Starship Construction Techniques In The Honorverse ...

Les Shaddocks wrote:On n'était pas sûr d'arriver là où l'on voulait. En fait on était presque sûr de ne pas arriver là où l'on voulait. Il était même probable qu'on arrive là où l'on ne voulait pas.

Theemile wrote:Oh, and if a practically new, state of the art SD sustains "only" moderate structural damage, there is no way any Freighter, who has to fear a Pinnances's laser, is built to survive a comp failure.

The Service of the Sword - With One Stone wrote:But not at the pathetic acceleration of a normal merchantman. Not a lumbering, insignificant two hundred gees. Instead, the Dorado was burning through space at an utterly impossible two thousand gravities, fully four times Vanguard's own top rate.
The very shock of it froze Dominick in his chair for that first horrifying fraction of a second. It was insane—the crew would have had to cut the safety interlocks, disable the inertial compensator, and crank the nodes up to a level they couldn't possibly maintain for more than a minute or two before vaporizing under the stress.

FLHerne wrote:

Theemile wrote:Oh, and if a practically new, state of the art SD sustains "only" moderate structural damage, there is no way any Freighter, who has to fear a Pinnances's laser, is built to survive a comp failure.

It would seem they actually can (or at least deliberate disabling of the compensator, which is pretty much equivalent):

The Service of the Sword - With One Stone wrote:But not at the pathetic acceleration of a normal merchantman. Not a lumbering, insignificant two hundred gees. Instead, the Dorado was burning through space at an utterly impossible two thousand gravities, fully four times Vanguard's own top rate.
The very shock of it froze Dominick in his chair for that first horrifying fraction of a second. It was insane—the crew would have had to cut the safety interlocks, disable the inertial compensator, and crank the nodes up to a level they couldn't possibly maintain for more than a minute or two before vaporizing under the stress.

The Zahn short stories are great (the best IMO after Eric Flint's), but they certainly open a few cans of worms assuming they're canonical...

George J. Smith wrote:The possibility of boarding a ship that has gone Dutchman is very poor until some way of slowing it down can be achieved, even with the wedge shutting down almost immediately after compensator failure the ship still has momentum which has to be matched by any the chasing ship before boarding can be considered.

What would the effects of a wedge and compensator from the chasing ship have on the structure of the Dutchman?

What would the effect be on the personnel moving across from the chasing ship to the Dutchman?

What is the extent of the compensator on the boarding shuttles and pinnaces that would be used to approach the Dutchman?

Everything has to be matched to eliminate what I would refer to as the shearing affect of going from a compensator environment to a non-compensator environment, so wouldn't the chasing ship have to slow the Dutchman down to a speed where the small craft used would not need their own compensators?

munroburton wrote:

George J. Smith wrote:The possibility of boarding a ship that has gone Dutchman is very poor until some way of slowing it down can be achieved, even with the wedge shutting down almost immediately after compensator failure the ship still has momentum which has to be matched by any the chasing ship before boarding can be considered.

What would the effects of a wedge and compensator from the chasing ship have on the structure of the Dutchman?

What would the effect be on the personnel moving across from the chasing ship to the Dutchman?

What is the extent of the compensator on the boarding shuttles and pinnaces that would be used to approach the Dutchman?

Everything has to be matched to eliminate what I would refer to as the shearing affect of going from a compensator environment to a non-compensator environment, so wouldn't the chasing ship have to slow the Dutchman down to a speed where the small craft used would not need their own compensators?

I don't think momentum is as much as problem as you think it is. Once a ship's wedge is down, its acceleration becomes nil - it's effectively in free-fall along its vector. Even a humble pinnace can then match course and speed and dock. The only issue then is also matching to any rotations of the ship - simultaneously rolling and pitching could make it very difficult or impossible to board.

Compensators are only required during acceleration. I'm not sure, but I think they are also tied into the operation of a wedge - it is impossible to have an active compensator field without an impeller wedge.

Only when a starship's wedge is locked online and its compensators have failed is it impossible to board the runaway vessel - a previous poster already suggested they'd have to shoot out enough impeller nodes to kill the wedge in such a situation.

Compensator shear effects haven't been described to my recollection and I believe small crafts have been launched and recovered by vessels moving under power, so even if it exists, is a trivial issue.

Kytheros wrote:You need a functioning compensator to survive going through a wormhole. Compensators are definitely linked to the impeller rings and more specifically both alpha and beta drive nodes.
If compensators weren't directly linked to the nodes in some fashion, loosing a node could be compensated for by the overpowering (and reducing longevity) of other nodes in the ring, rather than reducing acceleration.

