Questions tagged [space]
For questions related to outer space, stellar systems, stars and other astronomical phenomena.
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Could standard aircraft(planes, helicopers, etc.) work as spacecraft in this world?
Ok, so I have this world(or maybe it will just be a dimension depending on how things pan out) called 'The Weird' that has air in space, like Earthlike air(for the most part). Also, the 'planets' or ...
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Would a laser resistant (heavily heat resistant?) armour for space ships have unfortunate consequences and would it still have to deal with heat?
Basically, I want to decisively put an end to any idea that lasers could be used in my space combat in any large degree. One of the solutions I've thought of is a world having advanced armour (either ...
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How to map arms of the galaxy?
Some background:
My interstellar civilization(s) have fled our home Solar System, spreading throughout the nearby systems in the Orion Arm. They possess FTL, but for plot reasons, they have only just ...
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What would happen to the Moon if Earth was annhilated? [closed]
Sometime in the far future, the Earth gets destroyed. Before the Earth is destroyed, humans formed a small colony on the Moon which is capable of self-sustaining itself for the next decade or so. What ...
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Practicality of building a space station in the tail of a comet
In my novel, I want to feature a large (>5km) centrifuge space station that was built on/into a comet, and is in the comet’s tail whenever it passes close to the sun. It is home to many criminal ...
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In a universe with loop dimensions how is the density of a massive body calculated?
In ordinary 3D space one can calculate the density (average density) of a massive body by dividing the mass of that body by the volume it inhabits
D = M/V with M in say kg and V in say m^3 so D = [kg/...
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Would a rogue planet experience more asteroid collisions?
I'm working on a novel where the characters inhabit a rogue planet. Would that planet get hit by more asteroids due to the fact that it isn't orbiting a star? I have a feeling that the distance is ...
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Could a moon roughly the size of Earth's have an active core and magnetic field?
I'm currently working on a project with an inhabited terrestrial planet slightly smaller than Earth, and orbiting it is a moon, which is a similar size to that of Earth's moon. While our own moon has ...
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Biodiversity through radiation
I was wanting to make a species on an alien planet that reproduce purely asexualy, and their star produces enough radiation to cause common mutations among the children to cause something similar to ...
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What is the difference in speed between my two moons?
The planet in my current project is orbited by two moons, which like Mars' are relatively small and irregularly shaped. The largest moon orbits closer to the planet and the smaller one orbits farther ...
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How to encourage an interstellar space industry to decentralize production processes?
I am currently designing a video game that is about space industrialization. The gameplay experience I want to go for are multiple star systems sprinkled with small, specialized industrial space ...
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Space with a breathable "atmosphere" - How to make it kind-of believable?
The idea in its simplest form is that a stellar system of planets is within a transparent gas cloud that includes oxygen. The gas cloud is so incredibly dense (around sea level earth pressure) that ...
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Spaceship habitat size
I need a spaceship habitat for a million humans, comfortably, for indefinite time.
I have read many questions around here, perfectly answered, about the size a spaceship should be to store enough ...
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Could you use the gravity of an extremely close gas giant to assist in leaving a planet
Scenario: A gas giant knocked off orbit is projected to make an extremely close approach to our planet. Close enough to cause miles high tides, continent wide earthquakes, and send our planet on an ...
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How much shielding do you need to survive an antimatter explosion?
The Story (Literally)
Extract: First Draft, Third Person Limited.
"C'mon! We need the engines back, now!" Valerie yelped over the general channel. The interceptor floated adrift, otherwise ...
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Ways to accidentally ingest a cryoprotectant [closed]
So, continuing along the basic storyline of this last question: Is it possible for a human to be cryonically preserved in vacuum?
What I took away from the answer (note singular) and comments there (...
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What happens at the hub/core of a rotating space station?
My setting is a standard rotating ring space station. I want some action to happen in the core, specifically for the hero to take down a "hypercom" system that is housed there. I'm trying to ...
