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<<TECH NOTES>>
<<Midpoint
Reversal>>
Since I don't want to spend four hours
debating the finer points of astronavigation, I'll try to keep this as
simple as possible. Since the objective of space freighters is to
get the material they are transporting to it's destination as quickly as
possible, (With transit times of about a year, you'd probabally agree.)
they accelerate the entire time. The problem occurs when they have so slow
down at the end. Since you can't just hit the brakes and expect to stop,
starships have to decelerate by applying thrust in the opposite direction
of which they were travelling.
In order to do this, they cut thrust,
flip 180 degrees, and then reactivate their thrusters, bleeding off speed.
Check out the neat little illustration
for those that are visual learners.
P.S. If anyone can explain this better than I
can, PLEASE email me and submit
your own explanation.
<<Lockdown
Mode>>>
When
in lockdown mode, all doors, vents and other acesses are automatically
closed and sealed off. Lockdown
mode was origionally designed to prevent a disastrous chain decompression,
but is also employed to block the spread of toxic fumes and fires. While
it is usually triggered by the main computer during a crisis, it may be
manually activated from any operations station. Once in lockdown mode,
doors may still be opened using an override switch. Lockdown mode may be
cancelled from the Captain's compartment, Security station, or Engineering
station, though is is officially the Security station that encacts the
order to stand down from lockdown.
<<Scram>>
Emergency engine
shutdown. Very quick, but hard on the engine. After a scram the engine
must be reset. During a scram, the flow of Walterium fuel to the
reaction chamber is cut off, isolating the reaction mass. The rear section
of the chamber is then "Shocked" with a larger than normal load of
electricity. The walterium reacts, the resulting explosion ejecting
the rest of the reaction mass out into space.
<<Point
Defense Lasers (PDL)>>
Shipboard Point defense lasers are
small, tightly focused laser projectors which are used to clear small,
possibly hazardous debris from the path of a starship. They can effectively
vaporize an object the mass of a baseball-sized rock. They are a much smaller
and simpler version of the antimissile systems used by dedicated
warships of the line.
<<Heat
Buildup>>
<<<Walterium reactors generate plenty of waste
heat. Most of it is bled out into deep space by heat sinks, but some always
builds up in the engine compartment. Under full operation, the heat
can climb to 109 F, but seldom to never creates a serious problem for the
crew.
<<Walteruim
Reaction Engine>>
Walterium engines are used in almost
all ships of the time. As a fuel, Walterium is Nonradioactive, cohesive,
relatively cheap, and almost completely inert under normal conditions.
It is only in a vacuum that it takes on the properties that make it so
useful. In a completely unexpected reaction, running an electric current
through a concentration of Walterium in a vacuum produces a powerful burst
of energy. When this is focused through a magnetic nozzle, a sizeable
amount of thrust is produced. Changing the amount of Walterium entering
the reaction chamber regulates thrust. While The Walterium is not consumed
particularly fast during the reaction, on long haul space flights of four
years or more, a lot of fuel is needed. This requirement instigated the
use to huge containment chambers, up to the point that ships are designed
and built around them. Despite these drawbacks, the Walterium engine is
ideal for space travel, mostly due to it’s simplicity.
<<Hard-suits>>
Contrary to what the name
may imply, hard-suits are light and flexible. They are are most commonly
used in situations in which a part of the craft has become depressurized.
Air is supplied by a single tank, holding approximatly 4000 psi. Power
for heating, radio, and regulatory systems is supplied by a small rechargable
capacitor. The capacitor's effective life is the limiting factor to Hard-suit
operations, constraining mission times to no more than 75 minutes (this
may be stretched to 90 minutes if heating is unnecessary.)
While their
light and simple construction makes them ideal for making unpressurized
repairs, they are poorly suited for use in deep space. Since they posess
no propulsion system or self-cleaning respiration system, long-term, untethered
operations are impossible. These jobs must be undertaken in a full-fledged
Exo-suit.
<<DigiPad>>
Digipads are employed in much the
same role as modern day Clipboards. They are used for the storage and display
of information. Cheap and rudimentary computers, they contain around
100 megs of storage space, and the aproximate computing power of a modern
pentium 200 mhz processor. Their cost in modern terms would be around $20.
Their 9"x 8" x 1" dimentions and light weight make them handy and popular,
especially among starship crews.
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