The e-Magazine of the British Interplanetary Society

NEW YEAR THRILLS

Welcome to 2018, a year where we Richard Hayes looks at the Shape In our next edition, John Silvester will hope we will all get what we dream of Politics to Come with his regular be reviewing Julian Guthrie’s How for. In this, the fi rst edition of Odyssey Radical Vectors column, and uses to Make a Spaceship, while Richard for this year, we have a full calendar, one of David Hardy’s superb artworks Hayes will be taking us to ocean but should there be someone out to talk about a more unusual method worlds in fact and fi ction, as well as there who, like our President Mark of launching spacecraft. Richard has showcasing some more great art from Hempsell, has published their fi rst or also included, and I had no idea he Alex Storer. even tenth book and you would like it was doing this as you read his piece, reviewed and put in Odyssey, please an article on entering the War Zone. We at Odyssey hope you have a write to at our usual address, at the wonderful and exciting New Year. We bottom of each page. John Silvester reviews two books, start this edition with my story entitled, Spaceplane Hermes by Luc van den Absolute Zero. If you have something else you would Abeelen, an excellent book I must like to say or have us investigate, add, and Stone Spring, a work of Terry Henley FBIS then write to us. This year we are alternative history by Stephen Baxter. Editor starting with a story from yours truly, To accompany this, Richard has also (yes, I still write and you can fi nd my written about the idea of alternative books at Amazon). This short story is history as it features in science fi ction. entitled Absolute Zero.

Absolute Zero by Terry Henley FBIS

Denise started to scream. “Stop That morning John had started at the Because they were used on pushing!” she bellowed from behind a fi rm. He had been shown around a the exterior, the parts had to be tall crate of specialised equipment that few days earlier and then attended acclimatised to space temperatures, had to be conditioned near to absolute an intense safety course which lasted hence why these parts were subjected zero. She was pulling the equipment four hours. John was 21, Denise 25, to a temperature of -230º C not far trolley towards the blast freezer where and the moment he had laid his eyes above absolute zero. To accomplish nine trollies were already in their place on her, he knew she would be his by this, the room would be fl ooded with inside the fast freezing cubicle. the end of the day. The equipment a fi ne mist of liquid nitrogen. After which was made in the factory would ninety seconds, the room was then “STOP!” Denise screamed at the top go aboard the latest battleship, UFS subjected to high pressure verdian of her voice but the trolley continued Cardinal. The items being made were beams which would get into the to move. A small piece of her clothing specialised gun parts that were on the metal, tempering it and changing its was caught in the metal grid and she exterior of the battleship. molecular structure so it would not couldn’t move away from it. fall apart or disintegrate as it was

