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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6 votes
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Is it possible to somehow create a field where time dilation works in the opposite way and use it to create an interstellar highway?

I want to make my world as realistic as possible, so no otherworldly FTL ideas like wormholes, teleportation or warp/alcubierre drives that will violate causality according to relativity. Let's begin. ...
Hanhan658's user avatar
  • 569
3 votes
3 answers
208 views

Zero propellant interplanetary travel [closed]

I am creating a world where there is an interplanetary network that allows planetary commuting to and from all planets and major moons in the solar system with 0 propulsion being supplied by the craft ...
Zetrox's user avatar
  • 438
2 votes
1 answer
252 views

What things should I consider about Titan while landing, in terms of geography?

What are the challenges to landing on Saturn's moon, Titan, with respect to atmosphere and geography? Consider we are landing a team of scientists, in a ship based geometrically on the Jupiter of Lost ...
Pranay's user avatar
  • 129
5 votes
11 answers
462 views

Awaken after millions of years of spacetravel, what day is today, what time it is and to where should I look at? [closed]

Bob is a 30 years old man who has a religion, called Bobism that is a particular blend of Judaism, Islamism, Christianism, Buddhism, Madeupism and Wtfism. Bob is a strict rigorous practizer of Bobism. ...
Victor Stafusa - BozoNaCadeia's user avatar
4 votes
2 answers
200 views

Effects of CME (coronal mass ejection) on astronauts, or other ways to die in space

I'm writing a sci-fi story involving a lot of asteroid mining and things like that. A major character is a 'development scout' for a large company and has a backstory in which they apparently made a ...
zbird's user avatar
  • 43
1 vote
2 answers
232 views

Gravity assisted travel along a Cosmic string

VSL (variable speed of light) cosmologists have theorised that Cosmic strings could be used as FTL highways for information. This is based on the theory that the speed of light was infinite at the ...
Alan Davies's user avatar
15 votes
5 answers
2k views

Playing cards in zero-g

Suppose there is a wandering starship that travels between the stars, bringing blackjack and hookers to every wormhole it crosses. This casino is like any other on a planet or station, except it ...
Whey_Isolate's user avatar
  • 1,347
4 votes
2 answers
221 views

How could a starship take on a planet-massed passenger without noticing?

tl;dr: How could one ship transfer a planetary massed being to another ship without them noticing the gravity field during the operation? How could two ships rendezvous in deep space with one of ...
Dennis's user avatar
  • 251
5 votes
4 answers
717 views

Could a rocket use negative mass to fly without energy?

My scifi world obeys the real world conservation laws. This presents a problem for spacecraft; due to the conservation of momentum, the spacecraft will need propellant, and a lot of it, for every ...
Ichthys King's user avatar
1 vote
5 answers
179 views

What are some hypothetical specs for Elon Musk's next generation Starship for 2060?

Elon Musk's Starship, formerly known as the BFR (then the ITS), is planned to be the workhorse to transport people and goods to Mars. Theoretically, the rocket could be ready for orbital testing ...
FontFamily's user avatar
32 votes
30 answers
8k views

Plausible natural reason why you can land on a earthlike planet yet can never get back to orbit from it?

Imagine a future where humanity has reached the stars, an exploration party lands on a earth like planet that's liveable (doesn't have to be perfect but life on it is on the range of what most people ...
cypher's user avatar
  • 7,113
2 votes
3 answers
343 views

What is your fuel consumption when traveling at relativistic speeds?

For a given distance of travel, your fuel consumption can be calculated by running hours instead of distance. This is common when you're traveling by boat for instance. You don't typically say "I ...
ChronoFish's user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
89 views

Non-sphericity of "omnidirectional" signals? [closed]

Short version: If an omnidirectional signal is being sent from one side of an object that causes appreciable attenuation does it result in an egg shaped detection envelop or something stranger? Long ...
Ash's user avatar
  • 44.8k
12 votes
11 answers
4k views

With FTL technology is it possible to leave after another and yet arrive before it?

There's a plot point in my script that has been bothering me for a while. My story has faster-than-light travel thanks to distortion engines, which re-purpose the artificial gravity inside the ships ...
LiveInAmbeR's user avatar
  • 10.6k
2 votes
4 answers
297 views

What would be the possible energy sources for long term space travel?

What makes the most sense (real or theoretical) for energy sources to power large spaceships for thousands of years, not renewable
i773's user avatar
  • 29
5 votes
12 answers
509 views

Warfare in a universe with FTL on rather fragile platforms? [closed]

How do you imagine the large picture of space warfare would shape into in a universe with the following characteristics: There is FTL, but it's just available in very large and expensive platforms, ...
Fernando D'Andrea's user avatar
3 votes
3 answers
250 views

What is the most optimal thruster placement in a planet-sized creature?

As a follow-up to my previous question, I spoke about an anomalous planet-sized serpentine creature that lives in space and how close it could get to earth. However, while developing the thing, I ran ...
ProjectApex's user avatar
  • 14.2k
14 votes
17 answers
6k views

How to stop space pirates from stealing goods using a teleporter, without breaking the bank?

