Technology Page: Nuclear Fusion.

[Boggle08]

Lore Impact (Small/Medium/Large): Medium?

Type (e.g. Planet, Faction, System): Technology

Short Description: Justifies the Horizon's engines, consolidates fusion tech into one place.

How will this be reflected on-station?: Provides plausible logistical reasons for the Horizon to mount its current engines, rather than use a fusion reactor.

Does this addition do anything not achieved by what already exists?: Besides justifying the Horzion's engine choice, this will hopefully serve as a reference for people to use when writing about anything related to fusion technology.

Do you understand that the project may change over time in ways that you may not foresee once it is handed over to the Lore Team?: Yes

Preface: If you play engineering for any length of time, you're inevitably going to get a co-worker that asks why we use extremely volatile engines like the SM or tesla, when our setting has had access to nuclear fusion reactors for several centuries. In the popular scientific imagination, nuclear fusion is this wholesome chungus post-energy scarcity technology that has barely any downsides besides a hefty initial cost, and a fuel requirement that necessitates space mining(not a problem in our setting). 

What this document proposes is to write in some logistical challenges to mounting fusion reactors in everything, while consolidating what we have related to the technology into one place on the wiki(Ideally, this will go somewhere on the technology page).

Long Description: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1shh4kfMOnojol6JwDG17iY7XAHMrTpEELzv6cBztK7A/edit?usp=sharing

Edited May 21, 2022 by Boggle08
reformated application format

[Caelphon]

The Lore Team is at an impasse right now regarding this. There question right now is: do we need this? 

If you have the time, and are willing to further pursue this, would you mind exploring and expanding on what you've submitted? Maybe throw in some cool history facts, and just generally more. Otherwise it was a good read, but just feels like it could be expanded upon. 

[Boggle08]

4 hours ago, Caelphon said:

The Lore Team is at an impasse right now regarding this. There question right now is: do we need this? 

Besides the desire to justify the horizon's engine selection, I was also building this to be a sort of resource for the team to look back to whenever writing technology heavy pieces. This would help us be consistent about a very important technology in the setting, and to have that line up loosely with contemporary ideas about nuclear fusion for the sake of maintaining a solid suspension of disbelief. I don't want us to get into a situation where lore articles contradict each other on how compact, dangerous, or energy efficient these things are, especially when contemporary popular science pieces insist that workable models aren't even capable of melting down.

The safe, boring engines are the deturium/tritium combo, the scary ones we can take more liberties on are the ones that use phoron or the cold-fusion hell seaweed. The one thing that has to remain consistent about all these variants is their cost, difficulty to manufacture, and limitations trying to scale them down.

4 hours ago, Caelphon said:

If you have the time, and are willing to further pursue this, would you mind exploring and expanding on what you've submitted? Maybe throw in some cool history facts, and just generally more. Otherwise it was a good read, but just feels like it could be expanded upon. 

The brevity was deliberate, but there's plenty to expand on if it's necessary.

I could bring up a few named Unathi/Tajaran plants I didn't include in the original document. I also was considering a segment on the cultural impact of fusion, specifically in human space and their attitudes about it.

Lastly, I was considering the inclusion of an energy technology race between the SCC/Nanotransen and Elyra, regarding phoron fusion reactors. I've described miniaturization as a big obstacle for nuclear fusion, If we ever decide to port the R-UST on station, we can tie it into lore as being a consequence of this technology race; It will actually be a pioneering experimental technology that's trying to miniaturize phoron fusion reactors.

These things, I can begin work on.

Edited May 28, 2022 by Boggle08

[Boggle08]

@Caelphon@Lucaken

I've updated the draft, the new material is under it's own header. Nothing else has been modified.

[Caelphon]

I will get a decision to you by Sunday, the 5th. 

[Caelphon]

This has been accepted. Changes may occur, however. Thank you for your contribution. 

[Caelphon]

Discussions continue among the team. Deadline extended by 3 days.