Current project for Fantastic Plastic.
Jul 292014
Jul 082014
There actually seemed to be a bit of interest in the idea I posted a few days ago for an alternate history book idea I’ve been tinkering with for a while. So I’ll take it off the “nice, but probably never gonna happen” list and bump it up to “Hmm. Maybe…”
This is planned to be an official history, with the (tentative, subject to change) title: “Pax Orionis: A History of the Third World War and Its Aftermath.” Written in the alternate history 2014, it focuses on nuclear pulse propulsion, how it began in the fifties, turned into a reality as a result of a small nuclear war in the sixties and became a dominant force in geopolitics until the Third World War in the 1990’s (currently scheduled for 1994, so the book is a “20th anniversary” thing). This alternate world is quite a different place due to some very small changes that quickly spiral into massive consequences. WWIII is as bad as it gets; somewhere in the history will be population tables from before the war, right after and as of 2014, with discussions of the possibility that within the next X years the planetary population might make it back up to one billion. But on the other side, the war leaves translunar and interplanetary infrastructure largely intact; while Earth is trashed, the universe is now open and the ships are there.
In looking at what I have already put together, I’ve got about 30 pages more or less cribbed from my Nuclear Pulse Propulsion book, and a fifteen page outline of the alternate history. The history will be changed considerably from what I originally wrote; the original scribblings were in support of a collaboration with another feller, but now it’s a one-man show and a lot of stuff I’ve written will be dumped or greatly altered.
Being an official history, the usual form of third person fictional narration doesn’t work, and there are some aspects of the story where I’d really like to include that (some of the war events, for example). An idea I’ve been playing with is having the authors of the official history including snippets from autobiographies, diaries, novels and screenplays. This is not how official DoD histories are usually put together these days… but Pax Orionis is a whole different world. It is of course a very, very bad world with a whole lot of dead folk, blasted cities and whole nations that have been simply erased; but history shows that massive devastation is often an opportunity for new things.
Jul 062014
A while back I posted a bit of fiction describing part of a battle featuring Orion nuclear pulse propelled “space battleships.” It was only a small scrap, and I didn’t think much of it, but someone else seemed to like it and suggested an effort that would have seen it fleshed out to novel length. I put a considerable amount of scribbling behind the project, but it recently fell through. As I hate to see effort wasted, I’m considering plowing ahead with a modified version by myself.
What it would be is an alternate history, where the US develops Orions starting in the 1960’s and, as the earlier tale partially describes, tangles with the Soviet Union some time later. Here’s the thing: there’s no using Orion battleships for anything other than total global thermonuclear war. The story would be at best grim. But in my plan, the tale would be told in the form of an official history of the Orion program, as seen from (handwave) 2014, starting from the beginning, through early development, into World War III and then into the post-war period of economic and ecological disaster, but also great progress in space due to the existing infrastructure. The post-war US would be a very different place than Real World US, and would basically stride the wreckage of the world like a pissed-off giant.
Being an official history, it would of course be illustrated, featuring Orion vehicles of my own design (which designs were begun under the previous book project).
But before I waste another millisecond on this, I gotta know: is anyone even remotely interested?
May 142014
And really soon, too… next week. No point in waiting, I suppose.
As previously mentioned, I’m putting together a book titled something like “A Guide to American Nuclear Explosive Devices.” It will include accurate diagrams of American nuclear bombs, RVs and warheads, along with pertinent information for each design. I’ve made a pretty good dent in the basic layout drawings, but there is more research to be done.
In order to get this done, there are a few places I need to visit. One of them is the National Museum of Nuclear Science & Industry in Albuquerque, New Mexico. It’s about an 11 hour drive from here, so it’d be the better part of a work week to get down there, photograph *everything* (with scale references) and then get back. With gas, motels, cat boarding and the like, it’d be a fair chunk of change, but it also seems a pretty invaluable resource.
Sort of along the way is the Bradbury Science Museum in Los Alamos. A smaller museum, but it looks pretty good as far as nukes. I am also interested in any suggestions for things to see – nuclear, military, aerospace, geological – between Thatcher, Utah, and Albuquerque, New Mexico.
