Ringworld (Ringworld, volume 1) by Larry Niven

[james_davis_nicoll]

Ringworld (Ringworld, volume 1) by Larry Niven

Comments

[austin_dern]

Are there stories where the vast artificial object gets sensibly explored by remote probes? I guess it's a part of Charles Stross's Missile Gap, so far as the remote sensing of the time would make possible.

[(Anonymous)]

The expedition in The Ringworld Engineers brings a few probes, which turn out to have a few interesting uses (particularly since they have fgrccvat qvfpf built into them).

Va fbzrguvat bs n ergpba, GER nyfb erirnyf gung gur Chccrgrref hfrq ceborf gb rkcyber gur Evatjbeyq n srj praghevrf ntb (jvgu SGY? Ubj, va Xabja Fcnpr'f ehyrf?) - naq gb vagebqhpr gur fhcrepbaqhpgbe rngvat onpgrevn gung oebhtug qbja vgf pvivyvmngvbaf.

[mindstalk]

ceborf: erynlf? rvgure n Chccrgrre va enqvb enatr ohg gur beovg bs Cyhgb, be bar cebor tbrf va naq frrf juvyr nabgure erprvirf ercbegf naq ergheaf gb Ubzrjbeyq.

[jbwoodford]

I think Roger MacBride Allen did as much remote surveying of the BDO as was feasible in _The Shattered Sphere_, and Alastair Reynolds did likewise in _Pushing Ice_.

[beamjockey]

Not a megastructure story, but I wish to put in a good word for Hal Clement's Iceworld. Much of the story involves devising ways to explore the hostile environment of a planet with remotely-controlled spacecraft and instruments. An unusual amount of thought goes into this scenario, by the standards of 1951 SF.

In those days, spacemen usually just landed on a new planet, with or without space suits, and walked around.