originally posted in:Halo Archive
Gentlemen and various Halo fans, for fun, I've been doing some work as of late. A little while back, people figured out the various yields of a MAC cannon and so forth. But I'd like to tackle a theory that hasn't been touched on because there is so little information. Now, this means that this thread is very, very theoretical, and a lot of the work is rough, not an exact thing, because I can only work with what I have. This will be an in progress thing. So, let's begin shall we?
So, slipspace portals. Probably takes quite a bit of energy to open right? Even more to sustain for periods of time. But just how much would be needed?
To do that, we need to look elsewhere first. And I present to you, the In Amber Clad! This is, currently, the most information I believe we have on a UNSC starship. So she's going to be our base to work off of.
Now, through some digging, I found out how fast she can move in space, and atmosphere. There sadly is no concrete source as to where these two bits came from to back these two pieces of information up, but until then, this is what we have, so this is what we'll use.
In order to figure out the draw of power on a ship, we need to figure out it's theoretical ceiling to how much power it can generate. IAC contains 2 Deuterium Fusion Reactors inside of it. And that's all we've got. That's our power source. But, see, ships in Halo have often been portrayed doing more than simply moving while generating a slipspace portal and going into it. They've been running. They've been fighting. And they've even opened them up in atmosphere. All of these are factors on power draw.
Well, first of all, we'll look at the simplest thing. Space is easier to work with because of less obstacles. But what do we need to figure out first? An approximation of how much IAC weighs. And the only relevant information we have are some dimensions, and the fact that it uses Titanium A plating, at the very least, on the outside.
Now, there are very many types of Titanium alloys out there, so, for the sake of simplicity, we'll use the standard Titanium.
If we take the calculations above, and were to condense them into a nice, rectangular piece of titanium, we find out that, with the armour plating alone, factoring in that it is 60cm thick across all the boards, IAC comes to a weight of,
196,635,305 KG.
This does not include the fact that it is hollow inside, possesses other materials, and has other equipment. This is just the barebones weight of the armour plating alone.
So with this number, we can do a little more work up in space.
Now, supposedly, IAC's maximum speed it can reach in space with it's own thrusters is pretty damn close to 1,000,000 meters per second. Now, if we go by a nice little rule set established about object's moving in space, it's that in order to move at any speed, an object needs an equal amount of thrust to move it. So, with some more math, we come to the amount of force needed to push IAC to its utter maximum speed in space.
196,635,305,000,000,000,000,000,000
That's quite a bit of force. Now, this is currently as far as I've gotten so far. I've just started working on all the calculations for the amount of energy required to produce this. So, in a little while, I'll come up with our first theoretical ceiling on how much power a UNSC ship can generate.
I say first, because there's more than just this calculation that I'll be factoring in.
In the meantime, feel free to take this apart or discuss. But for the love of god, don't ask me to produce formulas. It's an enormous, scattered mess mostly all over some paper and in my head. But know that I refined these and double checked them, and have gone over several re-writes to make everything add up nice. But like I said, feel free to take it apart or do some of your own work if you like.
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Edited by Scootasnacks: 4/20/2014 10:35:58 PM[b][i]TO MUCH SCIENCE!!!![/i][/b]
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Nice that you mention this. For the last several years, some students at MIT have been assisting NASA'a Jet PRopulsion Lab in working on testing the warp effect created by a Warp Drive. Don't laugh too hard. Some scientist (can't remember his name, but he's not here in 'Murica, he just created the base mathematical formula and processes) actually figured out a theoretical way for us to use various sub-atomic particles to affect the fabric of space/time. My point is, they're actually working on it.
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My head... It [i][b]Burns![/b][/i]
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I'm much more compliant towards there being two active sides to this ability, one being the "powering" of these ship-board reactors to provide the main leap into a slipspace-jump, then the other being the force and tech used to summon/create/collapse a wormhole. Nav. relays would be used to calculate an interstellar travel between two points, and the best/easiest way to reach any singular point is to utilize a straight line or path of trajectory (especially when basic resistances such as gravity or air resistance is the norm). As for raising/summoning/creating the wormhole between two points of travel we'd need to realize that the energy flux would need to be indefinite by itself, aside from energy already being used to maintain basic life-support functions and Nav. equipment through the ordeal, so I propose that the only drawl on energy is the initial creation of the wormhole and then the ship itself rides it's (the wormhole's) "sub-atomic collapse" into it's end destination point (like a leaf following the ripples on a watery pond.). As for the MAC-cannon, it would be best explained and exemplified by a multi-staged railgun, spinning the shot at immensely high speeds through magnetic-field stagings and then firing the shot down through a planet's atmosphere where it becomes super-heated and can cause massive damage upon impact to a singular (or area) target.
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[b] [/b]
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Which frigate model are we talking about here?
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Technically, a max velocity for a space ship is sort of bogus. Without air resistance and gravity to deal with, as long as thrust was being applied, the ship would theoretically continue to accelerate until thrust was no longer being given or until it was acted upon by an outside force. Any ship that could provide continuous thrust throughout the time could eventually reach near-light speeds, but the practical amount of time it would take to do so is the major point. That being said, we do know that human Slipspace generators--was it Shaw-Fujikawa Translight Drives?--use a massive amount of energy to enter Slipspace due to the fact that they tear a hole in normal space through brute force. Covenant tech is more effective and energy efficient because they use a more subtle method of 'slipping' into Slipspace (clever, right?). The basis of Forerunner tech is a little more obscure, but involves some sort of space-time 'reconciliation'. While I'm not sure what this entails (anyone feel free to fill me in--no spoilers!), it is even faster and more efficient than Covie tech. Precursor tech is even more vague, but we can assume that they have better tech than the Forerunners, and a greater understanding of Slipspace in general. That's my contribution. No idea if it means anything.
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Edited by Vien 'Quitonm: 4/17/2014 10:44:10 PM[quote]...a UNSC starship.[/quote] I'd rather fondle with a ship that doesn't "punch" a hole into the fabric of space.
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Edited by kgj: 4/17/2014 9:53:36 PM[quote]It's an enormous, scattered mess mostly all over some paper and in my head.[/quote] that's the best part do you have scans/pics of the calcs