tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5837660608809488753.post6329309760582513224..comments2024-03-28T20:53:49.167-04:00Comments on The Adventures of Roberta X: "Who's Flyin' This Thing?"Roberta Xhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09956807794520627885noreply@blogger.comBlogger14125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5837660608809488753.post-30248864877797165352009-01-14T09:16:00.000-05:002009-01-14T09:16:00.000-05:00Oooo, one of my favorite leading questions! It...Oooo, one of my favorite leading questions!<BR/><BR/> It's easy! (Well, sort of; the theory's easy, the practice keeps out Phys. Plant guys, as well as Engineering, busy with bonding. But...).<BR/><BR/> "Ground" or "earth" is just a unipotential surface used as a reference. There's nothing especially magical about connecting to a planet except that almost everything else is hooked to it, too. ("Almost:" there are plenty of radio signals arriving from other planets, as you know).<BR/><BR/> On a miles-long starship or a Mercury capsule or even a Sputnik, "ground" is the hull. Easy enough for the little guys, they've got a metal body made of a few pieces. The starship is more like a small town that flies. Lots of metal (and some reinforced concrete -- the drive field encloses a given volume and mass only helps; the extra mass it's a trade-off with the ion drive, of course), all of which needs to be well-bonded. The airtight bits generally are, or they're not air-tight (which is, most of us aboard think, A Problem). The low-to-zero-pressure holds and racks of cargo containers are another story -- arcing back near the 'Drive proper is not unknown and there's not much to do about it after the fact.<BR/><BR/> Grounding/bonding problems on a starship can be kind of interesting, especially after the fact when you're not prespiring in a pressure suit, wearing linesman's gloves and tryin' not to get fried -- maybe I'll blog about it.Roberta Xhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09956807794520627885noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5837660608809488753.post-46330665474731898662009-01-14T08:37:00.000-05:002009-01-14T08:37:00.000-05:00Um... question?I know that this is a little late, ...Um... question?<BR/><BR/>I know that this is a little late, but:<BR/><BR/>How do you establish electrical "earth" in space?Turk Turonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02648721047835980871noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5837660608809488753.post-59638533513026567662009-01-13T13:29:00.000-05:002009-01-13T13:29:00.000-05:00These posts are like Swedish massage for the brain...These posts are like Swedish massage for the brain - being jangled from Current Tech high-energy single-sideband transmissions and cavity circuitry geometry to noneuclidean spacetime distortion topologies and back.... gnaaahhh! <BR/><BR/>Having my brain tied in knots is rarely so much <I>fun!</I> As og says, having at least a partial grasp of what you're on about gives a certain traction that would otherwise be absent.Markhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05730143528740977761noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5837660608809488753.post-77713093786172404922009-01-13T09:42:00.000-05:002009-01-13T09:42:00.000-05:00Oops...forgot to add for Robb, James P. Hogan's Th...Oops...forgot to add for Robb, James P. Hogan's <I>The Gentle Giants of Ganymede</I> more or less started that way. The <I>Shapieron</I> wasn't FTL, just high relativistic, but they spent a long time at ludicrous speed and then turned up here, the day after tomorrow.Kenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04780425923108876647noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5837660608809488753.post-6206820164502314082009-01-13T09:40:00.000-05:002009-01-13T09:40:00.000-05:00I bet the Brits used -- or at least tried -- EL34s...I bet the Brits used -- or at least tried -- EL34s, to make their stardrives go to 11.<BR/><BR/>Hokay, I'm-a shut up now....Kenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04780425923108876647noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5837660608809488753.post-61172140240141349962009-01-13T01:02:00.000-05:002009-01-13T01:02:00.000-05:00Roberta ... this is really a fascinating read. I ...Roberta ... this is really a fascinating read. I know you have another real life ... but I don't think there's a limit to how much of this your fans will read.<BR/><BR/>God ... it's like being hooked on junk. More, more is all we can beseech you for.<BR/><BR/>Oh ... Tau Zero's a damn good read.<BR/><BR/>Regards.