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:
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