Monday, July 13, 2015
Tuesday, June 16, 2015
Did the Sun Capture Sedna from Another Star?
A delightful (if hard to understand) paper, that posits that Sedna (and friends) were captured from another star in a close encounter. What's not to like about the possibility of alien planetesimals in our system?
http://arxiv.org/abs/1506.03105
Sedna Perturbed By A Super Earth?
An undetected super Earth is one explanation for the odd orbits of Sedna and 2012VP_113. A (new) ninth planet makes for great writing material (I have a group that may want to head there). However, I'm skeptical about a new planet. What's a large planet doing in a region of space, where everything seems to be crumbly ice balls? I haven't the science to qualify that question, so let it be stated that this is just bias.
Having stated my bias, I'm going to continue with it.
Sedna Perturbed by a Star Q?
Jilkova et al. model an encounter between the Sun and a star "Q," which would have been 1.8 solar masses. By their calculations, both stars would have exchanged several hundred planetesimals. Some would be "Sednitos," with similar orbits to Sedna. Others would be in the inner Oort Cloud. The estimated distances range from 30-1500 AU.
Perturbed Writing?
Both a new, large planet, and captured, alien, icesteroids, are great writing fodder. Frankly, its hard to choose between them. Consider the super Earth. Even Pluto has its own little system of moons. How many could a super Earth have? How big could they be?
The bigger a super Earth, the better. Radioactive decay from within the rocky matter would heat volatile ices into liquid. We could expect an ice crust over a liquid ocean. The more heat from decay, the larger the ocean could be, and the longer it would take to refreeze.
So, at the very least, a super Earth and its moons could be home to various communities (refugees, hiders, hermits, abominations). Undersea life would be a strong addition. Scientists could study it to test for panspermia, contamination from Earth (or Mars), or Sharov and Gordon's Moore's Law of life. Alternatively, the life could be completely indigenous.
Planetesimals from another star though, are at least as useful. They could be life-bearing. Would it be utterly unique, or share ancestry, fellow scions of galaxy-circulating microbes? They could carry probes or self replicating machines, sleeping quietly like Philae, waiting to get dislodged and transferred to another system. Perhaps they carry cryo-freezers, tombs - or prisons?
If the "Q" hypothesis wins out, then a sampling mission becomes something we should aspire to. Aspiring projects are always good writing fodder.
http://arxiv.org/abs/1506.03105
Sedna Perturbed By A Super Earth?
An undetected super Earth is one explanation for the odd orbits of Sedna and 2012VP_113. A (new) ninth planet makes for great writing material (I have a group that may want to head there). However, I'm skeptical about a new planet. What's a large planet doing in a region of space, where everything seems to be crumbly ice balls? I haven't the science to qualify that question, so let it be stated that this is just bias.
Having stated my bias, I'm going to continue with it.
Picture Credit: M E Brown, Caltech
Sedna Perturbed by a Star Q?
Jilkova et al. model an encounter between the Sun and a star "Q," which would have been 1.8 solar masses. By their calculations, both stars would have exchanged several hundred planetesimals. Some would be "Sednitos," with similar orbits to Sedna. Others would be in the inner Oort Cloud. The estimated distances range from 30-1500 AU.
Perturbed Writing?
Both a new, large planet, and captured, alien, icesteroids, are great writing fodder. Frankly, its hard to choose between them. Consider the super Earth. Even Pluto has its own little system of moons. How many could a super Earth have? How big could they be?
The bigger a super Earth, the better. Radioactive decay from within the rocky matter would heat volatile ices into liquid. We could expect an ice crust over a liquid ocean. The more heat from decay, the larger the ocean could be, and the longer it would take to refreeze.
So, at the very least, a super Earth and its moons could be home to various communities (refugees, hiders, hermits, abominations). Undersea life would be a strong addition. Scientists could study it to test for panspermia, contamination from Earth (or Mars), or Sharov and Gordon's Moore's Law of life. Alternatively, the life could be completely indigenous.
