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[Taricus]

Fair enough, I call "Casog" drives

[tNok85]

I had an idea for a gravity drive. It's silly and kind of complicated, but think of it like this...

Every gravity well (a planet, star, moon, or even something as small as a satellite/ship) is part of the mass of gravity in the universe. Since matter cannot be created or destroyed, the amount of gravity is a constant.

Now, here's where interstellar travel comes in. Imagine that in the 'gravity' spectrum, distances are based on gravity. Empty spaces (spaces with no gravity) are essentially shorter in the gravity spectrum, since there is no... 'resistance', let's call it.

We all know of the model for gravity where space is a plane and each object makes an indent. Imagine it reversed so each object makes a 'bulge' rather than an intent - making it harder to travel through.

If you've followed this far, and it makes any sense, congrats. I have a hard time articulating it.

Now what a gravity drive would do would envelop the ship in a field (not uncommon in scifi) that allows the ship and its crew to shift into the gravity spectrum. So you would activate it while sitting next to a planet, and you would be pushed *AWAY* from the planet, thrown into 'empty' space (little or no gravity so no resistance) and very quickly arrive at the first gravity well you hit.

This would mean for interstellar travel, you'd need to calculate based on your local gravity wells exactly where to activate your drives from, so you'll be pushed in the *exact* right direction. If you activate it from the wrong location, you could be flung god knows where - even outside of the galaxy. There's no energy required for the drive (besides what is necessary to phase the ship in and out of the gravity spectrum), and you'd still need propulsion to move around with in a star system safely.


Make sense?

[Taricus]

Definatly, I call first producers

[Fniff]

I had an idea for a gravity drive. It's silly and kind of complicated, but think of it like this...

Every gravity well (a planet, star, moon, or even something as small as a satellite/ship) is part of the mass of gravity in the universe. Since matter cannot be created or destroyed, the amount of gravity is a constant.

Now, here's where interstellar travel comes in. Imagine that in the 'gravity' spectrum, distances are based on gravity. Empty spaces (spaces with no gravity) are essentially shorter in the gravity spectrum, since there is no... 'resistance', let's call it.

We all know of the model for gravity where space is a plane and each object makes an indent. Imagine it reversed so each object makes a 'bulge' rather than an intent - making it harder to travel through.

If you've followed this far, and it makes any sense, congrats. I have a hard time articulating it.

Now what a gravity drive would do would envelop the ship in a field (not uncommon in scifi) that allows the ship and its crew to shift into the gravity spectrum. So you would activate it while sitting next to a planet, and you would be pushed *AWAY* from the planet, thrown into 'empty' space (little or no gravity so no resistance) and very quickly arrive at the first gravity well you hit.

This would mean for interstellar travel, you'd need to calculate based on your local gravity wells exactly where to activate your drives from, so you'll be pushed in the *exact* right direction. If you activate it from the wrong location, you could be flung god knows where - even outside of the galaxy. There's no energy required for the drive (besides what is necessary to phase the ship in and out of the gravity spectrum), and you'd still need propulsion to move around with in a star system safely.


Make sense?

Great, now I feel like a complete idiot. I use "Instant Plot Hole Filler", you use SCIENCE!

[Digital Hellhound]

Definatly, I call first producers

I call first cheap knock-offs!

And writing up stuff now.

[Taricus]

Definatly, I call first producers

I call first cheap knock-offs!

This means WAR, or assimilation.

[nbonaparte]

I must warn, if it's at all possible, I'll use real science.

[tNok85]

Soooo... anybody have an experience with MediaWiki administration?

Got it set up and running now. Going to need a group that has access to modify the wiki, anybody else not manually approved can't edit it (to avoid the trolls).

[tNok85]

Updated initial post with this:


The CASOG Wiki is up!
http://www.casog.com/

Anybody can sign up and read, but ONLY 'Contributors' can add/remove/edit pages. For now, I will add people to the Contributor group through the following steps:
1. Create an account on the wiki at http://www.casog.com/
2. PM me *HERE* on Bay12 (so I know you're from here) with the account name you signed up as, along with a summary of something you'd have to offer - a paragraph or two will suffice. I won't be refusing anybody who makes a mature and serious effort.
3. I'll add you to the Contributor group, and you can go create your page!

