryl, all of this seemed to be hanging on some far-off, down-the-road dream that would likely never happen.

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