space Archives ~ From The Stratosphere

It’s 2019, Apollo 11’s 50th Anniversary

By hsrivney | January 27, 2019

Stop the world, I want to get off.

Earth from space — Northern hemisphere of Earth as seen from NASA’s deep space climate satellite

Well, just slow it down a little so I can take a breath!

So many things happening as 2019 starts. 2019 – does that slap you around a little? We were all supposed to be driving flying cars, instead of cars driving us. We do have quite a few technologies, and a few we never imagined before. It’s also the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11’s historic mission.

Remember just 10 years ago the smart phone came upon the scene – and nothing was ever the same in the industrialized world. I don’t think they’ve helped developing nations as much, but in my wildest imagination I never imagine that PHONEs would become portable computers. They can pinpoint your location on the planet as well as take excellent photos and videos, AND access the entire world’s information online. I mean, there’s an app for EVERYTHING.

Oddly, the one thing I wish a smart phone could do that it doesn’t is take your temperature. Why can’t we just stick it against our forehead and let it tell us if we have a fever worth going to the doctor or not?

the first iPhone from Apple — The first smart phone

If I’d had these technologies as a teen or young adult available! Broken down car – no worry, call someone from the side of the road. Call Lyft to come get you the next day. Look up the problem on the internet, buy the parts online, they’re delivered asap, take Lyft to work again, and the fix your beater over the weekend watching how-to YouTube video. And then there’s e-books.

Millennials, you grew up with this technology,

at least with cell phones, if not smart phones, and the internet. You take it for granted that everything will stream to you – music, food, friendship, entertainment, even money if you can build a web page with enough click bait on it. Work as you want – deliver for Amazon, GrubHub, FedEx, or become a Lyft or Uber driver, and all the work is just waiting for you to tap an icon, no set hours, no dry cleaning to deal with, and the money goes straight into a bank account – no standing in line at a bank from 10:00 to 3:00 to deposit a check and wait 3 days for it to clear before you get your money.

I’m fascinated.

Our most wonderful invention in 1980 was the ATM – money without the bank teller. Oh, yeah, and the video rental store, of course, in BETA, not VHS (what’s Beta you ask? Ask Siri). The hardest thing we had to deal with was programming the damn thing because in the 80s, television had you tuning in at their convenience, not the other way around. I like new technology, but I’m not the person who needs the newest of the new the moment it’s released – new phone, computer, television, stereo system, vacuum, car. Technology puttered for decades, even after the horseless carriage arrived. Things move so fast now writing science fiction is a challenge. I’m from the Boomer generation, and Gen Xers are between us and the Millennials.

I’m not certain, and no one else is either, when the cut off from one to the next is, but the Boomers ended in 1964, the year after John F. Kennedy was assassinated. The world changed that day, not just America. No one saw themselves the same way anymore. The birth rate plummeted, and with good reason. The later half of the 60s was filled with Vietnam, riots, Nixon, more assassinations, and some of the most horrible fashions ever to walk a runway. At the same time, technology carried on, taking people to the MOON. This year marks the 50th anniversary of that giant leap.

Humanity has more heroes than Hitlers.

Give praise for the chutzpah of soldiers who stormed Normandy; of Martin Luther King, Jr., who inspired millions; of Truman, who bore the responsibility for Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

As we approach this milestone, remember their names.

They were the ambassadors of human technology, arguably the most courageous men of the 20th century. It takes a special kind of insanity to sit atop a Saturn V rocket, spend 3 days floating in a closet and using the strangest toilet ever invented. Then they must go into orbit, take a little module of a ship to this world, land, get out and take a walk, and get back in and hope the little module of a ship can get off the world, go back up and meet with the rocket engine orbiting the planet. And then COME BACK. Three more days in the closet, and this time they have to get back to Earth. This planet has an atmosphere (that could burn up the ship and passengers). They don’t land, but splash down using parachutes, and wait for the ship to come get you.

