Maximum Mass for a Stutterwarp Vessel

[Jeff M. Hopper]

OK, I need someone to check my math and reasoning here.

Stutterwarp cannot work at FTL speeds in a gravity field greater than 0.0001G and cannot work at all in a gravity field greater than 0.1G, so since gravity is based on mass, then the maximum mass for an FTL starship is one that will create a 0.0001G gravity field and the maximum mass for a STL stutterwarp ship is one that will create a 0.1G gravity field.

The values that I am getting for maximum FTL stutterwarp mass are 14985.5 tons and maximum STL mass is 14985763.5 tons.

I'm using g=Gm/r^2 and solving for m with r being equal to 1 since it is the radius of the mass itself.

 

[AnotherDilbert]

I'm using g=Gm/r^2 and solving for m with r being equal to 1 since it is the radius of the mass itself.

r = 1 m? Is the ship that small?

IIRC, inside a homogenous body gravity increases linearly with radius. In the centre of the body the net gravitational pull is close to zero since it is pulled about equally in all directions.

Place the drive near the centre of mass and it will not experience much gravity from the ship itself?

 

[Jeff M. Hopper]

r = 1 m? Is the ship that small?

IIRC, inside a homogenous body gravity increases linearly with radius. In the centre of the body the net gravitational pull is close to zero since it is pulled about equally in all directions.

Place the drive near the centre of mass and it will not experience much gravity from the ship itself?

At first I thought of that as well but the problem I can see with that solution is that with it in place, you can thus have FTL stutterwarp capable ships of any mass (including planetary or stellar) as long as the stutterwarp is located in the center of the mass.

 

[mike wightman]

In which case you need to know the dimensions of the ship to estimate the radius.

 

[McPerth]

OK, I need someone to check my math and reasoning here.

Stutterwarp cannot work at FTL speeds in a gravity field greater than 0.0001G and cannot work at all in a gravity field greater than 0.1G, so since gravity is based on mass, then the maximum mass for an FTL starship is one that will create a 0.0001G gravity field and the maximum mass for a STL stutterwarp ship is one that will create a 0.1G gravity field.

The values that I am getting for maximum FTL stutterwarp mass are 14985.5 tons and maximum STL mass is 14985763.5 tons.

I'm using g=Gm/r^2 and solving for m with r being equal to 1 since it is the radius of the mass itself.

Most Kaffer battleships (Aplphas and Deltas, IIRC) are in the order of 74000 tons, so larger ships than 15000 tons ones can move at warp speed...

At first I thought of that as well but the problem I can see with that solution is that with it in place, you can thus have FTL stutterwarp capable ships of any mass (including planetary or stellar) as long as the stutterwarp is located in the center of the mass.

Sure, you only need to power it then, but that's not too difficult...

Again, I don't own Star Cruiser, but in the classic DG book it says the WE is cube root of Mw/mass multiplied by a constant (usually 14.25).

So, if you build a 1Mt ship, a 150 Mw power plant (that of a Kennedy) would give you a WE of 0.68 and a 300 Mw one will give a WE of 0.98, and a 415 Mw one (that of a Richelieu) would give you a WE of 1.09.

Those WE are at par with most comercial ships.

The problem would be if you must really only count the gravity at the center of mass, or for all the whip you have to move...

 

[AnotherDilbert]

g = 0.0001 g ≈ 0.001 m/s²
G = 6.674 × 10⁻¹¹
g/G ≈ 15 × 10⁶

With M = g/G×r² ≈ 15 000 000 × r² we get a limit of:
_r [m]________limit [tonne]
___1 m___________15 ktonne
__10 m_________1500 ktonne
_100 m_______150000 ktonne
1000 m_____15000000 ktonne

That should be enough?

Must there be a practical limit?

 

[Jeff M. Hopper]

Must there be a practical limit?

No, stutterwarp driven FTL capable class G2 V stars are the perfect thing to drag your Ringworld around to tour the cosmos......