Inspirational websites

[hmelton]

I don't plan on contributing any actual story material, but I thought the writers here might find ideas or inspiration from some web sites I've collected for my own use.
CD has already mentioned one site in the General discussion, but here are 3 more that I have used for my own fanfic ideas at least once and sometimes several times.
There are more sites and I'm not presenting them in any paticular order, but for now here are 3 sites I have used for ideas.
Atomic Rockets
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www.projectrho.com/rocket/index.html
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Mikes electrical stuff
If this site's pictures doesn't give you ideas for describing the latest Fen invention then you need to turn in your Handwavium.
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www.electricstuff.co.uk/
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Orb study
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www.orbstudy.com/BIZyCart...T=OrbStudy
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howard melton
God bless

[Bob Schroeck]

Good links, thanks!
Here's one -- we can't really apply it as-is, but I'm absolutely certain that the politics of Fenspace are directly influenced by The 95 Theses of Geek Activism.
-- Bob
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...The President is on the line
As ninety-nine crab rangoons go by...

[drakensis]

I posted this in the original thread, but it's worth reposting I think:
www.sarimage.com/Aviation/DavisMonthan/
D for Drakensis

You're only young once, but immaturity is forever.

[hmelton]

I like the two sites that were added been looking at them.

As promised here are few more of my inspiration sites.
Anyone for L ONE?
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www.moonminer.com/L1_spacestation.html
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How about Martians
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www.marsinstitute.info/rd...rtree/rtr/
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Speaking of Martians I'll end this with a Earth shattering ka-BOOM!?
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www.freerepublic.com/focu...2974/posts
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howard melton
God bless

[hmelton]

This next and probably last set of sites from me are sites I use more for reference than inspiration.
The Solar System is there for the taking.
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seds.lpl.arizona.edu/nine...neplanets/
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So you think your in orbit?
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liftoff.msfc.nasa.gov/aca..._calc.html
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Need weapons? Can't decide what?
It takes some careful searching, but the site below has informations on most military weapon systems you can find in the world.
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www.fas.org/main/home.jsp
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What I can't believe is some Fen hasn't yet stolen a retired SR-71 and a couple of GAU-8 Avenger Gatling cannon and then somehow shoehorned the 3 together into some Nightmare arrangement and then liberally applied Handwavium to see what the results would be.
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www.fas.org/irp/program/c.../sr-71.htm
www.fas.org/man/dod-101/s.../gau-8.htm
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howard melton
God bless

[Foxboy]

Re: the SR-71 and gatlings
Not fans.
Boskonian Zwilnik Reavers
''We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat
them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.''

-- James Nicoll

[Valles]

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Boskonian Zwilnik Reavers

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I disagree.
Because... I think that the Danelaw would've done it first.
Probably most of them are still sitting in museums across the US - if a bit more carefully monitored than they used to be.
In ther real world, there are a few still in active use, which are of questionable utitility given other developments in the field of reconnaissance. There are another few in mothballs at Lockheed. There are rather more in USAF museums, being pretty for the camera.
So. You're the Federal Government. Leaving aside questions of paranoia and control-freak tendancies, even if most of these wierdos are harmless at worst, some small few of them are actively malevolent. It is your job to make sure that those few don't harm the people under your care.
Let's assume that you've got all the tried and true, trustworthy measures in place, and are doing all you can to learn about how to improve them. But there's a chance, a good chance, that that won't be enough.
But you have tremendous resources in terms of money and information and people, and among those last are doubtless going to be no small number who are both sufficiently Fennish to work well with wavetech and sufficiently trustworthy even by the most paranoid of standards.
So, wavetech is wierd and unreliable, so it'll never be your primary line of defense, but it can also do things that are otherwise impossible - which means that it's only good sense to use its abilities, for whatever purpose.
So, among your resources you can count a very large share of the hardtech capable of threatening a wavetech craft - you're already bankrolling most of the world's research into weaponised lasers, for instance. You also count a number of airframes explicitly designed to go very very faster than anything else, to do it without getting caught, and, maybe, if need be, to carry a weapon or two while doing so. They're quite famous for the first two, and, given some of the theories running around in even the most credible of Fen, that might be a valuable factor.
Best of all, they're not much good in their current role any more, having been... not superseded, really, but sidestepped by other technologies. You could use other types, of course, but those almost all have other uses, and... it really does fit well.
So, all in all, you're likely to want to use them.
And you've got first crack at them.
...
Well, it makes sense to me.
Ja, -n

===============================================
"Puripuri puripuri... Bang!"

