So I fear that my writing may have to put on pause for a few days. I am currently editing chapter 3 of 25. I have 23 chapters to go.
The reason for my pause. I now have 2 kids. Audrey Elfriede Pedde was born this morning (Dec 9), at 9 pounds 2 ounces. She had a little trouble breathing right at first, but she is doing okay now. She'll be out of the hospital in a few days.
I still have to bring Donnie, my eldest son, to visit her baby sister. I don't know how he'll react to it. But we'll see.
I'll post more about either story when I get a chance. Cheers.
Friday, December 9, 2011
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
Back to the Solar Storm Story
I have spent some time writing about my next project, my futuristic science-fiction. I do, however, have to keep an eye on the 'now' project, my Solar Storm novel.
I have finally gotten to the end of the book. Well, I am now on the epilogue. I feel that I need to edit the work first BEFORE I get to write the epilogue.
My solar storm book runs a total of a hundred and four thousand words. Yes that is six digits. It spans a total of three hundred and seventy-three pages. Yes, if I have to print it up completely, I will use up most of a bundle of printer paper.
I did print up the prologue and the first five chapters to edit. It is seventy pages long.
Now I have the grudging task of trying to edit all three hundred and seventy-three pages.
Wish me luck.
I hope to finish it before Christmas. This year...
I have finally gotten to the end of the book. Well, I am now on the epilogue. I feel that I need to edit the work first BEFORE I get to write the epilogue.
My solar storm book runs a total of a hundred and four thousand words. Yes that is six digits. It spans a total of three hundred and seventy-three pages. Yes, if I have to print it up completely, I will use up most of a bundle of printer paper.
I did print up the prologue and the first five chapters to edit. It is seventy pages long.
Now I have the grudging task of trying to edit all three hundred and seventy-three pages.
Wish me luck.
I hope to finish it before Christmas. This year...
Sunday, December 4, 2011
Space Exploration: Part Deuce
I left off with Mars being colonized by normal Jane and Joe's of the world. That's right. It wasn't NASA, or the Russians, or the Chinese that landed people on Mars. Those people not only landed, but refused to leave.
They were pioneers, searching to live in a place that was the frontier. The first 'Martians' were people who were tired of the status quo. Tired of the political lies and the backstabbing. People that just want to get away.
Not only did they get to Mars in one piece, but they turned around and 'open sourced' there method that they used to get there. That means that the information and technology that they used to get to Mars was free to use by anyone.
At first, the major spacefaring Nations tried to put there foot down on these people who wanted to play in there play ground. It didn't stop them. People from around the world were now paying attention to space.
Thousands started to put the dots together like they had. The problems were already solved by the first of them. They just had to start buying stuff.
At first it was the Russians that started to support the pioneers. But they wanted political clout in the organization of the 'Martians'. Then the Chinese started to support them, but they wanted the same. The U.S. threatened world war unless the other Nations backed down and be reasonable.
The U.N. started up an independent organization that was in charge of regulating all manned space exploration. It was called the 'Interplanetary Association'. Or the I.P.A.
The I.P.A. was a hard lined organization that developed totalitarian rules that new pioneers needed to follow.
People were still blasting off into space, but after a large series of accidents from Iranian backed missions, the I.P.A. came into play. They created huge industries where you had to buy the parts from them. Millions of dollars were racked in from the pioneers.
Not everyone could afford the huge price tag, which steadily dropped as technology grew better, but it still remained high. Those that wanted to go, but couldn't afford to go either found government sponsors of some kind, or corporate.
Over the course of the next fifty years, the population grew substantially. By the year 2075, with the first pioneers nearing the end of there lives, the population on Mars grew to a million people.
They didn't live in one colony, but many. Disagreements came about during the fifty years and the people on Mars had split up into different camps. These camps at times were ready to kill each other.
The style of colony that they used varied depending on where you were. The First Colony, built underground. They dug into the soil hunting for iron ore. When the sand storms came, they hid in the shelter of there mines until it passed.
After a few years, they realized that they could live underground as easily or easier as they did on the surface.
In the year 2075, the I.P.A., did something stupid. Not a single member of the organization had ever been to Mars. And as such, the rulings that had been edicted by the organization were voted on by the people of the individual colony. Sometimes the entire planet refused to follow the edict or only a few colonies.
The I.P.A. had gotten very frustrated with the colonists as the entire planet voted down the twentieth straight edict. The colonists, a vast percentage of them born and raised Martians, had gotten frustrated by the absentee landlords.
In the spring, the colonists declared independence. The different colonies had all sat down and agreed to self govern with a president as the head of state and a prime minister as the head of government.
The I.P.A. and the U.N. took that as Mars declaring war on the Earth. Six months after the declaration, the I.P.A. raised ten thousands troops to and sent them to Mars. They came without warning and blasted there way into the fragile colonies.
The war was over in under an hour. All of the colonies were captured by I.P.A. forces with little casualties reported on either side.
A third of the colonists, both men and women were working or living in the Mines. They shut the mines and sealed them. Like when they have to defend themselves against the sandstorms.
With the mines mostly self-sufficient, they were able to out last the I.P.A. troops. But because of some shortages, like of electricity, the colonists relied of solar power, they had to turn off many of the lights.
After two years of the siege, some of the colonists took a radical surgery for the eyes. Called 'shined'. It is when they alter the light senors in the eyes to make a person have the ability to see in the dark. But they then have a hard time seeing in the light. But as they lived underground, the people, who now called themselves the 'Molemen', had no problem with that.