Odyssey: The e-Magazine of the British Interplanetary Society: Issue 51 www.bis-space.com 1 used in the coldness of space. The alarm bleated across the room telling the bar moved again. Denise had parts remained at that temperature for everyone that someone was in managed to grab the coat but couldn’t one minute before the doors opened serious trouble. get it on so she pushed it around her and hot air fi lled the compartment, body. continuing the fi nal process for sealing “Come on Denise, just a coffee,” the components. John shouted above the sound of the A person sized, thick, emergency claxon. blanket was pushed in as the door John had already spoken to Denise struggled to close and start its job. and she had rebuffed him before the A moment later Charlie, his More people were now crowding entire crew that worked at his station. supervisor, grabbed his shoulder and around the machine. One man When he saw her pulling the trolley, pulled him around to face him. pushed a thin plastic bottle into the he spoke to her again. machine which Denise grabbed. “What are you doing?” Charlie She recognised it immediately as an “Denise, that was unfair to put me shouted as the claxon stopped. oxygen breather. down before the entire crew earlier. Will you give me a try, come out with Another man, Ian, was running down She managed to get the pipe into me for a cup of coffee?” the aisle with a bar in his hand as her mouth and drop the plastic bottle Charlie heard a loud click. He turned down before her and then she did “John, I’m fl attered that you want to and looked at the fl oor. The trolley her best to wrap the blanket around take me out, but there’s something had passed the point of no return and herself. Just as the bar was pushed you don’t know. I study at night for a was locked in position as the door out of the door’s way, two pairs of pilot’s degree to fl y one of those huge closed. hands grabbed John and strapped his battleships we build the weapons for. wrists together. Also . . .” she looked down to where Ian ran between the two men, pushing her clothes were caught on the trolley John to one side. “It’s only a bit of fun,” John shouted. as John started to push it forward again. “Hey, watch what you’re doing, she’ll “Fun!” Charlie retorted. “She will more be fi ne, I’ll pull the trolley out now.” than likely die in there.” “How about just for a couple of hours,” he retorted. He turned and saw the door was The bar was now hanging by the side closing. of Ian’s leg as the machine started “John, the answer is still no, I’m sorry its procedure. Ten seconds later all but . . .” “Get me out of here!” Denise the windows frosted up. There was screamed. She knew what was about a terrible scream from inside the She felt the trolley jerk towards her to happen and all she had on was machine as a young man was pushing and push her into the freezer. She her thin blue overall. Her black boots his way through the crowd. tried to move to the side but John were trapped under the trolley, but kicked her left calf; she buckled and she prayed the door would be opened “Where is she? Is Denise out of the was inside the freezer. by one of the engineers. machine? Who pushed her in there in the fi rst place?” he shouted as tears “Denise, say yes and I’ll let you out, Eight men and two women were now started to fall down his face. say no, you stay here. The fi rst stage doing their utmost to help Denise of the cold air will cool down your inside the machine. The door was Denise screamed again as the temper, then I’ll ask again when the almost closed, and as soon as it did, machine commenced its second doors open before the second blast,” the operation to freeze the equipment phase. he seethed. would commence. “Noooooo!” Paul cried. “Denise, I love A CCTV camera was sited above One man removed his fur lined thick you,” he bellowed. each freezer door but the security jacket and pushed it through the small man was helping a colleague with a opening. The bar was being pushed “Hey, she’s going out with me tonight, camera problem. He turned to look out by the door as it continued to mate,” John seethed and laughed at at his screens, seeing something close. him. happening by unit FB18, but all he could see was a man wearing an “Why not let the machine go through “I’m Paul, her husband and she’s four orange boiler suit. He knew he was the fi rst process then get her out?” months pregnant.” a trainee, and as he switched to the John asked. camera that monitored the interior of “I’ll turn the power off,” one of the the freezer, he saw a woman being “There is no pause, it just goes from engineers said and disappeared, pushed further into the machine. one process to the next and doesn’t knowing that if he shut down the open the door until its completed,” Ian power, the components would be He pressed the red button in the shouted. “Charlie, get security down useless and scrapped, but a woman’s middle of his console. A high-pitched here, they…” he stopped talking as life was at stake.

Odyssey: The e-Magazine of the British Interplanetary Society: Issue 51 www.bis-space.com 2 “Let us through!” a woman shouted to ordered. “Security, take John to the people standing by the machine. the police. You’d better hope she They turned to see a man and women survives.” wearing medical clothes with a hospital trolley. It seemed to take ages to bring her temperature up to normal. The There was no noise from the machine following morning, Dr Khan spoke to or on the factory fl oor. As Charlie Paul. “I’m sorry Paul, Denise died a pulled the trolley out, Denise dropped few minutes ago.” to the fl oor. When Mr Khan removed the baby He reached for the power switch “That will be super cold, don’t touch from Denise’s womb, he could see and pulled the lever down. The it without gloves.” Charlie took three it had frozen and there was no system instantly stopped, but the steps into the machine and tried heartbeat. Twenty minutes later, door was still jammed as the release to remove the frozen blanket but it after making Denise look respectable mechanism needed to be unlocked wouldn’t move. again, he walked over to the baby. electrically. The engineer returned Its heart was bright red and beating, with a cutting gun. He set the control “Those people with gloves on, pushing against its chest. The small to full power and pulled the trigger. A come here, I need four of you,” he baby he had removed from Denise’s green beam of pure energy touched instructed. womb now appeared to be six months the door. A hole was burned through old and looked at him with bright the door in ten seconds and he soon The people moved forward and gently green eyes. Whatever this child was, cut around the lock and eager hands lifted her onto the hospital gurney. it was not human. pulled the door open. “Get her to hospital quickly,” Charlie

