Catching up with Ceres

Artist’s impression of DAWN spacecraft close to asteroids. Courtesy: NASA/JPL

NASA's space probe Dawn has reached Ceres, the largest object in the Asteroid Belt between Mars and Jupiter.  Furthermore,  the New Horizons spacecraft, after a voyage of nearly nine years and three billion miles came out of hibernation for its July 14,  2015, encounter with the dwarf planet Pluto and its moons on the edge of the planetary system.  The Voyager spacecraft became humanity's first interstellar spacecraft last year. It was launched 36 years ago and is still sending back pictures to its creators.  

This is an appropriate time to reinterpret humanity's role in the conquest of space. 

Gone are the Apollo years when astronauts bounced on the surface of the moon like giddy school boys. Gone are the Space Shuttle successes; when it roared into space and gracefully glided down onto a runway landing like an ordinary passenger plane; ready to be refueled and sent back to the Space Station. 

Apollo is in the Smithsonian Air and Space museum. The Shuttle has retired and private companies are competing for the orbital ferry business.

Now, we must dream bigger. The solar system we inhabit is much larger and more complex than what we formerly believed. The definition of where life could exist has drastically changed. Life, as we know it, evolved in Earth's seas.  But Earth may not possess the largest  ocean in the solar system.  Therefore, life could exist on several  moons and dwarf planets that orbit our sun (not in the Goldilocks Zone believed by scientists). 

If you want to build a space colony, which planet would you choose? Mars has very little air and is extremely cold. Venus has a surface temperature that could melt lead, but it may have a comfortable climate high in the Venusian sky where humans could survive without bulky space suits. Cloud Cities could be built floating high over the landscape. And even though it is closest to the Sun, the planet Mercury may have abundant pockets of water ice that could sustain a human colony where miners could extract rare metals and other resources critical to maintain an interplanetary society.

So, we should not cling to the immediate area around our planet. We need to push out. And, that is exactly what is happening.

Our robots on Mars have been happily wandering the Red Planet for several years, sending back tons of data. New space telescopes will have the ability to peer to the very edge of reality and reveal more secrets of creation. For instance, what exactly is Dark Energy and Dark Matter, the forces that make-up more than two third of the universe. We could be swimming in dark matter at this moment and not know how it affects our existence.

Therefore, a fancy rocket-powered, winged craft blasting off into space a few miles above the desert may no longer be news. Any billionaire with a few extra bucks can build a spaceplane, fly into low orbit and glide back down after taking a few snapshots of the horizon. 

Once again, we have to adjust our sights and look deeper. Dawn is NASA's first purely exploratory mission to use ion propulsion engines; advanced technology that may power all our new spacecraft. A trip to Jupiter could take a few weeks instead of years. Catching up with  the fast moving Ceres is just another small step for greater things to come.

Why A Jetplane Is Not A Spaceship, Part II

Comparison of the nuclear powered Daedalus spacecraft and Saturn V Moon rocket.
Credit/copyright: Adrian Mann

For more than a century, scientists and sci-fi visionaries have been imagining spaceships traveling to the moon, other planets, and the distant stars. Today, we still conceive of  sleek vessels performing aerodynamic maneuvers in a weightlessness vacuum far above the surface of a planet.

But we shouldn’t casually compare visionary spaceships to existing terrestrial aircraft that are burdened with air breathing engines, smooth surfaces and wing flaps. True spaceships don't soar through the air like birds. A spacecraft needs a tremendous amount of thrust just to get off a planet. It also must travel millions of miles between destinations. The NASA Space Shuttle -- a fantastic piece of equipment -- was mostly an aerodynamic box strapped to a big rocket. After each mission, the Shuttle fell back to Earth like a carefully aimed brick. During its career, the Shuttle had notable achievements, but it was not a true spaceship.

Designing a spaceship requires thinking differently.

For instance, using nuclear energy to power a spaceship has been a concept on drawing boards since the 1950s. There have been many variations of craft that mobilized the atom to fulfill humankind's ambitions to leave the planet. These inventions were not flimsy "airplanes" rising on plumes of burning petroleum-based fuels. A spaceship had to do more than  reach several thousand feet into the sky and glide back to Earth.

