Flying On The Fringe

Reprinted from: https://www.accuweather.com/en/space-news/2-meteor-showers-to-peak-at-same-time-on-tuesday-night/782062

Updated Jul. 26, 2020 11:13 PM

As Comet NEOWISE fades away, stargazers will have a new astronomical event to look for in the final days of July—a phenomenon that hasn’t happened in nearly three months.

On the night of Tuesday, July 28, into the early morning hours of Wednesday, July 29, shooting stars will glisten in the night sky from not one, but two meteor showers: The southern Delta Aquarids and the Alpha Capricornids. The last time that a moderate meteor shower put on a show in the night sky was the Eta Aquarid shower in early May, but clouds were an issue for many stargazers across North America.

Neither of the two showers this week are considered major, but together they will bring around 15 to 20 meteors per hour in dark areas away from light pollution. The Alpha Capricornids is the weaker of the two meteor showers, but it could prove to be the one that is most intriguing.

“What is notable about this shower is the number of bright fireballs produced during its activity period,” the American Meteor Society (AMS) explained.

(Visit the link above for a spectacular fireball video)

Fireballs are incredibly bright meteors that can light up the entire night sky for a few seconds. They also are visible for much longer than the typical shooting star, glowing for several seconds as they streak through the sky.
“Vivid colors are more often reported by fireball observers because the brightness is great enough to fall well within the range of human color vision,” the AMS said.
“The dominant composition of a meteoroid can play an important part in the observed colors of a fireball, with certain elements displaying signature colors when vaporized.”

Skywatchers planning to head out for the celestial double feature on Tuesday night might want to put on a pot of coffee as they are best seen after about 1 a.m. local time.
This is the time when the moon is setting, meaning that there will be less light pollution in the sky during the second half of the night. It is also the time when the radiant point of the two showers starts to climb high in the sky.
The radiant point is simply the area in the sky where the meteors originate. As the radiant point moves higher in the sky, onlookers will be able to count a greater number of meteors. Both the southern Delta Aquarids and the Alpha Capricornids have a radiant point in the southern sky, close to Saturn and Jupiter, but meteors will be able to be seen streaking across all areas of the sky, not just to the south.

The only things that people will need to be able to see the two meteor showers are a clear view of the night sky and cloud-free weather conditions.
The best viewing conditions on Tuesday night are expected across the Great Lakes, the interior West and the northern Canadian Prairies.
Clouds are likely to be an issue for much of the Plains and the East Coast, but some pockets could have enough breaks in the clouds to catch part of the show.

 

 

I’m always searching for new ideas for my alien cultures. I hadn’t thought of glow-in-the-dark aliens until I stumbled across a piece by Marina Koren in the Science section of The Atlantic, published August 27l, 2019.

Two researchers, Lisa Kaltenegger and Jack O’Malley-James, astronomers at the Carl Sagan Institute at Cornell University, believe hunting for glowing aliens might provide new clues to life on planets subjected to high levels of ultra violet radiation. Ultra violet is deadly to many, but not all, organisms on earth. (photo from medium.com).

According to scientists who study them, corals in shallow waters have found a way to guard against the worst of the sun’s rays. Fluorescent pigments in the invertebrates absorb damaging ultraviolet light, transform it, and then emit it as harmless, visible light. The instantaneous change in the wavelength of the light, from long to short, produces a brilliant show of colors, from pinks and purples to greens and reds. (The process can protect single-celled organisms that live inside the coral and supply food in exchange for shelter.)

“If such a strategy were beneficial for life on another world, it should be very likely for other life-forms to also evolve such a biofluorescent strategy,” says Kaltenegger, the director of the Sagan Institute. “If you and I would have evolved on such a world, we would probably glow, too.”

Proxima Centauri is one of our closest neighbors. It’s smaller, dimmer, and cooler than our sun, and has one planet, Proxima Centauri b, that orbits in the habitable zone, is about the same size as Earth, and might be rocky like it, too.

If Kaltenegger’s assumptions prove accurate, it could lend hope for life on other planets NASA has already identified in the habitable zone. A large fraction of exoplanets—planets beyond our solar system—reside in the habitable zone of M-type stars. This type of star, the most commonly found in the universe — frequently flare, and when those ultraviolet flares strike their planets, biofluorescence could paint these worlds in beautiful colors. (medium.com) On February 22, 2017, NASA announced that its Spitzer Space Telescope had observed a system of seven Earth-size planets around a single star, TRAPPIST-1. Three of the planets are located in what’s called the habitable, or “Goldilocks” zone, but all seven of the TRAPPIST-1 planetary orbits are closer to their host star than Mercury is to our sun.

