Tropes in Space

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Tropes relating to outer space, spaceships, space travel, and space colonies. Has nothing to do with tropes IN SPACE!

Before deciding to put a trope in this index, please check the sub-indexes and see if any of them are applicable.

Tropes:

• Accidental Astronaut: A character either accidentally launches the spacecraft they are in or they became an unwilling "astronaut" by stowing away on the spacecraft.
• Air Containment Field: A force field keeps air from flowing out of areas exposed to vacuum.
• Ancient Astronauts: Aliens who developed space travel long before humans influenced ancient history by doing things like being mistaken for gods, building pyramids, etc.
• Apes in Space: Monkeys and apes as astronauts rather than humans.
• Arbitrary Weapon Range: Weapons in space have a minimum or maximum range.
• Artificial Gravity: Spaceships and space stations with artificial gravity systems.
• Artistic License – Space: Astronomy does something that, in the real world, it shouldn't do.
• Asteroid Miners: People who mine from asteroids.
• Asteroid Thicket: An area in space with a lot of dangerous asteroids.
• Astral Finale: The last episode takes place in space.
• The Astronaut Who Shouldn't Be: A character is an astronaut despite failing the setting's usual standards.
• Batman Can Breathe in Space: Characters who can breathe in space.
• Blind Jump: Usually, people have to calculate something before going into faster-than-light mode, but there's no time to do that, so they'll have to do it without calculating.
• Boarding Party: Boarding a ship.
• Born Under the Sail: A whole culture of sailors/skyship drivers/spaceship drivers.
• The Bridge: The bridge of a starship.
• Bridge Bunnies: Young women who control the spaceship from the bridge.
• Burial in Space: Someone dies in space and has a funeral ritual.
• But What About the Astronauts?: Everyone on Earth has something bad happen to them (they die, get infected etc) but there are astronauts who aren't affected and either survive in a post-apocalyptic world or save the other people.
• Came from the Sky: Something huge falls out of the sky and lands on Earth.
• Captain Space, Defender of Earth!: A parody of sci-fi heroes.
• Casual Interplanetary Travel: Interplanetary travel is no big deal.
• Casual Interstellar Travel: Interstellar travel is no big deal.
• Centrifugal Gravity: Scientifically accurate artificial gravity through rotation.
• Colonized Solar System: The solar system is settled by humanity.
• Colony Drop: The world is in danger because of something huge falling from the sky.
• Colony Ship: A spaceship with a whole colony on it.
• Continuous Decompression: Explosive decompression is way more powerful than scientifically possible and lasts for way longer.
• Cool Starship: A cool, unusual spaceship.
• Corralled Cosmos: People only hang out in a certain area of space.
• Cosmic Motifs: Space used as a motif.
• Cult Colony: A religious cult living in a colony in space.
• Cyborg Helmsman: Cybernetically-augmented spaceship pilots.
• Danger in the Galactic Core: The center of the galaxy.
• Dangerous Orbital Debris: Orbiting remains of dead satellites or destroyed spaceships.
• Deflector Shields: A force field.
• Dramatic Alien VTOL: Alien spaceships land slowly. Really slowly.
• Dramatic Space Drifting: A body or pieces of a body floating in space after a space battle.
• Drop Pod: A single-use military vehicle dropped from the sky.
• Drop Ship: A ship designed to carry people and/or supplies to and from a planet or moon.
• Dyson Sphere: A thing in space big enough to encompass an entire moon, planet or even star.
• Escape Pod: Like a lifeboat but for a spaceship.
• The Exact Center of Everything: In the very center of the galaxy or the universe(s), there is something really important waiting.
• Explosions in Space: Something explodes in space in an unrealistic way.
• Explosive Decompression: People explode in space.
• Exposed Starship Bridge: A starship or spaceship's design places the bridge (i.e. the most important part of ship) in a location that easily exposes it to danger.
