On 10/15/09 2:47 PM, Jon Lang wrote:
I'm thinking of trying a space opera setting where the distinction between
interplanetary travel and interstellar travel is merely one of scale, not of
type. In particular, I want the standard drive system to be a gravity drive
that uses a version of Alcubierre's "warp bubble" theory to ignore the
lightspeed barrier. Interstellar travel would involve a ship accelerating
halfway to the destination system, then decelerating for the second half of
the trip. This same drive system would be used for interplanetary travel
and for combat maneuvering. OTOH, I'm thinking that gravitational tidal
forces might interfere with it, thus keeping it from being usable for
planetary takeoffs and landings.
I'm thinking of keeping the accelerations reasonably low, on the order of
single-digit G's (figure a thrust-to-mass ratio of, say, 100N per kg for the
drive system), and I'm figuring that the tidal forces that occur in low
Earth orbit are sufficient to disrupt the drive. What are the implications
of these assumptions?
It sounds like a great idea to me.
I don't know about implications but I have a couple more questions.
The first thing I think of is, why do you want to keep it from being
used in gravity wells? It sounds like the perfect thing to use for
reaction-less thrusters to give you flying cars and other things.
The next thing I wonder is about the power requirements. That will have
a huge impact on intersteller travel and the design of the ships. If it
uses a lot of power that has to be discarded as waste heat and there's
no reaction thruster to dump heat into, the ship surface is going to be
almost entirely made of white-hot fuzzy-looking fractal radiator panels. :)
--
Zan Lynx
[email protected]
"Knowledge is Power. Power Corrupts. Study Hard. Be Evil."
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