The View from Sedna.
Picture Credit: Adolf Schaller
Planetesimals from another star though, are at least as useful. They could be life-bearing. Would it be utterly unique, or share ancestry, fellow scions of galaxy-circulating microbes? They could carry probes or self replicating machines, sleeping quietly like Philae, waiting to get dislodged and transferred to another system. Perhaps they carry cryo-freezers, tombs - or prisons?
If the "Q" hypothesis wins out, then a sampling mission becomes something we should aspire to. Aspiring projects are always good writing fodder.
Sunday, June 7, 2015
Tuesday, June 2, 2015
Burning Eagle is out!
From the book description:
A hundred years ago, Super Sapient AIs made first ever contact with intelligent life from outside our solar system. Millions died.
A century later, an expeditionary force arrives to liberate the first human world to fall. Among them is an outcast officer, a rebel smuggler, and a soldier in a secret pact.
They are unprepared for what they find.
The AI cabal that guides Humanity discovers evidence of Post-Singularity beings among the aliens. However, they are puzzled by their hostility. Can peaceful contact between the governing minds be achieved? Can they balance this against the existential danger of a genocidal opponent?
On the conquered human world, they begin to learn the darker picture of the galaxy's history.
Burning Eagle is about a Transhumanist society that goes to war. Hard science fiction readers of Alastair Reynolds' Revelation Space, James S. A. Corey's Expanse, or the Mass Effect universe, should consider it. Readers who appreciate Dan Abnett and John Scalzi's military science fiction, will also not go wanting.
Took me a while, but after getting it edited, and then formatted for ebooks, I got it up on Smashwords:
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/547093 (download it, it's free!)
Hope you like it! (And if you do, share it with your friends). At the end, there's also a 10,000 word preview of The Hundred Gram Mission. It's not a sequel, but its in the same universe.
Take care,
Navin
Wednesday, April 29, 2015
EmDrive Mars Mission Profile Paper - Human Outer Solar System Exploration via Q-Thruster Technology, Kent Joosten and Harold G. "Sonny" White
Looks the like the EmDrive may well be a thing, but that's not what this post is about. It's about a Mars mission profile that's referenced in the article linked to above:
Human Outer Solar System Exploration via Q-Thruster Technology, Kent Joosten and Harold G. "Sonny" White
"Far more ambitious applications for the EM Drive were presented by Dr. White and include crewed missions to Mars as well as to the outer planets. Specifically, these two proposed missions (to Mars and the outer planets) would use a 2 MegaWatt Nuclear Electric Propulsion spacecraft equipped with an EM Drive with a thrust/powerInput of 0.4 Newton/kW. With this design, a mission to Mars would result in a 70-day transit from Earth to the red planet, a 90-day stay at Mars, and then another 70-day return transit to Earth."
However, the article's own link to it, doesn't go to the paper.
I Googled this quote though: "These relatively rapid transits would argue for mission strategies where the ‘Q-Ship’ (EM Drive ship) operates between the lowest orbits possible to minimize the launch requirements of crew and supplies from Earth and lander complexity at Mars"
And I believe I've found it:
I Googled this quote though: "These relatively rapid transits would argue for mission strategies where the ‘Q-Ship’ (EM Drive ship) operates between the lowest orbits possible to minimize the launch requirements of crew and supplies from Earth and lander complexity at Mars"
And I believe I've found it:
Sunday, November 30, 2014
What about All these People? Drought, Population, and Writing Scifi
Recently, the UN changed its estimates for the world population by 2100.
Navin Weeraratne
Credit: Scientific American
Like it says, the revision is for Africa. The estimate has doubled from 2 to 4 billion.
Overpopulation is a key issue in The Pathfinders (working title). How do we fund or justify interstellar travel, against a backdrop of overwhelming need? Population is one thing, climate change is another. Both are intersecting.
