Floating out in space

[Supplement Four]

More properly, I guess I should say, "Falling out in space."

OK, here's the situation I might have to face in my upcoming game (in three days): There's a crippled ship--no functioning M-Drive or PowerPlant--zipping through the Patinir asteroid belt at a damn good clip.

The disabled ship is moving with a (Book 2 space combat) velocity of 15. That 150,000 km in a single 15 minute combat round.

That's 600,000 km per hour!

OK, I've established the ship is hookin'-im.

Now, I know that real asteroid fields are not like what you see in THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK. There's a lot of open space in the fields.

But...

There's got to be a little higher density of space dust, rock chips, and other debris like that.

What would happen if a character on that disabled ship ejected out into space, just wearing his Vacc Suit and thruster?

He'd have the same velocity as the ship, so he'd be moving a 600,000 km per hour too.

What does that mean for the character? How dangerous would it be for him?

I mean, if he hit a rock chip or piece of asteroid dust, it'd be like a bullet zipping through him, yes?

I wonder what the chance would be that he would be hit?

Thoughts?

 

[Supplement Four]

More properly, I guess I should say, "Falling out in space."

OK, here's the situation I might have to face in my upcoming game (in three days): There's a crippled ship--no functioning M-Drive or PowerPlant--zipping through the Patinir asteroid belt at a damn good clip.

The disabled ship is moving with a (Book 2 space combat) velocity of 15. That 150,000 km in a single 15 minute combat round.

That's 600,000 km per hour!

OK, I've established the ship is hookin'-im.

Now, I know that real asteroid fields are not like what you see in THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK. There's a lot of open space in the fields.

But...

There's got to be a little higher density of space dust, rock chips, and other debris like that.

What would happen if a character on that disabled ship ejected out into space, just wearing his Vacc Suit and thruster?

He'd have the same velocity as the ship, so he'd be moving a 600,000 km per hour too.

What does that mean for the character? How dangerous would it be for him?

I mean, if he hit a rock chip or piece of asteroid dust, it'd be like a bullet zipping through him, yes?

I wonder what the chance would be that he would be hit?

Thoughts?

 

[vegascat]

The first question is "How annoying was the characters player?"
The percent chance would equal the annoyance factor.

The damage from dust would not matter, it would erode the suit, but it would already be made to handle that, depending on how much the character paid for it.
Anything larger than dust would equal a hyper velocity bullet, barely slowing down as it blew through. Arm hit- arm gone, Leg hit- leg gone, Head hit- head gone, Torso hit- life changes forever as he lives hooked up to a machine. Grab a handful of dice and roll.

 

[vegascat]

The first question is "How annoying was the characters player?"
The percent chance would equal the annoyance factor.

The damage from dust would not matter, it would erode the suit, but it would already be made to handle that, depending on how much the character paid for it.
Anything larger than dust would equal a hyper velocity bullet, barely slowing down as it blew through. Arm hit- arm gone, Leg hit- leg gone, Head hit- head gone, Torso hit- life changes forever as he lives hooked up to a machine. Grab a handful of dice and roll.

 

[Icosahedron]

My first thought would be to stay aboard and send an SOS. Even if he doesn't get his head blown off by grit, his lungs will collapse when his tanks run dry in 6 hours.

 

[Icosahedron]

My first thought would be to stay aboard and send an SOS. Even if he doesn't get his head blown off by grit, his lungs will collapse when his tanks run dry in 6 hours.

 

[Supplement Four]

Originally posted by Icosahedron:
My first thought would be to stay aboard and send an SOS. Even if he doesn't get his head blown off by grit, his lungs will collapse when his tanks run dry in 6 hours.

Yep, I thought that way as well--but what if it's more dangerous on the ship (it was hit with a nuke, and the bad guys might start firing into the wreck just for grins).

Or, if the ship's reactor decides to go boom (Cricital hit in book 2 space combat).

I'm just trying to answer this question before it comes up in my game Thursday.

 

[Supplement Four]

Originally posted by Icosahedron:
My first thought would be to stay aboard and send an SOS. Even if he doesn't get his head blown off by grit, his lungs will collapse when his tanks run dry in 6 hours.

Yep, I thought that way as well--but what if it's more dangerous on the ship (it was hit with a nuke, and the bad guys might start firing into the wreck just for grins).

Or, if the ship's reactor decides to go boom (Cricital hit in book 2 space combat).

I'm just trying to answer this question before it comes up in my game Thursday.

 

[Black Globe Generator]

"Real science" answer? It's seriously improbable that he would hit any debris.

"Space opera" answer? Roll 3D - on a 3 he goes *POP!* like a piñata. Instant red-mist death.

 

[Black Globe Generator]

"Real science" answer? It's seriously improbable that he would hit any debris.

"Space opera" answer? Roll 3D - on a 3 he goes *POP!* like a piñata. Instant red-mist death.

 

[Supplement Four]

Originally posted by Black Globe Generator:
"Real science" answer? It's seriously improbable that he would hit any debris.

