			    TRAVELLER Digest 413

Topics covered in this issue include:

  1) The Black Curtain
	by Christopher_Griffen@dmcwave.com (Christopher Griffen)
  2) Re: Missiles and sensor tasks
	by merrick@Rt66.com (Merrick Burkhardt)
  3) Hackers in Traveller
	by cmdrx@magicnet.net (Commander X)
  4) Re: TRAVELLER digest 411
	by aboulton@cix.compulink.co.uk (Andrew Boulton)
  5) Re: Quoting previous messages
	by Rob_Prior@nynet.nybe.north-york.on.ca (Rob Prior)
  6) Some FFS Help Please
	by That Computer Guy <darkstar@UDel.Edu>
  7) TRAVELLER digest 407
	by Peter Bodley <100026.226@compuserve.com>
  8) Virus Protection Methods
	by toad@ugcs.caltech.edu (Benjamin Lane)
  9) Re: Virus deaths
	by Thanasis Kinias <tkinias@asu.edu>

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: Tue, 12 Sep 1995 09:13:48 -0700
From: Christopher_Griffen@dmcwave.com (Christopher Griffen)
To: traveller@MPGN.COM
Subject: The Black Curtain
Message-ID: <055b1c50@MailXFER.DMCWAVE.COM>

     Brendan O'Donovan writes:
     
     >>Still, it'll never be Traveller canon, but I wish GDW would spill 
     the beans on the Black Curtain. After all, while you don't have to 
     include Grandfather in your campaign if you don't want to, your 
     players shouldn't have too much trouble finding the Black Curtain (Its 
     trailing of the Marches or Coreward of the Coalition in case you 
     missed it ;-). Still, given that information on this should be in one 
     of the next couple of books after the Regency Sourcebook, we can at 
     least expect to see it by about the year 2000 or thereabouts ;-)<<
     
     It _should_ be before that, hopefully.  GDW has solicited VIRUS REDUX: 
     THE GILDED LILLY, featuring a story which takes the players into 
     Massilia Sector toward Core.  I believe the module is one of a trilogy 
     of adventures, which are aimed at taking the players to Core and into 
     the Black Curtain.
     
     Even though my Regency campaign is my main focus, I'm running the Vamp 
     Fleets adventure and the trilogy just to live out some important 
     Traveller history.  The Vamp Fleets adventure is pretty well written 
     and I expect the same of the upcoming trilogy.
     
     --Chris

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 12 Sep 1995 10:41:16 -0600 (MDT)
From: merrick@Rt66.com (Merrick Burkhardt)
To: traveller@MPGN.COM
Subject: Re: Missiles and sensor tasks
Message-ID: <9509121641.AA01418@Rt66.com>

> 	I propose that we create two new range band for sensors, called
> Close and Point Blank. Close range would be .5 * Short and lock-ons would
> be an Easy task.  Point Blank (PB) would be .25*Short and lock-ons would 
> be Easy-1 task, with the -1 only coming into play to counteract positive 
> DMs the missile may have due to EMM or evading.  Sensor tasks would look 
> like this: 
> 		_RANGE_				_DIFFICULTY_
> 		Point Blank	(.25*SR)	Easy -1
> 		Close		(.5*SR)		Easy
> 		Short		(SR)		Average
> 		Medium		(2*SR)		Difficult
> 		Long		(4*SR)		Formidable
> 		Extreme		(8*SR)		Impossible
> 
> 	IMHO, this is more of a logical extension of the existing rules.

I would ammend this.  Keep halving ranges and making deeper easy tasks.
At Easy -1 effective assets >19 are not limited to 19, ie: they are
automatic successes if the asset is high enough.

The change in effective asset keeps following the pattern as well (twice
asset, 4 times asset, etc.).

For a SR16 AEMS we'd have:

Range(hexes)	Rangeband	Difficulty	Comments
--------------------------------------------------------
32		Medium		Difficult
16		Short(S)	Average
8		S/2		Easy
4		S/4		Easy -1		Automatic
2		S/8		Easy -2		Automatic
1		S/16		Easy -3		Automatic
.5		S/32		Easy -4		"	"
etc.

