message 0625

• What kind of drive do Cherryh's spaceships have?

;Date: Fri, 15 Oct 1993 14:37:35 +0100
;From: Markus Stumptner <mst@vexpert.dbai.tuwien.ac.at>
;Subject: cherryhlist


>Markus thinks (nearly) the same about the vanes. But if a spread vane
>is not the best for maneuvers, why no warships with two vane sets?

I'd present it the other way round:  A non-spread vane is *sufficient*
for maneuvering, but not for FTL jumps.  Spread vanes are obviously 
suitable for FTL and maneuvering, but would have other disadvantages 
(e.g., larger mass, and a vulnerable structure with large cross section).

>On the inertia question, it has to be
>nearly 100% damped. I can't get the accel required to bleed, say 10%c 
>away in an instant in my head, but it has to be enormous. If you can
>negate thousands of g, why should a few g remain undamped?

I agree with the "nearly 100%".  However, if you actually have 1000s of
g's, then an imperfection of less than one percent *will* already translate
into multiple g's, so I think this fits anyway.

	Markus