Langston Field
Encyclopedia
The Langston Field is a fictional device featured in the CoDominium
series of science-fiction novels, initiated by SF writer Jerry Pournelle
.
The (fictional) Langston Field generator creates a spherical shield around an object (usually a spacecraft
, but cities have been known to deploy them) which absorbs energy. Since the shield absorbs all wavelengths of light, it is completely black in normal use, like a black hole
. It is necessary to raise sensors through the Field to see anything, much like a periscope
. These sensors can be destroyed since they are outside the Field, so there are usually many backups on a warship. As the Field absorbs energy it reradiates it over its entire surface, acting as a perfect black body
; the colour of the Field moves from infrared to red and through the visible spectrum to blue as the amount of reradiated energy increases. (However, in The Mote in God's Eye the field is also described as glowing green or violet, which is not possible for a true black body. It has been suggested that the Langston Field's behavior is a tribute to the ray screens featured in Doc Smith's novel The Skylark of Space
, whose color also climbs the spectrum as the energy load increases.) After a certain point, the Field generator can no longer absorb further energy: the Field collapses and the stored energy is released outwards and inwards; this latter usually destroys the ship.
When a human starship was infested by Watchmakers, every one of the ship's systems was modified and enhanced. The most notable improvement was to the Field generator, which produced a Field which expanded as it absorbed energy. This produces more surface area to disperse absorbed energy, and when the ship was attacked, the Field expanded to many times its original size, increasing in diameter as increasing firepower was brought to bear. Only when the field expanded almost too far for it to be generated at all did it stop expanding, allowing it to be overloaded, a process that still took many times more firepower than would have previously been necessary.
Almost as soon as human vessels with operating Fields jumped into the Mote system, Motie engineers were aware of the Field's existence and quickly built Fields of their own. Motie engineers are incredibly effective at building and using tools, but they display a rather marked lack of original thinking and creativity, which may partly explain why they never developed the Field in the first place. Given that an expanding Field is obviously far more effective at protecting a ship than a static one, all Motie Field generators were designed to expand as necessary.
Though this would have made Motie starships incredibly formidable in combat, the expanding Field actually proved fatal to Motie ships that left their system. The endpoint of the original Alderson point in the Mote system opens within the photosphere of Murcheson's Eye, a red giant
star. Survival in such a hostile environment requires a Langston Field, but in this case, an expanding Field is counterproductive. While inside a star, the Field has no opportunity to radiate heat, as it is constantly absorbing heat from all directions. A standard, static field will absorb heat at a fixed rate and will eventually overheat and explode if the ship does not leave the star regularly, but the absorption is slow enough to allow any ship with such a Field to survive for many hours before needing to exit the star to cool off. Unlike in normal space where extra surface area means extra radiated heat, inside a star increased surface area radically increases the rate at which heat is absorbed, causing a ship with an expanding Field to explode within minutes. Often this occurs before the Moties onboard recover from the side effects of traversing the Alderson tramline.
CoDominium
-The CoDominium series:*A Spaceship for the King *He Fell into a Dark Hole *The Mote in God's Eye...
series of science-fiction novels, initiated by SF writer Jerry Pournelle
Jerry Pournelle
Jerry Eugene Pournelle is an American science fiction writer, essayist and journalist who contributed for many years to the computer magazine Byte and has since 1998 been maintaining his own website/blog....
.
The (fictional) Langston Field generator creates a spherical shield around an object (usually a spacecraft
Spacecraft
A spacecraft or spaceship is a craft or machine designed for spaceflight. Spacecraft are used for a variety of purposes, including communications, earth observation, meteorology, navigation, planetary exploration and transportation of humans and cargo....
, but cities have been known to deploy them) which absorbs energy. Since the shield absorbs all wavelengths of light, it is completely black in normal use, like a black hole
Black hole
A black hole is a region of spacetime from which nothing, not even light, can escape. The theory of general relativity predicts that a sufficiently compact mass will deform spacetime to form a black hole. Around a black hole there is a mathematically defined surface called an event horizon that...
