Magnetic Shields - Docking Bay 'Doors'

[Patron Zero]

I will openly give a nod to a very popular film that first premiered back in May of 1977 as this is where such originates.

Here's my question, is there any materials, preferably canon, that might allow for the use of those so-convenient magnetic shield 'doors' allowing a docking bay or hanger compartment to open to the vacuum of space ?

Mind I can see a possible restriction to such a feature being limited to orbital facilities of specific tonnage as well as to starships with powerplants rated to support such but feel said convenience as a benefit more often than not.

Also could a small-scale portable shield unit be incorporated in a repair kit for damage control use in instances of hull breaches or other penetrations of bulkheads or similar barriers ?

I am seeing power consumption to be the 'governor' as to application and potential abuse of this technology but that said, if carefully managed it could be a helpful if not outright practical tool if not plot device (pardon the pun) in the TU at large.

 

[Fritz_Brown]

The basic problem is: what force keeps the air inside? Magnetics won't do it. You have to make a substance that is magically solid to air.

The other issue is that whatever won't let air pass certainly won't let duralloy pass. You could conceivably extend the field to surround the ship until it pops off into its own bubble, but pinching it off will still be ... interesting.

 

[The Oz]

Actually, there is a thing called a plasma window that we already have that does exactly what you want: hold in atmosphere against vacuum while allowing objects to pass through it.

These windows even look like the fields in that 1977 film.

 

[Patron Zero]

Mind I'm no physicist or such but have my own theory on that.

I'm thinking the term 'magnetic' shield is a misnomer, more a 'shorthand' label placed on something requiring a more descriptive title. More likely a static gravity 'field', perhaps a layer of parallel and perpendicular 'fields' that form a composite shield that withholds the interior atmosphere.

Again, postulating here, but what might allow the starship or small craft to enter or exit could be an onboard 'frequency' modulator that puts the vessel in-out of phase to the restrictive nature of said 'shield'.

Simplifying such as say a type of IFF device that let's the ship pass through without resistance unless 'locked in or out by a code or command from a port-hanger control system.

Mind that would make for a pretty efficient parking meter of sorts for fully or semi-automated berthing facilities with minimal staffing.

In regards to cargo and freight, something as simple as a modern day RFID labels applied to pallets or individual items should allow for passage in-out of a containment field that might be employed by a starship. Also such should do any paperwork on said freight after such is recognized by onboard systems.

 

[Fritz_Brown]

Actually, there is a thing called a plasma window that we already have that does exactly what you want: hold in atmosphere against vacuum while allowing objects to pass through it.

Hmmmm, except that it appears to "vaporize" the air that touches it. That could be problematic when you have a limited supply of said air.

There's also this from one article linked in the wiki:

There would need to be a wire mesh outside the spacecraft and enclosing the plasma cloud. Electricity supplied to the mesh would keep an electrical current running in the plasma cloud and help confined it near the spacecraft.

That wire mesh will be problematic at passing spacecraft.

I'll keep checking it out.

More likely a static gravity 'field', perhaps a layer of parallel and perpendicular 'fields' that form a composite shield that withholds the interior atmosphere.

First, how do you create a "gravity field" that only affects air? Second, How do you get "out-of-phase" with gravity?

As to the RFID idea - you would have to put it on the entire hull. I don't think you could just put it in one spot and expect the field to compensate for different sizes and shapes. (Could use the jump grid possibly, but an inventive person with a tendency to mischief could cause trouble with that.)

 

[SpaceBadger]

I'm thinking the term 'magnetic' shield is a misnomer, more a 'shorthand' label placed on something requiring a more descriptive title.

The "source movie" you are looking at here tended to throw terms like that around as an alternative to "magic".

Remember the garbage compactor, that conveniently could not be blasted out of, because the door was "magnetically shielded"? You have to wonder, if magnetic shielding is such an extraordinary protection against blaster bolts, why they don't use it on all of their military vehicles, spacecraft, etc.


EDIT: My Cr .02, you can't do something like that "forcefield that holds in air but is permeable to solid objects" until you have tech that is, to us TL 7 barbarians, indistinguishable from magic.

 

[SpaceBadger]

Hmmmm, except that it appears to "vaporize" the air that touches it.

Gotta ask... how the heck do you "vaporize" air? o:

 

[aramis]

Gotta ask... how the heck do you "vaporize" air? o:

Disassociate and ionize the molecules into their constituent atomic ions, and incorporate them into the plasma.

Now, there is another canon possibility: A high power, locally focused set of repulser arrays. They all aim slightly inward, and drive air to center and inward. It will leak, but it's better than nothing. Multiple layers will increase expenses, and reduce losses.

 

[SpaceBadger]

Disassociate and ionize the molecules into their constituent atomic ions, and incorporate them into the plasma.

I guess I am quibbling on terms. What you describe sounds more to me like disintegration than vaporization. Literally, vaporization should refer to changing something from solid or liquid into gas, hence my question, since "air" is already gaseous.

 

[aramis]

I guess I am quibbling on terms. What you describe sounds more to me like disintegration than vaporization. Literally, vaporization should refer to changing something from solid or liquid into gas, hence my question, since "air" is already gaseous.

It's a state change from gas to plasma - for a variety of purposes, plasmas are gasses, but for many others, they're a 4th state... Solid, Liquid, Gas, Plasma.

 

[Nathan Brazil]

What is the TL for Repulsors and what do they do? They appear in some versions of Traveller and disappear in others.

 

[aramis]

Nathan: Repuslors are TL10 for bays according to CT.
Tractors, my preferred method, are TL 16+ per MT.