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Space Friction
- 414 statements
- 78 feature instances
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Isaac Newton turned the world of physics upside down when he observed his first law of motion: This was earth-shattering stuff when he introduced the notion — in 1687! Sadly, most writers for science fiction TV shows and films are apparently still stuck in Aristotelian physics — according to which a body in motion will always slow down even in a vacuum — and just don't get a single clue of how proper Newtonian physics work. Basically, goes the misconception, if your engine breaks down in space, your ship will quickly slow to a complete stop. Writers do this because if the engine in your car breaks down, you come to a stop, and if the engine in your boat breaks down, you drift at a random low speed at the whims of the currents. Based on these experiences, it feels intuitive to write that spaceships will act this way. However, the reason these things happen is friction. note And also air resistance, which is basically just friction against a gas. On a straight road, with good tires, you can coast quite a long way on even a slight downgrade. In space, where there is no friction between the car and air to contend with, you can coast even at top speed almost forever (albeit perhaps not in a perfectly straight line, due to gravitation), or until you hit something, which, given how big space is, is literally astronomically unlikely. For that matter, the entire notion of only having enough fuel to travel so far is a little suspect: if you've got enough fuel to reach top speed, you've got enough fuel to go anywhere; once you reach top speed, you can just shut the engine off and coast, though this is assuming you're flying along a ballistic trajectory. Of course, it would become a problem if you don't have enough fuel to stop at the end — or if, for whatever reason, you have to turn somewhere, or if your engine fuel doubles as power generator fuel, which would cause a black-out in your ship (which, if it comes up in a Space Friction plot, generally means the crew has a few hours to restore power before running out of air). Even so, this would result in a broken-engined ship perhaps missing its target or crashing into another, not stopping dead. Exotic propulsion systems of the sort needed to exceed the speed of light are exempt from the normal laws of physics and can reasonably be presumed to expend energy even at a constant speed, just holding the laws of physics in check, but it's curious that the effects of such drives always cause space to behave exactly like an ocean—a ship said to be "adrift" will be moving at a random (low) speed and direction or practically not moving at all. Despite being a form of Hollywood Science, this could also be a Justified Trope in settings where Inertial Dampening technology exists. Remember: inertia is the tendency for an object in motion or at rest to stay that way unless acted upon by an outside force, therefore any spaceship incorporating technology which nullifies or alters inertia will eventually drift to a stop unless subjected to continuous thrust. Mind you, despite this simple and logical explanation being a perfect example of Fridge Brilliance, it could just as easily be the result of a writer who doesn’t know or care how space works getting something right in spite of their ignorance. See also Space Is Air, Space Is Cold, and Gravity Sucks. Related to Friction Burn. Contrast Frictionless Reentry. Could be a way to do a Sci-Fi Flyby. |
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| Space Friction / int_151b4675 | type |
Space Friction | |
| Space Friction / int_151b4675 | comment |
Comet Busters! inherits this from Asteroids, and goes one further by letting the "Disruptor" special ability act as a brake. The manual handwaves all this as an effect of "solar winds". | |
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| Space Friction / int_15fcdf40 | type |
Space Friction | |
| Space Friction / int_15fcdf40 | comment |
Justified in the Home World series—according to the Historical and Technical Briefing, the Hiigarans' (and presumably other races') ships are designed with micro-thrusters that provide force opposed to the direction of the engines' thrust, thereby simulating drag. This was done partly for safety reasons, but mostly to keep the pilots from going crazy trying to figure out how to maneuver in a vacuum. | |
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| Space Friction / int_1773eb11 | type |
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| Space Friction / int_1773eb11 | comment |
The indie 4X game, Star Ruler has newtonian physics on all the ships. The only thing restricting ships is their acceleration speed (and fuel), meaning you can have ships zipping through star systems at a sizable fraction of the speed of light. Ships disabled from crew death, power failure, or running out of fuel will cause them to drift along their path until the game kills it after a few minutes to save processing power. If you have stations orbiting other stations, and the core station is destroyed, the orbiting stations will be catapulted out of their orbit, then fall into orbit around the star; this can lead to stations spinning around a star at insane speeds, with nothing to limit their maximum speed. | |
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| Space Friction / int_1b6a8065 | type |
Space Friction | |
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In the arcade classic Asteroids, you can drift for about 2-3 screen's worth before coming to a stop, depending what speed you're going. The arrow buttons work like thrusters, requiring reverse thrust to slow down. | |
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| Space Friction / int_1bda896e | type |
Space Friction | |
| Space Friction / int_1bda896e | comment |
In Alistair Reynold's Revelation Space a character wonders why an interstellar light-hugger ship is aerodynamically shaped given that space is a vacuum. She is told that at 0.999c the interstellar medium is dense enough to almost function as an atmosphere as far as friction goes. | |
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| Space Friction / int_1c029994 | type |
Space Friction | |
| Space Friction / int_1c029994 | comment |
Much of the drama in Gravity comes from the fact that an object set in motion doesn't slow down until it hits something else. This includes both space debris and the protagonists themselves. On the other hand, when Dr. Stone manages to reach Tiangong, the station is visibly encountering friction, because it is in a decaying orbit and skimming the atmosphere. |
