Breaking News & Random Musings on Space, Technology, Sci-Fi & the View From A Writer’s Window
At various times in the last 10 years, key parts of Aurora Renegades, Aurora Resonant, Asterion Noir, and Riven Worlds have all been brainstormed in this notebook on long drives.
When I initially posted this pic on social media, in real time, I said, “Wonder what I'll write in it today?”
Now, of course, I know what I wrote in it. And that’s all I’ll say about that. For now. ;)
It's a historic day for private space exploration. Early Sunday morning, Firefly Space's Blue Ghost stuck the landing, making it the first fully successful private, commercial moon landing!
On a tiny nanofiche onboard Blue Ghost reside two of my short stories, "Apogee" and "Solatium," as part of the Lunar Codex. All the thanks to Samuel Peralta for making so many writers' and artists' dream come true.
Blue Ghost is ALSO carrying a bucketload of science. Instruments will investigate the structure and composition of the moon’s mantle, the heat flow at different depths beneath the lunar surface, the interaction of solar wind and Earth’s magnetic field, and the impact of solar radiation on the lunar surface.
The lander also carries the Lunar PlanetVac, which is designed to collect regolith from the lunar surface that could be returned to Earth as part of a separate mission, and the Lunar GNSS Receiver Experiment, which will test the ability to use GPS signals at lunar distances.
Blue Ghost will operate for about 14 Earth days on the lunar surface. On March 14, Firefly expects to capture high-definition imagery of a total eclipse when the Earth blocks the sun above the moon’s horizon. How amazing is that going to be?
That’s one heck of a selfie, Athena!
This image is from the Intuitive Machines Nova-C “Athena” lunar craft, which is currently headed toward the moon for a scheduled March 6 landing.*
* Wholly incidentially, with a digital recording of three of my short stories, Venatoris, Re/Genesis and Chrysalis, on board (along with hundreds of other stories, novels and art). I am super excited!
I'll have more to say about * this * in a few weeks, after more people have finished The Universe Within and I've caught my breath from many goings-on. But over here, we're getting this party started.
P.S.: For those of you who haven’t seen this kind of image from me before, this is a storyboard outline of the next book, created in an app called Plottr. Each row/color corresponds to a character or related set of characters. I won’t give them all away, but blue is Alex and Caleb. The content of the blocks is strategically blurred out so you don’t get spoiled way, way early - but maybe it gets you thinking about what those blocks could involve. :D
The Murderbot TV show will start streaming on Apple TV+ May 16, with Alexander Skarsgård in the lead role. We don’t have a trailer yet, though, only these two stills.
Who’s excited for this?
Nothing special - just a random day trip to see friends. And also SO special; the drive from Coeur d’Alene to Missoula is drop-dead gorgeous (assuming you survive Lookout Pass in the winter, that is).
Nah.
The math of the universe is in our favor. Given the staggering number of planets, it's impossible that we're alone. Still, the more the merrier! Call me an optimist (if you've read my books, you already know I am), but I don't believe "The Dark Forest" theory is correct. And I don't like a future in which we have to hide, anyway.
"Are We Alone? Intelligent Life May Be More Common Than We Thought, New Penn State Study Suggests": https://thedebrief.org/are-we-alone-intelligent-life-may-be-more-common-than-we-thought-new-penn-state-study-suggests/
It's their motto. They should emblazon it over the entryway of the house on Akeso.
ISS astronaut Don Petit and National Geographic photographer Babak Tafreshi teamed up to photograph the same subjects from Earth and space at once, and the results are extraordinary. The beauty and majesty of space *and* Earth brought together as mirrors of one another.
You’ll need to go to X to see all the images - it’s worth it: X Thread
Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the reason we have 22 books.
Writing heroes who demand to shake up the world can at times be like the Chinese proverb of riding the tiger - except instead of being afraid to dismount, I just hang on and enjoy the ride.
9 days until THE UNIVERSE WITHIN gets here!
What a heady experience it must be to get rescued by these two....
* rubs hands together *
Who's ready for a final proofread?
P.S.: I'm absolutely loving the Colorsoft. It's beautiful and fast, and the text is super-crisp.
No, we can't expect any such thing.
So Valkyrie and Akeso have to, for the most part, sit this adventure out. This gave me a chance to right Alex without Valkyrie and especially Caleb without Akeso. I think you all will enjoy how this plays out for them. In some ways, it's like the old days...but not in every way, for they've experienced so much since then.