Unlike other extreme environments (see my blog of 3-30-20), biofluorescence is found in a number of higher life forms, including lizards, frogs. Recently, scientist discovered a biofluorescent Hawksbill Sea Turtle. (photo by National Geographic).

Jack O’Malley-James, a researcher at Cornell’s Carl Sagan Institute and the study’s lead author, says: “This is a completely novel way to search for life in the universe. Just imagine an alien world glowing softly in a powerful telescope.” (medium.com)

The idea of a planet, softly glowing in the inky black of space, certainly fires my imagination. How about you?

The idea of a planet, softly glowing in the inky black of space, certainly fires my imagination. How about yo

The first few weeks of “shelter in place” didn’t bother me much. I’m married, so I’m not totally devoid of personal contact. I often talk with my close friends by phone and over Facebook, and I’ve been catching up on overdue housework and getting a fair amount of writing done. But as of this last week, the lack of face-to-face contact with my friends and my sons is wearing me down. I can’t focus to write, my exercise routine went in the toilet, and I’m suffering from an overall feeling of frustration.

I know I’m not alone in these feelings. Some people battled depression at the beginning, some weathered it well for a while, but like me, are finding their coping skills wearing thin. Until the last five years, most of my “friendships” were workplace acquaintances. My co-workers and I got to know each other pretty well, but rarely socialized outside of the workplace. I had a close-knit family—my husband and two sons, my mother and my sister, with whom I was very close. That was pretty much all I needed.

My mother passed away almost twenty years ago, and my sister a little over a year ago. My sons have moved to another city about sixty miles away, though under normal circumstances, I see them almost every weekend. But my day-to-day support circle has dwindled to just my husband. Therefore, new friends with whom I share the joys and tribulations of the writing profession have become much more important to me.

So, I found the following article by Inga Popovaite, Ph.D. Candidate in Sociology, University of Iowa, very interesting. It was posted by EarthSky Voices in Human World, April 23, 2020, (www.earthsky.org). (Earthsky republished it from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license).

Dr. Popovaite writes:

Understanding isolation’s effects on regular people, rather than those certified to have ‘the right stuff,’ will help prepare us for the future, whether another pandemic or interplanetary space travel.

I was supposed to travel to “Mars” this month. The plan was to stay two weeks at the Mars Desert Research Station—actually in the Utah desert—to simulate human operations on the red planet. Eight of us were to live in a two-story cylinder, 24 feet (7 meters) in diameter. We would conserve water and put on mock spacesuits every time we ventured outside. (Image via George Frey/ Getty Images News/Getty Images, reprinted on www.earthsky.org.)

But, in an ironic twist, the coronavirus pandemic and the worldwide spread of social distancing put on hold our simulation of isolation on Mars.

My main goal had been to collect data for my dissertation. I research groups in space analog environments, isolated and confined places that share characteristics with human space missions. I’m especially interested in the way gender contributes to individuals’ influence within a group and how men and women manage their emotions in isolation and confinement.

(Image via David Howells/ Corbis Historical/Getty Images, reprinted on www.earthsky.org.)

I will not go to “Mars” this spring. As I am self-isolating at home, though, I keep thinking about what lessons for future space travel the current situation can provide. Astronauts have shared tips on how to survive long periods of loneliness and isolation. Maybe in return, the experiences of millions living under lockdown can offer insights into previously understudied social effects of isolation and aid future space travel….the more researchers understand the social effects of isolation on regular people – as opposed to those certified to have “the right stuff” – the better we will be prepared for the future, whether another wave of pandemic or interplanetary space travel.

Most group behavior research in space and space-analog environments focuses on leadership, cohesion, and conflict—factors that affect teams’ performance and their ability to complete tasks. It makes sense, as astronauts are first and foremost a team of co-workers on a specific mission.

But, by focusing on the professional level, researchers overlook other potential relationships between crew members – such as family ties or intimacy. It is not a minor detail: Interpersonal relationships can certainly change dynamics of group behavior. If you’ve ever shared a workplace with a romantic couple, for instance, you probably know there can be some drama.

So far, only one married couple has been to space. Researchers suggest that couples are better equipped to handle isolation because of mutual social support. Having couples on board makes the team feel closer as a whole.

However, anecdotal evidence from China suggests that divorce rates jumped after the quarantine. This factoid suggests that it’s not clear whether average real-world couples are better suited for isolation than single individuals.

