Ship Design Philosophy

[Condottiere]

Spaceships: Engineering and Why Metallic Hydrogen Is the Holy Grail of High Pressure Physics


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYOuQ84-6Z0

Making hydrogen a metal takes lot of pressure. But after a group of scientist’s lost the world’s first sample, the pressure is really on.

Is Jupiter the Reason for Life on Earth? - https://youtu.be/nsGRvnPL95I

Read More:
Settling Arguments About Hydrogen With 168 Giant Lasers
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/16/sc...
“With gentle pulses from gigantic lasers, scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California transformed hydrogen into droplets of shiny liquid metal. Their research, reported on Thursday in the journal Science, could improve understanding of giant gas planets like Jupiter and Saturn whose interiors are believed to be awash with liquid metallic hydrogen.”

What in the World Is Metallic Hydrogen?
https://www.space.com/39370-what-is-b...
“On Earth, as we've seen, hydrogen's behavior is straightforward. But Jupiter isn’’t Earth, and the hydrogen found in abundance within and beneath the great bands and swirling storms of its atmosphere can be pushed beyond its normal limits.”


Insulator-metal transition in dense fluid deuterium
http://science.sciencemag.org/content...
“The conditions in which hydrogen disassociates and becomes an atomic metal occur in high-energy-density environments, such as the interiors of giant planets and nuclear explosions. Celliers et al. trained 168 lasers on deuterium samples at the National Ignition Facility to measure the pressure and temperature conditions of the hydrogen transition.”


You'll just have to scoop lower.

 

[Condottiere]

Spaceships: Space Combat in The Expanse

I break down the three major tiers of space combat in James S.A. Corey's The Expanse.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YS4vzoQm_xw

Why no sandcasters? Especially substituting ball bearings.

 

[Condottiere]

Spaceships: TIE Fighters Looked AT Askew and Thinking Outside the Box

I was looking for a ninety degree angle, and thirty degrees is about the best I could find.

We turn the the TIE Fighter sideways, and it's wings act a like a biplane, giving it lift within an atmosphere.

If not designed this way from the outset, you could put the cabin on a gimbal, and rotate as you enter an atmosphere.

 

[Condottiere]

Spaceships: 10 Myths About Space Travel

We look at 10 Myths created Hollywood films by space travel.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zeWYblE7eM

Diapers, gravity; under appreciated.

 

[Condottiere]

Spaceships: TIE Fighters Looked AT Askew and Thinking Outside the Box

Speaking of which, what you could then is induce some form of ionic flow over those wings

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=boB6qu5dcCw

Ion drive: The first flight

Researchers from MIT have flown a plane without moving parts for the first time. It is powered by an ‘ion drive’ which uses high powered electrodes to ionise and accelerate air particles, creating an ‘ionic wind’. This wind drove a 5m wide craft across a sports hall. Unlike the ion drives which have powered space craft for decades, this new drive uses air as the accelerant. The researchers say it could power silent drones.

 

[Condottiere]

Spaceships: Abridging Virtualization

The difference between a specialization like gunnery, and comprehensive system management, would appear to be an increase in technological level, and doubling the bandwidth.

Within a single computer, sensor and control network, having more than one, or similarly grouped, ship system controlled by a crew virtualization programme requires doubling the bandwidth, possibly to ensure that the threads are parallel and buffered, and don't collide and give conflicting commands, especially at inconvenient moments (I'm not a programmer, so what do I know?).

You can probably pro rata the bandwidth, and purchasing the programmes, instead of just getting a set number of five or ten virtual crewmembers.

If you just let the computer run a single specialization, you can keep it at virtual gunner type bandwidth.

Of course, I got interested in this aspect as I was wondering how to squeeze in an astrogation workstation in a double cockpit, and realized I actually didn't need to, as long as I had a powerful enough computer; you could also just insert a prerecorded astrogation tape.

 

[Condottiere]

Starships: Sci-Fi Ships You've Never Heard Of | The BWS Intrepid

I break down a ship i'm very fond of that might have escaped your attention.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7M-QG_PXHmc

Battlestar lite?

A vintage light carrier, possibly with a refurbished light armament that could deal with minor combatants.

