Spaceception

Alright here's my take. Lower gravity worlds .8g < Thin atmosphere .5 <: Life in these planets would likely be small and fragile, since there's a thin atmosphere, it would probably be harder to get energy. Think water-bears, ground crawler insects, and short plants. Thick atmosphere 2atm>: This is where things get fun, a thin atmosphere and weaker gravity means flying creatures would be much more common, there would likely be more huge flying creatures, dragons without firebreathing perhaps? For planets with atmospheres about as dense as ours, they would have an easier time flying, so you could also expect lots of aerial aliens. Higher gravity worlds 1.3g> Thin atmosphere: The life on these planets would be short, dense, and stocky, you'd be pretty hard pressed to find anything decently tall, flying creatures would probably be very hard if not impossible. Thick atmosphere: Here, you could probably find aliens that are taller, maybe even aerial ones, but they would be smaller. Marine life may be more common. But it woukd still be stockier. For planets with atmospheres about as dense as ours, I'd say you'd mostly find more Marine life, land creatures would depend on surface conditions however. This is for aliens with habitability similar to Earth's, and I'm no biologist, but this is what I think would be on these planets.

You had me at Something.

Okay, what were said ideas? Well, I only have 2, but they're a doozy. The 1st one, title TBD. This one starts off in mid-late 2019, over a year after the launch of James Webb, after looking at a patch of sky, it finds a very tiny red dwarf just over 13 ly away, shortly after the discovery, it's found to have planets, the innermost one being in the HZ. SETI takes a look at it, and almost as soon as they do, they find radio signals emitting from the planet like crazy. It grabs headlines, and spurs additional studies, which finds that the planet does have life, and something is sending out radio waves in a constant stream from the planet. Almost 15 years goes by as humans focus on the space close to home, and get busy with colonizing the Moon and Mars. After a group on Earth announces their plans to send a probe, the lunar colony decides to one-up them (May need a better reason for this) by sending a crewed expedition with assistance from their parent space programs. After over a decade of construction, they finish a massive spacecraft meant for a dozen crew members, with cryotubes so they can conserve resources. Yada yada, they get to the planet and find- I'll tell it once I have a proper blurb You may be disappointed, or happy, but this is getting long, so... OH AND ALSO! I wrote over 2k words on the climax. Whoops. The 2nd one, title TBD This book takes place over 400 years in the future. Almost 30 years after an expedition ship meant for exploration and possible colonization travels almost 500 lys out, they find a hostile alien civilization, before they can return home, they're attacked and destroyed by the alien ships. Humanity tried to respond peacefully, hoping that the aliens misunderstood and thought they were attacking, but after that ship is destroyed as well, humanity decides to retaliate. A massive fleet of ships is launched to set up a base on a habitable world less than 40 ly from their nearest planet, and they declare war. 30 years later, the book focuses on Warren (May be renamed), a gunner who's spent his whole life on the planets, fighting the aliens. And after almost 30 years of fighting, both sides are reaching their end game. I've got over 500 words on a space battle scene written btw The 1st idea will be hard on science, with the exception of aliens, and there will be no ftl, or anything like that. The 2nd idea however will be a bit softer, and have ftl travel/communication, torchships, inertial dampers, etc. I'll try to make as much as possible realistic, but there will be some exceptions.

I've actually got a ton of ideas, but I wasn't sure when I was going to share, more info tomorrow

Also, shouldn't this be in sci/space?

Ugh, I can't answer tonight, but I'll write something down tomorrow.

That's what I was talking about I mean, obviously, he dies. But...

I just finished chapter 4 (I will likely edit this to include chapter 5) and I like it! The only complaint I have, is that he seems to get past it too quickly, or switch between being angry, and just about calm. Maybe he could recover more in the 5th chapter instead, and keep it more consistent on the 4th, like clearly angry, but battling to stay calm Just finished chapter 5, and that took a turn... Will Xf39b figure out what happened? Or will its fate be discovered later?

