DDE Posted December 9, 2021 Share Posted December 9, 2021 When an SF author's daydreaming crosses paths with @MatterBeam Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FleshJeb Posted December 9, 2021 Share Posted December 9, 2021 12 hours ago, DDE said: When an SF author's daydreaming crosses paths with Matterbeam Hey, Louis Wu boiled a sea using high-temperature superconductors and "sunflowers" in the Ringworld series. It only took Puppeteer-level technology to do it! /s Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SunlitZelkova Posted December 10, 2021 Share Posted December 10, 2021 As it is an idea for science fiction works, illogicality is to be expected, but that sounds a little silly. Because regardless of whether you solve global warming you have to cut back on CO2 emissions anyways to stop ocean acidification. ------ I have identified another serious plot hole in For All Mankind. In Season 1 there is an incident in the middle of the season in which Lunar Orbiter probes (which are somehow still in orbit despite all having decayed before Apollo 11 in real life) photograph a crash site of an LK lander, which appeared to have been carrying "inflatable modules". The Soviets are described as having "covered it up". First off, the LK could not have carried inflatable modules. It was already "stripped down" quite a bit to fit into the N-1's payload capabilities, and thus had little redundancy in its systems. Second, before I get into how silly the "deaths in space being covered up by the Soviets" thing is, I'd like to note that in Season 2, during a conversation between the alternate history Apollo-Soyuz crew members about technology, duty, etc., Soyuz 11 is mentioned. Which makes no sense if the Soviets are supposed to be secretive and cover stuff up as claimed in Season 1. The "Soviets covering up deaths in space" thing can really only be described as an off shoot of both the "Lost Cosmonaut" conspiracy theories and wider misconceptions regarding the practices of the Soviet Union post-1953. Although CPSU officials were apprehensive at first, following Vostok 1, they realized they needed to announce their crewed missions, to control the narrative ("all peaceful space missions, no reconnaissance/military flights") because other countries could intercept the radio communications and know someone was onboard anyways. Thus, if the Soviets had launched an N-1 towards in the Moon in June 1969, it would have been known three or so days in advance, not as the descent and lunar EVA was taking place, as happens in the show. And if the Soviets had launched another N-1 carrying "inflatable modules", the world would know too, and the crash would just be a national tragedy like Soyuz 1 and Soyuz 11, not some state secret. For the first landing at least, I can kind of understand why the makers of the series might have wanted to do that. They were probably trying to create parallels to the shock the US had when Gagarin flew. But for a serious alternate history, let alone one claiming to have technical and operational accuracy "to the greatest extent possible", it is rather silly. Even worse though, this is outright not the way it would have actually gone had the Soviets landed on the Moon first! You would have had three days of dread while the LOK and LK cruised to the Moon, followed by tears and anger during the descent and EVA. This is egregious for an "alternate history", it may as well not be an alternate history, simply a new installment of "American Horror Story" (that is, a fantasy). Within the context of American TV shows about history, it is decent as entertainment, but it (so far) fails to say anything meaningful about the nature of the Space Race, nor space development, nor US-Soviet relations, which are supposed to be its major themes outside of social progress. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Piscator Posted December 10, 2021 Share Posted December 10, 2021 9 hours ago, FleshJeb said: Hey, Louis Wu boiled a sea using high-temperature superconductors and "sunflowers" in the Ringworld series. It only took Puppeteer-level technology to do it! /s Love the books, but I doubt that this particular scene would work as described even with Puppeteer tech. A thermal superconductor in contact with a liquid would ideed not get hotter than the boiling point of said liquid, but unfortunately it wouldn't remain in contact for very long due to the formation of a steam envelope. The superconductor would likely reach its thermal limits very soon and disintegrate, long before the steam has a chance to turn into something more spectacular like a rapidly expanding shell of plasma. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NFUN Posted December 11, 2021 Share Posted December 11, 2021 The climax of Angels and Demons. Wow. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kerbiloid Posted December 13, 2021 Share Posted December 13, 2021 5G is much smaller, but the idea had gotten right. Spoiler Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kerbiloid Posted December 29, 2021 Share Posted December 29, 2021 Expanse Why do they not switch light to red during the battles? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NFUN Posted December 29, 2021 Share Posted December 29, 2021 3 hours ago, kerbiloid said: Expanse Why do they not switch light to red during the battles? That's a good question with a very interesting answer! The fee for this information is 120,000 Credits. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KerikBalm Posted December 30, 2021 Share Posted December 30, 2021 Anyone read Andy Weir's newest book, Project Hail Mary? (Same author as the Martian). Getting past the plot contrivance of "astrophage" microbes that can colonize the sun and essentially produce and store antimatter... The physics in it are fine, but the biology in it is atrocious... not just what is needed for the alien microbes, but he gets terrestrial stuff like mitochondria quite wrong... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shpaget Posted January 1, 2022 Share Posted January 1, 2022 Don't Look Up is certainly not a serious movie but... possible spoilers ahead. Spoiler They launch a Space Shuttle simultaneously with a whole bunch of other rockets from the same location. Would that even work? Would the noise from neighboring rockets do any damage? Bronterocs are cool. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StrandedonEarth Posted January 1, 2022 Share Posted January 1, 2022 "That beam [crushing a car] weighs two tons, and the only thing holding it up is gravity!" Like seriously? I'm not even going to dignify that TV show with its name which consists of three digits and a state nickname.... Good grief! