Spacescifi

Barring a way to do warp/FTL, nothing tops antimatter catalyzed nuclear pulse. It's basically project Orion using antimatter to trigger nuclear explosions. Given the vast energy of antimatter reactions, little in the way of reaction mass is needed. And by little... I mean wayyy less than a kilogram. So this: In the mid-1990s research at the Pennsylvania State University led to the concept of using antimatter to catalyze nuclear reactions. In short, antiprotons would react inside the nucleus of uranium, causing a release of energy that breaks the nucleus apart as in conventional nuclear reactions. Even a small number of such reactions can start the chain reaction that would otherwise require a much larger volume of fuel to sustain. Whereas the "normal" critical mass for plutonium is about 11.8 kilograms (for a sphere at standard density), with antimatter catalyzed reactions this could be well under one gram. Several rocket designs using this reaction were proposed, some which would use all-fission reactions for interplanetary missions, and others using fission-fusion (effectively a very small version of Orion's bombs) for interstellar missions. Long story short: So long such a ship had some spare SRB's for relaunch, it could go just about anywhere, land, and return. The TWR compared to propellant mass is ridicolously high here. What do you think? I think it beats any torch ship...especially in a race to the moon or even mars. Care to challenge that? What do you think? Since I am betting that the heat rejection mass or propellant mass will make the torchship lose the race anyway. Having more thrust with less mass with less waste heat is generally excellent for any spaceship. EDIT: Not sure if KSP has antimatter catalyzed nuclear pulse but it should,I think.

Oh. I thought you meant what you said. Using less words often has more power than using more, so don't be surprised if I presume you mean what you say when you are terse using few words.

Why? You sound ambivalent. Conflicted. Whether you find a movie you wish to watch or you go merely to be with 'cool' kids or friends, or for the popcorn and hotdogs, it is entirely up to you. If you just want to hear people convince you, then you might get what you want. Only not from me, as I don't have any interest in changing your view on what is a personal matter. You have to make up your own mind. Regardless of what any say.

Hmmm.... have you considered reusuable air augmented nuclear solid booster rockets? Nuclear reactors emit a lot of UV, quartz is transparent to that, and there should be a combustible solid propellant mix that could work off nuclear UV radiation. It's an engineering challenge, but I also think it is the only way that nuclear can perform on the same level as chemical thrust. If one wanted, they could use a mix of solid boosters for launch, and then keep the empty lighter tanks asthe heavier chemical tanks are burned for orbital insertion. It's an engineering problem, not impossible.

Hmmm... why not use both? Use chemical air augmented rockets for initial launch, and then use an NTR for orbital insertion? Makes the nukes is dangerouscrowd happy and provides better thrust to for heavy launch. If we want a really thrusty heavy launch, just scale up the old cold war sprint missiles which could do 100g acceleration as a firststage booster. It won't be getting that with all the extra propellant weight, but the thrust will still be high enough for suborbital. If chemical air augmented ram rockets beat nuclear for thrust we may as well go with those. Since anything worth shipping into orbit will be heavy and air augmented chemical ramjet rockets can loft more than a nuclear air augmented one. Nuclear is best used for space or for missiles, since missiles weigh so much less than spacecraft that we can actuallly make them fly project pluto style using only a reactor and air.

Precisely. A guy who claims to have worked at NASA for decades said rather bluntly that nuclear rocketry thrust *fails* big time. He recomended nuclear for a second stage orbital insertion aince on paper it lasts twice as long as the shuttle orbiter's main engines. The rest he said he would not know without actual testing and analysis.

