Winchell Chung ⚛🚀
Winchell Chung ⚛🚀  ·  2 days ago
@steaphan

The current standard is the Langston Field that originated in Niven and Pournelle's The Mote in God's Eye. It was invented by Dr. Dan Alderson as per spec the limits desired by Niven & Pournelle. It was specifically designed in order to allow dramatic space opera combat scenes in scifi stories, but with interesting rules making interesting limitations.

For that reason it is also used in some scifi war games.

https://www.projectrho.com/public_html/rocket/spacewardefense.php#langston

ToddZ
ToddZ  ·  2 days ago

Content Warning

@nyrath @steaphan

Fascinating... this is making me want to re-read Mote, as I didn't recall this element of the story.

I did remember the term "Alderson Drive" though!

Apparently Dan Alderson appears in-world as the discoverer of the "Alderson force" that enables the interstellar drive:

https://fanon.fandom.com/wiki/Alderson_Drive

#scifi #sciencefiction

Author Steaphan Kay
Author Steaphan Kay  ·  2 days ago

Content Warning

In SciFi great ship tech, what is the general lore behind why shields start at 100% and lower when confronted with any type of weapon or physical blow? Most shields deflect objects (not electrify/torch them) in SciFi. This infers more of a mag field or gravity. If that were so, a mag field wouldn't weaken when a non-mag force is applied.

It's fiction...I know...but so many ships have been needlessly blown up.

#SciFi#ScienceFiction #lore

Mark Stewart
Mark Stewart  ·  last week

Content Warning

From the Odyssey archives: in April 2011 we began our voyage through the BIS archives, uncovering this photo of a man who knew a little bit about space shuttles, real and imagined. #Odyssey #ArthurCClarke #BIS_Odyssey #scifi #Space #sciencefiction@victrix75@rob_coppinger
Michael Whelan
Michael Whelan  ·  6 days ago

Content Warning

THE ULTIMATE ENEMY (1979)
Acrylic and Gouache on Illustration Board - 28" x 18"

Sometimes the simplest statements have the strongest force. The image is ostensibly a representation of the struggle to preserve life against the onslaught of the Berserker war machines described by Fred Saberhagen. 1/3

#sciencefiction#scifi #scifiart #sff #illustration #fredsaberhagen

A monstrously large robot looms on the horizon while a simple plant sprouts defiantly from barren, rocky soil in the near foreground. The arms of the robot lurch forward with fingers tensed to grip, implying a sense of forward motion, marching toward the plant. While it's body resembles a stocky biped, it's head is an asymmetrical jumble, which on close examination looks like futuristic buildings set off-center right upon its shoulders. Stiff antennae protrude upward from head and shoulders. Red and orange eye-like lights are set akimbo, an uneven diagonal that adds to the sense of uneasiness about the mechanical monstrosity.
A monstrously large robot looms on the horizon while a simple plant sprouts defiantly from barren, rocky soil in the near foreground. The arms of the robot lurch forward with fingers tensed to grip, implying a sense of forward motion, marching toward the plant. While it's body resembles a stocky biped, it's head is an asymmetrical jumble, which on close examination looks like futuristic buildings set off-center right upon its shoulders. Stiff antennae protrude upward from head and shoulders. Red and orange eye-like lights are set akimbo, an uneven diagonal that adds to the sense of uneasiness about the mechanical monstrosity.
A monstrously large robot looms on the horizon while a simple plant sprouts defiantly from barren, rocky soil in the near foreground. The arms of the robot lurch forward with fingers tensed to grip, implying a sense of forward motion, marching toward the plant. While it's body resembles a stocky biped, it's head is an asymmetrical jumble, which on close examination looks like futuristic buildings set off-center right upon its shoulders. Stiff antennae protrude upward from head and shoulders. Red and orange eye-like lights are set akimbo, an uneven diagonal that adds to the sense of uneasiness about the mechanical monstrosity.
Michael Whelan
Michael Whelan  ·  2 weeks ago

Content Warning

THE INTEGRAL TREES (1984)
Acrylic on Illustration Board - 28" x 38"

Being suspended in space, floating unencumbered yet in control of one's flight, is as close to pure freedom as I can imagine. 1/4

