Spacescifi

Let's assume you have a torchship that specifically requires water to even operate like a torchship (other propellants won't give the same performance due to the scifi nature of the drive the ship uses). What ways could you refuel it it? I will list a few and you may expound upon or add to this. 1. Scooping ice into an open cargo bay by flying through Saturn's rings. Use cargo bay bots to haul the ice into a processor which melts it and separates water from minerals. The minerals you can chuck back into space unless you want them. This is fairly easy... but the distance is the only real challenge. 2. Have refuel depots on worlds or moons with abundant ice. Torchship water tanks would SSTO to orbit and dock and refuel an orbiting torchship. Then another Torchship tank would be sent to grab the near empty one to bring it back to the depot. 3. Try and find a comet or icy asteroid. Processing it will be harder due to all the rubble. Interestingly... places with little or no water would have a much smaller if any manned presence at all. Unless a fleet of water tank torchships are sent ahead in advance to orbit them for spacehips to dock with later. So I guess I learned something new. You other boldly go into the unknown looking for Saturn-like rings for any easy refuel, or you sent an entire fleet of water tank torchships to a place with no water. The second option is far more expensive since you may not recover the water tank torchships, and even if you did it would be a long and expensive process. So in conclusion if you have torchships... refuel depots and Saturn's rings are the easiest ways to refuel.... but Saturn is so far away. Asteroids and comets may be closer but are harder to process the water due to all the rubble. So while we poop waste, a torchship finished processing water from a comet or asteroid is going to be 'pooping' minerals and rock debris that it does not need or want.

This is a nobel mathematical effort and a well made point. Yet I had no intention of FTL energies being super high, nor for a torchship to literally fly out of a solar system and somehow survive all the tiny stuff hitting it as well as oort clouds around it and the next system over. FTL jumps could involve a risky manuver that involves interacting with a star that provides the energy for you. Cloaking devices become necessary or otherwise a big asteroid as a shield in the short time before jumping so the ship would not burn up. Jumping from star to star essentially. Infrasfructure already in place like stargates would be safer.

By now I actually do know what kind of scifi drive wilI use (fictionally photon-like drive that trades the massive heat for pure repulsive force... thus it's heat is not an issue). Drives may be fictional but I prefer that the energy required to pull off such feats to be more realistic. Thus the thread... and knowing that makes a difference in a given setting.

This post was not about overly energetic exhaust.... besides, doing what you suggest does nothing about the vast potential power in the ship's powerbanks, which if blown up would be catastrophic (especially given the scifi trope of FTL jumps being powered by spaceships). My OP was an attempt to justify landing large SSTOs without them being so potentially deadly no that no one would.

When I say compact and high energy powerbank, I mean something literally small enough to carry (about the size of a baseball bat). You can stash multiple powerbanks inside the ship's core generator, and remove them just as easily. Gutting the ship as you call it is anything but. It is literally just stashing away a bundle of powerbanks crew can carry on a shuttle. The engines are never removed but they need the powerbanks to function... so it is good the powerbanks are small and very energy dense.

This is something I thought was a show stopper but it really is'nt. We can take for granted that in popular scifi the powerbanks/generators that spaceships use are energy dense, even on par with matter/antimatter annhilation. They also compact. Which is a bonus that lends itself toward safe landings for heavy SSTOs. Of course you will have to make something up or else deal with radiation exhaust... since with it landings won't be safe. But if you can fudge out the radiation aspect you're fine. Anyway it dawned on me that if you have a compact high density power source on your starship that lets you perform like a torchship and do FTL hyperspace jumps... no way you want to land with it onboard... but neither do you have to. Solution: Have several lower energy powerbank backups for landings. They have roughly just enough energy to deorbit, land, and reach orbit.... once. Meanwhile you stash the rest of your compact powerbanks in an orbiting small shuttlecraft, which waits for the mothership to rendezvous with it in orbit later. This thus solves the problem of trying to land a spaceship with doomsday energy levels... since you are stashing all of that in low planet orbit in a small shuttle instead. So shuttlecraft are essential to spaceships with high energy compact powerbanks... since they are the perfect place to stash the explosive powerbanks when you want to land the mothership without the potential of wiping out a country. Instead of that at worst if your ship blows up it will be like a Tsar bomb or close. Which while still dangerous is a lot better than wiping out a whole country.

The nice thing about Earth is that you don't have to travel several light secondd to get a specific resource. Space resources are selectively spread out and and Earth arguably has a greater variety of resources than any known world. For example here is obngs you would have trouble making in space. Rubber.

Think of useful things you can build in space using resources found in space. Granted the tools/machines to make it come from Earth, but the resources come from space or other worlds in the solar system. Moon: Solar panels. Using ore and metal, as well maybe as ice for processing I dunno, only problem is you will run out of ice sooner than later if you don't start redirecting icy comets to land on the moon. Mars: Solar panels. More ice so more things you can build using it like... I dunno you tell me. Etcetera: I got nothing else but maybe you do?

