Category: CE 2224

A Note about the blog posts from the future [CE 2224]: In January of 2021, with Perseverance due to land on Mars the next month, NASA activated their experimental Quantum Transmitter. The transmitter was designed to communicate with Perseverance, without regard to location and at faster than light speeds—near real-time. Unfortunately, they lost the connection after the initialization routine was completed. However, as an unintended consequence, NASA connected with a specific locus in the space-time continuum located on the Moon in 2224. That locus was the storage device of the quantum computer of a popular blog site. It is from that blog site that these blog entries are extracted. I hope you enjoy a peek into our future, and hopefully, I’m not violating some temporal directive. So far, no visit from the time cops.

Guest Author: Kimber Abubakar, Communications Director, Mars Organics

Originally Posted: Monday, October 4, 2224 (Earth Standard Calendar)

The current move by the officials on Luna to subsidize organic waste processing is an affront to the cooperative and egalitarian culture the off-Earth settlements have fostered for 150 years. The current regulatory environment that has built a robust, self-sufficient, net export economy is in jeopardy.

Luna and Mars have benefited from the AI regulatory, compliance, and ethics ecosystem that a collaborative partnership between the two largest non-Earth economies built over the last 100 years. Retaining the government’s hands-off stance and minimizing the intrusion of government regulation has proven a boon to commercial enterprise across the system settlements.

Embodied in the Lunar Cities Consortium collective actions, Luna threatens to upend that partnership by introducing non-compete subsidies. Luna recyclers have convinced the Lunar Cities’ mayors that as Martian organic recyclers and Mars Organics, in particular, become competitive in pricing and services, Luna recyclers are at a competitive disadvantage. They contend that longer transport distances from the Asteroid Settlements to Luna than to Mars put them at a competitive disadvantage. The Lunar Organic Recyclers Association, itself an affront to open and fair competition, cites instances of transport companies bypassing the Luna off-loading stations and retaining their waste cargos until the following passage to Mars to capture a higher price. This argument ignores the offsetting higher fuel cost and is misleading, more a consequence of orbital mechanics—not economics.

This campaign to position themselves as disadvantaged is patently manipulative. The Association ignores the reality that Mars is farther from the largest belt facilities than Earth for almost half its orbit. The Association further ignores their practically exclusive control of the near-Earth facilities and the Luna orbital facilities, most notably the construction hub at the Pointe. It is doubtful that any transport company would find it profitable to ship wastes from the Earth-Moon sources to Mars for processing.

Mars Organics opposes this move by Luna to favor their domestic processors to the disadvantage of Martian commercial interests. If Luna continues to pursue these subsidies, Mars Organics will have no choice but to file a complaint with the InterSolar Trade Court.

For more information, please visit us at MarsOrganics.ag.Mars/WasteProcessing.

[Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction. Unless otherwise indicated, all the names, characters, businesses, places, events, and incidents in this story are either the product of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, actual institutions or actual events is purely coincidental.]

A Note about the blog posts from the future [CE 2224]: In January of 2021, with Perseverance due to land on Mars the next month, NASA activated their experimental Quantum Transmitter. The transmitter was designed to communicate with Perseverance, without regard to location and at faster than light speeds—near real-time. Unfortunately, they lost the connection after the initialization routine was completed. However, as an unintended consequence, NASA connected with a specific locus in the space-time continuum located on the Moon in 2224. That locus was the storage device of the quantum computer of a popular blog site. It is from that blog site that these blog entries are extracted. I hope you enjoy a peek into our future, and hopefully, I’m not violating some temporal directive. So far, no visit from the time cops.

Guest Author: Yosef Slor, Director of Crop Development, Luna Agricultural Research Cooperative

Originally Posted: Monday, June 28, 2224 (Earth Standard Calendar)

It is my great pleasure to introduce the latest new fruit developed by the Luna Agricultural Research Cooperative: The StrawBanany.

The StrawBanany is a vine-grown fruit the size of a large apple, approximately eight centimeters in diameter, with the flavor of strawberries and bananas. The geneticist preserved the strawberry form, and we hope restaurants and customers will appreciate the dark red color and large fruit size that will enhance their displays and dishes.

