Weapons of Sci-Fi

Sci-Fi has many parts. Every universe has generics. But there are also weapons that are specific to a certain universe. For example, Star Trek has phasers and Star Wars has ion cannons. Many other weapons that I've heard of are: lightsabers, ray guns, laser rifles, laser pistol, proton bombs, plasma grenades, plasma cannon, and on and on and on. There are thousands of weapons from every imaginable realm and genre. You may know the ins and outs of a few, but I think that it's impossible to know them all. There are light cores, energy cores, circuit cores, explosion cores and many others. Some weapons are just like modified current day weapons. My personal favorite are the laser rifles. For more info, click in the links above. If you'd like, you can tell me in the comments about your favorite. Thanks, Aidan.

*

A proton bomb destroys the Separatist Army in Star Wars the Clone Wars.

Hyperdrives, Warp Engines, and Other Such Things

In almost every space travel story there is some sort of faster-than-light device. These devices allowed people and spaceships to move from one location to another quickly and with ease. Each has it's own properties and dilemmas, however. In Star Wars you simply enter coordinates into the system and the ship sends you hurtling through space to your destination. If the hyperdrive unit is damaged, however, you can't go anywhere that you couldn't with any old ship. In Star Trek there are warp engines which send you into an alternate realm of space and time before spitting you out into your desired location and time. But with warp speed time becomes strange and you can journey for months only to end up a second after the specified time in the exact place. Or you can go and travel for a couple of seconds only to end up years from your wanted time. Almost every space travel story has them and they all have their personalities and dysfunctions. With faster-than-light devices anything could happen. Everyone has their favorite device and everyone wishes they had one. Scientists have told us for years that they are close to a breakthrough in the field. Oddly enough I've never believed them and now less than ever. But you can decide for yourselves. Leave comments for your ideas. Thanks, Aidan.

The Bernal Sphere

The Bernal Sphere was first proposed by John Desmond Bernal in 1929. The original description of the design was a hollow, spherical shell filled with air. In 1976 Dr. Gerard K. O'Neill proposed a new and improved version of the colony. He called it Island One. The entire thing is spinning really fast to make a force equivalent to one G, or one Earth gravity. The closer to the center that you get, however, the less gravity there is. There is a window going around the equatorial zone that is right next to a mirror. This mirror reflects sunlight in to produce a false sense of daylight. There are small Stanford Taurus' rotating around the tips of the Colony that are used for agricultural purposes; supplying food for the colony. Massive superconducting solar panels produce all of the energy for the colony. A later version of the colony can support a lot more people. All in all, the colony could be a great alternative to our current situation. All of the colonies could. Thanks, Aidan.

Collections

Many Sci-fi fans love to collect things from their favorite show. These collections can range from trading cards to action figures to ship models to Lego sets to posters to lunch boxes and beyond. A Star Trek fan might collect a Captain Picard action figure or a Enterprise model. A Star Wars fan might collect a Luke Skywalker action figure or a Death Star model. I, for one, have many action figures, and a Lego set of at least one ship from every Star Wars navy. Collecting can be a lot of fun, but if you let it take up to much of your time or money, it will wreck you. You have to spend the right amount of time and money for you. If you asked me if you should start collecting, I would tell you the honest truth. I would tell you that it's your choice, and that you should just follow your gut.

The Stanford Taurus

The Stanford Torus is another space colony design proposed by professors at Stanford University. It consists of a wheel very similar to a bike wheel that spins indefinitely with enough speed to create 1 g. The entire wheel is hollow. In the outermost part of the inside of the wheel is one continuous strip of living space. The innermost part of the wheel is a massive window. There is another piece other than the main wheel. This piece beams a beam of light into the center of the big wheel, where it bounces off of mirrors to fly into the window to simulate sunlight inside of the colony. The colony is designed to accommodate 10,000 people comfortably. Now that you know the facts, imagine what you'd do with a Torus if you had access to one. Tell me in the comments. Thanks, Aidan.