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Space Friction | |
| Space Friction / int_22fa3992 | comment |
The Expanse has realistic physics as one of its core principles, so actually showing spaceships decelerating on the way to their intended location is a staple. | |
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| Space Friction / int_247422c7 | type |
Space Friction | |
| Space Friction / int_247422c7 | comment |
Attack Vector: Tactical is fully Newtonian, 3-dimensional starship combat. Each ship has a ship diagram records vectors in three axes, and momentum carries from one round to another. Vectors must be canceled to change direction. Ships are tracked in orientation in three dimensions using tilted blocks in increments of 60 degrees. The Physics Equations to explain motion and heat dissipation, and everything else are in the rule book. This game system is also the basis of Saganami Tactical Simulator, the Honor Harrington space combat game, and Birds of Prey, an air-to-air modern age fighter combat game. | |
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| Space Friction / int_287a5a6d | type |
Space Friction | |
| Space Friction / int_287a5a6d | comment |
In the film SpaceCamp, one of the instructors actually informs the students that they keep drifting unless encountering an opposing force. | |
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| Space Friction / int_2acb12c5 | type |
Space Friction | |
| Space Friction / int_2acb12c5 | comment |
Fans of the X-Universe series guesstimate that the universe has the viscosity of maple syrup. Many sectors also have the visibility of maple syrup. However, X: Rebirth explains that the space friction is due to the ship's automated flight assists. Update 3.60 allows players to disable the flight assist, allowing the Albion Skunk to freely spin about with no friction. | |
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Space Friction | |
| Space Friction / int_2c9df9c5 | comment |
Transformers: The Movie had a variation of this; Astrotrain, in space shuttle mode, pleads to his passengers to "jettison some weight, or we'll never make it to Cybertron". This seems to be an excuse to throw the other, dying Decepticons out of Astrotrain, but note that his engines were still on and burning brightly for some reason. | |
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Space Friction | |
| Space Friction / int_30464d62 | comment |
The space shuttle in Airplane II: The Sequel does a similar gag at one point. | |
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Space Friction | |
| Space Friction / int_43a9c333 | comment |
Cowboy Bebop: In one episode, the Bebop is out of fuel, but the characters are unconcerned and are just killing time while the ship coasts to its destination. Despite this, Cowboy Bebop is not entirely a realistic series using Newtonian flight physics. There are plenty of occasions where the ships behave in Newtonian-correct ways (maneuvering thrusters, braking with forward-firing engines...), but plenty more when they don't (the dogfights in space, for instance, follow atmospheric flight patterns). The dogfights, however, may get a Rule of Cool exemption. | |
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Space Friction | |
| Space Friction / int_4edff9aa | comment |
The Arwings in the Star Fox games have their engines firing constantly, bank into turns, and even open their wings for an "air brake"... in space. Now, this behavior is perfectly normal when the crew is on a planet, but in space, the Arwings would be accelerating constantly in one direction. | |
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| Space Friction / int_513f5832 | type |
Space Friction | |
| Space Friction / int_513f5832 | comment |
In Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, a ship whose power is zapped by a probe is actually seen to coast to a stop, while the Miranda class ship seems to continue on its direction — however while turning at a weird angle to indicate it's out of control. | |
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Space Friction | |
| Space Friction / int_53a73ca0 | comment |
Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Lampshaded in "The Unknown". When Anakin, Rex, and Fives grapple onto the Separatist shuttle carrying Tup, the battle droid pilot mentions that they were experiencing drag. Its tactical droid superior finds this very strange, since it's technically impossible. | |
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Space Friction | |
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One episode of Space: 1999 even showed one of the Eagle ships rocking in space. | |
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Spaceships in Station V3 run of fuel and start drifting whenever it is funny for them to do so. | |
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Space Friction | |
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Schlock Mercenary: "We are inbound to Sol at point three-six cee, traversal shielding is at fifteen percent, we have insufficient power for full deceleration, and the ship is in two pieces. You tell me what we have averted?" Though their FTL drive probably still works, STIZ is still up. Luckily it's a developed system in a setting where gravity manipulation technology is common, so resolving it is as simple as calling a tow truck. | |
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In Red Dwarf, Starbug's engine is disabled, and they're in trouble because they're headed right at a planet and traveling entirely too fast for comfort. | |
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| Space Friction / int_5fbb3541 | type |
Space Friction | |
| Space Friction / int_5fbb3541 | comment |
Evochron averts it with a fully Newtonian flight system. However, switching out of inertial mode has the ship's computer use thrusters to approximate space friction. The Newtonian system still underlies it all though, so manoeuvring still tends to be a bit trickier than games which play this trope straight - trying to take a sharp corner at high speed in a race will tend to result in you flying sideways out of the course, as well as the thrusters constantly using fuel for every slight movement you make. | |
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| Space Friction / int_64ddf294 | type |
Space Friction | |
| Space Friction / int_64ddf294 | comment |
