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Master Dex

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  1. Master Dex
    Impulse Engines are augmented fusion rockets, so says the TNG technical manual anyway. The augmented part refers to their magical subspace driver coils I think. PDEs are an interesting concept.. but I am not sure you can do that with fusion... unless you count Orion drive style nuclear bomb propulsion, lol. Seek new life and new worlds indeed, heheh. No, you are correct. The air from the atmosphere gets flash heated by combining it with the fusion reaction plasma. What we were talking about was how the engines work in space with no air around to use. Apparently, according to Seto, they just pump up the power output of the fusion reaction to get a similar thrust without the air acting as additional mass flow propellant. I always thought they just used a different propellant to replace the air until Seto told me that, it's pretty cool. It's frankly a nuts idea though in reality... but they aren't hurting for power clearly so why not if you can.
  2. Master Dex
    Good catch, but I think the one on the fighter might just be an unpainted version of the one the battroid is holding.
  3. Master Dex
    Hah! I like bad jokes when times well. All you needed there was some sunglasses... Miami style. (http://cow.org/csi/). I know that actually writing up information to that level is overkill.. but I will be honest, as an engineering graduate... I won't lie that I am curious about the advantage of those bolts over modern ones.... Yep.. I'm that guy. Those numbers you cited for the VF-1 engines though... Yakk Deculture! That is some seriously amazing power! You are right, that is basically what Star Trek does without the space magic, which is really just an excuse for them to use less fuel in their case for the same gain. That fuel consumption rate though... almost equivilant to modern chemical rockets, and not far off from modern jet fighters that run slick. So I guess even with those insane numbers the VFs are still on an advantage. Just... damn, lol. That inertia store converter is something I'd forgotten about. Gravity is the black sheep of the universal forces though since we just can't figure it out. Most sci-fi pin their future tech on the idea that we do figure it out and it becomes easy to play with like electromagnetism did. Which is as far as I'm concerned fair game as long as they are willing to deal with the consequences of that. Some fiction doesn't, Macross.. eh.. they do ok I guess. I did mention the idea earlier they could shunt heat into super dimension space though. As far as this world goes, why not? It's cool, don't worry about it. I get in hot water a lot for being a bit too straightforward sometimes. I just assumed since cutaways show the valk engines do have turbines then that would be the primary power source. They could for all we know be doubling up, using that and a more direct form. Hell if it is worth doing, it is worth overdoing after all, lol. Yes, we watch this show in part because we love fighter jets that fly in space and turn into robots. We are already skating on the line of plausibility, no need to destroy it with too much logic, lol.
  4. Master Dex
    Oh please.. it's a discussion topic. I could ignore every statement too, but I like to think we are here to talk about stuff. I only add in a lot of details in case that helps anyone following that doesn't know that stuff already but hasn't asked. I like to share knowledge. I also like being corrected if I am wrong, or learning new things as well. I'm not trying to tell you that you are wrong or not smart, just putting all I know on the table and letting the natural flow of the topic sort out the answers from there. I mentioned something about visible light too I think. I honestly don't know if heat could be converted to visible light for radiation instead of infrared (as opposed to both, as the really hot things do). The latter happens naturally, so I am not sure if it would be better or not. I've never really thought about it that way before. That idea of the laser is interesting though. I do remember in my research on heat dissipation for space craft that the more heat you have, the less area you need for a radiator to get rid of it. Its an inverse relationship that takes advantage of the fact that the vacuum of space is on average pretty cold of course. So the more heat you have, the quicker it will move to the lower energy state and the less area you need. Conversely, if you have low amount of heat, it takes longer to radiate away unless you have large radiators. So with a crazy enough power source, if the laser can handle all that heat energy, it might work. I can't say for sure if the material strength would hold long term though, but the limits of space metal are also a bit vague anyway. The fusion question is a good one... and it has a lot of answers. I don't know exactly which is correct for Macross to be honest. One way I know is taking the heat created from the fusion reaction and using it to pump a working fluid, such as the fuel/propellant (air in the case of atmospheric flight) to run turbines, which in turn will run a generator to create electricity. This is surely what valkyries do, it is also what modern jets do (except with jet fuel and combustion instead of nuclear fusion of course). For bigger space ships, this can still work, but there may be ways to take advantage of some direct energy conversion using magnetic fields or stripping the charged particles from the fusion reaction of their electrons. I'm sure it is possible in Macross, but I don't know what they actually do if it has ever been covered. Seto Kaiba already taught me something new today I never knew was actually confirmed (even if only psuedo-canon), so I clearly don't know everything. I like that.
