Michael Brachman's Blog: Tales of the Vuduri, page 187
January 11, 2013
Plant transmutation
When I was building the "soup" that fueled the creation of Rome's Revolution, I put a lot of thought into alternative technologies to make the Vuduri our equals or superior, technologically yet different.
One of the things I researched is called Plant Transmutation. It has been proposed that certain plants can "manufacture" elements they need by way of Low Energy Nuclear Reactions which is similar to cold fusion. Some people have claimed that plants could form proteins which would bring certain molecules within sufficient proximity that they would spontaneously fuse to form higher order elements.
To my knowledge, no one has produced a widely accepted experiment documenting such abilities. Even the anecdotal evidence seemed so weak, I decided to abandon it. Instead, I just gave the Vuduri a thing called the molecular sequencer which could build anything essentially one atom at a time. I didn't bother worrying about whether they had the correct elements in the first place. It was whiz-bang enough to just let it go.
I imbued MINIMCOM the ability to phase-delay transport of atoms and transmute them and that is probably enough. He's already way too proud of himself.
One of the things I researched is called Plant Transmutation. It has been proposed that certain plants can "manufacture" elements they need by way of Low Energy Nuclear Reactions which is similar to cold fusion. Some people have claimed that plants could form proteins which would bring certain molecules within sufficient proximity that they would spontaneously fuse to form higher order elements.
To my knowledge, no one has produced a widely accepted experiment documenting such abilities. Even the anecdotal evidence seemed so weak, I decided to abandon it. Instead, I just gave the Vuduri a thing called the molecular sequencer which could build anything essentially one atom at a time. I didn't bother worrying about whether they had the correct elements in the first place. It was whiz-bang enough to just let it go.
I imbued MINIMCOM the ability to phase-delay transport of atoms and transmute them and that is probably enough. He's already way too proud of himself.
January 9, 2013
Why did they build the Arks out of pig iron?
The Arks were flattened cylinders. The top two-thirds were made of pig iron. The lower third was made of martensite which is a kind of stainless steel.
Why? Why not titanium or magnalium or something even more exotic?
The first reason was seemingly trivial but actually quite important. In order to bring the Ark down safely, it had to be separated into sections. This required a space-walk. And the kind of space-walk required meant the first crew awakened would use magnetic boots. Pig iron is about the cheapest magnetic material there is.
The aft-most section was the propulsion module. Once they reached their target planet, that had to be jettisoned. The next section was the cargo section and that was to come down after the people. The front section contained the frozen people in their sarcophagi.
Why magnetic? Why not just use thrusters to separate the ship? The mission planners did not know exactly how long it was going to take to get to where they were going so to facilitate the space-walks, they knew that while propellants may evaporate, magnetism would last much longer. So they built the ship out of magnetic materials to guarantee that their magnetic boots would clamp down.
Once they landed on the planet, the mission planners wanted to give the colonists every chance to succeed so they build the Ark out of a material that could be easily melted down (the pig iron) or easily fashioned into building materials (the martensite). Titanium or magnalium or even aluminum would be too hard to work.
If things went well (and we know they rarely did), the colonists would cannibalize the entire ship to start building their new home world.
Why? Why not titanium or magnalium or something even more exotic?
The first reason was seemingly trivial but actually quite important. In order to bring the Ark down safely, it had to be separated into sections. This required a space-walk. And the kind of space-walk required meant the first crew awakened would use magnetic boots. Pig iron is about the cheapest magnetic material there is.
The aft-most section was the propulsion module. Once they reached their target planet, that had to be jettisoned. The next section was the cargo section and that was to come down after the people. The front section contained the frozen people in their sarcophagi.
Why magnetic? Why not just use thrusters to separate the ship? The mission planners did not know exactly how long it was going to take to get to where they were going so to facilitate the space-walks, they knew that while propellants may evaporate, magnetism would last much longer. So they built the ship out of magnetic materials to guarantee that their magnetic boots would clamp down.
Once they landed on the planet, the mission planners wanted to give the colonists every chance to succeed so they build the Ark out of a material that could be easily melted down (the pig iron) or easily fashioned into building materials (the martensite). Titanium or magnalium or even aluminum would be too hard to work.
If things went well (and we know they rarely did), the colonists would cannibalize the entire ship to start building their new home world.
January 8, 2013
Wikipedia dis-approves!
Rome's Revolution now no longer has an official Wikipedia page!
This link no longer works:
Wikipedia article about Rome's Revolution.
[image error]
The article was posted for a month and a half then an editor came along and decided to take it down. You can appeal this but it doesn't seem worth it. I will just have to go ahead and win the Pulizter Prize, a Hugo or Saturn award or something to justify taking up their precious digital space. :(
This link no longer works:
Wikipedia article about Rome's Revolution.
