Spacescifi

You're right, in that truth would instruct you in the way to go. Yet even then a correct choice is not guaranteed, anymore than those who smoke even though they know it is killing them. It takes self-control to make the correct choice that truth dictates, especially when we feel inclined to do otherwise.

Interestingly, the power levels associated with FTL are non-trivial. I remember scientists involved with researching the highly theoretical warp drive have reported that they can cut the energy requirement fown from one whole Jupiter of mass Such energy requirements boggle the mind. To give you some idea of just how much energy that is, the Tsar bomb, the most powerful nuclear bomb ever, test detonated by the Russians, had the energy equivalent of converting one whole paper clip into energy. Back to how the scientists cut the level of energy required for the warp drive, they cut it dow to one whole voyager 2 probe mass. Less, but still something that would be considered WMD. It is 721.9 kilograms, shy of a ton of mass. If such a ship crashed on a planet and exploded? I do not wanna say dinosaur extinction event, but who knows? Probably not that bad, but you get my point. My point is, unless one is drawing their power from an extra-dimensional realm, an FTL ship would have to store such energy. That means that landing such a vessel on a world to trade with would have to be done very carefully, even if you had access to constant acceleration drives to do it easily. I would imagine such vessels landing at space ports many kilometers from civilization. Perhaps an island base? Aircraft would ship the rest of goods around the planet.

That was fiction, but yeah. BTW in my original post I was speaking of crashing asteroids onto the moon. Then breaking the shards into small enough chunks to haul back to earth on a three day trip from the moon. I may like scifi, but even I think redirecting asteroids to crash on Earth is kinda questionable behavior. Just because we did it in Kerbal does not mean we should in real life. Saw Scott Manley try and land an Orion thermonuclear pusher plate warship on the moon once. Fun times. Regarding ore processing: The ideal spot for an asteroid refining plant is in LEO. It can easily be resupplied and repaired that way. But I am not sure how comfy earth is with a huge asteroid in LEO though. That was why I suggested a laser rocket assisted crash onto the moon first. Last you could rocket haul the shards to an ore refinery in LEO. Finished product could be retrofitted to orbiting vessels.

Thanks for the encouragement. I will try it out. Hopefully within 6 months I can land something in journalism, I will try. Many successful managers apparently are spelling challenged. I had a few, believe me I know. But it mattered little since 1. He could hire someone who can spell if the need arose and 2. He was cheap so he would just ask us if he was unsure about a particular word.

Good points. Speaking of iron oxide, I managed to kill a beetle with a donut magnet and a pile of iron oxide (rust) as a child. Let's just say I managed to magnetize the poor creature... although I will admit it took several minutes before the beetle succumbed to it's injuries. As for mining space metals, I was thinking more like the rare and expensive ones. Like platinum. I once read a scifi short story about an orbiting asteroid made of antimatter. Earth was divided on whether or not to try to divert it to LEO for further processing or to destroy it entirely. The story ends on a cliffhanger of suspense as tbe astronaut assigned to destroy it finds the mission has been sabotaged, and is hearing radio calls from both factions, one begging her to destroy it as assigned, the other telling her to divert it to LEO to help solve man's desire for greater energy and power. The end is when she fires her railgun, yet the story does not tell you if the asteroid was diverted or destroyed. It just ends with the asteronaut's thoughts as they fire, knowing she will either be hailed a hero and live on some caribbean island when she returns, or be sent to jail. Either way, she would make the shot count. She would not miss. For this was going to change history.

