On Sat, Sep 11, 2010 at 11:30 PM,
> <gzg-l-request@mail.csua.berkeley.edu> wrote:
> On Thursday 09 September 2010 04:26:43 John Atkinson wrote:
1: Contra-grav. The way it has always worked in my brain (mine, I
decline to speak for anyone else--but I'm pretty sure this is how it
works in Marc Miller and Frank Chadwick's brains too) is that within the
'envelope' of a CG suspension, the planet's gravitational pull is cancelled
out, so the limiting factor is how much stuff you can stuff into that CG
envelope. 2: To be redundant, I got started playing Traveller a long time ago,
and I think it damaged my brain. 3: I'm presuming you want to ship stuff
inside your starship, not strapped to the outside. 4: I'm also presuming that
FTL drives, when engaged, pull along things within a certain volume, not up to
a certain mass limit.
YMMV
> On Sunday 12 September 2010 03:48:09 John Atkinson wrote:
Okay. Unless you're cancelling the entire vehicle's mass though (Bergenholms?)
to accelerate you still need to push your mass around. Outside an atmosphere,
that's entirely dependent on mass and unaffected by volume.
At which point it comes down to which is cheaper - increasing the
CG field or increasing the thrust.
> 2: To be redundant, I got started playing Traveller a long time ago,
When I ran Traveller, I made some changes to the tech to make it
a bit harder. Contra-grav is too much like magic for me, and gets
rid of lots of interesting difficulties, therefore making the setting less fun
(IMO).
CG can also give you perpetual motion machines, and hence limitless free
energy.
> 3: I'm presuming you want to ship stuff inside your starship, not
You still need to push it.
The way I see it though, is if you want a bigger cargo hold, you need more
hull, which adds a little bit to mass (volume increases with the cube, hull
mass only increases with the square).
If you want to carry more mass, you also need bigger drives,
which may require bigger power sources and more fuel/reaction mass.
> 4: I'm also presuming that FTL drives, when engaged, pull along
Would this lead to spherical ship design?
If you have a Traveller-like 100 diameter limit for FTL, then
mass will affect acceleration and how quickly you can get to a safe jump
point.
> John
Neither am I, but I'm better at pretending physics than pretending strategy.