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Q&A

Posts tagged space-travel

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Q&A How would an interstellar spaceship's speedometer work if everything else is moving?

A speedometer is a gauge or device used for measuring instantaneous speed of moving vehicle roughly speaking, so for example the reading shown on the speedometer of a car parked at road side displa...

14 answers  ·  posted 8y ago by user6760‭  ·  last activity 1y ago by James McLellan‭

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Q&A High-Energy Exhaust Shielding for Far-Future Drive

Imagine a far-future spacecraft drive that accelerates its reaction mass to a small fraction the speed of light (say, 1,000 km/s). Say the mass flow rate to the drive were 1kg/s, and say the reacti...

1 answer  ·  posted 2y ago by Josh Hyatt‭  ·  last activity 2y ago by James McLellan‭

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Q&A Avoiding Incidental Ion Drive damage to Following Vehicles?

Is it possible for a large enough Ion Drive with enough power to be dangerous to other objects "down wind" of the vehicle, even at long distances (100+km)? As I understand it, ion drives accelerat...

1 answer  ·  posted 3y ago by Cazadorro‭  ·  last activity 3y ago by dmckee‭

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Rigorous Science What would one experience travelling through an invisible Krasnikov tube, and how much could they be used to cut travel times?

Effectively what the title says; What would different observers experience while travelling through / seeing one travel through the tube, and how could they be used to cut travel times? (Just answe...

1 answer  ·  posted 4y ago by MrKred‭  ·  last activity 3y ago by wizzwizz4‭

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Q&A Could special relativity be caused by aliens jamming the Solar System?

A federation of alien spacefaring nations is doing basically the opposite of prime directive: they are jamming the Solar System, preventing us from leaving it. They are doing so by placing some de...

8 answers  ·  posted 4y ago by o0'.‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by o0'.‭

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Q&A Would Alcubierre Drive Technology Allow for Artificial Event Horizons?

So, my understanding of how Alcubierre drives would theoretically work is not particularly complete. I know it involves compressing and expanding space, but I don't really have an intuitive grasp ...

1 answer  ·  posted 4y ago by FlyingLemmingSoup‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by FlyingLemmingSoup‭

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Q&A Alcubierre Drive without FTL?

Would the principles at work in the theoretical Alcubierre warp drive apply to a slower-than-light starship? I'm building a setting in which FTL communication and travel is impossible, (due to vio...

5 answers  ·  posted 4y ago by Tim McClelland‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by Tim McClelland‭

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Q&A Cylindrical radiators on spacecraft?

Having your radiators tactically protected from enemy fire by the armor shape of your space warship is nice, but having a regular one or double-sided radiators is still a vulnerability. Other conce...

2 answers  ·  posted 4y ago by zertofi‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by zertofi‭

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Q&A How can a massive ship be partially destroyed in reentry, but have the top part still intact?

In my world a giant ship attempts to land on a planet, sadly it fails. Fortunately the top half is intact but the bottom is ripped up, holes all over it, basically destroyed except for some lucky s...

7 answers  ·  posted 4y ago by Topcode‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by Topcode‭

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Q&A The economics of laser sails vs fusion rockets

What would be the economic trade offs of building fusion powered rockets vs building laser relays across the solar system? What assumptions would you need for each one of these to be the superior o...

4 answers  ·  posted 4y ago by Adam Reynolds‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by Adam Reynolds‭

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Q&A Would it make sense to send potential human colonists on the initial manned expedition to a habitable, Earth-like planet?

In the near future, humanity has spread out across the Solar System. A new planet is discovered, let's say 30 light years away, that shows it to be Earth-like and could harbor Earth life without to...

5 answers  ·  posted 4y ago by Space_Cadet‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by Space_Cadet‭

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Q&A Where would a technologically advanced group of people forced into space by a calamity obtain water from?

The fleet in my setting are forced to leave the planet due to a volatile virus, and leave in pre-prepared spacefaring vessels capable of transporting ten million people per ship. The ships have alg...

