Starship Fuel Sources

Ignorant_Boy · Post by **Ignorant_Boy** » 2002-09-27 07:58pm

Hi.
I was wondering what the general opinion was on high-powered fuel sources. I'm looking for something that could sustain a 1E30 W reactor for a year. I supposed I could use "anti-neutronium" or something but I'd rather not have an absurdly dense area placing stress on the ship. Anyone know what powers ISDs or anything about the "hypermatter" on the DS? Or anything about Culture ships for that matter?

Master of Ossus · Post by **Master of Ossus** » 2002-09-27 08:28pm

No one knows what hypermatter is. I once speculated that it was a closed thread, which the ISD/DS could harvest and then utilize, but that does not explain its properties adequately.

Post by **Mr Bean** » 2002-09-27 09:01pm

Hypermatter is possible another form of fuel entirly we simply have not run into before, I belive its speculated that its mined from Neutron Stars some-how but agian thats Speculation

HemlockGrey · Post by **HemlockGrey** » 2002-09-27 09:36pm

On the same lines, my own universe uses a complex ion-antiion annhilation process as fuel.

It's short, sounds cool, and is so advanced I will never, ever have to explain it.

paladin · Post by **paladin** » 2002-09-27 10:37pm

How about pasta and anti-pasta. silly but tasty!

Shaka[Zulu] · Post by **Shaka[Zulu]** » 2002-09-28 12:18am

as I have contributed some thought on this to lord wong's page, It (hypermatter) is most likely some form of ZPE, possibly using a method which draws energy directly from hyperspace. This is the only reasonable theory which meets the criteria as seen in the various sources. remember that the DS (any of them) had no on board fuel storage capability for its' own systems -- carried craft yes, but the superlaser, the stations drives etc used none of that supply.

Post by **Sea Skimmer** » 2002-09-28 12:33am

I've been a champion of Logic/Anti Logic reactors and munitions for some time. Despite being intangible, I've come up with how it is extracted and how it is stored and transported along with possibul applications.

Post by **The Yosemite Bear** » 2002-09-28 05:19am

I simply harnes other realities for the M.C. Escher. Of course building a ship that is physically impossible has it's limitations, but that's part of the fun of Chaos.

Rathark · Post by **Rathark** » 2002-09-28 06:01am

10E30 watts will use up five billion tons of antimatter and the same amount of matter per second. Antineutronium will save space, but the mass will be the same. Unless your reactor is the size of a small moon, I would suggest an extradimensional source of energy.

BTW, if there are no official explanations for hypermatter, then here's my theory: Hypermatter is 4-dimensional matter that can be "anchored" to the 3-D universe, providing a tremendous and lasting source of energy. It may resemble 3-D matter, but stacked in a huge (but perhaps finite) number of "layers" in a 4-D direction. From a 3-D viewpoint, it would seem that each 3-D layer is nested within the last one, so when one 3-D block of hypermatter is vapourised, another "falls" in to take its place, like banknotes in a counting machine.

Rathark · Post by **Rathark** » 2002-09-28 06:07am

After a year, your 10E30 Watt reactor will use up roughly 3 * 10E20 kilograms of combined matter and antimatter. I think that would correspond to an asteroid roughly 1000 km wide.

It's either that or something extradimensional

Dooey Jo · Post by **Dooey Jo** » 2002-09-28 06:25am

Rathark wrote: BTW, if there are no official explanations for hypermatter, then here's my theory: Hypermatter is 4-dimensional matter that can be "anchored" to the 3-D universe, providing a tremendous and lasting source of energy. It may resemble 3-D matter, but stacked in a huge (but perhaps finite) number of "layers" in a 4-D direction. From a 3-D viewpoint, it would seem that each 3-D layer is nested within the last one, so when one 3-D block of hypermatter is vapourised, another "falls" in to take its place, like banknotes in a counting machine.

You mean 5-dimensional matter, right? 'Cause the universe is acctually 4-D. The three usual dimensions and time. That's why it's called "space-time". All the matter in our universe has lenght, width and height and also time. That means all matter in the universe is 4-D.

Rathark · Post by **Rathark** » 2002-09-28 06:35am

Dooey Jo wrote:
Rathark wrote: BTW, if there are no official explanations for hypermatter, then here's my theory: Hypermatter is 4-dimensional matter that can be "anchored" to the 3-D universe, providing a tremendous and lasting source of energy. It may resemble 3-D matter, but stacked in a huge (but perhaps finite) number of "layers" in a 4-D direction. From a 3-D viewpoint, it would seem that each 3-D layer is nested within the last one, so when one 3-D block of hypermatter is vapourised, another "falls" in to take its place, like banknotes in a counting machine.
You mean 5-dimensional matter, right? 'Cause the universe is acctually 4-D. The three usual dimensions and time. That's why it's called "space-time". All the matter in our universe has lenght, width and height and also time. That means all matter in the universe is 4-D.

True. This would apply for hypermatter if you're talking about 4 spatial dimensions and 1 extra time dimension. Yet that time dimension would not be the same as OUR time dimension ... or would it?

Could a spatial 4th dimension and a temporal 4th dimension be two seperate things?

Solid Snake · Post by **Solid Snake** » 2002-09-28 01:08pm

I always thought hypermatter was matter directly channeled from hyperspace. Like a hyperspace tap reactor in Babylon 5.

Jadeite · Post by **Jadeite** » 2002-09-28 06:17pm

I've been a champion of Logic/Anti Logic reactors and munitions for some time. Despite being intangible, I've come up with how it is extracted and how it is stored and transported along with possibul applications.

I suppose Fundies provide the AntiLogic?

Post by **Darth Wong** » 2002-09-28 09:21pm

Read SW2ICS. The Empire has mastered the science of complex masses.

That's right: masses which can only be quantified with complex numbers. Imperial hyperdrives manipulate the complex mass-energy of the ship in order to enter hyperspace, and this means that much of the mass of an Imperial vessel is "imaginary", to use the colloquial term for complex numbers.

What are the effects of the complex component of a SW ship's mass on its momentum, inertia, gravity, etc? I haven't got a fucking clue. We're talking about some serious weird-ass theoretical physics now, and frankly, I can't imagine that anyone could come up with a theory that you could conclusively refute, given the fact that complex masses only exist in the realm of mathematics.

However, there is a distinct possibility that "hypermatter" is actually complex mass (ie- if the ship's mass is 4E10 + 4E12i kg, then only 40 million tons of the ship's mass is "real", while the remaining 4 billion tons is "complex"). If this is the case, then hypermatter reactors can essentially be thought of as using an extradimensional power source (technically not extradimensional, but equivalent as far as we're concerned).

Ignorant_Boy · Post by **Ignorant_Boy** » 2002-09-28 09:57pm

Ok. Thanks for the replies. The "complex mass" idea sounds fascinating though I'm still a little partial to the logic/Fundie reaction...