Thrusters

A thread of 2 messages, 12 March 1990 to 13 March 1990, in the order they were sent.

#1114 Thrusters

Alan Huscroft · 12 March 1990

There is one point in the Starship Operator's Manual which grates a bit
on my sensibilities.

The section on thrusters says that the thruster plates must be rigidly
fixed pointing in one direction, usually towards the aft end of the ship.
If you try to apply thrust in any other direction, the amount you can
get is severely limited.  The upshot of this is that ships generally have
to come in to land nose-upwards and flip horizontal at the last moment.
Similarly, if you want to hover for more than a short period you have
to do it nose-upwards.

This strikes me as a very clumsy and ungainly way for a high-tech starship
to behave.  As a remedy, I propose that it should be possible for more
advanced thruster plates (say, TL 14+) to rotate around a port-starboard
axis.  This would have the following benefits:

(1) The plates could be directed towards the belly of the ship to
    facilitate lateral attitude takeoff/landing/hovering.

(2) The plates could be directed towards the forward end of the ship
    to enable some serious deceleration without having to flip the
    whole ship around.

Is this a good idea, or a silly idea, or am I the only one who cares?

............................................................................
: Alan Huscroft              : Janet:    [email removed]                   :
: Reading, England           : Internet: [email removed]                   :
: 6-G takeoffs AND landings! : X-boat:   [email removed].solomani_rim :
:............................:.............................................:

#1119 Thrusters

Adrian Hurt · 13 March 1990 · reply to #1114

> From: Alan Huscroft [email removed]
> Subject: (1114)  Thrusters
>
> There is one point in the Starship Operator's Manual which grates a bit
> on my sensibilities.
>
> The section on thrusters says that the thruster plates must be rigidly
> fixed pointing in one direction, usually towards the aft end of the ship.
> If you try to apply thrust in any other direction, the amount you can
> get is severely limited.  The upshot of this is that ships generally have
> to come in to land nose-upwards and flip horizontal at the last moment.
> Similarly, if you want to hover for more than a short period you have
> to do it nose-upwards.

Back in the days when I assumed that thrusters meant rockets (not necessarily
chemical), I also assumed that most ships had grav plates, like those on
grav vehicles, as part of their manoeuvre system.  This allowed them to fly
around a planet without frying any towns they came near, and also allowed
non-aerodynamically designed ships to operate in atmospheres (e.g. the
Type S scout/courier, the Type A, A1 and A2 traders, etc).

 "Keyboard? How quaint!" - M. Scott

 Adrian Hurt			     |	JANET:  [email removed]
 UUCP: ..!ukc!cs.hw.ac.uk!adrian     |  ARPA:   [email removed]