 

[Condottiere]

Spaceships: Engineering, Propulsion and Metallic Hydrogen - Most Powerful Rocket Fuel Yet?

Since so many people are asking - what's the deal with Metallic Hydrogen and claims that it would be the most powerful chemical rocket fuel.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nMfPNUZzG_Q

I'm inclined to think that we might make ours more potent.

Why Next Generation Rockets are Using Methane

ULA's Vulcan rocket will be propelled Blue Origin's BE-4 engine and spaceX's next generation engine is the Raptor. Both are using Methane as a fuel rather than RP-1 or Hydrogen - so why is methane suddenly an ideal fuel for rockets after largely being ignored for half a century.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4pzgFHrLXmc

 

[Condottiere]

Spaceships: Hulls, Material Science and Titanium Steel


http://www.titaniumkay.com/articles/titanium-steel-jewelry-confusion-or-hoax.html

1. Titanium

But what is “Titanium Steel”? Titanium is a metal, also know as Ti or by its atomic number 22. It is very hard to work with and thus very expensive to make.

2. Steel

Steel, however, is an alloy made from basically iron and carbon; and it is very cheap. They are typically sold by the pound. Its more expensive cousin is Stainless Steel, which has a bit of Chromium, Nickel, Silicon, Manganese and Nitrogen in it. It does not rust and is nice and shiny. But take a look all around you, Stainless Steel is everywhere. steel H Bar

3. Why sell stuff that doesn't exist?

So why bother with the term “Titanium Steel”? The obvious reason is money. If an unscrupulousness retailer can make you think a piece of stainless steel that looks like Titanium is worthy of being Jewelry, then they can and will charge you for it.

4. Who else is guilty?

The outrageous part is the participation and complacency of major E-Commerce Sites that allow these false advertising to continue. When pressed, these sites and their retailers will claim that “Titanium Steel” is actually an adjective describing the noun; a ring, a bracelet, a watch, etc. They will never claim that the material is actually made from Titanium Steel because “Titanium Steel” does not exist.

5. Making wise choices

fake or genuine So the next time you see this deception, give a shout to the E-Commerce Site to stop this madness. If you buy a Gold ring, it should be Gold. If you buy a Titanium ring, it should be Titanium. But if you buy a “Titanium Steel” ring, it shouldn't be Titanium looking Stainless Steel.

Marketing gimmick by spaceyards?


https://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/news/a13919/new-steel-alloy-titanium/

Scientists Invent a New Steel as Strong as Titanium
South Korean researchers have solved a longstanding problem that stopped them from creating ultra-strong, lightweight aluminum-steel alloys.

From shipping containers to skyscrapers to turbines, good old steel is still the workhorse of our modern world. Now, scientists are discovering new secrets to make the material better, lighter, and stronger.

Today a team of material scientists at Pohang University of Science and Technology in South Korea announced what they're calling one of the biggest steel breakthroughs of the last few decades: an altogether new type of flexible, ultra-strong, lightweight steel. This new metal has a strength-to-weight ratio that matches even our best titanium alloys, but at one tenth the cost, and can be created on a small scale with machinery already used to make automotive-grade steel. The study appears in Nature.

"Because of its lightness, our steel may find many applications in automotive and aircraft manufacturing," says Hansoo Kim, the researcher that led the team.

Bend, Don't Break
The key to creating this new super-steel was overcoming a challenge that had plagued materials scientists for decades. In the 1970's, Soviet researchers discovered that adding aluminum to the mix when creating steel can make an incredibly strong and lightweight metal, but this new steel was unavoidably brittle. You'd have to exert lots of force to reach the limit of its strength, but once you did, the steel would break rather than bend.

Scientists soon realized the problem: When creating the aluminum-steel alloy, they were occasionally fusing atoms of aluminum and iron together to form tough, crystalline structures called B2. These veins and nuggets of B2 were strong but brittle—until Kim and his colleges devised a solution.

"My original idea was that if I could somehow induce the formation of these B2 crystals, I might be able to disperse them in the steel," he says. The scientists calculated that if small B2 crystals were separated from one another, then the surrounding alloy would insulate them from splintering.

Kim and colleagues spent years devising and altering a method of heat-treating and then thinly rolling their steel to control when and where B2 crystals were formed. The team also discovered that adding a small percentage of nickel offered even more control over B2 formation, as nickel made the crystals form at a much higher temperature.

