tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3596550435682943926.post7690961622342061117..comments2024-03-21T17:50:42.377-07:00Comments on Hop's Blog: Mini Solar SystemsHop Davidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12923433894475072056noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3596550435682943926.post-50077689280509297332022-10-10T15:36:00.326-07:002022-10-10T15:36:00.326-07:00Brian,
I write this long after the last post on t...Brian,<br /><br />I write this long after the last post on this thread in the interest of offering my hope that your efforts have paid off in the interim - I'm in the process of writing my own universe of semi-hard sci-fi stories right now, and I'd like to hope that both of our efforts come to success someday <br /><br />I also want to thank Hop and the other folks doing this sort of thing (i.e. this blog) for providing resources that allow writers such as we to create worlds which capture the science a little more accurately, and therefore tell a better story for the future of space exploration, than other modern effortsThe Curatorhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09727342049973925987noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3596550435682943926.post-64882367891609792332016-06-26T07:53:43.630-07:002016-06-26T07:53:43.630-07:00HI Ronald Steep and Hollister David: There is some...HI Ronald Steep and Hollister David: There is some cause for hope. Andy Weir's "The Martian" was an intelligently written story with few scientific compromises. Alastair Reynolds and his Revelation Space series from the last decade is another great example. It is more speculative, but still underpinned by a respect for physics, time and distance. And more recently is Leviathan Wakes, which last fall (2015) got turned into a well-executed television series called "The Expanse." <br /><br />Yes, the information we need is now more readily available than ever, but continues to be underutilized. Why? Because it takes a lot of effort. As I have continued to write my novel (putting the finishing touches on Chapter 13 and am up to 58,000 words!) I have been continually impressed by how much research and thought is required to get the science right and to think through the implications of things. <br /><br />I have continued to find that the Atomic Rockets website is the single best resource out there. To be well-educated to write hard science fiction, the whole site really should be read through. I took the time to download every webpage it contained and it ran almost 1 GB and well over 1 million words. <br /><br />And, again, excellent blogs like this one exist to help further the cause (keep it up!!!). Brian Mansurnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3596550435682943926.post-53634470258993004812016-06-25T11:44:13.727-07:002016-06-25T11:44:13.727-07:00Ronald, a writer can also use Google to educate hi...Ronald, a writer can also use Google to educate himself. There are many forums they can participate. EML2 has been a recurring topic on the NASA spaceflight forum for years.<br /><br />Are there <b><i>any</i></b> science fiction stories featuring a beanstalk reaching from a moon's surface through a planet/moon L1 or L2? I asked this a few years back in the science fiction stack exchange. The clueless mods opined the question was clueless and deleted it.<br /><br />Information is easier to come by than ever. Yet we grow less informed.Hop Davidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12923433894475072056noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3596550435682943926.post-75514709964356768612016-06-25T09:36:05.029-07:002016-06-25T09:36:05.029-07:00Not sure it is entirely the "mediocrity of wr...Not sure it is entirely the "mediocrity of writers" as much as it is the intelligence and education of writers. You literally have to BE a rocket scientist these days to write sci-fi that doesn't get picked apart by everyone with access to google. We know so much more now about the science behind the science fiction that is is supremely difficult to write good sci-fi that aspires to be more than romance novel-like in its content.MorituriMaxhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03297314796303336406noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3596550435682943926.post-89935062517045946312015-10-25T21:32:58.117-07:002015-10-25T21:32:58.117-07:00David, my email is ecuasage at gmail. I have just ...David, my email is ecuasage at gmail. I have just polished up chapters 1-7 if you want a preview. Brian Mansurnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3596550435682943926.post-35193294193947209712015-01-13T19:00:33.080-08:002015-01-13T19:00:33.080-08:00Will do David!Will do David!Brian Mansurhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10586279810746553999noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3596550435682943926.post-22230608687791764752015-01-13T08:27:14.702-08:002015-01-13T08:27:14.702-08:00Brian, I hope you will show me your efforts when y...Brian, I hope you will show me your efforts when you're finished.Hop Davidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12923433894475072056noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3596550435682943926.post-90669329386152031962015-01-05T19:20:50.209-08:002015-01-05T19:20:50.209-08:00Thanks for posting this. I've been writing a h...Thanks for posting this. I've been writing a hard science fiction novel and spending prodigious amounts of time reading through the Atomic Rockets website among others (including yours!). No matter what I do, I keep running up against the problem that interesting space travel (for what I want to do in the story) requires truly astounding levels of energy. To help keep the story to something human-scale, I'm keeping most of the plot within the moon system of a gas giant.Brian Mansurhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10586279810746553999noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3596550435682943926.post-5672216761534630112013-09-06T08:14:25.532-07:002013-09-06T08:14:25.532-07:00Bob, more SF stories are set in digital never-neve...Bob, more SF stories are set in digital never-never lands. Less in outer space.<br /><br />Some would say this is due to the dawning realization that space settlement is impractical. What some call realization I would call misperception.<br /><br />Science fiction writers could help dispel this misperception and educate the public. They could show us ways to move beyond cradle earth.<br /><br />But most present day writers will not take the time and effort to research possibilities. Do you think Brin has ever heard of EML2? Do you think Stross has a clue what extra-terrestrial propellant could do to Tsiolkovsky's rocket equation? Has Kim Stanley Robinson ever heard of momentum exchange tethers?<br /><br />I couldn't even get through 2312. Inteplanetary Hohmann orbits that take weeks. "Aldrin Cyclers" departing from Mercury. A horrible, lazy, badly researched book. KSR wouldn't be fit to bus tables for Arthur C. Clarke. <br /><br />The recent hard SF stories still rely on devices that were orginal decades ago: atomic rockets, Clarke elevators from earth's surface, lunar helium-3 mines, etc. Space fiction seems stuck in the 70s.<br /><br />Print SF is dieing out. Not because of lack of possibilities. But due to mediocrity of writers.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Hop Davidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12923433894475072056noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3596550435682943926.post-49892063046179038212013-07-29T10:06:53.954-07:002013-07-29T10:06:53.954-07:00Thanks for that. Pretty cool. When I was younger I...Thanks for that. Pretty cool. When I was younger I used to wonder how science fiction writers so often were able to predict what science was able to come with later, such as computers, robots, space travel, etc.<br /> Come to find out, it was speculations of scientists that the writers had heard about that they based their writings on.<br /> So these calculations of yours could be something some science fiction writers could base their stories on that will later be turned into reality.<br /><br /> Bob ClarkRobert Clarkhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16114043697010364282noreply@blogger.com