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JBIS Journal of the British Interplanetary Society JBIS Journal of the British Interplanetary Society VOL. 70 No. 12 DECEMBER 2017 Contents Communications from Utopia: Sir Arthur C Clarke, Science Fiction, and the United States of Earth Stephen Baxter Using Future History in Storytelling Mark Hempsell Dipole Drive for Space Propulsion Robert Zubrin Beam-Driven Sails and Divergence of Neutral Particle Beams James Benford Nodes: a Proposed Solution to Fermi’s Paradox John Gertz Star Lifting: an Application for Alien Megastructures Gregory L. Matloff ISSN 0007-084X www.bis-space.com Published: 25 May 2018 SUBMITTING PAPERS TO JBIS International Advisory Board JBIS welcomes the submission of technical papers for publication dealing with Rachel Armstrong, Newcastle University, UK technical reviews, research, technology Peter Bainum, Howard University, USA and engineering in astronautics and related Stephen Baxter, Science & Science Fiction Writer, UK fields. James Benford, Microwave Sciences, California, USA Text should be: James Biggs, The University of Strathclyde, UK ■ As concise as the content allows – typically Anu Bowman, Foundation for Enterprise Development, California, USA 5,000 to 6,000 words. Shorter papers Gerald Cleaver, Baylor University, USA (Technical Notes) will also be considered; Charles Cockell, University of Edinburgh, UK longer papers will only be considered in Ian A. Crawford, Birkbeck College London, UK exceptional circumstances – for example, in Adam Crowl, Icarus Interstellar, Australia the case of a major subject review. Eric W. Davis, Institute for Advanced Studies at Austin, USA ■ Source references should be inserted in the Kathryn Denning, York University, Toronto, Canada text in square brackets – [1] – and then listed Martyn Fogg, Probability Research Group, UK at the end of the paper. Raghavan Gopalaswami, Aerospace Researcher, India ■ Illustration references should be cited in Lamartine Guimarães, Institute for Advanced Studies, Brazil numerical order in the text; those not cited in Mark Hempsell, Hempsell Astronautics Ltd, UK the text risk omission. Takuto Ishimatsu, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA ■ Captions must be labelled with their Fig. Les Johnson, Marshall Space Flight Center, USA number and should be as short as possible. Terry Kammash, University of Michigan, USA Kelvin F. Long, Initiative for Interstellar Studies Illustrations should be: Inoue Makoto, Institute of Astronomy & Astrophysics Academia Sinica, Taiwan ■ Colour or mono, but should be as close to print Gregory L. Matloff, City University New York, USA resolution (300 dpi) as possible. Poor-quality Koichi Mori, Nagoya University, Japan illustrations may compromise the acceptance Richard Obousy, Richard Obousy Consulting LLC, USA of paper for publication. Images embedded in Robert Parkinson, BIS, Aylesbury, UK Word documents may be acceptable, but JBIS reserves the right to request separate higher- George Schmidt, NASA John H Glenn Research Center, Ohio, USA resolution image files from the author prior to Paul Schuch, The SETI League Inc, USA publication. Tabitha Smith, Bifrost, USA ■ Responsibility for copyright clearance of Andreas Tziolas, Variance Dynamical Corporation, USA images rests entirely with the author. Chris Welch, The International Space University, Strasbourg, France Friedwardt Winterberg, University of Nevada, Reno, USA Submission of papers ■ Papers for consideration should be sent by email to [email protected] as both a Word document and as a Word PDF file (in order to check for font anomalies), together with any separate image files. ■ If a paper is accepted for publication, the author will be asked to sign a License to Publish form. This can be downloaded at www.bis-space.com/wp-content/ uploads/2012/08/WebsiteLicense.pdf. ■ Authors will receive a complimentary copy of the issue in which their paper appears. Editor Roger Longstaff Deputy Editor Duncan Law-Green Associate Editors Stephen Ashworth, Keith Cooper, Stephen Gamble, Paul Gilster, Rob Swinney, Production MP3 Media Promotion Gill Norman JBIS Office British Interplanetary Society, Arthur C. Clarke House, We respectfully ask authors to adhere 27-29 South Lambeth Road, London, SW8 1SZ, United Kingdom tel +44 (0)20 7735 3160 to these guidelines. Failure to do so will email [email protected] www.bis-space.com result in the delay of acceptable papers for publication. DISTRIBUTION JBIS is distributed worldwide by mail and may be received by annual subscription or purchase of single copies. It is available through membership of the British Interplanetary Society at much Our full Guidelines for Authors can be reduced rates. Subscription details for members, non-members and libraries are available from downloaded from www.bis-space.com the above address. JBIS is a publication that promotes the mission of the British Interplanetary Society. Opinions expressed in signed articles are those of the contributors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editor or the Council of the British Interplanetary Society. Security