Re: Rationalizing a Firefly - Serenity type setting
 

If it was more than a hundred light years it did require FTL.

I can't even say if a multi-star system like the 'Verse even without considering planets is within 100 ly.

Re: Rationalizing a Firefly - Serenity type setting
 

Right. But who said anything about tourist traps?

:0

Re: Rationalizing a Firefly - Serenity type setting
 

If they have a practical way to go somewhere habitable, it seems unlikely that they'd spend a lot of time on the dead rockballs.

Re: Rationalizing a Firefly - Serenity type setting
 

Going faster than 1% the speed of light isn't realistic for anything other than tiny probes.

Re: Rationalizing a Firefly - Serenity type setting
 

Bad wording on my part. I meant likely to sustain populations greater than tiny research stations.

Re: Rationalizing a Firefly - Serenity type setting
 

Ah, right.

No, no, I tend to agree.

But on the other hand, if we are going to apply those standards of realism, why the heck did people leave Earth-that-Was?

If they had such amazing terraforming tech, why not terraform Earth back into a livable state?

There are some quirky things in the Firefly backstory. I'm not saying they can't be explained. I'm only pointing out that they do seem to require further explanation (or not, maybe it doesn't matter for the stories being told...).


Was the terraforming tech only developed past a rudimentary level AFTER humans arrived in the 'Verse?


Is it perhaps based on the environmental life support, gravitics, and ecoystems tech used in the generation ships?

Were those generation ships or sleeper ships?

Re: Rationalizing a Firefly - Serenity type setting
 

"B Ark"

http://www.geoffwilkins.net/fragments/Adams.htm

It explains so much.

Re: Rationalizing a Firefly - Serenity type setting
 

So do Barrow and McMurdo. Don't need sealed pressure suits for those, either.

Re: Rationalizing a Firefly - Serenity type setting
 

If they have the terraforming tech to make any planet or moon in the "habitable zone" into a very earthlike world, then it seems unlikely they would leave Earth. They could have used the tech to fix the environmental problems on Earth.




What's this about ''dead rockballs"?

Maybe the reference to enviro-suits threw you a bit? I didn't write vacc-suit, although those would fall under that general heading. So would some haz-mat gear. So would a ''still-suit.''

I'm not talking about worlds that cannot be terra-formed. I'm saying that terraforming may not be able to make every world in the super-system's habitable zone into a comfortable, hospitable Earth copy. Some worlds may turn out very harsh and challenging for humans without the right gear/drugs/genemods. Possibly deadly. And the process may take centuries to complete, even on worlds with natural conditions much more like present Earth than like Mars, even if it is really advanced.

Does that all make sense?

Re: Rationalizing a Firefly - Serenity type setting
 

I don't see what the need is. It fits better with the travel system changed to a traditional FTL. The basic idea of Firefly is simply Space Cossacks running around in the grey zone of the law, blowing raspberries at authority, and being obscure enough to get away with it. That would work just as good in most 'verses.