‘Oops, wrong rock.’ That’s what I said a week ago while researching Cinderellavator. I initially thought that the asteroid to be used as a space elevator counterweight would be 2016 VO1. Then I spent a bunch of time talking about 2016 VO1, not realizing one simple fact – it’s too small! 2016 VO1 doesn’t have sufficient mass to hold the sheer weight of a space elevator and forty-thousand miles of cable. Back to the drawing board to identify 2340 Hathor, another Aten-class asteroid, as the star of my upcoming scifi novel.
Things like these are just part of the fun of telling science fiction stories. Translating the vision to reality means you’ll go back to the drawing board over and over again, challenging your assumptions and going ‘wait, is that really how it all works?’ Tons of reading and research are involved in order to make Cinderellavator a fun, fact-driven adventure where one young person can take the center stage and change the world.
Do you like space? Would you like to know more about the asteroid named 2340 Hathor? Here are some quick facts I got from SpaceReference:
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It’s going to be a fascinating journey, watching the space engineers ‘steer’ this asteroid back to Earth and then watching how the world reacts to the idea of a .3 KM-sized rock hanging out there in space. What kind of questions would people ask? How would they react, and how would a space engineer like Peetie’s dad respond? These are the things I’d like to get to the bottom of, while also telling the story of a kid forced to start her life over after the loss of her mother. That’s what’s driving my work on Cinderellavator right now.
Stay tuned for more info on Cinderellavator and 2340 Hathor – I can’t wait to start putting the first draft out there for comments. Write on!
