Inertial space propulsion

[Korto]

This evolved from me trying to figure out a way of space propulsion that would enable ships to dip and dive and rapidly manoeuvre, at a high percentage of c, without turning the crew into so much wallpaper paste.
It’s an inertial nullification field, affecting the ship, and everything in it. When the field is first activated, that locks in the “state of rest”, when the ship is considered motionless. (It is important to note that the mass reduction is only relative to everything outside the field. Things inside the field have their full mass relative to each other.)
The ship’s drives are then activated, giving the ship a velocity relative to its rest state. Once the desired velocity is gained, and this can be absolutely miniscule, then inertia, and therefore mass, starts being reduced. The trick is, if you reduce mass, then conservation of momentum means that velocity increases. Reduce it enough, and you could be travelling extremely fast indeed. Conservation of Energy means you also have a lot of kinetic energy to make up for, but it also means that that mass that’s been ‘reduced’ must have gone somewhere. Energy. The energy surplus from reducing the mass far outweighs the deficit from the increased velocity.
It’s fortunate there’s a storage device onboard with a theoretically unlimited electrical power capacity.
When its time to slow down, the process is reversed. As mass is returned, velocity slows and energy flows back to its original places.

Interesting effects
* Anything entering the field is affected in the same way, its mass is reduced and it accelerates, according to its velocity relative to the ship’s “state of rest”. This is a serious problem as the projectile and the excess energy has to be stopped by the ship’s force-fields, at the ship’s energy expense. Therefore ships are made with a small profile, and take routes free of as much space matter as possible.
* Electromagnetic radiation would, I believe, be red-shifted but increase in intensity. One presumes there are sensors and computers to correct for this effect for any view-screens. Forget windows, unless you can see in the long-wave radio.
* Despite my desire for rapid manoeuvres, the fact is these ships can only change direction in space by re-massing, stopping, moving in the new direction, and then reducing mass again. This is not a fast operation. They move in straight lines, with stops to re-orient.
* Mass projectiles are extremely dangerous to a ship in a reduced mass state. Even a quite large projectile can be accelerated to relativistic speeds, but have its full mass relative to the ship! In battle, stopping dead (re-massing) is often a serious consideration.
* If a ship tries to re-mass when it no longer has the energy needed (most likely due to shield expenditure), enough matter will fail to exist to account for the missing mass-energy, in random and unpredictable areas. This obviously can have negative consequences. The usual response is to keep going and hope for help (another ship with enough excess energy to make up for the shortfall).


Final note – If I leave the mass-reduction field working like this, it’s also an extraordinarily good power generator. Mass-down, siphon off the power, eventually you have to mass-up again, and then replace the whole thing as it vanishes (as you’ve drained the energy). It provides total mass-energy conversion.

[Shroom Man 777]

Nice... story?

Is it an original work of fiction or a fanfic?

[Korto]

Nice... story?

Is it an original work of fiction or a fanfic?

It's original (I hope), so maybe it shouldn't be here, but it didn't seem right in Sci-Fi either.

Whether it's going to be a series of stories or a role-playing universe I don't know at the moment (probably both, if I ever find the time for either). At the moment I'm just working out the tech and concepts, and trying to find problems and implications.

Figured I'd stick it here, and see what holes others can poke in it.

[Themightytom]

"* Anything entering the field is affected in the same way, its mass is reduced and it accelerates, according to its velocity relative to the ship’s “state of rest”. This is a serious problem as the projectile and the excess energy has to be stopped by the ship’s force-fields, at the ship’s energy expense. Therefore ships are made with a small profile, and take routes free of as much space matter as possible"

So is this like an incredibly high speed snowplow? Does space matter accumulate?

yeah this really should be in Scifi I thin

[Korto]

So is this like an incredibly high speed snowplow? Does space matter accumulate?

I oversimplified. As any junk is accelerated in the direction of the junk's velocity relative the the field's "state of rest", I suppose there would be a spray of junk in all directions. However, at least a proportional amount would be towards the ship. If that junk is dead-on enough that it doesn't slide off, I suppose it would stay.
So yes. And yes.

yeah this really should be in Scifi I thin

If I wasn't making mistakes, I wouldn't be making anything at all; so if the Mod agrees, I have no complaints.

[Themightytom]

[quote="Themightytom
yeah this really should be in Scifi I thin[/quote]

and further more i would like to add "k"