I was listening to NPR’s Morning Edition and heard this story about space
tethers:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=9574513

It seems that there will be a test of a space tether soon. The tether and
test gear launches today (may have already launched). This is a “cousin”
of the tether I described earlier. The one I described was an electrodynamic
tether. What they describe in the story is a “rotovator” (rotor – elevator).
It uses gravity instead of EM. A variation of this is used in the anime,
Bubblegum Crisis Tokyo 2040. This is a skyhook…an earth to orbit rotovator.

The NPR story also has a link to a Talk of the Nation program dealing with
space elevators…a stationary tether from earth to orbit…aka beanstalk.
Such a structure has been shown on Eureka 7 and, if memory serves me
correctly, Outlaw Star.

Both skyhooks and beanstalks have some major safety issues to solve before
they can be considered, however.

One of my favorite genres in literature is science fiction. That said, you would think that science fiction would be my favorite genre in other media like film or anime. It would be except that there are so few series/movies which I would
call science fiction.

My view of science fiction is probably stricter than most…though I don’t go as far as those people who consider science fiction an oxymoron. To me, science fiction should adhere to the current accepted principles and laws of science…since my
background is in the physical sciences most of my comments will refer to physics, math, and sometimes chemistry.

Of course if an anime stayed within the bounds of scientific laws, but was poorly written and/or had poorly developed characters, then that would be just as bad if not worse than the reverse. A good story well told with good characters is
always good even if it ignores scientific convention…like no sound in space. I do enjoy such stories, but I do not call them science fiction. I classify these stories as speculative fiction…a rather bland and generic name, but it can be lengthened
to speculative fiction – science or speculative fiction – technology. These stories can focus on certain areas of science/technology but ignore some of the peskier aspects of physics/chemistry.

Most of the worst offenses are committed by shows set in outer space…I guess because it is an unfamiliar environment and the artists/writers feel the need to keep the viewers interested with familiar terrestrial analogs. Here are three examples: First is sound in space…space is essentially a vacuum and there are not enough molecules to propagate sound which our ears could hear. From a space POV, you should hear nothing when you see an explosion, a collision, or if you see rockets firing. Most anime (”real life” TV and movies too) provides a corresponding sound to these events.

Second is radio delay…for terrestrial uses, radio communication seems to be instantaneous. However, once the distance between transmitter and receiver goes beyond 40,000 miles, a noticeable delay starts to be heard in the conversation. This is due to the upper limit of the speed of light…roughly 186,000 mps. This is an effect which most of us have experienced. Whenever we see a news broadcast and the anchor asks a reporter or guest at a remote location via satellite a question, it usually takes a second or more before the answer starts to be given. This is because it takes approx. 1/2 sec. for the
question to be sent up to the satellite then down to the reporter/guest and the same amount of time for the reply to reach the anchor. Add to this digital processing and the delay could be 2 – 5 seconds…but if everything stayed analog,
then the delay would be around a second. In space, especially once you get outside of Earth orbit, the distances will be great enough for a noticeable delay in communications. In anime, this is usually ignored and communication is instantaneous.

Third is dodging beam weapons…in a word, impossible. Think dodgeball…you see someone throwing the ball at you; you briefly track the ball’s trajectory;you move so that the ball misses you. This cannot be done with beam weapons.
Photonic based weapons use light (like x-rays) in the form of a laser. Particle beam weapons use accelerated particles (like positrons). The former moves at the speed of light; the latter moves close to the speed of light. The way you would detect someone firing at you could be your eyes or could be some form of EM sensor…in either case, your detector tracks at the speed of light. You will know someone fired a beam weapon at you when the beam arrives…no sooner. You’re either hit or not. The only time movement helps is if you start evasive maneuvering before someone shoots at you…but this is not dodging. Most anime which I have seen that use these sorts of weapons tend to show quite a bit of dodging.

There is one other limitation which results from staying true to the current laws of science. The setting will be present day (or the past is okay) to the near future (no farther than a century or so). This is because science is a moving target. It
is constantly changing…so today’s laws may be amended or superseded by newer laws. A non-anime example…On Star Trek: TNG, there was an episode which noted that Fermat’s Last Theorem had gone unsolved for 800 years. In
real life, the proof was published a few years after the episode aired. On Star Trek: DS9, the producers tried to correct this with an additional reference to the theorem and acknowledged the 20th century proof along with some other fictional proofs.

