05-31-2021, 03:18 PM | #11 |
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: Oregon
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Re: Jump Distance
Thank you!
So, extra fuel tank in the cargo hold, external fuel tanks (that probably lower aerodynamics) and fuel processors that must weigh a ton. Are there any alternate or advanced drive systems one could install in a 100t scout class that could jump 4 or even 5 with special fuel other than deuterium? We have a espionage campaign you see...
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05-31-2021, 05:20 PM | #12 | ||
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Binghamton, NY, USA. Near the river Styx in the 5th Circle.
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Re: Jump Distance
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Theoretically a ship could have, say, 20% of it's volume in internal tanks and 20% in external drop tanks, giving it the capability to jump 2 parsecs on internal fuel or 4 parsecs if it has drop tanks. But that's a design decision that would need to be made when the ship is created; most ships just rely on internal fuel tanks and have just enough internal fuel to make one jump of whatever their maximum distance is. * Note that a Scout has only a J-2 stardrive installed, so even if you somehow fed it more fuel it can't jump more than 2 parsecs without replacing the stardrive with a much more expensive one.
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Eric B. Smith GURPS Data File Coordinator GURPSLand I shall pull the pin from this healing grenade and... Kaboom-baya. Last edited by ericbsmith; 05-31-2021 at 05:28 PM. |
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05-31-2021, 05:31 PM | #13 | |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: traveller
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Re: Jump Distance
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There is a canonical 100-dton ship that attains jump-4: the express boat (xboat). It achieves this by sacrificing maneuver drives (and, in some versions of Traveller, a power plant). Depending on the version, you could trade three staterooms, fire control, and three dtons of cargo for 20 dtons of fuel tank and manage two jump-2's with a modified Type S scout/courier. That would allow you to jump into a system 2 hexes away and jump back again without refueling, or cross a 4 hex gap in two jumps. |
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05-31-2021, 11:30 PM | #14 |
Join Date: Oct 2004
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Re: Jump Distance
There is another trick: build a J-1 or J-2 or J-3 ship. Put in additional tanks. Fill the additional tanks not with liquid hydrogen, but with stuff with a significantly higher hydrogen density. Jump. Then process the stuff from the additional tanks in your onboard fuel processor, put the resulting hydrogen into the jump tank to refuel it and expel the waste.
Methane is CH4, that is each molecule has 4 hydrogen atoms. IIRC density is comparable to liquid hydrogen. So you can process 1 dt methane into 4 dt hydrogen. We discussed this very long ago on the old Pyramid boards, I am not sure whether I remember the density for methane correctly, better check that. IIRC there were also other substances that could be used to store hydrogen in much higher density than liquid hydrogen has. Note that higher density means more mass, so such ships will have noticably less acceleration as long as the reserve fuel is carried. |
06-02-2021, 12:56 PM | #15 | |
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: Oregon
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Re: Jump Distance
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06-02-2021, 08:04 PM | #16 | |
Join Date: Jun 2006
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Re: Jump Distance
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The real kicker is metallic hydrogen, which, giving that stuff actually labeled "superdense" is available in stable enough form to use as armor, should be *easy* with Traveller tech. And totally destructive to canon ship designs, with theoretical densities *starting* at over 10 times that of liquid hydrogen and going up to like 60 times for some phases.
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06-02-2021, 08:49 PM | #17 | |
Join Date: Aug 2007
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Re: Jump Distance
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My personal speculation is that the fuel tanks are lined with repulsor projectors so the hydrogen never touches the walls of the tanks. compressing the hydrogen to the metallic phase would take lots of energy but fusion power is cheap. Of course as you hint using metallic hydrogen tankage means everyone maxes out their J-drive to the limits of their TL (J-6 for the 3rd Imperium). They might even carry fuel for 2 J-6s.
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Fred Brackin |
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06-02-2021, 09:05 PM | #18 |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: traveller
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Re: Jump Distance
Makes those "Fuel" hits or "Fuel Tanks Shattered" results much more exciting, though.
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06-04-2021, 07:17 AM | #19 |
Join Date: Jun 2006
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Re: Jump Distance
For some applications that's a plus - it gives you back the "damaged ship explodes" result that's otherwise quite hard to justify in a space battle, but all over space war fiction - presumably by flawed analogy to wet navy ships that can explode if you can get a hit into the magazine.
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06-04-2021, 08:29 PM | #20 |
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: Oregon
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Re: Jump Distance
Hydrozone, CH4, metallic hydrogen - so many choices but I am betting all are on different tech levels.
Are there not civilizations that have metallic hydrogen and double J-6 drives even before the 3rd Emperium?
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