Science Fiction Newsletter - May 2011

For a full list of previous issues, go to: "Science Fiction Newsletter - Archives" 

May 1, 2011

Editor: EarlyHours-A Vigilante Ranger




1. About this Newsletter
2. Letter from the Editor
3. Special Feature
4. Editor's Picks
5. Ask & Answer

Our Solar System in Science Fiction

In this Science Fiction Newsletter, and in upcoming, but perhaps not sequential issues, we will explore the solar system in a series of Special Features. We will visit the Sun itself in this issue, and make our way out to the farthest reaches of the system during the coming months. If you have interest in a particular planet or destination, feel free to contribute a Special Feature as a Guest Editor!

"The human race shouldn't have all its eggs in one basket or on one planet". Stephen Hawking

Why Colonize the Solar System?

Our solar system and its various planets, asteroids and moons, were the earliest objects to be treated as locations in works of science fiction. As early as the seventeenth century, exploration of Earth's Moon appeared. Examples are Johannus Kepler's Somnium (1634), Francis Godwin's The Man in the Moone (1638), and Cyrano de Bergerac's Comical History of the States and Empires of the Moon (1659) and Sun (1687). By the early twentieth century, as an extrapolation from the industrial revolution and accelerating scientific discovery, journeys to and from our system's planets had become common in science fiction. Famous authors such as C.S. Lewis, E.E. Smith, Arthur C. Clarke, and Ben Bova, have effectively used multiple solar system locations as settings for their stories.

If we want to include the solar system in our stories, it is important to understand why our characters would want to explore and settle the solar system in the first place, and what considerations apply to specific destinations. After all, you can't have your character take a leisurely stroll on the Lunar surface without taking the atmospheric vacuum into consideration, and you can't have your protagonist take a dip in the oceans of Titan, unless she likes to swim in liquid methane!

Stephen Hawking said we should colonize space and build residential units on other planets, or else face the prospect of long-term extinction. In fact, he recommended that we start thinking of colonizing space within the next two hundred years to avoid the prospects of extinction. But there has been ongoing debate on the subject of whether or not mankind should colonize space. As science fiction readers, we naturally gravitate towards pro-colonization, and cite reasons such as ensuring the survival of our species (from a variety of disasters), solving overpopulation, saving Earth's environment by moving industry to space, making money through space commercialization, and spreading life and beauty around the solar system.

An advantage of creating large space settlements is that we'd be building land, instead of taking it from someone else! This would allow a huge expansion of humanity without destruction of Earth's biosphere and without war. The asteroids could provide enough raw materials to make habitats, or orbital "land" hundreds of times larger than the surface of the Earth. But colonizing space would require massive amounts of financial, physical and human capital, and a society devoted to research, development, production, and deployment. Are these obstacles prohibitive? Maybe for now, but a colonization project could take a hundred years or more, so perhaps we should start talking about it, while there's still time!

"If it's true that civilizations normally go extinct because they get stuck on their home planets, then the odds are against us". John Tierney

"Three things cannot be long hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth.". Buddha

The Sun

The Sun has been cited in literature, in one form or another, since the dawn of civilization. It has been used to symbolize a god; most, if not all civilizations, have had a sun god. The Sun can also symbolize intellect and understanding, masculinity, glory and fame, yang (to the moon's yin), life, or hope. In our own stories, we can use the sun in a variety of ways, as a metaphor for feelings and emotions, or as a concrete destination for our explorers. But our travelers must have sufficient technology to protect the crew from unimaginable gravity, and from heat capable of melting heavy metals, as well as our spacecrafts!

As far as the galaxy is concerned, our Sun is a rather ordinary star. But from our vantage point here on Earth, the Sun is an object of magnificent proportions. It is a fiery ball of superheated hydrogen and helium gases that contains 99.9 percent of all matter in the Solar System. More than a million Earths could fit inside the Sun. It is 150,000,000 Km from Earth, and the temperature of its outer visible layer (photosphere) is estimated to be 6,000°C (11,000°F). It is even hotter in the deeper layers. The Sun has been active for 4.6 billion years and probably has enough fuel to go on for another five billion years. At the end of its life, the Sun will begin to swell up, ultimately growing so large that it will swallow the Earth. After a billion years as a red giant, it will collapse into a white dwarf – its final end product. And then it could take a trillion years to cool off completely. Hopefully, mankind will be somewhere else by then!

Recently, I read two novels that involve our Sun. The first was David Brin's Sundiver, the first book in his classic Uplift trilogy (the second novel in the series was the Hugo and Nebula award winning Startide Rising, which I haven't read yet). The characters pilot a Sun ship built from a combination of alien and human technology, and proceed to investigate creatures living in the Sun's chromosphere. The science is solid, and good explanations are offered for how the ship dissipates the heat and maneuvers in the high gravity.