The Moon: I will come clean and admit that virtually most of the space knowledge I know I intend to write scifi with. Otherwise the knowledge won't be put to use as I am no astronaut. In my opinion, based on what is currently known, none of the planets besides Earth are worth the time or expense to colonize. If you wanna colonize Mars, it is worth remembering that Mars is only slightly warmer than Antartica and unlike Antartica, water is scarce and you cannot breath the air. Did I mention cancer? Mars will give you that too without heavy, and I do mean thick protection, unless we engineer a thin radiation shielding material that blocks both cosmic rays and lethal radiation. The Moon is probably the striongest contender for colonization since it is only three days away. Even then, I think it is best used as an expensive vacation resort, and also as an ore processing station. Ideally robots would do most of the work and humans would drop in every few months for maintenence. I view the planets and asteroids as valuable for the resources they have that we can bring back to earth. For example, if you wanted to mine a huge asteroid but did'nt want to send several rockets on rendezvous missions to build an ore processing plant on top of it, send it to the moon. Seriously. Send several laser armed rockets powered by nuclear reactors. To the huge asteroid. Attach them. Zap away. The lasers ablating the asteroid will make a rocket plume of the asteroids's own exhaust. Send it to crash on the moon as close as reasonably possible to your moon ore processing plant. From there it's a simple three day drive to fetch precious space rocks back to earth. Because when I say processing, I really mean breaking the rocks into pieces small enough that you can haul it back to earth with a fleet of rockets.Earth has all the chemicals needed for your processing needs. The moon? Not so much. You would have to import them from earth. Magnets on Mars: i always look at the rusty plains of Mars and think "Wow, a magnet would have fun times there." Don't want that martian low gravity to bounce you so much? Electromagnetic boots are the answer! Because on Mars, even the soil has a lot of iron oxide, and I have played with that stuff long enough as a child to know that it responds to magnets just like iron. Beyond that, here's a video illustrating how tough life on Mars would be. It fails to mention the obvious though. Moon? Help from earth is about three days away if something goes wrong. Mars? Help from earth is six MONTHS away at best... maybe more.

I understand your rationale, others have said similar things, but it is'nt a cause for concern for me. Human scientists may scratch their heads on how they ever got as far as they did. The funny thing is, the aliens will also wonder why we have'nt nuked ourselves to oblivion yet. Questions with answers that can be as simple or complex as you want then to be. For what it's worth, I have another cat based race that looks kinda like this. Main difference is the claws are where I mentioned earlier. Not on fingertips. These also have some strange ways about then, which will freak you out if you apply evolutionary logic to them. They are based upon 3 words. Food: They can eat a lot and not eat for days after. Food is about health first for them. A person's health records are scanned at stores and restaurants, so that anything that will damage them beyond acceptsble levels they won't be able to buy until their health improves enough. Friendship: Friendship means they trust that you won't take their stuff while they aren't looking. By nature they steal from strangers and have no laws against it, unless friends are involved. Otherwise everything is either secured or made so that stealing is not worth the trouble. Often leaders of companies are family and friends. Fitness: Being physically fit is more important than for your average human. Since they love to chase down prey even when they don't plan on killing it For exercise. They even incorporate exercise in their architecture, making doors unusually heavy or requiring you to pull/lift back heavy levers to open them. Beyond all this, they take frequent short naps (to recover from strenous activity) and their bodies do not create their own body fat. So eating pure fat for them is quite healthy... up to a point anyway.

Journalism requires college degrees, I need something more immediate. Proofreading I could surely do though. Transcribing as well if I can land a job. Data entry as well, just have to get hired is all. Thanks for the suggestions!

Ha, as far advanced as these fictional aliens are, I can still detect human characteristics in them. Humans get bored. Humans like to create. Animals as a psychological model leads to sub-human intellect, so I suppose we have no other choice than to use hunans as a base. Aliens I intend to use for my story are based on three words. Safety. Sight. Sex. Safety means that they accept, provide, and support safety. The one thing that will make them be unsafe is their curiousity to see something. But they get no thrill out of risking their lives to know how close they can get to death Sight means they love visuals and incorporate it into their technology more than humans do. They also are innately good at imitation by sight, which means in general they make good artists. In both drawing and music. They are basically sight learners, even though they may not have the muscle nemory for a new task, they can copy it by movement until they get it Sex means unlike humans, sexual arousal and pleasure depends totally on eating specific native fruits. Meaning without them, even a lover would merely treat their mate like a close platonic friend. The opposite sex can use the same locker rooms without issue too when they have'nt eaten any of the fruit recently. The native fruit is regulated, and knowing that other races, including humans can easily be sexually aroused, they avoid coed locker rooms with them. Only with each other do they use coed rooms.

I wanted to know what jobs can I get that involve writing or require good spelling. Since I have a knack for both. Thanks for any suggestions you may know of. Including online. I realize I will still need a day job, but I would like to do something I actually enjoy while being paid for it. Writing fiction does not pay until you sell it, so I was looking for something with more immediate pay. Any suggestions? Thanks.

