Continuing with themes in the stories for Lunatics… Here’s number eight: Theme #8 Family Life versus Command Hierarchies Here’s the corporate-minded, government-agency vision for starting a space colony: use your rigorous training and selection program to find eight “perfect humans”, four male, four female. Then convince them to mate and produce offspring. Maybe this would work for hamsters. But for humans, it’s going to be the other way around. ISF crews are recruited as teams and thus based on family ties more than some committee’s ideal team selection parameters. Naturally, there will be some friction between this and the military or civilian agency teams on the Moon.
Earlier I posted a tiny picture of Hiromi as part of the preview of the Concept Art poster, but here’s the completed “Hiromi Aoki Lerner” drawing. Of course, like the others, this is drawn by Daniel Fu and digitally inked and painted by Terry Hancock. “Hiromi Aoki Lerner, wife of Dr. Robert Lerner, is the field doctor and nutritionist for the International Space Foundation’s Lunar Colony. Mrs Lerner holds a Masters in Health Science from the University of Toronto’s Mississauga Academy and a Masters in Space Nutrition from the University of Texas Online Branch. Only daughter of David Aoki, founder of Aoki Aerospace, Hiromi has been interested in space travel from her youth. She has a daughter, Georgiana Lerner age seven.”
Continuing with themes in the stories for Lunatics… Here’s number seven: Theme #7 Agrarian Reality versus Technocratic Image I call this the “white plastic walls” fallacy. People have an idea of spaceflight that is derived from the images created in the 1960s Moon program and lots of science fiction shows that try to glamorize it as the ultimate “futuristic” and “urban” experience. Because back then, urban was cool, and rural was always bad.
Some of you may be wondering where this “Phase I” Kickstart (and the work it’s meant to support) falls in our overall plan, and just how far it will take us. I don’t know exactly how fast we can progress — whether we’ll be able to keep getting enough people interested in contributing directly to the project or how many rewards, pre-sale DVDs, or merchandise we’ll be able to sell to keep the project funded. That’s really going to depend on the fans.
Continuing with themes in the stories for Lunatics… Here’s number six: Theme #6 Risk Averse Society versus the Thrill of the Frontier Of course, being too safe is a little scary in itself. Part of the reason people want to go is because it’s exciting. But the mores of Earth-bound society make it a sin to take too large a risk. How will that morality conflict with the ambitions of our settlers? Will they be blocked “for their own good”?
Continuing with themes in the stories for Lunatics… Here’s number five: Theme #5 Failsafes and Adaptation Space is a dangerous place, don’t get me wrong. But then again, so is Siberia or Alaska. Or the Sahara. There are dangers all over the world that are quite sufficient to kill an exposed human without important life-support or supplies. We don’t worry about that most of the time, because we’ve adapted to these dangers. We do that through the equipment we carry (starting with clothes), through the behaviors we learn, and through the environments we create for ourselves.
I’ve reduced the prices on the original concept artwork sheets drawn by Daniel Fu by 50%. I’ve also made each one a separate reward, so you can pick which one you get. And I will include with each one a copy of the full-color concept-art poster, which includes portraits of all eight of the main characters, digitally inked and painted by me (I’ve been posting examples of these portraits as updates as I finish them).
I’ve realized that I haven’t actually posted scans of the original artwork that Daniel Fu created for us as concpet art. This is the sheet for Georgiana Lerner. Remember: this original artwork is for sale as one of our rewards! On Flickr From this, I created the digitally inked & colored version of “Georgiana Lerner” below, which will be on the “Concept Art Poster”:
If you’re an anti-spoiler purist, you might not want to read this one, but… Implicit in some of my posts about “No Children in Space”, is a story choice some American space fans probably find a little questionable, which is my decision to have Hiromi and Georgiana go up on a Soyuz launch vehicle which is (at least superficially) very much the same as today’s Soyuz launch system and Soyuz-TMA orbiter. Why not an American spacecraft? Are we (as Americans) being unpatriotic? Is this some liberal PC “world peace” thing? Photo Credit: Isaac Mao @ Flickr / CC By
