The Price of Exploration

Imagine you have been selected as a candidate for a one way trip to Mars. Your name will be forever immortalized in the history books of both planets. Because of your selfless sacrifice, the human species will continue to exist and evolve should a catastrophic event make one planet inhospitable for life. Its always a good idea to have a Plan B.
Makes sense; but now how do you feel? Do you have enough hope and faith in the human species to give your life? Is it worth it? Setting the foundations for the next home of mankind will be your job until the day you die. Yes, it will take three or four generations, but it is necessary. The Earth will not be here forever, nor will our Sun. As a species, we must either spread out to other stars, or face extinction. Sooner or later it will happen, if we continue to be a one planet species.
You've studied your whole life. This mission is what you were born for, a chance to go to a new world. Giving up everything. Total sacrifice. Total bliss. An adrenaline high for the rest of your life.
What would you ask for in compensation for your sacrifice? Assure family, friends and charitable organizations are taken care of, of course. Its a given that schools and streets are going to be named after you. The first born child (boy or girl) for twenty years will bear your name.
Wouldn't it be nice to know that you will die on another planet far away from your loved ones, because your faith in the human species, was as strong as the faith it had in itself.
See the link below.

500th new planet.

Can you believe it? I remember when there were only Nine of them. At least there was when I was in high school. Yes now there are eight with the reclassification of Pluto; eight that orbit around our star we call the Sun. Now remember the moons that orbit those planets. There are over one hundred and fifty, with Jujpiter and Saturn owning over a hundred by themselves. Some of these contain oceans of liquid water covered by miles of ice. Water has been found on our Moon as well, in the form of ice. In fact its been found to be extremely common everywhere, even in asteroids, and especially in comets.
Now look what we're finding. 500 more? Most of those planets are super gas giants, some much bigger than Jupiter. Some orbit their star every few days making them unable to support any chance of life due to the extreme temperatures. So far the one most similar to our planet is still about three times the mass of Earth. Multiply your weight by three and see how long you walk around.
If our eight planets have over one hundred and fifty moons, how many would five hundred planets have?
Beave's Math class
Most stars have planets+ most planets have moons+ water seems to be everywhere+ life as we know it needs water to exist= the universe is flourishing with life.
I hope I live long enough for it to be proven.
Check out the link below.

No longer alone.

Since first setting up this site, a lot of things have happened. The group at the college turned out to be The Adirondack center for writing. Over the last year, I have attended several workshops in the Adirondacks; you couldn't ask for more beautiful venues. I've been to conferences where literary agents and authors teach how to improve the art of writing and also explain how the industry works.
I met Russ Galen (a literary agent Giant) at one conference. One thing he said we all needed, was a platform... well here goes nothing.
I would be happy to give my story about what I've learned about writing. Before I became a member of the center, I knew nothing about literature, writing, or getting something published once it was completed.
At the time of this posting I have three chapters, a one page synopsis and a bio to one agent in the northeast U.S. And Mr Galen... is looking at the whole manuscript. Even if he isn't interested, at least I feel my query letter caught his attention. And that's nothing to sneeze at.
Another subject will be here from time to time. Since my main genre is speculative science fiction, your going to see things about certain fields of science. No vampires, no elves. You won't see anything about zombies, dragons or trolls; just science news and maybe my take on it.
I hope my writing is always as close to scientific reality as possible.
The difference between science fiction writers and legendary sci-fi writers is: the latter was right about his foresight, in one parallel universe or another.