That'll balance Avatar itself, but what about the rest of the sci-fi canon?Now we need a sci-fi allegory supportive of colonialism, to balance it out...
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- Thread starter MobBoss
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Diverse in Unity
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Diverse in Unity
Looks like they did their research:
Overview
Mission Profile: 0.46 year initial acceleration @ 1.5 g to reach 0.7 c; 5.83 years cruise @ 0.7 c; 0.46 year deceleration; 1 year loiter in orbit around Pandora; 0.46 year acceleration @ 1.5 g to 0.7 c for return trip; 5.83 years cruise; 0.46 year final deceleration @ 1.5 g to go into orbit around Earth.
Mission Duration: 6.75 + 1.0 + 6.75 = 14.5 Earth years. However, relativistic effects shorten the time onboard ship to slightly less than 6 years each way.
The ISV Venture Star is one of a twelve vehicle fleet which provides commercial space transportation between Earth and Alpha Centauri. As with the other ships of the “Capital Star” class, it was designed to carry a large payload of cargo and passengers to the worlds of the Alpha Centauri star system, especially the rich world of Pandora. The ships of this class are not exploration ships, they are commercial freighters. The ship's mission is to be part of an endlessly looping supply chain which enables the exploitation of the indigenous resources of Pandora. The ISV Venture Star, and the other ships of its class, represent the highest technological achievement in human history. Only the great need for unobtanium and the energy which it allows human civilization to produce could justify the cost of creating these vessels. In fact, the unobtanium itself enabled the creation of this class of ISV’s. It is used in the superconducting magnet arrays which contain and direct the energy of the matter-antimatter annihilation which propels the ship. Without unobtanium, interstellar commerce on this scale would not be possible. Unobtanium is not only the key to Earth’s energy needs in the 22nd century, but it is the enabler of interstellar travel and the establishment of a truly spacefaring civilization.
The Venture Star is the ninth ship of its class brought into service, and has made one round trip to the Alpha Centauri System. It is currently outbound on its second voyage, due to arrive there in 2154.
Talk of “wormholes” and “warp drives” captured the imagination of twentieth-century sci-fi fans, but no such methods have come to fruition. For now, engineers must rely upon techniques that exploit our current understanding of physics. Visionaries set their sights on the potential for matter-antimatter reactions. The enormous energy released in the annihilation of matter and antimatter is the only known means of creating the kind of propulsion needed for interstellar travel. The first interstellar ship was over four kilometers long, because of the massive refrigeration system required to maintain the conventional low-temperature superconducting magnets that produced the containment field for the matter-antimatter reaction. It was not until the discovery of the high-temperature superconductor unobtanium on Pandora that interstellar travel and commerce became commercially viable. The Capital Star Class ISV was developed using this technology and is one-quarter the size of that first ship, and many times more efficient. Power Source: Hybrid deuterium fusion / matter-antimatter annihilation.
Propulsion: Two hybrid fusion/matter-antimatter engines. One photon sail. One fusion PME (Planetary Maneuvering Engine.) Beamed photon power from Earth for outward acceleration phase; ship’s hybrid fusion / matter-antimatter power for deceleration phase on approach to Pandora. Sequence reversed for return to Earth.
Engines: Two, arranged symmetrically in a tractor configuration. They are angled outward a few degrees off the ship’s longitudinal axis so their exhaust plumes bypass the ship’s structure. This results in a slight cosine loss to thrust efficiency, and the body of the ship must be shielded from the plume’s thermal radiation, but the mass-savings advantage of a tensile structure outweigh these disadvantages. Since a very long truss is needed to separate the habitable section of the ship from the engines which produce large amounts of radiation, such a structure would be prohibitively massive if it were a conventional space-frame truss designed for compressive loading. But the carbon-nanotube composite tensile-truss creates the necessary stand-off distance at one tenth the mass. Essentially it is a tow cable with enough torsional rigidity to allow the ship to maneuver, including the pitch-over maneuver which must be performed to turn 180 degrees for the deceleration burn when inbound to Pandora.
A matter-antimatter reaction causes the total conversion of matter into energy, as per Einstein’s famous formula of E = mc2. The antimatter (in this case anti-hydrogen) is contained by a magnetic field in a near-perfect vacuum in which it circulates as a high density cloud of atoms cooled to near-absolute-zero temperature. When antimatter and matter (normal hydrogen) are brought together, they mutually annihilate and produce an enormous amount of energy, which must be directed by an ultra-powerful magnetic field to form the exhaust plume. These photons of energy, although massless, possess momentum, and their ejection provides the thrust to accelerate the ship. Additional thrust is obtained by injecting hydrogen atoms into the plasma before it leaves the engines. The exhaust flare is an incandescent plasma a million times brighter than a welding arc, and over thirty kilometers long. The plume is considered to be one of the most spectacular man-made sights in history.
