Rome laughed and then with a whoosh and pop, she was aboard MINIMCOM as well. After making sure everyone was secure, MINIMCOM shot forward over the ocean directly away from the heading that would take them back to Maui. When he determined that he had gone far enough, he banked steeply, coming back around towards the way they just came. Within seconds, he accelerated to Mach 3. He came in low and fast over the plaza where Oronus and the others still stood, shaking the ground and shattering windows with twin sonic booms. Somewhere deep inside his electronic insides, he chuckled to himself.
The 320 kilometer trip from O’ahu to Maui only took them six minutes. The assembled group departed MINIMCOM and they made their way over to the north beach and said goodbye to Tenoal and all of Rome’s cousins. When they were finished, they returned to their temporary shelter to collect Skodla and their few belongings.
Back at the beach, even though the trip was only going to take a few days, MINIMCOM decided there was no reason that it had to be uncomfortable. While Rei, Rome and the others were gone, he took the opportunity to use his transporter to transfer a section of the beach into his cargo hold. By altering the time each molecule took to arrive, he was able to transmute it into whatever materials were required. The conversion process was basically a bulk version of the molecular sequencer. As he increased his volume, with the aid of his constructor units, MINIMCOM reconfigured himself to produce a set of rooms within the confines of his cargo hold. By the time he was done, he had created a series of fairly luxurious suites within that rivaled any found on the finest cruise ships of Rei’s long-dead Earth.
When his passengers arrived, they were delighted with his handiwork. Rei and Rome shared one room, while Binoda and Fridone shared another. Aason had his own tiny nursery which Skodla decided to make his own as well. MINIMCOM had even taken the time to create a bigger galley and a semi-formal dining room.
After they were settled, MINIMCOM rose up into space. He blasted his plasma thrusters, activated his PPT generators and soon they were traveling at an effective velocity approaching nearly 900 times the speed of light.
“Next stop, Deucado,” he told his passengers.
OK. Rome and Rei are free. They are not allowed to return to Earth but oh well. However, there are still some questions to be answered. Loose ends if you will. Let's see what they are.
Entry 4-143: May 18, 2016
Vantablack
You may have read about a substance called Vantablack in the news recently. The name comes from Vertically Aligned NanoTube Arrays. This is a relatively new material made out of carbon nanotubes which absorbs 99.965% of radiation making it the blackest substance on Earth. It is also hydrophobic which makes it waterproof. It can be applied to certain materials using vacuum-deposition or spraying it on materials and post-processing. According to the manufacturer, Surrey NanoSystems, it is so black that three dimensional objects appear two dimensional to the eye.
So what the heck does this material have to do with Rome's Revolution? The answer is, I don't know. I have been trying to come up with ways it could have been incorporated into the future technologies displayed there. For example, could it have been used by the Deucadons for their invisibility cloaks instead of their light conduits?
The answer is no. First off, a Vantablack surface is easily damaged by any direct impact or abrasion so it wouldn't be very useful applied to clothing. Second, it really wouldn't make you invisible. If you were standing in front of a tree, you'd block off the tree and be quite visible. The Deucadon's invisibility cloaks pass light from front to back so if they were standing in front of a tree, all you'd see was the tree.
So if we can't use it there, what about MINIMCOM using it for his stealth shield instead of his miniaturized PPT tunnel "froth" that covers his outer airframe. Again the answer is, it wouldn't work. Instead of seeing through him, you'd see him occlude things. So that's out.
What about as a coating on Rei's Ark? Wouldn't that be useful? Not really. The last thing you'd want on a spaceship that is supposed to be super-cold would be a substance that is ultra-absorbent and retains heat. You'd want as reflective of a surface as possible.
In summary, is there any way I could incorporate Vantablack in Rome's Revolution? Not that I can think of. If you come up with something, let me know.
Entry 4-144: May 19, 2016
The EmDrive
Yesterday, I told you about a new substance called Vantablack which is blacker than black. I tried to figure out if there was some way to fold this new material into Rome's Revolution but I was unable to come up with anything.
Today I want to talk about the EmDrive which was designed and developed by Roger Shawyer, an aerospace engineer, in 2001. This drive focuses microwaves into a hollow chamber and has an opening at one end. According to Mr. Shawyer and many other scientists, this drive does produce a small amount of thrust. Even NASA has tested it and has confirmed that it might actually work.
Why is this important? Because it means you could theoretically build a starship which does not require fuel, only electricity. Toss in a small nuclear-powered reactor and you have a spaceship that can reach Pluto in a matter of months. So if this thing works, could it have been applied to Rome's Revolution?
Answer: absolutely. I wouldn't have had to jump through the hoops of inventing the Grey Drive which harnesses a quantum black hole to produce Hawking Radiation that drives the ship forward. I totally made that up. But conceptually, it is pretty damned close. You have chamber with this thing in the middle that produces radiation and that radiation generates a tiny amount of thrust but requires no fuel. Well, in the case of the Grey Drive, it did use xenon atoms but one atom at a time so not very much fuel at all.
