Editorial – May 2026: Moon Trek
Hello everyone
Now here’s a quandary for you. We’ve had people disbelieving the Apollo missions to the Moon happened. Now it’s happening with the Artemis II mission. If it’s a conspiracy, it must involve a lot of people, not to mention their families, and cost so much for them all to keep quiet that it would be cheaper to go to the Moon. It’s hardly surprising that they also believe the Earth is flat. No sign of the elephants supporting it or why the Earth is exempt and the Moon is round.
Every generation has such sceptical people. Even more remarkable they actually believe in the Internet or they wouldn’t use it. So there are some limits to their believability. So, if satellites transfer Internet signals, then why not the little extra step that we’ve got manned space stations in orbit for the past 40 years?
If they only believe what they see with their eyes then stage magicians must really fool them. The same with our genre films. If we could employ real extra-terrestrials for Science Fiction films, why aren’t they at world premieres or having their life stories ghostwritten and in publication? I wonder if they have flat planets? Producing counter-arguments isn’t difficult when ‘fake’ evidence is so flimsy.
Who wouldn’t have missed the Artemis II taking off? Who wouldn’t have their hearts in their mouths for a success. Space travel is a dangerous business. Launches and landings are always the hardest parts but another two missions before another Moon landing. I saw all the other six Apollo missions. If it’s proven that the Moon has enough water, then how long before a permanent moonbase? Compared to a planned trip to Mars, that would be a sinecure in comparison. Based on the time it takes to get there, I doubt if there would be a round trip without landing. The moons Phobos or Demos would be the likely choices. A lot easier to go down to Mars from there because you can select different locations. A lot of planning. All fodder for Science Fiction until it happens. It would certainly create a revision to our thoughts about Mars and any future stories.
In many respects, Science Fiction can be viewed in social periods of its time, even set in the future, all having defining moments. Our ideas on spacecraft changed when mankind ventured into space. No contained rockets but multi-staged. A future that looked too white and clean was grunged and filled with pollution. Smaller computers and mobile phones changed in every genre. Anything that changes our reality significantly is going to create changes in the fiction. Science Fiction is no exemption. It has to adapt and look to the future, even in the Science Fiction age we are currently living in. Currently, SF is stalling because agents deter their writers into making more money from fantasy but also because no one is thinking beyond global warming. It doesn’t need a fictional solution but more that mankind will survive beyond it.
Of course, predicting changes for the future is a lot harder now. How can we anticipate the future of terrestrial technology, let alone problems because its always changing in front of us now. So we have to look on where mankind is likely to go. Certain establishing bases on the Moon and Mars will either show SF authors were correct or not will still change things. Whether it will follow similar patterns remains to be seen. Well, until the first crime on an off-world colony.
The same would also apply to our first extra-terrestrial contact. Will it follow the Science Fiction template or be even weirder, when you consider all the possibilities we’ve covered so far. There aren’t that many choices really. Benevolent or malevolent. There isn’t much in between except the latter could exterminate mankind. There’s also likely to be some interesting questions if they look like any if the designs used in SF literature, films and television, other mediums are available, we could also have the wrong interpretation of their behaviour, either way.
The worse case scenario is finding we’re Johnny-come-latelies and other alien civilisations have been and gone a long time ago. I’ve pointed out before that intelligence is one of nature’s cul-de-sacs, so it might not have happened elsewhere. Would they have had their own global warming or nuclear war. Either case, let alone another scenario, I doubt if their technology would have survived. We have examples here of how quickly things decay or nature reclaims.
If it is a matter of survival, then we have to show we can mature as a species and focus on the problems that are beyond our own. That’s not going particularly well right now. The most we can hope for, we learn from current events and not repeat them again. That’s not likely to happen perfectly. We can only hope.
Going back to the introduction, the real problem is there are some real conspiracies out there but they tend to be revealed eventually and tend not to be world-wide, just from particular countries. So focusing on the real than fake saves a lot of energy.
Thank you, take care, good night and why would elephants be so much bigger than our reality’s counterparts?
Geoff Willmetts
editor: www.SFCrowsnest.info
A Zen thought: Did you get it?
What Qualities Does A Geek Have: Heavy thinking is a way of life.
The Reveal: Weather deserves to be inconsistent.
