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Post by RiftandRend on Jun 22, 2017 11:29:45 GMT
I have been designing sub-gram railguns and have created a quite monstrous weapon. It is accurate to extreme range and has a muzzle velocity of .0112 C. This class of weapon retains its lethality over range much better than lasers and seems to outperform them in every way within the 10 Mm maximum laser range. Standard Mount Ultralight Mount |
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Post by The Astronomer on Jun 22, 2017 11:50:06 GMT
I have been designing sub-gram railguns and have created a quite monstrous weapon. It is accurate to extreme range and has a muzzle velocity of .0097 C. This class of weapon retains its lethality over range much better than lasers and seems to outperform them in every way at the relatively short ranges possible in game (10 Mm).  Sensor inaccuracy and wobble not introduced in other weapon systems yet? |
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Post by RiftandRend on Jun 22, 2017 11:53:58 GMT
I have been designing sub-gram railguns and have created a quite monstrous weapon. It is accurate to extreme range and has a muzzle velocity of .0097 C. This class of weapon retains its lethality over range much better than lasers and seems to outperform them in every way at the relatively short ranges possible in game (10 Mm). Sensor inaccuracy and wobble not introduced in other weapon systems yet? They have been, and are the main limitation of this weapon. At ranges over 5 Mm it has difficulty hitting small targets. Fortunately, it only takes 840 kW so large batteries can be assembled easily. |
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Post by bigbombr on Jun 22, 2017 12:27:50 GMT
Sensor inaccuracy and wobble not introduced in other weapon systems yet? They have been, and are the main limitation of this weapon. At ranges over 5 Mm it has difficulty hitting small targets. Fortunately, it only takes 840 kW so large batteries can be assembled easily. Lasers are in game limited to 10 Mm, otherwise some of my lasers (10 GW input though) would be effective to dozens of Mm's. But for this little power and mass, it's quite impressive. However, the game doesn't take barrel erosion over several shots into account, nor relativity. So IRL, this weapon wouldn't work. |
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Post by RiftandRend on Jun 22, 2017 13:04:22 GMT
They have been, and are the main limitation of this weapon. At ranges over 5 Mm it has difficulty hitting small targets. Fortunately, it only takes 840 kW so large batteries can be assembled easily. Lasers are in game limited to 10 Mm, otherwise some of my lasers (10 GW input though) would be effective to dozens of Mm's. But for this little power and mass, it's quite impressive. However, the game doesn't take barrel erosion over several shots into account, nor relativity. So IRL, this weapon wouldn't work. Well aware of the range issues, quote from the OP "relatively short ranges possible in game (10 Mm)". I don't see why barrel erosion would be an issue for this weapon, it doesn't fire particularly fast and the per shot energy is low. |
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Post by bigbombr on Jun 22, 2017 14:49:46 GMT
Lasers are in game limited to 10 Mm, otherwise some of my lasers (10 GW input though) would be effective to dozens of Mm's. But for this little power and mass, it's quite impressive. However, the game doesn't take barrel erosion over several shots into account, nor relativity. So IRL, this weapon wouldn't work. Well aware of the range issues, quote from the OP "relatively short ranges possible in game (10 Mm)". I don't see why barrel erosion would be an issue for this weapon, it doesn't fire particularly fast 1 and the per shot energy 2 is low. /s, I assume. After all: 1) 2.92 Mm/s is a high velocity and a reload time of 3.33 ms makes it rapid firing. 2) 14.3 kJ is plenty of energy in such a tiny round, with such a tiny bore. Something similar as a coilgun wouldn't have barrel erosion, is it possible to reach similar velocities with a one? |
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Post by treptoplax on Jun 22, 2017 16:07:24 GMT
Given the tiny bore, would the rails just arc/short, even in vacuum?