Drop fractions when doing ranges, I would guess: S/4 for SR10 would be
2, for example.  Fractions below a hex are kept for KKM purposes.

If you take this to be true for fire tasks, things get bad for KKMs if
there are few of them.  But if you shoot 1 more than the target can
auto-kill, then you still hit.  Rolls would still be made for
outstanding success, although for that purpose maybe there's a hard
limit of 19 (20 will never get outstanding results).

-Merrick

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 12 Sep 1995 14:47:54 -0400
From: cmdrx@magicnet.net (Commander X)
To: traveller@MPGN.COM
Subject: Hackers in Traveller
Message-ID: <199509121850.OAA04730@magicnet.magicnet.net>

And Now for something completely different....

COMMANDER X'S TALES FROM THE LINE
Volume 2

HACKERS, CYBERDECKS, COMPUTER EMPATHICS
AND YOU

	Out in my little neck of the woods (Efate realy) we have high tech computer
crime every hour on the hour!  For example, you go dirtside again after
weeks in space, hoping to find some fat reward for your last job.  You pug
in your cred-card into the port athority ATM to pay for berthing and
refuling.  But then bells and whisles go off. "Uh, sir", says the Starport
Tech, "your cred card is no longer valid."  "WHAT!!!", you shout.  Depending
on the law of the world, you could be taken in for a very long chat or shot
for trying to cheat someone (the Latter happens at home all the time).
	What happened? The answer is simple realy, you have just been assaulted by
a hacker.  The hacker using whatever programs and skills he has has wiped
out your account, and transfered all money to his account.  The only
failsafe is the venereble Cred-Card which keeps a record of everything that
should be there.  Cred cards are nigh impossible to crack, so the hacker
tries to go straight to the bank computer.  what happens is that when you
use your card, and the bank computer on the world has a descrepency, then
you are under question.
	How does one defend oneself from these thieves of data. One way is to know
how they work. (Know thy enemy....)

The 1st kind of Computer Felon is the HACKER. these are hot-shot computer
techies who use portable computers and programs to crack into secure areas.
In game terms, they are the norm. These are the same computer
programer/techies that are in the career lists in TNE. It's just that they
have gone BAD.  What hapens to these guys when they meet Virus? Not much,
except a posessed computer....;>

The 2nd type are the CYBERHACKERS also known as NETRUNNERS these are the
guys who plug a computer into thier brain (Yeesh!) so that they are at one
with the computer. (Oooh, Zen, deep!)  This gives the hacker a  +1 to
initiative in Computer Combat and reduces all tasks by 1 level. What hapens
to these guys when the encounter virus? Heh, heh, heh ;>

The 3rd type are the COMPUTER EMPATHICS.  These are psions who use their
talents to probe into a computer and read the data within.  As they can only
read data, any actual manipulation of that data must be done with a
computer.  Example, the psion scans the mainframe and finds the access code
to unlock a file. she cannot unlock the file by just thinking about it, she
must remember the code and type it in manualy. (If I am misreading the rules
for the Computer Empatics, I apologize, but I think they can only read, not
manipulate data.  If they can manipulate data, then they would be REALY
powerful!) At stage 6 success, they outdo even the Cyberhackers for they get
a -2 level dificulty adjustment for all tasks. What happens when these guys
meet Virus?  Well, they can sense it, and know it's there, but as Virus is
not psionic(that we know of heh heh! ;>)  The psion will not suffer any
psionic pains.

Just how do these guys operate?  Well, first you need a computer, a hand
computer or Lower tech laptop will do.  Then you need some kind of link to
the system you want to crack.  At low techs this is a usualy a phone line,
posibly a radio-com carrier wave. At prestallar and early stellar cellphones
are common, as is a world-wide computer network (i.e. Internet on late 20th
and early 21st century Terra).  At high stellar tech levels, the meson-com
is the top of the line communicator.  High stellar meson internets are
EXTREAMLY fast and eficient. Dont have to wait for satalite bouncing
time-lag for your downloading!

