I'd love for there to be a nuclear fission device, likely smaller and heavier than the nuclear fusion device, but with a similarly high power output. I'd recommend a metal-cooled reactor, like the historical mercury-cooled Clementine reactor, a plutonium reactor which was quite powerful for the 1940's. (We can, of course, do better now.)
#Nuclear Fission Reactor
deep quail
primal trail
Sounds like the old reactors, plug and play self regulating power
primal trail
RTG would be great if they overheat and need a cooler. Might make it tricky to install one, but two or three would pay for their own power. Also the real use of redundancy for systems, like putting the transponder on a separate circuit
ebon gazelle
I'd love this as a midway point between battery-only and full fusion reactor.
If going the RTG path, the code's basically already there- it's a small AI Cargo that outputs less heat and provides power rather than draining it.
no interface panels needed because there's not really a way to control it
primal trail
Hmm, trick is an RTG would need to be hot when uninstalled, which sounds fussy
hollow ledge
RTGs are pretty inefficient for electricity generation, but as Mark Watney taught us, it is an excellent heat source.
ebon gazelle
Hmm, trick is an RTG would need to be hot when uninstalled, which sounds fussy
Just assume it isn’t. Do whatever the AI cargo does.
deep quail
It'd be kind of neat if it had fewer components - maybe the main unit, and one or two coolers, to basically cool whatever fluid is in the reactor? It'd also allow for smaller designs, albeit with (potentially) similar mass.
ebon gazelle
I’d save that for a nuclear-thermal rocket- all I’d want out of this is a sealed-unit power supply.
deep quail
I think you'd need the cooling regardless, if I'm honest - there's a decent XKCD about this - obviously using a different sort of loop, of course, but the thermal efficiency issues remain.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EsUBRd1O2dU
ebon gazelle
I think you'd need the cooling regardless, if I'm honest - there's a decent XKCD...
Okay, so first things first: I was a reactor operator for 6 years (naval, carriers). I know a bit when it comes to power reactors.
For a RTG (not a reactor), you don’t strictly need one (or rather, you can get away with radiators to air to the hull’s radiators. Inefficient but functional).
small mortar
or you can just
y'know
put em on the outside of the ship, and let it radiate its own heat out
ebon gazelle
grumbles in black-body radiation but yes, for something small
deep quail
Okay, so first things first: I **was** a reactor operator for 6 years (naval, ca...
Neat! I was figuring the latter as the best case, aye - I was thinking the change in medium and inefficiency of air as a conductor of heat would cause the, well, aforementioned inefficiency. (I mean, one could get away with it, but it didn't seem best-practice.)
My knowledge of thermal transfer comes primarily from metallurgical endeavors.
ebon gazelle
Oh it’s not best practice in the slightest, and it won’t work for megawatt-grade reactors, but RTG’s tend to top out at single kilowatt levels.
Plus the game’s a game- abstracting it won’t kill us, and it might make it easy enough to implement.
deep quail
Fair! I tend to think more spacecraft in science fiction need big heatsinks anyway, so I don't mind it much!
oak escarp
With the amount of heat a fusion reactor puts out, very much yes.
ebon gazelle
weird that we don't need any radiators for the actual fusion reactors 😈
it's probably installed in the THIRD DIMENSION (spooky theramin noises)
upper gazelle
The magic fusion reactor magically transforms most of the heat directly into electricity. Because last I checked, we don't install any steam turbines or radiator equipment to transform the heat into electricity via mechanical motion, the same that would be needed for a fission based solution.
oak escarp
Fusion reactors let us finally break free of steam.
ebon gazelle
The magic fusion reactor magically transforms _most_ of the heat directly into e...
We install a MHD generator that uses magnetohydronamic forces to turn hot gasses into electricity and warm waste gasses.
A RTG doesn't need a steam turbine or radiator- it uses seeback-effect thermocouples (don't quote me on the name) to turn a heat gradient directly into power.
oak escarp
See, much like a turbine rotates a dynamo, the motion of plasma can perturb an electromagnetic field and produce current.
I'm going to presume that the warm waste gases are vented once they're done with.
ebon gazelle
into the cabin 😱
oak escarp
Shame we can't capture them and turn them into zoom zoom gas, they'd be pretty good at that.
upper gazelle
Does the MHD actually perform the connection to the power grid?
ebon gazelle
unknown; I think everything gets powered/gives power through the reactor connection.
deep quail
Thermopiles trend extremely inefficient though, even at the "high efficiency" end, especially when one takes mass into the equation; "Steam makes thing go spinny" or "Currents of coolant make thing go spinny" tend to be favorites for a reason. ^^
sly lagoon
Shame we can't capture them and turn them into zoom zoom gas, they'd be pretty g...
who knows, maybe it's mixed into the torch plume 🤷♀️
deep quail
You know, if there was a version based around steam, it'd tie in nicely with the whole new water things they're doing. I still lile liquid mercury, personally, though.
oak escarp
Whole new water things?
deep quail
Apparently wastewater and water in general is slated for development? (If I've interpreted right.)
oak escarp
Oh, yes. And if it isn't, I will annoy the piss out of the devs until it is :)
(I've already shown one my stupid flight board controller idea and they liked it, although don't have time to implement it now or any point in the foreseeable future q.q)
deep quail
Irradiating the water, then selling the heavy water as fusion fuel could also be fun and neat!
worthy valley
RTG would be great if they overheat and need a cooler. Might make it tricky to i...
And an RTG would make the anti-rad medicine more useful…
oak escarp
Yeah, the anti-rad medicine needs more use in general. Like, for instance, during interplanetary travel.
sly lagoon
do fusion reactors actually produce any radiation, or is that only when the ABL is destroyed?
ebon gazelle
Yeah, the anti-rad medicine needs more use in general. Like, for instance, durin...
That reminds me, I had a pretty hefty-ish medical rework, lemme yoink it.
deep quail
Yeah, the anti-rad medicine needs more use in general. Like, for instance, durin...
That, to me, implies Not Enough Shielding. Water on the Outside Layer! Or lead. Lead works.
ebon gazelle
There’s not enough associated with the rad-sim; I’d want a personal dosimeter before tossing in ambient rads.
deep quail
Yanno, agreed. Or at least those little badges they make you wear that go black if they're upset with you. (I still have one laying around somewhere.)
ebon gazelle
A film badge? I’ve never used one; it was all TLD’s and EPD’s for us.
tawny eagle
...?
deep quail
A film badge? I’ve never used one; it was all TLD’s and EPD’s for us.
I mean, this was at one of the many universities I've attended - the geiger counter they trained me on was from the 1950s.
ebon gazelle
so is ours!
“JPR it’s the 2010’s”
and?
deep quail
Huh! Didn't know that was a common thing. I thought it was part of the jank, like how the pXRF only worked with a laptop running Xp from a decade prior before a specific patch.
ebon gazelle
laptop?