David Schwinghammer's Blog - Posts Tagged "mars"
The Martian
Andy Weir is an inspiration for beginning writers. THE MARTIAN was his third novel, the first two were pretty bad, according to Mark. The rest of us call them practice novels.
Anyway, Andy is a space nut, so he had lots of information to insert in his plot to make it believable. Then he posted the chapters on his web site, where his small fan base could read them for nothing. Spoiled brats that they were they began to complain that his novel wasn't on Kindle, so he went ahead and had that done, selling it for the lowest amount possible, 99 cents. It sold like proverbial hotcakes. Soon he had publishers fighting over him; one guy wanted to publish the book and buy the movie rights. Andy was suspicious. If you've ever tried to get a book published, you know why. But, as you know, they guy was for real.
Mark Watney, the astronaut stranded on Mars is as smart as a whip, but if you're looking for supporting characters you might want to look elsewhere. This is all about saving Mark, who was inadvertently left behind for dead by his crew mates. He disappeared in a wind storm and the lander was beginning to tip; they had to get out why they could. Mark has about a year's supply of food, but the next mission isn't supposed to arrive in four years. Mark is a botanist and he's got some potatoes that he decides to make more potatoes out of. One of his jobs was to see if he could get ferns to grow on Mars. He's got soil from Earth that he mixes with Mars sand; it works. This is only one way Mark shoes his inventiveness. There are times in the novel he thinks he's a dead man for sure, but he always works his way out of it. He even establishes communication with NASA.
Okay, smart is good, but there's a reason THE MARTIAN was put in the comedy category at the Golden Globe Awards. Mark is funny, even when Mars is trying to kill him. One example would be the music Commander Lewis's left behind. She loved seventies music, including disco. He hates it. She also likes the worst of seventies TV. But when that's all you've got, you watch it.
There are some parts of the book you won't believe. Would the crew disobey their superiors at NASA? They have to or you don't have a story. Would the mother ship be able to dock with Mark's tin can of a lander on a flyby? Actually it's worse than a tin can. Part of the tin can is missing.
Despite the above, I loved it. Mark's sense of humor and inventiveness make him a wonderful character. if I were still watching DVDs, I'd certainly rent the movie.
Anyway, Andy is a space nut, so he had lots of information to insert in his plot to make it believable. Then he posted the chapters on his web site, where his small fan base could read them for nothing. Spoiled brats that they were they began to complain that his novel wasn't on Kindle, so he went ahead and had that done, selling it for the lowest amount possible, 99 cents. It sold like proverbial hotcakes. Soon he had publishers fighting over him; one guy wanted to publish the book and buy the movie rights. Andy was suspicious. If you've ever tried to get a book published, you know why. But, as you know, they guy was for real.
Mark Watney, the astronaut stranded on Mars is as smart as a whip, but if you're looking for supporting characters you might want to look elsewhere. This is all about saving Mark, who was inadvertently left behind for dead by his crew mates. He disappeared in a wind storm and the lander was beginning to tip; they had to get out why they could. Mark has about a year's supply of food, but the next mission isn't supposed to arrive in four years. Mark is a botanist and he's got some potatoes that he decides to make more potatoes out of. One of his jobs was to see if he could get ferns to grow on Mars. He's got soil from Earth that he mixes with Mars sand; it works. This is only one way Mark shoes his inventiveness. There are times in the novel he thinks he's a dead man for sure, but he always works his way out of it. He even establishes communication with NASA.
Okay, smart is good, but there's a reason THE MARTIAN was put in the comedy category at the Golden Globe Awards. Mark is funny, even when Mars is trying to kill him. One example would be the music Commander Lewis's left behind. She loved seventies music, including disco. He hates it. She also likes the worst of seventies TV. But when that's all you've got, you watch it.
There are some parts of the book you won't believe. Would the crew disobey their superiors at NASA? They have to or you don't have a story. Would the mother ship be able to dock with Mark's tin can of a lander on a flyby? Actually it's worse than a tin can. Part of the tin can is missing.
Despite the above, I loved it. Mark's sense of humor and inventiveness make him a wonderful character. if I were still watching DVDs, I'd certainly rent the movie.
The Future of Mankind
About seventy-five thousand years ago, a volcanic eruption nearly ended the human race; almost everything died. About two thousand humans survived. As a result two chimpanzees have more genetic variation than all human beings combined; we differ by .01 of a percent. And this wasn't the only time the Earth was almost destroyed. Most everyone knows about how the dinosaurs disappeared.
So . . . why are we here? According to Michio Kaku Jupiter is our guardian angel, deflecting most asteroids, comets and other space clutter that could kill us. Earth is a “Goldilocks Planet”, not too hot, not cold, with an atmosphere that's no too dense and a magnetic field and an ozone layer that deflects ultra-violet rays from frying us alive. How many “Goldilocks planets are there in our galaxy? Possibly hundreds of thousands, but a lot depends on plane old luck. We have been lucky. Just last year an asteroid came within a thirty-some thousand miles of the Earth.
How do scientists know which planets are like us? They can't see them, but the Kepler and the Hubble telescopes look at the brightness of certain stars; when they dim in a certain way, it means something is blocking their light. Scientists are able to tell the size of the planet by how much it affects the light from its host star.
