Me, and two friends of mine, with special notation to one friend who's name is Peter (he did nearly all the brainstorming). He's actually a former student of mine (I'm a flight-instructor), and has a flare for creativity and he ran an idea by me.
The idea is a Scifi-idea who's aim is to try to get around the problems with previous science-fiction with a healthy dose of realism in comparison to regular sci-fi.
We've both decided some liberties can be taken, because if you make computers too advanced, well... you could end up having all the fighters and ships automated and that would really suck. Who would want to read a story about a bunch of computerized ships flying through space duking it out with one another?
And most likely if you take computers too far, they'd probably get intelligent to the point that they'd outsmart us and they'd end us wiping us out (we'd be considered "inferior" and worst of all "ineffecient" and the whole idea of computers is to eliminate inefficiency and that would mean...), and we're not counting on good-luck. If not, mankind would have no use, and that would suck too. Needs a human element.
The things we've noticed in scifi are the following...
Guns have limited range: A laser beam would have an infinite range in space, or at least an extreme range. Assuming the beam was fired with no convergence or divergence, it would travel forever-- or at least for a very, very long time (supposedly even photons decay; I think that's an error and the guy probably meant protons, but...). Assuming it wasn't possible to make a perfectly non-divergent beam, it would probably be configured to converge a little.
The question then would be accuracy... the only "range" would be would be from how far could the ship hit the target... and the answer would probably be rather far. Supposedly modern radar can accurately gauge distance from up to 5 AU in space. 1 AU is like 93 million miles, so that's 465 million miles. And we tend to be able to get better at improving stuff, by a few hundred years, we'd be able to probably cover a whole system with radar.
So, we'd be able to whack a target from across a system right?
Well, in theory, yes! Assuming he held the same speed and heading. Of course if the guy made a turn, or slowed down the beam would miss and you couldn't do anything about it.
See, first the radar has to travel all the way over there. Assuming 1 AU, that's 8 minutes and 20 seconds. Then it's gotta come back, that's another 8 minutes and 20 seconds. Now 16 minutes and 40 seconds have passed since the radar beam was sent, and 8:20 since it bounced off, so the information you're receiving is 8 minutes, 20 seconds old! Then you fire the gun, and that's another 8 minutes, 20 seconds until it hits. In that time, he could have slowed down or turned, or sped up. And what guy wouldn't swerve out of the way of a laser beam heading right at them?
The answer is nobody, because they wouldn't see the beam until it hit them. Unlike in Star Trek or Star Wars, you can't see a laser beam like you do in the games. And you wouldn't see it moving; even if you saw the beam, you'd just see the beam as it nails you! If the beam was fired for a half a second, you'd see the beam as you get hit; you'd see the beam at that point and for a half second until it stoped. That's a moot point. You wouldn't even see the beam. That's kind of wierd and it sounds wierd for a story-- but you could still describe "powerful beams of energy lashing out into space" which is true, but you could even mention them being invisible, and the crew on the ship could still predict where they were heading just by where the turret is positioned.
Of course, there are reasons by coincidence why a guy would turn or slow down. Perhaps he planned to slow down, and just by luck happened to do it before the beam reached where he was supposed to go?
Of course, it would be rather boring. You'd be shooting, then waiting to see if you scored a hit (you'd have to detect something hit the shields, or the energy release from the explosion if you got lucky), especially with several minutes delay between radar returns if active (or even receiving passive signals-- 8 minutes, 20 seconds it would take for the radar signals from their ship to reach you). With the guy after getting hit once or twice, he'd be weaving like you wouldn't believe and with information that's several minutes out of date, it would be a huge guessing game, you'd have to rely on out-dated information and then speculating and guessing what he's doing now (and people that get shot at and live aren't going to allow themselves to be shot at again if possible-- he'll be turning and weaving).
Of course, WC got around the out-dated information problem-- 'tis called Translight Radar. It's some kind of magical radar that sends out pulses that some how exceed the speed of light. I guess it's possible considering that lightspeed was proven to have not been constant. Of course this would be limited to low intensity, because these things drained lots of energy in WC at least... plus I wouldn't want to see translight lasers... one problem could be to use some kind of Tachyon Radar which works by using tachyons instead of radio-waves. Who knows, but I don't want to see FTL lasers-- otherwise people could shoot each other from a light year away in a matter of hours or something... Maybe it has to do with the system draining ridiculous amounts of energy to work.
