Ion engine shenanigans

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Ender
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Post by Ender »

meh, whatever then.

Relevent to this thread: to calculate the energy used to accelerate a given mass to C, I would use the relativistic KE equation, or something else?

Because if it is relativistc KE then my work on ion engines is complete and I'll post a summary
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XaLEv
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Post by XaLEv »

Yeah, that should work.
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Ender
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Post by Ender »

Well then looks like my work was spot on. I can fully state that Necronlord's theory is workable.

Assuming a 50 million ton ISD and 3000 G acceleration and duplicator efficiency of a mere 10%, an ISD can produce the mass needed to propel it from pure energy-mass conversion and then accelerate it to .99C with energy to spare.

Energy to make the matter: 5.7E23 watts
Energy to accelerate it: 3.47E23 watts

Total energy required by the engines: 9.17E23 watts

Total energy produced (assuming a spherical main reactor until I get better numbers) from the main reactor and 2 subsidiary reactors: 2.58E24 watts

If you assume a much more reasonable duplicator efficiency (IMHO) you get ~8E22 Watts to make the matter, which is the output of both of those subsidiary reactors. Which strikes me as really weird.

Until I'm able to upload this whole spreadsheet for download (how did Ted C do it?), anyone who wants these calcs, along with the power generation ones and the BDZ calculator email me

enderandloki@yahoo.com
بيرني كان سيفوز
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Nuclear Navy Warwolf
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in omnibus requiem quaesivi, et nusquam inveni nisi in angulo cum libro
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ipsa scientia potestas est
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