• Everything in Space Is a Galaxy: Handfuls of stars and planets are treated as entire galaxies.
• Faster-Than-Light Travel: Spaceships that can move faster than light.
• Fishbowl Helmet: The usual accompaniment to a Latex Space Suit.
• FTL Travel Sickness: Traveling faster than light can do bad things to people who aren't properly protected.
• Flying Saucer: A spaceship shaped like a saucer.
• Galactic Conqueror: A villain who wants to conquer or destroy the whole universe.
• Galactic Superpower: Someone has political power over a large area of space.
• Generation Ships: A starship has several generations living and dying on it.
• Genetic Adaptation: Outsiders adapt to a hostile environment (such as that on other planets) by genetically modifying themselves.
• Gravity Sucks: Gravity is depicted as "catching" or "sucking" things.
• Heavyworlder: Someone from a planet with more gravity than Earth.
• Homeworld Evacuation: The planet is no longer inhabitable, forcing (a portion of) the populace to pack up and leave for elsewhere.
• Hurl It into the Sun: Throwing something into a star.
• Hyperspace Is a Scary Place: The dimension used for teleportation/warp speed is dangerous.
• Hyperspace Lanes: When travelling faster than the speed of light, you have to go certain places at certain times.
• Hyperspeed Ambush: Using hyperspace to attack.
• Hyperspeed Escape: Using faster-than-light travel to escape.
• Improvised Microgravity Maneuvering: Using thrust to push oneself through space.
• Industrialized Mercury: The planet Mercury is used as an industrial hub for a Colonized Solar System.
• Inexplicable Cultural Ties: Aliens with pretty Earth-like cultures.
• In Space, Everyone Can See Your Face: Somebody's face is visible through a space helmet.
• Interplanetary Voyage: A story that focuses on the difficulties of a space voyage.
• Interstellar Weapon: A weapon that will hit something light-years away.
• Kill Sat: A satellite designed to kill.
• Latex Space Suit: A very tight spacesuit.
• Libertarians IN SPACE!: A setting where Earth has become narrow-minded and nonconformists are sent to live in space.
• Life in Zero G: Lifeforms that have evolved to live in the gravityless void.
• Lightspeed Leapfrog: A spaceship that can't travel faster than light is beaten by one that can.
• Lightworlder: Someone from a low-gravity planet.
• Lost Colony: A human colony in space that's lost contact with Earth.
• Male Sun, Female Moon: The sun portrayed as male and the moon as female.
• Martian Mundanity: Settled Mars is frequently portrayed as a dull, often-industrialized, backwater world.
• Mega-Maw Maneuver: A huge spaceship uses its door to "swallow" a smaller one.
• Mental Space Travel: "Teleporting" people to other planets by uploading their brains to their destination.
• The Milky Way Is the Only Way: Nobody can go beyond the Milky Way.
• The Mothership: The flagship of an alien army.
• Negative Space Wedgie: A strange, dangerous event in space.
• No Endor Holocaust: Something huge explodes but leaves little to no collateral damage.
• No Gravity for You: A villain whose weakness is they can't fight in zero-gravity.
• No Seat Belts: Spaceships don't have safety belts.
• No Such Thing as Space Jesus: Never seeing a godlike alien as an actual deity.
• No Warping Zone: An area where travelling faster than light is not allowed.
• Nuclear Torch Rocket: Amp up your piddly little chemical rockets by heating the propellant with nuclear power.
• Old-School Dogfight: Planes and spaceships fighting like pre-Cold War planes even when they logically shouldn't.
• Only Electric Sheep Are Cheap: Natural things are more expensive than an artificial version of it.
• Orbital Bombardment: Shooting from orbit.
• Orion Drive: Using nukes to travel through space.
• Our Dark Matter Is Mysterious: Dark matter makes up as much as 4/5 of the visible universe. Nobody knows what it actually is, so writers fill in the gaps.
