[Space] Steampunk Firefly Idea

[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.