Science fiction is gradually becoming science reality

(Photo: NASA/USGS)

While it’s just so easy to buy a book through Amazon, especially if you’re going to read it on your iPad or phone or some other device, I still carry paperbacks when I travel.

In fact, I picked up a tattered copy of a 2001 novel, Stephen Baxter’s 496-page space opera “Manifold: Space,” and am about a third of the way through. And I’m actually finding it more enjoyable to read than Liu Cixin’s novel “The Three-Body Problem” (which, yeah, is on my iPad).

Both tell stories that revolve around humans encountering extraterrestrials who enter our solar system, though much more is going on as well. And some of what both books explore reflects situations that are evolving right now in real life.

One is outlined in a blog post written by one of my former Spokesman-Review colleagues, Alan Boyle . Titled “Russia and China make a deal for joint moon base,” the post focuses on the two countries partnering to create what is being called the International Lunar Research Station.”

The announcement was made by Roscosmos (Russia’s State Corporation for Space Activities) and the China National Space Administration.

In a statement, Roscosmos’ director general, Dmitry Rogozin said, the station will offer “open access to all interested countries and international partners, with the aim of strengthening scientific research interaction, promoting research and using outer space for peaceful purposes in the interests of all humankind.”

The Chinese released a similar statement, though neither country specified dates when the project would begin. In previous announcements, China has talked about projects that would likely run through the next couple of decades.

One fascinating side note: In a 2019 conference in Switzerland, officials from both countries made clear that one day travel to and from the moon would become routine.

Going one step further, Anatoli Petrukovich, director of the Space Research Institute at the Russian Academy of Sciences, said that by 2069, “The moon will just look like a resort, as a backyard for grilling some meat.”

Time to go back to my paperback, which suddenly doesn’t seem so fictional.

Except for the space aliens, of course.