Jim Baranski brought up a point in the big fusion
debate that I was thinking of too, but didn't have time to
post until now.
Are starship engines fusion rockets, or did someone jump the gun
with an assumption?
Evidence from T:TNE to indicate fusion rockets:
1) pg. 224: reference to "reaction mass" for in-system
travel fuel.
2) G-hour concept: Maneuver drives have high fuel consumption.
3) pg 365, speeder description: speeder powered by fusion
reactor, "Contra-grav units provide lift while a fusion-
powered jet provides thrust." (similar to ships?)
4) In all ship and vehicle descriptions, Contra-grav is
mentioned, thruster plates are not.
Evidence against:
I think I remember ONE mention of thruster plates outside
of the technology section, but since I can't find it right now,
I'll have to discount it. If anyone else finds it, let me know.
OK, so it's all clear they use fusion rockets, right?
Well, maybe not. Take a look at it this way:
(from above)
4) _NO_ form of propulsive system is mentioned except
for the speeder (and G-carrier, which has an "ignition
chamber", but I left it out because it doesn't use
fusion power). So it doesn't explicitly state
"fusion rockets" either.
3) a "fusion powered jet" may be an air-breather that
uses the fusion plant to super-heat the air before
release as exhaust. Does not need to be a fusion
rocket itself. (I never saw anyone arguing for this,
with perhaps one exception, but this may have
prompted folks to simply assume a fusion rocket.
2) the G-hour concept seems to have been added simply
to force some kind of endurance limits on ships.
? Maybe thruster plates chew up gobs of fuel when
activated?.
1) Reaction mass: potential sloppy terminology on
GDW's part. Not like it's never happened before.
Summary: My real, non-stretching-the-point thoughts:
The fusion rocket approach seems to make too much trouble
for the old 'Traveller feel' most of us know and
love. Starports more often resembled Mos Eisley rather
than Cape Canaveral. Sure, you could smash your ship
into a city, but there were no big regulations keeping
them from the area of cities, lest they start up the drives.
I _REALLY_ hope they aren't using the 'rocket' approach to
maneuver drives. The grav/thruster plate approach is
well embedded in classic Traveller material, and I'm
going to be in a royal blue funk if I have to convert
everything from rocket to thruster plate technology
myself when the architecture manual comes out.
John H Bogan
[email removed]