Flying On The Fringe

Friday, August 19, I spent the day in Kansas City at Mid Americon, the annual meeting of the World Science Fiction Society, which sponsors the Hugo Award, highly coveted by science fiction writers.

Aside from just plain fun, attending cons such as this one is a great learning opportunity. Themed conventions such as Mid Americon and Planet Comicon, which I attended in May, have dozens of presentations and panels to help artists and writers from a broad spectrum of genre perfect their craft. There is a great deal of overlap in all types of the events labeled as “cons,” so if you have the opportunity to attend one, I highly recommend it. Go in costume if you can—you’ll have more fun, but you can wear normal clothes if you’re more timid (chicken!).

At Mid Americon I had the opportunity to attend sessions on fantasy/scifi world-building, two sessions by panels of physicists and NASA scientists on the future of space propulsion, and one in which participants could ask questions of an astronaut.

My second book includes a chapter in which the crew encounters a radiation storm in space and has to retreat to a shielded section of the ship, then decontaminate the ship afterward. I was thrilled to learn from the astronaut that during coronal mass ejections from the sun, if they are large enough, NASA recommends that the space station astronauts retreat to quarters that have extra shielding. I was not so happy to learn that it is not necessary to decontaminate any parts of the station afterward, as the station is very well shielded from radiation.

Sometimes, however, you learn what questions to ask. The astronaut mentioned the earth’s magnetic field, which is what shields the earth, and the space station, from most of the sun’s radiation. Aha! What if the ship in question is beyond such a field? In that case, it is subject to the far more dangerous “galactic cosmic radiation.” Cosmic radiation poses one of the greatest problems for a mission to Mars.

I will have to do additional research before I know if my current rendition of decontamination aboard an interstellar ship after a radiation storm will pass scientific muster, but at least now I know what questions to ask.

P.S. One thing I learned is that there is a page on the Science Fiction Writers of America website (sfwa.org) that lists thirty one pages of questions to ask in order to craft good science fiction. (http://www.sfwa.org/2009/08/fantasy-worldbuilding-questions/) If you have trouble with the link, just go to the sfwa.org home page and enter “questions” in the search bar in the upper right corner.

Was there anyone out there who didn’t think writing was hard work?

TO: Hrkajan Science Central

I last contacted you less than a templas ago (June 16, 2016, local Earth date) regarding Earth’s discovery of the energy-collecting oculon we are constructing around our star. Earth Astronomer Tabetha Boyajian reported her studies in an online forum called Ted Talk in February, 2016, and speculated that the reduction in light from our star might be due to construction of a megastructure called a “Dyson sphere” (what we call an oculon). Astronomers thereafter dubbed Hrkajan “Tabby’s Star,” though its official Earth astronomical designation is KIC 8462852.

Boyajian’s report generated so much interest that astronomers pursued a private funding campaign to purchase time on one of Earth’s few high-powered telescopes. I understand such an endeavor seems like a pathetic and ridiculous approach to scientific inquiry, but that is how things frequently work on this planet.

I had hoped that the funding campaign would fail, and that would be the end of the focus on our development of the oculon. Unfortunately, the opposite has developed. The campaign has already generated more than $100,000 (a large but not amazing sum of “money” for this planet), but they aren’t done yet.

Earlier this year, Bradley Schaefer with Louisiana State University published studies of photographic plates that had captured Hrkajan going back to the 19th century. He reported a long-term dimming in the light from the star by nearly 20 percent over the past (Earth) century.

Most recently, On 65783.123.12 (Earth date August 3, 2016), Benjamin Montet with the California Institute of Technology and Joshua Simon with Observatories of the Carnegie Institution of Washington released their study of the star that analyzed data from Earth’s Kepler space telescope over the past four years. They have discovered that our star has been decreasing in brightness at an unprecedented rate. (Deborah Byrd in Space, earthsky.com, August 13, 2016)

Following is a direct quote from the article:

“That result might suggest a megastructure in the process of being built, hiding more and more of the star’s light from our view.”

I can’t stress to you what a danger Earth’s interest might pose for our civilization at some time in the future. Earth is not yet capable of interstellar travel, but as I mentioned in my earlier communique, humans have a history of making major technological leaps when motivated to do so.

I recommend we take immediate steps to disguise the oculon. The scientific community on this planet is too dispersed and disorganized for me to mount an effective disinformation campaign on my own. While many noted astronomers do not accept the theory that an artificial structure is being built around “Tabby’s Star,” given enough time and mounting evidence, Earth scientists are bound to realize the truth at some point.

Once they do, I have no doubt they will expend great effort to contact us, to our great detriment. This is an illogical and violent species.

