On 15 Feb 2016 at 9:04, Jeffrey Schwartz wrote:

> One of the things I kinda like is T5 addresses the "magic heat
> dissipation" issue as well - by making the reactor runs in low
> efficiency mode compared to groundside systems with real heat sinks.
> There's a lot of wording that strongly implies a good amount of the
> fuel is used as coolant, and vented off to carry away heat.
>
> Then when you kick the reactor to "more power!" to charge the jump
> drives, then even more LH2 is vented to dump heat.

Alas, the math just doesn't work. the ship can't carry enough *ice*
much less LH2 (which isn't nearly as good at soaking up heat) to
handle the waste heat for more than *hours*. Not the days to weeks
that would be required.

To give you some idea of the values involved, air conditioning units
for *buildings* are rated in *tons* of ice per day. And they have one
hell of a lot less heat to get rid of than a starship.

--
Leonard Erickson (aka shadow)
shadow at shadowgard dot com