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<<TECH NOTES>>

 


 <<Midpoint Reversal>>
    Since I don't want to spend four hours debating the finer points of astronavigation, I'll try to keep this as simple as possible.  Since the objective of space freighters is to get the material they are transporting to it's destination as quickly as possible, (With transit times of about a year, you'd probabally agree.)  they accelerate the entire time. The problem occurs when they have so slow down at the end. Since you can't just hit the brakes and expect to stop, starships have to decelerate by applying thrust in the opposite direction of which they were travelling.
 
    In order to do this, they cut thrust, flip 180 degrees, and then reactivate their thrusters, bleeding off speed.
 
    Check out the neat little illustration for those that are visual learners.

A neat little rocketship!!!

P.S.   If anyone can explain this better than I can, PLEASE email me and submit your own explanation.


 <<Lockdown Mode>>>

     When in lockdown mode, all doors, vents and other acesses are automatically closed and sealed off. Lockdown mode was origionally designed to prevent a disastrous chain decompression, but is also employed to block the spread of toxic fumes and fires. While it is usually triggered by the main computer during a crisis, it may be manually activated from any operations station. Once in lockdown mode, doors may still be opened using an override switch. Lockdown mode may be cancelled from the Captain's compartment, Security station, or Engineering station, though is is officially the Security station that encacts the order to stand down from lockdown. 

 <<Scram>>
    Emergency engine shutdown. Very quick, but hard on the engine. After a scram the engine must be reset. During a scram, the flow of Walterium fuel to the reaction chamber is cut off, isolating the reaction mass. The rear section of the chamber is then "Shocked" with a larger than normal load  of electricity. The walterium reacts, the resulting explosion  ejecting the rest of the reaction mass out into space.


<<Point Defense Lasers (PDL)>>
    Shipboard Point defense lasers are small, tightly focused laser projectors which are used to clear small, possibly hazardous debris from the path of a starship. They can effectively vaporize an object the mass of a baseball-sized rock. They are a much smaller and simpler version of the antimissile systems used by dedicated  warships of the line.


 
<<Heat Buildup>>
<<<Walterium reactors generate plenty of waste heat. Most of it is bled out into deep space by heat sinks, but some always builds up in the engine compartment.  Under full operation, the heat can climb to 109 F, but seldom to never creates a serious problem for the crew.
 
  

<<Walteruim Reaction Engine>>
    Walterium engines are used in almost all ships of the time. As a fuel, Walterium is Nonradioactive, cohesive, relatively cheap, and almost completely inert under normal conditions. It is only in a vacuum that it takes on the properties that make it so useful. In a completely unexpected reaction, running an electric current through a concentration of Walterium in a vacuum produces a powerful burst of energy.  When this is focused through a magnetic nozzle, a sizeable amount of thrust is produced. Changing the amount of Walterium entering the reaction chamber regulates thrust. While The Walterium is not consumed particularly fast during the reaction, on long haul space flights of four years or more, a lot of fuel is needed. This requirement instigated the use to huge containment chambers, up to the point that ships are designed and built around them. Despite these drawbacks, the Walterium engine is ideal for space travel, mostly due to it's simplicity.

 Fooooooommmmm!!!!

  


 <<Hard-suits>>
Contrary to what  the name may imply, hard-suits are light and flexible. They are are most commonly used in situations in which a part of the craft has become depressurized.  Air is supplied by a single tank, holding approximatly 4000 psi. Power for heating, radio, and regulatory systems is supplied by a small rechargable capacitor. The capacitor's effective life is the limiting factor to Hard-suit operations, constraining mission times to no more than 75 minutes (this may be stretched to 90 minutes if heating is unnecessary.)
    While their light and simple construction makes them ideal for making unpressurized repairs, they are poorly suited for use in deep space. Since they posess no propulsion system or self-cleaning respiration system, long-term, untethered operations are impossible. These jobs must be undertaken in a full-fledged Exo-suit.

<<DigiPad>>
    Digipads are employed in much the same role as modern day Clipboards. They are used for the storage and display of information. Cheap and rudimentary computers, they contain  around 20 megs of storage space, and the aproximate computing power of a modern pentium 90 mhz processor. Their cost in modern terms would be around $20. Their 9"x 8" x 1" dimentions and light weight make them handy and popular, especially among starship crews.
  


 
 

 
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