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[Egan_BW]

Modern physics continues to depress me in that regard. No artificial gravity, no FTL travel, no nothing. A shame that a practical understanding of the world takes all the fun out of it.

All I can do is either hope for proper VR, or hope that we're missing a major piece of the puzzle with the Standard Model.

Aw, I wouldn't say that. It just means that we'll have to do things the hard way!
There is ''artificial gravity'' in a way, we can use centrifugal rings to generate a substitute. That has limitations, of course, but what would all the engineers do if there weren't any limitations? 
FTL is a bit tougher, but as said above, we can't completely discount the thought that it might be possible. Also, moving near c will make the trip significantly shorter for the ship's occupants. You could say that it would ''Faster than light'' in a way.

Another way of doing things could be to simply prepare for a much longer journey - suspended animation of some sort is very much in the realm of possibility.

Yes, but that means that by the time you arrive, everyone who didn't go with you is dead many times over. Effectively, every trip is one-way.

Unless everyone is immortal. Which could make using suspended animation pointless; what does it matter that your trip will take 100 years if you're 100000 years old? Good time to catch up on a few television series. 

[wierd]

dont discount gravitational waves as a thing!

You may not need magic mass, if you can create a standing sinewave. Space clearly has some elastic properties that are predictable, otherwise gravity waves would not propogate in a comprehensible manner. By understanding those elastic properties, one can create spectacular effects with small inputs.

Take for instance, the FloWave experiment. It uses a great big swimming pool, essentially, and some reasonably small solonoid driven paddles all around the circumference.  By carefully manipulating when and how much each paddle moves, very precise waveform reinforcement/dissipation can be accomplished. One of the more spectacular displays is the "concentric singularity" routine.  It basically causes a collosall 8 foot spike of water to erupt from the center of the pool, straight up. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RHTcSKkUU8U

Gravity waves ripple in all three spacial dimensions, so all of space is the "surface" of the pool.  According to some sources I have read, creating very low energy gravity waves is very easy. You just need a rotating barbell shaped mass going end over end.  Putting lots of those in either a spherical or hemispherical arrangement, with a computed point as the desired location for the reinforced wave, you should be able to create a momentary gravity well of very significant intensity, and do so over and over and over again.

The vessel will have mass, and the induced gravity well, and the ship will be attracted to each other.  The well will dissipate as space returns to normal curvature, but the ship will continually fall forward toward each subsequent spike.


The ride would be a bit bumpy, but it would be reactionless drive.

Another interesting prospect is the creation of a galactic torus "racetrack" megaconstruction. Basically, small ringlike structures sit along the path of the resulting torus, and they impel standing gravitational waves down toward the next ring, which reinforces the incoming wave and slightly redirects it.  This creates a torus of fast moving spacetime, through which an object can be propelled very quickly down the "track". (possibly even at ftl) By carefully plotting your intersection with the torus, you can predict where you will pass out of it later.

Gravity being waves is mega awesome.

[Amperzand]

I do like the idea of immortal starship crews. Of course, crews flying at high fractions of C would seem practically immortal to anybody planetside regardless, what with their tendency to show up a few years older once a generation.

Actually, my thought for an actual setting is basically to have spacecraft and space travel be cheap and easy, with torch drives and personal SSTOs available like cheap propeller aircraft nowadays.

However, such craft are small, comparatively slow, and nowhere near capable of interstellar travel. The starships themselves are huge, many-kilometer amalgams of all technology available to the civilization that built them, crewed by bioengineered immortals and each vessel important enough economically that it's effectively an independent organization, often with a personal military and considerable armament. They'd also, having been built to last as long as possible as a result of the sheer expense of making them, tend to stick around for centuries or millennia, often outliving the civilizations that built them.

[Bumber]

Gravity waves ripple in all three spacial dimensions, so all of space is the "surface" of the pool.  According to some sources I have read, creating very low energy gravity waves is very easy. You just need a rotating barbell shaped mass going end over end.  Putting lots of those in either a spherical or hemispherical arrangement, with a computed point as the desired location for the reinforced wave, you should be able to create a momentary gravity well of very significant intensity, and do so over and over and over again.

The vessel will have mass, and the induced gravity well, and the ship will be attracted to each other.  The well will dissipate as space returns to normal curvature, but the ship will continually fall forward toward each subsequent spike.

But can we put them in boots?

[wierd]

Geckotape is superior in every way.

Inexpensive. Requires no additional power. Lightweight. works in both vacuum and atmosphere. works on all surfaces, even really thin ones and non conductive ones.

Seriously. Boots? use geckotape.

[Bumber]

Geckotape is superior in every way.

Inexpensive. Requires no additional power. Lightweight. works in both vacuum and atmosphere. works on all surfaces, even really thin ones and non conductive ones.

Seriously. Boots? use geckotape.

Well, it doesn't help you if you lose contact with the surface, or -- I would assume -- dirty and like-charged surfaces.

I mean, you should probably just use suit thrusters at that point. But still, grav boots.

[wierd]

geckotape works BEST on smooth, flat surfaces. It has issues on dirty surfaces though. (as in, dusty.)

Thankfully it can be cleaned while in EVA with a simple brush.

[Cryxis, Prince of Doom]

Well the point of ot is that the ships are made to be in constant artificial gravity so having hand holds where you walk would be a hazard. The boots are just in emergency if that segment of the ship stops spinning

I was thinking more of the recessed variety, possibly even with one of those spring-loaded trapdoor thingies to keep it out of the way during normal operation.  Trained crews would just know where the are from the coloring, and get practice when things are spun down.

The lack of heavy boots allows for much more dramatic space-fu maneuvers during boarding actions

Well the boots aren't meant to be all that heavy, assuming that there is a space fairing civ I imagine high strength lightweight magnets can't be that hard to make/find

[Rolepgeek]

Well the point of ot is that the ships are made to be in constant artificial gravity so having hand holds where you walk would be a hazard. The boots are just in emergency if that segment of the ship stops spinning

I was thinking more of the recessed variety, possibly even with one of those spring-loaded trapdoor thingies to keep it out of the way during normal operation.  Trained crews would just know where the are from the coloring, and get practice when things are spun down.

The lack of heavy boots allows for much more dramatic space-fu maneuvers during boarding actions

Well the boots aren't meant to be all that heavy, assuming that there is a space fairing civ I imagine high strength lightweight magnets can't be that hard to make/find

And then it turns out that they're so hard to find they create the standard for currency.

[Cryxis, Prince of Doom]

Oh on space fairing civs

Would a space ship made of multiple rings around a tube filled with let's say power stations be an effective design for a space ship with artificial gravity? (Not exactly a weapon but this will lead into it)

[wierd]

Hard to beat centrepital force for creating gavity like conditions.  The disorientation of the effect at feet vs at head can be overcome if the ship is big enough, and rotation slow enough.

[Helgoland]

Hard to beat centrifugal force for creating gravity-like conditions.  The disorientation of the effect at feet vs at head can be overcome if the ship is big enough, and rotation slow enough.

FTFY.

[Cryxis, Prince of Doom]

Before we go further would people prefer the use of metric or US standard for when units get brought up?

[TheBiggerFish]

Metric, because science.

Alternatively just (metric/imperial).

[GiglameshDespair]

Metric.