Quite good? How would they look? Humanoid is arguably the most practical design for an intelligent race. Why? Human feet and legs are made to support weight, animals are usually built for speed (bent backward at the knee so they can lunge forward). And it is also easier to build up than to build out, especially with a big rearend like all animals tend to have. What I am saying is that animal based designs can work, but they are hardly as efficient as the humanoid design for doing stuff humans do (reading, building stuff). My personal preference is to modify the humanoid design in ways that give the aliens an actual advantage over humans. For example, I would put retractable cat claws inside the joint where the fingers flex, making that part somewhat bigger to accomodate the claws. That is a better spot for them, as real cat claws are attahced to shot stubby digits for better force application. If the claws were at the ends of the human fingertips, they would more easily be broken and have less force could be applied easily. Now you can merely bend the fingertips to swipe something with PLENTY of force. Superior to using your fingertips and possibly breaking a finger in the process. Bending the fingers is almost like using your fist.

I was thinking much the same. We do the best with what we have and conceive, but scifi must do what gets the job done most efficiently, even if not possible for us in reality. Rockets are not the most efficient to travel, but they do work. True. I wonder what kind of exhaust a space jet would have. You know, like an air jet, but instead of air, compressing and expelling void (more empty than vacuum until the exhaust is thinned out into normal vacuum again).

I am new to this, so forgive my poll before insering information. So spaceships can land on their tail or their belly in scifi. Yet to do so repeatedly (20 times and counting) you need scifi tech (part fantasy part science). So here are some proposed solutions: Quoton rocket: Somehow photons are accelerated to FTL speeds. Thus with such high momentum going out the flashlight nozzle, momentum in the opposite direction is given to the ship. You can fly so long you have electricity. Yet to push greater amounts of mass you need greater amounts of electricity. Something like a navy vessel's mass would likely be getting it's electrical power from antimatter. A small light vessel could get by with batteries, or a nuclear reactor to provide the electrical power. Portal rocket: Portals connect ship to a planet fuel depot. Rocket fuel is fed into the ship up to a light second distance max. Such range can be increased by linking portal satelites every light second from the planet. In deep space far away from any portal satellites or planets with portals linked to fuel depots, the possibility of running out of fuel is a real one. Antigravity ascension: A ship generates antigravity waves beneath it to repel itself from the planet. I would imagine that the gravity and antigravity forces would cancel out beneath the ship, making anything beneath the ship weightless. As the ship ascends farther and closer to space, the antigravity waves will have spread for miles. Essentially making miles of a planet's surface weightless. As long as the antigravity ascension drive is on this effect would continue, that is why the ship should reach orbital speed ASAP. Unless it does not care about those below floating, and a lot of dust floarlting upward as well. So with all that in mind, which scifi solution for reaching space would you prefer to use and why? Which is safest to use?

Well my approach to writing aliens is already posted in the Lounge. You can find it by scrolling down a bit. I never liked making all of an alien race villains for no apparent reason. So at least as I write her, I would not write her to be murderous over flippant stuff. And this is a one-shot, nothing more. My actual story will involve the breaking in period of a new human crew member aboard an alien vessel where the humans are the minority, instead of like star trek where it is always the other way around The aliens in the actual story are more than one type, and more complex in character and more alien than this one-shot character. Oh I know the audience will judge, I have been on forums where people rage over the most silly things instead of talking about space travel and scifi (if X can beat the snot out of Y). I have been on forums where they rage over posts much like this one. I no longer go to such forums.

Hmmm... what is the joke? And you wake up every morning at 4:45 am? More power to you if you can do that. As for the fictional aliens, yeah, I suppose getting something for something is a concept even animals can grasp, so yeah. Are you asking do they have capitalism? Because the Inca did use money as a means of exchange with foreign powers, so there is that. As for corruption and war? Do they have it? Well... that's a heavy question. To say yes then you get aliens like us in all but looks. To say no means that they represent an ideal that we can strive for but not reach. And also beings more noble than your average human. I guess the real question is, do you want fictional aliens to be better, worse, or just like us?

As a writer I do not have such constraints, and if I did it for television I would just make it a digital cartoon. I like weightlessness because not only is it awesome, it's cheap. Even in a setting with gravity generators, weightlessness would be more affordable for the common space traveler.