Also, technology will change along with the science. If you project too far ahead, you could make the story feel outdated. Another non-anime example…writer E.E. “Doc” Smith wrote a book called “The Spacehounds of IPC” which had
several long descriptions of technology. One section dealt with building an “ultra-radio”, the heart of which was a large vacuum tube. That story was written in the early 1930s…before transistors, printed circuit boards, etc. Still, far less
than 100 years has gone by. In fact, the story probably felt a little dated after 30 years.

Does strict adherence to physics, etc. make it difficult to produce a science fiction anime? Probably, but not impossible. How about postulating new scientific laws to counteract current limitations? That opens a can of worms…I’ll go into that
later.

There have been some anime which portrays a universe that has the same physical laws as our own. One of the better ones is “Planetes”. In addition to a good story and good characters, it has a pretty accurate portrayal of working in space. Ironically, the mangaka, Makoto Yukimura avoided studying about space technology thinking that it might compromise his artistic freedom. On the other hand, the anime production team did quite a bit of research and had JAXA (Japanese equivalent to NASA) as a technical consultant. However, even if you have the science right, there may be problems. One of the DVD extras is an interview with a pair of NASA scientists from the Orbital Debris Section. They say that rendezvousing with debris in space for salvage would be highly unlikely, since the resources needed (especially fuel) would cost more than what would be salvaged.

Let me digress here. There is an alternate way to match orbits which would use very little expendable resources. It is called an electrodynamic tether. This is a long string made up of conductive material. One end is attached to a space craft
or space junk. The other end extends toward the earth. As the tether cuts the earth’s magnetic field, a current is induced. This converts some of the craft’s/junk’s kinetic energy to electrical energy, thus slowing the craft/junk down and lowering
its orbit. If a current is pumped through the tether, then the opposite happens and the craft/junk speeds up and goes into a higher orbit. Some tests have been done since the mid-1990s and show this is feasible.

A couple of other anime which I consider to be science fiction are “Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex” (along with the sequel) and “Blue Submarine No. 6″. I do have some small issues with each, but they are minor. The setting isn’t as challenging as the one for “Planetes” since both are based on earth. A couple of honorable mentions…the “.hack” franchise and “The Big O” since both are set in virtual worlds so the rules are not as strict.

Now, what about postulating new laws of science? I think this fine for speculative fiction. However, for science fiction, I prefer to stick with established laws and theories. I don’t think it is easy to make the new laws fit in with the old ones
without it sounding made up. Anyway, the current laws and theories, even if a bit restrictive does allow for a lot of creativity. For example, faster than light travel is not forbidden (at least not yet). Einstein’s General Law of Relativity
allows for the connecting of a black hole and a white hole (Einstein-Rosen Bridge) which bridges two areas of space…this was first proposed in 1935 by Albert Einstein and Nathan Rosen. The idea of the “wormhole” which can allow travel
through space (and time) has been developed and modified over the years. One point…the traveller is not really going faster than light even while traveling through the wormhole; it is just a shorter path.

On the quantum field theory side of things, there also is a possible, but more difficult way to bypass the light speed limit. Supersymmetry and string theory allow for other spatial dimensions than the three we know. The physical properties
of these dimensions can differ quite a bit from the ones we know. One possibility is that there is a dimension or dimensions which have tachyons (particles which can only travel faster than light). The problem is how to access these dimensions
and use them for travel (or at least communication). The science here is quite slim at the moment (when compared to wormholes).

Well, that’s what I think. If I didn’t say so earlier, these are just my ramblings. I am not trying to say that this is the way everyone should think. Variety of thought and belief can be a strength. I am interested in what others have said and will say about this and other topics. Thank you for your tolerance, especially with the length of this post.

If you still haven’t been able to get/rent a copy of the last DVD of Otogi Zoshi, you may want to try out rentanime. They are a good alternative to Netflix. Here is their web address:

http://www.rentanime.com/default.php

A longer post about my favorite anime genre is coming up soon.

We’re not conservative (I’d like to think) but I honestly didn’t even think to put hentai up as a genre. I’m sorta glad I omited it since soooo many people get P.O.ed about the general populace’s perception that anime=hentai. Not that I care, but I really wouldn’t like a replay of the shota/lolicon poll…

Since anime is a medium, porn was inevitable. People tend to latch on to the negative of things instead of the positive, so hentai is like a glaring neon sign to some people. Whatever, that just means blogs like mine have to work a lil’ harder to spread the anime love!

Azumanga Diaoh rocked and so did Cromartie High. I think those are the only two anime comedies I’ve really liked thus far. I’ll give anything a shot, though. Usually that shot is only three episodes…