Colony of Mars

Courtesy of NASA.

Today’s guest on my blog is science fiction author Kate Rauner. In this article she tells us about her fascination for the exploration of the Red Planet, which is the setting of her “Colony of Mars” series.

Mars is in the news these days. We’re learning so much from NASA and the European Union, and other countries are joining with their own missions. India, Japan... Mars will be a multi-cultural planet. But what fascinates me is the number of private organizations joining the race, and the people ready to take a one-way trip.

Obsession with Mars isn’t new. The Mars Society is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year. They run simulations of living and working on Mars and you can apply to join a mission.

Some recent entries into the Mars race have a lot of money. Elon Musk is a good example, a billionaire who wants to live and die on Mars. His SpaceX might make it. Then there’s Mars One, a non-profit that seems more aspirational than able, but thousands of everyday people from all over the world applied to take one-way journeys.

Colonizing Mars will be very difficult. There’s a lot to think about. Here’s a problem that never dawned on me: MIT students calculated that, to raise enough food in Martian greenhouses to feed the settlers, gardens would produce dangerously high oxygen levels.

There are a lot of ways Mars can kill you.

Cold and a near-vacuum atmosphere make the surface immediately deadly.

Cosmic and solar radiation require anyone who wants a long life to shield their habitat under meters of regolith - that’s Martian soil, but with no detectable life, calling it soil seems optimistic.

Imagine if traveling millions of kilometers means you hunker in a burrow, living as a subsistence farmer, and only venturing onto the surface by remote control robot.

Technology can protect settlers from everything except the low gravity (which will damage your metabolism and immune system as well as your bones and muscles, but let’s move on) but the biggest challenge is human nature.

Could you live confined in tight quarters with a few other people? For the rest of your life? Results from an experiment at Biosphere 2 make that a dismal prospect, and NASA won’t release all the findings from their confinement studies. Hmm.

Personally, I’m not brave enough to move to Mars. I like my favorite coffee shop too much. That and grocery stores, electricity delivered to my house, and space. Lots and lots of space to roam around under blue skies in warm sunshine.

But creating a first foothold is an intriguing project. I explore the challenges and the delights in a science fiction book about the first twelve settlers. I send diverse settlers, civilians from different cultures and different backgrounds. These are real people, as real as I can imagine them, struggling on the real Mars.

I had to give them technologies we don’t have ready-to-go today, but a story about colonizing Mars might be too short otherwise.

My sci-fi colony has an Artificial Intelligence, and construction robots to harvest air and build habitat space from the Martian regolith. An extensive satellite system monitors space weather, provides communications, and beams power down to the surface. I truly wish we had a power system like this for Earth today.

My settlers encounter real problems and danger follows them from Earth. Mars is a deadly planet and no matter how earthlings plan, unanticipated hazards may doom the colony.

They have different reasons to risk the journey. Emma Winters, a young roboticist, wants to explore in walkabout suits she designed. Her friends want to spread life to the barren planet, study its geology, and climb its vast mountains. A couple Brits just want to play with the robots, the best erector set ever, and a Kiwi wants to pilot ships in orbit. There’s also an orange tabby cat that doesn’t care if he’s on Mars. He’d be a cat anywhere.

But survival takes priority over dreams, because something is terribly wrong in the colony. A strange illness threatens these pioneers, tragic deaths may be no accident, and experts on Earth can’t protect them. With no way back to Earth, they must save themselves or Emma may be one of the last humans on Mars. Because, even in the real-world, the gruesome death of early settlers is bound to spoil our taste for Mars.

Kate Rauner

A science fiction writer, poet, firefighter, and engineer on her way to eccentric old woman

https://katerauner.wordpress.com/

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KATE RAUNER writes science fiction novels and science-inspired poetry, and serves as a volunteer firefighter. She’s a retired environmental engineer and worked in America’s nuclear weapons complex, so she’s also a Cold War Warrior. Honestly, as designated by the USA Congress.

A friend tricked her into writing, first by involving her in his own book, then asking her to post on his blog, and finally encouraging her to join NaNoWriMo, the National Novel Writing Month. Kate says her first story was “not-terrible” so she kept writing.

She lives outside Silver City, New Mexico, where copper mines still anchors the economy, and a budding artist community makes the place a miniature version of an undiscovered Santa Fe. From a ridge-top home on the edge of southwest America’s Gila National Forest, Kate enjoys hiking with her husband, feeding the birds, and indulging her cats, llamas, and dog. Kate says she’s pursuing her life goal, “to become an eccentric old woman.”

View Kate’s videos on You Tube. Visit her blog. Find her books at Amazon and other stores.

Special deal: a Box Set of all five books, value priced, at Amazon and other stores!

The Misunderstood

Today’s guest on my blog is author Rae Stoltenkamp. Her books span the genres of fantasy, science fiction and magical realism. She is also a poet. In this article she talks about her experience teaching to a gifted child and how that influenced some of her books.

Before settling down to writing and self-publishing I used to be a full time teacher in an inner city London school. Regardless of the country you teach in, anyone will tell you this is a challenging environment. Very quickly into my teaching practice I realised I had a knack for communicating with children with Special Needs (SEN as it’s called here in the UK).

Most times when people think of Special Needs they latch onto the idea of a child with learning difficulties. Several times during my 13 year teaching stint I was reminded that while the majority of my students did indeed have these difficulties there were others whose behaviour marked them as SEN when in fact they were highly intelligent. Their lack of engagement with the average classroom content and insular or confrontational attitude masked their talent.