In the MMORPG EVE Online, this is taken to ridiculous extremes for an otherwise acceptably scientific game. Not only does space have friction in EVE, but avid fans have actually done the math and determined that space in the EVE universe has the consistency of WD-40. Bizarrely, ships have an acceleration curve. Explosion shockwaves in space. Possible for faster ships to escape kinetic explosions among other things. |
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| Space Friction / int_664b5d51 | type |
Space Friction | |
| Space Friction / int_664b5d51 | comment |
In Star Trek III: The Search for Spock: the Excelsior is accelerating up to transwarp when Scotty's sabotage kicks in, everything breaks down and it coasts to a stop, accompanied by a humorous "engine sputtering to a stop" noise. | |
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| Space Friction / int_6e0e351 | type |
Space Friction | |
| Space Friction / int_6e0e351 | comment |
Escape Velocity gets inertia right, but a whole lot of other things wrong. Once you're moving, you can stop holding down the arrow key and the ship will continue on its current direction unless you attempt to stop it. The problems appear when you realize that weapon speeds and ranges are absolute rather than relative to the speed of the ship that fired them. This error has led to what some players call the "Monty Python Maneuver", where you run away from enemy ships, then turn your ship 180 degrees (you'll still keep moving in the original direction!) and fire at the ships. You will be out of range of the enemy while they're still in range of you, even with non-lightspeed weapons. Another consequence of the ability to turn in place is the carousel maneuver, which requires some very carefully timed thrusts but essentially allows you to almost orbit the enemy ship, facing them the whole while. There are also several inertialess drives (which are not quite the same as Friction In Space, but behave similarly). These are on Vell-os ships and the Polaris Raven, which are intangible and warp-propulsed respectively. These ships are ironically harder to steer in combat, as they cannot coast or turn in place for the characterising "joust" — they need turreted beams to avoid having to face their opponent. This can actually lead to your massive Polaris Raven (just about the biggest, nastiest ship out there) being swarmed and shot to pieces by groups of small fighter craft. Their small size (and thus small inertia) allow them to basically make endless attack runs whilst remaining inside the minimum range of your weapons. A ship without inertia-less drive could rotate and catch them, but the Raven simply can't. |
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Space Friction | |
| Space Friction / int_6e1d5f36 | comment |
Farscape could usually Hand Wave this one, since Moya was a living entity, it was assumed her method of movement was energy-based... somehow. But it's specifically brought up when Scorpius' neural clone takes over Crichton's mind with Aeryn in pursuit. He taunts her that while he has been trained to fly jets in a planet's atmosphere and gravity, Aeryn has not. | |
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Space Friction | |
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In the Stargate SG-1 episode "Tangent", O'Neill and Teal'c are stranded in a death glider without engines. They continue to travel at constant velocity, expecting to reach the Oort cloud in several years. Indeed, stolen death gliders are programmed to operate in this manner, on a course toward a planet controlled by the Goa'uld who owns them. Since Goa'uld are absurdly long-livednote At least 5,000 years if they're using a sarcophagus, possibly much more if not killed violently, they fully expect to recover death gliders in this manner. | |
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Space Friction | |
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In the second game, Joker lampshades this trope in a bit of random cockpit dialogue. | |
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Space Friction | |
| Space Friction / int_77677ed1 | comment |
In Sword of the Stars, Human, Tarka, Hiver, Zuul and Morrigi ships, while using some form of FTL to travel through interstellar space, use regular Newtonian reaction thrusters for tactical combat. Destroying the engine section of the ships of these races will cause them to drift helplessly away from the battle, at whatever speed they're going at, in whatever direction they're going at. They sometimes end up crashing into a planet or an asteroid, and get destroyed. Liir ships, however, don't use regular thrusters at all — they use "stutter warp" (a propulsion method involving fast, repeated short-range teleportation) for both interstellar and tactical movement. Destroying their stutter warp engines will cause them to halt wherever they are. The trope is even more averted by the Kinetic Kill missile, a solid-body projectile that impacts into ships at a horrid speed. A ship hit by one of those will start flying and won't be slowing down again. Tarka can research technology that allows them to use their hyperdrives for tactical combat by manipulating the hyperspace bubble to move the ship. Unlike Liir ships, however, Tarka ships with destroyed engines will continue coasting. Also, even with destroyed engines, ships are usually able to slowly get back into battle by using their thrusters. |
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Space Friction | |
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Orbiter, being a realistic spaceflight simulator, makes mincemeat out of this trope. However, it has only a Newtonian physics model, so you can theoretically go faster-than-light. The Settings section in the game's launcher allows you to turn off some of the realistic restraints (e.g. allowing infinite fuel). |
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Space Friction | |
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An interesting aversion from the Wing Commander novels. While the games themselves obey game-friendly atmospheric physics, the novels suggest that fighters and capital ships can attain indefinite speed with constant acceleration for as long as their internal fuel supplies hold out, or a sort of mind-bogglingly fast terminal velocity by employing drag scoops that collect interstellar particle matter to fuel the engines. | |
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In Aliens, it's stated that Ripley's lifepod "drifted through the core systems". The engine was off when it was recovered. | |
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Space Friction | |
| Space Friction / int_7dad8347 | comment |
