Posts tagged engineering
Lightning is abundant in some places in Earth. Attempts had been made it collect it. Laser triggered lightning below is the closest attempt. By the time it reaches the ground most of the powe...
In my world I want to create a really deep underwater science facility to conduct weird and unethical experiments in. But I think to myself: How deep could I take such a building? Does it become ...
I am writing a science fiction story with mass produced clones. Since I have a number of clone I need to tell them apart. The ID system must be: Permanent over the lifetime of the clone (call it ...
So my society can genetically engineer using Retro-viral vectors specially designed to work on only the subject they are injected into. I wanted my police force to be locked in a struggle with orga...
Spaceships are a peculiar thing. We've got them in all forms, sizes & colours. They are everywhere and go everywhere else. carrying with them anything from music, over tractors, to foodstuffs a...
The Rankine cycle describes the ideal thermodynamic cycle for a heat engine to produce the best performance and convert heat into mechanical work while it undergoes phase change. Is it possible for...
So let's say you changed a human's DNA to give him: a thick exoskeleton that is a lot like that of a mantis shrimp (to make him bullet-proof) very small holes all over his body to use to breathe ...
Say in the later 1700s/early 1800s handwavium is discovered. It's a metal that when heated causes more way more upward lift than hot air or hydrogen/helium produces in similar volumes. Air travel (...
...no, I mean, supposedly, I believe there is more about it than mere kans on our part. Installations like this one are found all along the spoorwegs, and yes, around some you should tread light...
Your people have been displaced by war, and have wandered for many months looking for a new home. Yesterday, you came across something truly marvelous. You are camped at the edge of a huge ravine, ...
...It's paradox. They left us these technological marvels, yet with all their might and knowledge they failed to prevent their own doom... Excerpt from a lecture by the High Historian of Berli...
In the near future humanity discovers a spatial anomaly at a point located somewhere between the orbits of mars and earth. This anomaly quickly induces delirium in anybody who approaches it and eve...
If a modern Day tank suddenly appears in 14th century Constantinople; in perfect condition, along with all the ammo, fuel, and components needed for it to run. How much of the technology in the tan...
Let's say I'm an extremely rich and somewhat secretive research group who wants to carry out experiments and such away from the prying eyes of the public. One of the obvious ideas for the location ...
Background I was pondering my answer to this question. I asked myself, "Why would I only do a 45-minute burn and then float for 3 months to get to Mars?". Then I answered, "Because you only have ...
My society/area is set in a isolated wasteland where the primary income of people is ranching. However, I want my people to be able to at least be able to maintain technology at a 1916 level (the r...
In this hypothetical world, evolution occurs as it should. (Not to run afoul of any genetic diversity requirements of evolution; some simple viruses have aided in the genetic shifting process). But...
I'm writing a roleplaying game scenario set on a space station, and was wondering how the lifts (elevators) would work? Specifically, the people who built the station are very health and safety con...
Or, technically, a civilization near the core of a planet. In this question I will describe some aspect of my design, and you may comment on the realism of these aspects and add improvements, or p...
Modern cities are built from concrete with steel rebar because it is abundantly available and provides enough tensile strength. Concrete requires cement. Cement is made from limestone. Limestone is...
Inspired by this question on putting massive capacitor-banks on spaceships I have been wondering about alternative ways to store excess energy from ever-running reactors. In this question I would ...
This question considers the respiratory apparatus of an aquatic (or amphibious) species descended from engineered humans. The history of the species provides a relevant constraint. While the scien...
When I was a kid, I conceptualized a post-apocalyptic story entirely starring Barbie dolls. One idea I had about how they would live and get around involved transmission towers, or power towers. Im...
Spaceships are a peculiar thing. We've got them in all forms, sizes & colours. They run on nuclear fusion, creating loads of power driving all sorts of shenanigans... but they still generate lo...
I'd like for this to be how a small species communicates with a giant species. I was assuming a series of tunnels would carry the sound like a pipe organ.
