Weathering high stellar radiation

[paltrysum]

How much difficulty would a typical civilian starship encounter in a high-radiation environment such as when approaching a gas giant like Jupiter or if the ship was stricken by stellar flares? Also, is there anything a prudent ship captain could do to temporarily protect his ship in such an environment?

 

[AnotherDilbert]

We don't know.

By default Traveller Starships are rather well protected, and are assumed to be able to withstand normal conditions such as gas-giant refuelling and travelling at something like 0.3 c in interplanetary space.

The optional Radiation Shielding system gives us some clue. Normally a spacecraft hull protects against 500 Rad [presumably per turn?] (nearly a lethal dose). So radiation that would kill an unprotected human in a fraction of an hour is no problem for a spacecraft.

 

[h1ro]

I don't think the gas giant skimming rules have really taken this stuff into consideration.

Page 77 of the CRB highlights radiation damage tho isn't specific about gas giants but does talk about solar flares. For gas giants, depending on how much you want to affect your players you could assign damage from the table.

You could use the ion weapon effects from page 26 of High Guard. While technically they aren't "canon", its a good way of introducing the effects of radiation on a ship. Depriving the ship of energy in this way could get pretty hairy if there's not enough power to run the drives and life support/environmental controls.

With regard to mitigating the effects, short of hiding behind a moon or just not going anywhere near a gas giant, I'm not sure what can be done temporarily.

 

[Infojunky]

9

The optional Radiation Shielding system gives us some clue. Normally a spacecraft hull protects against 500 Rad [presumably per turn?]

Well, how does it attenuate the other 999,500 rad that the ship is exposed to while transiting to refuel from Jupiter?

Or with the GOBS of excess power available to your average Starship I always assumed that each ship generates it own magnetic field...

 

[steve98052]

The Darrian Maghiz was described as a stellar flare that devastated Darrian populations and knocked its culture back to low technology, through several parsecs. That doesn't make much sense; breaking advanced technology in a different system would require a flare that would sterilize the flare star's system, but that's the story.

With that precedent, one could say that stellar radiation is as powerful as the story needs it to be.

 

[h1ro]

With that precedent, one could say that stellar radiation is as powerful as the story needs it to be.

I think Steve's right, Traveller ignores (for whatever reason) the science, go with what's right for your plot/game/story.

 

[AnotherDilbert]

I think Steve's right, Traveller ignores (for whatever reason) the science, go with what's right for your plot/game/story.

I don't think the science is ignored, it just isn't very detailed.

Ships work, and they have worked for thousands of years. Normal people don't have to know how it works to use it, just as we don't have to know exactly how a computer or TV works.

If you want to land at a habitable planet or refuel at a gas giant it is not much of a problem, but if you want to get close to a star it will be a problem, I guess.

 

[AnotherDilbert]

The Darrian Maghiz was described as a stellar flare that devastated Darrian populations and knocked its culture back to low technology, through several parsecs. That doesn't make much sense; breaking advanced technology in a different system would require a flare that would sterilize the flare star's system, but that's the story.

With that precedent, one could say that stellar radiation is as powerful as the story needs it to be.

Yes, it is silly, but if we required a physics degree from every author I guess there would be very little material published. And even then biologists would laugh at us.

Yet we can at least make an effort not to get too far from reality, else we could just as well play DnD?

I generally keep this in mind:

- All changes should be rational, logical, and scientifically sound (after a!l, Traveller is a science fiction role-playing game).

LBB0

I try to keep my game reasonably scientifically sound (for some value of reasonably) and not let it degenerate into Star Trek or Star Wars.

 

[paltrysum]

The Darrian Maghiz was described as a stellar flare that devastated Darrian populations and knocked its culture back to low technology, through several parsecs. That doesn't make much sense; breaking advanced technology in a different system would require a flare that would sterilize the flare star's system, but that's the story.

With that precedent, one could say that stellar radiation is as powerful as the story needs it to be.

I think Steve's right, Traveller ignores (for whatever reason) the science, go with what's right for your plot/game/story.

I try to keep my game reasonably scientifically sound (for some value of reasonably) and not let it degenerate into Star Trek or Star Wars.

