Project Bases to Land Planet Hopper Class star ships

[TCR_500]

Unless you can proove that plasma doesn't work that way, you're not going to easily convince me that it doesn't. Sence plasma is basicly just a gas that is held together with a magnetic field, it shouldn't be too hard to make it so gas can't get through but a space craft can. And the space craft can have it's own magnet just in case the plasma doesn't break up on impact. That way, if one thing doesn't work, the other will. If the space craft's hull can't break up the plasma, the space craft's magnet will.

 

[Urwumpe]

Ok, let's get back to the original topic. The bases. I've been thinking about putting a giant dome with an atmosphere in it. To save time on opening doors to let the space craft in, the doors will be made of plasma and will have an airlock disign. The plasma is held tightly by a magnetic field, loosens up and tighens up based on where the space craft is to let it through.

Ok, please tolerate my Arabian, but in which class did you quit school for becoming a professional ignorant? All stuff you write here is pure stupid techno-babble, which is even too stupid for Star Trek writers. You have no clue what plasma is and how it behaves and how spacecrafts react on plasma, but you are willed to use it anyway. It does not work. A plasma door is not physically impossible - you can create something like that, but the reality would look completely different to what you want to have. What you want to have like that, will not work. And that is caused by a very very basic and simple problem: you have a very impaired knowledge of even the simplest elements of physics. You don't even know what plasma is, while this is still one of the simplest things about plasma (how plasma behaves exactly is still subject to intensive research, but a basic level physics text book will tell you, that your fantasy is wrong and plasma will at least NEVER behave like that).

Sorry, but I can understand if people decide that you are not worth at all getting any assistance in add-on making. Not only you are unhelpable, and resistant to learning, you are also showing a lack of social skills or interest in other people in the thread. You should use a blog, disable comments and do your stuff. You will never get a Hugo Award for it, and I have strong doubts you will ever arrive at a useful add-on that way.

For making an add-on, you need basic knowledge of technical mechanics. For example knowing the difference between force and torque - something which is not trivial at all. And I am pretty sure, your tiny world of star wars physics will not like being confronted often with such annoying details like newtonian physics.

---------- Post added at 12:15 AM ---------- Previous post was at 12:09 AM ----------

Unless you can proove that plasma doesn't work that way, you're not going to easily convince me that it doesn't. Sence plasma is basicly just a gas that is held together with a magnetic field,...

That is absolutely and perfectly wrong! Plasma is not at all a gas. Or held together by anything by definition. Plasma is the called the forth state of matter. Not solid, gas or liquid, it is plasma.

If you want to know what plasma really is like, at the most up-to-date state of physical research, get a look at this book:

[ame="http://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Plasma-Physics-Controlled-Fusion/dp/0306413329/ref=sr_1_1/182-8030734-2338437?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1241820727&sr=8-1"]Amazon.com: Introduction to Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion: Francis F. Chen: Books[/ame]

Otherwise, you should read the short summary of wikipedia and use it for finding more data - wikipedia is never a reliable source, but it is a good start for learning about concepts, before you dive deeper into it and get the real books out of a well-sorted library.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plasma_(physics)

 

[TCR_500]

I already read that page. And the first sentance is "In physics and chemistry, plasma is a partially ionized gas, in which a certain proportion of electrons are free rather than being bound to an atom or molecule." Therefore, I was right about plasma being a gas.

And no one answered my question. Can I put an atmosphere inside a building without effecting the entire planet in orbiter?

 

[PhantomCruiser]

And I still don't believe that there is a law about using the metric system. You're going to have to do better than just say that there is.

You didn't click on the link did you? I'd forgotten all about the Metric Act (of 1975), I remember my teachers talking about metric conversions (and my parents complaining about the same). It was a big deal then. Not so much now, but then in 1975 you couldn't buy 2 liter Cokes(TM) then either...

Back to runways on the moon (or Mars). Ummm, why? Has anyone calculated the rollout required for a ship with as much weight as you've suggested for a Mars rolling recovery? With some add-on MFD's (arrive, Land, etc) hover landing the way to go.

My suggestion is to just build the ship, post it, then wait for feedback. Then make tweaks based on what you hear back. Build the bases and do the same thing. If you've done a good job, then the totalizer that counts your downloads will tell you all you need to know.

Myself, I'd take the length of your planet-hopper, add 20 meters to the length (and width) and make the land pad that size. Anything more is wasted real estate.

 

[Urwumpe]

And no one answered my question. Can I put an atmosphere inside a building without effecting the entire planet in orbiter?

Yes you can. But you can't have it large enough to fly with a spacecraft through it. The physics engine does not allow special gas volumes.

And on the plasma: You have shown you can do copy and paste of the first sentence, but did you also understand the whole first paragraph?

...The ability of the positive and negative charges to move somewhat independently makes the plasma electrically conductive so that it responds strongly to electromagnetic fields. Plasma therefore has properties quite unlike those of solids, liquids or gases and is considered to be a distinct state of matter. Plasma typically takes the form of neutral gas-like clouds, as seen, for example, in the case of stars. Like gas, plasma does not have a definite shape or a definite volume unless enclosed in a container, but unlike gas, in the influence of a magnetic field, it may form structures such as filaments, beams and double layers...

You will get plasma, if you partially ionize a gas. That is the whole meaning of the first sentence. It is even explicitly said that plasma is no gas. So, you are wrong, had been shown to be wrong again, and now ask yourself: Shall this be the content of your life? Being wrong again and again and again, and never learning?

