AbsoluteSciFi
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After building the GlassDragon, I wanted to tackle a design that I had made over twenty years back, but had failed to bring it to life as a model, as the shapes were just to complex for my then current skills. This ship was based on propultion that wasn't the normal plasma drive, or warp engine. I wrote the following essay, to flush out the details surrounding the tech.
This is an tech essay about Gravity Drives. This is not a story. I consider this background information for some of my other writing, and similar information about The Vermillion. Please let me know what you think about the tech.
The Gravity Drive
Gravity Drives have been used in many different ways, for example, most common gravity drives are used as a secondary means of propulsion for most commercial frigates in the Galaxy class or higher. As most of the drives capacity is for mass movement, it would be easily adopted to larger cargo carrying vessels. The Gravity Drive is a side step in what developed into the more common and much more viable Warp Drive.
The warping of space/time is a defining factor of gravity. The distortion of gravity make a “pull” or a “push” possible for an object in space. Mass being the key component of a distorting factor, energy can be forced to mimic this effect. The requirements are high, but the yield is almost infinite. The problem is the management of the returns on gain. Gravity Drives focus on “pushing” an object based on its relative position to other massive objects in space. The closer a Gravity Drive is to another gravity well, the better the resulting “push”. Obvious problems surround such a design, such as the predictability of such a reaction relative to the bodies in the solar system, thus most gravity drives are not calibrated to any set reaction, but rather a set of yields biased on feed-back of the reaction. These measured returns of data then are fed back into the reactor, and self-govern the reaction within acceptable limits.
The Vermillion is a great example of Gravity Drive Technology at its finest. There are many different examples of Gravity Drive technologies throughout the known universe, but the Vermillion is the classic “renaissance” in Gravity Drive Technology. While its inception as a design happened early in the 21st century, there were not viable designs for Gravity Drive till the later part of the 22rd century, Earth time. The Vermillion’s aim was to bring maneuverability and speed to bear for the use of the pilot. Many designs leading up to the Vermillion had problems with maneuvering, simply because of the brutal nature of gravity drive mechanics. A second and tertiary drive had to be linked to the controls in order to ease the directional forces into a smoothly running curve. The Vermillion’s drives are four main drives and four smaller drives, all working in sync.
As Gravity increases, so does the radiation needed to sustain the effect, heavy shielding is far too impractical for the job in space, and the only way to do it is through changing the polarity of the radiation so that it moves away from the crew. As much energy is spent to shield the crew as moving the ship itself. As far as movement is concerned, it is a dirty means of travel, much like the steam locomotives of the 1800’s. Effective, powerful, but also dated.
The gravity drive became a great workhorse for the defense of planetary systems, but as an offensive weapon the Gravity Drive was limited. This technology was however integrated into inertial dampening, and the curves associated with hi velocity acceleration. Larger ships could benefit more from Gravity Drives, and Gravity Drives are still in common use among them, because of their economy of scale. Transitioning the gap between the practical and impractical is often a matter of scale and cargo. Additional shielding often comes at a price of fuel; in the case of Gravity Drives it means energy expenditure. In a larger vessel cargo vessel, less energy is needed to shield the crew, and maneuvering is not a primary concern; thus forward motion only allows for purpose built Gravity Drives, are self shielded. The rest of the Gravity Drive systems faded out for the newer and much more reliable fission drives.
In all, the Gravity Drive was overtaken by practicality and convenience. Gravity Drives are linked to their reactors, and distance is a factor in the distribution of energy for the energy reaction. The integration of all the components in the Gravity Drive systems made the modular designs of plasma and fission drives much more economical and serviceable. Space considerations also allowed the newer systems an advantage in the market for smaller ships. Copyright 2011
Here is the drawing that I made to follow for the Vermillion.
This is an tech essay about Gravity Drives. This is not a story. I consider this background information for some of my other writing, and similar information about The Vermillion. Please let me know what you think about the tech.
The Gravity Drive
Gravity Drives have been used in many different ways, for example, most common gravity drives are used as a secondary means of propulsion for most commercial frigates in the Galaxy class or higher. As most of the drives capacity is for mass movement, it would be easily adopted to larger cargo carrying vessels. The Gravity Drive is a side step in what developed into the more common and much more viable Warp Drive.
The warping of space/time is a defining factor of gravity. The distortion of gravity make a “pull” or a “push” possible for an object in space. Mass being the key component of a distorting factor, energy can be forced to mimic this effect. The requirements are high, but the yield is almost infinite. The problem is the management of the returns on gain. Gravity Drives focus on “pushing” an object based on its relative position to other massive objects in space. The closer a Gravity Drive is to another gravity well, the better the resulting “push”. Obvious problems surround such a design, such as the predictability of such a reaction relative to the bodies in the solar system, thus most gravity drives are not calibrated to any set reaction, but rather a set of yields biased on feed-back of the reaction. These measured returns of data then are fed back into the reactor, and self-govern the reaction within acceptable limits.
The Vermillion is a great example of Gravity Drive Technology at its finest. There are many different examples of Gravity Drive technologies throughout the known universe, but the Vermillion is the classic “renaissance” in Gravity Drive Technology. While its inception as a design happened early in the 21st century, there were not viable designs for Gravity Drive till the later part of the 22rd century, Earth time. The Vermillion’s aim was to bring maneuverability and speed to bear for the use of the pilot. Many designs leading up to the Vermillion had problems with maneuvering, simply because of the brutal nature of gravity drive mechanics. A second and tertiary drive had to be linked to the controls in order to ease the directional forces into a smoothly running curve. The Vermillion’s drives are four main drives and four smaller drives, all working in sync.
As Gravity increases, so does the radiation needed to sustain the effect, heavy shielding is far too impractical for the job in space, and the only way to do it is through changing the polarity of the radiation so that it moves away from the crew. As much energy is spent to shield the crew as moving the ship itself. As far as movement is concerned, it is a dirty means of travel, much like the steam locomotives of the 1800’s. Effective, powerful, but also dated.
The gravity drive became a great workhorse for the defense of planetary systems, but as an offensive weapon the Gravity Drive was limited. This technology was however integrated into inertial dampening, and the curves associated with hi velocity acceleration. Larger ships could benefit more from Gravity Drives, and Gravity Drives are still in common use among them, because of their economy of scale. Transitioning the gap between the practical and impractical is often a matter of scale and cargo. Additional shielding often comes at a price of fuel; in the case of Gravity Drives it means energy expenditure. In a larger vessel cargo vessel, less energy is needed to shield the crew, and maneuvering is not a primary concern; thus forward motion only allows for purpose built Gravity Drives, are self shielded. The rest of the Gravity Drive systems faded out for the newer and much more reliable fission drives.
In all, the Gravity Drive was overtaken by practicality and convenience. Gravity Drives are linked to their reactors, and distance is a factor in the distribution of energy for the energy reaction. The integration of all the components in the Gravity Drive systems made the modular designs of plasma and fission drives much more economical and serviceable. Space considerations also allowed the newer systems an advantage in the market for smaller ships. Copyright 2011
Here is the drawing that I made to follow for the Vermillion.