The boot print of a human left on the moon — Footprint from the Moon

Are you f*$#&* kidding me? The space program was the very definition of LUNACY. Armstrong, Aldrin, and Collins have every right to claim bravery above and beyond – why do we celebrate Columbus Day when we should celebrate Moon Day July 19th? It should be a worldwide holiday, like New Year’s Day; at the very least, an American holiday. Only a dozen humans have ever walked on our moon. That’s it. I lament that it may be another 50 years before humans can claim the honor of going to another world. Robots on both Mars and the Moon report that science and commerce could explode wide open, with new opportunities, to answer questions that have dogged humans from the beginning, and encourage the next 100 years of humans to grow beyond the narcissistic view that we are the apex of evolution.

But this is the year of Apollo 11’s anniversary, the 50 year milestone. Who knows what celebrations might spark the next step into the future.

After all, if we can go to the moon, we can do anything. I’m still waiting for that app that will take my temperature, though.

Interview with a Starship Captain

By hsrivney | September 15, 2017

I had an opportunity to interview Captain Thomas Jackson, captain of the Science Ship Maria Mitchell, currently assigned to retrieve an extended stay science team from Beta Hydri Four. He’s just come off a successful mission in the Eta Cassiopeia system where he and his crew of the Maria Mitchell stopped a centuries-old plague being fueled by a Pegasi privateer. Welcome, Captain Jackson.

Thank you. It’s nice to be here.

The pleasure is mine. I’ve had people asking me about you, your past, what makes you tick. I hope you don’t mind if some of these questions get a bit personal.

starship captain — Captain Thomas K. Jackson

I’ll let you know if you cross a line.

Great. So, Captain Jackson, you’ve been in the North American Space Administration for twenty some years now. What drove you to the stars so to speak?

I’ve always had a fascination with space, as long as I can remember. It seemed natural to go in that direction.

What did you study in college?

I’m an alum of Caltech, California Institute of Technology. My focus was aeronautics. I met a friend, Dr. Scott Gregory, there, and he has been my ship’s astrophysicist for several years.

You’re from South California. Did you have a typical childhood?

We didn’t always live there, but after my younger sister was born we stayed put. I love the ocean. I spent every summer on the beach, camped on the beach, and I was a very strong swimmer. That’s how I ended up at Caltech. It’s still a private university, and I was awarded an athletic scholarship, on their swim team.

Is that why you joined the navy? You love the ocean?

I love flying. It was a means to an end, at least in the beginning.

So, Captain, what moved you to change from planes to rockets?

Just out of school, I was an intern, briefly, at the Jet Propulsion Lab, and went to Luna Colony on an assignment. Once you see the Earth from space, you are changed, forever. It’s indescribable. You can never go back to the ordinary again.

But you did.

I can’t say flying ion powered fighters off a carrier deck is ordinary, but I was in the navy until an accident ended my service.

Care to elaborate?

I had a mishap landing my vehicle on the deck and was injured.

Sounds like this is something in your past you would rather forget about.

You could say that, yes.

So, I’ll move on. You went from the navy to the space administration?

I joined the space program as a lieutenant but was bumped up to commander pretty quickly, then to captain. I left the navy as a captain so I was glad to have my rank again. Love a challenge, ordering people around (laughs). Not much more challenging than exploring deep space.

You were pretty young to be given a ship.

I took my first command in 2149. I was 37. That’s not so young. Just ask a teenager. Do you have a coffee service here?

The captain and I took a break and walked to the cafeteria for coffee.

So, back to the formal questions. Tell us, please, was there ever a major turning point in your life?

When I left the navy for the space program. And when I met my wife. And when I met my daughter.

Is there anything your parents did that you think significantly affected who you are today?

