Asteroid Collisions vs NASA by Diane Burton

(Image credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Steve Gribben)

Who doesn't love a good disaster movie? Probably my favorite is "Armageddon" where Bruce Willis and a bunch of misfits save Earth from a killer asteroid. Released near the same time was another disaster movie "Deep Impact" with Tea Leoni. (spoiler alert: she doesn't save Earth). The methods used in these movies are so far-fetched that we'd better not depend on Hollywood to save us if an asteroid really does threaten to destroy our planet. 

Last week, NASA proved there's a better way. Nudge it. That's not dramatic enough to hold anyone's attention for a two-hour movie. DART, an unmanned spacecraft, slammed into a moonlet of a bigger asteroid and changed the orbit of the big one.

This was just a test. No "planet killer" asteroid was headed for Earth. This one, Didymos, was minding its own business, happily orbiting the sun until NASA decided to use it as a test. Is it possible for an asteroid to hit Earth? Sure. That's what destroyed the dinosaurs. 

Did it work? Did DART divert Didymos' orbit? It will take months to know for sure.

Meantime, we can sleep easier knowing that NASA is on the job, not Hollywood. 

Hope & Disappointment: the Artemis Mission by Diane Burton

 I'm a procrastinator of the first order. Usually, I'm writing my post the night before. But this time, I started thinking about my post last week--as soon as I learned about the launch of the Artemis 1 Moon Launch. I've written about this mission before. So exciting. The first woman and person of color would step on the moon. 

Those of you who know your myths remember that Artemis was Apollo's sister. It makes sense that the new mission sending women to the moon would use the designation Artemis. Until 1979, space exploration was the domain of men. (Did I just hear "boo, hiss"?) Now, NASA is making up for the omission of women in a big way by sending women to the moon. Also, the flight director for the first time is a woman.

Below is what we thought we'd see on Monday.

Artist's depiction of Artemis 1 launch. NASA

So, what's the objective of the Artemis mission? Artemis 1 will send an Orion spacecraft deep into space (farther than the Apollo astronauts went) to test the craft for the crewed mission. Artemis 2 (2024) will carry astronauts around the moon. Artemis 3 (2025) will have astronauts land on the moon.

Before you say haven't we done that already? Yes, but... This time the plan is to go farther. To Mars. The Artemis mission is like a stepping stone to go farther into space.

Regular readers know what a fan I am of space exploration. Whenever I get a chance, I talk about NASA and where humankind is going into the new frontier. It's exciting. It's fulfilling President Kennedy's promise to explore this galaxy of ours. It's hope for the future.

With hope comes disappointment, sometimes. NASA is checking, double checking, triple checking all systems to make sure everything works perfectly. The space agency called off Monday's launch because of an engine cooling issue. Even though the Orion spacecraft is unmanned, they aren't taking any chances.

So disappointing.

My mother's favorite saying was "better safe than sorry." So even though Orion is only carrying mannikins (plus Snoopy, a NASA tradition), the space agency must ensure that everything works properly. So, we until Saturday. Hopefully, the problem will be fixed in time.

Image credit: Peanuts Worldwide

A plush Snoopy, in astronaut uniform, will serve as a zero-gravity indicator aboard Orion.

Besides exploration for exploration's sake, why is it important? I seldom give in to negativity. But sometimes it pays to be realistic. What happens if we use up all of Earth's resources? What if we pollute our environment beyond saving? Doomsday prediction?

I wrote a novella about having a backup plan. In Mission to New Earth, a group of astronauts set off for a new planet safe enough for Earth's inhabitants. 

Blurb:

Earth’s overpopulation and dwindling resources force the United Earth Space Agency to expedite exploration of new planets for a possible new home. When new crises ensue—a giant tsunami and the threat of nuclear winter—the timeline changes. Eight years of training crammed into four. Sara Grenard and her team prepare for launch, but are they ready for the one-way trip? Will the Goldilocks planet prove just right for Earth’s inhabitants? Before time runs out.

 Mission to New Earth is available at: 

 Amazon ~ Amazon UK ~ Kobo ~ iTunes ~ B&N ~ Smashwords

 

Artemis, Apollo, & NASA by Diane Burton

I've been seeing more references to the Artemis mission in the NASA newsletters and news releases. If you remember your high school Greek mythology or, better yet, Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson and Trials of Apollo series, you know that Artemis was Apollo's twin sister. In one version, Apollo rides his chariot (the sun) across the sky during the day, and Artemis rides hers (the moon) during the night. Artemis is also the goddess of the hunt. By the way, in Roman mythology her name is Diana.

The connection between NASA's Apollo missions--getting a man to the moon--and the Artemis mission, putting a woman on the moon, makes a lot of sense.

A little over a year ago, I wrote about the Artemis Program. As we get closer to the launch in 2024, we'll probably be reading and hearing more about this mission. Here's the identity for Artemis.

