Rajvik Wrote:Eris? Your going to put ponies on a moon that is named after the goddess of discord? Oh this I will habe to watch/help
The not so subtle irony is one reason for it, like the sailors on venus, the warsies on the death star moon, trekkies at their famous shipyard, etc. Another being that Eris is outside the limit, making it a good stopoff, or the whole 'nobody for tens of billions of miles to expand into the way of' since every other planetary system has claims or activty in it, part stubbron pride on once they get stuck in the quagmire of sealing it up, and generally 'because we can' attitude.
One thing I've seen when looking around online is that the equestrians are attributed a great deal of airships, usually much more heavily built up than any seen IRL. A bunch are self-contained, and might actually make for a good basis for the faction's ship designs:
http://fc09.deviantart.net/fs70/i/2012/ ... 4vpou7.jpg
http://niegelvonwolf.deviantart.com/art ... -292157810
http://valhalla-studios.deviantart.com/ ... -260100889
http://valhalla-studios.deviantart.com/ ... -261229862
http://valhalla-studios.deviantart.com/ ... -297142911
So, that might make for a good basis for their hulls (albeit much less gas envelope, much more antigrav engines and decks) in space, and give them a rather distinctive flare compared to the other factions for the most part. Maybe even get them allies in the pulpers, who would love the fluff out of their designs? Oddly, I also see more than a few images of 40k mixing with the ponies, including in spaceships, so maybe 40k gothic influences could be used in designing their 'official' structures or some craft as well in a sort of psuedo-victorian mix?
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There may be some grumbling from the Space Pirates who are fans of Captain Harlock, but only because theirs aren't as fancy.
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."
- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012
Threepony Wrote:The kupiters do provide a lot of space, and more importantly: lots of primordial organic compounds and volitiles to work with. It'd be a crusader idea to claim Eris, completely enclose it--"It'd be a darn sight easier to work with if ya ain't got to worry 'bout yer atmosphere running away from ya."--, and then use a giant... something or another to heat the interior and let them build Neo Equestria inside. Suffice to say, totally an insane idea that'll be a boondoggle to impliment, but stubbron pride keeps them going. Eventually. It'd be their long-term end goal so they don't step on other people's toes/hooves in the long run when the population starts expanding majorly over the next half-century. I think you underestimate how huge even "smaller" asteroids are... Eris even more. I would be that you don't manage to "fill up" even a kilometer sized asteroid station within a century.
HRogge Wrote:Threepony Wrote:The kupiters do provide a lot of space, and more importantly: lots of primordial organic compounds and volitiles to work with. It'd be a crusader idea to claim Eris, completely enclose it--"It'd be a darn sight easier to work with if ya ain't got to worry 'bout yer atmosphere running away from ya."--, and then use a giant... something or another to heat the interior and let them build Neo Equestria inside. Suffice to say, totally an insane idea that'll be a boondoggle to impliment, but stubbron pride keeps them going. Eventually. It'd be their long-term end goal so they don't step on other people's toes/hooves in the long run when the population starts expanding majorly over the next half-century. I think you underestimate how huge even "smaller" asteroids are... Eris even more. I would be that you don't manage to "fill up" even a kilometer sized asteroid station within a century.
It's meant to be a boondongle. It's insane and overblown, and a crusader plan. And a while in the future. Right now I still need to lay groundwork.
Doing some work on putting together logistical groundwork for the story, including picking out good craters to be used for the NLR initial pony cities and designing the initial shuttle/vessel that takes the group Up. Right now, settling on the Plaskett and Peary craters of the North pole due to the potential values of both craters. Both have relatively steep and high walls with a good backing to prevent collapses. Peary is mostly in shadow from the imagery I can obtain, suggesting a good chance for subsurface ices as well as being within a few miles of the lunar north pole.
