TL9 Antimatter pion rockets

[Flyndaran]

As one big solar system exodus when the sun begins to die for one antimatter ship, sure. But that's really marginal as a campaign setting.

[lexington]

Originally Posted by Sunrunners_Fire

Trapping the entire solar output isn't super-science. Its' a high-TL thing, as any other mega-structure project is, but it isn't super-science.

Doing it with a 100% efficiency is super-science, I agree. Adjust the unrealistically optimistic numbers downward; I don't have enough information at my disposal to figure out what a realistic efficiency would be ... as such, adjust the numbers downwards as you feel appropriate. :grins:

My point was that advanced production facilities can produce antimatter in sufficient quantities to make an antimatter rocket viable.

I edited a bunch after I posted, mostly to make it more relevant.

They might not strictly be superscience but these facilities aren't even close to being TL9 projects like thrash seemed to be hoping for.

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

As one big solar system exodus when the sun begins to die for one antimatter ship, sure. But that's really marginal as a campaign setting.

The hyper-efficient Dyson sphere makes enough antimatter to fill up the tanks on SM+15 ships in a few seconds. Unfortunately it doesn't leave enough matter in the solar system to build the ships themselves (or anything else).

[gjc8]

Originally Posted by Sunrunners_Fire

My point was that advanced production facilities can produce antimatter in sufficient quantities to make an antimatter rocket viable.

Sure, but probably not at TL9. Which is why antimatter rockets aren't TL9.

[Jovus]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

As one big solar system exodus when the sun begins to die for one antimatter ship, sure. But that's really marginal as a campaign setting.

Or it is the campaign setting...

You people need to stop giving me awesome ideas when I already have a long-running campaign.

[dataweaver]

Fortunately, you don't need to fuel up the ship's tank in a second. Kick it up to a day, and you only need a small fraction of solar coverage (0.001%). Think less in terms of "Dyson Sphere" and more in terms of "Ringworld". And unlike Larry Niven's Ringworld, it needn't be a solid ring spinning fast enough to generate 1G. Still quite an engineering feat; but nowhere near as formidable as completely enclosing a star.

[Flyndaran]

Originally Posted by dataweaver

Fortunately, you don't need to fuel up the ship's tank in a second. Kick it up to a day, and you only need a small fraction of solar coverage (0.001%). Think less in terms of "Dyson Sphere" and more in terms of "Ringworld". And unlike Larry Niven's Ringworld, it needn't be a solid ring spinning fast enough to generate 1G. Still quite an engineering feat; but nowhere near as formidable as completely enclosing a star.

Getting a majority of how ever many trillions of inhabitants it has to donate all their energy to such a project might be an even harder feat. Unless it was a near the end of the line exodus.

[Sunrunners_Fire]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

Getting a majority of how ever many trillions of inhabitants it has to donate all their energy to such a project might be an even harder feat. Unless it was a near the end of the line exodus.

Or the star system was colonized and reformatted for that purpose.

"So! What do those people make?" "A bit of this and that; mostly anti-matter." "They have a pirate problem, I take it?" "Not especially. Most pirates aren't that stupid."

:grins:

[Refplace]

Originally Posted by Sunrunners_Fire

Or the star system was colonized and reformatted for that purpose.

"So! What do those people make?" "A bit of this and that; mostly anti-matter." "They have a pirate problem, I take it?" "Not especially. Most pirates aren't that stupid."

:grins:

Yep.
A nice refueling station with tons of power available for people to visit. Good for a space bar and trading facilities and with all that available power probably easy to defend.

[Anthony]

It's somewhat inexplicable why you would produce antimatter on that scale when you can use the same energy to power a lightsail.

[Sunrunners_Fire]

Originally Posted by Anthony

It's somewhat inexplicable why you would produce antimatter on that scale when you can use the same energy to power a lightsail.

Portability/energy-density. Also, people get really itchy when you start waving around (fast-than-light!) lasers powerful enough to push around lightsails in other star systems ...