Airbreathing SSTO Design

[Spacescifi]

5 hours ago, wumpus said:

The fact that I watched a lot of Superman as a kid doesn't mean I expect physics to allow human flight via a cape.  Same with SSTO.  Air breathing is probably the only way to go, but don't bother adding nuclear or antimatter  to it.

 

That was only how it started.

My main reason now is plot.

Since using current science limitations means that people cannot ever visit any place they want without the backup of a huge space program.

Rogue space trader fiction I find appealing...modern science won't allow for it I know.

Influences shape us. If I played KSP in the past perhaps I would have done an alien space program story...but I could always do so as a very early prequel if I wanted to later.

Edited November 3, 2020 by Spacescifi

[Shpaget]

You seem to constantly mix fiction with real world science. Magnetic airbreathing antimatter plasma pusher plate micro orion saucer torchship (MAAPPPMOST^TM) may be impossible/impractical/suboptimal/whatever in real life, but in fiction it may be just the right thing. However, you don't make is clear what you want.

Just write your thing and worry more about characters, their development, story and dialog than technobabble.

Speaking of which, when do we get to read it? Do we get the credit, and more importantly, do we get the credits?

[kerbiloid]

Just for the record.

A common name for pusher plate ship: Platypus(h)

Edited November 4, 2020 by kerbiloid

[Spacescifi]

4 hours ago, Shpaget said:

You seem to constantly mix fiction with real world science. Magnetic airbreathing antimatter plasma pusher plate micro orion saucer torchship (MAAPPPMOST^TM) may be impossible/impractical/suboptimal/whatever in real life, but in fiction it may be just the right thing. However, you don't make is clear what you want.

Just write your thing and worry more about characters, their development, story and dialog than technobabble.

Speaking of which, when do we get to read it? Do we get the credit, and more importantly, do we get the credits?

LOL.

I tend to agree with you. Character is always more important than the limits of modern technology.

Some of the modern day classics are firmly based on characters (I read and enjoyed Sherlock Holmes growing up). The original Sherlock was a larger than life character who had a unique ability to be right virtually all the time, tick others off, and be strong enough to bend iron bars with his bare hands. He also knew enough to be able to hold his own against bigger men than him who he ticked off, when any common person would assume Holmes, a walking stick of a man, would be a goner. Watson was the everyman who saw Holmes work his wonders, but also helping on occasion when Holmes needed it (Holmes had a drug problem and also put himself and Watson in danger at times), it helped that Watson was a doctor.

Basically each main character served the needs of the plot very well, and occasionally stories were told from the POV of side characters and yet the story was still interesting.

Perhaps my story will be akin to this, as characters working together to achieve a common goal despite obstacles has infinite relavence. Whether just two or many.

As for reading....I could post a short story sometime next week. Not to say how often or how long.

 

EDIT: While my tech searching may seem random, it is because unlike Star Trek or SW, I did not want every alien race encountered to use the same technology.

At first anyway....but now that I see the needs of the plot, it will be rather necessary (rogue space traders being fairly common requires the requisite tech to also be).

So my story will answer 'what if' to a smaller degree than say...how will this end?

Because 'what if' is fictionally based tech, whereas character interplay is real and people always want to know how that ends.

Edited November 4, 2020 by Spacescifi