In the good old days, the space pirates used tractor beams to reel in unsuspecting merchant vessels before robbing them. Recently reports of them cohorting with the rebel army soon spread across the ...
user6760's user avatar
  • 47.9k
3 votes
3 answers
408 views

How to explain the warp gate looking like a giant funnel in space but its working principle is a spherical wormhole?

In many sci-fi tropes, a warp gate or artificial traversable wormhole almost always resemble a funnel however in reality its working principle is a wormhole. I would like to know how does it appears ...
user6760's user avatar
  • 47.9k
3 votes
3 answers
243 views

Is delta v relevant for interstellar travel for generation ship?

Imagine I have a generation ship that is heading to a nearby star system say 10 light years away, the average lifespan for the crew is 150 years on Earth and is expected to increase by about 5 years ...
user6760's user avatar
  • 47.9k
4 votes
2 answers
1k views

At 1.5 g of constant acceleration, how long does it take to get to 0.93c?

I just finished reading Andy Weir’s “Project Hail Mary”. He crafted a situation where a ship with was able to travel to Tau Ceti, some 13 light years distant. Having crew, he limited the ...
J.D. Ray's user avatar
  • 1,668
-4 votes
1 answer
131 views

Interstellar Evolution [closed]

Is it possible for a species/ecosystem to travel the stars? I'm curious what this would look like. How many generations would it take to adapt to a planets atmosphere and propel a seed colony carrying ...
Thomas F. Webber's user avatar
2 votes
2 answers
145 views

Interstellar Space Travel via Time Travel

Building upon the questions from @States Time travel from stationary position? and @Travis Time travel from stationary position?, would it be possible to travel to other star systems within our galaxy ...
mkinson's user avatar
  • 697
2 votes
2 answers
122 views

A Repelatron Spacecraft

In one of my favorite books, Tom Swift in The Race to the Moon he uses a spacecraft which is propelled by devices called repelatrons which are attached to the hull of the craft. They can be programmed ...
Prince Thomas the 42nd's user avatar
41 votes
12 answers
5k views

Differences in mindset between people born in space and people born planetside

In my world, humanity has populated the stars and now lives in isolated groups in single star systems. Most people never leave the system they were raised in [interstellar travel is very unusual, but ...
sprout's user avatar
  • 760
9 votes
6 answers
2k views

Could an object traveling at a significant fraction of light speed create a black hole?

Nothing with mass can reach the speed of light because the closer to the speed of light it gets the more mass it has tending toward infinite mass as it approaches light speed & the more mass it ...
Pelinore's user avatar
  • 9,243
3 votes
3 answers
195 views

Would spacecraft suffer from fevers?

Spacecrafts produce a lot of heat, which must go somewhere if the inhabitants don't want to die. And in space, the only way to get rid of the heat is to radiate it away One way of achieving this would ...
Ichthys King's user avatar
12 votes
17 answers
6k views

What would cut off a Mars base from Earth's support for an extended period of time?

Consider a Mars base, circa the 2040s. A joint NASA and SpaceX mission proved successful in the 2030s, and now a real colony is starting to develop. SpaceX has brought a good number of people to the ...
WasatchWind's user avatar
  • 3,207
12 votes
10 answers
2k views

What phenomena can explain not detecting a planet while detecting a more distant planet?

Humanity detects a very suitable planet, lets call it Vaung, that is roughly 80 years away from us with their current technology. A ship is made and sent to colonize it, same old stuff. The issue is ...
Seallussus's user avatar
  • 8,285
0 votes
1 answer
100 views

Plausibility of Low-Pressure Breathable Atmospheres?

My question is inspired by the fact that in the computer game Elite:Dangerous, the player's spacecraft is capable of landing on planets with "tenuous" atmospheres, measured as being 0.1 ...
Starsong67's user avatar
2 votes
3 answers
285 views

What's a practical use for a gravity based magic system? [closed]

My magic system operates thusly - Using some kind of material, probably a special clay, maybe it's been changed by some kind of process, a magic user can shape the clay into balls of varying sizes, ...
WasatchWind's user avatar
  • 3,207
7 votes
8 answers
708 views

How would space exploration develop among people who already have access to other planets by magical means

In the world I've been writing, the population has the ability to access other planets, by going through the dimension/plane known as 'the Warp'. However, these people are, for the most part, fairly ...
Archmagos's user avatar
  • 621
14 votes
13 answers
5k views

Does a space government make sense?

Mothership to space vehicle EU W2775LV be like "pay taxes!" Space vehicle EU W2775LV be like "no!" And flies away in the distance. On earth we are kind of stuck living with one ...
user avatar
2 votes
2 answers
102 views

How would you build an emergency launch rocket?

