We write Science Fiction.  We love reading Science Fiction and Fantasy.  We love watching the Expanse and Science Fiction Movies.

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The problem is:  we are also engineer and science types.  And, we want our stories to be relevant for decades, if not generations.  To be so, it is not appropriate to toss out too many ideas that are patently untrue, or very, very , unlikely.  We read a mystery novel by a famous writer and publisher who put a sea state nine storm in Puget Sound, followed by a Chinese geostationary satellite hovering 20 miles above India.  Bah!

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We also do not like a cheesy soap-opera set on some strange planet, that the planet is almost impossible (orbiting inside the orbits of a three-star system), and the soap-opera is the theme of the story.  An outstanding book must also have nuggets of wisdom, and a generational book must work into the story a significant message.

 

(In contrast to pulp fiction, and for a better story, read: The Three Body Problem, by Lui Cixin for an elegant story around hard science and an examination of a significant cultural/historical event.   Read Dan Brown's Inferno for an impactful message).

 

So, without much further ado, we present some of our background engineering and science scenery:

 

The Logistics of Colonizing the Solar System will be astoundingly more difficult than the technical solutions.  Few appreciate this issue.

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One of the background stories in our book is that of a space elevator.  Besides the engineering difficulty, besides the failure mode of a 40,000 mile long structure falling on an 8,000 mile Earth, there is the Kessler syndrome.  Also called the Kessler effect, collisional cascading, or ablation cascade,  proposed by the NASA scientist Donald J. Kessler in 1978, is a scenario in which the density of objects in low Earth orbit (LEO) is high enough that collisions between objects could cause a cascade in which each collision generates space debris that increases the likelihood of further collisions.  One implication is that the distribution of debris in orbit could render space activities and the use of satellites in specific orbital ranges difficult for many generations.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The development of 1 g interplanetary travel is possibly solved by the BoLo habitat design.  See the open source PDF at www.JAPL.space for the particulars, or view the primitive drawings on our site: BoLo YoYo PoGo Habitat.

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The period surrounding the big bang is incorrectly portrayed by our science media.  Our understanding of the distant universe depends upon the assumption that physical processes in the distant and early universe are the same as the ones we see.  That assumption is bedrock when discussing stars and background radiation, but falls apart with cosmic scale issues such as dark matter.  It additionally will fail when we discuss that all the matter in the universe was packed in the space the size of a planet, a star, or even a galaxy, and material has to move faster than light.   Those kinds of processes require speculation in the broadest terms.

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Speaking of broad speculation, Vesta - Coming of Age hypothesizes dark matter is in a parallel universe where the constants within the Maxwell E-M field equations and quantum electrodynamics are different, creating matter and energy which do not react with normal matter easily, gravity is their only evidence of existence.  Pure poppycock, of course. Right?

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Following a conversation of Isaac Asimov about tunneling into an asteroid to live, the book proposes an expanded version. A completely shrouded asteroid with rip-rap rock rubble on top, covering a fully circumglobal tent of atmosphere containing material to create an environment safe from vacuum, radiation, and collision.  See the open source PDF at www.JAPL.space for the particulars, or view the primitive drawings on our site : PHILIPS Airoid Space Habitat.

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The authors do not see engineering developments for faster-than-light travel, time-travel, or believe in magic of psi powers.

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However, we do believe in artificial intelligence becoming real to the point that such a being could have a profound sense of self.

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Such beings would be capable of electromagnetic radiation communication and remote commands to independent equipment.  Perhaps people too, could be integrated with electronic communication systems for command and communication.   Such abilities would be hard to distinguish from psi or magic as Arthur Clarke suggests.

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We do not believe in alien space faring civilizations.  We used to, but the numbers do not pencil out.  Our calculations suggest that the chance of space alien civilizations is less than a one in 5000 .

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For some, 5000:1 might seem a reasonable chance, so let's see what it would mean in real life:  I am going to hide one million dollars, if you find it, it is yours.

 

Go to the nearest big city, pick a building with fifty floors, go to an elevator, pick a floor, go to that floor, you open the door, there are four halls (N,E,W,S) leading away, each with twelve doors, pick a hallway, then pick a door (1 thru 12), go into the room, the money is either behind the bathroom door, or in the closet, pick one.  Write your picks down.  compare your picks to the answer at the top of the page, left side.  did you find the money?  Have your friend, no, all your friends, do the same problem.  Did any of them find the money?  That is the odds, 5000:1.  We are going to work as if the odds are zero unless convinced otherwise.

 

Go to "There are no Aliens" page to review our calculations.

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