tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4691609183217207055.post6492828861437463091..comments2024-03-27T22:20:55.710-04:00Comments on I Fly By Night - clash bowley's blog: A restart, of sorts!clash bowleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02867031157318138584noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4691609183217207055.post-64861160255228273632012-07-13T02:19:06.377-04:002012-07-13T02:19:06.377-04:00Thanks, Tim! :D
-clashThanks, Tim! :D<br /><br />-clashclash bowleyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02867031157318138584noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4691609183217207055.post-69602430569942830442012-07-12T00:06:43.873-04:002012-07-12T00:06:43.873-04:00I rather enjoy this blog. For the record, and do r...I rather enjoy this blog. For the record, and do read even if I don't have a lot to say. Brain busy with move, writing, art, H&S2E and so on :DSilverlionhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06583360477162019419noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4691609183217207055.post-48549696995789410302012-07-10T20:36:09.192-04:002012-07-10T20:36:09.192-04:00Yeah - it's "Hard" SF for 1898, set ...Yeah - it's "Hard" SF for 1898, set in something around our time. :D<br /><br />-clashclash bowleyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02867031157318138584noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4691609183217207055.post-40985874752865295852012-07-10T19:06:17.734-04:002012-07-10T19:06:17.734-04:00Ah, so more egg-heady than flash-gordony then. Got...Ah, so more egg-heady than flash-gordony then. Gotcha!<br /><br />ChrisAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4691609183217207055.post-27019977610846524972012-07-10T00:00:54.394-04:002012-07-10T00:00:54.394-04:00Hi Chris!
Turmoil is a mission to penetrate and ...Hi Chris!<br /><br /><br />Turmoil is a mission to penetrate and photograph installations on the <br />islands in Truk Lagoon, the "Gibraltar of the Pacific". The lagoon is the home of the Japanese Combined Fleet, and is stuffed with very powerful warships as well as juicy merchantmen and tankers feeding Japan's all-conquering Navy. The lagoon is ringed with reefs, and is very difficult to get into, and far harder to escape from. It is set in September 1942, less than a year after Pearl Harbor, and the sub is carrying faulty torpedoes which no-one in the brass believes is faulty.<br /><br />With Lowell, I will forward Albert Bailey's synopsis of the available spacefaring technologies:<br /><br />"I redid some of my calculations, and it looks as though a material with both negative inertial and gravitational mass is workable. This is good, because negative gravitational mass alone causes difficulties; items with different inertial to gravitational mass ratio travel at different speeds in the same orbit. By constructing a craft with a mass to antimass ratio of nearly unity, it is possible to travel into space and through space with relatively little energy. The hitch is, it is important not to jettison any additional mass, or it becomes impossible to get back down without using energy or jettisoning (presumably expensive) antimass.<br /><br />Two additional etheric inventions would allow for travel through space. The first is ether turbines, allowing for reacting against a large equivalent mass of ether. (So far as I know, the density of ether is undefined, as long at it doesn't normally interact with matter.) The other is a material allowing for the conversion of light to electrical energy with high efficiency (>50%). With perfect efficiency you could accelerate 70 tons (or much more with inertial mass reduced) of spacecraft at 0.005 gravities. This would get you to Mars or Venus in a month or two with 1 square kilometer of solar panels. Travel to the outer planets would require getting your equivalent mass very low, because you wouldn't have that much solar energy that far from the sun.<br /><br />While this is a good means of travel in space, it won't get you into orbit. I have three possibilities. The first is "braided" hydrogen. Braids are introduced into the etheric knot of a hydrogen atom, adding energy. It would be useful to have the material be a liquid at room temperature. Under proper conditions (heat, pressure, sound ?) it breaks down into regular hydrogen and releases energy, producing a propellent with a specific impulse at least 3 times greater than hydrogen-oxygen rockets.<br /><br />Another possibility is a good stored power source. A material with a very high electrical breakdown would allow supercapacitors with a very high energy density. This energy could be used to power a mass driver, most anything being used as reaction mass. <br /><br />A final possibility is to allow the material with negative mass to break down under proper conditions, releasing energy. This would also solve the problems caused by the need to avoid losing too much mas by rocket exhaust. <br /><br />Both the "braided" hydrogen and the antimass breakdown have the feature that they might eliminate the need for ether turbines, which I rather like."<br /><br />-clashclash bowleyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02867031157318138584noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4691609183217207055.post-19608718703213604282012-07-09T23:14:34.899-04:002012-07-09T23:14:34.899-04:00re: Turmoil - could you write a catchy blurb setti...re: Turmoil - could you write a catchy blurb setting up the adventure? I'd like to try this out with my players, but might need something snappy to get their interest. One of them is WWII history buff, so he ought to be a soft sell, but the rest...?<br /><br />re: Lowell - this definitely sounds creative and unusual. What will the spacefaring aspects look like? I'm personally hoping not too much like Flash Gordon or Space 1889<br /><br />ChrisAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com