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I quite liked how “A Deepness In The Sky” tried to tackle this, by making the galaxy travelling traders permanently outside of the existing societies, as time d

by girvo 8y ago

I quite liked how “A Deepness In The Sky” tried to tackle this, by making the galaxy travelling traders permanently outside of the existing societies, as time dilation means they will have to be!

taneq 8y ago
Same with the Revelation Space universe's lighthugger starships. The crews were seen as quite alien by the rest of their culture. That's also the first place I saw the (in hindsight obvious) idea that a ship that can accelerate at over 1G can land on (or hover over) a planetary surface. Everyone else seems to have kept the "starships are for outside atmospheres only" trope.
- simias 8y ago
  That's assuming that the thrusters can still output 1G within the atmosphere and that the hull of the ship can withstand the outside pressure and the weather (humidity, strong winds etc...). Also a huge ship firing thrusters continuously in the atmosphere might have adverse side effects (for instance radiation, toxic smoke, heat etc... depending on the technology). Might make sense to optimize large ships for space only and use smaller vehicles to taxi back and forth from the surface of planets.
  - clarkmoody 8y ago
    Another Vinge goodie is the effect of the "main torch" of a starship on the permafrost of a planet as it hovers around looking for a landing site.
  - taneq 8y ago
    Yeah, but if we're allowing thrusters that can generate a 1G acceleration for years at a time without using the entire ship as reaction mass, those are much smaller "gimmes". :)
- magduf 8y ago
  >Everyone else seems to have kept the "starships are for outside atmospheres only" trope. Engineering a ship that can land on a planet with gravity and an atmosphere is much bigger challenge than engineering a ship that never does anything besides go into orbit. It makes it much easier to create a really, really, really huge ship. You're not going to build a Death Star that can land on a planet's surface, unless you can come up with some kind of materials that we have no idea about now. So why bother? It's easy enough to make a giant ship for interplanetary travel with smaller shuttles for landing.

by girvo 8y ago

I quite liked how “A Deepness In The Sky” tried to tackle this, by making the galaxy travelling traders permanently outside of the existing societies, as time dilation means they will have to be!

taneq 8y ago

Same with the Revelation Space universe's lighthugger starships. The crews were seen as quite alien by the rest of their culture. That's also the first place I saw the (in hindsight obvious) idea that a ship that can accelerate at over 1G can land on (or hover over) a planetary surface. Everyone else seems to have kept the "starships are for outside atmospheres only" trope.

simias 8y ago
That's assuming that the thrusters can still output 1G within the atmosphere and that the hull of the ship can withstand the outside pressure and the weather (humidity, strong winds etc...). Also a huge ship firing thrusters continuously in the atmosphere might have adverse side effects (for instance radiation, toxic smoke, heat etc... depending on the technology). Might make sense to optimize large ships for space only and use smaller vehicles to taxi back and forth from the surface of planets.
- clarkmoody 8y ago
  Another Vinge goodie is the effect of the "main torch" of a starship on the permafrost of a planet as it hovers around looking for a landing site.
- taneq 8y ago
  Yeah, but if we're allowing thrusters that can generate a 1G acceleration for years at a time without using the entire ship as reaction mass, those are much smaller "gimmes". :)
magduf 8y ago
>Everyone else seems to have kept the "starships are for outside atmospheres only" trope. Engineering a ship that can land on a planet with gravity and an atmosphere is much bigger challenge than engineering a ship that never does anything besides go into orbit. It makes it much easier to create a really, really, really huge ship. You're not going to build a Death Star that can land on a planet's surface, unless you can come up with some kind of materials that we have no idea about now. So why bother? It's easy enough to make a giant ship for interplanetary travel with smaller shuttles for landing.