Re: Vector Rules

Alexander Williams wrote:
Status: RO

> 
> 
> Tell you what, let's go down to the nearest lake.  To you, I'll float
a 8'
> long, 1' thick oak log.  I'll take a 8" long, 1" thick oak twig.  You
turn
> yours in the water, I'll turn mine.  One rotation, then stop.  Reverse
> that motion.	Repeat a hundred times.  Let's see who's out of breath
and
> wishing he hadn't been sitting hip-deep in the lake.

If you ignore friction, I'll take you on; but I want someone ten times
taller then you to turn my log.  You are using same size engines to turn
different size objects.  Get real.  If I have a ship 10 times bigger,
I'll have 10 times bigger manuevering thrusters...

> Entropy always wins and Inertia is His Handmaiden.  It takes a /huge/
> amount of thrust to rotate a billion tonne super dreadnaught.  Don't
be
> silly.

I'm not being silly; simply making a point.

The G-forces arguement doesn't hold water.  The crew would be stationed
at the center of the ship where the effects will be minimum, and the
equipment will be designed to handle it.  If you think there will not be
enough room for the crew in the center of the ship, you are wrong. 
Contrary to Star Wars and many sci-fi novels, crew sizes will be very
small.	Men don't man most naval gun turrets directly now (men
physically in the turret); what will it be like in 200 years???

Absolute maximum crew size for ships would be 2 men per mass and 1 to 2
men per fighter (assuming fighters are manned), not more.  Probably 0.5
to 1 man per mass with un-manned fighters is a better number.  Most
damage control, maintence, repair, etc. will be done by machines.  This
may make boring sci-fi, but is a bit  more likely to be what will
happen.   

One last point just in case no one has made it yet (I'm fairly knew to
the list). There is only one reason why the shuttle and other current
technology spacecraft use vector movement instead of "cinematic
movement," fuel.  Spacecraft CAN manuever just like you see in Star Wars
(hyperspace jumps ommitted).  It just takes lots of fuel to do so and at
$1,000's per pound to orbit, every pound of fuel, or anything else for
that matter, counts.  

IAS