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
Okay, I exaggerate…but not by nearly as much as you’d think. The ice giants of our solar system, Uranus and Neptune, are typically dismissed as habitats for mankind: there is solid surface chauvinism (which leads us to overlook Venus at 55 kilometers altitude or so … Continue readingAnother Earth, in the Depths of Neptune?
It won’t be too long before I’m leaving on my jaunt to Cascadia — not even two weeks from now — so now is not a good time to start writing a story. It’s always a good time, however, to brainstorm for stories! And lately … Continue readingAn Outer Solar System Odyssey: More Thoughts
I know I’ve spent a few days brainstorming for the first Mars mission in my science-fictional alternate history, but already I can’t help but plot out things even further for the timeline of early spaceflight. In particular, after the first Mars landing in 1963, what … Continue readingAn Odyssey to the Outer Solar System?
Over Easter, the holiday of the world’s renewal, the bright sunny season we’re fast approaching has stimulated me to contemplate what a spacefaring civilization that huddled in very close proximity to the sun (or some other star) might be like. It’s also struck me that … Continue readingVampires of the Oort Cloud?
When doing some research for my novel, which now stands at 19.557 words, the Venus chapter (12,949 words) having been completed yesterday, I did some calculations for how long spaceflight would take under constant acceleration, the method the main characters in my novel are using … Continue readingConstant Acceleration: Across the Solar System and Beyond
When worldbuilding any outer-space setting, from galactic-scale space opera to the earliest space colonies, one must consider demographics: the magnitude, distribution, and composition of the setting’s population. While other galaxies or far-future settings could easily have a very wide range of outcomes, a near-future in … Continue readingWorldbuilding Near-Future Space Demography
The idea of alien life or human colonies on Venus is one as old as scientific speculation and science fiction; the bright cloudy shroud over the surface made Venus for centuries much more mysterious than the other (relatively) Earth-like planet in the inner solar system, … Continue readingWorldbuilding Cloud Cities on Venus
What will be the athletic disciplines undertaken by space colonists when they go outside their habitation modules into the hostile vacuums and atmospheres of outer space? In the previous posts in this series (part 1, part 2), we have explored the activities that may be … Continue readingSkiing and Space Diving on Other Worlds
In the previous post on colonizing the Oort cloud, I pointed out that with sufficiently cheap transportation technology any place within range will be inhabited to some extent by recreational-touristic populations or populations that deliberately seek out isolation. This outermost part of the solar system … Continue readingThe Sun as Gravitational Lens: A Breakthrough Technology?