With little weapons besides those that are used to dig at the earth, the Molemen surged out of the mines to overwhelm the I.P.A. defenses. The first interplanetary civil war lasted three years and consisted of two battles.
With the I.P.A. forces captured or killed, the Martians declared themselves fully independent. They would regulate and govern themselves. They also declared that the Earth measure of telling time was useless to them. They could not just simply change it to a 686 day year, they kept the Earth measure of 365 days equaling one year, but changed year one to 2020. They declared that it was Year 57 in the Space Era.
That is where I am going to stop my history for now. I need to discus other aspects of the future story world so that you will understand them.
Any comments of suggestions, please give them. I'd love to hear it.
They were pioneers, searching to live in a place that was the frontier. The first 'Martians' were people who were tired of the status quo. Tired of the political lies and the backstabbing. People that just want to get away.
Not only did they get to Mars in one piece, but they turned around and 'open sourced' there method that they used to get there. That means that the information and technology that they used to get to Mars was free to use by anyone.
At first, the major spacefaring Nations tried to put there foot down on these people who wanted to play in there play ground. It didn't stop them. People from around the world were now paying attention to space.
Thousands started to put the dots together like they had. The problems were already solved by the first of them. They just had to start buying stuff.
At first it was the Russians that started to support the pioneers. But they wanted political clout in the organization of the 'Martians'. Then the Chinese started to support them, but they wanted the same. The U.S. threatened world war unless the other Nations backed down and be reasonable.
The U.N. started up an independent organization that was in charge of regulating all manned space exploration. It was called the 'Interplanetary Association'. Or the I.P.A.
The I.P.A. was a hard lined organization that developed totalitarian rules that new pioneers needed to follow.
People were still blasting off into space, but after a large series of accidents from Iranian backed missions, the I.P.A. came into play. They created huge industries where you had to buy the parts from them. Millions of dollars were racked in from the pioneers.
Not everyone could afford the huge price tag, which steadily dropped as technology grew better, but it still remained high. Those that wanted to go, but couldn't afford to go either found government sponsors of some kind, or corporate.
Over the course of the next fifty years, the population grew substantially. By the year 2075, with the first pioneers nearing the end of there lives, the population on Mars grew to a million people.
They didn't live in one colony, but many. Disagreements came about during the fifty years and the people on Mars had split up into different camps. These camps at times were ready to kill each other.
The style of colony that they used varied depending on where you were. The First Colony, built underground. They dug into the soil hunting for iron ore. When the sand storms came, they hid in the shelter of there mines until it passed.
After a few years, they realized that they could live underground as easily or easier as they did on the surface.
In the year 2075, the I.P.A., did something stupid. Not a single member of the organization had ever been to Mars. And as such, the rulings that had been edicted by the organization were voted on by the people of the individual colony. Sometimes the entire planet refused to follow the edict or only a few colonies.
The I.P.A. had gotten very frustrated with the colonists as the entire planet voted down the twentieth straight edict. The colonists, a vast percentage of them born and raised Martians, had gotten frustrated by the absentee landlords.
In the spring, the colonists declared independence. The different colonies had all sat down and agreed to self govern with a president as the head of state and a prime minister as the head of government.
The I.P.A. and the U.N. took that as Mars declaring war on the Earth. Six months after the declaration, the I.P.A. raised ten thousands troops to and sent them to Mars. They came without warning and blasted there way into the fragile colonies.
The war was over in under an hour. All of the colonies were captured by I.P.A. forces with little casualties reported on either side.
A third of the colonists, both men and women were working or living in the Mines. They shut the mines and sealed them. Like when they have to defend themselves against the sandstorms.
With the mines mostly self-sufficient, they were able to out last the I.P.A. troops. But because of some shortages, like of electricity, the colonists relied of solar power, they had to turn off many of the lights.
After two years of the siege, some of the colonists took a radical surgery for the eyes. Called 'shined'. It is when they alter the light senors in the eyes to make a person have the ability to see in the dark. But they then have a hard time seeing in the light. But as they lived underground, the people, who now called themselves the 'Molemen', had no problem with that.
With little weapons besides those that are used to dig at the earth, the Molemen surged out of the mines to overwhelm the I.P.A. defenses. The first interplanetary civil war lasted three years and consisted of two battles.
With the I.P.A. forces captured or killed, the Martians declared themselves fully independent. They would regulate and govern themselves. They also declared that the Earth measure of telling time was useless to them. They could not just simply change it to a 686 day year, they kept the Earth measure of 365 days equaling one year, but changed year one to 2020. They declared that it was Year 57 in the Space Era.
That is where I am going to stop my history for now. I need to discus other aspects of the future story world so that you will understand them.
Any comments of suggestions, please give them. I'd love to hear it.
Saturday, December 3, 2011
Space Exploration: A beginning
So in this post, I am going to talk about the beginning of my future space travel.
I know what you all are thinking. Trip to Mars.
And you are correct.
In the year 2020 AD, six men and six women of different nationalities and backgrounds take off from a small launch pad in Northern British Columbia, Canada. They blast off not to fanfare or a huge media attention, but to relative silence.
Eleven years before that, in the year 2009, they got together to try to figure out how to travel to Mars.
It started out as a purely academic puzzle between four of its members. As University Professors living in New York, it was a good exercise. They weren't sure which of the four had made the joke or when, but they joked that what if they were to actually go to Mars.
In the spring of 2012 AD, with the Great Recession of 2008 now deepening into the second Great Depression, they presented there study to the scientific community. There plan was for a one way trip to Mars costing a 500 billion dollars to fund. It was laughed at.
