ender’s world technology 071704

Ender’s World TechnologyEnder’s World Technology

ENDERCON 2002 through July 2004

Presented by: Stephen Sywak, PE; and Ethan Hurdus

Arriving at the Battle SchoolArriving at the Battle School

A Brief IntroductionA Brief Introduction This presentation contains ideas and images of the Battle School and Battle

Rooms, some information on Space Station physics, and other supporting information for the technology hinted at in Orson Scott Card’s Ender’s Game and Ender’s Shadow books.

Ethan Hurdus and I originally created this presentation for Endercon 2002. I have added a number of changes as I’ve collected and developed more ideas.

I’ve also added “notes” to the slides, since I won’t be there to explain myself the first few times you view this.

The line art is the work of Darian Robbins, and is used with his permission. Thank you for your consideration; please feel free to contact me:

– Stephen Sywak– [email protected]– (845) 534-5733 (Home)– (845) 353-6400 x350 (Work)

Welcome to the Battle SchoolWelcome to the Battle School

DevelopmentGeneral LayoutPhysicsAnaloguesLocationBattle Rooms

Designing a Space StationDesigning a Space Station

As an engineer, I typically start a design with “Design Constraints” given to me by my client. For this presentation, Ethan and I assumed Orson Scott Card to be our client, and used both Ender’s Game (EG)

and Ender’s Shadow (ES) as our initial design constraints.

Like any design project, adhering to the design constraints is an important goal, but one that’s not always possible to meet. Certain

design requirements inevitably conflict, and one must use engineering judgement to fill in the gaps.

Design Constraints (EG)Design Constraints (EG)• The school was of course wheel-based, rotating such that "centrifugal force"

provides a sense of gravity. • There are nine battlerooms • The battlerooms "all have the same entrance. The whole center of the battle

school, the hub of the wheel, is battlerooms. They don't rotate with the rest of the station. That's how they do the nullo, the no-gravity - it just holds still. No spin, no down." (p.79, paperback Special Complete Edition)

• "But they can set it up so that any one of the rooms is at the battleroom entrance corridor that we all use. Once you're inside, they move it along and another battleroom's in position." (p.80, paperback Special Complete Edition)

• There is "gravity" in the corridor immediately outside the battleroom. • "Hooks" demonstrate some measure of gravity control. • Stationary stars also imply gravity control • The game room "way above the decks where the boys lived and worked."

(p.45, paperback Special Complete Edition) has lower gravity. => Implies rigid, rotating wheel structure (as opposed to, say, differential deck rotation speeds for constant "gravity")

Design Constraints (ES)Design Constraints (ES)•A "parallel system of corridors on either side of the student area" exists.

•Station is not one but three parallel wheels cross-linked at many points. (Other wheel uses: teacher and staff quarters, life support, communications with the Fleet.) (p.126 hardback First Edition).

•One wheel is "the student wheel."

•"The students had access to four decks, plus the gym below A-Deck and the battleroom above D-Deck. There were actually nine decks, however, two below A-Deck and three above D." (p.126 hardback First Edition)

•"pictures of the station show only the one wheel" (p.135 hardback First Edition)

•"Judging from the amount of time it took Dimak to get to their barracks the rare times that a quarrel demanded his attention, Bean assumed that his quarters were on another deck. And because Dimak always arrived breathing a little heavily, Bean also assumed it was a deck below their own level, not above." (p.150 hardback First Edition)

•Battlerooms have separate air systems.

•There is a "battleroom control center"

•No Coriolis Effect or "centrifugal" forces at the edges of the battlerooms. => Means manipulated gravity if battlerooms rigidly attached but along the hub. Could also mean free-floating battlerooms.

•A 100 meter dead-line just reaches from one wall of the battleroom to the other.

Initial In-Line ConceptsInitial In-Line Concepts

One has to start somewhere. I started here.

In-Line Concepts In-Line Concepts (Rendered)(Rendered)

SketchesSketches

After discussions with various people, including Ethan, the “final design” started to take shape.

Current Battle SchoolCurrent Battle School

This is what it became.

Even though Ender’s Shadow strongly implies three rotating rings, I have found that the design works better with two, and the amount of real estate available with two multi-floored habitat modules is more than sufficient for the support of the Battle School (both as an educational institution and as an orbiting military outpost)

Battle School – Plan ViewBattle School – Plan View

Docking ports are a little large, and un-defined. Doors over 300m long are not practical, certainly not if they’re trying to maintain a pressure differential across them!

