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"Science fiction is what scientists would do if they could - if they had enough grant money, enough time, and enough brains to do the wonderful things they would like to do."
- Greg Bear
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| Slowboat | ||
| Slower than lightspeed spacecraft used for interstellar colonization. |
One of the hallmarks of Niven's novels is the use of realistic technology for space travel.
| Settling Home had been made easier by two techniques. The slowboats had carried sixty colonists each, in stasis. Sixty colonists would have filled three or four slow boats a century earlier. And, though no living thing could survive travel in a ramrobot, it had proved possible to ship fuel to the slowboats by ramrobots. An older technique was used extensively: colony supplies were shipped by ramrobot to orbit around Home, saving room aboard the slowboats. |
| Technovelgy from Protector,
by Larry Niven. Published by Del Rey in 1973 Additional resources -
|
There is no way for a spacecraft to travel faster than light using currently available technology. However, interstellar colonization is possible using ships that travel at a substantial fraction of the speed of light.
Consumables are the biggest problem, given the length of time; also, journeys that take longer than a human lifetime are not easily undertaken.
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'...the rocket’s landing-arms automatically unfolded.'
'...points and patches of light... sliding all over their faces in a programmed manner that had been designed to foil facial recognition systems.'
'...the combined Wind-Suncatcher, like a spray of tulips mounted fanwise.'
'I went to the control room where the three other men were manipulating their mechanical men.'
'The low-slung monorail car, straddling its single track, bored through the shadows on a slowly rising course.'
'It was a smooth ovoid floating a few inches from the floor...'
'... he thrust in his charging arm to replenish his store of energy.'
'...the terrible Jovian gravity that made each movement an effort.'