Robert Charles Wilson's Hugo Award winning novel Spin, involved the Sun very differently from the destination approach of David Brin. It is also the first in a trilogy (Axis is the second, and Vortex is expected this year). A mysterious membrane envelops the Earth, causing time on Earth to dramatically slow down. For every perceived Earth year, roughly 100 million years pass outside the membrane. It is deduced that within the time of one generation on Earth, the rest of the solar system will age 4 billion years, and Earth will be destroyed by the expanding Sun. This novel presented an intriguing scientific idea, which in my opinion, was overshadowed by complex characterization and interpersonal conflicts. (March's Newsletter discussed idea-driven versus character-driven science fiction: "Science Fiction Newsletter - Mar 2011" ). I would have liked to see Spin offer more exploration of the scientific aspects, and less of the pain, sickness, suffering and turmoil of the characters burning up in the red giant sunlight. Have you read it? If so, what's your opinion?

Guest Editors Wanted!

For upcoming issues of the Unofficial Science Fiction newsletter, I would like to invite subscribers to contribute. Please consider writing a "Special Feature," based on any scientific of sci-fi interest you may have. Don't hesitate to contact me anytime if this appeals to you! -ed.

"Now is the time to take longer strides -- time for a great new American enterprise -- time for this nation to take a clearly leading role in space achievement, which in many ways may hold the key to our future on Earth". John F. Kennedy

WDC authors have been touring the the solar system for a long time! Here are a few samples Enjoy!

ID: 1700033   (Rated: E) Why off-Earth?  Where, oh where we should go and do next with some thought-provoking suggestions. by D. R. Prescott

ID: 1758245 Invalid Item  This item number is not valid. by Not Available.

ID: 1695897   (Rated: E) Under The Moon  Paper Doll Story Contest for August, 2010 by blainecindy - I love my WDC!

ID: 1759143   (Rated: 13+) Suns Rising  The day the sun split in two. by Tina B-SO TIRED OF SCHOOL!

ID: 1742121 Invalid Item  This item number is not valid. by Not Available.

ID: 828428   (Rated: E) Solar System  An observation on social positions. by A thinker never sleeps

Poetry and other fun:

ID: 799985   (Rated: E) A Crazy, Mixed Up Solar System of Hunger  A hungry child romps humorously through the Solar System. by Shaara

ID: 1413208   (Rated: E) Twilight Blush  The beauty and wonder of the setting sun. by Julie D

ID: 1767894   (Rated: E) Mother  A poem about Earth's mother... or is it? by Riot™ is having...Boy or Girl?

ID: 1743236   (Rated: E) From the Sun's Point of View  If the Sun could talk, what would it say of it's solar system and, mainly, us? by ThatGuyWithThisPenName

ID: 1168926   (Rated: E) PLANETS, CONSTELLATIONS & OUTER SPACE  Quiz on Planets, Constellations, and Outer Space. by Hidley Boxn

Last month's Newsletter topic was Superheroes and Science Fiction

:
LJPC - the tortoise : "Stellar work on the April SF Newsletter -- I really enjoyed it. I've always thought that superheroes were more fantasy than sci-fi, but you made a great case for them being both. It's true that most superhero writers take pains to explain their characters' super abilities. I think that Superman's being an alien sounds a bit more plausible than a radioactive spider, though. Still, whether it's sci-fi or westerns, I think most of us just want a believable good guy to whomp on those bad guys!"

Light posted an interesting comment in the "Science Fiction Newsletter Forum"  regarding "Roger Ramjet:" "It was a Saturday morning cartoon character in around the sixties. He would get calls on a "Hot Line" to go after some bad guys. He seemed to always need to get into a fight with them when he caught up with them, before he could bring them in. He would take "Proton Energy Pills" to give him "the strength of twenty atom bombs for a period twenty seconds.

"I thought of an updated rewrite of the idea, where a test pilot named Roger, nick named Ramjet, had a bottle of his vitamin pills falls into a supercollider while touring it. (A supercollider slams high energy protons into each other. The collider is powered by a reactor with a core about the size of twenty atom bombs.) He gets them back. But when he takes one, he suddenly has supper human strength for a short time, etc, etc. I'm not sure I would actually write such a story. But, this sounds something like what the newsletter was talking about."

Thank you so much everyone! I really appreciate the feedback from readers. Keep it coming! - ed.

Don't Be Shy! Write Into This Unofficial Newsletter!

Reader feedback and comments is important to the Unofficial Science Fiction Newsletter (USFNL). Much of the Newsletter's content is based on reader feedback and discussion. Feedback can always be sent directly to EarlyHours-A Vigilante Ranger , but to make discussion even easier, a USFNL Forum has been set up. Feel free to post and interact at the Forum; some of the discussion may end up here! And don't forget to add the Forum (below) to your list of Favorites, and post often!

ID: 1703191   (Rated: 13+) Science Fiction Newsletter Forum  Discussion of NL Topics, Reader Feedback, Ask & Answer by EarlyHours-A Vigilante Ranger

Please check out our "sponsor":

ID: 1617315   (Rated: 18+) The Sci-fi Writers Guild  Collaborations, discussions and reviews - Welcome to the Sci-fi Writers Guild by EvilDawg - A Vigilante Ranger!

Thanks for reading, and see you next month!