This document discusses the fictitious scientific substitutes for the above systems. Additionally, the science fiction spacecraft technology study reviews historic sci-fi artwork for scientific feasibility in light of current knowledge of spacecraft technology. Obviously, much art is drawn simply to represent the appearance of space technology. For this reason, no criticism of the reviewed artwork is intended. Some of the most impressive illustrations exhibit the greatest number of scientific incompatibilites.
Centripetal force is the force that causes a mass to travel in an arc or circular orbit.
It is equal to the object's mass times its tangential velocity squared divided by the radius of the arc or circular path. The pulling away is a result of Newton's First Law. Before reading the discussion following each picture, try to find errors or oversights the artists may have made in their ideas of what space rockets and spacecraft look like. Space Shuttle Reference Manual is a complete discussion of all Space Shuttle systems with numerous diagrams and sketches prepared by NASA for the news media.