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World-building is Hard!
Oct. 28th, 2009 01:27 pmSo, I've mentioned that I'm working on an as-yet-unnamed Space Opera novel. Said novel is not set on or anywhere near Mars. This is a problem in that I've obsessed about internalized enough information on Mars so that I don't really have to research it. Not so with this puppy!
My first problem is deciding what star system to set the action on. Since humans are traveling slower than light, I wanted it to be fairly nearby. I've kind of decided on Tau Ceti as the system, since it's fairly close but not so close as to be the first place colonized.
Unfortunately, I need to know what stars are nearby, which led to a significant time suck of looking at star maps. The short version is that there is no standard for such maps, and trying to reduce three dimensions to two is really hard. I ended up solving that problem by installing CHView, a freeware app, and cussing at its various limitations.
My next issue was the human propulsion system. Even with matter / anti-matter, getting up to the speed of light really tests the limits of the rocket equation. So, says I, I'll simplify. Instead of running at the speed of light, the humans cruise around at 60% speed-of-light. Thanks to relativity, for the crew, the trip will be fairly short.
Not so fast, alligator-breath! According to this table, the time dilation factor at .6c is only 15%. Noticeable, but your 19.8 year trip to Tau Ceti (11.8 light-years away) will still seem to take 15.8 years. Well, shucks! More to the point, I hate the stupid idea of putting all the crew in suspended animation for the duration. If there is any problem in transit, the crew either wakes up in time to die in terror or never wakes up at all. So, now my crew will be taking shifts - 2/3 in suspended animation, 1/3 up and about.
On the other hand, all this research does seem to be shaking a few cobwebs out of the writing engine.
My first problem is deciding what star system to set the action on. Since humans are traveling slower than light, I wanted it to be fairly nearby. I've kind of decided on Tau Ceti as the system, since it's fairly close but not so close as to be the first place colonized.
Unfortunately, I need to know what stars are nearby, which led to a significant time suck of looking at star maps. The short version is that there is no standard for such maps, and trying to reduce three dimensions to two is really hard. I ended up solving that problem by installing CHView, a freeware app, and cussing at its various limitations.
My next issue was the human propulsion system. Even with matter / anti-matter, getting up to the speed of light really tests the limits of the rocket equation. So, says I, I'll simplify. Instead of running at the speed of light, the humans cruise around at 60% speed-of-light. Thanks to relativity, for the crew, the trip will be fairly short.
Not so fast, alligator-breath! According to this table, the time dilation factor at .6c is only 15%. Noticeable, but your 19.8 year trip to Tau Ceti (11.8 light-years away) will still seem to take 15.8 years. Well, shucks! More to the point, I hate the stupid idea of putting all the crew in suspended animation for the duration. If there is any problem in transit, the crew either wakes up in time to die in terror or never wakes up at all. So, now my crew will be taking shifts - 2/3 in suspended animation, 1/3 up and about.
On the other hand, all this research does seem to be shaking a few cobwebs out of the writing engine.
