Spacescifi

You have a point but I dunno. I imagine even with a super material like any handwavium flavor such as duralium, duranium, or dura-steel that you could only use the engine for so long before you needed to to stop and let it cool off. The implications would be huge though: 1. Radiator fins would be made of the same metal, so engine heat could be transferred to them when engines are cut off to cool in space. 2. The hull would be made of the same stuff... actually you may as use your entire outer hull as as a radiator now... forget the fins. 3. Reentry would no longer be as much of a concern since your hull can tank MH engine heat without melting. 4. Lasers would be even less practical for space combat... since they would require them to be greater power hogs than they already are to even do any damage at all.

MH engines have to not use their full potential in theoretical designs because the engine would not survive the heat Thus the MH is watered down with another propellant mixed with it. That said, I am not very familar with how pulse jets work, but I presume a pulse blast big enough to launch an orion would need a nozzle larger than all modern nozzles we have. When you have a lot of heat as exhaust, whether plate or nozzle, it will be big it or at least thick it seems. That's not something that can be avoided I do not think. Another option is to do a Zubrin-esque MH rocket. In other words detonate MH pellets in pulses in the nozzle during ejection.

An MH bomb is a metallic hydrogen bomb... yes I know you sneer at MH, but I guess if pure fusion bombs are allowed so is MH. VTOL rocket exhaust will likely get all over pistons during launch. Might do damage sooner or later. And I reckon rockets would have to be retracted inside the vessel when the bombs go off otherwise the blast wave will probably damage their nozzles. Rockets have no shock absorbers unlike the plate, and to work they must extend outside the plate perimeter. I just do not see rockets not being damaged in an atmosphere unless they are retracted before the bombs go off. Ultimately using ladders with VTOL is something you do if you cannot afford to make loading/unloading easier with belly lander. Which I presume is quite possible with OP technologies. And additional problem with a tailsitter is the sheer longer time it takes to load up cargo. Especially if it is doing ISRU anywhere. Since a belly lander is closer to the ground, it can do ISRU refueling of it's own rocket engines a lot easier than a VTOL pusher plate, which would need significant modifications from the original design to be able to do VTOL on it's own while fully reusable. With a VTOL pusher plate you literally have pistons and a pusher plate between your ships fuel tanks and the ground (which could be your fuel source if on an icy moon). Belly lander does not have that as a concern.

Why not? The thermobaric bomb would only be used partway through the atmosphere. Not the whole way. The bomb would designed hopefully to be a shaped blast toward the pusher plate. And if this cannot work, surely there are other non-nucleaer bombs that could work... both real and theoretical (mh bombs). If there are no good IRL substitute bombs for nukes on the initial ascent then I will have to go with theoretical MH bombs instead, which could do the job given how much energy they yield and could be made into a shaped blast The belly lander design was because an orion cannot land on a pusher plate safely nor with the most stability. And trying to use rockets around a pusher plate and adding landing gear around that too would be what a tail sitter would need. A belly lander makes egress a lot easier, and the mass would be similar, only rearranged, as a tailsitter orion needs landing rockets just as belly lander does. The main difference is placement. Yes and no regarding the fusion rocket: Yes: Obviously they have a way of producing and storing enough antimatter safely enough to trigger a fusion reaction with the fuel. Likely a neutral non-reacting material is what is containing the AM securely. No: That does not mean they have engines made of materials that can survive the performance heat of fusion SSTO. A pusher plate avoids this by external pulse propulsion. It is quite notable that only theoretical design I know of that can do SSTO on Earth is Zubrin's NSWR. And even that does so by making the reaction occur outside the engine.

I am designing a scifi vessel for fiction, yet it's propulsion will be based on realistic/theoretical means. The spaceship is a project orion lying on it's belly at launch. Dual axis launch nozzles at both ends are capable of VTOL, at least until the vessel ascends high enough that it can flip over and detonate a thermobaric bomb. As it ascends higher into the atmosphere where thermobaric bombs do not work well, the spaceship switches over to basketball sized pure fusion bombs. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pure_fusion_weapon Questions: Is the design practical? Just assume that bombs exist already (even though they do not) The vessel is intended to be a true manned SSTO. Part of the challenge I presume will be finding room for the VTOL engines on the end that has a pusher plate on the rear. But I do not see why such is impossible Crew I presume would do egress from the middle of ship when landed on it's belly, since the ends would have space taken up by rocket VTOL engines. What do you think? I also presume a pure fusion bomb orion to orbit... will use bombs designed to minimize fallout, which means no uranium or plutonium is is used for the bombs. Yet to minimize neutron activation the vessel needs to ascend high enough that the blast won't cause neutron activation of the ground. That is why thermobaric bombs would be used initially in the ascent upward. So... is the design practical or did I overlook anything? Ironicaly this kind of vessel is better off as an SSTO, simply because if you staged it you risk damaging or destroying a resusable first stage rocket when you flip and light off a bomb. You would also risk neutron activation of the first stage from the pure fusion detonation. Meaning the first stage returns ... radioactive. Which is bad

Elon we need you... we know you have that boring company!