How seriously improbable? A roll of "5" on 5D?

 

[Supplement Four]

Originally posted by Black Globe Generator:
"Real science" answer? It's seriously improbable that he would hit any debris.

How seriously improbable? A roll of "5" on 5D?

 

[Black Globe Generator]

Originally posted by Supplement Four:
How seriously improbable? A roll of "5" on 5D?

I doubt either of us owns enough dice to accurately represent the unlikelihood.* Space is really, really empty. (Hence the name, I guess.)

When I want a vacc suit puncture to be on the table, I either put the action in a ring system, where the chunks-of-rock-and-dust we see in space opera might actually reach a density that makes for an interesting environment, or in the very near vicinity of a comet's tail, as in less than a few hundred meters from the surface. Or I'll blow something up on the exterior of a ship or a station and have chunks of metal zooming at the hapless adventurers.


* The oft-quoted figure is that if you took the material in the asteroid belt and combined it into a single body, that body would have less than one-thousandth the mass of Earth.

 

[Black Globe Generator]

Originally posted by Supplement Four:
How seriously improbable? A roll of "5" on 5D?

I doubt either of us owns enough dice to accurately represent the unlikelihood.* Space is really, really empty. (Hence the name, I guess.)

When I want a vacc suit puncture to be on the table, I either put the action in a ring system, where the chunks-of-rock-and-dust we see in space opera might actually reach a density that makes for an interesting environment, or in the very near vicinity of a comet's tail, as in less than a few hundred meters from the surface. Or I'll blow something up on the exterior of a ship or a station and have chunks of metal zooming at the hapless adventurers.


* The oft-quoted figure is that if you took the material in the asteroid belt and combined it into a single body, that body would have less than one-thousandth the mass of Earth.

 

[Anthony]

The odds of being hit by a dust grain aren't that poor; estimate I find is about 1/50 cubic km (mostly grains in the .01-.1mm range), which means our poor victim will hit roughly one per 150 million km travelled, or about a 1/1000 chance per space combat turn (about a roll of 4 on 4d6). Still not really enough to worry about unless you're passing through an interplanetary dust trail (something like the Perseids).

A 0.1mm grain of dust might have a mass of a microgram. At 166 kps, that corresponds to an energy of about 14J. That's not likely to kill directly, but it's focused enough to puncture a suit.

Other things will probably kill you long before dust, though, unless you're travelling way faster than a measly 166 kps. If you take a 4G ship that's making a normal-space trip from the gas giant to the mainworld, you can have the fun of exiting the ship with a velocity as high as 2% of lightspeed, at which point that same 1 microgram dustgrain hits with an energy of 18 kilojoules (and anything larger than a dust grain will vaporize you), and since you're going faster the odds of a hit are much higher -- something like a roll of 2 on 2d6 per space combat turn.

 

[Anthony]

The odds of being hit by a dust grain aren't that poor; estimate I find is about 1/50 cubic km (mostly grains in the .01-.1mm range), which means our poor victim will hit roughly one per 150 million km travelled, or about a 1/1000 chance per space combat turn (about a roll of 4 on 4d6). Still not really enough to worry about unless you're passing through an interplanetary dust trail (something like the Perseids).

A 0.1mm grain of dust might have a mass of a microgram. At 166 kps, that corresponds to an energy of about 14J. That's not likely to kill directly, but it's focused enough to puncture a suit.

Other things will probably kill you long before dust, though, unless you're travelling way faster than a measly 166 kps. If you take a 4G ship that's making a normal-space trip from the gas giant to the mainworld, you can have the fun of exiting the ship with a velocity as high as 2% of lightspeed, at which point that same 1 microgram dustgrain hits with an energy of 18 kilojoules (and anything larger than a dust grain will vaporize you), and since you're going faster the odds of a hit are much higher -- something like a roll of 2 on 2d6 per space combat turn.

 

[TheEngineer]

Hi !

IMHO the probability could be as high or as low as You like it.
Not every belt could be expected to be like the one in the solar system. You could have anything between a fairly young dust cloud or an cleaned up aged belt with a "few" big ones.
Theoretically the physical possible conditions represent a continuum and would depend heavily on gravitational influences from the outside, too (forming high an low density areas).

So set the chances just as you like (and as You like the player)

 

[TheEngineer]

Hi !

IMHO the probability could be as high or as low as You like it.
Not every belt could be expected to be like the one in the solar system. You could have anything between a fairly young dust cloud or an cleaned up aged belt with a "few" big ones.
Theoretically the physical possible conditions represent a continuum and would depend heavily on gravitational influences from the outside, too (forming high an low density areas).

So set the chances just as you like (and as You like the player)

 

[Black Globe Generator]

Anthony, excellent exposition, but that chance still seems high to me, depending as it does on the high end of the range of dust grain size values.

 

[Black Globe Generator]

Anthony, excellent exposition, but that chance still seems high to me, depending as it does on the high end of the range of dust grain size values.