Can’t decide what book to read? How about The Apollo Murders
Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield famously filmed a music video from orbit, performing David Bowie’s “Space Oddity,” on the International Space Station. Since his space faring days, Hadfield has taken on a new creative mission: fiction writing.
“The Apollo Murders” is a speculative science fiction thriller written by Hadfield. The book has spurred into a three-book series and a future television program.
Hadfield has also worked on other writing projects, including children’s books. He’s also a space flier, pilot, and engineer. The second book following The Apollo Murders, The Defector, is out now and the third and last book of the series “Final Orbit,” comes out later this year.
Hadfield said one of his inspirations for writing is the idea that reading can help someone escape into the book. He said he wanted to write books that you could learn from, but also connect with
“That’s the type of book I wanted to be able to write and that’s the task I gave myself,” Hadfield said. “It’s great to see the huge success that The Apollo Murders has had, and now The Defector is having.”
Instead of always being the consumer watching or reading an exciting show, Hadfield said he enjoys being on the other end of things providing the experiences for others to enjoy.
“It’s just as much fun to try and be someone who’s providing those ideas, whether it’s playing guitar at the space station, or making a TV series or now writing nonfiction and thriller fiction,” Hadfield said. “What I love the most is a really good gripping thriller fiction book, where I’m sitting somewhere boring, but I’m having this huge adventure in my head because of what’s written on the page that nobody around me is having.”
How one company is trying to design footwear in space
As humanity moves towards building a space economy, one company is trying to profit both on Earth and in low-Earth orbit with shoes designed in space.
The Florida-based company Syntilay will use AI technology in space to design the shoes and 3-D printing down here to manufacture footwear. By 2026, the company plans to have fully designed a shoe in space – will plans to sell them that same year.
Syntilay’s CEO Ben Weiss said with new technology like AI and 3D printing, it allows his company and others to move their work into areas like space and to work at a much faster pace.
“We generate our concept image artwork instead of making sketches, and then just make a sketch based on a finalized concept that we’ve created with AI,” Weiss said.
“If we can condense this process even further, it’s just going to present an opportunity for more content creators and more brands to get into the coveted footwear category with original designs.”
Because Syntilay will be the first company to design footwear in space, Weiss said the company will somehow incorporate the idea that the shoes were made in space.
“We’re thinking about ideas about how to incorporate the environment in space into the design itself,” Weiss said. “There’s interesting patterns or ways we can develop designs based on the surroundings…We’re in the process of determining how we’re going to possibly do some of these things, but it needs to be something that stands out.”