Fleet of Worlds - Long Pass

[oldmill]

Hi,

can anyone explain the significance of the name of the human ship Long Pass? I am trying to come up with its translation into my language but the word "pass" has too many meanings...

Thanks a lot!

 

[Dave]

I think it is an American Football term (with same meaning as a Long Ball in Soccer). Obviously, it is difficult to throw the ball that far to the receivers, so the attempt to distribute the ball such a long distance down the field is speculative, with a low chance of success.

I guess that the significance is that the Long Pass was an early human interstellar slowboat carrying embryos and powered with its own fuel, while the faster ramships with the lethal ramscoop followed later with technology and materials. This was a precarious method of colonisation that frequently resulted in problems - Plateau, We Made It - so the mission was speculative and had a low chance of success.

Not sure if they would still play American Football or Soccer in 200 years time, but Larry Niven also named the first Quantum II hyperdrive starship The Long Shot which has the same meaning.

By the way, I thought Fleet of Worlds was an excellent book. I did write a review but it got eaten by the server crash last September.

 

[oldmill]

Thanks a lot for the explanation. Now I see the significance.

Yes, I loved the book. Why don't you upload the review again?

Anyway, it says in the book that Long Pass was a Bussard ramjet. It's the same thing as a ramship with a ramscoop, isn't it?

 

[Dave]

Anyway, it says in the book that Long Pass was a Bussard ramjet. It's the same thing as a ramship with a ramscoop, isn't it?

Does it now? In that case it must have been one of the safe ramships developed later that made the need for Slowboats redundant. If so, that rather spoils my suggestion of why it was called the Long Pass

Yes, the Bussard ramjet is the theoretical method of spacecraft propulsion actually proposed in 1960 by the physicist Robert W. Bussard. Ramscoops are the conical electromagnetic fields of a fusion ramship which accumulate interstellar hydrogen fuel, and also the toroids which generate such a field. The magnetic field of a Ramscoop is considered to be lethal to living organisms, but safe ramships were developed later, and used until Quantum I Hyperdrives were bought from the Puppeteers.

 

[Roadkiller]

The Long Pass was indeed a manned Bussard ramship, but I don't think that invalidates your theory. In fact, given that it's a less mature technology than the slowboat, the analogy would be even more apt.