Science And Science Fiction

By ANN Correspondent Aleta Vinas

Today’s science fiction is tomorrow’s science fact. DragonCon, billed as “America's largest, multi-media, popular arts convention—focusing on science fiction and fantasy, gaming, comics, literature, art, music, and film” is a mixture of today and tomorrow. The four day event takes place in Atlanta (GA) over Labor Day weekend every year.

While DragonCon certainly leans toward the science fiction end of the spectrum, there are four full days of hour long panels about space. The assortment of panels ranged from past space successes and failures into what the future holds for spaceflight for the US and other countries. The past year and the future of the Space Elevator was presented by part of the LiftPort Group, the business team behind the Space Elevator.

NASA astronaut Richard F. Gordon, Jr. discussed the space program as well as his personal experiences on Gemini XI and Apollo XII. Spaceflight historian Hugh Gregory reviewed other countries past year in space and what they are shooting for in the future. What’s next for the US space program was also presented by Dani Eder and Ginny Mauldin-Kinney.

The panel on SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) was presented by Professor William Keel. Keel discussed the Greenbank or Drake Equation. The equation, N = R x P x E x L x I x C x T , supplies us with an estimate of the number of inhabitable planets in our galaxy. The number has certainly not been agreed on in the astronomy community. Keel points out “How vast our ignorance is of really important factors in estimating the likelihood of intelligent life elsewhere and I think, that alone makes a modest investment in combing the sky worth it. We don’t know enough to tell if it’s a stupid idea or a brilliant idea.”

Professor Keel also spoke at another panel, Living in Einstein’s Universe. The panel covered the NASA – Chandra Outreach effort. Keel has written a book, The Sky at Einstein’s Feet due out shortly, which expands on topics in the panel.

That’s no Moon, it’s a Space Station panel covered how large a space station can be built in space within the limits of known physics today. The sizes, using varying components are much larger than someone might think. According to speaker Dani Eder, using carbon fiber, a rotating wheel space station can be built with a radius of 100 miles. Hydrogen bubble space stations were another possibility, which increases the size significantly, into the realm of hundreds of thousands of miles. “We haven’t reached a limit due to gravitational force but we’ve reached a limit due to the mechanical stability of the shape” say Eder. There is also the shortage of materials for a station so large.

Eder is a former rocket scientist who worked for Boeing/NASA for many years. He has worked on the space station as well as other programs. This is Eder’s seventh DragonCon. Many of Eder’s co-workers were sci-fi fans. Eder says “It’s a big influence on a lot of engineering and computer and other technical people. They were exposed to
it when they were young and they thought it was cool, so they pursued it.”

Eder became an engineer because of Star Trek and science fiction books he read. “If you don’t get people interested in the first place, you’re not going to get people into the field.”

Eder is also a charter member of Evil Geniuses for a Better Tomorrow, the professional association for “mad” scientists. There are several Evil Geniuses panels throughout the weekend where one can learn to take over the world for fun and profit.

DragonCon is not just panels, of course. Space and fantasy artwork is available, originals as well as limited editions. Noted artists on displayed include Leslie Camara, Bob Keck and Nicole Pellegrini. Using technology, DragonCon made available “Art on Demand.” You can place the art on tote bags, canvas, gloss or matte paper. Several medium choices were available.

Even the most conservative space fact fan took a walk on the sci-fi side. The most popular panels included four of the cast members from the now cancelled Fox series Firefly (2002). Cast members Ron Glass, Morena Bacarin, Adam Baldwin and Jewel Staite attended the convention to promote the opening of the movie, Serenity on September 30th, which is a continuation of six months after the series left off. A fan documentary about Firefly was being partially filmed at DragonCon. Titled, 'Done the Impossible,' the documentary is the story of the rise, fall and rebirth of Firefly as told by the fans, cast and crew of Firefly/Serenity.

Doing the impossible is how technology and space travel started. The Wright Brothers achieved the “impossible”, NASA achieved the “impossible”. At DragonCon science fiction and science fact join hands and the realization seems to be that anything is possible.

FMI www.dragoncon.org, www.donetheimpossible.com, www.serenitymovie.com, www.spacial-anomaly.com/nicpell