At the very start of my teaching career, an introductory lesson on Of Mice & Men to my SEN class brought a gifted student – let’s call her Andria - to my attention. Andria exhibited many of the traits identified with the gifted:

• Curiosity – endless questions
• Ignoring the teacher’s brief for assignments – going off piste and doing her own thing
• Advanced vocabulary – she regularly used 3 or 4 syllable words in appropriate context
• Lack of engagement with her peers – often got involved in conversations with support staff and myself while appearing to ignore fellow students
• Strong emotions – Andria often voiced her opinion on topics in a loud and seemingly abrasive manner
• Outside the box thinking

When I first understood this was the case with Andria, I confess to feeling intimidated. Andria’s breadth of knowledge on certain subjects was superior to mine. Her general knowledge and vocabulary was outstanding. She understood my subtle jokes which often went over the heads of some support staff and she was certainly not shy about telling me when she thought I had supplied the class with incorrect facts.

To teach Andria I had to take a different approach to the one I was using with the rest of my class. The first thing I did was give her a solo assignment on the Social & Historical background of the novel. Admittedly, I did this at the time as a way to keep her busy at the classroom computer so I could get the rest of the class settled.

10 minutes into the lesson, a quick glance over her shoulder told me she had the matter well in hand. So I decided to add some parameters to see if she could cope with them. I stipulated her research had to be on a Powerpoint presentation of 10 - 15 slides, include images and be in language her other classmates could easily understand. Then I also demanded a bibliography. Chewing on a thumb nail I waited for her reaction. After asking what a bibliography was and listening to my explanation, she then simply got on with the task.

Andria was engaged all lesson. I kept tabs on her and made suggestions as the Powerpoint developed. Looking over her printed slides later that day I realised I was out of my depth. So I headed for the library. Very old school – I know. This was in the days before the internet and search engines were at their peak. An hour later I was very deflated. I didn’t possibly have the skills to teach this child. Everything I read indicated she was in a class of her own.

It took a train and bus commute home to still my doubts. I reminded myself I got into teaching to facilitate, not to quit as soon as I hit my first hurdle. I also called my mother – she was the font of all wisdom. The first thing she told me was that I had to shelve my own intellectual insecurities and focus on Andria and her needs solely. I had to engage with my self-doubt and admit it was likely Andria would ask me questions I couldn’t answer. I would have to tackle this issue and deal with it. I would have to be resourceful in my approach.

Thus Andria led me on a journey of discovery where I began to understand that the gifted can be as neglected as those with learning difficulties. I resolved that this would never ever be the case in my classroom. Andria left my class after the next round of assessment. She moved to a top set. The next academic year the government introduced Mixed Ability teaching. Many more like Andria passed through my classroom before I gave up full time teaching.

I suspect Andria and the other gifted students I met during my teaching career are the reason gifted children often creep into my writing. They feature in both my SciFi novels and in my debut novel Six Dead Men, one of the dead men is a remarkable but ignored artist and another is linguistically gifted but excluded from school because of behaviour deemed aggressive and anti-social.

My latest book – Palindrome - the prequel novella to Six Dead Men is no different. At the heart of the story is an exceptional 12 year old boy called Robert Deed (the detective from Six Dead Men). The setting is Haddington, near Edinburgh – it’s 1975. Here change is a process slowed by tradition and the luxury of a certain distance from the swift progress of the rest of the world. Robert’s 13th birthday approaches. He is a teenager who looks beyond a thing and sees inside it. But this birthday brings more than a coming of age celebration for Robert. He will feel forced to solve the murder of his first crush, battle his grief, re-evaluate his relationship with his parents and exonerate a dear friend.

Palindrome is due for release on 27th July. To celebrate, Six Dead Men is currently available FREE exclusively through Instafreebie for e-readers.

Rae Stoltenkamp
Fantasy, science fiction and magical realism author
www.raestoltenkamp.com

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RAE STOLTENKAMP was born in South Africa and came to England in 1987 to visit family. She liked the weather so much she stayed. After a writing holiday in Greece she had an epiphany and realised she should be writing on a full time basis. It was probably heat stroke since she hadn’t had sun in a while. She then studied writing at City Lit with the poet Caroline Natzler and is now a self-published writer, blogger and English tutor living in South London. Rae currently works for a local charity (Young Women’s Hub) teaching English and also runs creative writing workshops and after school clubs with www.inkhead.co.uk. Her published work includes poetry in Prole, Fantasy for children, Science Fiction for young adults and Magic Realism for adults. As well as her writing, Rae has a passion for Lindy Hop and Argentine Tango. When she’s not chained to her desk and laptop, you can often see her tripping the light fantastic with her dancing friends.

Additional books by Rae Stoltenkamp include: Where Rainbows Hide, Six Degrees and When Rainbows Cry.

Visit Rae’s website: https://raestoltenkamp.com/

You can also follow her on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

New discoveries and new mysteries in “Saranythia Part 2 - The Varton”

The protagonists of the first part of “Saranythia” (sequel to “Amantarra”) return in this second part that leads us into the heart of the story. We had left them while they were slipping, despite themselves, in the middle of a battle between the daemons and the army of the Varton, now in “Saranythia Part 2: The Varton”  we find them in the hands of the latter, as they begin to discover the link between the planet where the portal led them and Amantarra’s sister, namely Saranythia. At the same time the figure of the “villain” of this story begins to emerge, which is hidden behind the strange name of Uzpanax.

Richard J. Galloway, as always, mixes elements of science fiction and an excellent world building with irony and mystery and, although this part is characterised by less action than the first, it does not fail to intrigue the reader, who soon finds themselves on the last page.

I also found the part in the Ja’liem forest very interesting and I continue to wonder how this part of the novel will be connected exactly with everything else.