clearance, where necessary, is the responsibility of the author. Published by the British Interplanetary Society. Registered Company No: 402498. Registered Charity No: 250556. Printed by Latimer Trend & Company Ltd, Estover Road, Plymouth, PL6 7PY, England. © 2017 British Interplanetary Society. No part of this magazine may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying or recording by any information storage or retrieval system without prior permission from the Publishers. JBIS Journal of the British Interplanetary Society VOL. 70 No. 12 DECEMBER 2017 LIST OF CONTENTS 426 Communications from Utopia: Sir Arthur C Clarke, Science Fiction, and the United States of Earth Stephen Baxter 430 Using Future History in Storytelling Mark Hempsell 442 Dipole Drive for Space Propulsion Robert Zubrin 449 Beam-Driven Sails and Divergence of Neutral Particle Beams James Benford 454 Nodes: a Proposed Solution to Fermi’s Paradox John Gertz 458 Star Lifting: an Application for Alien Megastructures Gregory L. Matloff 461 INDEX: Volume 70, 2017 From the Editor This eclectic December 2017 issue of JBIS marks the centenary of the birth of arguably the greatest author of science fiction of them all – Sir Arthur C. Clarke. Accordingly, the issue leads with an article by Stephen Baxter, who co-authored five novels with Sir Arthur, and who has also shared his enthusiasm for the BIS with many years of support. In a similar vein the following article is an essay by BIS President Mark Hempsell that examines the philosophy of constructing future worlds in SF storytelling, based on a presentation given at the Society’s Future Histories Symposium. The rest of the issue reverts to traditional JBIS fare of adventurous thinking that was the basis of so much of Sir Arthur’s work, including a potentially ground-breaking paper by Robert Zubrin – another long-term BIS supporter – that discusses an exciting new concept for spaceflight propulsion. MISSION The British Interplanetary Society promotes the exploration and use of space for the benefit of humanity, by connecting people to create, educate and inspire, and advance knowledge in all aspects of astronautics. 425 Journal of the British Interplanetary Society, Vol. 70, pp.426-429, 2017 COMMUNICATIONS FROM UTOPIA: SIR ARTHUR C CLARKE, SCIENCE FICTION, AND THE UNITED STATES OF EARTH STEPHEN BAXTER FBIS c/o Christopher Schelling, Selectric Artists, 9 Union Square #123, Southbury, CT 06488, USA email: [email protected] This paper is a personal tribute to Sir Arthur C Clarke, focussing on his achievements in science fiction and other literary fields, and his long-held vision of peaceful global, indeed interplanetary, governance. Keywords: Sir Arthur C Clarke, science fiction, telecommunications, world government, space expansion For Cherene, Tamara and Melinda – may you be happy in a far better century than mine. Arthur C. Clarke, dedication to 3001: The Final Odyssey (1997) [1] 1. INTRODUCTION fact that Clarke grew up on a farm utterly reliant on the weath- er, and the light of the sun. Indeed, when he was a boy, the farm It is a pleasure to contribute a personal tribute to this special was without electricity; he would walk or cycle to and from edition of JBIS. I grew up with the works of Sir Arthur C Clarke, school in the dark. which had a profound effect on my own work and thinking. Later in life I was privileged to get to know Clarke personally, In 1936 Clarke moved to London to take a job with the Civ- especially from 1996 when we began to collaborate on science il Service. There he joined the British Interplanetary Society, fiction (SF) projects [2] [3]. In this piece I will focus primarily founded in 1933, then a small, congenial group of mostly young, on Clarke’s work in SF, and also on the very topical subject of mostly male, space enthusiasts. During the Second World War human governance and world unity, on which he held strong he served in the RAF, working on radar developments, as de- and influential views. For a bibliography, and the authorised picted fictionally in his novelGlide Path [9]. He published tech- biography from which some details here are drawn, see refer- nical papers from 1942 – under the scrutiny of military censors ences [4] [5]. – work which, after the war, helped him get a place in King’s College, London, where he earned a first-class BSc. Perhaps his 2. EARLY LIFE single most significant technical study was completed in his spare time during his wartime service. His famous paper ‘Ex- Arthur Charles Clarke was born in 1917, in Minehead, Somer- traterrestrial Relays’ [10], published just after the war, set out set, England, the son of a farmer. Clarke was educated at Hu- the concept of geosynchronous communication satellites, a field ish Grammar School in Taunton, where his first appearance in with which he would forever after be associated. print was in the school magazine in autumn 1932. As a boy he showed promise as a budding scientist or engineer, building For some time he worked as a sub-editor on a technical telescopes, wireless sets and rockets.
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