Questions tagged [science-fiction]
For questions relating to worlds with a setting of common science-fiction.
1,706
questions
3
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2answers
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Difference between F type stars and our sun
I'm writing a Sci fi series. I have an intelligent nation of reptilian people who live on an Earthlike planet orbiting an F type star. This nation needs to bask in the sun. How will the light from ...
2
votes
4answers
111 views
Missile warheads in space?
So I am thinking about space battles in my universe. The main weapons on my ships will be missiles/torpedos. Which of these would be the most effective warhead:
Tungsten shotguns. The missile closes ...
12
votes
4answers
148 views
+100
Realistic space battle distances?
Distance in space battles is a crucial variable that affects the tactics and outcomes. With the following tech what is a reasonable distance for battles to be engaged:
Engines:
Fusion drives with max ...
0
votes
6answers
262 views
How to stop serial killers in space? [duplicate]
So I was writing a scene where some charters space a dude and then edit the camera footage to make it look like a suicide. That’s when I realized I had an issue. With good editing software and a “...
3
votes
0answers
42 views
how can you accelerate the fusion cycle in high mass stars?
Im trying to design a device that would cause a supernova in a high mass star. I want somekind of explanation so the device doesn't seem so handwavy. is their any way to somehow increase the amount of ...
2
votes
1answer
51 views
Feedback/help on planetary density?
I’m at a bit of a wall here. I have numbers for mass, radius, and gravity for my planet (Neogaea), but the density is escaping me.
Mass: 1.31 earth masses
Radius: 1.027 earth radius
Gravity: 1.25 ...
3
votes
1answer
72 views
What technology would a probe need in order to become a self-sustaining colony-constructor?
In a science fiction setting, in the not-too-distant future, people want to send robotic probes out into space - both to explore and to set up boostrap space colonies. They need to be designed to be ...
52
votes
12answers
9k views
+100
How would Muslims adapt to follow their prayer rituals in the loss of Earth?
I am very aware that this is a deep question and I am really not an expert in Islam or Muslims, though I have tried to do my research. I know that Islam is the second-largest religion, I don't see why ...
4
votes
2answers
100 views
Impact and Implications of Pregnancy-Inducing Healing
Alright, I'm trying to restate a closed question to see what I get....I'm more than a little nervous.
Background: In a world where Desonia exists (see What Would The Result of Tangible Chaos Be On The ...
6
votes
8answers
244 views
How to kill a marine in power armor?
So there is a riot. This is not a normal riot; it is a uber-ultra-mega riot. The rioters are armed with the best of 21st century rifle tech and whatever they could make at home -- i.e. Molotov ...
7
votes
6answers
148 views
Best shotgun rounds for space boardings?
Here's the gist, my power armoured marines are going to be equipped with full-auto 8 gauge shotguns (in other words a quarter bigger then your average 12 guage shotgun). Now the marines are much more ...
5
votes
8answers
243 views
Why would super-soldiers be really tall?
Very simple I need some really big and imposing marines. The enhancements make them stronger with faster reaction speed, bone strengh and the works. Why would these marines be really tall as well? Is ...
5
votes
3answers
640 views
How would my creatures detect presence?
In my world, there is no light. The only light will be from the equipment the protagonist brings through. The creatures are alien/eldritch/Lovecraft'ian, and has no eyes, so they cannot see when ...
6
votes
2answers
189 views
How Precisely Can a Space Cannon be Targeted?
If I have spaceships that are firing some variety of cannon at each other - MAC, laser, particle cannon, doesn't really matter the type - at extreme range, then even if the gun itself were somehow ...
2
votes
1answer
81 views
What would happen if there was a zone of supercooled air over open ocean?
Suppose some government is testing a weather control device. The weather control device can control air temperature within a cube 40 feet to a side, centered on itself, rapidly lowering it's ...
4
votes
5answers
232 views
How to incorporate scientific development into fantasy/sci-fi?
In the Avatar the Last Airbender manga/comic and Avatar The Legend of Korra, scientific advancement took over industrial work replacing bending. Eventually nuclear weapons would be found (as well as ...
13
votes
7answers
3k views
How to get blue sand
I want to have a blue furred species native to a desert in the world I'm building, so the obvious way to have that is to have the sand of that desert be blue so they are camouflaged. I could just say ...
