How advanced should technology be to built spaceships as spacious as in fictions

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False Prophet
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How advanced should technology be to built spaceships as spacious as in fictions

One thing that has been pointed out several times before that sci-fi spaceships are too spacious, while in real life rockets, shuttles and space stations are the opposite. So I am just wondering what kind of advanced technologies do we need to built spaceship as spacious as in fiction? Just the environment control systems seem complicated enough.
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Seto Kaiba
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Re: How advanced should technology be to built spaceships as spacious as in fictions

False Prophet wrote: Fri Feb 14, 2020 10:53 pm One thing that has been pointed out several times before that sci-fi spaceships are too spacious, while in real life rockets, shuttles and space stations are the opposite.
Modern spacecraft and space stations here in the real world are as compact as they are for one simple reason… the only way we can currently get things into orbit is with chemical rockets, and those are big, heavy, inefficient, expensive, and commonly single-use. Payloads have to remain small and efficient to keep the amount of fuel necessary to reach the desired orbit to a minimum, because adding more fuel adds more weight which makes the rocket a less efficient lifter.

We already have the technology to make much more spacious spacecraft and space stations… the problem is in the economics of getting those things into orbit (or beyond).


False Prophet wrote: Fri Feb 14, 2020 10:53 pm So I am just wondering what kind of advanced technologies do we need to built spaceship as spacious as in fiction? Just the environment control systems seem complicated enough.
If you sense that I’m warming to a theme here, the first and most important thing we need is a far better way to get things into orbit. Something like a more efficient and powerful type of rocket, or some workaround like an orbital elevator or a mass driver. Once we have more efficient ways to get large and heavy payloads into space, the main barrier to building larger spacecraft is gone.

From there, it really depends on how long you intend to stay in space and what you intend to get up to while you’re up there.

If you just want to hang out in orbit, then problem solved… more efficient launch methods mean a modern spacecraft or space station can simply be made roomier. Existing power systems like chemical batteries, solar panels, and radioisotope thermoelectric generators can be enlarged to power a larger ship or station, and easier launches from the surface mean it’s easier to keep the ship or station properly resupplied.

If you’re looking at long-term space habitation, then you need to start thinking about ways to get artificial gravity going. The simplest solution, which you’re no doubt familiar with from Universal Century Gundam titles, is simply to spin aggressively until centrifugal force does the job. As of yet, we lack the ability to artificially change the curvature of space-time, so true sci-fi artificial gravity is beyond us for the time being.

If you want to go other places, then you’re going to want a more efficient and powerful engine to propel your spacecraft. Rockets are about the best we have right now in terms of instantaneous thrust and short-term acceleration. Ion engines are very efficient but the acceleration they offer is extremely slow. There are concepts that promise better acceleration, though for most sci-fi it usually boils down to either a superpowered ion engine (e.g. Star Wars) or a nuclear rocket of some description (e.g. Star Trek, Macross, Gundam).

If you want to leave the solar system… well… unless you intend to freeze yourself and power the ship with a nuclear fission reactor on its millennia-long trip to who-knows-where, you want enough power to start screwing with the geometry of space-time, and that requires something like pair annihilation (e.g. Star Trek’s warp core) or some other purely sci-fi way to provide colossal, potentially planet-wrecking amounts of power. This is something we’re only thinking about on a purely theoretical level, because we don’t even have the energy generation ability necessary to make more than the most minute quantities of antimatter for use in experimental physics laboratories.
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Re: How advanced should technology be to built spaceships as spacious as in fictions

Seto Kaiba wrote: Sat Feb 15, 2020 12:37 am Modern spacecraft and space stations here in the real world are as compact as they are for one simple reason… the only way we can currently get things into orbit is with chemical rockets, and those are big, heavy, inefficient, expensive, and commonly single-use. Payloads have to remain small and efficient to keep the amount of fuel necessary to reach the desired orbit to a minimum, because adding more fuel adds more weight which makes the rocket a less efficient lifter.

