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Okay, okay, exotic forms of hydrogen--metallic or monatomic--are disallowed for the intermediate future.
On the gripping hand, though, spacesuits don't have to be rigid NASA-style mini-spaceships. A counter-pressure suit would keep internal organs where they belong, and capillaries from rupturing. The pressure might be applied by strategically placed inflatable tubes, but for my evil purposes I prefer to postulate what I call an 'adjustable semi-fluid nanomesh garment, one-piece, female.'
I could easily buy such a concept since it wouldn't impair mobility of any part of the body and it would look smashing.
I will admit that providing a good helmet seal would be a challenge...
"A semifluid nanomesh" I like that idea, and by definition it would have to be... form fitting. So the full body suits we see aplenty are a good start.
PS I like the reference to Niven's The Mote in God's Eye: "on the gripping hand"
Wait, there's more! 'Adjustable' so the wearer won't be immobilized when pressure in an airlock builds up to human-tolerable levels. I figure he or she would need a control panel (utility-belt style or a fanny pack, take your pick) with dials to set the suit's tension, colour, reflectivity, and—well, why not?—opacity. Some controls would be keyed to the wearer and accessible only to him or her (or to authorized emergency-response personnel, maybe; getting a little carried away here...). Slack off the tension and you're OK to roam the corridors or other public spaces without embarrassment if you're male and happen to have an involuntary reaction; clench them tight and you could have sex in your p-suit.
The suit-to-helmet seal could be a fairly simple custom-fitted yoke with clips or a harness to take small ultra-high-pressure air bottles and a high-density power pack to provide warmth or cooling as necessary. Fuel cells are one possibility; others abound.
Postulate true high-temperature superconductors and you could even provide protection against charged particle radiation, whether cosmic or solar. Although Robert Bussard's ramjet idea won't work for propulsion (more resistance than drive, it seems), it would make a dandy shield. Presumably it could be scaled down to habitat-size (e.g. on Mars, the Moon, or an asteroid), or ship-size, or even human-size. All we really need are the high-temp superconductors and we're good to go.
Pfft. Too many ideas, too few skills...
p.s. Yeah, I knew you'd get that, you Larry Niven fan.
I've occasionally debated how to set up a motie, but it'd be tricky... maybe four arms and make one arm shrink a lot. hmm
It's doable, I'm sure. Haven't thought about it myself, since I'd forgotten about the book until it came up in this thread.
Can't see the symmetry (an anthropomorphic term in this context, now that I notice) working out, but good luck with it. If you want a real challenge, try a thrint some time. Br-r-r-r to both, I say!
Here's a good start for one, though I wasn't exactly intending to create a motie when I did this.
I bet RawArt could pull off a good one. Dunno about the mouth-tendrils, though, I can't see the ERC rigging for that being anything less than a headache.
A Puppeteer, now that would be a real challenge — I've seen one freebie attempt, and it wasn't bad, but definite room for improvement.
Just a quick note.
One of the Role Playing games I used to love to play back in the day was Star Frontiers. It isn't 'rock hard' science, but it definitely tried to stay somewhat rooted in reality. Spacifically, the ship deck plans had the decks stacked on top of each other, along the axis of travel instead of parallel with it. Lessee if I can find the Assault Scout deck plans real quick... yep, here's a Google image search that shows off some deck plans.
https://www.google.com/search?q=star+frontiers+assault+scout+deck+plans&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi1lbbAjsvTAhUX0GMKHUVgAFUQ_AUICigB&biw=1227&bih=606
I bring this up, because if you have a good idea of how each deck is supposed to be layed out for a ship that uses propulsion-generated 'gravity', some of the existing sci fi room builder products here on Daz could replicate these layouts pretty easily I'd think. Long corridors probably aren't going to happen in these designs, although you may have some pretty long shafts with ladders or elevators...
I always liked the design of the Explorer, a four wheel drive vehicle used in the game to get around on various planets.
https://www.google.com/search?q=star+frontiers+explorer&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi_s6fBj8vTAhVM22MKHXAGD58Q_AUIBigB&biw=1227&bih=606
The Landmaster vehicle from Damnation Alley is another one that was an interesting design (specifically the rotating tri-wheel assemblies to help you get over uneven terrain), if someone is looking for inspiration for some new Daz model.
Star Frontiers is alas not currently in print, but a number of fansites have .pdfs of various items from that game. There's even a fanzine available for the game (Frontier Explorer, need to be an rpg.net member to get that though), and you may be able to find back issues of Star Frontiersman (another online fanzine for the game).
Here's a good place to start if you are looking for links to various resources for that game. http://www.starfrontiers.us/
Could be a good source for some inspiration. And it has a small mix of alien races for those that like that sort of thing.
