kilemall
SOC-14 5K
I seem to recall them in the JTAS article that also introduced NAS but that’s a sketchy memory.
Evaluation of Kinunir colonial cruiser on the MONGOOSE High Guard Update 2022
- Thread starter magmagmag
- Start date
I seem to recall them in the JTAS article that also introduced NAS but that’s a sketchy memory.
DGP: Starship Operator's Manual ("The Old Timer")
In MT, all Densitometers were always specified in diagrams as "Grav Shielded" - this was so that on-board Gravitics would not affect their readings.
If it is mediated by a spin-1 gauge boson field (a "pseudograviton"), and if that boson gains mass by spontaneous symmetry breaking, and radioactively decays like Weak-bosons, then its interaction range will fall-off statistically to zero over a distance based on the duration of the half-life.
Gravitational attraction drops off with the square of distance, which is the same rate as EM radiation. Therefore a change in strength, or a new source, or lack thereof, or other weirdness, should be much like other signals as far as detection and location are concerned. The question is merely how hard such things are to detect, how big the sensor has to be, and how hard it is to make the sensor directional.
Using gravitics within the sensor would allow it to be much smaller than a current densitometer. Directionality will be possible, even without sensor elements that directional, because gravity propagates at lightspeed, though in small units relativistic effect will probably make this difficult (so higher TL).
The lowest energy consumption for a gravbelt I'm aware of, of those sources that list real-world units, is T4, and it says you need about 2 kW to lift a person in battledress. Assuming the grav system produces no waste heat and that there's none lost in the transfer of energy from battery to grav units, that's 2 kW that's gone somewhere and is doing something. Thus I think it's probably detectable. Of course a spaceship's thrusters burning megawatts will be detectable much further away, but even so if they can detect a spaceship at thousands of kilometres, they should be able to detect a gravbelt at a hundred - assuming the same sensor.
I think really it's one of those things where you decide for YTU how it's going to be. In the OTU in CT they aren't a thing (though they might be in some late period DGP material), in MT they're pretty flash at high TLs, in TNE they're large-scale survey devices only. GT has them as scanners that let you build maps of interior spaces from outside, and at range, but they're not long ranged nor useful for detecting gravitics (and the grav sensor that GURPS does have is conspicuously absent from GT).
IMTU grav sensors can be useful for detecting that 'something is out there', but that's it. One thing I am firm on - entering and exiting jump makes a pretty hefty ripple as thousands of tonnes of mass suddenly appears or disappears out of/into nowhere (as far as the normal universe is concerned), and that's going to have a measurable effect with a distinctive signature. IMTU if you have a half-decent grav sensor, you'll know if anyone has jumped into or out of the system you're in. But it's subject to lightspeed lag, and without several widely spaced sensors it's not terribly precise (but 'emergence near the large gas giant' isn't something you need more than a rough range and direction to guess). It means fleets jumping into the outer system of a developed system won't go unnoticed, and thus can't spend too long in one place if they don't want the locals to be able to come and meet them.
Using gravitics within the sensor would allow it to be much smaller than a current densitometer. Directionality will be possible, even without sensor elements that directional, because gravity propagates at lightspeed, though in small units relativistic effect will probably make this difficult (so higher TL).
The lowest energy consumption for a gravbelt I'm aware of, of those sources that list real-world units, is T4, and it says you need about 2 kW to lift a person in battledress. Assuming the grav system produces no waste heat and that there's none lost in the transfer of energy from battery to grav units, that's 2 kW that's gone somewhere and is doing something. Thus I think it's probably detectable. Of course a spaceship's thrusters burning megawatts will be detectable much further away, but even so if they can detect a spaceship at thousands of kilometres, they should be able to detect a gravbelt at a hundred - assuming the same sensor.
I think really it's one of those things where you decide for YTU how it's going to be. In the OTU in CT they aren't a thing (though they might be in some late period DGP material), in MT they're pretty flash at high TLs, in TNE they're large-scale survey devices only. GT has them as scanners that let you build maps of interior spaces from outside, and at range, but they're not long ranged nor useful for detecting gravitics (and the grav sensor that GURPS does have is conspicuously absent from GT).
IMTU grav sensors can be useful for detecting that 'something is out there', but that's it. One thing I am firm on - entering and exiting jump makes a pretty hefty ripple as thousands of tonnes of mass suddenly appears or disappears out of/into nowhere (as far as the normal universe is concerned), and that's going to have a measurable effect with a distinctive signature. IMTU if you have a half-decent grav sensor, you'll know if anyone has jumped into or out of the system you're in. But it's subject to lightspeed lag, and without several widely spaced sensors it's not terribly precise (but 'emergence near the large gas giant' isn't something you need more than a rough range and direction to guess). It means fleets jumping into the outer system of a developed system won't go unnoticed, and thus can't spend too long in one place if they don't want the locals to be able to come and meet them.
Condottiere
SOC-14 5K
Basically, creation of artificial gravity field by the direct transformation of energy,
Contrasted by natural gravity based on mass, and artificial gravity based on indirect application of energy through spin.