Thats about all you need to begin, of course the Cyberhackers need a neural
interface jack. (800,000cr if memory serves and the're ILLEGAL! especialy in
Regency) Psions need only to do their psionic skill checks,and then the fun
can begin.


I will leave the Role playing details to individual GM's, but if any of my
fellow Traveller Addicts out there want it, I do have my own hacking rules
that I use for my Campaign.  They are a fusion of the old MT Computer
rules(Remember those big control factor numbers?) and Cyberpunk 2020 by R.
Talsorian Games Inc. (credit where credit is due!)
If you want a copy, just e-mail me (cmdrx@magicnet.net)


COMMING SOON
In Co-operation with Chris Griffen
COMMANDER X'S TALES FROM THE LINE
VOLUME 3
EFATE RICE PAPER

and now...number one...the Larch(ehem!)

and now....the signature...


>From the RQS Fortune and Glory.
KEEP THE FLAME!!!
Commander X out....<click>
**>END TRANSMISSION<**


------------------------------

Date: Tue, 12 Sep 95 20:42 BST-1
From: aboulton@cix.compulink.co.uk (Andrew Boulton)
To: traveller@MPGN.COM
Cc: aboulton@cix.compulink.co.uk
Subject: Re: TRAVELLER digest 411
Message-ID: <memo.864894@cix.compulink.co.uk>

In-Reply-To: <199509111921.PAA04432@Ambassador.MPGN.COM>


  > From: "Nathan Mezel" <therthan@mail.ic.net> 
  > Subject: Re: TRAVELLER digest 407 
  > >  
  > > which has already appeared in another form (eg Web page)?  I realise
  > > this is less related to the TML list, but considering the recent
  > > change in policy that Challenge magazine has concerning publication
  > > of submissions, I feel it is still relevent. 
  >  
  > As far as I know anything now published by Challenge (and those
  > published in the Chronicle) remain the property of the writer/artist.

Why the change at Challenge?

  > From: toad@ugcs.caltech.edu (Benjamin Lane) 
  > Subject: Virus deaths 
  >  
  > Also, as a reality check - what would Virus do if unleashed on 1995
  > Terra? Well, I can imagine the following; trash the Internet, trash
  > the phone system, and severly damage the power grid. GPS wouldn't
  > work, and this might affect some airliners for a time. THese effects
  > would NOT be enough to plunge Terra into the Stone age. If the Virus
  > mangaged to get into military computers (which I assume it would -
  > this is a SMART bug) it might certainly cause some tension. But again,
  > I doubt that it could start a nuclear exchange. If you are familiar
  > at all with military computers you will know why - they are mostly
  > from the 1950s and 60s. This is particularly true with Minuteman
  > launch control systems and the like. Another effect would be economic
  > - the NYSE and others would cease to function. 

You're forgetting a few things:

- 747s dropping out of the sky onto cities

- ships hitting rocks, or crashing into harbours

- a meltdown at practically every reactor

- almost *no* communication (no phones, TV, radio)

- the collapse of every major bank

- all power stations shutting down or blowing up

- train crashes

- all factories shut down (no power or workers dead, panicking, or unable
to get there)

  > In summary, Virus woudl cause another great depression, perhaps even
  > a limited nuclear exchange ( NOT total MAD). But we would not plunge

NORAD's sensors are telling them they're under attack, ditto the men in
the silos, and all the phones are dead...*someone's* gonna press the
button. Alternatively, it may be assumed to be an attack by another country
and retaliate.

According to a recent Time article, the US (in particular) is extremely
worried about 'cyberwar'.

  > us into a new Dark Age. Why would we then expect this to be any
  > different with other TL-8 worlds ? 

Not every TL 8 world is self-sufficient and has a type 6 atmosphere...

