What would be “next level” beyond “Wings of Fire”, my story of an alternate-historical lunar landing where an Apollo-13-style explosion proves deadly, and occurs after the lander is already on the surface? This was, as in our timeline, the early space age, so backups, redundancy, … Continue readingGhost Ships of Titan
Take a bicycle outside and pedal it, and you’ll quickly discover just how much power output it takes to travel anywhere at any appreciable velocity. The tyranny of physics? Not exactly. When you try to pedal a bicycle, or really any human-powered mode of transportation, … Continue readingThe Silent City and the Space Elevator
Physics says there is no traveling through space faster than the speed of light, which is usually supposed to be a notable barrier to interstellar travel introduced by Einstein’s theory…but this isn’t quite true. Oh, from the point of view of the Earth, you will, … Continue readingBy the Light of Genesis
Dry, thin air is forgiving; as many a mountaineer could tell you, temperatures that would fry or freeze with humidity and heaviness just don’t bother you at altitude. The reason? There’s just not as much substance to conduct and convect heat away from the body, … Continue readingThe Ultimate “Banana Belt”?
So far in my worldbuilding of our stellar neighborhood I’ve avoided Earth twins or Earth analogues for the most part…but zooming out, it’s just a bit too tempting to look at a solar analogue star (a star that’s very similar to our own sun, a … Continue readingLambda Aurigae: Earth’s Evil Twin
“Rhenium?”, you might ask, “what’s that?”. It’s among the more obscure elements in the periodic table, but not for lack of utility; indeed, rhenium is highly desired as a high-performance material in jet engines as well as rocket engines. Why? Because high temperatures are involved, … Continue readingThe Rhenium Age?
“Ghost atmospheres?” you might ask. Well…conventionally when we worldbuild planets, in the context of harder science fiction, we assume that atmospheres of terrestrial planets will be primarily carbon dioxide/nitrogen mixtures, or else will have been CO2/N2 mixtures but modified by life; to wit, Earth is … Continue readingWorldbuilding Ghost Atmospheres
I know it deserves an entry in some atlas obscura, it’s so poorly known outside very niche circles, but so help me I’ve always loved “Alien Planet” ever since the 2005 speculative documentary was first shown on the Discovery Channel (yes, I’m that old). It’s … Continue reading“Alien Planet”: A Fan Theory
Well, birthday month is here, February, and I’ll be the supple young age of…32. Ugh. I dread birthdays now, because I was denied the young adulthood I would have wanted to live, I wear the mark of that on my face and body, and there’s … Continue readingThere’s No Such Thing as One Cycle
I’ve already covered how Earth at the last glacial maximum was in fact not a frozen hell but something closer to a paradise, one we still enjoy remnants of today…but there are some aspects of ice-age Earth that even the best refugia cannot preserve. Few … Continue readingThe Glacial American South: A Lost World