Now, researchers like me have an opportunity to understand how couple dynamics influence life in isolation – including sex and sexuality, questions that NASA is not eager to address. While pregnancy can be dangerous, intimacy and sexuality can improve emotional and mental well-being over long periods of social isolation…. Men and women have the same general goal – to survive the pandemic and its aftermath – but they experience the quarantine differently. In most middle-class families, the traditional work-home divide is now gone, as both partners work from home. But women are still likely to spend more time running the household, including child and elderly care.

While at this stage there are no screaming toddlers in space, space-analog research shows similar trends of women taking care of other crew members. The widespread lockdown could allow researchers to get more data on how social norms and expectations about each gender—for example, who is supposed to offer more emotional support—influence behavior in mixed-gender groups in highly uncertain and stressful situations.

There is no doubt that coronavirus-caused social isolation will take a toll on individual and collective mental health. But staying home saves lives. Maybe this experience will also provide lessons on how to plan for future cities and social life on another planet.

 

As writers, we draw from our own experiences, even when creating fantasy or alien characters. So use this difficult time in your life to explore your own emotions and reactions, and those of the people around you, to lend more depth to your characters in crisis.

The eruption of Anak Krakatau last week reminded me of the great landscapes and habitats for world building that volcanoes create. Earthsky.org had some beautiful video of the eruptions. https://earthsky.org/earth/anak-krakatau-volcano-eruption-april-2020

I took a trip to Arizona a couple of years ago, presumably to help a friend of mine with research for a book she was writing, but the landscape there inspired an entire alien culture for my third book (delayed release due to you-know-what).

Lava tubes are among my favorite world building choices. The tubes are created when the edges and top of a lava flow cool and crust over, leaving a channel of flowing lava in the center. They create amazing caves with strong, solid walls and ceilings, sometimes miles in length. Great habitats! Plus, the rumblings of earthquakes and the threat of a volcanic eruption upsetting everyone’s plans creates a great sub-conflict.

The longest and deepest lava tube in the world is Kazumura Cave on the eastern slope of Kīlauea on the island of Hawai’i, surveyed at 40.7 miles (65.5 km) long and 3,614 feet (1,102 m). Like any other cave, lava tubes may host underground sources of fresh water, lending another ray of hope to the possibility of finding life on other volcanicly active planets, even those that may not have surface water. (Photo from Wikiwand).

 

And lest you think that cave homes would have to be dark, damp, and forbidding, check out the luxury Beckham Cave Lodge with all the amenities in Parthenon, Arkansas (www.beckhamcave.com).

 

 

 

Or, what about a whole community of bubble homes?

I can’t vouch for this particular community in Japan (www.japantoday.com) was built, but a similar construction here in the U.S. is done by inflating a fabric “bladder,” basically a big, strong balloon, and spraying a type of quick crete on the inside. Once that hardens, another layer is applied to the exterior, and voila—you have the exterior of a house. These are quick—ready to finish out in a matter of days. You can add more space with more bubbles, and they have the added advantage of being fire and storm resistant.

Or maybe something like these in Holland for areas that flood often (photo from buzznick.com)?

 

So what kind of exotic life space will your beings develop?

World-building is a critical component of science fiction and fantasy. For me, creating other worlds and the societies that inhabit them is what inspired me to write science fiction in the first place. In my mind, even the most exotic worlds should be based on science. That said, things can get pretty weird.

In this blog, we’ll look at some of the extremes under which life can exist. Maybe the better question would be, under what conditions could it NOT exist? Extreme levels of several elements seem to present barriers to the development of advanced life. Life may survive under extreme conditions, but in a reduced state of metabolism similar to hibernation. Some seeds and microbes can sustain life for years while waiting for more suitable environmental conditions. On the other hand, there is ample proof that some life thrives within certain boundaries. However, if an environment shifted from moderate to extreme over a long period of time, more advanced organisms might be able to develop adaptations, especially in terms of finding or building suitable habitat.

The key elements that serve to inhibit life include lack of water, salinity, alkalinity/acidity, temperature, radiation, pressure (air and water), and poisons. For each of these elements, there is at least one organism on earth that can withstand extremes. Salinity and oxygen are two that readily allow the development of advanced life forms, so for the purposes of my blog, I will dismiss those. Given enough time, it wouldn’t surprise me to have dolphins, whales, and maybe octopi join us as sentient lifeforms (if they haven’t already, and we’re just too stupid to know it). If you don’t know why I included octopi, do some reading on these amazing creatures—my top pick for inspiration in alien life.

