I know I’ve spent a few days brainstorming for the first Mars mission in my science-fictional alternate history, but already I can’t help but plot out things even further for the timeline of early spaceflight. In particular, after the first Mars landing in 1963, what … Continue readingAn Odyssey to the Outer Solar System?
Having given some thought to my alternate timeline’s space program recently, I’ve been doing some research on space history in our world. One aspect that stands out to me is how much more capable a super-heavy-lift launcher (like the Saturn V, SLS, or SpaceX Starship) … Continue readingAll I Ask is a Tall Rocket…
There are few better nights than Halloween for memento mori, and I’ve been fascinated by the concept of the “doomsday shroud” for much of this year, and now I’ve got an idea for a post-apocalyptic yet heartwarmingly romantic universe. Picture this: at the end of … Continue readingA Romantic Apocalypse: Beyond the Doomsday Shroud
I know just my last post was “A Beloved from the Stars”, covering my brainstorming for my next story, which I’ve decided I might title “Heart of Proxima”, but I’ve been doing some more work on it, enough to want to share it with all … Continue readingReturn from Thalassa: More Thoughts
Hmm. It doesn’t seem like so long since I wrote my thoughts on “After Thalassa: Squid Brains of Enceladus”, but it’s been almost four months! In the interim I’ve been focusing on other stories, but recently I’ve seen fit to flesh out the concept into … Continue readingA Beloved from the Stars
In my alternate-history science-fiction space opera setting, it’s well-established that first contact with alien intelligence was made by Ilmatar of Thalassa on, well, Thalassa (a planet of Proxima Centauri) around the year 2060. What’s not so well-established is that the Thalassans aren’t the closest alien … Continue readingAfter Thalassa: Squid Brains of Enceladus?
At the end of “Dr. Strangelove”, the titular character says to the President “I would not rule out the chance to preserve a nucleus of human specimens”, proposing a plan (which he probably had on the shelf since the late Nazi years…) to dig out … Continue readingAfter the Doomsday Shroud
It’s recently struck me that people in the science-fiction setting I write in and worldbuild live dangerously, or, more to the point, just don’t have the kind of risk aversion and (as I like to put it) “safety cultism” that plagues our modern cultures in … Continue readingLiving Dangerously on the High Frontier