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Old 02-23-2020, 03:57 PM   #7
Ulzgoroth
 
Join Date: Jul 2008
Default Re: Coolant [Spaceships]

Quote:
Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl View Post
Because superscience reaction drives that have high thrust and high delta-v are also WMDs in disguise. For example, a TL9^ nuclear saltwater reactor is continuous nuclear detonation that sprays radiative death as its reaction mass and it is the least dangerous of the bunch. A SM+6 shuttle with a TL12^ total conversion drive converts 3g of matter into pure energy per second, effectively detonating a 60 kiloton fusion bomb beneath it every second.
Torch scorch isn't much of a disguise, and is relatively easy to weaken as a weapon.

Imposing low reaction-stream focus on superscience torches stops them working as long range beam weapons. And at short range that "60 kiloton fusion bomb beneath it every second" isn't actually much like a 60 kiloton bomb - it doesn't stack up the energy into one big pulse, and in an atmosphere the engine is probably destroyed in much less than a second of operation.

There is the threat of holding a vacuum habitat hostage at docking ranges, though.

(NSW, on the other hand, is ludicrously unsafe at a minimum because it's a continuously-operating dirty bomb that makes Project Pluto look environmentally responsible. When operated as intended! And can be easily or accidentally converted into a nuclear meltdown instead.)
Quote:
Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl View Post
Coolant avoids both forms of WMD while allowing for a pleasing delta-v. A spacecraft with one component of water could achieve a delta-v of 500 mps while a spacecraft with ten components of water could achieve a delta-v of 7,000 mps. Of course, there may be some abuse still, so changing the duration of coolant to one hour per 1g of acceleration may be better (it still gives 20 mps and 280 mps respectively). At that point, spacecraft can get up to an acceptable delta-v without worrying about WMDs.
Coolant doesn't avoid arbitrary-velocity kinetic strikes, it just means you need to put in a little effort - you could retain the hot coolant and chill it down with radiators instead of discarding it. That would presumably hit your sustained acceleration pretty hard, but it's really hard to rule that people can't cool hot water.

(Plus that 7000 mps from 10 systems is nearly 0.04c, so if you're considering 0.01 c to be too much kinetic energy to allow, you've failed to produce the desired constraint by more than a factor of 3.)
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