• Our Wormholes Are Different: Exploiting wormholes.
• Planar Shockwave: When something explodes in space, there's a ring of... stuff.
• Planetary Relocation: Relocating planets.
• Portal Network: Space travel via portals.
• Powered by a Black Hole: Harnessing a black hole as a power source.
• Psychic Starship Pilot: Psychics are the ideal pilots for faster-than-light travel.
• Ramming Always Works: Ramming a spaceship with another always destroys one of them.
• Ram Scoop: A spaceship that fuels itself by collecting hydrogen directly from space.
• Reentry Scare: While someone reenters the atmosphere, it goes quiet for dramatic effect.
• Rocketless Reentry: Going back to Earth from space without using rockets.
• Rogue Planet: Planets not in orbit around (a) star(s)
• Salvage Pirates: Being saved and endangered at the same time by pirates.
• Save Sat: A satellite crashing down has a beneficial/defensive effect.
• Sci-Fi Writers Have No Sense of Scale: Sci-fi writers make distances in space seem smaller than in reality.
• Sci-Fi Flyby: Used as an establishing shoot to tell the audience that what they're seeing is a Cool Ship.
• Sent into Orbit Shot: Something gets sent so high up, it cuts to a shot of it floating above the planet.
• Shiny-Looking Spaceships: A spaceship that looks shiny.
• Silent Running Mode: A vessel going silent to avoid detection. Often used by spaceships.
• Sleeper Starship: A slow spacecraft that puts the passengers in hibernation until they arrive at their destination.
• Small Universe After All: Easily travelling to other galaxies.
• Solar Sail: Spaceships that run with a device like a sail but that uses the sun's power.
• Space Amish: Space travelers who use more primitive technology.
• Space Base: The villain's space station.
• Space Battle: Fighting in space.
• Space Brasília: An alien species with only one form of architecture.
• Space Cadet: Kind of like a police officer but in space.
• Space Cadet Academy: Where you learn to be a space cadet.
• Space Clothes: People wear wacky clothes in space.
• Space Clouds: Nebulae that seem like clouds.
• Space Cold War: A war in space that's sort of like the Cold War.
• Space Cossacks: A rugged group of outlaws lost in space.
• Space Elevator: An elevator or similar that takes people to space.
• Space Elves: Elvish, smug, possibly superior aliens.
• Space Episode: An episode of a normally Earth-set series is set in space.
• Space Fighter: A little spaceship designed for combat.
• Space Friction: If a spaceship breaks, it will slow down and eventually stop.
• Space Is Air: Spaceships are like planes.
• Space Is an Ocean: Space is compared to the ocean.
• Space Is Cold: Things freeze in space.
• Space Is Introspective: Space is associated with awe and/or existentialism.
• Space Is Magic: Space is incomprehensible.
• Space Is Noisy: You can hear noises in space.
• Space Is Sleepy: Space is associated with sleep.
• Space Is Slow Motion: Things move slowly in zero-gravity.
• Space Isolation Horror: Horror derived from the emptiness and loneliness of space.
• Space Jews: An alien that has traits associated with a racial/religious stereotype.
• Space Madness: Being in space makes you insane.
• Space Marine: Troops in spaceships that are sort of like marines.
• Space Mask: Face or head protection that's somehow a substitute for a full space suit.
• Space Master: Characters who have the ability to control the fabric of space and spatial dimensions.
• Space Mines: Like Sea Mines but in space.
• Space Navy: A military fleet of spaceships.
• Space Nomads: People who live in space and don't really have a place to call home.
• Space Opera: An epic adventure story set in space.
• Space Orcs: Brutish, violent and primitive aliens.
• Space People: People who live in space.
• Space Pirates: Pirates in space.
• Space Plane: A spacecraft that looks and can take off and land like an airplane.
• Space Police: An organization of peacekeepers in space.
• Space Romans: An alien culture that resembles a historical Earth culture.
