The demise of Fission for Jump power

[Wol]

Just wondering why this came about? At one level all of this is just magic box and handwavium, but I do not recall Fission being prevented from powering drives in earlier editions. I am sure in TNE and MGT it is specifically allowed, and as such, cannon. But in T5 Marc has declared it verboten. This in part makes me wonder about why a fusion plant would be any better at suddenly delivering the required power that say, an intermediete storage system powered over time, or the fission plant.

Just confused, and I like fission plants

regards

 

[Condottiere]

Whether or not it's a deliberate decision, in Mongoose Second it's a question of energy availability at the time of transition, which means you could use batteries.

As I recall, the original engineering set up had jump capacitors that required a massive amount of energy within a specific time frame, whereas currently it's just a matter of having it available.

One's more dramatic, the other is book keeping.

 

[JimMarn]

To me, Jump sounds more futuristic and snazzy.

Thousands of years from now, fission would be 'too old and cumbersome to deal with' sort of thing.

As an example; some years ago I read a sf short story where a small civilization finds a cheap star ship drive. They go to a nearby solar system and encounter a guy who seem rather primitive, almost but not quite, a caveman.

They have problems communicationg and he tells them to leave, the solar system belongs to him and his people, not them. They essentially tell him they are more advanced and they want to move people there.

He mentally transports them and their ship light years away from him and their home world. They realize he wasn't primitive, but he was so far advanced that the concepts they used were outdated and thats why he stumbled for words. His, apparently holographic, image and appears to them and confirms their guess. I think he told them how to get home, but he wanted all of this posturing they did, and the result of him punishing them, to be a lesson they remembered. So they struggled to get back. I don't remember if they made it or not. If I remember correctly, they had some sort of fission drive for their star ship.

 

[Condottiere]

You don't have to refuel for a while.

However, current costs of refueling don't make it a worthwhile investment.