Propulsion Systems in Science Fiction

[@Spacedock]

Check out our original SF Audio Drama, The Sojourn! www.thesojournaudiodrama.com/

[@DreamFearEternal]

Please, please, please, do an analysis on why planets and planetary systems in science fiction don’t have a SpacePort. Every time I see an advance civilization just sitting back and having random people just showing up and landing on their planet drives me nuts. I scream in Prometheus when the godlike Engineers just allowed a ship they lost contact with thousands of ago to just return and whipped them out. Logically, it should have been stopped at the edge of the solar system and forced to provide proper documents and asked if it is there for work or pleasure. Why don’t they have customs???????????

[@kingdomofvinland8827]

I’d like a video on the various types of ftl in sci fi

[@damonknight2494]

nice one using ksp as a demostration

[@TheInselaffen]

Never heard of that Larry Kniven bloke.

[@carloshenriquezimmer7543]

Question: Is there any possibility in the near future for the "Sojourn Book Series" in printed format? Call me old school, but I prefer reading in paper, or at least in a screen (not a criticism of your work, is just my personal preference).

[@shogun2215]

I would love a more comprehensive look at FTL drives, and perhaps delving into real life FTL concepts like the Alcubierre Drive.

[@kenneyshepard4511]

The Alcubierre Drive is a nice idea but I dont think it will become a reality. White and his team may have warped space with the Casimir effect but that was on a nano scale. The Casimir effect is when you stick two plates so close together that quantum particles can not form between them. The plates experience a quantum push as particles form on the outside of plates kind've like how a submarine experiences pressure under water. What was interesting is this inturn created a negative space. The space between the plates was different then the space outside, essentially a warp bubble. How this effect could be used in space travel is anyone's guess. Additionally, this was on a nano scale from quantum particles, particles smaller than atoms to make this any bigger would require enormous amounts of energy. So, sorry no warp drive just a neat science experiment.

[@anordinaryguy3952]

@@kenneyshepard4511 It's still the most likely though

[@DocWolph]

@@kenneyshepard4511 They only proved it was possible. Whether or not it can be done on the scale of Star Trek, will take at least 100 more years of off and on research and development to see any such results. After all, we are talking about a mode of propulsion that promises to bypass any form of physics commonly known or understood today. And it took centuries (some may argue millennia) to go from the idea of flight to the first aircraft. From there is has literally been "the sky's the limit" So we, as a species and civilization, will have to wait and see.

[@allnamesaretakenful]

FTL! FTL! FTL!

[@ericlf3087]

Alcubierre drive is not FTL. In his paper, Alcubierre said that people on board the ship will experience 14 days of real time when travelling to Alpha Centauri but around 900 years will pass in the outside from the perspective on an observer standing on the Earth. There is no "realistic" FTL of any kind, Alcubierre or vortex or eleventh compressed dimension or anything like that because light is not the speed of photons but the speed of causality. If you can send info (electromagnetic signals) or matter beyond the causality limit, you will end up with a "tachyonic telephone" and all sorts of paradoxes. The more realistic way possible is NAFAL (near as fast as light) like in Cameron's Avatar with matter-antimatter reaction or Tau Zero (Pool Anderson) with Bussard ramjet to have near c acceleration in a matter of years. Anything beyond is not "realistic" in any way.

[@doodledibob]

Mechanics informing story-telling is one of the cornerstones of science fiction writing. The technologies exist to interact with the narrative as much as anything else, making the world tangible and creating depth. The fact that spaceships are so common in the genre just means that propulsion systems are a great facet to highlight.

[@avroarchitect1793]

propulsion and energy generation, they are cornerstones of the writing in sci-fi

[@jaymartin8273]

I agree, plus I think HOW your ship moves around affects the story. Star Wars for example, hyperdrive allows ships to cross the entire galaxy in a few hours, thus expanding the setting, Star Trek by contrast warp drive can take you far, but it'll take decades to cross the galaxy, so going to another part of the galaxy is rare and wonderous :=)

[@keajones1513]

"A drives effectiveness as a weapon is directly proportional to its effectiveness as a drive" - the kzinti lesson. Has to be one of my favorite physics quotes from any sci-fi ever. It is important to remember that theres no such thing as an unarmed spaceship.

[@DoremiFasolatido1979]

And yet, unless you plan to attack solely through kamikaze tactics, no drive is ever as good as any weapon...no matter how ridiculously magical it is.

[@hanzzel6086]

@@DoremiFasolatido1979 That depends. Can it feasibly be operated like a drone? No sapients (the proper term for human and human like life) required? If so, how expensive is it to make a compact, short range, one use version? And how compact can you make a drive of that type? Small enough to fit in something of similar propertions to a X-wing or B-1 stealth bomber? How devastating is it on impact (and how much does size of vessel matter)?

[@hanzzel6086]

@@DoremiFasolatido1979 Depending on the exeact answers to the above questions (and a few others) it might be feasible (or end up being required) to use them as high damage missiles to obliterate enemy capital ships.

[@TheArklyte]

The problem is that even if your enemy is somehow unlucky or stupid enough to be caught directly in a cone of your exhaust, it is a very short ranged "weapon" in terms of space combat. Somehow people, who liked that book don't realize that...

[@luminoustedium]

@@DoremiFasolatido1979 Give some rocks a good push toward a planet and a drive will do just fine as a weapon

[@mitwhitgaming7722]

In my sci-fi universe, fusion powered sublight engines create a lot of free electrons, which can cause lightning storms when used in atmosphere. A fleet of ships can weaponize their drive emissions to cause catastrophic lightning storms on a target planet.

[@th3lonef0x4]

Sounds interesting.

