Prototype

[The_Mather1]

So...Get one of our fighter craft, fabricate a 1T electro-magnet (SWITCHED OFF), about 20 meters cubed, then load it onto the ship.

You then fly into orbit, throw the electro-magnet out of the back of the craft (in such a way as it remains in orbit) then we track it, then, finally, when it is optimally positioned, we activate it and see if any appreciable drop in the solar wind from our test site.

Fighter has nice, big bomb bay - Throw the cargo out the back.

[Leiana]

-looks confounded and laughs- Uhm... Okay...

 

Uh, Mather, would I be able to do any of that stuff Archi described to me? Including the trip to earth to get cats?

 

 

 

 

Why cats anyway?

[archimage_a]

Why do we need the cats, oh great and insane ruler?

 

To keep the population from revolt when we quietly announce that the air might be 75% radioactive.

To distract them from the fact that everyone has squeeky voices.

And to cushion their landing when the support craft hit a bump and the super city crashes headlong into a heap of scrap metal, cats and limbs.

 

Fighter has nice, big bomb bay - Throw the cargo out the back.

 

Using the bombing bay to drop 20 meter wide magnets?

A) We have 20 meter wide (cubic so the minimum would be 20 meters) bombs?

B) Why do we have 20 meter wide bombs?

C) If we saw the Chinese dropping 20 meter wide 1T magnets, out of their bomb bay doors, we would assume they were laying mines. If they were just tossing them out the back then they are probably dumping cargo.

 

We also need someone to fly back to Earth and collect some cats...but that is a less pressing concern.

 

I agree with ALG, it should be our major priority, but I figure NATO will get mad at us so until we have built our secret death camps we ca...err...I meant colony....

 

 

:-D That was a joke....Honest¹... we can't return to Earth in the ship...And I have a sneaking suspition that the Fighters are not powerful enough for Intrastellar flight.

 

¹ Statement may or may not be a joke.

 

 

 

:grin:

[Earth]

No. No even attempting to use cats for that or I will sedate you and experiment on you. Well not really but I will sedate you.

[Alg]

No. No even attempting to use cats for that or I will sedate you and experiment on you. Well not really but I will sedate you.

Still tempted to pick up a cat anyway for morale-related purposes

[archimage_a]

Medical, I want you to produce some sort of Martian Cat Genome, gonna clone us some Kitties.

[Earth]

Really now. Really. Just no. Plan on being sedated for the entirety of next session for that, Archi.

[archimage_a]

*rolls eyes*

The real reason I wanted cats is because I have a cat which was being all lovely when I was posting...Later turned out she hadn't been fed so wanted me to feed her...But anyway.

 

 

 

Cats and other animals are useful for populating the game with NPCs which become interesting.

[The_Mather1]

20m³ could mean 7*1.8d, which while still big is perfectly within reasonable size for explosive ordnance.

Also you don't have anywhere to "throw it out the back", the fighters are literally fighters, as in visually indiscriminabile from traditional jet fighters.

[archimage_a]

Not 20 cubic meters, 20 meters cubed. 20, by 20, by 20.

 

You could just tie it to the roof or something....Don't look at me, I am an engineer, not a bombing expert.

 

However, as an Engineer:

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So...

=

?

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It would seem to me, given

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That building an Ion Thruster powered Fighter...using the same dyanmics as a Jet Fighter...is silly.

 

 

Most significantly a Jet Engine is several times larger than an Ion Thruster. Added to that the Aerodynamics on Mars would be significantly different, given the much lower air density and the almost exclusivity of CO2.

 

But anyway...Chuck the magetnet out of the bombing bay if you like.

[The_Mather1]

Sure, from an engineer's point of view, the design wouldn't make much sense in space. But some things just stick, as a flying Mini Cooper wouldn't look nearly as intimidating as a jet fighter.

[Earth]

Well I can't argue with that...

[archimage_a]

'Some things just stick'

I can't imagine the HIGHLY AERODYNAMIC design 'just sticking'. It would be like seeing the first airplane and saying 'In 115 years it will look exactly the same...Oh, but it will have a Jet Engine.'

 

Added to that...Who are they intimidating? Global era of peace and all that? Surely efficency is considerably more important than 'It will look rather scary as it is blown out of the sky by that 2 meter wide fighter drone.'

 

The Flying Wing probably has a better chance of acceptance, given its sleeker profile... After all, in space you want to present minimal aspect at all times...But even that doesn't really make sense as 'sticking' over a long period of time.

 

I mean, lets face it, if the aircraft can leave orbit then it can fly without aerodynamics even within an atomsphere.

 

...We really need to build a better aircraft...Probably something based on the more typical Sci-Fi bent...Oooooo I know, we can build the Normandy!

Alternatively a Yehat Terminator.

 

We also need to develop shield technology.

 

Mather, give me some Cryptograms please, preferably with Electronic puzzles as well...Gotta plenty work afoot.

[Earth]

NORMANDYYYYY

[Retech]

Hmmm... I won't be able to do anything super useful until maybe after we start getting colonists.... Not sure what to do...

