Traveller-digest      Monday, October 11 1999      Volume 1999 : Number 1189



(R)1996. Traveller is a registered trademark of FarFuture Enterprises.
All rights reserved.

The following topics are covered in this digest:

Re: Battledress/Battlesuit Protection
RE: Firing two guns at once
Re: OT:  You Got Me To Go There (was Re: Hamlet in Space was: Re:  falkenbergs legions firing  into civilians)
Re: Parts Quest! ( was Re: Annic Nova (canon)) 
Re: Annic Nova 
Re: Parts Quest! ( was Re: Annic Nova (canon)) 
BD vs. Mechs
Re: 21st century spaceports
Re: The Four Flamewars of the Apocalypse
Re: Battledress/Battlesuit Protection (GT)
Re: Battledress/Battlesuit Protection (GT)
Re: Inevitable Near-C rocks?
Re: Inevitable Near-C rocks?
Does anyone play these games?
Spraying 'Near-c-rocks-B-gone' liberally
Re: Battledress/Battlesuit Protection (GT)
Re: Does anyone play these games?
Does anyone play these games?
Re: Starports in the 21C
Re:Mining Gas Giants
Re: Jump Technology
Re: FFW players out there?
Re: Annic Nova

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

Date: Mon, 11 Oct 1999 07:30:23
From: "Douglas E. Berry" <gridlore@pop.mindspring.com>
Subject: Re: Battledress/Battlesuit Protection

At 07:33 PM 10/11/1999 +1000, you wrote:

>Just curious with terminology now, but is a mecha (as you describe this) a
>vehicle or a suit?  My personal take on the term "Battle Dress" was that it
>was "worn" by the user, not sat in like a vehicle?  Could this be where a
>lot of confusion stems from with these things/issues?  Is this unit a mech
>or power assisted armour?

Traveller's Battledress is a suit of powered armour, ala Heinlein's
_Starship Troopers_ or Haldeman's _Forever War_.  Man sized, with human
limbs going into the suit's limbs.

Mecha are the traditional anime.magna giant combat robots.  Best examples
are Battletech's Mechs and Robotech.

As an aside, even though I find the concept of 10 meter tall humanoid
combat mechs utterly ridiculous, the Battletech novels from FASA are great
reading.  Mike Stackpole has written several excellent series focusing on
the leaders of the Inner Sphere over a fifty year period.  Find the 10th
Anniversary printing of the _Warrior_ Trilogy for a good read.
- -- 

Douglas E. Berry       gridlore@mindspring.com
http://gridlore.home.mindspring.com/index.html

Embrace Fascism.    The uniforms look cool

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

Date: Mon, 11 Oct 1999 07:34:41
From: "Douglas E. Berry" <gridlore@pop.mindspring.com>
Subject: RE: Firing two guns at once

At 05:22 PM 10/11/1999 +1300, you wrote:

>Unless that's where you've got a couple more full clips, in which case 
>it goes in the pouch on the other side of your webbing. IME mixing near 
>empty and full mags can lead to nasty surprises.

In really intense situations the empty mags go into the right cargo pocket
of my BDUs.  I may not have time to look down and fiddle with the ammo pouch.

If I'm in exceedingly deep kimchee, just let the mag drop.  Reloading is a
higher priority.
- -- 

Douglas E. Berry       gridlore@mindspring.com
http://gridlore.home.mindspring.com/index.html

We all enter the world in the same way: naked, screaming, soaked in blood.
But if you live your life right, that kind of thing doesn't have to stop
there.  
- -- Dana Gould 

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

Date: Mon, 11 Oct 1999 07:47:57
From: "Douglas E. Berry" <gridlore@pop.mindspring.com>
Subject: Re: OT:  You Got Me To Go There (was Re: Hamlet in Space was: Re:  falkenbergs legions firing  into civilians)

At 03:03 AM 10/11/1999 -0300, you wrote:

>        Hi, Doug!
>        No, it was the *stupidest* in Trek canon.  In "Balance of Terror"
>Kirk uses hose-the-hex concept proximity fuzed torpedoes to simply shell the
>stuffing out of the area that Spock had been able to localize the probable
>location of the Bird of Prey.  In fact, at one point, Spock is even able to
>optically "eaves-drop" on a bridge camera, even though unable to exactly
>pin-point the ship location...

