The e-Magazine of the British Interplanetary Society The Question of Time i everyone; Christmas is now behind of BIS Fellow David Hardy’s amazing art. quest for life on Mars and a showcase of us and it’s the start of a New Year. Terry Don continues his series of articles on artwork from Alex Storer. Rachel Armstrong Which sets me thinking about the people getting to Mars and the problems we gives us a science fiction story, John will Hpassage of time – time passes, and time flies, must overcome to get there. John Silvester review a fascinating new book and Terry but what is it really when you think about it? looks at a very unlikely partnership and I Don continues his series, Stumbling Blocks It’s a subject to which our regular columnist won’t say another word, you’ll have to read it! on the Way to Mars. If you want to contact Richard Hayes turns his attention in this latest Also, Keith Rose, a BIS member, informs us us or submit anything for publication, send it issue of Odyssey. how to study the Cosmos, something we all to: [email protected]. should do, and I end this edition with a poem. We have another great edition for you to read Terry Henley FBIS with Richard also giving us a glimpse of some In the March edition, Richard explores the Keith Rose explains how to learn more about the Cosmos orld building has always been slack-jawed amazement. Dedicating three teaching and researching at Universities all a huge part of the fun for both years to an Astrophysics degree is beyond over the world. readers and authors of science the capabilities of most of us and without that, Wfiction. Exotic and mundane systems and you would be unable to appreciate fully the To give a small flavour of the prestige of these planets have been imagined and populated literature that is available; Catch-22! authors, Caltech’s Mike Brown discovered with equally varied characters and plots. Sedna and Eris, demoted Pluto and presents Crucially, this variation has been reflected in What we needed was a way in which we Coursera’s “Science of the Solar System”; the accuracy and plausibility of the physics could be introduced to these academic ANU’s Brian Schmidt found that the rate involved. It is by no means essential that subjects at an accessible level without major of expansion of the universe is increasing these worlds must obey the laws of physics commitments of time and cash. What seemed due to dark energy, gained the 2011 Nobel as we understand them but the genre that we impossible only a couple of years ago is Physics Prize and co-presents the four EdX know as ‘hard’ science fiction calls for a great now part of the biggest change in higher Astrophysics MOOCs. deal of background research on the part of education, courtesy of the Massive Open the author and woe betide one that scrimps On-line Course. These courses reflect the individuals who on this requirement. design them, so although the science is So, how about this; you can now choose to undeniably cutting-edge, there is no standard Before 1995, the total number of solar study under world-renowned experts as they way of delivering it. They vary in length from systems that we were aware of equalled teach you the most up-to-date thinking in their six to sixteen weeks and can be assessed exactly one and we had only partial subjects, at your convenience and for free, by on-line tests or peer-assessed essays. knowledge of that. Since then, the number gratis, on the house. If that seems a little far- Some are live and must be taken at set dates of known systems has rocketed and we may fetched, I can assure you that it is completely (although there is plenty of scope for working have to come to terms with the idea that true and is what MOOCs are designed to do. at your own pace within those dates) and although systems are commonplace, ours is others can be taken at absolutely your own quite unusual. MOOCs allow the average Joe Public to take pace and whenever you feel like it. It has a short course at a roughly first year degree never been so easy to study! Understanding the rules which govern system level in a huge variety of subjects. There are and planetary formation should not just be the a handful of providers; Coursera, Edx and To take a single example, David Spergel’s remit of science fiction writers and a handful the UK-based FutureLearn being amongst “Imagining other Earths” course requires of scientists, it is a field that brings together the most popular. However the actual authors three short essays for assessment. It moves physics, imagination and good, old-fashioned, and presenters of the courses are currently from stellar evolution via planetary physics Odyssey: The e-Magazine of the British Interplanetary Society: January 2016 www.bis-space.com 1 to the evolution of life in about 20 hours of the greenhouse effect extends the habitable fan hasn’t), I would implore, cajole and fascinating, punchy lectures, most of which zone, why only some planets have rings and inveigle you to enrol in one of these courses. take from ten to twenty minutes and can be why the planets of cool red dwarfs may be There is absolutely nothing to lose and a downloaded and watched at leisure. the best place to look for life. great deal to gain. By the end of this, amongst plenty of other If you have even the smallest hint of See you out there! fascinating things, you’ll understand why intellectual curiosity (and what science fiction Retro Rockets on the Moon: Richard Hayes FBIS examines the Art of David A. Hardy umans must have been looking in impacts. The scene would be desolate, yet David Hardy, now the longest-established wonder at the Moon ever since they striking in its harshness. living space artist in the West, started began to develop the imagination publishing his astonishing art in 1952 Hthat is now so integral to our existence. It is This is precisely what we saw in some of the – around the same time he joined the surely no coincidence that the main ape-like great paintings from artists such as Chesley BIS! – and some of his earliest paintings character at the start of Arthur C Clarke’s Bonestell. Images such as his 1946 View showed the surface of the Moon as it was classic novel 2001: A Space Odyssey, who from the Rim, showing the crater Theophilus, then understood. His Moon Landing 2 from exemplifies the awakening of intelligence in or Lunar Base of 1947, express the rough 1956 gives a view of a mountain range on humanity, is named Moon-Watcher. mountain terrain we had come to expect. Add the edge of a lunar mare, with the crescent to that the advanced form of V2 rocket design Earth hanging near the horizon. The surface But the real nature of the surface of the which we anticipated at the time, as shown in is peppered with impact craters, and the Moon was a mystery until the Apollo landings his Exploring the Moon in 1948, and you have spacecraft that has settled on it resembles clarified the matter once and for all. Prior to the full picture of how we expected to see the the moonship designed by R A Smith, former that, we would have had every justification lunar surface when mankind eventually made President of the BIS, and as shown in for assuming that the mountainous regions its way there. Indeed, that is the scenery Clarke’s 1951 book The Exploration of Space. would have appeared sharp and craggy in the which we encountered (minus the V2 rocket, We also see astronauts investigating moon absence of any erosion due to the effects of of course) in the 1964 film First Men in the rocks, wearing spacesuits similar to those weather as we see on Earth, amidst valleys Moon, which remains particularly memorable envisaged in Smith’s evocative artwork of that and plains littered with craters from meteorite from my childhood. time. Moon Landing 2; copyright David A Hardy www.astroart.org. Odyssey: The e-Magazine of the British Interplanetary Society: January 2016 www.bis-space.com 2 Retro Rocket: Moon; copyright David A Hardy www.astroart.org. Everything changed when we discovered that some of his artworks from later years. The picture gives us a starkly realistic image even the mountainous regions of the Moon His Retro Rocket: Moon, a digital image of a journey to the Moon, but only as it are surprisingly smooth due to the effect of produced for the 2004 World Science Fiction might have been, and to a lunar surface that aeons of erosion from micrometeorite impacts Convention, looks back to the style of the never was. David’s powerful art captures the and intense temperature variation. The Bonestell era with a rugged terrain and the imagination, but also brings back memories Hadley-Apennine region visited by Apollo 15 sleek form of winged rocket that was so of how the conquest of space was once seen in July 1971, and the Taurus-Littrow valley familiar from that period. The Earth stands – a vital factor as we now seek to develop by Apollo 17 in December 1972, show what out clearly in the lunar sky, with the reflection on those previous speculations to continue appear to be more like undulating hills.