The FreeSpace video game series. It's just not fun trying to chase after a ship that suddenly became disabled when it was on its afterburner. Besides, you've got to worry about that invisible barrier 150km away from your starting position that causes you to "collide with yourself" and blow up. The FSOpen project actually implemented real-world physics at one point: more as a proof-of-concept thing than anything else. After all, the engine was designed around Old School Dogfighting, so playing with "Newtonian physics" completely broke the AI and all game balance. A few mods for the game engine have since used the altered physics, with custom AI written to handle realistic physics. |
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Space Friction / int_7dad8347 | |
| Space Friction / int_80797024 | type |
Space Friction | |
| Space Friction / int_80797024 | comment |
From the Depths has air resistance in high-orbit. While it is noticeably lower than air resistance when at altitudes where air-breathing jet engines work, one must still keep their spacecraft streamlined to maximize their velocity. Of note is that spacecraft will never outrun an airplane courtesy of jet engines being significantly more powerful than the ion engines that spacecraft must use. | |
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| From the Depths (Video Game) | hasFeature |
Space Friction / int_80797024 | |
| Space Friction / int_80e838cd | type |
Space Friction | |
| Space Friction / int_80e838cd | comment |
While Tachyon: The Fringe abuses the trope in normal flight, there is a button you can hold to continue moving in your current direction at the current speed. For example, it also allows you to fire your afterburners for a few seconds and then coast along in your current direction at extreme speeds, which is terribly useful if you need to get into or out of a particular fight very quickly, or if you just get impatient. You can even spin around and fire backwards. A real pedant could use this system to fly the ship in a (pseudo) real fashion! Another case that supports the trope is a mission to stop a capital ship whose engines are stuck from colliding with asteroids in an unusually dense field. After a while of you blowing up the asteroids, the captain of the ship will finally ask you to destroy its engine power plant. As soon as that happens, the large ship coasts to a stop within seconds. |
|
| Space Friction / int_80e838cd | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
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| Tachyon: The Fringe (Video Game) | hasFeature |
Space Friction / int_80e838cd | |
| Space Friction / int_81692f99 | type |
Space Friction | |
| Space Friction / int_81692f99 | comment |
Star Trek, unsurprisingly. In fact, in an instance where someone takes advantage of inertia (Star Trek: The Next Generation: "The Battle") by letting a derelict coast alongside them, everyone else is amazed by the notion — and, indeed, it turns out that his decision was prompted by his being Not Himself. In the other known instance ("Booby Trap"), it takes Geordi being inspired by ancient records to come up with the idea of escaping an engine-detecting minefield by pulsing the engines once and then coasting. Though at least on Next Generation they have separate responses to the captain when the controls read all stop and when the sensors confirm all stop, implying that the all stop command requires the vessel to actively slow down. |
|
| Space Friction / int_81692f99 | featureApplicability |
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| Star Trek (Franchise) | hasFeature |
Space Friction / int_81692f99 | |
| Space Friction / int_84d4b01d | type |
Space Friction | |
| Space Friction / int_84d4b01d | comment |
Zig-zagged in Shores of Hazeron. If you use eludium in your engines and they are receiving power, then your velocity is always conserved relative to the facing of the ship, which takes some getting used to. If you are drifting to starboard while facing galactic north, and you turn to face galactic west, you will now be drifting north. Thrust is therefore required to slow down, but you can change heading instantly and even spin in a tight circle. Rocket engines, however, provide a straight aversion. All ships will drift realistically when power is lost. | |
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Space Friction / int_84d4b01d | |
| Space Friction / int_898bd243 | type |
Space Friction | |
| Space Friction / int_898bd243 | comment |
The film Armageddon (1998) references physics nicely when one of the NASA astronauts explains physics to our drilling team by pointing out that if she kicked one of them in the balls, he'd float away. "Rock Hound" asks when they start training for that. | |
| Space Friction / int_898bd243 | featureApplicability |
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| Space Friction / int_898bd243 | featureConfidence |
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| Armageddon (1998) | hasFeature |
Space Friction / int_898bd243 | |
| Space Friction / int_8b7b9cd5 | type |
Space Friction | |
| Space Friction / int_8b7b9cd5 | comment |
The most noticeable application of Space Friction occurs whenever a ship explodes in mid-flight: its explosion will be motionless despite whatever inertia the ship had previously. One instance where this can be seen very clearly is when the Y-Wings are making their trench run in close formation in A New Hope. One of the Y-Wings explodes, and the other Y-Wing suddenly leaps forward, leaving that explosion behind him. | |
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| A New Hope | hasFeature |
Space Friction / int_8b7b9cd5 | |
| Space Friction / int_8df5521b | type |
Space Friction | |
| Space Friction / int_8df5521b | comment |
Superman storyline The Planet Eater Trilogy: Averted. When Superman is being caught by the vacuum mechanism of a humongous artificial planet, he notes there is nothing to slow him down because there is not friction in space. | |
| Space Friction / int_8df5521b | featureApplicability |
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Space Friction / int_8df5521b | |
| Space Friction / int_8e688d3c | type |
Space Friction | |
| Space Friction / int_8e688d3c | comment |
Affordable Space Adventures doesn't have any genuine space travel, but the Small Craft is equipped with an anti gravity system that is paired with a Decelerator, a device that serves to create artificial Space Friction to cause the Small Craft to slow down to a stop when thrust stops. The Decelerator can simply be turned off if one wants to continue moving even after cutting the thrust. | |
