In Another Land

My other news is that I'm finding myself drawn to explore the planet Mars.



Ever since Mars One's co-founder Bas Lansdorp, M.Sc, went public with his plan to send colonists on a one-way trip to the Red Planet, I've been ever more fascinated with the whole project. A decade or more ago I read Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy. It felt like I was really there, half the time. Great stories, but Kim sends 100 colonists all at once. Mars One plans to send them about 4 at a time.

So my next writing project, after publishing Called To Battle, will be a novel about colonising Mars. The more I look into it, the more detail I find. There's a whole new world to learn about. This will be a story for adults, so the science needs to be well-researched and believable.

Wish me bon voyage. I may be gone some time.

Meet the Man From The Moon

Imagine meeting a lunar astronaut. What would you ask him? Science fiction author and astrophysicist Gregory Benford met Buzz Aldrin in the 1980s.

I read this and felt the historic weight of frustration that Apollo astronauts, among many others, have felt since the moon landings.

Gregory Benford's writing, by the way, is top-notch science fiction. He knows the science and he writes good fiction.

Zac Manchester Blasts Off!

Here's a guy who had a great idea and wouldn't give up until he had got the thing working. Zac is a graduate student at Cornell University in New York. His vision: Design and fly a spacecraft that anyone can afford.

Intrigued? Disbelieving? Have a look. It's called KickSat.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/zacinaction/kicksat-your-personal-spacecraft-in-space/posts

With thanks to the BBC News for the pic

The BBC News page where I saw KickSat first is here.

For my blog posting about other home-made space projects and commercial space, see this link. And this one.

Called To Battle: Draft Version

It's not far off now!

For news of the sequel to The Calling, my SF novel for mid-grade children to young adults, follow this link.

The Man Who Works On Mars

Seriously! This man's job involves driving cars on the surface of the planet Mars. He was born in Italy, his father was a school teacher who loved carpentry. Take a look! He says the reasons that most of the other drivers have left the job is that:
1) Google pays more
2) Driving cars on Mars can get boring!

Here's some advice from this driver, Paolo Bellutta :
"What advice would you give to someone who wants to take the same career path as you?
You never know what can help you, so learn everything you can! I often used knowledge I gathered while pursuing my hobbies, or talking to friends or reading non-work-related books."

David Brin, Thinker.

Robert Sawyer mentioned his friend David Brin, the SF author.

 I'm right now listening to one of David's 4 videos on the future of space exploration. And this guy's got the knowledge - Wikipedia says about him:

In 1973, he graduated from the California Institute of Technology with a Bachelor of Science in astrophysics.^[8] He followed this with a Master of Science in applied physics in 1978 and a Doctor of Philosophy in space science in 1981, both from the University of California, San Diego.
Brin is a 2010 fellow of the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies.^[9] He helped establish the Arthur C. Clarke Center for Human Imagination (UCSD). He serves on the advisory board of NASA's Innovative and Advanced Concepts group and frequently does futurist consulting for corporations and government agencies.

On the subject of Mars, he's thinking of the 'expedition' profile of mission, not the 'one-way-ticket' espoused by Mars One and others. Still lots of common sense - cache supplies, use resources out there, formulate a wise overall goal for space exploration that will work economically. Warning: you need time and spare brain power to listen to this guy.

Is There Hope In Science Fiction?

So I went to the event and it was great to hear the authors Dr. Vincent Lam, Robert J Sawyer (or Rob, as he prefers) and Ania Szado talk about their books and read from it. The Airlanes Hotel ballroom was packed. Thunder Bay's literary community was out in force tonight. The Northern Women's Bookstore was represented on the back tables, selling the authors' books and some local writers' works too - yes, mine was there as well. I gave the store three copies some 10 months ago and they are still faithfully tending all three of them! Maybe the northern women customers don't like kids' sci-fi much.

Anyway, perhaps you're wondering if I asked any or all of my dazzling questions. I managed to squeeze one in right under the wire, when I thought all three writers must be exhausted from talking so much. It came to me in the car, fizzing along the expressway at 7:01 pm. I once read an interview of Kim Stanley Robinson (Stan to his friends, of whom Rob is one) in which he said that the backdrops of SF writing tend to be dystopian, dark, and in response he tries to write in such a way as to inspire hope, to awaken a vision in scientists and others that points to ways in which people could use science and technology to solve some of the big issues facing the human race today. I think he's certainly done that, to the extent to which I've read his stuff. His Mars trilogy points to one way in which all sorts of people might make Mars their home against all the odds and carve out a new kind of community for themselves.

