The One_A Cruise Through the Solar System
Page 17
Dozen Song
Boyfriend accompanying Violet Breeze
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Eddie Sturgis
Pageant MC
Played Ballyhooer (uncredited) in 1933 original
Etta Mae Henry
Sister accompanying Irene Henry
Played Native (uncredited) in 1933 original
Hannah Washington
Pageant contestant from Mars (Planet)
Played Native Child (uncredited) in 1933 original
Hazel Hope
Pageant contestant from Mimas, the “Death Star moon” (Saturn I)
Hazel Howell played New Yorker (uncredited) in 1933 original
Helen Worthington
Pageant Contestant from Oberon (Uranus IV moon)
Played New York Theatergoer (uncredited) in 1933 original
Irene Henry
Pageant contestant from Ganymede (Jupiter’s 3rd closest and largest moon)
Played Baby (uncredited) in 1933 original
J.O. Taylor
Pageant contestant from Luna (Earth’s moon)
Cinematographer of the 1933 original
Jacinta Wawatai
Sister Accompanying Jean Wawatai (Māori)
Played Feral Child in 2005 remake
Jean Wawatai
Pageant Contestant from Titan (Saturn VI, Saturn’s largest moon)
Jean Doran played New York Theatergoer (uncredited) in 1933 original
Mason Weaver
Pageant contestant from Earth
Played Photographer in Kong: Skull Island
Jodie Taylor
1st-class passenger wife of Walter
Played Burlesque Dancer in 2005 remake
Katherine Sparks
Pageant contestant from Titania (Uranus III, Uranus’ largest moon)
Played Native (uncredited) in 1933 original
Kathryn Curry
Pageant Contestant from Triton (Neptune’s largest moon)
Played Native (uncredited) in 1933 original
Lillian Young
Pageant contestant from Umbriel (Uranus II moon)
Played New York Theatergoer (uncredited) in 1933 original
Lorraine Ashbourne
Friend accompanying Lillian Young
Played Theatre Actor in 2005 remake
Madame Sul-Te-Wan
Reigning pageant winner (former Miss Titania)
Played Native (uncredited) in 1933 original
Nathan Curry
Brother accompanying Kathryn Curry
Played Native (uncredited) in 1933 original
Pat Harmon
Pageant contestant from Rhea (Saturn V, Saturn’s 2nd-largest moon)
Played Gunman (uncredited) in 1933 original
Ruby Dandridge
Mother accompanying Vivian Dandridge
Played Native Dancer (uncredited) in 1933 original
Shannon Dudley
Mother accompanying Florence Dudley
Shannon Wilson played Vaudeville actress in 2005 remake
Susan Eastwood
Friend accompanying Pat Harmon
Played Vaudeville actress in 2005 remake
Violet Breeze
Pageant contestant from Ceres
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Vivian Dandridge
Pageant contestant from Venus (Planet)
Played Native Child (uncredited) in 1933 original
Ship Crew
Jackie Silver
first-class valet
Played Member of Ship’s Crew (uncredited) in 1933 original
Justin Callahan
Bartender
Character from Spider Robinson’s Callahan’s Place series
Ivan Thomas
Conductor and DJ
Played Conductor (uncredited) in 1933 original
Bill Fisher
Human Maître d’ (married to Larry Fisher)
Played Member of Ship’s Crew (uncredited) in 1933 original
Pirates
Jake “King” Kong
Pirate King
Forrest Tucker played Jake Kong in the 1975 TV series The Ghost Busters
Merian C. Cooper
Pirate
Played Pilot of Plane That Kills Kong (uncredited) in 1933 original
Frank Cullen
Pirate
Stunts (uncredited) crew in 1933 original
Sam Cummings
Pirate
Double (uncredited) crew in 1933 original
Tex Higginson
Pirate
Played Member of Ship’s Crew / Assistant Director / Taxi Driver (uncredited) in 1933 original
Walter Kimpton
Pirate
Played Member of Ship’s Crew (uncredited) in 1933 original
Al Knight
Pirate
Played Warrior (uncredited) in 1933 original
Tom O’Grady
Pirate
Played New York Theatergoer (uncredited) in 1933 original
Allen Pomeroy
Pirate
Played Motorcycle Policeman (uncredited) in 1933 original
A.J. Prather
Pirate
Played Native (uncredited) in 1933 original
Milton Shockley
Pirate
Played Warrior (uncredited) in 1933 original
Monte Vandergrift
Pirate
Played Police Officer (uncredited) in 1933 original
Sid Conrad
Pirate
Played Petrox Chairman in 1976 remake
Peter Cullen
Pirate
Played King Kong (voice) (uncredited) in
1976 remake
Patrol
Geneva Williams
Patrol Lieutenant
Played Native (uncredited) in 1933 original
Other
Harvey Parry
Beanstalk capsule attendant
Stunt driver: car crashes (uncredited) in 1933 original
Appendix 3: Science
Any good science-fiction story is based on a combination of storytelling and the science that is being depicted and explored. This is what makes the difference between science fiction and science fantasy, where anything can happen even if it does not follow the sciences as we know them.
