Avalon's primary is a BY Draconis variable, so a similar star should be survivable for Littleeendia.
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23xx's galactic neighbourhood
- Thread starter rfmcdpei
- Start date
Avalon's primary is a BY Draconis variable, so a similar star should be survivable for Littleeendia.
This is the problem, the Bayern, as written, can't get to the Pleiades. There isn't a route.
Nonono - if the Great Old Ones of GDW spake that it were done, it were so!!!
A start along the Latin Finger works fine. I guess the Vogelsperspektiv gets a new job.
As for the route, we can fudge it with dim stars. The Kafer Sourcebook took this approach, after all.
I'm going to sit down and see if I can redesign the Bayern tonight, using the 2320AD starship rules. My difficulty here is that my "Flight of the Bayern" is in storage. Can anyone provide me with the stats and general description? A PM would be preferable.
Thanks, I've got what I need. I now need to figure out how to do this all over again. It's been awhile.
Avalon's primary is a BY Draconis variable, so a similar star should be survivable for Litteleendia.
Yes, the magnitude variations can be quite small (down to a hundredth of a magnitude). If the planet has sizeable seas or some other moderating effect it should not matter much.
Essentially the star has much bigger sunspots than the sun, and the rotation makes the luminosity as seen from a planet vary on the order of days to months. Small guy weather reports probably include solar weather as well: "A major new sunspot cluster has emerged, reinforcing the 10-day driving of the climate. Over the next month we expect mid-latitude storms to increase in intensity. Inhabitants of the southern continent are advised that they are in for a capricious spring..."
It is likely that the big sunspots produce occasional big flares too; that might be a more serious problem. But life evolved on a planet orbiting such a star likely has protection of one kind or another.
Another thing that I have been thinking of: where next for the Bayern? I would expect that it since returning has mainly been used for going back to Littleendia. But the ARI would likely not be too keen on using their pricey beauty for glorified relief work, even if it brings lots of goodwill ("You ask what use is basic science? Well, without it we would never have found out the Little Guys plight"). Once the tugships are in place along the corridor they will want to send it to other targets.
I can see a few obvious places to explore:
I can well imagine many governments thinking ARI should leave things alone and not poke too much into what increasingly looks like a dangerous universe. On the other hand, others might want to find out what's out there before it makes an unannounced visit. If there is a gamma ray burst shock front or galactic locust swarm headed this way it might be good to know about.
I can see a few obvious places to explore:
- Geminga: this is the closest pulsar, 552 ly away in the Gemini direction, hence likely reachable through some extension of the Bayern corridor. Geminga is responsible for the Local Bubble, is just 300,000 years old and might have a planetary system enabling convenient discharge and radiation shielding. On the downside it is moving fast and is quite radioactive.
- RX J1856.5-3754: this is the closest neutron star. The distance is 150-450 ly (based on current observations; by 2320AD we would know exactly).
- LBN 45: The closest HII region, about 200 lydistant.
- MBM 12: The closest molecular cloud, about 212 ly distant.
- SH 2-216 or the Helix Nebula: the closest planetary nebulas, 390 and 450 ly distant respectively. SH 2-216 is closer but old and diffuse, Helix is gorgeous and young.
- The Scorpius-Centaurus association: the closest starforming region. Neighbouring with the Aquila rift dark cloud. This region would be of interest not just from a scientific perspective, but also to look for AGRA activity. Unfortunately it is on the other side of Kafer space, requiring a detour.
- Other places to go: cataclysmic variables (like IP Pegasi, 360 ly, or AE Aqr at 270 ly) or nearby black hole candidates.
I can well imagine many governments thinking ARI should leave things alone and not poke too much into what increasingly looks like a dangerous universe. On the other hand, others might want to find out what's out there before it makes an unannounced visit. If there is a gamma ray burst shock front or galactic locust swarm headed this way it might be good to know about.
Speaking of Pulsars
Last night, I read a short AP article which was posted on www.comcast.net in the science news section about a unusual pulsar.
J1903+0327 which is 21,000 light years away from earth is very unusual for a fast spinning pulsar. Pulsars until this example appeared, usually were in circular orbits. This one is in a elongated orbit around a sun very much like our own. Its pulse rate is higher too if I remember correctly.
Last night, I read a short AP article which was posted on www.comcast.net in the science news section about a unusual pulsar.
J1903+0327 which is 21,000 light years away from earth is very unusual for a fast spinning pulsar. Pulsars until this example appeared, usually were in circular orbits. This one is in a elongated orbit around a sun very much like our own. Its pulse rate is higher too if I remember correctly.
Yes, it is a millisecond pulsar that doesn't have a star in the right orbit to speed it up. The standard model for this kind of pulsars is that they start out as normal pulsars (period ~0.1 s) and then accretion of material from their companion adds speed. But that apparently requires a nearly circular orbit and other things (I have not yet reached that chapter in my current bedtime reading, Pearson International's Introduction to Astrophysics - so far great reading, although it skimped a bit on the neutron star physics).
