To what extent do you think Equestria has explored space? It

>>30569224
I've wondered what they'd think of us if they knew we sent people to the moon just to send them there for the fun of it and to beat the reds.

>>30569224

I think it's safe to say that scientific advancement in Equestria is somewhat stymied by their near-religious monarchy.
Magical progress seems to be what drives most of their slightly schizophrenic technology, and as a species ponies don't seem to have, overall, a very strong drive to explore or push boundaries (with some exceptions).

Very likely there are no Equestrian space programs of any kind, and any actual scientific efforts in that direction are probably private, or exclusively the terrain of hobbyists.

>>30569224
Ignoring that ponies have canonically walked on the moon:
We know they have telescopes and models of their own solar system, but I don't see them being technologically advanced enough to even begin exploring space. Ponies don't even have radio yet, and it's not viable to bring a baby dragon onto a space ship.
Sure, magic can supplement some of the things you need, but you're never going to reach the moon without the help of alicorns without some serious research on your side.

>>30569398
Starswirl seemed to like to push some boundaries, no one else seems to though. Maybe Twilight in all of her love for his studies will be the next.

Ponies in space suits would make some great toys wouldn't they? :^)

>>30569867
>Maybe Twilight in all of her love for his studies will be the next
She's too busy with her Princesshood and day to day to pursue them to any extremes.

Why are their tails not in the space suits

Only one pony has ever been in space, with no evidence of any objects having been sent up. Even the one trip was believed to be a legend, and took Alicorn-tier magic to perform. Ponies going to space would simply not be feasible.

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>>30569224
Explored the hell out of it

>>30570602
I don't mean that level of magic, that wasn't just some space trip. I mean, technically levitation magic would probably enough to reach space. That's more what I meant with "magic-driven," though not literally something as primitive (for a unicorn) as sitting in a box and levitating it to space. I think some of Equestria's greater minds, or greater powers, could certainly manage space travel through more ways than the single instance we've seen in the show.

>>30570624
Actually, in her thousand years she stayed on a single moon, lame as hell.

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>>30569224
>Space
>Equestria following the Copernican system >In a setting where they literally move the fucking sun in the sky and can raise and lower it at will.

>>30569224
They sent one pony to the moon a thousand years ago, and after that they decided "well we've done that, time to cut the space program's budget"

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>>30569224
Well Equestria has computers but they are the old-fashioned vacuum tube kind. They'll have to switch to using transistors and start miniaturizing before they can put them on spacecraft. They do have radio communication considering this pony has an earpiece, which is puzzling as there hasn't been any instance of ponies listening to home radios, just phonographs.

Their tech will get there eventually and integrating magic and technology might even give them a shortcut for developing the type of technology often seen on shows like Star Trek.

I mean imagine if they could somehow come up with a way to have computers cast spells. The Crystal Empire Part 2 established there are gravity manipulation spells so they could make artificial gravity. Plus unicorns like Twilight and Starlight are always teleporting all over the place and it's been established in No Second Prances that teleportation spells can be cast on another pony without the unicorn casting it on themselves so they could have the magical equivalent of transporter beaming tech like on Star Trek and other sci-fi shows; maybe the TP spells could even be used for FTL travel if more energy is supplied. Transfiguration spells like the ones Twilight and Starlight did during their practice in Every Little Thing She Does can serve the purpose of replicators. The possibilities are endless!

That said, their first forays into space would probably be using a spacecraft using computer-generated spell casting to telekinetically propel the craft in much the same way Starlight uses TK to fly.

>>30570662
>compared to humanity that spent much longer on a single planet.

how far could you go if you were magically bonded to a moon alone?

>>30570732
Personally I think Equestria is a tidally-locked planet around a red dwarf star and the "sun" and "moon" are actually magical constructs that were created eons ago to make the night side habitable.

>>30571207
Plus there's the ear pieces that Sia's bodyguard's use in the Movie Trailer. Though I suppose you could rationalize that away by saying that they're literally standing two feet from each other.

Makes you wonder why Celestia forces Spike to puke paper when she could just give Twilight a radio.

>>30569420
*pony has walked on the moon.

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>>30571232
>artificial stars

Thats my fetish

>>30571361
*IN the moon

>"Using the magic of the Elements of Harmony, she defeated her younger sister, and banished her permanently in the moon."

>>30571380
Hollow moon theory confirmed. Gas the Griffons.

>>30571207
I feel like machine and magic are the exact opposites. From a canonical standpoint, I don't see how a machine could harness magical power. If so, though, then yes, that would be quite the concept. Anything a unicorn could do, every other race could do- would that effectively turn all Pegasi into Alicorns in terms of capability? And Earth ponies to Unicorns? What about spells which affect a person's well being? That brings a whole new meaning to weaponized autism.

>>30569224
I have a nice fic to recommend for you guys
https://www.fimfiction.net/story/327551/changeling-space-program

>>30571355
>Makes you wonder why Celestia forces Spike to puke paper when she could just give Twilight a radio.
Radio waves can be jammed or intercepted, magic is likely safer, more private and more reliable.

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>>30569224
>Space
>Implying they could safely get beyond the Pony Allen Radiation belt
SPACE IS A HOAX

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>>30571498
>I feel like machine and magic are the exact opposites.
No, that's not it.

