[Space] Steampunk Firefly Idea

[Daigoro]

Originally Posted by tshiggins

In that book, Wells invents (whole-cloth) unobtanium known as cavorite, which has the incredibly useful ability to shield mass from the effects of gravity from a single direction. A spherical vessel of glass and steel, with "windows or blinds" made of cavorite, can be steered through interplanetary space.

I'd change that around, some, and harden it up a bit. I'd say cavorite blocks Higgs bosons from interacting with matter, but only if the cavorite has a powerful electrical charge. So, the way a space craft launches or breaks orbit is to suddenly discharge capacitors into the cavorite sheathing, which negates gravity's affect on the mass of the spaceship temporarily.

So the ship's velocity is imparted by the moon's rotation at take-off? This means equatorial launch sites are favoured, and that aerodynamics would be important. Also, exact time of launch would be important, but you could disengage the cavorite and go into orbit until you're on the target vector. However, why don't they just use gravity to navigate to their destination? It would be more powerful than low thrust magsails. Perhaps the cavorite is extremely energy intensive and can only be used for short durations, but then what advantage does it have over rockets?

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

If we benefit/need a little more, and they benefit/need a lot more, why wouldn't a commensurate change in radiation have a commensurate change in disease?
Extremophiles don't just survive in extreme environements, they evolve to need them.

So similar to how lack of exposure to sunlight causes rickets, bowel cancer and Seasonal Affective Disorder? Possible, but I don't see GURPS paying much attention to those things. What kinds of disease would you envision? And as some people are suggesting these moons would be bathed in radiation, no-radiation zones would only be low likelihood hazards.

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

Nah, you "adapt" to high radiation by successfully reproducing yourself and possibly even dying of old age before the radiation kills you. this is why the Chernobyl exclusion zone is a fine habitat for small rodents.

Hormesis may stimulate some systems in the short run but radiation sickness and/or cancer will get anything with a lifespan like a human.

I presume we're talking about the home moon of this human race, which evolved here over millions of years and have now reached a TL for space travel. That's why I said "evolved", not "raised". The link with radiation hormesis is just to show that there are mechanisms for dealing with high radiation levels and possible precedents in human populations. And the Wikipedia link is indeed suggesting that at certain exposures of radiation there is lower than expected rates of radiation sickness and cancer, not just in the "short run".