Solar System Vs. Galaxy

POSTED BY: MadJack
UPDATED: Tuesday, January 11, 2005 17:41
VIEWED: 40136
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MADJACK

Monday, February 16, 2004 3:06 PM

I Know this has Proably been thoch on before, But does FireFly take place in a single solar system or in multiple systems? I the Book intro it stated, quote: “After the Earth was used up, we found a new solar system and hundreds of new 'Earths' were terraformed and colonized", and in the Mal intros it states, and I quote here; “Here's how it is. The Earth got used up, so, we moved out, and terraformed a whole new galaxy of earths"

Now obviously there can't be "hundreds of earths" in a single solar system On the same note, the entire galaxy could not be fully explored, terraformed and settled suitible planets in a mear 500 years. Ofcourse, just because the Mal intro said "a whole new galaxy of earths", it dosn't mean that they actually terraformed an entire Galaxy, just alot.

In my opinion Firefly does not take place in a single Solar System

AURAPTOR

Monday, February 16, 2004 3:16 PM

Clearly this is taking place in our local galaxy. Once human kind figured out how to terraform other planets, it had essentially established a foothold on the rest of this galaxy.

500 yrs is far too short a time to have fully colonized the entire galaxy, which is its self 100,000 light yrs across. Think of early settlers as the orignial 13 colonies here in the United States, but instead of a large land mass, we have a entire galaxy to explore.

HANS

Monday, February 16, 2004 3:30 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by MadJack:

Now obviously there can't be "hundreds of earths" in a single solar system On the same note, the entire galaxy could not be fully explored, terraformed and settled suitible planets in a mear 500 years. Ofcourse, just because the Mal intro said "a whole new galaxy of earths", it dosn't mean that they actually terraformed an entire Galaxy, just alot.

A long discussion takes place here: www.fireflyfans.net/thread.asp?b=4&t=2671

GROUNDED

Monday, February 16, 2004 5:14 PM

Since there is apparently no FTL in Firefly, it would pretty much have to be a single solar system. Or, if there were multiple solar systems, the events of Firefly never leave whichever one they start in. As far as 'hundreds of Earths' is concerned, they've already had habitable moons in the show so if there were a decent number of planets, each with a decent number of moons then you could get up there.

LINDLEY

Monday, February 16, 2004 5:27 PM

I think that there *is* FTL travel in Firefly----its just not depicted with the usual streaking-stars.

LTNOWIS

Monday, February 16, 2004 10:51 PM

I still think it's a bunch of close star systems, in a star cluster. When they say "It's the best in the galaxy!" or something, it's like saying "best in the 'verse"; it doesn't mean they're in more than one system. Though each model has it's drawbacks.

GUARDIAN

Tuesday, February 17, 2004 10:23 AM

I tend to agree with the single solar system, or solar system cluster view, as many of the colony seem to be on moons, also the centeral worlds would then been those closest to the sun, with the other colony being on the moons of gas giants and the like. also it seems to me that a lot of the colony may be space stations, or asteriod base
which could explain how there could be so many settlments in a single solar system,

Guardian.

GROUNDED

Tuesday, February 17, 2004 12:00 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Lindley:
I think that there *is* FTL travel in Firefly----its just not depicted with the usual streaking-stars.

I've seen no evidence for it whatsoever on the show. Light from the sun takes just over 5 hours to reach Pluto so if you had FTL you could fly from one extreme of Pluto's orbit to the other in 10 hours or less (depending how much faster than light you are going). The crew of Serenity seem to just be getting by so we can also assume that they can't afford to skip back and forth between nearby systems i.e. they need to work locally. Travel times on the show seem to be measured (generally) in days which leads me to believe they're sort of moving around the system in a roughly circular path, jumping from planet to planet as the presence of the Alliance will allow.

FREAKYSINS

Tuesday, February 17, 2004 8:28 PM

Greetings, all. I'm new here, so please bear with me.

I'm of the idea that Firefly takes place in a star cluster. Considering that there are just over 70 planets terra-formed and giving that, in order to terraform a planet, it most certainly has to meet certain criteria (a certain closeness to a star, approximately 1 G gravity, give or take, etc), the single solar system idea just doesn't make any sense. A close-knit star cluster is much more realistic, in that the entire population of humanity could have boarded near-lightspeed capable vessels and convoyed to the nearest reasonably researched cluster that had a variety of "suns" similar to our own, hence a reasonably high (statistically speaking) number of worlds which showed terraforming promise. The journey may well have taken several years, but when we're talking about the salvation of the human race, why not? Once there, the "core planets" are established (hell, terraforming may not even be necessary in some instances) and then it's just a matter of spreading out, which humans are already obviously quite good at. In a star cluster it may take only days or weeks to reach another star system with a 'formable world, which easily accounts for Serenity's travel times. The farther out from the "Core" (the tightest-packed systems) you get, the less frequent the visits from supply ships, tourists, etc... and the more likely you're going to get out and lose your way, literally and figuratively; hence the backwater worlds we often see in Firefly, as well as the Reavers.

All of this discounts FTL travel, of course. FTL just makes thing too easy, IMO.

"I like smackin' 'em!"--Jayne, Safe

ARAWAEN

Tuesday, February 17, 2004 9:24 PM

Are stars within a cluster less than 1 LY apart? FTL still seems necessary to me in a cluster. Even light speed is not that fast when you are talking interstellar distances and the travel times given in the show.

Even the longest journey is only described as "Damn near a month" (SAFE, reference to how long the cattle had been on ship). That would require 12 times the speed of light to travel a single LY.

I like (would even prefer) the idea of single system, but multiple systems with FTL seems the most realistic to me.

Arawaen

Um, I'm lost. Uh, I'm Angry. And I'm Armed.

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