Re: Re FT-Forts

Alister Crowe wrote:

> I recenctly nipped into town and picked up the last model of B5 from a
local
> model store... its about 40 cm long, pretty cool looking and features
a
> spiffy rotating section in the middle. I need to sit down and work the
thing
> out... I'm planning on using a 'sections' type design for it (ie you
have to
> beat up certain sections to kill the thing), with 3 reactor centers to
power
> the vessel (ie the solar panels on either side and the reactor right
at the
> end).

<Pedant>
Those are not solar panels (more precisely, they shouldn't be solar
panels),
they are radiator panels for whatever mechanism converts the heat
produced by
the fusion reactors into more useful forms of energy.  [Warning! Physics
bafflegab]  Their resemblance to solar arrays is due to the surface
treatment
that allows them to go from strongly emissive (in shadow) to strongly
reflective
(in sunlight) to maximise their blackbody radiation output and, hence,
minimise
their temperature.  A fusion reaction at 10,000,000K and a cold resevoir
at 5K
allows even a physicist to construct a practically 100% efficient
system.