But that didn't stop them. They kept planning. They kept working on the problems that they would have to face. Some solutions were theoretical at first, but then turned practical as they figured out ways to test there knowledge.
The turning point came in the fall of 2012. When one of the group of four won the 50 million lottery. Instead of spending the winnings, the professor invested it. In a time when most people are loosing vast sums of money, they made money. Vast sums of money.
By the year 2014, they had started a non-profit business. It was called 'Marzorbust! Incorporated'. With the goal of using private funds to land a crew of colonists to live of Mars indefinitely.
They had managed to horde up enough money to start construction on their radical plan. The plan called for ten ships to be launched over the course of six months. The last ship was to be a crew capsule.
They started looking for help. Over the course of the next year, the little farm that was there base of operations was turned into a small town as people were hired or invested in there dream. Thirty couples gathered together and invested there entire financial wealth into the project.
In the year 2018, two years before there intended launch date, a double tragedy crashed there party. One of there lead founders, died of cancer. And the United States Government denied that they were allowed to use an American Launch pad.
The Russian Government allowed them to use there launch pads, but they weren't allowed to ship there ten space ships to Russia. They would have to rebuild them in Russia.
When what looked like there dream was over, the entire team of people traveled to a small farm in Northern British Columbia, Canada. They transported there ten space ships to the farm to be re-assembled.
The space ships were just that, the ships that would be used in space. They weren't the launch vehicles that they needed to use to get there space ships into space.
In the Spring of 2020, they made a lucky break. A billionaire business man, at the end of his life, bought and shipped ten Russian Soyuz Rockets to Northern Canada. In pieces. Illegally.
In the summer of 2020, the ten rockets were blasted off of the tiny farm turned launch pad into outer space. All during the same night. One after the other.
NATO went crazy. By the time that the Canadian Military had jets in the area, the ten ships, nine of which were unmanned, were already in space and out of range of any and all incoming violence.
The trip took them the planned two months. Once there, they sent the nine unmanned cargo ships down onto the surface.
The original plan was for the cargo ships to be disassembled by robots before they had even left Earth. Now, they floated in a low-Mars orbit waiting for the robots to finish.
Back on Earth, media had stormed all over the pioneers. They scrutinized there motives and histories as if they were criminals. Criminals that had tried to get into political office.
During the 2 months in space, each crew member had blogs and other various social media sites which they kept up with.
On December 24th, 2020, there space ship landed on the surface of Mars. For this they had the scene covered by at least fourteen cameras. The entire world watched the first man, actually a woman, step on the martian surface.
They left the networking sites soon after that to live on Mars in peace. There last blog post/message was open sourcing the ships that they used to get to Mars. They let the world know how they had done it and how it was possible for others to follow.
By Christmas in the year 2021, the human population on Mars had reached 228 people.
That is a small blurb from the History of Space Exploration. There is more to talk about. I have 490 years of history that can be told. But not tonight.
Let me know what you think. Leave a comment. Cheers.
I know what you all are thinking. Trip to Mars.
And you are correct.
In the year 2020 AD, six men and six women of different nationalities and backgrounds take off from a small launch pad in Northern British Columbia, Canada. They blast off not to fanfare or a huge media attention, but to relative silence.
Eleven years before that, in the year 2009, they got together to try to figure out how to travel to Mars.
It started out as a purely academic puzzle between four of its members. As University Professors living in New York, it was a good exercise. They weren't sure which of the four had made the joke or when, but they joked that what if they were to actually go to Mars.
In the spring of 2012 AD, with the Great Recession of 2008 now deepening into the second Great Depression, they presented there study to the scientific community. There plan was for a one way trip to Mars costing a 500 billion dollars to fund. It was laughed at.
But that didn't stop them. They kept planning. They kept working on the problems that they would have to face. Some solutions were theoretical at first, but then turned practical as they figured out ways to test there knowledge.
The turning point came in the fall of 2012. When one of the group of four won the 50 million lottery. Instead of spending the winnings, the professor invested it. In a time when most people are loosing vast sums of money, they made money. Vast sums of money.
By the year 2014, they had started a non-profit business. It was called 'Marzorbust! Incorporated'. With the goal of using private funds to land a crew of colonists to live of Mars indefinitely.
They had managed to horde up enough money to start construction on their radical plan. The plan called for ten ships to be launched over the course of six months. The last ship was to be a crew capsule.
They started looking for help. Over the course of the next year, the little farm that was there base of operations was turned into a small town as people were hired or invested in there dream. Thirty couples gathered together and invested there entire financial wealth into the project.
In the year 2018, two years before there intended launch date, a double tragedy crashed there party. One of there lead founders, died of cancer. And the United States Government denied that they were allowed to use an American Launch pad.
The Russian Government allowed them to use there launch pads, but they weren't allowed to ship there ten space ships to Russia. They would have to rebuild them in Russia.
When what looked like there dream was over, the entire team of people traveled to a small farm in Northern British Columbia, Canada. They transported there ten space ships to the farm to be re-assembled.
The space ships were just that, the ships that would be used in space. They weren't the launch vehicles that they needed to use to get there space ships into space.
In the Spring of 2020, they made a lucky break. A billionaire business man, at the end of his life, bought and shipped ten Russian Soyuz Rockets to Northern Canada. In pieces. Illegally.
In the summer of 2020, the ten rockets were blasted off of the tiny farm turned launch pad into outer space. All during the same night. One after the other.
NATO went crazy. By the time that the Canadian Military had jets in the area, the ten ships, nine of which were unmanned, were already in space and out of range of any and all incoming violence.