You missed a few:

Excelsior was the ship doing the gas giant cartography, yet suddenly it's
the Enterprise that has the specialized equipment to detect gasses?

They don't do this normally?  Might be a good idea to detect these things
from time to time.

The only person on the bridge crew who thinks of this is Uhura, the commo
officer.  And she uses a reference to internal combustion engines to make
her point!

Out of a crew of over 400, the two most qualified to reprogram a torpedo
are the ship's science and medical officers?  I guess the gunnery crews
were on their coffee breaks...

>        Excelsior was even less impressive, given that her ROF on her
>torpedo tubes seemed to be 50% that of the Enterprise.  And when they beamed
>down to prevent the assasination, where were the hundred-odd guys in Red
>Shirts from between the two ships?

They were all dead.  Killed by shape-shifting salt vampires that were
paralel Earth Nazis.

>        Fun movie, yes.  However, suffered horribly from a good case of
>canon-ignorance.

Ah, well.. it was a fun sequence even with the holes.  Christopher Plummer
gets my vote for Best Klingon.
- --

Douglas E. Berry       gridlore@mindspring.com
http://gridlore.home.mindspring.com/sylea.html
Inquisitor Maximus, Reformed Canon Church of Sylea

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

Date: Mon, 11 Oct 1999 07:52:41
From: "Douglas E. Berry" <gridlore@pop.mindspring.com>
Subject: Re: Parts Quest! ( was Re: Annic Nova (canon)) 

At 10:39 PM 10/10/1999 -0500, you wrote:

>Strategic TML Wisecrack Reduction Treaty-STMLWRT.
>Strategic Tml Wisecrack Reduction Treaty-STWRT. 
>Strategic Mailing List Wisecrack Reduction Treaty-SMLWRT.
>
>Nope. Sorry, until we can come up with a cool acronym fot the treaty's name
>I don't see how we can sit down and negotiate. We wouldn't know what we
>were negotiating about. 

Spewage Prevention, Lessening, or Removal Treaty.

SPLORT.

Bye!
- -- 

Douglas E. Berry       gridlore@mindspring.com
http://gridlore.home.mindspring.com/index.html

"Soon the rapacious sea chickens/will carry you off
and wrap you in a hard shell, yum yum."
       Poorly translated Argentine Taco Bell jingle.

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

Date: Mon, 11 Oct 1999 11:33:22 -0400
From: "Keven R. Pittsinger" <jamstar@accesstoledo.com>
Subject: Re: Annic Nova 

> Keven R. Pittsinger wrote:
> >>>>>>>>
> Assume it's not 100% efficient, and keep in mind that different stars put 
> out different amounts, intensities and *colours* of lights.  A real dim red 
> dwarf isn't going to put out anything *near* what a Sol-sized G will. 
>  Also, the panel is 1 klick in diameter, and it's a *circle*, so you aren't 
> going to get a full 1 sq km of collector.
> >>>>>>>
> Not to mention any amounts of time the collector ends up at an angle
> to direct sunlight due to maneuvering needs. Assuming, of course,
> that you can even manuever this ship with that toothpick & tissue paper
> kite unfolded.

I always assumed it was sturdy enough to handle minor course corrections
without a problem.  The hot setup to me always appeared to be, you manuver the
ship to where you wanted it, parked it in orbit, *then* deployed the canopy.

Keven

- -- 
tc++ tm+ tn t4- to ru++ ge+ 3i c+ jt au st- ls pi+ ta+ he+ so- vi zh sy
- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                     Science-Fiction Adventure
                                                     In Reavers' Deep

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

Date: Mon, 11 Oct 1999 11:19:59 -0400
From: "Keven R. Pittsinger" <jamstar@accesstoledo.com>
Subject: Re: Parts Quest! ( was Re: Annic Nova (canon)) 

> > OK, can we *PLEASE* get back to discussing Eris' fur now???
> 
> Is Eris being hunted for his pelt?  (I realize that some of his players
> might be out for his _hide_, but that's not quite the same thing.)

