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Old 02-18-2020, 09:38 AM   #37
DataPacRat
 
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Join Date: Nov 2004
Location: Niagara, Canada
Default Re: Any GURPS stats for black holes, pulsars, etc?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Johnny1A.2 View Post
He describes a 'free' ship being driven backward (relative to the viewpoint character) by a single driving jet, specifically said to be doing this against the full force of the main drive.

That's not how it works anyplace else in the Lensverse. A 'free' ship with thrusters going in opposite directions will move (not accelerate, just move) in the direction opposite the stronger thrust. Going free won't let a 1 newton thruster overcome the effect of a 10 newton thruster...except that it does in that one instance.

Now, a single tiny thruster could _stop_ a free ship, if the main drive was off. For that matter, so can a single atom of hydrogen. But if _Dauntless_ has it's main drive starkly flaring at its prodigious maximum of thrust, a little retrothruster in the bow will not overcome that, whether free or inert.

Again, except in this one instance.
Alright; I just found the moment in question, using the ship's main jets as a weapon against the Nhalian base. (Gotta love searchable ebooks.)

What would it take to rationalize this particular circumstance into the overall physics of the Lensman universe? For example, might it be feasible to say that the main drives can be tweaked to still put out a lot of heat (to melt the base) but not actually providing very much thrust? Could the fact that this manoeuvre was being done inside an atmosphere be turned to good use; maybe it could be claimed that an unmentioned detail in the novel was that the Bergenholms weren't turned on at full power, leaving enough of the ship's inertial physics in place to allow for such concepts as 'acceleration' to still have meaning?

I'll admit that I'm grasping at straws, but I'd really like to have all my Treknobabble lined up and ready to go. :)
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DataPacRat
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