We already have the technology to make much more spacious spacecraft and space stations… the problem is in the economics of getting those things into orbit (or beyond).
Oh yeah, I think I have read something about that from an article about Space X. It seemed like when the Crimea affair was still the hot thing, US-Russian space exploration coorperation deteriorated and increased the cost of launching shuttles to space. That left a hole for companies like Space X to fill,

(On a side note, I know a few techheads who really, really don't like Space X, or the privatization of space exploration. Their reason is basically these companies do not make anything new, but only co-opt the researches of universities and other institutes, then sell them to the governments at a higher price. It is also how a lot of Silicon startups operate, so it seems.)

Speaking of Star Trek, it make sense that the Federation, which has a post-scarcity society, to build their spaceships that spacious. But by that same tokens, are Klingon and Romulan weaker economically to the Federation because of how spartan their spaceships are, or is it just a cultural thing?

And speaking of space exploration beyond the solar system, I have heard again and again that the only way is to sent unmanned spaceships with really really good A.I. and self-repair systems. Not many people would be willing to brave the danger of space radiation and other dangers to go on a blind exploration.
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Re: How advanced should technology be to built spaceships as spacious as in fictions

I'd also look at combat use spaceships.

Unless you have some kind of new science, very unlikely.
The main reason is that even if you build stuff in space, you still need to spend propellant to get your ship to move around. You do not want your ship to be inefficient, because you will very likely lose to a ship that spent the same amount of resources but is more efficient. Just look at real life combat vessels, most of them aren't spacious and comfortable because of this very fact.
Even single centimetre you increase in your corridor, you have increased that times the total length of your corridors in area, and multiply that by the thickness of you hull and armour plating, then the mass. Do you really need a 3 metre wide corridor, or just a 1m one? You don't just increase your propellant for moving that much mass around, you essentially also need extra propellant for those extra propellant.

Speaking of Star Trek: https://youtu.be/Lwx5uB0pyhQ
This is how ridiculously huge the Enterprise is.

Civilian ships, you may get a little bit of more comfort if you are building something like a cruise ship, but you still don't want it to be too spacious, because every tonne of propellant you are using means a certain amount of money, and you will be limiting your customer base if their ship ticket gets too expensive. Even if you say you are using dirt cheap propellant like water in the asteroid belt, or even just the asteroids themselves(mass drivers shooting out rocks) you still need to factor in the collection energy required and the energy fee, the maintenance fee of all of the engines you are using(the heavier your ship, the greater the thrust needed for the same mission/delta V), the logistics isn't dirt cheap even when we have way more resources than we can use in space.

Yes, you can get more spacious than current spaceships, but not likely much more so if you like at the economical model of how things work.

Also, at a certain size or above, it may even be better to just spend energy to move people around narrow corridors instead of have people walking/jumping around. 2 reasons, 1) you can save material and thus mass; 2) it is simply too far to move by human speed. Honestly, I'd hate to have to run/walk just half the length of, for example, Macross(1200m), and scrambling on the Excellion(7km+) or even Eltrium(70km+) is just ridiculous without power assist.
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Re: How advanced should technology be to built spaceships as spacious as in fictions

False Prophet wrote: Sat Feb 15, 2020 8:02 am Oh yeah, I think I have read something about that from an article about Space X. It seemed like when the Crimea affair was still the hot thing, US-Russian space exploration coorperation deteriorated and increased the cost of launching shuttles to space. That left a hole for companies like Space X to fill,
Well, it certainly didn't help that the Columbia-type space shuttle orbiter had already reached the end of its service life and the planned replacement (Boeing's SLS) had experienced a string of delays and cost overruns which meant it was beaten to the punch by SpaceX and others.


False Prophet wrote: Sat Feb 15, 2020 8:02 am (On a side note, I know a few techheads who really, really don't like Space X, or the privatization of space exploration. Their reason is basically these companies do not make anything new, but only co-opt the researches of universities and other institutes, then sell them to the governments at a higher price. It is also how a lot of Silicon startups operate, so it seems.)
A lot of engineers, myself included, have very little use for Elon Musk in general because he makes a great deal of grandiose promises but as evidenced with Tesla's autonomy program he cuts corners on safety constantly and he's very VERY reckless. The man's going to get a LOT of people killed if he isn't reined in.


False Prophet wrote: Sat Feb 15, 2020 8:02 am Speaking of Star Trek, it make sense that the Federation, which has a post-scarcity society, to build their spaceships that spacious. But by that same tokens, are Klingon and Romulan weaker economically to the Federation because of how spartan their spaceships are, or is it just a cultural thing?
Well, it's a cultural thing but it's also a matter of what the ships are built FOR...

