Impulse Drive for Traveller

[ArcaneFlash]

I want to make an Impulse Drive for Traveller, esp for MgT and T5.

According to LUG's Stardock, an Impulse Engine is a Fusion Engine P-Plant that also turns fuel into Plasma for thrust. Any ideas on designing this. Kind of reminds me of a faster version of NAFAL.

Thought of starting at NAFAL but instead of 0.1G, using 1G increments. But not sure of Size, Fuel, and Cost. (And a general formula, use NAFAL?)

On the other hand, Is it more like a HEPLAR Engine?

Edit, sounds like HEPlaR, however not sure how to design it.

 

[McPerth]

I want to make an Impulse Drive for Traveller, esp for MgT and T5.

According to LUG's Stardock, an Impulse Engine is a Fusion Engine P-Plant that also turns fuel into Plasma for thrust. Any ideas on designing this. Kind of reminds me of a faster version of NAFAL.

Thought of starting at NAFAL but instead of 0.1G, using 1G increments. But not sure of Size, Fuel, and Cost. (And a general formula, use NAFAL?)

On the other hand, Is it more like a HEPLAR Engine?

Edit, sounds like HEPlaR, however not sure how to design it.

There are HEPLAR engines in TNE and in T4 (not sure about T5, GT, TH and T20, as I never read any of them).

MT, in HT and in Challenge 45 (article called One Small Step) have plasma and fusión rocket drives (those last derived from the fusión rockets for airplanes shown in COACC).

Hope that helps you...

 

[ArcaneFlash]

The Chart on p86 HT on my CD copy is unreadable But seem like what I'm looking for. Don't have access to Challenge 45.

I have FFS1 & FFS2. FFS is not much Help, it uses kNn.

MgT has Reaction Drives. Am I stuck with That? But with better fuel requirements? MgT reaction drives use 2.5% hull volume per g/hr. seems quite high for my purposes.

 

[whulorigan]

Originally Posted by McPerth:
There are HEPLAR engines in TNE and in T4 (not sure about T5, GT, TH and T20, as I never read any of them).

HEPlaR Drives are mentioned in T5 in the introductory paragraph on p.363:

T5: [FONT=arial,helvetica] p.363: [/FONT]Non-Gravity-Based Drives. In addition, several non-gravity based In-System drives are available (although not described
here) and include: Rocket, HEPlaR, Orion, Thruster, and Inertialless.

But unfortunately (as the text implies) they await description in a future publication (BCS perhaps?).

MgT has Reaction Drives. Am I stuck with That? But with better fuel requirements? MgT reaction drives use 2.5% hull volume per g/hr. seems quite high for my purposes.

Unfortunately "Reaction Drive" (in MgT on p.42-43) is a little vague about what they intend it to represent. The textbox on p.43 talks of using Jump Fuel in an emergency for the Reaction Drive; so however they envision it, it is a Hydrogen-fueled drive. So it could be a Fusion Rocket, or HEPlaR, or a far less efficient "real world" Nuclear Thermal Drive (NTR - which is a "Low Efficiency" Plasma Recombination Thruster), or one of its variants.

The notes in TNE FF&S suggest that HEPlaR (as described there) are actually very fuel efficient compared to real world projections for plasma-based NTR drives (about 4 times as efficient, IIRC).

My suggestion would be that if you want to use something like a HEPlaR Impulse Drive, and they are too "fuel-hungry" for your purposes, since MgT is a little vague on the exact kind of Reaction Drive being described in MgT:High Guard, simple alter the fuel requirements for your particular brand of drive. But remember that any Reaction Drive like the types described above are not going to be "continuous-thrust agencies" like a gravitic-based Manuever Drive, but rather will be "thrust & coast".

 

[ArcaneFlash]

Okay, if I'm figuring this correctly for a 100t vessel.

For T:TNE
Heplar: 7.41 T, Cost 0.1 MCr, FC/1G: 1.85 T/HR

So, Per 100 T Hull per G/hour:
TL 10 Std HEPlaR: 7.4 T, Cost of 0.1 MCr, FC: 1.85 t/G/Hr (0.185 t/turn)

I'm not sure what T4 numbers are.

Referencing T5 and doubling endurance to T5 4 week Std.
MGT 100T Hull per G/Hour:
TL ?? Std Reaction: 2t, 1MCr, 1.25t/G/Hr and use T5 progression Formula

 

[McPerth]

The Chart on p86 HT on my CD copy is unreadable But seem like what I'm looking for. Don't have access to Challenge 45.

Do you have access to COACC? Fusion rockets are nearly (if not outright) identical to One Small Step ones, jsut they are used at TL 9 in space.