| Space Friction / int_8e688d3c | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Space Friction / int_8e688d3c | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
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Space Friction / int_8e688d3c | |
| Space Friction / int_8fd3db0b | type |
Space Friction | |
| Space Friction / int_8fd3db0b | comment |
Zigzagged in the season 2 finale of Star Trek: Lower Decks. The starships avert this: the Archimedes, once disabled, is sent flying towards an inhabited planet drawn in by the planet's gravity and their own momentum, and the Cerritos, in order to get through the debris field without being disabled itself, has to shut down main power and coast on inertia while using thrusters to dodge fragments. The debris field itself, on the other hand, plays the trope straight, as there's apparently no danger of it raining down on the inhabitants. | |
| Space Friction / int_8fd3db0b | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Space Friction / int_8fd3db0b | featureConfidence |
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| Star Trek: Lower Decks | hasFeature |
Space Friction / int_8fd3db0b | |
| Space Friction / int_91f0110a | type |
Space Friction | |
| Space Friction / int_91f0110a | comment |
Ace Combat 3: Electrosphere averts this in an anti-satellite mission starring an orbital fighter, and even puts the player through reentry procedure. Yes, a hard portrayal of space combat in the one sci-fi installment of a series devoted to modern air combat where the Acceptable Breaks from Reality are as numerous as the missiles hiding within its airplanes' wings. Yes, hard in more ways than one despite the objective of the mission boiling down to "gun down the defenseless, stationary targets within the time limit", because you're going to have to take a few tries to break air-combat habits, even if you're aware of this trope. | |
| Space Friction / int_91f0110a | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Space Friction / int_91f0110a | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Ace Combat 3: Electrosphere (Video Game) | hasFeature |
Space Friction / int_91f0110a | |
| Space Friction / int_97160d12 | type |
Space Friction | |
| Space Friction / int_97160d12 | comment |
Planetes: Most of the early story is about collecting debris that is dangerous precisely because items in space never slow down or stop. | |
| Space Friction / int_97160d12 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Space Friction / int_97160d12 | featureConfidence |
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| Planetes (Manga) | hasFeature |
Space Friction / int_97160d12 | |
| Space Friction / int_9994a14f | type |
Space Friction | |
| Space Friction / int_9994a14f | comment |
Averted in WALL•E, most notably in the space dance scene. When WALL•E uses the fire extinguisher to fly about, he kept going even after he had stopped firing the fire extinguisher and had to fire in the opposite direction to stop his movement. | |
| Space Friction / int_9994a14f | featureApplicability |
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1.0 | |
| WALL•E | hasFeature |
Space Friction / int_9994a14f | |
| Space Friction / int_9b38e5f3 | type |
Space Friction | |
| Space Friction / int_9b38e5f3 | comment |
Averted in Interstellar, thanks to its adherence to Newtonian mechanics. This is a relevant plot point, since this allows the Endurance to reach Edmunds' Planet following a gravitational assist from Gargantua, even after expending most of its fuel.. | |
| Space Friction / int_9b38e5f3 | featureApplicability |
-1.0 | |
| Space Friction / int_9b38e5f3 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Interstellar | hasFeature |
Space Friction / int_9b38e5f3 | |
| Space Friction / int_a183d57f | type |
Space Friction | |
| Space Friction / int_a183d57f | comment |
Futurama: In "Godfellas", when Bender is launched out of a torpedo tube, he keeps going. He's realistically able to slow himself a bit by throwing away pieces of treasure he had stored in his compartment, but runs out of objects to throw before he's stopped himself completely. However, the ship cannot catch up to him because it was moving at "top speed" when they launched him, so he was moving even faster. Lampshaded in the DVD Commentary: | |
| Space Friction / int_a183d57f | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Space Friction / int_a183d57f | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Futurama | hasFeature |
Space Friction / int_a183d57f | |
| Space Friction / int_a52def46 | type |
Space Friction | |
| Space Friction / int_a52def46 | comment |
Kerbal Space Program. Learning how to control the orbit of your ship without friction is one of the challenges of the game, especially once you need to move that orbit out of 2-D Space. | |
| Space Friction / int_a52def46 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Space Friction / int_a52def46 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Kerbal Space Program (Video Game) | hasFeature |
Space Friction / int_a52def46 | |
| Space Friction / int_a6ece007 | type |
Space Friction | |
| Space Friction / int_a6ece007 | comment |
Battlefleet Gothic averts this by forcing ships to take a command check to burn reverse thrusters in order to stop. The Warp Rift unofficial rules for running on minimum power in order to avoid detection avert this, stating that ships continue on the exact same vector as they were on before shutting down unless the ship uses minimal thrusters to slow down. | |
| Space Friction / int_a6ece007 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Space Friction / int_a6ece007 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Battlefleet Gothic (Tabletop Game) | hasFeature |
Space Friction / int_a6ece007 | |
| Space Friction / int_aedc983a | type |
Space Friction | |
| Space Friction / int_aedc983a | comment |
Although the Wing Commander series plays this trope mostly straight, in the later games some fighters have the option of "autoslide", which will make your fighter operate in a purely Newtonian manner for as long as autoslide is toggled. To actually change your vector requires turning it off and going back to playing the trope straight, however, then turning it back on when you're on the desired heading and have accelerated back up to the desired velocity. | |
| Space Friction / int_aedc983a | featureApplicability |
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1.0 | |
| Wing Commander (Video Game) | hasFeature |
Space Friction / int_aedc983a | |
| Space Friction / int_b11e29d2 | type |
Space Friction | |
| Space Friction / int_b11e29d2 | comment |
