Category Archives: Speculation

“Frozen Orbit” – A new space novel by Patrick Chiles

Patrick Chiles has released the new novel, Frozen Orbit:

The Beginning of Life Awaits at the End of the Solar System

Frozen Orbit by Patrick Chiles

When a tiny space probe hurtled past Pluto in 2015, no one could know that its most amazing discovery would remain hidden for years. Only when a long-lost Soyuz is destroyed in the skies above Siberia does the truth begin to emerge.

About to embark on NASA’s first expedition to the outer planets, the crew of the spacecraft Magellan learns someone else has beaten them by a few decades: a top-secret Soviet project codenamed Arkangel. It was a mission that began before most of them were even born, and the Kremlin believes it drove their most trusted crew mad.

During their long race to the Kuiper Belt, astronauts Jack Templeton and Traci Keene unwind a decades-old mystery buried in the pages of a dead cosmonaut’s journal. Challenging their own beliefs about the nature of humanity, they will soon confront the question of existence itself.

Check out also Patrick’s other novels, Farside and Perigee.

[ Update: Some comments from Patrick about the new book: What Were You Thinking? – The Chiles Files.]

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Frozen Orbit

Note: The Amazon links here result in commissions for HobbySpace if click-throughs lead to purchases.

Video: Webcast of Breakthrough Initiatives conference at Stanford Univ.

The Breakthrough Initiatives is holding a symposium at Stanford today and tomorrow. The theme is “Alien Life” – Diversity in the Universe.

You can watch the presentations via the live webcast:

Here is the schedule:

Day 1 Schedule: Presenters/Panelists

Live on YouTube: youtu.be/nFoTyKGHdLc

Pacific Time USA

09:00 Welcome to Breakthrough Discuss 2018: Hosts Charles Alcock, Penelope Boston, Jamie Drew, Peter Michelson, S. Pete Worden
09:15 Keynote: Carolyn Porco, “Enceladus: Little Moon, Big Possibilities”
10:00 Session One: Search for Life in our Solar System: Chairs Penelope Boston, Chris McKay
10:10 David Smith, “Why Aren’t Clouds Green?”
10:30 David Grinspoon, “The Case for Venus: Life in Acid Clouds?”
10:50 Britney Schmidt, “Robots Under the Ice, and One Day, In Space?”
11:25 Alfonso Davila, “Search for Life Beyond Earth: Motive, Means and Opportunity”
11:45 Morgan Cable, “Dragonfly: In situ exploration of Titan’s prebiotic organic chemistry and habitability”
12:05 Penelope Boston, “Wherever You Go, There You Are: The Questions That Drive the Destinations”
13:40 Panel One: Search for Life in our Solar Systems: Chairs Penelope Boston, Chris McKay, Panelists Dale Anderson, Steven Benner, Nathalie Cabrol, Cynthia Philips, Carol Stoker
15:10 Session Two: Possibilities for Non-Terran Life in the Universe: Chairs Svetlana Berdyugina, Lisa Kaltenegger
15:20 Lynn Rothschild, “Universal Biology: Investigating Life as it Must Be”
15:40 Steve Benner, “Chemical Constraints on Non-Earth Life”
16:00 Sara Seager, “A New View of Life’s Journey Through Chemical Space”
16:30 Charles Ofria, “Using Artificial Life to Uncover Universal Evolutionary Dynamics”
16:50 Emilio Enriquez, “Searching for lifeform-independent technosignatures
17:10 Lee Cronin, “The Evolution of Inorganic Life in the Universe

Day 2 Schedule: Presenters/Panelists

Live on YouTube: youtu.be/3GiN-tWAV_k

Pacific Time USA

09:00 Welcome Remarks, S. Pete Worden
09:10 Keynote: Martin Rees, “Will SETI Detect Organic or Electronic Intelligence?”
10:05 Panel Two: Possibilities for Non-Terran Life in the Universe:
Chairs Svetlana Berdyugina, Lisa Kaltenegger, Panelists Penelope Boston, Chris McKay, Anders Sandberg , Clara Sousa-Silva, Sara Walker
12:30 Session Three: Progress in Novel Space Propulsion: Chairs Sigrid Close, Zachary Manchester
12:40 Sonny White, “Pilot Wave Model for Impulsive Thrust from RF Test Device”
13:00 Ryan Weed, “Scaled Radioisotope Positron Propulsion for Interstellar Spacecraft”
13:20 Geoffrey Landis, “Sails: From the Solar System to the Stars”
13:50 Robert Zubrin, “Dipole Drive for Space Propulsion”
14:10 Kevin Parkin “Progress in Beamed Energy Propulsion”
14:30 Les Johnson, “Solar and Electric Sailing: Stepping Stones to the Stars”
15:00 Panel Three: Progress in Novel Space Propulsion:
Chairs Sigrid Close, Zachary Manchester, Panelists Elena Ancona, Harry Atwater, Heidi Fearn, Mateusz Józefowicz, Kelvin Long