Earth blue, red rocket, and silver moon. The Artemis missions will explore the moon more thoroughly than before and pave the way to Mars. (Take a look at the red blob beyond the moon. Could that be Mars?) If you want to know more about the program, check out this link.

If you've read my past posts, you know I'm enthralled with space exploration. During the 1960s and 1970s, I avidly watched the missile launches on TV. Now, I can't wait to watch a new launch to the moon and beyond. Okay, smaller steps. From the moon to Mars . . . and then beyond. Can you tell I'm excited?

I write science fiction because I believe we will explore what is beyond our planet. It's our new frontier. It's our nature to explore the unknown. 

To quote Buzz Lightyear, "To Infinity and Beyond."

Women in Science by Diane Burton

Yesterday on Facebook, I read two posts on Women in Science that we should know, one from CNN and the other from A Mighty Girl. Of the 20 women listed, I knew 4 (indicated with asterisks). That is pathetic. 

How many do you know?

Mary Anning (1799-1847) discovered the first known ichthyosaur fossil.
Alice Ball (1892-1916) discovered a treatment for leprosy.
Rosalind Franklin (1920-1958) first to demonstrate the basic DNA strands.
Dorothy Hodgkin (1910-1994) determined the structure of biochemical 
   structures.
Grace Hopper (1906-1992) developed multiple computer languages.
Barbara McClintock (1902-1992) botanist.
Lise Meitner (1878-1968) responsible for advancements in nuclear physics.
* Sally Ride (1951-2012) astronaut.
Tu YouYou (1930- ) treatment for malaria
Maria Winkelman (1670-1720) discovered a comet
Chien-Shiung Wu (1912-1997) physicist
* Maria Sklodowska Curie (1867-1934) discovered radioactivity
Henrietta Leavitt (1868-1921) astronomer
Gerty Cori (1896-1957) chemist
Helen Taussig (1898-1986) founded field of pediatric cardiology
* Rachel Carson (1907-1964) launched environmental movement
Rita Levi-Montalcini (1909-2012) discovered nerve growth factor
Gertrude B. Elion (1919-1999) invented treatment for leukemia
Maria Tharp (1920-2006) created 1st scientific maps of ocean floor
* Jane Goodall (1934- ) world's foremost expert on chimpanzees.

When I read their mini-bios, I was appalled by those whose male partners and even some husbands who took credit for the women's research and either claimed it as their own or gave a mere footnote about their help when the women made the discoveries. After watching the movie Hidden Figures about the contributions women made to NASA, so I guess I should've known better.

I didn't intend that this post be a rant on men who cheated women. But that struck me, when I should have been learning more about women who excelled in the sciences. As you can see from the list, these women are not recent. Most are older than me, older than my mother. Most were my grandmother's contemporaries. Astronaut Sally Ride is the only one on the lists who was younger than me.

When I was in school, girls were expected to be homemakers. Until they were married they were nurses, teachers, secretaries, or telephone operators. Girls didn't go into sciences. Yet, not only did the women in the two articles go against the norm, they excelled. Did we ever read about them in school? Were they ever held up as role models?

Today, we read about the many STEM programs. I am so proud that Girl Scouts of the USA offers many STEM opportunities to encourage girls to explore the sciences, to discover and stimulate their love of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math.    

If you want to encourage youngsters in fun STEM projects, check out the games on Amazon. I love the LEGOS Women of NASA Space Heroes. 

Along with the mini-bios in the A Mighty Girl article, books about these fantastic women are listed. Great gifts.

Not all girls want to be scientists, engineers, etc. They want to dance ballet, sing, write, paint, or play sports. That's okay, too. We need to give them as many opportunities as we can to help them explore and not limit them.


  

What About V'ger? by Diane Burton

Do you remember the first Star Trek movie? The original that came out in 1979. The thing I remember most is how slo-o-o-ow that movie was. Star Wars IV: A New Hope, with its fast action adventure, had come out two years before. Star Trek: The Motion Picture  couldn't compare. To me, it was such a disappointment.

One thing I remember most is the “alien” who talked through one of the crew and threatened the starship Enterprise. It called itself V’ger (vee-ger). Since the movie has been around for forty years, I’m not going to warn “spoiler.” If you haven’t seen it by now, my telling you about V’Ger won’t make a difference. It turns out that V’ger was the probe Voyager sent out over 300 years before. Its purpose: to collect data and transmit it back to Earth.

For over forty years, the Voyagers have been sending back data and pictures of the places they've been. The scientists who've been working on the Voyager project now include second and third generations. Imagine working on the same project as your mother/father and grandfather/grandmother.

Every time I hear or read about the probe Voyager, I think V’ger from that movie. NASA sent out two Voyagers 42 years ago. They are the only machines that have gone beyond our solar system and crossed over into interstellar space (Voyager 1 in 2013; Voyager 2 in 2018).