[Anpwhotep]

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Boskonian Zwilnik Reavers

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Have to disagree. Between the Heinleinans and the Smithians (both Doc and Neil), there's a LOT of fen who would weapon up like this if they could get their hands on the hardware.
A lot easier than building a gatling laser from scratch, I can guarantee.--
Homepage: http://www.macmanusnet.net
Sailor Moon Fanfiction: http://crystal.macmanusnet.net
--
Homepage: http://www.macmanusnet.net

Sailor Moon Fanfiction: http://crystal.macmanusnet.net

[hmelton]

Actually your groups could get their hands on Gatling Guns and the plans for Gatling Guns fairly easily.
The plans for the original Gatling Gun are available from historical archives and given the fact that it is a civil war era weapon it is rather easy to build one in any modern machine shop.
Wanna Gatling gun? This site sells plans and guns.
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www.machineguns.co.nz/index.shtml
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Here is the 22 caliber version.
It's a tiny thing scroll down to the pictures of a man cranking it.
Since it's hand cranked it's has a very low rate of fire only 700 to 1000 rounds per minute.
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www.machineguns.co.nz/products.shtml
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Given the plans and a little scaling it would be as easy to build a gatling gun using pistol barrels instead of short .22 rifle barrels shown above.
Even the "toy" .22 caliber version would have it's uses in fiction.
Example
In the Superman Unbound universe the Chinese and Russian Mecha/power armour use tiny .22 caliber gatlings designed around smoothbore pistol barrels as a point defense system to stop anti-tank rockets and anti-tank grenades fired or thrown by American Ultramen.

howard melton
God bless

[hmelton]

I just ran across this site called warehouse 23 and decided to do some digging in thier basement. I came across these oddities in the first 7 or 8 boxes I opened and just about all of them except the last one listed made me think they were devices that belonged in this universe or had fallen from this universe.
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www.warehouse23.com/basement/
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/QUOTE/
You open one of the 995 boxes on this floor and find...
A CD in a transparent container. The face of the CD says "Mountain Dew(TM)," and has the green Mountain Dew Logo across it. If it is put in a CD player, of any kind, Mountain Dew will be dispensed. The other side of the CD can be used as a drink coaster without any adverse effects.

You open one of the 995 boxes on this floor and find...
A large pile of socks. No two of them match. As you watch, a new sock appears on the pile. It feels warm to the touch and smells like dryer sheets.

You open one of the 998 boxes on this floor and find...
A small desk calendar. Any scheduled event that is written on the calendar will not take place at the scheduled date or time. Writing your birthday on this calendar could be bad; writing your mother-in-law's birthday on it could be less bad...

You open one of the 999 boxes on this floor and find...
A large, sealed cardboard box. On the side, in red ink, is a large arrow pointing to the top of the box and the legend "This Side Up." No matter how the box is moved or rotated, the arrow will always point to the top of the box and the words will always be right-side-up. If the box is opened, it is found to be empty.

You open one of the 1000 boxes on this floor and find...
A pair of large, pink, fuzzy dice on a string, suitable for hanging from the rear-view mirror of a car. While they are hanging, the car runs normally, but does not appear to use up its fuel.

You open one of the 1001 boxes on this floor and find...
About 5,000,000 sheets of neatly stacked computer printouts from a mass volume line printer covered in nothing but 1's and 0's. Written in red marker on top of one of the stacks is "Hitler Brain Tape; Do Not Load!"
/ENDQUOTE/

[Bob Schroeck]

Dunno if you were being tongue-in-cheek or not, Howard, but if you weren't, well, that's the direct sales branch of Steve Jackson Games.
And yeah, the Basement is a fun way to waste an hour or two
If you want really strange, though, you have to sift through the Dumpster...
-- Bob
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...The President is on the line
As ninety-nine crab rangoons go by...

[hmelton]

Tongue in cheek, but I had actually completely forgotten about Warehouse 23's basement until someone on a Alternate History Discussion board mentioned it as a good source ideas.
Thinking about it I don't think I had been to Mr. Jackson's home page or even SJG since the last or may or first of June of last year.
howard melton
God bless

[robkelk]

Sci-Fi Arizona has an Astrogator's Handbook available, for people who want to get from Star X to Star Y without having to detour to Sol first. (And we all know that there'll be a few Fen who'll want to do this...)
The Standard Edition, which covers 50ly from Sol, is a free download.

-Rob Kelk
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

[Kokuten]

Re: Sr-71 theft.
I could pull it off. I would love to pull it off. But it would be universe-breaking, when all is said and done, I would not be happy with less than .3c out of that gorgeous, gorgeous spaceframe, and pushing the Limit besides.
I think the Sr-71 is just 'too' cool, which is why we've not seen anyone get one. Not to mention it would be an armed theft - out of character for quite a few of our 'Fen.Wire Geek - Burning the weak and trampling the dead since 1979Wire Geek - Burning the weak and trampling the dead since 1979

[Black Aeronaut]

