Oolite Bulletins

Nobody else trying?
Am I going to have to pass the Chalice to Cholmondely ?
In a fit of boredom I was watching a Star Trek movie a couple of days ago until I got to the point of Kirk (near Klingon, if that's the name of their planet) phoning Scotty (on Earth) with less delay than you get on an Iridium phone call. Which is ... sort of remarkable. SCIENCE ? fiction?
Thanks to ffutures for the reading matter - once I can disentangle it.

RockDoctor wrote: ↑Fri Jun 09, 2023 7:18 pm

Nobody else trying?
Am I going to have to pass the Chalice to Cholmondely ?
In a fit of boredom I was watching a Star Trek movie a couple of days ago until I got to the point of Kirk (near Klingon, if that's the name of their planet) phoning Scotty (on Earth) with less delay than you get on an Iridium phone call. Which is ... sort of remarkable. SCIENCE ? fiction?
Thanks to ffutures for the reading matter - once I can disentangle it.

You really, really don't want to pass the chalice to Cholmondely. Have you really forgotten the ensuing nightmare the last time it happened?

OK, I'll try another - in GDW's RPG 2300 AD (originally published as Traveller 2300) ships can travel 3.5 light years a day but need to drop out of "Stutterwarp" drive and release massive amounts of energy in a star's gravity well after travelling no more than 7.7 light years - any more and the engine floods the ship with lethal radiation. This means that most routes have to incorporate star systems that would otherwise be useless. Fortunately brown dwarves work, so there are more routes than might otherwise be the case, but they're not exactly easy to spot so finding them and pioneering better routes is an important goal of most space-faring civilizations. The need to take these routes is an important limitation, especially in war - it takes time to make the engine safe for the next leg, and ships releasing massive amounts of energy are easy to spot and attack.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2300_AD

Ohh, that sounds a fun one. Definite MBP for that.
Several light years per day to several days per light year seem to be speeds that turn up quite often - three days per lightyear is explicit in Known Space, while the numbers from Wiki's summary for whichever Star Trek had to flit across the width of the galaxy worked out at 3 ly/day ... and I don't see why that was a problem. They have instantaneous communications, after all, and they're generation ships (see the Kirk mythos of being born on board a ship in the middle of a battle), so I fail to see the problem. Severely under-baked McGuffins, it seems.

The chalice is topped up with some extra virulent contact-toxin, and ready to be drop-kicked to the next victim. Everybody ready for the line-out?

I'll try one: Asimov's Foundation series.
Initially, the jumps are short and delayed for longer distances, due to errors that can come in the initial computations, and the need to confirm the jumps were safe, afterwards. In the last two books (Foundation's Edge, and Foundation and Earth) though, the advanced ship provided by Terminus' mayor is capable of jumping large series of previous "regular" jumps, with very short stops for any adjustments or verification the computer deemed necessary.

Commander_X wrote: ↑Tue Jun 13, 2023 1:36 am

I'll try one: Asimov's Foundation series.
Initially, the jumps are short and delayed for longer distances, due to errors that can come in the initial computations, and the need to confirm the jumps were safe, afterwards. In the last two books (Foundation's Edge, and Foundation and Earth) though, the advanced ship provided by Terminus' mayor is capable of jumping large series of previous "regular" jumps, with very short stops for any adjustments or verification the computer deemed necessary.

Heads up! Incoming Chalice!
You know - I'd have to go back and read them (at least, the original 3) to remind myself of how it worked there. I don't recall The Good Doctor making much of a deal of hyperspace and palaver, just making it vaguely troublesome like an ocean voyage in the days of his youth (well, he did immigrate to America at about age , but didn't go into details.
So, you have the chalice, and I am prompted to re-read some classics. I think that's a result all round.

Vampire session at the Quack in the morning, so I hear The Good Doctor calling! Trebles of triply-resublimated thiotimilene all round!

RockDoctor wrote: ↑Wed Jun 14, 2023 12:05 am

[...] So, you have the chalice, and I am prompted to re-read some classics. [...]

Talking about re-reading classics, I'm about to finish my second round through "extended" Dune (augmented with the last two volumes not written by Frank Herbert, but following his notes).

While I'm circling (heh! b)planets over and over in Oolite trying to figure out why the normal maps generated in the shader don't work as expected, I'd like to know if there are 5 examples of sci-fi works (books, games, movies, tv series, etc.) where the space ships get their fuel from the stars. Same old rule, no two examples in the same "boat" (universe/author).

