10 Myths about Space Travel that make SF better

[Steven L Jordan]

As far as I know no other species on this planet has discovered mathematics.

Kinda hard to say for sure, since you can't ask them...

[Pennarin]

I see what you did there.

[Steven L Jordan]

I think the idea that other races will want to leave their own planet, to explore, colonize or conquer, just because we do, is a huge assumption.

[psikeyhackr]

I think the idea that other races will want to leave their own planet, to explore, colonize or conquer, just because we do, is a huge assumption.

Would such people not become scientific and technologically advanced and not be able to do it anyway? And then their is the peculiar thing with Chinese exploration. They sent a fleet to Africa. They could have colonized Australia before the British. But they broke up the fleet and discontinued exploration instead.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zheng_He

But for such an attitude to persist for thousands of years after a culture became technological would seem rather odd.

psik

[JimF]

Regarding Ray Guns...

That is so Star Trek. Off the top of my head I don't recall any SF literature that did this.
psik

Does this count? Niven's Slaver Disintegrator?

http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/content.asp?Bnum=558

There was also Leslie Neilson's sidearm in Forbidden Planet. He used it to vaporize a tiger, but that was film.

[JunkMonkey]

That is so Star Trek. Off the top of my head I don't recall any SF literature that did this.

Pretty sure it happened in at least one van Vogt I read recently and weren't 'Doc' Smith's planet busting dreadnoughts always obliterating all that stood in their path with their fulgent beams of coruscating energy...

Oh, you said 'SF literature'....

[Pennarin]

Oh, you said 'SF literature'....

LMAO

Indeed, can't recall an instance of a portable disintegrator beam in print before or even after Star Trek's era.

[LaGrangeCalvert]

Spaceships Having wings-Really? there is no air in space to keep the craft afloat

[Modern Day Myth]

Spaceships Having wings-Really? there is no air in space to keep the craft afloat

Have you ever heard of "The Space Shuttle?"

Wings are necessary to go from space into a planet with atmosphere.

[Pennarin]

Spaceships Having wings-Really? there is no air in space to keep the craft afloat

This reminds me: One thing I dislike is when authors have a character point out that "even in the future" spaceships are ugly because they only need to be utilitarian. That after hundreds of years of science-fictional space travel a spaceship still looks like something designed by NASA, e.g. a giant skeleton frame with an engine at the end, spherical tanks at the front near the habitat. Bull. If the economy allows it, you can custom its appearance, or its very frame can be shaped in an esthetically-pleasing shape.

[LaGrangeCalvert]

Have you ever heard of "The Space Shuttle?"

Wings are necessary to go from space into a planet with atmosphere.

All the Sci-Fi books I've read (Peter Hamilton;Orson Scott Card) had specific craft to go from planet to space and vice versa ... Think Of the Apollo 11 mission. Did the spacecraft actually land on the moon? No they had a lander Craft for that...

And the Space shuttle was just that,a shuttle, I'm talking about interplanitary Space craft here
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_Lunar_Module

[Modern Day Myth]

All the Sci-Fi books I've read (Peter Hamilton;Orson Scott Card) had specific craft to go from planet to space and vice versa ... Think Of the Apollo 11 mission. Did the spacecraft actually land on the moon? No they had a lander Craft for that...

And the Space shuttle was just that,a shuttle, I'm talking about interplanitary Space craft here
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_Lunar_Module

You can have a mother ship with wing ships in a hanger bay as well as an all in one ship in the same story too.

[JimF]

LMAO

Indeed, can't recall an instance of a portable disintegrator beam in print before or even after Star Trek's era.

please see my earlier post regarding Niven's slaver disintegrator.

[ian_sales]

Spaceships aren't ships either, they're spacecraft. So they don't have deck swabbers and bottle washers and rear turret gunner's mates. They also don't have flight decks or bridges. In fact, they're not even pointy at the front. And they're flown chiefly by computer - in fact some, like the Soyuz or Skylon, are flown entirely by computer - which means they don't really require pilots.

[Steven L Jordan]

LMAO

Indeed, can't recall an instance of a portable disintegrator beam in print before or even after Star Trek's era.

Edison's Conquest of Mars

The Foundation series

The Martian Chronicles

The Perry Rhodan series

There have been many others... Gene Roddenberry certainly didn't invent them.