BetterThanLife
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Actually at TL9-11 the fastest way is to use your anti-grav to get to 100D then jump to 100D of Neptune, and use your anti-grav to land or whatever else you want to do there. It is much faster. It isn't until you get thrusterplates that you can use maneuver drive the whole trip. (And shave a couple of days and save fuel.) On the In-System Travel Times table pg. 21 and the orbit table pg. 22, it shows 4G takes about 6.3 days to make the trip, 5G, 5.6 days and 6G, 5.1 days. Before your maneuver drive is capable of working outside a gravity well, jump drive is much faster.Originally posted by Aramis:
MT's early anti-grav thrusters had a 1000D limit. They are TL9. How do you get to neptune with them?
1) You accelerate on an elliptical orbit until break-free, and continue on a drifting, probably hohman transfer orbit, course.
2) You leave the planet, then do a long sun-dive to attain a parabolic intercept
in either case, you then make final corrections and orbital insertion thrusting upon reaching.
T4's limit was a specific gravity gradient, which was solar limited to about saturn, but you could easily "Aim for the well" of a further out world. If I remember correctly, that gradient was 0.001 G, but I'm too lazy to look it up right now. It was to prevent the planet shattering "Near-C Rocket" attack with a 10 ton launch wiping out capital. With said limit, you need a 6G 100Td 7J1 custom designed assault ship. (Start in solar ellipse, accelerate through the solar well, jump so that you come back at the well, repeat.)
Remember, in space, if you have the momentum, you can coast almost forever. (The femptonewtons {1E-12N} or smaller of drag per square meter are a factor, however, and sooner or later, you will match speed with the interstellar medium.)
Now that is Anti-Grav Thrusters. And true once ou get to velocity you can coast. But Thrusterplates. As defined in the MT Referee's Companion begins at TL12. "Research into the problems of gravitic drives leads to the introduction of thruster technology. Thruster technology, a combined spin-off of gravitic and damper technology, uses a strong molecularrepelling force to produce reactionless thrusters which push against large plates mounted on the space vessel. Thrusters do not require the presenceof a large gravity field to operate effectively, but instead of a large gravity field to operate effectively, but instead are highly localized with virtually none of the projection ability of gravitics."
Thruster plates don't require any gravity well. Anti-Grav thrusters do require a gravity well. (Same book, TL 10.)
While Coasting is possible it isn't very fast. The fast way to get from point A to point B is to accellerate then brake. (Usually by turning over at approximately at the halfway point.) The exact turnover point will be dictated by the relative strengths of the gravity fields at the start and end points of your trip. For example if you are leaving a strong gravity field and entering a weak gravity field then you need to accellerate longer than decellerate and Vice Versa. Actually that isn't quite fair. That is the fastest way to get there in one piece. The fastest way to get there is to accellerate all the way to the destination. But of course you will have too much velocity at the destination to be useful, or even survivable. With a little physics and careful calculations you can use intervening gravity wells to either help you accellerate or decellerate but that is still accellerate then turnover and decellerate.