History Website / AtomicRockets

* JustifiedTrope: Using particle beams (never mind what was said above about turning your ship into space-chernobyl) allows the author to use other tropes that make sci-fi "fun," like DeflectorShields and radiation-absorbing armor plating.

* PillarOfLight: Downplayed in the "Laser Launch" portion of "Surface-to-Orbit." Laser beams can be used to provide rocketless spacecraft launch by vaporizing a block of solid fuel or igniting a gas, either a hydrogen/dust mix[[note]] hydrogen is transparent to most laser frequencies, so it needs something to catch the light, as it were-preferrably not the rocket nozzle, though[[/note]], or, with a top-shaped mirror and cowling vents, regular-ass air. This being on the rock-hard end of the Mohs Scale, the beam would be invisible until it hit something (ie, the solid-fuel brick) or passed through a cloud (like the aforesaid dust) of something, but Artist's Impressions show a reddish beam

** KineticWeaponsAreJustBetter, because you only have to throw something-anything, really, one example given was [[FoodSlap a can of ravioli]]-very very hard to hurt someone (and how hard they get hit is subject to how fast whatever you're shooting at is moving, the example given was an astronaut tossing the cat's litterbox out the airlock at a shipload of space pirates), whereas lasers and particle beams are inefficient (to the point that if you find a power source capable of making them viable, you might as well chuck the power source at the enemy instead) and subject to blooming after a comparatively short distance. Furthermore, energy weapons have other attendant problems. Lasers will cook your ship with their waste heat, and particle rays will make it [[SicklyGreenGlow glow in the dark]] from bremelsstrung radiation. Besides which, if thrown hard enough, mass driver bullets create nuclear reactions on impact anyways.

* JustifiedTrope: Using particle beams (never mind what was said above about turning your ship into space-chernobyl) allows the author to use other tropes that make sci-fi "fun," like DeflectorShields and radiation-absorbing armor plating.

** KineticWeaponsAreJustBetter, because you only have to throw something-anything, really, one example given was a can of ravioli-very very hard to hurt someone, whereas lasers and particle beams are inefficient (to the point that if you find a power source capable of making them viable, you might as well chuck the power source at the enemy instead) and subject to blooming after a comparatively short distance. Furthermore, energy weapons have other attendant problems. Lasers will cook your ship with their waste heat, and particle rays will make it [[SicklyGreenGlow glow in the dark]] from bremelsstrung radiation. Besides which, if thrown hard enough, mass driver bullets create nuclear reactions on impact anyways.

** KineticWraponsAreJustBetter, because you only have to throw something very very hard to hurt someone, whereas lasers and particle beams are inefficient (to the point that if you find a power source capable of making them viable, you might as well chuck the power source at the enemy instead) and subject to blooming after a comparatively short distance. Furthermore, energy weapons have other attendant problems. Lasers will cook your ship with their waste heat, and particle rays will make it [[SicklyGreenGlow glow in the dark]] from bremelsstrung radiation. Besides which, if thrown hard enough, mass driver bullets create nuclear reactions on impact anyways.

** Lufstrom Loops, which resemble a single truss of a brobdenaggean suspension bridge, and keep themselves up by accelerating a conveyor belt. They don't require any exotic materials to build, but will collapse under their own weight during a power outage.
** Space Fountains, which use electromagnetic accelerators and a constant stream of ferromagnetic "particles" (probably between the size of marbles and bowling balls) to levatate a skyhook. These have the advantage of being smaller than either launch loops or beanstalks (they can be any height you like), and can be built anywhere (beanstalks require being built on the equator because of physics and lufstrom loops should be built over the ocean so they don't fall on anyone's house when they break). They can also be made safer by having redundant streams with independant power supplies.

** The [[http://www.projectrho.com/public_html/rocket/spacegunconvent.php#id--Laser_Cannon--Non-Bomb-Pumped_Lasers Non-bomb Pumped X-Ray Laser]]. A design for a laser ''1-kilometer'' in diameter that can irradiate an unarmed ship out past Jupiter.
** The article on Surface-to-Orbit launch techniques details [[ConvergingStreamWeapon using an array of smaller lasers]] to explosively plasmatize bricks of solid fuel, launching a payload at ''30 gravities'' without using stage 1 boosters. This means it can double as a Planetary Fortress, either by zapping enemy ships directly, or by yeeting launch canisters full of rocks up their noses.