. It is necessary to raise sensors through the Field to see anything, much like a periscope
Periscope
A periscope is an instrument for observation from a concealed position. In its simplest form it consists of a tube with mirrors at each end set parallel to each other at a 45-degree angle....
. These sensors can be destroyed since they are outside the Field, so there are usually many backups on a warship. As the Field absorbs energy it reradiates it over its entire surface, acting as a perfect black body
Black body
A black body is an idealized physical body that absorbs all incident electromagnetic radiation. Because of this perfect absorptivity at all wavelengths, a black body is also the best possible emitter of thermal radiation, which it radiates incandescently in a characteristic, continuous spectrum...
; the colour of the Field moves from infrared to red and through the visible spectrum to blue as the amount of reradiated energy increases. (However, in The Mote in God's Eye the field is also described as glowing green or violet, which is not possible for a true black body. It has been suggested that the Langston Field's behavior is a tribute to the ray screens featured in Doc Smith's novel The Skylark of Space
The Skylark of Space
The Skylark of Space by Edward E. "Doc" Smith was written between 1915 and 1921 while Smith was working on his doctorate. Though the original idea for the novel was Smith's, he co-wrote the first part of the novel with Lee Hawkins Garby, the wife of his college classmate and later neighbor Carl Garby...
, whose color also climbs the spectrum as the energy load increases.) After a certain point, the Field generator can no longer absorb further energy: the Field collapses and the stored energy is released outwards and inwards; this latter usually destroys the ship.
Expanding Langston Field
In the novel The Mote in God's Eye, the Moties did not realize that the Langston Field was possible until humans demonstrated it. The Moties were inconceivably superior to humanity in the development of existing technologies, but lacked the ability (or perhaps the inclination) to carry out primary research. Even if they had had the ability, however, it is possible that they would never have developed Langston Field technology; for Humanity it was a purely accidental discovery which did not result from a natural progression of research. Nonetheless, Motie Watchmakers proved able to repair, maintain, and even improve it.When a human starship was infested by Watchmakers, every one of the ship's systems was modified and enhanced. The most notable improvement was to the Field generator, which produced a Field which expanded as it absorbed energy. This produces more surface area to disperse absorbed energy, and when the ship was attacked, the Field expanded to many times its original size, increasing in diameter as increasing firepower was brought to bear. Only when the field expanded almost too far for it to be generated at all did it stop expanding, allowing it to be overloaded, a process that still took many times more firepower than would have previously been necessary.
Almost as soon as human vessels with operating Fields jumped into the Mote system, Motie engineers were aware of the Field's existence and quickly built Fields of their own. Motie engineers are incredibly effective at building and using tools, but they display a rather marked lack of original thinking and creativity, which may partly explain why they never developed the Field in the first place. Given that an expanding Field is obviously far more effective at protecting a ship than a static one, all Motie Field generators were designed to expand as necessary.
Though this would have made Motie starships incredibly formidable in combat, the expanding Field actually proved fatal to Motie ships that left their system. The endpoint of the original Alderson point in the Mote system opens within the photosphere of Murcheson's Eye, a red giant
Red giant
A red giant is a luminous giant star of low or intermediate mass in a late phase of stellar evolution. The outer atmosphere is inflated and tenuous, making the radius immense and the surface temperature low, somewhere from 5,000 K and lower...
star. Survival in such a hostile environment requires a Langston Field, but in this case, an expanding Field is counterproductive. While inside a star, the Field has no opportunity to radiate heat, as it is constantly absorbing heat from all directions. A standard, static field will absorb heat at a fixed rate and will eventually overheat and explode if the ship does not leave the star regularly, but the absorption is slow enough to allow any ship with such a Field to survive for many hours before needing to exit the star to cool off. Unlike in normal space where extra surface area means extra radiated heat, inside a star increased surface area radically increases the rate at which heat is absorbed, causing a ship with an expanding Field to explode within minutes. Often this occurs before the Moties onboard recover from the side effects of traversing the Alderson tramline.