I just thought it would be better than rotating orbital tethers... since tethers need propellant to de-spin them on occasion.

True... at least we don't have the high gees over an hour of time problem we have with the catapult though. And perhaps it's an easier to fix or modify to work than spin launch?

What about a ballista instead?

Just curious whether or not such could compete or be viable. Two staging is a given. I mean if catapult to orbit is considered we may as well consider crossbows as well! I think the main limit is material strength, and you would need a long and massive vacuum launch chamber to get the most thrust from the launch. Is this mechanically viable? Just scale it up and use strong materials? At least the bow string is resuable!

I just had an idea which like most I am skeptical how practical it is IRL, but in theory it could work. What you need: 1. Electromagnetic space cannon launch tubes... in orbit. 2. Spider silk webbing or it's equavalent in space with the same adhesive properties it has in atmosphere. A ring will hold a large net. 3. A pair of Project orion vessels serve as anchors for the web ring on it's flanks. When EM launch cannon launches anything and is pushed backward into the web, the web catches it and releases it's momentum back to what was before. The orion's cancel out the momentum of the web ring with bomb propulsion as needed Thus no orbit degradation for either. 4. Launch web rings to orbit planets via spacecraft. Then launch fusion fuel pellet packets to hit the webs, which release them and launch the toward a caravan of ramscoop spacecraft which will 'eat' and burn the pellets in pulses for fuel. Main question: Would a web that had all the properties of spider silk be up for the job? Or would we need something stronger? I read somewhere that a large web of a few hundred meters or so could stop a jet airliner in midair!

The fun irony is that I read that Jules Verne criticized HG Wells story about using an antigravity spaceship to reach the moon BECAUSE it was not realistic. I guess Jules Verne was a hard scifi kind of guy.... funny to think the more tech changes the more people stay the same. He would no doubt have loved to see Gerard Bull's space cannon launches... which they did about 200 of them or so. Probably would have been sneering at HG Wells the whole time though lol.

Now I wanna see orion pusher plate spaceships shot out of a cannon on a mountain! In KSP.. since that is safer? Are space suborbital cannons and spin launch a thing in KSP? Should be if not. Someone probably will shoot stuff directly into orbit LOL

Sad but true....

https://ancientsolarsystem.blogspot.com/2016/10/answers-for-authors-why-dont-giant-guns.html?m=1 Poor Gerard... if he were not assasinated Iraq could have had it's own space program... or long range suborbital cannon or missile launcher. Originally Gerard wanted Canada to have it's own space program via HARP, but that is not how matters worked out. Put Gerad, Zubrin, Elon, and Einstein in a room and who knows what they would come up with.... something awesome no? Cannon launched NSWR FTW!

Perhaps they are going about it wrong? Since the more moving parts you have in a closed system the more you increase the chance of systemic failure. The less the better. Problem is that Spin Launch relies on one big part working perfectly or else. An alternative: I think trying the same thing and shape with magnetic coils would be better. The building setup would look the same roughly.... just much larger.... using magnets to accelerate a rocket to the required launch velocity. Actually may work better since you have less stability issues than with catapult arm version. Scott the arm will have to deal with instability issues since the arm will weigh much less once it releases the rocket. With magnet coils lining the inner wall permeter of a giant standing disc launch facility, the stability problem is less of an issue.... because less moving parts are involved. The only moving or switching would be switching the alignment of SOME of the coils toward the exit tube before the last revolution of the rocket before launch. You trade instability of one huge moving part for smaller ones that weigh less and massive amounts of waste heat, which can be solved with generous amounts of coolant or putting your facility near a water source. It would be a massve drain on the electrical grid, but it would change space travel as we know it. Did I get this right? Expensive yes. Possible? I hope so. As Scott Manley said, power generation and spinning is a solved problem... instability is not. This is my attempt to solve the instability problem. What do you know on this?

Kind of... but klingon deaths of superiors are seldom accidental so... although the most honorable way is to challenge them to honorable combat. It all makes sense now. A warrior race with easy to blow up ships and warriors obsessed with dying in combat. I suppose their whole society would collapse if they tried to play it more... fair. Since too many warriors would survive to vie for top dog.