Hmmm... so how would this look? Lemme guess: Has some variation of shockcones, since you need them at high speeds. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inlet_cone Or maybe this? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diverterless_supersonic_inlet To quote the wiki: A diverterless supersonic inlet (DSI) is a type of jet engine air intake used by some modern combat aircraft to control air flow into their engines. It consists of a "bump" and a forward-swept inlet cowl, which work together to divert boundary layer airflow away from the aircraft's engine. This eliminates the need for a splitter plate, while compressing the air to slow it down from supersonic to subsonic speeds. The DSI can be used to replace conventional methods of controlling supersonic and boundary-layer airflow. DSIs can be used to replace the intake ramp and inlet cone, which are more complex, heavy and expensive.[1] Technical backgroundEdit When an aircraft is flying, the speed of the air relative to the engine is equal to the plane's flight speed. However, current turbine engines are unable to handle supersonic airflow. This is because shock waves associated with supersonic speeds can damage or cause dangerous vibrations in turbine blades, resulting in loss of thrust or engine failure. Consequently, in aircraft travelling at supersonic speeds, the air entering the inlet must be slowed down to subsonic speeds before reaching the compressor and turbine blades of the jet engine. Additionally, the airflow must also be at the optimal speed and volume so as to offer maximum thrust.[2] InletsEdit Modern combat aircraft accomplish this in a variety of ways, through design of the inlet. The inlet sits upstream of the compressor and has a strong influence on engine net thrust. A well-designed inlet straightens out the flow, and feeds the compressor with low-turbulence air at a relatively constant speed and volume. This is not difficult to achieve in subsonic aircraft such as passenger jets, which do not perform high-speed, high-G maneuvers that lead to turbulent airflow.[3]Inlets on subsonic aircraft are simple and shorter, and are basically an opening designed to minimize drag.[4] On supersonic military jets, the inlets are usually much more complex and use shock waves to slow down the air, and movable internal vanes to shape and control the flow. Supersonic flight speeds form shock waves in the intake system and reduce the recovered pressure at the compressor, so some supersonic intakes use devices, such as a cone or ramp, to increase pressure recovery by making more efficient use of the shock waves. The complexity of these inlets increases with an increase in top speed. Planes with top speeds over Mach 2 require much more elaborate inlet designs. This limits most modern combat aircraft to top speeds of Mach 1.8-2.0.[citation needed] Diverterless inletsEdit The DSI bump functions as a compression surface and creates a pressure distribution that prevents the majority of the boundary layer air from entering the inlet at speeds up to Mach 2. In essence, the DSI does away with complex and heavy mechanical systems. Weight and complexity reductionEdit Traditional aircraft inlets contain many heavy moving parts. In comparison, DSI completely eliminates all moving parts, which makes it far less complex and more reliable than earlier diverter-plate inlets. The removal of moving parts also reduces the overall weight of the aircraft. [5] Which is best for the air intake for this application? I also think a big bell nozzle is better than aerospike as it is easier to cool. What you think?

I love it. Yet being a ramjet it will either need boosters for VTOL or a boost assisted horizontal launch for the ramjets to work to assist the rocket. In otherwords, this is NOT an SSTO. Since getting it up to speed for the ramjet requires disposable boosters or a turbojet. Boosters being preferable as you can dump their weight. What I think this is good for is perhaps more reusuable spacecraft? A vessel like this could use the ramjet rocket on reentry to fly around project pluto style (only safer). Without ANY propellant other than air of the speed is sufficiently high enough, assuming the airspeed won't ablate the vessel either.

We already have a Big Brother/Eye of Sauron Insignia... and it surely is not the neighborhood watch.

I was speaking of the difference between our cultures, since I know that informs how we see each other's country and people. Typically restaurant staff do not bother speaking of famiy unless you are a regular and you your family has come before. The irony is that it is a Chinese restauranter that does this! But that is because my family visits randomly as individuals, and he will always tell them 'I saw so-and-so' come by the other day. He'd make great fodder for a detective. I cannot speak for Russia, but I can guess that people are wary of each other like in Ukraine. Since the Soviet Union was a place where neighbors could report their neighbors for being well... not the kind those in power liked. And they would be taken care of (shipped out or worse). Americans have never had anything quite like Stalin or KGB, so people knowing each other's business is not automatically seen as a threat or suspicious. Also regarding waiters... yeah, sometimes they get personal. because they are being flirty. Sometimes females think that will net them bigger tips, not realizing that I am biased based on service above all. If that is good I will tip, even if a guy and I am not attracted to them at all.

