Can't read sci-fi anymore

[Jarin]

Kerbal Space Program has utterly ruined me for most science fiction writing. I constantly want to yell at authors "THAT'S NOT HOW ORBITAL MOMENTUM WORKS!" any time they try to describe spaceships maneuvering.

I swear, it should be a requirement to demonstrate that you can put probes past any body in the Kerbin system before you get a "science-fiction author" license.

[Devo]

Kerbal Space Program has utterly ruined me for most science fiction writing. I constantly want to yell at authors "THAT'S NOT HOW ORBITAL MOMENTUM WORKS!" any time they try to describe spaceships maneuvering.

I swear, it should be a requirement to demonstrate that you can put probes past any body in the Kerbin system before you get a "science-fiction author" license.

Science fiction, for me, is not really caring about that stuff

[Soda Popinski]

I figure, if they have FTL, they have gravity control, and standard orbital mechanics are out the window. Or they're in deep space.

I did just realize the other day, the climactic escape of Leonov in film, 2010: The Year We Make Contact, wouldn't have worked like that. They were burning directly away from Jupiter for their orbital escape. I can't recall how it was described in the original book, as I haven't read it in decades.

[DuckZero]

Well, stick to Hard SF, then:

Hard science fiction is a category of science fiction characterized by an emphasis on scientific or technical detail, or on scientific accuracy, or on both.

I have very few qualms with the scientific accuracy of Asimov and Clarke

[3mon]

Well, stick to Hard SF, then:

I have very few qualms with the scientific accuracy of Asimov and Clarke

Vouch for good old Arthur C. Clarke, and Asimov too, but im a big Clarke fan here

You should give'em both a shot OP

[annallia]

I figure, if they have FTL, they have gravity control, and standard orbital mechanics are out the window. Or they're in deep space.

I did just realize the other day, the climactic escape of Leonov in film, 2010: The Year We Make Contact, wouldn't have worked like that. They were burning directly away from Jupiter for their orbital escape. I can't recall how it was described in the original book, as I haven't read it in decades.

This is the way I always felt about it. At least in terms of things like Star Trek/Star Wars. Their systems are so far advanced it becomes believable that they can throw basic orbital mechanics out the window. Although the battle over Coruscant always bugged the crap out of me.

[Kialar]

I recommend this one:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rendezvous_with_Rama

and the other parts of the Rama series. This is more science than fiction, but still a novel.

[Matt56]

It was Clarke himself who said "A sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic," but for me when it gets to that point it's more fantasy than science fiction. That's why I stick devoutly to hard SF myself. I'll take this opportunity to plug a couple of authors from my own city, Toronto. Peter Watts and Robert Sawyer are the only SF authors I've ever read who actually have a list of scientific references at the end of their books so readers can study the themes of the books further. They're both worth checking out.

[TwoHedWlf]

I figure, if they have FTL, they have gravity control, and standard orbital mechanics are out the window. Or they're in deep space.

Or simply if you have enough power and thrust you can completely disregard gravity. At some point it makes as much sense as a 747 trying to take advantage of thermals coming off a field below it...

[SkyRender]

I recommend this one:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rendezvous_with_Rama

and the other parts of the Rama series. This is more science than fiction, but still a novel.

Personally I wouldn't recommend reading the sequels, but the original Rendezvous with Rama is indeed quite a good read.

[dr_jt]

This is the way I always felt about it. At least in terms of things like Star Trek/Star Wars. Their systems are so far advanced it becomes believable that they can throw basic orbital mechanics out the window. Although the battle over Coruscant always bugged the crap out of me.

What really bugs me about that one is when the ship tilts everyone slides around. My son claims that I looking at it wrong and that the ships were not in orbit but much lower where the planet's gravity was being used. I don't buy it. The other one was the landing of half a ship. Really silly.

[dr_jt]

Personally I wouldn't recommend reading the sequels, but the original Rendezvous with Rama is indeed quite a good read.

The others were not written by Clark and I didn't like them. Well to be honest I only read the second one and gave up on the third not liking where the story was going.

[SkyRender]

What really bugs me about that one is when the ship tilts everyone slides around. My son claims that I looking at it wrong and that the ships were not in orbit but much lower where the planet's gravity was being used. I don't buy it. The other one was the landing of half a ship. Really silly.

I always had the impression that vessels in the Star Wars universe employed some form of countergravity (ie. effectively cancelling the velocity imparted from gravity in all frames of reference so as to allow a vessel to actually remain apparently stationary above a planet's surface). It's pretty absurd in concept, but it does at least explain why a ship that was previously hanging in the sky exactly the way bricks don't would suddenly fall towards the surface. Or perhaps they simply forgot to aim for the ground and miss.