My take exactly. Ultimately, I'll do what I'm gonna do to make the story hum along nicely. To be quite frank, only one or two of my players might ever question anything anyway, but for my own integrity I like to keep things within the boundaries of science as much as possible. And when we have a resource like this board, why not consult it? You guys help me keep things honest.

 

[AnotherDilbert]

Page 77 of the CRB highlights radiation damage tho isn't specific about gas giants but does talk about solar flares. For gas giants, depending on how much you want to affect your players you could assign damage from the table.

You could use the ion weapon effects from page 26 of High Guard. While technically they aren't "canon", its a good way of introducing the effects of radiation on a ship. Depriving the ship of energy in this way could get pretty hairy if there's not enough power to run the drives and life support/environmental controls.

Ionising radiation (fast particles) and EMP effects are very different.

Radiation would mostly kill people, EMP would mostly kill integrated circuits.

Effects of radiation is fairly well described in the Core book, even if it is very simplified. The crew would be long dead before the ship suffered serious damage.

 

[dragoner]

Micro-circuitry is destroyed faster by hard radiation than living tissue, it destroys the pathways. Seveneves had a good section on this.

 

[paltrysum]

Micro-circuitry is destroyed faster by hard radiation than living tissue, it destroys the pathways. Seveneves had a good section on this.

Great book. I'm trying to remember when that happened. SPOILER ALERT for those who have not yet read "Seveneves": Was it on the comet with the reactor radiation?

 

[dragoner]

Micro-circuitry is destroyed faster by hard radiation than living tissue, it destroys the pathways. Seveneves had a good section on this.

Great book. I'm trying to remember when that happened. SPOILER ALERT for those who have not yet read "Seveneves": Was it on the comet with the reactor radiation?

Near the beginning with the lab and robots mining the asteroid is where it's first explained, though he goes over again. I enjoyed the book, the ending seemed a bit compressed or rushed.

 

[paltrysum]

Near the beginning with the lab and robots mining the asteroid is where it's first explained, though he goes over again. I enjoyed the book, the ending seemed a bit compressed or rushed.

I read a review of it that said something to the effect of "It might have been better if Ursula K. LeGuin wrote the second half." Interesting idea.

Thanks for the reference point. Could be inspirational for this radiation issue.

 

[Sigtrygg]

As usual the answer can be found in CT canon if you know where to look.

The CT Beltstrike boxed adventure has this to say about travelling through the radiation belts of a gas giant:

Ships under power are not affected - part of the M-drive generates a low-power screen against radiation and meteorite impact - but a power failure during approach within about a million kilometers of the gas giant would be fatal.

 

[ShawnDriscoll]

How much difficulty would a typical civilian starship encounter in a high-radiation environment such as when approaching a gas giant like Jupiter or if the ship was stricken by stellar flares? Also, is there anything a prudent ship captain could do to temporarily protect his ship in such an environment?

Depends on the plot. Also, how does anyone on board survive the jump drive's magic exhaust?

 

[Condottiere]

An interesting question would be, is if it's cumulative.

 

[dragoner]

Near the beginning with the lab and robots mining the asteroid is where it's first explained, though he goes over again. I enjoyed the book, the ending seemed a bit compressed or rushed.

I read a review of it that said something to the effect of "It might have been better if Ursula K. LeGuin wrote the second half." Interesting idea.

Thanks for the reference point. Could be inspirational for this radiation issue.

I read that the Juno spacecraft, orbiting Jupiter, also has had to have it's orbit chosen to avoid damaging radiation to its electronics, as well as having an electronics vault https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juno_Radiation_Vault

I haven't heard that about Seveneves, though it could very well have been true, LeGuin is a good writer too; and the parts with the tethered pieces of the moon are rather brilliant too, something I would like to include in a game.

 

[h1ro]

Radiation would mostly kill people, EMP would mostly kill integrated circuits.

Effects of radiation is fairly well described in the Core book, even if it is very simplified. The crew would be long dead before the ship suffered serious damage.

Who's to say that TL12 circuitry is akin to current tech and susceptible to radiation damage in a similar way?

 

[AnotherDilbert]

Who's to say that TL12 circuitry is akin to current tech and susceptible to radiation damage in a similar way?

Not much. I would go as far as to assume that far future electronics intended for space would be much more resistant to radiation than current planet-bound civilian stuff.