Some things I've learned about space travel from watching sci-fi movies:
On any spacecraft, it's easier and cheaper to cancel out the inertia of engine thrust and generate gravity artificially, just so that your spacecraft can move horizontally like an ocean liner, than it is to simply use the engine thrust to create gravity via inertia and have the spacecraft move vertically like a Saturn V.
When a spacecraft is fatally crippled, it will list to one side and "sink" like a ship or a crashing aeroplane even in the microgravity of deep space.
Spacecraft which use centrifuges or rotating arms to generate artificial gravity still have gravity in the non-rotating sections. Such spacecraft also do not experience inertia when applying engine thrust.
Artificial gravity does not penetrate the spacecraft's hull, so any artificially generated gravitational field is the exact shape of the vessel, regardless of how irregular its shape is.
Despite the fact that our primitive Earthly naval forces have guns on their ships that can fire over the horizon and strike targets hundreds of miles away, the space-going battlecruisers of advanced civilisations must come within a stone's throw of each other before battle can be joined. Said battlecruisers possess sensors that can detect a single organism on a planet a million miles distant, but cannot detect an enemy battlecruiser until they can visibly see it through the bridge windows.
The sound of weapons fire and engine noise travels in a vacuum, but the human voice does not.
All computer or systems consoles on any spacecraft are fitted with high explosives designed to blow the operator across the room in the event of even a minor systems malfunction.
Spacecraft captains are so used to all ships moving in the same flat plane in space that an attack by an enemy spacecraft not travelling in the same plane will take them completely by surprise.
Isaac Newton was wrong about inertia. A spacecraft must keep its engines on thrust in order to keep moving; it will stop as soon as the engines are deactivated.
Spacecraft require noisy and glaring engine thrust to move, but can hover over a planet-side city in the full grip of the planet's gravitational field without making a sound and without any visible exhaust or disturbance of the atmosphere.
Docking bays the size of a major sports stadium can be fully pressurised within a fraction of a second of the doors closing, with no air noise and without disturbing so much as a piece of paper on the floor.
There is no such thing as a manually operated door aboard a spacecraft.
A spacecraft's hull must be several feet thick, but can have huge bay windows half a centimetre thick capable of containing the thousands of tons of air pressure pushing against them as well as blocking the hard radiation from outside.
Spacecraft hulls must not be smooth. They must be covered with patches, blocks, extrusions, tanks and pipes exposed to space where they can be efficiently damaged by micrometeorites and enemy fire.
Spacecraft energy shields can stop incoming missiles and weapons fire, but cannot stop a small fighter craft from flying in close and strafing the shit out of all the aforementioned delicate surface installations.
Although space is by definition at a premium aboard a spacecraft, every corridor must have inward-sloping, space-wasting walls to make it look edgy and futuristic.
The critical central controls aboard any spacecraft must not be located on the usual consoles. Instead, they must be buried deep in the guts of the vessel, accessible only via miles of air ducts, precipitous drops and/or protected by flamethrowers, smashing blocks and whirling blades.
Safety rails on balconies and platforms hundreds of feet high are simply not necessary. But safety rails on a walkway 12 inches above the bridge floor are essential.
Relativity is bullshit. Even travelling at sublight speeds close to that of light, a ship's crew can communicate with ground control and other ships in real time without any time dilation.
Ships' crews can communicate with people on planets hundreds of light-years away without any time lag, but even travelling at FTL speeds the ship will take weeks to get there. Teleporters can beam people across space, but no teleporter can transport people over light-years using the same method as instantaneous communication over such distances.
Even the worst FTL drive malfunction will never cause any time-dilation or time displacement effects on its crew with respect to the rest of the universe.
All intership audiovisual communications systems are automatically compatible with those of all other alien races, even those the protagonists have never encountered before.
It takes only minutes to learn the language of a new alien race in a first-contact situation. Conversely, universal translation devices can always instantly decipher any new alien language, with absolutely no information about the language's phonemes, lexicon, syntax, idioms, grammar or sentence structure.
Nearly all lifeforms have identical and compatible atmospheric, ecological, temperature, biochemical, gravitational and nutritional requirements, regardless of how different their homeworlds and solar systems may be to ours. Such requirements always match those of humans. Those few races that don't are so rare as to require clumsy and inefficient survival mechanisms, regardless of the technological advancement of any other race they are in contact with.
All intelligent lifeforms are about the same size as we are. No intelligent alien is less than half the size or more than twice the size of a human being.
Nobody in space ever needs to use the toilet.
