Scott 2G Kellogg:
>Consider: A huge battleship with a HUGE powerplant. Does that mean that
>50% of that huge volume is work space?
Well, in the USNavy it would mean that about 50% was work space.
>In it's simplest execution, imagine: A spherical fusion plant with a
>series of 3 meter cat walks running around it. (In my opinion, that is
>about as large an area as you could concievably use for repair work)
Your experience obviously doesn't include removal of a motor-generator 5m
long from it's position in an engine room, and transport from there to a
repair shop. It takes more than 3m of space to do a lot of work.
George:
> Responding to the first problem, I would argue that in most
>vessels, a crew will be working from 10 to 12 hours on the drives,
>at most, except during emergencies. The rest of the time, they're
>being left alone. This is standard practice today with ships at sea;
>you do routine maintenance during one "shift" with some overflow,
>but leave it alone the rest of the time.
George, in the boats we did maintenance 24 hours a day. One watch on,
one watch maintenance, one watch asleep. From the time the boat left
port till after it returned.
Rob Dean:
>Yes, but in George's defense I'll point out that the actual "workspace"
>of the engineers is not included in the volume of the drive; it is
>included in the volume of the staterooms and other accommodations. At
>least that is how the game is currently rationalized.
Are we eroding away the cabin space again? If you assume work space is
part of the accomodations, you have work space amounting to less than 2%
of the machinery space. You won't get much work done like that.
> Any idea what the muzzle energy of a 105 tank gun is?
In the range of 5,000,000 to 8,000,000 joules, I believe. Depends on
what kind of penetrator you use.
Later...
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I have learned to use the word "impossible" with the greatest caution.
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