The e-Magazine of the British Interplanetary Society

Making Progress I am now back in my chair as Manager of Odyssey after my long recovery from several operations I have had since last July and I have missed many events that I would have loved to have attended. I hope I will have better luck this year. I would like to thank everyone from BIS HQ and my friends from Odyssey for their emails of encouragement while I was in hospital and home. In this edition we start with a story from me,The Wrong Decision. Richard Hayes gives us another of his Radical Vectors articles on how elite groups may develop in future, and an article on remembering anticipating the Apollo missions back in 1969. He has also written about Alex Storer’s art entitled Frondēscentia. JohnSilvester gives us a book review of Peter Shaver’s The Rise of Science and provides us with a short mention about Wernher von Braun and the BIS. This is very interesting and informative, especially to our new and younger members. His final article is about the film First Man, (Neil Armstrong), out in the cinemas now. We have a new author from the BIS who has sent in a story entitled Cryosleep by Gavin Dady. If there are any more budding authors out there who would like to submit a short SF story around 1500 words, then please send it to me through our usual email address: [email protected]. In Odyssey 59 I will have another story for you, and Richard Hayes will give us some further thoughts on the fiftieth anniversary of the first Apollo Moon landing when he considers who really had the “right stuff” in those days, as well as devoting his Radical Vectors column to the power of science fiction in predicting the future. John Silvester will also have another book review for us. My long recovery has lasted through operations I have had since last July; two in August, one in September, two in November and a very minor one that I am still waiting to be booked in for, plus two operations which went wrong where I was rushed back into hospital to have the operation corrected! My great thanks go to Richard Hayes and Bob Evans for taking over and keeping Odyssey going while I have been ill. You’ll be pleased to know I am back in my seat, if only part time for another month or so. Whilst I have been recovering, I have spent a long time listening to classical music and, sometimes, a different kind of rock music by the group 2Cellos. I have based the following story on the official video for The Show Must Go On, the tribute to the Queen song of the same name by 2Cellos’ Stjepan Hauser and Luka Sulic. So I give you The Wrong Decision, enjoy! Terry Henley Managing Editor

Odyssey: The e-Magazine of the British Interplanetary Society: Issue 58 www.bis-space.com 1 The Wrong Decision by Terry Henley FBIS NASA’s deep space satellites picked While this was happening, the about, they would have included the up a large asteroid, six miles long governments of the world spoke to missing data. and six miles in diameter heading each other and decided to send all towards Earth at an extremely high their rockets into space to try and He called her and she explained speed. It would hit the Earth in twenty blow it off course. One of the world’s her theory. They had forgotten to days. It gave them no time to react well known astronomers Dr Michelle add the gravity effect the asteroid to this event and after advising the Brash, suggested the military were and the moon would have on the President, a team of top astronomers wrong; not only would all the rockets Earth. He added the missing data was either at NASA or speaking via not knock it off course, but to do to the equation and inserted it into secure Skype. Everyone had their so they would have to coordinate a their quantum computer. It would still opinion but not all opinions were taken mass launch within the next two days. take time to compute the answers seriously. It would be a land strike, There was also another problem they he wanted. His phone rang and he either in the US or Europe. Every had overlooked, if they did not push hurried to the main hall where they continent would be hit by something the object far enough away from would all see the blast off from every - earthquakes, tsunamis. No matter the Earth, it could give our Moon a arsenal around the world. If they did what continent it hit, there would be glancing blow. not include their rockets, it would be very little left of it or the Earth. the end of the Earth and their rockets would be blown up in the asteroid It would be the biggest asteroid to collision. hit Earth in all its history and could eventually destroy it depending on Russia fired her entire arsenal of the reverberations from its impact. nuclear rockets into space. Other The ground where the impact was, countries followed suit then the US would go up into the air for miles fired theirs, the British fired theirs. and stay there for a while before it Every military ship, or submarine fell back to Earth. The fine dirt and carrying ICBM’s, fired theirs when ash would fall for years over the they were in the correct location, entire planet, the sunlight would not She was laughed at because adding their arsenal to the now penetrate the ash, animals would die astronomers said the Moon would hundreds of rockets heading for within a month, plant life would start be on the far side of the Earth and the asteroid. Paul returned to the to die immediately. The blast wave well out of the way. As astronomers computer room and there was his would flatten everything in its path around the world agreed with the answer in the tray. He looked at it and for hundreds of miles. People on army, the rockets were launched. he fast dialled Michelle. the surface left alive would have no “You were right!” access to food, power or warmth. As the stadiums were completed hundreds of thousands of people, He hurried to see the NASA Director Every government was informed and young and old were sat on the ground who was in the launch room with they quickly made their own plans for waiting for the end of the world. everyone else. He thrust the paper their survival. The biggest and flattest into Director Deacon’s hand and he pieces of ground in the US and every Enormous screens showed the read it with trepidation before he stood other country were found and power groups playing and when the rockets up and took Paul outside. was brought to these places. blasted off from Earth, they were shown on the screens. The asteroid “Are you certain it will not work?” Not everyone would be able to be was now visible to the naked eye as saved, but there was no point in the a bright star in the morning sky and “It will only partially work and because world’s population dying for nothing. each morning the star got larger. it is so close to the Earth, it will move So huge stands for bands to play gigs away from us and as the Moon comes for what would be possibly the last Dr Paul Edwards at NASA kept into view due to the pull of both time, were asked to help their fans looking at the speed of the asteroid gravities, it will give it a hard glancing and calm them, as the band had done and the amount of explosive they blow on its Far Side. The Moon will on Titanic before its death. Buses could get to it. He kept thinking of then collide with the Earth, there will and the army would get people to what Dr Michelle Brash had said and be nothing stopping it. If we stop the the concerts to stop individual cars it didn’t quite make sense unless rockets, we are still destroyed.” blocking the roads. There would be there was something missing in the no need for people to evacuate their equations that she had thought of. The rockets exploded and everyone cities, there would be nowhere they She had either not mentioned it on watched the giant Moon in their sky could run to, this would be a planet purpose or assumed that, because as the rockets lit up the screens. killer. they all knew what they were talking Then everyone saw the disaster; the asteroid hit the Moon and broke

