The next morning we discovered what would become the worst recurring aspect to this year’s World Science Fiction Convention, the beds at the Hyatt Regency. The hotel supplied the rooms with beds of extreme softness. Now there may be those who think that means a night’s rest is like sleeping on a cloud when on such a bed, but those are not the sentiments of my sweetie-wife and myself. Both of us suffered from back pains through the convention due to the bedding, my sweetie suffering more than myself.

There were no items of interest in the first slot of panels so I went to the con-suite and enjoyed a few free sodas and scoped out the arriving fandom. A game of Munchkin had just started and I accepted the invitation to join the fight. It was a fun game, using cards from a set we do not have at home, and while I did not win, I did give as good as I got.

My first panel was a presentation by Brother Guy Consolmagno, a Jesuit astronomer on astronomical theories of the past that were almost right, which is to say that there were completely wrong, and yet fit the data and observation at the time. It was a very interesting lecture and one that got my paneling off to a great start.

I followed that up with sometimes thing go wrong in space, which sort of a war stories panel from the aerospace field about failures and near failures. (Apparently we nearly lost the shuttle on the very first to flight to two different design faults.)

Next up was a discussion on the topic Is Europe Winning the Space Race. The panel covered a wide number of projects and missions being pursued by countries other than the United States, but demurred from calling it a race.

Instead of dinner in the early evening, I went to a panel on the latest discoveries in Astronomy, which concluded as the must interesting and most recent discovery being that fifth moon of the non-planet, Pluto.

Seven-thirty still did not present me with a dinner as there was a presentation on Apollo 13: the Longest Hour by Sy Liebergot. Sy was the EECOM flight controller on duty for Apollo 13 when the O2 tank exploded. For just over an hour he gave us the moment-by-moment blow of what it was like in that hot seat when disaster struck the Apollo program. (He also took issues with the film Apollo 13 for what it got wrong, which was nothing technical but rather the nature of the crew interactions.)

So now it was 9 P.M. and time for dinner, right? Nope, now there was a presentation by an astronomer taking us on a tour of the solar system visiting the most recent information for the various bodies.

So paneling for me ended about 10:15, no dinner, and the parties just starting. All in all a good first day of the convention.