Solarian warships/tech : "What is possible!"

Vince wrote:Even if they could kick out a streak drive design tomorrow, it would still take time to build (not even counting any time it would take to build any tools to make the parts) and then install. Just the install would take quite some time (ignoring the fact the streak drive is twice the size of the existing military hyper generators), based on how long it took Hancock Station to replace Nike's fusion reactor {CPT(jg) Tankersley's initial estimate}:

I could see a streak drive being tested before the end of the book, but this would be an experimental drive in a (reinforced?) modified small freighter, where the drive is relatively easy to access. I would assume once a design has sufficient bugs worked out for general deployment it will only be installed when ships come in for dockyard level overhauls.

Castenea wrote:I could see a streak drive being tested before the end of the book, but this would be an experimental drive in a (reinforced?) modified small freighter, where the drive is relatively easy to access.

i completely agree with this.

Castenea wrote: I would assume once a design has sufficient bugs worked out for general deployment it will only be installed when ships come in for dockyard level overhauls.

Not so much with this, maybe. Depending on the actual size of the nodes, hence the drive, it may be too physically large to just shoehorn into the existing fore and aft hammer heads. Not saying it can't be just that that is a dubious assumption.

There is going to have to be a "resizing" great or small of designs coming out of all the Haven yards just to accommodate the latest equipment SEM R&D is bringing (with permission to share, of course). If they can complete a functional Streak Drive by then, that may be the next best thing.
Of course not a lot of fiddling would have to be done with dispatch and courier ships and those could be kicked out of one of Hauptmann's civvy yards. They did, after all build the hulls for Torch.

pappilon wrote:

Castenea wrote: I would assume once a design has sufficient bugs worked out for general deployment it will only be installed when ships come in for dockyard level overhauls.

Not so much with this, maybe. Depending on the actual size of the nodes, hence the drive, it may be too physically large to just shoehorn into the existing fore and aft hammer heads. Not saying it can't be just that that is a dubious assumption.

There is going to have to be a "resizing" great or small of designs coming out of all the Haven yards just to accommodate the latest equipment SEM R&D is bringing (with permission to share, of course). If they can complete a functional Streak Drive by then, that may be the next best thing.
Of course not a lot of fiddling would have to be done with dispatch and courier ships and those could be kicked out of one of Hauptmann's civvy yards. They did, after all build the hulls for Torch.

One of the more confusing word phrase choices that RFC made was the "streak drive". The "streak drive" is not a drive--it has no propulsive ability at all--but is instead nothing more than a souped-up military hyper generator. And a hyper generator has nothing to do with the impeller nodes and is mounted near the center of the hull. (See IN FIRE FORGED, An Introduction to Modern Starship Armor Design, Figure 3: Star Knight General Arrangement where the hyper generator is located inside the center core hull with Fusion 2.)

It's probably more than a hyper generator, the grav shear issues are what made travel there so dangerous.

kzt wrote:It's probably more than a hyper generator, the grav shear issues are what made travel there so dangerous.

It was the grav shear of breaching the Iota wall that was so dangerous. Nobody had any direct evidence of what the conditions within the Iota or Kappa bands were because ships couldn't managed to make the transition through the Iota wall.

It's possible that there's some tweaks necessary to the impeller nodes, but I'd bet against is as at most they slightly stabilize a ship during transition - but ships can transition across bands with the wedge / sails down (and ships were able to enter hyper well before the impeller drive was even invented)

Jonathan_S wrote:

kzt wrote:It's probably more than a hyper generator, the grav shear issues are what made travel there so dangerous.

It was the grav shear of breaching the Iota wall that was so dangerous. Nobody had any direct evidence of what the conditions within the Iota or Kappa bands were because ships couldn't managed to make the transition through the Iota wall.

It's possible that there's some tweaks necessary to the impeller nodes, but I'd bet against is as at most they slightly stabilize a ship during transition - but ships can transition across bands with the wedge / sails down (and ships were able to enter hyper well before the impeller drive was even invented)

I stand educated. I guess I forgot that the Streak drive courrier/dispatch ships are indistinguishable from their more conventional cousins.

IIRC the discussion went that Gamma Center was working on it for decades, maybe centuries but it was only discoveries in several disparate fields that make it possible. So They have their own Sonia/Shannon. My assumption was all sorts of ship systems must, therefore be affected. Therefore not a simple upgrade.

Hi guys,

The Streak Drive is not a few tweaks, but the application of a lot more power in a 'brute force approach' among other things, according to the textev.

The MAlign db's are disguised as rather larger private yachts, to explain their apparent engine sizes and power output.

A new warship so equipped will require considerable redesign, and may take several years to perfect before it goes into production.

We'll have to wait for the new story arc before seeing anyone else using them but by then they may be just another '7-day wonder', taken for granted on the 8th day, as Heinlein said.

L

pappilon wrote:

Jonathan_S wrote:quote="kzt"It's probably more than a hyper generator, the grav shear issues are what made travel there so dangerous. quote

It was the grav shear of breaching the Iota wall that was so dangerous. Nobody had any direct evidence of what the conditions within the Iota or Kappa bands were because ships couldn't managed to make the transition through the Iota wall.

It's possible that there's some tweaks necessary to the impeller nodes, but I'd bet against is as at most they slightly stabilize a ship during transition - but ships can transition across bands with the wedge / sails down (and ships were able to enter hyper well before the impeller drive was even invented)

I stand educated. I guess I forgot that the Streak drive courrier/dispatch ships are indistinguishable from their more conventional cousins.

IIRC the discussion went that Gamma Center was working on it for decades, maybe centuries but it was only discoveries in several disparate fields that make it possible. So They have their own Sonia/Shannon. My assumption was all sorts of ship systems must, therefore be affected. Therefore not a simple upgrade.