repcisg
April 25th, 2003, 07:04 PM
Compression engines
Throughout history man has sought to move himself and his goods from one place to another with ever increasing speed and efficiency, starting with a simple wooden raft floating in a river to days modern spacecraft.
As space can be compressed, stretched folded or even torn. Then by creating a spatial compression wave and moving that wave faster than the speed of light it is possible to travel between and to the stars in reasonable time periods. This is not warping space in the conventional sense but rather compressing local space to create a local wave structure. An out side observer would see any object inside the wave as being in normal space. Any energies such as beam of light would follow the curvature of the wave when entering or leaving the wave structure.
As with any wave structure the more energy put into the wave the faster it will go. But wave structures also present problems around massive objects such as planets or stars. Their massive gravity wave stretches space making it harder to compress. Thus trying to drive a space craft through a star system would be like trying to run through knee deep water.
Suggested Basic characteristics of a compression wave drive.
1) While the drive can be used near large planetary objects, the amount of compression that can be achieved is limited by the spatial stretching that has already occurred by the planetary or solar object in the vicinity. This will require far greater energies to achieve high velocities. In other words it is advisable to say out of planetary systems unless you need to be there. Imagine running on a dry track then trying to run through knee deep water, the closer you are to a large gravity source the deeper the water.
2) Drive design will determine wave shape. A circular wave generator will produce a uniform three-dimensional wave structure suitable high efficiency long-range travel. A flat or rectangular wave generator will produce a steer-able but less efficient wave structure suitable for high maneuverability. Transports and high efficiency ships would be found using circular or ring structures as wave generators, while warships and others requiring a high degree of maneuverability would use rectangular or triangular engine structures. A Colonial Viper, for example, would use a triangular structure while Cylon fighters would use a flat or box wave.
3) While the compression wave should not be visible to an external viewer some sort of visible distortion might be appropriate, for dramatic effect.
4) Objects in close proximity to a vessel using a compression wave would be carried along in the wave. Simple thrusters could be used to move around in the wave but the further away from the generator you get the weaker the wave. If you move to far from the wave center you will fall out into uncompressed space. This technique could be used to “Tow” or give a lift to another ship.
5) You never want to reverse direction inside the wave, you want to steer it to change direction. If do a flip as done in B5 you run the risk of either canceling the wave suddenly or doubling the waves energy catastrophically. Either way you could ruin you day and a perfectly good spacecraft.
There have been some interesting discussions about cosmic string lately that could prove interesting as a means of travel for our heroes. I need to study the a bit more.
Just my thoughts at the moment.
Throughout history man has sought to move himself and his goods from one place to another with ever increasing speed and efficiency, starting with a simple wooden raft floating in a river to days modern spacecraft.
As space can be compressed, stretched folded or even torn. Then by creating a spatial compression wave and moving that wave faster than the speed of light it is possible to travel between and to the stars in reasonable time periods. This is not warping space in the conventional sense but rather compressing local space to create a local wave structure. An out side observer would see any object inside the wave as being in normal space. Any energies such as beam of light would follow the curvature of the wave when entering or leaving the wave structure.
As with any wave structure the more energy put into the wave the faster it will go. But wave structures also present problems around massive objects such as planets or stars. Their massive gravity wave stretches space making it harder to compress. Thus trying to drive a space craft through a star system would be like trying to run through knee deep water.
Suggested Basic characteristics of a compression wave drive.
1) While the drive can be used near large planetary objects, the amount of compression that can be achieved is limited by the spatial stretching that has already occurred by the planetary or solar object in the vicinity. This will require far greater energies to achieve high velocities. In other words it is advisable to say out of planetary systems unless you need to be there. Imagine running on a dry track then trying to run through knee deep water, the closer you are to a large gravity source the deeper the water.
2) Drive design will determine wave shape. A circular wave generator will produce a uniform three-dimensional wave structure suitable high efficiency long-range travel. A flat or rectangular wave generator will produce a steer-able but less efficient wave structure suitable for high maneuverability. Transports and high efficiency ships would be found using circular or ring structures as wave generators, while warships and others requiring a high degree of maneuverability would use rectangular or triangular engine structures. A Colonial Viper, for example, would use a triangular structure while Cylon fighters would use a flat or box wave.
3) While the compression wave should not be visible to an external viewer some sort of visible distortion might be appropriate, for dramatic effect.
4) Objects in close proximity to a vessel using a compression wave would be carried along in the wave. Simple thrusters could be used to move around in the wave but the further away from the generator you get the weaker the wave. If you move to far from the wave center you will fall out into uncompressed space. This technique could be used to “Tow” or give a lift to another ship.
5) You never want to reverse direction inside the wave, you want to steer it to change direction. If do a flip as done in B5 you run the risk of either canceling the wave suddenly or doubling the waves energy catastrophically. Either way you could ruin you day and a perfectly good spacecraft.
There have been some interesting discussions about cosmic string lately that could prove interesting as a means of travel for our heroes. I need to study the a bit more.
Just my thoughts at the moment.