space

Water

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W141972 Syntherum (Gelidaceous-class asteroid)
e’Luminiaren Belt
Lumenna-Súnáris System

A thousand years ago, they used to think there wouldn’t be much water in space, and we’ll all be stuck out here in a barren desert, sending home for bottled oceans.

Well, fortunately not. There’s plenty – more water than there is just about anything else worth digging up outside a gas giant. It’s just nowhere near the places where you actually need the damn stuff, which is where we come in.

We being, first, the Initiative’s tanker, Adorably Aqueous, keeping station about a mile off and waiting to load up with 32,000 tons of water for the thirsty habs between here and Talentar high orbit;

Being, second, the dozen or so automated Seredháïc-class ice-miners sitting around down here on Syntherum, big 160-ton water-blimps with drive, drill, and ancillary equipment all packed into their tiny gondolas. They chop through the dusty crust of the ‘roid, pump steam down to melt the ice and slurp the water back. Shuffling back and forth between here and the tanker, they get it filled up in just a few hours, quick and clean.

And being, third, myself, Cathál Rian-ith-Ríëlle, hydrodynamic engineer, waterwright, and now spacer, with my candle and my trusty wrench.

Because where you have water, you have pipes, and where you have pipes, you have leaks, blockages, and all the rest.

Even in space, that means you need a plumber.

You Want This. You Need This.

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Those of you who have bought and read a copy of The Core War and Other Stories may have noticed the reference to Kerbal Space Program in the acknowledgements…

(Those of you who haven’t – go buy a copy! Right now! Seriously – I’ll wait for you. Got it? Okay.)

…specifically “which taught me everything I know about orbital mechanics”.

Well, the beta is over and the first release version, 1.0, just shipped today. And so I’m here to suggest to you that you get a copy, too. It’s an invaluable resource for the SF writer, because it’s far easier to learn orbital mechanics from – specifically including developing an intuitive feel for them – than doing so from textbooks. And when you’re trying to do something complex enough that you need to go back to the textbooks, it makes it a lot easier to understand them. (And the fun needn’t stop there – it has a very active modding community whose add-ons let you simulate everything from life support to heat radiators, from exotic ISRU fuels to Orion drives…)

And it’s an invaluable resource for SF readers, too, at least if you like your SF relatively hard and want to have some idea how real spacecraft actually maneuver. (Fair warning: you may suffer somewhat from this if you have a problem with Science Ruining Everything, but, hey, knowledge has a price. Read better books!)

And best of all, it’s 25% off right now for launch day, so hie yourself over to the Kerbal Space Program web site and get yourself a copy. I personally guarantee that you won’t regret it.

Trope-a-Day: No Blood For Phlebotinium

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No Blood For Phlebotinium: Generally averted, since by the time a species makes it into space it has generally noticed that the universe is full of giant piles of natural resources, most of which don’t belong to anyone, and most of the really interesting kinds of phlebotinium are synthetic highly exotic materials anyway.

Of course, “generally” is not “universally”, and the odd war has been fought over exotic biologicals, rare gemstones, access to exotic stellar objects, and the like.  Very silly, really, or so the popular zeitgeist would say.

In Space, Everyone Can Hear You Burn

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“Space may be silent, but it’s easy to tell how the ship’s maneuvering from the noise inside. Cold-gas thrusters hiss. Hypergolics hiss too, with a harsher metallic note, bangs and pings. Hydroxy rockets, they roar. Solid packs are similar, but rougher, with underlying stutters and clicks. Fusion torches purr like giant cats – unless they’re Nucleodyne-made and running at hard burn1, when the afterburner resonance mode makes ’em howl like damned souls. Mass-driver launch is eerily silent, nothing but air whispering over the hull until the lasers cut in, and then it’s endlessly rolling thunder, dwindling behind you.”

“Nuclear pulse-drive? You don’t hear a pulse-drive, not with your ears and live t’talk about it. You hear it with your bones.”

1. Hard burn, in the jargon, refers to the practice of injecting (a limited supply of) antiprotons into the exhaust of a fusion torch for short, high-power bursts.

