Space Mining by kev d

As requested, here's my quick contribution to mining on another world!

Take care,

Kevin D

what did you do in spring as kids?

Did you do anything specail in Spring as a kid?

With the return of snowdrops, daffodils and sunlight did you do anything in particular after the dark arms of winter let you loose?

Maybe playing out again? Maybe biking again? Starting that new den? Getting certain toys out?

What did you do readers?

project sword: moon mining memorandum

It always fascinates me that one of the functions if the Project SWORD mission was to undertake mining.

Mining other planets.

Personally when I look at the SWORD fleet of toys I don't think of mining as a likely use. I suppose the Moon Prospector could locate seams of ores and minerals and the Moon Ranger could have been useful in bulldozing rock spoil but beyond that I'm not sure. A Moon Bus full of miners? Maybe SpaceX toys could add something?

Mining off-Earth has been a staple of Science Fiction for decades. The Sean Connery movie OUTLAND is a good example of how outer space and hard graft can make for a gritty stroryline. Indeed ALIEN is set on the flying ore refinery, The Nostromo.

Years ago I blogged this masthead which I loved. The Moon Miners Manifesto. I dunno, it just seemed like a Project SWORDesque letterhead to me at the time.

Back in 2010 I first posted a short extract about a Moon Prospector from the short story MASKS by Damon Knight. For some reason I have always associated this description with off-world mining beyond an unwelcome Earth. Rather like Project SWORD!

"The prospector was climbing a crater slope with its handling members retracted and its head tilted up. Behind it the distant ringwall and the horizon, the black sky, the pin-point stars. And he was there, and it was not far enough, not yet, for the Earth hung overhead like a rotten fruit, blue with mold, crawling, wrinkling, purulent and alive."

Damon Knight 1922-2002

If you were describing off-Earth mining operations how would you put it readers?

Maybe a Project SWORD mining memo? A new letterhead? A short paragraph or even a drawing or photograph with some toys maybe!

Here's my starter for ten!

Your contributions welcomed!

Did you appear in the school talent show?

Were you ever in the school play or talent show?

The thought terrifies me now but I had two stints under the school limelights.

In primary school circa 1968 I was one of the three wise men in the Christmas nativity. I may have been Joseph come to think of it. I was holding a toy lamb dressed in nomadic robes. Me that is, not the lamb. My mum, who was in the audience, had advised me the night before not to wave at her. I ignored this counsel and waved my head off promptly dropping the lamb into the manger!

My second bash at school stardom was in the first year talent show in secondary school. I was 11 and it was 1972 at the height of Bowie mania. I adored David Bowie and went to see him live at Preston Guildhall during his Aladdin Sane phase.

I couldn't wait to emulate my idol on the school stage and in an uncharacteristic bout of showmanship I did just that. I was dressed in fairly normal street clothes but I did slick my hair back Bowie-style and had a large circle of red paint daubed on my forehead. With a cheap Telecaster copy round my neck I proceeded to mime my favourite bowie song. I'll give you a clue. Now Ziggy played guitar! I didn't win the talent show but I enjoyed the gig immensely.

It would be another seven years before I graced the stage again but this time I'd left school and was a late Seventies hippy appearing with my friend George in our duo called Alien Cage. It was 1979, we were 18 and we toured all the best busking sites in the nearby seaside town of Blackpool before plucking up enough courage to do a proper gig in a pub. We were ropey as hell, nervous as mice but we had our own instruments and our own songs! Our signature tune was Alien Cage is Coming!

We didn't leave it there either and with even better instruments we went in search of rock glory. But that's a story for another day!

Did you do a stint in the school play or show or maybe play in a band or appear in a film readers?

plastic toy bottles

This piccy on Etsy of plastic treasures brought back memories.

Its the hot water bottle. I remember them so clearly from the Sixties. They were everywhere. And those small plastic baby milk bottles too. They're just so familiar!

Do you remember them readers?

major miss mason mystery miss 2

Well, the first mystery major miss mason was just too easy.

How about this space lady for the Matt Mason dream factory?

Who is she?

Did you rush home after school for something?

Did you ever have anything going on in your young life that you simply couldn't wait to get home from school for?

Maybe a new toy, game or comic or maybe a telly programme?

The one I remember vividly was a project I had on the go in 1974 or 5, a home made Japanese scroll. It was a long thin piece of wallpaper on which I wrote in Japanese words. The subject matter was martial arts and I think they were moves of a kata or exercise which I'd made up, possible for the use of swords and spears.

I recall rushing home from school around 3.30 in the afternoon, dashing into my bedroom where I'd left it on the carpet the day before and carrying on writing where I'd left off.

I was so excited it's untrue. Nothing at school came close. I did that scroll with a passion that only the obsessions of early teenage can generate. I adored doing it and still have it today but sadly can no longer read it as my teenage brain drive has been wiped!

How about you? Did you dash home readers?

kev's project sword hover tank hovers!

More pics of Kevin's beautiful model of the Project SWORD Hover Tank. This time it's hovering...sort of!