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DDE Posted January 1, 2022 Share Posted January 1, 2022 1 hour ago, Shpaget said: They launch a Space Shuttle simultaneously with a whole bunch of other rockets from the same location. Would that even work? Whereas Michael Bay knew to at least somewhat space out his launches... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Admiral Fluffy Posted January 2, 2022 Share Posted January 2, 2022 On 1/30/2018 at 11:18 AM, Canopus said: SpaceX and their Magical BFR belong to your first category then i guess. Haha starship go brrrrrr (Sorry, looking through older comments) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SunlitZelkova Posted January 2, 2022 Share Posted January 2, 2022 6 hours ago, Shpaget said: Don't Look Up is certainly not a serious movie but... possible spoilers ahead. Reveal hidden contents They launch a Space Shuttle simultaneously with a whole bunch of other rockets from the same location. Would that even work? Would the noise from neighboring rockets do any damage? Bronterocs are cool. Actually, it isn't entirely absurd. The Mars 5M proposal from the late 70s had two Protons launching within a couple seconds of each other- spaced out by only 600 meters. Whether the 5M proposal was realistic itself though is another question. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gargamel Posted January 2, 2022 Share Posted January 2, 2022 7 hours ago, Shpaget said: Don't Look Up is certainly not a serious movie but... possible spoilers ahead. Reveal hidden contents They launch a Space Shuttle simultaneously with a whole bunch of other rockets from the same location. Would that even work? Would the noise from neighboring rockets do any damage? Bronterocs are cool. It’s a very serious movie, but not about that. It’s one of those movies that gets a pass in my book for minor transgressions as it gets a lot of other things right. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shpaget Posted January 2, 2022 Share Posted January 2, 2022 2 hours ago, Gargamel said: It’s a very serious movie, but not about that. It’s one of those movies that gets a pass in my book for minor transgressions as it gets a lot of other things right. When I said not serious, I meant regarding spaceflight, but of course I didn't say that, so no wonder it didn't come across. The movie itself gets my recommendation. Sunlit, that's interesting! What would be the benefit of such close spacing (both spatial and temporal)? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DDE Posted January 2, 2022 Share Posted January 2, 2022 44 minutes ago, Shpaget said: Sunlit, that's interesting! What would be the benefit of such close spacing (both spatial and temporal)? Kerolox transfer stage and kerolox tanker, plus the inclination of launches from Baikonur excluding most other speedy rendezvous profiles. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SunlitZelkova Posted January 2, 2022 Share Posted January 2, 2022 Another thing regarding launches in close proximity to each other- any conventional ballistic missile unit will have the TELs travel together and "set up shop" (with their support units) in one place. I recall a video about four years ago of North Korea launching two or three ballistic missiles from a highway, all at the same time, only spaced by a couple hundred meters. China probably has done the same thing. So while simultaneous launches as seen in Don't Look Up might be out of the question, near simultaneous and close proximity launches are a thing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DDE Posted January 2, 2022 Share Posted January 2, 2022 10 hours ago, SunlitZelkova said: I recall a video about four years ago of North Korea launching two or three ballistic missiles from a highway, all at the same time, only spaced by a couple hundred meters. China probably has done the same thing. Here's an even tighter spread, I think. Spoiler Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Canopus Posted January 4, 2022 Share Posted January 4, 2022 On 1/2/2022 at 1:37 AM, Admiral Fluffy said: Haha starship go brrrrrr (Sorry, looking through older comments) Yeah now that we have the SpaceXtm Moon Base and people landing on Mars in two years, i guess my comment does look very quaint. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kerbiloid Posted January 4, 2022 Share Posted January 4, 2022 Since SuperHeavy has put a 550 t payload to LEO and Dragon has landed by rockets, why not? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nazalassa Posted January 7, 2022 Share Posted January 7, 2022 On 1/30/2018 at 9:24 PM, kerbiloid said: "Harry Potter" (whole series) * the magic doesn't work that way Yeah, if you have magic you HAVE to have an idea to make it realistic e.g in HP they don't say how magic works, they just show it. So I have an idea for magic, but it's totally not about science and space so I won't show you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kerbiloid Posted January 7, 2022 Share Posted January 7, 2022 12 minutes ago, Nazalassa said: So I have an idea for magic, but it's totally not about science and space so I won't show you. (The 3rd semester of Hogwartz, I guess. Already has an idea, but yet hasn't realized the scientific base of the magic.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimmymcgoochie Posted January 7, 2022 Share Posted January 7, 2022 On 1/1/2022 at 9:10 PM, Shpaget said: Don't Look Up is certainly not a serious movie but... possible spoilers ahead. Hide contents They launch a Space Shuttle simultaneously with a whole bunch of other rockets from the same location. Would that even work? Would the noise from neighboring rockets do any damage? Bronterocs are cool. It’s the second big launch sequence that shows the real dangers of simultaneous launches- one rocket veers off course and demolishes another still on its pad while another one RUDs and sprays burning debris all over the place. Watched it expecting a semi-serious sci-fi film but got a socio-political satire film instead, and I kept thinking DiCaprio looked like a blonder Jack Black… Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DDE Posted January 7, 2022 Share Posted January 7, 2022 1 hour ago, jimmymcgoochie said: Watched it expecting a semi-serious sci-fi film but got a socio-political satire film instead It was never advertised as anything else. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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