Outlaw Star operates similarly, but the dogfights definitely follow a more 3D style of maneuvering. In one episode, the Outlaw Star even rides a "stream of aether" using its parachutes. | |
| Space Friction / int_b11e29d2 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Space Friction / int_b11e29d2 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Outlaw Star (Manga) | hasFeature |
Space Friction / int_b11e29d2 | |
| Space Friction / int_b50ceaf8 | type |
Space Friction | |
| Space Friction / int_b50ceaf8 | comment |
In Colony Wars 2, one mission has you tow a frigate out of harms way when its main engine failed; the problem is that it drifts to an asteroid and if you pull too much on the nose sideways, it'll create a torque and the sides may collide with the asteroid. Also, your own spacecraft drifts when your engine is disengaged; you'll rarely, if at all, have any time sitting put without any motion (although, you drift in a lateral motion, and like the asteroids there, you never stupidly rotate in place like most Hollywood asteroids do). | |
| Space Friction / int_b50ceaf8 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Space Friction / int_b50ceaf8 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Colony Wars (Video Game) | hasFeature |
Space Friction / int_b50ceaf8 | |
| Space Friction / int_b6c4ee04 | type |
Space Friction | |
| Space Friction / int_b6c4ee04 | comment |
Tamagotchi: The Movie: Subverted. The rocket Mametchi and his friends steal has to be adjusted to a certain position to shoot the Planet's medicine, but it does so using smaller rockets on the ship's arms (to rotate) and four smaller jets (to reverse and slow down) instead of just stopping. | |
| Space Friction / int_b6c4ee04 | featureApplicability |
-0.3 | |
| Space Friction / int_b6c4ee04 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Tamagotchi: The Movie | hasFeature |
Space Friction / int_b6c4ee04 | |
| Space Friction / int_b8c098b8 | type |
Space Friction | |
| Space Friction / int_b8c098b8 | comment |
In Space Run, you build components on your ship as it travels making deliveries. You can add thrusters to go faster, and if they're destroyed your ship will slow down and stop. | |
| Space Friction / int_b8c098b8 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Space Friction / int_b8c098b8 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| SpaceRun | hasFeature |
Space Friction / int_b8c098b8 | |
| Space Friction / int_bcadd7cb | type |
Space Friction | |
| Space Friction / int_bcadd7cb | comment |
Warhammer 40,000: Space hulks are huge conglomerates of ships that are mushed together in the warp, occasionally getting spit back out into realspace and continuing to drift until they get sucked back in or fall into a sun. | |
| Space Friction / int_bcadd7cb | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
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1.0 | |
| Warhammer 40,000 (Tabletop Game) | hasFeature |
Space Friction / int_bcadd7cb | |
| Space Friction / int_bf13a7d0 | type |
Space Friction | |
| Space Friction / int_bf13a7d0 | comment |
Played with Ring Runner: Flight of the Sages. Space has no friction, unless someone happens to be using a weapon that inflicts friction on the target or creates friction on an area of the battlefield. | |
| Space Friction / int_bf13a7d0 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
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1.0 | |
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Space Friction / int_bf13a7d0 | |
| Space Friction / int_c0aa8ea9 | type |
Space Friction | |
| Space Friction / int_c0aa8ea9 | comment |
In Stargate Universe; Destiny and its shuttles move in the BSG fashion. In particular in the season 1 episode "Darkness", the Destiny uses the atmosphere of a gas giant for aerobraking when it's out of power for sub-light engines. | |
| Space Friction / int_c0aa8ea9 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
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1.0 | |
| Stargate Universe | hasFeature |
Space Friction / int_c0aa8ea9 | |
| Space Friction / int_c3e4d044 | type |
Space Friction | |
| Space Friction / int_c3e4d044 | comment |
The Kaufman Retrograde in Star Fleet Battles is a related tactic, in which ships go in reverse to keep the advancing enemy in optimum range as long as possible, but as (predictably enough) the ships maneuver like Star Trek ships it's done by firing the warp engines in reverse. | |
| Space Friction / int_c3e4d044 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
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1.0 | |
| Star Fleet Battles (Tabletop Game) | hasFeature |
Space Friction / int_c3e4d044 | |
| Space Friction / int_c43df4d8 | type |
Space Friction | |
| Space Friction / int_c43df4d8 | comment |
In the Doctor Who episode "The Beast Below", the Doctor can tell something strange is going on because Starship UK is moving through space despite the engines not running. Which is obviously impossible. | |
| Space Friction / int_c43df4d8 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
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1.0 | |
| Doctor Who | hasFeature |
Space Friction / int_c43df4d8 | |
| Space Friction / int_c9e61851 | type |
Space Friction | |
| Space Friction / int_c9e61851 | comment |
In Space Engineers, friction is completely absent bar a minuscule amount at very low speeds to prevent objects from endlessly drifting. In order for a spaceship to have full control, it needs thrusters on all six faces (forward/reverse/left/right/up/down) and a gyroscope for rotation; lacking a axis means the ship must rotate to bring a thruster to bear in order to cancel out velocity in that direction. It's all kept under control by a fairly restrictive absolute top speed that nothing in the game can exceed, no matter how much acceleration it's capable of. | |
| Space Friction / int_c9e61851 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Space Friction / int_c9e61851 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Space Engineers (Video Game) | hasFeature |
Space Friction / int_c9e61851 | |
| Space Friction / int_cc49cf71 | type |
Space Friction | |
| Space Friction / int_cc49cf71 | comment |
Il Était Une Fois...... Space: Played straight in "A Planet Blown to Pieces". The freighter in which our heroes are scaping of a star that has gone supernova is hit and damaged by debris of a destroyednote Complete with two ships falling like aircraft hit by flak Cassiopeian fleet sent to savage equipment and men of base in a planet orbiting it, grinding to a halt even with a puff of smoke until her main reactor has an emergency repair moving then again. | |