The Cooperative developed the new fruit using engineered strawberry cuttings imported from the Volcani Institute-Agricultural Research Organization in Israel. The Volcani Institute has a centuries-long history of introducing new fruits and vegetables to the commercial and retail markets, and the Cooperative is grateful for its participation in bringing this new fruit to market.

The Cooperative has been carefully engineering the new fruit in Sector 5B of the Plinius hydroponic farming chamber. Over several years, genetic engineers have increased the fruit size, developed a fruiting protocol that does not require pollinators, and enhanced the root structure to optimize the efficient uptake of nutrients from the hydroponic fluids.

One of the harder inscriptions on the base fruit’s genome was coding for the metabolic processes that produce the distinct banana aroma generated by isoamyl acetate. This organic compound has the propensity of masking other flavors and aromas and making everything taste like bananas. The engineers were able to modulate the new fruit’s production of isoamyl acetate and retain the distinct taste of the strawberry. It’s a popular combination we hope our customers find enjoyable in a single fruit.

As an unexpected byproduct of engineering the flavor, the engineers found they could significantly increase the nutritional value of the fruit. For those who look for healthy nutrition and great taste, each StrawBanany fruit is a complete breakfast. All in all, a single fruit for breakfast comes in at 500 calories and provides 25 grams of healthy fat, a healthy dose of omega-3 fatty acids, 56 grams of total carbohydrates, 10 grams of fiber, 6 grams of sugar, and 24 grams of protein. Eat it right off the vine, or throw it in a blender—you don’t even need to add water.

We hope the public will enjoy our new fruit. It should begin appearing at public dining halls, restaurants and available for purchase in the next several weeks. We expect year-round production depending on demand.

Enjoy and stay healthy. For more information, please visit LunaAgricultural.ag.luna/StrawBanany.

[Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction. Unless otherwise indicated, all the names, characters, businesses, places, events, and incidents in this story are either the product of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, actual institutions or actual events is purely coincidental.]

A Note about the blog posts from the future [CE 2224]: In January of 2021, with Perseverance due to land on Mars the next month, NASA activated their experimental Quantum Transmitter. The transmitter was designed to communicate with Perseverance, without regard to location and at faster than light speeds—near real-time. Unfortunately, they lost the connection after the initialization routine was completed. However, as an unintended consequence, NASA connected with a specific locus in the space-time continuum located on the Moon in 2224. That locus was the storage device of the quantum computer of a popular blog site. It is from that blog site that these blog entries are extracted. I hope you enjoy a peek into our future, and hopefully, I’m not violating some temporal directive. So far, no visit from the time cops.

[Our apologies to our readers, the picture of the rose mentioned by the author degraded during the transfer through the transmission link.]

Guest Author: Antoinette Meilland, Chair of the Agriculture and Horticulture Department, University of Luna, Picard Campus

Posted: Monday, June 14, 2224 (Earth Standard Calendar)

I am delighted to announce the introduction of the first rose variety designed exclusively for cultivation on Luna. In anticipation of our impending independence, the U of L at Picard has developed a unique cultivar of a hybrid tea rose from the collection in the Picard rose gardens.

There was a boisterous discussion around which rose we should start with and which colors we should consider for our new rose. The committee believed we should honor the men and women that first braved space and set foot on the Moon in the latter half of the 20^th Century and the early 21^st Century. So we selected the Peace Rose.

The original Peace Rose became popular in the 20^th Century. Collectors and gardeners alike celebrated the rose for its beautiful cream and crimson coloration. That rose formed the basis for our new variety.

Harkening back to the symbolism of rose colors at the time, we considered the meaning of the blue rose—mystery, the impossible, or the unattainable.

Others suggested black, which can stand for the beginning of new things and significant change, inspiring confidence, signaling the birth of a new era. Black had the added benefit of adding shades of grey, symbolizing our stark but beautiful lunar home.

Respecting our origins on Earth, we choose blue and white for our new rose. Using modern genetic inscription techniques adapted from agriculture, we modified the original Peace Rose genome to generate blue petals on the outside and at the tips, with bright white petals in the center.

