FireFly Tech Manual by citizen

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Wednesday, August 31, 2005 11:41 AM

DALTONSPENCE

I'd like to suggest that you wait for the Serenity RPG to come out (or if you know someone with an advance copy, ask to borrow it) before you start speculating on the science involved. The show itself had very little information about the available technologies, as Joss seemed to be in denial that a Western in Space was, by definition, a science fiction story. One thing I've heard about the game is that their 'verse has a good handle on gravitic technologies; AFAIK there are no current scientific theories that lead in that direction without copious amounts of hyperdense matter on hand

. Since grav tech is central to low cost civilian affordable space flight, any Tech Manual would have to cover this with enough technobabble to make it seem plausible.

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Wednesday, August 31, 2005 12:45 PM

I may not have a big background in science, but I am an English teacher and would happily offer any editing expertise needed.

-Taylor

http://norcalriviera.blogspot.com
http://www.cafepress.com/norcalriviera

**Winner of That Other Shiny Caption Game #2 & #3**
**Winner of Caption Tightpants #39**

River: "So we'll integrate non-progressional evolution theory with God's creation of Eden. Eleven inherent metaphoric parallels already there. Eleven. Important number. Prime number. One goes into the house of eleven eleven times, but always comes out one. Noah's ark is a problem."

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Wednesday, August 31, 2005 12:56 PM

DIEGO

If you want to include any biology, then I may provide some insight. I also know enough physics to determine the more plausible kinds of sci-fi technobabble.

Also, although not an English teacher, I too can help with the editing.

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Wednesday, August 31, 2005 1:01 PM

Any and all help gratefully received. I can't speak for KayleeRulesAll but I'm dyslexic so i'll need plenty of editing

.

Q: What do you have when you are holding two little green balls in your hand.
A: Kermit's undivided attention.

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Wednesday, August 31, 2005 1:21 PM

BIGREDBUTTON

I was an engineer in the service on Coast Guard smallboats and I've written a fair amount of articles online for figures.com and other websites. I'd love to combine the skills and write for the tech manual.

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Wednesday, August 31, 2005 1:47 PM

wow, great turnout here. as for me, i am also dislexic (however u spell that) and do greatly require editing help. anyway, feel free to IM me, at kmeluvsrks (its AIM, so if u dont have it, u may need to get it.) since so many people are interested, we might have to do a chatroom thing; i believe aim has one for free.

------------------------------------------------
When the stars shine bright through the engine's trail and the dust of another world drops behind; When my ship is free of the open sky, its a damn good day to my way of mind; Theres a barren planet you never can leave, theres a rocky valley where we lost a war; Theres a cross worn 'round a soldier's neck, theres a man's faith died on Serenity's floor, but i stood my ground and ill fight once more; Its the last oath that i ever swore

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Wednesday, August 31, 2005 2:27 PM

WESTGATE

I would also love to participate. I have an engineering background only somewhat eroded by years of management experience.

Chase your dreams like they stole your last $50.

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Wednesday, August 31, 2005 3:46 PM

As was said, if people wanna join us in AIM for the tech disscus, we can set up a room...
Thats basically how we've been fleshing out a lot of the details...

And a discussion on the main drive is here:
http://www.fireflyfans.net/thread.asp?b=2&t=12344

Q: What do you have when you are holding two little green balls in your hand.
A: Kermit's undivided attention.

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Wednesday, August 31, 2005 10:19 PM

TAINTEDBLU

I would love to help. The whole idea in general is definitely very interesting. My area of expertise would be graphic design. So, if you need any schematatic type drawings or images, I'd love to help.

- Dan

Book is a badass.

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Thursday, September 1, 2005 2:07 AM

I don't always have AIM open, so drop me a line here:

unchartedoutlaw@gmail.com

-Taylor

http://norcalriviera.blogspot.com
http://www.cafepress.com/norcalriviera

**Winner of That Other Shiny Caption Game #2 & #3**
**Winner of Caption Tightpants #39**

River: "So we'll integrate non-progressional evolution theory with God's creation of Eden. Eleven inherent metaphoric parallels already there. Eleven. Important number. Prime number. One goes into the house of eleven eleven times, but always comes out one. Noah's ark is a problem."