<BR/><BR/>WV: engyn ... see ... all indicators are in favour of more.Georgehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08123244406605096484noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5837660608809488753.post-11244729726260170002009-01-13T00:24:00.000-05:002009-01-13T00:24:00.000-05:00Sean, we'll see if it ever comes to anything. Rig...Sean, we'll see if it ever comes to anything. Right now I'm just writin' 'em.<BR/><BR/> Turk, you've got to remember the first FTL ship flew successfully in '50 or '51 and by late '52, there was a U.S. settlement on Kansas II. The USSR had, er, "acquired" the technology by '53 and proceeded to do exactly what the Americans were doing: get some families living self-sufficiently off Earth, just in case. That was something of a shock to Our Side and as a result, we shared the stardrive with the U.K/Canada/Australia/NZ and our dear friends in France, which led to a kind of covert space race and the establishment of came to be known as the Hidden Frontier...<BR/><BR/> I've really got to do a timeline. It all falls into place and explains so much -- especially the squirt-boosters. It's a darned pity about the Twinkies, though, not to mention commercial fusion power. And the big mess on Linden/Lyndon. But I'll explain all that later, if I can.Roberta Xhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09956807794520627885noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5837660608809488753.post-57672170253888015892009-01-13T00:02:00.000-05:002009-01-13T00:02:00.000-05:00Ah, my prayers were answered!I especially liked th...Ah, my prayers were answered!<BR/><BR/>I especially liked the image of an FTL craft employing 12AT7's ... trillions of them.<BR/><BR/>Push-pull or parallel? I'm thinking a little of both.Turk Turonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02648721047835980871noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5837660608809488753.post-14818862641907592492009-01-12T12:39:00.000-05:002009-01-12T12:39:00.000-05:00Because I have some small inkling of what you're t...Because I have some small inkling of what you're talking about, this may be the most amusing stuff on the intarweb. Very nicely done.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5837660608809488753.post-32648250472434692482009-01-12T11:46:00.000-05:002009-01-12T11:46:00.000-05:00Robb, read "Tau Zero" by Poul Anderson for a treat...Robb, read "Tau Zero" by Poul Anderson for a treatment of a similar problem...Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5837660608809488753.post-55544929863285495122009-01-12T10:56:00.000-05:002009-01-12T10:56:00.000-05:00So miss, do you ever plan on collecting your tales...So miss, do you ever plan on collecting your tales of the time working on this commercial starship & publishing them? I for one would buy!Captain Tightpantshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13776345884480352979noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5837660608809488753.post-20997976373814031572009-01-12T10:08:00.000-05:002009-01-12T10:08:00.000-05:00Until your footnote, I thought you might be using ...Until your footnote, I thought you might be using something similar to Flynn's "roads" in his <I>January Dancer</I>. Actually, an externally generated network of Alcubierre highways could work much the same way.Kenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04780425923108876647noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5837660608809488753.post-22755030522639847552009-01-12T09:13:00.000-05:002009-01-12T09:13:00.000-05:00"...delayed-reaction insights that detonate in the..."...delayed-reaction insights that detonate in the hearer's mind after to conversation's moved on, to her great delight."<BR/><BR/>that may apply to sunny d. light, but certainly does to the writings of ms. bobbi x...shit...<BR/><BR/>jtcthe pawnbrokerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16643081755036536592noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5837660608809488753.post-22433750440498778022009-01-12T08:34:00.000-05:002009-01-12T08:34:00.000-05:00Hmm... A semi-interesting short sci-fi story could...Hmm... A semi-interesting short sci-fi story could be written about the first people actually able to create the Alcubierre 'wave' and push a ship around the cosmos FTL. Which is all fine and dandy until they realize that somewhere deep in the mathematical equations they were relying on to get <B>out</B> of the bubble, someone forgot to carry the 2.<BR/><BR/>Now they're stuck whizzing around at LUDICROUS speed with no way to stop.<BR/><BR/>I think at that point the story would get dull.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com