UFP Starfleet builds ships for all kinds of different jobs, but the ones that've been featured on Star Trek are mainly ships made for long-distance, long-term missions of space exploration. They're designed with the comfort of the crew in mind because those ships were expected to spend months or even years out on the frontier before returning to a starbase for crew rotations. There's also a certain element of cultural posturing in it, as Starfleet's captains are also the ones on the front lines of diplomacy making first contact with new alien races. What better way to show off how amazing the Federation is than touring a ship packed to stem to stern with the latest gizmos with a crew who are living extremely well despite being so far from home?

We've seen a few examples of smaller Federation ships intended for other things like the Defiant-class escort and the Nova-class short-range science ship, and both were substantially less luxurious than the larger, more prestigious long-range multi-mission explorers like the Constitution, Galaxy, and Intrepid classes. Ships like that didn't have holodecks, and the crew quarters were more like bunkrooms than the small apartments on larger ships and even the quarters for senior officers are much smaller.

Romulans and Klingons don't care much for diplomacy, and if they're trying to impress with anything it's their raw combat ability.

The Klingon warrior caste very definitely have a Spartan-like anti-comfort ethos and that definitely reflects in the interior design of their ships starting in the TOS movies. The idea the production team had to differentiate them from Starfleet's neat-and-tidy, nice place to live ships was to make them as utilitarian, grungy, and unpleasant to live in as possible. They're hardcore military ships, overbuilt to take and deal out punishment. The closest those ships come to creature comforts is in the kitchen.

The Romulans are a bit of a mixed bag. The original 23rd century Bird of Prey was an extremely spartan ship that was extremely cramped. They picked up the Klingon D7-class during their brief alliance and used that for a lot of the 23rd century (at the behest of the kit maker for the D7-class). Their later ships seem to be a LOT more luxurious. The 24th century D'deridex-class warbird was closer to the Federation Galaxy-class in terms of crew comfort, with a substantial ready room for its captain, a fairly nice wardroom for the senior officer staff to eat in, and so on. The regular crew quarters were less luxurious, being a redress of the USS Defiant crew quarters set, but the senior officer quarters seen in TNG seem to be quite nice. (Romulans apparently share the belief that Rank Hath its Privileges.)


False Prophet wrote: Sat Feb 15, 2020 8:02 am And speaking of space exploration beyond the solar system, I have heard again and again that the only way is to sent unmanned spaceships with really really good A.I. and self-repair systems. Not many people would be willing to brave the danger of space radiation and other dangers to go on a blind exploration.
With our current technology, robots are the only viable way to explore space.

We need to invent a stardrive capable of greater acceleration and endurance if we want to actually get places in anything like a reasonable span of time.
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Re: How advanced should technology be to built spaceships as spacious as in fictions

Seto Kaiba wrote: Sat Feb 15, 2020 1:43 pm A lot of engineers, myself included, have very little use for Elon Musk in general because he makes a great deal of grandiose promises but as evidenced with Tesla's autonomy program he cuts corners on safety constantly and he's very VERY reckless. The man's going to get a LOT of people killed if he isn't reined in.
If you read about Elon Musk's career (or listen to a podcast like I do), you would know that the guy is a dumbass whose only had an inkling about where the winds blew, and thus jumped into the electric car and space transportation markets at the right time.
Seto Kaiba wrote: Sat Feb 15, 2020 1:43 pm We need to invent a stardrive capable of greater acceleration and endurance if we want to actually get places in anything like a reasonable span of time.
I have heard people proposing doing something with the galaxy filaments to make faster-than-light transportation possible, so I suppose sci-fi writers can add that too.
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Re: How advanced should technology be to built spaceships as spacious as in fictions

False Prophet wrote: Sat Feb 15, 2020 10:35 pm I have heard people proposing doing something with the galaxy filaments to make faster-than-light transportation possible, so I suppose sci-fi writers can add that too.
Recent experiments verifying the existence of gravity waves have promising implications for the creation of a warp drive similar to what is seen in Star Trek. We just need to come up with a way to create negative mass. The ability to create negative mass would allow for high-velocity sublight drive as well by cheating down a given ship's inertial mass to the point that conventional drives can reach a significant fraction of the speed of light.
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Re: How advanced should technology be to built spaceships as spacious as in fictions

