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Old 01-16-2018, 09:11 AM   #11
AlexanderHowl
 
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Default Re: propulsion system for star wars speeders?

With the energy levels used in Star Wars, the larger capital ships probably use artificial black holes to create their gravity and to generate their electricity. The fuel used for the space fighters is probably helium-3 for their fusion reactors, as the space fighters have to generate TWs of energy for their maneuvers (meaning that they probably consume a minimum of 5 grams of helium-3 per second, at a 99.999999% efficiency to prevent the space fighter from melting from the waste heat).
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Old 01-16-2018, 10:38 AM   #12
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Default Re: propulsion system for star wars speeders?

I seem to recall (probably from the WEG era of Star Wars semi-canon) that many vehicles use repulsorlift as their propulsion, presumably by pushing up and forward rather than just straight up. Higher performance vehicles add your general purpose Star Wars magic engines. That was the difference in, say, a speeder bike and a swoop. This being Star Wars science, it was an ex post facto explanation of something the original creator thought looked cool and was probably contradicted when the next novel came out.
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Old 01-16-2018, 11:45 AM   #13
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Default Re: propulsion system for star wars speeders?

It often seemed to me that keeping a vehicle floating, and propelling it forward were separate systems in most Star Wars vehicles. Most speeders seem to have jet engines for forward thrust, and repulsorlifts (that are never made very visible in any form) for keeping them off the ground, and to park one they just shut down the jet engines.
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Old 01-16-2018, 12:40 PM   #14
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Default Re: propulsion system for star wars speeders?

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Originally Posted by JoelSammallahti View Post
Then again, the presence of sound indicates that they're not actually in space, at least not in a vacuum.
There is clearly drag, presumably from the lumiferous ether, you can see it in the way sparks (and sapper droids) fly off of starfighters. There is also enough ether pressure that nobody questions going out into an asteroid "cave" with nothing but breathing support.
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Old 01-16-2018, 12:48 PM   #15
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Default Re: propulsion system for star wars speeders?

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Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl View Post
With the energy levels used in Star Wars, the larger capital ships probably use artificial black holes to create their gravity and to generate their electricity. The fuel used for the space fighters is probably helium-3 for their fusion reactors, as the space fighters have to generate TWs of energy for their maneuvers (meaning that they probably consume a minimum of 5 grams of helium-3 per second, at a 99.999999% efficiency to prevent the space fighter from melting from the waste heat).
a) Capital ships need fuel (and such frequent refueling that they apparently have only enough fuel for one major engagement).
b) The gravity on The Invisible Hand wasn't consistent at all with the orientation of the ship relative to Corsucant. You would expect artificial gravity in our universe to remain oriented to the decks when the ship is in freefall. The behavior also isn't consistent with the gravity being offline, either since loose objects should have been in freefall along with the hull, not flying around every time the orientation shifted. What we do see there is much more consistent with Aristotle, rather than Newton.
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Old 01-16-2018, 12:50 PM   #16
Fred Brackin
 
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Default Re: propulsion system for star wars speeders?

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Originally Posted by sir_pudding View Post
There is clearly drag, presumably from the lumiferous ether, you can see it in the way sparks (and sapper droids) fly off of starfighters. There is also enough ether pressure that nobody questions going out into an asteroid "cave" with nothing but breathing support.
They remarked at the time that there was atmosphere in the cave and no one said "But that's impossible on an asteroid of this size!".

I would just quietly add the TL11^ Life support Belt to the SW equipment list if I were GM'ing. I don't think we've even seen a SW vacc suit.
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Old 01-16-2018, 02:29 PM   #17
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Default Re: propulsion system for star wars speeders?

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They remarked at the time that there was atmosphere in the cave and no one said "But that's impossible on an asteroid of this size!".
I don't recall even that much exposition. Maybe I will watch that part of Empire again.

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I don't think we've even seen a SW vacc suit.
In the EU yes, and in the canonical cartoons as well. Who knows why they need them.
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Old 01-16-2018, 03:52 PM   #18
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Default Re: propulsion system for star wars speeders?

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Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl View Post
With the energy levels used in Star Wars, the larger capital ships probably use artificial black holes to create their gravity and to generate their electricity. The fuel used for the space fighters is probably helium-3 for their fusion reactors, as the space fighters have to generate TWs of energy for their maneuvers (meaning that they probably consume a minimum of 5 grams of helium-3 per second, at a 99.999999% efficiency to prevent the space fighter from melting from the waste heat).
If you're using Legends, they use hypermatter as the fuel for hypermatter annihilators which serve as the reactors for most starships. In Legends that is.
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Old 01-16-2018, 05:58 PM   #19
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Default Re: propulsion system for star wars speeders?

I think that people do not really understand energy when they make up those numbers. One gram of matter possesses 90 TJ of energy when annihilated, which is enough to accelerate a 30 metric ton object from 0 m/s to 74.5 km/s in one second. Fusing ten grams of helium-3 per second gives around 2 TJ, which is sufficient to accelerate a 30 metric ton object from 0 m/s to 11.5 km/s in one second. Hypermass is just not needed if you have a sufficiently efficient fusion process.
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Old 01-16-2018, 06:02 PM   #20
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Default Re: propulsion system for star wars speeders?

Most energy in matter-antimatter anhiliation is lost to forms that can't be used to impart inertia to normal matter, as far as I know.
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