Radical Vectors: Richard Hayes FBIS considers the Shape of Politics to Come

“The empires of the future are the of the Air could ever really have been empires of the mind.” as benevolent as he envisaged, and Winston Churchill, 1943 his eventual twenty-second century “modern state in control of life” would People have always tried to predict still leave many people these days the political and economic structures feeling a bit cold. of the future. It’s not surprising – after all, if you have a good idea of what’s Olaf Stapledon’s 1930 novel Last going to happen you stand to make a and First Men takes us much, much lot of money from making the correct further into the future, but even investments now! But foreseeing the his description of the First Men future has never been easy, bogged (ourselves) in the coming centuries down as it is with the baggage of how leaves considerable food for thought. we see things today. Forthcoming rivalry between the United States and China, which is Science fi ction has long been a exactly what we may see during primary source of such predictions. the twenty-fi rst century as China H G Wells is often credited with challenges America’s position as the predicting, in his 1933 masterpiece top global economic superpower, The Shape of Things to Come, that bears an uncanny resemblance to the there would be a world war in the confl ict which Stapledon foresaw. 1940s. His depiction wasn’t quite what eventually happened in reality, However, as Gerry Webb pointed with a neutral Britain and the United out in his BIS lecture Journey Into States having an inconclusive war Supreme control through science. Space in 2013, there was certainly with Japan, but it certainly raised This edition published by Corgi Books a tendency in science fi ction in the some prescient issues at the time. 1967. Cover art based on a scene in 1940s and 1950s to see a future Also, many of us would question the 1936 fi lm Things to Come. which would be rational and orderly. whether Wells’s resulting Dictatorship He described this as the sort of

Odyssey: The e-Magazine of the British Interplanetary Society: Issue 51 www.bis-space.com 3 “scientifi c communism” which was In his 2007 book God and Gold, clear in movies such as Things to Walter Russell Mead, Professor of Come from 1936 and, later on in Foreign Affairs at Bard College, gives 1950, Destination Moon. a persuasive analysis of how Britain and America have effectively created As mankind travels into space, and the modern world. The British Empire eventually colonises other worlds, has gone, and no doubt in due course I expect that, at least initially, we’ll American power will wane as well, but take our nationalisms, religions the Westernisation of the planet which and general behaviour patterns they brought about looks set to last for with us. It would be hoping for too some time to come. much to expect us to drop it all and immediately live in peaceful, amiable Like it or not, principles such as brotherhood together. And the capitalist economics and democracy political structures that we’ll develop in a plural society, along with fairly will no doubt be dictated, or at least unarguable ideas such as the rule of infl uenced, by what the human race law, which are seen as fundamental has experienced in the past. to Western civilization, are well established as norms. That’s not to In their excellent science fi ction novel say that Britain and America have The Mote in God’s Eye, Larry Niven always practised what they preached and Jerry Pournelle set their picture of (far from it at times), but these are the mankind’s fi rst encounter with an alien ideas that they promulgated, along race in a galaxy where a traditional with some rather more undesirable imperial political structure, based on The risks of empire in Asimov’s classic. consequences such as aggressive a form of monarchy, has developed. This edition published by Panther materialism and a “winner-takes-all” Frank Herbert’s Dune universe is Books 1967. mentality. Rising economies such probably one of the best examples of readable today. It’s actually as fresh as China, India and Brazil base their such future politics, where a reversion as a great deal of history written structures, to one degree or another, to a variant of feudalism is crucial these days, and better than much of on the same ideas that the West to the storyline. We tend to forget it. His account of the factors leading spread around. that, for over two millennia now, the to Rome’s decline has a certain majority of the human race has lived inevitability about it, and he clearly Nevertheless, there may be good in empires, rather than the sort of had in mind that a similar fate could reasons to question whether the nations we see around us now, and face the then-growing British Empire. capitalist model is a good basis for the future might well see humanity In a sense, it’s an early attempt to our expansion into space. William R reverting to its “normal” style of nation suggest what might happen in the Kramer made this point in To Humbly state. (then) future, and to indicate how the Go: Guarding Against Perpetuating problems might be avoided. Models of Colonization in the 100- Isaac Asimov’s idea of Year Starship Study (JBIS, May “psychohistory”, where the future But this is where we need to be 2014). But he also observed that the can be predicted on mathematical careful. The growth and decline reason why the term “conquest” is analyses of the behaviour of very of “empires” these days are quite so often used for space exploration large numbers of people over large different from the old idea of just may be because it grows from and timescales, fi ts in well with this sticking a fl ag in some land, claiming supports Western expansionism. approach to visualising the future. it for your country, and fi nally being If only we had such sophisticated thrown out by local people once This looks to be the way it’s going to science at our disposal – we’d all they make very clear that they don’t go. It’s the empires of the mind that be a lot wiser (and richer). In his want you there. We tend to get are going to dictate how humanity original Foundation trilogy, which used to the belief that future galactic sees itself and how it establishes he subsequently expanded, he empires must be all-powerful entities its political and economic basis as it described the events leading to the maintained by overwhelming military expands into space. It could perhaps fall of a future Galactic Empire and the force, like something out of Star even be that the last time any national attempts to maintain order thereafter. Wars, but the reality of political power, fl ag is planted on another world will It has often been said, not least by both now and in the future, may be be when the Apollo astronauts placed Asimov himself, that he based this quite different. Political structures do the Stars and Stripes on the Moon. on ideas in Edward Gibbon’s History indeed rise and fall, but it’s the ideas But don’t feel aggrieved about that of the Decline and Fall of the Roman they carry with them that are the true if it offends your sense of patriotism Empire. lasting legacy and, in the long run, – for good or bad, it will still be the the true ties that would bind human principles of Western civilization that Gibbon’s history, the fi rst volume of beings spread across space. That, I underlie expansion into space for at which was published in 1776, is one believe, is the message we can take least the foreseeable future. of the seminal works of the eighteenth from Churchill’s statement quoted century Enlightenment, and is still above.

