Re: Landing vs hovering (was Re: [TML] What class of Port is this?) Christopher Sean Hilton (16 Aug 2017 20:26 UTC)
Re: Landing vs hovering (was Re: [TML] What class of Port is this?) Christopher Sean Hilton (17 Aug 2017 02:19 UTC)
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Re: Landing vs hovering (wasRe: [TML] What class of Port isthis?) Jeffrey Schwartz (30 Aug 2017 14:27 UTC)

Re: Landing vs hovering (wasRe: [TML] What class of Port isthis?) Jeffrey Schwartz 30 Aug 2017 14:26 UTC

There was a comment earlier in the thread about "Hot Air Balloon" in
reference to CG
I think that one is the most on-track I've seen.

What about approaching power usage this way:

1) CG needs a fairly large initial power input to start up. This is
based on the volume of the object being shielded from the grav well,
and is analogous to "inflating" the balloon. It's not listed on the
design sheets since it's in the same transient category as the initial
pump energy to light off a fusion reactor.
2) CG needs a continuing amount of power to maintain the field - this
is "keeping the balloon hot" .. this is about 75% of the listed
continuing power need.
3)  CG needs a certain amount of power for tweaking the field as it
moves in a grav well - analogous to ballast and venting in a balloon.
This is about 25% of the listed continuing power needed. Either this
is increasing the field strength when descending  further into the
well (balancing any 'gain' from the decrease in potential energy) or
to run heat exchangers and transformers from ascending (since the
field needs less strength as the gravity well gets weaker, and the
reduction in strength comes as heat.) (This is also why there's a
rocket-looking fire thingy when they climb - as the field contracts,
the air around the radiator super heats with waste energy making the
distinctive glow and heat trail) (And it explains those puffs of vapor
as a ship touches down - the slight surge in field strength to nearly
stop descent just before touching makes hot air, then the sudden
cooling as the field is eased down when the gear contacts makes
condensation)
4) As stated  in canon, a near-zero mass item in an atmo will float on the air.
5) As stated in canon, a ship can use it's full thrust for accel
without having to use part of it to deal with local grav - so a 1G
M-drive can lift from a 1.5G world.
6) Shutting off a CG field causes the field to slowly trickle out,
causing the volume protected from the grav well to shrink.
Effectively, the object slowly regains mass. In atmo, it will slowly
sink to the ground.

I think this removes the ability to build a flywheel perpetual motion
machine - the start up energy would exceed what is produced by the
flywheel, and with the slow decay rate the 'off' unit would act as a
brake on the wheel.
I think it also fixes the "Drop the ship to gain power" option

It deals with things like Landspeeders,Hover bikes and such like
floating when not in use. The power supply is set up to run the
"2"/"3" entries, but it needs a jumpstart for "1"
It makes sense for things like grav chutes - the capacitor barely
covers the "1" pulse, and then the field slowly decays as you float
down.