[image error]
The article was posted for a month and a half then an editor came along and decided to take it down. You can appeal this but it doesn't seem worth it. I will just have to go ahead and win the Pulizter Prize, a Hugo or Saturn award or something to justify taking up their precious digital space. :(
January 7, 2013
Nuclear rods and the new colony
When sending people to the stars you must account for what they do when they get there.
I sent along seeds and animal embryos and mining equipment. I also built the Ark out of "scavengable" materials. But the very first thing I had to do was thaw out the colonists. What do you use for electricity?
I tweaked an isotope of thorium, compressed the isotope into nuclear rods and encased those nuclear rods inside a lead glass tube with a slit. Under normal conditions, you would rotate the thorium rods until a portion of their surface was exposed through the slit, heat would be generated which was converted by thermocouples into electricity which powered the thaw cycle. If the Ark crashed, the glass would shatter and you will still get the thermocouples geared up.
Later, these rods could be removed and used as sort of super-batteries to power their vehicles and equipment. This took place in Part 2 of Rome's Revolution. I also made it so they could be ganged together in serial or parallel fashion to create a power plant.
Finally, this made-up variant of thorium had a half-life of 7000 years and could be used to create the mini-nukes which figure prominently in The Ark Lords.
I sent along seeds and animal embryos and mining equipment. I also built the Ark out of "scavengable" materials. But the very first thing I had to do was thaw out the colonists. What do you use for electricity?
I tweaked an isotope of thorium, compressed the isotope into nuclear rods and encased those nuclear rods inside a lead glass tube with a slit. Under normal conditions, you would rotate the thorium rods until a portion of their surface was exposed through the slit, heat would be generated which was converted by thermocouples into electricity which powered the thaw cycle. If the Ark crashed, the glass would shatter and you will still get the thermocouples geared up.
Later, these rods could be removed and used as sort of super-batteries to power their vehicles and equipment. This took place in Part 2 of Rome's Revolution. I also made it so they could be ganged together in serial or parallel fashion to create a power plant.
Finally, this made-up variant of thorium had a half-life of 7000 years and could be used to create the mini-nukes which figure prominently in The Ark Lords.
January 6, 2013
Ceramics versus metal
Rei Bierak and the colonists from Earth traveled to the stars in very cheap spaceships which were little more than very large tin cans. The mission planners sunk all their money into building the most sophisticated and secure ceramic sarcophagi to transport the frozen people. I have been asked why I built the sarcophagi out of ceramics rather than metal.
Several reasons:
1. Ceramics are extremely strong. I thought they might resist punctures by micrometeorites better than metal.
2. Lower weight.
3. Extremely resistant to tensile changes due to temperature fluctuations.
4. Thermal inertia. Once they hit interstellar space, temperatures could drop as low as 3 degrees Kelvin. As they went into orbit around their target star, some parts could get very hot. Ceramics would resist this temperature change.
5. Seemed cooler and more futuristic than metal.
6. I needed a few colonists to die due to "cracked" cases and ceramics will fracture better than metal.
You can read about it in both Rome's Revolution and The Ark Lords. Check it out.
Several reasons:
1. Ceramics are extremely strong. I thought they might resist punctures by micrometeorites better than metal.
2. Lower weight.
3. Extremely resistant to tensile changes due to temperature fluctuations.
4. Thermal inertia. Once they hit interstellar space, temperatures could drop as low as 3 degrees Kelvin. As they went into orbit around their target star, some parts could get very hot. Ceramics would resist this temperature change.
5. Seemed cooler and more futuristic than metal.
6. I needed a few colonists to die due to "cracked" cases and ceramics will fracture better than metal.
You can read about it in both Rome's Revolution and The Ark Lords. Check it out.
January 5, 2013
Ion-powered star drives and the Tevatron
The problem with getting to the stars is that it takes a lot of energy. At least until we invent an FTL drive. Traditional chemical rockets burn up their fuel rather fast. In the late 50s, scientists came up with the original Orion concept of a nuclear powered ship which literally had a series of atomic explosions pushing the ship forward. This has fallen out of favor but may be resurrected some day by using fusion instead of fission.
So how to send people to the stars? Ion engines produce very little thrust but are extremely efficient. I came up with the idea of feeding xenon atoms to a Quantum Black Hole (QBH) and using the resulting Hawking Radiation to provide a tiny amount of thrust. Once you hit interstellar space, they would collect external space dust, hydrogen molecules, etc. to "burn up" similar to a Bussard Ramjet but no fusion involved.
