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>Date: Tue, 8 Jun 93 13:16 PDT
>Subject: cherryhlist
>From: Nick_Janow@mindlink.bc.ca (Nick Janow)

>+ Assuming the exhaust velocity of a ship's propellant was lightspeed the
>+ ship would have to eject twice its own mass in propellant to boost it up
>+ to lightspeed, under simple newtonian mechanics.
>
> This is a point in favour of a magic engine, but I'm still not convinced,
> see my reasons below.

I thought the high velocities were gained by pulsing the jump drives.  I
noticed that in HB, and somewhere else too.

> That's possible. An almost unrelated problem: where did the fleet get the
> ammunition? They could use the same fuel merchanters use, the same engine
> spare parts, if their engineers were creative, the same food, but earth
> should have been the only source of advanced weapons, unless a station
> constructed a whole new industry.

A civilization that can produce a jumpship probably has developed small-scale
processing and fabrication to a much higher level than we have today.  We're
just starting with desktop engineering (create a metal or plastic part with
something like a desktop printer); I expect a carrier in DS's time to be able
to fabricate common small parts with ease, and process raw materials into
various alloys, chemicals, etc.  They might not have the ability to fabricate
the latest technology items and some special items (requiring huge forges or
whatever), but they can modify gear taken from stations and merchant ships.

> And, if the fuel was needed for an fusion plant, the plant would have to be
> really big to use a significant quantity of fuel. I've found a physics book
> that said if the Tokamak(?) design should work, a 30.000 MW plant would use
> 10kg of fuel every day.

A fusion reactor doesn't need much fuel to generate energy, but a fusion
drive also needs reaction mass (hydrogen is good) to generate thrust from
that energy.  With such a plant no starship should have to rely on station
> power, but the compact ships routinely hook up to station power lines.

Sure, to cut down on maintenance charges.  If parts of the reactors "wear
out" quickly, you'll want to minimize its operation time.

It also sounds good in a story.  :)

--

Nick_Janow@mindlink.bc.ca