Water

Water seems to be a critical limiting factor, enough so that NASA is using the presence of liquid water as its primary focus in seeking extraterrestrial life. The Atacama desert in Chile is one of the oldest, driest, hot deserts on Earth, with areas receiving on average less than 15 mm of rain per year, and other areas receiving no rain at all for years at a time.

In 2003, a team of researchers published a report in which they duplicated the tests used by the Viking 1 and Viking 2 Mars landers to detect life, and were unable to detect any signs in Atacama Desert soil in the region of Yungay. The region may be unique on Earth in this regard, and is being used by NASA to test instruments for future Mars missions. Later, however, the team duplicated the Viking tests and found that they missed signs of life in soil samples from Antarctic dry valleys, the Atacama Desert, and other locales. However, in 2014, a new hyperarid site was reported, Maria Elena South, which was much drier than Yungay. (Wikipedia)

Nonetheless, life flourishes on the borders of the Atacama Desert. Fog from the ocean is common and produces pools or lakes called lomas, which provide a water source. (Photo by Leon Petrosyan on Wikipedia) Over 500 species of flora have been gathered within the border of this desert. Some are succulents that can store water, and others have adapted to postpone periods of growth and flowering until rain does fall. Animals such as the leaf-eared mouse, guanacos, the South American gray fox, several species of birds, lizards, beetles, and wasps have also adapted to living there.

People in the Atacama have a history of collecting water from the air. For hundreds of years, native people in the Andes harvested water by capturing the morning dew. They dug pits into the ground to hold buckets and made funnels from branches to channel water into the buckets. Lids made of branches and leaves kept the water from evaporating. The trap was left overnight and the water collected in the morning after dew formed. They have also been capturing water from fog for over a decade using screens that have very small mesh. The water in the fog condenses on the screens and drips into troughs below. Pipes carry the water to where it will be used. The idea caught on and now there are fog collectors installed in 25 countries in Africa, South and Central America, the Caribbean, and Asia. How’s that for a great world-building idea? https://www.windows2universe.org/vocals/water_clouds.html

 

Temperature:

The upper limit for DNA and chlorophyll is about 158 degrees F (70^o C), and the lower limit is about 5^o F (-20^o C). The lowest temperature for active microbial communities is about -0.4^o F (-18^o C). Below these limits, many organisms can survive, but at reduced metabolic states. https://space.nss.org/life-in-extreme-environments/ I have to say, when I did my research, these limits blew my mind. I expected a much broader range. Cold-blooded creatures like frog and turtles use water frozen outside their cells to insulate them, but they remain dormant at colder temperatures. Other organisms must have special proteins, cryoprotectants, to allow them to survive thawing, or must be able to produce molecules that lower the freezing point of water.

In case you’re wondering, when a human is placed in cryogenic suspension, all the water must first be removed from their cells and replaced with a cryoprotectant. https://science.howstuffworks.com/life/genetic/cryonics2.htm

Penguins use a combination of blubber and feathers to insulate them against the Antarctic cold. Emperor Penguins can withstand temperature at the bottom of the temperature range, down to -20^o C (-4^o F).

Tardigrades, commonly called “water bears,” can survive temperatures from -391^o F (-235^o C) to 304^o F (151^o C) in hibernation mode. They can also survive up to 6,000 times the atmospheric pressure at sea level. Don’t let the photo fool you—this guy’s a lot smaller than he looks. This was taken with an electron microscope. (Photo from ame616.tumblr.com on Pinterest) I really want to pet one!

On earth, the only organisms that thrive at extremely high temperatures are Archaea or Bacteria (some have even been found in volcanic vents!), but some Eukaryotes can thrive at low temperatures and extremes of high acidity or alkalinity, pressure, and salt. Eukaryotes have a nucleus surrounded by a cell membrane and include all higher life forms.

Other metabolic dangers

Substances such as mercury, arsenic, cadmium are toxic to most earth life. Humans have used small amounts of poisons such as snake venom and even arsenic to develop resistance to such toxins. Oxygen is also toxic to some earth life forms, known as anaerobics.

If humans can train their bodies to resist toxins within the space of a single lifetime, what could they accomplish over generations? With a carefully crafted world, almost any environment could be made believable. Make it more real by thinking carefully about how your people adapted. What are their homes like? What do they eat? What health problems do they suffer?