Spaceships that carried humans into space were huge mechanical monsters that required the resources of a major superpower. Space agencies relied upon chemical rockets burning tremendous amounts of  liquid fuels to create enough thrust to break the bounds of gravity.

Other ideas came into play.

The "nuclear pulse rocket" was seriously considered by scientists in America, Russia and Great Britain. The force of a series of nuclear explosions could push a vehicle off the planet and into space. Once in orbit, additional nuclear explosions could push the spaceship to other planets.

Project Orion, on paper, would have been more powerful than the Saturn V rocket that took the Apollo program to the Moon. Orion could travel to the planet Mars and back in four weeks. NASA's 21st  century chemically propelled spacecraft need 12 months to get to the Red Planet. Orion would have possessed a crew of 200 and weigh several thousand tons. The technology had been available before the first episode of Star Trek aired in the 1960s. The problem of course was nuclear fallout and protecting the crew from dangerous radiation during flight.  Nuclear treaties and atomic bans prevented such a craft ever being built and flown from Earth.

A better idea was to construct a ginormous nuclear-powered spaceship in orbit and not risk polluting human cities and towns with deadly radiation from nuclear fallout in the exhaust of the engines. Thus, Daedalus was born, almost. Daedalus would use nuclear fusion instead of fission -- thermonuclear "hydrogen" bombs using fusion were much more powerful than "uranium" fission bombs. The Daedalus specifications called for an unmanned spacecraft to reach a nearby star in 50 years. The craft would speed up to a substantial fraction of the speed of light and coast. Robotic probes would detach at the destination and send data back to Earth. Without slowing down, Daedalus would then continue on to other stars. Humans would become an interstellar civilization. However, we haven't mastered the art of controlled nuclear fusion, yet. For this reason, Daedalus is still on the drawing board.

In development are other forms of propulsion using the nuclear forces. For instance, the ion propulsion used by NASA’s Dawn spacecraft couldn’t lift a child’s kite off the ground. In space, ion engines can accelerate a vehicle to astonishing speeds. Dawn is now investigating several large objects in our solar system. Fantastic photos of asteroids and dwarf planets such as Ceres are being beamed back to Earth.

Modern aircraft are great for gliding through the air, performing aero stunts or defending our national interests. Indeed, most sci-fi space opera are recreations of World War II battles in the Pacific Ocean -- aircraft carriers, agile fighter planes, hidden submarines and thundering battleships. This scenario is exciting, high drama. But this not how flight would occur in outer space with our present technologies. Our apologies to Battlestar Galactica; it is doubtful that Viper fighters could operate in outer space, land on a planet and takeoff again in a single engagement -- not enough fuel. Likewise, the Star Wars Millennium Falcon could not execute a perfect barrow roll (no air in space),  then jump into hyperspace (FTL?), survive a fiery reentry onto a planet and park itself on a floating city.  These are fantastic dramas, but not good science as we understand it, today.

The bottom line,  fiction may not adhere to fact, but it inspires us to greater innovations. For this reason, a jet plane is not a spaceship, yet.

Why A Jetplane NOT a Spaceship, Part I

The excitement  in science fiction stories is heightened when writers heed the problems of space travel and offer stories using novel solutions for survival outside of Earth’s atmosphere and gravity.

Too often, our sci-fi stories and space operas are merely World War I and II naval battles or wild west yarns with ray guns. In reality (pun intended), an interplanetary or interstellar transport is not a jetplane nor an aircraft carrier. Spacecraft do not zoom and swish in the vacuum of space. They don't bank and do barrel rolls. Battlestar Galactica's titantic fleet battles between the robotic Cylons and human colonists  are merely reproductions of warship engagements in the South Pacific. Sci-fi also frequently invokes images of solitary clipper sailing vessels seeking distant ports such as in Star Trek’s Voyager explorations or even the 1960’s Lost In Space. 

On 18th century Earth, humans perceived a voyage from England to China as we would ponder crossing the void to Alpha Centauri — our closest stellar neighbor. It can be considered hard and dangerous.