They both carried a “golden record” that would give alien civilizations who encountered Voyager a glimpse of Earth. That glimpse includes images from Earth, sounds of nature (like surf, wind and thunder, birds, whales, and other animals), musical selections from different cultures and eras, spoken greetings from Earth people in fifty-five languages, and printed messages from President Carter and U.N. Secretary General Waldheim.

Are you wondering who decided what to put on that record? A committee chaired by Carl Sagan. They even included illustrated directions on how to play the record. [I hope the directions are better than those that came with my air fryer.]

"The spacecraft will be encountered and the record played only if there are advanced spacefaring civilizations in interstellar space." - Carl Sagan

Considering the scary movies in which aliens invade Earth or wipe out the inhabitants to they can salvage Earth’s resources, I wonder if we really want to reach out to alien civilizations. Do we want them to know we’re here?

But then I think remember awe-inspiring movies like Contact, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and Star Trek: First Contact. Aliens could be friendly. They could want to help us achieve interstellar travel.

What do you think? Was it a good idea to send out the Voyagers?

More NASA Stuff by Diane Burton

I hope you aren't tired of my posts about NASA. During Amazon's Prime Days, I grabbed a copy of the DVD, First Man, about Neil Armstrong that culminated in his walk on the moon. From the film, I learned so much I didn't know about him. Since I love the bonus features on DVDs, I learned even more. 

Watching the film last week was appropriate since we just celebrated the 50th Anniversary of that momentous event. Fifty years! That is so hard to believe. In a little over 15 years, the U.S. went from watching the Russians put Sputnik in orbit to putting a man on the moon. Amazing!

Because my formative years were spent watching the "space race" and my classroom was always plastered with photos of the original astronauts, I've been geeked over humans leaving Earth to explore space. Gene Roddenberry called it "The Final Frontier." We've explored everywhere on this planet, but that's not enough. What else is out there?

When my mother-in-law died at age 102, I remember thinking that in her lifetime she'd seen the beginning of flight with the Wright Brothers to men walking on the moon. How fast were the advances in flight.

Will there be habitats on the moon? How soon? With the Artemis program (that I wrote about last time) we're going back to the moon. The crew will stay on a space station-like platform orbiting the moon then travel back and forth gathering info and doing experiments. What will they find? Scientists are hoping to discover something about the origins of life.

I wonder if, from the moon, they'll build another space station as a stopover on the way to Mars. Babysteps. Each mission building those before. I'm thrilled to read about new missions. But, sadly (for me), I probably won't live to see all those advances in space exploration. 

So, I'll continue to write about what I think will happen. What I hope will happen. And I'll teach my grandkids to be awed by NASA's new missions.

http://amzn.com/e/B00683MH5E

NASA's Artemis Program by Diane Burton

This month, we celebrate the 50^th Anniversary of putting men on the moon. That’s right. Fifty years ago, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin stepped foot on the lunar surface. They arrived via the Apollo XI spaceship then the lunar landing vehicle.

If you recall the spaceships that carried more than two people were all named Apollo after the Roman and Greek god of the sun. It’s rare that in mythology, the Roman and Greek names are the same. Apollo’s twin sister was Artemis (in Greek) and Diana (in Roman myths), goddess of the hunt.

Artemis is also the goddess of the moon.

This isn’t a lesson in mythology, even though I find it interesting. NASA’s program to place men on the moon and develop an on-going presence there is called Artemis. With that little mythology lesson, it makes sense why. Apollo program put a man on the moon. Artemis will send a woman there. Is that cool or what?

We hear a lot about inclusion and diversity. According to NASA administrator, Jim Bridenstine, the new name for the program represents the goal of including women, more importantly to land a woman on the moon. Soon. Like 2024.

I have two granddaughters. Like their mothers, they’ve been taught that girls can do anything. It took many years before women were allowed into the space program and then into space. What a marvelous experience for today’s girls to see women step foot on the moon and work there.

When I read about the new programs, my first thought is how are they going to do it. They will put something like a space station, called the Lunar Orbital Platform Gateway, that will orbit the moon. The astronauts, a four-person crew, will use it as their home-away-from-home. From there, using the Lunar Lander, they will make trips down to the moon’s surface then back again doing research, gathering data, and conducting scientific experiments. They will spend thirty to ninety days on Gateway before returning to Earth.

If you want to read more about the Artemis program, here are a couple of links.

https://www.space.com/artemis-program.html?utm_source=sdc-newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20190704-sdc

https://www.nasa.gov/artemis-moon-program-advances

NASA's Mission to Titan by Diane Burton

When I read that NASA has a new mission, and it's to Titan, Saturn's moon, I did a happy dance. (I'm sure you heard the thudding.) I am still geeked about this. I wrote a novella, Mission to New Earth, that starts on Titan. Two years later, Liza O'Connor wrote Destination: Titan, Book 1 of her Leaving Earth series. I researched so much about Titan to write my book that I thought I knew a lot about Saturn's largest moon. Then, Liza wrote many blog posts about that place. Wow. I didn't know as much as I thought.

