Monday, July 30, 2018

Good Chemistry on a Sunday Afternoon


Sometimes just a few things have to be
spun in the right way,
just the right amounts.

Perfect weather,
congenial hosts,
the right mix of crowd,
no one with any extreme grudges.

Just friendly hellos,
tasty meats grilling,
chips and drinks and chatting.
a soak in cool pool water,
intermittent sunshine,
relaxation and conversation.

Eating and talking quietly,
no pressures.
Rest and chuckles and smiles,
ease and poise and restoration.

All too soon, it is
time to go,
bathed in afternoon sunlight
one last moment before we leave.
Ethereal snapshot of momentary bliss.

Driving away,
I know
I have just had a wonderful experience,
and wish it could go on and on and on.





e


Thursday, July 26, 2018

Expansion Outline


We (humanity) have now explored the entire Solar System with robotic probes, and we are maintaining the ISS as an occupied outpost. Soon, hopefully, we will be building the Gateway station near the Moon. Here is a proposed outline of ownership and building-out of space facilities.
Firstly, while we complete the Gateway station, and begin occupying it, this will probably be a multi-national effort, involving governments. The US can use its SLS and Falcon Heavy rockets to assemble a core, in conjunction with Russian help. Then, hopefully the Europeans will join in with a module or two. Meanwhile, the ISS, getting long in the tooth, will be increasingly turned over to commercial interests. This will eventually become a tourist destination, perhaps with additional (Bigelow?) hotel modules and so forth. Commercial companies can contract with NASA etc to keep the station's life support and life necessities (recycling especially) functioning. The main focus of NASA/ESA/Roscosmos will shift to Gateway Station, and eventually the surface of the Moon.

NASA/ESA/Roscosmos etc should then establish a permanent Lunar base staffed by 4 to 6 astronauts. These can be rotated in and out every six months or so, since they will have some gravity to prevent bodily stresses and bone degradation. They could be ferried up to the Gateway, and then ferried home, with no necessary stopover on ISS (unless they want to.)
By the time NASA/ESA/Roscosmos completes the Lunar station and commences regular missions there, the ISS should be a 90 percent commercial operation, with government involvement only as consulting in keeping life support functional. The Gateway station should be shifting over to commercial ventures as well, like tourism.

The next step might be a station orbiting the Sun, halfway between the Moon and Mars (the orbital path). Perhaps mini-shuttlecraft would travel between the Moon and this platform. Once a small crew is occupying this platform, they would do long-term studies of issues like radiation and weightlessness, and transfer of material between the Moon and Mars. Some materials would concurrently be shipped to Martian orbit, to begin construction of a large, orbiting Mars station.

As the focus shifts to the mid-point platform and the Mars orbital station, operations on the Moon would be more and more commercialized, paying more of their own way, so governments can shift their focus further and further out. Casinos, care centers for the elderly, mining and adventure tourism would settle in. In this way, as each succeeding station or outpost is built further out, the preceding ones become more commercialized and self-sustaining.

Until such point is reached that, one day, we are all the way out beyond the orbit of Saturn. By this time, the Moon should be almost an economic backwater, occupied mostly by automated mining and observation stations, and Mars should be a buzzing hive of economic activity, with several colonies on the surface and underground. Commercial can follow governmental exploration, as humanity learns to live and thrive in a variety of new space environments. We will show our ever-changing adaptability and cleverness as we ultimately conquer our entire Solar System. By this time we should be so good at harvesting asteroidal materials, that shortages of material things should be relegated to a dim, harsh past, only remembered by our great-grandparents in their care centers on the Moon.


- end



Thursday, July 12, 2018

Short Stories for Summer Reading

Enjoy some light sci-fi and fantasy reading this summer.

Twenty-Nine Stories

Have Fun!






Haiku Four - honoring a former Iowa Governor


hot southern winds blow,
carry away dripping sweat;
see procession pass.

Governor's honor,
good man honored by public.
Rest in peace Bob Ray.

Example to all,
humanitarian life;
historic high mark.

Words few or many,
inadequate to express the admiration
for a human being who lived his beliefs,
walked the walk,
put his acts beyond where his mouth was.
Would that we could do half as good.

-

Wednesday, July 11, 2018

Tuesday, July 10, 2018

Haiku Two


Twenty-five years ago, in 1993,
all 99 Iowa counties were declared
disaster areas, qualified for federal aid.
250,000 people were without drinking water.

Now, today, the Saylorville reservoir is full,
not quite to overflowing.
More rain is on the way this weekend.
Rain in northern Iowa that will flow our way.

We had a letup this week, with lots of sunshine.
The calm before the storm?
Another major disaster looms?
Anything can happen, and usually does.

Here is hoping this is not the case,
that the rains will be gentle, mild, light.
That more sunshine will drop the reservoir,
lower the rivers and streams back to normal.

Cross your fingers everyone.
And keep emergency supplies handy.

- - - - -     Haiku Too

more rain keeps coming,
reservoir filled to the top.
get ready, Des Moines.


Monday, July 09, 2018

Haiku one

rains fall down endless
water flows against gravity
plans and lives submerged




Weaponize

 The military is always on the lookout for new weapons; Various advanced drones and aircraft flit about in our skies, Beamed laser weapons h...