  > No, what could and would damage Terra would be a nuclear attack from
  > space on all the major industrial centres and space ports and the
  > like. Something that was quite common in the 1120s... The consquences

*Was* it common? You want the people alive and the planets habbitable, if
possible. A barren, irradiated lump of rock is no use to anyone. I expect
there will have been *some* nuking (or mesoning), but most planets would
surrender after the first shot.
 

---===---
Andrew Boulton

------------------------------

Date: 13 Sep 1995 03:42:48 GMT
From: Rob_Prior@nynet.nybe.north-york.on.ca (Rob Prior)
To: traveller@MPGN.COM
Subject: Re: Quoting previous messages
Message-ID: <3717791742.230916041@nynet.nybe.north-york.on.ca>

If you feel obligated to quote a previous message, could you please keep it
down to  a couple of sentences, not the entire message?  

------------------------------

Date: Wed, 13 Sep 1995 00:54:33 -0400
From: That Computer Guy <darkstar@UDel.Edu>
To: traveller@MPGN.COM
Subject: Some FFS Help Please
Message-ID: <199509130454.AAA10882@chopin.udel.edu>


Me again with my FFS question of the month.  Here goes.  I was trying
to create my own little 7kl grav bike.  Well, my design was a tad off,
so I checked mine against the grav bike from TNE/FFS.  Well, unless I'm
missing something, that isn't a feasible design.

Here's what I've come up with.  2.5kl for the cramped seat (for the
driver), and another 1.5kl for the restricted seat (for the passenger),
then 2.5kl for the cramped crewstation.  That's already 6.5kl out of
7kl.  Take the .7kl that you're suppossed to add for this being a
moderately sloped grav vehicle, and you've surpassed your limit!

So, I must be missing something.  If some kind soul could just tell me
what, I'd really appreciate it.

As always, thanks in advance...

        --Jerry

8) Jerry Alexandratos                %  "Nothing inhabits my    (8 
8) darkstar@strauss.udel.edu         %   thoughts, and oblivion (8
8) darkstar@canary.pearson.udel.edu  %   drives my desires."    (8

------------------------------

Date: 13 Sep 95 01:40:37 EDT
From: Peter Bodley <100026.226@compuserve.com>
To: "INTERNET:traveller@mpgn.com" <traveller@MPGN.COM>
Subject: TRAVELLER digest 407
Message-ID: <950913054036_100026.226_FHH45-1@CompuServe.COM>

jeff.zeitlin@execnet.com (JEFF ZEITLIN) wrote

>  Well, if I apply a minimum amount of Imagination to the question,
>  I come up with a couple of uniquely unexpected possibilities:
>                Capital, Capital, Core
>  or
>                Imperial Palace, Capital, Core

> (Remember that in the material that gave info on the Palace, it
> was big enough to be a city in its own right.)

 Actually the Imperial palace and Moot Spire are part of the city of Cleon 
on Capital.  (See p22, 'The Imperial Palace', Traveller's Digest Issue 9)

Pete Bodley
100026.226@compuserve.com




------------------------------

Date: Tue, 12 Sep 1995 23:59:42 -0700 (PDT)
From: toad@ugcs.caltech.edu (Benjamin Lane)
To: traveller@MPGN.COM
Subject: Virus Protection Methods
Message-ID: <199509130659.XAA28643@blend.ugcs.caltech.edu>

