View in browser A New Scope Dear Reader, NASA launched the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope into space a couple weeks ago, aboard a SpaceX Heavy Falcon rocket. It will take about three months to reach its destination at the L2 Sun-Earth Lagrange Point. Its namesake is a NASA astronomer who is known as "The Mother of Hubble" for her key support in development of the Hubble Space Telescope. This telescope has a MUCH bigger field of view (100X) than the Hubble or Webb telescopes, so it can...
about 2 months ago • 2 min read
View in browser Caught in a Tractor Beam Dear Reader, One of the most familiar technologies in popular space operas (e.g., Star Trek and Star Wars) is the tractor beam. The Death Star caught the Millennium Falcon in one, and the USS Enterprise used theirs many times (probably as many times as they were caught in one). But could it be real? Dr. Hanspeter Schaub, an aerospace engineering professor at Colorado University, has seriously proposed a tractor beam device to clear the space junk out...
3 months ago • 2 min read
View in browser Indie Author Economics Dear Reader, So how does an independent author like me get paid? The answer is: directly from Amazon (and other book sites, if you "go wide," which I don't - I'll explain that later). Whenever someone orders one of my books, Amazon takes their cut and, at the end of the month, sends me my cut. How much is that? For a $3.99 e-book (like my Star Riders), Amazon takes $1.28 (including VAT) and I get 70%, or $2.71. For a paperback listed at $11.99, Amazon...
4 months ago • 3 min read
View in browser Is This Our Future? Dear Reader, I can't recall what it was, but something pinged my head about a month ago to make me think about some short stories I'd read a long time ago about a future where everyone's dumb. I couldn't remember the author, but our friends at Google quickly put me on to him: Cyril M. Kornbluth, a frequent collaborator with Frederik Pohl and a prolific writer of SF short stories in the 40's and 50's until his untimely death at age 34. I found a hardcover...
5 months ago • 3 min read
View in browser Race to the Moon Dear Reader, After last month's successful Artemis II mission, sending four astronauts around the Moon and back, what's next? The next Artemis, in late 2027, will test Orion docking with either or both Moon landers (more on that in a sec) while in Earth orbit. Then in 2028, Artemis IV will finally put people on the Moon once again. So what's this about two different landers? NASA is still deciding whether to go with SpaceX’s Starship Human Landing System (HLS)...
6 months ago • 2 min read
View in browser A Great Month for Space Travel Dear Reader, Two great space-related things happened since my last newsletter, and I debated which one to write about, so I decided to write about both. First up: the amazing return to the Moon by the crew of Artemis II, flying the Orion spacecraft to the Moon and using it for a slingshot trajectory to return to Earth. I'm sure you've read all about the historic firsts (and seconds), so I won't bother repeating that. Click here for more Artemis...
7 months ago • 3 min read
View in browser A Horological Challenge Dear Reader, Horology is the study of the measurement of time (not quite what they meant in Pirates of the Caribbean in this gag). I'm interested in ancient methods of measuring time, as I need to come up with an organic timer for my current book (more on that later). We're pretty familiar with sundials and sand in hourglasses, but did you know that in ancient times people used bowls of water, one leaking out into another, to measure time passing? The...
8 months ago • 2 min read
View in browser How Far is Far? Dear Reader, We're accustomed in science fiction to throwing around the term "light-year," but do we really have a good feel for just how far that is? I was reminded of this fact recently when I read an article saying that Voyager 1, after nearly 50 years, is almost 1 light-day from home (it will pass that point in November). At that pace, a light-year would take just under 18,000 years. A light-year is 16 billion miles, but how far is that? Our minds don't...
9 months ago • 2 min read
View in browser Passive House Dear Reader, A personal announcement this month, combined with some science: We built our house here in Colorado Springs, and just got it certified as a Passive House, the first one in Colorado Springs and 8th in the state. What's a Passive House? It's a concept that is better-known in Europe, but making inroads in the US. I usually explain it as a way to make a building extremely energy-efficient, with three fundamental elements: Super-insulated: our external...
10 months ago • 2 min read