05-31-2017, 04:00 AM | #1 |
Join Date: Mar 2013
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[Spaceships] Control Rooms With Reactionless Drives
I've seen it said a few times around here that Control Rooms come with a small Delta-V reserve (0.3 mps) to represent the RCS systems that they include.
That's fine for chemical propulsion systems, but what about ships that use Reactionless Engines? Well in that case Delta-V doesn't matter (I'd assume that the Control Room includes a Power Plant that also powers the life support system, you worry more about running out of air then juice for the drive) but how much thrust can this system generate? And can I pay to get a more powerful drive? |
05-31-2017, 07:31 AM | #2 |
Join Date: Sep 2008
Location: near London, UK
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Re: [Spaceships] Control Rooms With Reactionless Drives
Smaller Systems, in multiple increments?
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05-31-2017, 08:31 AM | #3 |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Binghamton, NY, USA. Near the river Styx in the 5th Circle.
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Re: [Spaceships] Control Rooms With Reactionless Drives
The RCS is designed to be minimal thrusters. They might very well be Reactionless Drives, once Reactionless is available. Even then I'd expect them to be 0.01-0.02G at most, as they're really designed for fine maneuvering and docking, not for travel.
If you want more thrust then install an actual Reactionless Engine, either as a Smaller SM System or a full system. There's no "upgrading" the basic thrusters in a Control Room.
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Eric B. Smith GURPS Data File Coordinator GURPSLand I shall pull the pin from this healing grenade and... Kaboom-baya. |
05-31-2017, 08:51 AM | #4 | |
Join Date: Aug 2007
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Re: [Spaceships] Control Rooms With Reactionless Drives
Quote:
The OMS is less than a full-sized Chemical Rocket module in Spaceships terms but with thrust equal to 0.06 Gs it might be more than you should sweep into a rounding error on Spaceships' 5% of vehicle total mass modules. The RCS is definitely well below the resolution of Spaceships. It's the RCS-equivalent that every Control Room comes equipped with and it is very definitely too small to represent any significant fraction of a module and its' thrust and Delta-V is likewise below the threshold of resolution. Spaceships really is build on a 5% principle and does not resolve much smaller than that at all.
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Fred Brackin |
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05-31-2017, 09:05 PM | #5 | ||
Join Date: Mar 2013
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Re: [Spaceships] Control Rooms With Reactionless Drives
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06-01-2017, 06:43 AM | #6 | |
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: Vermont, USA
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Re: [Spaceships] Control Rooms With Reactionless Drives
Quote:
Looking at the crew stations in Ultra-Tech (p. 24), each Spaceships control station probably weighs 100 lb., so make up at most 3.33% of the Control Room's mass (at SM+5). Looking at the computers in Ultra-Tech (p. 22) and comparing Complexity, the computer in a Control Room makes up at most 0.5% of its mass. Compared to an Enhanced Array, the comm/sensor array makes up at most 10% of a Control Room's mass. That leaves about 86% of the Control Room's mass for RCS. We have six possible rolls and six possible drifts (assuming reactionless engines can only thrust in one direction). If we divide the remaining mass between those (rolls might be engines or gyros, but call it the same mass), that's 7.17% per control. So each direction can generate 7.17% of what a full-size reactionless engine could generate. Comparing the prices of a Control Room and Reactionless Engine, the RCS is probably based on a Rotary or Standard Reactionless, so 0.1 to 0.5 G times 7.17%? That could get you to Mars in a couple months. No, that's handled by auxiliary power (Spaceships, p. 10). |
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06-01-2017, 03:20 PM | #7 | |
Join Date: Mar 2013
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Re: [Spaceships] Control Rooms With Reactionless Drives
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I'd assume that the mass for auxiliary power is included in the Control Room mass |
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reactionless drive, spaceships |
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