The Star Bound Magazine masthead: the words STAR BOUND in white block letters over an airbrushed starfield, a woven sail-like device beneath them, and the word MAGAZINE below that.

A magazine about getting off this planet.

Begun 1993 · Anchorage, Alaska

Star Bound was a subscriber-funded magazine. The idea started in 1993, and the plan was to collect ideas about living somewhere other than here. It was straightforward, and probably naive: sell enough subscriptions, and put the proceeds into a private space program.

It ran out of Alaska. The same site carried the magazine, my father's fiction, and the guided watercraft tours I was running in Prince William Sound. It picked up close to forty thousand visits before the host deleted the files with no backup.

This page is the start of putting it back together from what survived in the Internet Archive. The letter below is the one that opened it, and under that is the list of what we were setting out to cover.

Letter from the editor

Written 1995. Lightly edited from the original.

This is a letter that I wrote back when I first started working on Star Bound Magazine. Even though it was written a long time ago I decided to publish it and get things rolling on some articles. If you enjoy the letter, I would like to hear from you.

For years, man has stared at the stars in wonder of what lies beyond. As a small boy, growing up in the mountains of Idaho, I was no different. I have spent many nights camping out with my brother, staring out into the depths of space and dreaming of what it would be like out there, beyond our sight. We would lie awake pointing out different things that we could see, such as planes, satellites, and falling stars.

The next thing that we knew, the sun was starting to shine over the mountain top and was drying the dew off our sleeping bags. We would eventually get up, and build us a small fire to warm our toes, and cook a couple of small trout that had been caught the day before. As the day continued we, like everyone else, would let our dreams of the night be lost to the adventures and challenges that had to be conquered that day. Through the years as I grew, I became what I considered to be a "society robot."

I graduated from high school and signed up for a welding course at North Idaho College. After graduating from the one year course, I began my role in society's work place. I went to work for a welding company in Post Falls, Idaho. I started out at seven dollars an hour and I worked at this job for two years. In that short time I began to fall into what could be considered society's trap. I like to call it the rut of life. Let me describe the rut of life as I see it.

A person wakes up on Monday morning and goes to work at a place that most likely is not a favorite place to be. They spend eight hours doing whatever it is that they do, and when the shift is over they might stop for a drink with their friends, but as the night goes on they head for home and get ready for bed so they can get up early and do it again.

The goal is to make it to the weekend where they can party down, or spend time with their family. The weekend is theirs. They go do whatever it is they enjoy, whether it is hunting, fishing, hiking, taking a road trip, shopping or just plain relaxing. This is their time. Man, does it feel good. Suddenly, Monday slaps them in the face and they start all over again.

Society has taught us that this is the way that life is. You are to work forty hours a week, fifty weeks a year, and then you have earned two whole weeks for yourself. Go ahead. Take a vacation, you deserve it.

If you are among the few that have a job which pays you well enough, and you have been able to save enough money for a vacation, then you are sure to enjoy it. Now if you are like me you have never been able to save money because you can just barely pay your bills. You have done the American thing, and when there was something that you wanted or needed you had to borrow the money to buy it. "No sweat, the payments are only ten dollars" — for the rest of your life.

Those "just ten dollars" start adding up fast, and before you know it they have accumulated into hundreds and sometimes thousands of dollars a month. It is so easy to get credit, especially when you are not working. I have actually had institutions trying to give me credit over the phone while the bill collectors were knocking on the door. When the bills add up to more than your paychecks do, you enter into a new level of life's rut: the financial rut.

No matter how good you are at managing your money, this rut can happen to anyone. It does not have to come from small bills adding up. You could get into an accident or have serious health problems and have everything that you have worked for repossessed, because your savings are gone and you cannot pay your bills. You might think that you have the world by the tail, and one day someone slips on your welcome mat and sues you for everything that you have. It has happened, more than once.

The time has come for us to carry our dreams of the night into the day, and make them the adventures and challenges that need to be conquered. We need to escape this senseless life style that society has molded us into, and expand our horizons to the impossible. We must turn our focus to the years ahead and not just to the weekend. We must look beyond society's grip and mold the future into the fashion that we desire.

This magazine is 100% dedicated to expanding our horizons for the better of all mankind. Through the proceeds that it produces we will fund a private enterprise space program. Let us be the ones to invite you into the future as you have never imagined it could be. We will open the door, and all that is required of you is to join us inside and help us work toward a common goal of living in the stars. So please, come join us, because we are Star Bound.

John LangEditor

What this magazine covers

Set out in 1998. Unchanged in intent.

This is the ground the magazine set out to cover, and it is still the ground it covers. Star Bound Magazine promises to be a leader in raising the public's awareness of the many possibilities of space resource utilization. We wish to focus on the optimism and hope of an active space program, rather than the doom-and-gloom associated with many of the proponents of space colonization.

The main focus is the colonization of space. Additionally, we cover science and new technologies and their many applications to the process of space development. As our scientific understanding of the universe evolves, so does our capacity to develop new technology.

Space colonization

  • Theories and ideas on how to colonize space
  • Should we colonize? Both the yes and the no sides of the question
  • What are the benefits — power needs, unlimited resources
  • What happens if we do not colonize
  • What kind of habitats should we live in
  • Psychological effects of living in space for extended periods
  • How close are we to moving into space

Science

  • Medical science, and how it benefits in space
  • Geology, earth science, environmental science
  • Engineering, physics, chemistry, biology
  • Planetary engineering, and how it affects space policy and planning

Space

  • Astronomy — how astronomers map out the sky
  • Exploration: should we, and how should we
  • Interstellar and interplanetary travel
  • Effects of zero gravity
  • How distances between planets and stars are measured

New technologies

  • Computers, the internet, robotics
  • Closed ecological life support systems
  • Power generation and communications
  • New rocket ship designs and launching systems
  • Waveriders, Skylon, skyhooks
  • Single stage to orbit — reusable launch vehicles
How does that work?
The mechanics of simple things everyone uses. How the display on a quartz watch works. How resistors work.
Testing your science knowledge
Commonly held scientific facts in layman's terms — orbital mechanics and their effect on objects in any given orbit.
Transitions
Old science fiction and early science that was only a dream and has since turned real. Leonardo da Vinci draws up the first helicopter; would he not be impressed with what we have now?
Technology transfer
Technologies developed for space and since taken up by the private sector. CAT scans, first developed by NASA for use in low earth orbit, have saved hundreds of millions of lives through early detection.
Up and coming writers
Short and serialized science fiction by unpublished or under-published authors.
Theories
For anyone with ideas or theories relevant to the broad purview of the magazine.
International space forum
Coverage of international space activities and the commercial launch market around the world.
NASA news and accomplishments
Following NASA's missions, and evaluating earlier discoveries for their relevance to what comes next.

If your work belongs somewhere on that list, it will have a home here. Submissions are not open yet — the magazine is being rebuilt first, and writers' guidelines will be published when it is ready to receive them.

About the cover

The full Star Bound Magazine cover painting: an airbrushed starfield with a green planet at upper left and a rust-orange planet at lower right.
Cover painting · 1995

The original painting still hangs on my wall. The logo and all of the lettering are mine; the airbrushed background was painted by my friend Dave Haney in Idaho.

  • Logo and lettering — John Lang
  • Airbrushed background — Dave Haney
  • First published — 1995

Get in touch

If you read the magazine the first time around, or you want to know what happens next, write to me at hello@starboundmagazine.com.