Sol Reborn

[RIPSaidCone]

Reality: "Oh... Okay then." *Proceeds to leave that area alone.*

Perfect

 

[Shireling]

I hate your people already. Albion Who is pretentious enough to bring a small collapsible flag to a diplomatic meeting?

 

[Albion]

You know, it is rude to say that, sir. Might i remind you that you have assets on the moon.

 

[Shireling]

You know, it is rude to say that, sir. Might i remind you that you have assets on the moon.

Two defunct deuterium synthesizers and an aging third one. Not exactly the most valuable assets I have. Although once deuterium reserves starting running low, we're gonna have a problem.

 

[General Deth Glitch]

I mean, you are all pretty dictator-y.

 

[Wandering Grim Hollow]

I mean, you are all pretty dictator-y.

Hey, I'll have you know that you can vote in my faction.

It just so happens that the government is made up of military officials.

 

[General Deth Glitch]

Hey, I'll have you know that you can vote in my faction.

It just so happens that the government is made up of military officials.

Well the United Colonies think they may be able to help your... current issues... fellow European

 

[Mr.Sandstorm]

Shireling Fishman Lord Wandering Grim Hollow General Deth Glitch

Maybe we should first establish more firmly what level of technology the colonies in Sol were at when the War happened.

It will bite all of you in the ass if you dont set in stone what has been acomplished in technological discovery already. Also, it will make the worldbuilding efforts of the players go all over the place as they dont have a specific set of limitations to work with other than "no forcefields".

 

[Shireling]

Shireling Fishman Lord Wandering Grim Hollow General Deth Glitch

Maybe we should first establish more firmly what level of technology the colonies in Sol were at when the War happened.

It will bite all of you in the ass if you dont set in stone what has been acomplished in technological discovery already. Also, it will make the worldbuilding efforts of the players go all over the place as they dont have a specific set of limitations to work with other than "no forcefields".

Since I have the main spacefaring faction, I guess I sort of set the tone for the space travel stuff.

I've figured the logistics of space travel are such: a ship docks with a space station above Earth and supplies or people are loaded onto the ship. The ship then flies under it's own power to the Moon (a trip of about a half day), Mars (a trip of about six months), or the Outer Solar System (anywhere from eight months to a year depending on alignment). I based the travel times on the logical improvements of existing propulsion technologies. The larger ships have fusion reactors and use those reactors to generate impulse thrust from the exhaust. The smaller ships have ion engines. Thus the smallest ships are also the slowest because they have slower propulsion systems.

When the ship arrives at the Moon or a small body, it can land and unload to take off or it can send down small reusable shuttlecraft with ion thrusters. On Mars or a large Moon, the shuttles would use conventional solid rocket fuel thrusters (which is an incredibly finite resource now, along with the xenon gas for ion propulsion) for the extra oomph to reach orbital velocity.

Most of the ships are designed to have spinning pods with artificial gravity generated through centrifugal force. The largest ships are less than two kilometers bow to stern at this point.

 

[Mr.Sandstorm]

Since I have the main spacefaring faction, I guess I sort of set the tone for the space travel stuff.

I've figured the logistics of space travel are such: a ship docks with a space station above Earth and supplies or people are loaded onto the ship. The ship then flies under it's own power to the Moon (a trip of about a half day), Mars (a trip of about six months), or the Outer Solar System (anywhere from eight months to a year depending on alignment). I based the travel times on the logical improvements of existing propulsion technologies. The larger ships have fusion reactors and use those reactors to generate impulse thrust from the exhaust. The smaller ships have ion engines. Thus the smallest ships are also the slowest because they have slower propulsion systems.

When the ship arrives at the Moon or a small body, it can land and unload to take off or it can send down small reusable shuttlecraft with ion thrusters. On Mars or a large Moon, the shuttles would use conventional solid rocket fuel thrusters (which is an incredibly finite resource now, along with the xenon gas for ion propulsion) for the extra oomph to reach orbital velocity.

