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General Material Science for Higher Tech Levels

R

RedTwilight

SOC-1
A lot of editions have lists of materials primarily to build ship hulls. The most different kinds listed I have seen is in T4 FFS.

In T5 we get some mega structures listed Rosettes, Dyson Spheres, & Ringworlds.

In the real world I found some interesting materials in some research papers.

MaterialDensityUltimate Tensile Strength
Boron Nitride Nanotubes/Cu composite 0.3-CMC8.853±0.01 g/cm^3 (Experimental)216±1 MPa 104.5±4 (Work Of Fracture) MJ/m^3
Additive Manufacture 3D-architected CoCrFeNiMn 0.69 lattice7.996 g/cm^3 (Theoretical equiatomic)not in paper333 MJ/m^3 energy absorption

There is another paper that talks about adding Z-axis carbon fibers to a supercomposite materials that increase toughness roughly by 300%, 2.20±0.07 MJ/m^3 to 8.83±2.88 MJ/m^3.

So does anyone know about some interesting materials for traveller ship building and mega structures to fill out higher tech levels?
 
Carbon 60, aka "Buckyballs."

This in various forms of nanoshapes, like balls and tubes. Compressed it forms into a super hard diamond-like material that is also very tough. They can also be used as semiconductors and theoretically as wave guides in tube form.
 
Enoki said:
Carbon 60, aka "Buckyballs."

This in various forms of nanoshapes, like balls and tubes. Compressed it forms into a super hard diamond-like material that is also very tough. They can also be used as semiconductors and theoretically as wave guides in tube form.
Click to expand...

Could they also be used to enclose antiprotons in a cage as a stable storage medium? (Negative charges - electrons & antiprotons - mutually repelling).
 
Traveller classically has a hierarchy of materials science, even going so far in the original presentation as to define hardness/armor capability and weight relative to hard steel. This was intended for armor vehicles and ultimately starships, no reason other exotic materials would be precluded particularly for civil engineering like orbitals or colony structures.
 
Enoki said:
Carbon 60, aka "Buckyballs."

This in various forms of nanoshapes, like balls and tubes. Compressed it forms into a super hard diamond-like material that is also very tough. They can also be used as semiconductors and theoretically as wave guides in tube form.
Click to expand...

It has some nice properties. FPEO10F tensile strength 24.1 MPa, fracture toughness 119 MJ/m^3, and the ability to recover it's shape.
 
Think of carbon 60 + graphene + spider silk combined into a material that is bullet, cut, and puncture resistant or proof that's as thick as a T-shirt or light jacket...

A carbon 60 hull for a spaceship would be incredibly durable.
 
The main issue with using bucky balls, graphene and carbon nanotubes is that as yet we have no means of producing them in industrial quantities.
How do you scale a molecule of carbon 60 to the macroscopic world?
 
mike wightman said:
The main issue with using bucky balls, graphene and carbon nanotubes is that as yet we have no means of producing them in industrial quantities.
How do you scale a molecule of carbon 60 to the macroscopic world?
Click to expand...
Well of course we don’t know- we aren’t even proper TL8, we’re technopeasants.
 
mike wightman said:
The main issue with using bucky balls, graphene and carbon nanotubes is that as yet we have no means of producing them in industrial quantities.
How do you scale a molecule of carbon 60 to the macroscopic world?
Click to expand...

If you told someone say, 150 years ago that was engaged in then cutting-edge electronics like a simple vacuum tube or the use of A/C electricity, that in 150 years there'd be a world-wide instantaneous communications system, and that you could talk and watch moving pictures of the person you were talking to on the other side of the world, or even on the moon, and that the device you were using fit in the palm of your hand, would they believe you?

Where will those technologies be in 150 years? My bet is if they have value and use in industry and society they will at some point be produced in mass quantities for those valuable uses.
 
Yes the old handwavium magitech can be invoked at any time. Science fiction requires some scientific explanation other than psionics did it. :)
My thinking is that there are two main new technologies that defy current science:

gravitics - null grav modules, artificial gravity plates, acceleration compensation, maneuver drive and finally jump drive.

damper technology - I'm going to cheat here and roll damper tech and meson tech together since this technology is all about manipulating the strong force and the weak force

So to my mind if you are going to introduce new materials then you can use these two technology paradigms to handwave away :)
 
Won't work. To maintain the properties you would need to expand the molecule, not just join them together.
Inter-molecular bonds are not as strong as intra-molecular forces.

You could grow a square of graphene one kilometre on a side and then fold it origami style :)
 
I agree, so use them to handwave the advanced materials.

Crystaliron for example may require gravitics to control the alloy composition.

Superdense armour obviously requires damper/meson tech to collapse the structure to make it stronger and denser.
 
Enoki said:
If you told someone say, 150 years ago that was engaged in then cutting-edge electronics like a simple vacuum tube or the use of A/C electricity, that in 150 years there'd be a world-wide instantaneous communications system, and that you could talk and watch moving pictures of the person you were talking to on the other side of the world, or even on the moon, and that the device you were using fit in the palm of your hand, would they believe you?
Click to expand...
Some may, most may not. Depends on how foundational their understanding of those things are.

Speaking of this, there's a very cool anecdote from Frank Chadwick.

He's a pretty savvy guy, but there was a technology that actually took him quite by surprise: the GPS system. He never imagined it, which is one reason it never really came up in early traveler tech trees.
 
From what I have been reading it might be instead of finding the new "unobtainium", it might just be new combinations and or processing of current materials. There is this carbon fiber coating, a process, applied to AZ31 and AZ91, magnesium alloys, that increases tensile strength by 60%-70%.

How this might intersect with game rules is you could have a Universal Material Profile, UMP. More materials, combinations, and process could then be "unlocked" as you go up the levels. Though that would probably need some research and generalizations to take place.
 
mike wightman said:
I agree, so use them to handwave the advanced materials.

Crystaliron for example may require gravitics to control the alloy composition.

Superdense armour obviously requires damper/meson tech to collapse the structure to make it stronger and denser.
Click to expand...
Crystaliron is actually possible right now. First, you use powdered metal technology. This allows control of grain size and uniform distribution of alloying agents. Next you add in something like HIP (Hot Isostatic Pressing) or Hot and or Die Pressing to compact and make the material denser than is possible by simple die casting or plate production. This results in a metal alloy that is not only far more uniform in grain size, but reduced in size and then denser than would be achieved by pouring or casting alone.

If also done in an exotic atmosphere, you could further achieve more desirable properties by eliminating potential oxidizers, or impurities that could be created in the process. Instead, much like Krupp face hardening in the early 20th century, you could have an alloy that's not just denser and tougher but made of molecules that are resistant to all sorts of other stuff.

It's possible today to create metal alloys that are about 10 to 15% denser than found in 'nature' by these processes. A major military use is in kinetic energy armor penetrators.
 
Unfortunately, I'm seeing these things out in the wild now. I even saw one painted (err, no, "coated"?) black. Flat black. Hard to imagine making a Cybertruck more ugly, but clearly those folks had more imagination that I did.

Meanwhile, in other Tesla news, my friend just bought his 3rd model S, fourth Tesla - his wife has a model 3. His brother also has an S.
 
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