Trope-a-Day: Latex Space Suit

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Latex Space Suit: Yep, these (‘skinsuits’, as opposed to ‘hardsuits’) are in common use – by the civilian spacer, anyway, who has no use for, for example, vacuum-sealed hardshell combat armor – although without the ridiculous semi-Stripperiffic elements (Sheer, you say? Heh. That fabric may contain pores, but it also contains MEMS, computer mesh, wound gel vacuoles…) a lot of media justifies them with, and have been in said use right from the earliest days when the Spaceflight Initiative conducted its feasibility studies for Project Phoenix.

spacesuitThey actually look pretty similar to the prototype of such a spacesuit that Dr. Dava Newman is developing at MIT (illustrated at right), although having smartglass around to provide an infinitely configurable variable filter plus display surface lets them use somethng much more like the classic “clear bubble helmet” *there*. Add a small support/systems backpack, and you’ve got it.

Further information on this general type of spacesuit is, of course, available at Atomic Rocket. In the Imperials’ version, though, I should note further that:

  • Skillful use of smart-fabric (a long way from literal latex) and MEMS for mechanical assistance has got the prebreathing/breathing mix problems down to an irreducible minimum, in modern suits at least.
  • Integrated and self-motile nanofluids have replaced the awkward necessity of stuffing clay (see above link) into relevant places, at least once you overcome any squeamishness at the way the stuff crawls over you to get there.

And Don’t Hold Your Breath (It Never Helps)

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WARNING: AIRLOCK SAFETY PROCEDURES

  1. Personnel must wear vacuum suits before exiting the starship if so indicated by crimson-caution telltales. (Any exceptions must possess “vacuum-capable” endorsement countersigned by Environmental Systems Engineer.) Follow instructions posted in airlock chamber.

  2. In an emergency, caution enforcement system may be disabled by opening emergency controls panel. (Alarm will sound in DCC.) Follow procedures posted within. Always attempt egress through interior hatch first, exterior hatch second.

DO NOT BYPASS NORMAL CYCLING

Do not ignore any amber-test or crimson-caution telltales. Spacetight doors may not have properly sealed and/or chamber may not have reached safe pressure differential. Always wait for blue-go “disembark” indicator before trying to exit.

When using emergency controls, always check “hatch sealed” test lights and manual indicators before using manual pressurization override controls. As you proceed, constantly monitor pressurization and differential-pressure gauges, located within emergency controls panel.

In the event of damage or mechanical failure, spare parts and tools for emergency repairs are located beneath the emergency controls panel secondary door.

Trope-a-Day: In Space Everyone Can See Your Face

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In Space Everyone Can See Your Face: Averted, for all the practical reasons mentioned.  In practice, augmented reality v-tags – actually, the standard public identity tag – tell you who is who, and those who want to can use supplementary v-tags to indicate their current emotional state, etc., and perform other expressive tasks.

(The running lights on spacecraft also mentioned?  There for close orbital operations and for the benefit of the crew when they have to go clamber about on the hull to do maintenance, including such things as delineating the – very hot – radiative striping so you don’t accidentally step on it.  You can turn it off quite happily outside those circumstances, although a lot of captains don’t simply because with the energy budget of your average modern spacecraft1, there’s really no point in making the trivial saving of turning the lights off.  Besides, someone might have a telescope aimed at you, and programming this gorgeous paint job wasn’t cheap, y’know?)

1. i.e., running on fusion, with thus-generous power budget. This was not the historical case back in the fuel-cells-and-solar-panels days.

Sleep Well and Wake

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outside storage (n.): Also cold storage; vacuum storage. Among the things space has in plentiful supply are volume and insulation. The former affords a bounty of available space for various usages; the latter ensures that items occupying it require relatively little protection to be safe from environmental influences. Many habitats throughout the Worlds make use of this for storage. Once chilled down, a package can simply be wrapped in a K-blanket (for micrometeoroid protection, if the storage volume itself is not shielded as a whole) and reflective foil, tethered to a convenient truss, and airlocked. The space environment will protect it near-indefinitely, at minimal if any cost.

NOTE: On many habitats, the prevalence of this technique is such that the phrase “thrown out” now typically implies storage rather than disposal.

