Questions tagged [space]
For story-identification questions which are related to or might be set in space. Always use in conjunction with the [story-identification] tag.
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Huge trees in an "air belt" in space
I read this decades ago.
The idea that there was in space, around some star, an "air" belt, like an asteroid belt, with enough atmosphere that people could live there without special life-...
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Why didn't Jupiter becoming a star kill everyone on earth and cause all kinds of problems for the solar system?
In 2010: The Year We Make Contact, the climax of the film is quite bizarre. Jupiter's mass is replaced by billions of black monoliths, eventually collapsing in on itself and becoming a star.
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Why aren't there any nebulae in Star Wars?
In Star Trek there are nebulae practically everywhere. I don't remember seeing any in Star Wars though, why is that?
Why does Star Trek hog all the nebulae and Star Wars has none?
If there actually ...
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7
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What would really happen if you were exposed to space? [closed]
It seems that every science fiction story has a different idea about what would happen if a human were exposed to the vacuum of space.
At the end of Total Recall, Quaid and Melina are ejected to ...
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Why didn't the Normandy crew experience time dilation?
In the Suicide Mission in Mass Effect 2, Commander Shepard and the Normandy crew travel to the galactic core to destroy the Collector Base.
The Collector Base is located on the accretion disc of a ...
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4
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What was the first instance of a fighter spacecraft
While spaceships of varying size and technology have long been a fixture of sci-fi, fighter sized spacecraft used for combat seem to have only appeared in the late 70s. Since fighter planes have been ...
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Why don't we see the Milky Way out the windows in Star Trek?
Given that the Star Trek franchise takes places within the Milky Way, and in particular near the galactic plane, I would expect that the view out the windows would show the Milky Way similar to the ...
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Short satire about a comically upscaled spaceship
About 5-7 years ago, I stumbled upon a forum post with a few paragraphs written about a spaceship that started with the designs of a "normal" sized military type starship, and just scaled up ...
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3
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What novel had an isolationist Earth and the rest of humanity in a war of attrition against aliens?
In the book, humans were in a long war with an alien race that had a slight upper hand in numbers and technology, and so were slowly losing ground. At the start of the war, Earth had cut itself off ...
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What is the geometry of the universe in "The Wall of Darkness" by Arthur C Clarke?
The Wall of Darkness by Arthur C. Clarke (1949) is a piece of Math fiction, usually quoted in semi-academic circles as illustrating the geometry of the Moebius band.
It deals with a universe with a ...
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1980s paperback about a man who traveled on a spaceship made of ice
The spaceship was just an ice chunk floating in space, until the protagonist captured and hollowed it out, put engines and equipment inside, and started it moving.
The heat from the engines melted the ...
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Process management and high technology weapon. Novel name and author?
I am looking for help to point me out at a very old novel (likely from the '60s) about two empires at interstellar war. When it comes to starships, one is technologically very advanced, and the other ...
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3
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What psychological space station thriller novel features all the crew getting killed one-by-one?
I'm looking for a book I read some time ago - probably published in the late 90s/early 00s. I can hardly remember any of it, but I will describe it as best as I can.
It was I think set in the future, ...
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I am looking for the title of a novel about a prison planet
I have been looking for a novel I read about 25 years ago, but I have had no luck. Here is a general synopsis.
Space Sci Fi
A man is framed for a murder he did not commit.
He is sent to a ...
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3
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Story about a world where darkness drives people mad
I remember reading a short sci-fi story, perhaps 50 pages or so long, whose name I don't recall.
The details of the story are:
It is about a world with multiple suns that keep the planet in ...
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1
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Book from the late 1980's about an abandoned space station [duplicate]
I read this book about 1988-89.
Sci fi, dealt with an alien space station (out in deep space) that humans stumble upon, long abandoned by a possibly insect-like race, human sized (they can tell from ...
