remember my debate about if there could or should be magazines in Campoestela? Well, my idea now is that since the FTL system cuts you away from radio communications (and, in any case, most communications are difficult to maintain in space, with light-minutes or even light-days of delay), there's not such thing as the ultra-fast internet we're used to in space. So physical media proves itself popular again; courier data spaceships do deliver data, but spacers in general keep computers loaded with stuff to do and watch.

NOW ABOUT MAGAZINES: my idea is that spacer communities are close-knit like big widespread clubs and they have lots to talk about, but for obvious reasons they can't really use social media or blogs, so like many others, Beto's spacer syndicate/union publishes a monthly magazine in paper (gasp!), Astronaútica Popular. The format is not of a short magazine, it's big, like a scientific journal or more obviously issues of old magazines like those my dad had. Sold in every spaceport of the Esteloplatense Confederation, it has everything: announcements by the union and letters to the editors, spaceship reviews, tech tips, lifestyle articles, tales and interviews, personal ads, columns, and lots of drama, because astronauts love to argue, columnists arguing with each other about pointless minuteae of spacesuits over months and months. And that includes Beto.

the idea is a scene where Beto is slumped on the pilot chair reading the latest issue with a mate on hand and muttering "este Ramírez de vuelta escribiendo pelotudeces sobre reactores de ciclo abierto, dale sí mucho delta-v y donde te metés la radiación después?" and then writing a very angry letter to the editor about it