Category Archives: Technology

The now-retired U.S.S. Enterprise. For all who served aboard her over the past half-century, thank you. (Wikipedia Commons)

I noted with a bit of nostalgia and sadness that the United States Navy aircraft carrier CVN-65 was deactivated on Saturday. You may recognize her name: U.S.S. Enterprise.

Since a certain television show took to the airwaves in 1966, the name Enterprise has been synonymous with adventure and a variety of traditions, including a few hardly envisioned by the first to christen a vessel as such. Yet between the fictional and the historical, Enterprise has become an immense cultural touchstone — and for me, as an author of both science-fiction and alternate history, it raises an interesting question.

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As I write this, the Twitter feed belonging to the Mars Curiosity rover has reported “feeling” the tug of Mars’ gravity and is just 34 hours away from touchdown. Of course, the rover isn’t Tweeting from 352 million miles away; that honor probably goes to NASA’s social media department (which is doing a fabulous job, by the way). But it’s pretty cool to think that this car-sized, man-made object is communicating with Earth from such a distance.

I’m a sci-fi/fantasy author, so as you can imagine, I’m rather excited about the Curiosity mission. The rover already makes a cameo appearance in The Daedalus Incident (as does the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter), so I do hope it makes it there in one piece. I’d hate to edit out such an ambitious and exciting mission.

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