Absolutely. I suppose you want me to tell you what it is. My father is a dry alcoholic, but he was pretty wet when I was young. That will change the way you see things around you. Now my mother, she’s a gem. She insisted that I be friendly to everyone, to look for similarities, not differences. I think that serves me well, most of the time. I married a woman from another world, and that’s about as different as you can get.

Your wife, Rianya, is from Beta Hydri Four. She is the love of your life?

She is.

It must be difficult to captain a starship and have a family aboard. Are there other captains in the space administration with families?

I’m unique in that category. I dislike exposing them to the dangers, but we are all happier together. Missions are simply too long to be apart. There are dangers on Earth, as well. You can’t avoid life.

Indeed. What’s next, Captain? Do you still have any goals to reach for?

I’d like to see my daughter join me in space one day, not as a passenger, but as part of my crew.

If anyone can make it happen, it would be you. Thank you again for taking time to talk to us.

If you want more information, please click and enjoy!

Solar Eclipse Fever? Mark your calendar for 2024

By hsrivney | August 22, 2017

Total Eclipse of Sun and Corona Photo by Fred Espenak, 1999

Once in a lifetime solar eclipse? Maybe not.

Nature’s rarest celestial spectacle, a total solar eclipse. Now that you’ve seen it on television and heard the awe of the spectators, you wish you’d been able to work it out. For a variety of reasons I was content to see a 72% eclipse from my home in Las Vegas, alas, for the single hour that would have been needed to watch, it rained. And it really rained, like big, black, storm cloud rain.

Rain might not seem such a big deal to most, but we have sun about 350 days a year here. It’s why I have a 10.5K solar array on my roof, why my bath towels are kind of stiff from drying on the clothesline six months of the year, and why I expected that in this valley my odds (no obvious Vegas pun intended here) of visibility were about 34:1 in favor of sun. In fact, even with rain, at some point the sun will appear even on those days. And, I was right. The clouds cleared around noon, well past the entire event in the southwest part of the country.

Solar eclipse of 1979

So the last chance I had was in 1979. I will tell you, without too many age revealing details, I happened to be on a school campus at the time, sometime around 8:15. I used the pinhole method, a hole in a paper cast upon another sheet of paper. My classmates thought I was nuts for even caring. I was probably the only person that day who bothered, or cared, that in the sky above us something extraordinary was occurring, in real time, and that tiny little grey crescent, as it changed from fat to thin to fat and whole again, in the past had confirmed Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity, in 1919.

And as sad as that experience might sound, I’ve never forgotten it. I’ve been nerdy since before they invented the term, and I’m not surprised to find myself writing scientific fiction stories, hoping to instill the same feelings of amazement and cosmic unity in my readers as I embrace. I call this a natural worldview. Only a handful of humans have ventured beyond our stratosphere, and only as far as our moon.

The speed of light is 186,000+ miles per second (300,000 km/sec), or 6.71×10⁸per hour. I seared that number into my brain prepping for a science club contest between high schools. A photon of light can circle the Earth 7.5 times in one second. Light travels between the moon and Earth in less than two seconds. It takes light 8 minutes to get from our sun to Earth. My point is, space is big, and that’s an understatement.

Next total solar eclipse in United States — Texas to Maine 2024

April 8th, 2024, we have another coast to coast total eclipse, but instead of west to east, it will be south to north, more or less.

annular solar eclipse 2023 — Oregon to Gulf of Mexico

An annular eclipse, where instead of the corona you see a ring of fire, will occur shortly before that, on October 14th, 2023.

It works like this: the Sun is 400 times +- larger than the moon. It is also 400 times farther away from the moon than the moon is to Earth. For a deeper explanation, go read this Popular Science blog. No sense in reinventing the wheel here. And since the moon moves away from Earth a few centimeters each year, before another billion years pass, a total solar eclipse will be a thing of the past. Of course, none of us will be here to lament the demise. We are on the planet, conscious, sentient, intelligent, at the best time since life began.