So I asked something like this to all 3 writers - How can writers inspire hope through their writings, or is it even their function? Should we really write about the world 'as it really is'? And the answers were very thoughtful. Rob counts himself as one of fairly few SF writers who write hopefully of the future; Vincent and Ania said in different ways (as I dimly remember) that they write about life as they see it, be it sad, funny, hopeful or whatever. I think Vincent said that if someone tells a writer how they should write, usually a writer will react by writing the opposite!


Rob Sawyer sees our present age as much, much better than those that precede it, and expects the future to be even better in many ways. I'm sure his thoughts are more complex than that; forgive me Rob if I over-simplified there. Looking at today's news in horror and comparing it to past centuries may be like telling my dog his breath only smells from close-up. The horrors of history were undoubtably awful to live through; perhaps today 'we've never had it so good.' Yes... and no. Mankind today has, I think, much more potential for good and evil than ever before. I think the stakes are being raised every day. Are we becoming a race of TV- and web-educated fools, led by the blind? Hmm. I'll have to think about that.


Comments gratefully received below.

Robert J Sawyer plays the Blues!

Just got my ticket today for the International Festival of Authors, to be held this Sunday at a local hotel here in Thunder Bay. My neighbour Bill is coming too - he moved into the neighbourhood recently and turns out he's a keen SF reader, preferring the classic  oldies like Heinlein and Asimov. Has boxes full of the stuff in his basement, 'Come on in and help yourself!'

But I digress.

So this Festival is hosting  Vincent Lam, Ania Szado and Robert J Sawyer and they will read from their current works. Do you wish you were here? Admittedly, SF-head that I am, I have not heard of the other two, but I have read some of Robert Sawyer's novels and short stories. You can read the opening chapters of Sawyer's latest, Red Planet Blues, here. I started it, began enjoying the mid-future Mars he paints with deliberately grimy brush, then I had to get back to work. Ahem.

It's set maybe 100 years in the future, when Mars is settled to some extent, and the main character is a hard-up private detective starting on a missing-person case. One major technological breakthrough that plays a major role in the plot is the idea, in vogue amongst many SF types these days, that sooner or later we'll be able to upload our personalities onto computer hardware or into replacement bodies, thereby extending our lives tremendously. A kind of ultimate hard-drive backup.

Here's a snippet of dialogue as he visits the local police force which is renowned for its sloppiness and inattention to duty:


The NKPD consisted of eight cops, the junior ones of whom took

turns playing desk sergeant. Today it was a flabby lowbrow named

Huxley, whose blue uniform always seemed a size too small for

him. "Hey, Hux," I said, walking over. "Is Mac in?"


Huxley consulted a monitor then nodded. "Yeah, he's in, but he 


don't see just anyone."


"I'm not just anyone, Hux. I'm the guy who picks up the pieces 


after you clowns bungle things."


Huxley frowned, trying to think of a rejoinder. "Yeah, well ..." 


he said, at last.


"Oooh," I said. "Good one, Hux! Way to put me in my place."



He narrowed his eyes. "You ain't as funny as you think you are, 


Lomax."


"Of course I'm not. Nobody could be that funny."

So I am plotting. What one question should I ask the author, if I get the chance? Here are some contenders:

• If Microsoft launched a technology to upload the human mind onto a computer, would you do it?
• When you invented your future-Mars, how much did current Mars colonisation ideas affect your planning?
• Have you signed up with Mars One for a one-way ticket? That would be a great inspiration for a future novel!
• Do you know a friendly publisher I could talk to?

Actually I wouldn't dare ask quite as bluntly as this, except the second question. Not in public. Perhaps afterwards, after Bill has got his autograph.

Everybody's Into Space These Days!

This is a link to the article over on The Calling giving some links to all sorts of wise and wacky things that ordinary people are doing these days in the arena of spaceflight, space exploration, space colonisation and so on. Hope you enjoy it.

Here's an extra pic - my favourite Earth-to-orbit launcher, Skylon.