Mars (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Today’s post is brought to you by Thursday’s Children, a weekly blog hop about the things that inspire people to write. I meant to get a post up for last week’s hop, but that didn’t happen. Must…be…better…blogger…
If you follow me on Twitter, you might have seen my brain explode the other day. This happens on a fairly regular basis, but not always in a public forum. I was working away on my short story, the one that I’ve been trying to get posted for close to a month (I think – too lazy to go look), and it suddenly decided that it needed to become a full-fledged novel instead of a simple short story. Does this sound familiar to anyone out there? I think I might have had one slice too many of the Dark Lord’s cake – my simple little stories have gone all complex on me. 🙂
WTF, brain? I wanted to write a short story, not a new effing novel! I’m already writing one of those! #writerproblems
— Kay Kauffman (@kaysielynn) June 7, 2013
Anyway, I know I’ve mentioned this particular WIP once or twice, but I don’t think I’ve mentioned any details. You know, what inspired it and such. And it’s really intriguing, or at least I think so. See, it’s about a manned mission to Mars. I know it’s been done already and by better writers than me (Ray Bradbury, anybody?), but that’s not going to stop me. The difference between Ray Bradbury and me is that it could actually happen in my lifetime, and that’s where my inspiration came from. There is a Dutch company putting together an expedition to the Red Planet. The plan is to establish a permanent human settlement on Mars within ten years.
HOW FREAKING AMAZING IS THAT?!?!
A proud Trekkie and sci-fi nut, this totally appealed to me and when Seymour told me about it, I’m not sure who was more excited, me or him. It would be so incredible to be one of the first Martian colonists, wouldn’t it? And of course, once I heard about that, well, the wheels in my head started turning and they haven’t stopped since.
And it seems like Mars is everywhere now! Just this morning as I was cruising through my Twitter feed, I stumbled on a link to an article about possible radiation exposure levels astronauts heading to Mars would experience and couldn’t help clicking through. Of course, I keep thinking of the Martian landscape as depicted on Futurama (I love that show), but I’ve also had an urge to re-watch Life on Mars and Defying Gravity since the news about the Mars One project entered into my consciousness. And I’d love to read The Martian Chronicles; I remember reading one of the stories in middle school, but I don’t remember which one and Bradbury is a genius.
This truly is an exciting time in which to live. Between manned missions to Mars and the theoretical possibility of warp travel, I can’t wait to see what other advances will be made in space travel and exploration in my lifetime. Perhaps the stories I’ve grown to love so much through five seasons of Star Trek and ten different movies will one day become akin to reality?
If you were guaranteed a spot on the Mars mission and all you had to do was accept or decline, would you do it?
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Related articles
- Manned Missions to Mars: Scientists Discuss Red Planet Exploration This Week (space.com)
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- Space radiation results should spark manned Mars mission debate (guardian.co.uk)
- Why We Can’t Send Humans to Mars Yet (And How We’ll Fix That) (wired.com)
- NASA: Shielding, New Propulsion Technologies Needed for Manned Mission to Mars (voanews.com)
Suddenly they all died. The end. 
I’m not a sci-fi nut in any sense of the word and I would no doubt turn down the chance to go to Mars, but offer me a ride on the vessel from Farscape and I’m game. 🙂
(From UBC) 🙂
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I’ve never seen Farscape, but I just looked it up on imdb.com and it sounds really interesting. Thanks for stopping by! 🙂
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Accept, accept, accept!!! Need I say more?! I love Star Trek and all things sci-fi and have been threatening to blast off into space for years, much to the disgust of my children! Great post Kay, rattled my sci-fi bones!
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It would be so much fun, wouldn’t it? How exciting would it be to fly among the stars, to see all the nebulae and comets and supernovas in person? Man, it would be cool to walk on another planet, wouldn’t it? 🙂
Thanks for stopping by! Glad you enjoyed the post!
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If anyone offered me a chance to go to Mars there would be a sonic boom as I made my way to the capsule.
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I would so love to go exploring in space! To see the moon and the planets and the stars…that would be amazing. Utterly, unspeakably amazing. 🙂
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Io is where I’d want to go.The only real place for life outside this world.
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I want to see it all. 🙂
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My wife has never understood that I’d go in a heartbeat if someone offered me the chance. “But don’t you love us?”
I can’t explain it to her.
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I’d just take my family along. They’d all love to go, too. Problem solved! 🙂
However, for one who doesn’t get it, I’ve got nothing. I like exploring too much and have a hard time putting myself in the shoes of those who don’t.
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My wife would go if they had soaps. I wonder if she could learn Venusian.