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I completely agree. I am actually less inclined to see it because of all the hype. I am sick of being told that I will like something because "it got great reviews!" or "everyone else is liking it!" I can decide for myself...the way that all these (generally crappy) forms of entertainment are being foisted upon us is really quite annoying and scary.
Kozmos
Jew Detective
Annoying.
Gilder
Deity
I went through the same feeling this past summer with Transformers 2. Except I hated it.
MobBoss
Off-Topic Overlord
Actually, I would argue that it does mean they are good. They may not be 'good' to you, but your're not the final arbiter of whats good and what isnt. If a product...like crocs for example, is wildly successful, the its also obvious that a great many people found them to be 'good' for whatever reason.
Yes, but it seems to be that you use something being popular as a reason to label it crap, which I think is an error. I really dont understand the reluctance of some people to deny obvious success as 'good'. If it wasnt any good, then it shouldnt have been a success.
If this part of the background story is even remotely true, the humans will return to Pandora in about 15 years and blow the living crap out of every Na'Vi in order to get this substance if the natives try to deny them access to the mineral.
mitsho
Deity
buying =/= using (approving)
so, in the end, there's no measurement for good ;-) being popular just means that, the term "good" doesn't really make sense, economics, art critics, technic freaks, sci-fi, enterntainment, social cohesiveness,... what are we talking about?
so, in the end, there's no measurement for good ;-) being popular just means that, the term "good" doesn't really make sense, economics, art critics, technic freaks, sci-fi, enterntainment, social cohesiveness,... what are we talking about?
warpus
Sommerswerd asked me to change this
It means that they are popular - not good.
And I never said that I'm final arbiter of anything!
No, I start with a blank slate, and label it good or bad only when I experience it in some way or other.
MobBoss
Off-Topic Overlord
Again, if they werent 'good' in some appreciable way they simply wouldnt be popular. History is replete with products that utterly failed. Those Crocs for example, my wife wears them and thinks they are the most comfortable shoes she owns. I think she is hardly alone in that opinion. Now you may not find them aesthetically appealing or you may not like them simply because they are indeed popular you desire to be noncomforming to such things....but neither of those makes the product not good.
warpus
Sommerswerd asked me to change this
Dude..
How have you lived 40+ years on this planet and not come across something that is popular but also a piece of crap?
That's the odd thing, its the closest system but it can't be the first time they've been to a new world or met alien lifeforms. So they must have access to other supplies of unobtanium, though small. Though the ship they came on is 1/4 the size of their old ships its not the first one of its kind.
Gelion
Retired Captain
Did anyone write a review about the film? I mean an amateur review, not a pre-paid one.
Winner
Diverse in Unity
Pre-pay me and I'll tell you whatever you want to hear
Why are people seeing that in EVERY darn movie made since 2003?
karma. oh yes, there will be karma...
Gelion
Retired Captain
That is exactly what I do not wantPre-pay me and I'll tell you whatever you want to hear
. I really want someone who has seen the film to write what the film is about without many spoilers and give a personal opinion about it. Few lines are not sufficient...
Murky
Deity
That is exactly what I do not want
Why not just go see it and judge for yourself? I wrote up review in this thread but I put it in spoiler tags because it contains spoilers about the plot.
Gelion
Retired Captain
Thanks! It is exactly what I wanted. Result: watching!
MobBoss
Off-Topic Overlord
Because it merely would have been a piece of crap in my opinion, but apparently a great many people found it good for some reason.
I mean take Plan 9 From Outer Space for example. It pretty much represents the comment 'so bad its good'....as a film, its pretty terrible, but its fun to watch SINCE its so terrible, thus its suckiness is precisely what makes the movie good.
Anyway, I went to go see Avatar again last night, but this time in 3D. I was very skeptical since my sole previous 3D experience wasnt that great (the movie Coraline in 3D at home).
All I can say is this. Not only did the 3D work, it worked great. This was much improved over my earlier 3D experience, and as others have said previously it wasnt taken advantage of for 'shock' factor, but done in a way to enhance the movie experience, not override it. It was simply awesome. I can absolutely recommend seeing this movie in 3D.
Also, this was going to see it in Tacoma, Washington, 7pm on a Wednesday night....and the movie was either sold out or very close to it. Couples arriving during the opening credits couldnt find two seats together as the theater was packed.
I am not sure if its numbers will continue through the weekend as its going to get some competition on Christmas day. Its going to be interesting to watch and see how its numbers track through the next week or so.
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