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Maximum speed of 100% reflective light sails
So, it’s the 23rd century, and due to the cost of fuel these days, people are exploring new methods of interplanetary travel that does not require reaction mass. Light sails spring to mind.
Modern ...
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What would a laser-powered interstellar cargo ship look like?
Blurb
What would a ship with a 100 thousand tonne budged that needs to carry cryo-frozen cargo through 20 lightyears of interstellar space at 0.35C coasting velocity, using laser sails at both ends of ...
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What would influence skin color outside of stars and radiation? What sort of biology would allow for skintones of a wider color palette? [duplicate]
The star is an F3.5 Main Sequence with a mass of 1.3 solar masses. The planet itself is 1.72 AU out from the star. The mass of the planet of about half the mass of Earth, while the Core Mass fraction ...
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Where can a non-clarkean civilisation find an FTL Space-drive?
So, this is the deal. In this scenario, humans are unable to create an interstellar civilisation. They have tried colonising exoplanets the slow way, at about a quarter of the speed of light, but this ...
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If a sun were orbiting around Earth, how far away and how big would it need to be to look similar to our sun?
So in my universe, there's only a single planet, contained within a spherical shell. Orbiting around it is a dragon, holding a "sun" for lack of a better word. This sun is not a star as we ...
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How would we make antimatter in industrial quantities?
The Setting
Let's say, for the sake of argument, we have a dyson swarm. This very small torus of swarm mirrors collects over 20 exawatts of power in photons. Most of this power is lost, leaving only ...
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Can you destroy a dyson swarm?
The Swarm
Let's suppose we have a dyson swarm with an orbital trajectory analogous to the star-link constellation over earth, although only over a relatively small belt (lets say about 20 degrees from ...
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How could my solar-powered fairies exist in outer space?
There have been instances of flashes in space that were attributed to sprites and fairies. Now, I know these phenomena can be explained by natural means such as blue/purple lightning. But the concept ...
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Planetesimal Habitation Grav-Train?
The Ring
Let's say, for the sake of argument, we have a small, sort-of-heavy moon, with little geological activity, orbiting a gas giant. Let's take Ganymede. It has around 0.12Gs of surface gravity. ...
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Effects of Superconducting Rings to create a magnetic field around a planet
Continuing along my oft-contineud series of questions relating to terraforming, I return to an idea of giving Mars a magnetic field which I had hitherto dismissed. The idea is that a huge ...
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How would a basic space station of this design work?
For my book, I need a simple, basic layout to work with for a space station. I am using a typical spinning cylindrical design, a core in the center, a number of levels surrounding the core (in my case ...
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Making a moon habitable through tidal heating
Let’s say we have a Star system with a gas giant about 30 AU from the local sun. This is way too far for this particular sun to warm any moons to habitability (unless life inhabits subsurface oceans) ...
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is it possible for a binary planet system to have long term moons orbiting only one of the planets?
What I'm thinking of is a binary planet system each with rings, 2 moons orbiting the larger one and one moon orbiting the smaller one.
The mass of the larger planet is 5 Earth masses, while the ...
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How much energy would a collapsing wormhole release?
In my fictional universe, after experimentation with quantum field manipulation, a way to open, expand and stabilize wormholes is developed, requiring an immense flux of energy (as manipulating ...
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If someone blew up mars, how screwed is earth?
Mars has a gravitational binding energy of ~5x10^30 jouleS. If a bomb went off on mars that released that much energy, how much danger would the earth be in. Additionally, would debris striking earth ...
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How far away can (non-dusty) rocket exhaust be detected?
There are several questions around regarding stealth in space, where the general conclusion is that stealth is not really feasible because (among other things) heat radiation from a spaceship doing ...
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Why would a molten alloy need to be jettisoned into low-to-medium orbit to cool as part of the manufacturing process?
I'm working on a game idea and one of the mechanics I had in mind was making it so a premium material had to be formed by jettisoning it into orbit and letting it cool there while you guard it with ...