Odyssey: The e-Magazine of the British Interplanetary Society: Issue 51 www.bis-space.com 4 John Silvester FBIS reviews Spaceplane Hermes by Luc van den Abeelen

with the Rome resolution of 1985. project. At the ESA Council meeting The intention from the start was that any further decisions were put back it would be launched by an Ariane 5 until the end of 1992. booster, thus effectively limiting its size. In a desperate attempt to keep the whole project afl oat, a stripped Then came the Challenger disaster down version of Hermes, called in 1986. This concentrated minds, Hermes X-2000, was proposed. By forcing new safety initiatives to be put the summer of 1992 however the under consideration. These added project’s future hung by a thread, and to the weight problem. The original the end for it offi cially came at an plan was for the fi rst Hermes launch ESA Ministerial Council meeting in to be coupled with the third Ariane November 1992. The tragedy is that qualifi cation fl ight. Surprising to if the project had survived it could well many perhaps, the United Kingdom have been carrying US astronauts to originally decided it would take part in ISS instead of Russia, putting Europe the Hermes preparatory programme, in a commanding position. to the order of two million pounds. However, in 1987 Margaret Thatcher’s With the demise of the Space Shuttle, government cut space funding and NASA and its private sector drastically. partners deciding to look backwards and concentrate on reviving legacy Publisher: Springer This of course came to be the period travel for its future needs in space, ISBN: 978-3-319-44470-3 when the British government took a it began to look as if the winged very negative view of non-commercial spaceplane concept might be doomed Tim Peake’s visit to the International space activities, and the then British for the foreseeable future. However, Space Station was another success Trade and Industry Minister, Kenneth the US Air Force’s unmanned X-37 for the European dream of being an Clarke, famously opted out of the spaceplane project seems to be active participant in manned space project, saying that in his opinion the forging ahead, NASA has also now fl ight, marred only by the fact that project “had no industrial, scientifi c or decided to provide funds to Sierra he was of course a passenger in a commercial value”. Nevada for its Dream Chaser winged Russian spacecraft designed in the space plane, Russia is looking in 1960s. It was not meant to be like In 1987 ESA gave the formal go that direction for a replacement for this. In the 1980s Europe had plans ahead for Hermes, subject to a Soyuz, and both China and Japan for its own spacecraft. Named after reassessment in three years. By have advanced plans. We must also the winged messenger, the European mid 1990 Germany had become not forget the wholly British “Skylon” spaceplane Hermes was unfortunately somewhat ambiguous about the project. It therefore seems only a cancelled some twenty fi ve years ago. project due to the costs of German matter of time before the winged Luc van den Abeelen is the author of reunifi cation, and indicated it would spacecraft returns to centre-stage. what is the fi rst comprehensive study have to cut its space budget by of this programme. At 550 pages, 15-20%. It was then proposed that The book is written with an easy the book certainly does justice to the Hermes should become a space fl owing style which makes it suitable project, and reveals in great detail rescue vehicle for the Freedom space for all readerships. With a foreword what might have been if someone had station. By this time however, the by Jean-Jaques Dordain, ESA been prepared to foot the bill. prospect for it being a successful Director General from 2003-15, there project had passed its peak. are twenty fi ve chapters in the book. Hermes is unique, in that it is the Arranged in chronological order, it only large ESA project that never The December 1990 meeting of ESA opens in 1946 with France’s fi rst made it to completion. Originally postponed the advent of Phase 2, and tentative dreams of space. It is an a French concept, courtesy of the the proposed fi rst fl ight was moved attractively presented publication, French National Space Agency CNES from 1998 to 2000. Then at a meeting well illustrated with diagrams and which opted for the glider concept on in 1991 the decision was made to pictures. One must also not forget the cost-effective grounds, it was quickly build only one craft. In 1992 the extensive index. realised that it would be too expensive fi rst of a series of delays took place, for one nation to afford. It was taken when six months was agreed upon over by, and became an ESA project before the beginning of phase 2 of the Odyssey: The e-Magazine of the British Interplanetary Society: Issue 51 www.bis-space.com 5 Richard Hayes FBIS considers an Alternative Internet

