All Questions
Tagged with spaceships hard-science
52
questions
2
votes
1
answer
126
views
Exploring the Feasibility of Laser-Based Ram Scoops Powered by Micro Black Holes [closed]
Ram scoop ships are a well-loved element of hard science fiction, typically employing magnetic fields to harvest interstellar gas. However, this concept often grapples with practical issues like drag ...
- 17.1k
4
votes
2
answers
1k
views
Amount of antimatter needed to propel large spacecraft?
Okay, So i'm not really into physics or mathematics but i'm trying my best to learn some bit of how the calculations needed for the amount of antimatter needed to propel a spacecrafft to relativistic ...
- 567
7
votes
2
answers
789
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Can Dusty Plasma radiators protect against lasers?
From Project Rho:
http://www.projectrho.com/public_html/rocket/heatrad.php#:~:text=Dusty%20Plasma%C2%A0radiator%3A
Example Image: https://twitter.com/toughsf/status/1154692082478526465
A dusty plasma ...
- 357
3
votes
3
answers
264
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Coilguns as spaceship thrusters second attempt
This is a second attempt for this question, the first time i put in too many different things that ended up derailing the question.
I'm in the early stages of designing a scifi game and want to use as ...
- 180
-2
votes
3
answers
272
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19th century British moon landing [closed]
In the aftermath of the Monroe doctrine, the British empire decided to expand heavenward. As the nobles, captains, empiricists, electricians, and mechanics explained to the Majesty, technological ...
- 888
7
votes
2
answers
394
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Ideal materials for the outer layer of a whipple shield
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whipple_shield
What I'm looking for is the best possible materials for the outer layer of a whipple shield. From what I understand, the outer layer turns a hypervelocity ...
- 697
3
votes
3
answers
210
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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 ...
- 448
1
vote
0
answers
51
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What is the highest g planet that can be escaped with current rocketry technology? [duplicate]
A spacefaring race in my story evolved on a high g planet. This made them smaller, stockier and stronger than most other spacefarers. The question is just how high their planet’s gravity could be ...
- 66.4k
10
votes
2
answers
190
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Heat shields made in space out of rocky source material - cheap way to get cargo to Earth?
Let's say there's an operation one day producing items from asteroid and lunar material in orbit, and they want to ship goods to Earth. They try making cheap heat shields by processing rock and ...
- 419
3
votes
3
answers
465
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Black Hole Weapons - Laser/Particle Beam?
First post here, but longtime lurker :3
My question is this: if you have a civilization that is using black holes as a battery/pseudo power source, and they want to weaponize it -without- shooting the ...
- 33
5
votes
3
answers
474
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How much energy can a space ship use internally without overheating?
More thoughts on hard science possibilities for interstellar colonization and the request to check my understanding of physics.
Suppose you have a fully self contained colony ship. They have some ...
- 1,651
3
votes
3
answers
413
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Would an Antimatter Engine be dangerous to use around people?
I was considering having the spacecraft in my setting use antimatter-matter spacecraft, but then I realised that at least some of the annihilation of protons and electrons with antiprotons and ...
- 609
4
votes
1
answer
768
views
Fleet tactics & strategies in a hard sci-fi setting with near light speed weapons, ultra hypervelocity kinetics, realistic sensors, and torch ships
I am trying to figure out tactics and strategies for ships that move in a Newtonian regime and use weapons at or near the speed of light. Signals are also at light speed, being lidar and radar; ECM ...
- 126
7
votes
6
answers
591
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Are purely electromagnetic propulsion systems feasible at all?
It seems that one of the main hurdles of creating an interstellar propulsion system is the need to carry reaction mass to accelerate while conserving momentum. Pretty much every "fringe science&...
- 600
8
votes
1
answer
432
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Performance envelope characteristics for a hard-sci-fi torch-ship
I am working on a new SciFi book and need your expertise to help nail-down mission profile, fuel use, acceleration, mass, etc. for my ships.
The books are Hard-Sci-Fi in the sense that everything ...
- 502