World Building for Science FictionImage by Snapwire on pexels I wanted to share some insight into the world building process that I am using in my science fiction stories. First off, most would call my science fiction as ‘Hard’ science fiction because of my use of scientific rigor when developing my stories. For myself, it’s […]
It Starts With A ParadoxPart 2 of World Building for Science Fiction Part 2—It Starts With A Paradox by Torn MacAlester Photo by Rakicevic Nenad from Pexels The Fermi Paradox The Fermi paradox tries to answer: Where are they (the aliens)? It looks at how fast travel is across the galaxy. It says […]
I’ve been studying the science behind the worlds of science fiction with the intention of using it for world building. I’ve written a series of articles introducing these science concepts. My intention as a science fiction writer was to build a setting where at first glance paralleled the real universe. Consequently, I tried to use […]
This summer, we will witness the beginning of a new era in spaceflight with the launch of the Artemis 1 unmanned mission to space. Like Apollo the Artemis program will enable human landing on the Moon. More importantly, the beginning of long term human activities will create a new opportunity. It will enable us to […]
@chucksastrophotography Farthest star ever seen. #stars #learnontiktok #universe #cosmos #nasa #hubblespacetelescope ♬ original sound — Chuck Ayoub It is fantastic that the farthest star detected is so far away: 12.9 billion light years. As a result, it is not the first star born in the Universe but it does predate the Sun by 7.9 billion […]
Photo by Brian McGowan on Unsplash Did you know that Apollo 14 landed at the planned landing site for Apollo 13? The place is called the Fra Mauro Highlands. The Apollo 14 lander, Antares, landed at Fra Mauro near the Cone crater. Part of the mission required an EVA to the rim of […]
Being a scientist and engineer, I enjoy adding as realistic elements as possible to my stories. For example, I wrote this article to discuss the science and technology that I referenced in writing the story Morgan’s Road. Science of Morgan’s Road. There are certainly some spoilers in that article. If you haven’t read Morgan’s Road, […]
If you haven’t read the story Golf and Outgassing, you might want to look at it before checking out the article Science of Golf and Outgassing. I’ve provided a brief description of the science that inspired the story. This story also draws from my personal memories of watching the Apollo 14 Moon walk. EVA number two […]
An excerpt from “Golf and Outgassing” by Torn MacAlester is available on Fiction Fountain. As always, it is available here for free. The cover image is by Shannan Albright.