My
impression is that the L-Hyd is converted into energy that the jump drive holds on to until the computer gives the command to discharge and somehow open jump drive. In 1977 my thought was the conversion took place in the jump drive. CT LBB 5 1979 p. 23 chucked
the idea with the rule that the power plant number must at least equal the higher of the jump drive number or the maneuver drive number. CT LBB 5 1980 and CT LBB 2 1977/1981 has the same requirement of the power plant rating being at least equal the higher
rating of the jump drive or maneuver drive. Now my idea is that the power plant converts the L-Hyd to energy feeding the output to the jump drive which under computer stores the energy until the calculated level is needed and then somehow opens a hole into
jump space. The somehow until the JTAS article on jump space by Marc Miller introduced a gird that the energy flowed out to, of course there is still the somehow opening a hole into jump hanging out in my mind.
The problem with this scenario is that this makes a charged jump drive a multi gigaton (teraton?) bomb.
This posits that a jump drive is essentially a bank of extraordinarily powerful capacitors. You charge them up then dump all the energy at once into space to rip open a hole into Jspace.
If something else causes those capacitors to discharge without being directed that way: ‘booom’ (boom as in almost "didn’t there used to be an planet called Alderaan here?”)
All that energy goes somewhere.
Therefore: any jump drive is a potential WMD of truly hideous scale.
Using hydrogen as a bubble to insulate the ship from JSpace neatly solves all the issues: the volume, not mass requirement for amount of Hydrogen needed to make a jump, no WMD drives, no need for a powerplant that can fuse hundreds of cubic meters of hydrogen
in minutes, no handwavium to say why you cannot use that same powerplant for, say weapons power at that generation rate, no handwavium about ‘using excess H2 to cool the reactor’ when other materials like water could do it vastly better, etc, etc, et tedious
cetera…
Fundamentally the way jump drive is described and rules make no sense and are internally contradictory.
The only justification is ‘the rules say so'
On the other hand a jump bubble:
makes the jump fuel volume requirements make perfect sense, since you’re enclosing the volume of the ship.
does not require WMD-grade capacitors (or as much, because we’re not dumping the terajoules (ettajoules?) of energy from fusing hundred of cubic meters of hydrogen into them)
does not change the way your power plant operates (no ‘afterburner’ mode)
does not introduce inconsistencies in the rest of the technology. (Why aren’t charged Jdrive capacitors used as warheads?)
does not let terrorists use a jump drive ship to destroy cities. (well at least not by detonating a charged jump drive, we still need to figure out why near-C lifeboats aren’t used as bombs…)
(didn’t we JUST have a ‘jump grid energy’ versus ‘hydrogen jumpspace bubble’ flamewa...err, 'courtly discussion’ on list? I thought it was time for "female aslan in comfortable shoes”.. 8-)
--
Bruce Johnson
University of Arizona
College of Pharmacy
Information Technology Group
Institutions do not have opinions, merely customs