I just have to wait for the next episode. In the meantime, I asked Richard to offer my blog’s readers a special insight on this new book, and he decided to let one of his characters, Commander Vartii, talk about himself.

The Commander - in his own words. 

“It’s not about winning or losing, it’s about removing the obstacle and moving onto the next objective. What the obstacle is, whoever it may be, is irrelevant. The same applies to whatever needs to be done to remove the obstacle. If it requires a death, then however regretful that may be, death will be the solution I apply. I’m Commander Vartii, by the way. I command the garrison here at Setergard, a former religious centre at the gateway to the Vale of Olrad. Ah, you’re wondering about what possible lessons life has taught me to make me so cold. You’ll understand that I don’t see this as a problem, others may see it that way, but in my position it’s an advantage. My authority here at Setergard is absolute. It was granted to me by the Saratarian order in the name of our god Saranythia. I was chosen for the role because of the very qualities I’ve just described. I like to believe that I’m fair minded but firm. I certainly don’t have a problem with discipline which I take as confirmation that my approach to command works.  A command that I’ve held for over eighty years, far longer than any other commander before me, and I might add, more successful. As a result, the townsfolk in Olrad refer to the warriors here as The Varton. But, I digress.

Life’s lessons. Well I suppose my journey to the position of commander started early. I must have been around eight years old when I learned that life really isn’t fair, and that the only person who was going look after my interests, was me. As you can see, I’m strong but physically quite small and slight, not really warrior material. When I was a child my stature was a major disadvantage, especially given the rough games we played. It’s around that age that we learn to block our thoughts to others. You can’t win any game if your opponents all know what your next move is. Of course at eight years old the older kids can easily bypass your attempts to block them. Things improve with time, but in these matters, practice does not always make perfect. Now I know what you’re thinking, the ever popular life lesson of older boys picking on me because they could, and that did happen, but there were only five of them, and they didn’t necessarily single me out, they were quite liberal with their attentions. No, the event that set me on the path to commander centred on a songbird.

In the town of Olrad where I grew up, life centred on the worship of Saranythia, and the word of the Red Friars of the Saratarian order was law. Now, long story short, my father had promised to buy me a caged songbird from the market and I’d gone into the house of worship to give thanks to Saranythia. While I was in there I overheard two Friars talking. They mentioned the name Amantarra and I thought it would be a good name for the bird I’d been promised. As I was leaving, one of the Friars asked what I’d been giving thanks for, so I told him and mentioned the name I’d chosen. Now I’d seen anger before, but this was different. His voice was controlled, and physically he didn’t touch me, but his thoughts hit me and knocked me off my feet. He told me that Amantarra was a sacred name known only to the Saratarian order and I should forget I’d heard it. Of course my father refused to buy the bird for me as a punishment for angering the Friar, but that unfair decision wasn’t what changed me. The powerful thoughts the Friar assailed me with caused me to instinctively throw up mental defences that normally take decades to learn. That wasn’t all, I struck out at the Friar with my mind in an attempt to stop the onslaught that threatened to overwhelm me. At that age my attack should have been ineffectual against a trained Friar, but it wasn’t, it worked and I managed to deflect his anger onto my father. The result of that, was no songbird.

It took me years to work out how I’d done it. All members of the Saratarian order, like the warriors I command, carry a blue orb in their abdomens. The orb links us to the power of Saranythia and confirms our commitment to her. As I’d thrown up my defences I sensed the power of the Friar’s orb, and through it I could sense the Friar. Instinctively, and it was pure instinct, what I’d done was to use the link and the orb’s power to deflect the Friar’s attention onto my father. It was the discovery of that ability changed me, because after, I found I could influence anyone. As a result, I never lost another game, or fight, and the three bullies who survived my revenge learnt to avoid me and the fear I could inject into their thoughts. To this day I regret the two deaths, they were after all only a couple of years older than me, still children, but I suppose some people just can’t cope with being shown their own nightmares.”

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Raised amid the heavy industry of the north-east of England on a diet of Star Trek, Doctor Who and fantasy novels, RICHARD J. GALLOWAY rebelled against his school's assumption that heavy industrial work would be his vocation. Having exhausted the only apparent option, the careers master would despair. “If you don’t want to work in the steelworks, where do you want to work?” His reply was always, “I don’t know.” The industry he finished up in would not materialise for another ten years. No wonder the master struggled. From school, via drawing office and architecture, eventually he found himself working with large computer systems.
Career aside, the thread that bound it all together has been fantasy. He has never lost his fascination with the imagery that a good story invokes. After all it had shown him worlds beyond this one, and possibilities beyond the steelworks. It continues to do so.
Richard still lives in the north-east of England with his wife, family, and a large cat called Beano. The heavy industry has shrunk, but Richard’s world of fantasy has grown. He often wonders what advice he would have been given if the careers master had read the occasional bit of science fiction.

Richard’s first novel Amantarra was published in 2013, followed in 2017 and 2018 by the first two parts of its sequel Saranythia, The Gates of Setergard and The Varton.

Visit Richard online at: www.richardjgalloway.com

And follow him on Facebook and Twitter.

You can find more about Saranythia in this interview with Richard.

Explaining the unexplainable with “Saranythia”

Today’s guest is an old acquaintance of this blog: science fiction writer Richard J. Galloway. Author of “Amantarra” and “Saranythia Part 1: The Gates of Setergard”, both translated into Italian by me, Richard offers us his own presentation of the latter and answers to a few questions I asked him.

Three hundred thousand years ago Amantarra’s sister Saranythia had set off on a secret mission to save her people. She’d never been heard of again. She’d hidden her tracks so well that even a species as advanced as the Bruwnan had been unable to find her, even when the situation had reached a critical point and her help was desperately needed.