[@ledocteur7701]

in my sci-fi universe missiles utilize miniaturized (mostly single use) jump thrusters to accelerate to a significant fraction of the speed of light and create massive damage to the target armor, only lacking in the ability to penetrate energy shields. jump thrusters are used for sudden burst of acceleration and allow when in conjunction with a jump drive whish isolates the ship in a space-time bubble whish follows the ship movement, meaning that the ship never actually accelerates within that bubble, allowing it to travel throughout the entire galaxy (2 millions light years) in 2 month (100000 times the speed of light). when their jump drive is active a ship can not be interacted or interact with anything outside the bubble, whish removes the issue of obliterating planets with a simple kamikaze civilian ship.

[@th3lonef0x4]

Currently the idea I'm going for in my book is a 'Jump-gate' which is anchored on the surface of a small moon or planetoid. The idea being that there using the mass of the moon/planetoid to bend space. The gate itself would appear as a 'blister' (Due to wormholes being three dimensional objects, spheres.) This blister would reflect space in which ever system the gate is tethered to. The main reason which made by lean more towards jump gates over FTL drives, was the reality of having a drive that can fit on a starship and shorten interstellar travel enough to be commercially viable.

[@DecidedlyNinja]

@@ledocteur7701 Wait, you made the jump bubble non-interacting to keep jump drives from being weaponized, then weaponized them anyway?

[@ledocteur7701]

@@DecidedlyNinja no, missiles uses a type of sub-light engines capable of short burst of insane acceleration, jump drives only isolate the ship allowing it to reach FTL speeds, but it doesn't make the ship move, it uses it's sub-light engines for that.

[@lurkingllama8364]

When you mentioned the various FTL drives, I was reminded of the original version of the game Stellaris. While the developers settled into using Hyperdrive Lanes for FTL, originally the type of FTL a species used was a part of their technology base, and you could choose between Hyperdrive, Jump Drive, and Warp Drive. They all functioned differently, and made interacting with various species rather chaotic.

[@connormulholland6893]

don't forget the SLT (Sub Light Travel) and Skip Drive as they are types of drives that are commonly overlooked.

[@bagustesa]

ah yes, when stellaris has fun drives.

[@artembentsionov]

Sword of the Stars is a 4X game that uses this as a central concept. Each race has a unique method of crossing the gulf of interstellar space. While some are basically similar, there are certain nuances that still add variety to strategy and tactics. For example, humans use the Stellaris “starlane” method. It’s one of the fastest means of traveling but relies on randomly-generated tunnels. On the plus side, their ships can’t be intercepted in node space by races without node travel. They can also optionally go STL, and if they run out of fuel in node space, they’re spat out into normal space. Another race, the Zuul, uses node space as well (according to the fluff, they stole the human method but adapted it to their own tastes), but they make their own tunnels with special ships. Their tunnels are unstable and will disappear with time and use. It’s also possible for humans and Zuul to fight in node space, but there’s a chance of attracting native energy-based inhabitants, who don’t like uninvited visitors. Hivers don’t have FTL at all. They use one-turn gates but must first drag the gates the slow way (but they have much faster STL than humans or Zuul and can eventually research one-way gates). Tarka, Liir, and Morrigi all gave “go anywhere” drives but with their own nuances and speeds. Tarka hyperdrives at first make ships at FTL incommunicado until you research appropriate tech. Eventually, they can research advanced hyperdrives that allow them to maneuver in combat without reaction thrusters, giving them crazy turn speeds. Liir ships don’t move in Newtonian sense (which is good because they’re full of water). Instead they teleport a tiny distance thousands of times per second, simulating movement, which also allows them to go FTL, since they’re at rest at and given moment. But their ships are slower in gravity wells due to increased stutter-warp calculations. When further researched, their drives can sometimes allow enemy shots to pass through them. Morrigi void drives favor large fleets, since every ship adds to the speed. It’s the only race that doesn’t travel at the speed of their slowest ship in the fleet. They also have special ships that boost FTL speeds and slow down enemies in combat. P.S. I would avoid Sword of the Star II, though. They overpromised and delivered a hot mess

[@ez_theta_z9317]

not jump drives, those were iirc a fallen-empire-specific tech that was literally just an instant go-anywhere. Wormole Gateways were the 3rd method of drive

[@julius-stark]

I started writing my own sci-fi novel last year and decided not to have artificial gravity on the ships, so I had to create an entire bible as to how the lightspeed/propulsion systems worked and their effects on the characters and it completely changed several aspects of the story. Now I see why writers just hand wave that stuff away, gravity is a very complicated thing.

[@Oldtricksmadenew]

I look forward to seeing the world you build. Subscribed for updates, good luck!!

[@honzasenbauer612]

I relate to this. I tried to write Sci-fi novel aswell, ended up being a rip off SGU with nothing interesting to show for it, but I wanted the technology to be at least somewhat believable. So goddam hard if you want to tell some kind of story but the world doesn´t support it

[@James-ho5te]

I had a similar issue with my story. Initially, I had opted to not include artificial gravity, but the ships utilize the Alcubierre Drive, and the way the drive works, I found it difficult to completely write out artificial gravity. Seeing as the Alcubierre Drive basically requires a civilization to advance to the point it can manipulate spacetime to its own will, I found it hard to believe that after millennia of this technology existing that such a civilization wouldn't be able to utilize that technology for artificial gravity. So I compromised by making artificial gravity a very energy intensive process, limiting it to only the largest of vessels, and similarly having to limit the FTL capabilities of smaller ships.

