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JB0

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Everything posted by JB0

  1. JB0
    Oh, real-world thermocouples are inefficient as heck(less than 10% efficiency). But not slow or dangerous. You get electricity instantly, from simple heat. Certainly, with a real-world RTG there's some danger from exposure to radiation in the event of a major accident(this is why the radiothermal generators are massively overbuilt, so if the rocket blows up the RTG stays intact when it slams into the ground), but... other than that, they're 100% safe. But the concern is the plutonium heat source, not the electricity-generating thermocouple(hence why they can also use thermocouples in oral thermometers). And, well, the lump of plutonium is among the LESS toxic things in the typical space launch. It's just gonna sit there quietly oozing low levels of radiation. As they use materials with a long half-life and low levels of neutron radiation, the risk of exposure is relatively mild(as long as you don't ingest it). I'd stand next to the dented RTG before the dented tank of hydrazine any day. But all that's neither here nor there. The Valk has the fusion powerplant already. The risk is the same whether you attach thermocouples to it or not. There's no point in just ignoring that massive pre-existing heat source. And I simply assume overtechnology has produced thermocouples far more efficient than real-world ones, because overtechnology has provided similar leaps to virtually every form of technology seen in the franchise. It's an interesting concept, it just exists outside the bounds of physics is all. But that is exactly the same kind of excitation they're talking about. In fact, they're talking about turning the exhaust itself into a lasing medium. But if you add energy to an atom to raise the energy state of its electrons, you also make it hotter, by definition. (Let's just ignore the additional heat generated by these lasers for the moment) Injecting more heat is very rarely part of an effective cooling solution. And yeah, "quantum is a magic word that makes everything work" is the guiding premise behind their method of function. So they should rename it the "quantum optical heat sink", and that would resolve all the problems inherent in the "laser heat sink".
  2. JB0
    We actually have the technology now to convert heat directly to electricity. We have made use of it in several space probes, particularly ones traveling far from the sun where solar power isn't viable. Notable missions include, but are not limited to, the Viking landers, Pioneers 10 and 11, Voyagers 1 and 2, Galileo, Cassini, and New Horizons. As you can tell, they have quite a proud history. The space probes use the a lump of radioactive material on one side of the thermocouples as a heat source, and a lot of big radiator fins on the other side to keep the outside end cool. The temperature gradient results in electrical output. The problem we've seen with the Voyagers and Pioneers is neutron radiation from the heat source damages the thermocouples, so power output falls dramatically after a decade or two. Not a problem for a Valkyrie, for multiple reasons. I like to believe that overtechnology has created a higher-efficiency version of the humble thermocouple, and that is a variable fighter's primary source of electrical power. But this is extremely noncanon. Don't worry, it isn't a failing on your part. You don't get it because the explanation is , to be blunt, complete nonsense. There are legitimately brilliant ideas which sound like the babbling of a madman to the uninitiated, but this is not one of them. The writeup is full of the worst kind of technobabble, where they just string words together and hope no one notices the lack of a coherent idea. The basic idea presented appears to be "we heat the hot exhaust gasses up so they're EVEN HOTTER and glow visibly, which somehow results in a net cooling effect because lasers. Also quantum." The most notably silly part is "convert infrared energy to light", because infrared is a FORM OF LIGHT. Though the idea that by converting it to visible light they can shunt it out of the machine with mirrors is funny too. Light striking a mirror generates heat, and they're talking about megawatts of light. They should've not explained the how, just described the effect(enhanced cooling, strong visible light emission) and left the mechanism to the audience's imagination.
  3. JB0
    Is that what happens when Shockwave and his mini-me laser pistol transform?
  4. JB0
    That is exactly what I thought! Personally, I enjoy speculating and working out the (il)logic behind this stuff. It may be noncanon, it may be a huge waste of time, but gosh darnit, it's FUN. Sometimes it just leads to dead ends, though. I've never figured out an explanation for why the Enterprise doesn't have seatbelts.