Thank goodness for NASA and all its pictures.

Anyway, I feel like I have a special affinity for the newest of NASA's future explorations. Scientists think that Titan is now what Earth was billions of years ago. By researching this moon, they believe it will "revolutionize what we know about life in the universe."

You know how NASA sent Rover (a land-based robotic vehicle) to Mars, its job to scoop up dirt and analyze it? The mission to Titan will be fantastically different. Dragonfly is a rotocraft, and it will fly to dozens of locations, picking up surface materials and taking off again to fly to the next location. 

What's so special about Titan? 

If you saw the 2009 movie Star Trek (J.J. Abrams' reboot of the ST franchise), you'll remember that spectacular sequence when the Enterprise comes out of warp in Titan's atmosphere. Was that cool or what?

Dragonfly will use 13 years of data gathered by the Cassini spacecraft. Titan has clouds, rain, rivers, lakes, and oceans of methane and ethane, (Guess we won't be swimming there.) It also has sand dunes and mountains.  It's the second largest moon in our solar system and bigger than Mercury. Titan has a nitrogen-based atmosphere, like Earth. The most important reason to find out more about Titan is that it's filled with such a variety of organic compounds that it could tell us more about the building blocks of life.

I hope I live long enough to see Dragonfly do its thing. It will leave Earth in 2026 and won't get to Titan until 2034. But if I'm still around, you'll find me glued to the TV, just like when Neil Armstrong walked on the moon.


Now for a commercial break. 

Mission to New Earth, a science fiction novella

Earth’s overpopulation and dwindling resources force the United Earth Space Agency to expedite exploration of new planets for a possible new home. When new crises ensue—a giant tsunami and the threat of nuclear winter—the timeline changes. Eight years of training crammed into four. Sara Grenard and her team prepare for launch, but are they ready for the one-way trip? Will the Goldilocks planet prove just right for Earth’s inhabitants? Before time runs out.

Amazon ~ Amazon UK ~ Kobo ~ iTunes ~ B&N ~ Smashwords

If you want to read more about the Dragonfly Mission and Titan, go to  https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/moons/saturn-moons/titan/overview

For more photos of Titan, go to  https://www.space.com/12638-amazing-photos-titan-saturn-moon.html

Girls Can Do Anything by Diane Burton

Did you know that three out of four science divisions at NASA are headed by women? For the first time in NASA’s history! Is this amazing or what? Earth Science division, Heliophysics division, and Planetary Science division have female directors. Wonderful role models for today’s girls and young women. Here’s a link to learn more about these women:

https://www.nasa.gov/feature/meet-the-women-in-charge-of-nasa-s-science-divisions

Two years ago, my local book group chose to read Hidden Figures, the book on which the movie of the same name was based. I found the book boring. Too many dry facts. The movie, on the other hand, held my interest from the beginning to the end. Whether you preferred the book or the movie, the representation of the women who helped put Americans in space is a fantastic story. All through the movie, I kept wondering why we hadn't heard of these women before.

My granddaughter loves to dance. In many ways, she’s a girly-girl. Yet, through Girl Scouts, she’s encouraged to explore STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) disciplines. And because I want her to she has many options, I’ve gotten her LEGO sets featuring females, like Women of NASA . . . along with ballerina ornaments at Christmas. Whether she chooses to become a dancer or an engineer, she knows she has options.

When I was in high school, a girl was supposed to get married and have children. As a just-in-case she didn’t find a husband to support her, a girl could be a teacher, a nurse, a secretary, and a telephone operator. Limited options. I emphasized to my daughter and the girls in our Girl Scout troop, that girls can do anything. They aren’t limited by what society deemed “women’s roles.”

Now, we’re reading and hearing about women who broke through barriers and made their mark on history. What will happen now that today’s girls have leaders to look up to and follow? Maybe they’ll figure out how to put a woman on the moon. Or Mars. 

To paraphrase Buzz Lightyear, girls can go “to infinity and beyond.”

Asteroids and Earth - Armageddon? by Diane Burton

Did you ever see the movie Armageddon? Bruce Willis, Ben Affleck, and a team of oil drillers have a month to save Earth from destruction by an asteroid.

I love action/adventure stories. I love science fiction. Even more, I love science fiction adventure. However, I do like my adventures to be plausible. In the movie, why do they have only a month from the time an asteroid heading for Earth is noticed? The head of NASA (Billy Bob Thornton) says the reason it wasn't noticed is "it's a big-ass sky." Okay, I agree with that, but sheesh. Professionals and amateurs are watching that sky. And nobody noticed? 