Odyssey: The e-Magazine of the British Interplanetary Society: Issue 58 www.bis-space.com 2 tonnes of rock from its surface. There louder and louder as the Moon got a hundred miles inland, washed away was no stopping what happened closer and closer. It was now within a the groups and people with them. seconds later, the Moon tilted towards hundred miles of our atmosphere. The final groups to survive were in the the Earth. middle of Europe, the South of Africa You didn’t need a telescope to see the and half the groups in the middle of Getting closer and closer, lightning effects it would have on our planet, the US. struck between the two celestial it would simply meld with the Earth, objects. Some of the lightning was probably down to its liquid core. As the Moon was fifty miles from coloured as it hit our magnetic field. The oceans rose, five, six, seven Earth’s atmosphere and everyone was There were no rockets left. The miles high, walking upright with a sure they were going to die, the tubes bands played slow music now for the curve of water at the brow, waiting from the secret silo were pulled into people to watch the Moon as it got to hammer the land below. People, the Moon and the ship’s main engines closer and our gravity was affected. cars and buildings were taken by finally fired. They had not been asked Huge objects, pieces of land, islands the ever increasing height of the to move the Moon for millenniums, in the sea were floating in the air. tidal waves’ undertow back into the but now they were firing, pushing Cars, lorries, anything not held down Pacific, Atlantic and Indian Oceans. the Moonship out of Earth’s orbit were now in the air in some places. Japan was covered in water as too and with the rest of their people now Thunderstorms were everywhere, was every small island in the Pacific aboard, taking their places at different on the far side of the Earth large and Atlantic. Parts of Australia were control stations, the giant sphere cylinders from a secret underground washed away as large cities on the Aries increased speed and left Earth silo were also floating into the void coast fell into the sea. trembling in its wake. At two thousand that was getting closer to Earth. miles from Earth, the Captain ordered One of the bands playing in the US, a pressor beam to push the asteroid Birds were squawking, flying higher decided on one song they would all into a different orbit, so it would not and higher as they too were caught play and keep playing until the Earth get close to Earth ever again. He in the loss of gravity. The Moon was died or survived. The song was called then activated the controls to open a now just a few thousand miles from The Show Must Go On, hoping that wormhole and Aries was gone. The the Earth and its size was becoming some people would survive. Parceans from the constellation of gravely apparent as lightning and As the groups played the song in Aries, and their planet Lacos, left tools purple electrical storms from the Earth and advanced technology for those sent electrical energy to the Moon unison, as loud as they could in defiance of the moon’s advancement left alive as they had done with the and back to the Earth, generating Egyptians and many nations before. more lightning as it passed through against the Earth, the crowds sang along, unafraid as they were all Now it would be up to those left alive our magnetic field and ozone layer. to move into a new future and follow The sound of thunder was getting holding hands or kissing each other goodbye as water, still two miles high their forefathers to the stars. Radical Vectors: Richard Hayes FBIS considers an Elite Existence The poor will be with us always, the human race appears to become interstellar civilization. But the reality according to St Matthew’s Gospel increasingly distanced from the poor is that it’s the comparison with others in the Bible and, sad to say, it of the Earth. Despite all the efforts that tends to cause discontent. No is probably true. So also is the to the contrary, the poverty gap only matter how well off one is compared converse – the wealthy will be with seems to go on increasing, though to with previous generations (which is us always. And with wealth comes a large extent the outcome of such certainly the case for most of us living power and influence, along with the an analysis does depend on how you in the West nowadays), it’s the fact establishment of an elite in society go about measuring poverty. Having that there are others who appear to who maintain control over everyone said that, one thing for certain is that have a disproportionate share of the else in order to keep their wealth and poor people across the world certainly wealth that causes grief to those who status intact. And, as sure as night outnumber wealthy people by quite a have less. follows day, the poor will want what large degree. the wealthy have, and the wealthy will It’s difficult to see how this will get any do all they can to prevent the poor Science fiction often shows us a future better. In his hard-hitting analysis In getting it. It has been so since the world where everyone seems content the Name of the Law: the Collapse dawn of human civilization. with the fact that the totality of human of Criminal Justice, published in wealth overall has increased, and all 1996, the award-winning investigative How this is likely to develop in the have a share in it. One only needs journalist David Rose examined the foreseeable future is a rather worrying think of the Federation in the Star Trek way that the British justice system concept. As population growth universe where, on the whole, people was developing. He reached some continues to soar, the wealthy elite of are happy enough with the benefits of very disturbing conclusions and