Most of the ships are designed to have spinning pods with artificial gravity generated through centrifugal force. The largest ships are less than two kilometers bow to stern at this point.

Sounds good, but dont make the mistake of calling one propulsion method "slower" than the other. To travel to locations around the solar system, they all have to develop the same speeds, and since the timeframes for interplanetary travel are already huge, the time they take to develop those speeds doesnt matter.

Sure, for planetary surface launches and battles, the time that the ship takes to gain speed matters, but for orbital translocation, the only thing that realy matters is "Delta-V": How much of your velocity can you change before you run out of fuel.

Delta-V is what realy counts in determining what orbits a ship can acquire, and the orbits in turn are what determine how quickly a ship goes from A to B.

 

[Albion]

Which is why ion engines are among the most fuel efficient compared to their delta v

 

[Mr.Sandstorm]

Well, assuming you've got a meaty source of electricity. And a lot of time.

 

[Shireling]

Sounds good, but dont make the mistake of calling one propulsion method "slower" than the other. To travel to locations around the solar system, they all have to develop the same speeds, and since the timeframes for interplanetary travel are already huge, the time they take to develop those speeds doesnt matter.

Sure, for planetary surface launches and battles, the time that the ship takes to gain speed matters, but for orbital translocation, the only thing that realy matters is "Delta-V": How much of your velocity can you change before you run out of fuel.

Delta-V is what realy counts in determining what orbits a ship can acquire, and the orbits in turn are what determine how quickly a ship goes from A to B.

Basically the gravity on Mars is higher so an ion engine that could achieve orbit in a timely manner would be prohibitively expensive.

 

[Mr.Sandstorm]

Basically the gravity on Mars is higher so an ion engine that could achieve orbit in a timely manner would be prohibitively expensive.

Yes, I understand why you mentioned Mars landers having chem-rockets instead of ion drives; I was just contesting your claim that the smaller ships would be slower than the fusion-bearing vessels.

Actualy, what type of fusion rocket are you using? Drives that take their thrust straight out of the reaction core of a fusion reactor are quite high-tech.

Wait, we have fusion power now? Did everyone agree to this? Because fusion power being available does change drasticaly the enviroment of this story. If we have that kind of power available, a lot of realy futuristic things become available as well.

 

[Shireling]

Yes, I understand why you mentioned Mars landers having chem-rockets instead of ion drives; I was just contesting your claim that the smaller ships would be slower than the fusion-bearing vessels.

Actualy, what type of fusion rocket are you using? Drives that take their thrust straight out of the reaction core of a fusion reactor are quite high-tech.

Wait, we have fusion power now? Did everyone agree to this? Because fusion power being available does change drasticaly the enviroment of this story. If we have that kind of power available, a lot of realy futuristic things become available as well.

I assumed we would have fusion by 2112 considering we already have technically successful experiments with the technology now. I could simply go back and give them simple fission reactors with ion drives.

 

[Albion]

Yes, fusion is in the tech. Though warp drives wont happen for about 6600 pages

 

[Shireling]

I doubt we could have these massive cities on Mars without fusion power, as it would be easy to source heavy water either from water-collecting spaceships or from subterranean or polar ice deposits. Having the equivalent output in fission reactors or fossil fuel power plants would be very expensive, and a solar array large enough for metropolises of millions are, I don't think, feasible on Mars.

 

[Shireling]

Yes, fusion is in the tech. Though warp drives wont happen for about 6600 pages

I don't know if warp drives are even possible.

 

[Albion]

I have faith in the alcubierre drive

 

[Mr.Sandstorm]

Ok. Who has fusion power? Obviously, whoever has the stuff set up in his colony is pretty much set for domintating his surroundings, and any settlements that dont have fusion power will have problems making their mark in the system.

And what type?

Deuterium-Deuterium? Deuterium-Tritium?
Deuterium-Helium-3? Pure Helium-3?

