Fifty years ago today, emissaries from Earth–riding in a command cabin the size of a car, and guided by a computer less powerful than a modern smartphone–landed on our Moon and left Homo sapiens’ first footprints on another world. In honor of the Apollo 11 anniversary, I chose this date to launch the print edition of my lunar-based … More Walk the Moon: A Sci-Fi Book Launch Honoring Apollo 11
Pressing his forehead to the cool window, Ash blocked out his companions and watched the pale, pocked surface blossom into detail. Solar panels winked like fallen stars around the rim of Shackleton crater. The colony itself, a cluster of domes joined by tubelike corridors, made raised scars on the moon’s skin. Compared to the glittering seas … More The Science of “Syzygy”: Lunar Colonization
The Vator’s cable shone across the inky sea, a nanothread umbilicus glittering with electromagnetic energy. The quad landed among a dozen others on the massive anchor platform. “Ugh, I hate being the last one back,” said Thorn, glancing around at the other vehicles. “There’s going to be a line for the de-con pods.” As he … More The Science of “Syzygy”: Space Elevators
The Martian hits theaters today! I’m suspending my usual policy of avoiding opening-day movie crowds and going this afternoon: Andy Weir + Ridley Scott x Matt Damon = too good to wait. But there’s also some exciting non-fiction news from the Red Planet this week. On Monday, NASA confirmed that its Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) … More Science News: NASA Confirms Liquid Water on Mars
Only twenty days until the adaptation of The Martian hits theaters! The sci-fi survival tale will undoubtedly fuel interest in the feasibility of real-life trips to the Red Planet. NASA head Charles Bolden anticipates such a mission could occur in the 2030s, although Martian author Andy Weir thinks 2050 is a more reasonable timeline. In either case, … More Melting Mars (Supervillain Style)
NASA’s New Horizons mission completed its historic flyby of Pluto yesterday, giving us our first close-up look at the dwarf planet that marks the exit ramp from our solar system into the galaxy beyond. Earth began receiving images today (yes, a day later; it’s a very long-distance call). The pictures will give us our closet … More Pluto: Planet of the Nerds?
Wild Type 