The trip took them the planned two months. Once there, they sent the nine unmanned cargo ships down onto the surface.
The original plan was for the cargo ships to be disassembled by robots before they had even left Earth. Now, they floated in a low-Mars orbit waiting for the robots to finish.
Back on Earth, media had stormed all over the pioneers. They scrutinized there motives and histories as if they were criminals. Criminals that had tried to get into political office.
During the 2 months in space, each crew member had blogs and other various social media sites which they kept up with.
On December 24th, 2020, there space ship landed on the surface of Mars. For this they had the scene covered by at least fourteen cameras. The entire world watched the first man, actually a woman, step on the martian surface.
They left the networking sites soon after that to live on Mars in peace. There last blog post/message was open sourcing the ships that they used to get to Mars. They let the world know how they had done it and how it was possible for others to follow.
By Christmas in the year 2021, the human population on Mars had reached 228 people.
That is a small blurb from the History of Space Exploration. There is more to talk about. I have 490 years of history that can be told. But not tonight.
Let me know what you think. Leave a comment. Cheers.
Thursday, December 1, 2011
Guns.
In five hundred years people will still be killing people. It is a solid fact stretching from across the eons of human history and pre-history.
In today's time the main way that we kill each other is the fire arm. The Gun.
What will we be using in five hundred years?
First we need to understand the gun and how it works.
When the trigger is squeezed a pin strikes a primer setting off the gunpowder charge. The charge forces a specifically shaped piece of metal down a rifled barrel. The bullet spins and flies through the air.
What are the potential problems with firing a gun in space.
Oxygen.
A gun does not rely on external oxygen to work. It has enough oxygen in the bullet casing to work properly. As such, no oxygen. No problem.
Space is cold.
People think that space is cold. It is not exactly true. Space is a vacuum and as such has no temperature of its own. Not like you or me. Temperature in space is in direct relationship to the proximity of the sun and the objects albedo. An albedo is basically the objects tendency to reflect radiation rather than absorb it. A guns powder could get so cold that it might not fire reliably.
Casings.
After a gun fires, the bullet casings or cartridge is ejected from the firing chamber and falls down to the ground. In space, there is no gravity. A casing will float in the space getting in peoples way. Can you imagine after a long fire fight. Thousands upon thousands of bullet cartridges blocking everyone's view of what is going on.
Because the temperature of space will make a gun unreliable and the fact that the empty cartridge litter will become a problem, I have rejected gunpowder based firearms altogether. They are phased out of use by all military and police forces in the solar system.
Lasers.
I mentioned in a previous post that masers, lasers, phasers aren't in use. Not because they don't have any or none scientific sense. Lasers are being used in military's around the world right now. It is not unforeseeable that they could not be perfected into something resembling Star Trek.
But that is not what I want to do. I do not want to recreate Star Trek or Star Wars or Schlock Mercenary for that matter. It is cliche and way over used.
When I first thought of what are the possibilities of firearms, I immediately killed any and all thoughts of lasers.
Then what will the people fire at each other.
My answer.
Rail Guns.
A rail gun uses strong magnetic fields to push a conductive piece of metal along a pair of rails. There is no lingering byproduct like smoke or cartridges. It is okay if it is cold or hot.
My rail guns come in various shapes and sizes. From Battleship sized behemoths to pocket sized handguns. The behemoth sized ones are for a later blog post. I'll talk about the smaller ones today.
The basics of all man-sized rail-guns us the same basic components. Two rails encased in a non-conductive material attached to some type of stock. A battery pack is needed to run the magnets. It is attached to the butt of a rifle or half of a handgun handle. It also needs a clip for the projectiles. They come in different sizes and lengths.
The projectiles are called staples caused the resemble a staple. The rail-gun a stapler. In a stapler, you put a length of metal all attached together with a small piece of glue. The stapler 'shoots' it at its target.
My Rail-Gun's work in the same principle. You take a length of 'staples' and slide it into its slot. You then lock them in place keeping them there. You cock the gun. The action of the gun breaks off the first 'staple' and puts it into the firing chamber. With the gun on, you aim it, squeeze the trigger and away the 'staple' goes. Like all modern guns, the gun automatically breaks off and puts a new 'staple' into the firing chamber.
All you have to do is to pull the trigger.
Or hold down the trigger depending on the model of gun that you are using.
The possibilities of combat and the rail-gun's use are for another post.
There are more weapons in my system. Like Plasma Guns, Grenades, Rockets, Mines, Close-combat weapons, non-violent guns, non-lethal guns, power armor and nano-bots.
More stuff for later posts. Getting late. Cheers.
In today's time the main way that we kill each other is the fire arm. The Gun.
What will we be using in five hundred years?
First we need to understand the gun and how it works.
When the trigger is squeezed a pin strikes a primer setting off the gunpowder charge. The charge forces a specifically shaped piece of metal down a rifled barrel. The bullet spins and flies through the air.
What are the potential problems with firing a gun in space.
Oxygen.
A gun does not rely on external oxygen to work. It has enough oxygen in the bullet casing to work properly. As such, no oxygen. No problem.
Space is cold.
People think that space is cold. It is not exactly true. Space is a vacuum and as such has no temperature of its own. Not like you or me. Temperature in space is in direct relationship to the proximity of the sun and the objects albedo. An albedo is basically the objects tendency to reflect radiation rather than absorb it. A guns powder could get so cold that it might not fire reliably.
Casings.
After a gun fires, the bullet casings or cartridge is ejected from the firing chamber and falls down to the ground. In space, there is no gravity. A casing will float in the space getting in peoples way. Can you imagine after a long fire fight. Thousands upon thousands of bullet cartridges blocking everyone's view of what is going on.