  5. Master Dex
    Person after my own heart. I actually heavily enjoy it too. I said that mostly because I can get really picky when I dive deep enough into it. I've also had people often enough get annoyed at me for focusing on things of this nature. I forget that there are others like me who enjoy this though. It is weird to think I've been gone from this forum for almost 6 years, I am starting to remember why I enjoyed it so much back when Frontier was new. Kind of a fallacy to say that. Technically we convert one form of energy into others all the time. Engines convert heat energy into mechanical energy to drive vehicles. Our bodies convert stored energy in food in the form of calories into nutrients and vital resources we need to function. Plants convert light into food energy similarly. A power plant converts energy on many levels: heat from coal/oil/gas burning, nuclear energy, geothermal, etc into mechanical energy which is then converted into electrical energy. Hydro and wind power convert pure kinetic energy of water and air respectively into electrical. The difference here though is that in all of these cases, even the ones where heat energy is transformed into other forms of energy, nothing is destroyed. Heat doesn't vanish because it helps move a turbine or run some pistons in a car. Even then there are losses because nothing is perfect, so there is always waste heat that is not dealt with. You can try to re-purpose some of it to up efficiency, but you will never get 100%. Thermodynamics is harsh like that. Yeah there is some handwavium and a lot of unobtanium going around in the world of Macross but nothing that explicitly ignores and violates existing laws of physics. At least, nothing I've seen. Even the more out there things such a fold travel are dealt with using realistic consequences it seems.
  6. Master Dex
    Ah, cool. I didn't know they had such details on how the engines work. Pure fusion engines like that are typically not high in thrust, but I can see how some overtech advantages might mitigate that. After all you did note it uses more fuel that it would in atmosphere, which implies it shifts gears so to speak. Thanks for the info. Gravity induced fusion makes sense, and we know that gravity control is pretty straightforward for them at that point so it likely would be the best choice. My statement wasn't wrong to say though. That based on modern understanding, might as well be space magic, but at least it is magic we can put a name to and extrapolate the effects, lol. Well the problem there is heat actually is light (or rather it has a direct relationship with it, I am simplifying things here for purposes of discussion). Heat is relational to infrared radiation which is one of the longer non-visible wavelengths of the red side of the electromagnetic radiation scale. (Radio, microwave, infrared, visible light, ultraviolet, x-rays, and gamma rays). When you see something glowing hot, it is because it is giving off so much electromagnetic radiation that it is radiating in multiple spectra, from visible which gives the glow you can see, to infrared which is a glow you can't see (but you can feel its effects as heat). The hotter an object, the more infrared light it emits. The irony is, your statement actually described the exact method of how heat is dissipated in space, it is radiated away (since in a vacuum you can't conduct or convect it away). So really, heat is lost by glowing, just not in visible light (unless you were REALLY hot). Conversely you can't really transform heat into something else, because that energy exists and just gets moved around. You are right that it ruins the idea of stealth... which is why in reality stealth in space is actually impossible. Anyone with infrared sensors could spot you just because you will always have some form of heat signature. It's a fun idea in sci-fi, and I won't rain on it too hard because it makes for good stories, but it is one of those things that is pretty much just in stories.
  7. Master Dex
    Heheh, USAF GE-F110 engine mechanic here. Block 30 F-16s for me though (which are admittedly pretty old even here), we don't get them fancy 60s with their menacing fuel tank humps, lol. I also have a Bachelors in Aerospace Engineering with a focus on spacecraft propulsion which is where the rest of my knowledge is coming from (yes I know, why am I doing a mechanic job with that kind of education.. don't ask.. it's a long story). I tend to not worry about the level of detail you are getting into. It would help us determine some of the stuff we are discussing for sure but with that data likely not available I am content to leave it to mild speculation usually.
