September 18, 2021
OK, I readily admit that I am once again waaaay behind on my scifi blogging.
At some point last week, I looked up from the mass amounts of work I had left to do and went, “Uh. August 21st? Was that really the last time I posted?”
Uh. Yup.
😣
I’ll do my best to get the rest of Riss’s story online on a biweekly basis, like I promised I would.
But promises…
September 18, 2021
The blood, sweat, and tears of pioneering astronauts could literally turn Mars regolith into building materials.
First, however, they’d need to get the 3D printers there…
February 4, 2021
A crewed mission to Mars may be more practical thanks to a new rocket concept developed by Fatima Ebrahimi, a physicist at the US Department of Energy’s (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL), that uses magnetic fields to generate thrust.
https://newatlas.com/space/magnetic-reconnection-rocket-thruster-concept-spaceflight-mars/
Looks good so far…
…although it’s just a computer simulation right now and the magnetic thruster model hasn’t even been built yet.
Ah, well, just repurpose an existing ion thruster, right?
Hmm. I’m not a rocket scientist, but.. 🚀
September 14, 2020
OK, so I admit it — I’m way behind in finishing my SF novel, Bringer of Light (you can read the prologue here).
I had hoped to get the draft done by January, then work on edits in the spring and publish it in summer.
But a little COVID happened to the world, and believe it or not I got a little sidetracked by, uh, life. And a family history project about a love triangle (kind of).
(During our two-month quasi-lockdown-not-sure-what-this-is-stuck-home-with-two-kids thing, I did get pretty good at the Mars terraforming game. Highly recommended.)
So now I’m thinking, to kickstart my writing life back into action, why not post the chapters I have so far? There are about 35 of them, tend to be short, and since I’ve been struggling with the ending, might help generate some ideas for getting to the expected final scene.
Sound like a good weekly post?
September 1, 2020
I get the attraction of people like Steve Jobs and Elon Musk. They have big ideas. They’re enthusiastic, ecstatic, even. They’re great at simplifying difficult concepts and promoting tech to the lay person.
But they’re not creators. They’re “visionaries.”
I.e., salespersons.
Is that a bad thing? Of course not. I was in computer sales once. It was hard. Only the charismatic are good at it. But I didn’t have the knowledge and ability to make the products I was selling, let alone the power to innovate.
Sticking a chip in a person’s brain and sending thousands to the Moon or Mars sound cool. Possible, even.
But science isn’t sales. Someone might die.
Small difference.
We need visionaries, but scientists are more important. Maybe if they talked to each other…
August 11, 2020
Astronauts on a trip to Mars would be exposed to very high levels of radiation which can cause serious long-term health problems such as cancer and sterility. Radiation shielding can help, but it is extremely heavy, and the longer the mission, the more shielding is needed. A better way to reduce radiation exposure is to simply get where you are going quicker.
Hmm. So putting them in a ship with a giant nuclear fission reactor is safer?
I think somebody may want to come up with a backup plan…
https://www.space.com/nuclear-powered-rockets-to-explore-solar-system.html
February 15, 2020
When I was a kid, I devoured books by Jules Verne, in the Classics Illustrated series vocabulary- and grammar-controlled for younger readers.
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
Voyage to the Center of the Earth
From the Earth to the Moon
Around the World in Eighty Days
Until I was in college, I didn’t even know that he wrote them in French.
Until a few days ago, I didn’t know they were part of a 54-volume set, complete with 4,000 hand-drawn illustrations that are now available online for free.
How’s that for enduring literary influence?
Check out the link below for more details…
http://www.openculture.com/2020/02/jules-vernes-voyages-extraordinaires.html
October 16, 2019
Youtuber smallstars has proposed a concept that he calls the Gravity Link Starship (GLS), a variation of SpaceX’s Starshipthat will be able to provide its own artificial gravity.
Hm, I guess we’re at the point where YouTubers have better ideas than NASA…
But who pays for this? is the several billion dollar question. Not just the construction of the “hub and truss” system, but the expense of getting it into space in the first place.
Seems like science fiction at this point. But still worth a read/look:
www.universetoday.com/143368/real-artificial-gravity-for-spacexs-starship/
August 6, 2019
This is not a complaint about Netflix in general (well, not necessarily, but anyway). Without Netflix, I might have gone, shall we say, a little…
…this past winter. I’ve been working temporarily in Montréal, several thousands miles of miles apart from my family, and being able to watch movies and older TV shows has been a great escape from the depressing monotony of single life.
But I feel the need to tell Netflix that I do not appreciate their use of the word “original.” Continue Reading
November 18, 2018
Hi, everyone. I know it’s been a while since I blogged here. But I have been writing.
And editing. And then writing again. And, yes, in multiple genres. That’s my philosophy. That’s what you get if you read my writing.
I think I’ve probably written about this before, but I find myself increasingly disliking current writing styles. Short paragraphs. Bad grammar. No internal monologue. Things blowing up. Continue Reading
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