More Super-Materials to Come?
Kim's team has created the new metal on a small scale. But before it can be mass-produced, researchers must confront a tricky production issue.

THIS NEW METAL HAS A STRENGTH-TO-WEIGHT RATIO THAT MATCHES EVEN OUR BEST TITANIUM ALLOYS
Currently, steelmakers use a silicate layer to cover and protect mass-produced steel from oxidation with the air and contamination from the foundry. This silicate can't be used for Kim's steel because it has a tendency to react with the cooling aluminum, compromising the final product. Before we starting building skyscrapers out of super-steel, they'll have to figure out a way to protect the material out in the real world.

It'll be worth it. The final product of all this tinkering "is 13 percent less dense compared to normal steel, and has almost the same strength-to-weight ratio compared to titanium alloys," Kim says. That's remarkable, but Kim insists that the method is actually more important than the result. Now that his results are published, he expects scientists to cook up a multitude of new alloys based on the B2-dispersion method.

So, alusteel hulls.

 

[Condottiere]

Starships: Star Wars: MC75 Mon Calamari Cruiser - Ship Breakdown

Spacedock breaks down the MC75 Mon Calamari Cruisers of the Rebel Alliance.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QzGBGQGBEvc

Large ventral keel structure: that alone should make it a dispersed structure, or maybe that would be loopholed as a breakaway hull, considering the amount of armour Mon Calamari ships tend to be plated with.

I don't quite see how benefits a warship the most infamous examples being the Nebulon B.

 

[Condottiere]

Starships: The Expanse OPAS Behemoth - Official Breakdown

Force Recon returns for a look at the OPAS Behemoth, formerly the LDSS Nauvoo.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6sBoWvZFVI

It's a thought.

Converting a giant merchantman into a warship probably isn't worth it, since at some point you'd be expected to include a spinal mount, which isn't possible to install as an afterthought. Unless you attach an extra extra large gun pod, possibly to a couple of fifty tonne docking clamps.

 

[Condottiere]

Starships: Types of Sci-Fi Warship (Frigate, Destroyer etc.)

I break down how I think nautical warship monikers should be applied to Science Fiction.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHbxdbiMopg

And our battleships can be as fast as a typical fighter.

The mass effect is probably that missing ingredient.

In the end, it comes down to intended role, capability and performance.

 

[Condottiere]

Spaceships: Crewing and Sensor Operations

Once ships start mounting bay weapons, the number of missiles they can throw at their enemies increases significantly. When multiple salvoes of missiles (or torpedoes) are incoming, even the finest sensor operator can become quickly overwhelmed. To counter this, large warships tend to have multiple sensor stations operated by several dedicated crew members.

1. There's no set number of sensor operators, just a recommendation.

2. Sensor operators are basically data analysts, enabling the commander to keep track of simultaneous events and react to them in real time.

3. For every sensor operator, one event can be kept track of.

4. Each sensor operator would need a work station.

5. Going by cockpit specifications, each work station requires one tonne of volume and costs ten thousand schmuckers.

6. You could have a specific AWACS vessel dedicated to this, and as long as it's part of the task group network, probably can share the data in a timely manner.

 

[Condottiere]

Spaceships: KSP Doesn't Teach - Rocket Engine Plumbing

A huge part of rocket science is the system of tanks, piping, valves and burners which deliver the fuel from the tanks to the engine. I try to explain why different designs exist and the advantages that more complicated designs deliver.

To be clear, I'm not a rocket scientist, I only play one on the internet.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4QXZ2RzN_Oo

Now, if you could figure out how to do this with carbon, the onboard crew becomes breeder reactors.

 

[Condottiere]

Spaceships: High-density lithium in graphene: An intriguing battery possibility
Bi-layer graphene creates high-density lithium, may increase battery capacity.

CHRIS LEE - 11/29/2018, 4:58 PM
High-density lithium in graphene: An intriguing battery possibility

Discussions about batteries often revolve around energy density. What we want is a battery that stores a whole lot of energy in a very tiny volume, preferably in a manner that doesn't involve explosions or fire. At the cutting edge of research, what we get are batteries that are a mix of amazing and amazingly bad.