We have to start somewhere. Sure, the grid isn't completely green (Isn't like at a quarter in the US though? Or around a third?), but we're not going to do anything if we sit around waiting for the perfect moment. And it's not like we aren't building new plants that have solar and wind instead of fossil fuels. But what about the pollution by mining, refining, transporting, etc, etc all the fossil fuels we use? How bad is that? And from your previous quote, I would trust Wait but why. His articles are well researched, and go in depth on a bunch of topics. Yes, making electric cars are almost, if not about as bad as making fossil fuel ones, but a lot of components that they will have (At least Teslas) will be in the Gigafactory, and that's 100% powered by renewables. Transportation costs still involve fossil fuels, but they're working on an electric truck. The point is, we need to start working on it now, it might not be the best of circumstances at the moment, but as we move away from fossil fuels and move closer to renewables, the electric car will continue to get greener, while the gasoline car remains in the past. And sometime in the future, advancements in electric cars will lead to a new and better battery that's greener than a lithium ion, and not expensive.

I recommend Andromeda daydream, that's a great visual pack. It's in Addon releases, and has a really amazing overhaul coming in the few couple months, Seriously, it's incredible.

Damn it, the forum ate my reply. That's actually not true, the lithium batteries Tesla uses has very little of it, and the amount they do use, is able to be almost completely recycled. There's a lot more in this article, I tried quoting some things, but, internet/forum trouble. https://waitbutwhy.com/2015/06/how-tesla-will-change-your-life.html

Oh, I didn't read that right I want just one, what do I look like? A pile of money? I'm going to need to save up for awhile, but there's over 400k reserves to hand out, so I've got a few years at least.

No, 30, they're revealed near the end

Here are some of the specs from the Tesla site: https://www.tesla.com/model3 5.1 - 5.6 seconds from 0 to 60 mph 220 - 310 miles of range Pay per use supercharging Seating for 5 adults 15 cu ft of cargo space 1 digital display, 15 inches. 35,000 - ~44,000 (W/o incentives) USD There's obviously way more tweet on their twitter It's finally here!!! And I want one.

Damn, the forums are being a jerk right now, and it deleted my previous comments. Anyway, that sounds cool, I'm looking forward to it

Eeeeek! I can't wait. Also, outta likes.. sooooo...

Okay! Chapter 1 was really interesting, and the premise is great! Is there a planned Climax of some sort? Or is it just the exploration of space by a... cyborg? I guess. Although, I can't find a converter between kiloseconds and gigaseconds I'm curious, in chapter 2, is the 'Andromeda massacre' the merging of the Milky Way and Andromeda? Also, Orphaned luna, did the Earth get destroyed or something? Just finished chapter 3 I hope it's continued in later chapters. Did they only travel a few thousand years into the future, or did they go further? Overall, it's a really interesting read, how many chapters are you planning on?

Hahaha

@Stevie_D Okay! Thanks for the reply

Now, why is this such a big deal? Well, acrylonitrile is thought to be the best candidate for a molecule on Titan that could form the basis of cell membranes on the hazy moon. And because it constantly rains methane, there could be an abundance of this stuff in Titan's seas, and potentially life. Obviously, we will need many more studies, and possibly orbiters/landers, but we are one step closer to confirming the existence or lack thereof, of life on another body in the solar system. Additional reading: https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2017/nasa-finds-moon-of-saturn-has-chemical-that-could-form-membranes What do you guys think? Does this make you more optimistic about the prospects of life there?

Very true I read the article to see if it was a hoax, but it seemed legit, so I decided to share. I (Definitely) didn't think it was close to becoming self-aware

I would be (As far as I know so far) a 1^2 km array of Earth mounted lasers, totaling about 1 GW of energy, the nanosats, and over the course of a few minutes, they would be boosted to 20% c. We know how to build really big powerplants, and it could use Nuclear or solar (Or a combination of several energy sources) to power the lasers. The biggest issues with that is: What kind of energy losses would need to be accounted for a laser firing on an object at least 100 km away? And, how will they be able to focus such a large and powerful laser onto a tiny spacecraft without pushing it off course, or destroying it?

They're going to be pushed to that velocity by lasers, really powerful lasers.

I, for one, welcome our new AI overlords. http://www.digitaljournal.com/tech-and-science/technology/a-step-closer-to-skynet-ai-invents-a-language-humans-can-t-read/article/498142

The hype is real.