Oolite Bulletins

A concept I came up with early on for my tech writings was the method used to power the main system drive, seeing as it is independent of the hyperdrive and does not use Quirium.

My thoughts:

The system drive uses ionic propulsion. All Elite-Universe ships contain a recycling and molecular resequencing facility that can separate and recombine atomic structures. It can catalyse most reactants and make a large number of different complex structures, including food, drink, clothing etc. Think replicators from Star Trek, but linked up to the recycling facilities.

Basically, the replicators are powered by waste products when in space, including the letover carbon from the life support scrubbers and (icky) the hygiene facilities.

These replicators create high energy ionic particles (including photons) for use in the system drives. They generally do this all the time the ship is powered up, but will also allow the intake of outside elements (like station air, planet atmosphere, solar matter and the like) to boost the quantity of available particles. The drives are primarily solar powered, and can utilise the raw UV rays of the unfiltered sun in space.

I thought that life support (including hygiene facilities) was a closed system. What goes in comes out, and what comes out goes in. Yes, it is icky, but it will keep you alive even if you stay out for years. :^)

Well, with my theory, it's still a closed system, other than the fact that a certain volume is lost in the drive reaction. There would still be waste from the reaction, however.

The one thing I like about ionic propulsion is that it's a cold drive. The exhaust plume would be cold, since ionic propulsion would theoretically use a magnetic field to propel the ship, reacting against the magnetic fields in the system.

1) Photons are not ions or “ionic.”
2) Ion drives produce very hot exhaust, in the millions of degrees, although it isn’t very dense.

Selezen wrote:

The one thing I like about ionic propulsion is that it's a cold drive. The exhaust plume would be cold, since ionic propulsion would theoretically use a magnetic field to propel the ship, reacting against the magnetic fields in the system.

That would be magnetic propulsion, not ionic

Ion drives are already in use for spacecraft - there's an ESA mission to the moon powered by one, and I think there's a couple of others in flight at this moment. Ion drives make you move like a classic rocket, by ejecting material out of the back. A traditional chemical rocket uses the combustion products of a chemical reaction as reaction mass. By contrast, an ion drive ejects ionised particles accelerated by an electric field - but it's still just throwing reaction mass out of the arse end. A bit like the way the picture tube in your TV (if you still have an old fashioned CRT) fires electrons at the screen - it's using electrical charges to accelerate the ions out the back of the engine.

Current ion drive technology does not provide very much thrust at all (probably only a few newtons at most) but they can do it for a heck of a long time. A small acceleration over weeks and months will build up into quite an impressive velocity.

I believe that 'Deep Space One' prototyped an ion drive motor. It had the power equivalent of a torch, but, as winston said, it is able to do that for weeks and weeks constantly.

I seem to remember it achieved >1000km per sec after several months.

The system worked beautifully - the JPL engineers were so full of themselves because along with that, they had crammed 21 different new systems all into the one craft and all of them had worked (that must be a first!) - that they ran off at the mouth about all the other prototype work they were doing including injecting anti-matter into plasma... ...instant black hole/warp drive....?

Black hole? Nah. Small matter/antimatter annihilations occur all the time.

winston wrote:

That would be magnetic propulsion, not ionic

Soz. More thorough reading next time, methinks.

Since our drives are inertialess, they are non-newtonian propulsors, using different principle - not jet-based. So exhaust we see must be just a side effect but not the way they work.

Just saw on the TADA list, that Giles has been experimenting with driveplume effectors.
Particles emitted from drive plumes, to disrupt ships flying to close behind (in the plumes).

Very exiting thought.
I'd like to think Boas (etc) would have big 'wakes' behind them.
Envision:
A Frog tumbling wildly as a Krait recklessly flies into the path of it.

Other effects could include increased heat, increased chance of fuel leaks, premature detonation of missiles (maybe not relevant as missiles will detonate at range from target anyhow, but could be a problem in fleet combat or ships with extremely high engine output), faster detioration rate. sensors glitches. fogged up viewscreen cameras, you name it.

Wakes could pose a problem for carriers with rear-facing hangarbays.
Thus provinding an answer to the favorite question of "What Ship?" readers:
Why does the Behemoth, a high tech battleship, have a frontal hangar bay that makes docking during combat all but impossible?