We can imagine how things might and gain dominance over the natural and in theory) in just a few minutes. have turned out if our history had world. But visual communication has In practice, information could been rather different to what we know nevertheless always been critical, certainly get to the French capital – stories of alternative history can be and we can imagine intelligent in less than an hour, which was a fascinating. Some themes appear extraterrestrials who have evolved so distinct advantage at the time of the quite frequently in fi ction, such as how that they only communicate through Revolutionary War. The system was the world might be today if the Allies what they see – the idea of language eventually spread across France. had lost the Second World War, one as we know it could be meaningless of the fi nest depictions being Philip to them. In Britain around the same time, the K Dick’s 1962 novel The Man in the politician and inventor Richard Lovell High Castle. Many will remember We might ask whether such a Edgeworth came up with a system the BBC television series SS-GB last species would ever have developed of larger, twenty-foot towers with year, based on Len Deighton’s 1978 a communications technology, since triangular pointers turning in circles book of the same name. our own technical history showed which could send messages based such a strong focus on sound as the on a numerical code of some 7,000 In Ward Moore’s 1953 story Bring the basis for fast long-distance message combinations. The impact of such a Jubilee, the Confederate States of transfer, at least until the visual communications system could have America win the Battle of Gettysburg messages which we now take for been dramatic, but it never saw the and are victorious in the American granted became feasible. But it hasn’t light of day. Civil War. In his 2002 novel The always been so – the idea of sending Years of Rice and Salt, Kim Stanley messages over a distance through Robinson depicts a world where semaphore using fl ags or some nearly all Europe’s population was other obvious hand-held signalling killed by the Black Death in the device goes back a long way and, not fourteenth century. Understandably surprisingly, there were remarkable in such tales, events are very different innovations along these lines over the thereafter. centuries.

More recently, in his 2010 novel Stone Spring, as reviewed elsewhere in this issue of Odyssey, Stephen Baxter takes us right back to a prehistoric Europe that never was. But through such stories, and the use of what historians refer to (sometimes dismissively) as “counterfactuals”, we can apply ourselves to one of the most evocative questions in all of literature – “what if?”

And this question need not apply only to the events of military and political Communication by a different route history which have shaped our lives in Keith Roberts’ classic alternative nowadays. They can equally apply history. This edition published by to developments in technology that Panther Books 1974. might – or might not – have occurred as they did. Not least of which could However, what might have developed be the way we communicate. What a semaphore tower would have from such ideas underlies Keith looked like in 1791. Roberts’ 1968 alternative history novel We tend to think of communication in In 1791, the French inventor Claude Pavane. Following the assassination terms of what we hear, which is hardly Chappe set up a chain of fi fteen of Queen Elizabeth I in 1588 and the surprising since that’s what makes manned towers with pivoting arms subsequent success of the Spanish human beings so different to other between Paris and Lille (over 120 Armada in conquering England, animals – we have evolved so we talk miles) – simple coded messages we fi nd ourselves in a world today to each other. It could be argued that could be sent by semaphore the where a repressive Roman Catholic it gave us our ability to work together entire distance (in ideal conditions, Church is dominant and scientifi c

