Haumea is another new dwarf planet. Named after the Hawaiian goddess of fertility, in keeping with the tradition of naming planets and moons after characters in mythology. Haumea has an unusual shape and two moons.
Haumea is another new dwarf planet. Named after the Hawaiian goddess of fertility, in keeping with the tradition of naming planets and moons after characters in mythology. Haumea has an unusual shape and two moons.
A lot has changed since My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nine Pizzas (Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto). Pluto was downgraded to a dwarf planet, and three other dwarf planets (all having moons themselves) have been added to the solar system.
This is really remarkable. Based on the principle of the Higgs field (that mass is not constant) what might seem like an impossible Rube-Goldberg machine is, in fact, a real possibility for thrust without the messy rocket exhaust. You can read Mr. Woodward's ideas in great detail in his book "Making Starships and Stargates" from Springer publishing.
The video below shows a scale model example of what is being talked about. If mass fluctuates, you can push in one direction when the mass is low (increasing velocity cheaply). Then the system can "relax" when mass is high (not decreasing velocity very much). A small net velocity remains. Repeat, slowly adding velocity by increments.
Conductors exposed to an approaching magnetic object naturally develop internal magnetic fields opposing that motion. Like a science-fiction force field that only applies to magic objects.
Some elements repel a magnetic field to some degree. The effect is very small, except for in superconductors which have the added property of perfectly expelling magnetic fields below a certain strength.
This is fairly remarkable, given that as a child the formation theory for diamonds insisted extremely high temperatures and pressures.
If you’re a science-fiction fan, you may enjoy Science Fiction September. The event is being organized by author Lara Storm Hitchcock.
Every day in September will feature a newly released science-fiction novel each day in the month of September. During the featured day, the author will be available for questions. Also, there will be several free giveaways.
Here’s a link to the Sci-Fi September page of Facebook.
I hope you’ve enjoyed Colony and Singularity. I’ve started work on the third book in the series. It picks up the story back on Earth: a place that figures into the thinking of the first two books, but has mostly been left undefined. This is planned to be a fun story, after Colony and Singularity both intentionally explored some ideas – this new book also has, I hope, some big ideas, but is about having a good, old-fashioned adventure.
Like with Singularity, I’ll start posting bits in the work-in-progress section. I would really appreciate your feedback! Please leave a comment and let me know if you have liked the books. Or, what you didn’t like. I’d really like to write the kind of story that people would enjoy to read.
Thank you for your support!
Thank you for everyone who read an early copy, provided feedback, or just provided encouragement. ‘Singularity’ is now available in paperback and e-book on Amazon.
The story picks up three generations after the main story in Colony ends. It focuses on Elise, a minor colonist character from Colony, now a grandparent. Settled, and seemingly happy, she encounter a group of refugees from the dominantly lower tech settlement of Bellevue to the east, which causes her to explore past the edges of her settlement.
What I wanted to explore in Singularity was the idea of the technological singularity. It’s this idea that at some point machines must become smarter than people, and we will either: go to war, die off, or evolve. In Colony, the answer was that people have to evolve. Evolved to be extremely smart, shouldn’t the problems that we have go away also? I wanted to explore that in this book, and it picks up scenario’s from much better works by Victor Hugo and Charles Dickens, tries to apply them to a high-tech environment, and explores how the outcomes might change.
Anyway, I hope you like it! I’ve already started the third one, which will begin with the diplomatic mission briefly mentioned in Colony and Singularity and, I hope, go to some neat places from there.