For this story, I have tried to base everything on extrapolations of what is actually known or speculated about in 2018 Some of the ideas came easily; others were more difficult.
New YorkDome over New York CityOriginally proposed by Buckminster Fuller in 1960, when he proposed a two-mile “geodesic dome spanning Midtown Manhattan that would regulate weather and reduce air pollution.” The concept was to save energy by regulating the temperature inside the dome rather than for each individual building. Although he did not specify the materials to build it, he speculated that “the cost of snow removal in New York City would pay for the dome in ten years.” In a city based on electric public transportation with clean technologies, such a design could well appeal to people in the future and has been proposed in various forms as part of many science fiction stories.
One example is “Ordeal in Space” by Robert A. Heinlein, in which the protagonist mentions in passing that “Only a small part of Great New York was roofed over in those days.” Although I, too, gloss over it, I envision the city covered in a kind of fully transparent solar cell. It would be derived from the one developed in August 2014 by researchers at Michigan State University “which could turn any window or sheet of glass into a photovoltaic solar cell.” In this way, they could use the dome to not only keep out (or funnel to reservoirs) the rain and snow, but to also provide electricity during the day for the city.
General technology usedWristpadsWristpads are an extrapolation from the original smartwatches as described in 1946 in the Dick Tracy comics. It was used as an advertising tie-in for the Samsung Smartwatch and in describing the Apple Watch. It is a staple item of everyone’s daily life. In the common version that combines the current smartwatch concepts, with enhanced network connections and the successor of Siri, Cortana, or Hound; or, if you prefer, a future version of ‘weak AI’ to enable voice, holographic photography, and calls.
The biggest social effect of this technology will be what can be called coveillance, the fact of mutual surveillance in a society. In this case, the advent of a population all wearing holographic cameras with a future generation of weak AI that will be monitoring your surroundings, heart rate, and sounds around you while being connected to the always-on the network will result in a change in personal attacks and safety. Thus, a woman will be safe walking alone at night, as what rapist would attack knowing that their face and a recording of their actions, along with exact GPS coordinates, would be in police hands before they could do anything, let alone when these would be admissible in court and used against them?
Wristpads are powered by radioactive diamond batteries so they do not need to be recharged. These batteries use carbon-14 to create energy while being safe to wear. They have a half-life of more than 5,000 years.
BJ’s is an enhanced hobbyist’s version; he has added to the on-board memory, used a cutting-edge enhanced AI, and included a few tools that make his work possible. The most important of these is a mini 3D printer. He can use it to “print” clips or custom mini tools as needed, and then it can grind them up and reuse the material.
Rapiscan Security ChamberThe Rapiscan Security Chamber is the logical extension of today’s full-body airport scanner. In that, both uses a millimeter wave scanner or backscatter x-ray machine to look under your clothes to see that you are not carrying any hidden weapons, along with airborne particle detectors that check for traces of explosives. Here, I’m presuming that they have been extended to completely enclose the passenger in a bomb- proof chamber to run something similar to a full CT (Computed Tomography) scan to be sure that you have no unexpected implants or hidden bombs. Think of the Heath Ledger Batman movie, The Dark Knight. In it, an oversized man had been forced to have surgery to remove most of his abdominal organs and been stuffed full of explosives with a cellphone detonator. In a world with replacement limbs and organs, the need for such checks would be much greater than today, and the Rapiscan Security Chamber is the logical extension of the invasion of our bodies in the name of security. Rapiscan Systems founded by the inventor Dr. Steven W. Smith. In the future the scans will be more than just x-rays, as they will be doing a chemical analysis of parts of the artificial limbs to determine that they are safe.
