Topic Actions

Topic Search

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: George J. Smith, Google [Bot] and 37 guests

Honorverse ramblings and musings

Join us in talking discussing all things Honor, including (but not limited to) tactics, favorite characters, and book discussions.
Re: Honorverse ramblings and musings
Post by Jonathan_S   » Tue Jul 04, 2017 9:57 am

Jonathan_S
Fleet Admiral

Posts: 8269
Joined: Fri Jun 24, 2011 2:01 pm
Location: Virginia, USA

cthia wrote:Imagine Fearless sitting broke down and needing spare parts from the Home System. Nodes or something...

"Tell them we need that part pronto! And streak it here!"

"Might even have made enough of a difference for White Haven to have been a factor -- all dressed up as the cavalry -- when he hypered in to assist Honor with the Q ship.

Streak drive is definitely useful - but I think you're overselling it. It's not the difference between ships and planes, or even prop planes and jets.

It's more like if the strategic cruising speed of a WWII fast convoy speed was increased from 10 knots to 14 knots. Or a DC-3/C-47s cruise speed from 207 mph to 300 mph. Very useful, but not exactly overnight air delivery.


That said, sometimes getting there 30% sooner makes a real difference. Certainly cutting 30% each way off summoning White Haven's BC squadron would have saved a little over a day each way - enough that they'd most likely be on-station when Thunder of God showed up; eliminating Honor's death ride.


But even that quick little run of 31 LY still takes over 2.5 days with streak drive. Still all else being equal I'd rather have the faster strategic speed.


There have been a couple of times the plot has hinged on precise timing of reinforcements - The one above and Admiral Park's returning to Hancock in the nick of time come to mind.
Though I can't imagine RFC letting faster transit times ruin his plot twists :D; he'd just adjust the timelines so things still happened as he wanted.
Top
Re: Honorverse ramblings and musings
Post by cthia   » Tue Jul 04, 2017 10:43 am

cthia
Fleet Admiral

Posts: 14951
Joined: Thu Jan 23, 2014 1:10 pm

Jonathan_S wrote:
cthia wrote:Imagine Fearless sitting broke down and needing spare parts from the Home System. Nodes or something...

"Tell them we need that part pronto! And streak it here!"

"Might even have made enough of a difference for White Haven to have been a factor -- all dressed up as the cavalry -- when he hypered in to assist Honor with the Q ship.

Streak drive is definitely useful - but I think you're overselling it. It's not the difference between ships and planes, or even prop planes and jets.

It's more like if the strategic cruising speed of a WWII fast convoy speed was increased from 10 knots to 14 knots. Or a DC-3/C-47s cruise speed from 207 mph to 300 mph. Very useful, but not exactly overnight air delivery.


That said, sometimes getting there 30% sooner makes a real difference. Certainly cutting 30% each way off summoning White Haven's BC squadron would have saved a little over a day each way - enough that they'd most likely be on-station when Thunder of God showed up; eliminating Honor's death ride.


But even that quick little run of 31 LY still takes over 2.5 days with streak drive. Still all else being equal I'd rather have the faster strategic speed.


There have been a couple of times the plot has hinged on precise timing of reinforcements - The one above and Admiral Park's returning to Hancock in the nick of time come to mind.
Though I can't imagine RFC letting faster transit times ruin his plot twists :D; he'd just adjust the timelines so things still happened as he wanted.


'Tis true. OTOH, doing all in your power to ensure the chances of your subjects' survival—up to and including your desperation in removing the safety interlocks—would be insane if you failed on a particular leg or legs by not using the fastest shipping method available... Fed Ex.'s "Under nominal" service. A service that is also not apt to make the ships go boom!

Ever heard of "A day late and a dollar short?" :D

Son, your mother says I have to hang you. Personally I don't think this is a capital offense. But if I don't hang you, she's gonna hang me and frankly, I'm not the one in trouble. —cthia's father. Incident in ? Axiom of Common Sense
Top
Re: Honorverse ramblings and musings
Post by cthia   » Tue Jul 04, 2017 11:26 am

cthia
Fleet Admiral

Posts: 14951
Joined: Thu Jan 23, 2014 1:10 pm

Certainly all Case Zulu's should use this component.

Son, your mother says I have to hang you. Personally I don't think this is a capital offense. But if I don't hang you, she's gonna hang me and frankly, I'm not the one in trouble. —cthia's father. Incident in ? Axiom of Common Sense
Top
Re: Honorverse ramblings and musings
Post by cthia   » Tue Jul 04, 2017 12:02 pm

cthia
Fleet Admiral

Posts: 14951
Joined: Thu Jan 23, 2014 1:10 pm

Jonathan_S wrote:
cthia wrote:Imagine Fearless sitting broke down and needing spare parts from the Home System. Nodes or something...

"Tell them we need that part pronto! And streak it here!"

"Might even have made enough of a difference for White Haven to have been a factor -- all dressed up as the cavalry -- when he hypered in to assist Honor with the Q ship.

Streak drive is definitely useful - but I think you're overselling it. It's not the difference between ships and planes, or even prop planes and jets.

It's more like if the strategic cruising speed of a WWII fast convoy speed was increased from 10 knots to 14 knots. Or a DC-3/C-47s cruise speed from 207 mph to 300 mph. Very useful, but not exactly overnight air delivery.


That said, sometimes getting there 30% sooner makes a real difference. Certainly cutting 30% each way off summoning White Haven's BC squadron would have saved a little over a day each way - enough that they'd most likely be on-station when Thunder of God showed up; eliminating Honor's death ride.