Radiation also damages DNA, though some microbes seem to be resistant to that as well.Scientists are fairly certain that microbes even survive the rigors of space on asteroids. Could an advanced life form develop a similar ability? How long would that take? The first human ancestors appeared about 2.5 million years ago. Homo erectus was the first to migrate out of the comfortable environment of Africa about 1.9 million years ago, and Homo sapiens didn’t appear until about 300,000 years ago. How would we have developed if radiation levels had gradually increased over that time?

Enjoy your new world.

Thanks for visiting. Join me again next week for more world-building science.

Readers, welcome to part 2 of my interview with Juradaa, Herald of Communications for the people of the Tai-ii-katch system of worlds. Herald Juradaa is speaking to us from a space station orbiting planet 9-6. Last week we focused on life aboard the Tai-ii-katch space colonies. This week, we delve a little more into their family life.

S: Herald Juradaa, can you tell me a little more about family life in your colony?

J: Family is not a common term among my people—I’m looking at the translation. Ah, I believe I understand. We do not live in family units as you do. We have two sexes, male and female. Males and females mate when and with whom they please. If no children are desired at a particular time, we have effective means of reproduction control. Such is necessary to prevent overpopulation. Each female has a quota of young that she is allowed to birth. Our children are raised communally in kintales. Their quarters are similar to the adult quarters, although the youngest children share a sleeping area. Each pod has a recreation and eating area, and an adult lives in each pod with them. The children also have communal activities with children from other pods.

S: Are the children also educated in the kintales?

J: For the first ten years, then they are tested for the specialties they will pursue. Depending on the type of job they qualify for, they receive another two to ten years of schooling.

S: What percentage would you say need the least schooling, and what types of jobs do they do?

J: About half require two years of advanced schooling, and those jobs tend to be what you would identify mostly as service jobs. In many cases, those young people receive more of their training in the workplace. Those requiring the most schooling are those headed into research and technology development. Of course, as with any advanced society, there are a broad range of professions in between.

S: What do young nantrans do for fun?

J: There are times when it seems to me their favorite pass time is causing trouble, but they participate in simpler versions of many of the same sports as adults. The young males especially enjoy mock combat, though we have little use for that with our technology. It’s mostly a way to test each other’s strength.

S: That seems rather dangerous.

J: Not as bad as it looks. The fire is designed not to damage the ship’s walls, but admittedly, some of their games can get out of hand. Our young people are intelligent, imaginative, and inventive, and our maintenance techs spend an inordinate amount of time repairing our youths’ games gone awry and their inventive experiments, some of which come dangerously close to sabotage.

S: What happens to the ones who misbehave?

J: They are reprimanded and lose privileges, usually lose the opportunity to compete in sports for a while. They are also required to assist in repairing what they have damaged, so they will understand it is not a harmless prank when it costs someone else time and labor. My preference is to require them to do the work by hand, without the aid of robots. It is not a popular lesson, but very effective.

S: You sound like you might have had a few of those lessons yourself.

J: Oh, of course. I once rerouted a wastewater conduit into a fountain near the station’s command deck. I spent a month on cleaning duty using only hand tools and a bucket. But that is part of youth, isn’t it—to do stupid things and learn the consequences? I believe the more intelligent the species, the more likely such pranks are. It seems to be an integral part of the developing self discipline.

S: I agree. Human children are prone to pranks as well. In my country, we even have a holiday devoted to that purpose. We call it Halloween. Children, and even adults, dress in costumes and go from door to door saying “trick or treat.” The implication is that if you don’t give them candy, they will play a trick on you. The most common one seems to be draping rolls of toilet paper, a very thin paper, over peoples’ trees. It can be extremely difficult to clean up after.

J: How are the children punished?

S: They aren’t usually punished for pranks during Halloween, as long as they don’t do any real damage. Most of them make a point of doing it in secret, though I suspect the victims have a good idea who the culprits are.

J: That sounds interesting. I’d like to learn more about that. Perhaps allowing one day for such activities would make it less of a problem the rest of the time.

S: It might be worth a try. In our case, it is also connected with some ancient religious beliefs as a time when spirits rise from the dead for one night. Few people see it that way any more. Now it’s mostly just for fun. Can you tell me about the practice of religion among your people?

J: We have no religion—we outgrew such nonsense long ago. We rely on science. I believe that at some point in our ancient past, our ancestors may have followed some religion, or perhaps even more than one. There are a few ancient stone ruins on our home planet that were excavated centuries ago. Historians may keep records of such things, but it holds no interest for me or most other nantrans.