Come. On.

Guess what's going on this week? No, NASA didn't call Bruce and company to save Earth. The International Academy of Astronautics' 2019 Planetary Defense Conference is meeting to discuss how to prepare for an asteroid collision and how to protect Earth and its people.

Are they going to detonate a nuclear bomb (that will split the asteroid in half) before it reaches a critical point where it will do no good? That was the concept in the movie. Or will they slam a spacecraft (unmanned, I hope) into the asteroid to nudge it off course?

Here's the plan. NASA's Double Asteroid Redirection Test, or DART. will launch in 2022. Besides nudging the asteroid so it bypasses Earth, it will also collect other scientific data. Do you want to know more? Here's a link:
 https://www.space.com/42853-dart-asteroid-impact-defense-mission-2022.html

I just hope an asteroid doesn't come sooner. If so, Bruce and his boys had better gear up.

#Setting or World Building by Diane Burton

Setting is so important in a story that it’s often called the “other” character. We also call it world building. We create the world our characters inhabit. When we create that world, we must think logically and base that world on our own. Depending on what genre we write in, the world can be a small town, a metropolis, another planet.

When I write cozy mysteries, I base my fictional resort town on real ones. That’s easy. But what about a setting after an apocalypse? We can only imagine the devastation after, say, a nuclear war. Yet, we have some examples in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. While those cities were hit by atomic bombs, not nuclear, we can use what we’ve seen in pictures and videos. Devastation from natural disasters (fires, mudslides, tornadoes, tsunamis, earthquakes) can also give us vivid images.

But what if we set our stories on another planet? Now, we need to develop a lot more. Climate, geography, history, government. That sounds more like high school classes than writing. LOL However, what we learned in those classes may come in handy.

For my science fiction romances, I created planets with a central government. I could make each planet different from anything we’ve ever seen—even via Hubble or its soon-to-be-launched successor the James Webb telescope. 

But if humans are to live on the planet I create, I have to obey certain laws. The humans need a conducive atmosphere. Breathable air, water, and a temperature that isn’t too hot or too cold. What’s called a Goldilocks planet. Earth is just such a Goldilocks planet.

Our research can fill file drawers (or digital files), but while we as writers need to know all this information, and more, our readers don’t. I think of research as an iceberg. What we share with our readers is the tip of the iceberg, while what we know is that vastness below the water’s surface.

Our readers want an enjoyable story with likeable characters. And a strong plot. How my starship gets from one planet to another isn’t as important as the fact that it gets to that other planet. Sort of like my car. I don’t know how it works. But when I get in it and turn the key, I know it’s going to take me to the store or Up North (as we Michiganders call traveling up I-75 toward the Mackinac Bridge).

Enjoy the research. Find out as much as you want about your world. Then carefully, like sprinkles on Christmas cookies, scatter just enough info to make your story interesting.

Solar Eclipse by Diane Burton

If you haven’t heard about the Great American Total Solar Eclipse, you must be on vacation from all news sources. Not to be confused with the Great American Cookout, which started in April and goes through November, the Solar Eclipse will last about two minutes. If you live in Hopkinsville, KY, you’re in luck. That’s where it will last the longest, two minutes and 40 seconds. It will take ninety minutes to cross the U.S. on a path from Oregon to South Carolina.

What’s going to happen? Basically, the moon will get between Earth and the Sun. Depending on where you live (or travel to), you’ll see  either the total eclipse (along that path from Oregon to South Carolina) or a partial. Where I live in west Michigan, we’ll see a partial. Think of a “fingernail” moon and that’s what we’ll see of the sun as the moon’s umbra (shadow) covers it. Like the one just to the left of the total eclipse below.

Exciting, right? We’re all going to rush outside to look. Right? Wrong. Unless you protect your eyes. Retailers all over the country are offering “eclipse” glasses for sale. Be sure they are safe or you could lose your sight.

Myths and Superstitions What could be scarier in ancient times than the sun disappearing? They had to come up with a reason. Like mythical figures eating or stealing the sun. In Vietnam, it was a giant frog, while the Norse blamed wolves for eating the sun. The Inuits thought the sun and moon were fighting. In Hindu mythology, the god Rahu devours the sun to stifle the light that provides life. Nasty guy.

The worst superstitions have to do with pregnant women. In fact, with prior eclipses, pregnant women were told to stay indoors. The Aztecs believed the eclipse might turn fetuses into mice. Yikes! I might have grandmice instead of two healthy boys. (In case you didn’t know, my daughter-in-law is expecting twins in November.) According to Mexican and South Asian myths, cleft palates are caused by the eclipse. Not so. Scientific evidence debunks those stories.

But one thing is true. Looking directly at the eclipse can damage your eyes. You can make a pinhole projector or buy special glasses. The following warnings are from the article on pinhole projectors.