Odyssey: The e-Magazine of the British Interplanetary Society: Issue 58 www.bis-space.com 3 speculated on what might be seen immigrants who manage to make their during the twenty-first century – a way to Elysium against all the odds society where the elite who can afford are hunted down and either killed or it defend themselves in enclosed, sent back to Earth. secure communities with guns and fortifications against a desperate It’s frighteningly easy to de-humanise underclass. In his concluding the poor, or indeed anyone who words: “It is a glimpse into hell... doesn’t fit the ideal image created by society mediated by violence, with all those in charge – the standard “dislike pretence of equality before the law of the unlike” which has pervaded removed.” so much of history. The underclass may be seen as having a purpose in And the justification for increasing providing labour and, if they can work, protection against a perceived so be it. If they can’t, then they have enemy within one’s own society has no purpose. Taken to an extreme, it existed for a long time. The leading resulted in the murder of the disabled sociologist Stanley Cohen described and others labelled as “useless it well in his seminal book Folk Devils eaters” or “life unworthy of life” in Nazi and Moral Panics, originally published Germany. in 1972 and later updated. He discussed how the phenomenon of Clearly, we all hope that we will never the “Mods and Rockers” in the 1960s see the horrors of the concentration led to media attacks on supposed camp and the gas chamber again subcultures within society, and how Not everyone suffers during over- on this planet. But to avoid the we have vilified other groups on a population. Published by Penguin slippery slope leading in that regular basis ever since. Books 1967. Cover illustration by Alan direction, perhaps the only answer Aldridge. is to ensure that there is no cause Frankly, you can choose your own live in fortified apartment blocks for envy or privilege amongst the target group of “folk devils” nowadays while the poor live in squalor outside. entire population. Total equality for – there are plenty around. The Notably, the world he envisaged was everyone. serious result of doing so, though, set in a (then) future 1999 where is that the social (and frequently the population had increased to an This is the basis for L P Hartley’s wider) problems which create that intolerable seven billion. Needless extraordinary 1960 post-apocalyptic group in the first place aren’t tackled to say, we are well beyond that novel Facial Justice. Years after an – it’s much easier to just demonize level now, but the message of the whatever underclass is flavour of consequences of over-population is the month. But the consequences clear enough. are more long-lasting since the root causes won’t go away by themselves. For full protection, we might expect the elite to go somewhere really safe, So there’s nothing new about an elite such as away from the Earth entirely, seeing a need to defend itself against leaving the underclass to look after a threat from others who haven’t themselves back on the home world. reached its own high standards, Such was the premise of the 2013 film and expecting potential catastrophe Elysium – the wealthy live in luxury if it doesn’t. Alan Seymour’s 1969 on a huge orbiting space habitat, speculative novel The Coming Self- apparently based on a Stanford Destruction of the USA portrayed torus rotating so as to provide Earth- a future USA torn apart by racial normal gravity through centrifugal tensions, leading to inevitable civil force on the inner surface of the outer war. It was very much a story of its ring. The rest of an over-populated time, but the idea of unavoidable humanity suffers on the devastated conflict resulting from differences surface of the planet. between groups within society persists. Even then, the elite still live in fear of the masses back on Earth who, Sadly it could all be considerably quite understandably, want what they closer than we think, but the fictional have. And with good cause, as it warnings have been around for Complete equality...or perhaps not. turns out. But the film shows how an some time. In Harry Harrison’s 1966 This edition published by Penguin elite can easily become increasingly science fiction novel Make Room! Books 1966. Cover illustration shows resistant to any empathy with ordinary Make Room!, famously filmed as a detail from Hans Bellmer’s Mille people, as demonstrated when illegal Soylent Green in 1973, the wealthy Filles (Snark International).