It had been twelve years since the crisis had been averted and control of the city of Valheel restored to Artullus. The entity that had controlled the city had not been defeated, it had simply vanished, leaving behind a set of complex mysteries. Not all the citizens of Valheel had returned to the city and the majority of the Bruwnan were unaccounted for. Those that had returned had been galvanised into discovering the motives behind the entity’s genocidal attack on them.

On Earth, life was good for John and Elleria, but it didn’t feel secure. The sense that there was something more, that something was coming, had never gone away, and for twelve years they had watched and waited. In particular, Amantarra watched Tyrus, whose manifestation in human form had coincided with the entities disappearance. Tyrus, an agent of the entity, appeared to be biding his time and had occupied himself with building Burnston’s company into an empire, his true purpose hidden.

Then Amantarra received an invitation from a moon in a distant galaxy, and the game changed.

Saranythia will be published in four short parts.

You already told me about the object (in this article) that inspired “Amantarra”. Is there any object or event that has been particular relevant while writing “Saranythia”?

No, the influence is not based on an object or event, not this time anyway.  It’s based more on a collection of concepts. I have a fascination with the unexplained, be it scientific or otherwise, and an impulse to try and explain them. Think about ghosts, no one has ever proven that they exist and yet their persistence in human culture continues. Why?

Let me give you a sort of parallel example. A few years ago I was thinking of a friend I’d known at school. It had been years since I’d seen or spoken to him as he lived thousands of miles away in the far east. The day after I thought of him, he turned up at my door. He’d been in England on business and thought he’d call round. Now this is a true story not an urban legend and it serves as a starting point for the following three questions.

1. Did my friend turn up because I’d thought of him? Cause and effect.

2. Did I think of him because he was planning to visit? Premonition.

3. Was it coincidence?

Perhaps it was all three until it became one of them, Quantum Mechanics, or perhaps it was something else entirely. “Saranythia” is a search for a definitive answer to the mysteries of ghosts and the coincidental appearance of long lost friends. It just happens on another planet.

Why did you decide to publish it in four parts?

Mainly the length of time that has passed since publishing Amantarra. Due to family circumstances it has been difficult over the last five years for me to get any writing done. Those events are all behind me now, but of course it has been a while since anything was published so I decided to publish in four small parts. That way I can get the story out to my readers much faster.

“Saranythia Part 2 - The Varton” will be published in April 2018.

Is there a book (or more books), among those you’ve been reading while writing “Saranythia Part 1: The Gates of Setergard”, which you think may have somehow influenced you?

I love the fantasy works of Robin Hobb and I’m sure her style of writing has had an influence on my writing, but my influences are almost always graphical. I tend to picture a scene long before I’ve decided what’s going to happen in it. For example, the opening scene in “Saranythia” was inspired by a background image I have on my computer. Once I have a setting, the characters appear quite quickly and start interacting. I just write down what they say and do. Okay that’s a simplification of the process, but it is in essence what happens.

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Raised amid the heavy industry of the north east of England on a diet of Star Trek, Doctor Who and fantasy novels, RICHARD J. GALLOWAY rebelled against his schools assumption that heavy industrial work would be his vocation. Having exhausted the only apparent option, the careers master would despair. “If you don’t want to work in the steelworks, where do you want to work?” His reply was always, “I don’t know.” The industry he finished up in would not materialise for another ten years. No wonder the master struggled. From school, via drawing office and architecture, eventually he found himself working with large computer systems.

Career aside, the thread that bound it all together has been fantasy. He has never lost his fascination with the imagery that a good story invokes. After all it had shown him worlds beyond this one, and possibilities beyond the steelworks. It continues to do so.

Richard still lives in the north east of England with his wife, family, and a large cat called Beano. The heavy industry has shrunk, but Richard’s world of fantasy has grown. He often wonders what advice he would have been given if the careers master had read the occasional bit of science fiction.

Richard’s first novel Amantarra was published in 2013, while its sequel Saranythia Part 1: The Gates of Setergard is now available on Amazon.

Visit Richard online at: www.richardjgalloway.co.uk

And follow him on Facebook and Twitter.

"Gazing at Mars": a short story by LT Wulf

This is a special guest post because it’s the first time I’m hosting a short story by a fellow author, LT Wulf, on my blog. This is also the first post of a series written by the members of the Mars Science Fiction group on Facebook, a group dedicated to science fiction set on Mars or about the Red Planet. Enjoy!

--- Warning: Simplified spelling ahed! ---

Gary found Lucinda in the bubble room staring out at Mars. The bubble room was atop the Environmental Control and Life Support System module. The ECLSS was the tallest module on the ship which itself was rooted on the Nautilus-X design that NASA never got off the drawing board. As such, it afforded the best overall sight of the ship. It was also the backup bridg should sumthing happen to the main bridg.

“I knew I’d find you here.”

She kept staring at the red world hanging in the welkin, “Isn’t it awsum? I can hardly believ that we made it.”

Gary grinnd at the sheer joy on her face as she gaz'd thru the bubble. Her face was a pretty, soft nebb to gaze upon. Lucinda, like the two other wimmen in the crew, had cut her silky black hair short before they had left Earth itself. The short hair only highlighted the high cheekbones, dark eyen, and broad smile. The sleevless skinsuit highlighted the curves of her body.

“They gave high odds that we wouldn’t.”

She at last broke her gaze to look at him, “I gess you’re a rich man now. How much did you bet?”

“Pretty much my whole 401k.”

Her eyes widen a bit, “Your whole 401k? You bet your whole retirement on this?”

“Well, I reckond that we’d either make it or we wouldn’t. In the latter befall, we’d likely be dead and the gelt wouldn’t matter anyway.”

