Here is another article in my science in science fiction series. The concept of a year divided into four equal parts–spring, summer, autumn and winter–is a northern European one, and the images that go with these seasons are even more so. The northern European seasons are determined by the position…
His Name In Lights is set on Jupiter’s moon Io, which has captured my interest for some time. I have at least one other Io story in the making. Expect an announcement about A Perfect Day Off The Farm fairly soon. In that story, I explain the concept of stick…
Another example of how science in science fiction can add extra colour to a novel. This post features a real astronomer. The fictional Beniz-Yaza solar system plays an important role in my space opera world that is covered in the Ambassador and Return of the Aghyrians series. It is, in…
Adapted from a talk given at #CSIROTweetup by Marion Anderson School for Geosciences Monash University. Marion is an incredibly passionate speaker and Australian ambassador for space science. Marion is a geologist, and was involved with site selection for the Curiosity landing. Our understanding of Mars has changed a lot in…
Adapted from a talk given at #CSIROTweetup by Dr Daniel Shaddock (laser systems) Dr Paul Tregoning (geo data) ANU, supplemented with data from the GRACE mission home page. Image snarfed from the NASA/JPL GRACE page Most people associate going into space with exploring objects not on Earth, but many satellites…
A few pictures of the Tweetup event (explanation of what this event is in this post) ETA: An official report of the event is now up here These are some general overview pictures. Others will follow when I cover some of the subjects we heard about and discussed. Seen from…
On 25 November 2011, NASA will launch the Mars Science Laboratory mission in the form of the rover known as Curiosity, which will be the third such rover to be trundling about the red planet. Curiosity (follow on Twitter as @MarsCuriosity) is larger than the previous two, Spirit, which famously…
The last few days, I’ve spent some time doing some research I’d been avoiding. It’s no secret that I am interested in astronomy, am not afraid of chemistry or physics, but I’ve rather been avoiding medical science, since I don’t feel particularly qualified to tackle it. But since I’m developing…
Image: the last Shuttle lift-off in May 2011. Image snarfed from the amazing APOD site. I’ve just finished reading a book I won’t mention, for the reason that it describes something that’s impossible and inaccurate, would never be practical in the way described, and I don’t want to single out…
In truth, this post should read ‘Growing crops in artificial environments’, because it applies equally to crops grown in a hypothetical space station as it does to crops grown on the Moon, or Mars or any fictional celestial body. I’ll start off with a few open doors: – All crops…
