I'm sure its been done to death, then resurrected and done to death again, but I'm thinking of creating alternate drives for my new Traveller game. I'd love any input the boards have to offer.
M-Drives first, I'll do a J-Drive post later.
My goal for the M-drive is a reactionless drive that doesn't make relatevistic missiles too probable and doesn't hurt the laws of physics any more than is strictly necessary.
Right now, I'm thinking of a two phase drive (called a HIFI drive) that works by pushing against nearby mass through a magical handwavy "Hyperspatial Impulse FIeld". The ship's power plant send energy to the drive and it "pushes" against the nearest large mass without anything physically between the drive and the mass. You nudge the nearby planet or star by some incomprehensibly small amount, but the same force on your smaller mass pushes you at decent acceleration. In "low gear" the field is tightly focused around your ship- you get max acceleration from your drives, but thrust falls off rapidly as you get distance between you and the nearest 'reaction' mass. The "low gear" zone around a mass will be roughly 100 Diameters or so, allowing for typical Traveller engagements at normal accelerations. In "high gear" the drive's "hyperspatial impulse field" pushes against the mass of the whole solar system, but much, much less intensely. In "high gear" you get some smaller percentage of normal thrust, and it stays fairly consistent as long as you are within some arbitrary distance (i.e some number of AU to make visiting outer orbits reasonable, but not enough to allow too much acceleration) of the system's center of mass. Outside a system (a place a ship spends a decent amount of time because of the way my jump drive is conceived) the ship must rely on fusion rockets or some other means of real-space propulsion. This gives escorts and fighters (equipped with fusion rockets) a clear role in fleet engagements- they are the ships that can move when the fleet gets hit between stars. Battleships designed to fight near worlds can forgo the extra fuel needed as reaction mass.
The drive is also subject to an increased relativistic energy effect. (I know its not a good sciency way of saying it. I love sci-fi, but I was a liberal arts major). That is, the amount of power needed to continue accelerating in "high gear" increases sharply as your velocity relative to the system's center of mass increases, similar as it would as if you were approaching c by some non-magical propulsion means. My off the cuff design idea is that it should not be possible to hit even .01c before range to the center of mass and increased power supply cuts you off from more acceleration.
Any thoughts, criticism, scientific scoffing, reactions of any kind are greatly appreciated.
M-Drives first, I'll do a J-Drive post later.
My goal for the M-drive is a reactionless drive that doesn't make relatevistic missiles too probable and doesn't hurt the laws of physics any more than is strictly necessary.
Right now, I'm thinking of a two phase drive (called a HIFI drive) that works by pushing against nearby mass through a magical handwavy "Hyperspatial Impulse FIeld". The ship's power plant send energy to the drive and it "pushes" against the nearest large mass without anything physically between the drive and the mass. You nudge the nearby planet or star by some incomprehensibly small amount, but the same force on your smaller mass pushes you at decent acceleration. In "low gear" the field is tightly focused around your ship- you get max acceleration from your drives, but thrust falls off rapidly as you get distance between you and the nearest 'reaction' mass. The "low gear" zone around a mass will be roughly 100 Diameters or so, allowing for typical Traveller engagements at normal accelerations. In "high gear" the drive's "hyperspatial impulse field" pushes against the mass of the whole solar system, but much, much less intensely. In "high gear" you get some smaller percentage of normal thrust, and it stays fairly consistent as long as you are within some arbitrary distance (i.e some number of AU to make visiting outer orbits reasonable, but not enough to allow too much acceleration) of the system's center of mass. Outside a system (a place a ship spends a decent amount of time because of the way my jump drive is conceived) the ship must rely on fusion rockets or some other means of real-space propulsion. This gives escorts and fighters (equipped with fusion rockets) a clear role in fleet engagements- they are the ships that can move when the fleet gets hit between stars. Battleships designed to fight near worlds can forgo the extra fuel needed as reaction mass.
The drive is also subject to an increased relativistic energy effect. (I know its not a good sciency way of saying it. I love sci-fi, but I was a liberal arts major). That is, the amount of power needed to continue accelerating in "high gear" increases sharply as your velocity relative to the system's center of mass increases, similar as it would as if you were approaching c by some non-magical propulsion means. My off the cuff design idea is that it should not be possible to hit even .01c before range to the center of mass and increased power supply cuts you off from more acceleration.
Any thoughts, criticism, scientific scoffing, reactions of any kind are greatly appreciated.
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