In the end, we felt we would honor Earth and the peaceful transition to independence. The blue and white of that lovely planet, perched high overhead, won the day.

So it is my distinct honor to present The Luna Peace Rose.

A Note about the blog posts from the future [CE 2224]: In January of 2021, with Perseverance due to land on Mars the next month, NASA activated their experimental Quantum Transmitter. The transmitter was designed to communicate with Perseverance, without regard to location and at faster than light speeds—near real-time. Unfortunately, they lost the connection after the initialization routine was completed. However, as an unintended consequence, NASA connected with a specific locus in the space-time continuum located on the Moon in 2224. That locus was the storage device of the quantum computer of a popular blog site. It is from that blog site that these blog entries are extracted. I hope you enjoy a peek into our future, and hopefully, I’m not violating some temporal directive. So far, no visit from the time cops.

Guest Author: Apinya Ungrangsee, Musical Director, Plinius Symphonic Orchestra (PSO)

Posted: Monday, May 24, 2224 (Earth Standard Calendar)

Since its founding one hundred fifty years ago in 2074, the PSO has been hoping to someday present a concert with instruments manufactured entirely on Luna.

My fellow Lunarites, that time is now.

For quite a while, Luna has manufactured brass and woodwinds, percussion, and even pianos. But quality string instruments had been eluding us. The shortage of the proper wood for violins, violas, and cellos and the high cost of shipping finished instruments from Earth has limited the number made from natural materials. Most of our talented musicians have shared the few imports available and relied on manufactured materials for most of our string section.

That constraint is now over. When Plinius was first founded and the agricultural sections were brought online, the founding musical director convinced the city government to set aside a small plot for some special trees. At his own expense, Maestro Puente shipped Alpine Spruce saplings from the Fiemme Valley in Italy to the Moon. Those trees, replanted several times, flourished in the controlled environment and over the last twenty-five years have been judiciously harvested.

The final violin, manufactured on Luna from trees that started their lives in the same forest, “Il Bosco Che Suona”—The Musical Woods, which yielded the wood for the famous Stradivarius instruments made five hundred years ago, was delivered.

The entire string section now plays instruments created from woods grown on Luna and manufactured by our own local luthiers.

Join us on Saturday, June 17, 2224, for a fabulous evening of music and celebration as the Plinius Symphonic Orchestra welcomes soloist Joachim Branson, playing selections from the 17^th and 18^th Centuries in honor of the completion of our Luna Strings.

A Note about the blog posts from the future [CE 2224]: In January of 2021, with Perseverance due to land on Mars the next month, NASA activated their experimental Quantum Transmitter. The transmitter was designed to communicate with Perseverance, without regard to location and at faster than light speeds—near real-time. Unfortunately, they lost the connection after the initialization routine was completed. However, as an unintended consequence, NASA connected with a specific locus in the space-time continuum located on the Moon in 2224. That locus was the storage device of the quantum computer of a popular blog site. It is from that blog site that these blog entries are extracted. I hope you enjoy a peek into our future, and hopefully, I’m not violating some temporal directive. So far, no visit from the time cops.

Guest Author: Vivian Ndereba, Chairperson, Lunar Cities Consortium Olympic Committee (LCCOC)

Posted: Monday, May 10, 2224 (Earth Standard Calendar)

It’s almost summertime, and the Games will begin before we know it. It’s always an exciting time, and I’m particularly pleased this year to be Chairing the Lunar Cities committee as the Games expand and add more events on Luna.

This cycle, we are thrilled that the 83^rd Olympiad – Olympia LXXXIII – will expand the events on Luna to include swimming, field hockey, softball and baseball, and Gaming preliminaries and semi-finals for the Lunar teams.

The Lunar Cities are justly proud of the stadia and gaming infrastructure they’ve constructed for the games. And for the first time, the gaming finals will be held in space in the newly assembled gravity environment for the Pointe, the manufacturing facility at Lagrange 1. Space Systems Technologies has graciously agreed to delay expanding their crew accommodations and re-purpose the new gravity wheel for the Olympic competition, housing teams from Earth and Luna. We’re thankful for SST’s continued sponsorship and support of the LCCOC.