S: Do your people keep any animals as pets?

J: Yes. I had a ginjee as a child. They are very affectionate, but also somewhat mischievous, so they provide good lessons for children in properly caring for them. They fly, and they’re very good at zipping out of open doors and windows if you don’t watch them. At one time, our home planet had a broad variety of species that have gone extinct, but have been cloned or re-bred in our space colonies. We also have a number of species from other planets, several of which children often keep as pets.

S: What is life like on the other planets you’ve colonized? Are some of them more livable?

J: Most are nothing more than sources of minerals, metals, and other resources for us. The workers there live in habitats similar to those on 1-4. This is a picture from 6-4 near one of our mining sites. Some of them do have beautiful geologic formations.

S: So those other planets didn’t have any lifeforms on them?

J: Most did not. A couple had mostly microbial life and lower flora like mosses and algae. Most of the lower lifeforms have gone extinct over the centuries as the native habitats and atmosphere declined.

S: You didn’t make any effort to preserve the native species? I’d think that having destroyed your home planet, you’d be more inclined to protect the new ones you colonized?

J: For what purpose?

S: Just so they would continue to develop.

J: Once we have taken what we need from them, further development would serve no purpose. Most of the mineral resources are laid down in the early stages of a planet’s development, and lower life forms have no use for those. The plants and animals that we consume as food can be easily maintained in our planetary habitats and orbiting colonies.

S: But it seems—immoral, or at least unethical, to destroy the native life on a planet just to extract the resources you want to use.

J: Why would that be immoral? They are there for our taking. We are not waging war with anyone over them. It is no different on your planet. You have stripped out much of the natural mineral resources of your first planet, and now seek to mine others.

S: We are trying to preserve the resources and animal life of our planet, however. That is an ongoing battle, and I can’t say we’ve been very successful yet, but at least we are aware of the need to do that.

J: I can not see any point in wasting resources on such an effort, unless the ones you are trying to preserve are used for food, or provide other necessary elements.

S: I gather then that none of the planets you colonized had native sentient species.

J: One had a sentient species of lower intelligence. Those have been trained as workers.

S: Isn’t that rather like enslaving them?

J: If you train an animal to work, to farm a field or to pull a vehicle, is it a slave? The sub-nantrans are well-cared for.

S: But, if allowed to evolve naturally, they might continue to develop as humans have.

J: More likely they would die out long before that stage. It would take a million years or more in the best case. We don’t intend to wait around. We will leave these planets behind in another five or six decades and move on to more lucrative ones. If the sub-nantrans do not choose to move with us, I suppose they will be left to their own devices on their native planets. I doubt many of them would choose to stay behind.

S: It doesn’t sound like the planets will be habitable by the time you get done with them.

J: Not without artificial habitats.

S: Well, Herald Juradaa, it’s time for me to draw this to a close. We’ve learned a great deal about your people. Thank you so much for talking with me.

J: Well. I’ve learned some interesting things about your people as well. Good life and prosperity to you.

S: Thank you. The same to you.

Readers, next week we’ll depart from the alien interviews for a while. I’ll be writing about science issues for science fiction writers. I’m no scientist, but I hope I can offer some information and links that will prove useful. If you have any ideas you’d like discussed, post a comment on the science for scifi thread on my author’s page at https://www.facebook.com/authorsusaneschbach/?ref=aymt_homepage_panel&eid=ARCFwI66spZ4vmAvKzgplo-CPfPBkqrjEesQ-S4fbOH_aAdNOPKG11s3gPxxpn0N0aK6MZ9GQvXaSpnk

S: Today I’m speaking with Juradaa, Herald of Communications for the people of the Tai-ii-katch system of worlds. Herald Juradaa is speaking to us from a space station orbiting planet 9-6.

S: Herald Juradaa, thank you so much for talking with us today.

J: You are welcome.

S: First, I want to ask about your world, or worlds. I gather your people have spread to many other planets from your home world. Is that correct?

J: Yes. We control a region encompassing twelve stars surrounding our home star of Selada. Our home planet was originally called Nantra, but it is now designated as 1-4, first sun, fourth planet out. We still refer to ourselves as nantrans, however.

S: Do some of your people still live on 1-4?

J: Probably a few thousand maintenance workers. There are few mineral resources left, but some salt water.

S: It sounds like you pretty much stripped your home world. How livable is it?

J: The workers there live in enclosed habitats where it is quite comfortable. Much of the labor is mechanized, of course, but sometimes requires maintenance. We also raise herds of binox, kerps and anjas, some of our food animals.