Climate Civil Wars
There's good reason to believe the Syrian Civil War is a water war. Thomas Friedman gave his assessment of this in the New York Times:
"This Syrian disaster is like a superstorm. It’s what happens when an extreme weather event, the worst drought in Syria’s modern history, combines with a fast-growing population and a repressive and corrupt regime and unleashes extreme sectarian and religious passions, fueled by money from rival outside powers..."
It is perilous to analyze a recent conflict, more so a current one. Historians are often uncomfortable with this, because we simply don't have the sources yet. We certainly do not have the benefit of detachment.
Bearing this in mind, let's try. Here are some factors that can trigger climate civil wars:
- Underdeveloped, growing population (lots of young, angry, uneducated men)
- Poor water access
- Shit government
Overpopulation is a key issue in The Pathfinders (working title). How do we fund or justify interstellar travel, against a backdrop of overwhelming need? Population is one thing, climate change is another. Both are intersecting.
Climate Civil Wars
There's good reason to believe the Syrian Civil War is a water war. Thomas Friedman gave his assessment of this in the New York Times:
"This Syrian disaster is like a superstorm. It’s what happens when an extreme weather event, the worst drought in Syria’s modern history, combines with a fast-growing population and a repressive and corrupt regime and unleashes extreme sectarian and religious passions, fueled by money from rival outside powers..."
It is perilous to analyze a recent conflict, more so a current one. Historians are often uncomfortable with this, because we simply don't have the sources yet. We certainly do not have the benefit of detachment.
Bearing this in mind, let's try. Here are some factors that can trigger climate civil wars:
- Underdeveloped, growing population (lots of young, angry, uneducated men)
- Poor water access
- Shit government
- Neighbors with these problems, too.
There are many places in Asia and Africa that already match these criteria. Global warming and increasing population will aggravate these. Religious fundamentalism has already been fueled in particular by the first. It will be interesting to see if decades from now, historians decide to attribute recent religious extremism partly to climate change. It is of course, too early to tell.
What does this have to do with my book?
The dislocation climate change will bring is important to the book. In part, because it's expected. I can't write about 2050, unless I try and depict 2050 as best we can predict it. "Cli-Fi" is also in right now.
There are many places in Asia and Africa that already match these criteria. Global warming and increasing population will aggravate these. Religious fundamentalism has already been fueled in particular by the first. It will be interesting to see if decades from now, historians decide to attribute recent religious extremism partly to climate change. It is of course, too early to tell.
What does this have to do with my book?
The dislocation climate change will bring is important to the book. In part, because it's expected. I can't write about 2050, unless I try and depict 2050 as best we can predict it. "Cli-Fi" is also in right now.
Secondly, war means action scenes! If I can have a stealth Abrams fight an exo-suit, I will. Writing needs to be fun. For me, that's Chinese aircraft carriers and US drones-on-the-ground.
Thirdly - I wanted to explore a conflict it can create, over the use of space. One camp wants resources committed to getting people off the planet. The world's powers are building orbitals as new, stable, living spaces. The other camp wants to send expeditions to the nearest stars.
How do you fund exploration and science, during a challenge as great as a World War?
Thirdly - I wanted to explore a conflict it can create, over the use of space. One camp wants resources committed to getting people off the planet. The world's powers are building orbitals as new, stable, living spaces. The other camp wants to send expeditions to the nearest stars.
How do you fund exploration and science, during a challenge as great as a World War?
Or can we? World War optimism.
Navin Weeraratne
Thursday, November 27, 2014
Won a Short Story Competition!
Won a competition run by Lexicons, a body that promotes Science Fiction and Fantasy writing in Sri Lanka. The contest is once a quarter. Last time I got my ass handed to me, but this time things went better.
Full disclosure: my wife runs Lexicons. She's not one of the judges though, and the submissions have their names removed.