I'm thinking of something akin to a space lifeboat designed to rescue crews of ships that are disabled in orbit and that would need to launch in a hurry without a lot of warning but that would also ...
Adam Reynolds's user avatar
19 votes
2 answers
4k views

space - Is there a minimum safe distance to watch a supernova?

Consider that humans now have technology to travel around the galaxy at will. Hyperspace, warp speed you name it. There is a distance in which they can watch a supernova as a form of entertainment AND ...
Cesar de Barros's user avatar
6 votes
1 answer
261 views

O'Neill Cylinder atmosphere on Moving "Day"

In short what effect would thrust induced pseudo-gravity have on the atmosphere of a sealed cylindrical habitat that was already generating spin induced pseudo-gravity? Assume that the thrust is along ...
Ash's user avatar
  • 44.8k
0 votes
2 answers
247 views

What’s better than a hyperdrive for intergalactic travel? [closed]

I’m trying to write a Star Wars story about someone who figures out a way to travel FTL between galaxies. Hyperspace doesn’t work in the Intergalactic Void, and there is a hyperspace disturbance at ...
Max's user avatar
  • 31
2 votes
2 answers
202 views

What would two planets connected by traversable wormholes trade that is worth the travel risks?

I've posted here before about the realism of my wormholes and such, but I feel this question better fits the forums context of how it wants questions. I have multiple wormholes that are within the ...
Naga's user avatar
  • 63
4 votes
6 answers
1k views

Landing humans on Venus - MacGuffinite

NASA, SpaceX, CNSA... all organizations in space right now seem to have their eyes on the Red Planet. But what if that were to change, and the main goal of manned spaceflight redirected towards Venus? ...
Lelu's user avatar
  • 1,042
11 votes
10 answers
2k views

Would interstellar space piracy be possible under these conditions?

It is a scifi space opera setting skewing more towards realistic consequences of its breaks from the reality - quite similar to The Expanse. Considering the situation outlined below, would it be ...
Darth Biomech's user avatar
8 votes
7 answers
936 views

What is the most plausible way to lower cost to orbit?

Of the general options that exist in terms of hypothetical space launch systems, what is the most plausible option for a relatively near future SF setting? The focus here is on Earth to LEO, as the ...
Adam Reynolds's user avatar
5 votes
2 answers
236 views

How big do a fusion reactor and bank of capacitors following it up have to be to power a mass driver into space?

(Hi, please be kind - first poster. Also, didn't know if it'd be allowed to put hard-science on something like this, so going with ...
Sixtyfive's user avatar
  • 153
3 votes
5 answers
217 views

How would natural gene-editing ability help a species to the space age?

I've been thinking through the feasibility of a species; I won't give a ton of details since it's all pretty fluid at the moment. The big thing I'm curious about is whether their bodies having a ...
Benjamin Hollon's user avatar
15 votes
8 answers
2k views

Decelerating a relativistic, beam-powered starship at its destination without pre-established power-beaming infrastructure at said destination

Some background As most of us know, accelerating to relativistic speeds requires truly astronomical amounts of energy. I have internalized that a ship carrying enough energy/fuel to accelerate to near-...
EldritchEntity's user avatar
7 votes
2 answers
420 views

Estimating thrust and kg fuel for a generation ship's journey to Alpha Centauri

Premise: A generation spaceship leaves Earth around the year 2060 on a journey to colonize Alpha Centauri A (ACA). In this fiction, fusion power is achieved in 2040, improved over 20 years, and used ...
Koon W's user avatar
  • 405
3 votes
1 answer
258 views

"cloaked" stars and gates viable to stop causality paradoxes

So I was lying in bed this moring(summer break, yaaaay) when it suddenly occurred to me that most causality paradoxes are caused by the exchange of information, so if when moving FTL no information ...
Broken ECLSS unit's user avatar
4 votes
3 answers
423 views

Can we have a civilization living at close to the speed of light?

Imagine many ships traveling close to the speed of light. If they diverge paths to explore distant galaxies, they could calculate their travel so that the same amount of time passes for all ships. ...
Joemoor94's user avatar
6 votes
4 answers
558 views

Usefulness of launching probes to verify the existence of a hypothesized planet

In a parallel universe, humans have a 95% confidence that Planet 9 exists with the parameters given on Wikipedia. However, they have not directly observed it and plan on launching many space probes to ...
WarpPrime's user avatar
  • 1,009
5 votes
2 answers
220 views

Does a ship traveling faster than c0 (speed of light in a vacuum) emit Cherenkov radiation?

A Space Whale has been traveling from point A (let it be Sirius) to point B (let it be Vega) faster than light (FTL). Did it emit Cherenkov radiation while traveling? Cherenkov radiation is radiation ...
4.12.22.4.18.0.'s user avatar
4 votes
5 answers
2k views

Do these 'Magiholes' break physics?

The Magiholes are effectively wormholes, except for the fact that the mass of their ends is fixed and unchanging, and that it can be freely moved through space. Would this cause any problems for known ...
Ichthys King's user avatar

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