Spacescifi

Machine Artificiqlly Constructed Planet: Think like the Deathstar from Star Wars, only it is run by an an advanced AI. Theoretically there is nothing in physics that says you cannot do this. However if you wanted a more human thinking intelligence you would likely have to go full transhumanism and start making cyborgs (with brains linked to the planet AI to feed it's intellgence to help it run the machine planet). Flesh and blood planet: Impossible or actually impossible? Living things need to breath no? Wait. Come to think of it, a flesh and blood planet covered by a watery ocean MIGHT be possible to survive, since there would be a breathable atmosphere above it, and the living planet could breath under water like fish do. Sea creatures could provide it with food provided it did not need to eat too often given it's size. Like any organism the planet would grow over time until it reaches it's adult phase where growth stops (earth size). I do wonder about the large amounts of CO2 a living planet would be venting into the oceqn and what effect that would have on the atmosphere l. I still think an ocean covered planet of flesh with a breathable atmosphere is easier to exist from a physics standpoint than a planet of flesh not covered by an ocean. Simply because an ocean provides both protection and easy access to fish for food. And before anyone asks how such life could possibly evolve, it would seem more likely that it was designed that way by other intelligent beings. Since the energy alone to even make it would be insane. Especially from a cell division point of view. My guess is whoever made the planet figured out a way to do nonstop cell division growth without it mutating and killing the organism. So it took it to it to it's max potential and made it into a planet. Somehow importing an ocean and an atmosphere to cover the planet of flesh to complete it. Thoughts on this?

Evem if they somehow manage to board the ship they are still screwed if the ship has anti-personnel electric liquid spewing defense systems installed on all along the deck. Yet I think were this technology REALLY shines is it's ability to stun an entire group without killing them. Which could allow you to safely board the pirate vessel and take them as prisoners.

I am aware of it. But did they ever share if the plasma rings were fired out horizontally or standing vertically like zeros? Hard to know how to visualize it, but if I had to guess I would assume horizontal.

Also still better than plasma weaponry for effectiveness lol. Also not a gun... so cool and unique. Like the electric version of a flamethrower, without the flame and a possibility of not being lethal. I could see guys with backpack tanks and spray guns firing this, but it would only last seconds before running out.

Especially inside buildings for security. Have people or robbers going inside trying to steal something? It's going to more difficult knowing they are either are going to have to use someone else who is authorized or wear a metal suit to enter unauthorized areas.

I saw a youtube video where a guy and his buddies made a contest for creative ways to shoot down small drones. One of them had a bucket of a salty liquid solution that conducts electricity, which was rigged to a water spraying machine that could shoot high. Electricity was conducted from the machine and not long after the water hit the drone it fell from the sky. Anyway it dawned on me that such liquid/electronically conductive technology has niche defense applications. It would be quite practical for property defense... so long all you are facing is guys with guns. You could hid away multiple high powered liquid spewing cannons and the moment gunmen approach unleash torrents of electrically conducted liquid solution at them. Granted I know guys could wear a metal suit to protect them, but chances are high... especially in an urban setting, that they would not be prepared for this anyway. Besides the fact that liquid splashes everywhere and unless you are totally convered up (including your face) you're getting shocked. Militarily it is not as useful since air forces would just strike it from a safe distance. But against infantry without protection from electrical shock it could be quite effective albeit at shorter range than guns. The other reason it's impractical is that liquid is not compact and requires a lot of storage, something you don't want to mess with on the battlefield. But for static defense of property, provided there is no air support to take out the liquid cannons they could be effective. Come to think of it... it would be perfect for stopping the Somali pirates in speedboats. It's one thing to get hit by water cannons, but quite another when it's shooting a special solution that is designed to conduct electricity to shock you. Seagoing ships have room for such technology and could be adapted to make use of it. Whether it is lethal or not just depends on how much electricity you're conducting I guess. So assuming one wanted to stun a bunch of assailants at once Star Trek style you could actually do it. Just not with phasers but with electrically conductive liquid autocannons. Thoughts?