Computer Reveal: I have now a 5 day plan when it comes to my laptop. If I think I’ve resolved a problem, let the computer run for 5 days in case it recurs. Case in point is what was causing my computer to boot up properly. Oscam’s Razor kicked in. As I always thought it was signal interference and I’ve been blocking cable interference, the one thing I hadn’t covered was the wi-fi socket. It’s not something you can cover with a piece of plastic but a plug and cable to the router. Totally out of the box there and an even bigger surprise it worked. An odd effect that the connection to the back-up computer was lost and also needed a cable. No big problem, just meant bringing the router into the living room than having to desal with two cables to where the Router was put. If you do do this, choose a flat white cable you can see and watch your feet on the floor and use the clips provided to secure to the wall.
Observation: I can understand the change to sending a pass number to your phone rather than using a password but it makes the assumption everyone has a mobile phone. Maybe I’m missing something here but where was the announcement this was going to spread so rapidly?
Feeling Stressed: Deservedly so.
Submissions:-
If you think having free books to review isn’t enough, how about reading them months ahead of everyone? I mean real months. Beats a time machine. Surely some of you folk reading here want to read books?
I did think that having a lot of text about submitting material to SFCrowsnest would attract those with a compulsion to read and understand things the geek way. The main problem with the Internet is that it tends to encourage less reading, so time to take a different approach. The original notes will be left on July2009 editorial although the links aren’t likely to work.
With your cover email, tell me something about yourself so I don’t work in a vacuum. The boss in the tower, also called Stephen Hunt, describes me as a ‘Dutch Uncle’ in that I’m good with advice and can explain when I see something that is wrong. Egos should be left at the door as I’m only interested in your talent and how to improve it.
Reviews:-
I always have a clarion call for new reviewers and if you have the yen to learn, you’ll quickly get the ropes if you’re never done it before but you must show me a sample, especially if you can follow my guidelines. We can usually get paper-based books in the UK but if you live abroad, then you might have to stick with ebooks. If you’ve picked a book we haven’t reviewed, then it stands a better chance of being used so use the SFC search engine to see first but I need to see how you would write for us.
The obvious qualification is a desire to read regularly and like to tell others about the book without giving away too many spoilers. The benefit is access to free books for the price of a review.
I want to give you the opportunity to get things right so look up the Review Guidelines link: https://www.sfcrowsnest.info/so-you-want-to-write-reviews-for-sfcrowsnest-what-you-need-to-know-by-geoff-willmetts/
Fiction:-
Although we can’t pay for submissions, what we do make up for is exposure. Only the Sci-Fi Channel gets more hits than us so it’s worthwhile getting us on your writer’s CV. Please avoid samplings from book’s you might be writing or have had in print elsewhere as I do check. New original work is best and whether I accept or reject, you will be told of any problems I see so you look your best and a grammar check that is equal to the pro-world. Even the boss finds me scarily accurate.
Flash or One-Page Fiction:-
Speaks for itself. The shortest fiction possible is also the toughest to write as no word must be wasted.
Link here for details: https://www.sfcrowsnest.info/one-page-stories-or-flash-fiction-submissions-instructions-by-gf-willmetts/
Short Stories:-
The definition of a short story is anything up to 30 pages and then it becomes a novella. Bear in mind you want other people to read it on-line, stay somewhere between 5-20 pages. At least digitally, you don’t have to go double-line as HTML will do that automatically but think about being concise. If you want to send an attachment with these, then ask first and send as a TXT file as it removes most tetchy virus codes.
Look up the Short Stories Link by linking here: https://www.sfcrowsnest.info/so-you-really-want-to-write-an-sf-story-an-update-by-gf-willmetts/
Finally:-
The worse problem I see any samples is poor grammar. Although I don’t want you to think I seek perfection, the less work I have to do, the easier it is to focus on other problems you might have. It will also serve you in good stead if you ever approach paper-based publishers because they will send back any bad grammar samples because it’s not worth their time.
Good grammar is the tool of any writer. Don’t just depend on what you remember doing at school. There are plenty of decent grammar books out there, so remind yourself of the rules. If you think there are far too many to remember, get the major ones right before moving to the next so it becomes second nature.
This link, www.sfcrowsnest.info/the-guide-to-better-grammar-from-the-harrowed-hand-of-gf-willmetts/ will show you the common problems.
To submit, use our email address by joining the spaces as shown here: letters @ SFcrowsnest.info and use the subject matter as to what you’re submitting.
If you have any pastimes that can be used to pass the time in captivity, let me know and we’ll see if it can be turned into an article.
Comments directly to reviews should still work as before.
Good luck
Geoff
