Dark Star

Spaceman Si

Spaceman Si
There are probably a few people here that share my enjoyment of an old classic sci-fi movie, "Dark Star".

I have a feeling that someone at Frontier might do as well, given the individual I found below, though I would have expected to find him in a glowing asteroid field ;)

e47Vk5T.jpg
 

GunnerBill

GunnerBill
Quality!

And well put together. For those not as nerdy as they should be:

Phoenix Talby

"The Phoenix Asteroids" as featured in the film and the character Talby is obsessed by them.

DOOLITTLE
Phoenix Asteroids? Never heard of 'em.


TALBY
They are a body of asteroids that make a complete circuit of the universe once every 2.3 trillion years. The Phoenix Asteroids...

From what I've heard, Doolittle, they glow... glow with all the colors of the rainbow.

Nobody knows why. They just glow as they drift around the universe. Imagine all the sights they've seen in the time they've been travelling -- the birth and death of stars, things we'll never see.

The universe is alive, Doolittle. I thought it was all empty, but it isn't. In between the stars, it's seething with light and gasses and dust. There are little pebbles drifting around, planets no one on Earth has ever seen... No one but the Phoenix Asteroids...
Click to expand...

http://www.dailyscript.com/scripts/dark-star_short.html
 
Last edited:

Spaceman Si

Spaceman Si
“You wouldn’t want to explode on the basis of false data now, would you?” :D

So many great moments in there, and the only country song about relativity that I’ve ever heard :)

Never mind Raxxla, it would be great if the Phoenix asteroids were in the game somewhere, going from system to system ;) :D
 

Stealthie

Stealthie
GunnerBill said:
There is?

Explain...
Click to expand...

That asteroids might do a "complete circuit of the universe" suggests the universe has defined borders, which it doesn't.
If those asteroids were somewhere near the "edge" of the universe (which they'd need to be in order to do a circuit of it), we'd never know of their existence.
If they were travelling fast enough to remain near the "edge" of the universe, they wouldn't be doing a "circuit" of it. They'd simply be travelling outward as the universe expands.
They put a time-frame of 2.3 trillion years on the "circuit"... in a universe which is only 14 billion years old (Dark Star takes place in the 22nd century).
Even if we'd known of the asteroids existence since the beginning of time, they'd only have completed around 0.5% of their "circuit" during the entire life of the universe and, thus, it'd be impossible to predict they were doing a circuit of the universe.
 

GunnerBill

GunnerBill
Stealthie said:
That asteroids might do a "complete circuit of the universe" suggests the universe has defined borders, which it doesn't.
If those asteroids were somewhere near the "edge" of the universe (which they'd need to be in order to do a circuit of it), we'd never know of their existence.
If they were travelling fast enough to remain near the "edge" of the universe, they wouldn't be doing a "circuit" of it. They'd simply be travelling outward as the universe expands.
They put a time-frame of 2.3 trillion years on the "circuit"... in a universe which is only 14 billion years old (Dark Star takes place in the 22nd century).
Even if we'd known of the asteroids existence since the beginning of time, they'd only have completed around 0.5% of their "circuit" during the entire life of the universe and, thus, it'd be impossible to predict they were doing a circuit of the universe.
Click to expand...

I was really hoping it wasn't going to be that, I was really hoping it was something wrong with the text!

Don't tell me you've calculated how fast they'd have to be going?

Faster than 42 m/s I presume....
 

Stealthie

Stealthie
GunnerBill said:
Don't tell me you've calculated how fast they'd have to be going?

Faster than 42 m/s I presume....
Click to expand...

Well, apparently the universe is expanding at a rate of around 70km/s per million parsecs.
If the universe has a radius of 14 bn Ly that'd mean you'd need to travel at a speed of around 294,000km/s to remain near the "edge" of it - which (not by coincidence) is the speed of light.

That's probably not the biggest problem, though.
The biggest problem is that to remain near the "edge" of the universe, while also moving in a "circuit", the asteroids would have to be travelling faster than the speed of light (not accounting for the rate of continual expansion, cos I CBA to work that out) and, at that speed, it's impossible that there'd be anything capable of providing the gravitational pull required for them to remain in an orbit that allowed them to complete a "circuit".

[wacky]

*EDIT*

I was going to work out how much extra speed they'd need in order to complete a "circuit" in 2.3 trillion years but, screw it. :p
 
Last edited:

viper666

V
There's quite a few cultural references, I've seen Jimmy Hendrix, and even Briskoda which is a car forum for Skoda drivers.
 

Candy Man

C
Stealthie said:
Well, apparently the universe is expanding at a rate of around 70km/s per million parsecs.
If the galaxy has a radius of 14 bn Ly that'd mean you'd need to travel at a speed of around 294,000km/s to remain near the "edge" of it - which (not by coincidence) is the speed of light.

That's probably not the biggest problem, though.
The biggest problem is that to remain near the "edge" of the universe, while also moving in a "circuit", the asteroids would have to be travelling faster than the speed of light (not accounting for the rate of continual expansion, cos I CBA to work that out) and, at that speed, it's impossible that there'd be anything capable of providing the gravitational pull required for them to remain in an orbit that allowed them to complete a "circuit".

[wacky]

*EDIT*

I was going to work out how much extra speed they'd need in order to complete a "circuit" in 2.3 trillion years but, screw it. :p
Click to expand...

In the first paragraph you reference Galaxy radius of 14 bn Ly. I assume you mean Universe?
Is the text reference about our galaxy, rather than the Universe? Obviously the person quoted references the Universe, but people have been known to interchange them accidentally!
Could the mystical colours indicate some alien life form allowing it to circumnavigate the galaxy?
 
Last edited:

VR jefranklin18

VR jefranklin18
Just as a reminder: Kickstarter backers at a certain level (I can't remember now) had the opportunity to add names to the NPC database name so it is quite possible some of those spotted were submitted by backers. If I ever see my contribution in the crew lounge, I will immediately hire her ;)
 

Sylow

Sylow
jefranklin18 said:
Just as a reminder: Kickstarter backers at a certain level (I can't remember now) had the opportunity to add names to the NPC database name so it is quite possible some of those spotted were submitted by backers. If I ever see my contribution in the crew lounge, I will immediately hire her ;)
Click to expand...

Yea. And i keep spotting some where i think they were testing the limit. There's more than one NPC name in the game, where i am rather sure that it only exists as it the profanity filter of FD only knows a certain list of words, but has no knowledge about crime and history.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom