We reach out to respected professionals in the scientific community including jet pack engineers, plasma researchers, mechanical engineers, and the scientific advisor on Battlestar Galactica to get at the truth behind the fiction.
With six video games, an animated series, several graphic novels, and six printed novels Halo is perhaps the richest and fullest science-fiction universe ever spawned from a video game. It's also home to some of the most inventive science-fiction we've ever seen. But we wanted to see how much of this universe stands up to scrutiny. So with the help of respected scientists we're putting Halo Reach under the microscope.
- Jetpacks
A new addition to the series, jet packs feature prominently in Reach's multiplayer. But a fully equipped Spartan weighs over half a ton! The armor and equipment weigh around 1000 pounds. Add in the weight of the enormous, genetically engineered behemoth inside and you could easily be in the range of 1250 pounds...not including the weight of the jet pack.
Weight is the most significant issue, not just for launching the soldier into the air, but for keeping the Chief a nimble Covenant-killing machine on the ground."
Could a back-mounted chemical propulsion system reliably and accurately launch this hulking mass of steel and bullets?
"Yes," said Nino Amarena, CEO of Thunderbolt Aerosystems which engineers and manufactures real, working private jet packs. "It would be possible to build a rocket motor that could lift that weight for short periods. But the pilot would also need to carry the load [of the jet pack] and the required fuel."
Not only that, but Amarena says landings could be accurate to within two feet.
Weight is the most significant issue, not just for launching the soldier into the air, but for keeping the Chief a nimble Covenant-killing machine on the ground. Seeing as the Chief can jump nine feet in the air we're guessing a couple extra hundred pounds wont be an issue.
The most beneficial factor for the Spartan is the MJOLNIR armored plating and shields. This would allow them to use far more volatile and powerful rocket fuels than would be possible with an unaided pilot, substantially cutting down on fuel weight.
- Plasma Rifles
The staple of the covenant armory is the famed SPARTAN-shield demolishing plasma rifle. We wanted to learn a bit more about what plasma is, and why aliens are using fluorescent light bulb technology to destroy us, so we contacted the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory for further explanation.
Plasma is the fourth state of matter. It's a hot, electrically charged gas." -Patricia Wieser, Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory representative
"Plasma," explained Patricia Wieser, a representative of the laboratory, "is the fourth state of matter. It's a hot, electrically charged gas." But the term "gas" is merely a convenient descriptor. The ionized state of a plasma can lead it to behave quite unlike any other form of matter.
They are characterized by their ability to be highly charged with electricity and their reaction to magnetic fields. Due to these qualities they can be moved or aimed in beams. Lightning is an example of a highly excited form of plasma that exists on Earth.
Harnessing plasma in a handheld form is not out of the question. In 2005 the US military stated it was developing a controversial new weapon based on plasma research. The weapon was non-lethal and could fire a laser from up to two miles away, creating a plasma reaction when it hit something solid (like a person.) This in turn creates an electromagnetic pulse that triggers pain neurons without damaging bodily tissue. The stated purpose of this weapon was to induce maximum pain in rioters.
- Glassing a Planet
The Covenant's favorite means of dispatching enemy worlds is a process referred to as "glassing." This is a type of orbital bombardment that so thoroughly destroys the planet that its surface is literally turned to glass.
Plasmas are used to melt metals all the time. For example, plasma torches can cut steel plates, and arc furnaces can melt tons of scrap steel. Plasmas can have a temperature much higher than the melting point of any solid. It can melt anything." -Patricia Wieser, Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory representative
We've already found that plasma can be harnessed and fired in beams by magnetic fields, but the real question is whether it's realistic to say that a plasma could burn through the metals that populate a planet's surface.
According to the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, this is entirely possible. "Plasmas are used to melt metals all the time," said Wieser. "For example, plasma torches can cut steel plates, and arc furnaces can melt tons of scrap steel. Plasmas can have a temperature much higher than the melting point of any solid. It can melt anything."
Although plasma's melting capability is unmatched, it takes a large amount of energy to heat the plasma to a degree that it can melt those metals. Using it to destroy the entire surface of a planet would require truly ridiculous amounts of energy. Especially considering the plasma would need to be beamed hundreds of miles down to the planet's surface.