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Oh, soaps. I broke that addiction a long time ago, but I still feel a bit nostalgic for them every now and then. Sadly, most of the ones I watched have now gone off the air, only to be replaced by yet another vapid talk show. *shudder*
I wonder if they have vapid talk shows on Mars…I hope not. I’d be there already if that’s the case.
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I do hope you’re not referring to Jerry Springer. I may be vapid but do I recognise true class when I see it.
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Actually, no – more like Sharon Osborne. I can do without listening to her and her friends prattle on about prettying up their lady bits, thanks. And if it’s not them, then it’s Divorce Court or Judge Judy or the like. I can live without those shows, too.
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I’d like to dream about Mars, but I’ll gladly give my seat to another member in my Trekkie family who really, really wants to go. I like Earth and I’m not done exploring stuff and places right here. 🙂
http://www.miaceleste.com/?p=376
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There is, indeed, a lot to explore here that I haven’t seen yet. But I can’t help longing to see the stars. 🙂
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I’m glad you made it this week 🙂 As for a seat on the Mars voyage, I would decline. Earth is a gorgeous planet and what I’ve seen of Mars (from photos of course) doesn’t compare in terms of beauty. Also I’ve never been much of a camper, so doing without my creature comforts doesn’t appeal. But I completely agree that we live during very exciting times. I just saw a little blurb about the existence of “dark atoms” and some sort of unseen (by us) universe that could be as complex as our own. THAT kind of thing makes my head explode….
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The only way I like to camp is in a camper. Thank goodness I married someone who shares my sentiments on camping! 🙂 I don’t think I’d heard about the dark atoms story, though – that’s incredible! Wouldn’t it be neat to be able to see that kind of universe? My geeky little heart is soaring at the thought. 😀
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Yes, that would be cool, when I have more time I plan to read a bit more about it. I don’t normally have much interest in sci-fi, but…darkness, hell yeah 😉
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I’m interested in so many things that I don’t have time to read about them all as much as I’d like. Science (and by extension, sci-fi) is one of them.
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I read about that, too and thought the very same thing. Only, it’s a death sentence that trip. Imagine they want to send you to mars…to live. Here’s hoping they’re planning on a way to get you food and shelter, and that little necessity called, air 🙂 My writer brain thinks it’s awesome. But that analytic part, not so much!
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My writer brain – and my geeky little heart – have overlooked a few of those things. You make good points. But still, it’s hard not to be excited! 😀
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I think I’m too much of a wimp to go on a mission to Mars! And I have been put off going into space by watching programmes about astronauts training and being spun around in special spinny thing (can’t remember what it’s called!!) until they black out. Not my idea of fun! But your story sounds good – I do enjoy sci-fi and I LOVED Star Trek: Into Darkness. 🙂
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Yeah, I don’t think I could handle that zero-g simulation. I can’t handle the ride at the local amusement park that does essentially the same thing (or rather, I’m too chicken to try it after hearing all the stories about people losing their lunch on it). But still, it would be awe-inspiring to see, wouldn’t it?
I haven’t yet seen Star Trek Into Darkness. My husband saw it and wished he hadn’t; neither of us have thus far been big fans of the reboot. I’m waiting for it to come out on DVD before I see it – it’s cheaper, the popcorn is better, and my couch is way more comfortable than any theater seats. 😀
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Thanks for joining us. I would totally go to Mars. Last week I was in Taipei (I live in Hong Kong so it’s not that far!) and caught the traveling Star Trek exhibition. They had a full scale bridge and transporter room and it was pretty friggin’ amazing 😉
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You’re most welcome! I’ve been wanting to for a while and just haven’t known what to write about.
That traveling Star Trek exhibit sounds AMAZING! When my husband and I got married, we went to Las Vegas for our honeymoon. Our plan was to go to the Star Trek Experience; he’d always wanted to but had never been, and I’d never heard about it but once I had, I was dying to go. The only problem was that it was closed the summer we were there – it was open in 2008, closed in 2009, and reopened in 2010. Talk about disappointed!
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Not too sure I’d travel to Mars at all, but write about it? Maybe.
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How about reading about it? We read one of the short stories that comprise Ray Bradbury’s The Martian Chronicles when I was in middle school and I remember being completely enthralled. I’ve been dying to read the whole work now, ever since I heard about the Mars One mission. Have you ever read The Martian Chronicles?
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Bradbury was my favorite writer when I was growing up. The Martian Chronicles was one of his best.
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I read a bunch of his short stories in middle school and I loved them all. When I was in college, I took a banned books class one semester and we read Fahrenheit 451. I loved that, too, but it’s been ages since I’ve read any of his work. I should fix that. 🙂
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