Sounds nonsensical until you remember they were trying to covid-19 the aliens... and no one knew their modern day location so the only way to develop a kill chemical agent was in the future. The future gave their lives up for the past but provided just enough intelligence to beat them in the present. Yeah it does seem implausible... then again if these creatures reproduce at an unusual high rate it is because the creatures are unlikely to be natural to begin with. My guess is mankind tried all of what you said but they reproduce so fast it makes no difference. They probably can reproduce off a single meal.... and perhaps mature to adulthood within days. The queens may take longer but they are both rare and well protected. After all the aliens appear to be literal living weapons in the flesh. Nukes should have stopped them, unless the cursed things can swim and survive off ocean life... I would not put it past them really.

Been starting fine since. I just make a point of turning off my head lights now when the car is parked and I am in it during rainy days.

Phasers are particle beams... fictional nadion particles notwithstanding.

In scifi it is common for characters to wield particle or laser beam pistols powerful enough to cut through steel easily. As in it would penetrate several inches of steel in seconds. We do not have a power source tiny enough that we could put in a gun to do that.... but even if we did there are two possible showstoppers: Waste Heat: Would be high, so high you would be advised to have disposable casing to drop with each shot to get rid of it. Much like normal guns do. Even then I doubt that would be enough to counter all the waste heat generated by a beam that can cut through several inches of steel in seconds. Which leads to gun failure or worse. Radiation: Particle beams cause dangerous radiation, so you really don't want to be in a fire fight with them... since if the beams don't hit you the scattered radiation will and so will cancer if you do it often enough. Laser beams reflect off anything shiny and would easily blind anyone without eye goggles designed for laser protection. Conclusion: I do not think high powered particle or laser beam guns that are handheld will ever rival regular guns for lethality and ease of use as well as cost. Assuming we did have a high power energy source for a laser or particle pistol, we could not fully exploit it anyway without destroying the gun. We could use it on lower power settings for cutting through stuff gradually but that's it. Better as tools than weapons. Taking a DEW pistol to a gun fight is like taking a pressure washer to a gun fight. More likely to injure or annoy than actually kill since you would not be able to use the max power you have available. Thoughts? I would love to be proven wrong but don't think wilI be.

So I ask the mechanic for a deep diagnosis, an ohms test, a continuty check of all circuits and a harness check? That is what I should say? How much will it cost? I live in norcal (north california).

I recently saw and enjoyed this movie. But I tended to think that IRL we would not even need time travel since I honestly think we would have gone nuke happy on the whitespikes. The main problem is that they are in a country WITH nukes, so that county would be the one that would have to first nuke their own country. But before that they no doubt would try pitched battles with the army, and after severe losses at some point I reckon they would just start air bombing them with nukes taking any civilian casualitues as a necessary evil to stop an unrelenting alien monster swarm invasion. What do you think? What are the odds tge Whitespike aliens could actually be stoppes in Russia without overrunning it and spreading across the rest of the planet?

I DMed you. I have had it code scanned at an auto store as they give free scans and at that time battery light was red and on months ago, but after he gave it the alternator a 'load' as he called it (probably electricity) it shook each time and worked properly. Alternator was fine he said, battery may ir may not be ok, but connecting wures were partially exposed metal, and tiny footprints were around the engine... meaning cats ir rats had been using my engibe as a heat source and perhaps chewing up wires too. Red battery light went off then and has not came back since. Most likely I will just tke it to my mechanic as so far he has fixed all my problems I have ever handes him each time.

Here is where you can throw your car issues onto the interwebs so others may understand or be able to help. I go first. My car would not start in the parking lot. Strangely I heard the ignition sound but no engine. After a few tries and a few minutes later I managed to turn the keys and heard the car engine begin to crank to life... but only briefly before dying. No car indicator warning lights came on whatsoever. Not even a battery light. I presumed maybe my battery was low since my headlights were on with the engine off for about 15 min. So later on after calling my insurance tow truck for help, and tried to crank my car on again and strangely... the car started without issue. To make sure it was not a fluke I drove it and parked, turned it off, then cranked the engine to life once more after about ten minutes. Anybody wanna tell me what's going on with my frankinstein of a car? I am betting my connection wires are worn, because they look like it, plus a guy at an auto shop said so aftee looking at them. I intend to go to a mechanic on the weekend to get all of this sorted and over.