The Star Frontiers game is somewhat space opera-ish, with a bit of a Cyberpunk feel (megacorps are very powerful in the SF universe), but it's mechanics/hardware/etc. are mostly grounded in 'real world' stuff. Except for personal energy shields (gauss and laser defense) and that sort of stuff (the game also has firearms, gyrojet/rocket, and gauss/needler weaponry). Having been written in the '80's, yeah they had no idea of how powerful computers would become in such a short time (Traveller had this same problem, it's also more of a 'hard science' game).
The Leoniv from the 2010 movie (based on Arther C Clarke's book) is a good example of how you can incorporate gravity into a ship without having to spin the whole thing in the process, and the Discovery from 2001 'hid' it's spinning section in the bulbous area at the front of the ship (you may be able to find deck plans for the Discovery). The Babylon 5 Earth Alliance ships also use the spinning crew sections to generate gravity, without having to spin the whole ship in the process, and that's one of the few times we've seen ships 'obey' Newton's law of gravity in a space dogfight onscreen (the new Battlestar Galactica series also did this, to good effect), managing to make it look cool in the process no less!. But I digress.
You can always 'lock down' your stuff and the crew can strap in when you are making acceleration/deceleration maneuvers (you may remember that the Leoniv stopped spinning the living area before doing the aerobrake maneuver in the 2010 movie). Keep in mind that space travel these days is pretty much a linear affair. Point your ship along some trajectory that'll get you where you need to go, fire your thrusters for a few minutes to get you on your way, and then coast. Your crew is going to be coasting for months on end probably to get anywhere in our solar system. Even Mars is months away utlilizing current technology.
Also, these days the latest rage in space travel is ion propulsion. This builds momentum slowly (much less than 1G), so for those living inside a spinning section for your crew, they probably woudn't even notice the gentle acceleration all that much. Plus, you could slightly 'tilt' the floor in your spinning sections to account for for the slight spinning momentum offset caused by the slight acceleration. Solar Sails are another 'build momentum very slowly' innovation, but those probably aren't practical for crew travel (too much time in the hard radiation environment of interplanetary space).
I like the idea of a Motie character, or rather range of characters, from cuddly Mediators to spikey Warriors. Not sure why symmetry of the arms is necessary (a rigging issue I suppose) but you could simply hide the second arm on one side to achieve the Motie asymetry of arms. Alternatively could the smaller arm be a geograft? Morphing would be used to achieve other aspects of the asymmetry. It would be great to see a Pupetteer character too though the legs maybe a challenge. In the illustration of Neutron Star (attached), Nessus is shown as having rather flexible legs more like a snake body. Some illustrations (also attached) show a Puppeteer more like a cow with one back leg and two snakelike "heads". However, this does not comply with Niven's description of Puppeteer anatomy; he describes the three legs as originating from some complex three way joint, and the "heads" of course do not contain the brain but are more like arms. A Kzin would be much easier to create (also attached) .
There's a cool free puppeteer (in the apparently incorrect Wayne Barlowe-derived form): http://www.threednd.com/puppeteer.html
Good points, tj_
Any halfway feasible nearish-future propulsion system (ion drives, fission or fusion-powered 'steam kettles', mass drivers, solar sails, superconducting solar wind sails, etc.) would have negligible acceleration as far as crew comfort is concerned (though certainly not in terms of usefulness). Therefore it seems likely that rotation of some kind will be necessary, or at least highly desirable, for long voyages. If the craft is large enough, it—or part of it—could be spun in the Heinlein-approved way. If small, it could be tethered to e.g. a spent fuel tank and both could rotate around a common axis. On arrival at the destination, explosive bolts would be fired, sending the tank on its way and leaving the craft free to manoeuvre. Until we can warp space to suit, or modify the human body to suit, that seems the likeliest interim solution.
I've never even heard of Star Frontiers before. Too bad, because it looks as if it might have been right up my alley 'way back when. Lots of good clean fun, I bet.
Cheers, eh?
You don't have to hide any arms, actually. One arm on either right or left (the moties could have either, as I recall) could be done as a geograft if using G2M/G3M as a base, or modeled that way if created from scratch. Either way, you would have to rig the new arm so it could be posed in DAZ Studio or Poser.
So, uh, would someone like to start an "I Need a Motie" thread? Lord knows I don't need one, I need…well, you know.
Serves me right for trying to be clever, I guess. Shoulda just said 'on the other hand'...
But the actual meaning of "on the gripping hand" is such a neat densely-packed concept — besides, it's taken the discussion in a few interesting directions.
And you're not the only one; I slip it into conversations now and then, just to see who bites.
It is a neat concept, which is why I couldn't resist the allusion. But if all the Larry Niven fans out there (I'm lukewarmish myself) would consider, say, his 'Gil the Arm' stories, or his other near-future stories (I'm thinking arrogant Belt miner plutocrat types from I-forget-which-one) and imagine the sort of content it would take to depict such in Daz Studio, why, we might actually convince someone it's worth his or her while to produce it.
In short, I'd trade two dozen Moties, Thrints, or Pierson's Puppeteers for one L5 colony, one (rotating) interplanetary passenger liner, or one lunar base with a mass driver. Okay, make that two mass drivers.