“We might hav aborted and gone back.”

“I know this crew. We would hav only aborted if it were life threatening … and I mean truly life threatening. We weren’t going back for a glitch.”

She simper'd, “So how much did you win?”

“I won’t hav to work when we get back, that’s for sure.” He grinnd, “What? Now that I’m rich, you’re going to take a liking to me?”

“Your books hav sold well so it’s not like you had to worry about that anyway. The money won’t do you any good here. Besides, unlike someone else in this bubble, I’v committed to staying at least until the next team gets here. I might not go back even then.”

Unlike the living ring of the ship, which had weight made by the centrifugal force of the spin, the rest of the ship was weightless. In the zero-g he drifted nearer to her. In a low steven he said, “So giv me a reason to stay.”

He was near enuff to smell her fairness. He could almost feel the tuch of her lips on his. Then he found himself drifting away as she shuvd him with a finger.

“Dog! We all know that you hav a crush on Fawn.”

Fawn was the life science specialist and crew medic. She stood 5'8" (173 cm) with green eyen. Gary had been drawn to her from the first. She had flirted with him but seemd bent on keeping him at arm’s length.

“Fawn has a boyfrend back dirtside on Earth.”

“And you hav your own harem of wimmen dirtside on Earth. I hav no intention of being another notch on your belt.”

“Maybe I haven’t met the right woman yet.” He challeng'd her, “You don’t think you’re up to it? I think you’re selling yourself short. No pun meant.” Lucinda wasn’t short at 5'6" (168 cm) but she was the shortest of the crew.

“Gawd! What a player you are. What about Birgit? Wasn’t she the right woman? I think you said that yourself.”

“Ouch!” The bad thing about being on the first Mars crew, the whole world knew your life … good and bad. “She likely was. She was a good woman but I was yung and dumb. She’s has another life now … without me.”

She star'd sternly at him, “I’m a good woman too. I wouldn’t want to go thru what she did. Besides, Fawn could hav you anytime she wanted and where would that leav me?”

“Do you truly think so little of me?”

She lafft, “Do you think we wimmen don’t talk amongst ourselves. I know she told you that and what you answer'd.” Before he could answer she went on, “Likely the only reason you haven’t hit on Suzanne is owing to she is Doug’s girlfrend and he’s your frend. Maybe there are sum lines you won’t cross.”

Suzanne was the third woman on the crew of six. She was the tallest of the wimmen, a sumwhat lanky 5'11" (180 cm) blonde. She had a little bit of the naughty librarian look going for her. Lucinda held his eyes. Hers were sparkling. She was having fun with him and he knew it.

“Well thanks for the scrap of goodness in my character. Do I hav any mor redeeming qualities that might break thru your stubbornness?”

She had come nearer him. She put her hand lightly on his chest, “There are a lot of things I like about you. But that doesn’t mean that I’m not wary of your smooth words. After all, you’re a writer. You’re good with words. That’s what got you on this errand. You’re our chronicler.”

He started to say sumthing when she put her finger on her lips and said, “We need to focus on this errand we’re on. I know the oddsmaker put the highest odds on us just getting here … maybe they were right. We did cobbl together a lot of not-well-tested skillcraft that made all the government space agencies of the world blanch. But we both know that the truly hard part is only beginning. You’ll hav mor than enuff time to woo me. Hav you checkt on the lifter for the site?”

The “lifter” was the LFTR, the liquid flouride thorium reactor. It was a molten salt reactor like that one that was powering their ship. Not only was it to afford them power while on Mars, it had servd as a backup for the ship’s drive. The LFTR module had been made in such a way that there was piping to the ships drive. If it had been needed, a bunch of switches would hav to hav been thrown but it would hav power'd the ship.

She still had her finger on his lips. He softly took her finger away and kisst it, “We running off it now as per the plan. When we’re reddy. I’ll shut it down, secure it, and fly the module down. All per the plan which you well know.”

“The first man on Mars.”

“I’ll giv it my best shot to make wis that I’m the first live man on Mars and set up the homing beacon for Doug to remotely fly the other modules down … and then the rest of y'all in the crew lander.”

“I know. I know. I’m angsty. We’re so near.” She sqweezd his hand, “I’ll be on pins and needls until you giv us the okeh.”

He lightly sqweezd back, “Careful. I’ll begin to think that you’ll be worry'd about me.”

She slowly pull'd her hand away and smirkt, “I worry about all my crewmates … and about that reactor. If you bang it up, we hav no power. No power means we abort and go back.”

The communicaters that each wore chirpt with a broadcast tone, “Lu? Gary? Wherever you two are, supper is reddy.”

Gary tucht his mic, “Roger, Doug. We’re on the way.”

LT Wulf
Author
www.anwulf.blogspot.com

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LT WULF has a broad scope of experience. He was in the US Army and held three MOS's (Military Occupational Specialty)—Military Intelligence, Armor, Engineer. He was lawman, a business owner, and workt for a transportation corporation.

He has a pilot’s license (SEL certificate); is a certified diver (NAUI); has skydiv'd and was qualified as a paratrooper in the Army (Airborne!).

Bachelor’s in Finance; minor in Economics

Masters of Aeronautical Sciences

He is a strong backer of spelling reform for English.

LT has written a novel, The World King, which may be found on Lulu.com and Apple's iTunes. He blogs on the “fettle” of the English tung at http://anwulf.blogspot.com/.

Wormholes . . .

. . . or the Einstein-Rosen Bridge

It’s a pleasure for me to host again Massimo Marino, author of the best-selling science fiction trilogy “Daimones”. Massimo is a real scientist and in this article he’ll explain us what wormholes are.

