Quote:I don't think I'd decided what sort of drive it used in my earlier draft, but I've been revising the design based on things decided since that first description was posted. Essentially, the polite meteor version had been presupposing that it was the actual atmosphere that was causing problems with terran planetfall.
First - Valles. I was always under the impression that the Moondance was speed-based (quite possibly a gravitophilic speed-based). In particular, you seem to have built it for quick and easy ground-to-orbit trips with heavy loads. Escaping out of gravity wells is one of the things that speed systems are *best* at. (Not having to spend energy keeping the thing up while you lift it off is a huge benefit all by itself - as is the fact that they don't have to speed up/slow down anywhere near as gradually. These are really *very* short hops, from a fenspace point of view.) Then, of course, you've plated it in some nice, heavy armor shielding, so it lifts and lands like a polite meteor, but masses too much to go all that fast in the outer void.
The current version of the drive could be described as having the following traits:
Unsteerable: Axis of thrust is through the axis of the ship. Period. Wanna change it, turn the ship.
Flat Power Curve: Unaffected by gravity wells. IE, has the same amount of power on Jupiter or beyond the Limit.
Vector Movement: Acceleration type drive, Max ~30mps^2.
Scale by Radius: Power consumption is determined by the distance between the drive generator and the edge of the drive field.
Quirky Fuel: Runs on orgone. No, Natty doesn't talk about this part.
Ja, -n
===============================================
"Puripuri puripuri... Bang!"