Neither, actually.  It's just an attempt of ours to help treat his chronic low
blood pressure.  <grin>

Keven

- -- 
tc++ tm+ tn t4- to ru++ ge+ 3i c+ jt au st- ls pi+ ta+ he+ so- vi zh sy
- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                     Science-Fiction Adventure
                                                     In Reavers' Deep

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

Date: Mon, 11 Oct 1999 11:50:19 -0400
From: Mark Urbin <eclipse@ultranet.com>
Subject: BD vs. Mechs

BattleDress is use RAH's term, "a suit you wear".  A Mech is a vehicle with 
a cockpit that uses mechanical legs for one method of propulsion.  A 
solider in battledress is a trooper.  A solider in a mech is a pilot.

Thus a mech may pump it's mechanical legs at speeds and stress levels that 
would rip off human legs, since the pilot's legs are doing nothing more 
than operating some pedals in the cockpit.

In Battledress, the operator's legs are in the suit's legs.  If a person 
wearing battledress needs to move really fast, they don't run.  Battledress 
troopers require a IFV for mobility until they all get grav belts.


- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
eclipse@ultranet.com -- These opinions are mine, no one else wants `em.
It was a typical net.exercise -- a screaming mob pounding on a greasy spot
on the pavement, where used to lie the carcass of a dead horse.
                  http://www.ultranet.com/~eclipse/
- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------

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

Date: Mon, 11 Oct 1999 10:54:17 -0500
From: "Smart, David J (David)" <dasmart@lucent.com>
Subject: Re: 21st century spaceports

Leonard Erickson posted:
>
>Well, until you get to the really ridiculous drive efficiencies at
>later TLs, you want to be near the equator (gives you a thousand mile
>an hour boost), at high altitude (saves fighting air resistance).
>
>Other considerations are having a whole lot of not much along the
>prevailing launch path. That's why Kennedy is used for typical shots,
>and Vandenberg is used for polar shots. Nothing but empty ocean for the
>pieces to fall on if there's a problem.

Unfortunately, the Challenger (r.i.p.) brought this point home to a
number of people (but not enough). Even after the Challenger disaster,
few people are aware of the existence of a Range Officer who's sole
purpose during launch is to destroy the launching vehicle (and any crew)
in mid-air should it appear the vehicle would go down over land. I've
heard the Kennedy's Range Officer makes it a point to meet with all the
members of a launching crew. An urban myth, perhaps, but still sobering.

To end on a positive note, another launch option, floating mid-ocean
launch platforms, was successfully used for the first time just 
yesterday.

To quote the BBC:
- -----------------
SEA LAUNCH HERALDS NEW SPACE ERA
Sunday, October 10, 1999 Published at 05:37 GMT 06:37 UK

An international consortium has carried out the first
sea-launch of a commercial satellite, heralding a new era
in the space business. 

A Russian rocket Zenith-3SL bearing an American TV
broadcasting satellite took off from a floating platform in
the Pacific Ocean...
- -----------------

The full article, if anyone is interested, is at:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_470000/470408.stm

BTW, Galileo did a bangup job on its flyby of Io last night; the
closest ever (about 380 miles).

David

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

Date: Mon, 11 Oct 1999 11:53:03 -0600
From: "David J. Golden" <goldendj@pcisys.net>
Subject: Re: The Four Flamewars of the Apocalypse

>I've just lost two keyboards in a matter of minuets. Stop it please
>you killing me.

	I'm not even going to touch the question of why you're dancing with
keyboards ...

- -- "An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind" 
   -- Mahatma Gandhi

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

Date: Mon, 11 Oct 1999 09:02:55 -0700 (PDT)
From: Anthony Jackson <ajackson@molly.iii.com>
Subject: Re: Battledress/Battlesuit Protection (GT)

Terry Carlino writes:

> ObTrav:(Yes there is something)If missiles are better anti-BD weapons than
> FGMP's will BD troops have integrated missile launchers for use against
> other BD troops?

The problem with missiles is that they're quite heavy and expensive per shot.  A
grenade launcher is quite possibly more effective here; you can build nice
lightweight 60mm electromagnetic grenade launchers which will toast BD as
well.

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

Date: Mon, 11 Oct 1999 09:09:56 PDT
From: "Brandon Cope" <copeab@hotmail.com>
Subject: Re: Battledress/Battlesuit Protection (GT)

>From: shadow@krypton.rain.com (Leonard Erickson)

> >> >"How effective is a panzerfaust against a troll, Heinz?"
> >

> > Ah, I see I'm not the only one to have read that Dragon article ...
>
>Must have been a reprint. The original was in The Strategic Review, the
>TSR "newslettr" that preceeded the Dragon.
>

Best of Dragon, Volume #1.