Here's the story:
http://lexiconwordart.blogspot.com/2014/11/project-scrybe-iii-winning-entry.html
Astronomy at 550 AU
I wrote this story mainly explore a neat idea I bumped into recently. Gravity warps space, and so bends the path of light. Light passing around a body will converge at a point. This is a good place to put a telescope. We already use gravitational lensing, it's nothing new.
Light passing near the sun, converges 550 AU away. What if we placed a telescope, there? It's a tremendous distance (about 10 times Pluto's distance), but the sun itself would act as a lens. Such a telescope would be staggeringly powerful. Not only could it identify the gases atmospheres of Earth-like worlds, but even show us their surfaces!
The idea was pioneered by Von Eshelman at Stanford. Physicist Claudio Maccone is probably its biggest champion. He's suggested a mission to 550 AU, named FOCAL. For more information about him and FOCAL, there is an excellent link here.
Making the Solar System feel Huge
I also experimented with creating a sense of deep space and deep time. Deep time is quite straight forward - names get strange and you add a few centuries here and there. There's a bit of extrapolating ahead (have the Jovians been terraformed? What's the post-Singularity like?), but nothing too taxing. Most of it, you won't use.
Deep space was tougher - I was dealing with just our solar system. Generally, we treat it as it were relatively small (and it is). However, we don't think much about how truly distant the planets are they from each other.
Then, there are Kuiper Belt and Oort Cloud. How often do we consider them, when we think about the solar system? How many people even know about them? Even within the Oort Cloud, bodies are (on average) as distant from each other, as the Earth is from the Sun.
There's plenty of space in the solar system to found nations and set up empires. In "The Wardens," I tried to convey this.
Parting Thoughts
I don't think I'll revisit the world in "The Wardens," but it was fun to write a short story again. I used to do a fair bit when I was younger, and I'd forgotten how much I enjoyed it.
Navin Weeraratne
Full disclosure: my wife runs Lexicons. She's not one of the judges though, and the submissions have their names removed.
Here's the story:
http://lexiconwordart.blogspot.com/2014/11/project-scrybe-iii-winning-entry.html
Astronomy at 550 AU
I wrote this story mainly explore a neat idea I bumped into recently. Gravity warps space, and so bends the path of light. Light passing around a body will converge at a point. This is a good place to put a telescope. We already use gravitational lensing, it's nothing new.
Light passing near the sun, converges 550 AU away. What if we placed a telescope, there? It's a tremendous distance (about 10 times Pluto's distance), but the sun itself would act as a lens. Such a telescope would be staggeringly powerful. Not only could it identify the gases atmospheres of Earth-like worlds, but even show us their surfaces!
The idea was pioneered by Von Eshelman at Stanford. Physicist Claudio Maccone is probably its biggest champion. He's suggested a mission to 550 AU, named FOCAL. For more information about him and FOCAL, there is an excellent link here.
Gravitational Lensing. Credit: Martin Kornmesser & Lars Lindberg Christensen
Making the Solar System feel Huge
I also experimented with creating a sense of deep space and deep time. Deep time is quite straight forward - names get strange and you add a few centuries here and there. There's a bit of extrapolating ahead (have the Jovians been terraformed? What's the post-Singularity like?), but nothing too taxing. Most of it, you won't use.
Deep space was tougher - I was dealing with just our solar system. Generally, we treat it as it were relatively small (and it is). However, we don't think much about how truly distant the planets are they from each other.
Then, there are Kuiper Belt and Oort Cloud. How often do we consider them, when we think about the solar system? How many people even know about them? Even within the Oort Cloud, bodies are (on average) as distant from each other, as the Earth is from the Sun.
There's plenty of space in the solar system to found nations and set up empires. In "The Wardens," I tried to convey this.
Parting Thoughts
I don't think I'll revisit the world in "The Wardens," but it was fun to write a short story again. I used to do a fair bit when I was younger, and I'd forgotten how much I enjoyed it.
Navin Weeraratne
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