Theemile wrote:Actually there is a safeguard in Modern ships to drop the wedge automatically in the case where the compensator fails - of course the comp has to fail first, so there will be a couple seconds of Human jelly inducing acceleration before the wedge collapses, but it does keep the ship from screaming across the system unmanned.

From AAC - The destruction of Kuzak's Flagship:

Yet another hit slammed into HMS King Roger III. It stabbed deep, ripping through the wounds two of its predecessors had already torn. It breached the flagship's core hull, tearing its way into central engineering, and the superdreadnought's inertial compensator suddenly failed.
The emergency circuits shut down her impellers almost instantly, but "almost instantly" wasn't good enough for a ship under six hundred and twelve gravities of acceleration.
The ship sustained only moderate structural damage; none of her crew survived.

Oh, and if a practically new, state of the art SD sustains "only" moderate structural damage, there is no way any Freighter, who has to fear a Pinnances's laser, is built to survive a comp failure.

The Service of the Sword, With One Stone wrote:They were nearly finished when the bone-cracking sound of the collapsing wedge once again echoed through the Dorado. "There it goes," Pampas called from beneath the sensor monitor panel. "Hope the breakers can handle all this stress."
"We'll send a nasty letter to the manufacturer if they can't," Cardones said, looking over his own handiwork. Just wrap the receiver pack around the control cables, Sandler had said, and the remote control would be ready to rock. He just hoped he'd wrapped it properly. "How's it going in there?"
"Two minutes," Pampas said. "Maybe less."
The bridge door slid open, and Cardones turned as McLeod stepped in. "Forward sensor interlocks are disabled," he announced. "And I checked the lifeboat on my way back. Everything's ready."
"Good," Cardones said. "Georgio says two more minutes and we'll be off."
"I hope so," McLeod said sourly, stepping over to the helm and peering at the displays. "The Peep's still coming."
Cardones nodded, craning his neck to look at the impeller status display. "Looks like the breakers just closed again," he said. "Georgio?"
"Finished," Pampas said. "Let me make sure the wires are sealed and I'll be right with you."
"What's he doing down there?" McLeod asked, the worry in his voice tinged with suspicion.
Cardones took a deep breath. "He's just taken the compensators off line."
McLeod's mouth fell open a centimeter. "On a ship with a functional wedge? Are you insane? You fire up the impellers—"
His face suddenly changed. "That's why you had me wreck the interlocks," he breathed. "No compensators, no limit protection on the wedge—you fire it up now, and anyone aboard will be smeared across the bulkheads like jelly."
"Yes, I know," Cardones said evenly, looking back at the display. The Peep battlecruiser was on the move now, sweeping in with sudden new urgency toward the Dorado. Preparing, no doubt, to launch its boarding boats . . .
"Done," Pampas grunted.
"Good." Carefully, Cardones picked up the attaché case that contained Sandler's remote control system. "Let's go."

***Snip***

Ten thousand kilometers away, seated behind Pampas and McLeod in the lifeboat, Cardones gave the remote-control displays one final check. The heading was keyed, the course maneuver settings locked in. All was ready.
Mentally crossing his fingers, he pressed the button.
* * *
"Commodore!"
Koln's startled cry cut across the bridge, jerking Dominick's finger away from the firing key before he could push it and jerking his eyes toward the displays.
The Dorado was moving.
Not just a reflexive twitch or jerk, either. The merchantman was swinging around, scattering away the boarding boats swarming toward it, bringing itself nose-on to the Vanguard.
And with its wedge blazing away at full power, it leaped forward.
But not at the pathetic acceleration of a normal merchantman. Not a lumbering, insignificant two hundred gees. Instead, the Dorado was burning through space at an utterly impossible two thousand gravities, fully four times Vanguard's own top rate.
The very shock of it froze Dominick in his chair for that first horrifying fraction of a second. It was insane—the crew would have had to cut the safety interlocks, disable the inertial compensator, and crank the nodes up to a level they couldn't possibly maintain for more than a minute or two before vaporizing under the stress.
Impeller nodes that shouldn't have been operating in the first place!
"Evasive!" he snapped. "Ninety-degree starboard yaw—full power. Port broadside: fire at will."
The helmsman was on it in an instant, swinging the Vanguard hard over and kicking her into motion. But it was too late. The Dorado was turning right along with it, locked on and still coming.