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Spacesuit for Obligate Neusters
There is a neustonic sophont that has reached space. They are adapted to survive specifically at the surface of the water: If they are removed from the water then their world's gravity (or their ...
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How would a world composed of floating tectonic plates (Chaos) work?
In the world of Chaos for a book/TV series I may create, a super Earth planet was embroiled in a 100 year long war, until the advanced Rhiobanna Dominion used a massive web of underground nukes to ...
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Would it be possible for a virus to change humans enough for them to become what we would call "superhumans"?
Recently, I read a book called "Swallowed Star". In the story, a virus changes human DNA enough for humans to have unbelievable superpowers and skills. Some even obtain the ability to have ...
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Hot Jupiter L2 Station! Reasons to build, and challenges
I'm working on a somewhat* hard scifi story set in a solar system that contains a hot jupiter. Frankly building a large station in the shade (?) of the L2 point of the hot jupiter sounds metal, and I'...
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How can I figure out measurements/distances and hyperspace jump time in my universe that is simple enough for readers to understand?
I'm using an alternate version of the Milky Way as my setting. I need to know how far it is from one planet/area to another, and know how long it takes to jump via hyperspace -- Yes, I realize ...
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Could a moon of Epsilon Eridani b Have Surface Oceans of Liquid Water?
Specifically, the gas giant Epsilon Eridani b, and a moon that has a mass of ≥0.25 Me. If there's no feasible way the moon could have oceans at a distance of 3.52 AU from a star that emits 0.34 times ...
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What is the most massive naturally occurring object that could support a void in its center?
Remember Journey to the Center of the Earth? The premise is that there's some kind of cave in the center of the Earth, which has an ecosystem inside it. Well, of course you can't do such a silly ...
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Tractor Beam using a vacuum cleaner?
Would a tractor beam consisting of a powerful suction force be usable as a method of grabbing targets at a maximum range of about 10yd? This is obviously only applicable when not in the vacuum of ...
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Aside from fueling, how would a future space station generate revenue and provide value to both the stationers and visitors?
You have an independent space station, it's in a place that is convenient as a jump point for space ships, so it gets visited. What makes a station like that valuable other than the obvious fuel and R&...
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The Moon turns into a black hole of the same mass -- what happens next?
If there were a black hole orbiting an inhabited planet, with the gravity of a typical moon (e.g our moon, orbiting a similarly weighted planet to ours), what practical differences would arise when ...
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Is it possible to have an Illuminated Standard temperature and pressure pocket inside of a comet? [closed]
The title is fairly self explanatory. A pocket inside a comet, able to have liquid water and similar pressures to earth. I want a realistic and science based way to achieve this.
requirements:
Must ...
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How can I hit a planet with an energy beam from ten lightyears away?
My interstellar empire is powered by a quasar.
Or at least it will be once I finish my scheme.
See that cloud of glowing dust? That's called the quasar's accretion disc. When stuff falls into the ...
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Why would a technologically advanced society use human controllers to direct space ship traffic?
There's this idea for a story that I've been toying with, and I'm struggling with finding a good logical explanation for the main character's job.
It's a science-fiction story. No aliens; just humans. ...
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Healing gunshot wounds in microgravity
In my setting, kinetic firearms are the handheld weaponry of choice for most people, despite centuries of technological advancement (and stagnation, somewhat). These range from chemical-propelled guns ...
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How much radiation would a pulsar planet receive?
I have a planet, let's call it Davy-Tim. Davy-Tim has 2 times the mass of the Earth and has a magnetic field. Davy-Tim has a negligible atmosphere and orbits an average millisecond pulsar named Dad, ...
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Would extracting hydrogen from the sun lessen its lifespan?
Relating to my earlier question Is it a good idea to harvest the sun to terraform Venus?
Suppose that we continue to “mine” the sun for hydrogen to be used as rocket fuel. If we continued to do so, ...
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