On Sun, 24 Mar 1996, Damon Jason Casale wrote:

OK, so I'm commenting on the star, so sue me :)

This is two and a half years of time awake.  This *excludes* hypersleep.
Notice how long the story pegs them as being asleep, later on.  About 200.
Assume constant acceleration at one gee for the first half of the trip,
then constant deceleration at one gee.  The velocity will always be
changing.

OK, you said they have 2.5 years left to reach whatever star they're 
headed to. And they're 4/5 of the way there. So that means... crap, that 
wouldn't be 12.5 years, would it? Aw, hell, I'll say it is anyway ( I'm 
assuming you meant 4/5 in reference to the time, not distance ). Constant 
acceleration at one gee? Sorry, but after 354 days at 9.8m/s you start 
approaching c. And unless you have some funky doo-dad that lets you go 
beyod c ( which would only cheapen the story, IMHO ) you will simply stop 
accelerating at that point.

So that boils down to this. For the first year, you travel .5ly. Ditto for 
the last year as you decelerate. That places the distance of your star at 
11.5ly. Which is stretchable to encompass these stars:

e Indi at 11.2ly, Spectral class K5 V. Main sequence, like the sun, but 
class K :( Better than class M, but still dimmer=cooler than the Sun. 
It's orange. Not a likely canditate.

BD +43deg44 A/B at 11.2ly, spectral classes M4 and M5 respectively. If 
you're careful with your planet placement, I suppose it's OK. It's a 
binary star system, both red.

Luyten 789-6 at 11.2 ly, Spectral class M7e. It's a white dwarf. Which 
equals not a chance in hell there'd be anything of interest there :)

Procyon A/B at 11.4 ly, spectral classes F5 IV-V and a white dwarf, 
respectively. Binary star system, hotter than Sol. I doubt this one.

BD +59deg1915A/B at 11.5 ly, spectral classes M4 and M5 respectively. See 
BD +43deg44 A/B

CD -36deg1668 at 11.7 ly, spectral class M2 V. Red. Bright for red, but 
still... no.

G51-15 at 11.7ly, spectral class not classified. Super-dim. Super-cold. 
No chance. 'Nuff said :)

t Ceti at 11.9 ly, spectral class G8 V. A bit streched for distance, this 
is still the single best canditate for an Earth-like planet among the 
near stars. Yellow, like Sol, but a tad cooler. This is the only G-class 
star within 13ly except for a Centauri A, which is part of a trinary star 
system at 4.3ly. In short, PICK THIS ONE!

:)

Hope this helps.

								- MW

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