| Space Friction / int_cc49cf71 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Space Friction / int_cc49cf71 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Il était une fois... | hasFeature |
Space Friction / int_cc49cf71 | |
| Space Friction / int_d16608c7 | type |
Space Friction | |
| Space Friction / int_d16608c7 | comment |
X-Wing Alliance uses relatively realistic space physics for a Star Wars game, though it makes stopping a nightmare in cargo-collection missions. | |
| Space Friction / int_d16608c7 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Space Friction / int_d16608c7 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| X-Wing Alliance (Video Game) | hasFeature |
Space Friction / int_d16608c7 | |
| Space Friction / int_d461a59f | type |
Space Friction | |
| Space Friction / int_d461a59f | comment |
Battlestar Galactica & Buck Rogers in the 25th Century were terrible for this. The "fighters" always had to have engines on and had to boost thrust to do anything worthwhile. The best stupid move was Buck's "brilliant" fighter jock tactic: barrel rolling around an axis, without ever changing direction. Somehow, this managed to throw off opponents. (Probably they were laughing too hard.) The reimagined Battlestar Galactica corrected this; the fighters could turn 180 degrees on axis to face backwards while maintaining the same direction and speed, fire maneuvering thrusters to change direction, and coast with engines off. Though for some reason, they never seem to turn the engines off when trying to land in the flight pod. |
|
| Space Friction / int_d461a59f | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Space Friction / int_d461a59f | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Battlestar Galactica (1978) | hasFeature |
Space Friction / int_d461a59f | |
| Space Friction / int_d461f757 | type |
Space Friction | |
| Space Friction / int_d461f757 | comment |
In Battlestar Galactica Vipers can turn on just about any axis, and the visual effects always show thrusters on the sides of the fighters engaging when this happens. One of Starbuck's favorite maneuvers is to flip her Viper end-over-end to point her guns directly at the enemy fighter following her, making it so that her bird is travelling backwards. During 4x09, The Hub, the show even uses unpowered Vipers tethered to Cylon raiders to escape enemy detection before a battle. One of the pilots says "What's going to stop us when the Raider in front of us stops?" The reimagined BSG also features a bunch of examples. In the pilot, Boomer and Helo's raptor takes damage and starts leaking fuel. Boomer gets round this by shutting the engines down and letting their momentum carry them to their destination. Another example comes during the Resurrection Ship arc. Starbuck shuts down the engines on her stealth ship and flies it right through the Resurrection Ship on thrusters alone. She goes completely unnoticed until she powers her engines back up again, at which point she's jumping out anyway. |
|
| Space Friction / int_d461f757 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Space Friction / int_d461f757 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Battlestar Galactica (2003) | hasFeature |
Space Friction / int_d461f757 | |
| Space Friction / int_d4f11a60 | type |
Space Friction | |
| Space Friction / int_d4f11a60 | comment |
In earlier Elite releases, physics implementation was simplified, but in the later versions of Elite by Frontier Developments it's avoided, along with other space tropes. Ships that run out of fuel will continue to drift forever through a solar system. You can even stay on an elliptic orbit (evident only with time acceleration, of course) Although sometimes, if you have an autopilot destination locked in, you can just hit max time acceleration and you'll arrive and dock perfectly. Elite: Dangerous allows you to either play the trope straight or avert it by giving ships flight-assist computers. If the flight-assist computer is off, it's averted, and if the flight-assist computer is on, it's played straight. |
|
| Space Friction / int_d4f11a60 | featureApplicability |
-1.0 | |
| Space Friction / int_d4f11a60 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Elite (Video Game) | hasFeature |
Space Friction / int_d4f11a60 | |
| Space Friction / int_df491a0c | type |
Space Friction | |
| Space Friction / int_df491a0c | comment |
This happens in the "planet-less" levels of Angry Birds Space, making things difficult because any objects you collide with that should just continue to collide with other objects or otherwise keep floating until they leave the screen, will instead gradually slow and stop. | |
| Space Friction / int_df491a0c | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Space Friction / int_df491a0c | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Angry Birds (Video Game) | hasFeature |
Space Friction / int_df491a0c | |
| Space Friction / int_e081af79 | type |
Space Friction | |
| Space Friction / int_e081af79 | comment |
The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob! once depicts Galatea using a particularly fast interplanetary spaceship that looks like a classic bullet-shaped Retro Rocket. The caption declares that when you get going fast enough, friction from space particles actually does become a factor (which is true; check the Real Life section below), so streamlining of this sort does then make sense. | |
| Space Friction / int_e081af79 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Space Friction / int_e081af79 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob! (Webcomic) | hasFeature |
Space Friction / int_e081af79 | |
| Space Friction / int_e190ee5b | type |
Space Friction | |
| Space Friction / int_e190ee5b | comment |
The space friction in Starcrash is so great that it leaves a trail by which you can track a spaceship. | |
| Space Friction / int_e190ee5b | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Space Friction / int_e190ee5b | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Starcrash | hasFeature |
Space Friction / int_e190ee5b | |
| Space Friction / int_e43ffab2 | type |
Space Friction | |
| Space Friction / int_e43ffab2 | comment |
Same goes for Empyrion: Galactic Survival. | |
| Space Friction / int_e43ffab2 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Space Friction / int_e43ffab2 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Empyrion: Galactic Survival (Video Game) | hasFeature |
Space Friction / int_e43ffab2 | |
| Space Friction / int_e5c5bc22 | type |
Space Friction | |
| Space Friction / int_e5c5bc22 | comment |