Space Colonies: The O'Neill Cylinder

The O'Neill Cylinder is a space colony designed by Gerard K. O'Neill that consists of a cylinder split into 6 parts. 3 of the 6 of these parts are pieces of land. The other 3 are windows. The entire cylinder is facing the sun. The windows have mirrors tilted away from the cylinder at 45 degree angles to let sunlight into the cylinder. The cylinder is always spinning fast enough to create the feeling of 1 g on the inside. Each cylinder can hold about 1,000,000 people sustainably. If these cylinders were more than just designs, I believe that they could have the power to change the world. Thanks, Aidan.

Concept Ships

Concept ships have been around as long as sci-fi has. In every sci-fi movie with a ship, that ship is a concept, whether based on another ship or not. Some are inspired by random, everyday objects, others spurred by the innermost reaches of the designers mind. Until recently those concept ships have mostly been in movies and kids drawings. But now blogs are sprouting up with new ships done digitally on someones home computer. There are other blogs and websites sprouting up to map the progress of sci-fi and create elaborate diagrams comparing different ships. All in all, concept ships are here, and I think that they're going to change the world around us in a big way. Thanks, Aidan.

Star Wars History

Star Wars Episode IV was released in 1977 and millions of people flocked to the theaters to see a movie that was made a long long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away. They were an instant hit and brought sci-fi to the attention of millions of people, rather than the few who had read the sci-fi books. The Star Wars universe was one filled with strange creatures and exciting adventures. We start by following Princess Leia during her capture by Darth Vader above Tatooine, a desert planet that is mostly bare and supports little life. Princess Leia sends robotic friends R2D2 and C3PO in an escape pod to find Obi Wan Kenobi for help. The adventure continues and the the movie is ended when the rebels destroy an Empire spacebase.

Two other movies are released, one in 1980 (Episode V) and one in 1983 (Episode VI), before filming stopped. Then, in 1999 Episode I was released, closely followed by Episode II in 2002 and Episode III in 2005. Star Wars was insanely popular by this point and about a quarter of the planet had watched at least one of the movies. Star Wars was on everything and everyone knew what it was. Since then Disney has snatched up the enterprise and taken off with it. Many of us Star Wars fans are now waiting with anticipation for the release of Episode VII, directed by JJ Abrams, but we’ll just have to wait for a little while. Thanks, Aidan.

The Beginning

In the beginning, there were the greats such as E.E. Doc Smith, Phillip K. Dick, H.G. Wells, Henry Beam Piper, Andre Norton, and Edgar Rice Burroughs. Men such as these ushered in a new age of the imagination, an age where anything could be imagined. Shortly after that Star Wars and Star Trek hit, following the lesser known British television show Doctor Who. Star Wars and Star Trek were immediate hits. They each had millions of people watch them and immediately had massive fandoms that would be locked in a feud until humanity never existed or every Star Trek and/or Stars Wars copy was destroyed. (Personally, I love Star Wars and can tolerate Star Trek). After that sci-fi rocketed. There was no end to the amount of sci-fi books, movies, games, and television shows after that. Around that time Nasa took to the stars and the space race began. Millions of people around the world watched the rocket at Cape Canaveral take off, marking the beginning of a new age, and putting sci-fi fans that much closer to the realization of their greatest dream, for sci-fi to become a reality. Then sci-fi progressed and grew as it had until 1990, when the original Doctor Who was cancelled. Britain was shocked. But in 2005 the Doctor returned and took audiences away to more worlds of wonder and sci-fi terror. Recently the first private space company, Virgin Galatic, released news of a spaceport and tourism in space. Many people have been setting up blogs and creating concept spaceships, fascinating spaceship ideas for the future of humanity. If I do say so myself, which I do, I have been thinking of several ideas for ships and I think that I've got a few cool ones. Well, that was a brief history of sci-fi as well as a few updates. Thanks for reading, Aidan.