From: Alan and Carmel Brain <aebrain@w...>
Date: Fri, 9 Feb 2001 00:15:55 +1100
Subject: Re: Starship Combat near Planets
I've done a few "back of the envelope" engineering calculations, trying to figure out a consistent time/distance scale for Full Thrust (and other games, which is why I've cross-posted, something I do about every alternate leap year). Anyway, my initial thoughts were: If we get within a factor of 2, that's near enough. It's gotta look good - be compatible with available models, tables. It's gotta feel right - turn lengths, weapon distances, speeds must be plausible. For the purposes of getting something about right, I didn't sweat the small stuff. Thus: Pi = 3 3 x 3 = 10 10.8 = 10 1.414 = 1 For all intents and purposes. This is what I got as some reasonable values: 1 MU (Movement Unit) = 1" there may well be some arithmetic mistakes in the below - feel free to check them out. But I think they're OK within an oredr of magnitude. System 1a 1MU = 1000 km (1/300 LightSecond) Earth-type Planetary Size about 6MU diameter - so a Floral Ball will do. The moon would be about the size of a tennis ball. Lunar Orbit 400 MU away (so double planets should have about 10 meters between them). GeoSynch Orbit about 48MU away - fits on a table tennis table - just. At GeoSync, speed is 1MU in a circular orbit. 1 move = 5 minutes (300 secs) 1 Thrust = 1 g c is approx speed 100,000, or 300 MU/sec 1 MU/turn = 12,000 km/h 1b 1 move = 30 secs 1 Thrust = 100g c is approx 10,000 1MU/turn = 120,000 km/h 1c 1 move = 3 secs 1 Thust = 10,000g c is approx 1,000 1 MU/turn = 1,200,000 km/h 1d 1 Thrust = 2g 1 move = 100 secs c is approx 30,000 Consistent Time/Distance Scale #2 1 MU = 10,000 km (1/30 light sec) Planetary Size about 0.6MU - so a large marble will do. Lunar Orbit 40 MU away Moon size - ball bearing. GeoSync - about 5" away 1 move = 15 minutes 1 Thrust = 1 g c is approx speed 10,000 Any of the above would be fine, though I myself like System 1, so the planets look reasonably planety. That lead me to think about Kinetic Energy weapons - K guns in FT terms. K-guns in system 1: * Travel at 0.001c * Weigh 1 kg each (small - about the size of a baseball, if made of something like metal) *Accelerate over 1/10,000 sec and over a distance of 150 metres, at 3 billion g. They'd take 10 secs to reach maximum range. They have a kick that would accelerate an aircraft carrier to full speed in 1/10,000 of a second. Get received like a 100 tonne mass going "faster than a speeding bullet" - so imagine getting hit not by the shell a tank fires, but the tank itself at the same hypersonic velocity. Or alternatively, like a 1000 tonne mass going from 120 km/h (75mph) to dead stop in a distance of 1.5mm (1/16") 10t hitting at 12,000 km/h 100t at 3300 km/h 1000t at 1,200 km/h 100,000t at 120 km/h