Transportation of the future

TRANSPORTATION OF THE FUTURE

by Jessica E. Subject

While some members of my family are fascinated by automobiles and other vehicles of the past, I prefer to look to the future, especially concept vehicles from car companies, aircraft, and spacecraft.

Both my previous and upcoming series take place in a part of the universe far from here. And transportation is far more advanced than what we have on Earth. There are hovercraft that run on batteries the way of electric vehicles on this planet. These vehicles cannot leave the planet they are on. In fact, they don't fly any higher than a couple hundred feet off the ground. The space racing jets fly higher in the atmosphere, using hydrogen and ion power cells. While they have the power to leave the atmosphere, they usually don't hold enough power to reach another planet, especially after a race. Then there are the space shuttles, which fly between various planets in the quadrants of my fictional universe.

But what's ahead for the future of vehicles here on Earth?

A couple years ago, when I was writing my Shifter Towers series, I learned about the Hyundai Prophecy Concept EV. And while the company has since redesigned and released it as the Ioniq 6, maintaining the streamlined look that I love, there were features in the Prophecy that I was really looking forward to seeing in a vehicle that weren't included in the Ioniq 6. The most notable being the twin joysticks used to steer the vehicle, taking the place of the steering wheel. Many construction vehicles are already steered in the same way, as well as some helicopters and jets. I think it will be interesting when this way of steering can be found in everyday vehicles.

And last month, I watched a video from NASA about the future of aircraft. Right now, they are working on developing different types of Uncrewed Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) working to deliver packages and fight fires to being used as taxis and ambulances. And they are also in the process of building more supersonic aircraft while developing more complex air traffic control systems and collision avoidance systems.

Speaking of supersonic aircraft, startup company, Boom Technology has already received approval to test their XB-1 supersonic jet over the Mojave desert. The XB-1 is designed to travel at Mach 2.2, which is 2.2 times the speed of sound.

Also, did you hear about the office chair that Volkswagen designed? While not destined for production, the electric-motored drivable chair is heated, has LED headlights, storage compartments, and an infotainment system. If it hovered, it would be like the chairs people spent their days in from the movie Wall-E.

So, while we don't know for sure what the future holds (Why aren't hoverboards like in Back to the Future 2 a thing already?), I am excited to see all the different concepts the various companies and organizations are working on.

What kind of vehicles would you like to see in the future?

Read more about the vehicles in my futuristic universe in the Kaddim Brothers series, and my upcoming release, 4 UNITED, the first book in my Romance Tales from the Quadrants series.

  

Billionaires in Space by Diane Burton

image credit: space.com

 July brought two huge events. In the first, Richard Branson (Virgin Galactic) plus four others were launched into suborbital space aboard the VSS Unity 282,000 feet above Earth. 

image credit: Virgin Galactic

Branson tweeted: I was once a child with a dream looking up to the stars. Now I'm an adult in a spaceship looking down to our beautiful Earth. To the next generation of dreamers: if we can do this, just imagine what you can do.

Nine days later, Jeff Bezos (the richest person in the world) along with three others traveled into suborbital space aboard New Shepard, a rocket topped by a capsule. They reached a height of 351,120 feet above Earth. New Shepard was named for Alan Shepard, the first American to fly in space.

image credit: Joe Raedle/Gettyimages

Besides Bezos, his brother, and 18-year-old Oliver Daemon (a Dutch physics student, 82-year-old Wally Funk finally realized her dream. Wally is a member of the famous (or infamous) "Mercury 13", a group of women who completed all the tests required of the original Mercury astronauts yet were denied the opportunity to go into space because of their gender. Wally has the distinction of being the oldest person in space.

Funk said: "It was great. I loved it. I can hardly wait to go again."

image credit: Blue Origin

As I watched the landing of New Shepard, I was captivated by Wally's enthusiasm. The picture (above) of her exit from the capsule says it all.

Even though I knew the names of every Mercury and Apollo astronaut, I never knew about those women. Shame on NASA for denying them their dreams.

I've always been infatuated with the space program. I lined the bulletin boards in my classroom with pictures from space as well as the astronauts. If I'd been given the opportunity to go into space back then, I would've jumped at the chance. Until Wally's trip, I always thought I was too old. Now, I'm not so sure. I'm younger than her. 😊

When I blogged about my novella Mission to New Earth, I asked readers if they had the chance would they go into space. Most who replied said they'd go if they could come back. My thoughts exactly. We all thought of our families and wouldn't want to leave them forever, like the characters in Mission. Their task was to explore a "Goldilocks" planet, one that was just right for humans. However, the planet was so far away, they couldn't return. A one-way trip. Unlike the billionaires, who hoped they would return in one piece.

But what have these two historic launches proved? Is their a market for tourism in space? Would customers be willing to fork over hundreds of thousands of dollars for the chance to say they've been in space? I'm pretty sure there's already a waiting list.

I'll ask the question again: if money were no object, would you go into space?

