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Ra to Rd

r-process reactions

Rapid reactions, occurring naturally inside supernovae, and artificially inside large picotech alchemic chambers, in which heavy elements are formed as atomic nuclei capture neutrons. (See also s-process reactions

radial velocity

V_r The velocity component along the line of sight toward or away from an observer. Recession is positive radial velocity; approach is negative radial velocity.

radiation

(1) Any electromagnetic waves or atomic particles that transmit energy across space

(2) one of three modes of heat (energy) transmission through stars or planets from warm regions to cool regions.

(3) rapid evolution of a large number of morphotypes from a single ancestor

Radiation Nation

Radiation resistant superclade

radiation pressure

outward pressure on small particles exerted by electromagnetic radiation in a direction away from the light source. Important in solar sailing

radio communication

Communications sent by electromagnetic waves at radio wavelengths.

Whilst nanodata modules and laser link can convey more information more efficiently, radio waves remain the favored form of planetary and interplanetary communication in systems with less developed infrastructure, because of the high speed of transmission, the lo tech simplicity of transmission and receiving aerials, and the low amount of energy required to send a message.

radiometric dating

Radioisotopic dating; dating of rock or other material by measuring amounts of parent and daughter isotopes.

radionics

Branch of paraphysics or pseudophysics which claims to measure qualities in an object or being through reading etheric "radiations".

RaftWorlds, TGTworlds

Raftworlds are virchworlds with a huge gravitational constant. Inside, the conditions resemble the fictional "Raft" universe from the book by Old Earth Information Age fabulist Stephen Baxter. The billion-strength gravity allows for large regions of breathable air held together by gravity, and stars only a few kilometres across. The raftworlds were
the first of a series of simulated universes in which the physical constants of nature were different.

Another of these virchworlds are TGTworlds, worlds in which the strong nuclear force is hundreds or thousands of times stronger. TGT stands for "The Gods Themselves", a book by information age writer Isaac Asimov in which a parallel universe with this property is described.

Raftworlds and TGTworlds were among the first so-called alternate-constant virches created in the early interplanetary age, when Asimov, Baxter and the like were considered great visionaries of space exploration, scientific achievement and the Singularities. These simulations and other similar virtual universes with different physical laws to our own universe remain very popular in the present era.

Loopquanta

railgun

A ship or vehicular mounted kinetic weapon that uses magnetic fields to accelerate a shell at very high velocity (in some cases relativistic).

Often employed in batteries in capital ships and starfortresses, which have sufficiently power reactors to provide a power source. Small ship, fighter, vehicular, mecha and handheld versions have less velocity and may also require an additional power source.

Rainbow Coalescence

Extremely diverse habitat cluster in the Archaipelago. Central to the tragic events of the Archaipelago Attacks of 8400 AT.

Darren Ryding

Rajasekar

( Tau 1 Gruis / CD-4913988 II)

Failed colony world

RAM, Ram, ram

[1] the or a name of God or of a God

[2] mantra associated with the manipura chakra. In cybertantra his is associated with memory chips (called "ram") as well . In biotantra it is associated with an ungulate animal (a sheep, also called "ram")

[3] the working memory of a computer, into which applications and programs can be loaded and run. Memory locations can be accessed in any order nd do not need to be accessed sequentially. (from Random Access Memory.)

Raman's World

( Omega 2 Cygni VI) Solar Dominion, formerly Cygexba administered territory, former site of the . Summer solid state civilization

Rambler Class Fleet Carrier

The main Federation Fleet Carrier.

It was later replaced by the Fisher class battlecarrier and the Cerberus Class Dreadnought/System Control Ship. Nevertheless, the greater simplicity and reliability of the Rambler Class ensured that several remained in service in less developed inner sphere worlds until as late as the Consolidation age. Some Rambler Class vessels, heavily modified and converted into mobile habitats, may still be found among the less travelled byways of the Inner Sphere to this present day.

Before being supplanted by the System Control Ship, the fleet carrier served the Federation primarily a transport and launch ship for fighters and troops. The F.D.F. Reserve redeployed some of these vessels as troop carriers during the Solar Civil War, because of its large troop and flight facilities.