Odyssey: The e-Magazine of the British Interplanetary Society: Issue 58 www.bis-space.com 4 appalling nuclear war, society for But even then, as the heroine of the And then, in due course, may come the survivors in Britain is based on story visits the devastated remains the inevitable contempt for, and a strict morality where no-one must of Ely Cathedral, she feels joy at the eventual demonising of, those who be seen to have any advantage over perception of height that she gets are seen as inferior, regardless of the anyone else. Even one’s face may from viewing the ruined tower. She cause of their perceived inferiority. be surgically altered to ensure that knows this is wrong, and her rebellion There is, perhaps, a message there no-one is either too beautiful or too against the dictatorship begins. And for all of us in the West. ugly. Nothing must cause discontent so, even when equality is strictly through envy. A noble objective, it enforced, the human desire to be would seem. different – to have an advantage over others – may win out.

Wernher von Braun and the BIS by John Silvester A friend of Alistair Scott (The Chair Wernher von Braun, in recognition of the BIS Events Committee) of his great pioneering activities in recently spotted this wall graphic at the field of rocket engineering, was the Rocket Museum in Huntsville invited to become a Fellow in the Alabama. Alistair thought it ought British Interplanetary Society. to be shared with Odyssey readers (with due regard given to the error Wernher von Braun: “To me, the in the wording). Wernher von fact that the British Interplanetary Braun was of course an Honorary Society invited me to become an Fellow of the BIS. Alistair said it Honorary Fellow, despite the grief made him realise what the BIS the work of me and my associates meant to him, how significant brought to the British people, is the his Honorary Fellowship was in most encouraging proof that the recognising him for his ground- noble enthusiasm in the future of breaking rocketry work and the rocketry is stronger than national influence the BIS must have had in sentiments which in the past so the formulation of the United States’ often have hampered scientific plan for conquering space. progress to the benefit of all mankind.” The writing on the picture says:- On 27 August 1949, only 4 years after the conclusion of World War II,

Richard Hayes FBIS Remembers Anticipating the Apollo Missions They were times of great anticipation. I well remember watching the live could still feel quite impatient at that Those months leading up to the first transmission of the “dress rehearsal” age. manned landing on the Moon in July Apollo 10 mission in May 1969, and 1969 were a period like no other. talking to my father about the irritation The scientific press at the time was that they hadn’t taken the Lunar full of speculations about what was With considerable hindsight, we now Module those extra few miles to the to come. Even Science Journal, a know that there was not as much surface. And then it would all be publication which had not thus far assurance that it would all work out over. As someone who had worked covered space exploration extensively as successfully as we members of on bombers in the RAF during the except where it was associated with the public might have imagined. But Second World War, and knew all too new science or technology, devoted a for the average person, there was well the consequences of failing to special issue to the subject of Man on actually little doubt that it would all test a thing out properly before taking the Moon in May 1969. The journal’s come out well – we just had to wait for it into action for real, he assured me editor, Robin Clarke, expressed its it to happen. And the waiting could be that NASA would have had very good purpose as examining our future a bit frustrating. reasons for doing it this way. But one relationship with the Moon: “The time

