08/12/2022

A bit late for November, but here it is.

Technogasmic

Did you watch the launch of Artemis 1?

I must admit to enjoying the full technogasmic experience, watching the liftoff of Artemis One on 16th November 2022. I doubt I’ll see the colonisation of Mars, or even the Moon, in my lifetime, but the thought of the Artemis programme and what they’re hoping to achieve is truly awe-inspiring, and something I will follow closely.
If you missed the launch, go here for the entire YouTube event broadcast live by NASA.
I used the word — my own, newly invented word — technogasmic, because of the excellent commentary that accompanied the video.

Some of the highlights for me:-

T -06:12, They bring the High Energy systems online.
T -04:57, Space Force arm the Flight Termination system… This gives Space Force the ability to self-destruct the rocket if it goes in the wrong direction.
T -02:30 Watching the engines ‘gimbal’….
T -01:30 Computers now on internal power
T -00:30 ALS takes over – Autonomous, Launch Sequencer.
And, of course, the spectacular ignition sequence…
T -00:07s, Flooding the mobile launcher with water

For anyone writing Sci-Fi, this was inspiring.

I must mention some of the camera angles and the quality of the pictures. Visually stunning, and a far cry from the picture I saw as a small boy in 1969. The TV was a small black and white box that my mum and dad rented, but, on it, I was blown away watching Apollo 11’s liftoff and then Neil Armstrong’s walk on the Moon.

Talking about that old TV…

National Space Centre

My birthday treat this year was a trip to the UK’s National Space Centre. It’s located in Leicester because of the research links the local university has with space agencies such as NASA and the ESA, dating back to the early 60s. Back then, their focus was on X-ray and research technology.

There were many interesting things to see ranging from a Blue Streak rocket from the 1950s, an actual 1960s Soyuz spacecraft to mock-ups of a room with… yes, an old TV set that people ‘back then’ would have watched the Apollo 11 moon landing on.

The high point of the day, for me, was the Sir Patrick Moore’s Planetarium. Blew me away – sufficed to say, well worth a visit.

Escape from Hades

My own writing is going well, and I’m on track to complete the rewrite to ‘Escape from Hades’ by the 16th of December. This rewrite was to improve the beginning of the story. I believe it has worked, and in doing so, I changed some of the cast; again, I believe that has worked. Over the coming weeks, I will revisit the blurb and synopsis after completing the final 2 chapters. I’m hoping to have the whole thing reviewed by my development readers by the end of February.

Vicky – Wattpad

What else? Oh yes… I popped a short ‘deleted’ scene from another work in progress (First Contact) onto my new Wattpad account. This was prompted by hearing NASA’s Artemis Space programme was bringing together Google and Cisco to create a voice-activated control system…

I can hear the late James Doohan saying “computer”… those were the days 😉

Finally, let me wish you all a very happy Christmas and all the best for the New Year… And don’t forget to watch the stars.