Because SARP doesn't have one yet: The Starliner!
I came up with the idea when flying home from Louisiana.
I came up with the idea when flying home from Louisiana.
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[Origin] Starliner
- Thread starter Kai
- Start date
Vesper
Inactive Member
The reason range has, historically, not been a issue with most ships is that most of them use quantum-effect systems (Aether, Hyperspace-tap, CDDA, etc) as their primary power source. Since these have essentially unlimited energy output (although not power output) the range for a reactionless ship becomes how long food and other crew-related supplies can support. With these systems even reaction-propelled ships gain very large ranges.
For the fuel, I would recommend you have hydrogen/deuterium/tritium (whichever you are using for it) refined at the arrival/departure points and then carried on the ship in a much more compact super-cooled slush state.
For the fuel, I would recommend you have hydrogen/deuterium/tritium (whichever you are using for it) refined at the arrival/departure points and then carried on the ship in a much more compact super-cooled slush state.
Zack
Inactive Member
Whatever fuel you use you are going to run into the same problem. No fuel has enough energy density to both do what you want and fit into the ship at its current size especially if you want to carry a year's worth of fuel.
If you just want to stay near a planet then yeah LOX, Hydrogen, and/or heavy water will work fine but you are going to need a LOT of it. Like vesper said you need to provide reaction mass for your engines not just fuel. To put that in perspective if an aircraft carrier had to carry around its reaction mass it would be the size of an entire ocean, but it doesn't, so it can run for quite a long time.
Though if you add in FTL drives, you are going to need more power than any fuel can provide at this size. You're already using an FTL drive so why not throw on an aether power generator as well?
If you just want to stay near a planet then yeah LOX, Hydrogen, and/or heavy water will work fine but you are going to need a LOT of it. Like vesper said you need to provide reaction mass for your engines not just fuel. To put that in perspective if an aircraft carrier had to carry around its reaction mass it would be the size of an entire ocean, but it doesn't, so it can run for quite a long time.
Though if you add in FTL drives, you are going to need more power than any fuel can provide at this size. You're already using an FTL drive so why not throw on an aether power generator as well?
This is an important point. If you've ever flown IRL, you know that planes are full of slow people holding up the line as they try to stuff their giant overstuffed back into the overhead bin, and that it's annoying waiting for the other 100 or so passengers to find their seat and sit down...something which should be easy.
Now, multiply that irritation and waiting by 4 times. You're exasperated and impatient. Multiply that by 10 times. Now you're really pissed. You want to punch a guy because he missed his seat and had to go in reverse. Ten times again. You're now screaming.
Seriously, how long would it take for 4,000 people to board a cramped starliner? Can you imagine being one fo the first coupel people seated and having to wait for FOUR THOUSAND other people to sit before you could even take off? Not to mention the insane line at customs when you arrive in Nepleslia or the UOC. I agree that the starliner idea is very useful to the setting, but this particular modal may be too large for its own good.
I agree; a ship this size wouldn't have a big enough demand/market to stop on lesser populated worlds, so it would basically be able to get fuel anywhere it made sense to land. You're going to spend hours unloading your passengers anyway, so you might as well refuel while you're waiting.
My suggestion: Add an aether generator or UOC type compressed helium systems and do away with the massive fuel tanks. Instead, use some of that area for standard starship cargo containers.
You may also want to have some sort of moving walkway system that automatically speeds people to their seats, and have the landing terminals segregate passengers by seat number and load them all in order to speed things up.
I've actually cut the amount of passengers it carries by more than half, besides the fact that it's split between two levels, each level of which is split in half. There are a large number of doors which walkways can be attached to, making the logistics a bit simpler.
I'll have to go through and see how many SSCC's the cargo level can hold, so I'll add that in later.
The reason I went with fusion was to try and avoid exotic energy sources such as Aether and Hyperspace, which I find to be ridiculous, and kind of stupid for Civilian stuff. The only reason I go for fusion is because I was told by another SARP member that it is a viable energy source.
If someone could give me a completely viable source of power that Isn't broken like Aether and Hyperspace tap, I would gladly switch it out. I'll have to look into this compressed hydrogen stuff; it seems interesting.
On the fuel thing, I just figured it would be nice for a company to not have to refuel all the time, as well as have the ability to go to an alternate location if the chosen one is either unavailable, or under attack, or even not there.
As for figuring out how the passengers go on, that's up to the company that uses the ship to figure out, not me. That's how it is in the real world, and so that's how i'm going to keep it.
I'll have to go through and see how many SSCC's the cargo level can hold, so I'll add that in later.
The reason I went with fusion was to try and avoid exotic energy sources such as Aether and Hyperspace, which I find to be ridiculous, and kind of stupid for Civilian stuff. The only reason I go for fusion is because I was told by another SARP member that it is a viable energy source.
If someone could give me a completely viable source of power that Isn't broken like Aether and Hyperspace tap, I would gladly switch it out. I'll have to look into this compressed hydrogen stuff; it seems interesting.
On the fuel thing, I just figured it would be nice for a company to not have to refuel all the time, as well as have the ability to go to an alternate location if the chosen one is either unavailable, or under attack, or even not there.
As for figuring out how the passengers go on, that's up to the company that uses the ship to figure out, not me. That's how it is in the real world, and so that's how i'm going to keep it.
Vesper
Inactive Member
The difference between tritium, deuterium, and normal hydrogen is in the ease of fusion. The larger the nucleus the stronger the strong nuclear force attracting the nuclei (since the charge of each is identical). As a result Tritium requires the least energy for fusion (and would be the most efficient fuel), deuterium the second least, and normal hydrogen the most (and would be the least efficient fuel of the 3). I would think deuterium would be the best choice since then you don't have any problems whatsoever with it decaying or irradiating its surroundings.
A more practical power method for FTL without going into the quantum-effect ones would be AM. It is much more dangerous but it produces massively more power per unit mass of fuel.
If you are trying to stay away from the more BS power methods, I would also stay away from the compressed helium thing. How you can /get/ energy out of a fusion system when it uses wormholes to get all its fuel is beyond me. Never mind how much energy is wasted /storing/ it a fusion pressures.
A more practical power method for FTL without going into the quantum-effect ones would be AM. It is much more dangerous but it produces massively more power per unit mass of fuel.
If you are trying to stay away from the more BS power methods, I would also stay away from the compressed helium thing. How you can /get/ energy out of a fusion system when it uses wormholes to get all its fuel is beyond me. Never mind how much energy is wasted /storing/ it a fusion pressures.