> 
> > From: toad@ugcs.caltech.edu (Benjamin Lane)
> 
> snip
> 
> > In summary, Virus woudl cause another great depression, perhaps even 
> > a limited nuclear exchange ( NOT total MAD). But we would not plunge us
> > into a new Dark Age. Why would we then expect this to be any different 
> > with other TL-8 worlds ? 
> 
> 	I think you're right...I think that the effects of Virus have been 
> overstated WRT the damage from the rebellion. This was an Imperium 
> wide war, with 'billions dying in nuclear holocausts' according to 
> somewhere in the TNE manual.  The economic disruptions are also not 
> to be discounted.  The main fronts of the rebellion took place in the 
> heart of the Imperium, where the population density, the tech levels 
> and (probably) the economic interdependence were highest. You don't 
> need to get hit by many nukes if you're on a Hi pop industrial world 
> largely dependent on imports for food, raw materials, etc. If your 
> markets are closed off or gone due to war, where do you sell your 
> goods? Things were crashing hard long before the Virus struck.
>  
Precisely. And people were already dying. Perhaps the Virus hit hardest
in the Safes, so that those worlds are particularly Virophobic.
>  
> > 
> > Now, it thus seems that while the most deaths might well have been caused 
> > by Virus killing every last human in high-pop, high-tech, unlivable worlds,
> > the horrors of those times and places died with the people that lived there.
> > The survivors that form the New Era all came from worlds where Virus may
> > have been just one of many curses brought on by the Rebellion. Equal damage
> > will quite probably have been done by tha ravages of War - economic collaps,
> > loved ones killed, battles and orbital bombardment. As well as perhapse
> > other weapons I think would have been used - biological above all.
> 
> 	Some spectacular losses could be due to Virus (Trin, for example), 
> but I think other means of warfare could have easily been as 
> injurious.
What IS the story of Trin? I can find any more info than an obscure reference
to 'the Rape of Trin'... But I don't have much material. 

> 
> 	Of course you could always combine them...he he he
> 
> 	COMING SOON to a mailing list near you...the eerie tale of the SLS 
> Crichton...a biowarfare research laboratory ship, infected with a 
> Doomslayer/Hobbyist Virus...It LIKES to make peculiar and painful 
> plagues and sow them as it wends its way through the ruins of the 
> Wilds.
Cool. Scary as H-ll. Don't make that ship _too_ travel-capable.
> 
> 	By sheer coincidence I was working on this just yesterday, as an
> adventure seed, or rather, an ongoing Virus NPC.  I'm working on a
> draft of biowarfare generation tables, and have to look a bit more
> into my old microbiology texts, and come up with some stuff on just
> exactly what kinds of wepons would /could be used in biological
> warfare in the shattered imperium.  Plagues infecting humans,
> certainly, but what about tailored fungi that feed on ....saaaay
> room temp superconductors (If it was good enough for Larry Niven,
> it's good enough for me), or blights that destroy food crops.
> Bacteria that eat commonly used starship seal material, other nasty
> little things.
> 
> 	I have looked through my materials at hand and haven't found 
> anything regarding diseases in Traveller, certainly nothing like what 
> would be used as biowarfare.  Certainly a high tech level society 
> could fight off any number of diseases, but one that was already 
> struggling economically, where people were already weakened by 
> malnutrition or radiation sickness.
> 
Sounds like a great, useful, idea to me. I have been meaning to ask-
the history of biology and bio-related events in Traveller seems like
it could use some more work. There are questions like ; How common
are cases of biosphere contamination? How do various biological 
systems from different worlds interact? Does Vland have a biosystem
based on DNA/amino acids etc? How about Lair? Or Zhdant? Or any other 
world for that matter? Do diseases from other types of biosystem pose
a hazrd to humans? What are the most common bio-protection routines used
in going from world to world? How many kinds of vaccines are administered
to the average Traveller /Regency Citizen? 
A while back someone mentioned bioengineering being common among high-tech
worlds... well, what are the limits to such bioengineering? Legal,
scientific, technical, economic? are inhabitants usually geneered 
to be more intelligent than others? More docile? More attractive?
Stronger? Can you buy a retroviral treatment for certain disorders?
What about buying a genetic enhancement? Better in some ways than 
cybernetics... what would it cost? is it legal? how do these people 
deal with the obvious ethical questions? 
Any input would be appreciated.  I for one, don't quite know what
to say on some of these questions...


Other matters;

> 	Merrick has proposed putting EMM on missiles and having them 
> evade on the way to the target, which makes them almost impossible to 
> lock.  A question, how do you propose to get the missile to engage 
> if it is beyond the 10-hex control range limit?  This also begs the 
> question of the invisible missile, which, by BL rules, is essentially 
> impossible to get a target lock on.

