GURPS Lucifer-5?

[warellis]

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

There's no direct path from the tech boosts in energy and propulsion to materials sciences and you don't see even vaguely effective body armor in our timeline til late TL7. You'd need something from Martian bio-tech or something else found on Venus to boost their body armor technology.

Either would be possible but Martian bioplastic would be not reproducible on Earth for a significant period of time. Venus could produce extremely strong "spider silk" that could be made into the material Gurps sometimes calls "Arachnoweave".

I had already pegged Venus as the source for "veetex" the unimaginatively named "Venusian latex" that the setting would use to produce the equivalent of TL9 Skin suits from UT. Those would be needed for the large number of spacesuits used in constructing the many projects that are canonical across the Solar System.

Indirect links tot he tech boosts could be seen in use of energy hungry metals production for aluminum and then titanium. Those could be used to replace all the steel I put in my sample rocket but would not be likely to revolutionize body armor.

What kind of capabilities do the Martians have in your version of Lucifer-5? And do you think some type of atomic energy weapon would become standard here, much like in say Tales of the Solar Patrol?