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Post by apophys on Jul 28, 2016 17:07:05 GMT
Why do you prefer methane over decane? From the stats you mentioned, decane looks significantly denser while having similar thrust characteristics. Also, a few questions regarding hull armor: - Would it be possible to use the armor itself as a giant main radiator (embedded inside the main armor, or inside the whipple shield)? I can't imagine the piping & coolant being prohibitively extra mass compared to the material it replaces, nor causing too much structural weakness, and the loss in cooling efficiency by having only one direction of radiation should be more than countered by the surface area. Because if that would work, it might allow for significantly higher energy use in the weapons (specifically thinking spinal-mount coilguns). - I notice your cylinder armor is perfectly round, with several cylindrical propellant tanks inside. Is this just for ease of modeling? It wastes a (small) bit of mass as opposed to going straight across from the tangent points on those propellant tanks. I basically mean making a prism with rounded edges, like this: - Building on the above: How about a rounded rhombic prism for a broadside ship (4 cylindrical propellant tanks with the same hexagonal packing, wrapped together in armor)? Looks like a smaller profile and much better angled armor (30 degrees, largely) than a cylinder, with still fine mass and structural stability.
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