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"The point sticks in your head: physics rules. Virtue does not triumph unless the physics allows it."
- Larry Niven
 |
| 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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'...Anything was possible in my imaginary environment.'
'Somewhere in space, a chrome and blue automobile raced the green light of Earth.'
'That explains how it was so easy for me to remain motionless in midair...'
'We had discovered that metal was relatively impervious to the telepathic effect.'
'Detailed plans for the construction of the Gundstetter-Halone warp drive were flowing.'
'Do not waste your priceless company on the unappreciative folds of a sleep pod...'
'...so we've promised him a generous pension from the royalties.'
'Hocus-pocus religions and archaic weapons are no substitute for a good blaster at your side.'
