Normandy Class Stealth Recon Scout

[whulorigan]

This led me to the concept of an antimatter fuel cell.

I started with the fact that they state that there is no space required for the actual fuel. This means that the amounts of hydrogen and anti-hydrogen would be very small. Storing hydrogen is quite simple, but for the anti-hydrogen I went with the premise that it would need to be stored in a capsule that uses either gravity or magnets to contain it suspended in a vacuum. And of course you would want this container to be nearly indestructible.

A part of the containment system could also be to have the anti-protons encased in a C₆₀ fullerene cage. The negative charge of the anti-proton(s) would be repelled by the negative charges of the electron clouds of the carbon atoms in the C₆₀.

 

[Brandon C]

The is the one gray area of the design as the rules do not state how re-fueling of antimatter power plants works, just the cost.

As written, the antimatter power plant is of dubious value. A military/scout ship needs ore than a month duration in most cases and the freed space on a commercial vessel doesn't really make up for the increased cost.

Also, by my reading, an antimatter plant does not affect jump drive fuel requirements -- a J6 drive still requires 60% of the ship's volume be devoted to liquid hydrogen. A warp drive would benefit from the fuel requirements of an antimatter plant, but a teleport drive and hyperspace drive may not (it depend on what you take "no extra fuel" to mean, and it can be different for those two drives).

 

[DickNervous]

Also, by my reading, an antimatter plant does not affect jump drive fuel requirements -- a J6 drive still requires 60% of the ship's volume be devoted to liquid hydrogen. A warp drive would benefit from the fuel requirements of an antimatter plant, but a teleport drive and hyperspace drive may not (it depend on what you take "no extra fuel" to mean, and it can be different for those two drives).

That has always been something I wondered about regarding a jump drive. From what I have read, at a very simple and basic level, and jump drive is like a giant capacitor. Stores up the energy required to make the jump, then releases it (basically) all at once to to execute the jump.

In a standard ship it does this by having the power plant burn the fuel and sending the energy to the jump drive. As we all know, this requires a large amount of energy and therefore a large amount of fuel equal to 10% of the ships tonnage times the jump distance.

If that is the case, then why would a ship with an antimatter power plant still require fuel for the jump drive? Wouldn't the antimatter power plant simply provide the necessary power to the drive?

 

[kilemall]

That has always been something I wondered about regarding a jump drive. From what I have read, at a very simple and basic level, and jump drive is like a giant capacitor. Stores up the energy required to make the jump, then releases it (basically) all at once to to execute the jump.

In a standard ship it does this by having the power plant burn the fuel and sending the energy to the jump drive. As we all know, this requires a large amount of energy and therefore a large amount of fuel equal to 10% of the ships tonnage times the jump distance.

If that is the case, then why would a ship with an antimatter power plant still require fuel for the jump drive? Wouldn't the antimatter power plant simply provide the necessary power to the drive?

Depends on whether you consider the Jn10% requirement to be all about the power generation, or if the fuel is used for jump bubbles, fed into jumpspace, used to create a wormhole/jumpspace entry point, etc.

Right now I have evolved it into the jump capacitors provide enough surge power to fuel a huge muon reaction which creates both enough power to create a jump portal to the jump target point AND eject the mass after reaction is done to accelerate the ship through the portal very quickly. The crew is not turned to paste as jumpspace itself nullifies inertia- they try that stunt without the portal and they are jelly on the bulkheads.

So the fuel is still necessary until such time both vee into portal entry AND power can be solved by raw power input alone.

But that is VERY IMTU. Annic Nova certainly would support your POV.

Point is you can pick a Traveller version to standardize on or change to suit your tastes. No permission necessary.

 

[DickNervous]

Point is you can pick a Traveller version to standardize on or change to suit your tastes. No permission necessary.

That, right there, is the beauty of Traveller.

I'll just leave it as is for now, but thank you everyone for all the feedback.

 

[aramis]

In MT, Antimatter fuel is PER YEAR. Same with T20.

 

[DickNervous]

In MT, Antimatter fuel is PER YEAR. Same with T20.

Now *that* would be real nice, though I have no idea if the rest of the ship design would be valid in either of those rulesets.

 

[Maccat]

I would add more than 28d fuel (I think it's just cost, no tonnage for as much duration as you want, not sure though), and some low berths (even if just emergency) as well. Maybe for a death-defying fearless Marine suad of 8 in Battle Dress and Grav Belts with stealth capsules as security @2t. Consider some % tonnage for extended endurance as well, I forget the specifics but it enables longer stretches of operations without starport LS needs and such. Guess 10 would fit on the SS Strake class I just posted. It would be interesting to see just a staright TLF/15 version as well if possible. Seriousluy, TLF Fusion PPs are incredibly cheap and powerful compared to the lower TL ones. Push up to 150t or even 200t if need be ( a "fat" scout). Have designed "overdriven" versions, drives designed for higher tonnages, like a 150t vessel w/50t cago/exterior tankage/drop tankage (J3 additional fuel that way). Considering it's mission and operational deployment, tbh it probably doesn't matter too much if it doesn't exactly match the S/C exterior. Interesting design, thanks for sharing it. Um, HG PA TLE Barbette 5t, TLF PA Turret, 3t. Oh, and the JFuel requirement is due to Grandfather Psionic-based manifestation of teleportation for Jump Drives (I hear he's like a big worm with teeth in the desert somewhere likes something called "spice" and hates water, goes by nickname Jabba or something) used to provide enough hydrogen for his pocket-universe sun <s>. Annic Nova I like as Capacitator (36EP/t 4MCr HG) Power plants. They're very expensive though for any useable output. Still haven't figured out JFuel issue for it lol.