Technology in the 'verse
POSTED BY: zeke023
UPDATED: Friday, October 31, 2003 03:24
VIEWED: 21912
PAGE 3 of 14
Actually it is possible to increase (surface) gravity by a decrease size, which is just about as practical as adding mass. It would seem that they have something that can, without power, create a gravity on Serenity, so if they have that maybe they just stick it into a world at equally spaced intervals. Have a drone with a drill and some of this special stuff.
As for multiple systems, it just wouldn’t work. If we assume that there are multiple planets in single orbits, thus minimizing the distance between them we are still left with a fairly long trip to get from one to the next.
One would assume that if we were to up and leave we would pick the place with the most resources, so we would look for a system that would have a very large number of orbiting teraformable celestial bodies. This could happen if there were drastically different starting conditions than our own solar system.
Travel faster than the speed of light is actually possible, but there isn’t enough energy in the world to move a person that way.
(Sorry guys, but it just doesn’t work. Subspace, hyperspace, or whatever you want to call it this time can be created, but it would be enough to power the entire world, almost indefinitely, to move a macroscopic particle for well under a second, well under being many orders of magnitude smaller than.)
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Quote:
Originally posted by Thegn:
I partially agree, I think both Mars and Venus are terraformable, but unlike scifi, it will require hundreds of years and the affect will not necessarily generate fields of dewy meadows.
Out of curiosity, got any online references to the viability of terraforming Venus? I've heard mention of the possibility, but never seen any practical suggestions as to how it could be done.
Thanks.
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Quote:I don't think anyone has ever really developed in science about how it might be done. There are some authors such as Kim Stanley Robinson who have made some feasible suggestions. Terraforming Venus would be far more difficult then terraforming Mars for the simple reason that, unlike Mars, Venus is currently uninhabitable. We can land on Mars, construct colonies and then terraform it, but Venus would need to be terraformed before we landed on it, which posses a problem.
Originally posted by Archer:
Out of curiosity, got any online references to the viability of terraforming Venus? I've heard mention of the possibility, but never seen any practical suggestions as to how it could be done.
An interesting idea that has sprung up recently is the use of self-replicating factories to terraform Venus. Robots that collect and refine resources from their surroundings and build versions of themselves, in the process of doing so, they release byproducts that terraform the environment. Over time their numbers build up exponentially therefore the rate terraforming increases exponentially. This is somewhat fanciful, but not entire ridiculous. Most of what factories do today can be completely automated included digging the resources, so all that need to be done is to throw it all in one huge roving vehicle and keep up with it by radio to make sure it stays on track.
As for online references, I don't really know of any. You might try NASA. The idea of self-replicating factories or SRS's can be found in an article in the Journal of the British Interplanetary Society.
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In the Dark Ages, Romano-Celtic Britannia was over-run by Viking-like cultures collectively called the Anglo-Saxons. They were led by warlords called Drytinns, and the greatest warriors among them were the Thegns.
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Yeah, self-replicating machinery isn't that farfetched.
Can we build it to survive the conditions on the surface, though?
Got me all sorts of curious, now.
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The surface temperature is high, and I don't know how well they would operate in that environment. Certainly, they would have to be made of steel, because anything less would melt or deform. There has never been any real extensive scientific discussion done on this, so I really don't know to what degree it would work or what would have to be done to make it work. It's a long way in the future though, so there's plenty of time to develop the science for it.
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In the Dark Ages, Romano-Celtic Britannia was over-run by Viking-like cultures collectively called the Anglo-Saxons. They were led by warlords called Drytinns, and the greatest warriors among them were the Thegns.
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Quote:
Originally posted by switchy:
I'll ask you nicely. how do you have access to deleted scenes from OMR. HOW!!!!!!
Switchy,
I have the OMR script from Buffyscripts saved on my computer, if you want it. Just e-mail me and put Our Mrs. reynolds in the title or OMR. I also have the other three scripts from that site. Bushwhacked, The Unaired Serenity (With a Dobson scene that wasn't in either of the two versions of the pilot.), and Out of Gas. If you want those too just ask and remember to put the script title in title box otherwise you go out with the spam.
Catch me at: Talrius2@aol.com
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You've also got the factor of high pressure to account for.
Weather gets nasty around those parts, too.
Ah well, as you said it's a ways off in the future, and I probably won't see it. Gorramit.
Thanks for the discussion, though.
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Plus the later trailer voiceovers in Mal's voice speaks of a "Whole new galaxay of earths."
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Durn tootin' thar ain't no way fer a man to go off ta some fur off planet! It'll never happen, mark my words! There is no possible way to travel from one place to another on
WINGS!
don't wanna pee on your parade of pessimism, fellas, but it's gonna happen, probably sooner than we can imagine.
as for Neuman machines (quite an old concept) that use recursion/selfreplication to overcome a problem by sheer numbers, think of deep ocean volcanic vents. Massive pressure, intense heat, no radiated energy except for the heat of the vent. Critters live there quite happily, and might just be able to stand a little transgenetic tinkering to tailor them to Venus. Anyway, after we slam a few icey asteroids into the old girl, all bets are off. And Mars just needs a few tattoos...on the poles, mostly, but a few million acres blackened on the equator will help stir up some weather.
If all it takes is energy to pop open a wormhole, well, that'll probably happen in your lifetime. Our remote little neighborhood has energy density enough to send a considerable mass that way, which, coupled with future mass transmission, might get around a little faster than those pokey photons.
To increase gravity, you increase density. take a tectonicly stable world, say, a moon; add a generous amount of iron alloyed with other elements higher on the periodic table (iridium?); be sure to use considerable force when combining ingredients, since you want the iron to end up at the core. Follow with a bombardment of ice; Oort cloud ice is nice, but gas giant rings will do in a pinch. This will help develop a nice, smooth crust, hiding the marks you made when inserting the iron. Now add a few thousand quantum black holes, but not too many; I suggest adding one hundred at a time until your gravity is as you like it. They will settle in the dense mass in the core and feed there for a few million years.
In conclusion...o hell, it ain't over yet. Just remember, never say never.
tanstaafl
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Someone mentioned their discontent about the lack of mention of more than one city/town/settlement on each planet/moon/celestial body.
Well Ive been comparing (and further compiling) all the places mentioned in Firefly using all the transcripts I can find and all the sites with the places already listed (including this one, and I give much thanks to the person who did all that!) and watching as many eps as I have and using any other resources out there....so:
Specific mentions on Persephone include Eavesdown Docks, Cadric Pond, Southdown and Bathgate Abbeys. then there is Hancock and Paradisio in the Georgia System (whatever 'system' refers to I'm still not sure of) and then there is Serenity Valley and New Kasmir on Hera.
I think the lack of mentioning multiple places on worlds comes from the fact that there is no need to. There is already a massive amount of places mentioned and just name dropping of more for the sake of name dropping would just make things more cluttered.
On a side note, if the person who compiled the list of places on this site would be so kind to drop me an email, I would like to discuss some things.
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