Re: Fusiondrive Control Incorporated

Bertil Jonell [email removed] writes:
>   I imagine that the mechanism that harm the ship works like this: The
> fusion rocket eject <whatever> (soft xrays perhaps:). If it is inside an

Probably a jet of hydrogen and helium plasma.  Effectively a continous
plasma gun of some size, as you mention below.  Drop-off is proportional
to the square of the distance, but the constant of proportionality is
different for a cone than for a sphere.

>   I know I used this for a suggested evasive tactics, but there *is* large
> grey areas around the CG, especially now in TNE when it has been made clear
> that you can't use it for propulsion.

Believe it or not, I wasn't using it for propulsion.  I got the idea by
watching paper airplanes fly (they don't have any propulsion either).
All of the control (I was flying sophisticated paper airplanes with
canards, leading edge slats, trailing-edge flaps, rudders and the like)
and the "propulsion" is provided by gravity.  If you made your starship
as light a paper airplane, it could glide too.  Imagine for a
moment a streamlined ship re-entering an atmosphere from orbit (the US
Space Shuttle is a good example).  It re-enters and files in to a
landing without the application of any thrust (after the de-orbit burn,
which happens in a vacuum).  Now imagine a starship equipped with CG
lifters doing the same maneuver.  It wouldn't need heat shielding tiles,
because the rate of descent could be controlled by varying the lift of
the CG lifters.  If the ship is at all streamlined (a basic cone, or a
lifting body of some type) aerodynamic control surfaces can control it's
heading, and it can glide in to the landing pad.  If it actually is an
airframe (like the space shuttle), it can be flown like a glider, with
surprising precision and grace.  Launching works exactly the same way,
except that you are falling UP instead of DOWN.

>   The CG in general is a minfield of rationalizations that can backfire in
> nasty ways: Imagine a powerplant that uses a weight suspended with CG
> and has a generator attached to the wire. If the energy used up by the CG
> is less that what you get out of the generator, you have yourself a free
> energy device at least as good as the 'thruster plate power plant' that
> was possible in MegaT:)

Granted, but my idea doesn't depend on a something-for-nothing effect;
it still works fine no matter how much energy the CG requires to
maintain it's lift (as long as the ship has a power plant capable of
running the CG).  My "trick" works by using the CG to control the rate
at which potential energy is exchanged for kinetic energy, and by
transforming and controlling the kinetic energy by the action of air flowing
over lifting surfaces.  Principles familliar to all sailplane pilots.

>   IMHO we should follow the examples given (that CG needs additional
> thrust of some kind to get anywhere).

Right.  In this case, the "thrust" is lift force generated by the
atmosphere passing over aerodynamic surfaces, as the ship falls through
the air.  Without a CG, you need heat shielding and attain multi-dozen
mach numbers.  With the CG, you keep it under a couple of machs at all
times, and come in for a nice slow landing.  And you can control your
glide ratio, too.

>   I remember the HOTOL and wonder if this setup could be combined with the
> fuel scoops:)
>   (That would give a reason for keeping the fuel scoops even though GG
> skimming is very rare in TNE)

I like this idea!

>   Have you found any specific mention of if it is allowed to change fire
> to new targets within a turn?

I've only skimmed the ship combat as yet.  I'll have a much better idea
about what will and won't work after I study it thouroughly (planned for
this week).


[email removed]
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