Author Topic: What about this beaming thing? Is it safe?!  (Read 5942 times)

Offline Quantus

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Re: What about this beaming thing? Is it safe?!
« Reply #15 on: November 21, 2012, 04:50:56 PM »
Normally Id quote bits as I respond, but it makes the post too big.  Youll get the idea. 

Naming conventions aside, I think there will always be a need for tiers of space craft, just like naval vessles. It will mostly be defined by range and capacity.  There will be the one-man fighter/scout (ill get to pilots vs drones later), your small carriers that hole a dozen-ish people and have limited range, and then various orders of magnitude larger (up to whatever your society can reasonably create and move)  that house more people can can be sustainable further and further from your central resource supplies.  At some point the larger vessels will also become mobile bases for the smaller.

Dont discount armor/shielding tech too much.  In any long range space travel it will become something of a nessesity even outside of battle, since there is no limit to how fast spacejunk can move, and thus no limit to how much it will hurt when it goes right through your ship.  In space, Mass is King, and even energy based weapons are going to move some of it, because in terms of particle beams, fusion devices, etc, space isnt all that empty, and at near light speeds even tiny masses have a real effect.  But since you will need some sort of protection against your average space dust, a slow moving payload style weapon may still have a tactical use.  It all depends on where your particular arms race stands at that point.

On the Drone vs Pilot discussion, there are a few things to consider, and again it all depends on your worlds personal arms race.  Pilots are fragile, so it limits the maneuverability dramatically.  However, as you said, the scale of space is a whole other thing entirely, so depending on the relative mix of weaponry vs engine strength, that may not be as prohibitive as it seems at first glance.  With drones, you have a whole other set of possible shortcomings, though.  Drones cane basically be one of two types:  Remote and Autonomous.  Remote control is dependent on line-of-sight communications, mights be jammed in various ways, and can quickly become vulnerable communication delays even at reasonably short distances for what you may see in space.  Autonomous drones are limited by their programming sophistication, and have a their own list of vulnerabilities ranging from remote hacking to solar radiation interference to Skynet syndrome. 
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Re: What about this beaming thing? Is it safe?!
« Reply #16 on: November 21, 2012, 07:13:24 PM »
Naming conventions aside, I think there will always be a need for tiers of space craft, just like naval vessles. It will mostly be defined by range and capacity.

Oh, agreed entirely.

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Dont discount armor/shielding tech too much.  In any long range space travel it will become something of a nessesity even outside of battle, since there is no limit to how fast spacejunk can move, and thus no limit to how much it will hurt when it goes right through your ship.

Sure, but it does again depend on context.  If you're talking about something in a reasonably Earthlike planetary system, with gas giants to have sucked up the bulk of the debris over the billions of years it takes for a planet to become moderately Earthlike, that's one issue; interstellar travel's a different beast, and near-light interstellar travel is a very different beast from generation starships puttering along at a small fraction of the speed of light.

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But since you will need some sort of protection against your average space dust,

At near-future tech levels, I think a slab of ice or rock is your best bet there; slightly higher and with suitable energy sources, I am fairly sold on the plausibility of a combination of ionising lasers and magnetic fields for active shielding against dust and the like.

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a slow moving payload style weapon may still have a tactical use.

The link I posted above makes it pretty clear why it will always be possible to see such a thing coming, though.

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Autonomous drones are limited by their programming sophistication, and have a their own list of vulnerabilities ranging from remote hacking to solar radiation interference to Skynet syndrome.

..and this would be the bit where, as someone with zero experience flying fighter planes and two and a half decades of moderately sophisticated programming experience, I am on the one hand inclined to write what I know, and on the other hand wary of overdoing going into stuff that is obscure and uninteresting to non-programmers.
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Offline Paynesgrey

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Re: What about this beaming thing? Is it safe?!
« Reply #17 on: November 21, 2012, 07:56:33 PM »
I think a great deal of this comes down to "how speculative is the fiction in your speculative fiction."  In storytelling terms, I think there's a lot of wiggle room in terms of how advanced tech in one's universe is, so long as you remain consistant. 

Say you've got a tech base consistantly using advanced fullerene alloys, composites, ceremics; industry in the form of orbital foundries and shipyards, dipping gas giants for polymer/composite raw materials?

Somebody's faceplate isn't going to get cracked because someone punches them or they trip, their EVA suit's not going to rip because they stumble into a desk, their flashlight isn't going to break because they drop it... because everywhere else in the storyverse, the materials are just too advanced unless the character is using some sub-cheap unter-market knockoff brand.  Keep the daily details consistant with your tech base, and more readers will be willing to overlook the Absurdium Driven FTL Inertia Mollifying Transwhompler-Effect travel.
« Last Edit: November 21, 2012, 09:11:29 PM by Paynesgrey »

Offline PilgrimDan

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Re: What about this beaming thing? Is it safe?!
« Reply #18 on: December 02, 2012, 12:22:39 AM »
Thank you Paynesgrey/ You just made me fall of my chair laughing.

Offline Paynesgrey

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Re: What about this beaming thing? Is it safe?!
« Reply #19 on: December 02, 2012, 01:55:20 AM »
All part of the service.  :)

Offline blgarver

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Re: What about this beaming thing? Is it safe?!
« Reply #20 on: February 13, 2013, 07:51:10 PM »
Thanks Quantus! Kestral has a decent ring to it!

Anyone played the indie game FTL (Faster than Light)?  The starter ship is The Kestrel.  You can rename it to anything you want, but Kestrel is the given name when you begin.
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