Neutron stars are not nice environments to approach; although the stutterwarp limit is about the same distance from the star as from the sun, they tend to radiate fierce X-ray radiation and have pretty intense electromagnetic fields that sweep showers of relativistic electrons around. I would guess a ship would have to be deliberately shielded against this environment to venture close. The best approach would be if there is a planet that has coalesced post-supernova and use it as a base.
Neutron stars are not nice environments to approach; although the stutterwarp limit is about the same distance from the star as from the sun, they tend to radiate fierce X-ray radiation and have pretty intense electromagnetic fields that sweep showers of relativistic electrons around. I would guess a ship would have to be deliberately shielded against this environment to venture close. The best approach would be if there is a planet that has coalesced post-supernova and use it as a base.
Another thing that I have been thinking of: where next for the Bayern? I would expect that it since returning has mainly been used for going back to Littleendia. But the ARI would likely not be too keen on using their pricey beauty for glorified relief work, even if it brings lots of goodwill ("You ask what use is basic science? Well, without it we would never have found out the Little Guys plight"). Once the tugships are in place along the corridor they will want to send it to other targets.
With its design proven by the Pleiades expedition, the Bayern might be the prototype for an entire class of long-range exploration ARI starships.
For all we know, one might be tasked to finding nearby locations for new German colonies.
epicenter00
SOC-13
It also depends on the condition the Bayern returned in.
In my 2300 campaign it returned...significantly worse for wear. It was missing one of its spin habitats, the fusion reactor suffered an unrepairable fault and the players were using one they salvaged from the Little Guy's world, the nav computers were Kafer computers crudely adapted to the task (with a Kafer battle scout crudely lashed to the hull), the captain was dead, the Texan news reporter fellow had been knifed to death by his wife after she was "inverted" by the AGRA and realized that the reporter and the Frenchwoman foil on the ship were having an affair, a lot of the scientists were dead after the events leading up to the fusion reactor failure caused a massive fault in the cryogencis, the ship's pet and some of the pentapod biodevices mutated under the effects of an alien retrovirus (as the AR-I had lots of defenses against humans being hit by such things, but people didn't really plan that something might infect the Pentapod devices and an "illegal" pet) the mutants decided that all biological matter in the Bayern needed to be recycled and absorbed and digested some of the crew before being put down, the brother and sister scientist team became a "hive mind" after visiting one dead alien world and decided they liked being the way they were and Bayern left them there...
In my 2300 campaign it returned...significantly worse for wear. It was missing one of its spin habitats, the fusion reactor suffered an unrepairable fault and the players were using one they salvaged from the Little Guy's world, the nav computers were Kafer computers crudely adapted to the task (with a Kafer battle scout crudely lashed to the hull), the captain was dead, the Texan news reporter fellow had been knifed to death by his wife after she was "inverted" by the AGRA and realized that the reporter and the Frenchwoman foil on the ship were having an affair, a lot of the scientists were dead after the events leading up to the fusion reactor failure caused a massive fault in the cryogencis, the ship's pet and some of the pentapod biodevices mutated under the effects of an alien retrovirus (as the AR-I had lots of defenses against humans being hit by such things, but people didn't really plan that something might infect the Pentapod devices and an "illegal" pet) the mutants decided that all biological matter in the Bayern needed to be recycled and absorbed and digested some of the crew before being put down, the brother and sister scientist team became a "hive mind" after visiting one dead alien world and decided they liked being the way they were and Bayern left them there...
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While I can believe the Bayern to be worn after a five year mission (and quite possibly damaged like in Epicenter's game), it is written that it returned in 2307. I doubt 13 years of reconditioning and repair were needed before it could be used again.
Probably easier to build a new one. Fusion reactor, for example, have a limited life (calculated at 20-30 years) before the entire system needs replacing.
Fusion is a bad choice for such a vessel. Fission or fuel cells are far more reliable.
Unless the Bayern was seriously damaged it would likely have been refitted relatively quickly. The impression I got was that most Core government loved helping the Little Guys (partially as a cover for AGRA), so unless ARI were political idiots they would have made several governments sponsor a rapid repair/upgrade for a big relief operation. Even if tug-ships could run the route the Bayern is by assumption pretty good for this kind of long-distance trips, and likely just needs a lot more cargo bays. So it was likely sent back quickly to help Littleendia.
I would guess that after it had helped set up a relief base it would make sense to bring it back, but there might be reasons to keep it doing the same route: lots of easy goodwill, Bayern can make a nice mobile base, and it keeps some people who know dangerous information far away - if a sizeable fraction of the original Bayern crew now help the Littleendians they are no security risk that needs to be shadowed in the Core. I don't think this holds up, but it is not unthinkable.
I would guess that after it had helped set up a relief base it would make sense to bring it back, but there might be reasons to keep it doing the same route: lots of easy goodwill, Bayern can make a nice mobile base, and it keeps some people who know dangerous information far away - if a sizeable fraction of the original Bayern crew now help the Littleendians they are no security risk that needs to be shadowed in the Core. I don't think this holds up, but it is not unthinkable.