I added fighter bays because this is, after all, a military asset. My assumption was that sooner or later it might need some defending. Darian Robbins took it even further after our discussions, and added larger gun emplacements on the four corners, top & bottom.

Battle School – Side ElevationBattle School – Side Elevation

The Battle Room Groups do not rotate, neither does the horizontal core.

The “actual” Battle School would need to be covered with heavy radiation shielding—probably some sort of “concrete” mixture made from crushed asteroids or lunar regolith.

Battle School – Front ElevationBattle School – Front Elevation

Note the Battle Rooms’ corners in the central stationary core; it allows the viewer to visually “place” the battle rooms in the station

Battle SchoolBattle School

Darian Robbins’ artwork.

Note the gun emplacements on both sides of the stationary central platform.

One of the issues we discussed was “just how far-seeing would the fictional designers be—would they understand the non-directionality of space (like Ender), or do we assume that they are also limited to planar thinking (like everyone else)?” And, if the latter, how do we represent that as a failure of the fictional designers’, and not a shortcoming of the film’s production design crew?

Barracks DoorBarracks Door

Darian Robbins’ drawing of Bean.

Dragon Army T-Shirts and jackets are available at the concession stand.

BarracksBarracks

Darian Robbins

Others have pictured it as more old-style military barracks (with the bunk beds jutting out from the center of the room), and less like the berths on a sleeper car.

Battle School PhysicsBattle School Physics

Rotation provides simulated Gravity Just what are Coriolis Forces? Moving from Rotating to Non-Rotating Sections Jumping across the Battle Room

This section discusses the various physical laws that come into play with a Space Station that uses a rotating ring to provide artificial gravity.

Crew’s Quarters RotationCrew’s Quarters Rotation

This is the one video that’s causing me problems in this presentation. In a full-up copy of PowerPoint, you will see the two crew’s quarters rings revolving in sync.

Centrifugal, Centripetal, whatever…Centrifugal, Centripetal, whatever…

Centripetal Force Calculations:

Note that "1G" equals 32.174 ft/sec^2, or 9.81 m/sec^2

ACENT Centripetal Acceleration

r radiusw Angular (rotational) velocity

2*pi() radians = 360°

ACENT = r*w^2

w = sqrt(A/r)

TO DEVELOP 1-GValue Units Value Units Value Units Value Units

ACENT 9.81 m/s^2

r 162.50 mw 0.25 radians/s 14.08 degrees/s 2.35 rpm 25.57 sec/rev

I've modeled the Battle School with crew's quarters at nominally 162.75m out from the center of the ship.

A number of parameters are involved in developing appropriate speeds and distances for a centrifugal habitat. The “radius” discussed here was initially selected based on the geometry of the Battle School as I started placing the Battle Rooms, corridors, and access-ways. As it turned out, the numbers fall within a “comfort zone” for centrifugal habitats, developed over many years of research based on earth-based centrifugal experiments. You can read a little more about this in the PDF file of my presentation paper, located on this disk.

I’ve included the spreadsheets in the “Bonus Features section. If you really want, you can change the numbers (Acent and r) and play around with them.

Other Locations, Other ForcesOther Locations, Other ForcesR1 5.00 m <-----Very close to the center of rotation of the Rings (actually, this radius is within the stationary core)V1 1.23 m/s 4.03 ft/s 2.75 mph

ACENT1 0.30 m/s^2 0.03 G

R2 10.00 mV2 2.46 m/s 8.05 ft/s 5.49 mph

ACENT2 0.60 m/s^2 0.06 G

R3 76.25 m <-----Roughly at the "Battle Gate" height of a Battle RoomV3 18.72 m/s 61.42 ft/s 41.88 mph

ACENT3 4.60 m/s^2 0.47 G

R4 112.50 m <-----Roughly at the "Practice Gate" and "Teacher's Gate" height of a Battle RoomV4 27.62 m/s 90.62 ft/s 61.79 mph

ACENT4 6.78 m/s^2 0.69 G

R5 162.75 m <-----Crew's Quarters nominal radius from centerV5 39.96 m/s 131.09 ft/s 89.38 mph

ACENT5 9.81 m/s^2 1.00 G

R6 166.00 m <----Gymnasium levelV6 40.76 m/s 133.71 ft/s 91.17 mph

ACENT6 10.01 m/s^2 1.02 G

At various distances from the center of the Battle School, people will experience different strengths of artificial gravity. OSC recognized this, and placed the gymnasium level outboard of the main habitation area, so that people would experience stronger gravity (they would weigh more) in the gym. Towards the center of the habitation rings, gravity would be lower. The rotational speed is not shown on this sheet because everything is rotating together at the same speed of 2.35 rpm, as shown on the previous page.