Ice Bitch’s Hell, the (n., slang): Also Frozen Death, the; Slow Death, the; long, cold wait, a; suspended internment; cryostatic indigent holding. As previously mentioned, one endemic problem faced by many drifts is the build-up, over time, of indigent floaters. Due to the cost of interstellar travel, individuals travelling without guaranteed-passage tickets or reflux bonds may find themselves stranded on a distant habitat without means to depart, and with depleting funds.

This naturally poses a problem for drifts in Second Tier and Emerging markets, which can afford neither the cost of deportation nor the life-support overhead of maintaining an indigent population that isn’t paying hab fees, yet which would prefer on ethical grounds not to simply march them out the airlock, and which cannot rely on the limited resources of distressed spacefarer’s organizations. One widely used solution, of uncertain provenance, is to place indigent floaters in cryostasis, remove them from the cryostasis capsule, then package the corpsicle for and place it in outside storage – thus eliminating the associated life support costs, et. al. Many drifts have thousands – even tens of thousands, in the case of major transit points – of frozen floaters in long-term outside storage awaiting someone willing to pay for their cryorevival and transportation.

Rumors of long-term storees being sold off to slavers or organleggers by certain unscrupulous storage authorities or station management remain largely unconfirmed at the time of writing.

– A Star Traveller’s Dictionary

And That’s Just How We Like It

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Space will kill you in any number of ways. So, in fact, will most planets that aren’t your homeworld or close copies of it.

Simple risks will kill you, if you don’t keep a weather eye on them. Radiation, vacuum, dioxide, heat. Leaks, breakdowns, inefficiencies. Not paying attention to where your air and water and other things that just magically exist for the taking downside come from, that’ll kill you, too. Carelessness, inattention, expediency, pragmatism, shortcut-taking, an excessively casual approach to maintenance procedures – all things that bring an automatic death sentence at the hands of the uncaring, pedantic universe. Incompetence, determined ignorance, and native stupidity, even more so. And indulging one’s fond delusions about the nature of reality, that’ll kill you fastest of all.

These are the reasons why many sensible people from many sensible civilizations choose not to go there.

The people who scattered habs across the entire system from Oculus to Farside, from Eurymir to Galine, from corona-scraping Salamandrine to lonely Blackwatch, on the other hand, considered these things advantages.

– introduction to Tin Cans and Checklists: The Early Days, by Aithne Silverfall

Building the Spacesuit of the Future

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For astronauts flying in space, spacesuits are a must-have accessory. But spacesuit technology has come a long way since the dawn of human spaceflight. Tonight, MIT professor Dava Newman will discuss her BioSuit spacesuit design and you can watch it live online.

http://www.space.com/25885-biosuit-spacesuit-tech-design-webcast.html

This may well be of relevance to Eldraeverse readers – as well as space enthusiasts in general – because as it happens, this is the proposed spacesuit design that I modeled the Eldraeverse’s standard vacuum suits off of.

Trope-a-Day: Space is Noisy

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Space is Noisy: Averted, naturally – there’s no air in space, ergo no sound; the only way to communicate out there without some sort of communication system is writing, mime or pressing-together of helmets, etc., etc.

(It’s worth noting, of course, that this doesn’t apply inside starships, because all that machinery makes noise, and with no large spaces to dissipate in, it could get very loud and echo-y.  The cork bricks in the machinery spaces and the thick shag-pile carpeting really are quite essential components, hearing-protection-wise.)

Somewhat subverted in well-designed ships, at least on the bridge, CIC, and other command spaces, in which auralization equipment is used to simulate stock sounds of passing ships, explosions, swirly thing alerts, etc., etc. as part of a good user interface design.  (After all, we have at least five sensory channels, so in as data-rich an environment as that, it would be less than smart to not make use of them; such environments also, for example, use smell as a channel to convey gestalt damage-control information.)  Of course, this equipment is subject to breakdown, doesn’t exist anywhere outside the command spaces (so a space battle will indeed be silent for those not in them, at least until your ship gets hit), and so on and so forth.