Keep Safe!

§  Never look at the Sun directly without protective eye gear. Even sunglasses cannot protect your eyes from the damage the Sun's rays can do to them.

§  Always keep your back towards the Sun while looking at a pinhole projection.

§  Do not look at the Sun through the pinhole.

By the way, this is the first total solar eclipse to cross the U.S. in ninety years. So unless you plan to live a long, long, long time, it’s best to see it on August 21^st.

Hidden Figures by Diane Burton

Have you seen the movie Hidden Figures? Even if you haven’t, you’ve probably seen the trailers on TV about three black women whose contributions were vital to the space program. Anyone who has read my posts here and on my own blog knows that I’m crazy about space travel. When Russia put Sputnik into orbit around Earth, the adults were convinced they were spying on the U.S., that they could drop a bomb from space and obliterate our country. In school, we hid under our desks and covered our heads in preparation for a nuclear bomb. Yeah, that would save us. But, I digress.

The local book group I belong to read the book Hidden Figures, which seemed more like a textbook. But that didn't stop the producers from making a movie about three amazing black women, representative of hundreds black and white. Women who responded to the government’s call for mathematicians and physicists during World War II. Because of that need, President Roosevelt desegregated the defense industry thereby paving the way for black women to earn three times as much as they made teaching. Who wouldn’t jump on that? But, just because the president ordered desegregation it didn't erase years of treating black women as second/third class citizens. I could get on my soapbox about treating women, in general, as second class. Again, I digress.

The contributions of women to the space program is immeasurable. They were called computers. That was their job title. They performed all the scientific equations, by hand, that enabled NASA to propel a man into space and bring him home again. Even when what we know as “real” computers (IBMs) were brought in, the women learned to use them. But people back then didn’t trust machines. In both the book and the movie, we learn that John Glenn refused to launch until Katherine Johnson confirmed the machine’s computations, computations she performed by hand.

Even though I’ve followed the space program since the original seven astronauts, watched the liftoffs of Alan Shepard and John Glenn on television, listened to news anchors describe what was going to happen and brought in scientists with diagrams, etc. I never knew about the contributions of the women who worked behind the scenes. Without them, we would’ve been playing catch up to the Russians for years.

Remember, that was during the Cold War. Nationalism in the U.S. was so strong in the 1950s and 1960s we had to be better than the Russians. If they put a rocket into space, why didn’t we have one? Their man got into space before ours. Talk about humiliation. President Kennedy challenged us even more—that before the end of the decade (1960s) we would put a man on the moon.

Once we did that, we didn’t have a national challenge. Even though NASA continued with the shuttle and the space station, Americans couldn’t see that those were preparations for exploring more of our solar system. Next stop Mars. Did we not listen or didn’t NASA explain their goals well enough? Maybe we didn’t care anymore. Budgets have been cut. Isn't it ironic that we send our astronauts to the former Soviet Union to be launched? (Side note: watch Interstellar to see what happens when all funding for the space program is cut.) 

Hidden Figures was truly an inspirational movie. I saw the movie on DVD and the extras, especially “behind the scenes”, were even better. As I watched, I remembered the pride in our country that I felt in those days. But more than that, I felt pride that women contributed so much and inspired others to go into the space program. Along with that pride, I felt anger that their contributions have been ignored for far too long.

Fly Me To The Moon by Diane Burton

 If you were around in 1969, you and your family were probably glued to the television set on July 20^th. I was. Since that was in the days before recording shows on VCR tapes (which we hadn’t even heard of then), my dad aimed his Super 8 movie camera at the TV screen and recorded Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin stepping out of a spacecraft onto the moon’s surface.

Exciting times.

Guess what? By the end of next year, we’re going back to the moon. SpaceX, the private spaceflight company, plans to send a crewed spacecraft around the moon in 2018 in time for the 50^th anniversary of the first trip around the moon. NASA, too, plans to return to the moon but not until 2021.

I don’t care who goes first. I’m just excited that we’re going back. You may ask why. We’ve been there, done that. Yes, we have. But we haven’t been that far into space since 1972. The flights have been to the space station. NASA has to contract out space launches.

Since this blog isn’t a scientific one, what’s the connection? I write science fiction romance, still considered part of paranormal romance. “Adventure and Romance in this world and beyond” is the subtitle of my blog. It’s what my writing is all about. Notice “adventure” comes first in that subtitle.

Space adventure. My first love.

When I write about adventures in far off planets or on spaceships, I use my imagination to build those worlds. Of course, I use movies and books for ideas. Pinterest, too. But soon those worlds won’t be fictional. Not in my lifetime and probably not in my children’s. Maybe my grandchildren will see us venture beyond our moon to other planets in our solar system. Maybe their grandchildren will get the chance to venture beyond that.

Wouldn’t that be fantastic?

