#hard scifi

[jayrockin]

Runaway to the Stars

Alien, trans-species foster Talita has enough to deal with on the scrapworld of Dirtball. And the sly, crimey A.I. Bip isn't helping!

The Kickstarter for the print and pdf book editions of Runaway to the Stars is now live! Come check it out!

Also it hit 200% funded before I even woke up?? That's crazy? I still need to finish my coffee and make announcement posts aaaaa

[astragifs]

[spacenoirdetective]

Marc Simonetti, cover art for "Special War" by Xavier Mauméjean

[spacemostserene]

Pr.2104 Radien, Raketnyy Kreyser Flotya. Reporting name: FORTIS class Guided Missile Cruiser Equipment: 2x SS-AB-2 "KONKORD" PD/AShM 6x GSh-23-2 CIWS 14x SS-B-2 "SAPPHIR" AShM 5x "PLATINA" ECM Crew: 86 Length: 151m Mass: 3120 tonnes Engines: twin Saturn-1 NTRs Numbers built: 30

The Radien-class RKF is the principal combatant of the Soviet VDF.

It is designed and built as a lower cost alternative to the Rezonans-class, difference being a reduction in "SAPPHIR" AShMs and removal of the twin "OBELIT" OECM directors.

It is a massive dV store and at the very least, demonstrated to be capable of a brachistochrone transfer from Earth to Jupiter.

"SAPPHIR" AShM warheads are expected to be kinetic kill vehicles and nuclear shaped charges.

Designed in the 1960s and first deployed early 1970, it is aged in the current year of 1985. It has seen little refit and upgrades and is largely the same design as the class was first launched.

However its sheer size and ease of maintenance and reliability has kept it in continued service, and is a common sight in squadrons and task forces of the VDF to this present day.

[ivebeentotheforest]

Sandworms in battle - Dune: Part Two (2024)

[spyglassrealms]

Jupiter is the fifth and largest planet in the solar system: a cold and violent world bearing enormous cyclones several times larger than its own moons and overwhelmingly potent radiation belts within its magnetic field. In addition to hundreds of minor moons scattered across its vast gravity well (the Jovian Sphere), the gas giant also has four airless planetoid moons (called the Galileans): Io, a sulfur-laden, radiation-scoured, and highly volcanic rocky world; Europa, a frozen world hiding a vast, life-filled water ocean between its icy crust and iron-silicate core; Ganymede, the only moon in the system with a natural magnetic field; and Callisto, a deeply scarred and tidally-locked body well outside the main radiation belts.

While living on the planet itself is impossible for a variety of reasons, its vast gravity well (called the Jovian Sphere or Jovian System) is well-populated. Its four largest moons, as well as numerous minor moons, are collectively inhabited by over half a billion people under the banner of the Jovian System Federation —among the most influential sovereign powers in the Sol system. First established as a United Nations Territory in the early 2100s, human presence over Jupiter grew steadily beyond its original handful of scattered science outposts as the need for self-sustained local industry increased. The combined provisional governments of the four major moons, as well as numerous minor ones, soon filed for independence from direct UN administration and formed the JSF: a federal body presiding over the administration of local space, industry regulation, trade agreements, social welfare, and other matters outside the scope of local governments.

Representation of Jovians is organized into delegations from each of the four major moons (Callisto, Ganymede, Europa, and Io), plus a delegation for the Jupiter Ring Territories (the minor bodies and stations inside the orbit of Callisto) and the Outer Jovian Territories (the minor bodies and stations outside the orbit of Callisto). These representatives meet regularly in the Jovian Federal Senate in Valhalla City, on Callisto, to deliberate on matters of Jovian-wide importance.

Jupiter’s biggest export of the present day is energy, but not by way of fusion power. Though Jupiter is a bountiful source of both hydrogen and helium, its intense gravity well makes extracting resources from the planet itself quite a challenge even for fusion torch-scoops. Instead, the energy is extracted by passive induction stations on Io that generate massive electrical currents as they pass through the powerful magnetic field of the stormy giant. The currents are used to power enormous, precisely-calibrated laser beaming arrays that transmit energy across the system. Ships are directed to stay far away from the beam-paths of the Zeus Array, as even slightly grazing one will have disastrous consequences and Sol System Traffic Control would prefer to not need to clean up any divine smitings.

photobash of a future Jupiter and its moons plus their flags, created for my hard science fiction setting Astra Planeta. it is SO HARD to get a shot of all four Galilean moons together with Jupiter! I did what I could to balance things out but the difference in scale and distances between the objects put some serious limits on the composition. done using assets from Space Engine.

[orionlodubyal]

The Expanse - Low budget spin-off shows I'd watch the hell out of . . .

Since making more The Expanse would be expensive, I propose some super low cost projects that could tide us Screaming Firehawks over for a little while. Here are shows I'd throw my subscription dollars at. A thread, in no particular order:

1/ Elvi and Fayez doing science while Fayez tries repeatedly to get Elvi to eat something and/or take a nap.

2/ Tales of Muskrat the Very Good Space Doggo

3/ Prax making botany metaphors about non-botany things. Possibly while doing crime.

4/ Recut Season 4 with just the Amos and Murtry scenes and set it to the music of The Good The Bad and The Ugly. Just loop it - I'd watch that all day.

5/ Avasarala writing mean, sweary texts to people.

6/ Avasarala trying outfits on from her closet. That's it.

[datasparrow]

Greetings from Mankind's Reach

(We know, we know, we're late.)