What have you learned?
On any spacecraft, it's easier and cheaper to cancel out the inertia of engine thrust and generate gravity artificially, just so that your spacecraft can move horizontally like an ocean liner, than it is to simply use the engine thrust to create gravity via inertia and have the spacecraft move vertically like a Saturn V.
When a spacecraft is fatally crippled, it will list to one side and "sink" like a ship or a crashing aeroplane even in the microgravity of deep space.
Spacecraft which use centrifuges or rotating arms to generate artificial gravity still have gravity in the non-rotating sections. Such spacecraft also do not experience inertia when applying engine thrust.
Artificial gravity does not penetrate the spacecraft's hull, so any artificially generated gravitational field is the exact shape of the vessel, regardless of how irregular its shape is.
Despite the fact that our primitive Earthly naval forces have guns on their ships that can fire over the horizon and strike targets hundreds of miles away, the space-going battlecruisers of advanced civilisations must come within a stone's throw of each other before battle can be joined. Said battlecruisers possess sensors that can detect a single organism on a planet a million miles distant, but cannot detect an enemy battlecruiser until they can visibly see it through the bridge windows.
The sound of weapons fire and engine noise travels in a vacuum, but the human voice does not.
All computer or systems consoles on any spacecraft are fitted with high explosives designed to blow the operator across the room in the event of even a minor systems malfunction.
Spacecraft captains are so used to all ships moving in the same flat plane in space that an attack by an enemy spacecraft not travelling in the same plane will take them completely by surprise.
Isaac Newton was wrong about inertia. A spacecraft must keep its engines on thrust in order to keep moving; it will stop as soon as the engines are deactivated.
Spacecraft require noisy and glaring engine thrust to move, but can hover over a planet-side city in the full grip of the planet's gravitational field without making a sound and without any visible exhaust or disturbance of the atmosphere.
Docking bays the size of a major sports stadium can be fully pressurised within a fraction of a second of the doors closing, with no air noise and without disturbing so much as a piece of paper on the floor.
There is no such thing as a manually operated door aboard a spacecraft.
A spacecraft's hull must be several feet thick, but can have huge bay windows half a centimetre thick capable of containing the thousands of tons of air pressure pushing against them as well as blocking the hard radiation from outside.
Spacecraft hulls must not be smooth. They must be covered with patches, blocks, extrusions, tanks and pipes exposed to space where they can be efficiently damaged by micrometeorites and enemy fire.
Spacecraft energy shields can stop incoming missiles and weapons fire, but cannot stop a small fighter craft from flying in close and strafing the shit out of all the aforementioned delicate surface installations.
Although space is by definition at a premium aboard a spacecraft, every corridor must have inward-sloping, space-wasting walls to make it look edgy and futuristic.
The critical central controls aboard any spacecraft must not be located on the usual consoles. Instead, they must be buried deep in the guts of the vessel, accessible only via miles of air ducts, precipitous drops and/or protected by flamethrowers, smashing blocks and whirling blades.
Safety rails on balconies and platforms hundreds of feet high are simply not necessary. But safety rails on a walkway 12 inches above the bridge floor are essential.
Relativity is bullshit. Even travelling at sublight speeds close to that of light, a ship's crew can communicate with ground control and other ships in real time without any time dilation.
Ships' crews can communicate with people on planets hundreds of light-years away without any time lag, but even travelling at FTL speeds the ship will take weeks to get there. Teleporters can beam people across space, but no teleporter can transport people over light-years using the same method as instantaneous communication over such distances.
Even the worst FTL drive malfunction will never cause any time-dilation or time displacement effects on its crew with respect to the rest of the universe.
All intership audiovisual communications systems are automatically compatible with those of all other alien races, even those the protagonists have never encountered before.
It takes only minutes to learn the language of a new alien race in a first-contact situation. Conversely, universal translation devices can always instantly decipher any new alien language, with absolutely no information about the language's phonemes, lexicon, syntax, idioms, grammar or sentence structure.
Nearly all lifeforms have identical and compatible atmospheric, ecological, temperature, biochemical, gravitational and nutritional requirements, regardless of how different their homeworlds and solar systems may be to ours. Such requirements always match those of humans. Those few races that don't are so rare as to require clumsy and inefficient survival mechanisms, regardless of the technological advancement of any other race they are in contact with.
All intelligent lifeforms are about the same size as we are. No intelligent alien is less than half the size or more than twice the size of a human being.
Nobody in space ever needs to use the toilet.
What have you learned?
