Hey, I was planning on making an animated short based on an adaptation of The Cold Equations, not in terms of plot but in terms of theme. Inspired by the thread about fallout shelters, I felt that a starship that had been forced to the ground in a hostile environment might make for an interesting story, and I was wondering if I could get information about how best to make this as tensely realistic as possible. It may be animation, but I intend to go for more of a 2001-style starkness to the images and have it be a solo ship, or at least a solo survivor, so isolation will also be a theme.
I'm not married to any of the specifics yet, but here's some ideas I had about general theme:
1) It's some variety of ship that's not technically designed to be in this kind of environment. I was thinking something roughly spheroid and extremely utilitarian, built for space travel. It could be some sort of hauling apparatus.
I'm perfectly happy having a good portion of the thing shredded as it lands (it may be designed to land on the moon or small planetoid, not a Mars-sized object with 'weather'), but I want to have some amount of shelter provided so that the theme of survival can be key. I assume the pilot needs to hang on until he can be picked up, so we're going for like the year 2150 or something, not Star Wars. This is more Cast Away than Forbidden Planet.
So, what kind of ship should it be that could be expected to make a partially-controlled landing and provide shelter, but have it be stressful enough to be borderline?
2) The scenario needs to depend on stretched resources. Starships are chock full of those to begin with--and air, though normally not a problem, is a lot more problematic when the ship is probably damaged on planetfall. One of the things I'm toying with is the idea that he has a fellow pilot who was not killed and he stuck him into one of the suspended animation tubes to try to keep him alive until they're picked, but as the days go on he eventually needs to 'cut the cord' to save himself.
But this should be based on good engineering, and I'm no engineer. Flight of the Phoenix had a good theme not too dissimilar to this in it, and that's a good example about how technical things can become dramatic. The starship becomes almost an enemy, or an ally, and the less contrived I make this the more credibility I give the character.
So, what kind of resources should this starship have that are impossible to replace, or can be gathered from an environment, and lead to the most interesting struggle for survival?
3) What kind of environment could be safe enough for a starship but not safe enough for the pilot? I was thinking of something martian because not is it iconic, but it's also a reasonable stopping point in the solar system at some point in our future. It's also not as murderous as Venus or as bland as the Moon. It'd be nice if something could force him to go outside periodicially. Perhaps to retrieve ice?
It's fine if the environment is dangerous in a long term to the ship (Martian dust-storms could be very dangerous) but I want it to be more about survival than landing in a lake of acid.
I'd also like it to be devoid of flora and fauna, as we can realistically expect things to be. It wouldn't detract too much, but I want to avoid an alien sub-plot.
4) Can anyone ballpark me what the interior of this starship would look like? Submarines are not the perfect model for a ship's interior, but they certainly seem to be not all that far off from what I've seen of the Apollo insides. I can't find any interiors of the Shuttle that shows anything interesting, and I'd rather fill it full of ugly tubing than pretty white internal panels.
5) His spacesuit--I can look on Atomic Rockets for info on that, but I was wondering about things like radiation hazards and such. That's a good way to limit his outside time. What kind of spacesuit am I looking at here to survive on a planet though?
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...I think that about covers it. I'm sure you can get what I'm looking at. It's going to have a somber theme with very big contrasting colors, and even if it's animation it's not going to be funny. I want to do something in a short that you almost never see people do. It's not supposed to be depressing either--not sad. Tense. Anyway, PM's or replies. I assume this is the right spot for this, since it's still a technical discussion. Once I finish rigging my character and get started, the art aspect will get posted in the appropriate board.
Feel free to tell me other things I'm forgetting. The story itself is simple, I just want the the science I inject to give the story it's drama to be as good as I can make it.
Survival in a Grounded Starship
Moderator: Alyrium Denryle
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Patrick Degan
- Emperor's Hand
- Posts: 14847
- Joined: 2002-07-15 08:06am
- Location: Orleanian in exile
Anything which does not have a parafoil shape to it is simply going to plummet like a rock through the atmosphere of an Earthlike world. If it somehow doesn't manage to burn up on the way down, it will end up scattered in very tiny bits over a large area of land surrounding the impact crater. Same for the crew.