I would be the last person to bemoan that science gets in the way of creating entertaining and thought-provoking sci-fi, but there are opportunities to make the science of space travel just as intriguing and dramatic as the main storyline.  For instance, Sci-fi fandom easily can embrace Scotty’s frequent  lamentation, “Captain, she’s breaking apart, we can’t go any faster! The warp field is collapsing.” Likewise, in Star Wars, there was a dramatic moment when the Millennium Falcon’s hyper drive malfunctioned thus endangering a clean escape away from the enemy. We don’t need to understand all the “nuts and bolts” but the technology should be included in the storyline.

We can cheer for the hero, curse the villain and be astonished by the tech that drives the story. The proper use of science elements disquishes a mediocre tale from an inspiring sci-fi adventure. 2001, A Space Odyssey was one of the best films ever produced to combine fiction with emerging technology.  HAL, a mechanical device dominated the climax of the story.  

Therefore, writers should understand why a spaceship is not an atmospheric bi-plane nor a deep sea submarine nor a Pacific battleship riding the waves.  The incorporation of the physics, machinery and intricacies of space travel can create richer stories that readers will appreciate and buy.

The first aspect is propulsion — you have to get off a planet and travel ginormous distances to reach your destination that could take centuries with conventional means. So, we have to expand our intellectual horizons. Moving the plot forward, means moving the spaceship faster than the speed of light. Or, allow a ship to crawl between destinations — perhaps for hundreds of years. What happens to the crew and passengers trapped inside a metal can? Ark and generational spaceships are a staple among sci-fi writers.

People first used rafts or canoes using human power (paddling) to cross the river; later, cloth sails captured the wind to traverse lakes and seas. Eventually, steam engines, internal combustion (gasoline/diesel) and nuclear energy were used to roam the globe from pole to pole. Columbus took months to reach the new world. Today, New York to Paris is only a few hours in a soft, reclining seat.

Jules Verne launched his intrepid astronauts to the moon using a giant cannon in 1865. The energy involved would have pulverized the crew but it was good reading. There was a plan in 1961 (Project HARP) to launch satellites into earth orbit using a sophisticated space gun.  The U.S. government was very serious about tossing fission bombs out of the tail end of a spaceship to achieve a tiny fraction of light speed. The recent SyFy TV series,  Ascension,  was inspired by the real-life Project Orion. Scientists put their faith on enormous liquid fuel rockets to get to the moon.

The world’s spacefaring governments are examining exotic and safer means to travel the distance between the planets and eventually reach the stars. A blackhole could be used to power a spaceship.  Antimatter propulsion is being investigated. The trip to Mars could be reduced from years to days. Mae Jamison’s 100 Year Starship program held a symposium in September 2014 to discuss the possibilities of reaching our closest stellar neighbors. The era of big, noisy chemical rockets will soon be over. 

That is how Sci-Fi writers can inspire us.

In this blog series, “A Spaceship is not a Jetplane”, I will explore the technologies of futuristic space propulsion and offer a fictional tale that incorporates the dangers and benefits of that technology.

The first sci-fi tech/tale is called “Riding a Nuclear Pulse” — using atomic bombs as the primary energy for a spaceship.

So, what would have happened if America had decided to launch space rockets using atomic weapons?  Would it poison the planet? Read about the consequences in Part II: A Spaceship is Not a Jetplane.

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Sources:

NASA

100 Year Starship Program

The Hybrid Librarian — http://youtu.be/zaJC8XFywBc

The Physics of Star Trek  -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Physics_of_Star_Trek

Book Review: Unexpected Stories by Octavia E. Butler; foreword by Walter Mosley

Walter Mosley tell us, "Unexpected Stories reveals the themes that would become Butler's  lexicon: the complicating mysteries we assign to poet, race and gender. Octavia Butler wrote these two stories, "A Necessary Being" and "Childfinder", early on in her journey from reader to writer, from fiction to unassailable reality. She is working out in these two very different stories the purpose she would refine with every book, every series, every word she subsequently wrote."

I am a big fan of Octavia Butler. Some of her works, I consider outstanding. Yet, there are books and stories that I find baffling (maybe as I get older, the messages will become clearer).

Unexpected Stories is an ebook consisting of two stories that were written very early in her career.