HologramsThroughout the story, holograms are used where video or TV would be used today. A hologram is a system that diffracts light into a 3-dimensional Image. This technology will be prevalent and used for everything from personal communications, to news and entertainment broadcasts, to advertising via advancements in plasmonics. The ability to provide this type of recording and broadcast is built into the wristpads.
AIsThe ship, most businesses, and even the wristpads have what could be called weak AIs. The vast majority of all ‘artificial intelligence’ work produces useful pattern matching or information-processing capabilities, but with no bearing on creating a self-aware sentient being. In many ways, this is the concept behind various current technologies and does not take them much beyond where we are today. Consider Apple’s Siri, Google Assistant, Microsoft’s Cortana, SoundHound’s Hound, or Amazon’s Echo and add to them a limited power of IBM’s Watson or Google’s AlphaGo; then look at what most people need on a daily basis. The features you can mass produce into these AIs would be the combination of a secretary/receptionist to manage your calls and calendars, some way to voice search for important data and to pre-collate the news and items that are needed on a daily basis. In shops, these would include inventory and reorder based on purchases, keeping track of customer/partner data (Think Siri combined with a Salesforce CRM.), and other repetitive tasks that don’t require a lot of decision making. (As an aside, this will probably lead to a certain amount of technological unemployment as the more basic tasks are taken over by AIs and robots.) On the spaceship, these tasks would include monitoring the surrounding area, similar to what Robert Heinlein described in his story Space Jockey: “The anti-collision radar guards all directions five hundred miles out. If anything holds a steady bearing for three seconds, a direct hook-up starts the jets.”
These types of automated services, crew roster, security monitoring, inventory, menus, etc. would be managed by the ship’s AI, which would be a more powerful version of the weak AIs in the wristpads. In the description of the problems that the NYC Mayor and council were having at the start of the book, it is their municipal AI (again, handling the mundane tasks) which malfunctioned, and BJ was called in to troubleshoot and repair it. In that case, the hijinks are based on the Mycroft Holmes AI as it appears in The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, also by Robert Heinlein.
Food on the ship and in the coloniesCHON food
I first encountered the concept of CHON while reading Beyond the Blue Event Horizon by Frederik Pohl. In the story, he explains that “the idea of mining comets for food wasn’t new, (sic) it went back to Krafft Ehricke in the 1950s.” The basic concept is that many of the comets, asteroids (and, as we now know, moons) have large amounts of CHON: Carbon, Hydrogen, Oxygen, and Nitrogen. The fact is that most of what we and our food are made up from is CHON.
Recently scientists have discovered that this is true and have “observed the formation of substantial quantities of ribose and a diversity of structurally related sugar
molecules such as arabinose, xylose, and lyxose in the room-temperature organic residues of photo-processed interstellar ice analogs initially composed of H2O, CH3OH, and NH3.” So far we have confirmed the presence of hydrocarbon on many of the moons and comets, as well as methane on Mars, and there is a whole classification of carbonaceous asteroids. So we know that CHON chemicals are abundant in our solar system. With proper processing, these can be used to either directly (via industrial processing) or indirectly grow crops or microbial (yeast- or algae-based) food. Thus basic food sources will not be a problem for the colonies. In this story, I’m using a combination of the 3, with farmed food (soil and hydroponic), yeast/algae tanks, and direct derivative food via a future “grandchild” of today’s 3D printing combined with advanced molecular gastronomy.
FarmingIt has been pointed out that one of the big problems with the farming done in the book and movie The Martian is that the soil contains heavy metals. It has been found that using Martian and Luna regolith simulant that plants can grow with the addition of fertilizer and that ten crops were both safe to eat and tasty.
Therefore I’m presuming that on most colonies for years 1 to 10 food is hydroponic, and phytoremediation is used to clean soil to safe levels. Colonists use bioengineered plants with the addition of chelating agent to the soil for the phytoremediation to work better and to decrease time. For example, alfalfa can be grown and harvested up to 12 times per Earth year, or 22 times per Martian year (every 30.4 sols). After the first crop has taken hold and removed a preliminary level of metals for at least a year, Rollie Pollies’ (also known as pill bugs) would be introduced to help remove the harmful chemicals. Then in years 11 to 20 a combination of the two will be used, together with a mix of crop plants that don’t take up heavy metals plus more of those that perform phytoremediation, until levels are safe. They will also have filtered anything out of the water that will be part of the cycle in the agriculture domes via distillation.