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1
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Identify a (French?) comic series about a female adventurer
As a kid in the late 90s I read a comic book series in the library. The book format was similar to Asterix — thin hardcover books larger than DIN A4 paper. There must have been at least 5 issues....
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1
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Time distorted space exploration
Looking for a book starting with the abandonment of war torn earth. Scientists discover how to distort time for people and objects. They use that distortion to slow their perception and aging.
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Anyone know this science fiction story about a sentient space suit?
Does anyone know the title or author of a story where a lone spaceman is walking across lunar surface in a suit that has sentience. The story skilfully teases the reader into believing the spaceman is ...
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Does a spaceship lose air reserves every time an airlock is opened?
Something seemed to me a little bit bizarre when watching some movies or series that take place in space.
When someone wants to leave a ship (either alone or with a smaller vehicle), there must be ...
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TV series episode about using oxygen in space suit helmet to fire gun
I remember watching a series a few years back where someone needs to fire a gun in space but the gun needs an atmosphere to work.
So he comes up with an idea: He uses a spare space suit and puts the ...
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Sci-Fi book about female pilot in the distant future who is a linguist and has to decipher an alien language/code
This book I read in college, I think it was published between the 1970s to 1990s.
It's about a female pilot (I think her first name began with an R) in the distant future who is famous and is also ...
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Is there a difference between a spaceship and a starship?
Is there a difference between a spaceship and a starship?
I've been wondering... is it like boats and ships?
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Do they really watch Firefly on the International Space Station
I saw this photo online:
I was wondering if this photo is legit, or some Photoshop by Firefly fans. If it is legitimate, why do they have a copy of Firefly and Serenity on board the International ...
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Identify a science-fiction novel… key points: space travel, immortality drug, main characters stranded on distant planet, they eventually escape
I’m looking for the name of a science-fiction novel I read perhaps a decade ago. I’ve extensively searched several common search engines and come up with nothing, so I’m turning to this community to ...
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0
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Astronauts on Europa (moon), time-shift future, gravity, intelligent computer, Aries, 1960s?
I'm looking for the title and artists of a comic about some astronauts (around five I think) doing research/archaeology on (I think) Europa (Jupiter's moon). They're working when one or more of them ...
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2
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Star Wars ripoff from the 2010s in which a Han Solo knockoff is sent to save a princess and fight an evil overlord
I did not watch the movie but saw its preview on MX Player (this may not be available outside my country).
I remember laughing after seeing the plot - It was nearly same as that of Star Wars: Episode ...
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30 or more years old short story about a creature that kills at distance
This short story I read at least 30 years ago, maybe more. Since I rarely read magazines it must have been in some collection but I don't remember anything about which one. So it could be older than ...
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3
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Story: space colonization with sentient/telepathic spaceships, also genocide and reincarnation
When I was younger I visited my local library quite frequently. I loved picking random fantasy and sci-fi books and reading them. There is this one book that I read and it seemed to be part of a ...
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A short story about a shipwreck in space
I read this story more than 40 years ago, but I think it was already old at that time.
There was a shipwreck near a very small celestial body, with very low gravity. The survivors wanted to fall on ...
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1
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Novel(s) based on humanity fleeing from Earth and regressing to a pre-industrial state on a Colony so as to escape detection
Shortly before his death, my father spoke to me about a series of novels that he had just finished reading which had a fascinating concept. However I soon forgot the title(s) and author and I've been ...
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2
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What happens to lasers in space battles?
In Star Wars, we see many space battles and there are many missed shots.
What happens to the lasers when they fly off into space?
Do they eventually just fizzle out, or do they continue on forever?
...
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Book about a boy whose tribe is separated from another tribe by a swamp and taboos. It turns out they're all living aboard a spaceship
The book is about a boy whose tribe is separated from another tribe by a swamp and taboos. He breaks the taboos, finds the monster in the swamp, which is, I think, a machine, and the sky a dome with ...