* MundaneUtility: Mass drivers and laser launch facilities can be easily weaponized into planetary defense weapins, but usually would launch sattelites

* SpaceElevator: Three types:
** Beanstalks, which is just a very long rope attached to a very tall tower, requiring unobtanium to build.

** Space Fountains, which use electromagnetic accelerators and a constant stream of ferromagnetic "particles" (probably between the size of marbles and bowling balls) to levatate a skyhook. These have the advantage of being smaller than either launch loops or beanstalks (they can be any height you like), and can be built anywhere (beanstalks require being built on the equator because of physics and lufstrom loops should be built over the ocean so they don't fall on anyone's house when they break).

** The article on Surface-to-Orbit launch details [[ConvergingStreamWeapon using an array of smaller lasers]] to vaporize bricks of solid fuel, launching a payload at ''30 gravities'' without using stage 1 boosters. This means it can double as a Planetary Fortress, either by zapping enemy ships directly, or by yeeting launch canisters full of rocks up their noses.

* WaveMotionGun: The [[http://www.projectrho.com/public_html/rocket/spacegunconvent.php#id--Laser_Cannon--Non-Bomb-Pumped_Lasers Non-bomb Pumped X-Ray Laser]]. A design for a laser ''1-kilometer'' in diameter that can irradiate an unarmed ship out past Jupiter.

* WaveMotionGun: The [[http://www.projectrho.com/public_html/rocket/spacegunconvent.php#id--Laser_Cannon--Non-Bomb-Pumped_Lasers Non-bomb Pumped X-Ray Laser]]. A design for a laser '1-kilometer' in diameter that can irradiate an unarmed ship out past Jupiter.

%% * GenerationShip: Plausible, but fraught with problems.
%%* MostWritersAreHuman: As are most readers, to which Chung attributes the difficulties in writing convincing aliens and artificial intelligences.

%% * StandardSciFiHistory: Several pages about how authors can play with this model.

* ShownTheirWork: The technical information, including mathematical formulae, is (mostly) accurate. The writer himself admits that he isn't a real rocket scientist or anything and is ''not'' a good source, so everyone should probably check something else as well. He does link to documents written by ''actual'' rocket scientists, though, so you're free to check those out if you want to see how he reached his conclusions.

%% * CuteKitten: [=RocketCat=], the site's mascot.

%% * RaygunGothic[=/=]AtomPunk: Referred to as 'rocketpunk', to go with SteamPunk and CyberPunk. The whole site is decorated with classic SF art, mostly of this era.
%% * RetroRocket: The ''Polaris'', featured heavily throughout the site.

** Handwavium: Defined as anything that outright breaks physics.

** Macguffinite: The reason you're out in space in the first place. Usually some form of mineable resource.

%% * AppliedPhlebotinum: The introduction discusses this in various flavours:
%% ** Handwavium: Defined as anything that outright breaks physics.
%% ** {{Unobtainium}}: Used in the classic sense; i.e. something that's beyond modern technology but still obeys real-world physics.
%% ** Macguffinite: The reason you're out in space in the first place. Usually some form of mineable resource.
%% * ArtificialGravity: Various methods are discussed, including CentrifugalGravity and classic [[AppliedPhlebotinum handwavium]].
%% * CoolStarship: Most of the technical information is focused around creating these. As is pointed out in the introduction, the ship is usually the centre of attention in SpaceOpera.
%% * FasterThanLightTravel: Discouraged, as are many [[MohsScaleOfScienceFictionHardness soft-SF]] tropes, but Chung's advice if you have to have it is to [[MagicAIsMagicA follow consistent rules]].

%% * MostWritersAreHuman: As are most readers, to which Chung attributes the difficulties in writing convincing aliens and artificial intelligences.
* ReactionlessDrive: Strongly discouraged, but for less obvious reasons: [[TakeOurWordForIt According to Chung]], even a weak reactionless drive is more than capable of [[EarthShatteringKaboom shattering planets]].
* SeeTheWhitesOfTheirEyes: [[AvertedTrope Chung loves debunking this one.]] He and others have pointed out that a space warship wouldn't have windows as there is nothing to see, especially the ship you're shooting at. See that dot? That's a star, the ship is dot you can't see with your Mark I eyeballs.