However, the continuing application of provincial Earth regulations on Luna’s Olympic participation has long been a topic of discussion between the LCCOC and the IOC. Talks continue over the IOC’s refusal to host track and field events on Luna, even though the 160-year tradition of a distributed games allows for participation by the Lunar Cities. The straight-out banning of Luna weight lifting and gymnastics contestants without a 2-year Earth acclimation period is simply unacceptable, and we continue to protest.

This year, those restrictions risk casting a pall over the introduction of the first pure Luna event – the Super Marathon. For this Olympiad, the run will be an exhibition sport, and runners from Earth and Luna will gather to challenge the 125-kilometer perimeter course at Plinius. There are rumors of a team from Mars joining, but that’s still provisional.

Here’s the point, though—the IOC has banned the use of the new bio-mechanical tight-suits the Luna runners use. The IOC insists that these new suits provide Luna runners with an unfair weight and responsiveness advantage over the established exoskeleton technology. SST engineers have certified that the new suits with a bio-engineered myelin-myocyte layer provide no more mechanical assist than the exo-skeletons. SST has even offered to supply all runners with a standard suit.

However, the IOC claims that the Lunar runners are more familiar with the suits and would be unfairly favored. The LCCOC has offered to house athletes that want to train with the new suits in advance of the competition. The IOC has not agreed, but we will continue to negotiate and push forward with our proposal to let the runners decide.

Finally, we’re hoping that with the completion of the independence effort that will establish the Lunar Cities as a sovereign nation and a full member of the IOC, we can effectively resist these efforts of Earth to dictate the rules. Rest assured your Chairperson and the LCCOC will continue to promote change in the best interest of Luna’s athletes and, by extension, promote a fair and level playing field for all Olympiads.

We’ll keep you posted and on to the Games of the 83^rd Olympiad.

A Note about the blog posts from the future [CE 2224]: In January of 2021, with Perseverance due to land on Mars the next month, NASA activated their experimental Quantum Transmitter. The transmitter was designed to communicate with Perseverance, without regard to location and at faster than light speeds—near real-time. Unfortunately, they lost the connection after the initialization routine was completed. However, as an unintended consequence, NASA connected with a specific locus in the space-time continuum located on the Moon in 2224. That locus was the storage device of the quantum computer of a popular blog site. It is from that blog site that these blog entries are extracted. I hope you enjoy a peek into our future, and hopefully, I’m not violating some temporal directive. So far, no visit from the time cops.

Guest Author: Dr. Khaled Al Otaiba, Director of Education Outreach, Space Systems Technologies (SST), Arsia Mons, Mars

Posted: Monday, April 19, 2224 (Earth Standard Calendar)

Again this year, Space Systems Technologies is a proud sponsor of Ingenuity Day here in the city. School projects and the STEM Education fair are featured on the university campus at various venues. Displays and demonstrations from  SST and other technology companies are showcased in the Central Plaza, and I hope everyone has a chance to visit the exhibitors throughout the week.

This year we have an exciting new contribution to the event. The university engineering students, funded by a grant from SST, have recreated the original Ingenuity for which this day is named. The Ingenuity II is not an exact replica, as the electronics and battery technology no longer exists, but they’ve built to the exact specifications and constraints. They’ve even converted the original flight management software to run on current processors. They hope to “fly” their version at the closing ceremonies on Friday. They hope it goes as well as the first flight of Ingenuity two hundred and three Earth years ago today.

Ever since that first flight, ingenuity has been the hallmark of Martian progress. SST has been a leader in this area and supports continuing development of Arsia Mons and the outlying settlements. Although founded on Luna over one hundred and fifty Earth years ago, it was on Mars where SST and others developed the ingenious solutions that allowed us to gain a permanent foothold on the Red Planet.

And it all began with that first helicopter flight on Mars this day, April 19^th in CE 2021.

Here’s some archive footage from the original NASA of that first historic flight – Ingenuity Flight.

Following that groundbreaking achievement, the early explorers deployed swarms of drones across the planet, expanding their detailed map, discovering resources, and scouting settlement locations. SST still uses drones to explore and plan settlements, manufacturing locations, and mag-lev routes.

