That SHINY job
POSTED BY: zzetta13
UPDATED: Monday, April 3, 2006 17:50
VIEWED: 9741
PAGE 3 of 6
Science adviser / technical adviser.
While I don't want FF/S to go down the Treknobabble road, I would like there to be some accurate basic science and a consistent technological level in the 'verse (which could vary from core to rim, of course).
Aside from stroking the technogeek in me, there are valid dramatic reasons for maintaining scientific consistency. For one thing, it forecloses the "wave hands and invent tech solution to this week's crisis" option. And it opens new possibilities for future directions in later seasons, such as contact with a new wave of emigres from Earth-That-Was (and maybe still is).
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I don't disagree on any particular point.
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DonCoat...
Could our offices be close together? Cuz, I'd like to see your show bible for technology when you get it done. 
And probably the Captain would have to know about any dialogue associated with said techno stuff and I'd have to correlate that since I'm his personal assistant. 
" You hold. Hold til I get back." Mal
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I'd be best working for Zoic.
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Set design would be cool. Or maybe clothing.
At last.
We can retire and give up
this life of crime.
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Quote:Heck, we'll share an office. That way the Cap'n will be dropping by now and then to crack us up when the schedule pressure gets too bad.
Originally posted by FollowMal:
DonCoat...
Could our offices be close together? Cuz, I'd like to see your show bible for technology when you get it done.
And probably the Captain would have to know about any dialogue associated with said techno stuff and I'd have to correlate that since I'm his personal assistant.
"Summer!!!"
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I don't disagree on any particular point.
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Quote:
Originally posted by DonCoat:
Heck, we'll share an office. That way the Cap'n will be dropping by now and then to crack us up when the schedule pressure gets too bad.
This is gonna make me a very happy lady!
" You hold. Hold til I get back." Mal
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Doncoat, your first job is explaining how the gravity on all the planets and moons is the same. GO!
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Quote:
Originally posted by mattcoz:
Doncoat, your first job is explaining how the gravity on all the planets and moons is the same. GO!
Terraformers on heavy planets expell all precessed atmo at high velocity westward. Light planets get it eastward. After a few centuries, centripetal acceleration compensates for high gravity/low gravity. Only drawback is, small planets get long days, & vice versa.
(raises hands) TIME!
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Ooooh, ooooh, I wanna be Morena's personal boy whore!
Okay.. guess I'd fit in the marketing/graphics/promo of the show!! Oh yeah! Get this 'verse out there!!
(homer: mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm......shiny)
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Quote:The breakthrough technology that allowed the immigrants to get to the new system in the first place was gravity control.
Originally posted by mattcoz:
Doncoat, your first job is explaining how the gravity on all the planets and moons is the same. GO!
The mastery of this technology is evident in the pilot episode, when the crew return from the salvage job, floating the booty in zero-G as you'd expect. But as soon as they're aboard Serenity, at the flip of a switch the boxes go thumping to the deck.
What we didn't see is that this technology is simple and cheap. Captive gravitons can be bound to many different materials, which gives them permanently enhanced gravity (as felt by nearby objects).
To modify the gravity of a large object (say, a moon), all you need to do is lay down a layer of such particles over the whole surface of the moon. Smaller moons need a thicker coating and vice versa. Unlike "normal" gravity (which is an inverse-square phenomenon), this treatment has a higher-order falloff with distance, so the enhanced gravity can hold a dense atmosphere in a thin layer (a few kilometers thick) but has little effect on the object's orbit or tidal interactions with its neighbors.
An added benefit is that you don't have to place the "gravity dust" with care; it forms a self-leveling layer by its own interaction with the object's natural gravity. Once it's down it's not easy to get rid of -- it tends to settle into and bind with the top few meters of bedrock. Soil for agriculture can then be laid down on top of it, if it's not there already.
You can also do some odd things like creating a "heavy band" around a small moon's equator; in such a case if you walked far enough north or south you'd reach an area where the air thins out and you start getting some real bounce in your step. Eventually you'd be in vacuum and could practically jump into orbit.
Note that this technology can increase an object's gravity but not decrease it. If you want to live on a heavy planet you're going to have to do some squats and crunches!
(For spacecraft applications, a somewhat different form of the technology is used in which the effect is modulated by electromagnetic forces so it can be switched on or off at will.)
Now... want to ask me how every planet and moon in the 'verse seems to have a Southern California shirtsleeve climate, regardless of how far it is from the Sun?
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I don't disagree on any particular point.
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