Meson alternatives?

[Mr Frost]

If it were possible to work out how something that can function like Travellers' meson technology , then odds are it wouldn't be what G.U.R.P.S. calls T.L. 11 , but rather T.L. 9 .

Whilst some ancient Greek could and it seems did imagine what might happen if one were to split an atom , He had entirely no workable idea how this might be accomplished nor more than the vaguest notion of what an atom was .
We are no more intelligent than He was .
Also , the technology relies on nuclear dampers and who here really grasps how those might work ?




I suggest that instead one considers either that Traveller exists in a universe with slightly different laws of physics
or
that a) the particle called a meson isn't the same particle we call a meson {perhaps science discovered a new order of such or found our ideas on the subject were wrong and some renaming/reordering happened}or b) they plain figured out a way to alter its' properties .




Remember , Traveller is the universe of jump drives , ersatz or actual reactionless thrust and a race of large fundamentalist herbivores that somehow seem to not have excessive flatulence ; if you change everything to be technically feasible within the limits of our real life Tech Level 8 science , you would have something that not only wasn't Traveller , but wouldn't allow realistic empires spanning dozens let alone thousands of highly populated star systems .





Of course , if anyone does figure out a way to make the tech work , I suggest they patent it first , then post .

[Toltrin]

I once saw a microwave with it's door open that was 120 meters by 200 meters on the front of a battle rider.
Range?
200 km...

[Flyndaran]

Not all herbivores have gas. Kangaroos don't, and they eat grass.

[hal]

I'm just a wee bit curious.

What would change in the Traveller Universe is Meson technology were not available?

The meson defense sites would no longer be an issue.
The meson offensive technology would no longer be an issue.
Meson communications would presumably no longer be available.

How would that change the overall strategy for something like CT's HIGH GUARD?

Hmmm. That would something interesting to ponder.

[ericthered]

If you want mathematical and physical consistency rather than actual particle names, make a pair of particles that have imaginary mass or charge (as in imaginary numbers), throw them out into space and let them attract each other together. They ignore normal matter until they annihilate each other and release large amounts of energy at you target location.

The particles don't exist, far as we know.... but they behave how you want with very little hand waving other than a mathematical tweak.

[David Johnston2]

Originally Posted by Mr Frost

If it were possible to work out how something that can function like Travellers' meson technology , then odds are it wouldn't be what G.U.R.P.S. calls T.L. 11 , but rather T.L. 9 .
.

It's superscience and thus available any time the world designer wants.

[Agemegos]

Originally Posted by Mr Frost

II suggest that instead one considers either that Traveller exists in a universe with slightly different laws of physics

Not so slightly. Reactionless thrusters. Artificial gravity and antigravity. Tiny worlds with oxygen atmospheres. Black Globes. Fusion dampers. Planetary rotation that doesn't conserve angular momentum. FTL travel. Meson nonsense….

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by Brett

Planetary rotation that doesn't conserve angular momentum.

Wait, where's that from?

[Agemegos]

Originally Posted by Anthony

Wait, where's that from?

Dinom, in Behind the Claw.

Dinom is a rogue planet caught in the trailing trojan
point of the system’s only native planet, a gas giant named
Inina. Dinom orbits with its north pole constantly pointing
at the system’s very bright giant star. The northern hemisphere
is thus eternally baked, while the southern is in
frozen night.

Searching on "pole" in BtC to find that again also turned up Younghal, where

Youghal is a distinctly odd shape for a planet, being
greatly flattened at the poles and bulging massively at the
equator. This means that the atmosphere, which is too thin
to breathe at the equator, is quite acceptable to human life
at the poles.

That's not a problem with conservation of angular momentum, but it does indicate that either geophysics or fluid dynamics in the OTU is different from our universe.

[David Johnston2]

Originally Posted by Brett

Dinom, in Behind the Claw.

Dinom is a rogue planet caught in the trailing trojan
point of the system’s only native planet, a gas giant named
Inina. Dinom orbits with its north pole constantly pointing
at the system’s very bright giant star. The northern hemisphere
is thus eternally baked, while the southern is in
frozen night.

Admittedly that sounds insanely improbable, but I'm not sure where conservation of angular momentum come in.