[@James-ho5te]

@@honzasenbauer612 Yeah I dealt with similar thing. The only solution to that sort of thing is to either change the world, or change the story. At this point, my own story is unrecognizable to what I had initially thought up. Apart from the title, the home star system, the general design of the hero ship, and a handful of names, it has nothing resembling the initial story. Being heavily inspired by The Expanse, I chose to rework my story from a more Star Wars type setting into a more realistic setting and had to completely rethink the story and technology. It was only dumb luck that the design I had for the hero ship could be easily re-worked to fit in a more realistic setting, but pretty much everything else had to go.

[@honzasenbauer612]

@@James-ho5te good choice on th Gravity idea. I also struggled a little with that. I wanted to have soem 0 G in there, but then it would make zero sense for the characters to just walk on the ship. I get why you are inspired by The Expanse, I am much more inspired by Stargate, and that was shown in my hero ship design. It was a mashup of Destiny and Daedalus. If I continued with it, I would have to change everything from the ground up. Its really hard to write something. I have nothing but respect to people who get to finish something cohesive. Great work

[@th3lonef0x4]

7:10 I would very much like to see a more comprehensive video detailing FTL methods in Sci-fi. One of the main things I've been planning with my book at the moment, is how faster-than-light travel works. Would be really useful to have an easy to understand video going over different methods. At the moment I'm leaning more towards the idea of a 'Jump-gate' of sorts.

[@ledocteur7701]

my universe uses both, simply because "space is big" and even going at 100 000 times the speed of light, that still not enough to reach the nearest galaxy in a reasonable time. «jumpdrives» are the technology used to achieve FTL travel, they isolate the ship in a space-time bubble that's gets dragged along with the ship has it accelerates using it’s engine, normally the faster you are the more energy it takes to accelerate, but while the jumpdrive is active the ship isn’t actually accelerating nor moving (in comparison to it’s local space-time bubble obviously, it’s still moving and accelerating trough the universe) which allow the ship to reach unimaginable speed far faster than the speed of light while being protected from all outside threat (the ship bubble is also incapable of interacting with outside elements such has planets, for the sake of not transforming any jump drives equipped ships into a planet-blowing missile.) The name «jumpdrive» refers to the fact that jumpdrives are extremely power hungry and can only be sustained for a few minutes on average, even purpose-built ships can’t sustain it for more than an hour. «jumpgates» are mega-structures build around black holes that allow a ship correctly equipped to enter the black hole and instantly travel to any location within a certain radius of the black hole (range is defined by the mass of the black hole, bigger = farther) by creating a short-lived tiny white hole at that destination, those jumps are generally made from jumpgates to jumpgates, «blind» jumps are possible, but really dangerous, has jump gates also serves as FTL communication towers which supports «The Network» (basically an intergalactic internet) and allow ships to be informed of the state of their destination, a blind jump could lead you into an area currently at war or even worse, teleport you into a planet/star/whatever else that isn’t void, destroying your ship.

[@2MeterLP]

My favorite FTL method is the warp drive, as it allows interstellar travel while still having travel time, and its the method most likely to actually work in real life.

[@Nostripe361]

@@2MeterLP weirdly I like universes that have multiple ftl types. I just find it cool to have one species with hyperspace that allows them to go farther and faster but requires more energy and is more dangerous while another species uses warp since it’s easier and cheaper but slower. Could even make them work under similar principles just used differently

[@2MeterLP]

@@Nostripe361 I feel like allowing multiple ways to break the laws of physics would strain suspension of disbelief a bit.

[@DecidedlyNinja]

@@ledocteur7701 Accelerates to many times the speed of light and slows down using the normal engine within the few minutes that the jump drive operates? Your ships' sublight acceleration makes Honor Harrington look slow as a snail.

[@NobodyofNot]

If you ever take a deeper look into FTL drives and talk about teleportation drives then I’d LOVE if you mention the Blink Drive from Dark Matter.

[@ZeroB4NG]

It is kind of ironic... In BSG the FTL Jumps were never truly explained, it just did its thing and i completely accepted it as such. Dark Matter had a Blink drive and that made the hero ship the most important ship in the universe somehow... and i accepted that as is. Then Kurtzman NuTrek starts yapping about Mushrooms and makes a stupid looking spinning animation, puts this OP drive chronologically before Kirk's 1701 and it instantly was the dumbest thing Star Trek EVER did. Heck, i take Transwarp turning Paris and Janeway into Lizards over this gobbledygook.

[@indeepjable]

i cast upon instant teleportation is canonically before the invention of ftl technology

[@AlexanderRM1000]

@@ZeroB4NG Yeah the problem with the spore drive is just that it's chronologically over a century before TNG, messing with the internal logic and not just realistic physics. It's got some major risks to use but given the main characters could use it hundreds of times before encountering a problem, a century of research could easily miniaturize it and improve the safety and efficiency until starships can carry it as a backup for extreme emergencies. And even if the Federation never does that, the fact that it's possible to invent at all means someone else should have by the 2300s

[@cosmictreason2242]

They did dark master dirty. Actual effort was put into the universe and characters and story threads and the plug was pulled anyway for ‘reasons.’ You can blatantly tell in the 3rd season that the writers were trying to expand the story to epic scale so that there would be interest in renewing it. Never seen such an obvious “to be continued” cliffhanger. If you watch, make sure you know it does not wrap up at the end, but unlike modern shit it’s not because of bad writing but because they gave it their best shot to get renewed

[@Reddotzebra]

@@ZeroB4NG Threshold was unironically the worst episode of Voyager, and it's STILL better than the stupid spore drive. At least Star Trek Online salvaged the idea of the Spore Drive being a Blacksite project with their storyline, and tied it into the Elachi that previously only showed up in two episodes, making them natives of the mycelial web actually makes sense.

[@GrandSupremeDaddyo]

The Expanse is an incredible benchmark for live-action depictions of so many sci-fi concepts. I don't think there's a Spacedock video that can't benefit from an Expanse reference.

