Writing Sci-FI with Current Day Tech (Let's Get Mundane!)

O Kay, so this is a thought experiment. Let's get REAL mundane. Imagine a better funded space program plus increased commercial interest in space. The best ships we've got in this setting are the venerable Soyuz capsules the Russians have been using since before the 8-track, the Orion Crew Module (America's replacement for the space shuttle), and the good ol' Space Shuttle has just been retired. Then there's commercial vehicles like Spaceship One.

Assume all engines are conventional rockets, not any kind of even vaguely futuristic machines. No Plasma rockets, no Orion Pulse Drives (except maybe on unmanned deep space probes). No FTL.

My thoughts:

• Space Shuttle orbiter hulls could be salavaged, repurposed for lunar missions, and carry multiple landers in their bays. They'd no longer need wings or a tail fin and could fit additional propulsion units there in order to have enough thrust to break Earth's orbit. If there are safety concerns about the orbiter, a similar vehiclde could be constructed cheaply in orbit, even using the discarded stages of rockets from the 60's and 70's, without any of the aerodynamic touches or landing gear. All it would need is a crew module, one of those robotic arms, and a bay to carry planetary landers of whatever other equipment is needed: "Moon Shuttles." The lander crews could set up equipment to tap the water supply on the moon for hydrogen fuel.

possibly Mars, too, if the superstructure of the spacecraft can be expanded for a longer mission, which should be easy as these would be modular vehicles, with the interior based on the Shuttle only- they don't need to be aerodynamic or too light since they'll never land or lift off; they could probably be attached to larger units easily)

• Tourism- private industry- maybe even put some "staterooms" on the ISS for dignitaries. The governments involved in the ISS could even contract with these companies, offering tax breaks or some other incentive in exchange for promoting public interest in space.

• As we establish outposts on other worlds we would eventually construct modular stations in orbit like the ISS.

• Getting Manpower Into Space: We could cheaply build large "space cruisers" in orbit to facilitate transportation of construction crews, technicians, etc. They'd be barebones. A powerplant, rockets, and basic crew amenities. Then we send up the technicians and laborers in rockets and deposit some hefty cash in their account back home.

• Eventually we'd establish mining operations at resource-heavy points in the solar system and further improve our technology by gaining access to these resources.

• It goes without saying that multiple networks of satellites would be required for communication, and communication wouldn't always be real-time, esp. the farther one goes.

• Physiological effects of long term missions in microgravity environments (bone density loss, for example) would have to be closely monitored and the Space Programs would have to work closely with medical establishments... the field of Space Medicine, in its infancy now, could be born. (I won't speculate about solutions like genetically enginnered enzymes, as this is a modern tech thread.)

• Space medicine, space crystallography, etc... experiments already being performed now. It's possible that crystal manufacturing in space could be a boon to the Earth's economy is more ways than one.

So... other ideas for tech? Story ideas? Let's hear'em.

I had this idea that since you don't have the atmosphere shielding you, solar radiation would be more powerful. What if you could absorb this radiation as a source of energy. You could fuel orbital factories with an effectively infinite power source that's only limit is how many collectors you can afford. Whats more, if you put the collectors out at the lagrange points you'd spend very little time in either the moon's or earth's shadow so the factories could work continuously.

...admittedly, I'd plan to make a gundam varient based on this.

^ It has been suggested; a spacebourne solar power plant

Working from ISS-tech is a limitation, IMO you'd do better with an inflatable module, more internal volume for the mass (compare the ISS to a trio of BA-330s). BTW, Plasma drives are current tech, not future tech (read up on the VX-200), yet cheap space launches are still little more than a dream, though results from the SABRE engine are looking promising.

If you're looking for cheaper space launches, there are a variety of non-rocket space launch methods that could be viable within your setting.

INSIDE OF YOU THERE ARE TWO WOLVES. BOTH OF THEM WANT YOU TO SHOOT ELVIS.

The first one might work, but the others seem unlikely to me, probably be better scaling up a Stratolaunch Systems type platform.

edited 18th Sep '13 9:23:47 PM by MattII

Plasma Drives exist? And I thought I made them up for my novel! It just sounded realistic: plasma rockets.

^^ True- Also a "Space Elevator" (magnetic or laser-powered, likely) would have many advantages over expensive launches

Launching from an aircraft like Spaceship One launches from White Knight could be another alternative.

RE: ISS tech

Yeah, that's more what I was thinking any- not multiple ISS units or exact replicas, but various stations based on ISS technology but made from more ready materials like inflatable modules as compared to the one orbiting Earth. All the tech would need to be ISS-compatible though.

edited 19th Sep '13 5:05:57 AM by fulltimeD

Nope, they exist, although they're not actually rockets per-se. You couldn't use them for launching rockets though, because they have crap thrust (but can keep it up for months).

That's what the Stratolaunch Systems idea is, White Knight scaled up to have a 380+ foot wingspan, with a rocket hanging between the bodies.

^ perfect, the ship has different thruster and gyro stabilizing systems for landing and re-launching; the ship in question would have to be launched vertically after landing like an aircraft, too (it's really old in the setting). The Plasma Rockets would be its sublight drive, whioch is perfect, b/c the engineer always complains how it should be replaced, and the vessel is much more reliant on a heavily modified FTL Drive for getting anywhere. ^Fascinating... (raises eyebrow)

edited 21st Sep '13 1:27:13 PM by fulltimeD

in my novel, EVERYONE that is part of the Starfarer culture purposely uses terminology, so any kind of sublight drive is a "rocket" and they get pissed off when Planetsiders call FTL "hyperdrive."

No "Bridge": Flight deck, Command Module Starfarers don't even like to say Starship. They prefer to call almost everything except large warships "spacecraft," "crates," "rigs," "boats, "rockets"... Retro Language and Terms are preferred because they consider themselves the heirs of the tradition of the Astronaut, the Prospector, the Frontiersman. They know Planetsiders "Star Trek"-like shows (or upload them to their brains) and have a lot of misconceptions about life in space.

edited 25th Sep '13 5:44:37 AM by fulltimeD

^ Was using example from my own work, not trying to bring FTL into this discussion as that's not mundane tech

Check these out. Inflatible space habitats.

"We learn from history that we do not learn from history."

I'm thinking maybe an alternate timeline where privatization of space travel started occurring earlier by several decades (like in the seventies) are spaceplanes like the shuttle are developed by corporations with better funding than NASA. Then some of those 1970's/80's space concepts might might it past the concept art and the drawing board. The eighties might have been the building of an International Space Station as a cooperative venture between the USA and the USSR and their allies on both sides of the Cold War. By the 2000's, it would be bigger and grander. Space warfare and certain weapons would be banned by the UN, so the competition comes in the form of the corporations trying to outdo each other with space projects. Maybe the original '76 release of Star Wars would have inspired this as it turned many people on to science fiction who didn't consider themselves the sort of person to watch or read sci-fi.

I had this idea for a setting involving private spaceflight companies just starting out. It mostly boils down to a KSP fanfic.