Couple of Hypothetical questions.

[Venusian Broon]

A satellite of the size he was describing would need some sort of stabilization mechanism. Particularly if it was intended to be part of a larger network. I take your point, but I still think the dark energy emitters would be cool concept in this case. Dark Energy could alsso be the power source

The stabilisation of the satellite is important yes, there are a number of factors that you need to take into account to place the satellite in the correct place, what you are using the satellite for, corrections for drift, to avoid dips in the Earth's magnetic field which potentially could expose the satellite to the solar wind (and burn out the electronics) etc....

But generally after satellites are just about at their end of their lives the practice now is to nudge it either to burn up in the atmosphere or push it away from the useful orbit. Otherwise they just become space junk and will tend to orbit (for all practical purposes) forever in a useful place and then eventually hit something that is working. i.e. generally you actively have to navigate the satellite to hit the Earth!

Not a fan of Dark energy, tis' a fudge to make the equations to work, but don't let that hinder your imagination!

 

[Icyphoenix]

Yea, the idea of harnessing Dark energy is nice. Don't know how that's even remotely possible but what the heck.

Dark energy may not be real but the fact that it is a missing part to an equation suggests that there is something missing which you can use, though I still don't see why continuous expansion of the entire frame of reference requires energy. It is relative so technically non-existing energy, until we find and outside frame of reference.

 

[stephen.samuels]

I think for scifi purposes we could treat it as the opposite of gravity?

 

[Icyphoenix]

Anything goes. Sorry for the rant, I do tend to take things into the realism a bit.

 

[stephen.samuels]

Anything goes. Sorry for the rant, I do tend to take things into the realism a bit.

Truth be told, I enjoy the debate

Always bare in mind that science fiction is a precursor to science fact. Oh and in this case the world could be flat, it worked for terry pratchett

 

[Venusian Broon]

I think for scifi purposes we could treat it as the opposite of gravity?

Simple answer: No.

It's something that has been hypothesised to cause the expansion of space to accelerate. It has nothing to do with gravity.

No one knows really anything about it. Hence the 'Dark' part. Essentially it's a term in some models of the universe that is required for the equation to fit to reality. Physically, from these models you could see it as a cosmological energy that permeates all space, somewhat similar in concept to the vacuum energy. It does not act between two masses or objects but on all space, hence why it does not make any sense to treat it as an antigravity type of thing.

(For cosmological purposes it can be viewed as an 'opposing' force to the totality of gravitational mass that is instinctively doing the opposite by trying to pull everything back together again. But I can't see how you can apply this to a tiny patch of localised space.)

There's a little voice at the back of my head telling me that there might be a method of using it for a rather bizarre starship drive...but I think I might have confused that with a dark matter starship drive, which is a completely total different kettle of fish.

 

[MstrTal]

The magnetic idea gets my creative juices flowing especially the thought of using of using pulses or beams to hold the array in position. I have given up on having the satellites so small; though I still am a huge fan of miniaturization I am a bigger fan of function over form. In fact the idea, please keep in mind that this is from a then child's mind and over 2 decades ago, was that the satellite array was the 1st step in an offensive/ defensive network in the building of a global dyson sphere to protect not from an external threat but a man made internal one. Goofy I know.

 

[stephen.samuels]

Simple answer: No.

It's something that has been hypothesised to cause the expansion of space to accelerate. It has nothing to do with gravity.

No one knows really anything about it. Hence the 'Dark' part. Essentially it's a term in some models of the universe that is required for the equation to fit to reality. Physically, from these models you could see it as a cosmological energy that permeates all space, somewhat similar in concept to the vacuum energy. It does not act between two masses or objects but on all space, hence why it does not make any sense to treat it as an antigravity type of thing.

(For cosmological purposes it can be viewed as an 'opposing' force to the totality of gravitational mass that is instinctively doing the opposite by trying to pull everything back together again. But I can't see how you can apply this to a tiny patch of localised space.)

There's a little voice at the back of my head telling me that there might be a method of using it for a rather bizarre starship drive...but I think I might have confused that with a dark matter starship drive, which is a completely total different kettle of fish.

I know all that but thats why its scifi. My thought was that seen as though we don't much about it, could an excuse to use it in a cool slightly obscure way. Thats all.

Dark Matter was used for propulsion in Futurama which was cool

 

[MstrTal]

I have been thinking about this on and off some more and came up with another little caveat. It was mentioned before about resupplying or replacing satellites as the ones in the array wore out, were damaged, or ran out of propellant I think the magnetic pulses can solve the problem of keeping the individual satellites in place. I think also that there should be some sort of propellant on board to drop the satellites at the end of their life cycle, especially if they are to be used in a "Scorched Earth" manner at the end.

What has been bugging me since my last post in this thread is the resupply problem. If the setting is some sort of post apoc dystopia than the organization or government that initially set up such a system is more than likely no longer in the equation. Further fuel for rockets to launch replacements would be hard to come by if not impossible. Even an automated system would eventually run out of rockets or fuel. I think I hit upon a workable and realistic solution however. A Mass-Driver launch system, sort of a giant railgun like system to launch a disposable canister containing the satellite system into orbit. Now to just figure out if it would be fired from an underground bunker or from a lunar base.

 

[Venusian Broon]

I think I hit upon a workable and realistic solution however. A Mass-Driver launch system, sort of a giant railgun like system to launch a disposable canister containing the satellite system into orbit. Now to just figure out if it would be fired from an underground bunker or from a lunar base.

Oh, like a massive weapon system that one of the giant technological nations managed to set up on the moon and is run by automated and self-repairing robots so that it will never stop spitting out death satellites and supplies on the Mass-Drive launch system, unless humanity can get to it and shut it down...

...but they can't because they've technologically regressed and unable to communicate with it or get close to it are now helpless against the systems onslaught. Which means they have to do a moon shot / missile attack (from scratch again, as if it was 1950), through the cloud of killer satellites?

Well that's the idea it spurred in my head. Not sure if it even comes close to what you were thinking of, MstrTal

 

[MstrTal]

Something like that.

A few differences and the main focus will be more terrestrial for the most part with the array as a looming overall threat that will play a role throughout. I am liking this idea now that I am working out the tweaks. Who would of thought that an idea I had when I was 11 would eventually pan out into something workable?

 

[Hex]

Question #1: Writing the Blind. In a Novel where the narrative is 1st person POV would you keep the narrative in 1st person and describe the scenes by sound, touch and texture or would this be a valid exception to slip out of 1st person to another POV?

I knew I'd read a book told in first person by a blind narrator. Carol Berg's The Daemon Prism (good stuff -- third in her Collegia Magica trilogy). She pretty much sticks to presenting things normally but every so often makes it explicit that he's not seeing things.

 

[MstrTal]

I knew I'd read a book told in first person by a blind narrator. Carol Berg's The Daemon Prism (good stuff -- third in her Collegia Magica trilogy). She pretty much sticks to presenting things normally but every so often makes it explicit that he's not seeing things.

Thanks I have been testing a few things out and it has been interesting to say the least. I will have to pick up the trilogy you mentioned pay day and check it out.

 

[General Tyran]

On the first question (forgive me if someone already said something about this) but read the book Blindness by Jose Saramago. This guy won the Nobel Prize for literature (for another book though). He handles blind characters remarkably. It's not really sci-fi, but it is about a sickness that blinds the world population. Definitely worth a read for ideas on how to handle characters who can't see.

Had to read it for my world lit class and I kept it on my shelf.

 

[Hex]

Good one, GT -- I forgot about that. I remember when I was reading it, when I looked up from the book, I was surprised to find I could see (yes, I know that makes almost no sense).