Er... *embarrased cough*
Okay, I fucked up. I was misunderstanding the meaning of the term 'displacement ton'... Unfortunately, not in a direction that would help us. (scarfing density figures from here suggests a mass of at least seventeen billion (17*10^9) tons...)
Hm. We've been assuming that the Macross came out at rest relative to Neptune, right? Or orbit thereof. And, given that the Zentradi didn't come out of fold in a solar escape trajectory, the drives obviously have the ability to do that or something similar - I'm thinking that the 'flashes' that are associated with them coming out are the difference in energy between destination and arrival getting radiated out along the electromagnetic spectrum.
Possibilities: 1.) the Macross did indeed match velocities with Neptune, in which case we need either an unpleasant amount of time or an absurd amount of delta-v.
2.) the Macross didn't change her vectors or speeds at all, in which case things get very interesting from the mathmatics perspective. OTOH, since that probably means that pretty much all of the rest of the trip is spent in transit rather than in the local system of someplace interesting, it makes for boring scenery.
3.) as 1, except the fold drive itself is fine - but its power feeds have gone kablooey, because being that deep in Earth's gravity well meant that they had to transfer more energy than even Maker tech could stand. Now, they can be replaced, but only with Terran-made materials, which means that going home will have to be done in stages, so as to keep differentials low enough for those lesser cables to handle. Has the advantage of taking us on a grand tour of the solar system. ^_^
BTW, I'm remembering our standing handwavium as: Quantum power cores; fold drives; SIF systems, and limited antigravity. Because lifting a medium-sized asteroid into orbit is no fun if you vaporize the inhabited island it's sitting on. Or the entire Northern Marianas, for that matter.
Hmm. Depending on how the SIF works, we may be able to allow it the ability of weight neutralization, but I'd want a lot more thought on the matter, first.
Ja, -n
===========
===============================================
"V, did you do something foolish?"
"Yes, and it was glorious."
Okay, I fucked up. I was misunderstanding the meaning of the term 'displacement ton'... Unfortunately, not in a direction that would help us. (scarfing density figures from here suggests a mass of at least seventeen billion (17*10^9) tons...)
Hm. We've been assuming that the Macross came out at rest relative to Neptune, right? Or orbit thereof. And, given that the Zentradi didn't come out of fold in a solar escape trajectory, the drives obviously have the ability to do that or something similar - I'm thinking that the 'flashes' that are associated with them coming out are the difference in energy between destination and arrival getting radiated out along the electromagnetic spectrum.
Possibilities: 1.) the Macross did indeed match velocities with Neptune, in which case we need either an unpleasant amount of time or an absurd amount of delta-v.
2.) the Macross didn't change her vectors or speeds at all, in which case things get very interesting from the mathmatics perspective. OTOH, since that probably means that pretty much all of the rest of the trip is spent in transit rather than in the local system of someplace interesting, it makes for boring scenery.
3.) as 1, except the fold drive itself is fine - but its power feeds have gone kablooey, because being that deep in Earth's gravity well meant that they had to transfer more energy than even Maker tech could stand. Now, they can be replaced, but only with Terran-made materials, which means that going home will have to be done in stages, so as to keep differentials low enough for those lesser cables to handle. Has the advantage of taking us on a grand tour of the solar system. ^_^
BTW, I'm remembering our standing handwavium as: Quantum power cores; fold drives; SIF systems, and limited antigravity. Because lifting a medium-sized asteroid into orbit is no fun if you vaporize the inhabited island it's sitting on. Or the entire Northern Marianas, for that matter.
Hmm. Depending on how the SIF works, we may be able to allow it the ability of weight neutralization, but I'd want a lot more thought on the matter, first.
Ja, -n
===========
===============================================
"V, did you do something foolish?"
"Yes, and it was glorious."