Because the temperature of space will make a gun unreliable and the fact that the empty cartridge litter will become a problem, I have rejected gunpowder based firearms altogether. They are phased out of use by all military and police forces in the solar system.
Lasers.
I mentioned in a previous post that masers, lasers, phasers aren't in use. Not because they don't have any or none scientific sense. Lasers are being used in military's around the world right now. It is not unforeseeable that they could not be perfected into something resembling Star Trek.
But that is not what I want to do. I do not want to recreate Star Trek or Star Wars or Schlock Mercenary for that matter. It is cliche and way over used.
When I first thought of what are the possibilities of firearms, I immediately killed any and all thoughts of lasers.
Then what will the people fire at each other.
My answer.
Rail Guns.
A rail gun uses strong magnetic fields to push a conductive piece of metal along a pair of rails. There is no lingering byproduct like smoke or cartridges. It is okay if it is cold or hot.
My rail guns come in various shapes and sizes. From Battleship sized behemoths to pocket sized handguns. The behemoth sized ones are for a later blog post. I'll talk about the smaller ones today.
The basics of all man-sized rail-guns us the same basic components. Two rails encased in a non-conductive material attached to some type of stock. A battery pack is needed to run the magnets. It is attached to the butt of a rifle or half of a handgun handle. It also needs a clip for the projectiles. They come in different sizes and lengths.
The projectiles are called staples caused the resemble a staple. The rail-gun a stapler. In a stapler, you put a length of metal all attached together with a small piece of glue. The stapler 'shoots' it at its target.
My Rail-Gun's work in the same principle. You take a length of 'staples' and slide it into its slot. You then lock them in place keeping them there. You cock the gun. The action of the gun breaks off the first 'staple' and puts it into the firing chamber. With the gun on, you aim it, squeeze the trigger and away the 'staple' goes. Like all modern guns, the gun automatically breaks off and puts a new 'staple' into the firing chamber.
All you have to do is to pull the trigger.
Or hold down the trigger depending on the model of gun that you are using.
The possibilities of combat and the rail-gun's use are for another post.
There are more weapons in my system. Like Plasma Guns, Grenades, Rockets, Mines, Close-combat weapons, non-violent guns, non-lethal guns, power armor and nano-bots.
More stuff for later posts. Getting late. Cheers.
Saturday, November 26, 2011
Types of Habitats
*****
Before I start the current topic, I have a couple notes to make.
The first one.
These topics that I am writing are unedited. I am a discovery writer and I start at the beginning and go to the end. I then turn back to beginning and start editing my work. My work changes 50% to 75% from what the first draft started as.
These blog posts don't have that polish. I apologize for any inconveniences that it may cause.
Number Two.
I am not an English Teacher. I had a hard time with English class. My English 12 teacher told me, straight up, that I am not a writer. I do not have the spelling capabilities to be one and that I should stop trying. I tell her now to go frak herself and I keep writing.
I have an auto-spell and grammar checker. If it doesn't show up with a little red line underneath it saying that there is an error, I don't catch it on the first pass. That's what my edits (which I am not doing on these posts) are also for.
I tell stories, not literary pieces. I entertain, I don't show off my extensive grasp of the English Language and my ability to stretch it to my will.
That is all. Now back to your original blog post. Cheers.
*****
In my last couple blog posts, I have talked briefly about the different aspects of my world. My world is a unique and inter-connected place. It is hard to only talk about one topic without having to talk about another. There may be times that you may get confused at a post because I haven't explained something in great detail yet. Please let me know so I can do a post on it.
This world has been two years in the making and it is not done yet. There are still topics that I haven't even thought to cover, and a lot of topics to talk about.
Some examples of different topics. Mars and Venus still aren't done yet. There are aspects of these planets to tell. The mole people of Mars. Venosaurs. Space Colonies. Asteroid Mines. Economy. Teraforming and it's boom. The Jovian League. Politics of the System. I could go on.
Today, however, I am going to talk about the different types of habitats that people live in.
Not everyone lives on a planet. Actually, most people exist is steel and plastic structures of some kind. I am not going to give numbers as to how many people live in what. It is hard at this point to come up with realistic numbers. I may have some later on.
Terraformed Surface/ Earth-Like.
This habitat is like we live in now on this planet we call home. Each culture or even planets will have a different architecture type. Some places people are squished into little areas, while others they are spread out over vast areas. The main thing is that the houses themselves have little, if any, environmental controls. In other words, they are not pressurized to survive the void of space.
These planets or moons, like Mars, you can walk around on the surface with out a space suit. You can grow crops on the surface and fly kites in the wind. The wind, the rain, the sleet and snow are not artificially created. Man has no control over the weather. Even though, sometimes, he wishes that he does.
Examples of Terraformed Surface Habitats: Earth, Mars, Callisto.
Semi-Terraformed Surface.
This habitat is in the process of being terraformed. The Planet has enough surface pressure and/or oxygen to have a partial environmental structures. Most likely each house will have its own airlock of some kind. The environment, however, won't be safe for human habitation without any safety protection.
In this future, only the planet Venus qualifies for this spot.
Underground Surface.
This habitat is on a planet or moon. For some reason, the planet surface has no capability to be terraformed. Either they failed or never tried. Underground surface habitats is very common. Way more common than any terraformed planets or moons.