  8. Master Dex
    JB0 has it all pretty spot on, so I won't waste words on adding much to the topic that they didn't already say. They are right that most rocket fuels are cryogenically stored, with the exception of fuels that are liquids at room temperature already (such as RP-1, otherwise known as rocket grade kerosene). I can't say much for nuclear fusion considering the real world examples are still pretty far behind producing usable results. Luckily overtechnology has us covered there. A note on rocket fuels though, while hydrogen is the best fuel in terms of efficiency due to its light weight (the lightest weight!), ease of heat conduction for the purposes of both propellant and heat exchange as previously discussed, I am almost 90% sure that Valkyries at least are not using hydrogen as their propellant in space. To clarify, I am not talking about fusion fuel (in a real case, a form of hydrogen called deuterium would likely be in use but in Macross overtechnology reaction engines are stated in canon to be able to fuse almost anything, presumably with space magic*, which means fuel is easy to come by), but propellant. In atmosphere, Valkyries use the air around them as propellant, much like real world jet engines, except the inlet air is super heated into plasma by the fusion reactions as opposed to being mixed with fuel and ignited. In space it is often agreed valkyries make use of some limited on board propellant which implies they do have a fuel limit in space though this has never been seen in fiction. For any serious fusion powered spacecraft hydrogen is a very sensible propellant to use for a lot of the reasons stated earlier and by others in recent posts. Hydrogen has drawbacks though. It's light weight makes it bulky and hard to pack. This is why it is cyrogenically stored in tanks to maximize the amount to be carried but even then it is still really bulky and requires large tanks and pumps, which need insulation to protect against the extreme cold of the super-cooled hydrogen which all adds more weight, driving mass saving tricks with specialized tanks. None of this is really applicable to a space fighter like a valkyrie. Luckily, one of the great benefits of torch ship style fusion reactors is that the propellant can be basically anything (even plain old water, which despite being part hydrogen packs way better) as long as the fusion reaction is hot enough to be able to heat the material to a plasma state to make an effective rocket exhaust. What might Valkyries be using? I have no clue, but the lack of giant fuel tanks makes me think it isn't pure hydrogen. Could be something with similar heat efficiency trade offs but more manageable density though, like ammonia, or maybe a specialized future Spacey-developed propellant mix. Whatever it is, it likely is super cooled (likely into a slush as mentioned) in order to pack a decent amount on board so it can operate for a decent amount of time before needing a top off. That all being said, everything preceding about how hydrogen could be used was correct to my knowledge, and on larger spacecraft there is a lot more space to effectively use hydrogen for such things so it is entirely feasible they in fact still do. I merely was commenting on the comparatively small real estate of the valkyries themselves. (* - magic here is defined as things Master Dex doesn't fully understand yet either due to lack of research or because it is something made up by clever writers.)
  9. Master Dex
    That did nothing for me.
  10. Master Dex
    You know, I thought girl the entire time until I read otherwise here.. but the GG subs I'd been using did use female pronouns too. Is that a mistake?
  11. Master Dex
    Looks like instead of the OP and ED songs that OST is mostly score.
  12. Master Dex
    Eject-able heat sinks are not an unheard of idea but likely not being used in this instance. (Ever play Mass Effect 2 and 3 though? The thermal clips that were used like ammo in the game were basically what you just described.) Very good and succint explanation. You must either work in engine design or are a jet mechanic like me. Or maybe you are an enthusiast too (actually I'm all three of those technically). Anyway I bet the space metal of VFs is magically better at dealing with heat somehow. Overtechnology is basically an unobtanium with a slight amount of handwavium. Most fuel is stored as a liquid. Your description sounds like super cooled liquid though. An interesting concept. SpaceX does that with their liquid oxygen on the Falcon 9 right now.
  13. Master Dex
    As mentioned, heat doesn't really work like that. Heat can be re-purposed for added power, but it doesn't actually get rid of the heat (it could even make more). Heat in space has to be eventually removed or the spacecraft will turn into an oven and all the squishies inside will have a really bad time.
  14. Master Dex
    The legs twist sideways in fighter mode, as seen in the episode 4 transformation (I frame by framed it for research purposes, cause the engineer in me requires it). As such the gear is likely behind a panel on the inner legs, not the front. EDIT: I think I found them, looks like doors right above the ankle on the inner front of the shin:
  15. Master Dex
    I swear I love this valk... I must own it. I personally really like the head, but the overall appearance, proportions, and the Hs color scheme is what sells it for me.