Modern batteries are, quite frankly, a miracle compared to ye olde lead acid battery. Yet they still contain less energy per unit mass than the equivalent mass of wood. Essentially, we simply don’t pack enough atoms into a small enough volume to compete with hydrocarbons. But, now it seems that graphene—it’s always graphene—might help pack lithium in.

The invisible metal

Although there are many ways to make a lithium-ion battery, the chemistry boils down to the following: lithium is stored in some form at one electrode. The lithium is released as an ion, where it travels to another electrode and reacts. At the same time, the electrons that complete the reaction travel out into the world via one electrode, do some work, and end up at the other electrode, where they complete the reaction.

The key here is that the lithium is usually stored as a light and low-density lithium carbide. Finding materials that increase the density of lithium is one way to increase battery capacity.

Here is where battery research often runs into problems. Lithium is a very light element. Carbon, the other main constituent of a battery, is also a very light element. When viewed through an electron microscope, they look almost identical. That makes it very difficult to examine how lithium builds up at an electrode and makes it hard to see the variations in structures that it forms as it is stored (or how those structures come apart as it is removed).

It is worse than that, though. Electron microscopes usually use quite energetic electrons to create an image. The electrons have more than enough energy to knock carbon and lithium atoms out of the structure being examined. By the time you have created your image, you have destroyed the structure you imaged. Not ideal.

Enter a group of scientists with a transmission electron microscope that has been designed to work with low-energy electrons. The microscope still has sufficient resolution to see single atoms, so structures can be determined. By examining how much energy the electrons lose as they go through the sample, the researchers can also figure out the sample contents. Finally, the time it takes to gather the image is short enough (about one second) that the researchers can observe the build up and decay of structures as the battery is used.

A lithium sandwich

Since transmission electron microscopy requires that electrons pass through the sample, the carbon-lithium layer had to be very thin. The researchers chose to use a ribbon of a graphene double-layer (graphene is a single layer of graphene with the carbon atoms arranged in a honeycomb pattern). A blob of electrolyte-containing lithium ions was placed at one end of the graphene ribbon.

A series of electrodes were placed along the ribbon to measure and set voltages. The voltages were used to drive lithium into the ribbon and allow it to leave again. When lithium accumulates in the ribbon, the resistance drops, allowing a second set of electrodes to detect the presence of lithium.

The researchers don’t say it, but I think they were quite surprised by what happened. The lithium moves quite rapidly in the gap between the two graphene ribbons. On the scale of their graph, lithium appears between the electrodes instantly. From the movie, it looks like it takes about 14s to travel 50 micrometers, which I think is shockingly fast.

The amount of lithium is also pretty surprising. By examining the structure and elemental composition, the researchers found that the lithium was not forming a lithium carbide, as expected. Instead, it was forming multiple layers of crystalline lithium with only the outermost layer binding to the carbon. But the metallic lithium was not in its usual form. Instead, the lithium forms a high-density state that is normally found at low temperature or very high pressure.

Don’t get overexcited

This is quite interesting, and it may even prove useful. But not yet. For one thing, the high-density lithium only forms between two sheets of very nearly perfect graphene, not the sort of graphene that you can buy from a manufacturer. Indeed, near the edges of imperfections, the energy imparted by the electrons in the electron microscope was enough to boil off the lithium metal.

Even if we could get large amounts of high-quality, double-layer graphene sheets, there is no certainty that the lithium will diffuse as deeply as required during a charging cycle. It is pretty easy to imagine the first lithium ion building up in a clump that blocks the rest of the lithium from moving into the sandwich.

It is also not certain that the graphene survives the process for very long. This is one of the main problems with batteries involving metallic lithium: the electrodes destroy themselves over multiple cycles. We’ve no idea if graphene will last any longer than current electrode designs.