Two things. Actually three 1. I cannot speak for all America, but I can say definitely that good customer service can and DOES go beyond fake. Restaurants I patron regularly that adhere to that will ask how my family is doing, or I am doing. As I will them. Yes the whole tactic born of profit motive to a degree, but it does and can form relationships that are closer to casual than cold professionalism. Asian restaurants in general with few exceptions are either coldly professional, overly friendly as if trying to compensate to the point of making customers feel uncomfortable, or rarely the American middle that Americans actually prefer. Either way, food is usually good enough to compensate for any cultural issues, so in end the food taste quality DOES matter most. 2. Brick is used in older homes. Keep in mind too that Americans are used to cheap mass production. Things are buil to wear out more than to last... it's a seller's market you see? We definitely CAN build stuff to last, we can even build dollar store speakers that are plug and play without ANY battery at all. But you never see it done for more expensive good sounding speakers since then you would never have to buy a new one. 3. Do not expect a Russian correlation to American norms. Being fake/genuine carries a different sort of weight here. It's not as serious for one, but I can understand why some over there feel strongly over such, given post WW2 history... which was a time of upheaval and change for them that effects the culture doen to this day, especially the fall of SU.

In my case, as an American, I see a difference in how service is toward customers depending on the culture of the restaurant. For a long time I took offense, but I recently googled the answer and I no longer do. There is actually a reason for it... that has nothing to do with the customer. Tipping is alien to their culture, so trying to ingratiate a customer by being friendly is simply not done in their culture, as they get little to nothing for it No profit in it. Food IS the service. Quick and tasty food is how they show their worth. Check it out if you dare, wish I knew this years ago LOL. https://www.houstonpress.com/restaurants/why-i-dont-expect-good-service-in-asian-restaurants-6438650 What human cultures are alien to you that you do not understand? Given our international nature... who knows? Someone may clarfify it for ya!

Perhaps... I purposely designed mine soley to avoid FTL enhanced relatvistic ramming of worlds. Even so... a lot can be done with the drive and it can be very precise. So long you adjust to the right speed and heading to match your intended planet or mass AND you either guess or know ir's speed and heading to do so. Civillian vessels would surely use preloaded destinations, leading some systems to be well traveled and known, and uncharted space the region of explorers and also refugees and exiles... plus bad guys.

Which is one of several reasons why I find my latest drive so appealing. It seems I come up with better ideas when I post sparingly rather than a lot. My drive allows for newtonian slugfests or docking close up, since if a ship is idly dritftng in a solar system, all another vessel with the jump drive has to do is sense it, match speed and trajectory and jump however close or far they want to it. Getting away would be hard to say the least, since either the escaping ship would have to do new course corrections while evading pirate ship weaoponry/missiles at the same time... or it can jump already since it's course/speed is already matched to a local planet.

Haha... some science is more less good mostly for scifi. Since knowing a star's trajectory and speed in realtime helps you how in real life otherwise? Realistically we would get there at STL, so we would see it realtime when we finally arrive decades or centuries later. Yet that does not spoil the real science of the question. You can investigate how to calculate as much as you wish.

Real science has it's limits in known quantities, whereas science fiction often deals with the unknown. My jump drive as it is won't allow a spaceship to jump at all until it accurately adjusts it's speed and orbital trajectory to match the intended mass it wants to jump near. So several LY will be lost from the jump bank trying to calculate, but it should not be too hard. You already know where the star was years ago and calculating it's speed is easy, so figuring out where it probably should be now cannot be impossible. A few false starts and the crew will get it right, and once logged into a computer's inertial guidance they ALWAYS will. They updated the energy level to only a voyaget probe (about 2 tons converted into enetgy). That is still incredibly powerful and dangerous. For a comparison, the hiroshima bomb I read released the same amount of energy as a paperclip converted into energy. Imagine how big a boom a whole two tons of mass will do!