Coriolis ForcesCoriolis ForcesACORR Coriolis Acceleration (acts perpendicularly to the radius, parallel to the direction of the angular velocity vector)

VR Radial Velocity (towards or away from the hub)

ACORR=2*VR*w

Note: this value does not rely on your radius, or distance for the hub; it is the same everywhere on board ship.

The forces you'd feel from the Coriolis Effect:Value Units Value Units

VR1 1.00 m/s 3.28 ft/s <---------Climbing an inter-deck ladder, for instance

ACORR1 0.49 m/s^2 0.05 G <---------If you weighed 100 lbs, you would see a side load of: 5.01 pounds

VR2 4.00 m/s 13.12 ft/s <---------Taking an elevator

ACORR2 1.96 m/s^2 0.20 G <---------If you weighed 100 lbs, you would see a side load of: 20.02 pounds

Take a ball on a string, and swing it around over your head. If you pull on the string, shortening the length between your hand and the ball (the radius of the swing), the ball will swing faster due to the “Law of Conservation of Momentum.” This is the same effect that causes a spinning ice skater to spin faster as he/she draws their arms in.

But what happens if you somehow prevent the speed from changing as you reduce the radius? This happens as you move up a ladder-way or elevator shaft in a rotating space station. Since the only thing that can change the velocity of an object is an applied force, (Newton’s first law), there must be a force to oppose the otherwise required change in velocity. This is the Coriolis Force.

Since first making this presentation, I have designed and had built a 22 ft diameter turntable which can run at 6 rpm. It creates 0.14 G at its perimeter, and that is sufficient to throw off well-trained acrobatic performers. It is installed at the NY NY Casino Hotel in Las Vegas, for the Cirque du Soleil show “Zumanity.” After they threw a few peope, they reduced the speed to about 1-2 rpm.

Why Rotate?Why Rotate?

Assumption: Certain technologies are horribly expensive to create & maintain

Assumption: Failure of a high-technology cannot lead to catastrophic failure of the Battle School

These technologies would be:– Bugger Gravity– Force Fields

Therefore: Artificial gravity must be created through “traditional” means—rotating the living quarters

Jumping the Gap (Part I)Jumping the Gap (Part I) The rings rotate to provide artificial gravity The core remains stationary to provide zero-G for the Battle Rooms, and to permit safe docking

for other ships. Here’s the question, then: How do you get from a habitation ring rotating at over 2 rpm to a

non-rotating central core?– Even as you move towards the center of the Station, let’s say at the level of the battle-gate entrances, the

relative speed is still over 40 mph!

Do you use a series of moving sidewalks?– Because of limitations in how fast people can walk, you’d need about 21 different sidewalks, all running in

parallel. At 1m width each, that’s a lot of floor space! Plus, as you start to slow down, you lose gravity, and it starts to get silly.

What about a central drum that brings you in sync with one or the other elements?– The module has to go in the center of the ship to join the moving and non-moving elements– As such, it becomes a dangerous bottleneck in the event of a failure

Hence…the “Subway System”– There’s an added bonus, from the story’s point of view: One of the major themes from Ender’s Game is

how the ability to change one’s perceptions is critical to growth and to success—the movement from the rotating rings to the stationary core via the subway system is all about “changing perceptions.”

……the the “Subway System” “Subway System” ??

As Ethan and I developed the design of the Battle School, I realized that we needed something to move people and supplies across a gap that had a relative speed of about 40 mph between the opposing sides.

The answer was: a subway car! Each side of the gap is a “station,” and the car

moves people between stations. The thing is, you see the other station pass you by every 25 seconds or so.

The following pictures explain it better...

