Even if an occasional water-ice comet smacked into Luna, the Sun's rays would make it go away.īut wait a minute. Any water-ice on the surface would have evaporated into space a long time ago. Luna's "day" is 27 or so Terran days long, exposing Luna's surface to the merciless rays of the Sun and baking it to an oven-like temperature of 390°K. Unfortunately data from the Apollo moon missions suggested that the lunar regolith was drier than an old slab of concrete lying in the Sahara desert. Which is why people planning space colonies are so interested in In-Situ Resource Utilization, which in this case is a fancy way of saying "trying to find an ice mine." It would be so much more convenient if the water was already there, so you didn't have to go to the insane expense of importing it. However, as anybody who has carried a bucket of water knows, it has plenty of mass, which makes it very expensive to ship from Terra into orbit. It can also be used to shield the crew from space radiation. You can drink it or use it to grow plants and algae in your life support system. You can split it into oxygen and hydrogen and use it for breathing, propellant, and in fuel cells. In the space environment, water is one of the most valuable things in the universe. These are offered free of charge, I have no claim no them, no strings are attached.įor good examples of science fiction stories based around accurate astronomy, check out the free online anthology Diamonds in the Sky. SF writers are encouraged to use these to brainstorm something interesting. As a public service, I offer a random selection of real astronomical items that are anomalous, suspicious, or downright odd. For science fiction, the weirder the bit of reality used, the better. Science fiction writers often benefit from using reality as a springboard. So, science fiction writers reading this: don't make the Good Doctor's mistake. In its preface he ruefully noted if instead of thinking like a science essay writer he had been thinking like a science fiction author, Isaac Asimov might have won the 1976 Hugo. It was not forgotton, that story has been reprinted zillions of times and indeed is still in print.Īsimov included "Neutron Star" in his anthology. And made first ballot for the 1967 Nebula award. Which won the 1967 Hugo award for best short story. But Niven wrote a science fiction story instead, the eponymous " Neutron Star". This was read by a few people but then more or less forgotten.Īpparently Larry Niven read the same news. Being a science popularizer as well as a science fiction author, he was inspired to write a science essay about neutron stars. Isaac Asimov, in one of the anthologies he edited, mentioned reading some astronomical news back in the early 1960s about neutron stars.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |