beccaelizabeth | Because writers wonder weird things (Reply)

Could a standard shipping container fit through a Stargate?

Wikis can tell me the ‘gate is 6.7m in diameter and a shipping container is 20ft long and 8ft on the square sides (6.10m × 2.44m). And google reminds me how to figure out the big square in the circle and then helpfully does math in the search box.

Pythagoras, A² + B² = C²
^{though it’s a square, so really that’s 2A² = C²}
A² = C² / 2
A = square root of (C² / 2)
A = square root of (6.7² / 2)
A = square root of (44.89 / 2)
A = square root of (22.445)
A = 4.74 ish

So the 2.44m square end fits plenty, though only one at a time. Going through sideways is some versions of quicker, but while 6.1m of box is clearly smaller than 6.7m of circle, it has to be 6.1m wide at both 1.22m above and below the widest point. So how do I figure that out? I guess I could draw it. *fiddles with paint* Actually that seems to work, when I draw it 1 pixel per cm, find the middle of the circle and make a box 305*122 out from there. There’s not much wiggle room though. It becomes rather important to know if that 6.7m is the internal or external diameter. Probably external, in which case turning them sideways doesn’t work.

… I can always say My Stargates Are Different, but I was just wondering.

If it makes most sense to have special stargate sized shipping containers then such things would be created, but the standard sizes seem to be just too big to double up or turn sideways and a bit small to call optimal when you have 38 minutes to get maximum cargo through.

But the containers don’t move themselves, so how would they get through?

Actually I’m having visions of dunking the gate in a river at both ends and just sliding everything along neatly in little boats. That would work, but not on Earth, because they’re unlikely to move the Earth gate for that. Also I don’t know how much boat you’d need per big heavy thing.

Maybe ice at both ends? Ship via Antactica?

Most likely though there’d be wheeled things of some description, though they’d need electric engines if they’re going to be powered off naquadah generators at the other end. How much room for wheels is there? Bunches, in the picture I did. Very nearly almost a container worth. So, nice big wheels, nice long loads, wheel them all through somehow. You could have a pulley on the destination side but that would only work once you threw a leader rope through, and also wouldn’t work the first time you go offworld. You could bring a bazillion trucks, though once again, not into the SGC. And they’d either be of use precisely once or need to be electric. I found some rubbish looking electric trucks. Probably they don’t need to be very good if they’re just going through the stargate far enough to park. Or, they could be biodiesel trucks, and then they’d need to grow a lot of plants for fuel as well as food. That’s not so good though.

Of course the most efficient possible method seems like it should be teleportation. If you can teleport through the stargate. Do we know if they can? *pokes wiki some more* … depends on the plot. Or, depends on the species who built it. Ancient transporters can send large amounts of matter through the gate fast. But we don’t have Ancient tech. Asgard beaming tech is very similar, but the wiki page doesn’t mention beaming through a Stargate. So they can send entire skyscrapers at once - which would be one way to settle a planet really, really fast - but possibly it could only go planet to ship or ship to planet. The most advanced ones ever acted like Star Trek replicators for simple stuff like air and food, making matter from energy. If you have replicators, all your colonisation woes are pretty much over, so clearly only the one set was ever made. And the military wouldn’t hand it to a civilian effort anyway. There’s some variations of beaming that can cache the stuff to beam down again later somewhere else, but that isn’t mentioned as an Asgard capacity.

Honestly I don’t see why matter transmitters shouldn’t work through any active Stargate, in two directions. You can get signal through, so why not that signal? Answer: plot. There’s nothing quite like teleportation for circumventing the plot. But, also, if you can’t beam through shields, there’s energy patterns that block the signal. So the Stargate might be too messy to get a signal that complex through, until you’re an actual gatebuilder with admin level access.

If you can just beam a complete campus (model village / intentional community) to a new planet then colonisation gets substantially easier.

… I think I like the idea of them sending a lot of shipping containers, the sort modified to be living space. Keep the Stargate as the only available miracle. Even if the other stuff exists, it is thus far too expensive.

Also, transporter beam replicators can’t make naquadah without using more naquadah for the energy than they can make. That’s sensible, right? Otherwise there’s no need for conventional economics ever again. Which is an interesting story, jumping an entire planet to Star Trek levels of tech and so requiring a Star Trek level of economic revolution, but there’s quite a lot of getting there from here.

I make all these daft plans for other planets. I should go back to making daft plans for this planet. Intentional communities as practice for space colonisation.

… fun?