Odyssey: The e-Magazine of the British Interplanetary Society: Issue 51 www.bis-space.com 6 progress has been heavily curtailed. communications, or may not even us. However, even then, messages Technological innovation has been have evolved any form of verbal we receive from a race with a history suppressed and, as a result, transport language in the fi rst place, having of purely visual communication could remains at the level of the steam its own variation of the Internet be unlike anything we might expect. traction engine, but communications based on complex coded messages Conversely, they could fi nd our signals are nevertheless fast and effective transmitted through signals and even in response virtually meaningless. through a system of semaphore gestures. It’s even conceivable that it telegraph stations, much as could have developed its own form of SETI certainly has its challenges, Chappe and Edgeworth would have interstellar communications. one aspect being that we need to envisaged. consider carefully how an alien In Can Collimated Extraterrestrial species might have developed Such images of alternative history can Signals be Intercepted? (JBIS, June along paths signifi cantly different give us ideas not only of what might 2014), Duncan Forgan analyses the to our own. By thinking about how have happened here on Earth, but possibilities of detecting collimated, our own history could have been also of how the development of other narrow-band signals directed at Earth, changed fundamentally from what civilizations, on other planets, might or between two star systems which we see today, we might get a sense have occurred. We can envisage an unintentionally intersect with Earth. of how this could occur. And, even extraterrestrial race, which may have He concludes that there is a low without such wide-ranging theorising, been slow to develop its technology likelihood of fi nding such messages counterfactual historical fi ction can and has a long tradition of visual unless they are aimed specifi cally at also be highly entertaining in its own right.

John Silvester FBIS reviews Stone Spring by Stephen Baxter

In this story, Stephen Baxter the horrors and unpleasantness makes use of the fact that 10,000 that were part and parcel of years ago Britain had solid links the simple, short and brutal with Europe, via a land bridge lives of our ancestors. A world occupying a large part of the where events such as the onset North Sea. In Stephen’s story of puberty were of immense this land bridge is a fertile plain importance, and celebrated by occupied by hunter-gatherers. bodily tattoos, where you were Ani, a fourteen year old girl, very old at forty, and just to lives in a house in Extelur, a stay alive meant a daily grind settlement inhabited by six of gathering food, building extended families, one of seven houses and making clothes. clustered together on a plain Astronomical and natural of tough grass, just south of a events dictated the calendar, bank of dunes that offered some and the night skies must have protection from the north wind. been beautiful almost beyond She inhabits a changing world, imagination. the planet is warming up, leading to the inevitable melting of the Stone Spring is available ice sheets and thus ever rising in kindle format as well as seas. Just like our modern world paperback, at Amazon.co.uk in fact, but at that time it could and a copy is held in the BIS not be attributed to the malign library, along with an extensive infl uence of man. One day a collection of the author’s other traveller from a far distant city works. called Jericho enters her life.

As is usual Stephen has taken great care to create a stone age world down to the very last detail, but at the same time including vivid descriptions of all Publisher: Penguin ISBN: 9780451464460

Odyssey: The e-Magazine of the British Interplanetary Society: Issue 51 www.bis-space.com 7 Richard Hayes FBIS enters the War Zone