I could see multi-national support bases being set up at points where tug ships would be needed. That would let regular freighters be pressed into service to support the relief efforts for the littleguys. By 2320, these smaller support bases would be bigger and thus able to support more regular scouting missions into the surrounding space. To expand that Bayern corridor. In fact, seeing how people are referring to that region of space travel by that ship, by 2320, that corridor more than likely would be referred to officially as the Bayren Corridor.
Doyle Hunt
SOC-10
On this subject (which is actually related to the topic of the thread), is there an official answer to the question of "where is the Bayern corridor?" If there was a map, I missed it.
I've been looking at the Hipparchos data for the stars within 100 light-years, and I've come across a disturbing fact… With over 4000 stars within 100 light-years of Earth, and even with the stutterwarp range extended from 7.7 to 8.0 light-years (to account for using Hipparchos instead of Gliese and still make Wolf 359 accessible from Earth), you still can't get more than about eighty light-years away in a straight line before you hit an unbridgeable gap.
It's entirely possible that there is no such thing as a Bayern corridor, given that they only have four stutterwarp drives to make the entire round trip, and so can only cross three gaps wider than 7.7 light-years during the entire journey. You may HAVE to insert fictitious stars just to make it work. That means, you can put your Bayern corridor pretty much wherever you want it if you want to create stars and place them where you need them.
Just make sure that if you do, the "corridor" has plenty of twists and turns. The hardest-to-reach accessible star from Earth (by an 8.0-light-year stutterwarp route) that I've found so far is LTT 12689, which is only 58.26 light-years from Earth in a straight line, but to get there would take 40 discharge stops, and a total of 252.98 light-years actual travel distance!
Unless the Bayern was seriously damaged it would likely have been refitted relatively quickly. The impression I got was that most Core government loved helping the Little Guys (partially as a cover for AGRA), so unless ARI were political idiots they would have made several governments sponsor a rapid repair/upgrade for a big relief operation. Even if tug-ships could run the route the Bayern is by assumption pretty good for this kind of long-distance trips, and likely just needs a lot more cargo bays. So it was likely sent back quickly to help Littleendia.
I would guess that after it had helped set up a relief base it would make sense to bring it back, but there might be reasons to keep it doing the same route: lots of easy goodwill, Bayern can make a nice mobile base, and it keeps some people who know dangerous information far away - if a sizeable fraction of the original Bayern crew now help the Littleendians they are no security risk that needs to be shadowed in the Core. I don't think this holds up, but it is not unthinkable.
According to 2320 AD there has been three expeditions since Bayern, including a military task force to protect from the legendary "Big guys" in the Bayern corridor. I think they must have revamped the Bayern in 13 years.
It's entirely possible that there is no such thing as a Bayern corridor, given that they only have four stutterwarp drives to make the entire round trip, and so can only cross three gaps wider than 7.7 light-years during the entire journey. You may HAVE to insert fictitious stars just to make it work. That means, you can put your Bayern corridor pretty much wherever you want it if you want to create stars and place them where you need them.
Yup. Extra drives can only get you so far.
Now, the Hipparchos data is far too sparse since it was not attempting to look for nearby stars but rather stars brighter than a certain magnitude. I think we can safely assume *at least* the star density of the central parts of the Gliese catalogue along the way (the hyades seem to add locally higher densities, and there are doubtless other local clusters). Just adding extra stutterwarp distance will not work reliably, since the density of the Hipparchos data is declining.
From my study of the general stutterwarp reachability problem (which intriguingly is equivalent to the continous percolation problem where one uses swelling spheres - the sphere radius corresponds to the stutterwarp distance) 7.7 jumps means that we are right at the percolation threshold. There is a "giant cluster" that contains a sizeable fraction of all stars of the entire galactic plane, and Sol is likely in it. But there is also a power-law distribution of smaller clusters, representing the rest of the stars. To go from two random stars to each other the probability is pretty good that you can jump from the local cluster using a tug onto the giant cluster, follow a convoluted path, and then jump into the other star's cluster. Unfortunately that path can be extremely long, I think there is a theorem that suggests that it is close to divergence.
So on paper Bayern could work, in practice we can be pretty certain it won't work unless we say that: it had more disposable drives ($$$$!), it could act as some kind of stutterwarp tug, we were really really lucky and there was a star bridge with the missing stars. I favor the later, less tweaking needed, my sketch of the corridor can be filled in to the extent we want. But this is the kind of problem that likely will not go away until we stop thinking about it.
Doyle Hunt
SOC-10
At the very least, there has to be ONE more drive aboard Bayern, and an odd number regardless since you need to have one left at the end. Four drives lets you cross three gaps greater than 7.7 light years. That means, on the outward voyage, you can only cross one gap if you ever want to go home again, because if you cross two, you've only got enough drives left to cross one gap on the way home.