[@JcoreUKhardcore]

The Expanse set the bar so high, that it will be used as a benchmark for space travel or combat for at least the next dacede.

[@DarthBiomech]

The Expanse pushed standards for scifi settings lightyears ahead. And it even punched those "realistic scifi is boring" idiots right in the nose!

[@jeffbenton6183]

I agree. That said, having only watched the first season (please, no spoilers!) I do have one nit-pick: I think one of the main features of the setting would've been better presented if the show were animated (not really an option in the US, I guess, since animation is considered for kids whereas live action can be for general audiences, but I digress). The problem with the show - visually - is that Belters, Martians and Earthers all look too similar. The effect that growing up in low-G has on the human body is drives the setting and plot of the show. This could be better communicated visually if Belters and Martians actually looked the way they would in real-life. People born in less gravity would be tall and lankly, and generally look frail. Achieving this look would be easier in some form of animation (preferably a realistic looking one) than with actual actors. I guess, though there is a counter-argument - certain scenes might not look right if they were to that. In particular, I'm thinking of the part where an Earther is beat up by Belter thugs - but maybe that scene wasn't that realistic to begin with (the passions that the Belters felt were certainly realistic, it's just the physical ability that I question).

[@icer1249]

@@jeffbenton6183 in the books thats exactly how it is. they showed a few people in season 1 that are lot taller and skinner but for the most part its a simple issue that humans arnt built that way and they had to comprise for the sake of budget.

[@NikkiTheOtter]

I do have one nitpick with the scene of Bobbi Draper in the Razorback. The novel explicitly says the couches are fixed, and she ripped out the pilot's couch and jammed herself in her armor (Which acts as a G-suit alongside being able to apply the juice), into it's spot. This is utilized to the missile escape by pushing the G's WAY above what Avasarala can handle without blacking out, even in the G-couch in the bunk-room. (And by WAY above, IIRC, the book says she pushes the engine up to it's theoretical limit...you know, the thing that killed the inventor by pushing him up over 10G's increasing. So chances are, for several seconds the only things keeping Avasarala alive was the Juice, and the only thing keeping Bobbi conscious was her suit squeezing the SHIT out of her to keep her blood in her brain.)

[@jujuplayboy]

He knows Nexus : The Jupiter Incident ! YES !!! Also, I think you should make a video exclusively on faster-than-light travel in Science-Fiction, so many different systems in so many fictional universes... It deserves its own video.

[@ZeroB4NG]

That game was better than it had any right to be.

[@pills-]

Nice to see Nexus get some love!

[@Keldane]

@@ZeroB4NG Not sure I could agree with you more. If I were designing my ideal game, I think I'd draw heavily on NTJI's mechanics.

[@momerathe]

one thing that I think is rarely well-explored, if it isn't just handwaved entirely, is how combat might work at FTL speeds

[@James-ho5te]

Yeah there are really only two instances that I can think of were that concept is explored at all, those being Stargate Atlantis and Star Trek. Interestingly enough, those are the only two sci-fi universes that I can think of where the FTL technology would allow for that

[@marcmagnier]

@@James-ho5te I guess you could fight while in hyperspace in B5. But it's never done on screen

[@haha-on5fd]

there's an isaac arthur video on that

[@Blaze6108]

I think it… wouldn’t? If you and your target are going FTL your weapons need to go FTL as well, but they’re probably too small to mount a warp drive. On the other hand direct energy weapons wouldn’t work because they’d be limited to the speed of light On the other hand if you are FTL and your target isn’t you could deliver a devastating laser strike by turning on a flashlight for hours while going at exactly the speed of light, causing the photons to “stack” together and hit the enemy all at the same time with an extremely short wavelength, effectively hitting them with a deadly gamma ray burst.

[@milamberarial]

@@marcmagnier It actually was exactly once, if I remember correctly. A convoy of ships was ambushed by a Shadow vessel inside of hyperspace. As to how it worked, in B5 their weapons and propulsion seemed to work the same in hyperspace as it did in realspace. So the Shadow vessel used its normal beam weapon to massacre the convoy, they did fire back but it being early in the Shadow story line their weapons had no lasting effect on the Shadow ship.

[@MoonWeasel23]

I always thought it would be cool to have a setting where a ship is creating a “road” in space between star systems. At each end you would have a gate which would allow FTL, but someone would have to build those gates. The story would focus on a ship or station being in the middle of interstellar space creating the nodes between stars.

[@Generalscorpio]

That's sort of the plot of Lost in Space.

[@kenbrown2808]

you might be interested in the Quadrail stories. they are based on FTL travel being accomplished by an interstellar train network.

[@kamilpotato3764]

Star gate odyssey

[@LarixusSnydes]

Roger Leloup's Yoko Tsuno's fictional aliens, the Vineans, use a vanguard probe that is sent ahead to create a terminal at the end of the road through space that you describe. It's methods are described in volume six of that comic book series. That species uses electromagnetism in a way that I can only be describe as space magic.

[@MG6960]

@@kamilpotato3764 i think you mean universe not odyssey

[@autumngottlieb3071]

One concept I've come up with that I may or may not end up using is FTL jumps being severely limited by the fact that FTL is time travel and thus creates paradoxes that must be resolved. I got the idea from Halo, but it's not really important in Halo. I'm going to write FTL jumps as an instant teleport like in BSG, but you then have to wait for the amount of time that it would take for light from the starting point of your jump to reach the end point of your jump for spacetime to heal before you can make another jump. There is artificial reconciliation technology that can reduce the wait time, which is a relatively new development. The difference between the so-called Inner Systems and Outer Systems is that the former were colonized before artificial reconciliation was a thing, so those systems are all closer together and far more heavily developed than the Outer Systems, which were settled after artificial reconciliation became a thing and people could afford to spread out more. The effectiveness of artificial reconciliation generators gets better as ships get more advanced and better funded and stuff, but even the best ones will still take days to reconcile a ten-LY jump. I'll probably add more layers to this in the future.