NOTE: For now, DO NOT EDIT ANY PAGE YOU DID NOT CREATE unless you're simply adding a link. We will need to come up with a way to decide how content is added/removed.

This isn't the way I want to set up a contributor process - need to have more people deciding than me, obviously - but for the initial round of contributors, they need to be added somehow.

PLEASE only apply if you are *serious* about this. You need to be mature and flexible - this isn't a galaxy in your own image. In all possibility, your own personal planet/solar system/race will not end up exactly how you envisioned it. It's a collaboration... so go with the flow and let the magic happen.

[Digital Hellhound]

Link doesn't seem to work, I'm afraid.

[Virex]

I had an idea for a gravity drive. It's silly and kind of complicated, but think of it like this...

Every gravity well (a planet, star, moon, or even something as small as a satellite/ship) is part of the mass of gravity in the universe. Since matter cannot be created or destroyed, the amount of gravity is a constant.

Now, here's where interstellar travel comes in. Imagine that in the 'gravity' spectrum, distances are based on gravity. Empty spaces (spaces with no gravity) are essentially shorter in the gravity spectrum, since there is no... 'resistance', let's call it.

We all know of the model for gravity where space is a plane and each object makes an indent. Imagine it reversed so each object makes a 'bulge' rather than an intent - making it harder to travel through.

If you've followed this far, and it makes any sense, congrats. I have a hard time articulating it.

Now what a gravity drive would do would envelop the ship in a field (not uncommon in scifi) that allows the ship and its crew to shift into the gravity spectrum. So you would activate it while sitting next to a planet, and you would be pushed *AWAY* from the planet, thrown into 'empty' space (little or no gravity so no resistance) and very quickly arrive at the first gravity well you hit.

This would mean for interstellar travel, you'd need to calculate based on your local gravity wells exactly where to activate your drives from, so you'll be pushed in the *exact* right direction. If you activate it from the wrong location, you could be flung god knows where - even outside of the galaxy. There's no energy required for the drive (besides what is necessary to phase the ship in and out of the gravity spectrum), and you'd still need propulsion to move around with in a star system safely.


Make sense?

Makes sense but it's not possible to break the FTL barrier this way (at least there's nothing there that would enable one to break relativity). You're also messing with with thermodynamics big time. The gravspec shifting would require at least as much energy as the ship would acquire in kinetic energy this way, though if the amount of energy to even initiate it would be so high that conventional engines can't hope to approach it (say you've got to do some voodoo with small black holes or something), then I could very well see the need to make sure you're pointing the right way, because you're going to get such a kick this way that you can't effectively alter the course with a conventional drive.

[tNok85]

Link doesn't seem to work, I'm afraid.

Use http://69.72.186.24/mediawiki/index.php/Main_Page temporarily if the above URL does not work - new domain, new DNS, your ISP may need to clear cache before the URL will work. Try nslookup casog.com and nslookup www.casog.com - should return that IP.

Makes sense but it's not possible to break the FTL barrier this way (at least there's nothing there that would enable one to break relativity). You're also messing with with thermodynamics big time. The gravspec shifting would require at least as much energy as the ship would acquire in kinetic energy this way, though if the amount of energy to even initiate it would be so high that conventional engines can't hope to approach it (say you've got to do some voodoo with small black holes or something), then I could very well see the need to make sure you're pointing the right way, because you're going to get such a kick this way that you can't effectively alter the course with a conventional drive.

Oh it's definitely flawed in our understanding of physics. It's internally consistent enough for most people to say 'oh, well, that would work in that universe' - a core tenant of 95% of the science fiction out there. This is soap opera, remember! Reasonably believable... with some suspension of disbelief. There's a hard-scifi solar system collaboration thread going on in this forum as well.

[Digital Hellhound]

Mysteriously started working now, actually.

[Virex]

Link doesn't seem to work, I'm afraid.