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Post by Kerr on Jun 22, 2017 16:08:33 GMT
Given the tiny bore, would the rails just arc/short, even in vacuum? No, electricity needs an medium to arc/short |
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Post by treptoplax on Jun 22, 2017 16:27:54 GMT
Given the tiny bore, would the rails just arc/short, even in vacuum? No, electricity needs an medium to arc/short That's true in theory (or at least in the usual equations used in common EE), but not in extreme practice, see, e.g. : www.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/723107.pdfIf I'm reading figure 4-6 right 500Mv/m will arc steel/steel at very short gaps, with considerably lower voltage gradient needed for larger ones. AFAIKT: 1) the physics are still not terribly well understood (I'm 100% sure I don't). 2) At some point heating, strain due to electric field or what-have-you pulls some atoms from one side or another, next thing you know you've got a plasma and away we go. |
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Post by Kerr on Jun 22, 2017 16:41:20 GMT
No, electricity needs an medium to arc/short That's true in theory (or at least in the usual equations used in common EE), but not in extreme practice, see, e.g. : www.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/723107.pdfIf I'm reading figure 4-6 right 500Mv/m will arc steel/steel at very short gaps, with considerably lower voltage gradient needed for larger ones. AFAIKT: 1) the physics are still not terribly well understood (I'm 100% sure I don't). 2) At some point heating, strain due to electric field or what-have-you pulls some atoms from one side or another, next thing you know you've got a plasma and away we go. 2) At that point sparking is your least concern. 1) It stayed the same for pretty long, your document sounds like it's about vacuum tubes. Which are never as vacuum'ish as space vacuums. |
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Post by bigbombr on Jun 22, 2017 17:36:15 GMT
That's true in theory (or at least in the usual equations used in common EE), but not in extreme practice, see, e.g. : www.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/723107.pdfIf I'm reading figure 4-6 right 500Mv/m will arc steel/steel at very short gaps, with considerably lower voltage gradient needed for larger ones. AFAIKT: 1) the physics are still not terribly well understood (I'm 100% sure I don't). 2) At some point heating, strain due to electric field or what-have-you pulls some atoms from one side or another, next thing you know you've got a plasma and away we go. 2) At that point sparking is your least concern. 1) It stayed the same for pretty long, your document sounds like it's about vacuum tubes. Which are never as vacuum'ish as space vacuums. Space vacuum isn't a perfect vacuum either. |
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Post by Kerr on Jun 22, 2017 17:42:45 GMT
2) At that point sparking is your least concern. 1) It stayed the same for pretty long, your document sounds like it's about vacuum tubes. Which are never as vacuum'ish as space vacuums. Space vacuum isn't a perfect vacuum either. Yea, but I never said Space vacuum is a perfect vacuum, just an extremely "good" one. On average there is one atom per cubic centimeter in space. That means that there shouldn't be a single particle in the barrel. Nowhere near enough to conduct electricity. In real life there will be quite a lot of particles because the weapon itself releases gasses. Still, nowhere enough to conduct a current. |
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Post by RiftandRend on Jun 22, 2017 22:27:28 GMT
Well aware of the range issues, quote from the OP "relatively short ranges possible in game (10 Mm)". I don't see why barrel erosion would be an issue for this weapon, it doesn't fire particularly fast 1 and the per shot energy 2 is low. /s, I assume. After all: 1) 2.92 Mm/s is a high velocity and a reload time of 3.33 ms makes it rapid firing. 2) 14.3 kJ is plenty of energy in such a tiny round, with such a tiny bore. Something similar as a coilgun wouldn't have barrel erosion, is it possible to reach similar velocities with a one? Ahh, that's the earlier version, I forgot about that. It has a 30 ms reload. Coilguns cannot reach these velocities with such small projectiles |
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Post by RiftandRend on Jun 23, 2017 10:38:03 GMT
New version of the weapon, even higher muzzle velocity in exchange for ~2.5% efficiency. A ultralight version for drones is also available, and can be massed very easily.
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Post by matterbeam on Jun 23, 2017 17:02:35 GMT
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