In 1963, Roy Kerr found that if a black hole is rotating it creates a space-time singularity in the form of a ring, not a point, and that in principle a particle may be able to fall through the hole instead; the particle may not be lost forever. When this was published, black holes were not believed to exist and therefore the Kerr solution only really developed in the 1970s, after astronomers discovered what seem to be real black holes. - Hawking 1988 and John Gribbin Homepage

There’s no empirical proof that a wormhole can hold its promises, and a computer simulation run in 1998 raised doubts in that the simulation couldn’t find conditions to keep the wormhole stable, i.e., open.

Less than a year after Einstein had formulated his equations of the general theory, the Austrian Ludwig Flamm realised that a solution to Einstein’s equations described a wormhole connecting two regions of flat space-time; two universes, or two parts of the same universe. Could, thus, these bridges be used for interstellar travels?

Indeed, Einstein himself, working at Princeton with Nathan Rosen in the 1930s, discovered that the equations represent a black hole as a bridge between two regions of flat space-time, the phenomenon known since then as the “Einstein-Rosen bridge”. Another property of black holes, ignored by everyone except very few top level mathematicians and physicists, is that a black hole always has two “ends”, a black one and a white one, the exit side into another (location of the) universe.

Another problem that the computer simulation revealed is that in order to traverse an Einstein-Rosen bridge from one universe to the other, a traveller would have to move faster than light at some stage of the journey, and that would violate one Einstein himself, unless . . .

Two researchers at CalTech, Yurtsever and Thorne, found that the equations dictate that in order for an artificial wormhole to be held open, its throat must be threaded by some form of matter, or some form of field, that exerts negative pressure, and antigravity associated with it.

Richard F. Holman, professor of physics at Carnegie Mellon, explained this in an interview with Scientific American. In order to stabilise wormholes opening, quantum fluctuations in various fields might be able to just do that. And the work of many others on the behaviour of quantized fields demonstrated that quantum field effects could indeed hold open a macroscopic wormhole.

Large enough to have a spaceship travel through? It depends; it depends on the amount of energy achievable to create the bridge.

And this closes the loop, as a rotating Kerr black hole might actually be the source.

A vision from 1933 brought the Daimones to visit, study, and decide about the future of the race of men.

Massimo Marino
Science fiction author
www.massimomarinoauthor.com

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MASSIMO MARINO is a scientist envisioning science fiction. He spent years at CERN and The Lawrence Berkeley Lab followed by lead positions with Apple, Inc. and the World Economic Forum. He is also co-founder of “Squares on Blue”, a Big Data Analytics service company.

Massimo currently lives in France and crosses the border with Switzerland multiple times daily, although he is no smuggler.
As a Scientist, he envisions Science Fiction and went from smashing particles at accelerators at SLAC and CERN to smashing words on a computer screen.

He’s the author of multi-awarded Daimones Trilogy.

• 2012 PRG Reviewer’s Choice Award Winner in Science Fiction
• 2013 Hall of Fame - Best in Science Fiction, Quality Reads UK Book Club
• 2013 PRG Reviewer’s Choice Award Winner in Science Fiction Series
• 2014 Finalist - Science Fiction - Indie Excellence Awards L.A.
• 2014 Award Winner - Science Fiction Honorable Mention - Readers’ Favorite Annual Awards

His novels are available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble (Nook), iTunes Apple Store, and many other retailers around the world.

Join his mailing list for new releases, or follow him on Facebook, Google+, and Twitter.

A Review of ROCKET GIRL: The Story of Mary Sherman Morgan, America’s First Female Rocket Scientist

Today I have the honour to host on my blog a fellow author, podcaster, space and Mars addict, Doug Turnbull, with one of his great book reviews. The book is “Rocket Girl”, which tells the story of the first America’s rock scientist Mary Sherman Morgan. Doug will soon host the author of this book, George D. Morgan, in his podcast, Mars Pirate Radio, so stay tuned!

“The Krauts sharpened their pencils and somehow figured out that the Redstone has what it takes to get 93.1 percent of the way into orbit. Do you know what 93.1 percent gets you in the satellite business, Colonel?”

“No sir.”

“It gets you bupkiss!” The general’s face was getting red. It was not a good sign. “If we launched the Redstone today it would keel over at a very high altitude and splash down somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean. A pile of worthless sheet metal. That’s what 93.1 percent gets you. Understand?”

“Yes sir.”

Occurring in the mid-1950’s, this exchange initiated a sequence of events leading to the development of Hydyne, a fuel mixture that allowed the Redstone (aka Jupiter-C) to launch America’s first satellite. Hydyne was invented by the subject of this book, Mary Sherman Morgan, as related by her son, playwright, George D. Morgan, in his book, Rocket Girl.

Born and raised on a hardscrabble farm in North Dakota, Mary Sherman Morgan, did not start school until she was eight years old and despite a lack of encouragement by her family, she succeeded, graduating as Valedictorian of her class. In the early 1940’s, Mary left home at age nineteen to attend a small college in northwestern Ohio where she excelled in Mathematics and Chemistry. However, for economic reasons she was forced to drop out after two years and as this was during World War Two, she took a job as a chemist in a defense plant manufacturing ordnance. After the war, the demand for ordnance disappeared as did her job. Taking a long shot, she applied for a job as an analyst in the engineering department at North American Aviation in southern California. Despite her lack of an engineering degree, the glowing recommendations from her previous employer got her the job: the only woman in a 900 man engineering department.