A generous and sadistic GM,

Brandon Cope

______________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com

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

Date: Mon, 11 Oct 1999 09:15:55 -0700 (PDT)
From: Anthony Jackson <ajackson@molly.iii.com>
Subject: Re: Inevitable Near-C rocks?

GypsyComet@aol.com writes:
 
> Simple prep-time limitations. If you can choose between having a factory
> back  home chunk out nukes while you use the last batch, or having to find
> and rig  an appropriate rock onsite, you go for the factory. It doesn't take
> the guys  in the field hardly any time at all to just push launch buttons...

Prep time really isn't that bad, because you don't actually need the rock --
just use the T-plate as your weapon.  If you take a 10 (static) ton 10-G
T-plate missile and fire it from an AU at a planet, it takes about 15 hours
to arrive, is moving at 1.8% of lightspeed, and has a kinetic energy of
.5*10^17 joules (about 35 megatons).  Of course, since you can just put a
nuke with considerably higher power on that missile (minimum weight for
nuclear weapons is a bit over 10 kilograms per megaton) it isn't worth doing
if you don't fire from 10 AU or so, and it provides so much warning that it
can be conveniently shot down by planetary defenses.

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

Date: Mon, 11 Oct 1999 09:15:55 -0700 (PDT)
From: Anthony Jackson <ajackson@molly.iii.com>
Subject: Re: Inevitable Near-C rocks?

GypsyComet@aol.com writes:
 
> Simple prep-time limitations. If you can choose between having a factory
> back  home chunk out nukes while you use the last batch, or having to find
> and rig  an appropriate rock onsite, you go for the factory. It doesn't take
> the guys  in the field hardly any time at all to just push launch buttons...

Prep time really isn't that bad, because you don't actually need the rock -- just use the T-plate as your weapon.  If you take a 10 (static) ton 10-G T-plate missile and fire it from an AU at a planet, it takes about 15 hours to arrive, is moving at 1.8% of lightspeed, and has a kinetic energy of 1.5*10^17 joules (about 35 megatons).  Of course, since you can just put a nuke with considerably higher power on that missile (minimum weight for nuclear weapons is a bit over 10 kilograms per megaton) it isn't worth doing if you don't fire from 10 AU or so, and it provides so much warning that it can be conveniently shot down by planetary defenses.

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

Date: Mon, 11 Oct 1999 09:27:18 -0700
From: "Luther Martin" <martin@ksarul.com>
Subject: Does anyone play these games?

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A general question, prompted by the replies to my posting about the FFW =
game. Does anyone actually <em>play</em> these games (FFW, IE, AHL, etc) =
anymore, or do people just put the box on a shelf and look at it =
aperiodically?=20

Luther Martin

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<HTML><HEAD>
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</HEAD>
<BODY bgColor=3D#ffffff>
<DIV><FONT face=3DArial size=3D2>A general question, prompted by the =
replies to my=20
posting about the FFW game. Does anyone actually =
&lt;em&gt;play&lt;/em&gt; these=20
games (FFW, IE, AHL, etc) anymore, or do people just put the box on a =
shelf and=20
look at it aperiodically? </FONT></DIV>
<DIV>&nbsp;</DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=3DArial size=3D2>Luther =
Martin</FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>

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Date: Mon, 11 Oct 1999 09:29:56 -0700 (PDT)
From: Craig Berry <cberry@cinenet.net>
Subject: Spraying 'Near-c-rocks-B-gone' liberally

> Date: Sun, 10 Oct 1999 22:41:47 -0400
> From: "Chris Peers" <peersce@mindspring.com>
> 
> You know, about the near-c rocks...

Oh, god, what have I *done*...

[snip, cutting to 'reasons the Impies don't crack planets']
> 1) political backlash
> 2) revenge by the Zhodani
> 3) it would make the war very, very personal, and harden the Zhodani,
> perhaps into a more expansionistic government.

I'm going to attempt to put the lid on this thing now, because otherwise
you will all attempt to strangle me.

Yes, you can make credible arguments why "great powers", who heed some
sort of Rules of War for the reasons you outline, would voluntarily
refrain from using weapons of mass destruction like near-c rocks and
biological agents.  The analogy is to the avoidance of nuclear weapons use
during the Cold War. 