This is important as it will determine exactly what planetoids would be most ambitioned for fusion-hungry nations.

If it's De-De and De-Tri, any puddle of water is good (more or less). There will be some oddballs like Venus' atmosphere which is unusualy richer in Deuterium Hydrogen than other planets.

If it's He3, now the gas giants are a lot more interesting, being the only major sources of this light element in Sol.

Also, De-De and De-Tri make a lot of neutron radiation, so fusion reactors mounted on orbital stations and ships would need a lot of care to not kill their inhabitants.
You cant viably bring all the necessary neutron-shielding to fully cradle a fusion reactor into a ship; it will just be too heavy. You'll only be able to shield a coniform volume where the neutron radiation directly facing the rest of the ship is blocked using a "Shadow Shield", and anything that got out of that volume would get bombarded with neutrons.

 

[Shireling]

Ok. Who has fusion power? Obviously, whoever has the stuff set up in his colony is pretty much set for domintating his surroundings, and any settlements that dont have fusion power will have problems making their mark in the system.

And what type?

Deuterium-Deuterium? Deuterium-Tritium?
Deuterium-Helium-3? Pure Helium-3?

This is important as it will determine exactly what planetoids would be most ambitioned for fusion-hungry nations.

If it's De-De and De-Tri, any puddle of water is good (more or less). There will be some oddballs like Venus' atmosphere which is unusualy richer in Deuterium Hydrogen than other planets.

If it's He3, now the gas giants are a lot more interesting, being the only major sources of this light element in Sol.

Also, De-De and De-Tri make a lot of neutron radiation, so fusion reactors mounted on orbital stations and ships would need a lot of care to not kill their inhabitants.
You cant viably bring all the necessary neutron-shielding to fully cradle a fusion reactor into a ship; it will just be too heavy. You'll only be able to shield a coniform volume where the neutron radiation directly facing the rest of the ship is blocked using a "Shadow Shield", and anything that got out of that volume would get bombarded with neutrons.

You pose a good question. I'm not a physicist, but I know neutrons have mass so it's generally bad when they go crashing into things. And Helium-3 is so rare I doubt it could be the main reactant for most fusion reactions. Perhaps there's a high-tech solution to the neutron radiation problem?

 

[Mr.Sandstorm]

You pose a good question. I'm not a physicist, but I know neutrons have mass so it's generally bad when they go crashing into things. And Helium-3 is so rare I doubt it could be the main reactant for most fusion reactions. Perhaps there's a high-tech solution to the neutron radiation problem?

He3 is rare? By no means, Jupiter and Saturn have it in their atmospheres, you can scoop it from them. It's fusion; you dont need a lot of fuel for that type of power.
And no, there is no high-tech handwaving for neutron radiation. The only way to stop a neutron is to make it sink into an atomic nucleus.

 

[Shireling]

He3 is rare? By no means, Jupiter and Saturn have it in their atmospheres, you can scoop it from them. It's fusion; you dont need a lot of fuel for that type of power.
And no, there is no high-tech handwaving for neutron radiation. The only way to stop a neutron is to make it sink into an atomic nucleus.

Well I mean it's rare terrestrially.

 

[General Deth Glitch]

Well I mean it's rare terrestrially.

But Terra us dedda... so.. terra no longer plays a part really, at least on anything other then mining. The Atmosphere and surface are fucked to high hell for the time being. Sure get some lead pants on an dig a big hole, might get something useful... but thats some real big holes your mining in my mother planet and I am not sure I am OK with that.

 

[Shireling]

But Terra us dedda... so.. terra no longer plays a part really, at least on anything other then mining. The Atmosphere and surface are fucked to high hell for the time being. Sure get some lead pants on an dig a big hole, might get something useful... but thats some real big holes your mining in my mother planet and I am not sure I am OK with that.

Well having H3 fusion does mean you're at the mercy of predatory spacers for your helium supply.