Seto Kaiba wrote: Sat Feb 15, 2020 10:50 pm Recent experiments verifying the existence of gravity waves have promising implications for the creation of a warp drive similar to what is seen in Star Trek. We just need to come up with a way to create negative mass. The ability to create negative mass would allow for high-velocity sublight drive as well by cheating down a given ship's inertial mass to the point that conventional drives can reach a significant fraction of the speed of light.
The Alcubierre drive proposed in the 90's(And is actually modelled after the warp drive from Star Trek as the Physicist admitted) is quite controversial and the calculations are not really that concise. The formula has been recalculated by others and the negative mass required are different from different people's interpretation, ranging from a few kg to more that the total mass of the visible Universe.
How on Earth do we break the bubble is also a big problem of the proposal.
NASA's Eagle Lab did some kind of experiment but 1) they don't have negative mass and only ran some simulations for that, 2) Dr. White used a much thicker bubble than the calculations of the Alcubierre drive, which doesn't even fit with the theoretical model and shouldn't work at all.

And If anything similar is produced, it will make a very powerful weapon when you stop at the end of the journal as the cumulated mass on the bubble during your journal will all shoot out in front of the spaceship at relativistic velocity.(Since the space inside is cut off from the outside of the bubble, you have no means to decelerate them)
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Re: How advanced should technology be to built spaceships as spacious as in fictions

Seto Kaiba wrote: Sat Feb 15, 2020 10:50 pm Recent experiments verifying the existence of gravity waves have promising implications for the creation of a warp drive similar to what is seen in Star Trek. We just need to come up with a way to create negative mass. The ability to create negative mass would allow for high-velocity sublight drive as well by cheating down a given ship's inertial mass to the point that conventional drives can reach a significant fraction of the speed of light.

So that is why all those negative matters are needed. And I thought that they are only for creating an enourmous amount of energy.
MythSearcher wrote: Sun Feb 16, 2020 6:32 am The Alcubierre drive proposed in the 90's(And is actually modelled after the warp drive from Star Trek as the Physicist admitted) is quite controversial and the calculations are not really that concise. The formula has been recalculated by others and the negative mass required are different from different people's interpretation, ranging from a few kg to more that the total mass of the visible Universe.
How on Earth do we break the bubble is also a big problem of the proposal.
NASA's Eagle Lab did some kind of experiment but 1) they don't have negative mass and only ran some simulations for that, 2) Dr. White used a much thicker bubble than the calculations of the Alcubierre drive, which doesn't even fit with the theoretical model and shouldn't work at all.

And If anything similar is produced, it will make a very powerful weapon when you stop at the end of the journal as the cumulated mass on the bubble during your journal will all shoot out in front of the spaceship at relativistic velocity.(Since the space inside is cut off from the outside of the bubble, you have no means to decelerate them)
In layman's term, can you explain what is this "bubble"? I have read some popular science about teleportation, and they did mention a bubble to protect the objects being transported from being torn apart when the rules of physics awere bent. Is it the same thing?
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Re: How advanced should technology be to built spaceships as spacious as in fictions

False Prophet wrote: Sun Feb 16, 2020 9:03 am
In layman's term, can you explain what is this "bubble"? I have read some popular science about teleportation, and they did mention a bubble to protect the objects being transported from being torn apart when the rules of physics awere bent. Is it the same thing?
Sorry, can't do.
I'd like to have someone explain to me what a "space-time bubble" is as well.

If you want to look at what others have explained, say, from NASA's Dr. White, here are some links:
https://dailygalaxy.com/2019/03/warp-bu ... d-feature/

https://www.sciencealert.com/how-feasib ... he-science

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcubierre_drive
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Re: How advanced should technology be to built spaceships as spacious as in fictions

False Prophet wrote: Sun Feb 16, 2020 9:03 am So that is why all those negative matters are needed. And I thought that they are only for creating an enourmous amount of energy.
Ah, no... antimatter does not have negative mass. It really is just for creating huge amounts of energy through a pair annihilation reaction.

Modern science doesn't really have any inkling of how to go about creating negative mass. It would involve being able to manipulate gravity itself.


