Questions tagged [space-travel]
For questions about the process of traveling through space, including in orbit around a planet or moon. Consider also [spaceships]. See also the tag information (click "info") for more details on when this tag applies.
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What is the minimum specifications for a ship to survive propulsive reentry?
Backdrop
In the ending of my book, the closing scene is the control room of the mangled and torn-up starship diving into the atmosphere (maybe not so dramatic) on its fusion engines, slowing down and ...
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Velocities in space without using massive numbers
The story I'm writing is about an intragalactic war and is told from several perspectives including the CO of a small warship. Because space is massive, I have run into an issue with presenting ...
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A laser-propelled starship loses its decelerating beam; what options do they have to slow down?
New to the site, and like many others here, I've been bouncing around a few ideas for a hard sci-fi short story with some friends, centered around an interstellar voyage to colonize a habitable world. ...
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In a world where magic can only be used for baking, how can this be exploited to naturally lead to invention of space travel? [closed]
basically what the question says. Of course, magic must preserve the conversation of energy. Baking is defined in the normal way:
the action of cooking food by dry heat without direct exposure to a ...
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What would be the ideal reaction mass for hall-effect engines?
The Setting
In a bright future, after the brutally efficient totalitarian dystopia-state that once controlled solar systems fell to its own people, the world is still getting back on its feet. They ...
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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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How will corporations ensure return on investment for funding slower than light colonization efforts?
Let's say a future world where faster than light communication exists, but not faster than light travel. There is a desire to colonize other worlds outside the solar system, but it's massively ...
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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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Best material to make a solar sail
So, in this project o’ mine, a newly-formed world state is trying to whip humanity into shape and is making some major changes to society in order to protect the environment. First thing’s first, no ...
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Exploring a Black hole sci fi possible/not possible
I'm currently creating a universe and in that universe is the human race which has been around for about 37000 years. I am currently trying to figure out what tech they would have access to what would ...
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Moving a black hole
What (if any) would be a viable option for moving a black hole with a similar mass to our moon? The black hole is not very far away (i.e disregard difficulties in reaching it). Ideally, there should ...
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What would destroying an antimatter ship look like?
The Backstory
The ship in question is a massive matter-antimatter annihilation powered starship, built by an imperialist and tyrannical government with basically unlimited budget.
The Ship
The ...
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Using "smart" bio-machine fungus to terraform a planet?
Backstory
Ok let's start from the top. A kardashev type 1.2 civilization (a humanity maybe a couple decades to a century ahead of us) builds the beginnings of a dyson swarm, suddenly having unlimited ...
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How does Santa give his gifts anonymously to the Saturnians?
Christmas is nearing, and Santa has upgraded his sled to OP levels. His sled is now a gigantic truck pulled by robotic reindeer, and which can travel at 1c, or at 100% the speed of light (Hi ...
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How many celestial objects are required for navigation?
Weirdly, I couldn't find a similar question already asked. If it has, please forgive me!
The 'easy' answer is three celestial bodies are needed to navigate a spaceship in space. Position + Brightness ...
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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 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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Is there a point in a planets gravity that complex(human intelligence) life can exist but space flight is impossible?
Title but I've always wondered if there's a scale of a planets gravity and possible advancement of a species. If the gravity is too high what does it limit for technology? If the gravity is too high ...
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If two spaceships are traveling closely to the speed of light in different directions, how can they communicate?
Supposed we have two spaceships at a speed close to lightspeed relative to each other, what would communication look like, for example with a laser beam, taking special relativity into consideration?
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How can blind worm aliens travel into space if they cannot even see stars? [duplicate]
In several previous questions I asked about aliens native to an eyeball earth that evolved from burrowers. They have a serpentine shape and hold their heads up like cobras. I've concluded they wouldn'...
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Could you launch a spacecraft with turbines?
I am trying to device a spacecraft that is entirely fuel-less; that is it requires no reaction mass. It uses a wormhole-generator for interstellar flight and a magnetic sail for interplanetary ...
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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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A planet you can take off from, but never land back
Can there be a planet that space missions can take off from, but never land back?
It is easy to imagine that thicker atmosphere, large amounts of space debris or higher gravity could entirely stop ...
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Mt. Everest Hyperloop- Reborn
In my previous question, I was discussing about the possibility of using a mass-driver on Mt. Everest, to propel payloads to space, and reduce the amount of fuel needed (RIP bulky rockets). A diagram ...
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With infinite propellant, would a solid offer more thrust than say a liquid or gas?
I've been refining the design and inner workings of my spaceships lately and one thing I've been asking myself was what propellant would work best. I needed my ships to travel astronomical distances ...
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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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If a planet orbits fast enough could it make a star appear red/blue-shifted depending on the direction of travel?
Suppose a copy of Earth. This planet can travel at any arbitrary speed, and it's set to travel along the galaxy's spiral arms. It rotates counterclockwise, at the rate of 24 hours a rotation. It keeps ...
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If the current population of humanity along with necessities could fit on a spaceship, how large would that ship need to be?
