Friday, February 28, 2025

L4 Station - Chapter 3

First Printing – March 2025

Future Chron Publishing

Cover Image – ID 159616182 © limbitech | Dreamstime(dot)com

No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner whatsoever without permission, except in the case of brief quotations for the purpose of review. This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and events are products of the author's imagination and should not be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events and people, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Hard Science Fiction – Old School

Human Generated Content

Chapter 3

History of L4 Station – Dr. Ivar Heinlein – Regulus Publishing

L4 station was considered an O'Neill cylinder but it wasn't, it was more a tire without a wheel. Even though its 11 stories spanned 150 feet from the innermost level's ceiling to the outermost level's floor, it was centered by a spoke and rim construction that was itself 150 feet in radius. Also, it didn't have the open, airy, bright feeling that most illustrators used when drawing an O'Neill cylinder. But in one way it was far superior to an O'Neill cylinder in that it existed.

The station was built at the Earth-Moon Lagrange point, L4, because it was to serve as a base for mining the asteroids found there. It was estimated that hundreds of trillions of dollars could be made from those asteroids if brought back to the Moon for processing. It was also built there because it could be constructed and provisioned by Moon resources. This last consideration made the station a reality.

Each of the levels was almost 15 feet in height and unlike an O'Neill cylinder the sides of each level had an amount of asteroid material that would reduce the radiation of space to an acceptable level for human beings. The very most outer and inner floors were also banked with asteroid material for protection.

The artificial gravity of each level are as follows, within round-off error (level number is from the outer to inner since rotation makes the outer wall the floor):

Level 1, 300 feet radius, 0.33 Earth gravity.

Level 2, 285 feet radius, 0.31 Earth gravity.

Level 3, 270 feet radius, 0.3 Earth gravity.

Level 4, 255 feet radius, 0.28 Earth gravity.

Level 5, 240 feet radius, 0.265 Earth gravity.

Level 6, 225 feet radius, 0.25 Earth gravity.

Level 7, 210 feet radius, 0.23 Earth gravity.

Level 8, 195 feet radius, 0.22 Earth gravity.

Level 9, 180 feet radius, 0.2 Earth gravity.

Level 10, 165 feet radius, 0.182 Earth gravity.

Level 11, 150 feet radius, 0.166 Earth gravity.

The station was built over a period of three years almost entirely by a robotic crew. Robots had been used on the Moon since the first settlements almost four decades before. They had been developed there since and had reached a high degree of autonomy which the robots on Earth lacked. They had been supervised by a small group of men and had not only built the station but had started the first mining site for asteroid material used for the radiation protection.

Dad left immediately to report to the company. We waited for our belongings to arrive, which they did within an hour, carried on a donkey-bot which was also a common sight on the Moon.

Mom gave my brother and me our suitcases and boxes and told us to put our things away. I took the workspace and closet on the right side of the room and after I had put away my clothes I opened my boxes. On the shelves I placed my books, yes, paperback books. Dad didn't like that I was taking so many, though I'd left more back on the Moon in storage. But these were the absolute essentials I felt I would need for our one year stay aboard L4 Station.

Ten books in all, four Verne, three Wells, and three Burroughs. Others I could read on my Annie, but these were for those times when I needed to feel that sense of wonder in my hands, just as I had done when I was Roger's age. And Roger was starting to show interest, so dad couldn't say no. With the books on the shelf, it was home away from home.

Once finished, I asked mom what she wanted me to do. She said I could just relax until dad got home in a couple of hours. But I had a better idea, I would go exploring. I asked mom and she said okay, if I would take Roger with me and be back in time for dinner and stay on our level. So, we were off.

My Annie told me that at a radius of 165 feet, the hallway would be a thousand feet long. I suggested to Roger that we count the number of rooms we passed. We had counted up to thirty doorways when I heard some other kids. I didn't know there were other kids aboard.

The voices were coming from an open doorway, so Roger and I walked up and peered in. There were three boys and two girls in the room, and they seemed to all be playing a game on their Annies.

“Hi,” I said.

The boys ignored me but one of the girls stopped her playing and came over to the door. She was slightly shorter than me with brown hair and green eyes.

“Are you Raymond and Roger Jones?” she asked.

“Yeah,” I said. “I'm Raymond, but you can call me Ray, and this is my brother Roger.”

“Pleased to meet ya,” said Roger.

“How did you know our names?” I asked.

“Oh, my dad is your dad's boss, and I saw the paperwork,” she said.

“What's your name?” I asked.

“I'm Cindy Rice,” she said.