• Space Sailing: Spaceships that look like sea ships.
• Space Sector: Specific regions in space are described as "the Something Sector" or "Sector Something".
• Space Station: An artificial structure in space.
• Space Suits Are SCUBA Gear: Space suits with visible air tubes.
• Space Travel Veto: Opposition, restrictions or bans on space travel.
• Space Trucker: People who haul cargo from one planet to another.
• Space Western: A cowboyish story set in space.
• Space Whale: Creatures on space that resemble whales.
• Space "X": An alien creature has the word "space" somewhere in its name.
• Space Zone: Unrealistic video game space.
• Spaceship Slingshot Stunt: Heading towards an item with heavy gravity in space so that they'd get flung back into space like a slingshot.
• Spy Satellites: Satellites that watch you from space.
• Standard Alien Spaceship: Alien ships are smooth and colorful.
• Standard Establishing Spaceship Shot: The spaceship entering the screen to establish how cool it is.
• Standard Human Spaceship: Spaceships piloted by humans all look the same.
• Standardized Space Views: Stock space scenes.
• Standard Sci-Fi Fleet: Spaceship classification similar to the navy.
• Standard Starship Scuffle: Spaceships fighting.
• Standard Time Units: A group of planets that have one way of measuring time.
• Starship Luxurious: A spaceship with very large rooms.
• Stealth in Space: A spaceship can turn itself invisible.
• Stellar Station: A type of space station in close orbit around the Sun or other stars.
• Sub-Lightspeed Setting: A setting with space travel at strictly slower-than-light speeds.
• Subspace Ansible: Faster-than-light space communication.
• Subspace or Hyperspace: Areas of space that can do things that are impossible in regular space.
• Sublight Subterfuge: Normally, you would use FTL to travel interstellar distances. But your situation isn't normal.
• Superheroes in Space: Superheroes whose missions commonly take place beyond Earth.
• Teleportation: Disappearing from one location and reappearing in another.
• Terraform: A planet's enviroment is artificially changed to better suit a species, human-like or otherwise.
• Thrown Out the Airlock: Someone gets thrown out of a spaceship's airlock without a spacesuit on.
• Time Dilation: Time passes slower in space.
• Tractor Beam: A beam of light that can pull things through space.
• Transhumans in Space: Humans in space who have been augmented.
• Transplanted Humans: Humans that came from space because their ancestors were taken from space.
• Two of Your Earth Minutes: Aliens specify that they're talking about our time, not their time.
• Ungovernable Galaxy: It's impossible for a whole galaxy to have a government.
• United Space of America: Interstellar travel programs work in a similar way to American culture.
• Universal Universe Time: The whole universe uses the same measurements of time.
• Unnecessarily Large Vessel: A ship is way bigger than it needs to be.
• Unrealistic Black Hole: A black hole that doesn't work like a real black hole.
• The Very Edge of Everything: There might be something at the edge of the galaxy or universe.
• Wagon Train to the Stars: A series takes place on a ship.
• The War of Earthly Aggression: The Earth is the leader of an interplanetary group, but some of the planets start a revolution.
• Weaponized Exhaust: A spaceship's exhaust fumes are used as a weapon.
• What Other Galaxies?: Dialogue that suggests this is the only galaxy.
• Wizards from Outer Space: Fantasy stuff happens in space.
• Zero-G Spot: Sex in space.
• Zodiac Motifs: Constellations that are used as a motif.

Useful Notes:

• Black Holes
• The Milky Way Galaxy
• Planets
  • Dwarf Planets
• The Solar System
  • The Sun
  • Solar System Planets:
    • Mercury
    • Venus
    • Earth
    • Mars
    • Jupiter
    • Saturn
    • Uranus
    • Neptune
  • Natural Satellites / Moons:
    • The Moon
    • The Moons of Jupiter
    • The Moons of Saturn
    • The Moons of Uranus
• Stars