The radar would be full coverage (scan all sides), but the translight thingie would scan ahead always, and also would have an alternate array which can be turned in any direction with a specified field, but not full coverage. The idea would be that the Radar would see it first, and then the translight radar would be aimed for a more "current" look at it (so you get current data). Of course I have no idea how fast these pulses would travel at... although in Fleet Action they said it would take a few hours to cross all of Confed (I think it was 3 hours, so anyone know how big Confed territory is?) So... if I can figure that out, I can give you a speed-indication.
We also would prever to avoid calling it translight-- I don't want to steal the name from someone, and we both agree that it shows no imagination. I'd prefer to call it FTL-Scanner, or FTL-Radar, or something else (any good ideas?).
Some form of FTL Communications would also be either needed or seriously important. Without it, signals would take years, decades, or centuries to reach where you want it to. Otherwise you'd have to go to a base, get your orders, then head back once your finished. Of course if there was a change in plan, oh well, you'd only find out when you get back.
It would probably only be a burst signal thing anyway, as the thing would drain large amounts of power.
Interestingly enough, I'd like to actually count relativity into the equation. Peter, at first at least, disagreed with this one because it would be difficult to factor all that in, but I thought from the start it would make a good addition-- As you approach the speed of light, time slows down. The reason is that according to relativity, no matter what speed you travel at, the speed of light always appears to be traveling at the same rate.
He explained it to me pretty well actually (Pete, not Einstein)...
The speed of light is 300,000 kps... if you're sitting still it appears to be doing 300,000 kps, no suprise here.
Now, you're doing 150,000 kps... Despite being at half the speed of light, the speed of light still appears to be doing 300,000 kps... the only way that works is for the observer's frame of referrence to be slowed by 50%.
Of course you'd need a standard time, which Zulu seems to be a good one, we use it right now and some standard's needed so everyone can gauge what time it is outside their ships. But there should be a ships time as well, because at half the speed of light, time would move twice as fast and even though lunch felt like 3 hours ago, it actually was 6 and it's time to eat again, you'd be a bunch of fat-cows in no time flat (no pun intended), and your sleep would be cut in half as well (people aren't their best when they're under-rested-- would you want your CO to be grouchier than he or she already is?).
These are just a bunch of 3 people's ideas put toghether for the physics behind a story, I'll add more if you want...
-Concordia
The idea is a Scifi-idea who's aim is to try to get around the problems with previous science-fiction with a healthy dose of realism in comparison to regular sci-fi.
We've both decided some liberties can be taken, because if you make computers too advanced, well... you could end up having all the fighters and ships automated and that would really suck. Who would want to read a story about a bunch of computerized ships flying through space duking it out with one another?
And most likely if you take computers too far, they'd probably get intelligent to the point that they'd outsmart us and they'd end us wiping us out (we'd be considered "inferior" and worst of all "ineffecient" and the whole idea of computers is to eliminate inefficiency and that would mean...), and we're not counting on good-luck. If not, mankind would have no use, and that would suck too. Needs a human element.
The things we've noticed in scifi are the following...
Guns have limited range: A laser beam would have an infinite range in space, or at least an extreme range. Assuming the beam was fired with no convergence or divergence, it would travel forever-- or at least for a very, very long time (supposedly even photons decay; I think that's an error and the guy probably meant protons, but...). Assuming it wasn't possible to make a perfectly non-divergent beam, it would probably be configured to converge a little.
The question then would be accuracy... the only "range" would be would be from how far could the ship hit the target... and the answer would probably be rather far. Supposedly modern radar can accurately gauge distance from up to 5 AU in space. 1 AU is like 93 million miles, so that's 465 million miles. And we tend to be able to get better at improving stuff, by a few hundred years, we'd be able to probably cover a whole system with radar.
So, we'd be able to whack a target from across a system right?
Well, in theory, yes! Assuming he held the same speed and heading. Of course if the guy made a turn, or slowed down the beam would miss and you couldn't do anything about it.
See, first the radar has to travel all the way over there. Assuming 1 AU, that's 8 minutes and 20 seconds. Then it's gotta come back, that's another 8 minutes and 20 seconds. Now 16 minutes and 40 seconds have passed since the radar beam was sent, and 8:20 since it bounced off, so the information you're receiving is 8 minutes, 20 seconds old! Then you fire the gun, and that's another 8 minutes, 20 seconds until it hits. In that time, he could have slowed down or turned, or sped up. And what guy wouldn't swerve out of the way of a laser beam heading right at them?