Basically, I'd say a minimal chance for survival would be a crash on a body with at most lunar gravity (.166g). The ship would have to be pretty tough to survive even that sort of impact with any chance that a viable section of it will remain intact, so figure on at least a semi-controlled descent. An airless moon would of course be the ultimate hostile environment, but you can as easily posit the craft coming down on a Titan-like world, with a thin methane or carbon-monoxide atmosphere. Either way, Spiff the Space Hero and whomever's with him have to remain inside the wrecked craft for the most part and utilise whatever resources they've got on hand to survive.
Basically, I'd say a minimal chance for survival would be a crash on a body with at most lunar gravity (.166g). The ship would have to be pretty tough to survive even that sort of impact with any chance that a viable section of it will remain intact, so figure on at least a semi-controlled descent. An airless moon would of course be the ultimate hostile environment, but you can as easily posit the craft coming down on a Titan-like world, with a thin methane or carbon-monoxide atmosphere. Either way, Spiff the Space Hero and whomever's with him have to remain inside the wrecked craft for the most part and utilise whatever resources they've got on hand to survive.
When ballots have fairly and constitutionally decided, there can be no successful appeal back to bullets.
—Abraham Lincoln
People pray so that God won't crush them like bugs.
—Dr. Gregory House
Oil an emergency?! It's about time, Brigadier, that the leaders of this planet of yours realised that to remain dependent upon a mineral slime simply doesn't make sense.
—The Doctor "Terror Of The Zygons" (1975)
—Abraham Lincoln
People pray so that God won't crush them like bugs.
—Dr. Gregory House
Oil an emergency?! It's about time, Brigadier, that the leaders of this planet of yours realised that to remain dependent upon a mineral slime simply doesn't make sense.
—The Doctor "Terror Of The Zygons" (1975)
Give the ship an 'interesting' engine, so it generates .95 G thrust (damaged?) so it can land on an Earth-like planet, but cannot lift off again.
The main reactor, assuming it still works, will provide lots of power, though the radiation shielding could be cracked, so he is potentially irradiating himself whenever he turns it up.
Food would come from algae, so diary entries would be along the lines of eating the green goop, and hoping for some sort of flavor from any local plant life. Poop would be put back into the system as well, and the algae eat that as well, while the reactor provides light for the algae to feed on.
From there, you could go with steady mechanical failures slowly putting him on the path to starvation, while he demonstrates some ingenuity in fixing things to survive.
The partner in a life pod could be where he has to keep the reactor running to keep his buddy cold, but the cracked shielding is steadily killing him as well. Eventually he has to thaw out his buddy (radiation damage to buddy's cells is adding up), and explain how screwed up their situation is.
From there, you have to provide a reason why a rescue mission will not be launched for a while (slow/no FTL, off course, pirates in region fake distress so a fleet is gathered first/etc).
The main reactor, assuming it still works, will provide lots of power, though the radiation shielding could be cracked, so he is potentially irradiating himself whenever he turns it up.
Food would come from algae, so diary entries would be along the lines of eating the green goop, and hoping for some sort of flavor from any local plant life. Poop would be put back into the system as well, and the algae eat that as well, while the reactor provides light for the algae to feed on.
From there, you could go with steady mechanical failures slowly putting him on the path to starvation, while he demonstrates some ingenuity in fixing things to survive.
The partner in a life pod could be where he has to keep the reactor running to keep his buddy cold, but the cracked shielding is steadily killing him as well. Eventually he has to thaw out his buddy (radiation damage to buddy's cells is adding up), and explain how screwed up their situation is.
From there, you have to provide a reason why a rescue mission will not be launched for a while (slow/no FTL, off course, pirates in region fake distress so a fleet is gathered first/etc).
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Guardsman Bass
- Cowardly Codfish
- Posts: 9281
- Joined: 2002-07-07 12:01am
- Location: Beneath the Deepest Sea
It might help if your starship is separated in some almost self-contained living "units" that can be sealed off in case of damage.
