The Solar System as It Used to Be

Martian Canal,
by C Bonestell

One of my favorite subgenres in science fiction is old-school interplanetary adventures, in which Mars has canals, Venus jungles, and Mercury two faces (hot and cold). Lo! and behold, yesterday I discovered a blog devoted to that subject: The Old Solar System. Its creator is the British pseudonym Zendexor, who introduces himself as an SF critic. Well, he certainly masters the subject, discussing the oldschool settings created by veterans writers like Asimov, Clarke, Heinlein, Brackett, SM Stirling, and Edmond Hamilton.

If Zendexor knew Swedish, he would probably have written a lengthy post about Sture Lönnerstrand’s solar-system odyssey Rymdhunden (“Space Dog”) from 1954.

Check the Old Solar System blog here — link >>>

XKCD: Rocky Bodies in 2 Dimensions

The eminent site XKCD has published this picture that compares the surface areas of notable rocky celestial bodies in our solar system. The four giant planets are excluded because they lack mappable surfaces. The arrangement would be laid out nicely on the type of Ringworld that Larry Niven proposed in some of his stories — link >>>

Interplanetary Tourism Posters

NASA/JPL has recently commissioned a set of retro-style Tourism Posters promoting spectacular locations in our solar system. Here is my favorite (click on it for a larger version):

All the posters are available here — link >>>

“Wanderers” — our future in the solar system

Wanderers is a short science fiction film by Erik Wernquist, a digital artist from Stockholm, Sweden. He explains its underlying idea:

The film is a vision of our humanity’s future expansion into the Solar System. Although speculative, the visuals in the film are based on scientific ideas and concepts of what our future in space might look like, if it ever happens. All locations depicted in the film are digital recreations of actual places in the Solar System, built from real photos and map data where available.

Wanderers – a short film by Erik Wernquist from Erik Wernquist on Vimeo.

Titan Landing 10 Years Ago

Ten years ago, the Huygens probe landed on the surface of Saturn’s moon Titan, successfully executing a complex scientific mission. The joint NASA/ESA endeavor has expanded our knowledge of Titan manifold.

A submarine for Titan

NASA has outlined how to investigate the hydrocarbon seas of Titan with a robotic submarine. It is an exciting proposal (read it here — link >>> ) but the tentative schedule is not to my liking. If the venture gets realized, I will be in my eighties at Titan touchdown.