However, the reason near-c rocks are especially difficult to deal with is
that they are so ludicrously easy to create in Traveller (if you're using
t-plates, that is).  Anybody, down to and including a group of average PCs
with an average ship, can create a world-cracking weapon with nothing more
than a few months' effort.  Even if the great powers don't use them,
terrorist groups (and estranged boyfriends and disgruntled x-boat workers)
will.

We've been through this a zillion times, and unfortunately there's no way
(short of getting rid of t-plates) to explain the Traveller universe as
presented *not* having experienced numerous, well-known near-c rock
incidents.  It's one of those things (like the energy/momentum problems
underylying t-plates, which is in fact the root cause of this dilemma)
that you (the GM) simply need to handwave out of existence to make the
official Traveller universe work.  Conversely, you can either ban t-plates
(a la TNE) or accept near-c rocks, and get a notably different universe.

Trust me, there is *no way* to make t-plates and Imperial military history
as stated work consistently.  A handwaved ban on near-c rocks is the only
solution.

- -- 
   |   Craig Berry - cberry@cinenet.net
 --*--    Home Page: http://www.cinenet.net/users/cberry/home.html
   |      "There it is; take it."  - William Mulholland

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

Date: Mon, 11 Oct 1999 09:29:55 PDT
From: "Brandon Cope" <copeab@hotmail.com>
Subject: Re: Battledress/Battlesuit Protection (GT)

>From: Anthony Jackson <ajackson@molly.iii.com>
>
>Terry Carlino writes:
>
> > ObTrav:(Yes there is something)If missiles are better anti-BD weapons 
>than
> > FGMP's will BD troops have integrated missile launchers for use against
> > other BD troops?
>
>The problem with missiles is that they're quite heavy and expensive >per 
>shot.  A grenade launcher is quite possibly more effective here; >you can 
>build nice lightweight 60mm electromagnetic grenade >launchers which will 
>toast BD as well.

Missiles (guided) are expensive; rockets (unguided) are cheap. However, as 
you have previously pointed out, the combination of laminate and 
thermal-superconducting armor will reduce a (10) divisor to (2.5)., so HEAT 
warheads are not exceptionally effective.

A generous and sadistic GM,

Brandon Cope

______________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com

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

Date: Mon, 11 Oct 1999 11:59:46 -0500
From: ehenry@newberlin.org (Eric Henry)
Subject: Re: Does anyone play these games?

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What do the abbreviations stand for?
    -----Original Message-----
    From: Luther Martin <martin@ksarul.com>
   =20
   =20
    A general question, prompted by the replies to my posting about the =
FFW game. Does anyone actually <em>play</em> these games (FFW, IE, AHL, =
etc) anymore, or do people just put the box on a shelf and look at it =
aperiodically?=20


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<HEAD>

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<BODY bgColor=3D#ffffff>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 size=3D2>What do the abbreviations stand=20
for?</FONT></DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE=20
style=3D"BORDER-LEFT: #000000 solid 2px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; PADDING-LEFT: =
5px">
    <DIV><FONT face=3DArial size=3D2><B>-----Original =
Message-----</B><BR><B>From:=20
    </B>Luther Martin &lt;<A=20
    =
href=3D"mailto:martin@ksarul.com">martin@ksarul.com</A>&gt;<BR><BR></DIV>=
</FONT>
    <DIV><FONT face=3DArial size=3D2>A general question, prompted by the =
replies to=20
    my posting about the FFW game. Does anyone actually=20
    &lt;em&gt;play&lt;/em&gt; these games (FFW, IE, AHL, etc) anymore, =
or do=20
    people just put the box on a shelf and look at it aperiodically?=20
    </FONT></DIV>
    <DIV>&nbsp;</DIV></BLOCKQUOTE></BODY></HTML>

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Date: Mon, 11 Oct 1999 09:51:56 -0700
From: "Luther Martin" <martin@ksarul.com>
Subject: Does anyone play these games?