“It is possible to commit no mistakes and still lose. That is not a weakness. That is life.”
-Jean-Luc Picard
"Men are afraid that women will laugh at them. Women are afraid that men will kill them."
-Margaret Atwood
-Jean-Luc Picard
"Men are afraid that women will laugh at them. Women are afraid that men will kill them."
-Margaret Atwood
I like those replies!
Degan
-That's a good point, I could give the ship a shape that's more suitable for a planetary landing, so it makes sense for it to even be capable of partially controlled landing. A fulltime space ship would just fragment on entry... let alone landing. A titan-esque landing site will probably be the most likely for my scenario.
Coalition
-I hadn't thought about the food. I assumed it would just be packs of stuff, but having algae growth onboard would add some extra space to the craft as well as explaining why there are such a variety of starship systems to keep on that power may be tight.
I'm assuming that a lack of FTL (as evidenced by the need for tube travel even within a system) would be the reason why this is a 'very bad' situation, and liable to be deadly in short time.
Bass
That's a clever idea. I hadn't thought of that. I'm torn between something realistic and something just convenient. I'm guessing that the ship will probably be divided up into areas, with the engines way back on extenders along with the heat sinks and such. It would be a massive radiation hazard on the ground, so that also allows me to remove it from the story and make it less of an issue, so there's no need to make much of that.
Right now the main struggles I have in mind (I'm trying to make as few issues as possible to deal with) are the battle between needing power for life support and for his friend in the tube. If his friend is wounded and would die in short order outside of the tube, then turning it off is a death sentence.
Dying by freezing may not be a very sexy threat, but it's certainly a terrifying thought. I need to look up that Jack London story "To Build a Fire" or something, get an idea about that. If the power goes so would other things, like rescue beacon emitter thingies, computers, and I suppose if the outside environment is so incredibly cold that it's unlivable even in the spacesuit (which may not be so good against keeping the cold out when there's an atmosphere) then it's certainly lethal too.
If I can have just TWO factors to weigh... a friend's life in one hand, and something else on the other, then that's good, simple writing. The story mentioned about starvation is good, but I think it'd require too much explination. It'd make for a good short story though, especially since you have several other radiation-inspired subplots.
Degan
-That's a good point, I could give the ship a shape that's more suitable for a planetary landing, so it makes sense for it to even be capable of partially controlled landing. A fulltime space ship would just fragment on entry... let alone landing. A titan-esque landing site will probably be the most likely for my scenario.
Coalition
-I hadn't thought about the food. I assumed it would just be packs of stuff, but having algae growth onboard would add some extra space to the craft as well as explaining why there are such a variety of starship systems to keep on that power may be tight.
I'm assuming that a lack of FTL (as evidenced by the need for tube travel even within a system) would be the reason why this is a 'very bad' situation, and liable to be deadly in short time.
Bass
That's a clever idea. I hadn't thought of that. I'm torn between something realistic and something just convenient. I'm guessing that the ship will probably be divided up into areas, with the engines way back on extenders along with the heat sinks and such. It would be a massive radiation hazard on the ground, so that also allows me to remove it from the story and make it less of an issue, so there's no need to make much of that.
Right now the main struggles I have in mind (I'm trying to make as few issues as possible to deal with) are the battle between needing power for life support and for his friend in the tube. If his friend is wounded and would die in short order outside of the tube, then turning it off is a death sentence.
Dying by freezing may not be a very sexy threat, but it's certainly a terrifying thought. I need to look up that Jack London story "To Build a Fire" or something, get an idea about that. If the power goes so would other things, like rescue beacon emitter thingies, computers, and I suppose if the outside environment is so incredibly cold that it's unlivable even in the spacesuit (which may not be so good against keeping the cold out when there's an atmosphere) then it's certainly lethal too.
If I can have just TWO factors to weigh... a friend's life in one hand, and something else on the other, then that's good, simple writing. The story mentioned about starvation is good, but I think it'd require too much explination. It'd make for a good short story though, especially since you have several other radiation-inspired subplots.