In which I post about a TL9 solar system

AlexanderHowl · 08-04-2020, 05:05 PM

The problem with that design is that the fields are not unidirectional, the interior of the rings will experience electromagnetic/electrostatic forces comparable to the exterior (it would actually have to be more intense than the armor version, because the rings would not already cover the entire ship). Just from looking at the design, it would also interfere with the exhaust of the engines, as they are a positively charged plasma from being heated to over 10,000 K by the fusion reactor. The heat from the redirected exhaust would cause the superconductors to melt long before they roasted the people in the spacecraft, but it would probably subject them to the equivalent of 1,000 rads per hour of proton radiation until the superconductors melted (which would be worse than the GCR that they are protecting them from, which only does 0.006 rads per hour).

If you are already doing SM+13 or larger spaceships, you probably have enough mass shielding to reduce radiation exposure to 5 rads per year, which is acceptable, so the active shielding is likely unnecessary and/or actively dangerous. Now, this is realistic for a TL9 society with a developed space infrastructure, they have to go big or stay home, because such activities are only affordable through massive economies of scale at TL9-. For interplanetary travel, I imagine that a realistic TL9 setting would have thousands of SM+13 or larger spaceships traveling between colonies, with a combined economic impact of tens of trillions of dollars per year. Of course, a developed TL9 society with a population of 10 billion people (assuming that the Earth is actually an Affinity 10 world for humanity if managed properly), the Earth's economy alone would be $602 trillion per year.

08-04-2020, 05:05 PM	#27
AlexanderHowl Join Date: Feb 2016	Re: In which I post about a TL9 solar system The problem with that design is that the fields are not unidirectional, the interior of the rings will experience electromagnetic/electrostatic forces comparable to the exterior (it would actually have to be more intense than the armor version, because the rings would not already cover the entire ship). Just from looking at the design, it would also interfere with the exhaust of the engines, as they are a positively charged plasma from being heated to over 10,000 K by the fusion reactor. The heat from the redirected exhaust would cause the superconductors to melt long before they roasted the people in the spacecraft, but it would probably subject them to the equivalent of 1,000 rads per hour of proton radiation until the superconductors melted (which would be worse than the GCR that they are protecting them from, which only does 0.006 rads per hour). If you are already doing SM+13 or larger spaceships, you probably have enough mass shielding to reduce radiation exposure to 5 rads per year, which is acceptable, so the active shielding is likely unnecessary and/or actively dangerous. Now, this is realistic for a TL9 society with a developed space infrastructure, they have to go big or stay home, because such activities are only affordable through massive economies of scale at TL9-. For interplanetary travel, I imagine that a realistic TL9 setting would have thousands of SM+13 or larger spaceships traveling between colonies, with a combined economic impact of tens of trillions of dollars per year. Of course, a developed TL9 society with a population of 10 billion people (assuming that the Earth is actually an Affinity 10 world for humanity if managed properly), the Earth's economy alone would be $602 trillion per year.