Humor in Traveller
- Thread starter The Thing
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Angelis_Mortis
SOC-4
Thanx Aramis 
It was my first post too.......thankyou for the kind welcome *bursts into tears*
we asked the same question to the GM, but we were running with unrefined fuel, its just water. I think it was the GM trying to stop us making a fortune on the goods we had purchased, we paid next to nothing for them due to a very good roll by our merchant player. we were set to make a killing.
It was my first post too.......thankyou for the kind welcome *bursts into tears* we asked the same question to the GM, but we were running with unrefined fuel, its just water. I think it was the GM trying to stop us making a fortune on the goods we had purchased, we paid next to nothing for them due to a very good roll by our merchant player. we were set to make a killing.Well, normally I would consolingly pat someone who bursts into tears, but ...Thanx Aramis
If we pat you, will you feel like a bony skeleton or a fluffy angel?
Because ... you're an angel of death and all...
Angelis_Mortis
SOC-4
LOL, a mixture of both, I'm a skeleton with fluffy wings 
far-trader
SOC-14 10K
One is paid to shoot things, the other shoots things to get paid.
C'mon, they're Player Characters! Their raison d'etre is shooting things and getting paid
far-trader
SOC-14 10K
Good memory
We actually revived and expanded on those a while back here on CotI.
http://www.travellerrpg.com/CotI/Discuss/showthread.php?t=174
Angelis_Mortis
SOC-4
The passengers in the shuttle waiting to be ferried to their ship in low orbit, watch nervously as two men wearing pilots’ uniforms and dark glasses use white canes to feel their way into the cockpit. The shuttle starts barreling down the runway of the starport, and the passengers begin to get scared as the water at the end of the runway nears. With only a few yards left, everyone screams, but the shuttle lifts off just in time. The passengers think it was all a joke, while in the cockpit, the pilots breath a sigh of relief..
“You know,” says one pilot to the other, “one day they’re gonna scream too late, and we’re all gonna die.”
“You know,” says one pilot to the other, “one day they’re gonna scream too late, and we’re all gonna die.”
o:If your GM says unrefined fuel is just water, then I guess it is in his universe, but in most Traveller universes water is a source of unrefined fuel, not the fuel itself; you use hydrolysis to separate the hydrogen from the oxygen, release the oxygen and stuff the hydrogen into your tanks. Unrefined fuel is simply unprocessed hydrogen. Refined fuel is hydrogen that has been processed in a fuel purifier (Don't ask me what the purifier actually does to the hydrogen).
Hans
Angelis_Mortis
SOC-4
AAH, thanx for the info, that was my way of thinkin too, makes more sense than using water. now I know why Aramis was worried about a kid playing about with liquid hydrogen, its rather chilly innit
[Nitpick] Electrolysis, not hydrolysis. [/nitpick]
AAH, thanx for the info, that was my way of thinkin too, makes more sense than using water. now I know why Aramis was worried about a kid playing about with liquid hydrogen, its rather chilly innit
That, plus I kind of wondered why there would be fuel filling cap inside the passenger cab. Cars have their filling caps on the outside. Planes have their filling caps on the outside. Ships have their filling caps on the outside. You would have to carry a cryogenic line in through the airlock. And leaks and spills into the breathing air would present a fire hazard. This would be like rolling up to a petrol bowser in your car, rolling down the window, passing the hose and nozzle into the passenger cab. . . .
BlackBat242
SOC-14 1K
Actually, that "hydrogen processed from water" is one form of "refined fuel". That is what many worlds in systems with no gas giants sells you at the starport. Worlds with gas giants in their systems tend to have large scoop/processing facilities to fill the demand for refined fuel for all uses.
The "unrefined fuel" is naturally-occurring hydrogen skimmed from the atmosphere of a gas giant (along with a number of other gases and assorted liquid/solid contaminants that are suspended in the hydrogen layer), or water pumped in from an ocean, lake, etc.
The fuel purifier is capable of both separating the gaseous hydrogen from the contaminants (in scooped fuel) and separating the hydrogen from the oxygen in water.
The "unrefined fuel" is naturally-occurring hydrogen skimmed from the atmosphere of a gas giant (along with a number of other gases and assorted liquid/solid contaminants that are suspended in the hydrogen layer), or water pumped in from an ocean, lake, etc.
The fuel purifier is capable of both separating the gaseous hydrogen from the contaminants (in scooped fuel) and separating the hydrogen from the oxygen in water.
Icosahedron
SOC-14 1K
Considering that the power plant is a fusion reactor, and that the fuel scoops take in mixed gas or water, I'd say the purifier has to be at least a two-stage device.