7
votes
3answers
144 views
Shape of a Large Battle Laser?
If I have lasers being used as a primary weapon for spaceships in a realistic sci-fi setting, what would the proportions of the laser cannon itself be? Presumably the cannon would be cylindrical, but ...
3
votes
2answers
98 views
How to do repairs during high G maneuvers?
In Nemesis Games during the battle a character moves through the ship. Since the ship is maneuvering they get banged around a lot. My books are written with a tech level similar to the Expanse so this ...
9
votes
7answers
1k views
Most efficient and feasible non-rocket spacelaunch methods moving into the future?
I'm writing a novel that takes place in a future where we've just begun to go interstellar, but the costs are still quite high and the purpose is definitely scientific study, exploration, and so on. ...
3
votes
2answers
71 views
What kinds of diet/intake changes would be possible for a race with extensive DNA modification abilities?
I'm building some alien cultures for my fictional universe. One race has advanced technology and culture enough to have accepted, regularly occurring, DNA modification available (EDIT: regularly ...
10
votes
11answers
4k views
Will this stealthy ship work?
My idea is a corvette is dipped in radar reflecting paint that makes it look like a 50x50x70 foot asteroid. It shuts down its reactor and the crew all huddle in the ops deck with minimal heating and ...
3
votes
6answers
303 views
In a hard sci-fi 0g battle what about friendly fire?
Some heavily armed marines are dumped out of my spaceships to attack the other sides boarding parties. It is hard sci-fi so there is light armor to defend against shrapnel on the ships. Th marines ...
9
votes
4answers
2k views
Can PDCs stop a railgun attack?
Deep in space a colony ship continues to accelerate unaware of the volley of railgun rounds hurtling towards it. As the light from the attack reaches the bridge the PDCs (Point defense cannons) are ...
11
votes
3answers
1k views
I need a systematic way to consider all crucial factors when building different kinds of near-future cities
I'm crafting the worlds and cultures of my own Alien societies and a near-future human world (near-future Earth), it's the first time I've attempted this in detail. Everything I've found so far about ...
8
votes
4answers
1k views
Would cloth coverings be useful for power armor?
Numerous science fiction works feature super soldiers wearing power armor (powered exoskeletons fitted with armor plates that provide varying degrees of protection, strength, speed, endurance, and ...
2
votes
0answers
45 views
Super Island Lab [closed]
I have this story, Super Dee, and I am wondering if I should improve the background, which is Super Island. An island in the modern world and futuristic technology, ahead from the rest of the world. ...
5
votes
1answer
97 views
Two Worlds tethered together - how would the forces affect people on the planets?
^ Not to scale
Assumptions
These worlds are engineered. So some aspects of the worlds can be manipulated.
Equal Earth-sized planets.
Tether attaching them is infinitely strong.
Their separation is ...
4
votes
0answers
69 views
Giving planets quirks - How can I make the planets in my solar system interesting, even if they're relatively normal? [closed]
My question is simple: what are ways that I can give planets their own unique features without going too crazy? So far, I've created 3 planets: one that has crazy volcanic activity, one that is ...
2
votes
3answers
180 views
Realistic protection from rayguns?
Ok, this is kind of two questions in one
In a scifi setting where laser or plasma are the main weapons, what sort of system would be used to protect from the heat and radiation?
My idea was a heat ...
2
votes
1answer
65 views
Effect of lower average temperatures on the tropical savannahs and deserts of a planet
I have a nagging question that has been eating away at me since I am figuring out the biomes that are present in the world that I am building. For all intents and purposes this world is basically an ...
2
votes
1answer
62 views
Creating a stable, liveable ringworld orbiting a binary black hole/stellar pair
I'm creating a setting for a sci-fi RPG. I would like to check whether the concept is physically possible. The main action happens on a giant ringworld which centrifugally orbits a paired black hole ...
4
votes
2answers
257 views
Making a plasma weapon (somewhat) realistic
I want to write a sci fi story where the main weapons in the setting are rayguns that shoot beams of plasma. The gun works by having a magazine filled with gas, a gas chamber, a chamber that energizes ...
