Afterburner Fuel

T

Treguard

Spaceman
What type of fuel was this they used in their fighters?

Also, could cap ships have afterburners, or would this be impractical since i) tons of space would be taken up with fuel, ii) they probably don't have this space
 
Hydrogen, sort of. Read the Confed Handbook for an incredibly in-depth description of ship propulsion.

Capships don't have afterburners because they're too big, and they'd require too much storage space... making them even bigger. Capships can't maneuver, anyway, so simply operating with scoops closed works just fine for them...
 
Seems to me they use some sort of cold fusion apparatus using hydrogen. It's very effective; all you have to do is skim a gas giant and collect hydro to refuel.
 
You don't even have to skim a planet or a star. You can just run with scoops open and take in whatever is floating around in space.

Don't the WC Capships run on the same Bussard Ramscoop theory that is more commonly used in Star Trek?
 
Bussard Ramscoop?

Originally posted by LeHah
Don't the WC Capships run on the same Bussard Ramscoop theory that is more commonly used in Star Trek?
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I have no idea what that is but it sounds interesting. Could you elaborate, please?

:)
 
IIRC, it's a scoop on the front of a ship which sucks in all the hydrogen the ship encounters and stores it in tanks, which are then used as fuel for hydrogen-helium fusion.

Under normal cruise, the hydrogen scooped replaces the hydrogen burned in the fusion reaction. However, sometimes it is necessary to run the reactors at a higher rate than the scoop's replacement rate. Thus, it is necessary to store additional surplus reaction mass aboard. Thus, "afterburner fuel".

Actually, this is one of the more plausible Sci-fi concepts in WC. In fact, if we could generate a sustained controlled fusion reaction, it would be almost in reach of today's technology.

Respectfully,

Brian P.
 
The only problem with WC's scoops is that they are too small to be effective, but that could be by today's standards. By the 27th century the technology for it may make it practical.

(FYI: Bussard Ramscoop theory is a real-life theory, which NASA has considered along with ideas such as impulse drives.)
 
I read in an scientific magazine the Ramjet drive is quite dangerous. It uses only 'normal' Hydrogen. One Deuterium atom in the ships drives would be enough to cause an nuclear explosion, that wouldn't be very likeable.

But didn't the WC capships use matter/antimatter drives?
 
Originally posted by LeHah
You don't even have to skim a planet or a star. You can just run with scoops open and take in whatever is floating around in space.
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I know that, but I left it out because for anyone who's read the novels, it's commonplace. Besides, eventually there will come a time when there is no choice but to skim something because of a lack of stray atoms in space.
 
Allright, now you're talking my stuff. i'm studying this shit. In 2 years I will hopefully start specializing in space-and aeronautics.

The real problem with fusion is the extreme temperatures required to exist very close together. If we could create materials which isolate extremely well, there would be no problem. Unless we can discover the secret to cold fusion (which happens only at 6000° Kelvin), of course. But that is even more impossible right now. Ramjet is a little different. It doesn't use fusion. It just converts air into rocket fuel. They tested a Ramjet-plane a while back in earth's upper atmosphere, but It didn't work thanks too the problem Lynx described.

Lynx: Actually, the fusion always happens through deuterium. Normal hydrogen isn't good enough.

pendell: there is one fusion reactor working right now, only problem right now is that the power input is greater than the output, but I assume that's what you mean.
 
Not necessarily. But if you want to maximize efficiency, something like that. It isn't magnetic, but it's a field of some sort.
 
Originally posted by Wulf


I know that, but I left it out because for anyone who's read the novels, it's commonplace. Besides, eventually there will come a time when there is no choice but to skim something because of a lack of stray atoms in space.
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Yes, God knows Man will take over every single inch of space with his technology and his waste and we'll waste every nanoangstrom of dust and fiber and loose atoms floating around space. :rolleyes:
 
Originally posted by LeHah


Yes, God knows Man will take over every single inch of space with his technology and his waste and we'll waste every nanoangstrom of dust and fiber and loose atoms floating around space. :rolleyes:
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Yeah, eventually there needs to be an effective energy policy so that while we consume resources, we don't destroy everything like parasites.

And what I meant by my last comment is that sometimes a ship can't simply refuel in dep space all the time and expect to get anywhere; it will have to skim a planet eventually.
 
Originally posted by Wulf


Yeah, eventually there needs to be an effective energy policy so that while we consume resources, we don't destroy everything like parasites.

And what I meant by my last comment is that sometimes a ship can't simply refuel in dep space all the time and expect to get anywhere; it will have to skim a planet eventually.
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Well, uh, I kinda' doubt that we'll need to "conserve deep space," if we did scoop for hydrogen! Correct me if I'm wrong- I think deep space is big enough and has enough free particles floating around to consume; should be able to quench any large vessel's thirst and I don't think it'll get any smaller or that our apparently eccentric energy needs will deplete [deep space] of all its atoms.

Especially hydrogen, which is extremely abundant. Well, unless there was a "dead zone," or something where no particles ever floated by....
 
Originally posted by Wulf
And what I meant by my last comment is that sometimes a ship can't simply refuel in dep space all the time and expect to get anywhere; it will have to skim a planet eventually.
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Speaking in absolutes leads a person to find that he will be constantly proven wrong by Murphey's Law.
 
Originally posted by Col.Dom


Well, unless there was a "dead zone," or something where no particles ever floated by....
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That's what I meant, and I put that 'energy policy' thing in there as political satire (maybe too subtle).

And aren't we all victims of Murphy's Law? It isn't called law for nothing, you know. Kinda like how a plasma television can keep a ten-cent fuse from blowing, LOL!
 
Murphy's law states that, given the chance, all capital ships should have the same bridge model.

*rimshot*
 
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