Unless the advanced aquatic civilization originated in fluidic space to begin with. It wouldn’t be any harder than creating a submersible with fluid they are compatible with to go exploring as they would anywhere else.
Well the reverse burn to slow down to approach an object in space would take a fuck ton longer due to the mass.
But it would seem illogical to fill a giant ship with water, when surely they’d be living in water filled suits or something. Which would also aid the recycling process otherwise the entire ship is going to fill with shit and other wastes.
Also I’m not sure how a protein skimmer would work in zero gravity to remove solids from the water, so a suit makes more sense.
You would think so, but as it turns out the Mon Calamari cruisers are among the finest spacecraft you can get and their craftmanship rivals the works of Corellia even.
Read “Surface Tension”, a short story/novella by Blish, about a race of water-dwelling creatures trying to break out and explore the “air” world beyond.
Read “Fate of Worlds” and the following novels by Niven+Lerner, which has a strong focus on an advanced (and rapidly advancing) underwater civilization called the Gwoth.
In All tomorrows there is a species of post humans called the tool breeders. Who as their name suggests they make tools by breeding different organisms into tools. Eventually they breed out rockets and spaceships.
Arthur c clarke has a whole sub story in one of his book about this. Dont remember which book, but basically there was a species of crab like creatures that were basically stuck in the stone age. because living underwater, they were never able to discover and utilize fire.
not really, I would argue it is even easier – water does not expand so easily as gases, so any leak isn’t so catastrophic and very easy to fix in space. It also reacts much better to changes in pressure, so they probably could only have water suit and space station with no pressure and no air inside – just pure vacuum. Space Walks wouldn’t require changing the air pressure and would be so much easier
“Space” to them would be the troposphere. Jumping fish and mammals might have had fleeting moments in it like Katy Perry, but it’s ultimately a hostile environment.
If they were clever enough to conquer the atmosphere, they’d probably realise that space travel is pointless unless they had lifespans in the millions of years. Maybe the space conquest lies in the minds of lobsters. They’re playing the long game.
Instead of just harboring sentient cetaceans, the oceanic world created an environment where a species evolved to control their environment to the degree that we do, but underwater.
If an aquatic civilization was advanced enough to figure out how to thrive and survive under the sea, it’s also probably advanced enough to develop space travel technology. The question is if they’re interested in space in the first place since they might prefer to explore the ocean further.
makes sense tbh, kinda hard to build rockets when everything’s wet and your tools keep floating away. plus no fire underwater, that’s a big L for tech development.
They probably cracked fusion, built coral supercomputers, and mastered deep-ocean physics…
But never invented fire.
So no metallurgy. No rockets. No space.
I vaguely remember a short story by Larry Niven that had a space probe ( I think it was from earth) land on a water planet and begin teaching the natives how to build environment suits so they could go on land and at the end of the story it was about to teach them how to make fire. I’m not sure an aquatic civilization could leave the ocean unless they received help from aliens
Imagine a civilization that’s mastered the art of living under water and suddenly they’re like, “Okay, we’re going to build a spaceship now… Wait, no water, no fish, no kelp? No ocean currents to ride? This is the worst vacation ever.”
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Putting water into a spaceship wouldn’t be any harder than putting air into one.
Well, an aquatic civilization would have issues way earlier in development than space flight.
Smelting metals, working with chemistry in general; there’s a variety of STEM fields that are damn near impossible under water.
The simple phenomena of starting a fire is often used as a symbol of human technology. But even doing just that under water is a no go.
Unless the advanced aquatic civilization originated in fluidic space to begin with. It wouldn’t be any harder than creating a submersible with fluid they are compatible with to go exploring as they would anywhere else.
Well the reverse burn to slow down to approach an object in space would take a fuck ton longer due to the mass.
But it would seem illogical to fill a giant ship with water, when surely they’d be living in water filled suits or something. Which would also aid the recycling process otherwise the entire ship is going to fill with shit and other wastes.