In my best british accent: "I do say the klingon political system is rigged!" No wonder why 'Klingon promotions' are a popular way of ranking up in their society. If you are an old trek fan you know what that is.

Yeah... I can see a klingon loving this... especially performed by a bunch of klingon females. Since even though to us they look kind of ugly... to a klingon male they are exactly their type they like.

Well the thing about Mozart is a made so much music it is profound, and much of it is easy on the ears to... which I cannot say boom boom Ludwig Van Beethoven. I have listened to mozart for over a decade and STILL find music of his I have never heard before that strikes me as quite good and profound. For example his wife said in his letters that she like Mozart's fugues. She likely meant for piano, and I thought so what? I had listened to all of his piano sonatas so how could anything he do top that? Free form without sonata style that's what. Mozart's fantasy and fugue for piano plays almost like a modern piano piece, and has some rather interesting surprises. And that's after over a decade of listening to the man. His stuff never gets old! It's truly immortal music. I do not tire of listening to Mozart like I do Beethoven... because Mozart is so unpredictable with his intricacies. He does not simply lay theme upon theme, even though he tends to do that in his symphonies, he really mixed it up with intricate notes elsewhere. Yes I love Mozart's music and hold it in higher regard than any other composer. Other composers have musical gems. But mozart is like you just hit a treasure trove stash... the more you look the more you will find. I know some great resources online so ask if you want to hear or load up on Mozart freely.

By that measure then all the greeks and romans would envy Mozart. Since though he died you can still sense his personality through his music. One of his more colorful pieces that shows this is called A Musical Joke, though Mozatt originally name it A Little Musical Fun. No other composer I know of that made music that mocked his genre... or those that could not play instruments well@ If mozart came back rom the dead someone full-time would have to be assigned to keep his ego in check, since he is revered to the present day by those that know him... through his music. Also I am sure Wolfgang would try to cash in on all of his stuff we can get for free nowadays lol.

Although the problem with that is Gowron is a notoriously crafty politician. The more land and honor your family gets, the more Gowron will start eyeing you with suspicion to off you somehow in the worst case scenario, or in a best case scenario as a possible successor. So glory and honor is good for a klingon. But too much honor and you will either be dealt summarily with or you must wait till the powers that be die, or defeat them yourself. So if don't want your status quo changed dramatically you limit how much glory you receive. Cause too much will get you either killed or promoted to Chancellor! For a klingon, life is a competition, not a journey, though the old ones tend to be more chill.

TNG and DS9 barely scratched the surface of this subject. If a Klingon is successful in battle, it would seem that they are rewarded with bloodwine (likely best grade and not the cheap stuff) and Gowron declaring in his memetic way: But what else? I mean I know I would want more than that as a klingon! Give me something as a reward! What do they get? Land? Money? Concubines? What. Do. They. Get? As amusing as Gowron's big eyes are.... yeah... if I risked my life in battle I would expect reasonable compensation, and Gowron's line won't cut it if there is no reward behind it.

All my life I was unaware of this, although I had suspicions. Clothing can be toxic: Common man-made fibers such as polyester and acrylic are basically toxic. Polyester is a plastic derived fiber if I read correctly, and acrylic is a petroleum derived fiber. They are good heat insulators, but they also release fumes that are known toxins. Mild symptoms can be lethargy or headaches. The hotter they become, the more likely fumes are released. From what I read, they release known mutagen chemicals... in other words cancerous ones. I am not trying to scare you or telling you to throw out all your synthetic fiber clothing. But caution is advised and I hardly recommend wearing synthetic manmade fibers regularly unless you have no other choice and have to. Natural fibers are safer, but are also easier to tear, shrink, and wrinkle, and often more expensive. All manmade fibers I read about had known toxins, such as rayon, nylon, and likely others I forget the names of. Knowledge gives power. Ignorance deprives one of power. The other really annoying thing about acrylic is that it traps odor.... even after washing. Sure I could vinegar it overnight, but given all the toxins it has? I think not. I will just get rid of it.

I thought the strength ratio of muscles decreased with weight? Weight increases faster than strength? Anyway sounds like modding the humanoid shape can be done only in a very limited way without overhauling it entirely into something else. Like you change the inner organs a bit, but not much else. Examples: Take your lungs and increase the air sacs (avevoli or spelled close) and also increase you body's blood's ability to transfer oxygen. Now you can hold your breath under water for several minutes without breaking a sweat. That's hpw dolphins do it.