SF story idea I thought I´d share

[space_tycoon]

So for the last 20 years or so, since the Challenger disaster, I´ve been reading about this great debate in the space community between those who favour a strong hand for NASA and other national governments in the area of spaceflight; and a growing movement of disaffected engineers, professionals, and entrepreneurs who favour a more free market approach.

"Old Space" versus "New Space." I tend to favour the latter.

If nothing else, new space has brought forth a colourful cast of characters. Everyone from serious people like Elon Musk and Burt Rutan; to fringie types like The Rocket Guy Brian Walker (who literally tried to build a rocketship in his backyard), and everyone in between.

A lot of the best characters in fiction are drawn from real examples. I had an idea for a sort of composite character who was inspired from all of these real life figures. He would be a true adventurer, scholar, entrepreneur, a Rennaissance man for our times. I figured the story would be a sort of parallel history to our own, with variations on current events, names, trends and so on.

My thought is that this would be a series of stories charting this individual´s life, starting from the 1980s and 90s, and gradually moving forward through adulthood, middle age, old age etc. Culminating in... who knows. Of course I realize this has no doubt been done already. I´m not trying to re-invent the wheel here. But I think this could work either in book form or even a series of movies, if handled right.

 

[a_lost_packet_]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-mR-gz9EFO8[/youtube]



Edit-Add - Now, on a more serious note. You have to have a hook. Most readers don't like reading about ordinary people no matter how extraordinary they are. Renaissance men are a dime-a-dozen. You need some oomph, something that makes this guy special.

For instance, yes, Salvage 1 died after 20 episodes. But, it WAS a good story. Common guy with a heck of a lot of drive and a "Doesn't Take No" for an answer no matter what he wants to do decides he's gonna build hisself a darn spaceship and that's all there darn well is to it... And, he did. He built, in fiction, the equivalent of a Saturn V. (The most complex bit of machinery ever built by man before the Space Shuttle.) That drew some watchers... for awhile.

So, what's your guy's hook? What's his "Something special that all the other special character flavors don't have?" The hook could be some personal trait, a specific situation, a unique background, an interesting relationship, some sort of high-intensity drama (hard to pull off on its own, btw), a supra-genius, a giant invisible bunny rabbit... whatever.

Or, maybe he's just half-baked nuts?

 

[space_tycoon]

Mainly, it´s a story about people, their dreams, their aspirations, capabilities, frailties. Just how far will some people go to realize a dream that most of the world scoffs at? What motivates them? Makes them tick?

A couple of thoughts:

1) Instead of focusing exclusively on the central figure who has it all, there would be a cast of characters surrounding him, male and female, also inspired by some of the figures we read about daily on sites such as this one. Kind of an ensemble piece.

-There would be the main character, a "space tycoon," if you will, who is a self-made billionaire (or damn near) by age 30. His main characteristic is the willingness to take take risks others won´t. When most of his peers took their millions and sought safer pursuits, he instead chose to follow a boyhood dream to go into space--on his own terms. Also enoys adventure in general, sailing, rock climbing, flying, etc...
-The aerospace engineer, perhaps an immigrant from a foreign (Muslim? Slavic? Latin? Asian? Indian? African?) country, with some brilliantly unconventional ideas about propulsion.
-The general contractor/handyman/jack of all trades, with a "school of life" education and a seasoned wisdom. Possibly a combat veteran or former cop, who loves to build things.
-The 20-something young woman, with a passion for math, physics, often stereotypoed as "nerd."
-Possibly, a shadowy silent partner, an angel investor whose motives are not clear and of whom little is known at first.

2) The main source of conflict could be competition between a fledgling startup launch company made up of inspired dreamers; and a coalition of megacorporations piped in to the old boys network-MIC. The dramatic tension would result from the considerable personal toll taken on the lives of the folks working to make the dream real.

3) The first story would feature a fictional contest, similar to the X-Prize, and taking place during the same general timeframe, but different in some way. Possibly a surface-to-LEO prize instead of suborbital. Maybe a combination of X-Prize and America's Space Prize?...

My hope is that the series would stretch out over decades, from the 1990´s through to the middle of this century. Always, the focus would be on real science, which would be a challenge for me, since I am not formally schooled in science by and large.

Twists and turns, surprises along the way, exotic locales.... right now I have a lot of big-picture ideas, but the problem as always is getting the thousands of little details squared away.

 

[StarRider1701]

The main source of conflict could be competition between a fledgling startup launch company made up of inspired dreamers; and a coalition of megacorporations piped in to the old boys network-MIC. The dramatic tension would result from the considerable personal toll taken on the lives of the folks working to make the dream real.

The first story would feature a fictional contest, similar to the X-Prize, and taking place during the same general timeframe, but different in some way. Possibly a surface-to-LEO prize instead of suborbital. Maybe a combination of X-Prize and America's Space Prize?...

Twists and turns, surprises along the way, exotic locales.... right now I have a lot of big-picture ideas, but the problem as always is getting the thousands of little details squared away.

That sounds like it might work for a movie or mini-series. Not sure about a longer series though. Too long and drawn out a story of getting to the big X-prize (or whatever) and it gets boring. Get there too fast and what's next? They've beaten the mega-corp - now what? From there it seems like it would go back to boring. Practical work, which is realistically what would happen next, is nearly always boring. Not likely good series material, unless you're planning on making a soap-opera set within the space industry (see Stargate Universe).

 

[space_tycoon]

Well, the first book would be about the startup... subsequent sequels would feature new challenges. An asteroid flight here, a lunar landing there, perhaps a Venus flyby by the third or fourth story.

Often accompanied by international intrigue, personal drama, etc.

Always there would be competition, from other businesses or foreign governements, sometimes of the not-too-friendly variety.

 

[StarRider1701]

Well, the first book would be about the startup...

You're talking about a book? Sorry, I got the idea you were talking about a TV series or perhaps a movie or three.

 

[space_tycoon]

At the moment, it's nebulous. Could go either way. I'm leaning towards a book series that could conceivably be transferred into a movie.