100 years ago this week, Edwin Hubble proved that our galaxy is just one small island in a vast cosmic sea. It is absolutely wild to consider how we've only know about other galaxies for a hundred years. What a golden age of learning about our universe this century has been - but I can't help but wonder what is yet to be discovered.
Read more about Hubble’s discovery in Corey S. Powell’s essay on the anniversary: “The 100th Birthday of the Universe”
It's been a banger of a month for THE THIEF. It's just been named a Quarterfinalist in this year's Self-Published Science Fiction Competition, a huge contest celebrating indie science fiction founded by Hugh Howey in 2021. https://thespsfc.org/
The competition lasts for many months, as 6 review teams read through hundreds of entries. Next up, after much more reading, the semifinalists will be announced in March.
I'm so proud of this book - though its success is less my doing and more Eren's innate ability to bring flair, style, wit and heart...and explosions...to every room he walks into.
Blue Origin was successful on its first test launch of the New Glenn rocket! Official statement:
“New Glenn safely reached its intended orbit during today's NG-1 mission, accomplishing our primary objective. The second stage is in its final orbit following two successful burns of the BE-3U engines. The Blue Ring Pathfinder is receiving data and performing well. We lost the booster during descent. We knew landing the first stage on the first try was ambitious. We'll learn, refine, and apply that knowledge to our next launch in the spring. We're thrilled with today's outcome.”
Learn more here: https://www.blueorigin.com/news/new-glenn-ng-1-mission
Two of my short stories, APOGEE and SOLATIUM, are trying for the moon again! Overnight, Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost lander launched aboard a Falcon 9 rocket carrying (among numerous NASA and commercial payloads) the Lunar Codex, Samuel Peralta's passion project, a beautiful collection of stories, art, music and more. I am honored beyond words to have my these stories reach the stars and find a home on the moon!
It'll be a little while before Blue Ghost attempts a lunar landing, however. It will spend the next 25 days in Earth orbit, undergoing a variety of systems checks and gathering data. It will then conduct an engine burn and hopefully reach the moon 4 days later, where it will orbit for 16 days before attempting a touchdown in Mare Crisium.
If the landing is successful, Blue Ghost will deliver the Lunar Codex to its home on the lunar surface. Then it spend 2 weeks capturing imagery of the lunar sunset and provide critical data on how lunar regolith reacts to solar influences during lunar dusk conditions, before retiring with the lunar night.
This might be the most beautiful photograph ever taken from the ISS. Snapped by astronaut Don Petit this weekend, it features the Milky Way, Zodical light, Starlink satellites as streaks, stars as pin points, the atmosphere on edge showing OH emission as burned umber, the soon to rise sun, and cities at night as streaks - all in one image.
Source: https://x.com/astro_Pettit/status/1878900589238923290
This conversation with Mr. Jennsen took place 7 years ago, while I was writing RUBICON, but it’s just as funny (to me) as it was back then. As I said then:
“If you can't laugh at yourself, what are you working for, right? I give you the essence of my characters, distilled to their purest features. *Warning: cursing follows. Because Alex.*
Also, if anyone wondered if my husband really reads my books, I believe he has now dispelled that notion in glorious style.”
Five years ago, at the dawn of 2020 (not forseeing the crisis that awaited us in a mere two months), I made the following predictions (and asked for your thoughts on Facebook):
We're in the 2020s now, and this had damn well better be the decade where some mind-blowing technological advances happen. With that in mind--
Which of the following do you think we are MOST LIKELY to have in 2030:
(1) A fully functioning lunar base, where astronauts live and work on the surface for 6+ months at a time and (rich) tourists visit.
(2) Boots on Mars, and not the robotic kind.
(3) Effective anti-aging/life-extension medication or treatments - not to make us immortal (yet), but to extend our *healthy* lifespan well into the 100s.
(4) Practical brain-computer interfaces - chips in our brains, or at least subcutaneous/on-skin hardware that communicates with our brains.
(5) Discovery of microbial alien life in our solar system and/or confirmation of a clear technological signature (advanced alien life) out there.
5 years later, #1, #2 and #5 (microbial) are looking reasonably likely to be achieved by 2030. #3 and #4 are moving a little more slowly, but I’m hopeful we’ll see the beginnings of them within a decade.
You know what wasn't on this list of mine? Artificial General Intelligence. Leaving it off * might * have been an error on my part....
