For a while I’ve posited that the most cost-effective method of traveling on Mars, after you have some people there and some outposts going, is the “road train”, large motor vehicles hooked up in tandem, much like what we see in the Australian Outback, which, … Continue readingMonowheels of Mars?
I’ve previously written about survival strategies for nations and mankind “after the doomsday shroud”, the worst conceivable nuclear war. Which got me thinking about a fascinating piece of Cold War history: the “Deep Underground Command Center”, or “DUCC”. If civilian command and control of the … Continue readingDeep Underground Launch Center
Fundamentally there are three schools of thought for spacecraft that enter and exit planetary atmospheres (spacecraft that stay in space have their own design considerations, and in any case can get much wilder): capsules, spaceplanes, and lifting bodies. Anybody who’s even passingly familiar with spaceflight … Continue readingCatching a Lift
Dear diary, “Wake up! Wake up! Wake up, Invicta! Wake up!” I heard a girl’s voice softly say as a dim awareness returned to me, peeking through the fog of the sleeping music in my bedroom, not to mention my own grogginess – I remember … Continue readingGirls’ Night Out
Lately I’ve been giving a lot of thought to what’s almost a blank page in my universe: what the first spaceflights, which in my alternate timeline take place in the 1940s, were like. The first moon landing takes place in 1949, but in the interests … Continue readingWorldbuilding the First Moon Landing
I’d like to spare a few words on the Rule of Two from the Star Wars universe, and exactly how it works. A thousand years before the Skywalker Saga, all the Sith killed each other, leaving only one survivor: Darth Bane, who crafted a new … Continue readingThe Souls of the Sith
Politico last night reported on a momentous development: a majority of United States Supreme Court Justices are prepared to join Samuel Alito in overturning Roe versus Wade, stripping women of the constitutional right to terminate a pregnancy they have enjoyed for half a century. Liberals … Continue readingAfter Roe, Scorch the Earth
In my alternate-history science-fiction space opera setting, it’s well-established that first contact with alien intelligence was made by Ilmatar of Thalassa on, well, Thalassa (a planet of Proxima Centauri) around the year 2060. What’s not so well-established is that the Thalassans aren’t the closest alien … Continue readingAfter Thalassa: Squid Brains of Enceladus?
Well, I know I laid out so many ambitious plans in my previous post, “Ready to Write Something Different”, but when the time came to actually try out all that stuff it just made me feel sick, overwrought, overworked, and inadequate: it was not enjoyable, … Continue readingReady for Writing Something Not So Different
Having written 16 stories (good lord…) since I started in summer 2020, I dare say I’ve gotten the hang of the process. As I detailed in my last post, I’ve got an idea I really like for my next story, but somehow I don’t feel … Continue readingReady for Writing Something Different