Terran Nuclear Tech (split from Terran Q&A)
Posted: Wed Jun 05, 2019 1:13 pm
What level is terran nuclear tech, do they have Pure fusion weapons?
I was thinking about the Mjolnir particle beam cannon and how it functions.
The energy requirement and discharge rate for the rail guns on Terran ships shows a level of technology required to produce small explosively pumped flux compression generators(EPFCG) capable of pure fusion. EPFCG are extremely cheap to build and with the rail guns it appears providing the initial charge sufficient for fusion is not difficult for Terran Tech.
Which made me wonder how is the Mjolnir Particle Beam Cannon powered, is it effectively a Casaba Howitzer?
It if uses EPFCG's it would make all the other races weapons including the waveloom look like a popgun against a single target through it would still have far less range, unlike the waveloom it would have no charge up time. Since much of the weapons active components are ejected as plasma during firing it should have less thermal problems then one would otherwise think to boot.
EPFCG capable of creating pure fusion would allow on cheap, mass production of EPFCG "ammo" for a particle cannons on ships and 1 use missiles.
A quasi neutral particle weapon that is actually installed into a ship and uses dual EPFCG's, one to generate the plasma for the particle stream and the second to provide electrical power to charge the containment systems to contain and collimate. Hydrogen based beam would have a velocity a few % of light and unlike what appears to be the case for the other races energy weapons it would have significant mass. I base velocity estimate off cold war research that shows ~120km/s for tungsten based particle beam, ~400km/s for iron and a velocity change that is surprisingly liner in relation to atomic mass of the element used for the particle beam and assuming hydrogen is as light as Terrans technology can go because they can't fire subatomic particles.
While Terran ships would still lose a fight due to range alone with the other races there would be a short moment as a Mjolnir volley fires at energy levels they can't match that this would be appropriate.
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bSEfx6 ... jreload=10[/youtube]
I'm sure the Lori and Umiak could make far superior versions but the idea of particle weapon that half destroys itself appears to be only a human invention in the outsider universe(assuming its based on real Earth history), or maybe detonating fusion bombs inside their ships puts them off.
So I found some more data that is interesting... max collimation reached for hydrogen is ~0.00057 and max particle velocity unassisted is 10000km/s(3% light) for nuclear pumped particle weapon.
For Hydrogen bomb pumped particle stream using the Tsar bomb max yield 100mt.
Beam angle 0.00057 degrees
Efficiency 85%(Maximum estimated efficiency unassisted, no external fields)
Yield 100mt
Damage Penetrates ~30cm of steel at 50000km over 190000m2.
Best we can actually make today if humanity wanted too is apparently 20% efficiency.
Thats still around 7cm of steel over 190000m2 at 50000km...
Kinda scary what humans can do today if we really wanted to wage a space war.
Is a weapon that can penetrate 7cm of steel across the entire ships surface going to cause Lori and Umiak ships armour problems or is it meh thats nothing?
I was thinking about the Mjolnir particle beam cannon and how it functions.
The energy requirement and discharge rate for the rail guns on Terran ships shows a level of technology required to produce small explosively pumped flux compression generators(EPFCG) capable of pure fusion. EPFCG are extremely cheap to build and with the rail guns it appears providing the initial charge sufficient for fusion is not difficult for Terran Tech.
Which made me wonder how is the Mjolnir Particle Beam Cannon powered, is it effectively a Casaba Howitzer?
It if uses EPFCG's it would make all the other races weapons including the waveloom look like a popgun against a single target through it would still have far less range, unlike the waveloom it would have no charge up time. Since much of the weapons active components are ejected as plasma during firing it should have less thermal problems then one would otherwise think to boot.
EPFCG capable of creating pure fusion would allow on cheap, mass production of EPFCG "ammo" for a particle cannons on ships and 1 use missiles.
A quasi neutral particle weapon that is actually installed into a ship and uses dual EPFCG's, one to generate the plasma for the particle stream and the second to provide electrical power to charge the containment systems to contain and collimate. Hydrogen based beam would have a velocity a few % of light and unlike what appears to be the case for the other races energy weapons it would have significant mass. I base velocity estimate off cold war research that shows ~120km/s for tungsten based particle beam, ~400km/s for iron and a velocity change that is surprisingly liner in relation to atomic mass of the element used for the particle beam and assuming hydrogen is as light as Terrans technology can go because they can't fire subatomic particles.
While Terran ships would still lose a fight due to range alone with the other races there would be a short moment as a Mjolnir volley fires at energy levels they can't match that this would be appropriate.
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bSEfx6 ... jreload=10[/youtube]
I'm sure the Lori and Umiak could make far superior versions but the idea of particle weapon that half destroys itself appears to be only a human invention in the outsider universe(assuming its based on real Earth history), or maybe detonating fusion bombs inside their ships puts them off.
So I found some more data that is interesting... max collimation reached for hydrogen is ~0.00057 and max particle velocity unassisted is 10000km/s(3% light) for nuclear pumped particle weapon.
For Hydrogen bomb pumped particle stream using the Tsar bomb max yield 100mt.
Beam angle 0.00057 degrees
Efficiency 85%(Maximum estimated efficiency unassisted, no external fields)
Yield 100mt
Damage Penetrates ~30cm of steel at 50000km over 190000m2.
Best we can actually make today if humanity wanted too is apparently 20% efficiency.
Thats still around 7cm of steel over 190000m2 at 50000km...
Kinda scary what humans can do today if we really wanted to wage a space war.
Is a weapon that can penetrate 7cm of steel across the entire ships surface going to cause Lori and Umiak ships armour problems or is it meh thats nothing?