[@JohnMacCoy]

I would definitely like a more in depth look at the different types of FTL from different sci fi genres including the different scales and speeds of each universe compared to each other. Echhartsladder touched on this a few years ago but would like you guys to go more detail with it.

[@arthurmoore9488]

It is interesting. For example, Mech Warrior's FTL is a jump drive, but it can only be done from the ecliptic poles. Meaning that most of the travel time is spent getting to and from the jump points. Other settings require highly expensive gates, and there's even one book where the drive only works in extremely high gravity but can go anywhere. So the brown dwarfs that were settled can be traveled to, but you have to slowboat back.

[@Cgriff512]

Love stuff like this! Keep ‘em coming, pretty please. I’d love to see an episode dedicated to space drugs. Between the juice, spice, and red sand among others, I’m sure there’s plenty to detail.

[@ZeroB4NG]

There was also a very interesting reverse thruster used in Revenge of the Sith when Obi-Wan and Anakin are crashing the Separatist ship from the beginning on Coruscant. The giant engines in the back re-directed the thrust by closing the rear opening and opening up panels on the sides, so the main engines acted as a break... the ship was ripped in half as a result. I would love to see a proper Stardestroyer or a Venator Class doing that.

[@DarthBiomech]

I always found that particular scene a bit improbable, even for Star Wars. What those panels were made out of so that the ship's exaust didn't vaporize them?!

[@drewhickcox4611]

That would be a "thrust reverser" they mentioned briefly. These sorts of things do exist in real life, it's used by jet aircraft to stop faster on runways. I agree it's very underutilized in sci fi!

[@ImieNazwiskoOK]

@Darth Biomech Keep in mind that IRL rocket engines can be more than freezing on the outside while turned on(it could have cooling). Concidering that blaster technology works by thermal energy (unlike guns using kinetic energy) they for sure have pretty good armour materials that could be used here. And that engine might be able to run on less power with far less efficiency(may be the reason why exhaust turned blue).

[@Reddotzebra]

@@ImieNazwiskoOK Blaster technology uses tibanna gas plasma, and since the gas is compressed enough to fit hundreds of shots into a tiny pistol you could probably use it as a cooling medium for blasters.

[@dylansimon6243]

I love when the slower than light engines turn off while the faster than light engines turn on within visuals, plus this is extremely satisfying

[@gabrielwolffe]

Question: Would Spacedock ever consider or be interested in doing reviews of sci-fi spacecraft designed and submitted by fans, either as part of established IPs or homebrew stories, given sufficient design details, relevant worldbuilding, and diagrams, drawings, or animations to go with them?

[@andrewmiffitt7973]

that would be awesome! We only have so much scifi after all

[@dustinbrandel59]

In some ancient religions, god or the gods had flying craft, from personal vehicles, to warships and cargo vessels, to literal flying cities.

[@LordCastigator]

@Gabriel Wolffe - That would be an awesome idea! Might take some work & maybe communication between the Content Creator & Spacedock though. The Creator would have to provide enough details in a way that isn't too scattered & hard to track, and Spacedock may have to communicate with the Creator to ensure they understand it right. Wouldn't go well if Spacedock interpreted the info 1 way & didn't like it at all, when in fact the Creator meant it THIS way which functions much more realistically...

[@grahamclur5638]

So much info cramped into just 8 minutes that flew by at maximum warp.. I would love a longer video that just pours out your knowledge, views and stats, loads and loads of stats,. Even if it's not all compiled and nicely edited for KZbin. Your channel is gold

[@mdsx01]

"The Sword of the Stars" games did different ftl systems for each race in the game, each method was a big part in how that race was played.

[@pills-]

I miss those games! Especially playing the Hivers...

[@pacha1500]

This is my favourite type of Spacedock content, a meta analysis of science fiction works to help the creative juices flow.

[@dylansimon6243]

This is extremely satisfying. Also, I love that detailed that you put in where the slower than light engines turn off while the faster than light engine appears to power on. If you don’t know what I’m talking about my favorite example is Star Trek into darkness warp

[@chrisbritt4266]

That was pretty good I like those cool I wish you'd do more on the hyperdrives and faster-than-light technology stuff that would be cool too I was wondering also if maybe you would do something about the space all technology from the Robotech series or maybe even Battletech's a faster-than-light drive

[@taudvore259]

A video about FTL drives would be great. One of the things I loved about Stargate is how different factions have different FTL limitations and how that directly affects the people on those ships, like how the Wraith have to take breaks to let their organic ships heal, but at the same time is complementary to their viking lifestyle of Culling human worlds.

[@Nx--7567]

This is VERY off topic, but have you guys ever thought about doing a dossier on the Hail Mary from Project: Hail Mary? It's a very endering, realistic design from Andy Weir's newest novel. It is the best book from 2021.

[@scottrubin4478]

Great video, and I really love how you discuss and appreciate different styles of sci-fi without criticizing their lack of realism especially in relation to those that are more realistic. Definitely want a video all about FTL variations!

[@ReySkywalker2]

TIE - Twin Ion Engine.

[@matteste]

One scene with this as a focus that stands out to me is from the Gundam Hathaway movie which is the first time chronologically that we see the Minovsky Flight System deployed. You can see machines such as the Messer or Gustav Karl which use more conventional thrusters for propulsion and how they constantly have to fight against the pull of gravity, and then you get the contrast with the Penelope which despite its girth seems to almost dance through the air as it completely outmaneuvers its opposition.