LOL. I based these fictional aliens at least partially on the Inca who did not use money. Instead, they had the Mita, which is an Inca word for the period of time that the government sent people to work for several months. If you refused, you would be executed (work or die). Food and lodging were free and shared from communal storehouses for each community group. The elderly and artisians were exempt, as well as the rulers. I also like that on kerbal, people are more civil than other forums. I posted a similar thread elsewhere with another female alien and posters were answering her question by shrugging and saying, "What do I want? You."

"Some knowledge is more valuable than others. Would'nt you agree?" The alien speaking to you replies. She continues with "Cake? If it passes inspection first, sure!" As for her offer, you declined it so that is over. But it least she gets cake out of the deal! Which shows that for all our flaws, we can be generous to complete strangers.

Hmm... being that I intend to do it for fiction and not for reals... I tend to also think I should by default. The heart wants what it wants, and it wants weightlessness to be a factor in space travel. At least fictionally.

Individuals who listen to you perhaps. Humanity as a whole? Nope. Even human science would feel threatened, since any human theory that cannot be proven by alien experiments (proving by experiments is related to the very definition of science) will likely be dismissed as pure fantasy by them. Try telling that to scientists, that they are wrong because aliens said so. I know some would say prove it, but even that would not convince some. For that matter, human science is also a business, and to some extent relies on people putting their trust in it. So you begin to see that at the risk of aliens dominating human science and culture for years to come, some human scientists would definitely resist. Because truth is power. Governments also would feel epspecially threatened when their citizens are being contacted directly by aliens who refuse to deal directly with their governments. They would have plenty of reasons to resist. I quite liked Babylon 5 because they showed this all too well. Especially in what was to be the last episode but was'nt, a deconstruction of falling stars.

Yes I know, I am aware of Winchell Chung. But I tend to like Scott Manley much more since he does not come off as arrogant, making assiming a lot about his viewers and readers like Winchell or whoever writes the text on his website does. Speed is not too important. Usually. I mean, the logical thing to do for an exploratory mission is to send a scout ship and lay out some satelites to serve as jump points later. You do not send a crewed ship to unexplored regions, it just makes no sense. First you send the scout, seed the solar system at strategic orbits of interest, THEN send a trader drive ship to jump in and explore. Since sublight engines have limited delta v, this would conserve it. Before jumping back home or near a jump recharging station, a ship will auto calculate how much charge it needs to reach the nearest recharging station in a reasonable amount (hours or less) of time. The ship will request to jump back before it crosses into the red (the charge it needs to reach the nearest recharging station). So ship captains have to be judicious about how they thrust, even though fuel us unlimited so long they recharge at a station. Stations get their power from the sun, but they use exotic matter fields on the charge given to ship engines. At any rate, stations have a breaking in period of 300 earth days before the exotic matter fields finish properly synching with the solar converters. Once turned on it can not be turned off, only destroyed, and the 300 day wait is a given.

Why I am doing it is because I can, and I find weightlness an immersive thing that most of us won't experience. So leaving it in will be an educational experience for anyone who wants to experience it without actually going. I want to not only entertain, but educate about space travel realities with my scifi. That is why fictional tech is not nearly as important to me as dealing with specific real life issues in space. Really, that is the only way I can put my space knowledge to use, other than writing purely educational books, which I would find less entertaining. Thanks for the answers all of you. Quite informative.

I mentioned once before, but you can do lower accelerations with my sublight drive and therefore get longer travel time out of it. For example, moon gravity is 17% of 1g.so using only moon acceleration you get 352 minutes of acceleration. Not bad. Not to say you need to do a constant burn anyway.

Oh it's not that way. The aliens are during this to get what amounts to a tax (labor) deduction for this. That is what they get out of it. Then their goverment duty time for the year is reduced. So conquering humanity is not in the cards. It is what humans do individually that will effect them. They are dealing with humanity on an individual, not species basis.

So what do you want once the truth aliens contact you? A visit to their world, or true information about your own world? They no doubt could uncover stuff (hacking the net is already a huge feat). Or do you simply want technology that enables you to spy on others to know truthfully what is happening behind closed doors (X-RAY goggles)? They can provide all this and more. As you can see... even the truth can get you in trouble. Before they proceed they will ask, "How will it help you progress?" Since whatever you say they will give as a reason for the results later on to their superiors, for good or ill.