GURPS: Spaceships goes perhaps too far in avoiding this. Extensive (and accurate) calculations are available for people who wish to use them. It's made quite clear that with any sort of realistic engine turning it off for most of the trip will almost certainly be necessary. The existence of random debris in the void of space is mentioned but only in that if you spend enough time traveling at a good fraction of lighspeed it will wear away the hull after a few years, there's no way it could slow you down meaningfully. | |
| Space Friction / int_e5c5bc22 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Space Friction / int_e5c5bc22 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| GURPS (Tabletop Game) | hasFeature |
Space Friction / int_e5c5bc22 | |
| Space Friction / int_e5fd2cef | type |
Space Friction | |
| Space Friction / int_e5fd2cef | comment |
Justified in the Lensman stories: the key to interstellar flight is a device that cancels a spaceship's inertial mass, so top speed is determined by the point at which a spaceship's thrust is exactly counterbalanced by the friction of the interstellar medium. With sufficiently powerful Impeller engines, this counterbalance speed can be many times the speed of light. Since a spaceship doesn't have inertia, turning off the engines causes it to come to an instant stop. E. E. "Doc" Smith can't seem to decide if a spaceship is completely dead in space without its Bergenholm (the magic get-rid-of-inertia gadget) or if it still has its original speed achieved before starting the "Berg". However, with the speeds you can get with a Bergenholm, any possible "inert" speed is full stop by comparison. In all the Lensman books he made it clear that when you turned off the Bergenholm you instantly reverted to the exact same speed and direction you were going in when you turned it on. What he didn't make clear was what that speed and direction actually was. When you are sitting still on the surface of the earth you are actually going east at up to about 1000 MPH due to the Earth's rotation, about 18 miles per second because of the Earth's revolution around the Sun, add to that the Sun's movement around the Milky Way, etc, etc. Turning off the Impeller engines, while the Bergenholm is still engaged, causes the ship to come to a complete stop instantly (the moment they bang into that first hydrogen atom in the interstellar medium). Turning off the Bergenholm itself causes the ship to resume its "intrinsic velocity", i.e. the sublight velocity it had before the Bergenholm was engaged. This is significant in several instances when a ship which had gone intrinsic in another galaxy was trying to rendezvous with a fleet in the original galaxy, and the two groups had fantastically different intrinsic velocities. |
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Space Friction | |
| Space Friction / int_e68decb8 | comment |
In Star Control, every ship has a "maximum speed" they can reach on their own, but don't slow down without a good reason and may even orbit a planet. In Star Control II combat, this nominal maximum is easily surpassed with a staple maneuver "Leyland whip" — use of a planet's gravity to accelerate — until the ship collides with something or fires thrusters. Some collisions do the same. | |
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Space Friction | |
| Space Friction / int_e7e37776 | comment |
Firefly: The cut-off-our-engine-and-coast trick is used to approach Niska's space station without being detected. | |
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Space Friction | |
| Space Friction / int_e885c808 | comment |
In Spaceballs, a spaceship brakes... and even emits a kind of shower of sparks, like a car would with burnt rubber, though it's most likely played for laughs. Well, one of the spaceships looks like an RV. And let's not even talk about what the other spaceship looks like... Lone Star's Space Winnebago actually leaves burnt rubber tracks while doing a U-turn. In space. Lampshaded by Lone Star: "Hang on, Barfo, we're gonna make space tracks." The Spaceball One, however, "brakes for nobody." |
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Space Friction | |
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Infinite Ryvius is about teenagers who are trapped on a ship drifting due to inertia. | |
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Space Friction | |
| Space Friction / int_f189f12e | comment |
In Vega Strike, spacecraft behave more or less like this by default, but it's a partial compensation by the navicomputer as a convenience for Old School Dogfighting and docking — as such it's limited by the thrusters' force and eats fuel all the time when velocity changes. One key sets "Zero" speed vector to match the target's, which makes docking easy. Turn off "Combat Mode" and velocity limits raise 100x, turn off Flight Computer and the spaceship behaves more like the real world. Whether you'll want to use it in combat is a matter of style and controls — sometimes dancing on thrusters manually without auto-compensators works better. One of stock tactics is whittling foes on fast fly-by, especially efficient if their weapons are more powerful but yours are shield-piercing. In fact, the idea was copied from somewhat older I-War series, where it was a major gameplay feature. Complete with "dock-to-that-flying-thing-and-accelerate-it-sideways" missions. Also in Babylon 5: I've found her. |
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Space Friction | |
| Space Friction / int_f65f0362 | comment |
Played straight in Mission to Mars, most notably where a character with a rocket pack tries to rescue another character who had done something silly — complete with fuel gauge running down. Kind of sad, as they'd done the space flight physics pretty well up to this point. Also, the friction from the space air doesn't seem to be affecting Woody — oh but that must be because he's not wearing his rocket pack any more ... | |
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Space Friction | |
| Space Friction / int_f74b5f80 | comment |
Also in Babylon 5: I've found her. | |
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| Space Friction / int_fb07494a | type |
Space Friction | |
| Space Friction / int_fb07494a | comment |
In the game Nexus: The Jupiter Incident the earth designed vessels have huge thrusters on the back, and huge thrusters on the front. When you order you ship to stop, the ones in front fire like mad. In fact, you can clearly see a variety of maneuvering thrusters in operation. This is even true of the later alien vessel you get, which also has forward pointed engines (though far less obvious). | |
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