Reality VS Fiction Regarding Starships

Discussion in 'Science Fiction' started by Spacescifi1, Jan 23, 2020.

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  1. big soft moose

    big soft moose An Admoostrator Admin Staff Supporter Contributor Community Volunteer

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  2. Spacescifi1

    Spacescifi1 Banned

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    KSP was by far the best forum I have ever been on as far as learning about spaceflight goes.

    Ironically the forums that seemed to know the least about spaceflight and tended to just copy off scifi tropes were actually writing forums. Albeit not this one, but I was expecting the same.


    With KSP I learned that even if we had working self-sustaining fusion and a safe way to store antimatter, that alone does not make for a scifi looking spaceship.

    Using a tremendous amount of energy tends to require a lot of mass. And mass is weight, so gravity tends to say no.

    On the other hand, using a lot of energy with little mass tends to create either a bomb or a rocket.

    If we want realistic scifi looking spaceships, either fiction, or 'slow boats' are required.


    Scifi tends to inspire some to make the dream a reality, and I saw what it would take.

    Time. Resources. A lot of both.


    As regards human engineered fusion, it is a different beast than say, what our sun does.

    Why We Do Not Have Fusion: Yes magneric fields do hold the plasma fusion reaction.... just not well enough. Plasma is wispy and slippery stuff, and tends to slip out of the magnetic fields and hit the containment walls, lowering the ultra high temperatures required for a self-sustaining fusion reaction and killing it. Human fusion VS star fusion are two different beasts. Stars do fusion because they have planets worth of mass that cause fusion in their cores with elements that normally would not fuse otherwise. We obviously cannnot do planets worth of mass, so we have to heat up plasma to temperatures even hotter than the core of the sun to compensate. And using known science only, the amount of heat a starship would generate via a self sustaining fusion reaction is... a cause for concern to put it lightly. The only way we know of dealing with lots of heat in space is using a lot of mass... and we know how hard it is to get lots of mass in to orbit to begin with. Stronger magnetic fields might help, but even those have limits (solid electromagnets break apart at super high fields) unless we learn a better way (liquid magnets perhaps?). Even so magnets are also known for being heavy... and heavy spaceships tent to cancel out the gains you get from having fusion in the first place. Kind of reminds me of the antimatter beam core rocket concept. Conceptually it is the most scifi powerful rocket we have ever theorized, with both high thrust and a delta v in the thousands (can do high thrust for long periods of time). Yet it burns through antimatter by the second, and the amount of gear needed to keep the ship from melting would cut into the vessel's max speed and thrust anyway. Not by a trivial amount.
     
  3. Naomasa298

    Naomasa298 HP: 10/190 Status: Confused Contributor

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    I could correct a lot of this, but I won't bother.

    Another little bit of advice. Don't patronise the people reader your thread. More than a few people will probably have a better understanding of the science than you do.

    Good luck with your writing.
     
  4. Spacescifi1

    Spacescifi1 Banned

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    I have no doubt that there are thise that do know more than me about space stuff. It is a vast subject. But I also know that I know things others do not, including yourself.

    That knowledge can come in handy if I decide to use it.
     
  5. big soft moose

    big soft moose An Admoostrator Admin Staff Supporter Contributor Community Volunteer

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    Okay - I asked nicely twice, now I'm telling you, knock off the arrogant stuff - you have no idea what anyone else knows or doesn't know... also try to differentiate between opinion and actual knowledge. No one has any knowledge of how starships work, because starships don't exist.

    :closed:
     
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