drag in space

[Shadowstar]

Well, there is the whole thing about having ships that just look nice. After all, just because you can build a flying rock doesn't mean it'll look like a million bucks (unless it's a flying gold nugget -- space casinos anyone?).

And, of course, space isn't empty. There are planets out there, and chances are, if you can travel to other stars, you're also gonna wanna check out the planets along the way. Designing a ship that can function in the atmosphere of a planet is important in that case. So even if you don't need to be aerodynamic all the time, chances are you'll need to be aerodynamic some of the time.

Of course, you could also go the way of having two different kinds of spacecraft; one for space and another for air and space, but that could end up more expensive as you'd then have to build two ships instead of just one, and one of the ships (probably the space-only ship) would have to be able to carry and launch the other one.

Then there's the whole discussion of designing ships that can function in very different atmospheres than Earth's. For instance, a planet with gravity half that of Earth, or a planet with air that's twice as thick, or a planet with a very thin atmosphere (low cieling), or one with high surface winds, etc. The aerodynamics on these planets would be very different, and ships would have to be designed to function in as many different environments as possible to be useful. And many planets have different atmospheric gasses, what then? How much will that anti-corrosive plating weigh? How does heat-shielding effect your aerodynamics? And so on...

It's good that these questions can be answered in the present, using aerodynamics simulations, so that we are prepared for the future.

[ February 09, 2003, 20:49: Message edited by: Shadowstar ]

[Baron Munchausen]

Originally posted by Imperator Fyron:
It does cause a (barely) measureable drag, but it is something like a fraction of a percent decrease in speed, so it does not have very much of an effect overall, esp. with the speed of engines in SE4.

Actually, it would increase with greater speed. Our spacecraft barely notice the drag because they are so slow. Get up to several percent of the speed of light and the solar wind will start to have a noticable effect on your ship.

I seem to recall that someone somewhere (NASA?) calculated what the temperature effects of 'ambient' matter on interstellar travel would be and figured out that ships could not go more than about .75 light speed without some new materials that could handle the heat buildup from friction, just like jets experience today. That's in interstellar space, not here in the much denser solar wind...

So as far as travel in 'normal' space is concerned, aerodynamic ships make perfect sense. In hyperspace/subspace/jumpspace/ whateverspace all bets are off.

[ February 09, 2003, 21:25: Message edited by: Baron Munchausen ]

[F Te antKe]

Then again, this is Science Fiction game and we can use a ship set just because it looks cool us.
I believe the applicable word is, "Grok".
The ability to recognize that something does not make sense but to accept it anyway.
Shadowstar I think we agree or at least partially.
Gryphin’s Tessellates are an interesting and to me attractive ship set. I can see how many would not like them.
Gryphin? How about it? Will you be uploading it?
I promise I won’t use my stiletto on them.
That brings up an idea. I should make a stiletto shaped set.

[Fyron]

Ships in SE4 do not go anywhere near the speed of light, so we don't have to worry about that.

[couslee]

Originally posted by primitive:
Ain't gonna happen.
High heels, big wigs, and short dresses is not advisable in Zero-G conditions.

Might make a funny ship-set. Have your ships so repulsive, that everyone feels the need to eradicate you just on the basis of aesthetics. And talk about a role play race..... lmao

[Puke]

i expected this thread to be about male ships in dresses.

[oleg]

Originally posted by Imperator Fyron:
Ships in SE4 do not go anywhere near the speed of light, so we don't have to worry about that.

But what kind of enviroment do you encounter when traveling through the wormhole ?
It is conciavable that "compressed space" or something can create some need for sleeky ships.

Based on data found in links, thanks Slick , I estimated that ship traveling at 0.3c between Sun and Alpha Centauri will get about 2kW per meter^2. Enough to start glowing red...

[Aloofi]

Originally posted by Imperator Fyron:
Ships in SE4 do not go anywhere near the speed of light, so we don't have to worry about that.

Exactly what i thought. In SE4 a ship needs 2 turns to go from the system's star to the the Warp point outside the system, which in our solar system would be over 4 Light Hours, and every turn in SE4 its about 40 days (36.8?) so the speed of the ships would be aroung 625 Km/sec.
Wow, I thought they would be faster than that!

[oleg]

Originally posted by Aloofim:

quote:

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Originally posted by Imperator Fyron:
Ships in SE4 do not go anywhere near the speed of light, so we don't have to worry about that.

Exactly what i thought. In SE4 a ship needs 2 turns to go from the system's star to the the Warp point outside the system, which in our solar system would be over 4 Light Hours, and every turn in SE4 its about 40 days (36.8?) so the speed of the ships would be aroung 625 Km/sec.
Wow, I thought they would be faster than that!

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But first they must accelerate to that speed, right ? That means to make the trip in time, the peak velocity would be much higher than apparent _average_ velocity.

[Aloofi]

Originally posted by oleg:
But first they must accelerate to that speed, right ? That means to make the trip in time, the peak velocity would be much higher than apparent _average_ velocity.[/QB]

There is a big diference between 625 Km/sec and 300 000 Km/sec.......
Ships in SE4 are traveling at 1/480s of light's speed.