Kaku discusses the effect of Obama's decision to shut down the shuttle program. He was hoping private business would get involved, and they have in a big way. Elon Musk has a billion dollar contract to provision the international space station, and he has delivered supplies several times. He is planning a Mars landing by 2024; he already has a rocket whose booster can land on an ocean platform. This rocket can take us to Mars. NASA isn't quite that optimistic. They plan to put a man on Mars by 2035, using the moon as a base.
Stephen J. Hawking maintains that if we can make it through the next two hundred years and not destroy ourselves via terrorism and nuclear war or pollution we can evolve in respect to reaching the stars. A Russian scientist, Nikolai Kardashev has created a scale of civilizations: Type I uses all of the energy from the light provided by its star; Type II uses all the energy the sun produces (think fusion); Type III uses all the energy in the entire galaxy. Obviously we're not even a Type I civilization since we don't use all the sunlight the Sun provides. We're about a 0.7 civilization.
If we survive it's pretty much a given we'll have a settlement on Mars by mid century and we'll start terraforming it. It's too cold up there with hardly any atmosphere. We can warm it up by injecting methane into its atmosphere.
Scientists have also discovered several moons of Jupiter and Saturn that have water. We can use them as bases to move beyond the solar system.
Eventually, Kaku gets around to his pet theory, string theory which mathematically combines Einstein's theory of relativity and quantum theory. It consists of ten dimensions, but we can't prove it until we become a Type III civilization. We can chip away at it, using the Super colliders, the CERN in Switzerland which has already discovered the Higgs Boson particle, an indicator of dark matter, and a new one being built by the Japanese in conjunction with other countries. String theory will help us discover what's inside a Worm Hole, whether or not we can pass through one without being crushed. Supposedly if we can pass through a Worm Hole, we can take a short cut to the opposite side of the galaxy. String Theory also allows for the possibility of multi universes. Kaku talks about universes “popping in and out of existence”. We're looking for the stable ones. Why? Because other galaxies are racing away from us at exponential speed. If this keeps up, we're in for a “Big Freeze” and everything will die. String theory allows for us to move not just to another star, but another universe. If you're the paranoid type, stop worrying. This won't happen for billions maybe trillions of years.
So . . . why are we here? According to Michio Kaku Jupiter is our guardian angel, deflecting most asteroids, comets and other space clutter that could kill us. Earth is a “Goldilocks Planet”, not too hot, not cold, with an atmosphere that's no too dense and a magnetic field and an ozone layer that deflects ultra-violet rays from frying us alive. How many “Goldilocks planets are there in our galaxy? Possibly hundreds of thousands, but a lot depends on plane old luck. We have been lucky. Just last year an asteroid came within a thirty-some thousand miles of the Earth.
How do scientists know which planets are like us? They can't see them, but the Kepler and the Hubble telescopes look at the brightness of certain stars; when they dim in a certain way, it means something is blocking their light. Scientists are able to tell the size of the planet by how much it affects the light from its host star.
Kaku discusses the effect of Obama's decision to shut down the shuttle program. He was hoping private business would get involved, and they have in a big way. Elon Musk has a billion dollar contract to provision the international space station, and he has delivered supplies several times. He is planning a Mars landing by 2024; he already has a rocket whose booster can land on an ocean platform. This rocket can take us to Mars. NASA isn't quite that optimistic. They plan to put a man on Mars by 2035, using the moon as a base.
Stephen J. Hawking maintains that if we can make it through the next two hundred years and not destroy ourselves via terrorism and nuclear war or pollution we can evolve in respect to reaching the stars. A Russian scientist, Nikolai Kardashev has created a scale of civilizations: Type I uses all of the energy from the light provided by its star; Type II uses all the energy the sun produces (think fusion); Type III uses all the energy in the entire galaxy. Obviously we're not even a Type I civilization since we don't use all the sunlight the Sun provides. We're about a 0.7 civilization.
If we survive it's pretty much a given we'll have a settlement on Mars by mid century and we'll start terraforming it. It's too cold up there with hardly any atmosphere. We can warm it up by injecting methane into its atmosphere.
Scientists have also discovered several moons of Jupiter and Saturn that have water. We can use them as bases to move beyond the solar system.
Eventually, Kaku gets around to his pet theory, string theory which mathematically combines Einstein's theory of relativity and quantum theory. It consists of ten dimensions, but we can't prove it until we become a Type III civilization. We can chip away at it, using the Super colliders, the CERN in Switzerland which has already discovered the Higgs Boson particle, an indicator of dark matter, and a new one being built by the Japanese in conjunction with other countries. String theory will help us discover what's inside a Worm Hole, whether or not we can pass through one without being crushed. Supposedly if we can pass through a Worm Hole, we can take a short cut to the opposite side of the galaxy. String Theory also allows for the possibility of multi universes. Kaku talks about universes “popping in and out of existence”. We're looking for the stable ones. Why? Because other galaxies are racing away from us at exponential speed. If this keeps up, we're in for a “Big Freeze” and everything will die. String theory allows for us to move not just to another star, but another universe. If you're the paranoid type, stop worrying. This won't happen for billions maybe trillions of years.