Odyssey: The e-Magazine of the British Interplanetary Society: Issue 58 www.bis-space.com 5 for purple prose about manned space the Moon’s surface. We were justified Apollo 17’s lift-off in December 1972 flight has now ended and in its place in expecting great things to come. – the final manned launch of a Saturn must come the rational examination of V rocket and the only night-time man’s future role as an inhabitant of But we in the BIS must not forget the launch in the series, which he found globes other than the Earth.” role that the Society played during “incredibly spectacular”. the 1960s, and before, in fostering In the journal’s lead article The enthusiasm for a manned Moon Moon and man, Zdenĕk Kopal, landing. Bob Parkinson expressed then Professor of Astronomy at the this in the Society’s 1979 book High University of Manchester, outlined Road to the Moon: From Imagination how humanity’s fascination with to Reality, when he explained the the Moon had led to the current ideas and proposals for a Moonship position with its first step towards its which developed after the War, and “ultimate dispersal throughout the of which we all became aware. As he solar system.” At that stage, he gave said in his introduction to the book, particular importance to the date of “Before you send a rocket to the 24th December 1968, which would Moon, you have to believe that such “go down in history as one of the a thing is possible.” His description most memorable landmarks of the of the ambitions of the rocket age long quest of human endeavour”, enthusiasts, whether derived from since that was the day that three amateur experiments or the realms humans in Apollo 8 disengaged from of science fiction, leaves little doubt the gravitational field of the Earth about their optimism. and “became temporarily attached to another celestial body.” The BIS was rightly pleased with its contribution. In the Society’s 2008 publication Interplanetary: A History of the British Interplanetary Society, Bob observed that “1970 might have Asimov’s descriptions of great events. seemed a year in which the BIS could Published by Abelard-Schuman rest on its laurels and congratulate Limited 1974. Cover photo by Sheila itself on past farsightedness. Some Yurman 30 years after the original Moonship He saw the scene from a ship some designs had seemed like some seven miles off Cape Kennedy, and unimaginable future event, human explained how the event “lit the sky beings had actually walked on the from horizon to horizon, turning Moon.” Fortunately, the Society did the ocean an orange-gray and the not stop there, though future lunar sky into an inverted copper bowl exploration in reality may be seen to from which the stars were blanked have been somewhat less active in out.” Then, some forty seconds the long term. after ignition, when the rocket was well up in the sky, came the “first The anticipation of the Apollo missions shaking rumble” of the launch. That did not stop with the first landing. Far is precisely the imagery that remains from it. The sight of further Saturn V in the memory, with its expectation rockets lifting off from Cape Kennedy Man on the Moon issue published of what was to come – travel beyond could still stir the blood. With all by IPC Business Press May 1969. the gravitational pull of the Earth, respect to SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy Background photograph of the along with the astronauts’ experiences rocket, and even giving full credit for Moon taken during Apollo 8 mission, during true space flight, leading its reusable elements, it’s not quite courtesy NASA. before long to the scenes of humans the same as seeing the most powerful exploring a world other than our own. And, of course, there were strikingly rocket ever built taking humans to optimistic views of what might follow another world. In The Cruise and I, a further essay in from Apollo. In the same issue of the same collection, Asimov described Science Journal, RW Johnson of In his 1973 book The Tragedy of how the “party of idealists” on board NASA’s Advanced Manned Missions the Moon, the famous science the ship travelled in anticipation Program Office suggested that fiction author and science writer of the focus of their voyage. He a colony on the Moon might be Isaac Asimov collected several accompanied science fiction writers established by the United States essays which he had written for The such as Robert Heinlein, Theodore within a decade, and AJ Meyer of Magazine of Fantasy and Science Sturgeon, Frederik Pohl and Ben NASA’s Lunar Exploration Project Fiction over the previous couple of Bova, and well-known scientists Office envisaged a range of wheeled years. In one of these, The Triumph including Carl Sagan and Marvin or flying transport systems to explore of the Moon, he describes watching Minsky – all people who appreciated

Odyssey: The e-Magazine of the British Interplanetary Society: Issue 58 www.bis-space.com 6 the importance of what was to come, this was the last such mission, and to be a solely American affair, but a and who felt the need to witness the that it would be some considerable co-operative effort between several event for themselves. time before the human race attempted countries, which is undoubtedly what anything like it again. By that stage, many of us would have wished. As he But the majesty of the launch itself one had to admit that some of the put it: “Astronauts, like other human was, in a sense, beyond words. eagerness had worn off. beings, are members of the human Asimov felt that “in all this, it was race first and members of different useless to try to speak, for there The wide-ranging enthusiasm and nations only second. If this priority was nothing to say. The words and expectations of the period may be cannot be observed when man phrases had not been invented that summed up by the concluding words actually leaves the Earth – and its would serve as an accompaniment to of Science Journal’s editor in his arbitrary national boundaries – behind that magnificent leap to the Moon, and editorial to the May 1969 edition, as him, it seems unlikely that it ever will.” I did not try to invent any.” Even then, he looked to the future. He felt that He was probably right in more ways though, there was the knowledge that further lunar exploration was unlikely than one. The Rise of Science – Review by John Silvester workings of the natural and physical purposes, but also from our point of world, the basis of modern science, view led us directly to Sputnik and emerged from Greece, starting in radio astronomy. But other motivating the 6th Century BC and lasting for a factors were at work on great thousand years. The Greeks sought scientists of the past. Curiosity led answers to the questions about the Copernicus to wonder about a Sun basic principles of physics, the make- centred Solar System and Edmund up of the Earth and the nature of the Halley to think about whether stars Solar System amongst many others. moved. Imagination played a large This wonderful flame of a new way part in Hoyle’s presentation of his of thinking, unimpeded by blocking Steady State Theory. Determination factors such as religion, was nearly was the factor that seemed to move extinguished after the decline of the others, including Galileo and Newton. Greek civilization but managed to But the overarching factor that linked splutter on through the rise and fall of many scientists of the past together, the Roman Empire and was then kept those such as Copernicus, Galileo, alive by the emergence of Islam. It Newton, Hooke, Hubble, Zwicky, and struggled into 12th century European Huygens was that they worked in Renaissance and grew gloriously isolation. In the author’s words “The through the 16th and 17th Century. modern scientific world we live in, with all its technical wonders is due to The 240 pages of the book are wide just a few hundred key scientists who ISBN-10: 9783319918112 ranging, but nevertheless a great deal worked largely alone”. ISBN-13: 978-3319918112 of attention has been lavished on ASIN: 3319918117 Both Download and each of the very readable chapters, The concluding chapter asks the the book are the same price £9.97 and little nuggets of information question as to whether the current at Amazon.co.uk constantly fascinate. For example, pace of exponential growth in science Modern science as we know it owes the development of Wi-Fi originated can continue in the future. Unlike in everything to Greek civilization. from a search for exploding black previous civilizations this expectation Parallel and even earlier civilizations holes in the universe, and when is now built into us, since science took part in astronomical observations Einstein heard about Hubble’s Law on has become such an integral part of and rudimentary science since they an expanding universe, he removed our modern world. One of the main were important for agriculture and the cosmological constant from bars is expense, and some projects religion. However, none embraced his own equation, and thus denied are probably so costly that they could `thinking’ science. This much we himself the prospect of predicting an never be contemplated. But perhaps gather from Peter Shaver’s new expanding universe. even this notion is subjective, and offering for Springer that gives a ways around such problems always broad and unique overview of the In his chapter on `Roads to seem to materialise. rise of science through the last few Knowledge’ the author looks at the thousand years to the saturation level impetus behind great scientists and I can recommend this book as a good rise that we have experienced over their discoveries. War situations lead read, and it is very useful in that it the last few decades. The rational to the speeding up and concentration contains both a subject and a name study of the intrinsic properties and of scientific knowledge for specific index.