The others were not written by Clark and I didn't like them. Well to be honest I only read the second one and gave up on the third not liking where the story was going.

Trust me, it doesn't get better. Gentry Lee did not want to write science fiction; he wanted to write a morality play. And his message is pretty much "humans are jerks", hammered over and over again.

[Torham234]

All ships in Star wars have artificial gravity on board. The crew walk around the corridors, not float about. Even a small smuggler ship can afford fully controlled interior with stable 1g in all areas. If they can "splash out" on gravity controlled interior, manipulating gravity to actually fly the ship makes a lot of sense.

[Tank Buddy]

I know! I get really frustrated whenever I see movies with incorrect orbital mechanics. Which happens to be all movies. Including Gravtiy.

[lvallen702]

Oddly enough I ranted about this same topic to my girlfriend just last week. I got into a series of books called Star Force (http://www.amazon.com/Swarm-Star-Force-Series-Larson-ebook/dp/B004H8FVEQ).. The writing is not what I would consider superb, but it's entertaining.. I look at it like enjoying an old Steven Seagal movie... not realistic but entertaining. I'm on book 7 or 8 now I think, very easily digestable..but what struck me was while I can't say with any certainty the physics mechanics the author uses are 100% accurate it appears the whole space travel/orbital mechanics thing is given a realistic basis in the books and is actually used as a tool to give the reader a different view on how space battles would actually work (exchanges are measured in hours at minimum, if not days versus seconds/minutes). There's frequently the problem of trying to catch up to someone/something but still leaving enough time to brake appropriately to match velocity with them.. Makes it much more strategic when you read the battles.

[Lazro]

I know! I get really frustrated whenever I see movies with incorrect orbital mechanics. Which happens to be all movies. Including Gravtiy.

Still, at least Gravity didn't have them blasting little purple men with slower-than-light lasers.

[Xeldrak]

Well, Hard SciFi is the genre made for you Als allready mentioned, you can't go wrong with Clarke or Asimov.

I also liked Joe Haldeman: The Forever War.

[Torham234]

Still, at least Gravity didn't have them blasting little purple men with slower-than-light lasers.

I just came back from watching Gravity about 30 min ago! I was going on about RCS to my friends in the car and after about 5 mins they stopped me and said "wait wait, you are not making any sense, what the hell is RCS??"

Curse you KSP and your educational ways!

[3mon]

All ships in Star wars have artificial gravity on board. The crew walk around the corridors, not float about. Even a small smuggler ship can afford fully controlled interior with stable 1g in all areas. If they can "splash out" on gravity controlled interior, manipulating gravity to actually fly the ship makes a lot of sense.

"Small smuggler ship"!! WTF! She'll make point five past lightspeed. She may not look like much, but she's got it where it counts!

[brdavis]

While on the subject of hard SF… Hal Clement worked with Asimov a lot in some of his work (often more chemistry, but an awful lot of physics too… Mission of Gravity is very good, but he has a lot of others. Rama I loved (worked out the shape of the waterfall and how the atmosphere would change with height in grad school), and Robert Forward's "Flight of the Dragonfly" (or "Rocheworld") are also good in terms of good hard science (the last having some of the most bizarre orbital mechanics ever… including how to get what is effectively a boat into orbit by riding a waterfall between two planets… and, yeah, the physics works). Allen Steele has also done some good stuff in terms of near-term "orbital construction jocks" and what's entailed.

[Xeldrak]

"Small smuggler ship"!! WTF! She'll make point five past lightspeed. She may not look like much, but she's got it where it counts!

But she made he Kessel run in less than twelve parsecs!

*the goes the physics out the window*

[Holo]

But she made he Kessel run in less than twelve parsecs!

*the goes the physics out the window*

That's the point of that quote. As the fourth draft of A New Hope in 1976 says, "Ben reacts to Solo's stupid attempt to impress them with obvious misinformation."

[Galacticruler]

This is the way I always felt about it. At least in terms of things like Star Trek/Star Wars. Their systems are so far advanced it becomes believable that they can throw basic orbital mechanics out the window. Although the battle over Coruscant always bugged the crap out of me.

Explanation(My own theory anyway): Coruscant's atmosphere is 99% CO2, and extends hundreds of kilometers above the ships battling. Note that all those "capital ships" are actually capable of high altitude flight.

[The Jedi Master]

You do not thrust toward a planet to deorbit! It is the classic noob mistake!