You use a sensor drone, or a high-power communicator, ar perhaps a fighter.
EMMasked missles are scary. At least if they are Fire&Forget. (or you'd
pick up the telemetry/guidance signals.) Even so - with incoming 
stealth missles, you are toast. Either get him before he gets you, 
or start praying.

> 
> > like the missiles, but I'm going to give missiles a -2 DM vs passive
> >sensors due to exhaust at close range.  Many will still get through.
> >
> >-Merrick

That's a quick-and-dirty fix. 
> 
> 	I like missiles too :-), but I also have an idea to make them 
> easier to lock which I think is a bit more systematic, though it does 
> involve more house rules.
> 	I propose that we create two new range band for sensors, called
> Close and Point Blank. Close range would be .5 * Short and lock-ons would
> be an Easy task.  Point Blank (PB) would be .25*Short and lock-ons would 
> be Easy-1 task, with the -1 only coming into play to counteract positive 
> DMs the missile may have due to EMM or evading.  Sensor tasks would look 
> like this: 
> 		_RANGE_				_DIFFICULTY_
> 		Point Blank	(.25*SR)	Easy -1
> 		Close		(.5*SR)		Easy
> 		Short		(SR)		Average
> 		Medium		(2*SR)		Difficult
> 		Long		(4*SR)		Formidable
> 		Extreme		(8*SR)		Impossible
> 
> 	IMHO, this is more of a logical extension of the existing rules.
> 

I agree with that. Perhaps useful when dealing with point-dfence systems,too.
> 
> There was a note from someone about active/passive sensor use.  The
> short answer is it's in my sensor rules---but I didn't use nukes as
> flashbulbs.  Since there are whiteouts, that'd be a cool idea,
> especially for players (I like the idea of a PC getting that lightbulb
> over their head :-)
> 
> -Merrick

I agree. inventive players are a real asset - when they invent stuff that
doesn't give you headaches.. ;) Your sensor rules - would you be willing 
to (re)post them? I haven't seen them.
They sound cool.

-ben

> 
> 
> Here are some I've been playing with.  The HEPlaR one at 7kl is
> basically Muir's design run through my spreadsheet (with 2 different
> versions).
> 

Spreadsheet? Is something like that available on the Web?  

> >Hans Rancke-Madsen <rancke@diku.dk> wrote:
> >It is my opinion that the history of the Traveller Universe is quite
> >impossible unless one assumes that the vast majority of all starfaring
> >races practice population control for most of the time. And that includes
> >the aslans.
> >
cut

>  (1) a healthy planet could sustain a population of 100 billion people
>  (2) each of the 1e11 stars in the galaxy had one healthy planet in orbit
>  (3) the population of a planet doubles after 25 years
>  (4) immigration from one planet to another is free and instantaneous

> The result would be:
> >-=> Quoting mike@econym.demon.co.uk to All <=- 
> > mi> With the new figures, after 1100 years you still get 8e22 people. They
> > mi> live on 8e11 planets around 8e11 stars. That's only 8 galaxies full.
> > mi> There's still enough room in the universe for another 700 years of
> > mi> expansion.

Yes, so we're now acquainted with exponential growth. And if you extrapolate
current rates of increase in power consumption in the US, in a hundred years
we'll consume more power than most of the galaxy.

That's why they invented the logistics curve.
It starts out as an exponential and then flattens out to approach a 
constant. I.e. other factors start limiting growth - above all resources.
If birth control wasn't practiced, good ol' Malthus would do his thing.
It's reasonable to expect that the Imperial era had stringent birth
control on some worlds, but not all. The Regency might still have 
many - the Wilds? I doubt it, except were its a matter of survival.
And if a reconstruction ever takes place, ther will be a period of 
exponential growth again, which will quickly fill up available 
worlds. then there will be a proble ; re-enforce birth control, or 
continue expansion into other areas? Solomani sphere, Julian worlds,
aslan, K'kree, Foreven sector.. places to go, worlds to conquer. Or 
stagnate just like the Third Imperium. I will bet you money that there
woudl be scholars around 1300 who would argue that the real reason 
the Imperium died was that it couldn't expand, thus had to stagnate...
above all in the simple area of population control.
> 
> Who needs population control measures? Nature builds them in.