Odyssey: The e-Magazine of the British Interplanetary Society: Issue 58 www.bis-space.com 7 Richard Hayes FBIS thinks about Dead Languages As we venture out into space, the writing in the hope of interpreting have been used as memory prompts, chances are that what is now being some important message. That though the knowledge of how to read called xenoarchaeology – the study assumes, of course, that the long- them was believed to have died out. of artefacts left by alien cultures dead aliens communicated through which long ago ceased to exist – will such written inscriptions whereas, However, recent research suggests become increasingly important. After quite possibly, they wouldn’t have that quipus may have been much all, given the immense age of the done anything of the sort. The (all more than just numerical records. In universe, it is quite possible that many too alive) alien visitors in the 2016 How to read Inca (New Scientist, 29 alien species will have come and film Arrival use a peculiar form of September 2018), Daniel Cossins gone. Indeed, dead civilizations may symbolism to communicate, which describes how researchers from heavily outnumber live ones. would have been exceptionally difficult St Andrews University have found for anyone else to understand had a remote community in the Andes The science fiction author Jack those aliens been long dead. where the quipu tradition may still McDevitt wrote excellent stories be understood. Amazingly, complex based on this premise, and his 1994 arrangements of colour, fibre type novel The Engines of God depicts a and direction of ply may provide cosmos where humanity is rather late a combination of phonetic and on the scene in terms of interstellar ideographic symbols – a complete travel. Humans find the evidence of three-dimensional tactile system of what once was, and have to interpret recording information which may tell it. In the Star Trek universe, a histories, stories and even songs. running theme throughout the Next Generation series is Captain Picard’s It seems surprising that something close interest in archaeology, which so different to anything with which we even appears to be a standard course are familiar already exists here on The Inca stronghold of Machu Picchu, at Starfleet Academy. Earth, from a culture which ceased hidden from the conquistadors. centuries ago. It makes us wonder Of course, we might not even have We may have an example on our what dead alien civilizations on other to wait until we get out there before own Earth which gives an indication planets might have used, but we will we have the chance of a bit of of what we may have to face. The probably be hoping for too much to xenoarchaeology; the opportunity Inca civilization in South America expect them to have been so kind as might come to us. In Arthur C had existed for centuries before the to leave simple alphabets which we Clarke’s 1973 novel Rendezvous with Spanish finally conquered it in the can decipher with relatively little effort. Rama, the evidence is brought to us sixteenth century, and it reached Even so, humans may be remarkably by a visiting spacecraft. And, as often a high level of sophistication in its inventive in interpreting languages – turns out in such tales, it might well organisation and technology, but deciphering a code of combined lights become clear that the alien civilization surprisingly never developed writing. and chords in the 1977 film Close is anything but really dead after all. Kim MacQuarrie opens his 2007 Encounters of the Third Kind springs book The Last Days of the Incas to mind, but having live aliens with A significant aspect of much with a discussion of how historians which to converse was undoubtedly a archaeological enquiry is the can trace what happened before the real help on that occasion. deciphering, and eventual conquest, and explains that the Incas understanding, of the language of used specialized oral histories and, Needless to say, that won’t be so easy a dead civilization. We often see possibly, the strings of carefully tied if they all died out long ago. But it images in science fiction of astronauts and coloured knots known as quipus, might not be impossible. poring over obscure and impenetrable which held numerical data and may Cryosleep By Gavin Dady I’ll be brutally honest, cryosleep to your undies or a ship-suit of some switches and maybe there’s a hiss or sucks. There’s no way I can sugar kind and snuggle into a nice, high a mist of gas and you drift off into a coat it. As much as people will tell tech, comfortable pod. It might look dreamless slumber. Maybe a crackle you it’s a precise science and it’s like something you’d get into at a of frost creeps across the glass of the almost totally risk free these days, spa, or one of those high-end pods pod, or perhaps your skin takes on a it is still a horrible experience. The you see on airliners in 1st class. A whitish tinge. popular conception is you strip down medic in a crisp, white coat flips a few

