Hey all,
Next month I will embark on one of my most ambitious novel projects ever, tentatively titled “Moonbase: Redemption”. It’s set in the same general universe as the Liminal Sky series, but will be a stand-alone novel. Although the jumping off point is in a similar time frame as “The Stark Divide,” this one will encapsulate a lot of my hopes and dreams for the future.
Most of it is set on the moon, as the title suggests, and so I am taking a deep dive into all things lunar. I bought a lunar globe and a lunar atlas, and have been hitting up some of my scientific minded friends for ideas.
A few things I’ve discovered in my research:
1) A Group of Scientists is 3D Printing With Fake Moondust: This is a really cool story because it means that a lot of things could be manufactured on the surface of the moon – infrastructure, money, etc – saving huge monetary and fuel costs if the same materials had to be hauled up from Earth.
2) Moon Dust Can Kill You: On the other hand, actual moon dust is like asbestos on steroids. So a) you need to figure out how to keep it out of habitats, and b) if you make stuff from it, could it age and decompose with time, causing health issues similar to asbestos-filled buildings?
3) They’ve Found Ice and Water on the Moon: great news for organisms that need water to survive. Like us.
4) And Water Means We Could Make Rocket Fuel: Wanna get back to earth or take a siesta in the space station? We got your fuel covered, too.
5) They Could Live in One of These: Scientists recently discovered a series of extinct lava tubes in the Marius Hills region of the Moon. Future colonists could live inside one of these, and it would also help shield them from radiation.
I have so many more of these – things I never knew about our closest neighbor. I think they are going to make for a fantastic story. 🙂
For my writer friends – what was the last deep dive you did into research for a story? And how much of it did you actually use?