Blurb:

Earth’s overpopulation and dwindling resources force the United Earth Space Agency to ramp up exploration of new planets for a possible new home. As Sara Grenard and her team prepare for launch, are they ready for the one-way trip? Will they be in time?

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

 

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.

Transportation: Then, Now, and the Future

My grandmother was born in 1896. The only means of transportation then was horse and carriage/wagon, a bicycle, a train, or boats. The automobile hadn’t hit it big yet, and the airplane was yet to come. When she died in 1980, she’d seen the advent of passenger planes and man walking on the moon.

Today, we have so many options to travel from one place to another. Hubs and I prefer driving to air travel. We like the slower pace, the luxury of stopping where and when we want. But, if we need to get somewhere in a hurry, we’re willing to take advantage of air travel. Sure, it can be a pain with the limits on luggage and the thorough searching of passengers and their carry-ons. Still, I’m glad those restrictions and searches are in place to protect all of us.

I’ve been fascinated by space travel ever since I was in grade school. Satellites and rockets. Alan Shepard and John Glenn were my heroes, followed closely by Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins. Some nights, we can even see the International Space Station. And Space X will be offering trips into space for civilians.

When my two-year-old granddaughter is an adult, the options will be phenomenal. If so much changed in my grandmother’s lifetime and mine, imagine what Toddler Girl will experience. Will she travel to a settlement on the moon or Mars? Will scientists discover wormholes that can take her out of our solar system? Better yet, will they invent teleportation and she’ll get beamed from one side of our country to another?

Imagining the possibilities is why I write science fiction. My belief in love and happy ever after is why I include romance.

What possibilities do you see (or want to see) for your grandchildren?

#ScienceFictionRomance by Diane Burton

I love Science Fiction Romance (SFR). Love to read it and love to write it. My SFR roots go back to being enthralled with the “space race” of the 1960s. When the USSR launched Sputnik, our national pride wouldn’t let us sit back and marvel that someone had gotten a projectile through our atmosphere and into space. Oh, no. We had to not only match it but surpass it. Thus came the challenge to put a man on the moon. In that decade. And, by golly, we did.

Every space launch had me glued to the television. Not really effective in black-and-white, but who cared? My enthusiasm became contagious. The posters I brought back from Cape Kennedy Space Center hung on my classroom bulletin boards. I knew the names of the first group of astronauts. No, I didn’t make my students memorize them.

So, anything space-related grabbed my attention. I’d watched the corny, old TV shows B-movies with silly aliens and dorky plots. (Doctor Who wasn’t on American television yet) What really captured my imagination was Star Wars: A New Hope. Fast-paced adventure, a hint of romance, fabulous music. And the good guys won. What more could you ask? Now I was infecting a new generation, my children and their friends, with my enthusiasm by taking them to the movies.

The combination of space adventure and romance captured me and hasn’t let go. Not enough movies so I looked for books. Jayne Ann Caste came out with Crystal Flame, followed by Gift of Gold, and Gift of Fire. All right. From then on, I searched for “futuristics” as SFR was known then. When I couldn’t find enough to read, I wrote them.

Nowadays the choices are overwhelming. Good news, bad news. Great that there are so many choices. Bad that there are so many choices. How do I choose? I mean, my book “budget” isn’t that big. Word-of-mouth is always great. That’s why I have guests on my blog (Saturday Sampler) showcasing books. Still, so many choices.

Here’s a word-of-mouth recommendation. PORTALS: A Gateway To The Worlds Of Science Fiction Romance. Portals is a way to check out books by your favorite SFR authors and new-to-you authors. Each volume contains the first chapters of ten published books. Three volumes are available with three more in the works. While my math skills aren’t the best, even I can figure out I can “test drive” sixty books. Read the first chapter, if I like it, click on the link, and buy.

The best part is Portals is free. Yep, free. I’m sure you’re asking where you can get Portals? Everywhere. Maybe I’d better qualify that. It’s at the following online book vendors:

PORTALS: VOLUME ONE

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Portals-One-...

Nook: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/por...

Kobo: https://store.kobobooks.com/en-us/e...

iBooks: https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/po...

ARe: https://www.allromanceebooks.com/pr...

Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/books...

Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/vi...

PORTALS: VOLUME TWO

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Portals-Two-...

Nook: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/por...

Kobo: https://store.kobobooks.com/en-us/e...

iBooks: https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/po...

ARe: https://www.allromanceebooks.com/pr...

Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/books...

Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/vi...

PORTALS: VOLUME THREE

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Portals-Thre...

Nook: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/por...

Kobo: https://store.kobobooks.com/en-us/e...

iBooks: https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/po...

ARe: https://www.allromanceebooks.com/pr...

Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/books...

Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/vi...

Shameless plug here. The first chapter of the first book in my Outer Rim series, The Pilot, is in Volume Two.

If you like SFR, you’re sure to find some new books to read. I did. Oh, my poor book budget.

Diane Burton combines her love of adventure and romance into writing science fiction romance (as well as romantic suspense and mystery). She blogs here on the 13^th of each month, on The Roses of Prose on the 30^th, and on her own blog on Mondays.