From: Christopher Weuve <caw@w...>
Date: Fri, 1 Aug 1997 14:34:22 -0400
Subject: Spin gravity and tangents (was Re: OFF-TOPIC mini review B5 Wars)
Apologies in advance for the tangental topics below. > 1) On Wed, Jul 30, 1997 at 12:57:29 PM, "Phillip E. Pournelle" wrote: > >> Hahahahaha! Zero-G is the LEAST of their problems. If that the > >> rest of the ship starts spinning! > can read about sanely operated war ships in Mote in God's Eye. Another good example of this is Michael McCollum's _Antares_ series, which includes ships with rings surrounding a cylindrical core. The ships rotate when not accelerating or engaging in hangar bay ops. I recommend McCollum's books, with one caveat -- if you haven't read either _Mote_ nor the _Antares_ books, read the _Antares_ books *first*. The technology is fundamentally similar in both (except McCollum doesn't have force fields), and while MM does a better job of describing what the ships look like, the mechanics of the jump drive, etc., JEP and LN are better prosesmiths. This should not be interpreted as a criticism of Mr. McCollum -- I am a _really_ big fan of his work, and own all of his novels. (I may own all of JEP's, as well -- he's more prolific, so there's more to keep track of.) See my sig below for info on McCollum. 2) Has anyone attempted a gaming campaign based on either the _Mote_ or _Antares_ backgrounds? I would expect that Pournelle's end of the First Empire period (Sauron War) would provide some exciting campaigns, as would the battle between the _MacArthur_ and the New Chicago cruiser in _Reflex_. 3) There was a long thread about rotating ships/sections on the _2300ad_ mailing list. One of the members, a former naval aviator turned physics PhD candidate, points out that for ship-size objects, there are some nasty side effects of spin. Basically, if your head is oriented in a particular direction, it feels like gravity, but if you turn your head sideways, the coriolis effect does all sorts of nasty things to your inner ear. 4) As an alternative to spin, Marshall Savage argues in his _The Millennial Project: Colonizing the Galaxy in 8 Easy Steps_ (1992) that the latest research indicates that special skin-tight garments and electro-stimulation of muscle groups (while sleeping) would provide the necessary tension and exercise to prevent loss of bone mass and muscle tone. He also postulates spacesuits of the skin-tight semi-permeable design used by JEP and LN in _Mote_, with tungsten armor over the top of them for radiation shielding. I enjoyed the first thirty pages of this book so much that I called up the First Millenial Foundation and ordered a second copy in hardcover. I'm not sure I buy all of Mr.Savage's calculations, but the man sure has vision, and the book is definitely worth the $25 (hardcover) price tag. http://www.millennial.org http://www.millennial.org/~pzack/FMFStore/Store.html 5) Has anyone else: (a) seen the disappointing _Guide to Larry Niven's Ringworld_?; (s) concluded that the publisher should have simply acquired the rights to the _Ringworld_ rpg, stripped out the game-related stuff, and published it as the _Guide_ instead?; and (d) thought that a _Guide to Jerry Pournelle's CoDominium_ (complete with lots of blueprints and tech data) would be something they would purchase? I suggested the latter to JEP once; he responded that he didn't think there was any market for it. <sigh> Well, enough tangents for one day.