The issue with railguns is that they degrade from friction. Would it be possible to use plasma to propel a projectile at railgun velocities instead? Cooling we can do easily.. especially with a navy ship in the ocean. Spare no expense for power. . I don't care if you have to rig up a NSWR and rig it to power the plasma railgun. We already know nukes can propel stuff, so should it not be possible to rig plasma in a way to propel a projectile at railgun velocities? Secondary: With railguns the friction wears them out, but with a plasma railgun, hopefully friction woukd not be a factor. Only cooling it. Which we can do.

Haha... I can see it now, fighter jets dogfighting with lasers intentionally dumping large clouds of black smoke that take a while to break up... long enough to dump several and use it as a kind of shield to hide behind on occasion.

Wait... assuming lasers today could 1 shot missiles easily (rather than beam constantly for several seconds), would they even have the range of modern artillery or anti-aircraft guns? I say this because laser beams spread/lose focus/strength with enough distance, which means they also become ineffective at such a range. Meanwhile an artillery shell is lethal no matter where it bursts or lands. Like what is even the practical combat range for lasers in atmosphere? I guess it depends on the laser lens diameter. Let's give a laser lens diameter/bore of one meter for example. This reddit post has some interesting points, which hint that lasers although cool, may not even have as good as range as regular guns befors they begin to lose focus and spread out. Like 60 meters (180 feet) is a definite kill zone but past that you will start to lose beam focus/penetration and start to just burn targets. For a pistol size laser bore anyway. Meanwhile there are sniper rifles that can hit targets miles away lol. I guess kinetics are usually superior except in niche situations.

A valid point... when the real answer is for scifi is that air battles look cool lol.

Who said it was going a way I did not want it to go? It's going as intended. That said, the lounge may be a better spot I agree. This is not so much a story, just a brain storm. Scifi tends to get stuck so much on tropes that they don't even use what they do have to maximum potential. Even if the rockets did shoot of dangerous radioactive plumes it is well within physics to magnetically launch them at enough range from the ship itself to avoid problems of heat. And spaceships by default should have hulls that are either radiation proof or havd a high resistance against it.

Satelite probe launch is standard, as it allows seeing and detecting beyond visual range. But no attacks have been made. The alien vessel is a lone explorer not unlike thes starship enterprise. Except unlike the enterprise the crew is made up of aliens as greedy as the Ferengi but as deceptive and secretive as the Romulans from Star Trek. And although Earth could nuke it, they will hesitate to do so. Since somehow the aliens can speak Earth language (late 18th century spanish), and they tell Earth forces via radio that if their ship is desroyed, it's hyperdrive will collape into a black hole and destroy the planet. This is.... of course, a lie, But Earth forces have no way of knowing this. Much better... according to the aliens, to accept their demands. Which involves delivering them a bunch of animals and plants of their choosing as a sample, plus one healthy man and one healthy woman, both in their early twenties. They even say they will bring the man and woman back when they are done with them... but the animals they will keep. No word on what they are planning to do though. As for the missiles, they do not have plumes in the traditional sense, because all they emit is scifi repulsor light rays. Which shed energy mostly as repulsive force, and are no more hot than common Earth search lights. The spaceship itself has sublight engines using the same technology... only at lower maximum acceleration than the missiles and a max flight acceleration time of months. And yeah, the starship does have FTL capability, but only in outer space.

