PHX Journey To A Star: A Science Fantasy (1970)

[Music] in the year 2169 exactly 200 years after the first landing on Earth's Moon we succeeded in sending a man spaceship beyond the solar system this film report has been made for your class on Galactic exploration as you know the ship landed on planet pc4 of the Proxima centor planetary system the ship Photon 1 was of simple design its purpose to carry a crew of four men four and a quarter light years to our nearest star Proxima centu and then carry them back again I commanded the ship as you know I am Joo gawa of the United States of Africa Pierre V of the United States of Europe and Jang Sakura of the United States of Asia were astrobio physicists like Ken Waters of the United States of America my specialty was the photon Drive of the ship this was our crew on the historic Voyage to Proxima centu we blasted off from Tranquility base on the moon and so began our long journey out of the solar system during most of it we slept in suspended animation and the years went swiftly by automatic sensors awakened us as we enter the gravity ational field of Planet pc4 of the Proxima centu system the long journey was nearing its end in the control room Chang and I watched the rapidly approaching planet on the viewing screen at 20,000 Mi out I alerted Ken he called Pier at the experimental garden and they returned to the control room to prepare for a landing on planet pc4 is [Music] [Music] so it was in the year 2273 that men from Earth First touched down on a planet in an alien planetary system as you watch this historic Landing please recall that the star Proxima centor is a red dwarf a close companion of the double Stars Alpha centor A&B it forms with them a triple star system our first close view of the planet showed strange streams of smoke we were puzzled but you will learn the nature of the smoke in your introductory course in Galactic biochemistry now the time had come Pierre and Ken would explore the planet I wish them well Chang and I stayed in the control room while Ken and Pierre prepared to enter the mysterious fumes of that unexplored planet I maintain voice and video contact with him and so we watched anxiously from the ship while Pierre and Ken took Man's first uncertain steps onto Planet pc4 the strange smoke had disappeared by now and they could see the surface ahead of them they sent the gyro stad a robot vehicle that would warn of possible dangers Ken followed in the surface car Pierre walked on the surface his first job was to examine the soil of the planet his findings are built into your course on Galactic geophysics which you'll be taking next semester Jang and I monitored all the activities outside the ship which were automatically recorded by Talis sensor equipment instruments fed data into the memory banks of the ship concerning gravitational magnetic and electrostatic Fields atmospheric composition and radiation levels Pierre found what appeared to be a form of vegetation and held it up for us to see by then Ken had left the surface car Pierre signaled him and they both moved toward an unusually shaped object [Music] what it was they had no idea but they suspected that it too might be some kind of plant life while the soil where we had landed was hard and rock-like nearby the soil was soft much like the plains of our moon Ken tested it carefully but it supported him well inside the ship Chang and I watched them intently they were feeling very good everything seemed to be going quite well but Chang saw something that worried him and then I saw it too perhaps 100 m ahead of where Pierre and Ken stood was what appeared to be a zone of Darkness that seemed to envelop some kind of vegetation I called Ken even with his vast knowledge of astrophysics he was unable to even guess of the nature of the zone of Darkness so we decided to send the gyrostat into it the gyrostat entered the darkness and disappeared from view it immediately stopped sending signals so we knew nothing of what was happening to it in the darkness when it returned we knew no more about the zone of Darkness than we had before the gyrostat had entered it Ken decided that he would explore the Zone himself Ken told me of his plans and then dropping an instrument packet from the surface car for the experiments Pierre would set up Ken guided the vehicle toward the zone of Darkness [Music] even the search Beam on the surface car could not penetrate that mysterious Darkness and so Ken entered it for just a moment I maintained voice contact with him even though I could see nothing of him in the zone of Darkness but almost immediately contact was lost I tried again and again to reach him meanwhile Pierre had set up some experiments and collected materials unaware of the problem there seemed to be only one thing to do Pierre had to be sent into the zone of Darkness to find Ken Pierre hesitated at the edge of the zone for a moment then he announced he was entering and disappeared from video and voice contact although Ken had lost contact with the ship he was perfectly safe by the surface car he had decided that he was in some kind of forest some distance away Pierre had decided the same thing he too was safe but