Use http://69.72.186.24/mediawiki/index.php/Main_Page temporarily if the above URL does not work - new domain, new DNS, your ISP may need to clear cache before the URL will work. Try nslookup casog.com and nslookup www.casog.com - should return that IP.

Makes sense but it's not possible to break the FTL barrier this way (at least there's nothing there that would enable one to break relativity). You're also messing with with thermodynamics big time. The gravspec shifting would require at least as much energy as the ship would acquire in kinetic energy this way, though if the amount of energy to even initiate it would be so high that conventional engines can't hope to approach it (say you've got to do some voodoo with small black holes or something), then I could very well see the need to make sure you're pointing the right way, because you're going to get such a kick this way that you can't effectively alter the course with a conventional drive.

Oh it's definitely flawed in our understanding of physics. It's internally consistent enough for most people to say 'oh, well, that would work in that universe' - a core tenant of 95% of the science fiction out there. This is soap opera, remember! Reasonably believable... with some suspension of disbelief. There's a hard-scifi solar system collaboration thread going on in this forum as well.

True, but the more consistency and detail you build into your background, the more you can branch off. For example, saying "Going to warp speed will enable you to go faster then light" isn't that useful, You've got an apparently magical warp speed system that can be invoked at will as a deus-ex machina and you're leaving your readers wondering as to what warp is or when it can be used. But if the reader knows that warp speed requires a specific energy source, or puts a lot of strain on the ship, then that can be used as a plot point or just to add detail to an otherwise bland scene. You've turned a hasty explanation into something that can be useful across more then a handful of scenes.

In your example, putting constraints on the technology will first of all make it recognizable when it can be used: "They're close to a planet, but his ship is damaged. Is he going to risk a gravspec jump, or trying to hide?" Secondly, this is a collaborative effort, meaning any background technology has to be crystal clear in what it can and can't do or else you're going to get inconsistencies everywhere.

The story doesn't have to be accurate or "hard", but the more internal consistency, the better the suspension of disbelieve.

[tNok85]

Link doesn't seem to work, I'm afraid.

Use http://69.72.186.24/mediawiki/index.php/Main_Page temporarily if the above URL does not work - new domain, new DNS, your ISP may need to clear cache before the URL will work. Try nslookup casog.com and nslookup www.casog.com - should return that IP.

Makes sense but it's not possible to break the FTL barrier this way (at least there's nothing there that would enable one to break relativity). You're also messing with with thermodynamics big time. The gravspec shifting would require at least as much energy as the ship would acquire in kinetic energy this way, though if the amount of energy to even initiate it would be so high that conventional engines can't hope to approach it (say you've got to do some voodoo with small black holes or something), then I could very well see the need to make sure you're pointing the right way, because you're going to get such a kick this way that you can't effectively alter the course with a conventional drive.

Oh it's definitely flawed in our understanding of physics. It's internally consistent enough for most people to say 'oh, well, that would work in that universe' - a core tenant of 95% of the science fiction out there. This is soap opera, remember! Reasonably believable... with some suspension of disbelief. There's a hard-scifi solar system collaboration thread going on in this forum as well.

True, but the more consistency and detail you build into your background, the more you can branch off. For example, saying "Going to warp speed will enable you to go faster then light" isn't that useful, You've got an apparently magical warp speed system that can be invoked at will as a deus-ex machina and you're leaving your readers wondering as to what warp is or when it can be used. But if the reader knows that warp speed requires a specific energy source, or puts a lot of strain on the ship, then that can be used as a plot point or just to add detail to an otherwise bland scene. You've turned a hasty explanation into something that can be useful across more then a handful of scenes.

In your example, putting constraints on the technology will first of all make it recognizable when it can be used: "They're close to a planet, but his ship is damaged. Is he going to risk a gravspec jump, or trying to hide?" Secondly, this is a collaborative effort, meaning any background technology has to be crystal clear in what it can and can't do or else you're going to get inconsistencies everywhere.

Agreed.

Let me work on a page outlining this gravity drive, and if you want, help me out with it.