Graphic novels, developed from the and beyond question, in the right. based around continuing space old idea of comic books which are Elements of uncertainty easily crept battles is surely the Lost Fleet saga issued as periodicals, came into their in, despite all the efforts of politicians by Jack Cambell, which began with own from the mid-1970s onwards. and military leaders to convince us his 2006 novel Dauntless. The author There’s a tendency amongst some to otherwise. Possibly the Korean is a retired US Navy offi cer, and uses dismiss them as merely comic strips War of 1950 to 1953 still fell into his experience in the service in writing designed to be read by adults rather the category of clear certainty, as these stories; indeed, like many space than children, but they have, fairly Max Hastings suggested in his 1987 confl icts throughout science fi ction frequently, raised some interesting book The Korean War – there is no nowadays, there can be a certain storylines, not least in the fi eld of question that North Korea invading similarity to something resembling science fi ction. South Korea triggered the confl ict – the naval battles of the Second World but after that it’s a bit more tricky. War. We are taken to an on-going, In 1988, the six issues of The Light century long interstellar war between and Darkness War, written by So it may have been understandable, two human civilizations – the Alliance Tom Veitch and illustrated by Cam as we entered the Space Age and and the Syndicate – where a fl eet of Kennedy, provided an extraordinary tales of warfare inevitably transferred over two hundred Alliance spaceships tale for post-Vietnam America. A into outer space, that the battle of has been trapped deep behind enemy severely disabled Vietnam War good against evil should become lines. The stories follow the exploits veteran, suffering extreme post- more clearly defi ned. We needed the of the fl eet as it tries to get back to traumatic stress disorder, is certainty in our fi ction, and the vast home territory – carnage, destruction transported to an alternative reality, space opera franchise that is Star and attrition being the unavoidable or perhaps a form of afterlife, after a Wars probably exemplifi es it well. consequences of its slow progress car crash. There he encounters his Beginning with the fi rst fi lm in 1977, from star system to star system. old comrades who had been killed it was made abundantly clear that in combat and they together fi ght the Empire was evil and those who as warriors in a distant galaxy in the rebelled against it were good. The seemingly endless war of light against apparent fact that most civilized races darkness – good against evil. throughout that galaxy far, far away seemed to exist in reasonable comfort The mythology is poignant. To under a military dictatorship was not empathise with those who are allowed to distort our overall view of playing a role in a battle on the side its oppressive rule. of what is good and right, against forces which would seek to destroy Warfare in space lies at the heart of those great ideals, can provide a such stories – the victory of good, and degree of comfort and consolation in the achievement of ultimate peace, diffi cult times. And so it has always can only ever be achieved through been. For those of us who grew superior cunning and fi repower. The up in Britain in the aftermath of the forces of evil don’t negotiate in any Second World War, there was little meaningful way. And space warfare doubt in our minds that our side in has developed a tradition of its own. that (then) recent confl ict had been in the right – there were none then, The idea can be seen back in EE and hopefully not too many now, who “Doc” Smith’s interstellar action stories believe that the Nazis should have beginning with The Skylark of Space been victorious. in 1928, and many tales since then, Becoming just a little too much like though a fascinating variation on the the enemy? This edition published by For which reason, it was hardly concept of fi ghts between spaceships Titan Books 2011. surprising that war stories were comes with the battles between cities abundant for children at the time travelling through space in the Cities But a key aspect of these stories is – sometimes factual, but largely in Flight novels by James Blish, that, as time goes by, the Alliance fi ctional. And good, nearly always, particularly the 1955 story Earthman doesn’t seem quite such a friendly, triumphed. Quite right, too. Come Home. At the very least, noble civilization after all. Whilst the the true immensity of space allows Syndicate are clearly the bad guys But there never seemed to be quite enormous scope for battles to rage, – a tyranny rather like the Klingons the same certainty thereafter that, in perhaps even indefi nitely. in the original Star Trek series – the the confl icts that took place across Alliance’s tactics seem to become the globe, one side was necessarily, One of the most absorbing series increasingly ignoble. We could be