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Star Wars Spacewalks
In Star Wars, it seems that space-faring pilots and passengers never leave their craft (with the memorable exception of of Han Solo, Leia, and Chewbacca on the asteroid with the Exogorth, which wasn't ...
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2
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What's that 1950s movie where astronauts land on Mars but Martians trick them to thinking it's their Earth hometown?
I've been looking for this movie for years. When I was a kid I saw a 1950s/60s sci fi about astronauts that land on Mars (I think it was Mars) but the Martians transform the landing site to look like ...
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3
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Scifi novel with extremely slow motion space battles [duplicate]
I'd like to remember the name of a scifi novel that had a strong military theme with lots of political intrigue where the space battles were fought in slow motion due to some limitation of the ships ...
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4
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Why is Federation Space divided?
I was curious to see a map of the Star Trek universe galaxy. I found quite a few good images. Naturally, many did not look similar to each other, and some were even confusing because they showed ...
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1
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Novel about space marine dealing with relativity? [duplicate]
I read half a book in a library a while ago that followed a guy from the first set of marines to actually go fight. They have gel-pod-beds to survive accelerations in space. after the first mission, ...
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1
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What is the earliest usage of the “Lightspeed” animation and why is it used so heavily?
I’ve seen many, many SciFi TV shows and movies over the years, and one of the most enduring motifs is the usage of “lightspeed” or “warp speed” in spacecraft.
The standard animation technique used ...
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Old SciFi short story on debt to society and a brain ship
There was this story I read when I was quite young that left an impression on me. Could have been anytime in the 70's. It would not have been a new story at the time because it probably came from my ...
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2
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Story about aliens nicknamed 'Eechees' who have created a network of tunnels on Mars [duplicate]
I read that story in the 90's or early 2000's. I'm quite sure it was a series, but I read only the first book. It was the French translation, so it is very possible that the story dates from earlier.
...
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Effects of nuclear explosions in space? [closed]
In the Honor Harrington universe, ship-to-ship combat takes two forms: missiles and direct energy weapons.
Missiles come in two forms - bomb-pumped lasers and contact nukes. Both use multi-megaton ...
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1
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A novel (or maybe a whole series) where a weird disease infects men and machines
I just got an answer to one of my question that sent me refresh my memory about Vernon Vinge’s “Zones of Thought” Universe. There I saw the word “Blight”, and this reminded me of something which might ...
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1
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Short story about an asteroid colony where the plumber is an unclean/outcast
It's a short story that I read in a book at some point in the 1990's. It was the French translation, so it might have been older. I believe it was a short story by Isaac Asimov, set in the early days ...
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1
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College professor builds a tesseract
This book has a female college professor that builds a tesseract in her office. Her daughter is brainwashed by her boyfriend and accuses her father, the college professor's husband, of molesting her. ...
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Far future SF novel with humans living in genetically engineered habitats in space
I'm looking for a novel I read in English around 1989 or 1990. I think it was written in the 80s. It was a rather thick (for the time) mass-market paperback and I think it had a picture of a guy ...
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1
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Looking for title of sci fi short story about attempts to colonise planet (Venus?). Scientist and his dog are main characters
They want to see if humans can survive in harsh planet conditions with a view to future colonisation. Scientist guy invents a machine which can transform humans into beings which are adapted to ...
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Space anime movie from '90s with a spaceship that looks like a large sled with wings [duplicate]
I remember an anime from the 90s. It was on VHS back then.
The spaceship looks like a large sled with wings.
The commanding bridge was on top of it.
The spaceship started on the water, maybe in the ...
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1
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How Does Neelix Know About the War?
In SE4 EP4, Nemesis, Janeway asks Neelix what he knows about the war on the planet Chakotay is marooned on. Neelix knows about it.
However, in Season 3, Neelix is forced to go to lengths to get a ...
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What short film features a space station that projects movies onto the moon?
I'm looking for a short indie film where a space station orbiting the moon has a giant lens that projects movies onto the moon. I may have seen it on io9, but I'm not sure.
It begins with a guy ...
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