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Post by theholyinquisition on Jan 27, 2017 19:34:32 GMT
Sure! Copying/using is the best form of flattery. I've done my best to cull unnecessary stuff but a lot of stuff has been left in this file. Note: For the Ce:Lff lasers to work properly, you need to get molten gold and molten tin from Candyland Armanents in the General thread, as well as the Ce:Lff crystal in the suggestions thread by other users on this forum. Also, do not let the AI launch a drone wave of 15+ mailmen drones. 1500+ missiles is game crashing... Also, there's much to improve. Here it is.
Edit: There might be something in there which belongs to other forum users. In particular, the reactors are not mine, that's for sure. Mostly Apophys and JasonVance. Thanks a bunch!
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Post by ross128 on Jan 29, 2017 16:05:24 GMT
Regarding the power generation stuff, I actually have wondered why we don't just put a turbine between the reaction chamber and the bell. Due to material requirements of the reaction chamber and bell, the exhaust temperature is by necessity lower than the melting temperature of several materials available to us, which could conceivably be used to make the turbine. The only difference between a rocket and an open-cycle generator is the turbine anyway.
Of course, we'd only be able to capture a fraction of the exhaust energy and doing so would have a direct negative effect on the exhaust velocity (and thus fuel efficiency), but as a tradeoff, doing so would allow us to run a smaller secondary reactor, or no reactor at all if our power requirements are low enough, with corresponding mass savings on radiators. And a small fraction of several gigawatts is a lot.
Of course, there is the small problem that an engine turbine would only generate power when the rocket is firing... that might make it a good solution for drones though.
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Post by antonindvorak on Mar 22, 2017 2:54:57 GMT
Regarding the power generation stuff, I actually have wondered why we don't just put a turbine between the reaction chamber and the bell. Due to material requirements of the reaction chamber and bell, the exhaust temperature is by necessity lower than the melting temperature of several materials available to us, which could conceivably be used to make the turbine. The only difference between a rocket and an open-cycle generator is the turbine anyway. Reaction chamber and bell can be cooled regeneratively. It helps a lot that there are no moving parts. Turbines have moving parts. Some of them spin really really fast, causing additional material stress. And it's kinda hard pumping remass through them, given that turbine blades do not have an outside where there is no heat, they have to be thin and tend to spin … so you likely have to use a colder, slower exhaust. Which means you need more remass … and 99+% of the time your turbine is unused. It's much simpler (and does not involve fast, spinning objects with high maintenance requirements and catastrophic failure modes) to add a bunch of decaying radioactive bits, a thermocouple and a bit of shielding - stuff that can work for decades, non-stop, with zero maintenance (see Voyager probes), supplying energy all the time. If you feel the need for a short term open cycle generator, say to power weapons, use a dedicated one, which you can run even when the main engines are shut down. Or use some energy storage system.
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Post by Enderminion on Mar 22, 2017 3:31:07 GMT
Regarding the power generation stuff, I actually have wondered why we don't just put a turbine between the reaction chamber and the bell. Due to material requirements of the reaction chamber and bell, the exhaust temperature is by necessity lower than the melting temperature of several materials available to us, which could conceivably be used to make the turbine. The only difference between a rocket and an open-cycle generator is the turbine anyway. Of course, we'd only be able to capture a fraction of the exhaust energy and doing so would have a direct negative effect on the exhaust velocity (and thus fuel efficiency), but as a tradeoff, doing so would allow us to run a smaller secondary reactor, or no reactor at all if our power requirements are low enough, with corresponding mass savings on radiators. And a small fraction of several gigawatts is a lot. Of course, there is the small problem that an engine turbine would only generate power when the rocket is firing... that might make it a good solution for drones though. you have a spiny bit thats a little cold in your hot fast exhaust, the spiny bit takes kinetic energy (velocity) from the exhaust lowing Dv, also you don't run rockets 24/7
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