So give me credit for getting the fundamental concept down correctly on how to get people to the stars. It just never occurred to me to run a microwave oven with the door open!
Entry 4-145: May 20, 2016
Room temperature superconductivity
Is it possible to create a material that exhibits superconductivity at room temperature? While no one has found a permanent one yet, physicists from the Max Planck Institute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter have kept a piece of ceramic in a superconducting state at room temperature ever so briefly disproving the long held belief that materials need to be cooled to temperatures of at least -140 degrees Celsius to achieve superconductivity.
Now before you break out the champagne, understand that the superconducting state survived only for a couple of picoseconds (trillionths of a second), using a flash of infrared light. It isn't quite time to build a self-levitating cross-country monorail. Even so, if and when this material is developed and can be sustained, what relevance would it have to the world of Rome's Revolution?
There are several ways this could be applied. I postulated that the EG lifters built into all Vuduri craft are based upon rapidly rotating superconducting magnets. Also, while the Vuduri have freed themselves from wires for the most part, they still have power plants that conduct electricity to their cities and having a superconducting "wire" would reduce ohmic losses to zero thus making them 100% efficient.
So maybe someday this technology will be perfected and my science fiction will be more like science fact!
Entry 4-146: May 21, 2016
Dessert
Over the last few days, I have presented you with the functional ending of Rome's Revolution. MASAL was dead. The Vuduri have been informed of the Onsiras' insidious plot to wipe out the mandasurte and turn the Vuduri into living robots. Rome and Rei made peace with the Stareaters and found a way to protect present and future human enclaves. So what else is there? Shouldn't the story just end there?
Answer: probably. MINIMCOM's last words were "next stop: Deucado" and the movie version could have ended there. But I wasn't done with the characters. At the time I was writing the books, I thought that was truly the end and I wasn't quite ready to say g
oodbye. I really liked my characters and it made me sad to know I'd never see them in action again. I ended up writing five additional chapters.
Back when the chapters had names, they were called:
- Journey to Deucado
- Home
- .58 Light Years From Earth
- Happily Ever After
- Epilogue
Journey to Deucadowas your basic tying up of loose ends. Home was musing about the nature of home and our first introduction to Lupe, or at least the concept of Lupe, Rome and Rei's yet-to-be-born daughter. The chapter called .58 Light Years From Earth was a "whatever happened to Sussen" story, basically an elongated knock-knock joke, and it will be covered another time. Happily Ever After really was supposed to be the end of the series but then The Ark Lords Effect kicked in. So it wasn't the end at all.
Finally, the Epilogue was 21 years into the future and introduced us to a grown-up Aason and Lupe Bierak. It was the beginning of their journey that ended up as The Milk Run. Once I knew that The Milk Run was really going to happen, I did take the Epilogue and graft it on to the end of Rome's Evolution. I had to modify it slightly because originally, it was MINIMCOM transporting the children to Tabit and I had to switch it to Junior. But otherwise it survived more or less intact.
So there you have it. Over the next few installments, I'll be covering three of the five "dessert" chapters and then we'll take a look back over these last four years of this blog.
Entry 4-147: May 22, 2016
Telescopic heartache 1
Yesterday I explained to you why I didn't just end Rome's Revolution after they blasted off from Earth. I promise I'll get to the loose ends in a day or two but today I wanted to talk about the heartache my telescope brought me.
When I was young, I would look up into the night sky and dream about traveling to the stars. Those dreams made their way into my books and I hope you catch some of the wonder I felt when you read them. I always wanted a good telescope so I could look up into the night sky and get my fill of celestial wonders. I didn't want to get a cheap one and a good telescope is expensive. It seemed like a luxury that I would never afford myself.
However, that all changed when some very good clients of mine decided to buy me a Meade ETX-90 telescope as a Christmas present. It looks like this:
While it looks fairly stubby, it uses Maksutov-Cassegrain optics to get you quite a bit more magnifying power in a fairly short length. Here is the light path (thank you Wikipedia):
The light comes in through the front lens which is has a surprisingly wide aperture, bounces off the rear reflector (primary reflector), focuses in on an intermediate mirror called the corrector plate then finally back to eyepiece. So you get three times the magnifying power than you would with a traditional telescope of the same length.
I was so excited about this telescope. I set it up in my living room. I went through the rather rigorous calibration sequence using the insulator cap of a telephone pole that was about a half mile away. After that was done, on the first night, I used it to gaze up at the Moon through a skylight. It was amazing. It looked like I could reach out and touch the Moon. I was ready. The following evening, I would go outside and look at the planets and stars. My expectations were sky high. I couldn't wait. But what happened to me broke my heart. I'll relate that to you tomorrow.
Entry 4-148: May 23, 2016
Telescopic heartache 2
Yesterday I explained to you why I was so psyched. I had just gotten my shiny new Meade ETX-90 telescope, calibrated it and looked at the Moon through a skylight. It was incredible. The Moon looked like it was just over the river. It was moving so fast that I had to constantly adjust the telescope. If this was how it worked, it would be difficult to look at stars and such but the telescope has a computer and motors. It knows where things are in the sky and will move in just the perfect way to keep them centered. That was the main reason why I lusted after such an expensive instrument. You need this kind of sophistication to watch faint objects as they crossed the sky so I wasn't worried. Everything was in the ready for me to take my journey into the heavens.
