drag in space

Taz-in-Space · #1 February 9th, 2003, 07:08 AM

How about in a nebula??

Fyron · #2 February 9th, 2003, 07:09 AM

Real nebulae are nothing like nebulae you see in Star Trek, B5, SW, etc. I am fairly certain that the gasses and such are spread out really thin, and would not create much more drag than normal space.

Gryphin · #3 February 9th, 2003, 07:40 AM

Fyron, I'm very happy to hear that. My Tessalates are safe even if they are not esthetic. Hmm, Guess i beter get them zipped and up loaded. < Phew >

[ February 09, 2003, 05:41: Message edited by: Gryphin ]

Fyron · #4 February 9th, 2003, 09:07 AM

It does cause a (barely) measureable drag, but it is something like a fraction of a percent decrease in speed, so it does not have very much of an effect overall, esp. with the speed of engines in SE4.

couslee · #5 February 10th, 2003, 02:55 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by primitive:
Ain't gonna happen.
High heels, big wigs, and short dresses is not advisable in Zero-G conditions.

Might make a funny ship-set. Have your ships so repulsive, that everyone feels the need to eradicate you just on the basis of aesthetics. And talk about a role play race..... lmao

capnq · #6 February 9th, 2003, 09:04 PM

A while back in Discover magazine, I read an article which said that even "dark" nebulae that appear opaque are better vacuums than can be created here on Earth.

Shadowstar · #7 February 9th, 2003, 10:47 PM

Well, there is the whole thing about having ships that just look nice. After all, just because you can build a flying rock doesn't mean it'll look like a million bucks (unless it's a flying gold nugget -- space casinos anyone?).

And, of course, space isn't empty. There are planets out there, and chances are, if you can travel to other stars, you're also gonna wanna check out the planets along the way. Designing a ship that can function in the atmosphere of a planet is important in that case. So even if you don't need to be aerodynamic all the time, chances are you'll need to be aerodynamic some of the time.

Of course, you could also go the way of having two different kinds of spacecraft; one for space and another for air and space, but that could end up more expensive as you'd then have to build two ships instead of just one, and one of the ships (probably the space-only ship) would have to be able to carry and launch the other one.

Then there's the whole discussion of designing ships that can function in very different atmospheres than Earth's. For instance, a planet with gravity half that of Earth, or a planet with air that's twice as thick, or a planet with a very thin atmosphere (low cieling), or one with high surface winds, etc. The aerodynamics on these planets would be very different, and ships would have to be designed to function in as many different environments as possible to be useful. And many planets have different atmospheric gasses, what then? How much will that anti-corrosive plating weigh? How does heat-shielding effect your aerodynamics? And so on...

It's good that these questions can be answered in the present, using aerodynamics simulations, so that we are prepared for the future.

[ February 09, 2003, 20:49: Message edited by: Shadowstar ]