False Prophet wrote: Sun Feb 16, 2020 9:03 am In layman's term, can you explain what is this "bubble"? I have read some popular science about teleportation, and they did mention a bubble to protect the objects being transported from being torn apart when the rules of physics awere bent. Is it the same thing?
So, in simple terms, the Alcubierre drive - known more commonly in sci-fi that predated its actual codification as a scientific/mathematical theory as the Warp Drive - is essentially based on a loophole in Special Relativity.

You see, in Special Relativity energy and mass are interchangeable and the speed of light is the fastest that matter can travel through space. You'd need literally infinite energy to accelerate an object weighing more than a photon fast enough to reach the speed of light. One way to work around this is that, instead of pushing the object harder, you change the shape of space around it so the object itself isn't moving but the space around the object is moving faster than the speed of light. That's what a warp drive does.

The "bubble" referred to above is the region of space surrounding the ship, outside of which the warp drive changes the shape of space. Think of it like the ship is a model inside a clear rubber ball. The ship doesn't move relative to the ball, but the ball itself can move. The warp field pushes that bubble around by contracting space in front of the bubble and expanding it behind, so the bubble is riding on the front of a wave of moving space. When they want to stop, they just turn off the negative mass source and the wave disappears, leaving the ship standing still and having technically not actually moved... because the space containing the ship moved instead.
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Re: How advanced should technology be to built spaceships as spacious as in fictions

Seto Kaiba wrote: Sun Feb 16, 2020 12:53 pm
So, in simple terms, the Alcubierre drive - known more commonly in sci-fi that predated its actual codification as a scientific/mathematical theory as the Warp Drive - is essentially based on a loophole in Special Relativity.
Better put, the Alcubierre drive is the mathematical model of the Warp drive based on the theory of relativity.
If you try to calculated how this will work, you get an answer the requires negative energy, in which the easiest way to obtain is by having negative mass.

It is by no means the only loophole, there are other mathematical models that may work for FTL travel(like going through a wormhole, which also requires negative matter)

Also this is another fun thing to ponder: (2017 news)
https://phys.org/news/2017-04-physicist ... -mass.html

Obtaining negative mass doesn't just make FLT travel possible, it can possibly create a runaway effect which saves a lot of propellant for regular slower than light travel in which negative matter will push positive matter away from itself but that the same time being pulled by positive matter, thus the two will just keep on moving without expending reaction mass.(Bondi and Bonnor)

Or all of this is just a big mistake in the theory of relativity because it did not take into account negative matter and thus the mathematical model used is just plain wrong.
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Re: How advanced should technology be to built spaceships as spacious as in fictions

So, what about food. I personally am used to monotonous meals, but it would still be a hit to morale. So I guess beside dehydration rations, we will need cloning and artificial cultivation?
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Re: How advanced should technology be to built spaceships as spacious as in fictions

False Prophet wrote: Mon Feb 17, 2020 1:36 pm So, what about food. I personally am used to monotonous meals, but it would still be a hit to morale. So I guess beside dehydration rations, we will need cloning and artificial cultivation?
We've made decent strides towards things like 3D-printed foods, a first step towards a Star Trek-style protein synthesizer. Instead of having to carry animals or frozen meat rations, they could build steaks and other meat with cell cultures and 3D printing technology. I'd expect they'd have aeroponic gardens both for the fresh produce and a supplemental oxygen recycling system.

Eventually, we'll probably hit replicator-like artificial food performance where we can assemble something that's a mostly-passable impression of real food assembled from machine-created proteins and textured carbohydrates.
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Re: How advanced should technology be to built spaceships as spacious as in fictions

Seto Kaiba wrote: Mon Feb 17, 2020 2:15 pm We've made decent strides towards things like 3D-printed foods, a first step towards a Star Trek-style protein synthesizer. Instead of having to carry animals or frozen meat rations, they could build steaks and other meat with cell cultures and 3D printing technology. I'd expect they'd have aeroponic gardens both for the fresh produce and a supplemental oxygen recycling system.

Eventually, we'll probably hit replicator-like artificial food performance where we can assemble something that's a mostly-passable impression of real food assembled from machine-created proteins and textured carbohydrates.
Does anyone have any idea how the "cartridges"/"pools" containing protein, fat, etc. used by the 3D food printers look like?