L4 Station - Chapter 2

First Printing – March 2025

Future Chron Publishing

Cover Image – ID 159616182 © limbitech | Dreamstime(dot)com

Hard Science Fiction – Old School

Human Generated Content

Chapter 2

Sci-pedia - The Online Resource for Science – Annies

Artificial Narrow Intelligence (ANI - Annie)

Artificial Narrow Intelligence (ANI or Annie in the vernacular) first became available in the early twenty-first century. It developed out of the machine learning technology that was rapidly evolving at the time. Narrow refers to the fact that often this form of intelligence could only do one function well such as speech, facial recognition, etc.

Eventually some researchers were able to tie together several ANI functions in a neural matrix which allowed the development of the first truly autonomous bipedal robots. Further development in this area was curtailed later in the century as the breakthroughs in emulated brain research promised a more powerful general intelligence.

Some of the later Annie based robots are still existent in specialized areas . . .

My brother Roger was getting antsy again as we waited for the announcement that we could start debarking. My patience with him was wearing thin, so I strongly urged him to be still and stay quiet. He didn't like that and started yelling at me. I popped him just a bit to make him stop and then he started crying. By this time a crew member was standing over us.

“What is going on?” he asked.

“My brother is getting impatient,” I said, “I was just trying to keep him quiet.”

“Okay,” he said. “If you will just come with me.”

I didn't know what to do. I started to turn to look for Mom, but he seemed impatient. So, I unstrapped and stood slowly, remembering my training for zero gravity, which was to not do anything too quickly. I looked at Roger, he seemed to try to be deciding between doing as the man said or crying. Eventually, he did the same as me and got out of his seat.

We went forward with the man when I heard someone behind.

“Where are you taking them?” said my dad.

“They were a bit impatient,” said the man, “so I thought I would take them on a short tour while we are waiting to debark,”

“Oh well then, thank you,” Dad said. “You boys be polite and do everything he says.”

“Okay Dad,” I said.

L4 Station - Chapter 1

STATION

Remembered Earth Universe

Volume 17

L4 Series

Book 1

D.W. PATTERSON

First Printing – March 2025

Future Chron Publishing

Cover Image – ID 159616182 © limbitech | Dreamstime(dot)com

Hard Science Fiction – Old School

Human Generated Content

To Sarah

“But for Man, no rest and no ending. He must go on, conquest beyond conquest. First this little planet with its winds and ways, and then all the laws of mind and matter that restrain him. Then the planets about him and at last out across immensity to the stars. And when he has conquered all the deeps of space and all the mysteries of time, still he will be beginning.”

― H.G. Wells

Chapter 1

History of Mare Frigoris – Dr. George Pohl – Planet Publications

By the middle of the 21^stcentury commercial settlements were being established on the Moon. Two Earth companies, Luna Limited and New Lunar Corporation, were busy developing settlements in Mare Frigoris, which was a lunar sea stretching almost two thousand miles across the face of the Moon roughly 30 degrees south of the north lunar pole.

All these settlements had one thing in common, they were all founded just south of a lunar crater, which because of the latitude, had a south wall and floor that was always in darkness. And there in the dark, was a supply of water-ice which could supply the needs of the adjacent settlement for hundreds of years to come.

By the eight decade of the century twelve settlements had been established (from west to east); Markov, Babbage, Robinson, Horrebow, Fontenelle, Tima, Archer, Sheepshanks, Demos, Thales, Hayn, and Dugan. Almost always the settlement was named after the nearby crater.

Power was provided by a nuclear plant in the south of the mare and solar farms at the far east and west. The solar farms were separated at such a distance as one or the other was always receiving sunlight. From farthest eastern settlement to farthest western, was a distance of over 1700 miles.

2070 A.D.

My name is Raymond Jones, but I'm usually called Ray, and I think growing up on the Moon was a great experience. At thirteen I had been on the Moon for eight years and I had seen a lot of changes. The population of the great settlement complexes had tripled in that time. My family’s settlement, Markov, located in the western part of Mare Frigoris had thirty thousand residents and was growing.

My parents had brought me here from Earth several years after it became apparent that children could develop just fine on the lunar surface. At the time I was the youngest person to ride a rocket to orbit, but I don't think that's still true. And now, not counting the few astronauts on Mars, I was about to leave the Moon with my parents and my younger brother for the farthest of human settlements, located at the Earth-Moon Lagrange point L4, nineteen million miles away.

Grok and Me

My conversation with Grok, mostly about my speculative science:

Grok:

"Null Infinity: Book 1" by D.W. Patterson is the opening installment of a science fiction series published by Future Chron Publishing. The story follows Harry, a brilliant physics student at a top-tier school, who teams up with Lauren to pioneer a revolutionary advancement in space travel: the boundary drive. Their journey is not just a scientific endeavor but a perilous adventure that poses risks not only to themselves but to the entire world. The novel blends speculative fiction with themes of innovation, danger, and exploration, appealing to readers who enjoy futuristic narratives grounded in scientific possibility.