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The abbreviations stand for Fifth Frontier War, Invasion Earth, Azhanti =
High Lightning, and et cetera. The first three are Traveller games =
published by GDW many years ago. The last is Latin, of course.=20

Luther Martin

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<HTML><HEAD>
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<BODY bgColor=3D#ffffff>
<DIV><FONT face=3DArial size=3D2>The abbreviations stand for Fifth =
Frontier War,=20
Invasion Earth, Azhanti High Lightning, and et cetera. The first three =
are=20
Traveller games published by GDW many years ago. The last is Latin, of =
course.=20
</FONT></DIV>
<DIV>&nbsp;</DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=3DArial size=3D2>Luther =
Martin</FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>

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

Date: Mon, 11 Oct 1999 09:53:41 -0700 (PDT)
From: Craig Berry <cberry@cinenet.net>
Subject: Re: Starports in the 21C

> Date: Mon, 11 Oct 1999 17:22:33 +1300
> From: "Rupert Boleyn" <rboleyn@paradise.net.nz>
> 
> Yeah, and I really want to dip my nice red-hot crytaliron hull in a 
> brine bath. Seriously IMO landing recently re-entered, and thus 
> somewhat warm, starships in salty sea water is proably not going to do 
> much for their longevity.

Note that once you get CG, reentry heating is history; you can waft down
gentle as a snowflake.  Even for hot reentries, water landing might make a
lot of sense; as mentioned, it's safer (for both ship and city) than
coming in over land.  And a ship doing hot reentries is probably going to
have some sort of expendable (or at least frequently replaced) ablative
skin, like the current Shuttle, so longevity isn't a factor.

IIRC, Pournelle used water landings (is that an oxymoron?) as the normal
mode of operations in his Codominium books.

- -- 
   |   Craig Berry - cberry@cinenet.net
 --*--    Home Page: http://www.cinenet.net/users/cberry/home.html
   |      "There it is; take it."  - William Mulholland

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

Date: Mon, 11 Oct 1999 09:56:28 -0700
From: Richard Hough <rdhough@home.com>
Subject: Re:Mining Gas Giants

>Oooo! This is too good a story idea! I might just have to write an adventure
>module. Please don't tell me it's already been done.

JTAS 26 (yes, one by IG) had a short story about a medical emergency in a
gas giant mine. Mine employees lived and breathed in a high-pressure
superoxygenated liquid. One of the better things IG published.
- --
Richard Hough
rdhough@home.com

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

Date: Mon, 11 Oct 1999 10:23:54 -0700
From: "Benyamene' ZeAbe' Akella" <xrp@sierratel.com>
Subject: Re: Jump Technology

> Do you have an URL for where this is posted?
Sure! The base URL is:
http://www.atlantic-online.ns.ca/traveller/

Under the Library Data I snagged this:

Bakarov-Turner Hyperdrive

Also referred to in slang as the "jump drive" the Bakarov-Turner Hyperdrive
is the device which allows starships to cross interstellar distances
in reasonable amounts of time. The drive works, in simplistic terms, by
focusing phenomenal amounts of energy from semi-controlled fusion
reactions through a carefully aligned matrix of fero-metalic crystals to
produce a tachyon stream. When two tachyon streams collide, they
overwhelm the ability of the fabric of space-time to maintain the itegrity
of its normal curvature. A "rift-fold" opens at that point of
breakdown.

By manipulating the exact duration and quantum levels of energy, the
rift-fold in space can be manipulated to "touch" another point in space.
The starship "falls" into the rift-fold and after an average of 168 standard
hours "drops" back into normal space. Note that the time to "jump"
from one point in space to another is roughly constant, regardless of the
actual distance travelled.

Another issue of note is that the normal curvature of space-time is directly
affected by the tidal effects of gravity wells. Planets, stars and other
similarly massive objects increase the existing rate of curvature
dramatically within thier proximity. This in turn requires higher and higher
levels of energy to create and stabilize the rift-fold. At less than 100
diameters of the object, the amount of energy required is almost doubled,
which directly affects the life and stablity of the rift-fold. At less than
10 diameters of the object, the amount of energy required essentially
makes managing the creation of the rift-fold impossible.

If the rift-fold does not open or close under the control of the
Bakarov-Turner Hyperdrive, what results is called a Fold-Implosion. This is
usually fatal to the starship.

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

Date: Mon, 11 Oct 1999 10:51:33 -0700
From: "Benyamene' ZeAbe' Akella" <xrp@sierratel.com>
Subject: Re: FFW players out there?

> I don't have the program I'm about to mention, but I'm given to
> understand that the Aide De Camp software is an excellent way to convert
> _any_ board wargame to computer moderation.

Do you know where one might find this?

