Detcon 1: My Schedule at the NASFiC

[beamjockey]

Detcon 1 is the name of this year's North American Science Fiction Convention. Detcon will blossom in my old home town, Detroit, Michigan, from Thursday, 17 July, through Sunday the 20th. I've agreed to participate in a bunch of programming.

Physics, Mechanics, & Logistics of Flying Cars

Fri 10:00 AM -- Mackinac East
What would it be like if we DID have flying cars? What are the physical, technical, logistical, legal, and cultural factors we would need to consider? Are flying cars like cars or are they like planes? What will really make cars fly?

Bill Higgins (moderator), Mel. White, Erik Kauppi, Emmy Jackson

The Science of Hal Clement's Iceworld

Fri 12:00 PM -- Mackinac East
In Hal Clement's 1951 novel Iceworld, characters who breathe hot gaseous sulfur confront the mysteries of Earth, to them an unbelievably frigid planet. Among other things, the legendary master of hard SF foresaw robotic interplanetary exploration in a unique way. And now that astronomers know about thousands of extrasolar planets, does the homeworld of the sulfur-breathers lurk among them? Join Bill Higgins in exploring the chemistry, physics, and astronomy behind the classic story.

Bill Higgins

Where's my D@m! Flying Car?

Sat 12:00 PM -- Ambassador Salon 1
Science fiction vs. science reality: where did the future go wrong? We may have flying cars, but they're not the anti-grav vehicles that we really want! Humans have been experiencing long-term space flight for years now, but there are no colonies yet in orbit or on the moon. And where's my hoverboard?

Jonathan Stars (moderator), Douglas Johnson, Ian Randal Strock, Cindy A. Matthews (Cynthianna), Bill Higgins, Dr. Charles Dezelah, Dr. Nicolle Zellner

Annals of Michifandom

Sat 1:00 PM -- Nicolet B
From the Slan Shack and the propeller beanie to Detcon1, Michigan fans have contributed mightily to fannish history and lore. Join us for some rollicking multimedia time travel through fandom Michigan-style.

Dick Smith (moderator), Cy Chauvin, Tammy Coxen, Gregg T. Trend, Chad Childers, Rich Lynch, Leah A. Zeldes, Tullio Proni, Amy Ranger, Denice Brown, Pat Sims, Roger Sims, Todd R. Johnson, Fred Prophet, Bill Higgins, Tracy Lunquist

[I don't think Dick Smith has ever lived in Michigan, but he married into Michifandom, and he is greatly concerned with preserving fannish history. So he's a good MC for a two-hour review of the Wolverine State's many-faceted involvement with fandom. Should be fun.]

The Personal Replicator

Sun 11:00 AM -- Ambassador Salon 1
With the introduction of 3-D printers, we're well on our way to Star Trek's replicator. Before long, we'll have access to the alchemist's dream: the ability to manipulate molecules. What are the implications for the world economy? Do we face the possibility of wiping out poverty? What about intellectual property? We will have to answer these questions, and many more, much sooner than you think.

Jonathan Stars (moderator), Joshua Kronengold, Mel. White, Mike Substelny, Bill Higgins

Comments

[seawasp]

If the sulfur-breathers are as cool as the Sarrians I hope they're out there.

[seawasp]

And yes, "cool" was a deliberate choice of words.

[beamjockey.livejournal.com]

Spoiler for the talk: I was very pleased to find, in the Kepler data, a confirmed planet that is quite Sarr-like for the parameters that can be measured: diameter and black-body temperature. So there is hope. (Sure, the biochemistry of sulfur-breathers is a BIG handwave.)

Io is covered with sulfur and sulfur compounds, and its volcanic hotspots are hotter than Sarr. Might be a better spot for a base than the 2014 version of Mercury.

[beamjockey.livejournal.com]

Your admiration for the Sarrans is a bit unsettling, since most of the Sarrans you know are vicious criminals dealing in phenomenally addictive drugs.

[neowolf2.livejournal.com]

So, just like Philip Morris?

[beamjockey.livejournal.com]

Have you read the book? Exactly like Philip Morris.

[neowolf2.livejournal.com]

Yes, I have. :) "Tofacco"

[seawasp]

Most of the Sarrians I know, yes, but not the Sarrians I know most, which are our hero and the guys who sent him there.

[avram]

Before long, we'll have access to the alchemist's dream: the ability to manipulate molecules.

Wasn’t the alchemist’s dream the transmutation of elements, which would involve the manipulation of sub-atomic particles?

[beamjockey.livejournal.com]

Like so many of the rest of us, recently alchemists have had to lower their expectations.

"When I was young, we were promised the Philosopher's Stone!"

[neowolf2.livejournal.com]

I have to wonder how Clement's sulfur-breathing aliens could exist on a planet. It would be tidally locked, so shouldn't the sulfur condense out on the night side? And if it wasn't, the rate of heat loss to radiation to space goes as absolute temperature to the 4th power. The boiling point of sulfur (at 1 bar) is 718K, so the rate of energy loss should be 33x that of a surface radiating at 300K. Night had better be really short on that world or the atmosphere is going to condense.

[beamjockey.livejournal.com]

So you expect a much larger temperature swing on very hot planets. Would you have argued this in 1951?

It's 19th-century physics, I guess.

But the presence of a global fluid, such as an atmosphere, will moderate this effect. If it snows on the nightside, hot fluid will flow in from the dayside.

Anyway. The system I found is very, very close to a dim dwarf star, so it's probably tide-locked.

Clement had Sarr orbiting a much brighter star, an A, so perhaps he would have argued against tidal locking. Indeed, according to him, the planet's rotational period is 13 hours.

[del-c.livejournal.com]

But the Earth itself is 300K on the ground only due to greenhouse effect: at the top of the atmosphere it radiates into space at 280K. Venus only radiates at 330K, but its temperature on the ground is 735K.

I don't understand the physics of it at all, but researchers this century have assured us that hot planets can have clouds of lithium and sodium sulphide, magnesium silicate and iron, or even perovskite and corundum, raining out in a hot carbon monoxide atmosphere.

[neowolf2.livejournal.com]

Those would be planets with extremely thick atmospheres, with sufficient thermal inertia that the atmosphere does not condense out at night (although, as you note, things would condense at high altitude.) The atmosphere of Jupiter, for example, is so thick that primordial heat from the formation of the planet is still important.

We can probably limit the pressure of the Sarrian's world by story details. For example, if the pressure were too high, the suit that failed would not have shown just scorch marks, but rather evidence of a more violent end. Also, sulfur cannot be too dilute in their atmosphere or else flames w. air would not be supported. There is also a scene where a blowtorch is used.

Their atmosphere may not be entirely sulfur, of course. Nitrogen and sulfur can coexist without reacting even at high temperature (the various sulfur-nitrogen compounds are endothermic and tend to be explosive.) I imagine their atmosphere could also have CO2, COS, and CS2 in it. Sulfur itself exists in various allotropes in the vapor phase, and would absorb strongly in some bands. I don't have full information on the absorption spectrum of sulfur vapor, but it appears to be absorb UV and violet light, and perhaps other bands of visible light. More information would be appreciated, Bill!