The answer is nobody, because they wouldn't see the beam until it hit them. Unlike in Star Trek or Star Wars, you can't see a laser beam like you do in the games. And you wouldn't see it moving; even if you saw the beam, you'd just see the beam as it nails you! If the beam was fired for a half a second, you'd see the beam as you get hit; you'd see the beam at that point and for a half second until it stoped. That's a moot point. You wouldn't even see the beam. That's kind of wierd and it sounds wierd for a story-- but you could still describe "powerful beams of energy lashing out into space" which is true, but you could even mention them being invisible, and the crew on the ship could still predict where they were heading just by where the turret is positioned.
Of course, there are reasons by coincidence why a guy would turn or slow down. Perhaps he planned to slow down, and just by luck happened to do it before the beam reached where he was supposed to go?
Of course, it would be rather boring. You'd be shooting, then waiting to see if you scored a hit (you'd have to detect something hit the shields, or the energy release from the explosion if you got lucky), especially with several minutes delay between radar returns if active (or even receiving passive signals-- 8 minutes, 20 seconds it would take for the radar signals from their ship to reach you). With the guy after getting hit once or twice, he'd be weaving like you wouldn't believe and with information that's several minutes out of date, it would be a huge guessing game, you'd have to rely on out-dated information and then speculating and guessing what he's doing now (and people that get shot at and live aren't going to allow themselves to be shot at again if possible-- he'll be turning and weaving).
Of course, WC got around the out-dated information problem-- 'tis called Translight Radar. It's some kind of magical radar that sends out pulses that some how exceed the speed of light. I guess it's possible considering that lightspeed was proven to have not been constant. Of course this would be limited to low intensity, because these things drained lots of energy in WC at least... plus I wouldn't want to see translight lasers... one problem could be to use some kind of Tachyon Radar which works by using tachyons instead of radio-waves. Who knows, but I don't want to see FTL lasers-- otherwise people could shoot each other from a light year away in a matter of hours or something... Maybe it has to do with the system draining ridiculous amounts of energy to work.
The radar would be full coverage (scan all sides), but the translight thingie would scan ahead always, and also would have an alternate array which can be turned in any direction with a specified field, but not full coverage. The idea would be that the Radar would see it first, and then the translight radar would be aimed for a more "current" look at it (so you get current data). Of course I have no idea how fast these pulses would travel at... although in Fleet Action they said it would take a few hours to cross all of Confed (I think it was 3 hours, so anyone know how big Confed territory is?) So... if I can figure that out, I can give you a speed-indication.
We also would prever to avoid calling it translight-- I don't want to steal the name from someone, and we both agree that it shows no imagination. I'd prefer to call it FTL-Scanner, or FTL-Radar, or something else (any good ideas?).
Some form of FTL Communications would also be either needed or seriously important. Without it, signals would take years, decades, or centuries to reach where you want it to. Otherwise you'd have to go to a base, get your orders, then head back once your finished. Of course if there was a change in plan, oh well, you'd only find out when you get back.
It would probably only be a burst signal thing anyway, as the thing would drain large amounts of power.
Interestingly enough, I'd like to actually count relativity into the equation. Peter, at first at least, disagreed with this one because it would be difficult to factor all that in, but I thought from the start it would make a good addition-- As you approach the speed of light, time slows down. The reason is that according to relativity, no matter what speed you travel at, the speed of light always appears to be traveling at the same rate.
He explained it to me pretty well actually (Pete, not Einstein)...
The speed of light is 300,000 kps... if you're sitting still it appears to be doing 300,000 kps, no suprise here.
Now, you're doing 150,000 kps... Despite being at half the speed of light, the speed of light still appears to be doing 300,000 kps... the only way that works is for the observer's frame of referrence to be slowed by 50%.
Of course you'd need a standard time, which Zulu seems to be a good one, we use it right now and some standard's needed so everyone can gauge what time it is outside their ships. But there should be a ships time as well, because at half the speed of light, time would move twice as fast and even though lunch felt like 3 hours ago, it actually was 6 and it's time to eat again, you'd be a bunch of fat-cows in no time flat (no pun intended), and your sleep would be cut in half as well (people aren't their best when they're under-rested-- would you want your CO to be grouchier than he or she already is?).
These are just a bunch of 3 people's ideas put toghether for the physics behind a story, I'll add more if you want...
-Concordia