S: The animals can tolerate the atmosphere?

J: There are some areas on some planets where the air and soil are less contaminated, and animals can be raised outside. The majority are raised inside habitats. We’ve developed complexes of living quarters, agricultural areas, and service areas connected by transportation systems. Though the atmosphere on our planets is not pleasant, inside it’s quite comfortable. My people have been living in controlled environments for almost a hundred generations.

S: Where do you live? On one of the other planets?

J: No, my family lives in an orbital colony at 6-3.

S: An orbital colony—like a space station?

J: (He’s laughing). Not anything like the Earth station I’ve seen images of. Ours is the size of a small moon.

S: Wow. How long have you lived there?

J: For the past ten standard cycles. Since our empire encompasses many stars and planets, we’ve developed a standardized time-frame for life on the station. It is used by everyone in the empire for general communications, although for harvesting and other jobs that are specific to a particular planet or moon, the workers sometimes use a localized frame of reference.

S: I see. But doesn’t that much time in space have detrimental physical effects.

J: No. Our bodies have adapted over time, and our stations have gravity and clean atmosphere. Much more livable than a planet. This is a picture of one of our agrarian centers. 

S: So, did you grow up in a space colony?

J: Yes. Almost all of us do. The few who are working on planets are normally stationed there for one or two tours of duty at a time, though some individuals seem to prefer smaller communities and choose to stay on planets for most of their lives.

S: Our astronauts who remain on our space station for extended periods of time have a difficult time adjusting to Earth gravity when they return. But we don’t have artificial gravity. Is that a technology you might be willing to share with us?

J: That’s a possibility. It is something you will have to develop if you intend to do any long-term space exploration. From what I have seen, your race is only in the earliest stage of that.

S: That’s true. We haven’t even settled another planet in our own solar system yet, though that is expected to happen within a couple of decades. Artificial gravity and faster propulsion would help a lot.

J: We will have to see what you can offer in trade.

S: Tell me about life on a space station. What do people do for fun?

J: We enjoy sports, theater, socializing with extended family and friends. This is one of our arenas. Seven different sports can be played here. My favorite is one called gumbat. Two teams of twelve people each compete to put flying batties into the scoring window. A battie looks like a ring, fatter in the middle where a power mechanism allows it to fly. There are three attackers controlling batties and nine defenders on each team. The defenders try to shoot down the batties before they enter the window, which is only slightly bigger than the battie. We also have races and competitions on the track around the outside, both among individuals and races on a vehicle called a darter. It has wheels, but can fly as well as scoot on the ground. We also enjoy a lot of competitions of physical strength and ingenuity. Our arenas can simulate a number of different conditions, fire, ice, water, and we have some designed for underwater and plasma competitions.

S: Plasma?

J: Yes—a viscous fluid—it requires a special suit and is difficult to move through—very challenging.

S: What are your living quarters like?

J: This is my home. Several adults live together and share areas like the kitchen. We have a common recreation area where we can watch the vendeer—similar to what you would call television, but we also can access that from our private sleeping quarters. We have a constant flow of information and entertainment.

This area is one of the work stations where we process minerals and other resources mined from the planets. Our space colonies require a broad range of metals. We also extract elements that are used as fertilizer for plants and food for some of the organisms raised on board.

S: Do you ever get tired of small, enclosed spaces, ever get the urge to enjoy wide open spaces and fresh air?

J: I find the air in the colony far fresher than what I’ve encountered on planetary surfaces. The atmosphere on a planet is difficult to control over a broad area. It becomes contaminated with dirt, dust, air-borne microbes. I usually wear a filtration device when I’m outside one of our habitats. Our homes are beautiful and very comfortable.

S: Your experience makes me appreciate our own planet all the more.

J: I’ve seen visuals of your planet. You haven’t yet done as much environmental damage as we did to our home world, but you’ll have to change many of your procedures soon, or you will end up as we have. Though, to be honest, I am happy with my life here, and I’ve met only a few who would choose a different life. Some of our people have relocated outside our empire to planets with whom we trade.

S: Interesting. It’s good to have choices.

J: Indeed.

Readers, join me again next week as I continue the interview with Juradaa. There’s a lot more of interest to come.

Readers, this week I’m continuing my discussion with two ladies, Nipi and Oba, from the planet Dudra.

Oba, can you tell me what your family life was like there? Did you have siblings?