Once again, let’s pause and commemorate the tremendous accomplishments of the original Ingenuity team and acknowledge our debt of gratitude for their pioneering spirit and willingness to Dare Mighty Things. Thanks for stopping by, and I hope you get a chance to view the launch of Ingenuity II on Friday.

A Note about the blog posts from the future [CE 2224]: In January of 2021, with Perseverance due to land on Mars the next month, NASA activated their experimental Quantum Transmitter. The transmitter was designed to communicate with Perseverance, without regard to location and at faster than light speeds—near real-time. Unfortunately, they lost the connection after the initialization routine was completed. However, as an unintended consequence, NASA connected with a specific locus in the space-time continuum located on the Moon in 2224. That locus was the storage device of the quantum computer of a popular blog site. It is from that blog site that these blog entries are extracted. I hope you enjoy a peek into our future, and hopefully, I’m not violating some temporal directive. So far, no visit from the time cops.

Guest Author: Dr. Charles Campbell, Associate Professor of Political History, University of Luna (UofL)

Posted: Monday, April 5, 2224 (Earth Standard Calendar)

In my Political History course, The Politics of Lunar Colonization, we discuss the contributions of Scottish Prime Minister Robert G. MacDonald at great length. As students of Luna’s early history will recall, PM MacDonald shepherded Scotland through their separation from England during The Surge in the middle of the 21^st Century.

The British exiting the European single market and customs union resulted in a growing majority of Scots favoring independence. As the effects of climate change worsened in the middle of the century and the Lunar Colonization surge ramped up, Scotland determined they would fare better with an independent relationship with Europe, the United States, and other countries around the world. PM MacDonald and his team crafted the independence accords that addressed national debt, property, citizenship, tax revenue, security, repatriation, foreign relations, etc. The smooth transition and peaceful transfer of power to a sovereign and independent Scottish parliament were a testament to the skill with which the accords were designed. It wasn’t until the beginning of the 22^nd Century and after the reunification of Ireland, a prosperous and culturally resurgent Scotland restored stronger ties to England and Wales while retaining political independence.

Those agreements and PM MacDonald’s work formed the basis of the independence accords that define the process of Lunar Independence. The Lunar Cities are steadily moving along the path defined by the UN agreement and, barring any unforeseen setbacks, are on schedule to achieve independence in the next two years. So for that, we owe PM MacDonald and the UN a debt of gratitude.

But—somebody took it too far. Honoring the Scottish Prime Minister is one thing; shoehorning a Scottish reference into the chartering documents is too much. If we don’t work for a change, we will forever suffer under the System Colonies of Terra Independence Accords (SCOTIA). Really? We need something that rolls off the tongue like The Magna Carta, The Constitution, The New Arbroath Declaration, etc.

We can do better. Please leave a comment on what you think should be the name of our Chartering Documents. Should it be grand? Should it be catchy? Should it reflect the values of this new world?

Let me know what you think. Thank you for your time in reading my post.

Thank you for visiting my author site and for clicking over to read BLOG 2224. I’ll try and have some fun with this blog and hope you enjoy the results.

The universe of my first, yet to be published novel is more complex than ours is today but, in many ways, is the same. Two hundred years from now, when humans are living off-planet, the technological environments will be complex, to be sure. But—they’ll be filled with people, people with diverse backgrounds and expectations and of course—opinions.

Whether it’s interplanetary commerce, near- and off-Earth society, frontier development, the Lunar Cities, the Martian settlements, resource extraction in the Asteroids and beyond, there is no shortage of opinions. I’ll host a blog for contributors from the Lunar Gravity universe of CE 2224, where they can share these opinions.

For each post, I’ll introduce a guest contributor and post their Op-Ed on whatever topic they choose. My future self will post on occasion, but this is primarily a forum for the minions of 2224, for the unheard to be noticed, the quiet to be loud. I hope you enjoy their efforts.

Thank you again for visiting my site and checking out BLOG 2224. If you have a topic you’d like discussed or have a question, please visit my Contact page, and I’d love to have you join my email list for advance copies of new fiction.