So, in order to pull this off, I’m looking for funding. In the grand tradition of Kickstarter and the like, I’m using three funding levels:
$10 “Warm Glow”: You get a thank you email and a warm sense of accomplishment.
$50 “Going Ballistic”: I send you a DVD (or 2, or 3, or everything transferred via Dropbox or some such) with every single nuke-relevant photo I take on the trip.
$100 “BLAMMO”: You get the DVD & a prototype edition version of the book, which won’t be otherwise available (I’m looking at 11X17 with old-school pressboard covers, like the BoMi, Dyna Soar & BWB booklets I recently made briefly available). The final book, whether self-published by me or – who knows – by an actual publisher, will almost certainly be formatted much smaller.
So if you want a whole bunch of photos of nuclear weapons and a book of large-format detailed and accurate drawings of American nuclear weapons, or if you just want to help out… now’s your chance. This opportunity will be open for the next week or so.
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Here is a somewhat older image, showing a number of the nuclear weapons I’ve drawn up (more since then):
And here are some images showing roughly what you’ll see in the 11X17 prototype of the book: multiple views of each device in large scale, with a crude mockup of what the data page will look like for each device. It will have unique charts showing the physical effects – overpressure, thermal radiation, cratering, etc. – for each device.
Mar 192014
Sometime tomorrow, I’ll end availability on the Nuclear Pulse Starships, X-20, BoMi and BWB 11X17 booklets, as described and sold HERE. So if you want ’em, time runs short…
Mar 132014
UPDATE: And so, the aloted time period ends, as does availability of these items. Huzzah.
I am making available, for a limited time, four bound volumes of large format diagrams. These are 11X17 line-drawing CAD diagrams produced by yours truly, bound in red pressboard report covers (why? because that’s classy, that’s why).
I had not planned on releasing these, but I had also not taken into account the fact that the IRS will very soon be demanding a sizable income tax check from me. Ooops. So, my sudden financial panic is your opportunity to get a limited edition item. They will be available until some time on Thursday, March 20. At which point they will be gone forever. Each one will be hand inscribed with the number of the edition (“#1 of 5” or “#4 of 7,” whatever the case may be), with the numbering done via order in which orders are received. Also with my hand-enscribbled initials. (Because who knows, I might be famous someday.)
What I have:
1) BoMi: the complete set of diagrams created for the “Bomber Missile” articles for Aerospace Projects Review issues V2N3 and V2N4, a total of about 45 pages. Includes the MX 2276 from 1955, up through the SR-126 studies from 1957, Brass Bell, Convairs RoBo, Super Hustler, FISH; and Boeing Model 728 studies, among others. $45
2) BWB: The complete set of diagrams created for the V1N3 APR article on Blended Wing Body aircraft, 29 pages. Contains many jetliner concepts, along with such oddities as the Lockheed CL-1201,a giant nuclear powered VTOL assault transport concept. $40
3) Model 2050E X-20 Dyna Soar: the diagrams from the not-yet released issue V3N4 APR article. These are the diagrams in their current state; some may change before I’m done with them. And some will not appear in the article. Includes not only the X-20, but also several proposed launch vehicles (including, I’m reasonably proud to say, the first publicly available accurate and detailed diagrams of the X-20 atop the Titan IIIc), layouts of test and operational versions of the DS with transstage, several small space stations designed expressly for DS servicing, and several high-energy transstage concepts. Also includes really quite good diagrams of the ASSET test vehicle and the X-37B spaceplane. 24 pages, $35
4) Nuclear Pulse Propulsion Starships: diagrams from my hopefully-forthcoming book on nuclear pulse propulsion. I really had not planned on releasing any of the diagrams prior to publication of the book, but what the heck: here are 14 pages showing several versions of the Enzmann Starship, the Dyson Starship, the BIS Daedalus, the Martin/Bond Worldships and the US Naval Academy “Longshot.” $30
Several of the X-20 and NPP diagrams have been formatted specifically for this release, and will not be otherwise released. And of course if I get mashed by a Mack truck or flattened by a meteorite, these diagram sets will be the only versions of these diagrams ever released. So, you know, there’s that…
Please note that since these are physical objects, postage is sadly required. There’s only two options for that… US and non-US. You only need to buy *one* “postage,” no matter how many of the diagram sets you buy.