It dawned on me that scifi shields that block everything are not only overrated, but they are a lot more fantastic than just using a more simple means of protection. Consider this: Hovering your alien mothership in midair may look cool but it is tactically stupid if you lack shields, since it makes you a big 3-D target in all directions. Instead a more sound approach is to just land somewhere safe. Then if earth fighter jets or missiles threaten, unleash swarms of scifi mini-missiles. Scifi mini-missile specifications: Length: A meter each. Maximum acceleration: 30g Propulsion means: Scifi repulsor light rays reflected from both the emitting lens and mirrored nozzles. Which propels the missile in the opposite direction. Hard. Warhead: Each missile carries a quarter of a kilogram of metalic hydrogen in the warhead. As these missiles are too small to carry much shrapnel, they do damage primarily from the concussive blast from the metallic hydrogen detonating on impact or remote detonation. Max acceleration flight time: 3 hours at 30g acceleration, longer if at lower g. Quantity: The ship has 2000 of these for defense. Main Question: If Earth air force or military wanted to attack this ship which is landed on the ground, would they not lose more than likely in a fight against it not using nukes? Seems to me this is a much worse scenario for modern earth military than scifi shields.l because: 1. All the missiles are small and fast enough to hit any aircraft earth has, barring any without human occupants that can accelerate faster. 2. The scifi missiles can outlast anything we have in the air for flight multiplied by acceleration, meaning even if you do dodge one pass it will come back again and again until it hits you or you shoot it down. 3. A quarter of a kilogram of metallic hydrogen is very explosive stuff. 4. Even if earth did use nukes I reckon the scifi missile swarm could intercept it with little if any difficulty (ICBM'S are not made to dodge so much as scatter nukes). Conclusion: Granted running out of scifi missiles is a concern. But they are not for a prolonged engagement anyway... just spurt of the moment defense to persuade an attacker to back off... while you lie and say you can do worse if demands are not met (you actually can't but Earth does not know that lol). If and when you do run low on missiles you just fly back into space to get away.

I see, so I should retcon the gun as having recoil after it is fired. At first my reasoning was not to have recoil as it would push directly on back against the glass repulsor lens... and I thought since it is firing bullet level concussive force... that may break the glass. Would it? Granted I could just as easily craft workarounds so the glass won't break, but even bullet proof glass only lasts so long before breaking. So lenses would likely need to be thick enough that they don't crack under the recoil pressure. And I imagine even then you may have a limited number of shots before you would have to replace the lens because it cracks. As for range, it woukd be farther than suggest, given that it projects concussive force into a narrow beam that requires distance to spread out and therefore weaken. It would spread at the sams rate as a normal laser beam. So for example, let's say the pressor laser gun has a lens of 9mm (millimeters). You won't have to worry about bullet drop (no bullets), but with enough range (more than you suggest) you would have to worry about beam spread. Given the fact that you can shine a laser beam from wall to wall inside a large factory or warehouse and the spot size is still small, I would say it is still lethal for a few hundred meters at least. Once the spot size becomes significantly larger than the lens then instead of piercing targets you would only be pushing them.

Scenario: You have a scifi pressor ray gun. What that means is you have a laser pistol that shoots out a laser beam with concussive force... because it violently repels all mass it hits. When fired the gun has no recoil, since the laser beam only becomes repulsive after it leaves the gun's dark yet transparent repulsor lens. The repulsor lens changes the normal laser beam passing through it into a white colored pressor laser beam. Like real laser beams you won't see it from the sides unless in a dense fog, at night, or if fired underwater. Also the repulsor lens only converts light into pressor rays that are fired from behind it... you could shine a flashlight into the front of the lens all you wanted and it would do nothing. How strong is the concussive force of the pressor beam? Like a fired bullet from a handgun, or nonstop fired bullets if you pull the trigger and hold it (which will drain the gun's powerbank faster). Main Questions: What sound would it make when fired in the air? My guess is that if fired in pulses it would make a loud cracking sound equivalent to lightning, not because it is heating up the air (because the pressor laser beam delivers concussive damage and is not a hot laser) but because it is displacing all the air from the laser beam's path by repelling it. If the trigger is pulled and held then I would expect a constant booming sound as air is constantly blown away from the path of the pressor beam as it diffuses through the air. With enough range the pressor laser beam spreads out to be less lethal and more of a conical stiff breeze at the farthest range of the beam where it is weaker. What visual and other effects would the pressor beam have underwater? I already know the beam would be white and would spread out with distance, but what visual effects would it have on the water if any? Would it cause air bubbles or shockwaves? And yeah... any fish unfortunate to cross the path of a nearby fired continous pressor beam will quickly become a cloud of red mist, besides being bisected if it cannot get out the way fast enough. Bonus: The same technology is used for rocket propulsion powered by pressor rays, just don't make a laser. Instead shine light out a repulsor lens fitted down the throat of a mirror coated nozzle, which transfers momentum from the reflection of the repulsive rays, thus creating thrust in the opposite direction. Momentum transfer would occur even if the nozzle were non-reflective, but a reflective nozzle increases thrust virtually for free so it is preferred. So yeah... the scifi repulsor lens is key, since without it all you have is ordinary light (which has very, very, weak repulsive force) and lasers. Concluding Comments/Questions: What are your thoughts? Did I get the sound effects right? What would the underwater visual effects be like?