As I said, ion drives produce very little thrust so it takes a long time to build up speed. Since my people are frozen, so what if the trip takes 200 years? That wasn't the issue. The problem is the QBH. They don't exist. For the story to succeed, at least my version of it, I assumed that someday someone will figure out how to do this. I don't think the Hawking Radiation idea will work but it sounds cool.
What made it even more fun was proposing that the US Government resurrected the Tevatron to produce the QBHs. The Tevatron then plays a starring role in The Ark Lords.
It is pretty neat how it all ties together. Check it out.
Rome's Revolution and The Ark Lords.
So how to send people to the stars? Ion engines produce very little thrust but are extremely efficient. I came up with the idea of feeding xenon atoms to a Quantum Black Hole (QBH) and using the resulting Hawking Radiation to provide a tiny amount of thrust. Once you hit interstellar space, they would collect external space dust, hydrogen molecules, etc. to "burn up" similar to a Bussard Ramjet but no fusion involved.
As I said, ion drives produce very little thrust so it takes a long time to build up speed. Since my people are frozen, so what if the trip takes 200 years? That wasn't the issue. The problem is the QBH. They don't exist. For the story to succeed, at least my version of it, I assumed that someday someone will figure out how to do this. I don't think the Hawking Radiation idea will work but it sounds cool.
What made it even more fun was proposing that the US Government resurrected the Tevatron to produce the QBHs. The Tevatron then plays a starring role in The Ark Lords.
It is pretty neat how it all ties together. Check it out.
Rome's Revolution and The Ark Lords.
January 4, 2013
Dyson Spheres and Stareaters
The Dyson Sphere concept was invented by physicist Freeman Dyson in the late 1950s. The idea was that intelligent species could build a partial or complete sphere around a star. This would allow them to capture all of the energy emitting from the star and simultaneously create a semi-infinite amount of living space on the interior. Larry Niven took a slice of a Dyson Sphere and used it as the basis for his Ringworld series.
While the concept is fascinating, why bother? Who needs infinite energy or infinite living space?
Regardless of the reason, I was still enthralled with the idea of a gigantic sphere encapsulating a star so even with the first draft of Rome's Revolution (called VIRUS 5 back then), the "villain" was the Stareater, called Asdrale Cimatir in Vuduri. The people observing this would be in awe and terror. If it happened to your star (the Sun!!!) all life outside of the Dyson Sphere would cease.
Click here to see my teaser/trailer illustrating a Stareater "swallowing" a star.
My hero, Rei Bierak, was able to figure out how to "defeat" the Stareater by using VIRUS units. A neat invention back in 1973 when I first came up with it but now nanotechnology is sort of old hat.
As I pushed on with Part 3 of Rome's Revolution, I wanted a double climax and the return of the Stareaters, especially to eat the Sun, seemed very exciting. You'll see how Rei and Rome defeat it in the book but suffice to say, you will be shocked as to the how and the why.
Pretty neat stuff.
While the concept is fascinating, why bother? Who needs infinite energy or infinite living space?
Regardless of the reason, I was still enthralled with the idea of a gigantic sphere encapsulating a star so even with the first draft of Rome's Revolution (called VIRUS 5 back then), the "villain" was the Stareater, called Asdrale Cimatir in Vuduri. The people observing this would be in awe and terror. If it happened to your star (the Sun!!!) all life outside of the Dyson Sphere would cease.
Click here to see my teaser/trailer illustrating a Stareater "swallowing" a star.
My hero, Rei Bierak, was able to figure out how to "defeat" the Stareater by using VIRUS units. A neat invention back in 1973 when I first came up with it but now nanotechnology is sort of old hat.
As I pushed on with Part 3 of Rome's Revolution, I wanted a double climax and the return of the Stareaters, especially to eat the Sun, seemed very exciting. You'll see how Rei and Rome defeat it in the book but suffice to say, you will be shocked as to the how and the why.
Pretty neat stuff.
January 2, 2013
Creating elementary particles with energy
The one thing the Vuduri have, that we do not, is infinite free energy. They use "Casimir Pumps" to split zero energy in neutral space into positive and negative energy. They use the negative energy to create PPT tunnels which effectively bypass normal space thus allowing them to (mathematically at least) travel faster than the speed of light.
But a by-product of the Casimir Pumps is positive energy. The Vuduri do many things with it including creating electricity. This is very handy when they are in normal space, since they need a way to drive their ships forward. So they take the excess positive energy and reverse the equation e = m * c squared and use e divided by c squared to get m. In other words, they use energy to create mass. Usually these are very elementary particles, rarely organizing more than just a ball of plasma. They then force that plasma out of jets built into their ships to get forward thrust.