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Videos: 2017 Advanced Propulsion Workshop

The Space Studies Institute (SSI) recently posted videos of talks given at a workshop last fall co-hosted by The Aerospace Corp on topics related to exotic propulsion concepts and experiments such as those involved with the Mach Effect and EM Drive:

Here is a sampling:

** Marc Millis, Founder of The Tau Zero Foundation, former head of NASA’s visionary Breakthrough Propulsion Physics project, presents “Playful Thought Experiments About Breakthrough Spacedrives

** Heidi Fearn, Professor of Physics at The California State University Fullerton, Space Studies Institute NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) Team Principle Investigator and SSI Senior Associate presents “The Mach Effect Gravitational Assist Drive

** Raymond Chaio, Professor Emeritus at The University of California, Merced, Co-Author of “Quantum Optics“, Editor of “Amazing Light: A Volume Dedicated To Charles Hard Townes On His 80th Birthday” and Co-Editor of “Visions of Discovery: New Light on Physics, Cosmology, and Consciousness” – “The Dynamical Casimir Effect and the Possibility of Laser-Like Generation of Gravitational Radiation.”

** John G. Cramer – Professor Emeritus of Physics at the University of Washington, Author of “The Quantum Handshake: Entanglement, Nonlocality and  Transactions” and the Science Fiction novels “Twistor” and  “Einstein’s Bridge” – “The Quantum Handshake Explored”

Update: Saw this video this evening. Fun to watch Jansson’s enthusiasm and openness about an usual experimental phenomena they have seen repeatedly. I expect, though, they will turn out to be an instrumentation error of some sort.

** Dr. Peter M. Jansson – Associate Professor of Engineering at Bucknell University, President of Integrated Systems – “An Empirical Pursuit of Mach’s Principle: Experimental Results Indicating a ‘Machian’ Inertial Reaction Force is Detectable and Electromagnetic.”

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Video: Science Fiction/Future Now panel at Comic-Con

Here is a video for the Science Fiction/Future Now panel at Comic-Con:

Science fiction has ever been the muse of real-world advances, but now ideas can be achieved almost as soon as they are thought up. So how do writers, out-dream the dream makers? How do writers handle the truth of real science and the fiction that is needed for writing their stories? Is it a crisis for the writer’s imagination? Or does it serve to inspire?

The panelists include:

Videos: “From Here to the Stars” interview series by the Tennessee Valley Interstellar Workshop

The Tennessee Valley Interstellar Workshop  (TVIW) recently initiated a Youtube video series titled, From Here to the Stars, that consists of interviews with scientists and leading thinkers in the area of interstellar travel. Here are the first four entries in the series:

In Episode 1, Stephen Euin Cobb, Host of “Future and You” podcast, interviews Marc G. Millis, Founder and Director of Tau Zero Foundation, in association with Tennessee Valley Interstellar Workshop (Les Johnson, Executive Producer).

In Episode 2, Stephen Euin Cobb, Host of “Future and You” podcast, interviews Dr. Louis D. Friedman, Co-Founder of The Planetary Society with Carl Sagan and Bruce C. Murray and Planetary Society Executive Director Emeritus, in association with Tennessee Valley Interstellar Workshop (Les Johnson, Executive Producer).

In Episode 3, Stephen Euin Cobb, Host of “Future and You” podcast, interviews Dr. Philip Lubin, a professor of Physics at the University of California, Santa Barbara and a co-recipient of the 2006 Gruber Prize in Cosmology along with the COBE science team for their groundbreaking work in cosmology. This series is produced in association with Tennessee Valley Interstellar Workshop (Les Johnson, Executive Producer).

See the see DEEP-IN webpage for more about the work of Lubin’s group at UCSB on “Directed Energy Interstellar Precursors”.

In Episode 4, Stephen Euin Cobb, Host of “Future and You” podcast, interviews Dr. Gregory L. Matloff, Emeritus Associate and Adjunct Associate Professor of Physics at New York City College of Technology (NYCCT), Fellow of the British interplanetary Society, and Hayden Associate at the American Museum of Natural History. This series is produced in association with Tennessee Valley Interstellar Workshop (Les Johnson, Executive Producer).