Create new transportation for sci fi?

[Writer’s_Magic]

This is for everyone, who writes science fiction!—Space ships and teleportation are overused. But how do you send your characters into space instead? Something like a star gate do already exists. In the TV show/Movie Stargate. Well…

How do I can create new transportation for science fiction stories?

 

[goldhawk]

How about holographic projection via VR? Mass (spaceships and people) must travel slower than light but scientists have discovered a way to send information faster than light. A holographic projector is sent to other planets and once there, people can use virtual reality to establish a presence there.

 

[Writer’s_Magic]

goldhawk It’s actually a good idea. But not for military sci fi, isn’t it.

 

[goldhawk]

goldhawk It’s actually a good idea. But not for military sci fi, isn’t it.

You didn't specify military.

 

[Hallen]

It's fun to play with these types of ideas. Coming up with those things is one of the cool things about writing sci-fi / fantasy, isn't it?

Pretty much everything is a variation of three different concepts.

Really fast travel in real space.
Warping space/time in order to allow traveling short real distances to go really far distances. This includes wormhole type travel and portal type travel (mostly, portals can also be that door between dimensions)
"Hyper space" or inter-dimensional travel. Step into hyperspace and somehow step out where you want to be. This includes most teleportation.
Star Trek style teleporters are maybe an exception, but it's not used for space travel, per se.

I think that's about it. But then again, I haven't read everything and my memory may be missing something.

So, it's all about coming up with a unique way to describe one of those modes.

 

[CupofJoe]

And whatever you choose, give it limitations. In ST [TNG - I think] they had to readjust how fast Warp speed was, and then limit the ships to a max Warp speed because the galaxy was getting too small. If you can safely travel from any A to any B in the blink of an eye, it can reduce tension. Make it cost a lot of energy, take time to set up, only work between certain points, or be [a bit] unreliable.

 

[Writer’s_Magic]

CupofJoe Trivia, by the way: The NASA found out that a theoretical technology exists, which is similar to WARP.

 

[CupofJoe]

CupofJoe Trivia, by the way: The NASA found out that a theoretical technology exists, which is similar to WARP.

Yeah... but didn't the maths work out that it would take the entire power of several suns to even attempt a warp journey? As much as I want Holidays on Alpha Centauri, I can't see it happening soon.
I think Star Trek style transporters are the most likely solution. At least we have a working transport technology. It only does an electon or two at a time [I think - it is something really tiny and sub atomic] but it does do something...

 

[Vaporo]

Actually, the last I'd heard they had found a way to bring it down to a few hundred kilograms worth of nuclear fuel. So not impossible, just completely unfeasible. Plus, y'know, nobody's tested the physics behind it yet either, so it still may not actually work.

 

[Writer’s_Magic]

Vaporo Science fiction is theoretical ever. You’ll never know if it’s possible until someone tests it. But I still don’t know, what could be awesome. ... Spaceships are not it.

 

[Vaporo]

Oh, I'm not saying don't use it. That's the point of science fiction. To take theory and try to apply it to reality. I was just adding to what CupofJoe said.

But, you don't seem to want to use it either, so my point is moot. You seem to be searching for a thoroughly unique method of space travel, but I don't think you're going to find it. A core rule of creative writing is that everything has been done before somewhere, and all you can do is put your own unique spin on it.

I can give you one idea from real physics related to the NASA warp drive thing. As I understood it, it's basically a giant tunnel made of negative mass. Within the tunnel, space is compressed, so traveling through the tunnel results in getting to the other end faster than if you had traveled outside of it. If you had one long enough and with enough spatial compression, you could theoretically travel between stars faster than light. In real life, it would be absurdly impractical to build even with crazy theoretical future technology, but that's what we have fiction for.

 

[Writer’s_Magic]

Vaporo And how about a WARP with dark energy instead of the other stuff? Or is this too obvious?

 

[Vaporo]

Ummmmmmmm... sure? Dark energy is an almost entirely unrelated concept to negative mass. So no, it wouldn't work in real life. I mean, I'm not even certain that the other thing would work, since It's something I read seven years ago and may be misinterpreting.

I mean, if you're not going to bother to learn the real physics, then try to avoid using real physics words. The people who don't know physics aren't going to care if you used real words, and the people who do know physics are just going to tear their hair out over how wrong you got it. Plot-wise, all the audience really needs to know are the technology's capabilities and limitations. If you only care about the technology's effect and not how it works, just make something up or don't explain the details at all.

 

[TheCrystallineEntity]

I'm partial to stargates, myself. As for new ideas, how about astral travel?

 

[Writer’s_Magic]

TheCrystallineEntity My idea is, which I got yesterday, to use crystals as boosters.