The following evening, I dutifully took the telescope outside and set it up on my deck. My house blocked the city lights from behind me and there was a small stand of woods to block even more light in front of me. I thought it would be perfect. But the name of this article is telescopic heartache. Why? Pretty easy to explain. I had seen many, many pictures of the planets in my life. Here is a fairly recent and spectacular image of Jupiter, replete with bright bands of colors including a sharp view of the Great Red Spot. It looks like this:
(BTW, thank you to Dr. Amy Simon from the Goddard Space Flight Center and ESA and NASA for this incredible image).
Boy was I excited. I couldn't wait to see that beautiful banded gas giant. Jupiter was right overhead that night so my job was easy. I used the red dot finder to align the telescope on the two stars requested by the telescope and then I told it to show me Jupiter.
The motors kicked in. The telescope started rotating and finally came to a stop, pointing just about straight up. I peered into the viewfinder. What I saw crushed me and dashed my dreams forever. I'll show you what I saw tomorrow.
Entry 4-149: May 24, 2016
Telescopic heartache 3
Yesterday I showed you the most amazing image of Jupiter. We've all seen pictures like this. It was one the things that I most looked forward to seeing for myself, the first time I set up my shiny new Meade ETX-90 telescope. However, when the telescope wheeled around and pointed right at our largest planet, this is kind of what I saw:
Not too spectacular, huh? There were no colors to speak of. The image was fairly fuzzy and while I could make out the four Galilean moons, this image is actually better than what I really saw.
Why is this? First, we are buried under an ocean of air which is always moving and causes some blurring. Also, there is so much light pollution around big cities that many of the fainter stars are obscured by reflected light. I don't know that any of us have seen the Milky Way with the naked eye in many, many years. Finally, while the ETX-90 is a great telescope, it isn't the Hubble. It just isn't powerful enough to render the kind of details available from the world's greatest observatories or space-based telescopes.
Another amazing and crushing fact is that when you look in a telescope at a star, it is still just a pinpoint of light. It isn't any bigger than you see with the naked eye. Sometimes, you can resolve double or triple stars separately but each of those are just pinpoints as well. Why is that? Because the stars are so damned far away that they are point sources regardless of your magnification. The telescope just makes them brighter and you can see more of them.
All of this was rather disappointing. My expectations had been sky-high and I was crushed. However, all was not lost. I had decided to go visit my daughter in Colorado and they have these really tall rocks called the Rocky Mountains which go way high in the air. My wife-to-be (now actual wife) suggested I take the telescope out west, drive up 12,000 feet and then I would have the experience I was expecting.
Sounds like a plan, huh? Tomorrow.
Entry 4-150: May 25, 2016
Telescopic heartache 4
As I mentioned yesterday, I was determined to get the fullest use out of my shiny, new Meade ETX-90 telescope. So I bought a traveling case, took it aboard an airplane and flew out to Colorado. The father of my daughter's roommate accompanied me as we drove up to the top of Copper Mountain, elevation 12,313 ft. There was no place to set up so we came back down, maybe a thousand feet, and set up behind the Clinton Gulch Reservoir.
I never believed that altitude sickness was a real thing until I tried dashing up the small hill, not even fifty feet, at the back of the reservoir. I almost passed out. But I didn't. I took some deep breaths, drank some water and was good to go.
I set up the telescope, calibrated it and asked it to look at
some stars. Boy, were there a lot of them! As I mentioned yesterday, they weren't any bigger through the telescope than they were with the naked eye but they were way brighter and there were so many of them! I looked at some binary stars and could clearly see two stars. And I saw the Andromeda Galaxy! It was fuzzy and tiny but I sure could see it.
Then, somebody turned on a spotlight and everything was drowned out. I looked up from the eyepiece. It wasn't a spotlight. It was the Moon! It was soooo big and bright, you wouldn't have believed it. So I had to focus on the stars with the Moon at my back. They were fun. But that's it. Fun. I had now seen everything I could see through my telescope.
I packed it up, drove back down the mountain and it has remained in my garage ever since. There really wasn't anything more I could do with it in Cherry Hill. But the whole thing was not a complete waste. My experiences with the telescope found their way several times in the Rome's Revolution series.
I wrote a whole short story about a farmer named Silas Hiram who was one of the first settlers on New Earth, aka Helome aka the fourth planet circling Alpha Centauri A. The story of Silas Hiram will be included in my upcoming collection of short stories entitled The Vuduri Companion. I used my experiences with my telescope to give that story verisimilitude when it came to the handling of the instrument.
I also bestowed upon the Vuduri more complex optics than we poor 23-chromosome humans. I put a reflective layer called a tapetum at the back of their retinas and gave them a tiny focusing mirror on the back of their pupils and built in a Maksutov-Cassegrain reflector in their eyes giving them telescopic vision. Rome used this upon several occasions to her advantage.