Jumping the Gap (Development)Jumping the Gap (Development)

Early development work; drawing by Ethan Hurdus

Detail from the ASCE ConferenceDetail from the ASCE Conference

Jumping the Gap (Animation 1)Jumping the Gap (Animation 1)

Double-Click to get it started



(From ASCE presentation)

More Detail…More Detail…

Drawing from ASCE presentation

And More Detail Yet…And More Detail Yet…

Stacking the subway tunnels

(Drawing from ASCE presentation)

NarrativeNarrative

Moving through the Battle RoomsMoving through the Battle Rooms

Do an energy balance analysis: The potential energy at the top of your jump equals the kinetic energy at the start.That will give us our initial velocity. Since the Battle-room has no gravity, and the frictional losses against the air are to be considered negligible, that velocity is pretty good for much of the distance across the room.

Height * Mass * Gc = (1/2) * Mass * Velocity^2This becomes: Velocity = sqrt(2*Height * Gc)H 1.00 m (also: 3.28 ft )Gc 9.80 m/s^2Velocity 4.43 m/s (also: 14.53 ft/sec )

The time to traverse a room is: Time = Distance/VelocityDistance 75.00 m 100.00 mTime 16.94 seconds 22.59 seconds

Engineering analysis includes methods of comparing kinetic (dynamic) energies to potential (height-gained) energies; I used this to derive the speed of a student across the Battle Room vs. the height they could likely jump in 1G. People can run, on average, about 8-9 ft/sec (2.5 m/sec)

Battle RoomsBattle Rooms

Size (100m vs. 75m)ConfigurationHandholdsStars & GridsFlash Suits

Size Selection: 75m vs. 100mSize Selection: 75m vs. 100mMoments after I first called it as 100m on a side, I have always felt that 75m on a side was far more manageable.

All the drawings in this presentation assume the Battle Rooms are 75m on a side.

The physical amount of air of a 75m cube is less than half that of a 100m cube. The air pressure forces are also about half (just a little more, actually). The stresses in the walls (which directly relates to the amount and cost of structure you’ll need to “make it work”) are also substantially reduced with a 75m cube.

Entering a 75m Battle RoomEntering a 75m Battle Room

These guys are just “banging around”—there are no “intelligent agents” at work here. The “pawns” are about 4.5 feet (1.4m) tall.

Cutaway ViewCutaway View

This is what you’d get if you extracted the Battle Rooms, as a group, from their home in the non-rotating portion of the Battle School. The connected “hoops” are actually the corridors.

AccessAccess

Teacher’s Gate

Practice Gate

Battle Gate

Interior 1Interior 1

Interior 2Interior 2

The Enemy’s GateThe Enemy’s Gate

An interesting question: I’ve placed a handhold just below the entry door. Outside, in the adjoining hallway, that’s where the floor is located. Would the “real” designers of the Battle School (and Battle Rooms) have omitted that handhold as unnecessary, based on the assumption that they “didn’t quite get” the whole Zero-Gee orientation perception that made Ender so different? I believe the novels omit this handhold.

OrientationOrientation

Need I say it? The Enemy’s Gate is, of course, “down.” Your gate would be “up.”

Note the lower “Practice Gate” for orientation.

HandholdsHandholds

If for no other reason, the handholds are needed to give the viewer a sense of scale and orientation; otherwise you have a huge, plain “field” behind the players.

Recessed Handhold (detail)Recessed Handhold (detail)

After having first read “Ender’s Game,” I searched out Frescopictures.com on the Internet, and started posting my ideas about the Battle Rooms and the Battle School technologies. One of the first things to go was the raised hand-holds, which I considered as “too dangerous.” In addition, raised handholds would interfere with some of the more interesting maneuvers, such as “sliding the wall.”

Flash SuitFlash Suit

AnaloguesAnalogues

The Givens:• >1000 Crewmembers• Months between contact/re-stocking• Exists as its own small “city”

The Analogues:• Aircraft Carriers• Submarines• International Space Station (well, not quite the same size crew…)

Location, Location, LocationLocation, Location, Location

Page 19, Author’s Definitive Edition:– “I’m director of primary training at the Battle School in

the belt” (Colonel Hyram Graff)

However….– Trips to the Battle School are relatively quick– No IPL Satellite transfer required– Therefore: Battle School is in (low) Earth Orbit

Author now claims to have been referring to a “Belt of space stations in Earth Orbit…”

This is an inside joke. Not many actually get it.

