Alternative Approach to the Jump Drive

[Vargas]

As requested, by Dan "far-trader" Burns, the following is reposted from JTAS.

> Just a random idea. . .
>
> A certain amount of thought has gone into explaining why so much
> hydrogen is required for a starship to Jump and I'm not sure how
> satisfying those explanation have been to folks. What if instead of
> 'burning' the fuel in a fusion reaction, it was used as a plasma a la
> Star Trek in the equivalent of a warp nacelle? Hydrogen is pumped into
> large chambers where it is then turned into plasma which in turn
> [handwave/handwave/handwave] creates a local Jump field?
>
> Like I said, just a thought.

And an interesting one.

So then the size of the "tanks" and the amount of jump "fuel" is the
same regardless of the jump undertaken in that it is the maximum
allowed by the jump drives (just like the original CT way) because you
need to build it large enough to handle the maximum designed jump and
when you power it up to jump you have to fill it even if you jump less
than your designed maximum. And this plasma state is sustained by the
power plant so you need to match that to the jump drive, yeah this is
working for me.

It does mean "drop tanks" have to go or be reinvented a bit. No
problem there really.

And we don't have to worry about a jump grid and damage to it (never
covered in CT) just having enough fuel tankage remaining undamaged
(might have to seperate jump "fuel tank/plasma chamber") is enough.
Makes it easier to stop fleeing ships, one plasma chameber (i.e. fuel
tank) hit and you're stuck.

Also takes care of the whole refined v unrefined fuel mess too imo.

 

[marvo]

Originally posted by Vargas:

So then the size of the "tanks" and the amount of jump "fuel" is the
same regardless of the jump undertaken in that it is the maximum
allowed by the jump drives (just like the original CT way) because you
need to build it large enough to handle the maximum designed jump and
when you power it up to jump you have to fill it even if you jump less
than your designed maximum. And this plasma state is sustained by the
power plant so you need to match that to the jump drive, yeah this is
working for me.

It does mean "drop tanks" have to go or be reinvented a bit. No
problem there really.

And we don't have to worry about a jump grid and damage to it (never
covered in CT) just having enough fuel tankage remaining undamaged
(might have to seperate jump "fuel tank/plasma chamber") is enough.
Makes it easier to stop fleeing ships, one plasma chameber (i.e. fuel
tank) hit and you're stuck.

Also takes care of the whole refined v unrefined fuel mess too imo.

Nice work. It fits the Traveller rules and makes sense! Have to agree about the drop tanks. It means that they are useless unless they can hold the same amount of fuel as required by the jump drive. On most ships this would this would make them pretty big. Then there is the problem of the tanks adding volume etc etc. Most cargo ships could fit extra fuel tanks inside their cargo hold to give them 'double jump' ability without changing the displacement.

In one of the books (Starship Operators Manual?) it states that most of the fuel is used to open the jump point and then the remainder is used to sustain the jump field. If you run out of fuel while in a jump .... well nobody has ever returned to tell what happens.

In the Traveller Universe you don't just drop out of hyperspace/warp etc. As you pointed out, this makes any hit to a fuel tank potentially lethal. I usually add a few tons of extra fuel to my ship designs, just in case there is a slow leak somewhere.