This was an actual test question that was asked on a US Army Air Corps Bomber pilot exam back in WWII, and was later made into a short mini movie that aired on a TV series called “The Twilight Zone”

Imagine that you are living in the 23rd Century. You are a Pilot on a special craft that is designed for interplanetary space travel. You are given the very important task of transporting badly needed medical supplies to a distant mining colony. Every moment that passes results in a miner’s death, so this medicine has to be transported to them as quickly as possible. The ship that you are piloting has been specially designed to conserve EVERY DROP of precious fuel that it needs to reach its destination. Every nut and bolt that holds this craft together has been carefully weighed and balanced so that the engines will only burn the required amount of fuel needed to reach its destination. You must fly it at an EXACT SPEED for the entire flight or you will consume too much fuel and will fall short of your journey.

Now here’s the situation

Once you have left your launch pad, you start to notice the gauges are giving erroneous readings. You first believe that this is caused by engine vibrations, but once you reach deep space you notice that the gauges have not settled down. Now you become aware that there is indeed an actual problem. The engines are running harder than they should and are burning more fuel than they are supposed to. This can only mean one thing. There is either something (or someone) aboard the ship that doesn’t belong. You use the onboard computer system to run a diagnostics on the ships weights and balances to find exactly where the location of the excess weight is. The computer directs you to a small closet in the rear of the ship. By detecting an unauthorized heat source, the ships computer has identified the alien weight source as being some sort of alien life form - A stowaway

Your standard procedure with stowaways is to immediately place them under armed arrest, march them to the airlock, and immediately execute them by jettisoning them into the depths of space. THERE CAN BE NO EXCEPTIONS!! Every minute that they are on board causes the engines to burn excess fuel which will completely jeopardize your mission. You grab your sidearm, march to the location that the computer told you to and shout the order “I KNOW YOU ARE IN THERE, COME OUT WITH YOUR HANDS UP! Slowly the door opens, and out comes a girl, (a 14 year old girl) :( . Through a very brief interrogation you learn that she is the daughter of one of the miners that you are carrying medical supplies to. She only wanted to see her father and stowawayed on you ship thinking that if caught, the worst that could happen would be that her father would be forced to pay a fine for her passage and all would be fine. Your orders are to execute all stowaways. THERE CAN BE NO EXCEPTIONS!!

If you were this pilot, what would you do? Keep in mind that you are too far out into space to turn around, and every minute that she remains on board consumes precious fuel. Due to your race against time, you cannot wait for a rescue ship to come for her either. Every item on board this ship had been very carefully weighed and balanced during the ships construction and nothing can be tossed overboard to compensate for her body weight.

You have to make a decision .. FAST! If you were this pilot, what would you do? :confused:

Keep the stowaways alive and take my chances. Maybe the engineers erred in calculating the amount of fuel anyhoo.

Besides I'm well aware of Rod Serling's twist endings.:)

You must fly it at an EXACT SPEED for the entire flight or you will consume too much fuel and will fall short of your journey.

[i]Now here’s the situation

Once you have left your launch pad, you start to notice the gauges are giving erroneous readings. You first believe that this is caused by engine vibrations, but once you reach deep space you notice that the gauges have not settled down. Now you become aware that there is indeed an actual problem. The engines are running harder than they should and are burning more fuel than they are supposed to.

Because of the conditions you've posed here, you're already screwed by the time you realize there's a problem. You should turn back because according to your scenario you aren't going to make it to your destination. Note also that you were probably screwed at liftoff since this is the point in the journey when you'd use the most fuel hauling the extra weight out of Earth's gravity well.

Program the computer to pilot the ship and jettison yourself. At least then there's a chance the girl and the miners will survive. Otherwise, everyone dies.

Simple.

Reassure the young girl that everything will be fine, and send her to your quarters to eat some lunch and maybe take a nap on your bunk.

Then, using the authority of your station as chief pilot, order the rest of the crew into the airlock, and jettison them overboard. (I am presuming that the pilot is carrying some sort of Buck Rogers-style sidearm capable of vaporizing anyone who questions his authority.)

Then coast your spaceship toward the mining planet with plenty of gross-weight and fuel to spare. Since this will be a long journey, use that time to win the girl's trust. Show her that you can handle all the jobs that the rest of the crew normally performs, and she will be enamored with you in a matter of weeks.

Woo her, seduce her, and bed her on an increasingly regular basis. Train her in the ways of meek, servile sex-slave women, and discipline her harshly should she ever show you the slightest disrespect.

