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But can someone give me a brief synopsis of Mass Driver guns. I swear, I knew at one time, but I can't drag it out of memory. I think the hard drive in my head is starting to go. I have the stats in LBB 4 but I can't remember theory of operation.
A mass driver cannon is simply a very large railgun, possibly scaled up into a planetary assault weapon. A mass driver can be used as a weapon if a planet has a natural satellite by taking it, landing a mass driver on it and using it to hurl boulders at the planet.
Also, a mass driver can be used as an engine of sorts in some cases. A large one along with power plant and crew can be placed on an asteroid or comet someone wishes to alter the course of, and it can do so by accelerating chucks of the bodies mass off into space at high speed.
In some cases a mass drive will be used as a mining tool: One will be dropped on a body with rich depostis of a valuable material, the material will be gathered and propelled towards a collection center via the mass driver.
BTW, no need to apologize for ignorance of traveller here. In fact we encourage people to bring their ignorance of traveller herre so we can unburden them of it.
Think of this site as "The traveller ignorance elimination center".
Mass Drivers shouldn't really work as a thrust agent though should they?
Mass Drivers are essentially linear accellerators utilizing electromagnetic forces to propell a projectile down the "Barrell" and therefore downrange.
The projectile however starts off stationary and is encouraged down the barrell by electromagnetic forces untill it's moving quite fast when it leaves the barrell. At no point however is any force, or counter force, created that effects the opposite direction to that that the projectile is travelling in though, is there? So they really ought to be recoilless, shouldn't they?
Thus how are they a thrust agent? I could see a CPR gun doing this but I must be missing something for Mass Drivers.
The projectile however starts off stationary and is encouraged down the barrell by electromagnetic forces untill it's moving quite fast when it leaves the barrell. At no point however is any force, or counter force, created that effects the opposite direction to that that the projectile is travelling in though, is there?
And, what is propelling the mass, if not a force? If there's no force, there's no acceleration, and, hence, no velocity. There is most definitely a force accelerating the mass, and so a reaction is required.
And, what is propelling the mass, if not a force? If there's no force, there's no acceleration, and, hence, no velocity. There is most definitely a force accelerating the mass, and so a reaction is required.
True. The electromagnetic field is the medium that delivers both the force and reaction. The gun exerts a force on the mass via the field and the mass exerts a counter force on the gun via the field.
Those interested or in need of information re the topic of mass driver propulsion might do well to click HERE:
Also, in the excellent game "Transhuman space" which I must and do recommend to all traveller players, I once designed a character who designed a "spaceship" that was mostly an asteroid with a mass driver propulsion system to mine asteroids with. Power one with solar power and it becomes a cheap to operate, low speed mining vessel as it uses rock as fuel and free solar energy to run the driver. The rock dust was the left over from the mining process.
Thanks everybody. I cleared some of the cobwebs in my brain and CAREFULLY reread LBB4 and came to the conclusion that it was (in regards to Mercenary) a "big Gauss Gun" (sort of).
But the other info gave me some great ideas to tortur...er, challenge my players.
Thanks again everybody!
