Oscillating energy field as spacecraft hull

[Tom Brown]

Looking for title and author of a novel(la) from the 50’s or 60’s in which the problem of an interstellar vehicle’s hull was solved by using a pulsating energy field. Apparently it had to pulsate because it would explode catastrophically if just left on.

 

[Penny]

that sounds so dangerous. where is OH&S?

 

[chrispenycate]

Are you certain this was for interstellar use? I remember a story from about that time when they needed a force-field hull to dive into the atmosphere of Jupiter (mankind's forays into the solar system having alerted some non-jovial Jovians to our existence, which offended them, to the point they intended to exterminate us) because nothing solid could withstand the pressure, but spacetime couldn't stand up to the stress of creating fields with so few generators "all matter is mainly empty space with forcefields holding the structure rigid. In that steel plate there are billions of tiny forcefield generators, every atom contributing its own tiny field When you use fewer generators, the peak field strengths have to be billions of times larger, and space can't support this and collapses." So they conclude the Jovians were no danger, as they can't get off their planet without…
The story ends in a ship pootling across the solar system in a hull which is only there for a thousandth of the time, so space doesn't have time to get offended, but several million times a second.

 

[Tom Brown]

Are you certain this was for interstellar use? I remember a story from about that time when they needed a force-field hull to dive into the atmosphere of Jupiter (mankind's forays into the solar system having alerted some non-jovial Jovians to our existence, which offended them, to the point they intended to exterminate us) because nothing solid could withstand the pressure, but spacetime couldn't stand up to the stress of creating fields with so few generators "all matter is mainly empty space with forcefields holding the structure rigid. In that steel plate there are billions of tiny forcefield generators, every atom contributing its own tiny field When you use fewer generators, the peak field strengths have to be billions of times larger, and space can't support this and collapses." So they conclude the Jovians were no danger, as they can't get off their planet without…
The story ends in a ship pootling across the solar system in a hull which is only there for a thousandth of the time, so space doesn't have time to get offended, but several million times a second.

 

[Tom Brown]

I think you're correct, that it was not interstellar. The description you posted is spot on with my recollection, particularly, of the ending. you have any idea of the title/author? Thanks!

 

[monkeypooper]

That's got to be cut and paste not memory with that much recollection who do you think you are Danny hahaha

 

[chrispenycate]

No, and I read it at least fifty years ago - probably in Analog (or Astounding, if it was that far back) and have no idea either of author nor title - my memory's not what it used to be) But it might help someone else here to recognise it.

 

[monkeypooper]

Alot better than mine, i can barely remember the plot of the last book i read, a terrible problem in life but great for books and, films, problem is i have trained myself at work to be forgetful, what with trying not to remember 500 odd wagons, drivers, loads and, destinations worth of useless information after they leave.

 

[Dennis E. Taylor]

Cities in Flight. Spindizzy fields. Blish.

 

[Danny McG]

I think it was an Asimov short story. Checking through my collection to try and find it

 

[Pyan]

I know it's not, because it's far too early, but it made me think of Culture ships...

 

[Danny McG]

Yeah - this is titled "Not Final" by Asimov

Plot Summary (from Wikipedia)....

Earth colonists on Ganymede, the largest satellite of Jupiter, have discovered the existence of intelligent life on the planet's surface. They manage to establish communication with the Jovians by means of a "radio-click" code, and exchange scientific information. When the Jovians realise that the humans are not like them, they break off communication with a threat to destroy what they see as inferior beings.

Scientists on Ganymede realize that no possible Jovian ship could leave the surface without utilizing force-field technology, and experimentally determine that said technology cannot be made practical—therefore the Jovians will be unable to carry out their threat. Although the force field can be created, it cannot exist for more than a fraction of a second at the strength needed to contain Earth's air pressure, let alone Jupiter's. The scientist in charge, a brilliant theoretician, predicts this and then proves it with an experiment that ends in an explosion. Nicholas Orloff, the Colonial Commissioner, (who had been on Ganymede to assess the threat) reports back to Earth that the danger that had been posed by the Jovians is ended.

Meanwhile, a ship is headed for Ganymede to pick up Orloff and return him to Earth. A conversation between the ship's Captain and a technician reveals that this ship utilizes force-field technology in an ingenious way, which the scientists on Ganymede have not thought of. By trial and error the technician discovered that the field explodes, losing an arm and an eye in the process. However he has circumvented this by turning the field on and off at a high frequency, so it is never on long enough to explode, but is never off long enough to lose air.

The ending line, "I imagine he'll be rather pleased [with the applicability of the new technology]" is ironic since the reader knows that this is precisely the reverse of what we know Orloff's (and the rest of the human race's) reaction to the news will be, since this implies that the Jovians will eventually be able to overcome the technical difficulties and emerge from their planet to wage war on humanity.

 

[chrispenycate]

That definitely fits my memory.

 

[otistdog]

Asimov's "Victory Unintentional" has the same premise, but seems like a sequel to "Not Final". Jovians who want to destroy the inferior humans on Ganymede are overawed by robots built to withstand Jupiter's surface conditions, which they mistake for everyday humans.