Released in 2024, this paperback spans 222 pages and is written in English. It’s a compact read, with dimensions of 203 x 127 mm, making it an accessible entry into Patterson’s "Null Infinity" series. The plot hints at a mix of cerebral challenges and high-stakes consequences, characteristic of the sci-fi genre’s focus on humanity’s reach into the unknown. If you’re into stories where cutting-edge ideas meet real-world peril, this might be worth a look.

Have you read any of Patterson’s other works, or is this your first dive into his universe?

Me:

explore boundary drive

Grok:

In D.W. Patterson's "Null Infinity: Book 1," the boundary drive is a fictional concept central to the plot—a groundbreaking advancement in space travel developed by the protagonists, Harry and Lauren. While the novel doesn’t provide a real-world blueprint (it’s speculative fiction, after all), we can explore what the boundary drive might imply based on context and common sci-fi tropes, as well as Patterson’s style as an author who often weaves plausible science into his narratives. The term "boundary drive" suggests a propulsion system that manipulates or interacts with some kind of physical or theoretical boundary—possibly the edge of spacetime, gravitational fields, or even the limitations of known physics (like the speed of light).

Rocket Season - Chapter 4

Second Printing – February 2025

Future Chron Publishing

Cover Image – Photo 115346712 / Rocket Launch © Nexusplexus | Dreamstime.com

Previously published as:

Rocket Summer

Rocket Fall

Rocket Winter

Rocket Spring

Contains additional material.

Hard Science Fiction – Old School

Human Generated Content

CHAPTER 4

A doctor's checkup, including x-rays, found nothing wrong with Jack. But his mom was not eager to have him go back to his experimentation. The cellar was a mess, and even though not too many of her canned goods were damaged, she wouldn't agree that the experiments could continue. Jack's dad, as he had done with Jack's bottle rockets years before, came to the rescue.

“Okay,” he said, at the family meeting with Jack and Jack's mom. “What if I build a wall to protect the canned goods and what if Jack assembles his experiment in the cellar but automates it so that he can test it remotely?”

“I don't know Jose,” said his mom. “What if the explosion is bigger next time? Could it damage the house?”

“Well,” said Jack's dad, “no one can say for sure what might happen, but I think once Jack is sure of what went wrong this time, then we can make it safer for him and the house next time.”

“I don't know, honey,” said Jack's mom. “I want him to pursue his interests, but it has to be safe for him and for us.”

“Alright, let's just wait to see what Jack finds during his investigation, and we'll go from there.”

They all agreed.

Rocket Season - Chapter 3

Second Printing – February 2025

Future Chron Publishing

Cover Image – Photo 115346712 / Rocket Launch © Nexusplexus | Dreamstime.com

Previously published as:

Rocket Summer

Rocket Fall

Rocket Winter

Rocket Spring

Contains additional material.

Hard Science Fiction – Old School

Human Generated Content

CHAPTER 3

If Jack had read the thruster article correctly, then he believed this “thruster” could be put on a load-bearing structure (that is a rocket body) and provide a kind of impulse engine using Newton's third law, action/reaction, to send that body upward, upward into space.

Could it? Jack couldn't believe it possible, and if it was possible, why had no one done such a thing before?

He kept looking until he came across a reference to an old book, apparently the one written by the physicist that developed the Mach thruster or almost developed it. The professor must have come up short, since Jack had never heard of such a rocket engine. But right now, he had to find a copy of a book written even before books were electronic. Since it was written by the inventor of the device, it should have the answers that Jack was seeking.

As Jack searched for a copy of the book, he also found other articles that made reference to the drive. At first these articles were few but as the years went by, they became more numerous. Finally, seven years after the book was written, online articles spiked as the inventor (now inventors) gave interviews to many websites. Then the articles ended.

Jack wondered why, then he found out. The inventor died and the China crisis hit immediately afterwards. With the descent of China into chaos and the resulting dislocations in the global network of trade, most countries were too busy trying to find a replacement for lack of Chinese made goods to pursue such doubtful science.

It took years and, in the meantime, other countries had trouble with their commitments to globalization. Those were the years when crisis led to crisis and widespread famine returned to the world. Governments worked to prevent food shortages in country after country as the world tried to adapt to de-globalization. Spaceflight was not something that most governments considered critical in those days.