Places like Europa, where the entire surface is made up of ice, has giant cities capable of housing millions of people. The cities are built under the surface of the ice. Or Mercury, where the planet is either super hot or super cold. Where there are no actual cities, but giant underground mines/ prisons. Where the inmates mine for ore in order to get fed that night. Even dwarf planet's like Ceres are considered n Underground Surface Habitat.
Any planet or moon that has no atmosphere has structures built underground. The reasons for it will be covered in another post, but lets just say that it is easier and safer. Underground surface habitats use the planet or moons own gravity. There is too big of an area to cover to have an artificial system cover the entire planet. This issue will be covered in another blog post.
Examples of Underground Surface Habitat. Mercury, Europa, Ganymede, Io, Ceres, Lunar.
Roid Stations
Roid Stations are habitats that are built into the side of an asteroid. Small moons like Phobos (Moon of Mars) are a Roid Station.
Most asteroids or small moons could be placed into the Underground Surface category as there structures are built under the surface, but as they use an artificial gravity machine they are not. They can be science stations, military posts, pirate bases, trading posts, but they all start out as a mine.
The asteroid's innards are mined out by miners. The outer shell is left over, it is then sold to someone else, who uses what structure it has left to build a station inside it.
Space Colonies
Space Colonies are giant steel cylinders of some shape. They rotate creating an artificial gravity on the inside of the cylinder. Imagine a bucket filled up with water in it. Now imagine it spinning around in a circle. The water will stay to the bottom of the buckets as the spinning creates a gravity-like force which keeps it there.
They are safer to live in than a Roid, and with the large space that is left open, it mimics Earth. It mimics Earth to a point that makes it easy for Humans to adapt to living in its steel walls.
These colonies are placed in various places. They usually placed in large clusters either around the various Legrange Points or around the busier transportation routes.
There are millions of these colonies scattered around the inner solar system and around Jupiter.
Hives.
A hive is like a Space Colony. Actually it is exactly like a space colony except for no open space above the cylinder walls. A hive can hold up to ten times the numbers as a standard colony does. They do this by having the open space filled with decks and people.
Hives were built by the Terra Entente to house its excess population from emigrating away from Earth and Immigrating to one of its many enemies.
Space Station
A space station is exactly that the name implies. It is a structure built to float in space attached to nothing. It uses an artificial gravity system instead of spinning and is usually too small for spinning the station to have any effect in the first place. Like a Roid Station, most of them are the same.
I hope that these categories gives you all a general outlook on what my space world looks like.
Leave a comment.
Share this post.
Follow my blog.
Let me know how I am doing.
Cheers.
Before I start the current topic, I have a couple notes to make.
The first one.
These topics that I am writing are unedited. I am a discovery writer and I start at the beginning and go to the end. I then turn back to beginning and start editing my work. My work changes 50% to 75% from what the first draft started as.
These blog posts don't have that polish. I apologize for any inconveniences that it may cause.
Number Two.
I am not an English Teacher. I had a hard time with English class. My English 12 teacher told me, straight up, that I am not a writer. I do not have the spelling capabilities to be one and that I should stop trying. I tell her now to go frak herself and I keep writing.
I have an auto-spell and grammar checker. If it doesn't show up with a little red line underneath it saying that there is an error, I don't catch it on the first pass. That's what my edits (which I am not doing on these posts) are also for.
I tell stories, not literary pieces. I entertain, I don't show off my extensive grasp of the English Language and my ability to stretch it to my will.
That is all. Now back to your original blog post. Cheers.
*****
In my last couple blog posts, I have talked briefly about the different aspects of my world. My world is a unique and inter-connected place. It is hard to only talk about one topic without having to talk about another. There may be times that you may get confused at a post because I haven't explained something in great detail yet. Please let me know so I can do a post on it.
This world has been two years in the making and it is not done yet. There are still topics that I haven't even thought to cover, and a lot of topics to talk about.
Some examples of different topics. Mars and Venus still aren't done yet. There are aspects of these planets to tell. The mole people of Mars. Venosaurs. Space Colonies. Asteroid Mines. Economy. Teraforming and it's boom. The Jovian League. Politics of the System. I could go on.
Today, however, I am going to talk about the different types of habitats that people live in.
Not everyone lives on a planet. Actually, most people exist is steel and plastic structures of some kind. I am not going to give numbers as to how many people live in what. It is hard at this point to come up with realistic numbers. I may have some later on.
Terraformed Surface/ Earth-Like.
This habitat is like we live in now on this planet we call home. Each culture or even planets will have a different architecture type. Some places people are squished into little areas, while others they are spread out over vast areas. The main thing is that the houses themselves have little, if any, environmental controls. In other words, they are not pressurized to survive the void of space.
These planets or moons, like Mars, you can walk around on the surface with out a space suit. You can grow crops on the surface and fly kites in the wind. The wind, the rain, the sleet and snow are not artificially created. Man has no control over the weather. Even though, sometimes, he wishes that he does.
Examples of Terraformed Surface Habitats: Earth, Mars, Callisto.
Semi-Terraformed Surface.
This habitat is in the process of being terraformed. The Planet has enough surface pressure and/or oxygen to have a partial environmental structures. Most likely each house will have its own airlock of some kind. The environment, however, won't be safe for human habitation without any safety protection.
In this future, only the planet Venus qualifies for this spot.
Underground Surface.
This habitat is on a planet or moon. For some reason, the planet surface has no capability to be terraformed. Either they failed or never tried. Underground surface habitats is very common. Way more common than any terraformed planets or moons.
