serenity model
POSTED BY: KayleeRulesAll
UPDATED: Thursday, September 1, 2005 12:15
VIEWED: 14022
PAGE 4 of 8
im sure bopth descriptions would wiork; just in my opinion the takomak better fits joss' vison of the 'verse. anyhow, about the ejecting mass thing: sure u could do it, but then your supply of fusionable material might only last 2 years instead of 10. plus, by introducing a new, non-fusioning(is there a real word for that?) mass into a plasma stream thats already in process of fusion, the whloe thing would cool down drastically, and probably stop the fusion process altogether.
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When the stars shine bright through the engine's trail and the dust of another world drops behind; When my ship is free of the open sky, its a damn good day to my way of mind; Theres a barren planet you never can leave, theres a rocky valley where we lost a war; Theres a cross worn 'round a soldier's neck, theres a man's faith died on Serenity's floor, but i stood my ground and ill fight once more; Its the last oath that i ever swore
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yeah, hadn't thought of that, my idea came from a half read paragraph from the Aliens Technical Manual where reaction mass was just brought into contact with fusion plasma for sub-light propulsion.
As a side-note the FTL drive from Aliens is one of the most believable I've come across, it converts the entire ship into tachyons at which point it can't travel slower than LS. Okay the whole converting to tachyons thing is a little far fetched but you don't have to ignore physics to do it 
.
As far as antimatter goes, if Joss don't want it in his verse then its out the window...
*throws antimatter out the window*
Oh, wait maybe I shouldn't of done that...
Q: What do you have when you are holding two little green balls in your hand.
A: Kermit's undivided attention.
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BOOM
anyway, i agree. i just thought of something else though. in out of gas, mal says something to the effect of, "Engine dont turn, we aint got no power." now, one of the things nessisary to sustain fusion is keeping the plasma temperature over 100 million degrees. if the plasma were to touch the wall of its containment vessel, that would cool it off and fusion would stop. perhaps the turning torus on Serenity is infact creating a rotating magnetic field, which might just be strong enough to keep that plasma away from the walls. therefore: if the EM field dont turn, then the plasma will touch the walls, cool down, and fusion will stop, so the power flow will stop. ergo, engine dont turn, we aint got no power.
also, im in Texas, in case you were wondering.
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When the stars shine bright through the engine's trail and the dust of another world drops behind; When my ship is free of the open sky, its a damn good day to my way of mind; Theres a barren planet you never can leave, theres a rocky valley where we lost a war; Theres a cross worn 'round a soldier's neck, theres a man's faith died on Serenity's floor, but i stood my ground and ill fight once more; Its the last oath that i ever swore
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uhuh, but wouldn't that also kinda melt the torus a bit?
But your right the turning is definatly a prerequisite for the engine to operate.
The thing I think might be a fusion torus actually rotates underneath the rear 'prongs' that extende back from the crew dome. Thing is theres Rivers words, mentioned elsewhere here I think, standard radion accelerator core...
Off hand I'm not sure what a Radion could be (beyond maybe a mangeling of radioactive?) or how one would accelerate such a thing.
From a purely plot view the spinning is there to get away from the purely unmechanical star-trek nature I imagine... But that boring...
Q: What do you have when you are holding two little green balls in your hand.
A: Kermit's undivided attention.
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yeah, twould do some melting, but not all that much; it would cool off really damn fast. also, they probably made it from heat resistant materials, like the outer hull that reenters the atmosphere. still, alot of damage could be done; i imagine they have some kind of emergency systems to somehow prevent that.
Radion is an element; maybe they use it just after the fusion burst that accellerates the ship to optimize thrust or some such thing. therefore, radion accelerator core. but thats just a guess. Also, perhaps they just call it that, like a product name.