So while there's nothing theoretically impossible about this, the energy storage necessary for the Covenant to not only fly across the galaxy (and back home again) but then destroy an entire planet would require technology the likes of which we can't even see glimmers of today.
- Megastructures
While humanity and the Covenant can't construct these enormous structures, their predecessors, the Forerunners most certainly did. Their crowning achievement was a working Dyson Sphere. A Dyson Sphere is essentially a bubble of satellites orbiting a star, completely enveloping it and absorbing all of its energy output.
Not only would a Dyson Sphere require titanic amounts of energy, but finding the amount of mass that would yield a structure with sufficient structural integrity would prove challenging." -Dr. Kevin Grazier, scientific advisor for Battlestar Galactica
Deep inside the artificial planet of Onyx, the Forerunners concealed a "slipspace rift" which provided millions of miles of space inside an area which appeared, in normal space, to be only a few meters.
Inside of this slipspace rift was a habitat containing a Dyson Sphere around a star similar to our sun. This makes for fascinating sci-fi, but it's all for nothing if a Dyson sphere can't power their civilization.
Fortunately, there's nothing inherently impossible about a Dyson Sphere, in fact theoretically humans could start building one today. There is a major problem though. For it to work, the orbit must be at least as far as the Earth's, with a radius of around 93 billion miles. Some mathematicians say that creating an Earth-orbit sized Dyson Sphere 3 meters thick would take the cumulative mass of our entire solar system. To say nothing of the beating it would take from asteroids and comets.
"Not only would a Dyson Sphere require titanic amounts of energy," said Dr. Kevin Grazier, the scientific advisor for Battlestar Galactica, "but finding the amount of mass that would yield a structure with sufficient structural integrity would prove challenging."
- Galactic Generations
Halo portrays civilizations in the universe as being generational. That is to say, one civilization rises to power, dies off, and inspires the next civilization to rise to prominence. The first known civilization was the Precursors which were worshiped like Gods by the Forerunners. Later the Forerunners took over and were in turn worshiped by the Covenant.
Great civilizations normally rise and fall because of internal issues, rarely because of external pressures. So a race may be past worrying about whether or not the Universe will do them in, but could end due to internal strife. They are also likely to diverge culturally. While they may remain one race, they may become more than one 'civilization'." -Dr. Grazier, author of The Science of Dune.
But this raises an important question. Is it at all likely that an extremely powerful and intelligent civilization that has colonized the galaxy would just die off completely? The biggest dangers to life as we know it are problems that are faced only by single planets. Supernovae are thought to be life-destroying machines, but a large civilization would be able to move outside the blast radius. Asteroids impacts are similarly localized (even supposing they lacked the relatively simple technology to divert an asteroid.)
"Great civilizations normally rise and fall because of internal issues, rarely because of external pressures," says Dr. Grazier, who is also the author of The Science of Dune. "So a race may be past worrying about whether or not the Universe will do them in, but could end due to internal strife. They are also likely to diverge culturally. While they may remain one race, they may become more than one 'civilization'."
- Orbital Space Battles
The biggest new addition to Halo Reach's single player gameplay are its epic space fighter battles that take place high above the planet. These events are great for eye candy and even better for blasting aliens, but watching gameplay videos got us wondering whether or not Halo Reach's depiction of space flight was accurate.
Rocket propulsion systems work essentially the same in space as in the atmosphere since they do not require air to be flowed through the engine." -Dr. William Sirignano, Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at the University of California, Irvine
Are the physics of space flight similar to those on Earth? Or are there unique rules to piloting a craft while in such close proximity to a significant gravitational mass?
"Rocket propulsion systems work essentially the same in space as in the atmosphere since they do not require air to be flowed through the engine," said Dr. William Sirignano, Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at the University of California, Irvine.
So a rocket-propelled spacecraft would function much the same way as it would on Earth, with the notable loss of wind resistance. This loss of wind resistance leads to odd-looking results, and are best exhibited in the action scenes of Battlestar Galactica. Ships would be able to turn and swivel without any resistance yet are unable to slow down without reverse thrust.
Furthermore, it would be difficult to change direction and dogfight effectively while in orbit. "How rapidly you change your orbit depends on how much thrust energy you can apply to doing it," said Dr. Grazier. Once you slow down (i.e. change direction) past a certain limit you'd begin to fall to Earth, and would need additional power and speed to return to your past altitude.
