FuzzyGeff and I were discussing the Epstein Drive from The Expanse.
It's definitely a reaction drive, but it's WAY too efficient.
That got us talking about the maneuver drive from Traveller.
OG Little Black Book (LBB) Traveller drives has fuel listed for the power plant. The description links that fuel to the maneuver drive.
If you think of the power plant fuel as reaction mass for the entirely too efficient maneuver drive, it kinda works.
But OG LBB Traveller drives also appear to move a volume irregardless of mass. Empty cargo bay? 1G. Cargo bay stuffed with depleted uranium? 1G.
Later editions of Traveller explicitly stated that the maneuver drive was reactionless and made thrust and you needed to figure out the mass of your ship to get your acceleration.
I like for the players to need to get fuel to be able to maneuver. GURPS: Traveller's power plant didn't even need fuel, it was contained inside the plant and there was enough in there for 10 to 50 years.
Since the reactionless thrusters run on the output of the power plant; you can, in theory, accelerate for 50 years. That's some significant delta-V!
The hitch, of course, is to firewall the throttle for 50 years you're going to be skipping your annual maintenance overhaul AND that interval is based around a 50% duty cycle.
No comments:
Post a Comment
You are a guest here when you comment. This is my soapbox, not yours. Be polite. Inappropriate comments will be deleted without mention. Amnesty period is expired.
Do not go off on a tangent, stay with the topic of the post. If I can't tell what your point is in the first couple of sentences I'm flushing it.
If you're trying to comment anonymously: You can't. Log into your Google account.
If you can't comprehend this, don't comment; because I'm going to moderate and mock you for wasting your time.