[@Anon33467]

Lack of reaction mass is where most science fiction becomes science fantasy.

[@Aounfather1]

I’m commander Shepard and this is my favorite channel on the station.

[@CMVBrielman]

I’d love an FTL episode. Would be much more satisfying than having Isaac Arthur explain why we can’t have it again. Spoil sport (I kid)

[@RemmyC4]

Yes on FTL. Need to talk about David Webber. Love his drive ideas. The impeller from the Honorverse and the "creating a black hole in front of your ship but always pushing it ahead of you so you never fall in" from Path of the Fury have always been two of my favorites.

[@nickpalmer3065]

I don't think there was a lot of information on the ships from Iron Blooded Orphans. They seemed realistic and had unique designs.

[@TheAnakinn]

Had to watch the video twice. Once for the soothing background music, that took me back to so many great playthroughs of Mass Effect (I should start another one). And then another time to pay attention to the content at hand xD I'd really love a video on FTL drives, there's so many great concepts!

[@dwsvlogs97]

Ion engines in real life do not function as they do in the movies. The truth is they build acceleration overtime. Maybe they will function like they do in the movies if we had an exotic particle that brought the ships Mass 2 zero.

[@janmelantu7490]

The only Ion Engines I can think of in Sci-Fi that are Accurate are the VASIMR engines of the Hermes in the Martian

[@dwsvlogs97]

@@janmelantu7490 I've heard of the vasimr but not the show

[@Imaboss8ball]

They could also have an extremely dense power storage and transfer system. If they do they can accelerate the particles to significantly higher speeds.

[@janmelantu7490]

@@dwsvlogs97 The Martian is a book by Andy Weir and a movie starring Matt Damon, Jessica Chastain, and more

[@dwsvlogs97]

@@janmelantu7490 I just looked it up and I think I seen it but I'm not certain

[@admiralcasperr]

I live how when KSP is shown the mission is in the middle of going horribly wrong

[@VoxAstra-qk4jz]

As KSP does

[@orcaman1353]

Pls do more space battleship Yamato ship breakdowns pls

[@kellenwong1321]

Would love to see them talk about the various different Andromeda's, the various different Desuras, the Ginga, or the White Comet.

[@Sethnewport]

First...the Mass Effect music. **Chef's kiss**. Loved it. Second, an episode on FTL...yes please.

[@botondkalocsai5322]

I very much miss reaction wheels in sci-fi-s for attitude control. In fact, some powerful reaction wheel can serve much of the functions of the RCS. Of course it won't help for changing the net momentum and angular momentum of the ship, which can be only done by the RCS or main engine trust vectoring, however, they are more then perfect for rotating the ship in a very precise manner and also stabilising its attitude by using the reaction wheels as momentum wheels. If the fuel efficiency of the RCS are vastly worse then the main engine, then powerful reaction wheels could be a useful tool to conserve RCS reaction mass. On the other hand, one obvious way, which I miss from TV sci-fi, to turn a propulsion method into a weapon is the kinetic kill vehicle. Why should one put a warhead to a rocket, when an enough efficient rocket in itself is more then enough to cripple the target? In fact, a kinetic kill vehicle can be even more effective then warhead tipped missile, because it is way faster and agile, hence it has better survivability against point defences. Or if, the point defences are too accurate even for a bare kinetik kill vehicle, then instead of a warhead, one should apply some equally heavy armour plates to tip of the kill vehicle. This way one can potentially immunise the kinetik kill vehicle against some light but accurate point defences.

[@botondkalocsai5322]

@@ThisCanBePronounced Well, I do not know any sci-fi ship that have reaction control wheels. Note that reaction wheeled attitude control isn't as fancy or spectacular as RCS attitude control, because it just only involves spinning heavy wheels somewhere concealed in the ship. Though it might give the look of "advanced technology" if a ship rotates without expelling any reaction mass or drive plume. Nevertheless, mentioning the reaction wheels that are used at the very least to complement the attitude control of the RCS would give a realistic engineering depth to the lore.

[@nicholastuttle2445]

The Mote in God's Eye had this in some ships

[@wbedard]

You get mad props from me for the Space 1999 reference. I bet 99% of your audience isn't familiar with that show!

[@ditzydoo4378]

What no love for the Heart of Golds Infinite Improbability Drive.???

[@monkofbob]

It’s unfair to compare amateurs with professionals. Even the Federation’s warp 10 couldn’t safely be everywhere at once

[@ditzydoo4378]

@@monkofbob not without causing evolutionary changes and such. 0-0

[@monkofbob]

@@ditzydoo4378 and yet the Heart of Gold does it

[@kre4ture218]

That‘s one thing I love about the Bobiverse, it‘s interstellar/galactic in scale but still doesn’t have FTL travel. That doesn’t matter though because the the main character(s) are basically immortal, so it gives a nice feeling that time doesn’t really matter

[@CasMullac]

I would argue that a warp drive doesn't take a ship beyond light speed or into another dimension. It warps space around the vessel, the great thing about this is that it doesn't break that universal speed limit.

[@patrickmccurry1563]

Yes it does. No coherent signal let alone matter can move faster than light speed in a vacuum. FTL allows Time Travel as well. Warping space solves only some of the issues of relativity, not all of them.

[@warpdrive9229]

Can't believe that I just found this channel. Now I will be binge watching all your videos. Love from India :)

[@realVertiqo]

Scrapping the Expanse to promote a Horseshit adaption of tlotr... way to go amazon

[@merickful]

I don't know, I heard there was nudity in the new LOTR. I'm all about seeing some cave troll dong...

[@sgtmarcusharris4260]

A video on all the types of ftl in sci Fi is a good idea.

[@thelegoguy7]

Love the video, i would love to see a video of all the different kinds of interstellar and galactic space travel!

