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Post by thorneel on Jun 1, 2017 17:10:16 GMT
If you are fine with more advanced tech, you can go for a singularity drive. A micro-black hole (MBH), whose mass is low enough to emit vast quantities of energy, is fed matter just fast enough to compensate its evaporation. Basically, it's a near-total mass-energy converter (some energy will be lost to neutrinos and other unusable particles, plus inefficiencies). You can then use the energy either directly as a photon (& cie) drive or to heat propellant up. However, not only do you need to be able to produce a MBH, you also have to keep feeding it despite the ridiculously high energy output. And you probably don't have the MBH generator on hand in case this one goes runaway and evaporate, assuming the drive survived said evaporation. More massive MBH are easier to manage due to their lower output (and somewhat larger radius) and longer life, but they quickly become too massive to be put on ships.
A missile could use a one-time variant: the MBH is stored/generated on board the launcher and put on the missile, with calibrated mass. The missile itself doesn't have a feeding installation, so the MBH freely evaporates, lasting just long enough for the missile to acquire its terminal velocity while expanding the last of its propellant. Propellant flow would increase more and more, as the MBH energy output rises. The final instants may be unsustainable for the drive, so the missile may have to eject it, possibly using it as a Medusa pulse or similar to use some of its evaporation energy, or even to launch a NEFP. Alternatively, it could be calculated to evaporate upon target contact, making it the warhead as well, though this may be harder to do. To keep the MBH in place (or possibly keep the missile around the MBH given their respective masses), one solution would be to charge it electrically, then use magnetic fields. There may be subtler ways as well, like partially feeding it in one direction, pushing it back.
As there is not even a conceptual theoretical design of such drive, its specs would be pretty arbitrary, as well as the minimal manageable MBH mass. However any society with access to such technology also have access to obscene amounts of energy from singularity powerplants. If MBH generators are light enough, they can also be directly used as shorter-range projectile weapons.
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Post by Kerr on Jun 1, 2017 17:37:06 GMT
If you are fine with more advanced tech, you can go for a singularity drive. A micro-black hole (MBH), whose mass is low enough to emit vast quantities of energy, is fed matter just fast enough to compensate its evaporation. Basically, it's a near-total mass-energy converter (some energy will be lost to neutrinos and other unusable particles, plus inefficiencies). You can then use the energy either directly as a photon (& cie) drive or to heat propellant up. However, not only do you need to be able to produce a MBH, you also have to keep feeding it despite the ridiculously high energy output. And you probably don't have the MBH generator on hand in case this one goes runaway and evaporate, assuming the drive survived said evaporation. More massive MBH are easier to manage due to their lower output (and somewhat larger radius) and longer life, but they quickly become too massive to be put on ships. A missile could use a one-time variant: the MBH is stored/generated on board the launcher and put on the missile, with calibrated mass. The missile itself doesn't have a feeding installation, so the MBH freely evaporates, lasting just long enough for the missile to acquire its terminal velocity while expanding the last of its propellant. Propellant flow would increase more and more, as the MBH energy output rises. The final instants may be unsustainable for the drive, so the missile may have to eject it, possibly using it as a Medusa pulse or similar to use some of its evaporation energy, or even to launch a NEFP. Alternatively, it could be calculated to evaporate upon target contact, making it the warhead as well, though this may be harder to do. To keep the MBH in place (or possibly keep the missile around the MBH given their respective masses), one solution would be to charge it electrically, then use magnetic fields. There may be subtler ways as well, like partially feeding it in one direction, pushing it back. As there is not even a conceptual theoretical design of such drive, its specs would be pretty arbitrary, as well as the minimal manageable MBH mass. However any society with access to such technology also have access to obscene amounts of energy from singularity powerplants. If MBH generators are light enough, they can also be directly used as shorter-range projectile weapons. Thanks for the creative idea! But there are some problems with it First of I'd need a black hole weighing several kilotons to make it life long enough: 5kT = nearly 3 hours, secondly over time the wattage increases to the point where it basically resembles a ongoing nuclear blast. Thirdly, with 100% drive efficiency I still need to invest massive amount of energy, 450e18 J or 107552 MT of TNT to create a 5kT black hole.