By the time Jack was in high school the world was very different than when he was born. Great countries such as China, Russia, Japan, Germany, Italy, South Korea and others, had lost much of their wealth trying to adapt to the changing circumstances. Their governments were overthrown more than once as people became angry and discouraged. Because people had become poorer, their lives had become much more insecure. Even widespread pirating had returned to the world for a time.

In the US things were not as difficult, a recession lasting year marred the countries progress, but no one starved, and most people adjusted to the hard times. Still, it meant that financial backing for a new method to power a spaceship was impossible to obtain, so the idea of the Mach thruster withered and was forgotten.

Rocket Season - Chapter 2

First D2D Printing – July, 2024

Future Chron Publishing

Cover Image – Photo 115346712 / Rocket Launch © Nexusplexus | Dreamstime.com

Previously published as:

Rocket Summer

Rocket Fall

Rocket Winter

Rocket Spring

Contains added material.

Hard Science Fiction – Old School

Human Generated Content

ROCKET FALL

CHAPTER 2

Williams' Farm

Hell's Hollow Road

North Georgia, USA

Jack was sure he would end up engineering rockets when he was grown and so he pursued all the necessary classes throughout high school to get into an aerospace engineering college. Shorter than the other kids, with dark brown hair and green eyes, he had just finished his junior year and was starting his summer plans when he read the Daily Space News:

The administration announced today a new goal in space. Speaking to reporters the President said, “We are going to make space a place for everyone, not just the well-to-do as it is now. Starting today, my administration is proposing a series of goals which will be pursued by the government. As each of these goals is reached, we believe that space will become a more democratic and diverse place. I am today instructing all departments of this government to review their programs and bring them into alignment with this important initiative.”

After taking a few questions from reporters, the President continued, “We are also calling on all foreign governments as well as commercial space entities to sign on to the Space First Initiative. You can expect more details in the days ahead.”

With that the President boarded Marine One to begin his vacation.

Whenever Jack didn't understand something, he would turn to his dad.

“I don't understand dad, what does it mean for space flight?”

“Jack, it's hard to say at this point. From what I've read I would say it will make it more expensive for aerospace companies to launch. They have to meet work force goals, environmental engineering goals, and there is a goal for international cooperation.”

“But dad, this country is almost the only one still pushing space exploration. They're going to stop it completely.”

“I know son, it looks that way. Since globalism fell apart a lot of what we thought would happen in space by now, hasn't happened. But even with this new initiative I think a lot of companies will still be determined to make their space dreams a reality.”

“I'm determined too dad,” said Jack.

Jack's plans for the summer were to research rockets and think. He wanted to find out why many of the dreams people had dreamt about space were still just dreams.

Men were on the Moon and well, not much more. After the first commercial mission to Mars failed when Jack was nine, no one had gone back, although the government was still talking about it. Jack wondered, was the cause technical, or political, or economical, or all the above? He suspected it might be all the above.

Technically, space was still hard to do and still dangerous. Chemical rockets were the old workhorses, although some testing of nuclear rockets had occurred, but no one seemed interested in developing that technology beyond the prototype stage.

“Probably,” Jack thought, “because it was too politically fraught and economically expensive. One failure could put a company into bankruptcy.”

Something new was needed. Safe, environmentally sound, and economical.

Home was surrounded by hills on three sides. Jack's dad, Jose, was still working as an engineer in his own company and also spent time raising cattle and horses. His mom, Mildred, had raised his three sisters, all of whom were out of the house now. Jack's room was as much a shrine to rocketry as a bedroom.

One day when he wasn't feeling particularly resourceful, Jack stumbled across some information on the net that he couldn't understand. It seemed to have something to do with using inertia for propulsion, but he wasn't sure. His reading sent him in search of something called the Mach Principle.

Ernst Mach had been a physicist/philosopher in the nineteenth century. He had proposed the curious idea that inertia, that is a body's resistance to a change in velocity, wasn't just related to the amount of mass it contained but was also related to the amount of mass in the rest of the universe. In other words, the inertia of a single mass was related to all the other masses in the universe.

Jack thought it sounded a little bit like quantum entanglement which can correlate some property of a particle here with some other particle across the universe and if a property of one of the particles is measured, it will cause that property in the distant particle to take a correlative value. A form of action-at-a-distance which the physicist Albert Einstein called “spooky.” But at the time Mach proposed his principle, quantum mechanics hadn't even been discovered. Maybe Mach was ahead of his time, and maybe it was an example of action-at-a-distance.

“If the inertia of a body was caused by all the other masses in the universe, then how did Mach suggest that the effect could be communicated?” Jack wondered.

That, he couldn't discover, but he did discover something called the Mach thruster, and that piqued his interest.

Read Chapter 3

or buy the Book.