%% * StealthInSpace: Chung is of the school that believes this is highly unrealistic, if not outright impossible, as all that waste heat from the ship's power source and crew has to go somewhere.
%% * {{Technobabble}}: Chung naturally warns against this, but advises readers to A) keep it consistent and B) include just enough real science that an untrained reader would 'stub their toe' into thinking that it's plausible.
%% * TimeDilation: The site includes relativistic equations, for writers who want to depict this trope.
%% * WritersCannotDoMath: [[AvertedTrope averting this]] is the entire point of the site.

** [[http://www.projectrho.com/public_html/rocket/spacegunconvent.php#warhead Nukes in space]]. While extremely powerful, a combination of the inverse square law and the effects of the vacuum (there's no blast wave in space) means that even a large nuke in the megaton range will fail to deal notable damage against an armored target unless detonated at a ridiculously close distance (single digit kilometers or less), which is impractical given how fast ships can be moving relative to the missile carrying the nuke (not to mention the missile's limited delta-v budget). The fact that explosions deal damage omnidirectionally also means that the energy per square meter is quite low even if you do manage a point-blank detonation. Better to go with a laser, railgun, or shaped charge, which can obtain absurdly higher energy densities even with a fraction of the total energy, which is what matters for penetrating the enemy's defenses.
** [[http://www.projectrho.com/public_html/rocket/spacegunconvent.php#reactorlaser Nuclear bomb-pumped lasers]]. It doesn't get much more awesome than focusing a ''nuclear explosion into a laser beam''. The problem? Only a tiny fraction of the warhead’s X-rays, which are emitted in all directions, are intercepted by the metal tube that focuses them into a laser. From those, a tiny fraction of that fraction is converted into coherent X-rays. In the end, only about a millionth of the bomb's energy is actually converted into a laser - and that laser is still limited in range by the wide divergence of the beam. On top of that, it works for just a microsecond, wastes an expensive nuclear bomb, and each shot destroys its surroundings by detonating. It's potentially useful as a one-shot point-defense weapon for taking down thin-skinned [=ICBMs=], but that's about it (and even in that role, it's outclassed by reactor-pumped lasers for civilizations advanced enough to have them).

** [[http://www.projectrho.com/public_html/rocket/fusionfuel.php#fusioncontain Deuterium-tritium fusion power]]. At 340 terajoules per kilogram, it's one of the most powerful fusion combinations (only exceeded slightly by deuterium-helium3 fusion at 353 terajoules per kilogram, and by proton-proton chain reactions at 645 terajoules per kilogram), so it'd make a great way to propel your spaceship, right? Well, not exactly. See, it produces 80% of its energy as neutrons, which heat your spacecraft and don't provide propulsion unlike soft X-rays; thus the energy you can actually ''use'' is far less than the total energy, and you have to space out your drive components hundreds of feet from where the reaction happens so that the reaction doesn't literally melt them. By contrast, Deuterium-helium3 is just awesome without the impracticality, as it only gives off 5% of its energy as neutrons. Deuterium-deuterium is the BoringButPractical method: it's almost as wasteful as deuterium-tritium, with 66% of its energy being lost to neutrons, but the fact that it only requires deuterium and nothing else gives it effectively infinite fuel (tritium is extremely rare, while deuterium is plentiful in oceans and can be widely synthesized by a Type I civilization).

** [[http://www.projectrho.com/public_html/rocket/spacegunconvent.php#warhead Nukes in space]]. While extremely powerful, a combination of the inverse square law and the effects of the vacuum (there's no blast wave in space) means that even a large nuke in the megaton range will fail to deal notable damage against an armored target unless detonated at a ridiculously close distance (single digit kilometers or less), which is impractical given how fast ships can be moving and how effective point-defense is. The fact that explosions deal damage omnidirectionally also means that the energy per square meter is quite low even if you do manage a point-blank detonation. Better to go with a laser, railgun, or shaped charge, which can obtain absurdly higher energy densities even with a fraction of the total energy, which is what matters for penetrating the enemy's defenses.

** [[http://www.projectrho.com/public_html/rocket/fusionfuel.php#fusioncontain Deuterium-tritium fusion power]]. At 340 terajoules per kilogram, it's one of the most powerful fusion combinations (only exceeded slightly by deuterium-helium3 fusion at 353 terajoules per kilogram, and by proton-proton chain reactions at 645 terajoules per kilogram), so it'd make a great way to propel your spaceship, right? Well, not exactly. See, it produces 80% of its energy as neutrons, which heat your spacecraft and don't provide propulsion unlike soft X-rays; thus the energy you can actually ''use'' is far less than the total energy, and you have to space out your drive components hundreds of feet from where the reaction happens so that the reaction doesn't literally melt them. By contrast, Deuterium-helium3 is AwesomeYetPractical as it only gives off 5% of its energy as neutrons. Deuterium-deuterium is the BoringButPractical method: it's almost as wasteful as deuterium-tritium, with 66% of its energy being lost to neutrons, but the fact that it only requires deuterium and nothing else gives it effectively infinite fuel (tritium is extremely rare, while deuterium is plentiful in oceans and can be widely synthesized by a Type I civilization).