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Post by matterbeam on Jun 4, 2017 0:06:16 GMT
If you are fine with more advanced tech, you can go for a singularity drive. A micro-black hole (MBH), whose mass is low enough to emit vast quantities of energy, is fed matter just fast enough to compensate its evaporation. Basically, it's a near-total mass-energy converter (some energy will be lost to neutrinos and other unusable particles, plus inefficiencies). You can then use the energy either directly as a photon (& cie) drive or to heat propellant up. However, not only do you need to be able to produce a MBH, you also have to keep feeding it despite the ridiculously high energy output. And you probably don't have the MBH generator on hand in case this one goes runaway and evaporate, assuming the drive survived said evaporation. More massive MBH are easier to manage due to their lower output (and somewhat larger radius) and longer life, but they quickly become too massive to be put on ships. A missile could use a one-time variant: the MBH is stored/generated on board the launcher and put on the missile, with calibrated mass. The missile itself doesn't have a feeding installation, so the MBH freely evaporates, lasting just long enough for the missile to acquire its terminal velocity while expanding the last of its propellant. Propellant flow would increase more and more, as the MBH energy output rises. The final instants may be unsustainable for the drive, so the missile may have to eject it, possibly using it as a Medusa pulse or similar to use some of its evaporation energy, or even to launch a NEFP. Alternatively, it could be calculated to evaporate upon target contact, making it the warhead as well, though this may be harder to do. To keep the MBH in place (or possibly keep the missile around the MBH given their respective masses), one solution would be to charge it electrically, then use magnetic fields. There may be subtler ways as well, like partially feeding it in one direction, pushing it back. As there is not even a conceptual theoretical design of such drive, its specs would be pretty arbitrary, as well as the minimal manageable MBH mass. However any society with access to such technology also have access to obscene amounts of energy from singularity powerplants. If MBH generators are light enough, they can also be directly used as shorter-range projectile weapons. Thanks for the creative idea! But there are some problems with it First of I'd need a black hole weighing several kilotons to make it life long enough: 5kT = nearly 3 hours, secondly over time the wattage increases to the point where it basically resembles a ongoing nuclear blast. Thirdly, with 100% drive efficiency I still need to invest massive amount of energy, 450e18 J or 107552 MT of TNT to create a 5kT black hole. Just watch out for unintended consequences. If you can create black holes easily and quickly enough to install them on single-use rapid reaction missiles, they you can also start spamming black holes on Earth and wipe out continents at a time. Within a few days, you might have the energy to ablate away the planet's crust and maybe start digging your way to the planet's core one MBH warhead at a time.
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Post by RiftandRend on Jun 4, 2017 0:18:12 GMT
Thanks for the creative idea! But there are some problems with it First of I'd need a black hole weighing several kilotons to make it life long enough: 5kT = nearly 3 hours, secondly over time the wattage increases to the point where it basically resembles a ongoing nuclear blast. Thirdly, with 100% drive efficiency I still need to invest massive amount of energy, 450e18 J or 107552 MT of TNT to create a 5kT black hole. Just watch out for unintended consequences. If you can create black holes easily and quickly enough to install them on single-use rapid reaction missiles, they you can also start spamming black holes on Earth and wipe out continents at a time. Within a few days, you might have the energy to ablate away the planet's crust and maybe start digging your way to the planet's core one MBH warhead at a time. If the black hole gains mass too fast you might have a stable black hole on your hands as well. A 1 million ton black hole will last ~2500 years.
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Post by matterbeam on Jun 11, 2017 0:20:23 GMT
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Post by RiftandRend on Jun 11, 2017 1:23:18 GMT
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Post by Kerr on Jun 11, 2017 6:04:17 GMT
That the calculator I used to find out the lifespan.
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Post by 𝕭𝖔𝖔𝖒𝖈𝖍𝖆𝖈𝖑𝖊 on Jun 11, 2017 17:59:35 GMT
Good luck powering this thing. My most ridiculous engine.
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Post by Kerr on Jun 12, 2017 14:47:23 GMT
Good luck powering this thing. My most ridiculous engine. Meh, the exhaust velocity is too low for me.
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Post by 𝕭𝖔𝖔𝖒𝖈𝖍𝖆𝖈𝖑𝖊 on Jun 12, 2017 19:13:25 GMT
Good luck powering this thing. My most ridiculous engine. Meh, the exhaust velocity is too low for me. quite a lot of thrust though. too bad it uses so much energy
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Post by 𝕭𝖔𝖔𝖒𝖈𝖍𝖆𝖈𝖑𝖊 on Jun 12, 2017 19:13:52 GMT
If you are fine with more advanced tech, you can go for a singularity drive. A micro-black hole (MBH), whose mass is low enough to emit vast quantities of energy, is fed matter just fast enough to compensate its evaporation. Basically, it's a near-total mass-energy converter (some energy will be lost to neutrinos and other unusable particles, plus inefficiencies). You can then use the energy either directly as a photon (& cie) drive or to heat propellant up. However, not only do you need to be able to produce a MBH, you also have to keep feeding it despite the ridiculously high energy output. And you probably don't have the MBH generator on hand in case this one goes runaway and evaporate, assuming the drive survived said evaporation. More massive MBH are easier to manage due to their lower output (and somewhat larger radius) and longer life, but they quickly become too massive to be put on ships. A missile could use a one-time variant: the MBH is stored/generated on board the launcher and put on the missile, with calibrated mass. The missile itself doesn't have a feeding installation, so the MBH freely evaporates, lasting just long enough for the missile to acquire its terminal velocity while expanding the last of its propellant. Propellant flow would increase more and more, as the MBH energy output rises. The final instants may be unsustainable for the drive, so the missile may have to eject it, possibly using it as a Medusa pulse or similar to use some of its evaporation energy, or even to launch a NEFP. Alternatively, it could be calculated to evaporate upon target contact, making it the warhead as well, though this may be harder to do. To keep the MBH in place (or possibly keep the missile around the MBH given their respective masses), one solution would be to charge it electrically, then use magnetic fields. There may be subtler ways as well, like partially feeding it in one direction, pushing it back. As there is not even a conceptual theoretical design of such drive, its specs would be pretty arbitrary, as well as the minimal manageable MBH mass. However any society with access to such technology also have access to obscene amounts of energy from singularity powerplants. If MBH generators are light enough, they can also be directly used as shorter-range projectile weapons. can a black hole be contained in any method?