Well... besides my fear of warp drive abuse in fiction, I simply have a hard time comprehending the shenanigans of what would happen if you warp into a planet's atmosphere... or really any solid object. Warp is all about moving space past you while not actively changing the vessel's speed. Even so, I have a hard time thinking a ship won't die if it goes warp at lightspeed and skims a planet's atmosphere in the process... at least if using common depicted scifi ships that literally warp in open free space. Nevermind the issues inherent when one does FTL warp inside a solar system... some will start debating they got there before light arrived so it must be time travel. t's just a whole can of worms that is really good at making plot holes I can drive a truck through. Jump drives have less plot holes, easier to write. Instant is easy to comphrehend. Alcubierre is much weirder... an outside observer cannot even see the ship, at least that's what an artist depicted. Just some distortion. Mass is trapped in the bubble, so I suppose if you warped into Earth's ground the bubble would fill with rock crushing the ship itself which is insulated in this weird warp bubble pocket of spacetime. Once the warp drive itself is crushed all mass would be released explosively from the bubble. Basically a big... big explosion. Warp ramming would be awful with alcubierre. Even when alcubierre drops out of warp in space it spews out whatever trapped particled and radiation it has from the bubble releasing it.

So it is well known that a 1g or higher constant acceleration drive spaceship is basically a flying weapon of mass destruction. Mix that with the space opera trope of FTL travel or jump drives and you have a serious problem from a writer's POV. Yet I think I found a solution that can justify such WMD ships being owned by civilians. How? By messing with FTL. Consider that if you had an FTL jump drive, what if you HAD to match the speed and trajectory of the mass you wanted to jump near before jumping? Otherwise you waste some of the ship's energy reserves and do not jump, also somewhat decreasing your jump range as well Let's say you had a 1000 LY jump drive, so a failed attempt at jumping to Proxima Centauri would lose about 4 LY of your jump bank for nothing. You can jump however close or far you want... so long you do it in space only. So the consequences are: Now you have to somehow calculate... or let's be real, let your computer calculate the ACTUAL speed and trajectory of stars lightyears away whose light is several years out of date. I think we CAN do that even now. The calcuations, but obviously daisy chaining small jumps is the best way to navigate, as the farther out a star is the harder it becomes for a computer to calculate it's realtime speed and trajectory. The fictional constant acceleration 1g or higher drive shows it's real worth here, since now you need it to adjust for speeds and trajectories or else you will never be able to FTL jump. Conveniently, this a least partially solves the WMD problem. Since an FTL warp drive with constant 1g acceleration means you can spend a year reaching 99% lightspeed and then FTL warp to Earth, drop out of warp on a collision course with Earth and boom! Devastation. My jump drive solution as presented means matching speed and trajectory real-time, so even if you jumped into low planetary orbit you would only fall straight down... hardly relativistic WMD. I suppose if one wanted to be nasty they could jump a LY away, and spend about a year accelerating toward Earth for a colision course. Even so, that provides preparation time for the defending planet if tech levels are equalized. Furthermore it only takes a few vessels, maybe even one to jump along the madly accelerating ships course and chuck out debris in it's path. Defending vessel's will likely jump using the home solar system's star as a point of trajectory and speed reference. At those incredible collision speeds, the attacking ship is very likely to die from literally flying at relativistic speeds into debris that is stationary relative to itself (much as the sun is compared to it's orbiting 'children'). Question: How hard is it to calculate the real-time trajectory and speed of a star in real life that is lightyears away? Can it be done with high accuracy, likely diminishing the farther out one tries to calculate? Like Proxima Centauri is quite doable, but trying to calculate a star's real-time speed/trajectory a hundred LY out? Probably harder... maybe not impossible though. What do you know of this subject?

You would need a scifi level laser turret for it to be it worth it. It is easy for antisat missiles, ICBM's etc to hit anything they want in orbit in minutes. When you are going at suborbital hitting an orbital object... armor is a mute point if the mass is dense enough.

You are absolutely right about gecko feet, yet I reckon that even then it would be so hard as to be impractical for humanoids given how heavy we are. In the conclusion, having heard all, I will keep the suction cups minus any adhesive fluids secreted. They will perform like normal suction cups. If a humanoud tried to climb with them they would just slide down the wall as the fell. What I like is they offer a look to distinguish them from normal humans behind mere color changes. Of all my creations these look the closest to human. The suckers are still usefull. I cannot tell you how many times I wish I had more grip on a heavy box I was reaching for. Or for playing catch. Never ever drop a ball again! Also in space the suckers give them advantages normal humans need special socks and lots of velcro for. These humanoids could walkaround in zero g no problem inside their ship. I already have less human aliens, so the humanoud ones fill a needed niche. Thanks for yours and other's help to see clearly..