The classical rigid airship uses a heavy envelope which accounts for the large buoyancy balloon. This comes on account of aerodynamics. My first concept was a thin and long "cigar" where the cockpi...
The basic idea is that a building (house, business, etc...) would be on a type of foundation that would allow it to be lifted into the air (not by a lot, I'm thinking inches at most) to store energ...
Suppose you want to mine material from, and eventually completely disassemble, a neutron star. Presumably, you would be extracting heavy elements from the crust, and expecting the neutron-degenerat...
I was wondering... If only we could make a GMO plant that could produce electricty thanks to bioelectricty. How could that be done, how could it produce a lot of energy, Also, how could we har...
take me out to the black, tell 'em I ain't comin' back DaaaahWhoosh - 2min ago Merfolk live in the deep, plenty deep exactly, around 800m below sea-level. At these depths we talk about litt...
Consider a space opera sort of universe in which there exist communities of water-dwelling humanoids. These ocean people are derived from rootstock humans, descendants of genetically engineered hum...
This is a follow-up to Neutron Star mining. Assuming that problem can be solved, it would eventually degenerate to something similar to this case. And if it can't, white dwarfs seem like the next b...
In my World, a perfect storm of catastrophic size strikes earth and black-death levels of mortality ensue, cutting short the Great Space Race. The only problem is that there are over 10,000 people ...
I am trying to figure out how to build a human colony on a moon (75% of Earth size) of a gas giant. Some details of the planetary system chosen for colonisation: K-type main sequence star (about...
Using today's (real) genetic engineering methods, would it be possible to engineer a horse with a single spiral horn? Maybe rub a horse on a narwhal? I know mythical Unicorns have other "powers",...
Imagine technology, possible achievable in short time (maximum half of the century), that we can use to build aquarium that won't break because of internal damage (water pressure, badly distributed...
Doctor Eric Von Dufe may be a mad scientist, but he still has to work on his evil side. His latest plan? Create small versions of large animals and large versions of small animals. Assuming he has ...
A Dyson sphere is a spherical megastructure built around a star with the goal of capturing all of the energy output of the encased star and making that energy available to the controllers of the me...
Some research papers, such as Arnold 2005, has investigated the possibility of using artificial megastructures transit signatures as long-range, long-lived and low-maintenance signals of unambiguou...
I'm working with the idea of a 'ring station' encircling a planet, as a tightly connected belt of structures that connect in orbit around the planet's equator. I'm curious to know what would happen...
My habitat ring is constructed in orbit around a planet with disconnected sections: (not to scale, obviously) The sections are connected by cables and winched together. As the diameter gets sma...
If Humanity were to suddenly come to its senses and stop relying all together on fossil fuels and start relying on wind powered and solar energy sources, wouldn't this lead to some sort of climate ...
BACKGROUND: I have been working on a game called Rise: The Vieneo Province. Vieneo is a terrestrial moon (all details can be found here) but we have an atmospheric composition we arrived on from ...
How would you contain a small star in order to draw energy from it, and power a ship? I'm thinking along the lines of a force field. I need the star visible from the exterior of the ship for aes...
I have this race of space-dwarves and I need to make them homeless due to technological hubris of some kind: for plot reasons. I think that if they were to attempt to build some kind of Dyson sphe...
I've been playing a lot of Deserts of Kharak lately, and I am wondering if landships depicted in game, which are essentially seagoing ships on tracks, would work in a Snowball Earth scenario. By Sn...
In my world there is a neolithic civilization of people who inhabit earthen trenches. The people first soften the earth with ... fluids ... and dig out 6 - 12 foot deep trench systems that extend o...
In many stories we hear about people whose genetic structure is modified after they're born (Spider-man, The Fantastic 4 and practically any other superhero you care to mention). However current sc...
A different form and function of a Dyson sphere. It is fairly far in the future and the residents of a D-type spherical asteroid (similar in size to Deimos, ~6km radius). They've been living in ha...
I'm working on a science fiction story which includes the following premise: Tony Stark invents an unobtainium reactionless engine, and the protagonists want to build a spaceship around it, big eno...