Odyssey: The e-Magazine of the British Interplanetary Society: Issue 51 www.bis-space.com 8 forgiven for questioning just who is in us, and there wouldn’t be much point In this story, only through the the right after all. in winning if victory meant becoming despotic rule of a military dictatorship the mirror image of our enemies.” can mankind gain the strength to By the fi fth novel Relentless, Yet she also makes clear his overall continue to fi ght the war, and the published in 2009, the fl eet has aim – “You have a strategic goal, to policy of wiping out those who are made substantial progress towards preserve what makes the Alliance not fully compliant is the inevitable Alliance space, but not without worth fi ghting for and to end this war.” consequence. Human civilization causing considerable hardship to the relies on the absolute power of enemy along the way. And a ships’ But, as the war continues year after its military and its effectiveness in captain makes the point to the fl eet year, and those who began it are conducting battles in space, but one leader: “Our own attempts to match themselves long dead, the fl eet has to ask what it may have lost in the Syndic brutality have only served to leader seems to despair of the whole process. convince the Syndic populace of the purpose: “Now I’m damned if I can need to keep fi ghting hard against fi gure out what this war is still about We are no longer in a world where aside from avenging the latest defeat the certainties of good and evil are so or atrocity. It’s turned into a self- clear cut as they may have been – or sustaining cyclic reaction...” Even were felt to have been – in decades a politician observes how reluctant gone by. In a sense, the science the Alliance has become to simply fi ction television series Babylon 5 retaliate like for like in its actions so from the 1990s demonstrates this. far – “I don’t know if that’s because it Against a background of complex takes so much work to devastate an ideologies and politics between and entire world or because everyone was within several different advanced horrifi ed at how low we had sunk.” interstellar civilizations, sorting out right from wrong is no easy task. The Such questions spring to mind when initial puzzle of why the victorious, reading some of the stories of space and vastly superior, Minbari fl eet warfare written by Odyssey’s own surrendered at the very point it was Editor, Terry Henley. In The Miranda about to defeat the human race once Gate, published in 2010 as the and for all raises the question of second novel in his Miranda trilogy, whether those we see as the enemy mankind’s space fl eet led by Admiral will necessarily always fall into that Hayes (no relation) must protect the category. remnants of the human race in the on-going war for survival against the Where relationships with others are Rigilion Empire. There’s no question concerned, things just aren’t as cut- Fighting for survival in our Editor’s here who is in the wrong, at least and-dried as we might wish them to trilogy. This second volume published initially – but whether humanity is be. Life’s like that, and perhaps that’s by Eloquent Books, an imprint of entirely in the right becomes seriously just as well. Strategic Book Group 2010. questionable after a while.

The Art of David A. Hardy inspires Richard Hayes FBIS to think about Mass Drivers

Science fi ction has occasionally be particularly effective in low gravity into an ellipse where his eventual described methods of launching environments such as the Moon. catastrophic return to the Moon’s vehicles into space which dispense surface seems inevitable – but then, with the need for rockets, one Arthur C Clarke commented that with Clarke’s knowledge of spacefl ight of the potentially most realistic his own article Electromagnetic dynamics, there may always be a way being electromagnetic launchers. Launching as a Major Contribution out! These machines, often known to Space Flight (JBIS, November as mass drivers or catapults, use 1950) inspired his 1962 short story As so often, David Hardy’s superb art electromagnets along the length of Maelstrom II. In this dramatic tale, inspires thoughts on how humanity a path sometimes kilometres long to a capsule is being propelled along a may develop its technology as it accelerate a payload to such a level lunar electric launcher when the circuit expands into space. His Terraforming that, once released, it can escape breakers trip along one section of Mars, which was painted in gouache the gravity of the body on which it’s track; take-off speed is reduced and for his 1981 book Atlas of the Solar located. This enables space fl ight the vehicle fails to achieve escape System, shows the Red Planet without rocket propulsion, and could velocity. The sole occupant is thrown dominating the sky of the Martian

Odyssey: The e-Magazine of the British Interplanetary Society: Issue 51 www.bis-space.com 9 moon Phobos. Terraforming of the on the Martian pole in order to melt In Earthlight, Clarke’s novel from planet is progressing well – water is it due to the increased absorption of 1955, the same method is used to fi lling the vast Valles Marineris to the infra-red radiation, and thus create launch weapons. And Robert Heinlein east of the Tharsis region, although new atmosphere containing water uses a mass driver in his 1966 novel the full development of the Boreal vapour. The very low gravity of The Moon is a Harsh Mistress as a Ocean has yet to take place. At this Phobos provides the ideal location for device to propel payloads of grain stage, the canyon is actually taking this method of launching material into from the Moon to the Earth, but his the form of a true ‘canal’ on Mars. space. rebel colonists also fi nd it a handy means to bombard the Earth with A human settlement on the surface In such ways, advances in technology metal-coated rocks once hostilities of Phobos is the site of activity that is may one day help mankind not break out, taking full advantage of the contributing in no small measure to only to travel beyond the Earth, but home planet’s higher gravity. making Mars habitable for humans. also to make distant worlds fi t for As David has explained, dark habitation. Sadly, though, there may It’s the old story. Build something carbonaceous material from the moon also be other uses to which it could be really useful, and someone will fi nd a is being projected by the mass driver applied. way to use it to cause mayhem. seen in this picture to be deposited

Terraforming Mars; copyright David A. Hardy www.astroart.org

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. 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 51 www.bis-space.com 10