Posts tagged space
An alien species has been conquering planet after planet around the Milky Way for some time. They detected intelligent life on Earth a while back and now they decided it's time to add us to their c...
What would the effect on Earth be if Mars, in the space of one second, disappeared from the Solar System? Just simply was gone, leaving no residue, and leaving the space where it had been like it h...
In some universe,with physical laws the same as in ours, our world is some kind of "lab environment". Our solar system is enclosed in a balloon-like sphere with a radius of a few light-days around ...
Say we have a large cargo spaceship and a small pirate spaceship. The pirate ship is the only one with any sort of weaponry (lasers, missiles etc.), but for the pirates to safely retrieve the cargo...
For the obvious reason of weight, our modern space stations and satellites are made out of metal or lightweight compounds to reduce cost. In a quick Google search, about $20,000 per kg is the cost,...
Is it possible to build a garbage recycler that turns residues into its constituent elements using plasma and accelerating it through a magnetic field? The technology level is around that of the t...
I've seen some cool art and scenes from the Cowboy Bebop which had trade lanes made up of what looks like large rings that accelerate and deccelerate a ship. I wanted to replicate a system like th...
Within our local region of space are several hundred/thousand stars. I had long ago found some pretty good resources and made a starmap (using YGraph and some star catalog datasets I got from Nyra...
Using comets at Mars L1 point, allowing the tail to constantly add to the atmosphere in both volatiles and increased temperature from the infalling matter, as well as blocking the solar wind which ...
Within the Star Wars Extended Universe, there is a science base on a small object within a near impenetrable sphere of Black Holes. Is this possible? The place referenced is called the Maw Install...
In Warlords I envisioned the "outermost colonies" around Neptune and Uranus to be a political faction of their own. Separate from the inner planets (Hegemony) and the Jovian and Saturnian leagues. ...
Suppose a K-II civilization built a terrarium or zoo, featuring life and ecosystems from different worlds as it travelled through the universe. (By K-II I mean in terms of resources and energy bud...
In Warlords poorer families in the belt or some of the colonies are not able (for whatever reason) to pay for 'gravity treatments' or possibly helpful drugs and are forced to live and raise their c...
I have a scientific research vessel that is exploring an alien galaxy. I would like this vessel to detect and then explore a planet that was not previously known about, which means it (or potentia...
A highly advanced civilization has developed and is about to ascend to become beings of pure energy in a hyper-dimensional universe. Before leaving they restore our universe to a reasonably pristin...
My world is a 1AU radius, 12000km thick Dyson Sphere with 6 equally spaced holes, 4 filled with water. The two main problems I have are gravity and heat. This question concerns heat and how to stop...
I created the above illustration to help convey my meaning, here is what everything means so that you can read it effectively: E = Earth V = Venus M = Mars The dots in the lower left hand cor...
I've noticed in recent scifi shows/movies such as the Expanse or Star Trek that the lighting inside spaceships have two characteristics: Punishingly blue lighting Dark/dimmed miscellaneous lighti...
I fear this may be too broad, but I am looking for reasons earthborn humans would be considered inferior to those born on various space colonies. For example, it is important to reference the disti...
This question is a sort of follow-up to Samuel's previous world map question, Creating a realistic world(s) map - planetary systems. Lots of science fiction stories involve journeying to nearby st...
Looking into fleshing out my world story. One of the things I had in mind was an infrequent but consistent shipment of supplies to a planet from Earth. For simplicities sake, we'll use 10 as the nu...
The NASA Vehicle Assembly Building and the proposed Nazi Volkshalle are cited to be "big enough for weather systems to form inside them". The building has at least 10,000 tons of air conditioni...
This question is inspired by Could a species develop the tech necessary to land on their own moon without comprehending light? Consider following scenario: a civilization of alien tricksters abduc...
I'm writing the last issue of my comic and I'm in trouble. My villain is a member of a cosmic cult that wants to absorb everything in the universe to create a conceptual/energy pangea out of space ...
I've been thinking about doing something involving bubbles of stopped (already answered here), slowed down or sped up time. What would that look like for different speeds? Is there any way of ca...