I call dibs on the Blackbird!
Why? Because it'd be perfect for the title of Black Aeronaut. In fact, it's probably why my character works so hard to win races and ferry packages/people. After all, everyone has their price, and I bet the government wouldn't mind selling off a decomissioned Blackbird in exchange for the right price and a few favors.
Hey, Duane, would you mind if the Bullet Boy Express were your primary courier? It'd certainly help my character in gaining trust with the US'Dane Government.
EDIT:
Kokuten, in regards to 0.3c speeds, I have the solution to that.
Burnout mode.
An absolute emergency only, do-or-die, damn-the-torpedoes emergency power level. Benjamin only dares to maintain these speeds for sixty seconds - the hull popping he heard when he tested it the first time was not encouraging. Additionally, it is only good for straight-line plots. Once Burnout Mode is engaged, you are stuck with the course heading you're on. No ifs, ands, or buts. Do not pass Go. Do not collect USD200.
Additionally, this is the Blackbird we're talking about here. The Mach 5 Wonder of the Skunk Works. The airship that could only be shot down -IN THEORY- because they were so God damned fast (And even then, only if you were using a nuclear warhead). With infamy and lineage like that (And looks that just scream FAST!!!) Handwavium will not be satisfied with a mere 0.1c or even 0.2c. This bad girl is gonna be doing 0.15c without breaking a sweat because it can.
The quirk, you ask?
Try stopping her!!! She is not gonna want to stay in one place for very long at all. She wants to roam wild and free. She will only stay in port for as long as it takes to offload and/or pickup cargo and/or passengers. If the crew is making and extended stay in port, she will leave and make a holy terror of herself in the wild black yonder until she's called for.
That said, I don't think she'll even need to bother with a weapons system. She simply outclasses -everything- out there.
So, may I have this for a later project? Yes-no-mu?

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Black Aeronaut Technologies Group
Aerospace Solutions for the discerning spacer
"To the commissary we should go," Yoda declared firmly. "News
of this kind a danish requires."

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[Kokuten]

I restate my previous objection, which I should have left unsaid, and the thread buried *hangs head in shame*Wire Geek - Burning the weak and trampling the dead since 1979Wire Geek - Burning the weak and trampling the dead since 1979

[Black Aeronaut]

*Shruggs* Well, this is why I'm asking. Besides, it gives a perfect excuse for my character to be 'busy' for the time that I will be unable to post. Most other Fen ships may have been relatively easy to construct... But a Blackbird... To do it right, to do it justice... That will take time indeed.

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Black Aeronaut Technologies Group
Aerospace Solutions for the discerning spacer
"To the commissary we should go," Yoda declared firmly. "News
of this kind a danish requires."

---

[Kokuten]

now I'm jealous.
let's see what "the crowd" has to say.Wire Geek - Burning the weak and trampling the dead since 1979Wire Geek - Burning the weak and trampling the dead since 1979

[KJ]

Oh dear. I should comment that Mach 5 for the original is way optimistic. They were rated at 3.2, though supposedly 3.5 had been done. OXCART was a bit faster, but still in that range.
The general concept I can't really fault (and it's making me think of the X-15s) as... well, some of us have semi-legally acquired things of equivalent coolness *cough*Ptichka*cough* and between the A-12s and SR-71s, there's a fair number of them sitting around museums.
I'm uncomfortable with the fact that we sorta finally established "hard" mass/speed guidelines and what's being proposed completely blows them out of the water, though. Though considering how it's built, fairly high standard speedrive velocity (no matter how much of it's converted to drive, it's still 59,000 pounds dry) combined with gargantuan assloads of reaction mass relative to vehicle weight?
I just really don't like putting anything with speeddrives that far in excess of every single other thing out there, y'know? It leaves things open to people thinking "well, if something that cool looking can go that much faster than everything else, what if I come up with something even cooler/faster looking?" And I know someone will think of it because, well, I just did...

[Kokuten]

urhm.. correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't OXCART the pre-production name for the project that gave us the SR-71?
Edit: OXCART was the original article, and the earlier testers, before the -12 spec and the SR-71 birds.
Edit: pulled my SR-71 wankery off to General - it has no place here. Wire Geek - Burning the weak and trampling the dead since 1979Wire Geek - Burning the weak and trampling the dead since 1979

[KJ]

OXCART was the A-12; it and the SR-71 are largely similar and the A-12 preceded the 71, but they were active concurrently. OXCART was only single seat, and thus had a larger camera bay, and it was only flown by civilian (CIA) pilots, similar to the U-2 whereas the SR-71 was a USAF bird.
*shrug* Learned about it a few years ago when dad ran across a declassified document on it. Still have the printout around.

[Kokuten]

If you'd care to go into more detail, or just discuss the 'bird, I have a thread in general Wire Geek - Burning the weak and trampling the dead since 1979Wire Geek - Burning the weak and trampling the dead since 1979

[Black Aeronaut]

Okay then, 0.1c as an easy, comfy, cruising speed, but at 0.15c she'll stop because A) she can't even maneuver at that speed (save for her course being altered by gravitational forces) and B) she doesn't like the idea of being shaken to peices. She'll still be able to do a fifteen second burst at 0.2c, but afterwards she'll want to put in port for Ben to do a thorough checkover of her hull, wanderlust be damned. This, of course, would require some extreme motivation in order for her to pull it off.
Sheesh, I'm already starting to imagine her turning out like Ptichka, only with an attitude. BTW, how do you pronounce that?

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Black Aeronaut Technologies Group
Aerospace Solutions for the discerning spacer
"To the commissary we should go," Yoda declared firmly. "News
of this kind a danish requires."

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