 

Convert to Christianity and get free colonists

[archimage_a]

I can see your point Retech...But we would need to build a hotel, and the Gideons would probably want to go home once they had delieved their Bibles.

[Leiana]

Out of random curiosity, could the Koreans hack into NATO files? Vice versa?

 

I'm only asking because I've been playing a game that involves me seriously hacking a lot of computers. Green text and black screen and old computer stuff.

[archimage_a]

Interesting...

 

Similarly I think we need to seriously consider developing some magnetic fields...

[The_Mather1]

Not without direct access to the database containing said files, either through physical access to a terminal or connection to a network.

[archimage_a]

Ok...Theory question, since I can't get the formula to actually work (and don't have a few hours to get my head round it):

 

If...

 

Assume the chain of magnets on the left form a chain larger than the nominal reach of the magnet on the right.

Assume the magnet on the right has a MUCH higher magnetic moment.

 

 

Thusly, if the magnet on the right is extremely powerful, could the magnets on the left 'protect' anything to the left? (This assumes that the magnets on the left are powerful enough not to be overcome and have their magnetization altered. If neccessary a series of decreasingly powerful magnets are used.)

 

 

The overall hope is to place a series of extremely high power magnets in the outer hull, (or mounted just outside the outer hull) followed by a series of less high power magnets inside that, creating a powerful magnetic field outside the ship, without creating a similar powerful magnetic field inside the ship and ripping the water out of everyone's face/killing the CIU.

 

Emphasis should be put on the fact that I don't want a faraday cage, since it is of very limited effectiveness against static magnetism.

[The_Mather1]

Such a strategy would only have worked if you could somehow have produced an even monopolar field strong enough to counteract the force (see Newtons laws). To block out radiation without taking such extremely high-tech solutions that would only mildly improve the situation, I suggest you look into high-density plating, since while a Faraday cage may be of little help, a lead or gold plating would fix the problem without a new one arising.

[Retech]

If you were trying to land on a planet full of evolved aliens, they may freak out about the high lead content of the ship's hull and ask you to kindly go away.

 

Alternatively, if there was an evil person on your ship and you had to try to use detect evil to find them from the outside of the ship.

[archimage_a]

Such a strategy would only have worked if you could somehow have produced an even monopolar field strong enough to counteract the force (see Newtons laws). To block out radiation without taking such extremely high-tech solutions that would only mildly improve the situation, I suggest you look into high-density plating, since while a Faraday cage may be of little help, a lead or gold plating would fix the problem without a new one arising.

 

Apart from not achieving the primary aim of creating a magnetic field I can't see anything wrong with bolting lumps of lead on to the side of the ship...oh wait...

 

 

 

Why do you need a monopolar field? (Also, why Newton's Laws of Motion? Magnets build into the hull would have their force interactions tempered by the tangible linkages. Interactions with the Solar Wind would produce movement...But, as ever, this is proof of concept and not 'What we are going to do next', there still remains many things to work out...But it is better to work out things individually, as opposed to try to take account of all the variables simultanously.)

 

Surely a dipole field, with one side open to space and the other side counteracted by a series of dipole magnets, would provide a reasonable field?

Consider the Inverse Square Law here. If the magnets were placed far enough apart the magnetic field strength that needs to be counteracted would be much decreased.

 

A small amount of positional trickery later:

 

http://www.falstad.com/emstatic/index.html

(For replication, though the simulator is rather limited, which is a pain...it is still the only decent simulator I could find)

 

(The + and - signs can be reversed (I was planning for it to work the other way so =P))

 

But yeah, one side has a stronger, more uniform, field than the other using only simple bar magnets.

More powerful magnets could be kept seperated by non-magnetic materials...such as:

Element - Magnetic Suspetibility (all to 10^-6 per cubic centimeter per mole)

Silicon - Negative 3.12

Strontium Chromate- Negative 5.1

Beryllium- Negative 9

Arsnic- Negative 5.6

Boron- Negative 6.7

Copper- Negative 5.46

Graphite- Negative 6

Copper Sulfide- Negative 2

Helium- Negative 2.02

Molybendium Trioxide- Positive 3

Positive denotes Paramagnetic, Negative denotes Diamagnetic.

http://www-d0.fnal.gov/hardware/cal/lvps_info/engineering/elementmagn.pdf

 

Ultimately depends on the situation requred, and, as a player, I would much prefer to solve a puzzle and have 'a material' than have the specific material and several sheets of paper detailing relatively strengths.

 

 

So... supposing we lined the hull with magnets deployed in this fashion, and the magnets were sufficently powerful, could we deflect the solar wind around the hull?

More apt question, can we deflect part of the solar wind with very low inertia, with fast moving solar wind being almost unaffected(Given that the field would probably only extend a few meters (inline with the inverse square law) before reaching trivial levels)?

[The_Mather1]

No, lining something with magnets does not divert charged particles because there's both minus and plus poles all over the place, the way the magnetosphere works to protect us from the solar wind is by having just one of each in the middle of nowhere, thus pulling the particles there.

[Retech]

The magnetosphere is a very large magnet, but also works on large scale distances.

 

These are much smaller magnets, working on protecting a much smaller distance.