I wrote about humans on another planet experiencing a solar eclipse, not a total eclipse, but one in which three moons converge to cast their shadows and block out the star, Beta Hydri, and this defining moment in their lives brings a new beginning and hope as they patiently await rescue on a planet that, like Nature here, doesn’t care for the life forms; they simply must use their brains to stay alive, and the solar powered escape pods are pretty helpful, too. If you want to check that book out, just pop over here and you can find it on Smashwords or Amazon as an eBook, or in paperback if you prefer. Paradox: The Alien Genome, the first novel of the Captain Jackson Adventures series.

novel alien genome — Five Star Rated, Paradox: The Alien Genome

Until the next worthy news item, wear your sunscreen. Those UV rays are Naughty Nature at her most wicked!

A recent review

By hsrivney | June 20, 2017

Shameless plug: another 5 star review of Paradox. If you haven’t read it yet, what are you waiting for? Click the picture and get the e-version instantly! Read it? Rate it! Read more stories with many of the same characters: Jackson, Quixote, Rianya, Bala, Lee, Watson, Bailey, Dukvita, the Kiians, and a new species coming up – the Zlogers!

If you long for the days of Gene Roddenberry’s soulful Star Trek, or hope the Avatar movie might one day become a reality, then you are in for a treat with H.S. Rivney’s Paradox: The Alien Genome. The suggestion of a genetic cure from the world beyond captivated my imagination, as did the author’s writing style. For me, the vivid, unique descriptions illuminated this space odyssey to movie-screen proportions. A healthy dose of dialogue keeps the pace at warp speed with lots of techie jargon. But what really impressed me was the author’s sophisticated scientific knowledge—I would believe her to be an astronaut or a physicist in a previous life to dream up the concepts presented throughout the novel. The author creates a totally convincing world from ecosystems to geology, animal species to alien beings. One graphic scene was tasteful, accurate and evocative. But there’s a touch of intrigue and danger, as well as a softer side to this story, too. A great ending wraps up this exciting futuristic journey after traveling back to a nostalgic era of Kirk, Spock, and Sulu— I highly recommend the ride!

Patti Cavaliere, author of 5 star rated “Looking for Leo”, click me!

Novissimus: Space Station One

By hsrivney | March 11, 2017

spacedock-st-06 — Earth Station with Star Trek’s Enterprise

I’ve been debating whether to release Novissimus or Symbiosis next. I wrote Novissimus during the black out time between first draft and revisions of Symbiosis. Would love to hear your thoughts. Novissimus is a novella episode prequel to Paradox, about 24,000 words.

Novissimus, Space Station One, Quantum Quandaries; Mission VIII, October 9, 2154

Novissimus orbits Omicron Nu fifteen light years from Earth in the opposite direction of the galactic center. It’s medical facilities are unsurpassed, and its arboretum legendary. When Captain Jackson is assigned to call a research team off Luyten’s Lepus for a new mission, that is to pick up live vaccines from Novissimus, the leader of the research team is furious and not afraid to show it.

Funny things happen on the way to Novissimus, or rather, not so funny. They can’t afford the time delays; the live vaccines are only viable for 100 days. In addition to the medicine, dozens of proton microscopes and an electromagnetic image chamber are also part of the cargo. Silverado Six’s population is depending on the S.S. Linus Pauling to arrive before a planet-wide outbreak of Altairian Fever becomes an epidemic.

Thomas Jackson meets Dukvita for the first time, a Pegasi with a rogue, if not an entrepreneurial, spirit and a well armed cargo ship. Novissimus becomes the scene of the crime where not only are lives at stake, but an extraordinary discovery becomes a weapon of mass destruction. jaguar

Don’t forget to check out another prequel adventure of Captain Jackson and the S.S. Linus Pauling, Gamma Ray Games, a novella episode where Jackson must investigate the sudden appearance of a thorium reactor on a pre-industrial world.

Both Novissimus and Gamma Ray Games will be made available together in one paperback this summer.

Tag: space