Cost of Breathing

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LIMÉRI STATION HABITAT FEE ASSESSMENT

LIMÉRI STATION HABCORP, ICC
A PROTECTORATE OF BALANCE AND EXTERNALITY AFFILIATE

RECIPIENTS Anlave-Kateris Household
  – Anlave Claves-ith-Estenv
  – Kateris Muetry-ith-Muiris
ADDRESS OF RECORD 1-00003-01496-0223
Talentar
Liméri Station
Dalecí
14, Avenue of Focative Mirrors
PERIOD COVERED Tílenmot, 3502
Charge (Es.)
Base Habitat Fee eldrae x 2 74
Air Usage Increment barbecue x 3 1.6
Air Usage Decrement greenhouse, 960 sq. ft., active -0.70
Cogeneration 1,953 kWh net
(23,934 kWh use / 22,981 kWh gen)		 1.1
Dependent Increment bandal x 1 3
Dependent Increment child, eldrae, x 1 6
Hive Processing Rebate 15,961 state-usage infoblocks
4,117 hab-usage infoblocks		 -0.3
Thermal Overage Decrement +5° -0.42
TOTAL   84.28

This assessment mailing is for informational purposes only.  Applicable habitat fees have been deducted from the designated Active Debit Account as selected, and no additional charges are due.

For further queries or requests please do not hesitate to contact me.

Given under my hand and seal this day, 31 Tílenmot 3502,

Galén Sallantar-ith-Sallantar, for and on behalf of,

Liméri Station HabCorp, ICC

All Alone in the Dark

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“If you’d ever been in a ship with no power, you wouldn’t ask that question. Reactor quenched, mains down, auxiliaries down, accumulator backups down. Out in the black without the life support systems running, it’s blacker in there than Lumenna’s own hell. No lights, no sun, no planetglow to keep you company, not below decks or in the deep. No sound. The murmur of the engines, gone. The whisper of the vents, gone. No mesh, all wireless whispers dead. And, of course, not even any gravity to give you a directional cue. Just floating there, in silence and darkness and creeping cold, isolation more complete than anything outside an AI with no sense-channels wired up.”

“And that’s when you start reaching for a mindcast transmitter – but the substrate can’t accept you without power, and communications died with the rest of the ship.”

“But you’ve got time to stop panicking. After all, no-one’s going anywhere. Nothing’s calling for your attention. And you’ve got air enough to last for a while – a little more if you’re drifting, a little less if you’re still.”

“Do you know how to find an emergency panel by touch? And keep something to throw always to hand?”

“Well, I always do. Now. Then –”

“Two days can be longer than all the rest of your life.”

Trope-a-Day: Dilating Door

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Dilating Door: Actually, most doors are regular doors, except for doors in space – because of the whole opening/closing against pressure issue – which tend to be cog-doors that roll into place.  (In addition to the pressure advantage, they’re also relatively easy to open or close when the power is out, by disconnecting the actuator arm and cranking them manually, or rolling them physically.)

There are also doors which melt to let people through, except since they’re actually the power of Sufficiently Advanced Nanotech walls to reshape themselves any way they feel like, and the doors aren’t bound to appear in any particular position, well…  (These are mostly the province of the absurdly wealthy who just hate messing up the nice sleek lines of their space yacht with overt door openings.)

And the people heavily into organic technology for houses and starship interiors (see that trope) and other such things generally have “doors” that are actually sphincters, or heart valves writ large.  The effect is much the same.

It’s Cold Outside

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“Yeah, vacuum won’t kill you.  Should you find yourself falling free out of a big hole in your ship, stay sharp, and keep your eyes shut and your mouth open the way they teach you when you go out for your S-license, and you ought to live through it.  You’ll get a full-body bruise.  You’ll freeze slowly if you’re out there long enough – and if you’re in the sunlight, you’ll burn at the same time.  You’ll swell up from the pressure differential, and that hurts fifty times more than you ever imagined anything might hurt before, unless you’ve gone swimming naked through molten rock sometime.”

“But if you grew up anywhere half-civilized, your hemocules’ll keep you going for a good hour, a bit less if you thrash around.  Plenty of time for someone to get a line on you – or, if everyone around’s got their own problems, for that mindcast carrier you’d better have to start looking friendly.”

“…from experience, kid.  Did you think I was born with this face?”

