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17 hours ago, spacejet said:

Procedural dome forcefields for the purpose of providing protection from micrometeorites and for atmospheric containment. A major tool for making shirtsleeve environment possible on otherwise uninhabitable planets & moons. Considerations could include base diameter, base elevation distance from surface (a small straight wall),  color of field, protection qualities of field. Also possibly dome shape & height control.

ME8QTQD_o.jpgsurviving-mars-stellaris-dome-set-74455.jpg

A defense system against meteorites in the form of a "force field" dome is most easily imagined using presently known physics and engineering principles as a ballistic point defense system with enough coverage and rate of fire that it effectively creates a "dome" where the targets are intercepted and turned to dust.  The idea of it presenting as a dome is not far fetched as firing solutions for multiple point defense batteries could all be tied to a solution computer based on interception at a certain radii and the math for that is very simple and fast.  And millions of small frangible high velocity projectiles would certainly meet the definition of "force".   In practice, it would look like an invisible "force field dome" where meteorites evaporated on contact

As for atmospheric containment, the best known force field using known physics and technology would leverage the fact that energy in the form of the right types of particles arranged in particular ways form something called "matter".  A dome consisting of the right arrangement of this bound-energy "matter" could be constructed to form an energy-stable barrier to hold in an atmosphere.  So, a glass, steel, ceramic, or other material dome is in a sense a "force field" as it is indeed held in place by fundamental forces ;)

The atmo containment dome would be placed inside the point defense dome with some intelligently arrived at gap in between.  I picture the point defense interception dome to be about 3 to 4x the radius of the atmo containment dome.  Point defense batteries would take advantage of the solid nature of the atmo dome for mounting positions

Edited by darthgently
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Procedural/customisable sized dome (or other shaped) structures to contain a local atmosphere in places where the ambient atmosphere is either hostile or non existent, yes nice idea. 

But a sci-fi style 'force field' is a bit too far fetched IMO.

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11 minutes ago, pandaman said:

Procedural/customisable sized dome (or other shaped) structures to contain a local atmosphere in places where the ambient atmosphere is either hostile or non existent, yes nice idea. 

But a sci-fi style 'force field' is a bit too far fetched IMO.

A very large scale (like 100m radius?) Bigelow style inflatable half dome for bases that was compact enough (20m?) during launch could be nice

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1 hour ago, darthgently said:

A very large scale (like 100m radius?) Bigelow style inflatable half dome for bases that was compact enough (20m?) during launch could be nice

Yes.

Or 'flat pack' prefabricated geodesic dome kits.   

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2 hours ago, shdwlrd said:

Hasn't the 'base in a box' idea already been confirmed? 

I think so.  But it seems the parts that very closely reflect current commercial offerings like the Bigelow line are left to mods to do.  Maybe there are some worries about IP or something.  I don't know.   Anyway, I hope that any 'base in a box' concept is limited to a basic minimal base with a lot of room for mods to explore for expanding a base and for larger bases.  A generic flat-pack geodesic that could be engineered into any of many special functions with engineer and resource requirements met would be nice; like into a greenhouse, or nuke plant, or LS module etc

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On 3/17/2022 at 3:20 PM, pandaman said:

Procedural/customisable sized dome (or other shaped) structures to contain a local atmosphere in places where the ambient atmosphere is either hostile or non existent, yes nice idea. 

But a sci-fi style 'force field' is a bit too far fetched IMO.

Maybe how it's traditionally depicted is far fetched, but making a dome of plasma wouldn't be too far from possible.

It would require massive amounts of power to maintain it, but you could vary the diameter and thickness of the field by just adjusting power and the quantity of gasses used.

Hard part would be not cooking everyone inside or blinding them.

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On 3/17/2022 at 4:11 PM, spacejet said:

that's awesome @darthgently

It's all going to happen at once I think. Teleporters, forcefield technology, holographics. It will all have a common foundation, I believe.

I look forward to reading your patent application when you make it happen

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1 minute ago, spacejet said:

They way I look at it is Elon Musk ought to do one of two things (or both).

1) Scour the planet for all savants incuding (especially) third world. Let them live comfortably and offer massive incentives (ride in space and so on). 

2) Just flat out offer a prize for working technology. 

at the moment I prefer option one

Oh boy, here I go putting my needless opinion on a forum…

 

In my opinion, one of the biggest limitations to future space travel is the rate at which we can test our theories. We already have plenty of designs for fusion craft, habitation, recyclers, and more, but we don’t have the funds to test them. Sure, hiring more theoretical physicists might mean that we get further faster, but a rocket company should focus on building and testing space technology, since that is what is lagging behind at the moment. Also, in my opinion concentrating the maximum possible amount of brainpower into a single company is always going to result in a lot of bad side effects. 

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17 minutes ago, spacejet said:

They way I look at it is Elon Musk ought to do one of two things (or both).

1) Scour the planet for all savants incuding (especially) third world. Let them live comfortably and offer massive incentives (ride in space and so on). 

2) Just flat out offer a prize for working technology. 

at the moment I prefer option one

Why wait for Elon Musk to decide to do what you think he ought to do?  Build your own empire like he did using the principles he very generously shares involving first principles based thinking

Edited by darthgently
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