In my science fiction novella, Mission to New Earth, pioneers fly to a Goldilocks planet to settle, explore, and populate.

Would you go on a one-way trip to explore a new planet? Would you do it to save humankind?

In 2172, Earth’s overpopulation and dwindling resources force the United Earth Space Agency to expedite exploration of new planets for a possible new home. When new crises ensue—a giant tsunami and the threat of nuclear winter—the timeline changes. Eight years of training crammed into four.

Sara Grenard and her team prepare for launch, but are they ready for the one-way trip? Will the Goldilocks planet prove just right for Earth’s inhabitants? Before time runs out.

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Surviving Deep Space Travel

“Ready to turn into a popsicle, Commander?” from Mission to New Earth.

Have you ever wondered how humans could travel across vast reaches of space? Last year, I wrote a blog post on cryosleep (or cryogenic sleep) for C.J. Burright’s blog. This week, I saw the movie Passengers about travelers into deep space and discovered another option for travelers: hibernation. So I've rewritten that blog for today. 

But I’ve gotten ahead of myself.

To travel into deep space, first we’d have to build spaceships that could go that far. Those ships would need fuel. The more fuel, the farther the ship can go. If the ship was empty, it could go even farther. A computer can perform all the necessary functions. In fact, that’s what the Kepler, Cassini, and Hubbell spacecraft do.

But what if we want to send people out past our star (the sun) and past many stars until they get to a planet in the Goldilocks zone? In my post on Veronica Scott’s blog, I wrote about planets that aren’t too hot, not too cold, where the environment is just right for humans.

The heavier the cargo, the more fuel is used. Humans need essentials like air, food, and water. To preserve their bones, gravity is needed, too. To maintain gravity and haul enough food, water, and appropriate air for several years would take a lot of fuel. They also need room to move around, places to eat, sleep, work, relax during downtime. That means the ship would have to be big, and the bigger the ship, the more fuel it would use. The problem remains. How do we get humans into deep space?

Scientists have been working on that for years. Science fiction movies and books already have it worked out. Just put the astronauts into hibernation or cryosleep. There is a difference between the two procedures. In hibernation, the person’s body wouldn’t be frozen. Instead, the body temperature would be lowered to about 9°F.

In movies like Avatar, Interstellar, 2001: A Space Odyssey, astronauts are put into suspended animation (sometimes called stasis or torpor) so they can endure long space travels. Not every story or movie has warp or hyperdrive to get from Point A to Point B, thereby reducing travel time. I doubt if scientists can figure out how to warp space or develop a faster-than-lightspeed engine in our lifetime. Not mine, anyway.

When astronauts are put into cryosleep, as mine are in Mission to New Earth, food and water aren’t needed since a sleeper has no need for them plus they don’t breathe. The result is less fuel consumption, which then means the spaceship can go farther than if the astronauts were awake.

There’s another benefit of cryosleep. Relief from boredom. Can you imagine looking at empty space for years? In my novella, Mission to New Earth, the trip from Titan (Saturn’s moon and launch platform) to Serenity (a planet in the Goldilocks zone) takes three years. With nothing to do and nothing to observe, the astronauts would need to keep busy. Workouts take energy—not just from the astronaut but from the ship. Gravity, air, food, and water. All demands on fuel consumption.

As a sci-fi writer, I’m not concerned with the mechanics of cryosleep or hibernation. I compare it to an automobile. I don’t know (don’t need to know) how my car works. I just need to know that when I put the key in the ignition, that car will take me where I want to go.

From what I’d read, seen in movies, and researched, I gathered enough info to make the scene of my astronauts going into cryosleep believable. At least, I hope so. Or that the reader can suspend disbelief. I was more concerned with the emotions experienced by the astronauts.

Sara Grenard, the commander of the mission and the story’s narrator, has a vivid imagination. While preparing for launch, before being put into cryosleep, Sara experiences many emotions. Fear, mainly. What if there’s a problem with the freezing chamber? What if the computer (an AI like Hal in 2001: A Space Odyssey) decides to eliminate the humans? What if there’s a malfunction and the computer has to decide whose vitals can be turned off and who will live? What if the cryosleep chamber is vandalized?

But Sara’s already decided being the first pioneer on a new planet is worth the risk of cryosleep. For my astronauts, there is no other way. The elation over going first outweighs the fear. So she and the other five astronauts willingly enter their cryotubes and are put into hibernation for the long trip. She is certain she and the others will wake up—just like Jake in Avatar.

One thing Sara didn’t consider was what would happen if she/they woke up too soon, as in Passengers. While my characters’ journey is only three years total, the travelers in Passengers, Jim and Aurora, it’s devastating to wake up with 90 years to go.