7 answers  ·  posted 4y ago by Niobium_Sage‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by Niobium_Sage‭

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Q&A Would would occur if a person travelled from a wormhole in flat empty space, to one on Earth?

We are using a Morris-Throne Wormhole Metric. Let's presume the throat of this wormhole (in internal hyperspace) is short, let's say 1km. Now, as you are travelling through the entrance wormhole,...

1 answer  ·  posted 4y ago by MrKred‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by MrKred‭

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Q&A How would one detect a black hole when there are no more light sources for it to refract?

The universe as we know it has ended. The concept of "natural" illumination ended when the last red dwarves and quasars died out. Now, only brown dwarves and blackholes dot the empty void that was ...

5 answers  ·  posted 4y ago by In the name of the story‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by In the name of the story‭

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Q&A Why would a sleeper ship be designed to only wake one person in case of emergency?

Starliners are huge colony ships. They carry enough equipment, building materials, embryos, colonists and nutrient rich rations to permanently establish a sizeable colony on a far-flung world. Alth...

36 answers  ·  posted 4y ago by Joe Bloggs‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by Joe Bloggs‭

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Q&A What laws of physics would need to be broken in order to travel in space faster?

I have a spaceship which I want to have travel very quickly around a system like our own solar system -- let's say about 10 million miles per minute, which would go from Mars to Earth in ~15 minute...

4 answers  ·  posted 4y ago by LukeN‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by LukeN‭

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Q&A Would it be possible to build numerous spaceships that could transport 10 million people in the late 2100's?

The crafts would have to contain large farms in order to sustain the immense amount of people, and they'd obviously have to be large and spacious to have good living conditions. I did some research...

2 answers  ·  posted 4y ago by Niobium_Sage‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by Niobium_Sage‭

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Q&A Despite almost zero energy consumption why does my spaceship scheduled cryostasis in shifts?

In the distant future a breakthrough in cryostasis technology can put healthy people into frozen state so that all metabolism halts and cells never age a bit, the spaceship is carrying them across ...

12 answers  ·  posted 4y ago by user6760‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by user6760‭

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Q&A Minimal mass of an Earth-like satellite to seriously deter space travel?

I want to write a story taking place on the natural satellite of a gas giant, with said satellite being massive enough to prevent, or at least strongly deter, space travel, such that the resources ...

1 answer  ·  posted 4y ago by Udon Nomaneim‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by Udon Nomaneim‭

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Q&A What FTL models are appropriate given my constraints?

I'd like to have faster-than-light travel (and communications) be an late-game option for a video game I am working on. The extent of the playable universe is approximately 4 million light years in...

5 answers  ·  posted 4y ago by John O‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by John O‭

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Q&A How can I estimate the maximum mass that can be safely handled in low to no g?

Many countries, authorities and companies have the concept of a maximum weight limit for manual handling, both to protect their workers and to protect themselves from lawsuits. Interstellar Shippi...

5 answers  ·  posted 4y ago by Joe Bloggs‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by Joe Bloggs‭

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Q&A How did aliens on a habitable planet hide themselves during the recon and scouting stage by human colonists?

We've found a habitable planet orbiting a red dwarf star some light years away and conditions are Earth-like enough that a colonization project was initiated. Before any humans landed on the planet...

12 answers  ·  posted 4y ago by Faz‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by Faz‭

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Q&A Building a spaceship alone in the wilderness

I am currently working on a character backstory for somebody whose fictional character gets sent back in time an era before his species existed (essentially to bronze-age times or even earlier, it'...

11 answers  ·  posted 4y ago by TCC‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by TCC‭

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Q&A How close an orbit could you get to Earth with a planet-sized object/ship without severely disrupting Earth's orbit?

My idea involves an alien spaceship inside a roughly Earth to Mars sized/massed planet, but the whole planet is displaced when the drive is activated. If you wanted to travel back to our solar syst...