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Mar 092014
In the late 70’s-early 80’s the Fusion Energy Foundation published the magazine “Fusion.” It, as the name suggests, had a number of articles on the politics and physics of nuclear fusion for power generation purposes, and a few on space propulsion. It also had a number of articles on directed energy weapons for strategic defense and forward-thinking by the likes of Krafft Ehricke on space colonization and industrialization. But it also had more than it’s share of loopy pseudo science stuff like intelligent design, anti-Einstein and even anti-Newton stuff. And… it was a Lyndon LaRouche publication. Wiki has a fairly extensive writeup on the Fusion Energy Foundation; it makes for interesting reading.
And it turns out that all, or at least a good chunk of, the FEF’s publications are available online as PDFs:
In the “Books” section you can download Winterberg’s “Physical Principles of Thermonuclear Explosive Devices,” which is not only a fun read for the pure physics, but also as supervillain fodder.
The mix of science and Cold War era LaRouchianism makes for a WTF-inducing experience. If you remember the early 80’s, or are interested in a time when people still dreamed of a nuclear powered future, you can lose days here.
Mar 072014
Here is a completely re-written stab at a one-page (well, slightly over) vignette about the Orion Battleship for “Nuclear Pulse Propulsion.” I’m still uncertain if I’ll include this sort of thing in the book… I doubt that these little story fragments would add much to a book that’s already over 400 pages. If y’all have opinions one way or the other, I’m open. This is a rough draft, so it’s perhaps not all that great.
I have used the “Calibre” program to convert the yarn from Word into several e-reader formats. I don’t now what’s popular, so if I missed an obvious and important one, let me know. Seems to me the way to go with self-publishing would be to produced three or four formats and sell a ZIP bundle with all of ’em. Shrug.
It seemed to be formatted ok on the Calibre e-reader emulator, but if there’s something screwy with any of ’em, let me know.
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Well, hummmph. Attempts at uploading the ereader formats failed… apparently WordPress has a problem with them for “security reasons.” So here, in fact, is a ZIP file with four formats: PDF, MOBI, EPUB and AZW3.
Feb 272014
I printed out what I have on my NPP book, and it consumed pretty much most of a ream of paper (single sided only). A lot of the CAD diagrams haven’t yet been integrated… and a number aren’t done yet, so there’s yet more pages to print. This binder will be used to scribbling purposes… i always seem to be able to find slepping erorrs and the like easier on a written page than on-screen.
Just confirmation that the project remains underway. The final book will be a bit of a beast, especially if printed on good paper at this size or better.
In the master list of diagrams,green means finished, yellow means in progress, red means unstarted.
Feb 262014
So, a number of years ago I started working on “Nuclear Pulse Propulsion,” which was to be the End All Be All tome on this topic. Sometime into it, someone suggested that I take a page from Tom Clancy and add a little fictional vignette of a few paragraphs to the start of each chapter, to try to bring some aspect of the designs to life. It was a good idea, I thought, so I took a crack at it… and realized with my first attempt that it just wasn’t working. At least, not the way I was going about it. I started writing a yarn featuring the 4,000 ton “space battleship” pitched to the USAF. But several pages in, it became clear that I wasn’t doing well on keeping it to “a few paragraphs.” Also… it was getting fairly dire. Just as there are few stories you can tell about a Ohio-class boomer or a Minuteman III missile silo that feature them doing the jobs they were designed for, there seem few to tell about a spacecraft designed to fight an all-out nuclear war. And while, if written well, it could be an exciting yarn… it ain’t gonna be too damn cheerful, unless global annihilation is something you think is pretty awesome. So… I just sorta gave up on the idea.
In the past week or three I’ve gotten back into working on NPP, and dug up the Orion Battleship tale. And because why not, I’m posting a PDF of it. Keep in mind, this isn’t a polished piece. It’s not even a rough draft; it’s half a rough draft. There is no dialogue, there are no human characters. I had an end in mind, but just never got to it.
So, if’n yer interested in such things, HERE YA GO.
And because I just got the plumbers bill for replacing the pressure tank and suddenly find myself in some need of cash…