#sciencefiction#scifi #scifiart #illustration #larryniven

A woman with short blonde hair floats weightless in front of clumps of cloud shaped vegetation dotted with flowers. The figure looks very Peter Pan-esque posed with one knee raised wearing green capri-style pants and a vest with no shirt beneath. A harpoon rests across her shoulders with a rope line dangling loose. She holds a coil of it with her toes. An enormous tree trunk with a chrome engine firing off the side arcs past, diminishing back into the blue sky where it intersects clump. A diagonal line of light serves as a tilted horizon of sorts but there is no land, just sky occupied by clouds and clumps.
A woman with short blonde hair floats weightless in front of clumps of cloud shaped vegetation dotted with flowers. The figure looks very Peter Pan-esque posed with one knee raised wearing green capri-style pants and a vest with no shirt beneath. A harpoon rests across her shoulders with a rope line dangling loose. She holds a coil of it with her toes. An enormous tree trunk with a chrome engine firing off the side arcs past, diminishing back into the blue sky where it intersects clump. A diagonal line of light serves as a tilted horizon of sorts but there is no land, just sky occupied by clouds and clumps.
A woman with short blonde hair floats weightless in front of clumps of cloud shaped vegetation dotted with flowers. The figure looks very Peter Pan-esque posed with one knee raised wearing green capri-style pants and a vest with no shirt beneath. A harpoon rests across her shoulders with a rope line dangling loose. She holds a coil of it with her toes. An enormous tree trunk with a chrome engine firing off the side arcs past, diminishing back into the blue sky where it intersects clump. A diagonal line of light serves as a tilted horizon of sorts but there is no land, just sky occupied by clouds and clumps.
Michael Whelan
Michael Whelan  ·  3 weeks ago

Content Warning

BROTHER ASSASSIN (1978)
Acrylic on Illustration Board - 30" x 20"

I am often kidded about my general dislike for yellow... 1/3

#sciencefiction#scifi #scifiart #fredsaberhagen #berserkersaga

Wearing brown robes with hood drawn up, a robot with an oddly asymmetrical face stares squarely at the viewer as it grips a clock in its clawed grasp. The face is black with gold numbers, but the glass is broken. The hands are stopped at 3:53. A metal grate covers the robot's left eye and half the mouth. That side of the face resembles the steely mask of Doctor Doom, while the other side is an abstraction of lights and circuitry over silver metal. A blue light, cloudy like a planet, is placed where the other eye socket should be. Four bright green dots border form the points of a rectangle around it. Below the cheek—bearing no resemblance to a human feature—a pink sphere with light polka dots floats in blue-black field constrained by an oval bevel. The right side of its mouth is tall instead of wide contrasting the left with the bottom of the metal grate recessed and tinted red. A curving antenna sweeps down off the side of its forehead following the contour of the bell-shaped hood. The curve resembles the microphone attachment on a headset, although stubby and cut short wide at the cheek. The immediate backdrop is brown and desert-like, while the sky above dominates in oppressive yellow tones. Set just behind the figure's shoulder hangs the craggy surface of a moon set against an abstract starfield, darker than the wash of sky but still tinted yellow.
Wearing brown robes with hood drawn up, a robot with an oddly asymmetrical face stares squarely at the viewer as it grips a clock in its clawed grasp. The face is black with gold numbers, but the glass is broken. The hands are stopped at 3:53. A metal grate covers the robot's left eye and half the mouth. That side of the face resembles the steely mask of Doctor Doom, while the other side is an abstraction of lights and circuitry over silver metal. A blue light, cloudy like a planet, is placed where the other eye socket should be. Four bright green dots border form the points of a rectangle around it. Below the cheek—bearing no resemblance to a human feature—a pink sphere with light polka dots floats in blue-black field constrained by an oval bevel. The right side of its mouth is tall instead of wide contrasting the left with the bottom of the metal grate recessed and tinted red. A curving antenna sweeps down off the side of its forehead following the contour of the bell-shaped hood. The curve resembles the microphone attachment on a headset, although stubby and cut short wide at the cheek. The immediate backdrop is brown and desert-like, while the sky above dominates in oppressive yellow tones. Set just behind the figure's shoulder hangs the craggy surface of a moon set against an abstract starfield, darker than the wash of sky but still tinted yellow.
Wearing brown robes with hood drawn up, a robot with an oddly asymmetrical face stares squarely at the viewer as it grips a clock in its clawed grasp. The face is black with gold numbers, but the glass is broken. The hands are stopped at 3:53. A metal grate covers the robot's left eye and half the mouth. That side of the face resembles the steely mask of Doctor Doom, while the other side is an abstraction of lights and circuitry over silver metal. A blue light, cloudy like a planet, is placed where the other eye socket should be. Four bright green dots border form the points of a rectangle around it. Below the cheek—bearing no resemblance to a human feature—a pink sphere with light polka dots floats in blue-black field constrained by an oval bevel. The right side of its mouth is tall instead of wide contrasting the left with the bottom of the metal grate recessed and tinted red. A curving antenna sweeps down off the side of its forehead following the contour of the bell-shaped hood. The curve resembles the microphone attachment on a headset, although stubby and cut short wide at the cheek. The immediate backdrop is brown and desert-like, while the sky above dominates in oppressive yellow tones. Set just behind the figure's shoulder hangs the craggy surface of a moon set against an abstract starfield, darker than the wash of sky but still tinted yellow.
Elizabeth Stanway
Elizabeth Stanway  ·  4 weeks ago

Content Warning

It's a new #CosmicStories #ScienceandSF blog day! This time I'm looking at the crucial role of technicians in both #Science and #ScienceFiction. Featuring Red Dwarf, Star Trek, Doctor Who and novels by Murray Leinster and others. Comments always welcome!

http://www.warwick.ac.uk/CosmicStories/technical_support/

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