Sunday, February 16, 2025

Rocket Season - Chapter 1

ROCKET SEASON

Manifold Earth Universe

Volume 5

Rocket Series:

Collection 1

D.W. PATTERSON

First D2D Printing – July, 2024

Future Chron Publishing

Previously published as:

Rocket Summer

Rocket Fall

Rocket Winter

Rocket Spring

Contains added material.

Hard Science Fiction – Old School

Human Generated Content

To Sarah

If we want to expand into the solar system, this tyranny [The Tyranny of the Rocket Equation] must be somehow deposed.

Don Petit – NASA Flight Engineer

PREFACE

Almost a hundred years ago science fiction authors would publish their stories in one of many science fiction magazines. Sometimes it was an actual novel which was serialized in the magazines first and later released as a novel, and sometimes it was a series of short stories and novellas with a common thematic development. These might be later put into novel form with some connective additions. This was called a “fix-up” novel. Examples of this would be Clifford Simak's novel City and Isaac Asimov's I Robot.

Rocket Season is a collection of the stories Rocket Summer, Rocket Fall, Rocket Winter, and Rocket Spring with some connective material and some new material. In this way it is similar to one of those fix-up novels.

Rocket Season is the story of Jack Williams and his quest to develop a new type of rocket based on Mach's Principle and not chemistry. The principle or effect was posited by 19^th century physicist-philosopher Ernst Mach and can be stated as the inertia of an object is determined by all the distant masses in the universe. Though it might sound bizarre this idea was originally incorporated by Einstein into his General Theory of Relativity.

If true, the effect could lead under the right circumstances to the coupling of mass to the gravitational field of spacetime. Frame-dragging, a proven effect, is a manifestation of this coupling. In frame-dragging an accelerating mass (a rotating black hole for instance) drags spacetime with it. Spacetime, in turn, will drag, or accelerate, other masses in the vicinity, and so an accelerating mass could drag spacetime which in turn would accelerate other masses (such as a rocket body) with it.

This would allow a reactionless rocket engine (that is a rocket engine that does not expel mass to develop thrust), and that would revolutionize the access of space.

ROCKET SUMMER

CHAPTER 1

Williams' Farm

Hell's Hollow Road

North Georgia, USA

Jack liked to sit just inside the edge of the forest and look out on the farm's pasture. Before baling, the grass was as high as a nine-year-old boy sitting cross-legged, and when the wind blew the waves of grass looked like an ocean to such a boy. Jack had never been to the ocean, but he imagined it something like a windy day crossing the pasture.

The farm was nestled in a closed valley surrounded by low mountains, some people called the mountains, hills, and the valley, a hollow, but to Jack they were mountains and valley. He looked up at the peak called Muletop across the pasture and thought that anyone who thought it a hill instead of a mountain should try to climb it.

Deep in such thought he didn't hear his dad the first time he called but he heard him the second time.

“Jack come on,” said his dad, “it's about time, the live-stream's starting.”

“Okay,” yelled Jack as he got up and started running through the sea of grass towards his home. He was short but he was fast.

The two-story white house was about fifty feet from the much larger red barn. Jack liked his house, but he loved the barn. All the smells of hay and horses brought him comfort when he was upset. He had spent many hours sitting in the barn, usually in the hay loft, while reading and thinking and recovering from whatever insult he had suffered at the hands of his three older sisters.

After all, life for a nine-year-old boy wasn't without its trials. Sometimes it was the adults who talked to him like he was a baby. Sometimes it was having to bear every decision his mom and dad might make without his consultation. Other times, it might be his sisters torturing him because he was the youngest. Still, he usually liked his family, even his sisters, and heading home after a day outside was always a joy. He reached the yard, and his dad again spoke up.

“We're going to miss it Jack, hurry.”

Jack rushed by his father, around the side of the house and bounded onto the front porch. He was already camped in front of the wall-sized television when his dad entered the room.

“All right,” said his dad. “everyone's here now, let's watch this carefully, we are about to see history made.”

Hard Science Fiction - Old School

Pages

Friday, February 28, 2025

L4 Station - Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Thursday, February 27, 2025

L4 Station - Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Wednesday, February 26, 2025

L4 Station - Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Monday, February 24, 2025

Grok and Me

Thursday, February 20, 2025

Rocket Season - Chapter 4

CHAPTER 4

Tuesday, February 18, 2025

Rocket Season - Chapter 3

CHAPTER 3

Monday, February 17, 2025

Rocket Season - Chapter 2

ROCKET FALL

Sunday, February 16, 2025

Rocket Season - Chapter 1

PREFACE

ROCKET SUMMER

CHAPTER 1