Fuel as Cargo

[kilemall]

While the game tells us the fuel is "used" or "burned", what it doesn't talk about is the exhaust from this use.

If burned, it becomes water again. Thrust out the the back, eventually collectors will clean up those microscopic ice crystals.

If fused in a fusion reaction, it can still be recovered and recycled. It really depends on what "used" means. Is jump fuel thrust into jump space? Where does it come out, does it come out? What happens with the fuel when it is used?

IMTU massive muon-fusion reaction generating enough power for jump singularity generation, then rapid thrust expulsion slamming the entire ship through the singularity for the second or two it exists in normal-time (while the ship slows down relativistically which is why the inhabitants are not pulverized by a 1000G plus burn).

Which is why jump drives have to have those huge exhausts in the back.

Ya, I have been working on this.

Had not considered the conservation of matter implications of the above, but it certainly fits my abhorrence of dumping into jumpspace.

So I suppose we have free-floating matter to be scooped up- or more for gameplay, a trail of hydrogen indicating where a jump occurred, how big a jump in either tonnage or jump number, and in what direction.

 

[whulorigan]

. . . or more for gameplay, a trail of hydrogen indicating where a jump occurred, how big a jump in either tonnage or jump number, and in what direction.

Actually, a trail of Helium would be the byproduct of a fusion-burn.

 

[kilemall]

Actually, a trail of Helium would be the byproduct of a fusion-burn.

I stand corrected. Most of the reading I had done concentrated on getting those muons to play nice, not the end product.

 

[warwizard]

If you read the lensman series... iron is the final product of the really good fusion power plants.

 

[Spartan159]

Just how radioactive is that iron I have to wonder.

 

[whulorigan]

I stand corrected. Most of the reading I had done concentrated on getting those muons to play nice, not the end product.

I like the muonic "cold" fusion process as well. And since the primary problem of the process is the half-life of the muon (and producing sufficient quantities in a short period of time for them to be useful), nuclear-damper related technology to stabilize the muons within the reaction chamber solves that problem quite nicely in Traveller's era (and the problem of muons "sticking" to fusion products is then easily solved by re-ionizing the muonic helium post-reaction).

 

[pendragonman]

I like the muonic "cold" fusion process as well. And since the primary problem of the process is the half-life of the muon (and producing sufficient quantities in a short period of time for them to be useful), nuclear-damper related technology to stabilize the muons within the reaction chamber solves that problem quite nicely in Traveller's era (and the problem of muons "sticking" to fusion products is then easily solved by re-ionizing the muonic helium post-reaction).

A non military reason for nuclear dampers. Good call.