Sins of the SonPhoto by Brett Sayles from Pexels Sins of the Son By Torn Macalester “Did you hear it?” The patient asked over the cacophony of emergency equipment as the doctor worked on him and six other patients that were nearly as bad. “Hear what?” The doctor asked, placing the gauze pads over the burns. “Make sure we […]
Author: Torn
Chat on Discord: WED JUL 5th, 9PM EDT
DiscussionsEach Week, Torn hosts a discussion on his discord channel: Torn MacAlester Science Fiction. Join the discussion and learn what he thinks about prior to writing his science fiction stories. Week of Jul 2, 2023 [2nd Jul at 1 PM EDT (6 PM GMT), 5th Jul 9 PM EDT (6th 2AM GMT)] Artemis 1 […] […]
Decisions: A Vignette by Torn MacAlester
Decisions Y+13 Nils heard Katie enter the room as he finished typing the letter and sent it to the printer. He’d been using the back bedroom as an office ever since they had moved to Houston. He’d set up a communications center in the room so that Katie could keep in communication with him whenever […]
Torn’s Science, Technology, & Science Fiction 1–7 May 2023
Science Fiction and the Drake Equation I started thinking about one of the classic authors of science fiction, and the setting he created for some of his stories. I often wondered what the implications for the Drake equation would be in that particular setting. I’ve taken a subset of the stories for this setting, since […]
Torn’s Science, Technology, & Science Fiction 24–30 April 2023
Redundancy Seeing SpaceX’s prototype starship explode after launch reminded me of the necessity of redundancy in launch systems. I think back 10 years when over a short time span when Orbital, SpaceX, and Roscosmos all had anomalies with their cargo missions bound for the International Space Station. Without redundancy in capability, a launch failure in […]
Torn’s Science, Technology, & Science Fiction 17–23 April 2023
Fabulae Lunae: 1. Thunder Moon Tussle Available now at Amazon.com: Thunder Moon Tussle (kindle edition) Nils Carmike, a fallen from grace astronaut turned smuggler, forges a new life on the lunar frontier. Harassed by the strikingly beautiful and demanding Deputy Miller, he is faced with fines and conflict, resulting in a tumultuous relationship and ultimatum […]
Torn’s Science Fiction, Technology, & Science 2–16 April 2023
Fermi Paradox The Great Filter The Fermi Paradox creates an interesting dilemma from science. What is the filter that seems to be preventing conclusive evidence of alien civilizations? We have several options: Planets capable of supporting life: That might be a deceptive description. What is a planet capable of supporting life. The first indication is […]
Torn’s Science Fiction, Technology, and Science Fiction 26 March — 1 April 2023
Panspermia Something interesting occurred in the late 1960’s as part of the Apollo program. The uncrewed probe Surveyor 3 was landed in the Ocean of storms in 1967. Part of the Apollo 12 mission, the second crewed landing in 1969, was to retrieve engineering samples from Surveyor 3. That mission was a success, but that […]
Torn’s Science Fiction, Technology, & Science March 7–25, 2023
Fusion Why is fusion so important? There are many answers. One is that it enables many items from science fiction. Space exploration itself is revolutionized with many different schemes for fusion engines. The benefits are mainly about power. For fusion, there is a lot of it. In science, one can look at a periodic table […]
Torn’s Science Fiction, Technology, & Science 28 February — 6 March 2023

The Drake Equation The Drake Equation is an equation that gives an estimate of the number of radio capable civilizations in the galaxy that could be detected using conventional radio astronomy techniques. A good overview of the Drake Equation is provided by the Seti Institute. I have written an article about the Drake Equation as […]