Yes, the book she mentioned was Madeleine L'engle's 'A wrinkle in Time'.
My inspiration was Arthur C Clarke, because he generally writes about a future that is within sight of where we are now. In several of his books, there are sub characters who tend to be guides or supervisors to the main characters when they are on the moon or mars or other moons/planets. They were often geophysicists. I didn't even know what that was but I figured if they were the ones doing the real work on the early missions, then I should investigate it. That ultimately led to my degree in geology and my employment as a geophyicist in the oil exploration business. I realised a while back that I wasn't going to get into space being a brit.
Jan had said to me that there will be orbital tourist flights for me while I'm still young enough to experience them. My reply was simply 'it's not about just going and having a short view, it's about, for want of a better phrase, boldy going and exploring, doing work up there, settling and colonising. I don't want to be a tourist, I wanted to make it my life's work. She smiled at me, gave me a hug, said 'I know J, I know, and I wish you could go and see what it's like, it's magical!'. One of the most beautiful things she said when I asked her what she enjoyed most when up there was 'sunrise in space, it's feels like a door is opening on the secrets of the universe'.
The book that started it all off for me was 'Islands in the Sky' by Clarke, which I read when I was about 8 and nuts about the space program. It's pretty much sci fi for kids, but it lead me on to other stuff and I always tend to come back to Clarke eventually.
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My inspiration was Arthur C Clarke, because he generally writes about a future that is within sight of where we are now. In several of his books, there are sub characters who tend to be guides or supervisors to the main characters when they are on the moon or mars or other moons/planets. They were often geophysicists. I didn't even know what that was but I figured if they were the ones doing the real work on the early missions, then I should investigate it. That ultimately led to my degree in geology and my employment as a geophyicist in the oil exploration business. I realised a while back that I wasn't going to get into space being a brit.
Jan had said to me that there will be orbital tourist flights for me while I'm still young enough to experience them. My reply was simply 'it's not about just going and having a short view, it's about, for want of a better phrase, boldy going and exploring, doing work up there, settling and colonising. I don't want to be a tourist, I wanted to make it my life's work. She smiled at me, gave me a hug, said 'I know J, I know, and I wish you could go and see what it's like, it's magical!'. One of the most beautiful things she said when I asked her what she enjoyed most when up there was 'sunrise in space, it's feels like a door is opening on the secrets of the universe'.
The book that started it all off for me was 'Islands in the Sky' by Clarke, which I read when I was about 8 and nuts about the space program. It's pretty much sci fi for kids, but it lead me on to other stuff and I always tend to come back to Clarke eventually.
Take care,
J.