Suppose you were puttering around the solar system and came across the remains of a luxury passenger vessel, the intergalactic equivalent of the Titanic, adrift about one AU from the sun. The hull ...
Imagine if the Moon had its own moon. A moon (likely an asteroid) that lies within the Moon's Hill Sphere. I have read elsewhere about the fate of such a moon. Over time due to the Moon being tidal...
For backgrounds sake, let's say that there are large, and I mean large beings living underneath the icy surface of Europa. Now consider this excerpt from NASA's page on Europa: One of the most...
I'm making a game which takes place in an asteroid field that is very dense - I'm talking close enough that one is able to jump between asteroids (provided you have some sort of additional thrust b...
I'm trying to flesh out the history of a fictional galactic society, specifically the initial settlements and inhabited worlds. Something that I thought would be important to settlers would be an a...
The Setting: I have an idea for a universe that, in an inversion to our own, is filled for the most part with matter in solid, liquid, gaseous or plasma form, while vacuum and degenerate matter is...
I'm not a smart guy, can't find an answer to a question: Everything I see involves a large construct spinning at a slow speed to create gravity. Instead of something large could you not use a, le...
Inspired by comments to JBH's answer to The worlds between, the consequences of instantaneous FTL. The Premise A technology for instantaneous travel exists, making it possible to travel to any po...
For some time I've been working on a universe with non-instantaneous Faster-Than-Light travel, but I've decided to open a new universe with instantaneous travel. So I'm working on the differences t...
An absolute madman of a scientist tractors the Moon from it's orbit, and carefully lowers it through the Earth's atmosphere and gently brings it to rest upon the Earth's surface. There is no reentr...
I'm making a fairly hard Sci-Fi story, and I was wondering what the most scientifically plausible 'energy shield' (for ships and stations) would be. My world tries to remain true to basic physics, ...
I want to know what kind of effect a large circular space station would have on the planet if it went completely around the equator in one giant circle? Would it impact gravity or anything? And wou...
My protagonist is an astronomer in a fantasy world. Ideally, what I want is software where I can specify some properties of this planet, e.g. orbital and rotation period, nearby stars, number of m...
Is it possible that subterranean caves do/have existed on Mars? We know of the past existence of water on Mars. Which region (if any) of Mars would we likely find/expect to find a cave system bel...
What additional difficulties might the inhabitants of a gas giant moon face when attempting to launch spacecraft beyond their moon's orbit, especially beyond the planetary system? I presume that th...
Humans developed a new weapon: Black hole launcher. How it works: A mobile particle acelerator acelerates two particles to huge speeds and collide both. A mini black hole is created. The mini b...
So, out in Kansas, in the DEC Oil Refinery, a group of people, called simply the Disciples, have set up a community. From the outside, it seems like a utopia, one where man and mutant get along pea...
IF they were real, would wormholes work in the way that they do in sci-fi (for all intents and purposes "teleportation", travel without movement, FTL, immediately "appearing" at the other location)...
I found an interesting Wikipedia article, quoted in an answer here. I'm looking into writing a story where someone has built a Death Star. The purpose of this craft is important to the story (and ...
What properties of a species of plant would make it the ideal choice for taking it on a year-long trip through space as both an oxygen source and food source? We should assume that the amount of ...
Here is another planet question for you planet enthusiasts. I have this planet... It's called Barahecio. The Mars-sized sphere's average temperatures hover near the freezing point of water. Of n...
I was wondering if two bodies could be physically connected to each other such as the ones in the art I have attached. Is there any realism to it? Original art by Dave Melvin
Is there any solid, scientific counterargument against the hypothetical explanation that attributes dark matter as matter in hidden planes of existence? I am trying to construct a world in which t...
Setup: We are in a alternate timeline where there is a Counter-Earth that always stays perfectly on the exact opposite side of the Sun from our Earth. It has about the same size and mass as our pl...
Is it possible to calculate/estimate the size of a star's heliosphere? If so, how? I am working on a semi-near future, sci-fi novel. As part of the technology base, humans are able to travel betwe...
