Propulsion Systems in Science Fiction

Spacedock delves into various methods of sublight and FTL propulsion and maneuvering across the Science Fiction genre.

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Battlezone II Music by Carey Chico

Spacedock does not hold ownership of the copyrighted materiel (Footage, Stills etc) taken from the various works of fiction covered in this series, and uses them within the boundaries of Fair Use for the purpose of Analysis, Discussion and Review. Produced by Daniel Orrett. Owner/Executive Producer at Spacedock.

[Spacedock]

Check out our original SF Audio Drama, The Sojourn!

[shogun]

I would love a more comprehensive look at FTL drives, and perhaps delving into real life FTL concepts like the Alcubierre Drive.

[doodledibob]

Mechanics informing story-telling is one of the cornerstones of science fiction writing. The technologies exist to interact with the narrative as much as anything else, making the world tangible and creating depth. The fact that spaceships are so common in the genre just means that propulsion systems are a great facet to highlight.

[julius-stark]

I started writing my own sci-fi novel last year and decided not to have artificial gravity on the ships, so I had to create an entire bible as to how the lightspeed/propulsion systems worked and their effects on the characters and it completely changed several aspects of the story. Now I see why writers just hand wave that stuff away, gravity is a very complicated thing.

[lurkingllama]

When you mentioned the various FTL drives, I was reminded of the original version of the game Stellaris. While the developers settled into using Hyperdrive Lanes for FTL, originally the type of FTL a species used was a part of their technology base, and you could choose between Hyperdrive, Jump Drive, and Warp Drive. They all functioned differently, and made interacting with various species rather chaotic.

[mitwhitgaming]

In my sci-fi universe, fusion powered sublight engines create a lot of free electrons, which can cause lightning storms when used in atmosphere.
A fleet of ships can weaponize their drive emissions to cause catastrophic lightning storms on a target planet.

[keajones]

"A drives effectiveness as a weapon is directly proportional to its effectiveness as a drive" - the kzinti lesson.

Has to be one of my favorite physics quotes from any sci-fi ever. It is important to remember that theres no such thing as an unarmed spaceship.

[thlonefx]

7:10 I would very much like to see a more comprehensive video detailing FTL methods in Sci-fi.
One of the main things I've been planning with my book at the moment, is how faster-than-light travel works. Would be really useful to have an easy to understand video going over different methods.
At the moment I'm leaning more towards the idea of a 'Jump-gate' of sorts.

[NobodyofNot]

If you ever take a deeper look into FTL drives and talk about teleportation drives then I’d LOVE if you mention the Blink Drive from Dark Matter.

[autumngottlieb]

One concept I've come up with that I may or may not end up using is FTL jumps being severely limited by the fact that FTL is time travel and thus creates paradoxes that must be resolved. I got the idea from Halo, but it's not really important in Halo. I'm going to write FTL jumps as an instant teleport like in BSG, but you then have to wait for the amount of time that it would take for light from the starting point of your jump to reach the end point of your jump for spacetime to heal before you can make another jump. There is artificial reconciliation technology that can reduce the wait time, which is a relatively new development. The difference between the so-called Inner Systems and Outer Systems is that the former were colonized before artificial reconciliation was a thing, so those systems are all closer together and far more heavily developed than the Outer Systems, which were settled after artificial reconciliation became a thing and people could afford to spread out more. The effectiveness of artificial reconciliation generators gets better as ships get more advanced and better funded and stuff, but even the best ones will still take days to reconcile a ten-LY jump. I'll probably add more layers to this in the future.

[JohnMacCoy]

I would definitely like a more in depth look at the different types of FTL from different sci fi genres including the different scales and speeds of each universe compared to each other. Echhartsladder touched on this a few years ago but would like you guys to go more detail with it.

[Cgriff]

Love stuff like this! Keep ‘em coming, pretty please. I’d love to see an episode dedicated to space drugs. Between the juice, spice, and red sand among others, I’m sure there’s plenty to detail.

[GrandSupremeDaddyo]

The Expanse is an incredible benchmark for live-action depictions of so many sci-fi concepts. I don't think there's a Spacedock video that can't benefit from an Expanse reference.

[momerathe]

one thing that I think is rarely well-explored, if it isn't just handwaved entirely, is how combat might work at FTL speeds

[MoonWeasel]

I always thought it would be cool to have a setting where a ship is creating a “road” in space between star systems. At each end you would have a gate which would allow FTL, but someone would have to build those gates. The story would focus on a ship or station being in the middle of interstellar space creating the nodes between stars.

[jujuplayboy]

He knows Nexus : The Jupiter Incident ! YES !!!

Also, I think you should make a video exclusively on faster-than-light travel in Science-Fiction, so many different systems in so many fictional universes... It deserves its own video.

[gabrielwolffe]

Question: Would Spacedock ever consider or be interested in doing reviews of sci-fi spacecraft designed and submitted by fans, either as part of established IPs or homebrew stories, given sufficient design details, relevant worldbuilding, and diagrams, drawings, or animations to go with them?

[ZeroBNG]

There was also a very interesting reverse thruster used in Revenge of the Sith when Obi-Wan and Anakin are crashing the Separatist ship from the beginning on Coruscant.
The giant engines in the back re-directed the thrust by closing the rear opening and opening up panels on the sides, so the main engines acted as a break... the ship was ripped in half as a result.
I would love to see a proper Stardestroyer or a Venator Class doing that.

[grahamclur]

So much info cramped into just 8 minutes that flew by at maximum warp.. I would love a longer video that just pours out your knowledge, views and stats, loads and loads of stats, . Even if it's not all compiled and nicely edited for YouTube. Your channel is gold

[matteste]

One scene with this as a focus that stands out to me is from the Gundam Hathaway movie which is the first time chronologically that we see the Minovsky Flight System deployed. You can see machines such as the Messer or Gustav Karl which use more conventional thrusters for propulsion and how they constantly have to fight against the pull of gravity, and then you get the contrast with the Penelope which despite its girth seems to almost dance through the air as it completely outmaneuvers its opposition.