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Thursday, September 1, 2005 4:21 AM

okay according to the new official site that gives some names to the various parts of Serenity the engines (I assume the ones on the pylons on either side) are called:
Trace Compression Block Engines.

The main drive is called a photon reaction drive.

Strangly no mention of a Radion Accelerator Core... Unless thats the powerplant?

Theres also a 'gravity ring' which is either the spinning 'douhnut' behind the crew dome or the backend of the drive section just beyond that (website isn't that clear).

Q: What do you have when you are holding two little green balls in your hand.
A: Kermit's undivided attention.

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Thursday, September 1, 2005 5:33 AM

well, that throws a monkey wrench into things, dont it?

thanks for this though; i guess well hash this out some more later.

------------------------------------------------
When the stars shine bright through the engine's trail and the dust of another world drops behind; When my ship is free of the open sky, its a damn good day to my way of mind; Theres a barren planet you never can leave, theres a rocky valley where we lost a war; Theres a cross worn 'round a soldier's neck, theres a man's faith died on Serenity's floor, but i stood my ground and ill fight once more; Its the last oath that i ever swore

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Thursday, September 1, 2005 6:00 AM

As far as the gravity thing goes it dispenses with the wrench and just throws in a whole family of monkeys...

The thruster engines might need a bit of a re-work, and the main drive too, but as far as I'm concerned the Tenth crewmember documentary says the main drive uses fusion. This photon reaction drive is fairly meaningless unless its some sort of tradename? Any mechanism that primarly uses photons surely wouldn't produce the kind of acceleration we see in FireFly.
That and you wouldn't get that glow, you'd only get that glow and gas swirling effect from plasma? But I digress from the point of this thread...

Q: What do you have when you are holding two little green balls in your hand.
A: Kermit's undivided attention.

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Thursday, September 1, 2005 10:42 AM

TAINTEDBLU

So how are we gonna do this?

Assign different parts of the guide to different people?

- Dan

Wash: Psychic? Sounds like something out of science fiction.
Zoë: We live on a spaceship, dear.

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Thursday, September 1, 2005 11:54 AM

We've been thrashing concepts out over AIM, and we'll probably get specific sections to write up between however wants to try, how ever it works really, open to suggestions.

Any one who wants to help with working out the concepts give us a shout (post).

Q: What do you have when you are holding two little green balls in your hand.
A: Kermit's undivided attention.

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Thursday, September 1, 2005 11:31 PM

Was thinking, I got webspace so I can share the manual development files there.
We'll need to assign different sections to different people, like one person does the text for the engines/powerplant, another computer/flight systems and so on...
We'll also need to assign different responcibillities to different people, like one or two people would need to do schematics and diagrams, another would need to be the editor, someone else the website etc.
I'll think some more and post specific section titles and jobs later.

Q: What do you have when you are holding two little green balls in your hand.
A: Kermit's undivided attention.

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Friday, September 2, 2005 2:25 AM

I might be able to help with some conceptual stuff, but editing would be my specialty. I might lose track of this thread over the weekend, would someone email me about duties and so forth?

-Taylor

http://norcalriviera.blogspot.com
http://www.cafepress.com/norcalriviera

**Winner of That Other Shiny Caption Game #2 & #3**
**Winner of Caption Tightpants #39**

River: "So we'll integrate non-progressional evolution theory with God's creation of Eden. Eleven inherent metaphoric parallels already there. Eleven. Important number. Prime number. One goes into the house of eleven eleven times, but always comes out one. Noah's ark is a problem."

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Friday, September 2, 2005 7:36 AM

UnchartedOutlaw:
That sounds great thanks. Will send an e-mail (if) anything is workded out.

Q: What do you have when you are holding two little green balls in your hand.
A: Kermit's undivided attention.

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Sunday, September 4, 2005 10:15 AM

A shameless:
*bump*

Q: What do you have when you are holding two little green balls in your hand.
A: Kermit's undivided attention.