  16. Master Dex
    Heat sinks are a stop gap method of quick heat dissipation.. ultimately they will need to radiate the heat away.. but ideally this is done after the combat is over. Good point that overtech seems to like to recycle waste heat for more power use.. but thermodynamically speaking the heat won't go away and eventually will need to be dealt with somehow. Either sinks, or some advanced version of heat radiation does it I'm sure (maybe they can shunt heat into super dimension space for all we know).
  17. Master Dex
    And they are more like antenna or ears than mandibles I'd say. If you frame my frame the transformation.. it is clear they are actually eye covers that conceal the robotic eyes when the head is acting as the F/G nosecone. I really like it though. I don't hate the cone head design, but it was never my favorite. Plus I love Keith's Hs version largely due to his colors. Dark blue and gold have long been one of my personal favorite color combos.
  18. Master Dex
    I believe in fact that for the YF-24 and its derivatives Kawamori even stated that in universe they had managed to perfect technology such that parts actually were able to separate and re-position via magnetic suspension and stuff so they could move faster with less mechanical friction to the point transformations were super fast. This can easily allow for most complex transformations to be done with ease.
  19. Master Dex
    Well for a fighter craft a continual acceleration is still useful, but even if the engines are not thrusting the reactors are still running to generate power. Any real spaceship would have tons of waste heat to dump and Macross presumably has some form of overtechnology method of doing this that doesn't require flimsy and easily targeted radiators as needed today. Ironically waste heat can actually be dumped from a rocket engine by the exhaust so really, it might actually help the cooling process to keep thrusting, lol.
  20. Master Dex
    I suspect they meant Mikumo as seti88 suggested. As much as I'd love to see Milia or Max make an appearance (I bet Max still hasn't aged), I know why they probably won't.
  21. Master Dex
    MACHIDA PAWNCH! That seemed like a good way to announce my return from lurker status I've held the past few years. Hello again Macross World. (also to be topical, this episode rocked and I've fallen in love with the Draken as you can probably tell)
  22. Master Dex
    That is certainly quite the chain of events. This thread has actually kind of stalled. I've only watched up to episode 20 because I have yet to download the remastered copies of any later episodes, so I've been late on that. Seems everyone else just got busy or forgot. Maybe your return can reinvigorate the viewing.
  23. Master Dex
    I need to download a new set of episodes. I am behind now.
  24. Master Dex
    I figured someone attached Akusho there without permission, but that seems a rather strange thing to do. It really doesn't make sense, I think it is just to add to the mystery of Basara. I'll take a science call for episode 18. Battle 7 ramming that enemy ship. Both ships came out of that relatively unscathed. Battle 7 must not have been moving very fast. The reason in science fiction that ramming the enemy ship is considered a last ditch move is that it usually will be the end of both ships. Impact dynamics aside, it is a simple case of the amount of energy released. Say Battle 7 was moving toward Gigil's ship at 300 m/s (rather slow for a space craft really) Kinetic Energy is KE = 1/2(m*v^2). Now I don't know the mass of Battle 7 so I will make up a number right now, estimating 1000 kg. I don't know if that is close or not. Gigil's ship was stationary. It would have potential energy in gravity, but it was in space here so assume none. That means the total energy of the impact is 45 million Joules (Newton meters)! In only one second (assume the impact only lasted a second like it seemed to), the collision would generate 45 million Watts of power. That is a lot. Also I said 300 m/s would be slow for a space craft. At the speed space craft move collisions generate enough energy to often vaporize both craft, or most of them anyway. Battle 7 seemed to be moving at a decent speed there, so the fact that it just knocked Gigil's ship aside is dubious at best. Unless both ships are constructed to withstand impacts of that magnitude (unlikely, would be very hard to do anyway), some creative license was taking with that shot, which is ok for the story here. The writers pretty much assumed normal impact dynamics (conservation of momentum) like if both ships were billiard balls transferring momentum (Battle 7 seemed to slow a bit after knocking Gigil's ship), but ignored conservation of energy. So Thermodynamics is only a little hand waved, it is ok, since the subject tells us the Universe hates us an everything in it already. There isn't much more we can do.
  25. Master Dex
    Agreed, 19 was indeed the last I watched.
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