ASk the WHO. Nature might build them in. unfortunately her methods
are not very civilized, and tend to be disruptive of society. I would 
think any rational TL-15 society would attempt to deal with the matter in
a more controlled and predictable manner.

-ben

> 
> As for the Economic collapse: based upon the Long Night, and the material
> in Hard Times and Survival Margin, I think that crash of the economy
> occured because merchants failed to see the profit in trading with the
> worlds at the borders of the safe zones, and as they pulled back, the
> defense forces would likewise do so (Overall, not in specific) as the
> defensive roll of any military is to protect trade and resources. Since
> this moves the safe area border back, the merchants pull back farther,
> their former clients turn to piracy to retain any off-world imports on a
> steady basis, and the cycle continues.

I agree. But I also think a reason for economic collapse was that
a) Civilian production was curtailed in favor of military needs.
b) Battles were fought on the very same worlds that produced the 
military hardware. Ask yourself; which place sufferend worse during
WWII, the USA or Europe? Where was the fighting? Ergo...
c) people used nukes, meson guns, bioweapons,..


> Just look at germany between the two world wars to see what I mean (they
> were being forced to pay reparitions that meant reducing the standard of
> living below the wartime levels of WWI).
> 
> 
> William F. Hostman

Check your facts, friend. They never payed much of those reparations...
-ben

One last question; take HEPlaR drive, calculate what the exhaust velocity
has to be based on thrust/fuel consumption rates. You get (after solving
the relativistic equation) something around 0.99 c. Ok, so the exhaust
is going pretty fast... Now they claim that 1MW is all you need to heat
and accelerate this fuel, without fusing it. I don't think so. And 
I don't think you could run a HEPlaR off an MHD turbine. especially not
in an atmophere. 
Fix?
Well, how about the following? HEPlaR is High Efficiency Plasma Recombustion.
You take a fusion rocket (low thrust/low fuel consumption) and add
an "afterburner" to it -  extra fuel is injected in the chamber and 
some of it fused, but mostly just acting as reaction mass... 
In an atmosphere you use waste heat from a fusion reactor to heat 
atmospheric gases and accellerate them out the back. If you're using 
an MHD you merely hook the turbine exhaust up ta an afterburner, buurning 
hydrogen conventionally.

cheers,
-ben

------------------------------

Date: Wed, 13 Sep 1995 00:19:05 -0700 (MST)
From: Thanasis Kinias <tkinias@asu.edu>
To: traveller@MPGN.COM
Subject: Re: Virus deaths
Message-ID: <Pine.A32.3.91.950913001817.49140F-100000@research1.asu.edu>

	Regarding the "reality check" about Virus hitting TL8 Terra, 
under the collapse rules in the TNE rulebook, Terra 1995 (E868977-8 or 
so) would most likely not be significantly impacted.
	The maximum sustainable population for Terra is A; therefore no 
population loss.  On a roll of 1-3 there would be no tech level loss; 4-6 
gives end tech level 5-7.  This seems reasonable.
	By the way, Terra post-collapse (assuming collapse in 1995) would 
shake out to, on average, X868979-8, or under Wilds codes X868999-8 B.

	As an aside, regarding the Phalanx analogy, someone posted that 
it has to stop Mach 1-3 missiles.  Virtually all current-generation ASMs 
are subsonic cruise missiles like Harpoon or Exocet.  As Phalanx can 
engage starting at about 0.8 nm (c. 1400 m), it has about 5 s to engage a 
1000 km/hr target.  Just food for thought.

				Thanasis Kinias
				Student of Quantitative History
				  and Info. Tech. Computing Asst. Trainee
				Arizona State University
				Tempe, Ariz., U.S.A.




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End of TRAVELLER Digest 413
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