First of all, we have the Super Speedy Spider Sneezy 6000, which is a technological machine powered by unicorn magic.
Second, the show gives us numerous examples of machines, usually medical but occasionally technical, powered by fireflies. Since a firefly has nowhere NEAR the thermal or kinetic power-output required to power anything meaningful, the machines must be powered by firefly magic.
Third, and most importantly, we DO have examples of machines harnessing magical power.
>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSAVmsdB5VY

Technology and magic are so closely linked to each other I don't think one really exists without the other, certainly the line between the two gets so blurred I don't think the distinction is ay all meaningful.
Pinkie Pie's candy-copter from Griffon the Brush-Off? Is it technology or magic?
What about Tank? Tech or magic?
And what about Dash's artificial wing in the Crystal War timeline, or the Apple Family's impossible conveyor belt contraption from the same? Is it technology, or magic?

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>>30569224

What even is the nature of space in Equestria?

It's so vastly different from ours, in Equestria the sun isn't just a huge blob of plasma, but actually a magical object that radiates Day, and the moon is so much more than a large pile of dust and rock, as it actually emits Night.

As for the people thinking Luna walked on the moon, no, she didn't. Only in the comics is that the case, the canon is very clear about her being banished in the moon. Sealed inside as the mare in the moon.

>>30571678
Ah, now we're on to a far more fascinating subject - Equestrian Cosmology.

It's entirely possible that the rules of physics are completely different in the universe Equestria inhabits, and that observable space began not with a Big Bang, but with a unicorn's whisper, or something poetic like that.

>>30570662
In the show canon, nothing suggests that Nightmare Moon/Luna had any kind of physical manifestation on the moon. Sure, thinking this way leaves people more space for fan fictions and art, but I think it is more plausible that NMM body was temporary destroyed, while her soul was actually cast into the moon. Just like the soulstones in Diablo, or Horcruxes in the HP novels, a little bit scaled up... to planetary size.

I know my headcanon is a little bit boring, but for me, it makes more sense than the fandom-canon.

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>>30571498
It can be done if you have a computer acting as an artificial unicorn brain (specifically the part they use when casting spells) and hook it up to a severed unicorn horn (they can obtain them from deceased unicorn organ donors and cadavers) or some other material that can channel magic like a unicorn horn can. As for the rest of what you said, that's the consequence of technological progress and transhumanism (or transequinism in this case); everyone will eventually become super-enabled, just as how the invention of spears, bows and arrows gave our prehistoric ancestors an advantage over the other animals and allowed us to become the dominant species on this planet.

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>>30569224
>To what extent do you think Equestria has explored space?

None.

Their deified semi-immortal ruling monarch's power structure is hinged on the mythos that she is the sole reason the sun rises and falls every day and without her the land would be plunged in eternal darkness.

They can't afford any amount of space exploration or even knowledge of the cosmos to become public knowledge. Political insiders might be allowed to have a telescope, but that's strictly contraband to the general public. Maybe they announce things like meteor showers, but they can't let anyone explain how things work up there. It's a matter of national security.
It's even state dogma that the moon can't be up at the same time as the sun, like they're on opposite sides of the planet at all times or something. Someone pointed out that, "hey look, they're both in the sky at the same time" and it lead to a national crisis.

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>>30571678
>What even is the nature of space in Equestria?

There might not even BE space.

Equestria might be totes legit canon-wise for being FLAT.

Hell, how do you think the dragons and zerbras and griffons feel about the sun being controlled by a foreign monarch? Maybe every region has their OWN sun.

Because this shit is SO FAR off the reservation when it comes to physics, these sort of pre-enlightenment cosmology theories become viable again.

>>30573321
Oh boy, here come the flat-Equestriers...
or whatever their planet is called

Memes aside, I agree entirely. Not necessarily that it's bound to be flat, but I don't think there's any chance at all that it follows the same system as ours if the sun and moon are manually raised and lowered.

>>30572303
Yeah, that was kind of a bad choice of words, my bad. The show definitely suggests she was in the moon, not on it.

>>30571608
This.
Though we should accept the fact that it's a children's show, so the progression of technology didn't happen quite like ours. Hell, they still use their citizens for transport yet they've invented whatever the hell was in Twilight's basement and apparently a radio system.

>>30573495
>progression of technology didn't happen quite like ours.

There's a chance that there's a forced status quo.

Liiiiiike, they have a city like Manehatten with sky scrappers and concrete and all that..... and then there's Ponyville that still mandates everyone have a thatched roof.

THATCHED ROOFS.

Literally grass tied together and laid over each other. So either they've got some sort of magic mumbo-jumbo which makes that suck a lot less when it comes to leaking and mold, it's some sort of cultural heritage site and architecture is mandated and enforced, or it just never occurred to the occupants to try anything different.

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>>30571641
>we DO have examples of machines harnessing magical power
Huh. Hadn't noticed that.
In light of that, there's potential for some rather interesting concepts. Commercialized magic anyone?

And the war. Oh, the war machines that could be made. I wonder if you could manage to store a large amount of some kind of magical power in a single device to strengthen whatever spell it's supposed to be casting? Those magic disabling devices would imply some kind of magic bank wouldn't they? 'Cause that could seriously fuck up the balance of power.

>>30571641

Any sufficiently advanced science is indistinguishable from magic.

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>>30573464
It could be like Discworld. Space exists but the world is a flat disc resting on the backs of four elephants riding on the back of a giant turtle swimming through it. The sun and moon are 80 miles in diameter and the princesses control their orbits around it.

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>>30573553
The reverse is also true.