"A Necessary Being" is so relevant today that it is truly frightening.  An alien society places all of its hopes and governance on having a special and rare individual to rule them.  However, the people must physically cripple the selected individual so he can't run away and avoid his responsibilities. It made me consider the plight of the Presidency of the United States (or any great leader of a modern nation).  Octavia weaves an ornate tale where this superior being must suffer horrible torture for the good of the whole tribe. Ask President Obama about life as a President amongst people who naively love him or  mindlessly hate him, yet they all expect him to solve their problems.

"Childfinder" brings me back to Octavia's telepathic themes.  In a freaked-out world, people with special psychic abilities are hunted and collected for experimentation. This is probably where her Patternmaster (Patternist) series of novels began. As always, her precise writing and strong characters move the story emotionally. Yet, sligthtly disappointing to me, was its brevity and lack of conclusion; but it was still a good read and illuminating. The story builds the foundation for the tremendous novel "Wild Seed" which won huge accolades from the sci-fi community at-large.

As I said earlier, I am a big fan of Octavia B. She was a great writer.  We should honor her memory during Black Speculative Fiction Month October 2014 by reading her works.

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October 2014 is Black Speculative Fiction Month, so tell everyone.  Visit your favorite online book dealer or go to your local bookstore. Buy something.  Read some of the great Black authors. Purchase books by emerging Speculative Fiction authors -- there are many who are very good but need your support.

If you are a writer, give us your best. Reveal the incredible people and worlds that you imagine. Dream the fantastic. Make us aware. Give us inspiration.

Reading and writing is what this month is all about. Get involved with Black Speculative Fiction Month. Spread the word. Start a movement.

The Baddest Girls in Speculative Fiction

There are many, many bad girls who do good in speculative fiction. I will just mention a few and I welcome comments about other "bad girls" in science fiction, fantasy and horror.

The novels and short stories written by Octavia Butler overflow with the baddest (meaning good) girls. I could write a Ph.D. thesis on the portrayal of strong women in Butler's works.  If I had to choose one, it would  be Anyanwu in Wild Seed. Originally published in 1980, Anyanwu was a shape shifter, who watched over and protected her family for generation after generation. She could not die, but she frequently mourned the deaths of her children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, great, great great and so-fourth. She celebrate births. She nurtured all of her children to help them achieve the best they could during their brief lives of only 40 to 70 years. Then, she met the ultimate bad boy, Doro, who also could not die. He lived for thousands of years. But that is another story.

In the TV sci-fi, FireFly, first mate Zoe Washburne (Gina Torres) is a veteran "Browncoat" of the Unification War, a failed attempt by the outlying worlds to resist the Alliance's assertion of control. She is loyal to the captain of a ship of smugglers and has a husband, a dashing pilot, that she fiercely protects. In a bar fight, you want her by your side. When locked in a desperate space battle with hostile aliens, she will win. The TV series lasted only a few seasons and the following movie, "Serenity" was awesome; but the wild west in outer space meme was getting thin. However, we will always appreciate Zoe as the hard-fisted, tender hearted hero of the galaxy. She has a long list of credits including the campy, Cleopatra 2525 TV show which was fun to watch but sadly lacked any intellect. 

Storm is my personal favorite among all fictional female heroes. Unfortunately, the cinematographic portrayal of Storm by Halle Barry (a great actor) was weak and underplayed. But in the comic book versions, Storm rocked the planet. For instance, read the story when she married Black Panther the king of an African and technologically advanced society. She protected a continent and became the leader of the X-Men.  But Storm is more than a mutant, she is an African Goddess with tremendous powers like Thor, the Thunder God. Storm was one of the first black comic book characters (1975), and the first black female to play either a major or supporting role in the big two comic book houses, Marvel Comics and DC Comics. If the big money, Hollywood assholes were smart and followed simple greed instead of racism and sexism, they would produce a big budget movie based on Storm, Ororo Munroe, an African superbeing. We are tired of Batman, Superman, Spiderman and Iron Man.

Why We Need A Static Shock

When you Google the news, you discover that, indeed, the world is a very dangerous place. Diseases; multiple wars; blind racial/religious hatred; socially catastrophic and  environmentally destructive greed are daily headlines.  It is a mess. Yet, most of us choose to continue on with our lives; build families and try to improve our surroundings. We could  hide in silent desperation. Or, we could ball up our fists and narrow our eyes to focus on a winning goal.

