lpetrich
08 Apr 2009, 05:53 AM
Atomic Rockets (http://www.projectrho.com/rocket/index.html) is a very nice site about rocket design and spaceship design and spacefaring and so forth, aimed at anyone who wants scientifically plausible spacefaring in their science-fiction stories and computer games. Nyrath, the site's author, discusses lots of science-fictional concepts and assesses how plausible they might be.
He starts off with some common misconceptions, several of which suggests planet-surface-bound imaginations. Outer space being like an ocean, complete with spaceships always properly oriented and having sea-ship-like deck arrangements, etc. And the absurdity of aliens wanting our water, when they can easily get it elsewhere in the Universe.
He then goes on to explain how rockets work, why you need a high-thrust rocket to leave a planet's surface, and so forth, introducing simple math along the way. He gets into a certain side effect of nuclear-powered rockets -- ionizing radiation -- and describes how to shield against it. A spacecraft will likely have a "shadow shield" instead of a complete shield, to save weight.
He goes through a lot of SF-spacecraft interior arrangements, discussing what are the most plausible ones. It is interesting to see pre-computer-chip conceptions of spacecraft-navigation systems, with their abundance of mechanical-computation devices.
He has an interesting section on outer-space warfare, pointing out that it is awfully difficult to hide a spaceship -- it will give itself away one way or another. Especially if it uses radar or something similar. He discussed a great variety of weapons that have been proposed for space battle, everything from ordinary bullet-shooting guns to ray guns to missiles. He also mentioned some interesting tradeoffs in warship design, notably between propulsion, weapons, defense, endurance, and command & control -- different kinds of warships will be specialized in different ways. Fast scoutships, massive weapons platforms, etc.
There's plenty of other interesting stuff there, but I'll stop here.
He starts off with some common misconceptions, several of which suggests planet-surface-bound imaginations. Outer space being like an ocean, complete with spaceships always properly oriented and having sea-ship-like deck arrangements, etc. And the absurdity of aliens wanting our water, when they can easily get it elsewhere in the Universe.
He then goes on to explain how rockets work, why you need a high-thrust rocket to leave a planet's surface, and so forth, introducing simple math along the way. He gets into a certain side effect of nuclear-powered rockets -- ionizing radiation -- and describes how to shield against it. A spacecraft will likely have a "shadow shield" instead of a complete shield, to save weight.
He goes through a lot of SF-spacecraft interior arrangements, discussing what are the most plausible ones. It is interesting to see pre-computer-chip conceptions of spacecraft-navigation systems, with their abundance of mechanical-computation devices.
He has an interesting section on outer-space warfare, pointing out that it is awfully difficult to hide a spaceship -- it will give itself away one way or another. Especially if it uses radar or something similar. He discussed a great variety of weapons that have been proposed for space battle, everything from ordinary bullet-shooting guns to ray guns to missiles. He also mentioned some interesting tradeoffs in warship design, notably between propulsion, weapons, defense, endurance, and command & control -- different kinds of warships will be specialized in different ways. Fast scoutships, massive weapons platforms, etc.
There's plenty of other interesting stuff there, but I'll stop here.