Also I’m not sure how a protein skimmer would work in zero gravity to remove solids from the water, so a suit makes more sense.
This comes up in Children of Ruin, the second book in the Children of Time trilogy by Adrian Tchaikovsky.
You would think so, but as it turns out the Mon Calamari cruisers are among the finest spacecraft you can get and their craftmanship rivals the works of Corellia even.
Dolphins didn’t have any problems peacing out before the Vogons showed up.
Correct. That’s why the dolphins are still here!
“Children of ruin” goes into this a bit. Octopus aliens are pretty cool
What about giant bubbles. With like, a lot of air in them.
Water is a good reaction mass, so a spacecraft could be mostly water anyway.
Read “Surface Tension”, a short story/novella by Blish, about a race of water-dwelling creatures trying to break out and explore the “air” world beyond.
Read “Fate of Worlds” and the following novels by Niven+Lerner, which has a strong focus on an advanced (and rapidly advancing) underwater civilization called the Gwoth.
In All tomorrows there is a species of post humans called the tool breeders. Who as their name suggests they make tools by breeding different organisms into tools. Eventually they breed out rockets and spaceships.
Edit: changed they to their.
Arthur c clarke has a whole sub story in one of his book about this. Dont remember which book, but basically there was a species of crab like creatures that were basically stuck in the stone age. because living underwater, they were never able to discover and utilize fire.
not really, I would argue it is even easier – water does not expand so easily as gases, so any leak isn’t so catastrophic and very easy to fix in space. It also reacts much better to changes in pressure, so they probably could only have water suit and space station with no pressure and no air inside – just pure vacuum. Space Walks wouldn’t require changing the air pressure and would be so much easier
“Space” to them would be the troposphere. Jumping fish and mammals might have had fleeting moments in it like Katy Perry, but it’s ultimately a hostile environment.
If they were clever enough to conquer the atmosphere, they’d probably realise that space travel is pointless unless they had lifespans in the millions of years. Maybe the space conquest lies in the minds of lobsters. They’re playing the long game.
And communication. Dolphins may be smart but the dolphin alphabet has only one letter and it is “E”
Since this is speculation, then imagine…
Instead of just harboring sentient cetaceans, the oceanic world created an environment where a species evolved to control their environment to the degree that we do, but underwater.
It’s just a “change in atmosphere.”
Imagine trying to fit a whole aquatic civilization into a spaceship! They’d be like, ‘Excuse me, can you make this thing a little more… wet?’
At least compressing oxygen is easier than compressing water!
It would really help explain the USOs. The vehicles that seem to travel through various mediums unaffected.
If an aquatic civilization was advanced enough to figure out how to thrive and survive under the sea, it’s also probably advanced enough to develop space travel technology. The question is if they’re interested in space in the first place since they might prefer to explore the ocean further.
An aquatic civilisation has enough shit the deal with under water already
makes sense tbh, kinda hard to build rockets when everything’s wet and your tools keep floating away. plus no fire underwater, that’s a big L for tech development.
They probably cracked fusion, built coral supercomputers, and mastered deep-ocean physics…
But never invented fire.
So no metallurgy. No rockets. No space.
Dang it at first I read this as “space-farting” and was massively confused.
I vaguely remember a short story by Larry Niven that had a space probe ( I think it was from earth) land on a water planet and begin teaching the natives how to build environment suits so they could go on land and at the end of the story it was about to teach them how to make fire. I’m not sure an aquatic civilization could leave the ocean unless they received help from aliens
Can’t advance under water, no fire.
Dolphins are condemned.
Imagine a civilization that’s mastered the art of living under water and suddenly they’re like, “Okay, we’re going to build a spaceship now… Wait, no water, no fish, no kelp? No ocean currents to ride? This is the worst vacation ever.”
I think it would be about the same difficulty. They need water in their ships the same way a land-based species needs air in their ships.