A Celebration of Round Numbers

I love round numbers, and I think I might love this one most of all.

Only a fraction of a fraction of readers ever leave reviews (and no amount of pleading, abasing oneself or tempting with free virtual cupcakes will increase this number). But look what happens when people do! Amazing things, that's what.

I am incredibly proud of this book for holding on to those 4.5 stars for 7 years and 1,000 reviews. Selfishly, it validates this frankly insane pursuit I've chosen to dedicate my life to. Thank you all so much for sharing your love of Starshine with the world!

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Originally posted on Facebook.

More Hiking!

This weekend's hike was "We Don't Actually Know Where the Hell We Are Trail" (somehwere in North Cheyenne Canyon?). Our chosen hike was a no-go for #reasons, so we just parked and struck out on the first dirt path we found - and it worked out awesomely.

P.S.: A few of you expressed skepticism that I was really me in the last hiking photo due to the distance...well, here you go.

Originally posted on Facebook and Instagram.

Oxygen Created on Mars

Oxygen on Mars. And I'm not even kidding. https://mars.nasa.gov/news/8926/nasas-perseverance-mars-rover-extracts-first-oxygen-from-red-planet/

Granted, not a lot of oxygen just yet - about 5 grams produced in an hour - but Percy's MOXIE module just MADE oxygen out of the carbon dioxide in the Mars atmosphere.

MOXIE, like Ingenuity, is another technology demonstration project included in the Perseverance mission. And like Ingenuity, it worked!

Honestly, this might be the biggest breakthrough to come from the entire Perseverance mission. There are a thousand challenges to overcome for humans to live and work on Mars, but oxygen generation has got to be one of the biggest (note: oxygen is also enormously helpful to get people back home to Earth).

What a month for our future in space!

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Originally posted on Facebook.

Happy 31st Birthday, Hubble

This video is absolutely stunning, and not *just* because it features one of my favorite places in space: https://youtu.be/vkFe4_wjRlY

More info about AG Carinae and the video can be found here: https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2021/hubble-captures-giant-star-on-the-edge-of-destruction

Fun Hubble facts:

Launched on April 24, 1990, NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has made more than 1.5 million observations of about 48,000 celestial objects.

Hubble observations have produced more than 169 terabytes of data, which are available for present and future generations of researchers.

Astronomers using Hubble data have published more than 18,000 scientific papers, with more than 900 of those papers published in 2020.

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Originally posted on Facebook.

Ingenuity Makes History On Mars

Here's the full high-res video of Ingenuity's successful test flight on Mars, marking the first powered flight beyond Earth. It takes a few seconds to get going, then executes everything exactly as planned, including landing safely and in excellent shape (actually in better shape, as the flight shook loose some of the dirt coating its solar power panels). The goals of the test flight were for the copter to take flight, rise about 10 feet (3 meters) into the air, then hover in place for 30 seconds before turning in midair and descending back to the surface, and it succeeded beautifully.

Human *ingenuity* in action here. Go us. Go our robots.

Ingenuity will fly several more times in the coming weeks - expect new heights and tricks - before its test mission ends.

The area where Ingenuity flew has been named “Wright Brothers Field,” in honor of this historic achievement. And here’s a really cool fact: the world’s currently oldest living person was alive when the Wright brothers flew at Kitty Hawk AND when the first copter flew on Mars. It’s easy to lose sight of the incredible pace of human progress in the noise of messy day-to-day life, but it’s there nonetheless. This is amazing.

If the video doesn’t play for you in the post, you can view it on YouTube here.

Originally posted on Facebook.

All Our Tomorrows Update

Wow, I've been waiting for a long time to write the final scene of ALL OUR TOMORROWS. Not quite as long as I waited to write a certain final scene of RUBICON. Or of REQUIEM. But a *long time* nonetheless (let's call it since I outlined Asterion Noir). Even in first draft form, it's something else....

To celebrate, have a sneak-peek snippet of the ALL OUR TOMORROWS cover.

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Originally posted on Facebook.

Welcome to Spring in Colorado

More mountains! This is Aiken Canyon, about 40 minutes from our house. First time there, will go again.

P.S.: It'll probably snow tomorrow....

Originally posted on Facebook and Instagram.

Confession Time

Hello, my name is G. S. Jennsen. I'm a writer, and I...have too many characters. It's been 18 hours since my last new character.

This is the Dramatis Personae for RIVEN WORLDS VOLUME ONE, coming soon to an ebook near you. I had to split it into 3 pictures, just so you all could read the names.

