MaxxQ wrote:Stuff deleted for Brevity
The Rolly Things™ behind the "conning tower" (not really what it is, we just call it that) are the heat sumps that dump the heat into the wedge/Alpha wall.
So THAT's what they are!
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Re: Heat Disposal on ships | |
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by ericth » Fri Apr 14, 2017 2:06 pm | |
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So THAT's what they are! |
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by Somtaaw » Fri Apr 14, 2017 2:23 pm | |
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Must be the battlesteel, somehow has absolutely ridiculous heat shedding ability |
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Re: Heat Disposal on ships | |
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by Bill Woods » Sat Apr 15, 2017 3:58 am | |
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At 0.99c, kinetic energy would be about 6 times rest mass, or about 130 megatons per kilogram. Putting an explosive warhead on it would be superfluous. Of course, reaching 0.99c is hard. If a ship is going 0.8c, and launches a standard Mk23 missile, it'll almost reach 0.96c, packing 'only' 53 Mt/kg. ----
Imagined conversation: Admiral [noting yet another Manty tech surprise]: XO, what's the budget for the ONI? Vice Admiral: I don't recall exactly, sir. Several billion quatloos. Admiral: ... What do you suppose they did with all that money? |
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Re: Heat Disposal on ships | |
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by JohnRoth » Sat Apr 15, 2017 8:03 am | |
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The waste heat thing keeps coming back and coming back and coming back. Here's the key quote:
Let's assume for the sake of an example that "enormous percentage" is 80%. Then 80% of the recirculated heat also is captured and reused, for another 16%. Etc. Either there's something wrong with my math, or you can run a superdreadnaught on a pair of AA batteries. Well, that's a bit of an exaggeration, but it makes more sense to me than dumping it into the next hyper band. To dump it you still have to collect it, and in any case Ghost class ships can't dump the heat there. Nor can LACs, etc. To answer the obvious question: it's quantum magic, similar to "spooky action at a distance," aka quantum entanglement. |
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Re: Heat Disposal on ships | |
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by JohnRoth » Sat Apr 15, 2017 2:41 pm | |
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Nah, it isn't shedding heat, it's using an enhanced version of the thermoelectric effect to convert most of it to power. |
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Re: Heat Disposal on ships | |
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by Vince » Sat Apr 15, 2017 3:09 pm | |
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It's not quite that bad, although it's bad enough. A spider drive ship can't dump heat into the next higher band, unless it is A) in hyperspace and B) in a gravity wave or C) transiting a wormhole terminus*. But in normal space, it has to radiate all the heat it can't use back to space.** A LAC, pinnace, or missile, unless it is coasting with its wedge completely off, can use the wedge to dump heat into the next higher hyper band. This works in normal space as well as hyperspace (as long as the LAC, pinnace, or missile is in a hyperspace rift). * David has said 'why do you think the spider ships can't transit wormholes?' or words to that effect on this forum. Since transiting wormholes require Warshawski sails (as well as a hyper drive), we can infer that a spider drive carries Warshawski sails and therefore can make use of gravity waves. As well as using the sail to dump heat to the next higher hyper band. ** A spider ship could in theory have its Warshawski sails up in normal space (not in preparation for transiting a wormhole) and dump heat into the alpha band of hyperspace, but I don't see how that would help the spider ship carry out its mission, since it relies primarily on not being detected. Obviously, a LAC pinnace, or missile cannot do this as they lack Warshawski sails. -------------------------------------------------------------
History does not repeat itself so much as it echoes. |
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by kzt » Sat Apr 15, 2017 3:41 pm | |
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Missiles have no wedge when they have no wedge. The wedge on a stage cannot be shut down and restarted, nor can its strength be altered once started. The nodes burn out once you shut it down, and they burn out if you keep it running.
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by Vince » Sat Apr 15, 2017 5:42 pm | |
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True, but any fusion powered dual or multi drive missile that incorporates coasting (wedge off) in its flight profile still has the issue of not having a way to dump heat into the next higher hyper band. The same issue also applies to fusion powered Ghost Rider reconnaissance drones while they have their wedges powered off. -------------------------------------------------------------
History does not repeat itself so much as it echoes. |
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by kzt » Sat Apr 15, 2017 5:54 pm | |
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Exactly. |
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by Somtaaw » Sun Apr 16, 2017 10:30 am | |
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I think that the Ghost Rider drones actually don't completely turn off their wedge. We know that Ghost Rider drones can cut their stealth, evidences on numerous occasions from Tsang, to Filareta, and a few of the Solarian provocations post-New Tuscany. This implies it's not simply absorbent hulls but active emitted stealth fields too, which are also inherently detectable, even if you have to really, really be looking for those.
This would imply their capacitors have to be good for running active stealth fields, and sensors, AND the AI core, which I'm going to give it a nominal max of 30 T-days in powered down mode. And we also know that Honor, on more than one occasion usually while pirate hunting in Silesia, that ships (and therefore Ghost Rider drones) can scale their wedge strengths down, and then back to full strength for combat. So I assume that Ghost Rider drones scale their wedge all the way down to station keeping minimum strength, and then stop moving at all, which also enhances their stealth fields coverage, and allows them to keep that fusion core running without succumbing to the heat detection. |
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