I reckon it's more likely to break down the raw materials by thermal dissociation than electrolysis, but the end product has to be something that is capable of fusing - either deuterium or some tritium enriched mix.
Now which stage of the process is defined as 'unrefined' or 'refined' and is actually stored in the tanks is anyone's guess. You can't work it out from canon, cos Marc & Co never figured out that level of detail to put into the canon.
GM's decision.
PS. What's this got to do with humour?
I reckon it's more likely to break down the raw materials by thermal dissociation than electrolysis, but the end product has to be something that is capable of fusing - either deuterium or some tritium enriched mix.
Now which stage of the process is defined as 'unrefined' or 'refined' and is actually stored in the tanks is anyone's guess. You can't work it out from canon, cos Marc & Co never figured out that level of detail to put into the canon.
GM's decision.
PS. What's this got to do with humour?
Reminds of the light bulb joke I came up with during a game that only my wife thought was funny.
"How many mercs does it take to change a light bulb? Only one, but it requires hazard pay & air support!"
"How many mercs does it take to change a light bulb? Only one, but it requires hazard pay & air support!"
Drakon
SOC-14 1K
Something that has always spooked me is that they do talk of storing hydrogen gas internally. This stuff is nasty and a disaster waiting to happen. One slightly loose connection, and a spark, and you've invented the hydrogen oven, with your crew as the thanksgiving turkeys. Why not store the fuel as water, have the purifier on the input stage of the fusion reactors, and get rid of not only the hydrogen gas problem but all that cryo equipment to try to keep the hydrogen in liquid form.
The problem with using water, is that there is not as much hydrogen in liquid water as there is in liquid hydrogen.(5.97935E+30 atoms of H1 in 1 dton liquid hydrogen versus 9.02554E+29 atoms in liquid water, about 6.63 times as much in liquid H)
Wrong on both counts, drakon, if we are talking by volume.
The explosivity of Hydrogen is minimal; the leak is likely to go well above the explosive mix, and the major threat is not fire, but the fact that it is a cryogenic fluid: Bloody cold stuff.
14 kl of water is 14Tm; that will be 1/5th hydrogen by weight, which is 2.8Tm per Td, as opposed to 14kl of molecular hydrogen, which is 1Tm of hydrogen.
ANd with the cryo threat, a serious leak could wind up with crewmen falling to pieces... literally... as their outsides freeze and shed while trying (and failing) to escape.
The explosivity of Hydrogen is minimal; the leak is likely to go well above the explosive mix, and the major threat is not fire, but the fact that it is a cryogenic fluid: Bloody cold stuff.
14 kl of water is 14Tm; that will be 1/5th hydrogen by weight, which is 2.8Tm per Td, as opposed to 14kl of molecular hydrogen, which is 1Tm of hydrogen.
ANd with the cryo threat, a serious leak could wind up with crewmen falling to pieces... literally... as their outsides freeze and shed while trying (and failing) to escape.
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Drakon
SOC-14 1K
"With its low density and thus high diffusivity, hydrogen is an extremely reactive gas. In air it can burn in concentrations from about 4% to more than 70%, with a fundamental burning velocity almost an order of magnitude higher than natural gas. Stoichimetric mixture with air requires only 30 grams hydrogen per m3. "http://www.gexcon.com/index.php?src=research/hydrogen/hydrogen.html
But you are right about the cryo problem in addition to the fire hazard.
Are you saying there is more hydrogen in water than in liquid hydrogen? If my numbers are wrong, and you are right, nobody would be happier than me.
But you are right about the cryo problem in addition to the fire hazard.
Are you saying there is more hydrogen in water than in liquid hydrogen? If my numbers are wrong, and you are right, nobody would be happier than me.
That would be insane, like having the petrol tank of a car inside the passenger cab. The hydrogen tanks have to go inside the Jump hull, but it would be silly to put them inside the life support pressure hull.
Well, water is 1000 kg/m^3, and it is 2/18 hydrogen by mass, giving you 111.1 kg of hydrogen per cubic metre. Liquid hydrogen is only 70.8 kg/m^3. As an added benefit, you don't need cryogenic storage.
We considered a few other modalities for hydrogen storage over on the GURPS Traveller board at Steve Jackson Games. The highest density of hydrogen that anyone came up with short of hyperdense metallic hydrogen was in ammonium hydrogen fluoride, with 1.89 times as much hydrogen per unit volume as liquid hydrogen has. But handling would be a lot easier with a mixture of lithium amide and lithium hydride: hydrogen density is only 1.85 times as good as with liquid hydrogen, but handling and extraction are easier and safer.
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