3 answers  ·  posted 4y ago by DWKraus‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by DWKraus‭

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Q&A Building an interstellar starship during transit

Would it be feasible to have an interstellar vessel be constructed in flight after smaller sections are boosted up to speed? The idea here is about using laser sails which would be easier to use wi...

5 answers  ·  posted 4y ago by Adam Reynolds‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by Adam Reynolds‭

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Q&A Would near-lightspeed spaceships have an aerodynamic shape?

At speeds near the speed of light, interstellar particles and gas may affect the movement of the ship, and microscopic particles may even badly damage the ship. Would not it make sense to make the ...

9 answers  ·  posted 4y ago by Anixx‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by Anixx‭

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Q&A How can space cop arrest the suspicious spacecraft moving at sub-luminal velocity?

Set in a distant future, reports of alien and drug traffickings have been on the rise and there was mounting pressure for Mr User6760, president of intergalactic interpol to resign. The traffickers...

6 answers  ·  posted 4y ago by user6760‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by user6760‭

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Q&A What would be the maximum distance from which a space ship could physically see a planet?

A plot point of my novel is that the pilot accidentally finds a planet that is being purposefully hidden (i.e. been deleted from all star maps). It starts with him arriving at a location that is j...

7 answers  ·  posted 4y ago by Primordial‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by Primordial‭

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Q&A On our way to Mars: how do we do the laundry?

A human crew of 6 has been sent on mission to Mars The lowest energy transfer to Mars is a Hohmann transfer orbit, which would involve an approximately 9 month travel time from Earth to Mars, a...

13 answers  ·  posted 4y ago by L.Dutch - Reinstate Monica‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by L.Dutch - Reinstate Monica‭

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Q&A How do you send out SOS in space if there is no absolute coordinate?

Imagine your spaceship encountered a gravitational anomaly and discovered that you are lost in space, your computer tells you that you are still inside the Milky Way galaxy but it cannot find the S...

9 answers  ·  posted 4y ago by user6760‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by user6760‭

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Q&A What are some ways to hide a planet?

A major plot point for my story is the Protagonist stumbling upon a planet that was purposely hidden from the rest of the galaxy (at the edge of the galaxy) as it's being used by high level governm...

11 answers  ·  posted 4y ago by Primordial‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by Primordial‭

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Q&A Relativity, Time Dilation and multiple reference frames

I am doing some hard sci-fi worldbuilding and really want to get as much correct as I can, but the effects of high sub-light speed travel on the travellers is doing my head in. I've pored literally...

3 answers  ·  posted 4y ago by Budders‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by Budders‭

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Q&A Fusion- or antimatter-powered propulsion: Which one will we likely develop first?

In terms of scientific and engineering challenges, which one is closer to fruition? Specifically I am looking for the feasibility of using one of these systems for space-only travel between the orb...

4 answers  ·  posted 4y ago by Jem‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by Jem‭

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Q&A How can paleolithic humans colonise the stars without direct help from aliens and still be primitive?

In my story I have paleolithic era humans who were contacted by aliens long enough ago for them to have used space travel to spread across many planets. I want them to be able to fly and somewhat m...

27 answers  ·  posted 6y ago by PStag‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by PStag‭

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Q&A How can I explain space travel being accepted and supported in a typical fantasy setting?

Picture a setting similar to that of many fantasy works: a relatively low level of technology among the general population, lots of manual labor, agriculture or hunter/gatherer society, and that mo...

6 answers  ·  posted 7y ago by Canina‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by Canina‭

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Q&A Of all methods of FTL travel (or as close as one can get to it), what would be the most feasible to have been invented in the next 100 years?

It's the late 2020's, and humanity has expressed an unprecedented and powerful renewal in the interest of space exploration. Sometime between then and the turn of the next century, a practical form...

2 answers  ·  posted 4y ago by ZarHakkar‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by ZarHakkar‭

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Q&A How quickly could a spaceborne missile accelerate?

Is there any practical g-limit for unmanned spacecraft, or could you theoretically push a missile to significant fractions of c in hours or minutes while pulling hundreds or thousands of Gs? I need...