Inspiration to take on overwhelming challenges comes from many sources. Speculative fiction -- which is an umbrella term for any artistic endeavor that presents unlimited possibilities -- can be our savior.

In recent world events, communities, nations and people of color have suffered disproportionately on planet Earth due to ill-thought economics, denied healthcare and lack of modern education. Those conditions can change to greatly benefit all of us -- rich, poor, educated or fearful.

We need more Black superheroes to encourage people of all colors to believe that anyone with ambition and preparation can save the day. We need more Static Shocks and Dwayne McDuffies from many ethnic backgrounds. Their lessons are important.

We can successfully and peacefully coexist with ourselves and our environment. We can expand into our universe.

We can dream big.

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Dwayne Glenn McDuffie (February 20, 1962 – February 21, 2011) was an American writer of comic books and television, known for creating the animated television series Static Shock, writing and producing the animated series Justice League Unlimited and Ben 10, and co-founding the pioneering comic-book company Milestone Media. McDuffie earned three Eisner Award nominations for his work in comics. (Wikipedia)

For more about Black Superheroes go to: http://blacksuperherodoc.com

AFRO Anime: The African Asian Connection

One of my favorite actors is Samuel L. Jackson.  He can drop the "M-F' bomb like no one else on the planet. But he also has been in involved in projects that need to have a recurring shootout. If you missed it, be sure to take a look at "AFRO Samurai". An award winning animation that combines Rap, comedy, bloody sword play and Japanese-style anime in one glorious package.

This is not Sailor Moon nor Pokemon. The story and graphics are vicious and thought provoking.  Two cultures are combined: Feudal Japan and modern hip hop tech. Cellphones against Ninja swords. Visually stunning, Google it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afro_Samurai

1st Black Sci-Fi Movie Is a Winner

What was the first science fiction movie featuring an all Black cast?  Was it a success? How talented were the filmmaker and actors working on a very low-budget film before 4-color cinematography was perfected?

The special effects may seem awful; an actor in a rubbery monster costume. No CGI. No 3-D. Music from wax disks decoded by a steel needle.

Why did the Black characters sing and dance, while unaware of the approaching African monster who had been set loose on American soil?  Did "Feets git moving" fulfill popular expectations?

Don't worry. "Race" movies had a purposeful place in America's diverse social fabric. It was a necessity that created opportunities to build a stronger, more reasonable society.

This relatively unknown, yet very important 1940s speculative fiction film probably was never shown in segregated movie theaters that were located down south, up north and way west. Possibly, its exposure in the few venues available did inspire people to believe in cultural heroism and a new society to come.  Civil Rights. Black Power. Equal Economic Opportunities. The Presidency.

It is a fairly predictable sci-fi flick. Boy marries girl. Hideous monster kidnaps girl. Boy overcomes monster and rescues his sweetheart. Yet, probing deeper, you see more when you open your eyes.

A Black man faces extreme economic disadvantages in a world set against him.  Despite the odds, he saves his woman from poverty and offers her a good life. Of course, the opposite could have happened at any moment -- the woman could have created economic prosperity, or both woman and man could have been eaten by a savage monster called America.

That is why tickets and popcorn and large sodas were sold to crowds of people on Saturday afternoons.  We saw our personal demons on the big screen; fought them and hopefully won -- that emotional energy carried over into our day-to-day lives. We became heroes. We were given dreams.

'Nuff said.  Watch.  (Thanks go to Wikipedia and YouTube)

A Letter to My Great, Great, Great Grand Kids

Dear Great, Great, Great Grand Kids:

I suspect that more than likely in your world, letter writing and reading flimsy paper documents may be considered old-fashioned and painfully slow (I’m guessing that you are using digital mind transmissions or some other interplanetary techno-magic to communicate with one another) but I hope you’ll take a moment to put away your quantum nano-computers to cherish the feel of real paper this letter was written on. 

Please allow these carefully typed words to pass leisurely at a mere mortal’s pace.