  5. JB0
    The artifacting is a noticable problem with the GG files, too. It's visible in the title sequence, so it is not isolated to a single episode. Basically, high action scenes demand more bittage than they've allotted. Delta is too good for the internet! And sparklies are closely related to grain, which is darn near impossible to compress. The deadfish re-encode is going to show it worse, though. Combination of encoding from a lossy source to a lossy target(which will always cause more loss), and that they're using an older, less efficient MPEG4 profile(so a given bitrate generates lower quality than it would on a more modern profile) exacerbates the root issue. There's actually a chance the artifacting is visible at times the original DTV stream, though it'd be far less severe.
  6. JB0
    That is dangerously close to a practical thermal management technique. You just have to automate it. Realistically, you'd be using some kind of ejectable liquid or gas. Warm it up, vent as needed. Problems are that the technique incurs a lot of dead weight if you aren't using some substance that has a practical use, and discharges result in attitude changes to your vehicle unless very carefully controlled. But if you can find something that needs addition heat that you're going to be ejecting later ANYWAYS... pre-warming fuel is an actual cooling technique used on rockets. They run the cryogenic fluids through tubes around the combustion chamber, and the heat is pulled out of the combustion chamber walls and used to raise the fuel temperature to something more convenient to work with. No icing of the fuel lines, no overheating of the combustion chamber, no excess weight from a dedicated cooling system. Everybody wins. You could probably use the cryogenic hydrogen as a cooling system. Dump heat into the fuel lines via heat exchangers, which warms the fuel up so it doesn't ice the lines, and then inject the now-gaseous hydrogen into the fusion core. If you need MORE cooling... You could probably have an emergency system that heats hydrogen fuel and then dumps the hot gas into the normal exhaust stream, bypassing the fusion reactor. But you wouldn't want to waste fuel like that if it could be avoided.
  7. JB0
    Cryogenic fuels are pretty common in spaceflight and nuclear fusion. In a Valk's case, the primary fuel is most likely liquid hydrogen... well, hydrogen slurpee, anyways.
  8. JB0
    Or the way the M-21 carried a D-21? Pity that Ray isn't styled after the D-21, he could actually be something that BELONGS on a Blackbird.
  9. JB0
    Bingo. Note, though, that liquid transfer doesn't actually solve the problem. It just moves the heat around, typically to a location where it is easier to deal with (like from the engine block of a car to the radiator). Ultimately, you need a device to get the heat out. Keeping spacecraft(both manned and unmanned) at safe temperatures in the real world is a complex problem. Variable fighters have the advantage of seeing short deployments with a visit to a climate-controlled environment between outings. They have to control temperatures for hours at a time instead of days or months or years, and then they can cool off in a room full of glorious heat-conducting air. They also have the advantage of being built around a thermonuclear reactor(which is a really good heater) so they never never really have to worry about being too cold.
  10. JB0
    You tell 'em!
  11. JB0
    Well, the entire premise of a variable fighter increases complexity and cost. You can't really say that complexity is a problem on newer fighters without ALSO considering it to be a problem on the older ones, right on back to the VF-1. Better to ignore it and just go with the flow.