Commander_X wrote: ↑Wed Jun 14, 2023 3:37 pm

I'd like to know if there are 5 examples of sci-fi works (books, games, movies, tv series, etc.) where the space ships get their fuel from the stars. Same old rule, no two examples in the same "boat" (universe/author).

In Doctor Who, the TARDIS - in fact, all TARDISes - are powered by the Eye of Harmony, a star frozen in time at the point of collapsing into a singularity.

The biggest starships in the universe of the TV series Andromeda have ramscoops and can refuel from stars or gas giants.

https://andromeda.fandom.com/wiki/Ramscoop

Commander_X wrote: ↑Wed Jun 14, 2023 3:37 pm

While I'm circling (heh! b)

ellipsing, surely, Dr Kepler?

Commander_X wrote: ↑Wed Jun 14, 2023 3:37 pm

I'd like to know if there are 5 examples of sci-fi works (books, games, movies, tv series, etc.) where the space ships get their fuel from the stars.

OK, since I took the CoDominium/Moteverse of Pournelle (and a couple of slices of Niven) off the table last round, let's keep it's appearance on the table very brief.
In the CoD/M universe, ships travel instantaneously (or too fast to measure ; but from the effects on computers, instruments and people, probably not zero time) between stars on the basis of some complicated relationship between core density, strong nuclear (i.e, fusion) reactions and probably some magic sauce involving tachyons (reasons to follow) which lay down "Alderson lines" in space. The ships have to provide some (lots! of) energy themselves, but the path is at least made possible by the existence of the nuclear reactions.
Which I'd count as "powering" in some significant sense.

When a star goes supernova (which, if it's not an accreting white dwarf, means a core collapse and cessation -or drastic change in- nuclear (strong force) reactions) the local "Alderson lines" change, possibly dramatically. I won't name the book for which that is a vital plot point.
Implicitly, these things can happen faster than the FTL ships of the CoDominium's Naval Courier Service can transmit the news, which suggests to me that the "special sauce" contains tachyons. But that's not "canon".

Disembodied wrote: ↑Wed Jun 14, 2023 4:20 pm

[...] In Doctor Who, the TARDIS - in fact, all TARDISes - are powered by the Eye of Harmony, a star frozen in time at the point of collapsing into a singularity.

#1

ffutures wrote: ↑Wed Jun 14, 2023 4:39 pm

The biggest starships in the universe of the TV series Andromeda have ramscoops and can refuel from stars or gas giants.

https://andromeda.fandom.com/wiki/Ramscoop

#2 (and MBP for revealing something new -- for me -- about the Andromeda series)

RockDoctor wrote: ↑Wed Jun 14, 2023 6:59 pm

[...] ellipsing, surely, Dr Kepler? [...]

Surely circling

RockDoctor wrote: ↑Wed Jun 14, 2023 6:59 pm

[...]
In the CoD/M universe, ships travel instantaneously (or too fast to measure ; but from the effects on computers, instruments and people, probably not zero time) between stars on the basis of some complicated relationship between core density, strong nuclear (i.e, fusion) reactions and probably some magic sauce involving tachyons (reasons to follow) which lay down "Alderson lines" in space. The ships have to provide some (lots! of) energy themselves, but the path is at least made possible by the existence of the nuclear reactions.
Which I'd count as "powering" in some significant sense. [...]

#3

Not sure if this one counts - ships of the Culture (Ian M. Banks) can hide inside the atmosphere of stars in combat, but I've no idea if they refuel that way, I think they might have other and better energy sources.

https://theculture.fandom.com/wiki/The_Hand_of_God_137

ffutures wrote: ↑Sun Jun 18, 2023 9:01 pm

Not sure if this one counts - ships of the Culture (Ian M. Banks) can hide inside the atmosphere of stars in combat, but I've no idea if they refuel that way, I think they might have other and better energy sources.
[...]

To be in agreement with your later opinion, I also think they have other and better energy sources (I think the term "energy grid" is used).

Still waiting for #4 and #5.

It's not "fuel", per se, but it is motivational power … in Alastair Reynold's Revenger trilogy, ships use solar sails for most of their manoeuvering.

Disembodied wrote: ↑Mon Jun 19, 2023 2:10 pm

It's not "fuel", per se, but it is motivational power … in Alastair Reynold's Revenger trilogy, ships use solar sails for most of their manoeuvering.

#4 (and an MBP for really stretching the "star fueling" in an unexpected way -- RockDoctor's almost "slipstream" star connections (from what I could gather) can assume a similar reward)

Hoping #5 will be a more "per se" example.