Scifi Fun With Inertial Negators....

[Spacescifi]

Inertia is the tendency for an object at rest or in motion to stay at rest or in motion.

The greater the mass, the more energy is required to counter it's inertia.

Inertia negators would lower the energy required for this.

What does that mean?

Something you have probably never seen in scifi since scifi tropes are easier to follow than going down the what if rabbit hole of science VS scifi.

What Actually Happens If You Turn On The Inertial Negators: Your vessel has a mass of 100 tons. With inertial negators on, it's inertia will be countered as if the vessel was only 100 kilograms... meaning that when you light up those rocket engines.... hahaha! Bwahaha! Fun times were had by all!

What does this mean? You can go farther and faster with ORDINARY chemical or solid rocket engines. How much I don't know, but quite a bit if you do the math.

Take SpaceX Starship for example with it's methalox engines (the second stage). It weighs about 100 tons right?

Install and activate inertial negators and that baby's boost will be increased about a hundred fold or more (did not do the math so I am likely off but the point still stands that the engine boost will be much higher than normal).

In practice what this means is IF we actually had inertial negators, we would probably not need a dozen rocket engines for a lift off when just a few could give the same thrust without the complications that come with fusion or antimatter.

Also... the fabled small scifi SSTOs like the millenium falcon could actually be possible.

Unlike the movies, to conserve propellant main engines would be pulse fired a lot, since the inertia resistance would be relatively low compared to the sheer amount of thrust the rocket is putting out.

 

If we want to do calculations here is the Merlin rocket engine's abilities:

How much thrust does a Merlin engine have?

 

Specifications

MERLIN – SEA LEVEL
Thrust (Sea Level)	854 kN / 190,000 lbf
Specific Impulse	283 sec
Chamber Pressure	10.8 MPa
Throttle Capability	Yes (100% to 57%)

So if a vessel is 100 tons with Merlin engines, and has inertial negators working then it could probably pulse fire SSTO to orbit, since it's thrust would be increased as the engines would move it as if it were ONLY 100 kilograms.

 

Thoughts?

 

Not exactly a torchship, but it does make getting to and off planets much easier.

Edited September 15, 2023 by Spacescifi

[Shpaget]

If you want to blatantly break laws of physics and make perpetuum mobile in your fiction possible, go for it.

Just keep in mind that everything we currently know about universe says this can't work in reality.

[RCgothic]

You're basically describing mass effect fields from Mass Effect. Copy across.

[darthgently]

One could get rid of unnecessary parts by only having a single Reality Negator to replace all other imaginable magical devices.  Better yet, just make humans somehow transmute into Kryptonian Superpeople that can fly through space as fast as they want without a spaceship at all.  Cheat codes fully enabled!  Game completed!  Yay!

[kerbiloid]

Portable Soliptizer

Makes the solipsism real, letting you to imagine thephysical laws which you wish.

[Gargamel]

Last weekend or so I was watching the last bit of an Ahsoka episode when my girlfriend walked in, she sees a ship jump into hyperspace. 
 

Not being a big Star Wars fan, she asks “How do they explain ignoring  the relativistic effects of the hyperdrive ?”

”They really don’t.    They just wave their hand at it and if you don’t think about it that hard, it’s a non issue.”

”Really? You uber space nerds are ok with that?”

”Yeah, of course, if they tried to explain it, something would be wrong and that would bother people.    Just ignoring something is better for the story usually”

And that’s when I realized I was talking to one of these threads and not her.  

 

 

[Nuke]

a girlfriend who understands general relativity. dont let that one go. i once dated (we will call it dated) a girl who thought that trucks stop faster because they weigh more. 

Edited September 19, 2023 by Nuke

[Superfluous J]

15 hours ago, Gargamel said:

”Really? You uber space nerds are ok with that?”

The reason this uber space nerd is okay with that is that Star Wars is not Science Fiction. It's Space Fantasy.

I'm bothered by Star Wars not making physical sense exactly as much as I'm bothered by Lord of the Rings not making physical sense.

EDIT: Now that I think about it. I think it bothers me LESS.

Edited September 19, 2023 by Superfluous J

[magnemoe]

13 hours ago, Nuke said:

a girlfriend who understands general relativity. dont let that one go. i once dated (we will call it dated) a girl who thought that trucks stop faster because they weigh more. 

Something indicates second girl was not an truck driver  

 

[Nuke]

36 minutes ago, magnemoe said:

Something indicates second girl was not an truck driver  

 

i think her mom was a trucker. 

[magnemoe]

18 minutes ago, Nuke said:

i think her mom was a trucker. 

Almost as bad, as I'm sure mother had horror stories about people pulling into the nice wide gap between a truck and the car ahead and suddenly all the brake lights light up. 
Its an reason trucks keep an distance from the car ahead. 

[darthgently]

Air brakes on large trucks also have a bit more latency so the driver has to press the brake a bit sooner to get the desired effect to happen when they want it to happen.  Also, on a tractor trailer rig, the trailer brakes should engage slightly before the tractor brakes to ensure the trailer stays in line with the tractor while braking.  This means a bit of additional lag to the tractor brakes engaging on top of the air brake lag.  These latencies are the main reasons for keeping a large gap between the truck and traffic ahead aside from common sense. 

I always controlled my speed according traffic several vehicles ahead, like 1/4 mile, as well as that directly ahead to stay ahead of the slinky curve

[KSK]

4 hours ago, magnemoe said:

Almost as bad, as I'm sure mother had horror stories about people pulling into the nice wide gap between a truck and the car ahead and suddenly all the brake lights light up. 
Its an reason trucks keep an distance from the car ahead. 

This is why trucks need inertial negators too.