New SWTC topic up:

Connor MacLeod · Post by **Connor MacLeod** » 2004-12-20 01:01am

Just cuz I'm bored.

http://www.theforce.net/swtc/power.html

Illuminatus Primus · Post by **Illuminatus Primus** » 2004-12-20 01:10am

Heh. Excellent.

Ender is going to have an orgasm when he reads this.

Alan Bolte · Post by **Alan Bolte** » 2004-12-20 02:10am

Awsome summary page. Like it or not, Saxton is essentially defining SW tech now, so even though technically this page isn't an official document, it does say "here's what I'm thinking when I'm writing stuff that is canon," and manages to be rather definitive on a number of issues. For example, I, knowing nothing about the subject, was never real sure about the invisible thrust stream issue.

Also, is he saying that, with 3500 G accel (at max fuel load?), a max reactor output of 2E23 W, and most of the output being directed to the engines in order to achieve the listed acceleration, that the Acclamator's mass (at max fuel load?) is in the realm of 10^7 tonnes? I'm just running off of P=Fc and F=ma here.

Also:
"thermal radiation from Earth's surface, if it were cooling from T=3000K"
"an intact star destroyer does not tend to vaporise"
LOL!

Lord Poe · Post by **Lord Poe** » 2004-12-20 02:18am

Alan Bolte wrote:Awsome summary page. Like it or not, Saxton is essentially defining SW tech now, so even though technically this page isn't an official document, it does say "here's what I'm thinking when I'm writing stuff that is canon," and manages to be rather definitive on a number of issues.

Ehh.. not exactly. Curtis would be the first to dissuade you from the notion that he now dictates canon!

Alan Bolte · Post by **Alan Bolte** » 2004-12-20 02:20am

Not quite what I meant.

Was just referring to the fact that he's writing professionally.

Illuminatus Primus · Post by **Illuminatus Primus** » 2004-12-20 05:29am

Lord Poe wrote:Ehh.. not exactly. Curtis would be the first to dissuade you from the notion that he now dictates canon!

He means that this is like the DK nonfiction version of peering at the internal production notes for Episode III. We get to see why Saxton lays out ships the way he does, and why they get the figures they do.

Winston Blake · Post by **Winston Blake** » 2004-12-20 06:42am

Dr Saxton wrote:Isotopic nuclear energy storage is a theoretical possibility in which atomic nuclei are raised to excited energy states (of the spins and internal motions of neutrons and protons).

I'm 90% sure that he's referring to recent x-ray triggering hafnium-178m2 experiments, but that is actually 'isomeric' (ie metastable isotopes) and not isotopic.

Has anyone ever heard of 'isotopic nuclear energy storage'?

McNum · Post by **McNum** » 2004-12-20 04:05pm

The Executor at full thrust radiates more energy than the Sun? Impressive...

I wonder... Would you be able to feel when the Executor does this on a nearby planet, then?

Techno_Union · Post by **Techno_Union** » 2004-12-20 05:35pm

McNum wrote:The Executor at full thrust radiates more energy than the Sun? Impressive...

Not too suprising considering its shields generate more energy than a medium sized star... though I don't recall the quote from the ITW exactly.

mauldooku · Post by **mauldooku** » 2004-12-23 12:49am

McNum wrote:The Executor at full thrust radiates more energy than the Sun? Impressive...

I wonder... Would you be able to feel when the Executor does this on a nearby planet, then?

Ouch. Sounds like poor man's Gridfire.

I love Saxton's stuff. Every time I read a page of his website, I realize just how unimaginably powerful Star Wars really is. For example:

electrical consumption of USA in 2001 4.1 × 10 ^11 (W)

star destroyer engines running idle 8 × 10^11 (W)

Twice the power usage of the entire USA? That's inconceivable, and yet it's how the SW universe operates. Good job, Dr. Saxton; I look forward to the latest ICS.