Semi-OT: A General Tech Question Thread for me :)

Starhawk · #1 September 21st, 2005, 10:24 AM

Well someday maybe someone will figure out how to create a gravity field so for the sake of keeping things nice in this story I'll just assume that

I Know not very "scientific" but I don't want to have to deal with the even more complicated and pain in the butt problems that come about when you have rotating sections.

El_Phil · #2 September 21st, 2005, 10:58 AM

Nothing wrong with a rotating section, except when it stops rotating of course...

Now I remember a name 'Alistar Reynolds.' anyone read any off his stuff? There's a guy who takes things seriously. As in journeys take years/decades as light speed is the limits and people have to wear exo-suits when the ship accelerates at high Gs. Masochisticly hard science really.

Starhawk · #3 September 21st, 2005, 11:10 AM

Trust me El Phil I've read a few different opinions on the "problems" that come in with rotating sections, which is in part why I asked about that idea here.

I've heard any number of things like friction, amount of power required yadda yadda that people threw at one another as to why or why not rotating sections would work.

kerensky · #4 September 21st, 2005, 11:36 AM

Rule number 37: There is no such thing as overkill. There is only "Open Fire" and "Time To Reload".

El_Phil · #5 September 21st, 2005, 12:16 PM

Given the choice between floating into scalding hot coffee when the ship stops accelerating or a rotating section I know what I'd choose... Full on artificial gravity.

If you don't like rotating sections then perhaps consider the rotating ship. An idea I got from a Heinlein book, essentially the enire ship 'rolls' along. No friction or bearings to think about, full gravity for the whole ship (admitedly variable strength, but you can't have everything) it seems clever. I haven't put that much thought into practical issues, but none are jumping up at me right now.

Wolfman77 · #6 September 21st, 2005, 12:33 PM

Wouldn't a rotating ship require alot more thrust to accelerate. Manuverability would also be greatly reduced, I believe, as it would be harder to change directions. Another problem turning when spinning is that the thrusters to move you into a turn would be rotating and would create a couple of problems, depending on how much you wanted to explain.

They would need to be pulsed on ond off in a serial order to keep thrust on just one side of the ship.

If you wanted to go farther into it, then that wouldn't work either as each thruster would still fire in an arc, not just at one point. It would be massively unstable.

I can't think of any way to explain around this, and there may be other problems I haven't thought ofas well.

Starhawk · #7 September 21st, 2005, 12:38 PM

Yeah like firing weapons lol think about it if your ship is rotating a cannon that was locked onto the enemy a second ago won't be after the ship rotates.

Also grav "plating" works for me for now as just looking at an Icaran ship it's clear there's no room for a rotating section in the design (see attached).

As far as constant acceleration goes I agree with you there it would suck to float into something if the ship comes to a sudden stop lol

El_Phil · #8 September 21st, 2005, 01:55 PM

Quote:

Wolfman77 said:
Wouldn't a rotating ship require alot more thrust to accelerate. Manuverability would also be greatly reduced, I believe, as it would be harder to change directions. Another problem turning when spinning is that the thrusters to move you into a turn would be rotating and would create a couple of problems, depending on how much you wanted to explain.

They would need to be pulsed on ond off in a serial order to keep thrust on just one side of the ship.

If you wanted to go farther into it, then that wouldn't work either as each thruster would still fire in an arc, not just at one point. It would be massively unstable.

I can't think of any way to explain around this, and there may be other problems I haven't thought ofas well.

How to solve that? Computer controled constant correction. Modern aircraft (F-22, Eurofighter) are 'dynamically unstable' airframes. You kill the computers and the plane goes out of control. Similar thing with this. Or just pre compensated burns, you allow for the fact the thruster is moving when you calculate the burns. You know all the factors that will affect the stability so it's calcuable, with fast enough computers.

Weapons however are tricky, it would depend on how fast the outer edge of the ship is spinning, which would depend on how much gravity you want in the ship and how big the ship is.

OR the ship rotates round its axis of movement. The main engines are mounted on the 'hub' of the ship as are your forward firing main weapons. Simplifies some of the problems certainly, if not solving all of them.