6 answers  ·  posted 7y ago by Z.Schroeder‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by Z.Schroeder‭

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Q&A Observing a planet without contaminating it in anyway?

There is a planet called Galileo with life on it. The life is getting extremely complex, in fact, with some of the life on Galileo beginning to form tribes and clans and learning language. Humans w...

2 answers  ·  posted 4y ago by DT Cooper‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by DT Cooper‭

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Q&A What are the odds that an alien spaceship entering a low Earth orbit would collide with an orbiting body?

After centuries of careful search and travel, some intrepid extraterrestrial explorers have finally found another inhabited world! Elated with their discovery and exhausted after their long journey...

4 answers  ·  posted 4y ago by WhittlesJr‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by WhittlesJr‭

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Q&A How would aliens abduct an entire nation of millions from a planet?

I am looking for as hard science answers as possible, but I am willing to bend some rules for a good answer. Assume they need to move 10 million 100 million people off of a planet what technology...

7 answers  ·  posted 4y ago by LukasExemplar‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by LukasExemplar‭

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Q&A Would it be possible with current rocketry to go from Earth to Mercury and then come back?

Leaving aside the matter of how well would humans fare on the surface of Mercury (we only have to factor in the weight of their life support: air, water, food and spacesuits), and assuming material...

4 answers  ·  posted 4y ago by Davi‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by Davi‭

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Q&A Why would a spaceship rely on hydroponics instead of algae for food?

Currently, NASA is investigating the use of hydroponics, aeroponics, and other low soil techniques to grow regular plants for consumption and oxygen generation/CO2 removal on long voyages in space....

3 answers  ·  posted 4y ago by Richard Smith‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by Richard Smith‭

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Q&A Would it be more efficient to build fleets in orbit?

My Dino theme park business didn't end well and I reluctantly fall into depression and decided to go into suspended animation to seek a cure. 200 years later, a lady claims she works with the milit...

9 answers  ·  posted 5y ago by user6760‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by user6760‭

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Q&A Inhabiting Mars versus going straight for a Dyson swarm

My question is as follows - let's assume our objective function is to have as many humans as possible living outside the confines of the Earth as soon as possible. For this, we need to provide thos...

6 answers  ·  posted 5y ago by Rohit Pandey‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by Rohit Pandey‭

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Q&A Perfect centrifuge crew quarters for a interstellar spaceship?

I want to design a realistic interstellar spaceship that uses centrifugal force for only the crew quarters. But while looking up for designs I found the most common ones are the torus or ring desig...

4 answers  ·  posted 4y ago by Borbman‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by Borbman‭

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Q&A What would the view from a spaceship traveling through inter-galactic space look like?

My character is traveling aboard a spaceship through inter-galactic space (it has left the Milky Way). The ship is traveling at the speed of light or so and has been for the last six thousand years...

1 answer  ·  posted 4y ago by marmel‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by marmel‭

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Q&A Are (near) instant data transfers feasible on an intergalactic scale?

Inspired partially by this comment on one of my answers, I got to thinking on what the quickest way to communicate would be on an intergalactic scale. Say humans have colonised the galaxy, and use...

4 answers  ·  posted 4y ago by Plutian‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by Plutian‭

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Q&A What would people on multi-generational ships eat?

Strange! this question does not seem to be on site with a search (only what to wear). I am concerned about the psychological aspect of food production and eating. Clearly tube food is out and I thi...

5 answers  ·  posted 4y ago by happyhacker‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by happyhacker‭

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Q&A Designing a biological drop pod?

How would a biological drop pod make it into the atmosphere and land safely? I have a race of aliens that use biological tools instead of technology. Their ships are living beings that can travel t...

3 answers  ·  posted 4y ago by System‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A Why don't ejectable fission reactors proliferate if meltdown is still a concern?

Set in the not-so-distant future, interplanetary travels are the norm. Most spaceships are powered by fission reactors, and accidents do happen due to negligence or flaws in the system. It will pro...

1 answer  ·  posted 4y ago by user6760‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by user6760‭