Odyssey: The e-Magazine of the British Interplanetary Society: Issue 58 www.bis-space.com 8 No. So, so not the way it is. haemoglobin in our blood, plus our out like the worst pins and needles in lungs aren’t going to work as well if the world, until it covers your whole I was scheduled to be part of we are breathing only a few times a body. Plus, it is, of course, cold. You the active crew, so barring any minute. get colder and colder but you don’t unforeseen circumstances, I’d likely shiver - you want to suppress that never go into cryosleep. Nevertheless, 24 hours before freezing you go body’s natural attempt to keep you we all had to go through a cycle onto IV feeding, so nil by mouth warm, so you are being pumped as part of training and certification. after that. You also start to take the full of muscle relaxants to stop the There’s a bunch of reasons why some tailored uptake enhancers, so your shivering. Eventually you start to people can’t go into cryosleep, and body will be able to metabolise the feel drowsy, but it is not the pleasant some of them only show up when you intravenous supplements better while feeling of drifting off to sleep. No, this try to put someone under. your digestive system is dormant. is a crushing exhaustion like you have You also get your shunts put in for worked the hardest day of manual the cryodialysis system. There’s a labour in your life. It’s the feeling of couple of different places they can a post marathon calorific deficit crash go in; neck, groin, chest. Mine were without the accompanying endorphin in my arms - one on each arm. One rush. Then it is just oblivion. in, one out, I guess. The shunts are kind of creepy looking bio-printed I don’t recall dreaming in cryosleep. Picture credited to Future Cryonics.org. things that give an infection free gate I saw my squiggly brain scans The process starts 72 hours prior to for the oxygenated cryobuffer to be afterwards and there were bursts freezing - assuming this is a planned circulated. of activity, but that could just have cycle and you aren’t crash freezing been where I was being prodded and someone in an emergency, that is. Then it’s freezing time. You strip poked, or perhaps someone banged In a planned freeze you go on those naked and are usually depilated for on the lid of my pod. I remember horrible zero-waste, high uptake food a long freeze too. I was only due waking up a week later feeling hungry substitutes 3 days before you freeze. to be down for a week, but they and itchy and weak as a day old You also start taking a drug regimen still made me lose the hair. That’s kitten. I was cold, even after they to prepare the body for freezing. when you get your final colon had brought me slowly back up from Part of this process is to ensure that cleansing and are plumbed in to the just a few degrees above freezing. I your digestive system is empty when waste systems. I don’t care how spent a day or so in bed and then you go under. As anybody that has professional we all claim we are - it’s went through a battery of tests and found a pot of something nasty at still an embarrassing process for scans - machines that thumped and the back of their fridge knows, low everybody involved. You then climb, whirred as they imaged my insides to temperatures do not stop things going awkwardly, into the cryopod and check for any tiny damage from rogue bad forever and you do not want an get hooked in. Sensors are placed ice crystals. Finally, there was then undigested meal slowly poisoning you everywhere. Early versions required an interview. Mostly this was to see if as you sleep. It’s also the reason you a tracheotomy, but we just have I had suffered any brain damage that will be getting your colon cleansed more bio printed grossness for the the imagers hadn’t picked up, but also prior to the plumbing going in. intubation now. Still better than a hole I suspect there was psych evaluation in the throat, I guess. going on. The drugs also start to dilate the capillaries, to allow the cryobuffer to The pods are inclined at about 30 So, twelve days, end to end. One diffuse better, but this can lead to a degrees from vertical and are tailored of the worst experiences of my life, drop in blood pressure, so you have to each occupant. They also have and that includes decompression to be monitored closely. I got dizzy a an active gel liner that massages training and an inverted, cold-water lot after the first course of treatment, the body to prevent pressure sores, submersion drill in a VTOL ditching but they adjusted the dosage before and flexes so that the skeleton is still simulator. I hope I never have to do it I went in. The cryobuffer is designed under load whilst you sleep. It also again. We have a science crew of 85 to prevent tissue damage from rogue has electrodes to deliver microshocks on the mission, who’ll all be frozen for ice crystals or ischemic damage – to the muscles to keep them toned. the year or so of our outbound trip to constriction of blood flow. You don’t It minimises muscle wastage and save on life support and power. I pity actually get frozen in cryosleep, keeps the bones healthy, apparently. those poor bastards. They’ll have to just chilled down to near freezing. You find you are kind of half sitting, go through it all before we get there, There can still be cold spots, so the half lying, half standing. That’s a then wake up and do their science cryoprotection buffer prevents any half too many, but it’s actually quite thing, all the time knowing they’ll have ice crystals from puncturing the cell comfortable. to go through the process again on membranes or blocking fluid flow. the way home. It also diffuses as an oxygenating The freezing process is painful, and fluid throughout the body. At low you can’t be sedated for it. The temperatures it can continue to cryobuffer stings like hell as it diffuses. carry oxygen at rates better than the It starts at the inlet shunt and radiates

