I have to admit that as much as I like Ryk's stories, it drives me crazy that the Aurora needs fuel to maneuver in normal space. Why, you might ask?
Well in book 1 the ship made the run to Jupiter in about 1 hour. Given even the minimum distance (Jupiter in conjunction) that would take an acceleration of about 16K gs. It would be much higher if Jupiter was in opposition as there would be about 186 million miles more to cover if that was so. If force equals mass times acceleration, the force needed would be astronomical. What possible firing chamber would be able to withstand the force from the fuel? It would be similar to putting too high an explosive power in a bullet and having the gun blow up in your face. Since the Aurora is made up of some version of steel as opposed to Inoson (EE Smith) or Lux (JW Campbell), it would not be able to withstand the forces involved.
Initial compensation would not be an answer to the above problem as that only allows all the atoms in the ship (including the people inside) to be moved as one unit thus prevented the people from being squashed by the heavy accel. The explosion in the firing chamber of the ship, although directed along the ship's axis, would still be too powerful to contain.
Any thoughts around this folks?
My take is that the load is distributed thru the use of some form of electro magnetic containment. Possibly the same fictional tech that allows the containment of antimatter. The fuel being some type of special reaction inducing compound that is expelled in the process of use. Super ION type of propulsion would be my guess.
This was discussed on the Amazon Discussions before there was a forum here.
Here is what Rykymus (Ryk Brown) stated regarding that.
I have no idea what propulsion system could accelerate a ship to that level. Just as I have no idea what technology could make a ship jump 10 light years in the blink of an eye. However, in order to have a space opera, you have to have such things. I thought about this for quite a while when deciding what to write. I've also read a lot of sci fi that takes the suspension of disbelief to extraordinary levels, and ones that stay absolutely within known physics and technology. The ones that stay withing known limits have never really caught my attention. They were good, but not amazing.
I do however had an idea in my head, based on some known principles, of a propulsion system that accelerates a propellant out a thrust port electrically rather than by igniting the fuel. This would require magnitudes less propellant and would not require an oxidizer. It would require huge amounts of energy, which is why they are using antimatter reactors. Also, remember that while the Aurora can accelerate up to tremendous speeds in short order, she rarely does so as most activities in space (other than getting quickly from point A to point B) do not require such speeds.Thanks for reading,
Ryk
Whether it would need propellant (fuel is used for the ship's powerplant) at all is a good question indeed, but perhaps for another reason. I'll let time decide as to how the below tech actually pans out, but what is outlined in this iffy article does suggest one possible way of getting such high acceleration rates. The key bit being quoted below:
What's interesting is the guy who came up with this EM thruster device is claiming that it could potentially generate up to a ton of thrust per kilowatt of power consumed. If they could pull that off, interstellar spaceflight, flying cars, and a whole new Jetson's world will become possible.
Consider that Blackight's new device will be capable of providing tens of megawatts of power in a device that weighs less than a car.
Some rough calculations I did when I first came across this is that such a craft combining both technologies would be theoretically capable of around 1,000-10,000 g of acceleration depending on the final total mass. Not quite 16,000 g, but it could get that high with higher output and/or lower than estimated total mass.
There's a good reason why sci-fi tends to use propellant-less drives.
Some rough calculations I did when I first came across this is that such a craft combining both technologies would be theoretically capable of around 1,000-10,000 g of acceleration depending on the final total mass. Not quite 16,000 g, but it could get that high with higher output and/or lower than estimated total mass.
Maybe the final spec's for the system are in the data ark 🙂