hopelessly [Music] lost and then to our utter amazement the dark Zone began to brighten Chang and I could see it was a forest as the dark Zone brightened voice contact returned Ken was able to find his way around and collect some samples of plants now Pierre found Ken at the surface car and helped him collect samples the hours passed rapidly then just as suddenly as the dark Zone had brightened it darkened the event had been recorded in the ship's memory bank so I played it back to study it as the Zone had darkened The Sky Had brightened with that as a clue I proposed a theory which later proved to be correct you will learn about it in your classes on the photo synthesis of alien plant life here briefly is what is now called the gawa theory of light absorption pc4 has three Suns its major sun is proximus centor when it sets the double Stars Alpha centor A and B are still in the sky now the plants of the Zone require great amounts of light when Proxima centu is in the sky they absorb all the light and other radiant energy that reaches them this causes the zone of darkness and makes radio communication impossible but after Proxima centor sets the plants rest and absorb only certain wavelengths of the light from the double Stars so the Zone brightens and takes on its beautiful colors and radio communication is possible then when Proxima centu rises again over the rapidly rotating pc4 the plants once again abs absorb all the light and other radiant energy and the zone of Darkness Returns after viewing the information from the memory banks Chang agreed with my explanation meanwhile the surface car emerged from the darkness but neither Pierre nor Ken were aboard there were only samples of vegetation from the forest Chang hurried to meet the car hoping there would be some clue to explain what had become of the men the surface car was elevated into the unloading room but there was no clue as to why it had returned to the ship alone but the explanation is simple as Changs soon discovered and as you already already know from your introductory History unit on Galactic exploration earlier when Ken was loading the car in the zone of Darkness the last Branch caught on the start switch and sent the car back to the ship I tried to contact them again but the zone of Darkness blocked communication meanwhile Chang began an analysis of the plant materials that he had taken from the surface car the plants were reduced to a powder in the molecular disintegrator whose operating principles you are all familiar with while Chang was investigating the molecular structure of the plants Pierre and Ken were observing their behavior they were strongly attracted to light even to the small Photon lamps but mainly to the light of Proxima centori the plants were broken down quickly into a fine powder but as Chang was carrying the powder to his laboratory table he was startled by my voice and spilled some powder on our garden the major discovery of our Voyage was accidental I had asked Chang to take the surface car out as quickly as possible to find Pierre and Ken and bring them back to the the ship Chang found them quickly they told him what they had discovered about the plants about their extreme sensitivity to light Chang told them about the light rays from Proxima centu and my theory it made sense to them that the plants of the forest could have caused the zone of darkness by absorbing light I waited patiently Chang knew the way out of the Zone but Pierre and Ken weren't ready to leave yet they still wanted to do some exploring Chang said he'd wait for them in the surface car the decision was an unfortunate one and almost ended in disaster they turned on a powerful Photon lamp and the trouble began [Music] Chang rushed to help them they thought they were trapped but they were unaware of the strange biochemical processes of Planet pc4 as you have studied the smoke from the burning plants was heat absorbing and reduced the temperature of the fire until the Flames were extinguished evidently the fire had caused a chemical change in the plants later studies of the biochemistry of pc4 would result in the new field of molecular Fire Control and so they made their way safely out of the zone of darkness and back to the ship Photon 1 it was Now That We Came Upon Our history making Discovery here you are seeing it just as it happened we were amazed at the size of the pl in our laboratory something incredible had happened then Chang remembered how he had accidentally spilled some of the Potter from the alien plants onto the Earth plants this time we did it intentionally to see what would happen and so it was that we discovered that fantastic growth substance that has since solved all fruit problems on Earth and on the other colonized planets of the Galaxy this discovery of what what is now called the centu nutrient alone made The Voyage to proximus centu worthwhile we were eager to return to Earth with the substance that we knew would benefit all mankind no one need ever be without food again The Voyage to Proxima centor was a total success and now please plug in your quiz machines we have a test ready for you based on the video Lesson you have just experienced good luck