  12. JB0
    That's a bit of an interesting question, with a partially counterintuitive answer. Lacking a way to cool itself, it will rapidly reach equilibrium with the exhaust stream. Two streams of a given temperature will not combine to heat a plate to twice that temperature, so it won't get any hotter than the one engine case, but it can't shed heat to the atmosphere as it could if one side faced open air. Note, though, that I said that applies if the component is exposed to atmosphere, and variable fighters are not limited to atmospheric flight. Here's where things get counterintuitive for a bit, and where we find our concrete answer. In space, the circumstance is very different, and not in the way most people expect. Common sense says space is very cold, so cooling the duct should be easy. But it is only cold because there's so little matter in space. There's no air to conduct heat away and radiation is a much slower process, so vacuum works as an excellent insulator. Which means hot things tend to stay hotter than they would in atmosphere and the cold of space is a darn dirty lie. (This is a gross oversimplification of the problem, but for our purposes it is close enough.) Even if it isn't fully immersed in the exhaust stream, ALL parts of the nozzle will rapidly achieve something very close to equilibrium with that exhaust stream if there's not a cooling system attached. Which means the rest of the exhaust nozzle is in, practically, the same boat as the divider. Consequently, it stands to reason that if the divider can't withstand the exhaust temperatures for a sustained time, neither can the rest of the exhaust nozzle, and there MUST be a cooling system of some sort. The fact that VFs are aerospace fighters means the divider is not in any sort of special circumstance relative to the rest of the nozzle. As to whether the nozzle can withstand those temperatures, or if it needs a cooling system, I cannot say. I can just say that the entire nozzle is in the same boat as the divider during spaceflight, therefore the divider must be able to handle being fully immersed in the thrust stream SOMEHOW, because it is not meaningfully different from being only partially immersed.
  13. JB0
    Man, when are they gonna give me a Combiner Wars Fangry? Sure he was dopey and made no sense, but darn it, he was MY *master figure!
  14. JB0
    In honesty? I enjoyed the PS2 Stand Alone Complex game. I won't say it was the best game ever made. I mean, let's be honest, Cavia was never known for the objective quality of their software. But I always got along with Cavia. They made technically flawed games that were fun as heck.
  15. JB0
    No, she's in the other cyberpunk franchise. No one's considering her for this one.
  16. JB0
    Heck yeah! It's a pity that the deinonychus has been overshadowed by its cousins ever since that one movie, especially given the species' importance to our modern understanding of dinosaurs. It was the breed that put the idea of dinosaurs as sluggish, lumbering beasts out to pasture. Also, deinonychus is just more fun to say.
  17. JB0
    That two-timing jerk!
  18. JB0
    Oooh. That's what I'mma tell myself when I catch that movie. Best crossover ever.
  19. JB0
    Oh no, not the censored version! Give us the hardcore lesbian makeout we deserve! As Shirow intended!
  20. JB0
    Apparently not, since we have real fans on both sides of the debate. Unless the definition of real fan is "someone that agrees with me." False dilemma. Just because the major isn't an asian lock-in role doesn't mean only historical roles should be given to asians. This just happens to be the ONE instance where whitewashing can be justified in-setting. I'm not even saying it's right, just that it is the one place where it makes any sort of sense. And THAT would be an excellent place to make a stand on Hollywood racism, rather than a main character whose every aspect is either undefined or changeable at will. Her name is unknown, she is introduced in the original comics as "Motoko Kusanagi(obviously an alias)". She works for a future japanese government... that is based on the modern british Parliament. She begins the story in a cyborg body of unspecified make(but known to be made to higher specifications than those legally allowed CyberJapan's civilian populace). I do acknowledge the assumption of japanese manufacture for her cybernetics is fair. The era the comic was produced in was one in which Japan was known for having a large manufacturing base that produced high-quality products, making them an excellent choice for a supplier of high-quality cybernetics. But it is still an assumption, not rooted in the original source material. I would think a "real fan" would know this already, though.
  21. JB0
    We can but hope!
  22. JB0
    I thought it was the other way around, that the new Fury was a response to the movie Fury's popularity. *looks it up* It's actually both ways. Ultimate Fury was based on Jackson years before Fury appeared in a movie(because he's always been awesome), then they cast Jackson for the movies(because he's awesome), then they replaced mainline Fury with his illegitimate son that looks like Jackson so he would match the wildly-popular movie Fury. Either way, they didn't just go "You know what'd make good narrative sense? If Nick Fury's long-lost son was Samuel Jackson, because he looks so british."
  23. JB0
    I was cool with mister Jackson playing Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD. I think he'd actually be a good choice for a live-action Roy Focker.
  24. JB0
    He was probably there JUST to make sure he got Hayate's allergies. How did he know Hayate was coming, you ask? Scarfish has his ways.
  25. JB0
    MASK Vs Jem. My will shall be done!
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