My traveller universe

[warwizard]

Ok there is some discussion on the boards as to how jump works, here is my take on it:


While the jump field is forming the ship ejects hydrogen gas into the rift to inflate the jump bubble universe as the ship tumbles in.

Once in the bubble universe of jump the ship is unable to cool itself by radiative cooling, the radiation is unable to escape the bubble universe and within a few seconds hits the ship and is absorbed.

The jump fuel is used as the working fluid to cool the ship and after the jump duration has passed we have a large bubble filled with hot gas and a ship that is uncomfortably hot. On a misjump the duration extends a few extra days and the crew is forced to use whatever hydrogen fuel they have or any other gasses they have on hand to cool the ship or die of overheating.

(The jump drive is required to operate the entire time at high power levels, the longer the jump the higher the power required hence the linear progression of hydrogen needed for cooling at longer jumps).

Upon entry into normal space there is the release of all that hot hydrogen gas, and the ship is there with it's radiators glowing white hot.

So a newly arrived ship will have a +2 IR signature for several hours, slowly reducing to 1.5, 1.0, and .5 over the next day or two.

Even if the ship might have fuel remaining and a precanned jump vector available it cannot jump again till it has shed it's accumulated heat load. The fastest way of doing this is to land on a planet.

warwizard

 

[robject]

Interesting take, and some of those concepts I've heard before. The one that stumps me a bit is how you'd shed heat by landing on a planet? I suppose once you've landed you can shed heat, but won't reentry just add that much more heat into the system?

As long as reentry doesn't cause a problem, then ok.

 

[aramis]

Interesting take, and some of those concepts I've heard before. The one that stumps me a bit is how you'd shed heat by landing on a planet? I suppose once you've landed you can shed heat, but won't reentry just add that much more heat into the system?

As long as reentry doesn't cause a problem, then ok.

Powered reentry won't add much, and atmospheric convection will remove a lot more than radiation.

Feathered reentry doesn't add enough to require more than work gloves.... and needs no heat shield. (go read up on SS1/SS2.)

It's only ballistic reentry that adds lots of heat.

 

[HG_B]

Interesting take, and some of those concepts I've heard before. The one that stumps me a bit is how you'd shed heat by landing on a planet? I suppose once you've landed you can shed heat, but won't reentry just add that much more heat into the system?

As long as reentry doesn't cause a problem, then ok.

Reentry isn't a problem as long as you do it slowly.