Plaskett crater, on the other hand, is much deeper and larger, and while about 10 degrees to the south of the north pole, it still maintains a good internal shadow that likely contain some ices while also having a massive central peak that would be useful for constructing a citadel/spire to reach above the dome that could also serve as a nice castle. At about 68 miles across, it's got enough space for a good sized city or wide-open tracts of farmland as well, providing a good base for a lunar colony if you can completely seal the crater over. There are other features, such as a slightly overlapping crater on the southeast rim that could serve as another position for a starport, as well as a terrace section along the south rim that would serve admirably for some kind of farming other other sectionalized purposes, and also sharing a border with the massive crater/walled plane Rozhdestvenskiy. And it has an additional advantage of being right on the edge of the lunar disk as seen from earth, so it would be a prime spot to launch forwards or backwards along the lunar orbit (I need to find out if it's on the leading or trailing edge of the earth-side hemisphere). In fact, unless anyone can think of any previous claims on the crater, I'd like to nominate it for the hub/capital city of the pony factions, as it's pretty much an all-around good site.
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The only settlement we have anywhere near the north pole is Moonbase Alpha, and we haven't pinned its location down to any particular crater or planitia. Go for it!
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."
- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012
I wonder if CGI just found a "must have!" customer for their Third Eye technology... add a couple of small "manipulator drones" and a good expert system to make controlling them easy and you suddenly have an extra pair of hands. 
HRogge Wrote:I wonder if CGI just found a "must have!" customer for their Third Eye technology... add a couple of small "manipulator drones" and a good expert system to make controlling them easy and you suddenly have an extra pair of hands.
Some, I suppose. Others would go with little waldo shoes (looking sort of like the princesses), others would go for harnesses with a jillion-billion (metaphorically) manipulators. Sort of a mix of all the different ideas, sometimes done because it'll make them different, sometimes just because. You'd get good money, though.
Busy working on the design of their initial craft for going Up once it gets to that point, which could maybe end up becoming a common design. Maybe.
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The Fenspace Bronies have a friend in Vulpine Fury in Kandor. He'd been following Lauren Faust's deviantart at about the time she'd released some of her early G4 concepts, before the Wave Crashed. (While Twilight was still in G1 colors, and Rainbow Dash was still Firefly.)
''We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat
them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.''
-- James Nicoll
Doing a bit of design work on the final enclosure of the crater. Anyone know how much of that superalloy the gearheads produce a year? I was thinking of using that or a waved Massive CNT composite for the design, given the sheer size will make normal steel alloys unable to support the final structure under lunar gravity.
The initial enclosure will be an enlarged variant of Kandor's diamond-like bubble, which is decided as too risky for a permenant enclosure after a few small meteroites punch holes through it that have to be patched up.
As an idea for the city: I've grown fond of them using an archetectural style that combines a neo-classical bent with baroque and gothic elements with a faceted pseudo-crystaline bent to it. Thinking something like the Crystal Empire as seen in the show, but on a much bigger scale. Also, is there any lore on what handwavium does to carbon nanotubes?
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Threepony Wrote:... Also, is there any lore on what handwavium does to carbon nanotubes? I believe not, so make up whatever you need for the story.
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."
- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012
robkelk Wrote:Threepony Wrote:... Also, is there any lore on what handwavium does to carbon nanotubes? I believe not, so make up whatever you need for the story.
Yeah. Yeah, anything considered as a reasonable material to use as the basis of an orbital elevator might be a bit... insane. At least when combined with the wave. Maybe not the toughest stuff, but yeah. Probably flammable when exposed to lasers, since carbon likes combining with other things, but still nuts.
The plan for the final design of the dome is a six-fold radially symmetrical design, supported in the center by a spire projected upwards out of the rebound massif at the center of the crater, and a skeleton extending outwards to the rebuilt crater wall. Halfway out from the center would be a secondary set of supports to help reduce the stress on the dome trusses, built like massive flying buttresses, which further support each sector of the dome with a brace extending between each support across a facet.
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