Other TechnologiesOther Technologies Ansible Bugger Gravity Null-G Force Fields Ecstatic Fields Dr. Device

This is some of the other research and development I did to flesh out the possible physical reality behind “Ender’s Game.” Click on the underlined item to go directly to that page

Shuttles Deep Space Ships Simulator Desks Zero-Point Energy Inertialess drives

Ansible TechnologyAnsible Technology

I just happened to have this description lying around on the Philotic Web site

Bugger (Formic) GravityBugger (Formic) GravityWhat is Bugger Gravity? I am proposing the “standard” sci-fi artificial gravity for this one: planar gravity. Planar, in that it has a uniform effect across a planar (or, if you wanted, wrapped) area. If you think about all the sci-fi movies with artificial gravity, this is what they have.

Think of the backlighting panel behind your laptop screen. Now, have it emit "Gravitons" instead of "Photons." It all boils down to proposing a science that has control over gravitons (a legitimately proposed sub-atomic particle) in the same way we currently have control over photons (flashlights, LASERS, backlighting panels, etc.)

ElectricalElectrical Artificial Gravity Artificial GravityApparently, a University of Alabama scientist is looking to use High-Temperature Superconductors, and the Bose-Einstein condensate form of matter to manipulate gravity. The article is from a 1999 Popular Mechanics article (but, then again, so are articles about carbon nanotube space elevators). It would be, as I described before, Planar Gravity manipulation! Unfortunately, I can find no further articles to indicate if they have been successful.

Click the title for another article on the internet, and on my blurb for the referenced article itself.I have included the Popular Mechanics article as a PDF file on this disk.

Moving in Zero-GMoving in Zero-G

These movies are included for reference as to how people really move around in Zero_G.

IMAX, of course, also has some excellent footage on the same topic.

Click on the image to run it, if it doesn’t start automatically.

Moving in Zero-G (2)Moving in Zero-G (2)

Dr. Device (image)Dr. Device (image)

I’ve always imagined the effect of the Molecular Disruption Device (the “Little Doctor”) to look similar to early thermonuclear fusion detonations.

Low Earth Orbit ShuttlesLow Earth Orbit Shuttles

The upper-left-hand image is that of the “National AeroSpace Plane” (NASP). It’s always been my favorite—not to mention that it also looks a lot like the “Pan Am Clipper” from 2001.

SimulatorSimulator

Darian Robbins’ concept of the Simulators on Eros. Personally, I’ve always envisioned them as the students lying in hang-glider type sling supports (or something more mechanically oriented), in a darkened chamber, with images projected all around them—since this would “justify” all the time spent in the Battle Rooms.

DesqsDesqs

They’re already here; Bill Gates calls them “Tablet PC’s”

Sharp Electronics has an autostereoscopic (no special glasses needed) 3D display for laptops

The hybrid can’t be too far behind…

FilmingFilming

CG vs. RealVomit CometLaser Pistols

Computer GraphicsComputer GraphicsA lot of discussion has gone on regarding what will be CG, and what will be live action. In the past, I have made a long-winded presentation about how CG is now “ready for its close up,” but recent films like “The Matrix”, and the “Lord of the Rings” trilogies pretty much make the case for me.

Plus, considering my unique audience for this “special edition” presentation, I don’t think I need to teach anyone here how best to use CG today.

Of course, if I’m wrong, and you want to call and talk about it…

Vomit CometVomit Comet

As you can tell from the attached graph, there is only about 25 seconds of filming time available per loop. You’re also dealing with some serious G-forces before and after your Zero-G phase. There may be some benefit to doing initial pre-visualization & motion capture in Zero-G, but something tells me you don’t want a bunch of kids up there…

Laser PistolsLaser Pistols

Music inspired by Ender’s Music inspired by Ender’s GameGame

Ender’s Game, by Ashcan Painters– You’ll recognize the story. The group (unfortunately now

defunct) has apologized in advance for the phrase “games of buggery.”

Ender Will Save Us All, by Dashboard Confessional– Listen closely—you’ll hear nothing whatsoever about the story.

Apparently, it’s a song of lost friendship between the lead singer (Chris Ender Carrabba) and a close friend. At times, all they had in common was a love for Ender’s Game.

Please click on the title to listen to the music. I’ve also included the songs in the “Bonus Features” subdirectory.

Scientific PapersScientific Papers

The attached paper, by the author, was presented at an American Society of Civil Engineers conference in March, 2004, titled:

Earth and Space: Engineering, Construction and Operations in Hazardous Environments

The paper is titled:

“A Novel approach to Intra-station Transfers Between Large Centripetal Habitation Wheels and Stationary Utility Cores”

Please note that the paper is now © ASCE, and cannot otherwise be distributed.