I'm taking nominations for violent deaths in ALL OUR TOMORROWS (sure, a few of these are already dead, but more need to go). Someone help me.... ;)

Originally posted on Facebook.

The Best Kind of Birthday Road Trip

Oh hi, mountains! #BirthdayRoadTrip

Of course, I'm working while riding. When you're a writer, every vacation is a working vacation.

Originally posted on Facebook.

Perseverance's First Panorama

NASA’s Mars 2020 Perseverance rover got its first high-definition look around its new home in Jezero Crater on Feb. 21, after rotating its mast, or “head,” 360 degrees, allowing the rover’s Mastcam-Z instrument to capture its first panorama after touching down on the Red Planet on Feb 18.

Mastcam-Z is a dual-camera system equipped with a zoom function, allowing the cameras to zoom in, focus, and take high-definition video, as well as panoramic color and 3D images of the Martian surface. With this capability, the robotic astrobiologist can provide a detailed examination of both close and distant objects.

Learn more at: https://mars.nasa.gov/news/8873/nasas-perseverance-rover-gives-high-definition-panoramic-view-of-landing-site/

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Originally posted on Twitter.

Dare Mighty Things

Okay, I promise this will not turn into the All Perseverance Page. But this week it is!

Percy's parachute had a hidden message embedded in its bright red pattern. Spelled out in binary code was the phrase "DARE MIGHTY THINGS."

That's the spirit, guys and gals! I love engineers. I love scientists and space nerds. Percy is inspiring the world right now, but so are the humans who made it all possible.

Oh, AND - there's a family portrait plaque welded to the top of Percy's frame. It depicts Sojourner, Spirit, Opportunity, Curiosity, Perseverance and Ingenuity.

https://apnews.com/.../mars-rover-parachute-secret...

Thanks to Bob Wilson for the link!

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Originally posted on Facebook.

Perseverance Perseveres to Land on Mars

Amazing pictures and info from NASA's briefing about Perseverance landing on Mars!

Pictures (top to bottom, left to right):

1) The view from the sky crane (also referred to as a "rocket-powered jetpack") as it guided Percy down to the surface. * wow *

2) A shot of Percy descending under parachute, taken by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (an impressive craft in its own right).

3) A much higher resolution, color version of the first image posted shortly after Percy’s landing.

4) And because these rovers LOVE taking pictures of their feet, a brand-new image of one of Percy's wheels and the surrounding soil and rocks.

The NASA spokesperson said "Perseverance continues to be highly functional and awesome and I'm exhilarated."

The mast housing the "real" cameras will be deployed on Saturday and start snapping pics soon thereafter. We should also have VIDEO of the landing early next week. NASA is planning to hold another update press conference on Monday.

NASA has gotten quite good at social media in the last several years, and the Perseverance Twitter account is already an absolute gem. Follow it! https://twitter.com/NASAPersevere

Originally posted on Facebook.

STARSHINE's New Cover

What is this? STARSHINE has a new cover?!

I've tried to keep a similar feel and color scheme, so it fits in nicely with the other covers, while giving it more of a dynamic, exciting theme (spaceships!).

The new cover is live on the ebook already. It should be available on the paperback within the week. I'll also have new paperback stock later this month for my store.

I know, all of you already HAVE Starshine, so this doesn't actually affect you. It's cool - just enjoy the shiny.

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Originally posted on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Historical Dictionary of Science Fiction

Sci-fi nerds and aficionados, I'm about to derail your day. The HISTORICAL DICTIONARY OF SCIENCE FICTION, which tracks down how sci-fi terms were first used, and then evolved over time, launched this week: https://sfdictionary.com/

One of the main goals of historical lexicography is finding antedatings, as instances that push back the earliest known use of a term are called. By poring through oodles of issues of old sci-fi, including the massive trove of them scanned by the Internet Archive, the site's creator has made some truly delightful discoveries — often discovering that well-known sci-fi terms were used a lot earlier than readers may have suspected: "Deep space" was first used in 1921, "ray gun" in 1923, and "teleported" in 1931 ("The essential elements of sea-water, minus the undesirable saline properties, can be teleported to Mars", in Clark Ashton Smith's "Planet Entity").

The dictionary also illustrates the complicated interplay between imaginative literature and the real world. The words "graviton" and "biotechnician," for example, first appeared in science fiction sources before being adopted in the real world.

Read more about the Dictionary at Boing Boing: https://boingboing.net/.../the-historical-dictionary-of... and (if you have a subscription) the New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/.../science-fiction-dictionary.html - or just go straight to the source and dive in: https://sfdictionary.com/.

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Originally posted on Facebook.