waste heat

[SteveS]

Originally Posted by whswhs

. . .
And that's relevant here because, if you came up with a novel physical phenomenon that allowed heat to disappear without being conducted, convected, or radiated, it could equally well lead to a more generalized conservation law; the process might no more violate the laws of thermodynamics than the emissions of radium violated those laws.

Obviously we need either really enormous radiators, which are about as functional for Traveller as an interstellar setting without faster-than-light travel, or another means of disposing of heat.

But I don't think radiative heat disposal is entirely out of reach as a hand-wave. Yes, a power plant that generates lots of useful energy without radiators that are much cooler than the fusion chamber temperature are impossible by known thermodynamics; you have a choice between huge, low-temperature radiators and lots of useful power or small, really hot radiators but not much useful power.

But with a super-science hand-wave, why not a small, hot radiator for a power plant that still generates plenty of useful power? Or internal systems that use lots of power without generating lots of waste heat? Or a combination, where almost all weapon energy goes out the weapon, but other systems behave more realistically? All violate known thermodynamics, of course.

But reactionless drives violate known conservation of momentum, by definition.

Given that gravitic super-science already violates conservation of momentum, it seems like a reasonable hand-wave to say that gravitics can also violate thermodynamics in a way that works as a compact radiator. Dump the waste heat through the maneuver drives, and you have an excuse for the glowing circles in a lot of science fiction illustrations.