Places like Europa, where the entire surface is made up of ice, has giant cities capable of housing millions of people. The cities are built under the surface of the ice. Or Mercury, where the planet is either super hot or super cold. Where there are no actual cities, but giant underground mines/ prisons. Where the inmates mine for ore in order to get fed that night. Even dwarf planet's like Ceres are considered n Underground Surface Habitat.
Any planet or moon that has no atmosphere has structures built underground. The reasons for it will be covered in another post, but lets just say that it is easier and safer. Underground surface habitats use the planet or moons own gravity. There is too big of an area to cover to have an artificial system cover the entire planet. This issue will be covered in another blog post.
Examples of Underground Surface Habitat. Mercury, Europa, Ganymede, Io, Ceres, Lunar.
Roid Stations
Roid Stations are habitats that are built into the side of an asteroid. Small moons like Phobos (Moon of Mars) are a Roid Station.
Most asteroids or small moons could be placed into the Underground Surface category as there structures are built under the surface, but as they use an artificial gravity machine they are not. They can be science stations, military posts, pirate bases, trading posts, but they all start out as a mine.
The asteroid's innards are mined out by miners. The outer shell is left over, it is then sold to someone else, who uses what structure it has left to build a station inside it.
Space Colonies
Space Colonies are giant steel cylinders of some shape. They rotate creating an artificial gravity on the inside of the cylinder. Imagine a bucket filled up with water in it. Now imagine it spinning around in a circle. The water will stay to the bottom of the buckets as the spinning creates a gravity-like force which keeps it there.
They are safer to live in than a Roid, and with the large space that is left open, it mimics Earth. It mimics Earth to a point that makes it easy for Humans to adapt to living in its steel walls.
These colonies are placed in various places. They usually placed in large clusters either around the various Legrange Points or around the busier transportation routes.
There are millions of these colonies scattered around the inner solar system and around Jupiter.
Hives.
A hive is like a Space Colony. Actually it is exactly like a space colony except for no open space above the cylinder walls. A hive can hold up to ten times the numbers as a standard colony does. They do this by having the open space filled with decks and people.
Hives were built by the Terra Entente to house its excess population from emigrating away from Earth and Immigrating to one of its many enemies.
Space Station
A space station is exactly that the name implies. It is a structure built to float in space attached to nothing. It uses an artificial gravity system instead of spinning and is usually too small for spinning the station to have any effect in the first place. Like a Roid Station, most of them are the same.
I hope that these categories gives you all a general outlook on what my space world looks like.
Leave a comment.
Share this post.
Follow my blog.
Let me know how I am doing.
Cheers.
Thursday, November 24, 2011
Travel
So a writing buddy of mine has suggested to me that writing a post of Travel in the solar System 500 years in the future is a good place to pick up where I left off.
In the previous post I mentioned that to travel from Earth to Mars with the planets being at there closest points will take a total of seven days.
How did I get that number? Did I just pull it out of my arse?
Actually. I did.
I looked at what a potential story will need to be what I was looking for. So I looked at some of the Science Fiction stories out there and critiqued them. Star Trek had people zooming around almost instantaneously. Note that I said almost. My point is that they go 'warp 9'.
Star Wars had a bit of time that they sat around to talk and stuff, but it still was kinda fast.
My inspiration came from the show Firefly. In the show, there was always spaces of time where they had to wait. They were on transit to another destination. It was fast, but still took days to get anywhere.
I then decided that I wanted my characters to experience that downtime on a journey. It makes it feel a little like a sailing ship more than a space ship. In sailing shows, it always takes endless time to get to one place. And it usually consists of setting a course and sitting on a tack until you need to change the tack.
I still didn't know how fast that they could travel. For that I needed to do some research. I needed to know how fast can we go now and why.
I looked up the different space craft to get an idea on how fast can we go. I learned some information on space travel in the process.
The idea that we can go 'warp' speed is technology impossible. Also there is no 'max' speed in how fast you can go. It depends on the destination. You speed up until half way, and then turn your craft around and slow down until you get there.
NASA, however, uses a transfer system. It takes three to six times as long as a straight journey, but uses gravitational forces that are already in space to hurdle the craft to it's destination with minimum fuel used.
It seems like we have an issue getting stuff into orbit. But we'll talk more on that a different day.
Back to space travel.
At that point I got frustrated with all of the different information out there. I decided to pick a number and roll with it.
I then decided that a week sounded like a good number to a quick trip to Mars.
Now I needed the how.
How does one get from Earth to Mars in seven days?
My answer. A really fast engine.
I looked at the idea of the warp drive and studied it's 'science'. It works not by speeding you up past the speed of sound, but by bending the distance that is being traveled making you go faster.
So in my my future, there are two major speeds that are used.
'Impulse Engine."
The Impulse Engine varies ship to ship. Some use a hydrogen fuel liquid, some use nuclear. Some use an Ion type drive. While other uses Electromagnets or even some Microwaves. There speed varies greatly, but they all aren't that fast. The fastest can make the trip in little over 30 days.
What Impulse Engine is the fastest? I haven't decided that. I may come up with some type of ranking system later, but right now it is a mute point.
'Hypersonic Rail-Gun'
The Hypersonic Rail-Gun is a made up technology. Like a 'Warp Drive' or Hyper Drive'. This technology doesn't exist and probably couldn't exist. The idea is there though. Using a mixture of sound waves and magnetism a giant 'gun' shoots a ship to a destination.
Each Rail-Gun takes a crew of hundreds to operate and maintain. Each requires a space station to support its infrastructure. More on that later.
How a Rail-Gun works is that the gun will shoot off a ship towards a per-selected target. This target has to be within a max and min zone. If there were guns lined up from the Earth to Mars, that ship would have to take a total of 16 trips to the next gun.
