The Galaxy Tales - Dirk B. (Page 3 of 49)

I love writing! In revising my latest chapter, I came up with a neat idea for Apollo. The longer I played with it, the more important it became. As a result, it gives me half of book two, assuming I live that long. As important to book two as the Roman Empire is to book one.

An insomniac probably shouldn't get this pumped at bedtime, but what the hell.
Nite.

your ship needs a minimum of 26 minutes to slow down (assuming they have 1970's era propulsion) you only allowed them 9.

Normally I love time limits, but in this case it's a drawback,,, I recommend drop the 9 minute part and just leave us guessing

I need three explicit times: one for when they lose consciousness, one for when they should be dead, and one that shows how long they should have been dead. I need these to set up an apparent miracle.

The first number depends on the size of the hole, so I chose 6 and made the other numbers around the same order of magnitude, leading to approximately 1/6 of an hour to get them aboard. I'm fine with 1/4 or 1/3 of an hour, too. Admittedly, I did a total asspull on 9 and 11. If you know how long it takes for them to pass out, then you can probably calculate how long before they die, but the equations are over my head. Also, it's probably too short, since they have to repressurize the raider before going in.

For your calculation, if they were to reverse thrusters (assuming they were working) and rely on the splat inhibiter, don't your equations become irrelevant? Is there something fundamental in physics that says I can't slow them down more quickly in spite of having the inertial damper?

Did you consider the reactive (rocket) movement that will result from the leak?

I should add that the rescue ship calculates the raider's trajectory and then positions itself appropriately for when the raider flies by. The effect would be included in the calculation of their trajectory.

A momentum inhibitor, perhaps?

Don't forget, the rescue ship (flagship) is about 10 minutes away, even when both are moving toward each other at high speed. The flagship can begin making its turn right away, giving it time to get in position/oriented/moving in the correct direction. I haven't specified the raider's current speed, just that it's at max thrust. I'll need to put a max on the raider's speed, which is easy, since the colission can knock out the thrusters. That means the raider is moving at whatever speed it was going before the collision, and the flagship can, with a bit of handwaving, reach the same speed as the raider, which allows for the tractor beam.

I haven't defined yet why big ships are slower than smaller ships. Momentum may be the key. None of these ships have an upper bound on speed, but the big ships need time to turn or reverse course, so they generally avoid going too fast. In an emergency like this, they would apply whatever thrust is needed to match the speed of the raider.

Does that work?

They blow apart a seat and then cover the crack in the hull with the seatback, but it's only partially effective. Technically, you could put a human arm against the crack. It would swell and close the hole, but that's nasty (and excrutiatingly painful). It would have changed the focus of the chapter, which I didn't want.

Never saw it. Did they do that? If so, I'll have to change mine somewhat. Duct tape, anyone?

Amy mentioned in her review of my Caligula chapter that a small planet (e.g., 10% smaller than Earth) couldn't sustain planetary rings. Does anyone else agree/disagree? And why? Surely Kdot must have equations for this. :-)

Thanks

I don't have an equation and Amy's right... a small planet cannot sustain planetary rings however there's no reason some moon didn't have a collision and get powderized, forming rings that only last 2-3000 years

I googled this. There is a Roche limit around planets that determines whether or not you get rings vs moons. If you have debris within the Roche limit, the tidal forces of the planet keep the debris from coalescing (the tidal forces exceed the force of gravity). Outside the Roche, you get moons. The Earth's Roche limit is 10,000 km, so based solely on that, we could have stable rings between the Earth`s surface (6,400 km) and the limit. However, other factors affect the formation of rings, so those might play a role (e.g., melting of icy debris too close to the sun, the effect of gravity of any nearby moons, the density of a planet, among others). This is googled info, so take it with a grain of salt.

I'm curious to know why rings around smaller planets would only last 2000-3000 years.

Now that I think of it, once you have a reasonable ring going, new matter that coincides with it for a few decades (eg the cosmic blink of an eye) will be worn down with the efficiency of coarse sandpaper. Ejected particulate matter will benefit the ring. A win for everyone except, possibly, the captured planetoid