For some reason, I had always pictured the Pearson Puppateer as having a much more ribbonlike appendages for where each mouth and eye are attached, rather that the more gooselike form I'm seeing in those two illustrations. In fact, I'm in the middle of building an unrelated space alien of my own, with a very ribbonlike appendage with that particular alien's mouth on the end of it. In my case, though, I've placed the eyes on two independent eye-stalks. But I was definitely thinking of the Pearsons Puppateers, among other aliens, when I concieved of this one. Mind you, the one I'm creating is much more of a tentacle alien.
Blind Owl, for someone who is "luke warmish" over Niven, you know a good deal (Isaac removes his hat). The single pilot asteroid mining craft such as those described in Gil the Arm stories and Protector (Where Jack Brennen becomes a Pak) would be a nice addition to the runtime. I can imagine rendering such a craft against various space backgrounds. Maybe Gil chasing Jack... then in a later image, Gil trying to get away from Jack the Pak!
Surely you mean "Gil and his girlfriend" (who happens to be gorgeous and wearing a semi-fluid nanomesh garment), yes?
Absolutely! That's exactly what I'd render... and besides, Pak aren't interested in that kind of nonsense anymore! (Poor things.)
Amusingly, I was poking at ideas for a Pak morph...
Go for it, timmins. That would be great to see. The Pak are a great concept, aliens that are not quite completely alien :)
A few dirty off-world sets:
https://www.daz3d.com/the-hole
https://www.daz3d.com/ruths-redemption
Hi, DzFire.
Your sets were among the first I saw and admired when I started my search. For what it's worth, I'm especially taken by your Mars Colony, which could serve as a remote outpost for the 2nd or 3d-generation Mars story I have in mind (i.e. when communities and even towns have sprung up). Lots of goodies to play with, including grennhouses and what appear to be airlocks. When the family budget recovers from my recent spending orgy, I'll be stuffing some of those goodies in my shopping cart.
I really, really hesitate to say this, but in the interest of maximum realism feel I should: I noticed that your Mars Colony's windmill rotors would have to be a lot bigger to be useful in Mars's extremely thin atmosphere, and the towers a lot taller to put those rotors well above the relatively calm boundary layer near the surface. If not for the rungs you thoughtfully provided so folks could climb the towers, simply re-scaling everything would take care of that. As it is, re-scaling would put the rungs too far apart for a human to reach...and I doubt if anyone would be brave enough to jump from one to the next, even in Mars's 38% gravity.
Hmmm... Blind Owl, you remind me that jet packs might be actually workable in the lower gravity of Mars and/or Jovian moons. So a cool looking jet pack would be useful. Lets assume it uses compressed atmospheric gases and lets assume materials science has gone significantly beyond the steel cylinders sometimes used for diving (around 15 liters at 300 earth atmospheres), allowing much higher pressures in order to give a duration of an hour or so?
Not compressed air but fun to watch:
But...but there's no air for it to push against! (That was a joke, OK?)
If I knew how to remove the climbing rungs from DzFire's windmill towers (with his knowledge and consent, of course) I'd scale them up wide & tall enough to assume acess from inside. Don't know that I'd be willing to try elevating myself that high with a couple of rockets socketed onto my wrists, but with a backpack, maybe. Should be far easier to accomplish on Mars than Earth, and easier still on the Moon. The thing is, low (or no) gravity environments offer all sorts of opportunities for startling but technically believable sci-fi sets and the CG images that would result from them.
The same goes for vacuum and near-vacuum environments: search on 'helmet' and you'll find no end of visored helmets & helmets with goggles and comm gear and who-knows-what-else. Very few would keep the wearer alive in a vacuum, or *gasp* in the event of a blowout. I mean, picture it: you're a starship trooper storming some space station along with your comrades (many of whom are female, gorgeous, and wearing you-know-whats). Now, you and the enemy are all wielding energy weapons, but no one on either side is the least bit worried about blowing a hole in the hull or a viewport? I find that hard to believe.
Why not use the scaled up rungs as supports for an add-on ladder? If it's really scaled up, put the ladder on the inside and use the rungs like a climbing cage. Also, a small cage or platform, a few cylinders and you could have a simple (industrial-type) lift.
I like that suggestion. Now you mention it, I might be able to pivot the tower or the business end so the rungs don't even show (not sure yet: I don't own Mars Base, but I will). Novice that I am, I still tend to think in terms of wholes (scenes, environments, props) rather than components to be arranged and depicted to suit. Still wrapping my head around all this Meccano stuff.
Thanks for the idea, it's got me thinking.
In the physical world (and here too) we call it kitbashing. It's also my excuse for constantly (and exponentially) building my Runtime.
Another reason to check out DzFire's Nurnies Parts and Pieces Vol 1 & 2. Lots of sub-assemblies you don't have to fudge.
Yes, you aimed me at those earlier, but thanks for the reminder. They're definitely on my 'must have' list. What a toy store this is...