Now, each Rail-Gun is not fixed in space. Nor are the planets for that matter. They are all constantly moving around with each other. The Earth rotates around the sun faster than Mars. It would become impossible to keep the same 16 Rail-Guns from Earth to Mars at the same time. That means that each Rail-Gun has its own rotation on its own.
In an ideal world, there would be a central computer system that controls the movement of these way-stations. But with the politics of the world (Another topic for another time), that will not happen anytime soon.
That brings up a very good point. How to navigate the constantly shifting Rail-Guns to get to your destination? You need a navigator of some kind.
Enter the role of an Astrogator. An Astrogator is a person of elite talents. It's his job to plot the course from Point A to Point B with an eye for making the fastest time. Picking which Rail-Gun to shoot off to. With the chaotic shifting of the guns, a wrong turn can put you days off course.
That is all that I have time for today. As you can see, I still haven't scrapped off the tip of the iceberg of my future. I still have weightlessness, stations, cargo, health, safety, dangers of the Rail-Guns and more that is still in the topic of Travel.
But it'll have to weight another day.
For you few readers out there. I need a new name for my Hypersonic Rail-Gun. I need the name Rail-Gun for something else, but I can't find something that is better.
Post a comment and let me know.
Cheers.
In the previous post I mentioned that to travel from Earth to Mars with the planets being at there closest points will take a total of seven days.
How did I get that number? Did I just pull it out of my arse?
Actually. I did.
I looked at what a potential story will need to be what I was looking for. So I looked at some of the Science Fiction stories out there and critiqued them. Star Trek had people zooming around almost instantaneously. Note that I said almost. My point is that they go 'warp 9'.
Star Wars had a bit of time that they sat around to talk and stuff, but it still was kinda fast.
My inspiration came from the show Firefly. In the show, there was always spaces of time where they had to wait. They were on transit to another destination. It was fast, but still took days to get anywhere.
I then decided that I wanted my characters to experience that downtime on a journey. It makes it feel a little like a sailing ship more than a space ship. In sailing shows, it always takes endless time to get to one place. And it usually consists of setting a course and sitting on a tack until you need to change the tack.
I still didn't know how fast that they could travel. For that I needed to do some research. I needed to know how fast can we go now and why.
I looked up the different space craft to get an idea on how fast can we go. I learned some information on space travel in the process.
The idea that we can go 'warp' speed is technology impossible. Also there is no 'max' speed in how fast you can go. It depends on the destination. You speed up until half way, and then turn your craft around and slow down until you get there.
NASA, however, uses a transfer system. It takes three to six times as long as a straight journey, but uses gravitational forces that are already in space to hurdle the craft to it's destination with minimum fuel used.
It seems like we have an issue getting stuff into orbit. But we'll talk more on that a different day.
Back to space travel.
At that point I got frustrated with all of the different information out there. I decided to pick a number and roll with it.
I then decided that a week sounded like a good number to a quick trip to Mars.
Now I needed the how.
How does one get from Earth to Mars in seven days?
My answer. A really fast engine.
I looked at the idea of the warp drive and studied it's 'science'. It works not by speeding you up past the speed of sound, but by bending the distance that is being traveled making you go faster.
So in my my future, there are two major speeds that are used.
'Impulse Engine."
The Impulse Engine varies ship to ship. Some use a hydrogen fuel liquid, some use nuclear. Some use an Ion type drive. While other uses Electromagnets or even some Microwaves. There speed varies greatly, but they all aren't that fast. The fastest can make the trip in little over 30 days.
What Impulse Engine is the fastest? I haven't decided that. I may come up with some type of ranking system later, but right now it is a mute point.
'Hypersonic Rail-Gun'
The Hypersonic Rail-Gun is a made up technology. Like a 'Warp Drive' or Hyper Drive'. This technology doesn't exist and probably couldn't exist. The idea is there though. Using a mixture of sound waves and magnetism a giant 'gun' shoots a ship to a destination.
Each Rail-Gun takes a crew of hundreds to operate and maintain. Each requires a space station to support its infrastructure. More on that later.
How a Rail-Gun works is that the gun will shoot off a ship towards a per-selected target. This target has to be within a max and min zone. If there were guns lined up from the Earth to Mars, that ship would have to take a total of 16 trips to the next gun.
Now, each Rail-Gun is not fixed in space. Nor are the planets for that matter. They are all constantly moving around with each other. The Earth rotates around the sun faster than Mars. It would become impossible to keep the same 16 Rail-Guns from Earth to Mars at the same time. That means that each Rail-Gun has its own rotation on its own.
In an ideal world, there would be a central computer system that controls the movement of these way-stations. But with the politics of the world (Another topic for another time), that will not happen anytime soon.
That brings up a very good point. How to navigate the constantly shifting Rail-Guns to get to your destination? You need a navigator of some kind.
Enter the role of an Astrogator. An Astrogator is a person of elite talents. It's his job to plot the course from Point A to Point B with an eye for making the fastest time. Picking which Rail-Gun to shoot off to. With the chaotic shifting of the guns, a wrong turn can put you days off course.
That is all that I have time for today. As you can see, I still haven't scrapped off the tip of the iceberg of my future. I still have weightlessness, stations, cargo, health, safety, dangers of the Rail-Guns and more that is still in the topic of Travel.
But it'll have to weight another day.
For you few readers out there. I need a new name for my Hypersonic Rail-Gun. I need the name Rail-Gun for something else, but I can't find something that is better.
Post a comment and let me know.
Cheers.
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