Possible Destination for an interstellar cruise ship?

[Flyndaran]

Gives very Flying Dutchman vibes. "Take a trip aboard the living Ghost Ship." "Let the crew regale you with personal tales from before the galactic alliance was even a thought."

[RyanW]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

That sounds like taking a serious detour after describing a murder mystery get-a-way. A sub genre of interactive performance crime to coin a phrase.

You could take a page out of the Star Wars "Cruise" that was (briefly) offered by Disney. It's a massively multiplayer LARP in a nearly sealed hotel built to resemble a spaceship interior, that presents you with various factions you can align with, unlocking invites to various staged events to progress your faction's part of the story line.

Or, based on what I've heard about it, stumble around and hope you get randomly assigned to a story line you find interesting, or find a helpful employee to unlock your features so you can just go to whatever you want after your account glitches out and stops interacting with you at all.

[joppeknol]

You could also go to less developed planets and taste the culture there.

'The Nebula Princess will sail to Andor, home of the medieval Andorese. Safely equipped with cosmetic implants, you'll be able to walk over wonderful bazars and sail with real wind-driven ships. Be amazed at the local customs and witness a real duel fought with blades'.

[Varyon]

Anaraxes suggested this might be a good addition when I came up with it in another thread. A large, airless, largely tide-locked world with an orbital tether. Because the world rotates very slowly, geosynchronous orbit isn't really an option (you'd have to be really far away), but without air you could have the tether be moving rapidly relative to the surface - it'll still be slower than what you'd reach freefalling from orbit. But for our purposes here, the important bit was a side suggestion, that the inhabitants may make a sport of launching golf balls with GPS dots (for tracking them) into the path of the tether, the resulting collision propelling them some distance - possibly even with targets set up for the ball to strike or pass through.

For the opposite planet - a low-gravity world that has an atmosphere - another draw could be human-powered flight. Schlock Mercenary had this as part of a storyline, noting that artificial wings people could strap onto their arms for personal-powered flight was rather popular on Luna. Being able to fly under your own power might be a popular attraction, and watching athletes compete in the air would be rather interesting. There are other things you can do with low-gravity - a human could breach from water like a dolphin, for example.

[Pursuivant]

Originally Posted by Varyon

For the opposite planet - a low-gravity world that has an atmosphere - another draw could be human-powered flight.

Since low-gravity also means low atmosphere (at least usually, over the long run) such planets are rare. Space habitats or spaceships with low gravity and 1+ ATM air pressure will be much more common, however, with interior size limited only by budgets and material strengths.

The ability to engage in low-G and null-G activities in an air-filled environment is one of the great appeals of space tourism and will likely remain so until contragravity technology becomes a reality.

[RyanW]

Originally Posted by Pursuivant

Since low-gravity also means low atmosphere (at least usually, over the long run) such planets are rare. Space habitats or spaceships with low gravity and 1+ ATM air pressure will be much more common, however, with interior size limited only by budgets and material strengths.

There are four ways to make a planet hold atmosphere: make it bigger, make it denser, make it colder, or make it actively generate atmosphere. None are particularly good at making Planet Bounce-House. Bigger and denser both make gravity stronger, much colder and it very quickly becomes uninhabitable, and active atmosphere generation doesn't tend to generate a pleasant atmosphere (Io ain't the kind of place to raise your kids. In fact it's covered in a thin blanket of sulfur dioxide.)

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by RyanW

There are four ways to make a planet hold atmosphere: make it bigger, make it denser, make it colder, or make it actively generate atmosphere.

Well, you can also change the atmospheric composition, though that's only helpful if you don't care about being able to breathe. Your best bet is probably something large and low density, which likely means a very high water content (say, an iceball that migrated inwards).

[Varyon]

Originally Posted by Pursuivant

Since low-gravity also means low atmosphere (at least usually, over the long run) such planets are rare. Space habitats or spaceships with low gravity and 1+ ATM air pressure will be much more common, however, with interior size limited only by budgets and material strengths.

The ability to engage in low-G and null-G activities in an air-filled environment is one of the great appeals of space tourism and will likely remain so until contragravity technology becomes a reality.

Space habitats and ships aren't going to be as large, plus there's an appeal to doing things under an open sky. In Schlock Mercenary, Luna has an atmosphere 6x as deep as Earth's, giving it around 1 atm at sea level. It's stated that the loss of atmosphere to space is fairly slow, although I'd imagine it requires replenishing every so often. This is all explicitly the result of terraforming, and I wouldn't be surprised if superscience were involved there. But your cruise ship isn't limited to going to purely natural locations, and the superscience bag is already open if you've got interstellar cruise ships as a thing (I guess you could technically have a "cruise ship" where everyone spends the time between destinations in cold sleep and doesn't get back home for a few millennia).

[Astromancer]

Originally Posted by RyanW

There are four ways to make a planet hold atmosphere: make it bigger, make it denser, make it colder, or make it actively generate atmosphere. None are particularly good at making Planet Bounce-House. Bigger and denser both make gravity stronger, much colder and it very quickly becomes uninhabitable, and active atmosphere generation doesn't tend to generate a pleasant atmosphere (Io ain't the kind of place to raise your kids. In fact it's covered in a thin blanket of sulfur dioxide.)

It occurs to me that a low density atmosphere is better than none of resisting radiation and micrometeors. So why not build giant tents? They would need to be tough and durable tents but less so than on a vacuum world. Under the canopies of the tents, which between low gravity and TL11+ technology could be vast, you could have planet Bounce-House.

[Varyon]

Originally Posted by Astromancer

It occurs to me that a low density atmosphere is better than none of resisting radiation and micrometeors. So why not build giant tents? They would need to be tough and durable tents but less so than on a vacuum world. Under the canopies of the tents, which between low gravity and TL11+ technology could be vast, you could have planet Bounce-House.

That's another option, although with the fact you need to construct a habitat rather than being truly open-air it's arguably more similar to an orbital habitat. Somewhere like Cimbrean in Deathworlders, with a breathable atmosphere and low (-ish) gravity might arguably be somewhat ideal, if available.