 

[TCR_500]

Mabey we won't be able to puch a hole in the forcefield with the body of an aircraft/spacecraft. But we can move the plasma out of the way either by putting a magnetic disrupter on the space craft, or pulling the field open with the magnetic field on the base. Either way, the force field will be opened.

Ok then. I think I could add a planet to the moon with no mass and only a few cm in diameter and give that an atmosphere and put the mesh over it. I know it won't be as realistic as an actual pressurized dome, but at least it has a chance of working.

 

[Urwumpe]

Mabey we won't be able to puch a hole in the forcefield with the body of an aircraft/spacecraft.

There is no force field. Also no magnetic disruptor (you can shield magnetic fields with magnetic materials).

Orbiter is not Star Trek.

 

[ThatGuy]

Why don't you use doors? It would be simpler, and you don't have to screw with the laws of physics to do it.

 

[Urwumpe]

Why don't you use doors? It would be simpler, and you don't have to screw with the laws of physics to do it.

Pssst. Don't mention that humanity invented doors millenniums ago.

 

[TCR_500]

I thought of doors. But an airlock with doors would have to be pretty quick when taking in a space craft traveling at almost 100 m/sec. Plus only one door can be opened at a time.

 

[PhantomCruiser]

Doesn't one of the Mars "hourglass" bases have some kind of big structure that you can taxi up to (and under)?.

I think a moveable airlock tube (ala Space 1999's Moonbase Alpha) would be easier to do (and cheaper). Some thing that I'm keeping in mind for my own base construction is that some corporation or government is going to have to foot the bill, so I'm using the K.I.S.S. principle.

Most of the base is built into the side of a crater (kind of like Heinlein) with hangers poking about halfway out (so you only see half the hanger, not the hanger taking up half the crater). Landing pads about 30 meters or so outside the doors, and antenna farm, solar farm, perhaps a hangtrain over to the other side of the crater for the residential sections.

A bigger pad to handle an XR-5 (perhaps 2?). And a few domes for the science dept. I'm doing some intel gathering for a solar forge but will dump it if it's too sci-fi. I've still got lots of work to do, but I've also got a job, wife and a teenage daughter.

Anyway, no room for a runway. It's a requirement that all pilots on approach to Phantom Base know how to land their craft.

Oh yeah, for "base defense" from meteor impact I'm sticking in the Laser Tanks from Orbit Hanger. But I'll make sure I get the authors permission before I post anything.

---------- Post added at 12:26 AM ---------- Previous post was at 12:12 AM ----------

Yeah, I know impacts are pretty rare, the tanks are actually there to simulate a means to tunnel into the crater for base expansion until I can figure out how to make my own version of a multipurpose lunar bulldozer.

Plus TCR here wanted this ship to defend against asteroids or something until the base can "defend" itself, then the ship was to leave (at least that's what I thought I read a few pages back). I was just kind of suggesting to the kid that what he wants to do has already been thought of. But I seriously don't think he was around to watch Space 1999.

 

[TCR_500]

What is "Space 1999"?

 

[TSPenguin]

"Space 1999"
http://lmgtfy.com/?q="Space+1999"

 

[TCR_500]

It figures. Another science fiction show.

 

[PhantomCruiser]

Well, if you overlook the campiness (campyness?) of the thing, Moonbase Alpha and the Eagles are not based on impossible technology. The show had some obvious flaws (pretty glaring ones actually), but if I remember correctly, quite a bit of the tech is either here now, or not too far off in the future. Aside from the miniskirts...

100 m/sec?!? Is the approach controlled by the AI or manually? That's a pilot w/ nerves of steel.

 

[ThatGuy]

Even simpler question: Why does this planet hopper need to enter an airlock? Is there a reason or is it just because you want to?

100 m/s landing...into an airlock...
[scottish_voice]I don't think she can take it, Captain![/scottish_voice]

 

[Woo482]

It needs to go in a airlock or its star wars/TCR_500 Physics will make it collapse in to a black hole made out of plasma

 

[Sky Captain]

From the engineering standpoint it`s always better to choose simpler systems not the complicated ones because simpler generally is more reliable. For the airlock the obvious choice is simple large doors not the complicated plasma window gadgetry that relies on countless active systems susceptible to failure and is a power guzzler. In such already complicated structure as Moon base you would never want additional unnecessary complexity.

 

[Notebook]

Well, if you overlook the campiness (campyness?) of the thing, Moonbase Alpha and the Eagles are not based on impossible technology. The show had some obvious flaws (pretty glaring ones actually), but if I remember correctly, quite a bit of the tech is either here now, or not too far off in the future. Aside from the miniskirts...

100 m/sec?!? Is the approach controlled by the AI or manually? That's a pilot w/ nerves of steel.

Wasn't all that camp, everyone dressed like that in 1969 swinging England, well, where I lived anyway...

N.

 

[Urwumpe]

I thought of doors. But an airlock with doors would have to be pretty quick when taking in a space craft traveling at almost 100 m/sec. Plus only one door can be opened at a time.

K.I.S.S.


Stupid engineers would research for centuries to find a solution which does not use doors, but instead some sort of plasma wall, which would also consume more power than the USA during the Superbowl.

Smart ones would land vertically, and then slowly and relaxed taxi the spacecraft into an airtight hangar, if pressurized maintenance is really needed. If it is not needed, a simple tunnel to the egress hatch would be enough - not much different to existing technology...