Here's the picture. Earth is beyond saving and is too polluted to be habitable anymore. My plan is to have this ship built on the moon, using materials from our asteroid belt. A bit of a problem is, I'...
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Countering Free-Electron Lidar?
In my hard sci-fi setting, there is a technology called free-electron lidar, usually deployed in space. Edit: Essentially, it is a lidar with the ability to change its laser frequency.
One free-...
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Theoretically, how well could endothermic chemical reactions work as a heat radiation system in space?
I was thinking about the problem of waste heat in a large military space craft. It seems beyond a certain technological point, the ability to dump waste heat becomes the largest problem in quickly ...
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How could humanity colonizing multiple planets and solar systems prevent speciation of the human species
I am exploring the idea of humans leaving planet Earth and colonizing different planets. However, I would like the humans to remain "human". By "human" I mean that the different ...
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A Massive Organism Living In The Vacuum Of Space
Okay, here me out: I am designing an massive, kilometers-long at the absolute minimum, creature that lives in asteroid belts in the vacuum of space. It hosts an entire ecosystem of living things like ...
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Power Source in VENUS [closed]
**What is the best Power Source to use in VENUS to generate electrical Power by using the properties of the VENUS land? **
I was thinking about the RTG but I found a lot of disadvantages of it.
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Preserving medicines on a long-haul space flight?
So I have a really long space-flight section of my story with all necessary requirements for preserving the crew is in place (hypersleep etc.)
But one thing went into my mind with preserving other ...
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Could a planet be colonized with mostly magic? [closed]
How could magic be used to get to planets and make them suitable for human habitation. I will set some rules for the sake of more precise answers.
Magic and Technology which utilizes it is possible ...
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Space elevator counterweight station keeping
I working on a story, and there is a space elevator. I know that moon and sun have a gravitational effect on bodies in orbit. And if a heavy asteroid was used for counterweight, wouldn't it require a ...
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How would a blind intelligent species navigate space?
I am writing about my own fictional cluster of solar systems where one planet had many environmental circumstances that lead to the majority of the planets species evolving to be blind and rely on ...
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Fusion Prevention Field - What Are the Plausible Mechanisms?
In my story, a group of human colonists are set to colonize a distant planet. But on their way there, the fusion drive on the ship stop functioning when they enter an uncharted system, and they crash ...
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The Earth is teleported into interstellar space for 5 minutes. What happens?
Humanity has just developed a star drive and begun sending their first probes, and have now discovered an unstoppable force of doom approaching to destroy the solar system. Their only option is to ...
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What invention/discovery would make travel between planets in the same solar system commonplace? [closed]
Assume there are many inhabitable planets in the same solar system. What new technology would make traveling between these planets cost-effective and (relatively) fast?
Details
This question asks what ...
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Possible deltaV savings by usage of Lagrange points in intra-solar transit
The question here is actually pretty straightforward (not),
So I'm going to expound upon it. Lagrange points are areas within a gravitational system which experience near null gravity. At least, that'...
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Where should I put a planetary propulsion system?
I want to add a planetary propulsion to Earth, to be able to move it at subluminal speeds.
I found this document , taken from What is the largest planet size that can be pushed out of orbit?. I want ...
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How quickly can a disembodied human brain space travel and be fine?
In my current worldbuilding project, humans travel through space by putting their brains into advanced, miniature vehicles that supply the brain with the bare-minimum chemicals, electricity, etc, and ...
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How much more specific impulse could the Saturn V rocket get with better heat resistant material?
Humanity has found a way to travel to another dimension (kinda like Asgard in the MCU). There they have found boulders of a wonderful substance. It is light, strong, has a high melting point, it ...
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Binary system travel time for war
To set the stage, 2 opposing groups exist in the binary Alpha Centauri system. The 2 stars have a roughly 80 year orbit that brings them as close at 11 AU together and as far as 36. A ship at a 1g ...
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would this Lenz law based inertial dampener work?
Basically this "Inertial Dampening" systems works like a magnet falling though a cooper pipe https://youtu.be/5BeFoz3Ypo4
But replace the falling magnet with a crew capsule surrounded by a ...
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Practical speed limit for torch-ships
This is for a sci-fi universe depicting an interplanetary civilisation using fusion torch-ships. Think "1G for days".
For a run to Neptune at 1G the peak velocity at turnover works out to ...
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Would dumping debris into orbit around a planet keep its inhabitants from being able to leave? [closed]
Assuming a planet of similar mass and atmosphere as earth, how much and how often do I need to add orbital debris to prevent space travel?
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Possible alternatives to nebulas as a celestial smokescreen
I've been trying to find celestial phenomena that could act like nebula often do in Sci fi shows, i.e.,
A phenomena where a ship can hide from other ships
A phenomena which is difficult but possible ...
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Suborbital Flight: Duration, Acceleration, Delta-V
As I understand it, the delta-V requirement for a suborbital, intercontinental flight is only slightly lower than that for Low Earth Orbit, but a few percent of fuel mass could make a large difference ...
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