Recent content by Razorback-PT

I guess it's true. We can't really judge without factoring in all the variables.

All I know about space elevators I learned from Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy. He describes it with intricate detail. Everything from how to build one, the materials to use, length, recommended location, etc. I think building one on Mars is feasible. But it would require an enormous...

I agree that it's not a mistake, but the part that's bothering me the most is the size of the room and how wasteful it would be as an airlock. That's what I don't agree with. Each pod could have it's own little airlock just slightly bigger that the pod itself. I guess what I really wanted to...

Well I always assumed they were using grip shoes in those sections.

I was wondering if this is a mistake in the movie. Notice how those pod doors open directly into space. What happens to the air when those doors open? Is it still in the realm of possibility that this room functions as an airlock? Why the need for the second smaller airlock then?

You're right. This exercise is completely dependent on the details of how the senses of the robot work, and what software it already has pre-installed. His senses are human like. When I say super smart I imagine something along these lines: His base knowledge is a sense of self, and his...

Could it discern anything at all about electromagnetism from examining the light in the room? Could it study it's own thoughts to understand what sort of brain it has and how it works. Maybe it could derive quantum mechanics from understanding how silicon chips work.

...with very limited ability to do any experiments. Imagine there's a super smart A.I. that has perfect logic. It has no access to the internet or any science books. Let's say it has a robot body with the same basic senses humans have: sight ,sound, touch. It also has legs arms and hands to...

Thanks a lot for that detailed explanation and the quick reply. That helped a lot! That link was very helpful as well. I believe the ship is big enough to reduce those effects considerably. It's about 300 meters long.

Hi everyone, here's the situation: Everyone knows that you can simulate artificial gravity by rotating a space ship. Usually these scenarios include an atmosphere with regular air inside. I know that the inclusion of air has an influence on the effects inside by way of friction. How different...

Thats great, thanks Janus! Travis King, I get your point, and if the astronomy wasn't such a vital part of the plot I'd agree with you. In this case, characters will actually discuss elements such as these. But there's something else I've come to find when writing stories and doing...

Thanks, I thought as much. I looked into calculating the roche limit, but that sort of math is really beyond me. So, how far away am I from getting a stable system here? Keeping that short orbit period is the only thing that I really need, I can change everything else. What direction...

Thinking about it, the central object definitely needs to be a black hole. I've made it about 15 suns in mass, but only 30 kms in diameter. In order for the star to orbit this black hole in about ten hours, It would need to be pretty close to it. I'm guessing a star orbiting that close...

I've worked out a working simulation. It's not really a binary system. I need the star to orbit a sufficiently dense object. This particular object is 18 suns in mass but only 500000kms in diameter. It has a density of 500g/cm^3 Is this object a black hole? If not, could there be an...

Interesting. I'll tinker with elliptical orbits on the simulators and see what I find. But my first guess is that the transition from night to day would still be pretty long. Twice a year, no? And then there's the problem with the planet getting out of the star's habitable zone occasionally...