Mary excelled at her job, applying her keen mind to the complex problems presented by designing rockets and developing the fuels for them. Eventually she emerged as the “go to person” in the department for insoluble problems. This reputation for solving tough problems led directly to her receiving the assignment to develop a more powerful fuel for the Redstone. The book details the problem and the process Mary used to solve it.

Character sketches of German-American rocket scientist Wernher von Braun and of Soviet rocket scientist Sergei Korolev help provide historical context for this biography. At several points in the narrative about Mary, the writer cuts away to tell us what von Braun or Korolev were doing in their respective careers at that time. These multiple story lines eventually converge on the same goal: putting the first artificial satellite into Earth orbit. This is a useful device in that it starkly contrasts these three historical characters. First there is the world famous Wernher von Braun who promoted space flight (and himself) at every opportunity. Next there is Korolev whose existence and identity were kept a state secret until his death in 1966, after which the many achievements of the Soviet “Chief Designer” eventually became known. Finally there is Mary Sherman Morgan whose anonymity, while normal in the top secret culture of the aerospace industry, was also self enforced. She never told her family that she invented Hydyne even long after the fuel ceased to be a secret. To compound her own silence, the author was unable to get anyone at Rocketdyne (formerly North American Aviation) to communicate regarding the development of Hydyne. Instead, George D. Morgan researched this biography with numerous interviews of his mother’s now retired fellow engineers, family and acquaintances.

Published in 2013 by Prometheus Books, the story of Mary Sherman Morgan was first told in stage play format at Cal Tech, where Mr. Morgan is the Playwright in Residence. In this narrative, like the playwright that he is, Morgan fleshes out the skeleton of history with attributions of thoughts and emotions to the characters in the biography that he feels are likely and consistent with their actions. For this reason, some critics have described Rocket Girl as a fictionalized biography. In my view, this aspect of the biography in no way detracts from the story and merely makes it more readable than a simple, dry accounting of the verifiable events. This is an excellent book about a very interesting period in the history of space flight and it is well worth your time. Mr. Morgan will be a guest on my weekly podcast, Mars Pirate Radio, in early October at which time we will discuss this fine book at length.

Doug Turnbull

Hard science fiction scribe

www.dougturnbull.com

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DOUG TURNBULL is the author of several books and stories including Ribbon To The Sky, Footprints In Red and The Man Who Conquered Mars. In 2013, his short story Tenderfoot won The Mars Society-Bulgaria’s Editor’s Choice award for short science fiction. A new novel, Zachary Dixon: Officer Apprentice and a novella Dangerous Passage are scheduled for publication in late 2014. All of his stories are now available both in e-book format and most in paperback.
Turnbull currently resides in Klamath Falls, Oregon, USA, and presents weekly podcasts on the subjects of science, science fiction and the future. He is also a regular contributor of non-fiction articles about space flight to Space.com. 

Visit Doug’s website: www.dougturnbull.com

And listen to Mars Pirate Radio: http://dougturnbull.podbean.com/

What Will Love Look Like In A Few Hundred Years?

Today I’m glad to present you a guest post by a fellow science fiction author, Michael J. Foy, who, inspired by an episode of “Star Trek: The Next Generation”, tries to explore how love would look like in the future.

The other night I saw an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation that tackled the emotional complexities of love. It was one of those shows that Trek does well in shining a light on the human condition. The show opens with Dr. Beverly Crusher obviously head over heels in love with an alien ambassador. Unbeknownst to her this man named Odan is actually two beings that live in a symbiotic relationship. There’s the man she sees and the entity that she’s not aware of that lives in the man’s abdomen. It’s called a Trill. This living arrangement is mutually beneficial but the bulk of Odan’s personality comes from the Trill. It is the personality the doctor fell in love with.

Eventually, the ambassador is injured and ends up in sick bay where he’s forced to tell Beverly of his co-existent lifestyle. She’s confused and upset that the man she thought she knew would keep such a big secret from her. On his world this dual relationship is so common that it never even occurs to them to reveal it to single entities like us. To Beverly, though, it appears dishonest and deceptive.

As a good doctor she puts her feelings aside and removes the Trill to save it before the host body dies. The only trouble is that it needs another host to survive. First office Will Riker volunteers to host temporarily while a new more compatible host is found. Not an ideal solution since it stresses both Will and Ambassador Odan. After the operation, Will becomes the Ambassador. He has all the memory and feelings of Odan including a love for Beverly. She, on the other hand, doesn’t know how to feel about him and avoids him in spite of persistent strong feelings. Beverly confides in Counselor Troi that she can’t return the affections of a man she thinks of as a brother. She says she wishes Odan never came on board and that she’d do anything not to feel the way she does.

Doctor Crusher is tortured by a love that’s out of reach. It’s an emotional ache that most of us have felt at some time in our lives and it can come with physical manifestations like loss of appetite and/or sleep. The constant reminder of Will Riker’s presence was an ingenious way for the writers to tantalize Beverly with the prospect of a love now seemingly made unattainable.

Eventually, Beverly does look beyond her so called human bias and goes to Will. Her need for closeness to Odan overpowers her and they consummate their love. She looks forward to removing the Trill and placing it in the new host body so that she can resume her affair. The next scene could be titled: You should’ve seen the look on your face. The new host shows up and it’s a woman. Even in the 24th century we’re not that enlightened. In spite of, or because of, advances from the new female Odan, Beverly ends the relationship.

Given that our physical presences and personalities are inseparable perhaps the question Trek wanted to pose is do we need to know all of someone’s secrets to bond with them? Human nature is very complex and not everything can be learned in the ten days for instance that Dr. Crusher fell for the ambassador. Whirlwind romances do happen all the time in real life though. Does that mean we don’t need to know all about someone to love them?