They aren't much for brakes. They usually just rotate their ships around and use the plasma thrusters in retro mode to slow themselves down.
Pretty cool, huh?
But a by-product of the Casimir Pumps is positive energy. The Vuduri do many things with it including creating electricity. This is very handy when they are in normal space, since they need a way to drive their ships forward. So they take the excess positive energy and reverse the equation e = m * c squared and use e divided by c squared to get m. In other words, they use energy to create mass. Usually these are very elementary particles, rarely organizing more than just a ball of plasma. They then force that plasma out of jets built into their ships to get forward thrust.
They aren't much for brakes. They usually just rotate their ships around and use the plasma thrusters in retro mode to slow themselves down.
Pretty cool, huh?
January 1, 2013
Cheap space ships, expensive sarcophagi
I was thinking about what it would take to send people to the stars. I figured that travel over such long distance involved risk. To build a complex spaceship that could survive micrometeorites, cosmic rays, mechanical failure, etc. was unlikely. So instead of building an expensive spaceship, I had the mission planners build a cheap one, not much more than a flying tin can.
They sunk their money into building expensive, individual sarcophagi figuring any one might fail but the likelihood of all 500+ failing was very slim.
They built the Ark out of pig iron so the colonists would have some fairly refined materials to start their new life. I also made it so the nuclear power rods that reanimated the colonists could be ganged together to produce electricity for 7000 years.
They sunk their money into building expensive, individual sarcophagi figuring any one might fail but the likelihood of all 500+ failing was very slim.
They built the Ark out of pig iron so the colonists would have some fairly refined materials to start their new life. I also made it so the nuclear power rods that reanimated the colonists could be ganged together to produce electricity for 7000 years.
December 31, 2012
The Grey Drive: quantum black holes, white holes and Hawking Radiation
When writing Rome's Revolution, it was necessary to create not one but two completely different but plausible star drives. The faster-than-light drive was actually easier because it was wilder and could not be verified or refuted. The Casimir Effect is real therefore the existence of negative energy is a real possibility. Some have speculated that space cannot exist where there is no energy so all I did was project a big blob of negative energy using "Casimir Pumps" and voila, you jumped past space yielding effectively faster-than-light travel.
The slower-than-light star drive was much more difficult since it had to be based on what we know today. Brute force chemical rockets weren't going to get it done. I decided the slow but steady method was the best bet. Solar wind is free and constant but dies off outside the Oort Cloud. So I built what I called the "Grey Drive" named after the fictitious scientist Wally Grey who invented it. It consisted of a quantum black hole and a big tank of xenon. They shot one atom of xenon at a time into the black hole to "feed" it and the atom disappeared into the black hole. Because it was so tiny, its matched white hole was only a few angstrom units away and the atom re-emerged as Hawking Radiation which pushed against a back plate and generated an infinitesimal amount of thrust. But infinitesimal times a long time results in a top speed of about 1/20th the speed of light. That was sufficient to get us to the stars.
For the first Ark, the mission to Alpha Centauri, they burned their fuel at twice the recommended rate so they were able to reach our nearest neighboring star in just over 40 years. Tau Ceti, where most of the action occurs, was just 12 light years away which means the trip there was supposed to take 240 years. Of course, the Ark II missed the mark and that formed the basis of the entire novel Rome's Revolution. Next post: cheap space ships.
The slower-than-light star drive was much more difficult since it had to be based on what we know today. Brute force chemical rockets weren't going to get it done. I decided the slow but steady method was the best bet. Solar wind is free and constant but dies off outside the Oort Cloud. So I built what I called the "Grey Drive" named after the fictitious scientist Wally Grey who invented it. It consisted of a quantum black hole and a big tank of xenon. They shot one atom of xenon at a time into the black hole to "feed" it and the atom disappeared into the black hole. Because it was so tiny, its matched white hole was only a few angstrom units away and the atom re-emerged as Hawking Radiation which pushed against a back plate and generated an infinitesimal amount of thrust. But infinitesimal times a long time results in a top speed of about 1/20th the speed of light. That was sufficient to get us to the stars.
For the first Ark, the mission to Alpha Centauri, they burned their fuel at twice the recommended rate so they were able to reach our nearest neighboring star in just over 40 years. Tau Ceti, where most of the action occurs, was just 12 light years away which means the trip there was supposed to take 240 years. Of course, the Ark II missed the mark and that formed the basis of the entire novel Rome's Revolution. Next post: cheap space ships.
Tales of the Vuduri
Tidbits and insights into the 35th century world of the Vuduri.
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