Blister

by A. Scott Howe

The Technicians have discovered that their ancestors were fugitives from a space war, stranded on a planetoid consisting almost entirely of water shrouded by incessant storms. Their machines inherited from long ago are beginning to run down and they are unable to find enough resources to maintain them.Having rediscovered the technologies of space flight, they realize they are surrounded by abundance if only they invest in the infrastructure necessary for obtaining it. And they are poised to take another leap into the unknown in search of more clues to their origins.Then they receive a mysterious message from beyond their planetary system. Something out there is interested in who they are and what they know. And at least one critical crewmember may be falling in love with whoever is on the other end of the line! Could it be a friend or is it a sinister siren call to their doom?

278 pages, Hardcover

First published February 18, 2013

About the author

A. Scott Howe is a licensed architect and retired robotics engineer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. He earned PhDs in industrial and manufacturing systems engineering from Hong Kong University and in architecture from University of Michigan. Dr. Howe spent 10 years of practice in Tokyo, Japan, and taught for 6 years at Hong Kong University. He functioned as Design Integration lead for the NASA Advanced Exploration Systems (AES) Deep Space Habitat team, and was the original designer of the Habitat Demonstration Unit (HDU) at Johnson Space Center, which has been renamed the Human Exploration Research Analog (HERA) doing mini missions with multi-week crews. Dr. Howe worked as a member of the JPL All-Terrain Hex-Limbed Extra-Terrestrial Explorer (ATHLETE) robotic mobility system development team.

Dr. Howe is an avid scuba diver, backpacker, amateur radio operator extra (N3ASH), 4-wheeler, and outdoor enthusiast. He is the author of over a hundred technical papers covering topics of space habitation, robotics, and architecture, and has been co-editor for technical books (as listed on this page). Technical papers can be viewed on the spacearchitecture-dot-org website, under "publications".

Dr. Howe has been writing science fiction as a hobby for over thirty years, culminating in a series called "One Eternal Round", which is written as a possible distant future fictional history based on his experience in the NASA community. the series (so far) includes:

Near future:
Book 1: Theoloop (2021)
Book 2: Chronosphere (2014)
Book 3: Replicycle/Retrocause (2022)

Far future:
Book 4: Waterball (2012)
Book 5: Blister (2013)