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First look at this video, of the upcoming television series and tell me what you think.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25ZuWjy … e=youtu.be
Notice that the ship incorporates a Saturn V rocket in its launch configuration, in orbit with some hab attached. Using the technology of 1963 I think there is only one place to send a generation ship and that would be Earth itself. The CalcTool http://www.calctool.org/CALC/phys/astro … anet_orbit indicates that an orbit with a semimajor axis of 21.54685 au would have a period of 100 years, and since 100 years is a multiple of Earth's orbit period, the Earth would be in the same position more or less as when it left. So at the time this television series is set the ship would be about 42.0937 au away from the Sun or about the distance of Pluto and heading back inward. That is the only place they could send a generation ship too with the technology of 1963. Somehow they would have to get a fully fueled Saturn V rocket into low Earth orbit, assuming they could accomplish this, could they send it into a 100 years cometary orbit around the Sun? I know they couldn't do it in secret so forget that, but what are the obstacles that you think they would face, and what solutions might they use. One of the hard parts would be surviving for 100 years in space. Lets have a discussion of the technical merits and problems with the television series premise.
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According to the wiki page they are headed to Proxima Centauri so they must have some sort of fission drive. Project NERVA developed a rocket engine using nuclear fission in the 60's so it's not so far out of what was technically feasible.
Bob Clark
Old Space rule of acquisition (with a nod to Star Trek - the Next Generation):
“Anything worth doing is worth doing for a billion dollars.”
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Trying to analyze this logically is like trying to figure out the energy output of Gandalfs magic wand in the LOTR movies by dividing over the mass of incinerated goblin flesh left behind.
The show is clearly some kind of social commentary on the 50's and it's stiffing social conformity, nationalism and the dark undersides of each. Putting people in a space-ship is just a means of achieving isolation and heightening the dramatic tension, the whole thing could have been in an underground bomb-shelter if they had wanted to be more realistic, but this twist has the advantage of being new at least when combined with the 50's era culture, all other world-ship ideas have been in the far-future when the idea is at least remotely plausible.
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I saw that. But there's another trailer, with a completely different ship.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJqQ4OdPcAo
According to the CBC interview with star Tricia Helfer, the basis is Project Orion. And the ship in this video is Project Orion. That's nuclear pulse propulsion. There are members on this forum who have said Project Orion could launch a ship as big as a cruise ship to the nearest star in 100 years. Well, the premise of this show is they did exactly that. Project Orion ran from 1957 (right after Sputnik) until 1964. This show claims a ship launched in 1963 with 600 colonists for Proxima Centauri. That is the nearest star. Don't know what's up with the Saturn V.
We don't get the SyFy network in Canada. And their website blocks video from anyone with an IP address registered outside the US. The CBC will air the show starting February 9. I'll have to wait unless it's available for download.
I suspect the show is nostalgia for those who remember the optimism and expectations of the space race. We accomplished great things, from the first satellite to men on the Moon in 12 years. By the way, Astronautix has original bids for Apollo from 1960. JFK's famous speech at Rice University was 1961, but he ensured NASA had a plan to do it before he gave his speech. Smart man. So 9 years from JFK giving orders to NASA to men on the Moon. Great things, but also cold war fear.
The show is trying to capitalize on political intrigue. Many shows have done that: West Wing, Battlestar Galactica, others. The fact they cast Tricia Helfer means they want the same plot twists and intrigue as Battlestar. What better than the real angst of the Cold War?
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Any thought of going that many years for such an orbit requires nuclear power for crews life support and seperate nuclear power for propulsion.
The crews food source and water quantities then depend on the crew size and activity needs to stay healthy.
Then there is waste removal and recycling for water recovery and for fertilizing any garden plants that might later be used for food or for physicalogical reasons as well.
Archetecture layout of ships quarters & mess hall, exercise area and science stations would then be next in any designed to be built in earth orbit.
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Well I guess on Orion concept could conceivably do the job of leaving the solar system, but the lack of any effective reusable bulk landing craft would make actual colonization of another planet impossible, you could throw one way capsules down to the surface with people cramped in like sardines but they would be less equipped to start and sustain a colony then the English were at Jamestown. If the planet were a perfectly virgin Earth you would still be looking at 90% dead in under a year.
Also shouldn't a world ship make aggressive use of gravity assists before using it's propellent reserves, they take time but we expect a VERY long journey, Earth and Venus are the two most massive bodies in the inner solar system and can be used repeatedly, maybe you should spend a decade bouncing between the two before you really depart. Jupiter would be nice to use too but it is hard to do because of the Radiation.
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Found a program that makes my IP address appear to be within the United States. I can view trailers on the SyFy website, but still can't view the full episode. They have it locked, you need an account for a cable company that carries SyFy. Download sites to the rescue! Downloaded each episode just hours after it aired. Don't worry, I'll watch it on CBC as well.
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Is it any good?