Well it is sad, but the only way to not surely die in LEO via human weaponry would require the scifi ship to have 500g nuclear tipped missiles of it's own. Let's round the number it has off to 50, and as these are scifi missiles (not the human ones), let's say they are only a meter long each. So... while in orbit of Earth the ship keeps it's missile turrets (ten total) aimed at Earth. Which is enough to make Earth feel threatened enough to launch, which is very ironic since this is also the only surefire way I can think of to stop an Earth missile strike. When Earth launches swarms of missiles the ship launches counter missiles. It does not even bother trying to evade, as the 500g counter missiles quickly penetrate the atmosphere and detonate close enough to the launched missiles that either an EMP takes them out or the air blast wave does. Should work no? I am trying to not to die here lol! If the scifi ship DOES escape the Captain will muse to himself, "Can't even orbit a planet without getting shot at. The galaxy we live in nowadays." EDIT: If I wanted to make this horrifically unfair I would only need to upgrade each scifi missile with a kilogram of antimatter each. Epic blast wave in atmosphere. Should take out many missiles at launch. EDIT: Wikipedia states Sprint missiles had a 100g first stage solid propellant. Missile looked like a conical spike, and the air resistance was so great the rocket glowed white during launch. So 500g is highly unlikely. Missile would not survive it. Let's calc all the missiles, counter missiles included, with 100g.

Sounds cool. Yet why am I thinking big heavy magnets? Are they not needed? For the spaceship version. Like all other ships it is reaching orbit the traditional way right? Solid/chemical boosters right? This inertial fission idea is mainly good for orbital transfers right?

Pros: Feet hurt? Hover and fly. Something too high to reach? Hover up. Want to mess with birds? Now you can... but trust me you will regret it. Birds are rather adept at dive bombing and nipping creatures they see as a threat. Commute to work just got easier. Flight to the moon and elsewhere is more possible, since now all it takes is a habitat pod and enough flying humans for thrust LOL. Cons: Crime. Oh. No. Guns will probably be outlawed, since now any group can rain down terror from above. Terrorism goes up again, and now important buildings carry AA guns. What do you think?

Hmm... I am the pilot? That's... unfortunate. We are probably going to die, but we will definitely go out fighting for our lives. If I was captain though this whole situation may be different. Because: 1. We should have an officer watching at ALL TIMES for any suspicious signs of activity on Earth. If you see several air forces of various nations taking off simulataneously that's a huge red flag flag right there. And if they are flying toward a spot we can calculate that could easily hit us from via launching, that is our cue to hit max thrust and leave orbit. Granted, if it's underground ICBM's that WILL take me by surprise, but that still gives greater aler time than aircraft launched missiles will. 2. If my ship is not equpped to deal with hostile weapons fire via interception (I actually have missiles or lasers), I won't even visit a potentially hostile planet. Back to the setting though: What would I do? Depends on what my ship can do. If it is only the main engines that can do 2g indefinitely, then turning really fast with RCS which is usually weaker than main engines is noy going to happen. At best I tell the captain to do an emergency dump of ALL cargo so our TWR increases so that now we are going beyond 2g since we are less mass. If we survive, I am reporting my captain to his superiors for being irresponsible. If my ship is so fictional that even the RCS has indefinite 2g thrust then I still dump cargo, only this time I start jinking side to side as I accelerate away. Definitely sounds more escapable than 500g launches. With Tlthis I actually probably have a good 30 seconds before impact or a succesful evasion... maybe more.

Interesting. So it turns out that if you have a spaceship and notice sateites around a planet in low planetary orbit, that area if you decide to enter it is a potential kill zone. It's hardly safe. Even more so if you don't have unlimited fictional acceleration of a few g. So a common sense commander would think twice before doing so, perhaps sending a probe to low planet orbit first. If they blow that up (the planet) then they automatically go on the hostile no fly list. I know scifi depends on scifi shields to save them but I digress. Realistically high power lasers or a project Excalibut that actually worked everytime would be an optimal albeit expensive solution. Since lasers create lots of waste heat and project Excalibur weapons are far from simple to build. They are complex devices.