Drunkard's Walk Forums

Full Version: Technobable on Speed Drives - comment/discuss?
You're currently viewing a stripped down version of our content. View the full version with proper formatting.
In trying to come up with new stuff for the new wiki, I tried to formalise my thought son how speed drives could work (given the known limitations). I didn't get much.

What I do have is below, so have at it.


Speed Drives

Speed drives are Wavetech systems working essentially by the principle "Constant Thrust equals Constant Speed". At its most basic, a Speed Drive envelopes the object to be moved in a pseudo-gravetic field and warps space to travel.

How it works

The pseudo-gravetic field used to envelop the object serves two purposes. First, it acts as an inertial dampening field. Second, it acts as an isolating barrier to the space-time warping that actually moves the object, and to general space-time.
The drive, once the object is isolated, then induces what is termed a ‘Gravity Gradient' at the interface between the field and real space. The gravity gradient acts much like a hill for the object to ‘fall down', much like a surfer ‘falls down' the front of a wave.

Limitations

The Speed Drive, as currently known, has two limitations; both of these have to do with how it interacts with the universe.

The first limitation on Speed Drives is the nature of the pseudo-gravetic field. The field does not totally isolate the object being moved from space-time. This is necessary to allow navigation. Because of this, the field encounters the phenomenon known as Frame Drag (more correctly wavefront induced frame dragging). This is the distortion of space-time caused by the movement of large masses. As the field simulates this, the interaction at the interface with normal space-time causes interference in the space warp effect. This reduces the gravity gradient and at a certain point, the field collapses due to destructive feedback.
This is the cause of the speed limits on the drives, as interactions between the distortion caused by gravity wells (like planets and the Sun) and the field disrupt the creation of the gravity gradient, reducing the speed of the space warp front.

The second limitation is the creation of the gravity gradient. As this relies on the pseudo-gravetic field, the actual generation of the field is important. This is limited by a combination of three factors: the mass being enveloped, the size of the field, and the power of the drive generating it.
The mass being enveloped is the fundamental limiting factor. The sharpness of the gravity gradient is reliant on the difference between the mass being simulated and the actual mass. The smaller it is, the less the maximum gradient can be. All else being equal, a cubic metre of iron can be propelled faster than a cubic metre of copper.
The size of the field also limits the gradient, as larger fields mean larger surface areas for the interface. This reduces power at the interface.
Finally, the power of the drive limits how strong the field can be.

Thus, the larger the object, the greater the mass and the size of the field needed to move it. However, the larger the object, the larger and more powerful the drive it can mount (which of course increases the mass).
It looks to me like you're describing Gravity Drives in particular, not Speed Drives in general. That's okay - the new wiki has a stub page for Gravity
Drives...
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012
The idea was to sort of explain the basic principles of Speed Drives (even though the various engines work differently) and why they cause the limits seen. The
main reason I went with the Drives using a pseudo-gravity based system was to allow me to bring in frame dragging as a cause of the limits (making it like air
resistance). This should allow things like Ben's insanely complicated engines to get better performance, as the complications manipulate the drive field to
be more efficent.

Honestly, I was trying to cover as much as I could of what had been written and leave a chunk of room for improvements.

What if I rewrite it to indicate that the leading theory is that the drive field contains a gravity manipulation component which is the primary actor in the
field, enhanced by other exotic energy forms?
The sharpness of the gravity gradient is reliant on the difference between the mass being simulated and the actual mass. The smaller it is, the less the maximum gradient can be. All else being equal, a cubic metre of iron can be propelled faster than a cubic metre of copper.

Umm, am I misreading this or shouldn't that be 'The smaller it is, the more the maximum gradient can be'?
___________________________
"I've always wanted to be somebody, but I should have been more specific." - George Carlin
OK. The thinking here was that the drive can distort space MORE because the mass of the ship isn't getting in the way (naturally distorting spacetime). Thus the gradient can be steeper to give more acceleration and a greater top speed.

I should probably have put it "The smaller the difference between the induced mass and the actual mass of the object, the shallower the maximum gradient can be."

You way works too, as the sharper gradient means it can't accelerate as long before hitting it's limits.

Basically, I was trying to cover the following:
a) More mass means less speed.
b) The limit (by being in the Solar System's gravity well).
and c) http://www.fenspace.net/index.php5?titl ... #Rule_.235]Rule 5c.

I'm more than willing to change it, given a sufficiently convincing technobable explaination.
How about "The smaller the difference between the simulated mass and the actual mass of the propelled object, the better the ratio between gradient and
speed will become"?
--
Sucrose Octanitrate.
Proof positive that with sufficient motivation, you can make anything explode.