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

Date: Mon, 11 Oct 1999 13:00:15 -0500
From: Steven Bonneville <bonnevil@ima.umn.edu>
Subject: Re: Annic Nova

Okay, here's some more Annic Nova power numbers.

1) Solar collector.

  >> Okay.  Assuming 1 kW/m^2 incident radiation, a perfectly efficient solar
  >> collector would generate 1 GW of power if it has an area of a square km; 
  >> over one to six weeks, that's going to be somewhere between 600 to 3600
  >> terajoules of energy.
  >
  > Assume it's not 100% efficient, and keep in mind that different stars
  > put out different amounts, intensities and *colours* of lights.  A real
  > dim red dwarf isn't going to put out anything *near* what a Sol-sized G
  > will.  Also, the panel is 1 klick in diameter, and it's a *circle*, so 
  > you aren't going to get a full 1 sq km of collector.

  Well, a disk 1 km in diameter is about 78% the size, but on reflection my
  numbers for solar radiation in the habitable zone are probably low.  I'm
  going to stick with 1 GW at 100% efficiency for the sake of discussion,
  although you'll see that a decent case can be made for half that.

  Note that a 1 km diameter black globe is effectively a 100% efficiency
  solar collector.

  In High Guard terms this is equivalent to a 4 EP power plant at most, 
  which is only a PowerPlant-0.5 for the 800-ton Annic Nova.  No fuel
  required, though.

2) Using jump fuel tonnage in a High Guard power plant.

  A 800-ton ship capable of jump-5 carries 400 tons of jump fuel.  If a
  normal High Guard power plant converts all this fuel to power, it would
  generate 400 EP for a month.  Traditionally, 1 EP == 250 MW, so 400 EP
  would be 100 GW, which for a month is 259200 terajoules of energy.

3) Jump capacitor storage, standard, High Guard.

  A jump-2 and a jump-3 drive in an 800-ton ship contain 28 tons of 
  capacitors if both have them, 16 tons if both share the jump-3 unit's
  capacitors (assuming 50% of jump drive is capacitors).  One ton of a
  capacitor can accept the equivalent of 36 EP of power for one turn;
  that's 9000 MW for 20 minutes, or exactly 10.8 terajoules per ton
  of capacitor.

  28 tons of capacitor then holds 302.4 terajoules of energy; 16 tons 
  holds 172.8 terajoules of energy.

4) Power plant to generate 300 TJ of energy.

  Okay.  Number 1 and 3 are in the same ballpark; let's pick the smaller
  and say we need 300 terajoules to initiate a jump-2 and jump-3.  If we
  need to generate that in two turns, that requires a 125 GW power plant
  to charge it (500 EP, at tech-15 500 tons and MCr 1500).

  If we need to generate that much power in a week, then it's more like
  a 500 MW power plant (2 EP, at tech-15 2 tons and MCr 6).  This makes
  sense; 300 GJ is half the 600 GJ number we got from the 1 GW (4 EP) 
  solar collector in number one.

It's clear that the jump drive is much less efficient at turning LHyd
into energy than the fusion power plant; but a power plant which can 
generate that much power that fast is much bigger than the jump drive.

If it takes 300 terajoules to initiate a jump-5, then it probably takes
60 terajoules to initiate a jump-1.  For a LHyd powered ship, there's
also going to be a lot of unfused hydrogen and fusion products floating 
around somewhere.

 -----

Christopher Thrash <thrash@io.com> wrote:

> Moreover, according to HG2 "energy that contacts the black globe is
> diverted to capacitors ... contained in the ship's jump drive" and
> "[s]tored energy may be removed from the capacitors by using it to power
> the ship." As Thom Jones-Low pointed out, "If a ship absorbs enough energy
> to make a jump, and is supplied with sufficient fuel, it may jump at the
> end of the turn." /Annic Nova/ dispenses with the fuel requirement. 

Exactly.  Furthermore, the Imperium clearly has the other two pieces of
the Annic Nova puzzle; perfectly efficient solar collectors (the black
globe) and long-term accumulators (black globe capacitors).  Note the
implication here -- if the Imperium had the Nova's no-jump-fuel-needed
jump drive technology, then BG-equipped warships could refuel just by
turning on the globe!  The downside is that they couldn't refuel quite
so fast....
  
  -- Steve Bonneville

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

End of Traveller-digest V1999 #1189
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