Oolite Bulletins

Disembodied wrote: ↑Thu Jan 09, 2020 5:06 pm

… not something I've read.

The elemental war between hydrogues and faeros continues to sweep across the Spiral Arm, extinguishing suns and destroying planets.

Cody wrote: ↑Thu Jan 09, 2020 5:25 pm

Wiki says:

The elemental war between hydrogues and faeros continues to sweep across the Spiral Arm, extinguishing suns and destroying planets.

ffutures wrote: ↑Thu Jan 09, 2020 11:03 pm

Larry Niven's The Fourth Profession has Earth visited by aliens (travelling via solar sail starships) who want us to build a laser cannon on Mercury to propel them to their next destination. What they don't mention is that if we don't they'll leave anyway but blow up our sun once they're on their way, since they will need the extra light from the explosion to reach the destination before supplies run out.

Disembodied wrote: ↑Wed Jan 08, 2020 9:48 am

spud42 wrote: ↑Wed Jan 08, 2020 8:29 am

first is obviously the Vogons destroying our sun for a hyperspatial bypass.......

The Vogons only destroyed the Earth, I think … as far as I remember they left the sun alone.

Cody wrote: ↑Fri Jan 10, 2020 11:00 pm

I think <grins> Planet of the Apes (the original novel) has some solar sailing going on.

Commander_X wrote: ↑Sat Jan 11, 2020 1:28 am

Star Trek Deep Space 9, season 3 episode 22 -- Explorers -- captain Sisko and his son re-enact a solar sail trip.

ffutures wrote: ↑Sun Jan 12, 2020 5:37 pm

Can anyone confirm this?

The next appearance of a solar sail in science fiction was in Pierre Boulle’s novel Planet of the Apes in 1963. To quote from the novel: “In those times, interplanetary travel was commonplace, though interstellar ventures were still an exception. Rocket ships would take the tourists to fabulous locations on Sirius or the finance people to the stock markets of Arcturus and Aldebaran. But Jinn and Phyllis, a wealthy and free couple, were known through the Cosmos to be young originals, with a bit of craziness, and they would cruise through the Universe just for the fun of it—with their sailcraft.” Boulle then goes on to describe the craft: “Their ship was a kind of sphere with a shell—the sail—made of amazingly thin material, and it would move through space, just pushed by the pressure of light beams.”

Cody wrote: ↑Sun Jan 12, 2020 6:31 pm

ffutures wrote: ↑Sun Jan 12, 2020 5:37 pm

Can anyone confirm this?

Had to do some digging...

The next appearance of a solar sail in science fiction was in Pierre Boulle’s novel Planet of the Apes in 1963. To quote from the novel: “In those times, interplanetary travel was commonplace, though interstellar ventures were still an exception. Rocket ships would take the tourists to fabulous locations on Sirius or the finance people to the stock markets of Arcturus and Aldebaran. But Jinn and Phyllis, a wealthy and free couple, were known through the Cosmos to be young originals, with a bit of craziness, and they would cruise through the Universe just for the fun of it—with their sailcraft.” Boulle then goes on to describe the craft: “Their ship was a kind of sphere with a shell—the sail—made of amazingly thin material, and it would move through space, just pushed by the pressure of light beams.”

If that ain't good enough, there's always Clarke's Sunjammer.

Disembodied wrote: ↑Sun Jan 12, 2020 5:51 pm

Charles Stross's Neptune's Brood has laser-boosted interstellar solar sail ships.