[Space] Steampunk Firefly Idea

[scc]

OK, so this idea is biting me again. The setting in a nut shell is K2 star with a gas giant at 0.62 AU with 3 habitable moons, all three moons will be about half the diameter of Earth, so quite small.

TL is 6 for the most part but with TL7 spaceflight allowing humanity to colonize the other two moons. Most notable that most places reserve the use of petroleum for use in space flight, good for preserving that Steampunk feel.

For Great Powers I'm thinking of stand-ins for the British Empire, France (Republic?) and Germany along with near great powers of USA, Spain and maybe Portugal representing Western, would there be others but? I'm thinking Japan is possible, but any suggestions?

Most actual conflict at this point is fighting over colonies, so limited to relatively small infantry based affairs with light vehicles and limited air ability, there are no space based weapons.

Other then a map and a plot is there anything a setting like this needs?

There's also another habitable planet at 0.39 AU and 3 other stars if I need to expand things.

[Maz]

Where does the Firefly aspect come into play?

[Phantasm]

China for the East. China has always pretty much dominated the Far East, long before Japan became a power. WWII was the height of Japan's domination, and even then they only barely managed to hold China's northern holdings. TL6 was the Boxer Rebellion, with grass-roots rebellion against Western imperialism and Christian missionaries, and who can forget the mythical "my Shaolin Kung Fu training will protect me from bullets!" train of thought that popped up in popular culture.

[Gold & Appel Inc]

More importantly, if we're doing some variation on Firefly here, Chinese stuff is everywhere in the series (except the ethnicities of the main cast), while Japanese stuff is nowhere to be seen.

If this is supposed to be steampunkish, I'd personally dispense with TL7 trappings entirely, use some kind of TL 6+2 handwavium to achieve escape velocity, and then just use steam-based propulsion for maneuvering in vacuum. Whichever PC is the "Big Guy" can have the official job title of Coal Shoveler on a spaceship.

[Propjock]

Originally Posted by Gold & Appel Inc

If this is supposed to be steampunkish, I'd personally dispense with TL7 trappings entirely, use some kind of TL 6+2 handwavium to achieve escape velocity, and then just use steam-based propulsion for maneuvering in vacuum. Whichever PC is the "Big Guy" can have the official job title of Coal Shoveler on a spaceship.

Agree. GURPS Steampunk also mentions space travel in the form of ether/reactionless drives.

[CeeDub]

Don't forget Russia! Armored Bears!

[scc]

The comparison to Firefly is more to do with the nature of the 'Verse then anything. As for China, they weren't a Great Power

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by Propjock

Agree. GURPS Steampunk also mentions space travel in the form of ether/reactionless drives.

Also, the apes of TL7 space travel is the Saturn 5 rocket. That's just 3 men and a minimal amount of supplies. hardly colonization stuff.

Lower gravity on the world launching the thing will only go so far. That probably has less effect on the Delta-V required than you might hope for.

One the other end, a breathable atmosphere and higher than lunar gravity does seriously mess with the design of what you're replacing the Lunar module with.

I'd say almost be definition technology that enabled colonization in this scenario would have to be TL9 if there's no superscience involved.

So you want superscience. The Skylark of Space is probably the most accessible source of in-period technobabble but there were other stories of Emergent Superscience from the TL6. Verne might just miss the right dates but H.G. Wells is in the first third of it. Edgar Rice Burroughs was just a little later.

[scc]

I've built surface to orbit spaceplane, 23.2 tons cargo, 64.5 tons Hydrogran-Oxygen fuel, $51,600 to refuel, interface rates of $2,224.137931 per ton, or under $1.20 per pound, or $2.40 after putting in a generous allowance for other costs, very cheap. Trans-Lunar shipping costs are probably about the same, so a shipper being charged $5 per pound and charging $10 per pound is probably the prices for moving goods

[Peter Knutsen]

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

Lower gravity on the world launching the thing will only go so far. That probably has less effect on the Delta-V required than you might hope for.

Really? I'm surprised at this. It's been my impression that if, e.g., Earth's gravity had been just 5% lower, getting up into orbit would have been much easier. Still requiring a 3-stage rocket, probably, but much cheaper, and with much less of having to stretch TL7 engineering to its absolute limits.