O: I have a sister and a brother who still live on Ka’Ran. My brother is a priest in the Simbat Temple in the underwater city of Bai’ala’ti, where I grew up. My sister is married and has two children of her own. I was the youngest of the family.

S: What kinds of things did you enjoy as a child?

O: I was fascinated by our planet’s aquatic life, so I spent as much time as allowed near the edges of the city. I think you can see from the photo that parts of the exterior structure are clear, and it is quite common for the sea creatures to swim right up to it. I think sometimes they enjoy watching us as much as we enjoy watching them.

S: I’m surprised you didn’t become a marine biologist.

O: As a child, that is what I dreamed of. But as I got older, I became more aware of the fragile nature of the ecosystems on our planet, and I realized if we didn’t work to preserve them, some of our exquisite life forms might be lost to us forever. There were several endangered species when I was a child, including one of my favorites, a very colorful animal called a vinchat—which would translate as sea fingers. I decided to dedicate my life to preserving our planet, and I’m happy to say, we’ve made tremendous progress in that regard. Ka’Ran has a very stable ecosystem, and even our High Order has embraced the need to preserve it.

S: I wish I could visit Ka’Ran. It sounds so beautiful.

O: It is. I just wish the people could open their minds a little more.

S: I understand. Nipi, what was your family like? What did you enjoy as a child?

N: Our family structure is much different from Ka’Ran. Men and women do not marry for life. A couple may stay together until a child is four or five, but often their relationship is more temporary. Children are traditionally raised by their mother. Our planet is divided into ten political regions, what you would identify as countries, and each region provides for the welfare of a child until he or she reaches adulthood. Our children move into residential schools at the age of five. The parents visit on special days, and the children have vacation periods when they may go home or take trips sponsored by their school.

S: Did you enjoy school?

N: Most of the time. I liked most of my teachers, and most of us grow very close to our—I suppose you would call them nannies—in our schools, though they are much more like foster parents. They are people specifically selected for those positions who love caring for children.

S: What were your favorite subjects?

N: I always loved the arts, painting, music, and dance. I would have liked to be a professional artist, but my teachers encouraged me to pursue something that would be a more lucrative and dependable career. I was good at science, and that’s how I ended up as a robotics engineer. At least I am designing, creating something, and that aspect of the work is rewarding. As it turned out, their advice was wise, since I make a good, dependable income. The robots I design are used as artificial workers for maintenance and building, fighting intense fires, and cleaning up bio and chemical hazards where use of protective gear is too cumbersome or dangerous for live workers.

S: Are there a lot of that type of accident?

N: Yes. And not all are accidents, though the companies always insist they are. Since there is an unending supply of robotic workers, there is little incentive to be cautious. There is a political faction, of which Oba and I are members, trying to bring about change, but we continue to meet major resistance. I can not understand how anyone, even the heads of the companies, can want to live like this.

O: It is because they do not live like this. They have elegant homes on other planets, or live in opulent orbiting colonies.

S: The managers at some level have to be there. You’d think they would push for change.

N: They are well paid to put up with the inconvenience, and have the money and time to travel elsewhere for vacations. Besides, protest would get them fired, and no other company would hire them, so the managers won’t risk it.

Our planetary government is trying to repair some of the damage that has been done, but they let it go on for far too long. Now, reversing it is going to be a long process.

S: I worry that our planet will make the same mistakes. We talk about preserving the environment, but thus far, very little is being done. Like Dudra, the large corporations here are powerful and unwilling to take steps that will reduce their profit margins.

N: Greed always gets in the way of social conscience.

S: What do the two of you do now for recreation?

N: We travel as often as we have time. We also attend concerts and dance productions. Fortunately Dudra is not devoid of culture.

O: And I have encouraged Nipi to continue with her art. She is an exquisite artist. These are some of her pieces.

S: Oh, these are beautiful. Since you two have such love of visual and performance arts, it’s a shame the two of you can’t live on Ka’Ran together. It sounds like it would be a good fit for both of you. How long has that regime been in power? Do you think there is any chance the religious climate will change at some point?

O: In ancient times, we had multiple religions in different regions of the world. However, Ka’Re’Idinism gained dominance approximately five hundred of our solar cycles ago.

N: It is difficult to overcome an organization which rules with brutal suppression of dissent.

S: That is always difficult to overcome. I hope that sometime soon the two of you will find a better living situation.

N: We will continue to seek a better future. Thank you for talking to us.

S: Thank you. I’ve learned a lot from you.

Readers, next week I’ll be talking Juradaa, who lives and works on a space station. You won’t want to miss this one!