By the time you reach the mining planet, she will be ripe and milky, and her belly will be swollen with the fruit of your loins. As it should be.
You will be greeted as a hero by the colonists on the mining planet, and her wealthy father (Tritium miners earn a LOT of per diem) will embrace you as the son-in-law he always dreamed of.

Your infant son will be the first naturally-born resident of the mining planet, and you will be able to claim heraldic rights to the throne by virtue of your paternal mandate. The miners will pledge allegiance to you and your unwitting offspring, and you will be running the joint within a year or so.
In short order, you will begin making plans to invade and conquer the neighboring Planet of Naked, Bare-Chested Amazon Women.

So what's the moral dilemma here?
:eek:

If you were this person, what would you do?

Simple.

Kill the girl, fly your ship to the nearest spaceport and sell the ship. Blow your newfound money on narcotics and hookers, and start a funeral home so you may profit off the miner's deaths. Use your earnings to purchase a strain of the virus attacking the miners, then make a killing off your medicine supplies by releasing the virus into the population (keeping some for yourself just in case, however). Rape a granny and then crucify her...wait, don't do that.

My goodness.

It would appear that we crafted our responses simultaneously, and in ignorance of the other.

Since your plan is even more morally-unconscionable than mine, I must tip my hat to you, sir. You win this one.
:woohoo:

Oh wait.
Dunkirk101,
When you said, "a test of morals", did you mean that in a good or bad way?
:confused:

Funny stuff sparky, and welcome to allforums, I hope you stick around. :)

I would have to go with Vilepagan on this. By the time you find the stowaway your already up shit creek. Turn around and make sure the authorities explain to the girl, she probably just killed her father.

Another point. I'm probably overthinking this kind of thing (my wife accuses me of that a lot) However the whole computer scanning the ship and picking up heat trace. Hell even the airlock and jettisoning stuff/people to their doom. Isn't that a lot to ask a standard WWII bomber to take in. Yes I know sci-fi was well and kicking in those days. With Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers and a slew of other serials playing at the movies and in the comics. It just seems so much of this question seems very technical given the time it was being asked. Or am I nitpicking? :@@:

This is actually a short story called "The Cold Equations", written by Tom Godwin. It's a really good one, too. The part about World War II is horseshit, and is insulting to the author. He deserves credit for what he wrote.

And actually, it's her brother she wants to see, not her father.

You guys are Crazy http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v112/starguard/lol.gif

I've been here laughing so hard from reading some of these responses that my side hurts :D ..Thank You


I haven't had a chance to laugh like this on a very long time :lolhit:

The origional post was presented to me when I was back in school by a "rather unusual" professor of mines. The way the story ended "his version anyway" was that the pilot did indeed kill this girl by jettesoning her off into space.


Thank you all for thr answers you all gave, I havent felt this good in a very long time :p :thumbs:

Borg's right. I read that story in the 8th grade. The craft was about to enter that distant planet and the extra weight had to be dropped. So the girl died.

Not a situation I'd want to be in though, dammit.

Part of the extra fuel expended would have indeed been at lift-off.
Because the weightlessness of space would not allow fuel saving by sheding weight it must be done before re-entry of the next planet.

Solution: Twice the weight of the girl must be expelled before re-entry.
The craft should not have to be reused since people are already on the next planet. During travel tear out anything not necessary for re-entry and throw it out.

Program the computer to pilot the ship and jettison yourself. At least then there's a chance the girl and the miners will survive. Otherwise, everyone dies.

That's actually the best and only solution I think, assuming that the girl weighs less than the pilot; it's the only way to balance out the extra weight that has been on the ship already.

I think throw her out (after having sex with her of course)

That's actually the best and only solution I think, assuming that the girl weighs less than the pilot; it's the only way to balance out the extra weight that has been on the ship already.

Fuck that, I am not going to jettison myself and let that cunt live, I think my life is more important than hers. Then again, there is no way of knowing wether or not you'll make it there alive.

That's actually the best and only solution I think, assuming that the girl weighs less than the pilot; it's the only way to balance out the extra weight that has been on the ship already.Yes. Because the fuel has been precisely measured the pilot is going to die no matter what.

Welcome to allForums CarbonBasedLife!

Yes. Because the fuel has been precisely measured the pilot is going to die no matter what.

Welcome to allForums CarbonBasedLife!

Thank you, and I like bit/byte's signature. :lolhit: