CT Only: [LBB 5] Jump with capacitors?

[G. Kashkanun Anderson]

We also know that anti-matter Jump ships without giant LH2 fuel tanks are possible at higher TLs. So it is not a physical impossibility to jump without jump fuel. The designers just did not want us to do it.

The LBB:5 text does not say you cannot jump without a full complement of Jump Fuel; it says you need the Jump Capacitors charged and sufficient fuel in order to make the jump.

The difference is this: It is established in CT (I think by Marc Miller's JTAS #24 article at least, if not by LBB:5) that there is a hull-length Jump Grid that needs to be maintained in good working order, or else making a jump is de facto extremely difficult, if not impossible. Whereas the Jump Drive does its energy-intensive work only during the actual space-fabric ripping part of the jump, the Jump Grid needs to be up and powered for the entire 168+ hours of the jump, because Things Which Old Spacers Never Discuss happen to those who come in contact with the eldritch physics of Jump Space. And I doubt you can run that grid on battery juice, because keeping an entirely alien set of cosmological laws at bay ain't hay, and it ain't cheap.

There is nothing in the literature, as far as I know, about which system maintains the Jump Grid. My money's on the Jump Drive itself, since jump-capable ships don't appear to have any extra Power Plant requirements over non-jump boats. Marc Miller's article also mentions that 'some' of the Jump Fuel is spent on 'carrying off fusion by-products, and in cooling the system' during the jump proper. Not all the fuel for the Jump Drive, mind you, but some -- an unquantified, yet 'sufficient', amount -- is necessary.

There are also other non-optional systems of the ship that need power during the entire jump, like life support (of course), various electronics and grav plating; I don't know about you, but I get pretty cranky when I have to drink my coffee a week old, cold, and in a zero-gee vacuum. It is possible to run some of those systems on batteries, and you probably can if you find yourself forced to make an emergency capacitor jump out of a hot situation, but it is likely not recommended. Much better to have 'sufficient fuel' for the trip -- at least enough for regular power plant operations, and definitely enough to keep the Jump Grid up and running.

 

[atpollard]

The LBB:5 text does not say you cannot jump without a full complement of Jump Fuel; it says you need the Jump Capacitors charged and sufficient fuel in order to make the jump.

There are also other non-optional systems of the ship that need power during the entire jump, like life support (of course), various electronics and grav plating; I don't know about you, but I get pretty cranky when I have to drink my coffee a week old, cold, and in a zero-gee vacuum. It is possible to run some of those systems on batteries, and you probably can if you find yourself forced to make an emergency capacitor jump out of a hot situation, but it is likely not recommended. Much better to have 'sufficient fuel' for the trip -- at least enough for regular power plant operations, and definitely enough to keep the Jump Grid up and running.

I love this, but I lean towards the heretical, so I am always leery of my personal preferences (like why the heck can't I fit PP A, JD A and MD A in a sub-100 dTon hull and make a smaller Starship!)

 

[whartung]

Annic Nova is completely consistent with the JTAS 24 article, which is the only extended treatise on Jump published during CT period as far as I know, maybe there's another article in Space Gamer or The Dragon or some other 3rd party source.

But JTAS 24 was pretty detailed.

Germane quotes being:

Jump uses large amounts of energy to rip open the barriers between normal space and jump space. Normally, only a fusion power plant can supply this energy. Some alternate systems make use of solar power generators (which operate much more slowly), or anti-matter power systems (rare and very high-tech).

Once power is generated, it must be stored until the instant of jump. Capacitors or large fast-discharge batteries fit this requirement.

And the closest it got to describing the large volumes of fuel used:

When the jump drive is activated, a large store of fuel is fed through the ship power plant to create the energy necessary for the jump drive. In the interests of rapid energy generation, the power plant does not work at full efficiency, and some of the fuel is lost in carrying off fusion by-products, and in cooling the system. At the end of a very brief period (less than a few minutes), the jump drive capacitors have been charged to capacity. Under computer control, the energy is then fed into appropriate sections of the jump drive and jump begins.

So, for whatever reason, Best Practice is to dump huge amounts of LHyd in, through, and around the power plants to charge a capacitor quickly enough to charge them and perform the jump.

Why that's best practice, nobody knows. The article directly addresses that something like Solar Power is a possible source of energy. In fact, that article essentially says that the CAPACITORS power the jump drive, everything else is powering up the capacitors. It even suggests batteries can be used to power a Jump drive. I deduce that stock Jump Capacitors are Really Awful, thus necessitating the need to wastefully charge and fire them so quickly rather than simply, efficiently charge them over the several hour trip to 100D with the Power Plant. They must leak faster than they can be charged at a low rate, apparently unlike the system on Annic Nova.

And all this was written post HG. Arguably the best reference for How Jump Works is T5, since it's the latest we have. But JTAS 24 was the latest detailed information we have for Jump in the CT era.

As with anything else canon, since it was published much later, I would argue JTAS 24 doesn't conflict with HG, it overrides HG. But if you take the article at face value, we'd have jump shuttles, and drop tanks, ships not needing to dedicate vast volumes to jump fuel.

But there are no actual mechanics in the article. Its just expository on the topic.

 

[Leitz]

The use of Laser Pistol as an example was intentional; something post LBB 1-3 that added to the game. The Annic Nova adds more, as does the discussion here. Unless I missed something, it is possible to have a ship with energy storage mechanisms and no need for large jump drive fuel storage. This would allow the creation of a ship with double the storage that could jump into a system and if there was a very bad thing happening jump back out fairly quickly.

It would also serve an exploration ship trying to reach distant systems or a ship trying to bridge a far gap between known fuel reserves. It may not be a common design, but as Whipsnade brought up the Annic Nova, it's a possible one.

 

[Whipsnade]

Three little black books.

One hundred and forty four pages.

That's all they had to work with.

Yet they still managed to give us chargen, sysgen, ship construction, and ship combat. Personal combat, psionics, and a trade system. A system to make animals. An experience system. Weapons. Vehicles. Skills and stats.

All of that in three little books and 144 pages.

On the last page of the last book, they gave us some advice far too few people actually manage to follow. Maybe because it some gets lost in those 144 pages? Maybe because it's too hard? Who knows, but here's that advice again:

Traveller is necessarily a framework describing the barest of essentials for an infinite universe; obviously rules which could cover every aspect of every possible action would be far larger than these three booklets. A group involved in playing a scenario or campaign can make their adventures more elaborate, more detailed, more interesting, with the input of a great deal of imagination.

Traveller is a framework of the barest essentials. You're supposed to use your imagination to elaborate upon it.

Traveller hands you the tools. It's up to you to use them.

 

[Leitz]

Traveller is a framework of the barest essentials. You're supposed to use your imagination to elaborate upon it.

Traveller hands you the tools. It's up to you to use them.

Truer words have probably been spoken, but dang, I can't think of where.

 

[whulorigan]

. . . The Annic Nova adds more, as does the discussion here. Unless I missed something, it is possible to have a ship with energy storage mechanisms and no need for large jump drive fuel storage. This would allow the creation of a ship with double the storage that could jump into a system and if there was a very bad thing happening jump back out fairly quickly. . . .

But you are forgetting the Canopy/Accumulator system of the Annic Nova takes up about half the ship's displacement. The Annic Nova displaces 600dton according to the documentation. But if you look at the deck plans, I believe only about 300dton are accounted for explicitly. The rest is presumably the displacement of that external canopy mechanism when folded up.