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Anthony · 03-31-2019, 09:57 PM

Stone armor isn't nanotubes. Aside from that, the big problem is that spaceships uses the wrong scaling law for a lot of things, and when you use the correct scaling law you wind up with something nonsensical.

For example, 1 EP appears to be about 100 W/kg, or 5e+21W in your case. The upper limit of solar panels is about 1 kW/m^2 and realistic value is about a quarter of that, so we need 5e+18m^2 of solar panels, or about a 1.2 million kilometer radius. Radiators have a similar limit.

03-31-2019, 09:57 PM	#8
Anthony Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: Berkeley, CA	Re: [Spaceships] SM+35 Toroid Station? Stone armor isn't nanotubes. Aside from that, the big problem is that spaceships uses the wrong scaling law for a lot of things, and when you use the correct scaling law you wind up with something nonsensical. For example, 1 EP appears to be about 100 W/kg, or 5e+21W in your case. The upper limit of solar panels is about 1 kW/m^2 and realistic value is about a quarter of that, so we need 5e+18m^2 of solar panels, or about a 1.2 million kilometer radius. Radiators have a similar limit. __________________ My GURPS site and Blog.