Re: [TML] Velocity Governors
Jeffrey Schwartz 16 Nov 2021 15:36 UTC
Yeah, I think such a thing would be a standard feature in the piloting system
IMTU has two additional features :
1) Going over a certain speed, depending on the amount of
debris/dust/etc in the area, is highly likely to splatter the
spacecraft when it hits a pebble. Insofar as c-fractional bombardment
of major worlds is concerned, take a look at websites for Earth which
show all the sat's we have in orbit now. Trying to c-fractional strike
a planet is virtually guaranteed to hit a cubesat.
2) I stole from "Elite Dangerous" the idea of gravitational
interaction with the drive. If an M-drive enters a significant gravity
well at over a certain magic speed depending on angle and depth of
well, etc... well, canon says M-drives interact with gravity wells.
Hitting one at too high a speed is like hitting a pothole when
driving. At too high a speed, it's like driving into a ditch at 120
mph. The spacecraft is shredded.
On Mon, Nov 15, 2021 at 11:20 AM Kurt Feltenberger - kurt at
thepaw.org (via tml list) <xxxxxx@simplelists.com> wrote:
>
> I was watching a video on Kuiper Belt Objects and they were talking
> about the distance they were from Earth and my mind thought, "It would
> be cool to have a 50t Cutter and pop down at JPL and say, 'Pick three
> things you want to explore, we'll be back in six weeks'." Yeah...I have
> weird ideas. Anyway...my mind wandered to one of the topics that ranks
> up there with p*rates...near-c objects. We take it as a given that when
> traveling from point A to point C that the craft accelerates to point B,
> then decelerates to point C.
>
> Thus, if you have a 6G M-Drive you accelerate from A to B at 6G constant
> and then decelerate from B to C at 6G constant.
>
> But what if, in an attempt to prevent near-c objects, M-Drives had a
> governor that controlled relative velocity to the primary; that is, you
> may have a 6G drive but all that would do is allow you to accelerate to
> the system's maximum velocity in less time and then decelerate in an
> equally less amount of time.
>
> The governor would be similar to the transponder; something that's
> sealed and tampering with it would be an Imperial crime.
>
> And I hate to say it, but after thinking this through, it might give the
> p*rates a bit more opportunity...
>
> --
> Kurt Feltenberger
> xxxxxx@thepaw.org/xxxxxx@yahoo.com
> “Before today, I was scared to live, after today, I'm scared I'm not living enough." - Me
>
>
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