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Sunday, September 4, 2005 8:07 PM

bumping again; okay, citizen and i have been talking at length about this, and ive seen that everybody here is willing to do some work in putting this togther, which is great. but i think we first need to know what we are going to put in the manual, to have a kind of group concensus.

to that effect, could everyone list the dates and times that they would be availiable to chat on AIM, if they want to, so that we can actually figure out this tech stuff? Just post your availiability here on this thread; ill look and see if they can all coincide, then set us up a room at that time. obviously, if it works out that easily, ill just post the time and adress of the chat room so we can all get going. if its not that easy, ill fill u in.

------------------------------------------------
When the stars shine bright through the engine's trail and the dust of another world drops behind; When my ship is free of the open sky, its a damn good day to my way of mind; Theres a barren planet you never can leave, theres a rocky valley where we lost a war; Theres a cross worn 'round a soldier's neck, theres a man's faith died on Serenity's floor, but i stood my ground and ill fight once more; Its the last oath that i ever swore

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Sunday, September 4, 2005 10:41 PM

As you know:
~7 till 12pm GMT weekdays, Weekends I'm a bit more erratic.

Q: What do you have when you are holding two little green balls in your hand.
A: Kermit's undivided attention.

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Monday, September 5, 2005 4:53 AM

Generally weekdays after 4pm Pacific Time for me.

-Taylor

http://norcalriviera.blogspot.com
http://www.cafepress.com/norcalriviera

**Winner of That Other Shiny Caption Game #2 & #3**
**Winner of Caption Tightpants #39**

River: "So we'll integrate non-progressional evolution theory with God's creation of Eden. Eleven inherent metaphoric parallels already there. Eleven. Important number. Prime number. One goes into the house of eleven eleven times, but always comes out one. Noah's ark is a problem."

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Monday, September 5, 2005 6:08 AM

AGREY

I would love to be in on thise project, whenever I can get to a Internet-equipped computer. As for the whole Fusion/Photon thing, we know Fireflys ACCELERATE to Full Burn by a fusion explosion out the back, but it obviously is not always doing that (otherwise, their fuel would run dry, as was their worry in the pilot). So maybe once they have accelerated up to "cruising speed", they turn on the damned photon drive to stay there (although that would be one hell of a photon drive, I will say that). And that does not even get into how the Alliance Cruisers propel themselves, although I would guess that the shuttles and Gunships are straight reaction drive (which would also explain their range limitations as being very short-"breking atmo from a wide orbit"; after all, Earth's moon is just about a light-second-300K km-from Earth, and we got their with '60s tech. So either the shipdesigners in the Firefly 'verse have forgotten how to design something that can just drift, or there is some reason that you always needs to have your engine going: gravity, perhaps?
By the way, if Serenity's "radion accelerator core"/main engine is what provides primary life support and GRAVITY, then when the damn thing died in "Out of Gas", shouldn't they have lost gravity? I know the budget was too low for extensive weightless shots, but as something to mention, what kind of gravity systems (since they are so advanced in this verse) do ship in the Firefly 'verse have?
Just some food for thought. If you would like to include me (as best as I can get time to), e-mail me at aeriongrey@yahoo.com or simply post back here.
Peace.

R. Billings, Sci-Fi Geek (a rich one at that).

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Monday, September 5, 2005 9:26 AM

Hey AGrey, all are welcome!
We've thrashed out a possible design for the main drive, that seems pretty good, Basically it accelerates to full speed, and then coasts...
But anyway, we're doing alot of this over AIM, so if you can get it, and give us an indication of when you'll be on-line that would be great.

Q: What do you have when you are holding two little green balls in your hand.
A: Kermit's undivided attention.

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Tuesday, September 6, 2005 2:08 PM

Anyone else interested in contributing anything at all?
If so please post times when you'll be online here.

Q: What do you have when you are holding two little green balls in your hand.
A: Kermit's undivided attention.

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Wednesday, September 7, 2005 3:07 PM

El Bumpo

------------------------------------------------
When the stars shine bright through the engine's trail and the dust of another world drops behind; When my ship is free of the open sky, its a damn good day to my way of mind; Theres a barren planet you never can leave, theres a rocky valley where we lost a war; Theres a cross worn 'round a soldier's neck, theres a man's faith died on Serenity's floor, but i stood my ground and ill fight once more; Its the last oath that i ever swore

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Thursday, September 8, 2005 6:58 PM