* ShownTheirWork: The technical information, including mathematical formulae, is (mostly) accurate. The writer himself admits that he isn't a real rocket scientist or anything and is ''not'' a good source, so everyone should probably check something else as well.

* AppliedPhlebotinum: The introduction discusses this in various flavours:
** Handwavium: Defined as anything that outright breaks physics.
** {{Unobtainium}}: Used in the classic sense; i.e. something that's beyond modern technology but still obeys real-world physics.
** Macguffinite: The reason you're out in space in the first place. Usually some form of mineable resource.
* ArtificialGravity: Various methods are discussed, including CentrifugalGravity and classic [[AppliedPhlebotinum handwavium]].
* CoolStarship: Most of the technical information is focused around creating these. As is pointed out in the introduction, the ship is usually the centre of attention in SpaceOpera.
* FasterThanLightTravel: Discouraged, as are many [[MohsScaleOfScienceFictionHardness soft-SF]] tropes, but Chung's advice if you have to have it is to [[MagicAIsMagicA follow consistent rules]].
* GenerationShip: Plausible, but fraught with problems.
* MostWritersAreHuman: As are most readers, to which Chung attributes the difficulties in writing convincing aliens and artificial intelligences.

* StandardSciFiHistory: Several pages about how authors can play with this model.

* StealthInSpace: Chung is of the school that believes this is highly unrealistic, if not outright impossible, as all that waste heat from the ship's power source and crew has to go somewhere.
* {{Technobabble}}: Chung naturally warns against this, but advises readers to A) keep it consistent and B) include just enough real science that an untrained reader would 'stub their toe' into thinking that it's plausible.
* TimeDilation: The site includes relativistic equations, for writers who want to depict this trope.
* WritersCannotDoMath: [[AvertedTrope averting this]] is the entire point of the site.

* CuteKitten: [=RocketCat=], the site's mascot.

* RaygunGothic[=/=]AtomPunk: Referred to as 'rocketpunk', to go with SteamPunk and CyberPunk. The whole site is decorated with classic SF art, mostly of this era.
* RetroRocket: The ''Polaris'', featured heavily throughout the site.
* ShownTheirWork: The technical information, including mathematical formulae, is (mostly) accurate.
** Although the writer himself admits that he isn't a real rocket scientist or anything and is NOT a good source, so everyone should probably check something else as well.

* StarshipLuxurious: [[AvertedTrope Not even.]] Most "Scifi" ships in movies and on television, (we're looking at you StarTrek.), have massive hallways and large open spaces more in line with ocean going vessels, particularly passenger ships. (Military vessel hallways are in fact narrow and not so big. Especially on submarines.)

* AlienTropes: A whole page dedicated to them:
** BizarreAlienBiology: Probably a given, considering the radically different environments they will have evolved in.
** RubberForeheadAliens[=/=]HumanAliens: Strongly discouraged, unless the author [[JustifiedTrope has a VERY good explanation]].
** StarfishAliens: The preferred form.
** SufficientlyAdvancedAlien: Along with JustForFun/AbusingTheKardashevScaleForFunAndProfit.

* SpaceIsAnOcean: [[AvertedTrope Nope.]]

** SufficientlyAdvancedAlien: Along with AbusingTheKardashevScaleForFunAndProfit.

* ShownTheirWork: The technical information, including mathematical formulae, is (mostly) accurate.

** RubberForeheadAliens[=/=]HumanAliens: Strongly discouraged, unless the author [[JustifiedTrope has a very good explanation]].

* AppliedPhlebotinum: In various flavours:

* RaygunGothic[=/=]AtomPunk: Referred to as 'rocketpunk', to go with SteamPunk and CyberPunk.

!!Tropes discussed:

** Macguffinite: The reason you're out in space in the first place.

* WritersCannotDoMath: [[AvertedTrope averting this]] is the entire point of the site.