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Post by rabidbite on Dec 2, 2011 21:08:43 GMT -5
Most of us are aware of those awesome scenes when the Millennium Falcon dashes into an asteroid field avoiding all the asteroids etc.
In reality, even with Han Solo at the helm, the Millennium Falcon would be a wreckage. Why? The answer is ... dust.
You see a ship might avoid the 10km wide asteroid. It will not even SEE the dust mote traveling at 10 thousand kilometers per hour that will gut it. In an asteroid field there is a lot of dust ... and pebbles ... and grains of rocky asteroid sand ... etc.
SO, now that we have the fiction out of the way, how would a ship survive in a dust rich environment? How would it deal with space particles that could, and would, shred it if it gets close to ... say ... the rings of Saturn or something along those lines?
I'm thinking energy field or loads, and I mean loads, of armor in the direction of travel.
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Post by gravismetallum on Dec 2, 2011 21:56:45 GMT -5
I don't think I should be doing this...my scfi geek level is not high enough...but what the hell,in the universe where the falcon races through space(at least the old PnP d6 one),they had what they called tachyon fields covering the hulls or whatever...don't remember it perfectly...but if your ship took enough hits to kill it your defense versus such things tanked.
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Post by slayernz on Dec 3, 2011 0:11:33 GMT -5
First up - with Han Solo flying through an asteroid field, it's all about relative speeds. Sure the dust is hurtling along at tens of thousands of km per hour ... but it'd be going at the same speed as the asteroids (otherwise within a short period of time all of the dust would have evacuated the asteroid belt and be half-way to Hoth by now).
So the asteroids and the dust are moving at the same relative velocity. We know that the Falcon flies through the asteroid field at similar speeds to the asteroids (again, if they were significantly different, the Falcon would be painted on the side of a rock before you could blink. The Falcon would probably be traveling at +500km/h - 1000km/h through the field ... again, you wouldn't want to hurtle too fast through an obstacle course ... or splat.
Finally ... we know the Falcon has got deflector shields ... we know this because they lost their rear deflector shields at one point and "one more hit and we're done for".
Back to ST RPG ... I think we'd definitely have some energy fields, repulsors, and the like. But ships definitely get damage due to space dust/debris that gets past the shields. Think ... what else would be able to damage the sails from time to time as you move through the vacuum of space.
We also have radiation storms to damage the ship and crew.
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Post by Cory Trese on Dec 3, 2011 0:24:40 GMT -5
Also one of the big features of the "green zones" is that the are swept for debris and provide automated tugs, sweepers, field generators and other functional space infrastructure to support low danger / lower fuel use space travel
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Post by slayernz on Dec 3, 2011 0:47:41 GMT -5
And if you have enough crew, you strap em with large rare-earth magnets, and periodically fire them out the airlocks. THey act as debris soakers, and when you recover their bodies you might get enough to gain 1 unit of metal
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Post by rabidbite on Dec 3, 2011 19:13:05 GMT -5
Finally ... we know the Falcon has got deflector shields ... we know this because they lost their rear deflector shields at one point and "one more hit and we're done for". The deflectors weren't being affected by the dust particles. Some, would be hitting the Falcon with the strength of dynamite packs. Chuck a pebble the size of your thumb and spin it to .2C and let's see what happens. I content there is no real way for the Falcon to have 'relativistic speed' in a sea of rocks spinning every which way, on different trajectories, unpredictable sizes, and speeds. But that's Hollywood and I simply used the Falcon example because I am wondering about HOW it could be done. SO let's see, deflector shields. How much power would such shields require to shrug off massive amounts of kinetic energy? (I ask because I'm writing a book (60 thousand words in) and I'm working on a heavy space dust scene)
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blackgauntlet
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Post by blackgauntlet on Dec 3, 2011 23:54:21 GMT -5
I have a serious inkling that it's the installation of the Thingamajig that creates the Wossname-Effect. This effect is Magneto-Stupendo-Elementric in nature. Which just destroys everything that would take people out of immersive viewing/plaing experience.
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Post by rabidbite on Dec 4, 2011 6:19:40 GMT -5
I have a serious inkling that it's the installation of the Thingamajig that creates the Wossname-Effect. This effect is Magneto-Stupendo-Elementric in nature. Which just destroys everything that would take people out of immersive viewing/plaing experience. ;D Having the same sort of thought.
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Post by slayernz on Dec 4, 2011 18:00:53 GMT -5
I content there is no real way for the Falcon to have 'relativistic speed' in a sea of rocks spinning every which way, on different trajectories, unpredictable sizes, and speeds. But that's Hollywood and I simply used the Falcon example because I am wondering about HOW it could be done. Taking into account the only asteroid belt that we have any marginal understanding of is the one between Mars and Jupiter, our observations are that for the most part, the asteroids all tend to go in the same direction at approximately the same speeds. Sure, some go faster than others, and some have a more eliptical orbit, but they all exhibit the same behavior as any other object orbiting a celestial body. The behavior of the asteroids and planets are distinctly different to how an electrons orbiting an atomic nuclei. In the astronomical example, things orbiting a celestial body tend to be on roughly the same plane, which is roughly the equatorial point of the thing they are orbiting around. In fact, most of the larger objects (planets and most moons) also exhibit the same behavior - the equator of the planets is roughly in line with the equator of the star they orbit, and the equator of the moons is roughly in line with the planet they orbit. (Exception - Uranus - but only because astronomers believe there was some significant collision that caused the rotation to be so significantly wonky). Back to the asteroid belt that Han flew through ... if the asteroids WERE going in random directions they'd either all fly off into the dark vacuum of space (asteroid density -->0), OR they'd obliterate themselves within a very short period of time. Further, with the space dust element. If the dust wasn't traveling at the same relativistic velocity to the asteroids, the same situation would happen. If in your example, you had that thumb-sized pebble traveling at 0.2C, it'd go through an asteroid with significant destructive force. 1 gram with a velocity of 0.2c has a kinetic energy equivalent to 1,797.5 Giga-Joules. Bye by asteroid ... heck, bye bye asteroid s
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taatuu25
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Post by taatuu25 on Dec 5, 2011 16:19:20 GMT -5
Star wars has so many more severe flaws that it cant be referred to. (if wanting to get realistic answers etc.)
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Post by slayernz on Dec 5, 2011 17:23:54 GMT -5
Movie physics and reality is almost always different to our own. But then again, ST RPG reality/physics is almost certain to be different again
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Post by gravismetallum on Dec 5, 2011 18:20:31 GMT -5
Physics should only be a rough guideline when trying to make an exciting game...or movie.
In real life its a unavoidable rigid set of rules that's really only fun when flying or making things hit other people from afar. ;D
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Post by slayernz on Dec 5, 2011 19:10:49 GMT -5
I reject your reality and substitute it with my own!
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blackgauntlet
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Post by blackgauntlet on Dec 5, 2011 19:58:36 GMT -5
@slayer- By doing this? ;D
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taatuu25
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Post by taatuu25 on Dec 6, 2011 4:32:48 GMT -5
Reality... Your laser batteries bring fast invisible death, But star wars laser batteries shots are easily avoidable and will tell your location to the enemies...
Oh, and realitys guidelines can be avoided with enough knowledge of physics... Just search youtube for "quantum levitation"
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