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Post by Kerr on Jun 12, 2017 19:37:43 GMT
If you are fine with more advanced tech, you can go for a singularity drive. A micro-black hole (MBH), whose mass is low enough to emit vast quantities of energy, is fed matter just fast enough to compensate its evaporation. Basically, it's a near-total mass-energy converter (some energy will be lost to neutrinos and other unusable particles, plus inefficiencies). You can then use the energy either directly as a photon (& cie) drive or to heat propellant up. However, not only do you need to be able to produce a MBH, you also have to keep feeding it despite the ridiculously high energy output. And you probably don't have the MBH generator on hand in case this one goes runaway and evaporate, assuming the drive survived said evaporation. More massive MBH are easier to manage due to their lower output (and somewhat larger radius) and longer life, but they quickly become too massive to be put on ships. A missile could use a one-time variant: the MBH is stored/generated on board the launcher and put on the missile, with calibrated mass. The missile itself doesn't have a feeding installation, so the MBH freely evaporates, lasting just long enough for the missile to acquire its terminal velocity while expanding the last of its propellant. Propellant flow would increase more and more, as the MBH energy output rises. The final instants may be unsustainable for the drive, so the missile may have to eject it, possibly using it as a Medusa pulse or similar to use some of its evaporation energy, or even to launch a NEFP. Alternatively, it could be calculated to evaporate upon target contact, making it the warhead as well, though this may be harder to do. To keep the MBH in place (or possibly keep the missile around the MBH given their respective masses), one solution would be to charge it electrically, then use magnetic fields. There may be subtler ways as well, like partially feeding it in one direction, pushing it back. As there is not even a conceptual theoretical design of such drive, its specs would be pretty arbitrary, as well as the minimal manageable MBH mass. However any society with access to such technology also have access to obscene amounts of energy from singularity powerplants. If MBH generators are light enough, they can also be directly used as shorter-range projectile weapons. can a black hole be contained in any method? No, not without hypothetical physics. But, you could make the mass move, which can then be turned into a black hole.
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Post by thorneel on Jun 12, 2017 21:55:35 GMT
If you are fine with more advanced tech, you can go for a singularity drive. A micro-black hole (MBH), whose mass is low enough to emit vast quantities of energy, is fed matter just fast enough to compensate its evaporation. Basically, it's a near-total mass-energy converter (some energy will be lost to neutrinos and other unusable particles, plus inefficiencies). You can then use the energy either directly as a photon (& cie) drive or to heat propellant up. However, not only do you need to be able to produce a MBH, you also have to keep feeding it despite the ridiculously high energy output. And you probably don't have the MBH generator on hand in case this one goes runaway and evaporate, assuming the drive survived said evaporation. More massive MBH are easier to manage due to their lower output (and somewhat larger radius) and longer life, but they quickly become too massive to be put on ships. A missile could use a one-time variant: the MBH is stored/generated on board the launcher and put on the missile, with calibrated mass. The missile itself doesn't have a feeding installation, so the MBH freely evaporates, lasting just long enough for the missile to acquire its terminal velocity while expanding the last of its propellant. Propellant flow would increase more and more, as the MBH energy output rises. The final instants may be unsustainable for the drive, so the missile may have to eject it, possibly using it as a Medusa pulse or similar to use some of its evaporation energy, or even to launch a NEFP. Alternatively, it could be calculated to evaporate upon target contact, making it the warhead as well, though this may be harder to do. To keep the MBH in place (or possibly keep the missile around the MBH given their respective masses), one solution would be to charge it electrically, then use magnetic fields. There may be subtler ways as well, like partially feeding it in one direction, pushing it back. As there is not even a conceptual theoretical design of such drive, its specs would be pretty arbitrary, as well as the minimal manageable MBH mass. However any society with access to such technology also have access to obscene amounts of energy from singularity powerplants. If MBH generators are light enough, they can also be directly used as shorter-range projectile weapons. can a black hole be contained in any method? A paper on black holes as starship or powerplant generation : arxiv.org/PS_cache/arxiv/pdf/0908/0908.1803v1.pdfBasically, it is at the limit of what would be possible for (far-)future engineering, but weird, still unstudied effects (i.e. quantum gravity) could push it either way.
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