Quote:
Originally Posted by stutefish
So why not a disk, for interplanetary travel?
A central core comprising the main engine; with storage, living, and equipment spaces radiating outwards.
RCS thrusters around the outer rim, including thrusters to impart spin (roll?) for artificial gravity.
I'd say put the acceleration couches/nav porthole/storm cellar on top of the main engine, along the main thrust axis. The crew would stay there during powered flight, and then spin the craft while coasting so they could walk around the living quarters and lab areas.
Obvious problems (well, obvious to me, anyway), would have to do with questions like, "how big a radius can the disk have, before it flexes too much to maintain integrity under main thrust?", and, "how strong would the structure have to be, to maintain integrity while spinning?"
One huge problem solved would be the elmination of complex and weight-adding joints and apertures to allow portions of a craft to spin while the rest does not.
I'm sure the board can come up with more problems and solutions. Any takers?  |
stutefish.
How about a diskship built on parameters that are a little different. First we'll remove the thrusters. Burning hydrocarbons or hydrazine produces an exhaust plume of CO
2 and H
2O, mixed with nitrogen oxides. That leaves contrails when you travel at altitude in atmospheres similar to the Earth's. Water vapor. Too visible.....needs to be a little more stealthy. Without a fixed airfoil, or a moveable airfoil, you'll need to develop something else to offset the weight of the craft. Since inertial accelerations are indistinguishable from gravitational ones...the principle of equivalence... manipulating the equivalence is essential.
The advantage of this is that the acceleration of the craft will involve all the nuclei of the external structure, plus all of the nuclei of the cargo within a few (c/ dimensions of the craft) seconds, simultaneously.. Since they all will "feel" the acceleration, 50-10,000 g's should be fine, even with humanoids onboard, as it is the gradient in the accelerations over the dimensions of the vehicle that causes the net forces felt by the passengers.
Odd, that's kind of the effect seen by some people regarding.....
, and of course, if you can manipulate inertial effects, you can by the same token manipulate gravitational effects.
pete.