[@dragonofdragons1720]

Yes I would very much like a video on the all the types of FTL methods we have thought of over the years

[@kevingriffith6011]

Who could forget the legendary Darkmatter drive of the Planet Express Ship: A drive so powerful that rather than moving around the universe, it moves the entire universe around it!

[@Comicsluvr]

As a writer, this channel is one of my go-to places for good ideas and information.

[@cosmictreason2242]

Make sure you include Isaac Arthur if you want to write hard sci-fi or at least make certain aspects of your story/lore more realistic. Do not miss that channel

[@Dragore94123]

your voice is so perfect for narration and stuff like this.

[@cmedtheuniverseofcmed8775]

The Expanse and Nexus: the Jupiter Incident were good examples of how it impacted me when I write science fiction. Spaceships often operated with forward and rear drives and with rotating rings to generate some form of artificial gravity for the crew.

[@Hermslice]

o man, a complete video talking about FTL drives?! sign me up! i'd watch a video about ships that actually have toilets on them. honestly ill watch basically anything yall put out as soon as it pops up!

[@LiamDennehy]

I thoroughly enjoyed this. Such a good point to be made on propulsion systems' ability to contribute to story and/or world.

[@thatblastedsamophlange]

A full video talking about different FTL types would be interesting.

[@katsdenvids]

Absolutely yes on an FTL comparison video!

[@GiovanniV69]

Yet another great video. And another reason why The Expanse is such an AMAZING show!

[@Ma-l2-tyN]

I believe that Honorverse and The Expanse (or BSG) are the benchmark right now. Each of them the the own way.

[@michaelmize1155]

It was nice to see OV-101 Enterprise but as shown in reference to "Reaction Control Systems" you picked the only vehicle that didn't have them installed. The original plan was to retrofit all needed components to make Enterprise flightworthy but it was decided that working from a blank slate was more cost affective which led to Challenger being next in Fleet. Mike D. Mize Aerospace Technician Sr. with 25 years total for both Space Shuttle and Ares Programs. Love the Channel.

[@boxhead6177]

My issue with the Millenium Falcon is the bragging that it did the Kessel Run the fastest, which implied its speed, is about an incident he found a dangerous short cut. A history of the ship shows a lot of times its success and escapes are all about it squeezing and moving into impossible spaces at combat speeds without FTL. Its actually its manoeuvrability for its class of ship that is the impressive feature, considering fighters a tenth its size crash into the walls.

[@milamberarial]

Yes but the Kessel Run line is still about speed. Its not velocity but travel time that he was bragging about. And in some of the lore in the various novels, its shown that he had both a talent and experience in finding shortcuts, although none of them as dramatic as the one shown in Solo.

[@killisecond]

Based on the title alone I can tell this video is going to be a banger.

[@Lankythepyro]

A deeper look into FTL and FTL theory would be fantastic. Thank you for what you guys do

[@redeyejedi3700]

Love that you chose mass effect music for the background!!

[@jrc99us]

Great mini-doc! Love the ME2 Mining Soundtrack in the background. 👍

[@Tim_Tomorrow]

I got to say, the clip with Clarkson looking like he's taking a fat dump is spectacular. More of that please.

[@Zornhau231]

Yes please. FTL is fun. On a more serious note the intricacies of FTL travel and the implications for the universe would make a great video subject

[@lostmic]

At 0:40s Star Trek fam are we ever gonna talk about Paris smashing Janeway in a swamp, mateing with her tapping that, she having his babies but both never wanting to take responsibility towards their new fond family or even talk about it or even recover their children? 😂🤣😂

[@Bobdd0]

Great episode! A really useful entrance into drives of all kinds and a perfect launch point for further reaserch !

[@stamfordly6463]

I really think that Particle Systems' classic '90s game "I-War" deserves a mention here with its fusion/plasma drives powered by a collider ring producing a realistic feeling Newtonian spaceflight experience.

[@knghtbrd]

This whole video was just a great excuse to show that Sci-Fi is AWESOME, isn't it? …And to show people a bunch of amazingly fun properties they might be missing out on. (And if you're not aware of some of these, you *are* missing out.) I heartily approve!

[@the23rdradiotower41]

The “airbreaks” in lightyear function really well, and look great doing so.

[@keeptv1918]

I would LOVE a comprehensive FTL video as there are so many and they are so diverse and interesting.

[@isaacb725]

For some reason since I was kid, the engines in almost all sci Fi IPs have always fascinated me the most!!! Maybe one day you guys can do a video on the GN Solar reactor drive from Gundam OO and maybe a Gundam from that cannon. The drive is a lot similar to the reimagined BSG Basestar engines in that it's a semi perpetual drive. I love this video so much but feel like it could be even more of a overview but I still love it.

[@dbhatt3598]

Great vid as usual. Analysis of FTL would be stellar! Cheers.

[@tomassedlacek5556]

A video about differen FTL drives has an enormous potential. It could be difficult and very long but I would love it.

[@curnath]

Goddamn, that amazing, clean mass effect soundtrack in the background. It doesn't take much to make me want to replay the series...

[@Deevo037]

I like the idea of exploring different types of FTL, my personal favourite is the system used in B5 where the gates make such travel available to even the most basic of ships.

[@logicplague]

Love your videos! Hoping to see more on The Expanse Season 6!

[@MisleadTruth]

I never thought that the Man-Kzin Wars book series would ever be mentioned by Spacedock so that’s pretty cool.

[@martinkulash4061]

I love these wide cover videos. So cool

[@mattbates6888]

You should look at the physics and FTL in "To Sleep in a Sea of Stars" its really in depth and could be fun to talk about how he got round the causality problem

[@EgorKaskader]

An extended look at FTL drives would indeed be welcome! It'd be interesting to see a fourth version of the FTL system, as a hybrid between points 1 and 3 named here, in Battletech, where a larger ship shuttles small ships that are capable of planetary landings, but is itself entirely space-bound.