Respectfully,

Akij Zimth, Earth Observation Unit

This week sky-watchers are in for a retreat as the annual Perseid meteor shower returns. Peak viewing time will be the early morning hours of August 12, after 1:00 a.m. when the moon has set. Astronomers believe this year’s show will be even better than usual because Jupiter has nudged the debris from comet 109P/Swift-Tuttle closer to Earth. They predict that those watching in dark areas away from artificial lights may be able to see as many as 150 meteors per hour.

If you think about it, that hardly constitutes a shower—that only amounts to a couple of meteors per minute. However, for those of us who have been excited by lesser “showers” of fifty to sixty meteors per hour, this is a gold mine.

For more information about this year’s Perseid meteor shower, visit the site: http://www.astronomy.com/news/observing/2016/08/perseid-meteor-shower-set-for-its-best-show-in-nearly-20-years

If you can’t watch on August 12, try one of the nights before or after that. They are supposed to peak on the 12th, but people are already spotting meteors out of that shower. Predictions of the peak are just that—predictions. And there frequently is plenty to see on the nights before and after the peak. The last shower I watched I went out the night before and saw several, then went out the night of the predicted peak and didn’t see any at all.

The most important element is a dark sky, so plan your location and time it after the moon is due to set.

For anyone who’s never watched for meteors before, here are some tips (most of these are just plain common sense):

• Find a place out in the country far from city lights
• For the Perseid shower, the best time will be after 1:00 a.m. (Central Standard Time), after the moon has set
• Look about two-thirds of the way from the horizon to the zenith (directly overhead), but look around from time to time. Meteors don’t all come from one direction or go one direction.
• Plan for comfort—take a blanket or reclining lawn chair. The easiest way to watch is flat on your back.
• Take a blanket, sweater or jacket. Even in warm weather, lying still in the damp night air can get chilly.
• Above all—be patient. You might not see any at all for several minutes, and then get a real show. You never know when they will strike.

Happy meteor watching, and good luck.

I saw Star Trek Beyond yesterday and thoroughly enjoyed it. I spent a good part of the movie holding my breath. That’s all I will tell you about it. No spoilers here.

There were a few places in the movie where I also found inspiration for my next novel. Space fiction must be the most difficult genre of writing. Nothing can be assumed. Grass might not be green, the sun might rise in the west (or north or south), even the laws of physics can be challenged. The only sure thing about space fiction is that you have to stretch your own imagination beyond anything known to man, and then describe it in a way that brings it to life for your reader. No problem.

I am often chagrined to find that my own imagination is lacking, so lately I have been seeking inspiration from other sources. Fortunately, I have found some excellent ones. Star Trek Beyond offered a wealth of alien species as well as a very inventive space station, if not a particularly unique alien planet landscape. The WiiU video game Xenoblade has provided another great source of inspiration. Yasuyuki Honne and Tonny Waiman Koo are the chief artists for the utterly amazing art in the game. In addition to superb characters and alien creatures, the landscape forms are awe-inspiring. Honestly, it’s worth buying a WiiU just for this one game, assuming you’re a better player than I am and can actually keep your character alive long enough to enjoy it. Otherwise, the game comes with a beautiful book full of Xenoblade’s art.

I had finished a rough draft of my second novel, tentatively titled Man on the Fringe. With my imagination rejuvenated, I will be undertaking a major overhaul. I hope someday it will inspire someone else’s imagination.

Fly high and free.

I had reported previously that President Dadra had ordered the military not to fire on civilians protesting the new Blitzgan government’s policies. Sadly, it seems that policy has changed. There have been multiple incidents of the military police shooting and killing unarmed citizens. Of course, in each case, they were individuals opposing the government. Is this a return to the old way of doing things?

President Dadra has not denounced the killings, so he has given at least tacit endorsement of them. The commander of the military police has announced that the police are being allowed to open fire in self defense when they believe their lives are in danger. The police wear body armor and carry an array of high powered weapons, as well as weapons designed for close personal combat. How can they be threatened by citizens armed with posters and banners?

The commander also said civilians had thrown rocks, bricks, and other heavy objects at the officers and called them obscene names. We have a highly trained police force, prepared (supposedly) to deal with crowds, and they can’t deal with flying bricks and insults? The commander further stated that those killed had criminal records. Even before the revolution criminals had the right to a trial. Do our police now have the right to execute criminals on the spot?

President Dadra, I appeal to you—put a stop to this tyranny before we degenerate back into the militaristic police state that we fought so hard to end.

Pika RN2378, Editor, The Blitzgan Newscom

On June 28, 2016, Omar Almaini and his team from the University of Nottingham released the final images of what they call the Ultra-Deep Survey (UDS) performed over an area of sky about four times the size of a full moon. The scientists observed 250,000 galaxies in this region of the sky, in the direction of the constellation Cetus the Whale. Several hundred of these galaxies are so distant that the light we perceive is from the first billion years after the Big Bang.