(I have only seen 3D printers making scuptures. What is the part that contain all the unformed polymer called anyway?)

Also, I wonder what kind of medium and nutrition is used in the cultivation of meat-cells. Agar?
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Re: How advanced should technology be to built spaceships as spacious as in fictions

False Prophet wrote: Tue Feb 18, 2020 5:43 am Does anyone have any idea how the "cartridges"/"pools" containing protein, fat, etc. used by the 3D food printers look like?
Nope, AFAIK the printer used to make those printed burgers from lab-cultured cow muscle are proprietary hardware they didn't want to photograph.


False Prophet wrote: Tue Feb 18, 2020 5:43 am (I have only seen 3D printers making scuptures. What is the part that contain all the unformed polymer called anyway?)
They still call 'em cartridges... old habits die hard, I guess.


False Prophet wrote: Tue Feb 18, 2020 5:43 am Also, I wonder what kind of medium and nutrition is used in the cultivation of meat-cells. Agar?
The ones I've read about use a synthetic blood substitute as a growth medium.
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Re: How advanced should technology be to built spaceships as spacious as in fictions

Say, how do long-range satellites avoid asteroids and other obstacles beside steering clear of them? And if I remember correctly, the space above Earth has become increasingly polluted with debris. How do satellites orbit around Earth without hitting them?
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Re: How advanced should technology be to built spaceships as spacious as in fictions

False Prophet wrote: Wed Feb 19, 2020 12:08 am Say, how do long-range satellites avoid asteroids and other obstacles beside steering clear of them? And if I remember correctly, the space above Earth has become increasingly polluted with debris. How do satellites orbit around Earth without hitting them?
Currently no other method.

NASA, ESA and Roscosmos, etc. all basically have been tracking most of the larger(anything larger than 1cm in diameter) pieces of debris and asteroids by radar and different mathematical models and change course if it gets to around 15% chance of collision.
Any debris smaller is tracked by group, avoidance is not mandatory and is analysed to see if the shielding is enough. These can cause damage but may not be lethal so will be analysed case by case.

Of course from time to time they still get hit, that is why shielding is important. Check "Whipple Shield" as an introduction.
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Re: How advanced should technology be to built spaceships as spacious as in fictions

MythSearcher wrote: Wed Feb 19, 2020 4:32 am Currently no other method.

NASA, ESA and Roscosmos, etc. all basically have been tracking most of the larger(anything larger than 1cm in diameter) pieces of debris and asteroids by radar and different mathematical models and change course if it gets to around 15% chance of collision.
Any debris smaller is tracked by group, avoidance is not mandatory and is analysed to see if the shielding is enough. These can cause damage but may not be lethal so will be analysed case by case.

Of course from time to time they still get hit, that is why shielding is important. Check "Whipple Shield" as an introduction.
If I remember correctly, weren't there some companies with the idea of going to space to clear out the debris with spider-like robots? And how exactly do rockets change their direction in space without being under the influence of gravity like ballistic missiles?

And speaking of ballistic missiles, I have heard people saying that we could use the laser that was used in the American missile-intercepting Boeing aircraft for clearing asteroids if we just figure a way to put that laser projector onto a shuttle. It makes me think of the beam shield of the fore of the Reinforce Junior.
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Re: How advanced should technology be to built spaceships as spacious as in fictions

False Prophet wrote: Thu Feb 20, 2020 9:07 am And how exactly do rockets change their direction in space without being under the influence of gravity like ballistic missiles?
Verniers.


False Prophet wrote: Thu Feb 20, 2020 9:07 am And speaking of ballistic missiles, I have heard people saying that we could use the laser that was used in the American missile-intercepting Boeing aircraft for clearing asteroids if we just figure a way to put that laser projector onto a shuttle. It makes me think of the beam shield of the fore of the Reinforce Junior.
Oh my, no... the YAL-1A's COIL laser system doesn't have anywhere near that kind of output. It's also so large that there would be no hope of ever getting it onto a space shuttle, it consumes most of the internal space of a modified 747-400F, each of its fuel cells weighs over 2 metric tons, and the continuous irradiation time of the system is only about 100 seconds before its fuel cells are spent.

It wasn't even very good at what it was built to do, which was shooting down IBCMs right after launch.
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