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Plot twists. Mostly intrigue, infidelity, who-done-it. Very little hard-core science/technical. I think it's good. Don't want to give away spoilers.
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You'd think if they were shooting each other, there would be a few holes in the spaceship.
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Security had short sticks with taser prongs. But someone smuggled a small calibre handgun onto the ship; not at launch, but during the episode. This raised the question why the crew on the ship believed it was there all along. They said bullet was too small to punch a hole through the hull, just large enough to kill.
Silly Hollywood plot. I would think all the political machinations around deciding a destination, getting a destination instead of just pork-barrel, and actually getting the job done, would be enough. Look at what's happening in real life. There's enough there for a whole season of a TV series. Then they could have the launch. Everyone remembers Apollo 13, but every mission other than the last one had something significant go wrong. Apollo 17 was perfect, no failures, but it was the only one. The Astronauts soldiered on, got the job done. Now image that for Mars. This could make an interesting show without all the infidelity, murder, and fakery.
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I'm having difficulty even watching this. Adulterers. The latest is the security officer for the ship discovered that his wife had committed adultery. Not recently, but some time in the past. He's beating up the accused. This is the guy who's supposed to be the police officer for the ship. The security officer is demonstrating he doesn't have ability to perform the duties and responsibilities of his office. He can't even be allowed to be an officer at all after this display. Meanwhile, the captain's affair was made public. The captain's wife acted all holier-than-thou even though she's been fucking one of the councillors. The captain's wife chose not to have a child because she's sleeping around. The captain had a child by yet another woman, a "lower deck" worker. That was exposed, manipulation at the council to remove the captain for this.
This is not a space exploration show any more. And it hits home. In 1989/1990 I lived common law with a woman. She started the relationship by asking me on a date, then she insisted on moving in. I told her if she did that, then she has to accept all the commitment and responsibility of a common law relationship. The last half of that year we were engaged. That is, after 6 months living together I asked her to marry me, she said yes. But she had ambitions within the medieval recreation society. The Society for Creative Anachronism had a tournament every 6 months. The winner becomes crown prince for 6 months, then king for 6 months. It's just within the club, but the "king" gets to set club rules. We were in Toronto at the time, the club chapters in Ontario organized a "crown principality", and held a tournament to select their "prince". I was the only member from our chapter to participate as a contestant, but I lost. Then she started looking. I had to leave town one weekend. My cousin's wedding, I had committed to be an usher before I met my fiancé. But she had her heart set on a club camping event. We had already attended one wedding for my family, and a wedding of one of her friends. She absolutely panicked at not attending that club event, and I fulfill my commitments, so I thought we could be apart one weekend. That was the first night we spent apart since she moved in with me. But she found some stranger and fucked him. She came home with a hickey on her nipple. I was devastated. I demanded she never see the guy again, but the more I did, the more she went to him. Hell itself couldn't be worse than those last 2 weeks. At one point she tried to convince me to hunt down her new boyfriend and kill him. If I did that, he would be dead and I would be in jail. I left the province. She had a 9-year-old daughter from a previous marriage who had accepted me as her step-father. My step-daughter was devastated when I moved out. When I returned to get my stuff, she wasn't there, her parents were with the daughter. The daughter ran to her room crying, saying "Oh no, not again!"
A year later, I returned for another club event. I had imported some supplies for the Winnipeg chapter, the minimum order, but didn't sell enough to local members to recover my money. So went to Toronto to sell the surplus. It worked, I recovered my money plus enough for gas. But they were there. I challenged the guy to a sparing match. He agreed. The club sport is medieval heavy fighting, which uses wooden swords that are actually rattan, and wrapped in duct tape. But the same weight and balance as a real medieval sword. And we're trained in martial arts techniques. The sport is full contact, full speed. We wear real 16 gauge steel armour with padding, but even with that you get bruises and occasionally someone will get a broken bone. He wore an extra heavy helmet; I recognised it and know who made it. I was able to whack the guy over the head with a stick, as heavy as a baseball bat but better balanced so I could hit harder. But he had a 12-gauge spun-pot helmet, so no damage. No one got hurt, but it felt real good to whack the guy in the head! Got it out of my system. Mostly. That was a lot safer than hunting him with a gun. If I hadn't left the province for a year, I wouldn't have been able to contain myself to such a controlled release.
I'm sure that's part of the reason I'm still single. Have trouble trusting women. But this show is triggering flash-backs. It's like post traumatic stress. So why am I watching this?
Last edited by RobertDyck (2014-12-18 09:31:13)
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It is only 50 years into a 100 year mission, and I don't think the television show will last 50 years, there is nothing to do but cheat on each other and commit adultery. You remember there was once a Soap Opera called "Another World", it didn't really take place on Another World, my mom used to watch such stuff when I was a kid. I didn't get why it was called "Another World", it wasn't science fiction.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Another_World_(TV_series)
I thought it was a boring show, they didn't really get to explore other worlds, they mostly connived and cheated on each other. From its description Ascension sounds a lot like a soap opera.
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