JumpShips YES, DropShips NO

[Daryk]

That's been suggested many times before... that Kearny and Fuchida not only discovered how to make FTL work, but that the science allowed even better^TM fusion...

[idea weenie]

Even a NERVA isn't too bad. A Gas Core Open Cycle on the other hand....

Nuclear salt water rocket

You basically have a nuclear salt dissolved in water, and spray it either into a reaction chamber or out the back.  When the uranium (or plutonium) salt in the water reaches critical mass, it starts detonating.  Keep pumping the water, and you get a continuous fission explosion going off behind your ship.  It does have high thrust and efficiency, but the launch site will glow blue for a few years afterward.

[VhenRa]

Nuclear salt water rocket

You basically have a nuclear salt dissolved in water, and spray it either into a reaction chamber or out the back.  When the uranium (or plutonium) salt in the water reaches critical mass, it starts detonating.  Keep pumping the water, and you get a continuous fission explosion going off behind your ship.  It does have high thrust and efficiency, but the launch site will glow blue for a few years afterward.

That one I completely discount as absolutely crazy. Zubrin was out of his gourd. I mean... at that point you might as well just bite the bullet and use old boom boom [AKA: Orion Drive]

[The_Caveman]

That one I completely discount as absolutely crazy. Zubrin was out of his gourd. I mean... at that point you might as well just bite the bullet and use old boom boom [AKA: Orion Drive]

It's Jurassic Park science. Just because you can, doesn't mean you should.

[Daryk]

With the exception of colonizing Mars, of course...  ^-^

[Slightlylyons]

I had a similar idea for a "realish" version of the Battletech universe but without changing any of the units or rules. The concept was.
1. Lagrange Points are the standard jump points so Jumpships emerge closer to the target.
2. The listed tonnage is dry mass, with every ship having a wet mass of liquid hydrogen equal to their dry mass. Eliminating that pesky mass fraction problem.
3. Drop ships and Jumpships have a "cruise speed" of 0.1g burning LH2.
4. The tonnage set aside in the existing states for fuel is LOX tankage. Used to augment thrust in launch, landing, and combat. Used as in the combat system. The high efficiency transit mode doesn't exist.
5. We ignore the decrease in weight increasing acceleration as to complicated for tabletop. Something something structurally integrity.

So in short, lower the acceleration of dropships outside of combat/atmosphere. Bring the jump point closer. Fiat a realistic mass fraction. Definitely don't run the math and if you squint at it it feels more real without requiring a lot of rocket science on the tabletop.

[Daryk]

So... a 50% mass fraction for all our friends?  ???

[Slightlylyons]

Basically, this is just for my own sanity. I also tend to upscale RCT's and their equivalents to Divisions.

[Daryk]

Rog, makes sense from that perspective.  As I said up thread, I think cutting strategic thrust down by a factor of 10 gets it real enough for me.