We have an illustrator!

I’m thrilled to announce that Generation Mars has an illustrator! Luis Peres, master illustrator of science fiction and fantasy, will bring his vivid style to Book One: Scratching the Surface. The image above is from his existing portfolio and serves as an example of his work. The actual illustrations are currently under development. You can see more of his work by clicking the link below, and I encourage you to take a look. It’s wonderful stuff!

Defining a new generation

Yeah! That’s what I keep saying! Well, any boots, really, as long as humans are in them.
 
“Let me be clear. Mars is today the focal point of our national space program. And if American boots are to be the first to set foot on its surface it will define a new generation. Generation Mars.”
 
https://spacepolicyonline.com/news/senators-insist-mars-not-the-moon-is-the-goal-of-u-s-human-exploration

One small step

The Eagle landed 49 years ago today, and two humans walked on a celestial body for the first time.

I have a fleeting, four-year-old’s memory of my dad waking me up (I must have been napping, as we were in CDT) to watch the moon landing. I don’t remember anything about the landing itself, just my dad waking me to see it. But that’s special enough, I think.

Here’s a nifty 360 of the interior of the Command Module that carried Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins to the moon that day.

Today in 1969, astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin were the first humans to set foot on the Moon.Smithsonian 3D…

Posted by Smithsonian on Friday, July 20, 2018

Blue Origin Mission 9

Lest it seem Generation Mars is mired in nostalgia, with all the recent Apollo posts, here’s Blue Origin pushing to new heights earlier today.

Apollo source code

This article is actually a couple years old. But if you haven’t seen it, it’s a fun read.

Keep in mind that this software was literally woven into the Apollo Guidance Computer’s (ACG’s) memory by hand. Wire by wire, the 0’s and 1’s were stitched together to get us to the Moon.

Programmers, at least the ones I like to hang out with, have always had a sense of humor in the commenting of their code. It’s nice to see the programming team for Apollo was no exception.