[@Alligator81]

I think that Battlestar Galactica made a very important decision in talking about the fuel their spacecraft used occasionally. Not so much how it worked, but the fact that they had a finite amount, and had to try not to waste it. Also, they had to use a refinery ship to process the raw ore into something their ships could use. Which basically made the refinery ship a very good target for the Cylons. As stories go, it requires that you go places to get more fuel, do things like pay for it or refine whatever it is, and running out leaves you stranded in the cold depths of space. Firefly made a good episode of what happens when the spacecraft’s engine stops working in space, and you’re left without power. In Firefly and BSG, they don’t explicitly tell how the engine operates, but drive home the limits. (Rather like most people understanding that gasoline gets used in a car engine, even if they don’t understand the tech and underlying engineering behind it.)

[@artembentsionov]

YES, finally someone mentions Nexus: The Jupiter Incident! I was literally about to make a comment on the reverse thrusters in the game when the video beat me to it. While the game is by no means perfect or flawless, it is fairly good as far as full-3D space tactics go. I particularly enjoy the early levels with more realistic ships and spinning sections

[@billgates6689]

I'd love a more comprehensive look at different reactor types as well as their general upsides and downsides. Like it seems that one of the most practical reactors for ships would be some sort of nuclear fission/fussion reactor but the more exotic drives such as Anti-Matter, Black-Hole and Miniature Sun reactors seem like they could output a massive amount of energy.

[@tiredestaj]

+1 I'd definitely love a look into sci-fi power generation

[@DecidedlyNinja]

Firstly, an important thing to remember is that the main limiting factor of reactor power is not its fuel, but in surviving and harnessing the energy released. We have the capability to release petajoules of energy in the blink of an eye, but the devices that do it self-destruct in the process and are hydrogen bombs. Therefore, various speculative power sources are more equal than they seem. Between fission and fusion, fission is generally more suitable for spacecraft, albeit in advanced forms like gas-core reactors. The reason why is that fusion requires powerful ignition systems and therefore fusion reactors are unlikely to ever rival fission in watts per kilogram. Fusion does have certain advantages, though; its fuel is relatively abundant, and its exhaust is very hot plasma suitable for generating thrust. Antimatter power will require a revolutionary new process to generate antimatter with an energy efficiency of at least a few percent. Even then, it's an energy storage medium with a niche use; users must overcome its incredibly difficult handling problems and have an application that requires more energy density than uranium before they can even consider antimatter. Advanced civilizations may use black holes as stationary power sources. However, they only hold vast quantities of energy because they are vastly heavy; putting one on a spaceship is therefore completely impractical even if one solves the problems associated by having a huge gravity well onboard. Miniature sun? Isn't that just fusion but with the incredibly challenging hydrogen-hydrogen reaction?

[@massimocole9689]

@@DecidedlyNinja There is a rather good issac arther video on blackhole power starships. Micro blackholes the mass of an asteroid or smaller can be interesting power sources on largish ships, cause small blockholes emit huge amounts of energy as hawking radiation. The smaller a blackhole is, the more intense the change in gravitational force near its event horizon is, and the more hawking radiation it produces. If you can cram more matter into them as fast as its being converted into light you have a neat, though somewhat cumbersome, matter to energy conversion system.

[@LtCWest]

0:40 God damn it! The entire Trekkie fandom unanimously agreed not to talk about that and you had to bring it up again.....

[@StarshipEternity]

Short list but for the best. Been fun getting into trying to wrap my brain around both sublight and FTL traveling for my own stuff. Learn several new things like recently for example that velocity and acceleration are different and anyone will have a bad time without some plan to keep your party crashers safe while moving towards a very aggressive force. Oh and on another note I've been surprised no one talks about the bubble ship(?) from the movie The Fountain. It's more like Ego's egg ship but, stranger in a way.

[@nicholastuttle2445]

The Black Fleet series deals with this. How different types of engines work and the advantages they give are very important to the series. Also takes the vastness of space into account, where missiles can take days to reach targets and even finding a massive warship can be nearly impossible

[@DrownedInExile]

I like the jump-gate/portal idea of FTL. Unmanned drone-ship has to spend decades on conventional drives to reach a destination. Upon arrival, they construct a jumpgate, paving the way to the stars.

[@mr._nighthawk7215]

Love the Mass Effect music in the background!

[@scallan74]

WOW!! A Kzinti reference!! I read those books years and years ago! That part of the book has been in my sci fi imagination since then.

[@CappnRob]

Yes please a comprehensive FTL video would be great, look at not just fictional ones but real life conceptual ones too!

[@spunkmire2664]

my favorite background music, thanks for that!

[@FirstNameLastName-tg3rc]

(6:39) Where did that clip come from? Also, a video on the different types of FTL is something I'd like to watch.

[@480JD]

The Whale dive the Galactica did into the atmosphere of New Caprica was a crazy tactic

[@gregorturner9421]

i once read a couple of books where the ftl travel was shifting between dimensions and 'riding' the flow by using sails that are manually controlled on the surface of the vessel like sailing ships of old. there there is bodacious space pirates which uses ships that have engines, but also use sails to provide power when just cruising and not fighting.

[@Cuberay1701]

I'm adoring the mass effect music in the background! Thanks😂

[@Fr0st1989]

Jesus, never thought I'd ever see Nexus ever mentioned in a video like this. I absolutely adored that game.

[@soumyajyotimukherjee4752]

A comprehensive and long video on Fictional FTL, with references to real life FTL concepts would be most welcome