The Dangers of Space

Excerpt from “Above a Whisper” (Nanowrimo 2016)

“I remember one of the required books we had to read back when I enlisted in the program. ‘The Dangers of Space.’ That thing is decades old, but it still rings true:

‘There are many things that can go wrong in space. In fact, this book would be shorter if I listed the things that wouldn’t go wrong. Since space is a vacuum, you would assume that there’s nothing out there that can hurt you. On the contrary, it opens up an infinite universe of things that can and will hurt you.

Earth is the sole place in the universe we know of that can naturally support our particular type of life-form. Yet, there are forces of nature that can still harm us. Weather, volcanoes, earthquakes. The ocean is deeper than the tallest mountain and would be untraversable by even the most fortuitous of men. On Earth, the number of people who have lived and died in the entirety of history outnumbers the number of people living right now. Yet, the Earth is still infinitely safer than space. It is our caretaker, keeping us us safe from the dangers that exist outside our atmosphere.

In order to be prepared for space, you must expect the unexpected. If something can go wrong, it will. You have to know how to fix it, because if you hesitate and expect someone else will be able to fix it, it will already be too late…’” Cecil’s scripted-sounding monologue trailed off. He looked at Alika with a smirk.

“Well done. My grandfather told me about how they used to televise everything about the space race all those decades ago. He told me how one of the old-model space shuttles, the big white ones, burned up in our atmosphere in a giant fireball. The Columbia. All seven crew members died.”

“Back then NASA was in the public eye; everyone was in it for the knowledge, and they did so on a relatively more manageable budget. In the last decades, they’ve had to spend more and more money to keep up, the make sure that their endeavors go to plan. They don’t tell anyone anything, because then the public can only believe that everything is going A-Okay.
Tell me, did you or anyone hear about my accident?” Cecil pointed at his face.

“No. Not a thing.” Alika avoided his gaze.

Paris Out of the Ordinary

Here’s a fact about me that doesn’t really show in my writing or my vlogs here.  I’m a huge lover of anime and Japanese culture.  I’ve been to several conventions as well.  I just don’t bring it up here because it has the ability to turn people away.

French people share the same interest though.  Check it out.

La Jungle was a big surprise.  I didn’t even know who they were, or that there was going to be an opening act.  It’s a band of two guys; a drummer and another guy who mostly does guitar with the use of a looper, and he screams and makes sounds too.

The best way to describe their sound is really basically spazmatic.  There’s a lot of energy, and the guitarist was always jumping around and having a lot of fun on stage.  it was a real treat.

Totorro is a French band.  They have a really fun peppy sound with lots of intermingling guitar riffs and the occasional shout.

 

In other news, I hit 10k words for my Nanowrimo novel tonight.  1/5 of the way there.

Cyronics

Excerpt from Above A Whisper (Nanowrimo 2016)

Cryogenic sleep is still pretty much in its infancy. I mean it’s safe, from the viewpoint of the higher ups. People show up alive, and after a brief rehabilitation, they are ready to work. The first few people to Mars went in the traditional way; awake for the whole journey. Six long months, whose only real contact was with the other crew members and nobody else for the entire trip. Plenty of freeze dried foods that get boring quickly.

A method like that is safe, but boring. Both for the missions control and for the passengers. It uses up too many resources, too; which have to occupy space on the ship. However, if the crew members don’t have to eat or drink, use the bathroom, and they only breath a very tiny bit of oxygen, you can have more people and less supplies for them. When you’re trying to get something off a planet like Earth, the lighter the better. I mean, our space launching technology hasn’t improved much since the the 20’s. The escape velocity of Earth isn’t getting any lower, either.

So, how do you get humans to stop having human needs? Freeze them. Of course, it isn’t that simple. It’s like hibernation, but even deeper. There are a few animal species in nature that can survive it alone. Some frog somewhere in Africa, If I remember right. You slow down your metabolism so much that you can survive on barely nothing.Continue reading “Cyronics”