But even that quick little run of 31 LY still takes over 2.5 days with streak drive. Still all else being equal I'd rather have the faster strategic speed.


There have been a couple of times the plot has hinged on precise timing of reinforcements - The one above and Admiral Park's returning to Hancock in the nick of time come to mind.
Though I can't imagine RFC letting faster transit times ruin his plot twists :D; he'd just adjust the timelines so things still happened as he wanted.


cthia wrote:'Tis true. OTOH, doing all in your power to ensure the chances of your subjects' survival—up to and including your desperation in removing the safety interlocks—would be insane if you failed on a particular leg or legs by not using the fastest shipping method available... Fed Ex.'s "Under nominal" service. A service that is also not apt to make the ships go boom!

Ever heard of "A day late and a dollar short?" :D


And possibly NEVER :o

Son, your mother says I have to hang you. Personally I don't think this is a capital offense. But if I don't hang you, she's gonna hang me and frankly, I'm not the one in trouble. —cthia's father. Incident in ? Axiom of Common Sense
Top
Re: Honorverse ramblings and musings
Post by pnakasone   » Wed Jul 05, 2017 1:53 am

pnakasone
Captain of the List

Posts: 402
Joined: Mon Sep 28, 2015 11:21 pm

A few questions will have effects on the streak drives wide spread usability.


First question with the streak drive is exactly how much bigger is it compared to a standard one?


Second question would be dos it require more power to run then a standard? If so how much more?


Third is dos it require more maintenance then a standard drive? If so how much more?
Top
Re: Honorverse ramblings and musings
Post by Jonathan_S   » Wed Jul 05, 2017 9:57 am

Jonathan_S
Fleet Admiral

Posts: 8269
Joined: Fri Jun 24, 2011 2:01 pm
Location: Virginia, USA

pnakasone wrote:A few questions will have effects on the streak drives wide spread usability.


First question with the streak drive is exactly how much bigger is it compared to a standard one?


Second question would be dos it require more power to run then a standard? If so how much more?


Third is dos it require more maintenance then a standard drive? If so how much more?

For size it can't be that much bigger if you can shoehorn it into a slightly larger than normal dispatch boat. It's extra volume is roughly comparable to the volum increase to turn a bare bones courier into a comfortable VIP fast transport (i.e. Slightly bigger, more comfortable, sleeping and lounge spaces). At a guess less than twice as large.
The extra size may make it a pain to retrofit into existing ships (as you'll have to enlarge the generator room to hold it) but shouldn't be much impact of a new build of even something so small as a modern destroyer (which is over 3.5 times the size of a dispatch boat).
And the larger the ship class the easier it should be to design room for a larger generator.

I doubt the power usage will be a major factor. While most ships do routinely run their generators in hot readiness while in hyper they also have access to stupidly large amounts of power (especially when cruising a grav wave). And worst case if it's too big a power hog you could shut it down instead of holding it in standby while cruising along within a given hyper band.

The real unknown is maintenance time / cost. Military grade hyper generators already carry a maintenance cost penalty; which is when most merchant ships opt dint use them. So those maintenance costs much outweigh the considerably higher turnaround those ships could achieve by accessing the Theta bands (most trip times cut by about half).
I suspect the streak "drive" generator will be even worse.
Top
Re: Honorverse ramblings and musings
Post by PeterZ   » Wed Jul 05, 2017 10:08 am

PeterZ
Fleet Admiral

Posts: 6432
Joined: Fri Apr 01, 2011 1:11 pm
Location: Colorado

If size and power usage are issues with Streak drives, I wonder if they could benefit from Grayson fission reactors? Sure, the total output is lower, but the bunkerage for fuel takes up less volume. That suggests that perhaps using fission reactors may offer benefits. Depending on the volume saved by not storing hydrogen, another fission reactor may be incorporated for the same volume.

I can see our Graysons using something like that or another out-of-left-field idea applied to the Streak or the Spider drives, when the allies reverse engineer that system.
Top
Re: Honorverse ramblings and musings
Post by drothgery   » Wed Jul 05, 2017 10:26 pm

drothgery
Admiral

Posts: 2025
Joined: Mon Sep 07, 2009 5:07 pm
Location: San Diego, CA, USA

PeterZ wrote:If size and power usage are issues with Streak drives, I wonder if they could benefit from Grayson fission reactors? Sure, the total output is lower, but the bunkerage for fuel takes up less volume.

Grayson fission reactors do not generate enough power to make sense for any hyper-capable ship, not even a dispatch boat.
Top
Re: Honorverse ramblings and musings
Post by kzt   » Thu Jul 06, 2017 12:40 am

kzt
Fleet Admiral

Posts: 11337
Joined: Sun Jan 10, 2010 8:18 pm
Location: Albuquerque, NM

drothgery wrote:Grayson fission reactors do not generate enough power to make sense for any hyper-capable ship, not even a dispatch boat.

Hey, it's impossible for them to generate enough power to support a LAC either. A couple of hundreds liters of hydrogen has more potential energy than an entire Shrike's mass worth of pure plutonium, and I suspect that there is at least part of the LAC isn't made of radioactive isotopes.
Top
Re: Honorverse ramblings and musings
Post by cthia   » Sat Jul 08, 2017 7:13 pm

cthia
Fleet Admiral

Posts: 14951
Joined: Thu Jan 23, 2014 1:10 pm

Is there an equivalent of a streak boat "removing her safety interlocks?" :?

Son, your mother says I have to hang you. Personally I don't think this is a capital offense. But if I don't hang you, she's gonna hang me and frankly, I'm not the one in trouble. —cthia's father. Incident in ? Axiom of Common Sense
Top

Return to Honorverse