Week­ly Moon Dis­patch – Week of August 29, 2026

Do you need more Moon joy this week?

The Moon is wan­ing gib­bous as seen from Earth.

The Sun is rid­ing high over Con­rad Sta­tion. The regolith is bright­ly lit with short, crisp shad­ows. Sys­tems are under full solar load, and the sta­tion feels awake — yet water, pow­er mar­gins, and the three-day lag have not eased.

This is hard sci­ence fic­tion lunar fron­tier ter­ri­to­ry: thin mar­gins, three-day lags, and peo­ple try­ing to stay human while the vac­u­um waits out­side. From this point for­ward, the Dai­ly Moon Dis­patch con­tin­ues to range freely across the whole Fab­u­lae Lunae series. Any of the three books — The Luna­dyne Inci­dent, Thun­der Moon Tus­sle, or Mask of the Joy­ful Moon — and any of their cen­tral char­ac­ters may take the lead.

Looking Back – Recent Posts

• Life on the Fron­tier – The Sound of the Recy­clers → Read the post

Lunar Signals – This Week

Thurs­day – The Sto­ry Nils Tells Tourists
Live on Torn MacAlester’s Space on X.

Coming This Week

• Mon­day – Fron­tier Foun­da­tions: Dark Craters – What a PSR costs when the core sam­ple is the mis­sion, the rover is already lost in the dark, and the crater floor is cold­er than Pluto.
• Tues­day – Char­ac­ter Spot­light: Jim Ross (Coot­er) – Coot­er, the Lunokhod, and the unof­fi­cial inven­to­ry of Con­rad Sta­tion. Some items go back. Some con­ver­sa­tions nev­er make the log.
• Wednes­day – Hard Tech & Sci­ence: Eight Min­utes – What eight min­utes actu­al­ly means at Con­rad Sta­tion — the alarm in the bar, the hatch in Hab D, and why the sta­tion’s water lives over the shelter.
• Thurs­day – Lunar Sig­nals: The Sto­ry Nils Tells Tourists – The sil­ly sto­ry Nils tells in Alex’s bar — tourists, straw-cups, and why Mor­gan’s Road is a roman­tic tale, not a prospec­tor’s log.

Recommended Reading Order

• The Luna­dyne Inci­dent → https://www.amazon.com/Lunadyne-Incident-Other-Stories-Fabulae-ebook/dp/B0D5F7L3QS
• Thun­der Moon Tus­sle → https://www.amazon.com/Thunder-Moon-Tussle-Torn-MacAlester-ebook/dp/B095BXX6YC
• Mask of the Joy­ful Moon → https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0G16F7MQW

All three books remain available:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0G16F7MQW

The Joy­ful Moon is still watch­ing…
and she is full and bright.

— Torn MacAlester
Still rid­ing the trails with Nils, Gen, and the whole Fab­u­lae Lunae crew
🚀🌕

Stories The sto­ries of Torn MacAlester are sci­ence fic­tion, where the sci­ence is well-ground­ed. I inten­tion­al­ly made any devi­a­tions for spec­u­la­tive pur­pos­es. To main­tain max­i­mum real­ism, I restrict the scope of these deviations. Read More

Articles I write arti­cles of sci­ence fact and sci­ence fic­tion. The arti­cles here span the knowl­edge of mod­ern sci­ence and the spec­u­la­tions of fic­tion. I try to caveat every­thing that is an assump­tion. You will find arti­cles about space­flight, the pos­si­bil­i­ties of alien con­tact, and descrip­tions of tech­nol­o­gy used in my stories. Read More

Outpost Blog, Reviews, Sched­ule, Com­ment Thread, & Read­er’s Group. Read More