Results tagged “space” from Converjed

Finally got hold of the High Frontier supplement for the GURPS Transhuman Space RPG. This is still one of the best "realistic" imaginings of a near-future solar system - probably circa 2150 or even 2200 given current rates. It's certainly on a par with Paul McAuley's Quiet War series.

One thing that also struck me about recent SF I've read:

- Cyberabad Days by Ian McDonland is all about future India
- Quiet War is about a dominant Brazil in space
- Transhuman Space is all about a dominant China in space.

In other words it looks like the BRICs countries will inherit and dominate our SF future.

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2009/12/hubble_space_telescope_advent_1.html

Stunning collection of 25 Hubble images.

The Augustine Commission has released its summary report on the future of US manned spaceflight. The key points appear to be:

• Finish Space Shuttle ops as planned in 2011
• Extend IISS to 2020
• Abandon Ares 1 and probably Ares V to develop a new Ares V Lite mid-range booster
• Hand man to LEO operations over to private contractors
• Shift the emphasis from Moon then Mars to "flexibility", which may include both, plus L5, near earth asteroids and even Phobos and Deimos, but no dates

Looking to commercial contractors to do the lift to orbit is a nice step - but:

• The assumption still appears to be that the contractors will use rockets, and not any form of re-usable system (a super Spaceship 1)
• Although there is some talk of in-orbit refueling for lunar/mars injection, it appears to be discounted in favour of the single lift approach
• Although Orion (the new crew capsule - a big Apollo CM) is seen as possibly too big and in need of a trim (everything is "lite" in this report), there still appears to be an acceptance of the "apollo" model rather than going for a spacecraft that only travels orbit to orbit and never has to re-enter

Be interesting to see what extra detail/decisions there are in the final version.

I've started work on a pet Futurology project called Five by Five - five themes over the next five half-centuries.

As a first element I've just updated my future timeline - mainly focussed on space exploration and AI development. Other issues like poverty. the environment and politics will be added as part of the larger project.

BTW the wiki that the timeline on is one of the reasons there are less posts to the blog - the wiki is a better tool for some of the writing I'm doing at the moment - and easier to use from the iPhone!

Every so often you follow a link to a great location in SL, and then stumble on something else (almost) as amazing.

Followed the link from New World Notes to NOAA's stunning Second Earth. I've seen a sculptie earth before, but this one is huge and has live data (and satellites) on it. Stunning build and makes me want to renew our efforts to find a (UK) sponsor for a 1 - 6 sim scale UK model. Next time I visit I must put my spacesuit on too!

Looking at the local map I saw some ship and aircraft shapes on an island to the East (this is all around Scilands - where else!). What I found was a whole sim of very high quality, full size transport from NOAA exploration ships (an a wonderful rusting hulk), to trains and Concorde and even an Imperial shuttle. The island is owned by the EPA, so would love to know what they have in mind! Note the parcels are private, but you can hover over and cam in to see the detail.

Stunning places, and the potential applications enormous. I'd challenge anyone to go visit them and then not see just how important virtual worlds are going to become!

Stunning images and video of the heart of the Milky Way. Never realised they were resolving the individual stars there. The image above is only 1 parsec across - just short of the distance from us to Alpha Centauri. Particularly striking as I'm reading Incandesence by Greg Egan which is set there.

http://www.geoeye.com/CorpSite/gallery/Default.aspx

Google sponsored Google Eye satellite has returned its first pictures, which promise to bring even higher resolution to Google Earth/Maps. Another step forward in the commercialisation of, and public access to, space.

About 20-25 years ago I found a copy of any early home programming magasine called the Liverpool Software Gazette. In it was the listing a programme for the Apple II for Stargate - an app which let you view the starts near the earth as a 3D cube - or even watch the night-sky from Sirius. I didn't have an Apple, but did have a BBC Micro so I rewrote it for the Beeb and released it into the public domain. A few years later I bought an Atari ST an rewrote it again.

And now I've brought it bang up to date in Second Life. The Astrocube on Daden Prime is a big 3D box within which we can plot astronomical objects in 3D. We've already got it loaded with closest stars, brightest stars and exoplanets. The one I really liked though was the 100 closest galaxies. It gives a real sense of a) the distance between the galaxies and b) the huge galaxy clusters which are out there.

We'll be posting a video to YouTube and a URL shortly.

Andy why, after 20 years and the Internet is my best source of data still the star atlas which came with GDWs Traveller 2300AD RPG?

Good to see that the Mars Phoenix lander made it safely down. Nice photos. Now lets see if it finds water-ice below the surface.