The team says its goal has been to learn about the formation of galaxies and track their evolution over the past 13 billion years. (From earthsky.com by Daniela Breitman)

Did you get that folks? In just one area of the sky they observed 250,000 galaxies. Don’t fry your brain, but think about what that means for the entire observable universe if we could move the telescope and observe the universe in a complete sphere around our planet.

Earth scientists believe our planet is just over 4.5 billion years old. Life first appeared on earth at about the 3.8 billion year mark. The genus homo appeared approximately 2.5 million years ago, and homo sapiens (that’s us as we know us today) about 200 thousand years ago. It took less than a billion years for life to develop on a new planet, and about 1.3 billion years for that life to evolve sentience.

If the Sol system happens to be a younger-than-average star system, (there is building evidence that it is), then it would be entirely plausible to think that somewhere out there, a planet has an intelligent species far more developed than we are. At the very least, who in their right mind could believe earth would be the only planet in the universe with intelligent life?

The biggest problem, and one that still has our best and brightest minds completely baffled, is that even if we could discern intelligent life (we don’t yet have the technology to do that), we might never be able to communicate effectively, let alone go there and meet them. Most astrophysicists believe travel to distant planets will likely never be possible, at least within the physical lifetime of a single person.

For the foreseeable future, it is only through the free range of the science fiction mind that human beings will travel the galaxy and meet all manor of exotic sentient life.

Live long and dream big.

Today the planet of Blitzgan, and to some extent the entire solar system orbiting the star we call Endira, took a giant step toward freedom and self-determination. The first-ever Planetary Senate will be seated in the capitol of Ardan. Durgess will also be represented, as most of the populace on that planet are remnants of the revolutionaries. For the time being, the Senate will meet in an undisclosed underground bunker for their protection, and because there are few large buildings above ground left intact.

We have a great deal of building to do, both physical and political.

When President Dadra garnered control of what remained of our planet’s war-beleaguered government, he promised to institute planet-wide elections. He took control the same way hundreds of governments leaders did before him—by force. The only difference between Dadra and his predecessors was what he promised. Needless to say, I was skeptical in the extreme.

However, I am becoming more of a believer. Dadra wasted no time in calling for planetary elections. Multiple candidates competed for the available Senate seats, each promising to carry out “the will of the people.” I can only hope they will live up their promises as the President seems to be doing.

It is sad that some of our citizens, unaccustomed to such a freedom, reacted with riots and acts of individual violence. Dadra used the military to enforce security at the polls and to ensure that the elections succeeded. Not a single civilian was killed by the actions of the military. That in itself is unique and praise-worthy.

So, unilaterally and with no authority whatsoever, I am declaring today, 16 Julyn 6248 Freedom Day. Perhaps the idea will catch on and at some time in the future, when ensuring the mere survival of our system becomes less pressing, the Senate will pick up on the idea and make it an official holiday.

Rejoice, my dear citizens, friends, and even those of you who were formerly my enemies. Today a new era of hope begins for the citizens of the Endira system.

Pika RN2378,Editor, The Blitzgan Newscom

I may be late joining the party, but I just discovered a fascinating new project on CNET. Six months ago CNET launched a project in which it asked subscribers to participate in writing a science fiction novel—a crowd-sourced novel. The novel is now available on the following site:

http://www.cnet.com/news/crowd-control-our-crowdsourced-science-fiction-novel-starts-here/

Eric Mack, a CNET writer, launched the novel on October 27, 2015, in recognition of National Writing Month in November. Each year during November, writers are encouraged to attempt to write a full novel in thirty days. I have never attempted it, and I can’t believe anyone could produce much more than 30,000 words of garbage that way, but who knows. Lots of people have tried it, and a lot have discovered a talent they didn’t know they had, or the discipline to employ a talent they do have.

Mack set up the premise for the novel entitled Crowd Control and posted his own daily writings, allowing others to add to his base. The full manuscript totals around 50,000 words and had hundreds of contributors. The finished work is now available for reading at the link above, but the site is still accepting illustrations, so artists—get to it!

Those of us who are writers fully recognize that our profession is changing rapidly. With self-publishing becoming an affordable alternative while traditional publishers offer less and less for a huge chunk of the writers’ profits, writing is open to the masses as never before. True, that sometimes results in novels of inferior quality and writing expertise making it to print, but it also provides an opening for unrecognized but potentially outstanding authors like one of my newly discovered favorites, David Dalglish. Dalglish’s novels are currently published by Orbit, but he started out by self-publishing. Would we ever have had the pleasure of his novels if self-publishing hadn’t been an option?

Crowd sourcing seems to be a new opening in the realm of authorship. As a writer, it thrills me to see something develop that encourages the art of word smithing.

Thus far I have read only the first chapter of Crowd Control, but I intend to keep reading, and I’ll let you all know what I think of it.