You don't have to go super fast. I have envisioned a far more modest scifi warp drive, which has warp acceleration equal to whatever acceleration your main engines are accelerating when you activate warp, after which you can shut off main engines and let sublight warp do the rest. A 3 day trip of coasting is just a few hours or less now warping to the moon. Even better is that it is faster than constant acceleration using acceleration drives, since you can warp accelerate the whole way and then drop out of warp all of a sudden. Hyperdrives are far more ideal for FTL than warp drives, but warp is good for interplanetary, and acceleration drives are good for final approach and course corrections.

Nope... you can travel fast without actually accelerating at all if you use a form of warp space drive (like making the universe move toward you on a conveyor belt. Just warp around at sublight speeds, drop out a warp, and do any necessary course corrections with normal acceleration engines then. I could keep the OP idea of a scifi shield in that scenario. Only places gravity would still kill would be if you warped too close to the sun.

Ya know, I tend to look at the logical application of any scifi technology in practice, and the results often surprise me, because it can be used in novel ways the source material does not use it. For example if a deflector shield worked in that manner, by spreading mass around and off to the sides away from it, then why not modify it for air flight? Seems to me that if you can deflect air behind you fast enough then all done is turn your massive shield bubble into a massive air propeller for flight. Am I right or did I just fail in my understanding of air flight physics for the upteenth time lol? If this works it will stall past a certain high altitude, but that's not really a problem since that is what rockets and external pulse propulsion drives are for as alternatives when air is thin or non-existent.

Elephants on average run faster than we do though lol. You would not want to get chased by an elephant, since at my best I was doing 12 mph and elephants can reach 15 mph I read. Running on the toes helps in that regard since for an elephant they can easily go into sprint mode, much how human runners bolt off on their toes at the start of a race. I guess push ups on the ground would be impossible or so awkward they would nit bother, since unlike us their feet would not bend like ours... or would it. Do elephant feet bend? Oops! They can! https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/08/080822083211.htm

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwiLtN2-2quLAxUhJkQIHSVAOIkQFnoECC8QAQ&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.reddit.com%2Fr%2Fpics%2Fcomments%2F9wpp3g%2Felephant_foot_compared_with_human_foot%2F&usg=AOvVaw2Jzb8E20xOkMHA7LalakiT&opi=89978449 Amazingly, the bones look much like our own, just the outside is different. If a humanoid has elephant feet could they do all the same movements we do? Keep in mind they would be walking on their toes all the time as their feet bones would be tilted so only the toe bones were hitting the ground and the rest is just sole padding. Thoughts?

What? Are you saying you NEVER saw the full Babylon 5 series before? If so you really are in for a treat. It in my opinion is better than DS9 and Star Gate and all Star Trek shows after the original combined. Unlike Trek, the show does NOT pull it's punches. Consequences matter, and the effects follow characters afterward.

DC comic universe literally has had government sponsored and and created superheroes (and I don't mean justice league) made specifically to counter hero teams, and worse yet they have been known to go rogue. A nuclear powered car crashing would be mild compared to the latest superhero versus villain or superpowered goverment agent fight in the city (some are kryptonian level powerful). This happened quite a bit during the New Krypton story arc which was a massive crossover of multiple comicbooks and characters interconnected. Was like a nice ode to the DC universe of that era.

My headcanon says he uses two nuclear reactors for an electric engine lol. With some convential fuel to burn for extra speed.

Yep... Star Trek taught me wrong. Just cause a warp core can power everything does not mean a super duper nuclear rocket also can efficiently.

The way you put it so politely and nonchalantly even though I know you are being deadly serious as the moderator made me want to laugh. Why oh why do so many of my threads tend to get locked EVEN when I never intend from them to touch sensitive issues it almost always goes there lol? And I am not referring to the several times when I actually did broach sensitive issues when I should not have... thanks for putting up with me by the way : )