Help me get my head around some big numbers...

[MontyVeda]

As the winter takes hold, I'm reverting to my other hobby of writing short stories... and this time i'm working on a steampunk sci-fi set in space.

Imagine the space race began in the Victorian era and progressed at an alarming rate. The first man was shot toward the moon in the late 1850s, and a number of generation starships were launched around 1900 heading for various known exo-planets. The setting for this story is on a generation starship that's been travelling toward Tau Ceti for 200 years.

Tau Ceti is around 12 light years from the sun, the starship has covered around half that distance and I'm trying to work out its average speed.

My working (rounding to one decimal place to keep it simple) is:

One light year equals 5.9 trillion miles (5,900,000,000,000 ?)
Six light years would be 35.4 trillion miles (35,400,000,000,000)
There's 8760 hours in a year, so my imaginary starship has been travelling for around 1,752,000 hours which by my calculations, means the starship would be travelling at around 20.2 million miles an hour.

I don't have much of a head for arithmetic so don't have much confidence in my working out.

Am i about right or way off the mark?

And please don't ask me how this steampunk starship is powered

 

[Fnaar]

Hey if you need an editor I have experience. Lots of it. Also know a successful steam punk author (tho it ain't my thang personally)

 

[jefmcg]

There's 8760 hours in a year, so my imaginary starship has been travelling for around 1,752,000 hours which by my calculations, means the starship would be travelling at around 20.2 million miles an hour.

I did the calc myself in km, got 32,400,000 (got the distance to tau ceti in parsecs from google and started from there)

Yup, looking good.

so that's 3% of lightspeed, so time dilation is only 0.04 %, so not really a factor. Disappointing, as I wanted to make myself look smart by mentioning it

Edit

And please don't ask me how this steampunk starship is powered

Steam, obviously!

 

[MontyVeda]

So long as it can do the Kessle run in less than 12 Parsecs, you will be fine.

wrong galaxy

 

[MontyVeda]

...
Edit



Steam, obviously!

LOL... or clockwork

 

[MontyVeda]

[QUOTE 5017455, member: 9609"]I think your numbers are about right.

BUT - not sure how the ever expanding universe would affect this figure, but with a little bit of googling it could be that something 12LY away is moving away from us at 562,000 mph
(68km per second for every 3.26LY)?? its all a bit bonkers aint it[/QUOTE]
Good point... fortunately the story I'm working on isn't about arriving at the destination.. it's about sending a modern faster space craft after a 200 year old generation starship and exploring what happens when the two make contact. Captain Nemo meets Lost in Space, sort of thing.

By some complete fluke... i decided the modern ship would be travelling 'near the speed of light' and made the same distance in around 8 years... which amazingly adds up!

 

[jefmcg]

LOL... or clockwork

but ... how does clockwork move a ship? We use rockets which basically expel gases in one direction to get an equal and opposite force in the other direction. I'm not sure how I see clockwork propelling a ship.

Plot thoughts - years ago I read a novel by - I think - Anthony Burgess that was mostly the story of an interstellar ship leaving earth. Eventually it's revealed that this story is being told to the nth generational descendants on board. But they don't believe it. They live in this huge hulk, without windows. They believe this hulk is the extent of the universe. They do not believe in Earth, or their destination. They do not know of the universe just outside their domain.

So, in your story, generations are condemned to be born, live and die within the confines of a space ship. 400 years, so that's 20 generations or more. How believable to us would origin stories - basically unprovable - from the time of Jane Austen and Napoleonic wars be? And not believing them might be the best thing. Living your life on the ideas that ancestors you can't relate to benefit descendants you can't imagine is a hard path.

Edit: obviously drafted before you post above. But it's still relevant. Imagining an offshoot from the Napoleonic era going down one path, meeting one of us. Would be culture shock. And how they felt about their duty to complete the path chosen by their ancestors. Those who were unhappy would be glad to be disrupted by a faster ship. Those who were on board with the plan, would be pretty upset that their (and their ancestors) lives were wasted on this adventure.

 

[MontyVeda]

but ... how does clockwork move a ship? We use rockets which basically expel gases in one direction to get an equal and opposite force in the other direction. I'm not sure how I see clockwork propelling a ship.

...

Not reading your plot thoughts, sorry (I have too many already). Can you stick 'em in a spoiler box?

The answer to your question is maintaining inertia with mahoosive springs and huge weights, winding up and firing in perpetual motion... like a battery of humongous gat guns... but i don't really want to dwell too much on propulsion.

 

[MacB]

Hey if you need an editor I have experience. Lots of it. Also know a successful steam punk author (tho it ain't my thang personally)

Monty if you take up this offer I would advise ignoring any recommendations on humour

 

[jefmcg]

The answer to your question is inertia.

That makes no sense. Inertia is not going to move you in a vacuum.

But cool, I'm not going to read it. I've literally never read any steam punk. The goggles-on-a-top-hat annoy me too much.

I did devour Jules Verne as a teenager, though.

 

[MikeG]

...... i don't really want to dwell too much on propulsion.

Little details like this is why I could never get into scif-fi.

 

[MontyVeda]

That makes no sense. Inertia is not going to move you in a vacuum.

...

Inertia occurs in space.

Never understood why everyone in steampunk world has to be an amateur welder either.

And no one's going to read it apart from me. It's probably not even going to get finished, like all my other stories.

 

[MikeG]

Inertia occurs in space......

Just like here.

Which means they're going to need some serious brakes. I suggest hydraulic disc brakes might not be quite enough.

 

[jefmcg]

Inertia occurs in space.

I am not sure what that means - serious question: Jet propulsion uses Newton's 3rd law. What principle does clockwork inertial propulsion work on?

 

[MontyVeda]

basic physics... every action has an equal and opposite reaction. I don't think atmosphere or vacuum really comes into it.