Quote:
Originally Posted by MaryAnn
How do they work exactly?
However HEDM is 0.5 mps while the required mps is 5.6 mps for Earth orbit, while Antimatter Thermal Rocket is 0.1G by TL9, 0.2G by TL10, etc. with a delta- V of 1.8 mps, which is lower than the 1G and the 5.6 mps implied to be necessary to take off from Earth...
I guess that I don't get this.
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You often will have more than one engine (2 HEDM rockets will get you to 1G), and will almost certainly have more than one fuel tank, for liftoff. For HEDM, getting 5.6 mps would call for a little over 12 fuel tank-equivalents - but note that due to the way the rocket equation works, I think somewhere around 4 fuel tanks you functionally get more delta-v per tank than the default, so you'll need markedly less than 12 actual tanks (essentially, so long as fuel isn't a fairly small fraction of vehicle weight, the fact you get lighter as you use it makes it last longer - with 11 fuel tanks, by the time you get to the 11th tank your ship only masses 50% of what it started as). I believe winged designs are also able to reach orbit with less thrust than planetary gravity, by making use of lift (although I think this also tends to burn through a lot more fuel).