When Space Gives You Lemons

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“Minley Traveler, you are denied landing permission at Qechra Down, technical eval.  Maintain standard orbit, eight of twelve.  Do you desire re-routing to Qechra Orbital?  Qechra Local, over.”

“Ah, Qechra Local, clarify technical eval?  Minley Traveler, over.”

“Minley Traveler, we have low confidence in your structural fitness for re-entry.  Qechra Local, over.”

“Qechra Local, we may not be a standard class, but if you check our spec plat, we are well within spec for re-entry on this world.  Minley Traveler, over.”

“Minley Traveler, by your spec plat, we read you as a half-Hargis and half-Karakrayt slice-and-splice.  And that doesn’t disqualify you from landing, no, but I can see the weld lines on your hull from here by eyeball.  Qechra Local, over.”

“Local, we got here in one piece, didn’t we?  Over.”

“Traveler, just ’cause Athnéël smiled enough to let that piece of kveth-lakh stand up to thrust ’til now doesn’t mean she’s going to keep doing it, so bring it in to Orbital under cold-gas or take it elsewhere.  She blinks at max Q, you’re looking for two landing spots and not likely to pay for either.  Not in my atmosphere, you don’t.  Qechra Local, clear.”

– overheard on local space-control channel, Qechra

Trope-a-Day: Conveniently Close Planet

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Conveniently Close Planet: Averted.  This is also why Escape Pods are useless anywhere except planetary orbit and libration point habitat-clusters; even if you can leave your ship, there’s nowhere to go without another ship with about as much delta-v as your first ship.  And you can’t fit that into an escape pod.

(Since fusion reactors don’t explode and antimatter explodes Too Vigorously, there’s not much point in leaving the ship and hanging around in the same vicinity, which escape pods could theoretically do, vis-à-vis just hanging around the hulk.)

Trope-a-Day: Human Resources

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Human Resources: In space, where roughly 3/5ths of everyone lives, no-one wastes precious water, carbon, and complex organic compounds; therefore, yes, bodies are hereby committed to the recycling tanks.  Of course, the bodies have to have died naturally first, which should make it marginally less creepy.

There used to be organ donation, too, but these days they just clone spare organs on-demand.

Mind the Self-Loading Cargo

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All Hands:

As per the ship’s itinerary, we will be arriving at Thetra (Banners) highport in three cycles, ship time. As is the usual procedure, I’ll require completed pre-arrival checklists, chandlers’ requisitions, and codicils from each department by the wineful hour tomorrow.

The following special instructions apply:

1. If the complaints I’ve been getting are anything to go by, the ship’s locker is running low on a variety of non-spec stores. The ship’s discretionary budget’s looking good this quarter, so, deck department, while you’re doing your inventories, make out your wish lists.

2. This is our first call at an outworld this trip, and we’ll be taking on passengers. Now, for those of you on your first trip, this means we’re going to be carrying lots of people who aren’t spacers or spacer-modified, and who are used to the idea of artificial gravity whenever they go offworld, and who certainly aren’t used to people using a half-dozen different verticals in the same place.

This means, yes, lots of freefall sickness. So break out the emesis bags and multispecies microgravity-adaptation pills, people, they’re going to need them.

And I don’t want to have to detail people to clean it out of the atmosphere processors, am I clear?

3. Likewise, break out the catchpoles, and make sure we have enough. If past voyages are anything to go by, we’re going to spend the first few days hauling lots of people down out of mid-air. And keep them with you – none of the other passengers are paying to watch the ongoing flailing while you go get the ’pole.

4. If you haven’t used them recently, go see the Master-at-Arms for a refresher on your multispecies child-restraint techniques. Kids love microgravity, and are not good at keeping it to the rec deck. And since the passengers aren’t paying for free-fall pranks, either, that means you’re going to have to.

And Crewman mor-Venek? Do remember that electrolasers are not an approved child-restraint technique anywhere off Paltraeth. Legal had to pay out enough compensation last time.

5. I’ll be in my office for the whole of the highsun hour today if any additional concerns arise that require my attention.

It’s only a short layover this time, but let’s make it a smooth one!

– Iallis Steamweaver-ith-Ilithos, purser