Honorverse ramblings and musings

Shape of things to come?

I love the Honorverse -- don't get me wrong. But I always thought that its ship design was a bit... boring. After the many various ships and shapes in the Sci-Fi world, my mind played a trick on me whilst reading On Basilisk Station -- also my starting point in the series. You cannot imagine the shape of Fearless imagined in my head.

Enter the MAlign, they have introduced an entirely new ship design. Perhaps this will open the door to more exciting designs. Do you think the time has come?

Or will the spindle design remain the most optimum design? Determined by the ships' propulsion system?

Or will the MAlign help usher in a new age of varying tech and ship design?

Question.

Grayson's fusion tech helped increase the power budget of missile warfare, ECM, etc. It also had an effect on the power budget of LACs which affected graser performance.

Yet I don't recall that the power budget of SDs or ships of the wall was affected by the advances of the tech. Am I correct?

Fusion???

kzt wrote:Fusion???

Oops. Sorry, I meant fission. Steve Harvey's little (huge) snafu is catchy this season...

"I take full responsibility. It's right here on the cue card. It says fission. Honest. We're going to have to take the crown from Miss Fusion."

cthia wrote:Oops. Sorry, I meant fission. Steve Harvey's little (huge) snafu is catchy this season...

"I take full responsibility. It's right here on the cue card. It says fission. Honest. We're going to have to take the crown from Miss Fusion."

Well, that is magic. It makes no logical sense - the numbers don't work at all. So it is whatever David wants to say it is.

kzt wrote:

cthia wrote:Oops. Sorry, I meant fission. Steve Harvey's little (huge) snafu is catchy this season...

"I take full responsibility. It's right here on the cue card. It says fission. Honest. We're going to have to take the crown from Miss Fusion."

Well, that is magic. It makes no logical sense - the numbers don't work at all. So it is whatever David wants to say it is.

While KZT is correct, The Honorverse explanation is petty much this:

The Fission plant created out of Grayson fission technologies and Manticore's technology updates, slots in between the small laser fusion power plants which power pinnances and small craft and the Grav pinched fusion plant which powers starships.

The smallest Grav pinched power plant is sufficient to power all the power needs of a CA. Traditionally this same plant was installed in a LAC - leaving very little room for other hardware and fuel.

The fission plant provides barely enough power to run a LAC - but it produces a consistent power output with no fuel needs (the fuel is replaced every 18 months). When coupled with several large supercapacitor rings, it provides enough power to run the LAC systems. (It pulls power off the rings for peak power and slowly refills the capacitors when peak power is not needed.

It would require multiple fission plants/supercapacitor ring systems to supplant 1 fusion plant, and the fission systems would weigh more than the fusion plant per unit output. Because of this, the fission plant systems are not the proper power systems for all up starships.

Theemile wrote:
While KZT is correct, The Honorverse explanation is petty much this:

The Fission plant created out of Grayson fission technologies and Manticore's technology updates, slots in between the small laser fusion power plants which power pinnances and small craft and the Grav pinched fusion plant which powers starships.

The smallest Grav pinched power plant is sufficient to power all the power needs of a CA. Traditionally this same plant was installed in a LAC - leaving very little room for other hardware and fuel.

The fission plant provides barely enough power to run a LAC - but it produces a consistent power output with no fuel needs (the fuel is replaced every 18 months). When coupled with several large supercapacitor rings, it provides enough power to run the LAC systems. (It pulls power off the rings for peak power and slowly refills the capacitors when peak power is not needed.

It would require multiple fission plants/supercapacitor ring systems to supplant 1 fusion plant, and the fission systems would weigh more than the fusion plant per unit output. Because of this, the fission plant systems are not the proper power systems for all up starships.

And throw in some fan speculation about grav-pinch fusion scaling issues leading to catastrophically poor efficiency when dialed down to the power level of a LAC. (Something like consuming 90+% of the generated energy just to run the reactor).

And we don't know what type of containment / ignition the microfusion plants in missiles and drones use; just that it's miniaturized enough to squeeze into such a tiny form factor. IIRC RFC said they're poorly shielded as they don't need to keep from irradiating nearby humans. (And most likely they've only a operational lifetime, between major rebuilds, of no more than a week or so)

Due for a tech reboot. On a misty night the first Boeing 707 and the Airbus 380 look a little alike, despite being generations apart. Same with the original 1960s Ford GT40 and the latest supercars (Ferrari, or Lamborghini). a certain tech ends up with an optimum shape.

Whereas a totally new tech will lead to new development.

cthia wrote:Shape of things to come?

I love the Honorverse -- don't get me wrong. But I always thought that its ship design was a bit... boring. After the many various ships and shapes in the Sci-Fi world, my mind played a trick on me whilst reading On Basilisk Station -- also my starting point in the series. You cannot imagine the shape of Fearless imagined in my head.

Enter the MAlign, they have introduced an entirely new ship design. Perhaps this will open the door to more exciting designs. Do you think the time has come?

Or will the spindle design remain the most optimum design? Determined by the ships' propulsion system?

Or will the MAlign help usher in a new age of varying tech and ship design?

Daryl wrote:Due for a tech reboot. On a misty night the first Boeing 707 and the Airbus 380 look a little alike, despite being generations apart. Same with the original 1960s Ford GT40 and the latest supercars (Ferrari, or Lamborghini). a certain tech ends up with an optimum shape.

Whereas a totally new tech will lead to new development.

cthia wrote:Shape of things to come?

I love the Honorverse -- don't get me wrong. But I always thought that its ship design was a bit... boring. After the many various ships and shapes in the Sci-Fi world, my mind played a trick on me whilst reading On Basilisk Station -- also my starting point in the series. You cannot imagine the shape of Fearless imagined in my head.

Enter the MAlign, they have introduced an entirely new ship design. Perhaps this will open the door to more exciting designs. Do you think the time has come?

Or will the spindle design remain the most optimum design? Determined by the ships' propulsion system?

Or will the MAlign help usher in a new age of varying tech and ship design?

Makes sense to me. Which is why I suggested that perhaps the MAlign has inadvertently ushered in a new age of ship design. Certainly if the rest of the galaxy cannot deal with its tech without adopting it.

Don't take an impeller drive to a Spider fight?

Why were any of Haven's LACs ever able to compete against any Manty LAC? Haven's LAC's had no benefit of the new fission tech therefore were much larger and targetable along with the lack of bow walls on the Shrikes. But even w/o the Shrikes, beam for beam any Manty LAC should have been superior. Compounded by better Manty TOP GUN training. No?

I can't recall why Havenite LAC's were even marginally competitive.