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 […]
Torn’s Science Fiction, Technology, and Science 20–27 Feb 2023
Thunder Moon Tussle is a novel that would never have happened if I had followed my original plan. I was writing another novel and decided that I needed a backstory told. That backstory wasn’t expected to be very long. However, that was before I introduced Deputy Genevieve Miller. Seldom does a character arrives that disrupts […]
Torn’s Science Fiction, Technology, & Science 12–19 February 2023
A new short vignette by Torn MacAlester: Vulcani Cinis Genny planted her face against the living room window, watching the snow fall. The sky grew darker as she marveled at the dark snow covering the grass. “Can I make a snowman when it stops snowing, Mom?” “Honey, come and sit by me,” said her […]
Torn’s Science Fiction, Technology, and Science 5 — 11 February 2023
Golf and Outgassing by Torn MacAlester A few years ago, I began thinking about the return to the Moon in a fictional setting. Most of what I wanted was a sense of realism. Part of that realism centered around a couple unresolved issues from the past. In particular, I thought about finding a way to […]
Torn’s Science Fiction, Technology, and Science 29 January — 4 February 2023
Apollo 14 Apollo 14 is the 8th crewed Apollo mission and the 3 landing. The mission landed at the Fra Mauro Highlands. The mission lasted 9 days and represented the first mission after Apollo 13 accident that scrubbed the landing. I wrote a short article about Apollo 14 in 2022. The landing site for Apollo […]
Torn’s Science Fiction, Technology, and Science: This Week 22–28 January 2023
The Fermi Paradox A few weeks ago, I began a discussion about the Kardashev scale. The Kardashev scale builds levels of technology that represent advanced civilizations, mostly beyond our own. Given the technology scale, and speculation from science fiction, we can scale possible galaxy crossing times. The galaxy crossing times can also be connected to […]
Torn’s Science Fiction, Technology, and Science: This Week 15–21 January 2023
2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke It’s been 22 years since 2001. The world in the novel and film has not quiet been realized, but I thought it might be interesting to look at Clarke’s novel and film by Stanley Kubrick to see what has been realized. In context, the novel and the […]
This Week 8–14 January 2023
Morgan’s Road by Torn MacAlester Morgan’s Road is a short story that I wrote a few years ago. It is not the first thing I ever wrote, but it is the first story that I decided to share with a broader audience. It is a fictionalized account of the discovery of water ice on the […]