I’m looking to get inspiration for my own writing. I need a hard sci fi series where earth (and earthlike worlds) are too rare, inaccessible, and/or previously spoiled beyond ability to sustain life. Bonus points if it is set on a multi-generational space station or starship without any other options and goes into detail about life support, living space, mineral mining and expansion of the station to accomodate a growing population, and daily life of it’s residents.
If anyone remembers Drifter Colonies from Titan A.E., that’s what’s in my head.
I’m looking for The Martian levels of realism, and I’m fine with a bit of “Unobtanium” clichés if they’re not core to the story.
My suggestion will spoil a bit of the ending so I’m putting it in a spoiler tag.
3 Body Problem
In the third book it very much meets this criteria and I think has some fantastic ideas I’d love to see expanded on
There is little hard scifi in the 3 Body problem. And nothing of what the OP asked about.
You don’t think so? I thought it did.
Unfolding proton as a fundamental particle is wrong. Protons are made up of 3 quarks. Quantum teleportation doesn’t enable ftl communication. Ftl engines. Higher dimensions. Collapsing dimensions. Pocket universe.
There is a chapter about building realistic space stations in the shadow of Jupiter and two realistic space ships one of which goes right into the fantasy realm of higher dimensions.
Maybe 50 pages out of 500 are hard scifi.
I was sold on the first stuff being real… I guess that makes it good fiction. I know there was a lot that wasn’t but I thought since OP was looking for inspiration that some of the stuff here would help…?!