In real life is cryosleep or hibernation possible? As I wrote above, scientists are not only working on cryosleep for space travel, they see practical applications in the medical realm. We’ve already heard or read in the news about people who’ve plunged into icy cold bodies of water, their bodily functions and temperature have slowed down, and they’ve survived with almost no ill effects. Medically-induced hibernation is being used in critical patient care, for instance in cases of traumatic brain and spine injuries.

Whether for medical treatment or space travel, lowering the body temperature can be beneficial. Scientists will find a way to send travelers into deep space.

Mission to New Earth: a novella

Blurb:

Would you go on a one-way trip to explore a new planet? Would you do it to save humankind?

Earth’s overpopulation and dwindling resources force the United Earth Space Agency to expedite exploration of new planets for a possible new home. When new crises ensue—a giant tsunami and the threat of nuclear winter—the timeline changes. Eight years of training crammed into four. Sara Grenard and her team prepare for launch, but are they ready for the one-way trip? Will the Goldilocks planet prove just right for Earth’s inhabitants? Before time runs out.

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Excerpt:

We had such hopes for our mission. Scared and hopeful. What a combination. Three years in cryosleep. The scary part.

I forced myself not to think about all that could go wrong. So many people were depending on us. If all went well—that is, if we survived cryosleep—one of the teams would find a planet that could be the answer to Earth’s problems. Or maybe all three would. We could only hope.

I was excited and nervous. In some respects, I wished it was launch day. Just to get it over with. Put me in cryosleep, where I can’t think and won’t dream. At least, that’s what the scientists told us. I dreamed all the time. Happy dreams about Marsh, sometimes about my parents and the wonderful life they had together.

Sometimes my dreams were frightening. Choking to death on the viscous substance that replaced the air in our lungs—my most frequent nightmare. Or our shuttle craft plummeting to the surface and crashing. I often woke up shaking, terrified, until Marsh put his strong arm around my waist and pulled me tight against him.

About the Author:

Diane Burton combines her love of mystery, adventure, science fiction and romance into writing romantic fiction. Besides the science fiction romance Switched and Outer Rim series, she is the author of One Red Shoe, a romantic suspense, and the Alex O’Hara PI mystery series. She is also a contributor to two anthologies: Portals, Volume 2 and How I Met My Husband. Diane and her husband live in West Michigan. They have two children and three grandchildren.

For more info and excerpts from her books, visit Diane’s website: http://www.dianeburton.com

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Comet Landing

Much to my family's dismay, I wait until the last minute to complete projects. Well, if I hadn't waited until the last minute to write this post, I would have missed out reporting on a fantastic event. 

Yesterday the European Space Agency’s Philae lander touched down on the Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. This is the first soft landing on a comet that is moving more than 60,000 km per hour. They say it's like transferring an object from one speeding bullet to another.  Historic. Exciting.

Anything connected to space intrigues me. I guess that’s why I write science fiction romance. Sputnik went into orbit when I was a kid and I well remember the Space Race with the Soviets. Back in the 1960s, I knew the names of all the astronauts. Every time there was a space launch, I’d be glued to the television. So learning about this ground-breaking event had me trolling the internet and avidly watching the Science Channel.

The Rosetta spacecraft that carried Philae has already had a long journey—ten years and over four billion miles before it caught up to the duck-shaped Comet 67P/C-G. As soon as Philae landed on the comet's head, it immediately drilled down to anchor the lander to the comet. Sure wouldn’t want it to bounce off. Also, immediately the instruments started working and Philae is sending back information about this icy space wanderer.

What do scientists expect to learn? Possibly about the beginning of the solar system.

Since comets are made up of water and dust, scientists theorize that a dry Earth was bombarded by thousands of comets, which left behind water. By analyzing the data from Philae, they hope to determine if that theory is correct. The lander will take pictures of the area around the landing zone. It will take the comet’s temperature on the surface and deep within. The instruments will examine the dust to tell where the comet came from. Analyzing the content inside the comet, they could tell us if it’s the same as the ingredients of Earth, and possibly where life comes from. Pretty good for a lander that’s about as big as a washing machine.

These are exciting times! We’ve had so many years of ho-hum events. I mean, how can you get excited about another trip to the space station with cargo or a change in crew? I’m sure it’s exciting and important for the astronauts. I know so much goes on behind the scenes in preparation for a real event. Philae’s landing yesterday was nearly thirty years in the making.

So what's next? Remember the movie Armageddon? Instead of sending up a team of oil & gas drillers, a project in the works plans to “capture” an asteroid and change its path. NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission, scheduled to launch in two years, plans to bring a piece of an asteroid home.

Scientists are only limited by their imaginations. We writers could help out with that, couldn’t we?

Diane Burton writes science fiction romance, romantic suspense, and mystery. Her most recent sfr novel is The Chameleon (book 2 in the Outer Rim series). Her latest novel is a mystery, The Case of the Bygone Brother. See Diane's website for more info: www.dianeburton.com