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When the stars shine bright through the engine's trail and the dust of another world drops behind; When my ship is free of the open sky, its a damn good day to my way of mind; Theres a barren planet you never can leave, theres a rocky valley where we lost a war; Theres a cross worn 'round a soldier's neck, theres a man's faith died on Serenity's floor, but i stood my ground and ill fight once more; Its the last oath that i ever swore
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Still, I thought the reason that a magnetic field was used was because there wasn't a heat resistant material that could withstand the plasma temperatures. Although its very possible, in fact highly likely, that the moment that the engine stopped spinning it would automatically eject the fusion plasma.
In fact it would make sense that the reactor would be designed in such a way to make it impossible for the plasma to not be ejected if the engine stopped spinning.
ahh, knew I heard it somewhere...
So this would be Radion:
http://chemlab.pc.maricopa.edu/periodic/Ra.html
Seems like a strange element to use though.
But as you said, it could just be a product name.
Its got a fairly high atomic wieght, so it would be quite dense, so would it be good as a reaction mass?
Q: What do you have when you are holding two little green balls in your hand.
A: Kermit's undivided attention.
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yeah, the mag field helps it to not eat thru the metal and to maintain the plasma temp. but there is material that can resist the heat for a while. it will eventually fail, but it could withstand some direct contact, at least untill the emergency system could kick in. anyway, u still wouldnt want to operate without the magnetic field; would be a very bad situation. perhaps thats what he meant in the pilot when Wash says the reaver ship is operating without containment.
i personally like the product name, as the element radion is really huge, and seems like fusing it would be an incredibly inefficient thing to do.
and furthermore, weve explained why the torus rotates, but why does the engine assembly in the engine room turn?
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When the stars shine bright through the engine's trail and the dust of another world drops behind; When my ship is free of the open sky, its a damn good day to my way of mind; Theres a barren planet you never can leave, theres a rocky valley where we lost a war; Theres a cross worn 'round a soldier's neck, theres a man's faith died on Serenity's floor, but i stood my ground and ill fight once more; Its the last oath that i ever swore
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As for the Reavers I'd always assumed that the containment thing was to do with radiation, which isn't a problem with fusion, but maybe it is with the drive system?
Minor spoiler (and more of an aside to the discussion):
Select to view spoiler:
The movie seems to support this view, as Serenity operates without core containment for a short period of time, but just enough to prevent it from 'incinerating' the crew.
As for radion I was thinking maybe something used as reaction mass for the main engine, rather than for the fusion reaction.
As for the internal assembly rotating:
If you notice when they go for a burn it begins rotating much faster. Could it be part of some sort of reaction chamber for the main drive?
In which case it would spin as it is part of the main drive chamber that would be spinning for the magnetic field?
If by Radion Accelerator Core it means radion is accelerated as part of the reaction mass, could radion and fusion plasma be mixed in the reaction chamber away from the fusion torus, prior to being 'shot' out the back?
Couldn't this also explain any radioactive element to the reaction also? I would have thought a reaction like that could cause highly energetic particles to be released.
Q: What do you have when you are holding two little green balls in your hand.
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Quote:I think it rotates with the Torus otherwise any connections between the engine assembly and the tours would need to rotate and those links are potential weak points in the system.
Originally posted by KayleeRulesAll:
and furthermore, weve explained why the torus rotates, but why does the engine assembly in the engine room turn?
I also agree that the engine would eject any plasma in the case of power failure. Its like a Liquid Metal Reactor, if the coolant (Liquid Metal) stops flowing in the pipes it solidifies which results in a uncontrollable reaction forcing the reactor to be SCRAMed and nearly the entire reactor will need to be replaced. This has happened to some of the Russian Alfa class submarines that were equipped with this type of reactor. In the case of Serenity if the plasma stops being contained it burns through the casing runing the system and possably resulting in loss of vessel.
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both some really good points, except that whenever serenity is running, the assembly is rotating, not just when they do a burn.
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When the stars shine bright through the engine's trail and the dust of another world drops behind; When my ship is free of the open sky, its a damn good day to my way of mind; Theres a barren planet you never can leave, theres a rocky valley where we lost a war; Theres a cross worn 'round a soldier's neck, theres a man's faith died on Serenity's floor, but i stood my ground and ill fight once more; Its the last oath that i ever swore
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME