Posts by b.Lorenz
A colony ship is sent to Enceladus. It has a nuclear reactor to provide power to life support, electric engines etc... Upon arrival, the colonists also need a reactor to melt holes into the ice and...
There is an interstellar civilization somewhere between K2 and K3 and they have managed to build a dozen Nicoll-Dyson beams. These are megastructures which collect the entire power of a star, and p...
What would happen if the entire inner surface of a Dyson sphere (not necessarily a solid shell, maybe a very dense swarm) would be coated into a highly reflective material? Let's say it can reflec...
While the colonization of the Solar system is underway, a new sport emerges: Spatial Rowing. The rules are the following: Each spacecraft has one driver (the contestant) The loaded mass of each ...
I was told that building a tunnel into the centre of Enceladus is not possible, since it has subsurface ocean and molten, rocky core. But its brother, Mimas is a bit smaller, and shows no sign of ...
The extreme pressure and temperature greatly reduces our ability to drill holes deeper than some kilometers into Earth's mantle. However, on a body smaller, colder and less dense, this would be a ...
Consider an interstellar spaceship. It is a rather classical design, somewhat similar to the ISS Venture Star from Avatar: http://james-camerons-avatar.wikia.com/wiki/Interstellar_Vehicle_Venture...
In many sci-fi settings magnetic boots are used to help astronauts walk in microgravity. However, not all materials are ferromagnetic. Titanium, aluminum, the most form of carbon and silica can not...
One of the big problems by manned space exploration and colonization, that it's insanely expensive. Building a colony on other celestial bodies - since it's impractical to bring back the acquired r...
Compact, rapidly rotating astronomical objects (like neutron stars) are often observed to emit streams of high energy particle radiation along their poles. Near supermassive black holes in galactic...
Would Aristotelian natural philosophy, with planets and Sun orbiting the Earth, and forces needed to maintain motion Things having natural places and desiring to reach it horror vacui Four elemen...