Sometimes, the young take lightly when forced to listen to elders who drift back on the outgoing tide of ancient history; but the ocean flows in both directions. In order to have a more perfect future and a tolerable present, we may need to understand the wisdom and eccentricities as well as self-sacrifice and vicious gluttony of our ancestors.

Thus, these are some of my observations.

The human animal will always be clannish and slow to accept members from a different tribe of

thought. The war between men and women may expand to include newly recognized genders; but regardless of the battle lines, the species will never stop procreation. How we worship and pray has seen many transformations; if you still believe in God, then you know there is only one God who chooses to appear in different forms to different people but offering the same message: it is not the text of the holy book that matters but the actions of the believers that is most significant. If we don’t help one another, then we all suffer. The notion that only one special group or culture or human race has the singular connection to the Almighty is most assuredly false.

In fact, the whole notion of human “races” should be totally obsolete and frowned upon as a completely useless definition of the human animal. You can not define a person by their skin, hair, eyes, or speech. There are no human races; there is no African, no Oriental, no Caucasian; there is only humanity. Yet, even though we should never define ourselves using out-of-date racial terminology, “racism” does exist. Racism is the outcome whenever one group seeks to exploit or harm another group.

It makes no sense to hurt each other. We are all one kind. We must coexist intimately or die out completely as a biological species.

We also must coexist with the earth. The air we breath, water we drink, and food we consume are all part of a sacred chain of survival. People, as well as animals and plants all belong to each other and to the planet and the universe that spawned us. Yes, we are children of the universe. The atoms of your body or from a mountain were both created in a Supernova explosion that occurred billions of years ago in a distant part of our galaxy. The atoms and molecules and biological manifestations of everything we call life are constantly in motion and change.

In your history books, you may come across an historical reference to the Internet/World Wide Web. This electronic network was the first tool of its kind to allow humans to take the crucial step to break through barriers that have caused human strife for centuries and to change for the better our existence. Digital communications -- especially what we called “virtual worlds” -- helped coalesce the various factions of humanity into a linked global village. There was once a real threat of a digital divide to further separate affluent populations from poor ones, educated individuals from the intellectually naive, old and young. But as the rampant and profit-driven commercialism as well as crass materialism slowed and more socially conscious net innovators emerged offering free transfer of knowledge, the net became an essential key to greater prosperity for larger segments of the human society.

Most important, we saw the beginning of the end of global warfare. No more war. Thanks to your parents (my generation’s offspring), large scale weapons manufacturing was banned totally. Even the so-called secret factories were exposed and dismantled by people who believed that no human should ever kill another for purely monetary gains or land grabs or water rights.

There has been tremendous technological, social, and political advances during the period between my generation to yours. I know there is still a lot to do to help all of humanity and earth kind to survive. I firmly believe that you will continue to build on the successes of your forebears. Good luck and remember to occasionally take a look at the history books and family genealogy databases to reaffirm our evolution as a society and celebrate the foresight of your elders.

Best Wishes,

Great, Great, Grand Dad

Stafford Levon Battle

December 8, 2008

(Letter to Grand Kids first appeared in How We Love: Letters and Lessons for the Next Generation edited by Karyn Langhorne Folan, Wendy Coakley-Thomspon, and Tamara E. Bowie. Capital Bookfest, 2008)

Educating with Science Fiction

What if . . . teachers used science fiction to describe the universe.

Just when I thought I had found the last web page of the Internet, I discovered an interesting and informative site. It offers resources for teachers to encourage their students to explore science using sci-fi books and movies.

Science Fiction can play a very important  role in education -- not just in early education (k-12) but also lifelong. There is growing friction between science fact and science denial. Setting aside the frustrations of convincing irrational skeptics of climate change, there is a dangerous block of leaders who would gladly burn all books except the Bible.

My suggestion is to not waste time with people who bury their heads in the sand for profit or sheer stubbornness; use entertainment to encourage the curious to explore science and become better educated. The debate with "science" deniers is over.

There are many good sites that offers information about using speculative fiction to teach science. Start with: http://www.scoop.it/t/using-science-fiction-to-teach-science

Also have a little fun with The Physics of Star Trek written by Lawrence M. Krauss.  Re-discover the fantastic sci-fi devices that we now use daily. 

At Rest

A new flash fiction that I wrote. I hope you enjoy it.