Odyssey: The e-Magazine of the British Interplanetary Society: Issue 58 www.bis-space.com 9 First Man: A Personal View of the Film by John Silvester FBIS

Rare views of first man on the moon. Credit to collectspace.com Neil Armstrong began his space perspective of manned space flight We see very little of Gemini but are career as an X-15 test pilot and the to other ventures such as Apollo reminded of its utilitarian nature by film opens with the stark reality of 13, Gravity and The Martian. the appearance of the stark metal what that meant in practice. There Neil Armstrong is portrayed as a hatches. The Eagle itself looked to are few external shots of the craft complex character, an introvert who be flimsy, with the uneven surfaces of soaring to the edge of space, just the internalises everything and acts in a its panels revealing just how thin the brutal bone shaking experience of matter of fact way, rarely displaying metal really was. The actual landing being strapped into a rather primitive emotion. The film is structured is nail biting, with only a few seconds plane with its well-worn switches around this theme. of fuel left, but instead of national and dials whizzing around. This film flag waving and hysterics we are gives you a real sense of what it must When he is told he is going to greeted with silence, and shots of the have been like to be inside an X-15, the Moon by Deke Slayton in the bleakness of the Lunar surface. with its stark simplicity and the brutal unglamorous surroundings of the functionalism of everything in the rest room his answer is just one word I thoroughly enjoyed this film, as I cockpit, coupled with the noise, and “OK”. Most of the action takes place know all BIS members will. It will the imminence of danger. inside the various spacecraft, with probably have disappeared from very little dialogue, and the vessels cinemas when you read this, but the It provides a perfect opener for themselves have a functional rather DVD will be available from February. the film which provides a different than glamorous feel about them.

Odyssey: The e-Magazine of the British Interplanetary Society: Issue 58 www.bis-space.com 10 Frondēscentia: Richard Hayes FBIS examines the Art of Alex Storer

Frondēscentia by Alex Storer; www.thelightdream.net Extraterrestrial life may take many in what might otherwise be a fragile But there is a clear impression that forms, but experience on Earth has existence. the plants have been deliberately shown that life tends to evolve so shaped for some purpose and, if we In this powerful image from Alex as to produce similar structures look closely, there seem to be lights Storer, we see such life as it may where these are proven to work, as on the surface of the structure in the have evolved on the moon of a a likely consequence of the process distance. We wonder whether this distant planet. The plant growths are of natural selection. Plant life based could be some alien plant city which separated by tracts of barren land on chlorophyll is an efficient method has been created as the most suitable which is clearly inhospitable to any life. of survival where sunlight is available habitat on this remote world. And, if It looks as though wind-blown spores and we might expect that similar, and so, who are the inhabitants – could must have carried plant life through possibly even identical, life-forms may they even be existing in some alien the moon’s tenuous atmosphere to have developed on other worlds. After symbiosis with the vegetation which those few locations where it can thrive. all, the one source of energy of which appears to dominate the landscape? There, restricted to a limited patch of we can be fairly certain throughout our ground, it has grown to a vast size, The possibilities for how life may have universe is the light from stars, and any stretching upwards to gain ever more grown elsewhere in our cosmos could organisms that exist will need to make of the precious light. be truly amazing. the best use of it in order to survive

Managing Editor: Terry J. Henley Assistant Editors: John Silvester, Terry Don and Richard Hayes Design and Layout: Bob Evans Distribution and web support: Ralph Timberlake Odyssey is published six times a year by the BIS and circulated by email. Back Issues of Odyssey can be found in the Members section under Downloads. Feedback on the e-magazine is welcome, including suggestions for future issues, via [email protected]

Odyssey: The e-Magazine of the British Interplanetary Society: Issue 58 www.bis-space.com 11