The batteries can be used as bombs given how much energy they can store. You could cover 20 acres of lunar terrain with solar panels to charge a battery no heavier than a gram for decades on end until it's stored electricity is near equal the battery's mass. As for pusher plate shuttlecraft, it works both in atmosphere and vacuum... which is kind of important given the very purpose of a shuttle. Magnetic nozzle vessels are optimizdrd for space only travel

Thanks... no need to change my OP after all. You explained what I was already presuming... since mass and energy are interchangeable. Energy is like the given capacity for how much work you can do with a given mass, but mass itself is like the potential to do work. Question: I realize you could easily make a thermal rocket with this technology, but also no ceramics and tungsten have heat limits, which limits the efficiency any given drive unless you just do mini-mag orion. I presume in a setting like this, magnetic nozzles in space would be common as tires on cars, since small bombs are really easy to make. So we are talking second stage mini-mag rockets that are space only vessels. Sadly even with technology with power densities this high I don't think you could get van sizs shuttle craft using just rocketry. But you could if you used a combo of rocket thrusters for belly VTOL and a rear pusher plate for reaching orbit with tiny battery bombs. That would be funny.. a van size star trek shuttle detonating huge explosions behind it to get to space.

You have a point. Sending satellites to an orbit to capture a lot of sunlight does not require advanced rocket technology. Just time. Yet sending won't be nearly as long as the charge wait time. See if you put up a falcon nine in an orbit to capture sunlight for solar panels, it would take decades, even centuries to fully charge all the super batteries. Only way to shorten the time is with bigger solar panels that are linked to deliver power to specific batteries being charged. Given the sheer mass of solar panels required... seems like I was right in an earlier thread. Just cover the moon with solar panels and network them to charge batteries.

I see. So non-rechargeable but still useful power banks. Thanks for the correction. So basically a rod shaped power bank would become shorter and shorter until it disappeared as you drained it's energy. Nice.

You can gradually drain the battery or use it up in one go.... just make sure that if you do drain it in one go that wherever the electricty is going is massive enough to tank an explosion. It goes without saying that if you were to discharge it all at once, the blast from wherever it was discharged into would destroy the battery anyway.

Scifi Scenario: This is based on an earlier thread. Scifi batteries that can store enough electricity to equal their own mass are used for power generation (safer than antimatter). A fully charged kilogram battery would weigh 2 kilograms for example. To charge such batteries two plans are proposed. 1. Send out satelite swarms of satelites with pusher plates and pure fusion bombs to propel them to an orbit where they can use solar panels most effectively. It may take a decade or so to charge a single satellite's battery via it's solar panels, but once charged the battery would be the most energy dense and compact power source known that could be easily handled. Just don't overcharge it if you don'want it to explode. 2. Send out satellite swarms of mini-mag satellites with solar panels to charge the super batteries. Unlike a pusher plate a magnetic nozzle needs a power source, which is not a problem given the availability of super batteries. Main question: Which drive is easier to mass produce a satellite swarm with? I am partial to pusher plates because they look cooler in action, but not sure if pusher plates are easier to mass produce than mini-mag. Let's presume for the sake of argument that pure fusion bombs are mass produced. In that case I really do not know which would be more economically sound to produce en mass. Pusher plates or mini-mag drive satelites? Mini-mag may offer higher performance overall, but once a satellite reaches the right orbit for solar energy collection it's days of travel are done anyway. So it seems from my reasoning pusher plates may be the way to go... and they look cooler in action too. Thoughts?

Alright then... prepare for a journey down the scifi rabbit hole of my mind then. It's essentially a more refined idea based off an earlier one. Tactile Kinetic Metal: Can move liquids or solids in contact with it across it or simply pull them toward it while sitting upon it (which allows for 1g simulation by the way so long your feet are planted on the metal). However it is also used for very simple rocketry. Take a propellant tank of water, release some and the nozzle which is made of the tactile kinetic variety will move the water out so fast that it burns and become a rocket plume on par with a antimatter/matter annihilation mixed with water propellant. Powering up: The metal derives it's limited tactile kinesis from electrical power and can charge up enough electrical power to equal it's own mass (meaning a kilogram powerbank of this metal would weigh 2 kilograms fully charged). Trying to further charge a fully charged powerbank would merely heat it up and too much heat would cause it to release all stored energy in a catastrophic explosion. Using tactile kinesis gradually depletes the charge, or you can even disharge the entire charge at once... though that would more than likely be more than enough to totally wreck something. The best thing about the technology is that it makes both mass accelerators and rocketry really easy so long you have mass to throw or exhaust.

If I am correct, and feel free to correct me, the exhaust plume of a rocket burning chemical exhaust at a rate on par with an antimatter rocket in atmosphere would shoot out a really long plume that is pointy at the end like an ion rocket. Meaning that exhaust is moving so fast that it won't expand much if at all where it is visible to the naked eye. Even in upper atmosphere. Am I right or wrong?

Good design. I still think having some high speed flying drones deploy would be must one the police heliopter starts tracking the bat-mobile. The flying drone would have to fly up and spray both the searchlight and the helicopter camera with a sticky adhesive that blocks visual view. And the batmobile must only go out at night. During the day just hit up Superman to fly you around... or if on bad terms with him as Bats sometimes is there is always Wonderwoman. For airless tires I presume solid rubber mixed with metal mesh for cushioning. The Bat-mobile is going to need really good shock absorbers!