0
votes
1answer
124 views
How would I calculate population growth over 300 years with little advancement after an extinction event?
HEAVY EDIT after a few hours sleep and some coffee. Retracting my own answer and adding it to the questioon as it doesn't actually solve my problem and gave me more questions. My logic last night was ...
15
votes
5answers
6k views
Could negative kelvin be achieved?
What the title says I guess. I'm looking into ways to make a plausible exotic matter source for a story with an Alcubierre drive and I think recall that I saw that there was a possibility to use ...
11
votes
5answers
506 views
How massive can a starship or fleet be without becoming a danger to itself or the star system?
There are a lot of large starships in sci-fi but their influence on a solar system is rarely deeply explored and kept fairly limited. For example, in Eve-Online fluff, titans are considered massive ...
3
votes
4answers
98 views
Propulsion or Space Elevator
In a sci fi setting I'm writing, gravity can be easily controlled and gravity propulsion is used to push starships through space. I had the idea of space elevators being used to get on/off Earth but ...
0
votes
0answers
15 views
How high could a super-mountain get on a lower gravity planet (0.7g)? [duplicate]
I’m thinking of a world with one extremely high mountain that would factor prominently into the mythology of the civilizations. I’ve heard that it’s estimated that 10,000 meters is about as high as a ...
2
votes
2answers
100 views
What Effect Will This Pseudo-magic Substance Have On Early Humanity?
This world is like ours, but with the addition of an enhancing substance that comes in different colors and is found in rare (and small, no bigger than a fridge) meteorites that have been landing at (...
27
votes
20answers
5k views
Why do people still live on earthlike planets?
Like our good SciFi prophet Isaac Arthur postulates, for a civilization with a decent space presence planets are overrated and rubbish.
They're down there in the deep gravity well.
There is no ...
4
votes
2answers
116 views
How viable would it be to dig down on Mars to build an underground colony?
I want a colony on Mars that builds BOTH ways, up and down. Domes or structures that go up normally, but a large portion of the colony would be levels underground.
I think this would allow you to take ...
-3
votes
2answers
58 views
How Would a Modern Military Use a Templar Soldier? [closed]
The military has recruited a new asset, a mutant named Templar. Templar's skin is tough enough to make him immune to small arms fire, he's three times as strong as a regular human being, he has twice ...
3
votes
5answers
222 views
What can cause a living person to explode?
I have a lab in which many tests are done on prisoners. I need some kind of material that causes the body (whole or a part of it) to explode after injection. Is there any realistic material that ...
7
votes
8answers
1k views
Ricochet during boarding in space?
In space, boarding parties could be used to effectively take over ships without severely damaging them. Piracy would be much easier. But what about weapons?
Your average pirate will have a slug ...
4
votes
2answers
119 views
Mounting a cybernetic prosthetic arm
So I have a steampunk setting with some magic and I have a young, 20 year old female character who is supposed to have a full prosthetic arm. It might be assumed that the answer to this question could ...
2
votes
1answer
152 views
Does my “Bombardment cruiser” make any sense?
In my universe 500 to 700 years the navy is deployed to eliminate the cult stronghold on the planet of OgallyBoogally. The bunker is a kilometer below the surface and covered by lots of armor and ...
3
votes
1answer
197 views
What happens if 1 cm of Cosmic String impacts Earth?
I have seen in different science fiction use Cosmic Strings (1-dimensional defects in spacetime) as weaponry, and it made me interested to make the most feasible way to weaponise them. Of course, I ...
7
votes
4answers
294 views
Hard sci-fi super weapons?
So in my questions about the intergalactic highway and simulated ship quarters I established a universe where the navy fights a cult of alien worshipers over star gates. 500 to 700 years in the future....
3
votes
3answers
120 views
How would nanobot replicators affect the economy? [closed]
So the year is 2150 and the first nanobot replicator has been released on the market. They cost about $150 and can produce a cubic foot of material. They can replicate any object that is scanned or ...
20
votes
5answers
4k views
Would laser weapons have significant recoil?
I was bumming around Reddit the other day when I came across a discussion talking about how laser guns in Warhammer 40,000 have appreciable recoil, enough that a laser sniper rifle was described as ...