In Future Perfect, my hero, Jamie McCord, pines for a woman dead one hundred million years. He eventually meets Lilah who reminds him of his lost love and he falls for her. Unfortunately, Lilah turns out be an intelligence agent named Lisa who was manipulating him. With her true nature exposed Jamie rejects her at first but strong feelings return and as sometimes happens in reality they make up and fall in love again. Whirlwind romances can be intoxicating but perhaps love is really a longer term journey of discovery. 

Michael J. Foy

Science ficton author

www.michaeljfoy.com

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MICHAEL J. FOY was born to Irish immigrants in upstate New York. His family then moved to London, Boston, London again but permanently settled in the USA in Boston when Michael was 12 years old. He graduated Northeastern University in 1979 with an engineering degree. In 1993 he became a recruiter servicing the publishing industry. So, in essence, his literary pursuits have spanned two other careers but have always been his first love.
In 1991 he sold an option for his first Science Fiction novel, False Gods, as a screenplay to Timothy Bogart, nephew of Peter Guber, Producer of Batman. Tim and his uncle adapted material for the big and small screens.
Michael has since published Future Perfect, The Kennedy Effect and the Ghosts of Forgotten Empires series.

Look for Michael J. Foy's latest release: Ghosts of Forgotten Empires: Volume II, A Cord Devlin Adventure

For more on his books please visit, www.michaeljfoy.com
You can also follow Michael on Twitter

The top 5 film inspirations behind a science fiction series

The following guest post was written by Amanda Bridgeman, a fellow science fiction author, who took this chance for talking about five films that inspired her series, titled “Aurora”, whose latest book will be out in a couple of weeks.

I’ve made no secret that I draw inspiration, in part, from film when I write my novels. Because of this, it has been interesting to see what films and TV series readers have likened my Aurora series to. As Aurora:Darwin was the first book in the series, most of the inspiration I took poured into that novel, and then flowed and filtered down from there into the other books. Some have likened Aurora: Darwin to the film ‘Alien’, while another suggested it is a blend of both Alien and Aliens. Yet another person likened the series to Battlestar Galactica, particularly Captain Harris to Captain Adama.

Some of these guesses have been correct, as you will see below. Some have been incorrect, like the Battlestar Galactica reference – but only because I honestly hadn’t started watching that TV series until AFTER I’d written the first five books in the series. That said, now that I have started watching the show (and am really enjoying it), I can totally see where the reference came from, so I wear it that comparison with pride.

So without further ado, and for the record, here are the Top Film Influences behind the Aurora series (in no particular order).

Alien/Aliens – For the world-building... 

When I imagined the Aurora: Darwin, it wasn’t as far into the future as the Alien series is set, but I did picture the crews/military units in a similar way. For one, they were small crews that would enable my reader to get to know each of the characters personally. Secondly, the soldiers didn’t get around in fancy spacesuits, they got around in typical cammo gear, albeit the grey and electric blue colouring of the United National Forces (that said, they do don EVA spacesuits when required).  

The pod-beds in the Aurora’s hospital were indeed, inspired by those in Alien, as were the Aurora’s internals – corridors and the like. And you can even align the ‘threat in an isolated environment’ theme from the films as well. Although there are countless films you can draw that parallel from.

G.I. Jane – For the story of a woman’s fight to prove she is equal…

I liked the premise behind GI Jane. It’s the story a woman given a big opportunity and wanting to make something out of it. She fights hard to earn her place, despite the obstacles and opposition along the way. And when she learns that she was set up to fail, she is spurred on even more. I thought it was a good tale about inner strength, determination and true grit. So it’s fair to say that this somewhat inspired the Carrie Welles plotline in Aurora: Darwin.

The General’s Daughter – For the themes of psychological warfare, military secrets, soldier loyalty, and of course the strained relationship between a father and daughter…

I thought this was a good film and in little ways I think it served to provide mild influence on the Aurora series. I found the whole ‘Psy-Ops’ thing intriguing, and as with countless other military tales, the underlying secrets and loyalty that come into play.

Terminator/Terminator 2 – For the story of two people joining forces to survive, as they are drawn into something bigger than they imagined…

In T1 it’s Sarah Connor and Kyle Reese. In T2 it’s Sarah Connor and the Terminator that once tried to kill her. Obviously in the Aurora series it’s Captain Saul Harris and Corporal Carries Welles who join forces and fight to survive. Now, unfortunately I can’t go into further detail on this point, because that would involve SPOILERS for the books to come. So, you’re just going to have to trust me on this!

Starship Troopers – For some of the stylistic elements...

Although this doesn’t relate to the actual writing of the books themselves, it is fair to say that there is a Starship Troopers ‘feel’ to the graphics I designed to support the series, namely the Space Duty and Earth Duty insignias. “Would you like to know more?”



Amanda Bridgeman
Science fiction author
www.amandabridgeman.com.au

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Born and raised in the seaside/country town of Geraldton, Western Australia, AMANDA BRIDGEMAN hails from fishing and farming stock. The youngest of four children, her three brothers raised her on a diet of Rocky, Rambo, Muhammad Ali and AC/DC. She studied film & television/creative writing at Murdoch University (BA Communication Studies) in Perth, Western Australia, which has been her home ever since, aside from a nineteen month stint in London (England). Her debut novel “Aurora: Darwin” was published with Momentum in May 2013; the sequel “Aurora: Pegasus” was published in December 2013; and “Aurora: Meridian” will be released on 11 September 2014.

Visit Amanda at the following links
Website: www.amandabridgeman.com.au
Facebook: www.facebook.com/AmandaBridgemanAuthor
Twitter: www.twitter.com/Bridgeman_Books
Pinterest: www.pinterest.com/BridgemanBooks