Space Stations: links to good blog posts.

[Xavier Onassiss]

Once again, the Rocketpunk Manifesto blog provides excellent discussion. This time the topic is space stations: Part 1 is here, part 2 is here.

 

If your Star Hero campaign features space stations of any kind, these posts and their associated comments will give you a lot of ideas. And a lot to think about. (Warning: stay away if you don't like to think!)

 

 

Don't look at me,

Xavier Onassiss

[megaplayboy]

Re: Space Stations: links to good blog posts.

 

Why would people willingly cram themselves into eggshell-fragile space stations where they're under the equivalent of martial law all the time? If there's that tight of a correlation between the stability of the living space and the degree of freedom permitted, then I'd expect designs to be oriented towards quintuple redundancy, self-sealing modules, rapid response to hull breaches and other failures, backup thrusters, etc. Part of the reason why they're fragile now is that we have pretty low limits on how much stuff we can send up at a time. Without such limits, you might see truly ugly-but-functional slabs of layered metal with triple-layered transparent "skylights" in the living spaces. Also, of course that whole line of theorizing is predicated on hard sci-fi assumptions. Rubber sci fi and science fantasy, of course, need not concern themselves with such issues.

[Xavier Onassiss]

Re: Space Stations: links to good blog posts.

 

Why would people willingly cram themselves into eggshell-fragile space stations where they're under the equivalent of martial law all the time? If there's that tight of a correlation between the stability of the living space and the degree of freedom permitted' date=' then I'd expect designs to be oriented towards quintuple redundancy, self-sealing modules, rapid response to hull breaches and other failures, backup thrusters, etc. Part of the reason why they're fragile now is that we have pretty low limits on how much stuff we can send up at a time. Without such limits, you might see truly ugly-but-functional slabs of layered metal with triple-layered transparent "skylights" in the living spaces. Also, of course that whole line of theorizing is predicated on hard sci-fi assumptions. Rubber sci fi and science fantasy, of course, need not concern themselves with such issues.[/quote']

 

That was my thinking as well. I believe the 'survivability' of space stations (and spacecraft) will improve with technology, and as the required technology improves, those living in space will achieve more 'degrees of freedom.' In my Star Hero campaign, space habitats are robust enough not to require draconian governments regulating everyone's bowel movements to prevent a life-support failure.

 

However, the discussions over at Rocketpunk Manifesto tend to assume a near- to mid-future hard SF approach to world-building, which sometimes leads to conclusions which may seem pessimistic compared to other forms of SF. If you're working on a setting in the mid- to far-future, with more advanced technology or a less 'hard SF' outlook, Rocketpunk Manifesto is still quite useful for the intermediate stages in your future history -- the 'early days' of space travel, so to speak. Technology in my campaign is a lot more advanced, so I use RP as a baseline for humanity's early expansion into space, to illustrate how much things in my campaign have improved since the 'old days.'

 

Don't look at me,

Xavier Onassiss