2300 ad tl

[Rupert]

Originally Posted by weby

The rocket engines are actually called thrusters in 2300AD and produce super science results.

The thrusters allow you to go down and up a 1g planet by using approximately 14.3% if the mass as fuel. (Rule is add 1/6th of the mass as fuel for that, but do not count that fuel as part of the mass. See naval architects manual page 9)

That's less than I remembered.

The fuel appears to be hydrogen-oxygen as it can be made in the fuel station by splitting water. The specfic impulse varies a bit depending things like the altitude but is normally below 400 at sea level on earth and below 500 in vacuum.

That's not what the rules say.

Originally Posted by NAM

Thrusters may only be added to ships which have MHD tur-
bine power plants. The addition actually consists of adding a large
reinforced re-ignition chamber to the power plant and thrust nozzles
at the rear of the hull. The MHD turbine is thus modified to func-
tion as a thruster. When in thrust mode, large volumes of addi-
tional fuel are added to the re-ignition chamber, burned, and ejected
as reaction mass.

That looks like the fuel is being both burned and heated and it's some awful hybrid of an MHD turbine and rocket. That's super-science right there.