ShadowDragon8685 wrote:Yeah, I figured my math was badly off afterwards, when a friend double-checked me. So I was derping there.
And yes, fusion unquestionably has a place as an energy source. You really don't want honking great piles of fullerened antimatter being used as fuel anywhere you plan to inhabit, for reasons The Longshoreman of the Apocalypse quite thoroughly details. And on a planetary surface, space isn't nearly at as much of a premium as it is on a ship, nor is fuel mass a critical issue, so I would imagine the Loroi use DT-He3 fusion to power most of their civil infrastructure, just as humanity does.
Even so, antimatter's not that hard to make industrially, when you have access to a sun. To me, it makes more sense that the Bell was more likely fueled by magnetic-bottle-confined antimatter. Also, re: Tempest having a greater than ten-jump bingo range:
Remember, one of the reasons they're sending Jardin to Seren is because a trip ten jumps past Naam requires logistics. It's not a trip that Tempest, not being a scout, or one of her frigates, is prepared to just up and make after a quick refueling. If humanity's fuel source was two orders of magnitude worse than the Loroi's, I would expect a not-a-scout warship to have a bingo range at least equal to or superior to a human scout vessel.
On the other hand, cryogenic helium, whilst certainly not all that dense, is loooooads more dense than liquid hydrogen. I was misremembering hydrogen-fueled ships as helium-fueled, so yeah, a fusion-powered ship could be more reasonably sized. I still think it'd probably be a lot damn bigger than Bellarmine would be, though, to have a twenty+ jump range plus in-system travel time.
Wow, a lot has been said since you responded to me...
I think we're in agreement about what energy source would best be used where. I know I wouldn't want to live anywhere near energetically-useful amounts of AM. Also,
The Longshoreman of the Apocalypse was a great arc. I'll have to re-read it.
I'd argue against industrial production of AM being easy. Not to be contrary, but just because a machine as massive and powerful as the LHC produces on the order of picograms of AM per year. At that point, you're really counting individual atoms produced. I imagine (hope) a better method will be found, but even using the sun, the facility would likely be immense. Given that the TCA can barely afford to fly its heavy cruisers, justifying the cost of an AM plant would be difficult.
I can see where you're coming from, though. Given what we know, M/AM would appear to make much more sense for the
Bell. I think this is where the science of Outsider gets a little "hand-wavey" and has to give way to the story it is telling. Perhaps one way around it would be AM-boosted fusion? Not enough to directly drive the ship, but enough improve energy output...
And, no comments about the new stuff you've posted as I haven't read it yet. Looking forward to it, though.
Sorry, i lost this part.
