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Femtomist

Fred

Fred

Retired Staff
Femtomist Ship Internal Support

Femtomist was created in YE 29 with the intention of providing Star Army ship with stronger life support system to face the rigors of space.

Originally devised as a firefighting tool, Femtomist stood essentially as a swarm of femtomachines that would saturate an area in a gelatin-like substance to choke out fires. Further experimentation showed, however, that the concept could be used to quickly be deployed and seal a ship in the events of a hull breach or the failure of force fields such as inside the quick launch power armor bays - while only a stop gap solution and nowhere nearly as resistant as blast doors. One big advantage of femtomist is that passage from an object through the substance itself - while slow - is possible without compromising the seal, provided the barrier is thick enough.

Another use that was found for Femtomist was in the events of shipboard invasion. Femtomist can be used to block passages, slowing down the progress of any that would try to cross through. It's consistancy can help absorb much of the impact behind fired solid-type ammunition (much like how bullets fired in water tend to be less effective) and can absorb small-arm type energy weaponry - though the later does significantly damage the femtomist barrier. Specific femtomist barriers can be made to disolve matter that crosses through it, making prolongued contact very harmful to subjects that are poorly armored/shielded. Femtomist can also change it's color and opacity to hinder visual targeting, though it proves no match for power armor-grade weaponry and sensors.
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That's an idea I had trotting in my head after the Sakura had a pirated Mindy armor run amok in it's confines. It's another use for the HSCS system that serves to extinguish fires, seal hull breaches, fill in should frocefields fail and counter boarding parties by limiting mobility and progress of the invaders, allowing the ship's crew more time to react and prepare.
 
Nodal System: Trillions of tiny femtomachines are distributed in the air aboard the ship, allowing anywhere to become a control panel with a simple swirl of a person's finger. The ship can use the system to sense what is happening throughout the interior, thus giving it more information to use for environmental control, security, and communication. Using the nodal system, the ship's computer may manifest herself anywhere on the ship in physical or holographic form. This system is also used to decorate the interior of some Sakura-type ships.
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As you can see, the nodal system (description drawn from the Sakura-class Gunship) does not specifically do that (well, 'environmental control' is really vague). I did not intend femtomist to be a replacement, merely a new addition to what the femtomachines in the nodal system can do.
 
So basically this is a new application of the Nodal system, or a clarification of its abilities, not revolutionary, or new, technology?

And yet you say the femtomist was created in YE 29.

The question is: Is this in a technical front anything more than saying "Look at this, we can do this with the Nodal system too!"?
 
Umm, 'kay. English not being my first language, I might have miswrote the opening post in terms of presentation.

My goal : I wanted to use this on the Escort ship I'm building and didn't want to be told 'no, it can't do that' later on.

As for creation, maybe the word 'implementation' would suit better. It might be new in the way that it was not used like this before, but if there are improvements, they probably lie in the software rather than the actual technology.

( "My website was in html, but I rebuilt it in php. Much more robust!" - It's still a website, but works better... you know, that sort of thing...) <-- fails at giving evocative examples
 
That's good then. A clarification. Nodal systems tend to be extremely vague, and so this is a very good thing.

However, why does it then need the separate name of 'Femtomist' if it is simply reprogramming and a new trick for the nodal system to use?

Also ...

What is your mother tongue? Irrelevant, but I'm nosy.
 
I speak french, though since I live in quebec, it sounds a bit more gritty than the European French dialect and is generally laced with american slang (maybe I should just call it 'Quebecker french'...).

And femtomist? I... I... *flushes guiltily* ...I just thought it sounded nice. I was just thinking about fire extinguishers and the foamy, misty stuff they unloaded to stop fires and thought up that name. Then, I just expanded and inspired myself from a gelatinous cube in D&D and figured out maybe it could slow down people crossing it, stop bullets, seal hull breaches and eat fingers! XD

Besides, it seemed cool to say "Deploy femtomist to seal hull breaches in section 3, 4B and 5!" for some reason.
 
Kotori said:
Besides, it seemed cool to say "Deploy femtomist to seal hull breaches in section 3, 4B and 5!" for some reason.
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I really don't think we need a better reason. Being able to say cool shit is part of what makes the SARP awesome.
 
I think that a lot of time we do things that are unrealistic with nanomachines. Their small size ensure that they cannot do things effectively in many situations, without insane numbers of them.
 
Does that mean the applications in the opening post aren't really desirable in the SARP for Star Army vessels?
 
Why have nanomachines involved at all? It seems stupid to me, when the gel wold would probably stand fine on its own.
 
Well, the gel is probably composed of molecules (whatever it is) that have to be carried to form the said semi-viscous barrier. It'd probably be made from the content of the HSCS... but it still has to be set into position.

Am I confusing hemosynthetic material and nanomachines? I thought hemosynth material was pretty much made from nanomachines (shouldn't we say femtomachines?) and ended up pretty much being the same thing.

Bah, I guess the right technical terms escape me. How would you have it Wes?
 
I'd think that the gel would carry the nanomachines, not vice versa.
 
Okay, so, aside from my screwy nomenclature skills, the actual function of the gel barriers in term of sealing breaches, choking out fires and inhibiting movement and solid ammo would work, right? (not the flesh eating barriers though... so much for the KYF 2912 Gelatinous Cube! XD )
 
If you want a Gelatinous Cube, an IC source would be Miles' Pico-Jelly. There would just be a need for a very large ammount of it, heh.
 
Kotori said:
Okay, so, aside from my screwy nomenclature skills, the actual function of the gel barriers in term of sealing breaches, choking out fires and inhibiting movement and solid ammo would work, right? (not the flesh eating barriers though... so much for the KYF 2912 Gelatinous Cube! XD )
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While I'm not too keen on the whole sealing breaches thing, I think the concept isn't too unworkable in SARP, though I think it was condiered not very sutible for the Nodal system.
 
Okay, so, this one get's ditched?

I don't particularly mind. Only Doshii Jun gave me a better than lukewarm reaction, which sort of gives me the impression the gel barrier-whatever aren't so good. I don't particularly mind myself - it was just something I thought up.
 
Not Approved.

After consideration, there doesn't seem to be a need or a desire for such technology. *shrugs*
 
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