12-04-2019, 07:34 PM | #21 |
Join Date: Feb 2016
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Re: [Cyberpunk Engineering Challenge] #1 Hurricane Hopper
Well, the problem is movement. The amount of rain would turn any soil it moved on into a bog of mud. In addition, a Cat 5 storm surge could take even a MBT out to sea (or, at the very least, drown the engines).
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12-05-2019, 11:09 AM | #22 | |
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: Meifumado
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Re: [Cyberpunk Engineering Challenge] #1 Hurricane Hopper
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For example, I'm imagining that it'd approach to a safe stand-off distance to launch the beartrap anchor cable, maybe 200 metres. The cable could either be towed by a rocket harpoon or perhaps by a drone sled that engages with the beartrap, before the docking procedure begins.
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12-05-2019, 01:33 PM | #23 |
Join Date: Aug 2007
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Re: [Cyberpunk Engineering Challenge] #1 Hurricane Hopper
I allowed for the posibility of someone who wasn't really a publicity seeking terrorist.
As to landiing I do not believe cables are particularly useful. Thye allow you to exeryt downforce with mechanical reeling in as well as using gravity and thrust but in the process they can convert up forces into mechanical strain with possible breakage. They also have the potential to convert side forces into down forces and leave your vehicle looking like some chapter of Charlie Brown v. The Kite Eating Tree. Basically it'd be one more thing that could go wrong. I'd want a vertical silo with mechanical windbreaks surounding it above ground. You get above this and center as well as you can while you switch all thrust to lateral stabilization and let graviity pull you down. When the windbreaks give you some relief from the winds you neaten up your final approach and after you fall below ground level you neutraize your downward speed.
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Fred Brackin |
12-05-2019, 02:22 PM | #24 | |
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Berkeley, CA
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Re: [Cyberpunk Engineering Challenge] #1 Hurricane Hopper
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The obvious terrorist plot for a hurricane station is that the hurricane station is designed to do things like deflect or weaken hurricanes and if programmed correctly can instead deflect a hurricane the wrong way. In which case one solution might be blowing up the station (if the hurricane's default path is damaging enough, the terrorists blow up the station and this becomes moot). I have seen dumb schemes for suborbital troop transports to get a squad anywhere on earth within an hour (basically putting them inside a missile and launching it). A wet landing version of that might be okay with a hurricane because it's designed to come in hard anyway. |
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12-07-2019, 07:11 AM | #25 | ||||
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: Meifumado
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Re: [Cyberpunk Engineering Challenge] #1 Hurricane Hopper
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The one thing I'm not sure of is whether the reels should be mounted on the landing craft or the beartrap. If they're on the vehicle, then reeling in can start soon after the anchor has been engaged and the plurality of cables deployed to their long baseline anchor points. However, this puts more weight for the winding motors in the aircraft. Putting the reels in the beartrap, as in the modern version mentioned above, means a longer amount of time in the air, as the harpoon is shot to the beartrap, and then the set of cables is drawn back up to the vehicle. This also means the vehicle is only attached by one cable for a longer period and at risk of Charlie Browning, but it might be necessary if the required strength for the cables and reels means heavier apparatus. Quote:
I can see that wind baffles that rise up once the aircraft is in the landing funnel could be useful though. That being said, I'm not committed to either method. I'm entertaining the cable system because Ulzgoroth made a good case for it and it's currently what's used by military for a similar situation, but the free-landing method would be simpler and faster if the aircraft's thrusters are powerful and reactive enough. Quote:
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12-07-2019, 07:30 AM | #26 |
Join Date: Aug 2007
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Re: [Cyberpunk Engineering Challenge] #1 Hurricane Hopper
Not the cables. The parts the cables are attached to. I'm sure you can build super cables but every other part in the system (and this probably means the whole airframe)has to be built to the same strength requirements (or higher).
More cables are likely to increase the odds of breaking your whole vehicle. The point to the underground silo is to get out of the wind. The windbreaks are to reduce the wind forces on your vehicle to make it easier to get out of the wind. You don't want to fight the wind any more than you have to. The wind is much bigger than you are.
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Fred Brackin |
12-07-2019, 07:56 AM | #27 | |
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: Meifumado
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Re: [Cyberpunk Engineering Challenge] #1 Hurricane Hopper
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There's lots of destruction and scenes of cargo trucks and small passenger cars being blown over, but you also see people (uninformed or crazy) driving or walking around and there's moving traffic in the background. I don't see why an MBT would have serious issues in this, let alone any other kind of armoured military vehicle. Flying debris would be the biggest issue, but the winds wouldn't do more than rock them around on their suspension a bit.
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12-07-2019, 08:29 AM | #28 | |
Join Date: Aug 2007
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Re: [Cyberpunk Engineering Challenge] #1 Hurricane Hopper
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saffir...3Simpson_scale We might be experiencing miles/kilometers confusion. When measured in knh Cat 5 is over 252 kmh rather than 157. 157 is mph. 170 to 200 kmh is only cat 3.
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Fred Brackin |
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12-07-2019, 08:43 AM | #29 |
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: Meifumado
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Re: [Cyberpunk Engineering Challenge] #1 Hurricane Hopper
I was just going straight off the Wikipedia article. Perhaps the Cat 5 rating is from satellite readings, whereas the listed windspeeds were what was recorded at ground stations which might have dodged the worst winds. Would the typical ground experience be much different, though?
But that is a good point to know for the hurricane platform, which would be situated right at the most intense section.
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12-07-2019, 10:39 AM | #30 |
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Berkeley, CA
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Re: [Cyberpunk Engineering Challenge] #1 Hurricane Hopper
Also, wind speed is not constant across an entire hurricane. It's physically impossible to walk around in 150 mph winds, the wind force exceeds your weight and ground friction.
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