That said, the researchers are not presenting this as a battery-ready technology. Rather, it is an excellent example of how an experimental necessity has led to an interesting new set of observations that we will probably learn a lot from. And, if we are lucky, it will eventually help make batteries better.

https://arstechnica.com/science/2018/11/high-density-lithium-in-graphene-an-intriguing-battery-possibility/

 

[Condottiere]

Should We Colonize Venus Instead of Mars? | Space Time | PBS Digital Studios

Mars One. The Mars Rover. Bruno Mars. Mars Bars. It's pretty clear we're OBSESSED with the idea of Mars, especially in regard to it being a potential colony for earthlings. But is that really the best option? Is there a better place for us to colonize in our solar system? Well, how about Venus? Sure the surface temperature is over 450 degrees Celsius, with crazy pressure, but there might be a smart way around that, making Venus a better option for long term colonization than Mars! How? Watch this week's episode of SpaceTime and find out!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJ5KV3rzuag

 

[Condottiere]

Is This Geometric Structure The Theory Of Everything? | Answers With Joe

For 100 years, scientists have been searching for the "Theory of Everything", the elusive link between the physics of Quantum Mechanics and General Relativity. A team of researchers believe they may have the key, and it all lies in a geometrical design.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rqu_uV-gIcU

 

[Condottiere]

Starships: Venture Class Jump Drive

Still tinkering with it, but having examined Advanced Micro Devices new chiplet design has somewhat inspired me (also, may force me to upgrade before I anticipated since it's rumoured they'll substitute eight core chiplets for the current four core modules).

My intent has always been to design the cheapest, smallest jump drive.

I've managed to separate the most expensive component, the capacitors, from the five tonne overhead. It should be noted that as long as the interface with the jump drive core remain in the same place, capacitorless overheads should be compatible with jump drives constructed at the same technology level, or less, since you have to take into account parsec range, as the jump governor is part of the overhead.

As it would be the budget variant, that would be five tonnes volume, costing 3.375 megacredits.

That leaves another five tonnes to fill out with the core and enough capacitors, which is more parsec tonnage than I actually want, enough for a single jump for the minimum tonnage.

So the question was if I could use an advanced shrink and still stuff in cheaper older technology.

The rules are clear that thirty percent shrink is possible even at minimum tonnage, meaning that the smallest possible volume is seven tonnes at fifty percent premium, though when the capacitors, core and overhead are separate, where would that premium apply?

Leaving that for later, seven tonnes might work for the five tonne overhead, and a two tonne budgeted core if minimum jump volume were eighty tonnes. So, that's two and a half.

A twenty percent shrink would give you eight tonnes at a twenty five percent premium, leaving you a half tonne for capacitors. That's twenty energy points for the budgeted variant, which is a fairly safe two hundred percent of targetted energy points for a hundred parsec tonnes.

Venture Class Jump Drive Module
. overhead
.. technology level
... nine
.. budgeted
... increased size
.. capacitors
... none
.. tonnage
... five tonnes
.. cost
... three and three eighths megaschmuckers
. core
.. technology level
... nine
.. budgeted
... increased size
.. tonnage
... two and a half tonnes
.. cost
... one and eleven sixteenths (1.6875) megaschmuckers
. capacitors
.. technology level
... nine
.. budgeted
... increased size
.. capacity
... twenty energy points
.. tonnage
... half tonne
.. cost
... one and one eighth megaschmuckers
. total tonnage
.. eight
. total cost
.. six and three sixteenths (6.1675) megachmuckers

All I can take from that is it would have to be assembled and the shell manufactured at a minimum technological level eleven facility, though what that would cost is unclear, and probably would involve shaving off some more costs off the above individual components, and then calculating a twenty premium on that.

 

[Condottiere]

Spaceships: Engineering, High Burn Thruster and Why Some 21st Century US Rockets Still Use Soviet Era Engines

The RD-180 is an exceptionally good engine, and a big part of that is down to it having a closed combustion cycle, compared to US designed engines which use an open cycle. Why did the US never develop a closed cycle Kerolox engine, and what problems did the soviet engineers solve decades ago.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGr1UVNBDLs

Secret sauce, oxygen.

 

[Condottiere]

Spaceships: Fuel Scoops

Fuel scoops cost a flat million bucks.

That means for generic four or five hundred (or less) tonne hull, if you wanted to include this with a partially streamlined configuration, you might as well just stick to a streamlined variant, since there you get fuel scoops free.

It's a flat fee, which means a two hundred kay tonne Plankwell pays the same as a two hundred tonne sysem defence boat.

However small, it should require a percentage of volume and price prorataed.