Once Upon a Space Station

Ah, I always love a great space station, don't you?

Up until now, humankind has been a neophyte in the art of building space stations. Our most ambitious project to date, the ISS--International Space Station--is the most recent of several orbiting platforms, including Skylab (1973-79) and the Russian Mir (1986-2001), the first modular space station. In 1983, in a partnership with the European Space Agency, NASA began to launch a series of Spacelab modules, that were eventually connected to evolve into the present-day ISS. You can read more about it in A Brief History of Space Stations before the ISS on the Popular Science website.

But the space stations we envision in science fiction romance are usually a thousand generations removed from these early experimental designs.


MONA Loa Station, a covert military
base, as pictured on the cover of Part II
of Inherit the Stars (serialized version).

Space stations play a major role in my work because they're a sensible offshoot of space exploration. Need an essential space hub, but the planetary bodies at the desired coordinates are hostile to human life? No problemo. Plant a space station in orbit and you have an instant galactic way station.

But what about the expense and difficulties of constructing an orbiting space station? Exponentially less expensive and traumatic than losing an entire colony to some natural catastrophe, I would think.

In the not so distant future, we could plant a space station in orbit around Jupiter (if we can figure out adequate radiation shielding) or Saturn to serve as a support hub for exploration or colonization of some of the more promising of their 100+ shared moons--Europa, Titan and Enceladus, among them.

But space stations don't actually have to orbit planets or even suns. If they're all about strategic defense location or optimum position for science and astronomy--like MONA Loa/Andromeda Station at various points in its history--then they can be 'anchored' to a specific location in space by using occasional retrorockets to keep them in their intended position. 


Andromeda Station, the re-named and
re-purposed MONA Loa, is the setting
for Farewell Andromeda 200 years later.

Of course, "a specific location in space" is all relative, because it's not like a point on Earth that can be defined by GPS. In space, everything moves and orbits and careens around the cosmos. It's like a gigantic galactic waltz with billions and billions of moving parts.

A non-orbiting space station would most likely be positioned according to relative landmarks--hmm, would that be "starmarks?"--in space, but those positions are not stationary. In terms of anchoring to any particular spot, it's all relative.

Or maybe the intent isn't to remain "anchored" at all. Space stations may have their own form of propulsion so they can be moved about under power and be deployed as superships or bases where needed.

Another locale in my series is Talstar Station introduced in Courting Disaster in the current Embrace the Romance: Pets in Space 2 collection. Talstar is most famous for being home to the Universal Flight Academy, but also houses the Headquarters of the mighty Carduwan Fifth Fleet.

Talstar will also play an important role in a far future Inherited Stars Universe story entitled The Shell and the Star, where Talstar's energy collection systems have powered the station for eons. Countless generations, in fact. Current plans are to release this new story in 2018.

Talstar Station is seen orbiting planet Veros
in this Courting Disaster graphic.

And you'll soon be introduced to yet another space station, one that exists not that far into our future and orbiting our own world.

In upcoming release, The Outer Planets, the mission launches from a major Earth-orbiting hub nicknamed ASP. That's an acronym, of course, and it stands for Armstrong Space Port. I think the tribute behind the Armstrong annotation is probably pretty evident. :)

I envision Armstrong Space Port as a sort of "Gargantuan ISS"--an orbiting space city with businesses, tourism, medical and research centers, and science and space launch facilities built for both government projects and private industry.

Space stations are, and always have been, a big part of science fiction. Here's a video of the "Top 10 Space Stations from Movies and TV" where you may recognize some of the iconic structures, as well get a glimpse of some totally new-to-you sci-fi locales.

By the way, I picture ASP as being most similar to Gateway Station. You may not recognize the name at first, but you're almost certain to recognize the scene. :)



Not sure that I agree with all the choices, but I do love #6 (of course!), #5 for its dynamics, #2 for being such a landmark Sci-Fi icon, and of course #4, arguably the most famous TV space station of them all.

But #1? Yeah, I don't think too many can argue with that. Its pretty much come to define the term "Space Station."

What are your favorites?

Have a great week!

Once Upon a Space Station

A Glimpse into the Backstory of The Inherited Stars Series

If you've seen the covers of my novelette, Farewell Andromeda, and The Network, which is Part II of the serialized version of the novel Inherit the Stars, you might have noticed something.

Hey, that space station looks familiar!

The covers seem to share a nearly identical image of some major space hardware.



Indeed they do!

Say hello to Andromeda Station--an astronomy and science outpost at the very edge of the Milky Way Galaxy--and MONA Loa spaceport--a remote, covert operations base. The reason the two stations look identical is because they are, in fact, the same space station--distanced in time by two centuries.

The oddly named MONA Loa is actually a compound name. It represents both the production name given the station by its designer, Zaviar Mennelsohn, a man obsessed with the supernatural, who named all of his creations after paranormal phenomenon. For example, his earlier designs carried names like Banshee, Djinn and Firebird, and more recent productions have names you may already be familiar with--Phantom, Specter and Spirit. In Voodoo mysticism, a "loa" is a spirit who is an intermediary between humanity and a greater power. The MONA acronym was later added by Mennelsohn's son, standing for Mobile Operations for Network Activities.

Though MONA Loa is abandoned after the events described as "Operation Reset" in Inherit the Stars, it is accidently rediscovered (a future story in itself!) and later repurposed as Andromeda Station.

Because one does not simply let a magnificent cast-off space station float idly in the void forever.

The defunct MONA Loa is reclaimed by an investment consortium who intends to make a tidy profit off the legendary spaceport. It is equipped with several high-powered telescopes, other essential astronomy equipment and a state-of-the-art science lab, all housed in the upper hexagonal portion of the structure and available for lease by individuals with hefty grants, governments or major corporations.

The lower portions of the station which once served as quarters and living areas for Network residents now provides hotels, staff housing, restaurants, and entertainment venues for adventurous extreme tourists who seek an exciting vacation destination at the edge of the galaxy.

The docking arms once used to deploy and receive supply ships and covert forces now welcome specialized deep space charter ships designed to cross the vast expanses with an unique drive system developed during the Network heydays. (Another Mennelsohn invention.)

But Andromeda Station has a secret.

Part of the structure's legacy from the former MONA Loa station is a data library that was left secreted away in the memory of its primary central processor--a forgotten history that spans nearly 14,000 years.

A past patiently waiting to be rediscovered.

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The Inherited Stars Series

The year is 3500 AD—more or less. No one really keeps track anymore. Since the fall of peacekeeper planet, LaGuardia, two centuries before, much has been lost. Few remember that LaGuardia was once known as Draxis. Fewer still have knowledge that Draxis once guarded a spatial vortex—a crossrip in time and space—and passageway to a legendary world called Earth where the human species originated. Somewhere, hidden in a forgotten archive, lie the secrets of all that came before and the chronicles of the men and women who helped forge a future in the stars.

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Have a great week!

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