[3e] Statting a spaceship radiator

[GURPS Fox]

Originally Posted by Anthony

I'm not sure where "A = 32887.67616m^2 / 354000cf " comes from -- I'm pretty sure A is just 32887m^2. Other than that, 4,303,125,000,000 is 4.3TW, not 4.3PW.

I will, however, observe that HEPlaR is not a THS term, and TNE HEPlaR is superscience.

Well, HePlaR was on a THS list of alternate rockets a while back (the PDF's name is literally 'alternative engines'). Though, when designing this, it was an early 'star corvette' (aka FTL space corvette) designed for long-term patrol duties, requiring HePlaR to allow tankage for a long-term patrol (this is due to a quirk of the phase drive, as once a gravity well is of sufficient size, you have to drop out of phase space, meaning that sufficiently large asteroids or groups of asteroids can cause you to have to exit out of FTL, as the linked image demonstrates; please note that the gravity well scales with the object at the center of the gravity well) as early on the logistics network isn't entirely there yet due to most colonies being very underdeveloped as everyone is trying to set up colonies left and right.

In addition, I assumed that TL10 fusion rockets are 1000sf/2 Spaces, 708/2 = 354, and multiplying that by 1000 means 354000sf, which, when converted to square meters (via a unit converter), is 32887.67616m^2...

Also, thanks for checking my math. :)

[Anthony]

Note that a droplet reactor must operate at temperature where the vapor pressure of your droplets is very low, or the droplets will just boil in the vacuum and spread out all over the place, rather than being captured for recycling. That makes sodium a non-option at 1,500K (there are other options, but most of them are pretty awkward to actually use). Also, any form of droplet radiator makes maneuvering inordinarily difficult.

[GURPS Fox]

Originally Posted by Anthony

Note that a droplet reactor must operate at temperature where the vapor pressure of your droplets is very low, or the droplets will just boil in the vacuum and spread out all over the place, rather than being captured for recycling. That makes sodium a non-option at 1,500K (there are other options, but most of them are pretty awkward to actually use). Also, any form of droplet radiator makes maneuvering inordinarily difficult.

So we'll have to work with traditional radiators then...

... oh boy.

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by GURPS Fox

So we'll have to work with traditional radiators then...

There are other nonconventional radiators that work at higher temperatures, but there isn't really any way to have thousands of square meters of radiating surfaces without some form of inconvenience, you just have some variance in what the inconvenience is.

[GURPS Fox]

Originally Posted by Anthony

There are other nonconventional radiators that work at higher temperatures, but there isn't really any way to have thousands of square meters of radiating surfaces without some form of inconvenience, you just have some variance in what the inconvenience is.

So, we're going to have to use things like plasma/dust radiators like ETHER and heat pumps like Mo/Li Heat Pipes, at least for combat ships.