For defense the Rambler Class was heavily dependent on its exoatmospheric fighters; however the ships can defend itself if the need arises, with 42 heavy defense laser turrets, 11 particle accelerators, 8 multi-barrel gauss gun turrets and various small defense laser turrets for point defense. Because of its low defensive armament, it was vulnerable and clumsy in battle operations , which led it to be phased out in favour of the Fisher class battlecarriers.

Their 2nd generation antimatter/matter engines give it a top sublight speed of 55%. With its 2190 crew including full troop capacity and flight capacity, cryonic facilities, and a dual multibiome biosphere/life support system, they were able to sustain operations for up to 65 years, making them useful as a colonial defense vessel.

With the dismantling of the Federation, some of these ships were equipped with Conversion drive and converted to exploration and scientific ships, because of their large space and command centers. The remainder were mothballed, stripped of weapons and sold to nomad clades, or scrapped.

A nanoreplica of the original FDF Rambler can be seen at the Ceres Museum of Historical Space Flight

Grant Thomas

rambot

Type of vec or aioid with massive memory banks - these are sometimes rented out to virtuals and aioids

M.Alan Kazlev

USS Randolph CSGN-04

Interplanetary age battleship

rat

Any of several species of adaptable, intelligent terragen rodent.

All through history rats have proved adaptable and were one of the few types of animals to thrive with the ascendence of baseline hu. Easily kept and bred, they are popular with geneers and spacers, and it is estimated that several million species have been created, hybridized, or have evolved naturally, in the period since mindkind first ventured into space. Rat splices, rat tweaks, and ratborgs have proved their worth on ships, especially relativistic and pioneer vessels, many time, and often develop into unique and indigenous ecosystems. Rat provolves are also common; although not as common as cat or dog provolves.

M.Alan Kazlev

The Rat Barrel

Originally a genetics research station run by baselines and nearbaselines.

At some point most of their genetic database was destroyed (whether by genuine accident, hyperturing-manoeuvring, or some sort of legal/political necessity, was never resolved, or if it was the details and all records have been carefully erased). The main genetic information they were left with, aside from a few plants, was that of the earth-rodent population.

Some years later the scientists on board have tweaked rodents in about every way one can think of. There are true "defletermauses", rat-provolve henchmen, sewer-pigs (rats given swine-like qualities and farmed in waste reclamation areas), steerpike (aquatic, gilled creatures of rat descent), bristle-spiders (which actually use facial whiskers as walking appendages), etc. Quite a few young geneticists in the area actually memorize large chunks of the more common rat genomes because these are so often called upon.

Also early on they developed high quality pharm. There was a law on the books at some point (which although outdated, remained an influential and formative meme) that any drug or process whose design facilitated addiction had to come with a counter-drug/process which would be available at lower cost. Although it isn't exactly that way now, the pharm industry (and home-brewed pharm) is generally pretty non-detrimental as a result, it's just not considered cool to make really nasty drugs. Among their most successful product is a drug called "white rabbit", but other types of pharm are made as well.

Peter Kisner

Ratay's World

Economically minor but loyal Negentropist world - outer Crucis Corridor,

home to the cyborg statesbeing Malhotra Castander and the Siow-Wang Circle (of which he remains the most famous representative). Despite TrueModel pranks, xenophobic and anti-TrueModel feeling, Castanander correctly predicted in the 8400s that the remaining TrueModel aioid clades would be more inclined to accept standardization with the main body of the Negentropist Alliance.

Ratakhtona

Important major mining and industrial base for a number of Vedokiklek hives.

None of the planets (Mercurian and Arean rockballs and several gas giants) have been terraformed, but the abundance of resources make this an ideal site for Vedokiklek construction efforts. Some of the outer orbitals around the eujovian Ratakhtona V constitute a primary industrial center where the massive neutronium coils for reactionless drives are built. Several large underground Vedokiklek hives support the mining and manufacturing effort. The intense concentration of Vedokiklek manufacturing in this system make it a good example of inter-hive cooperation. Although the concept of a "home world" is meaningless to such a decentralized and independent clade, Ratakhtona is the best approximation of an economic center to the species.

Adapted from original by Kevin Self

ratbot, prabot

The earliest type of practically usable and self-governed bot known to the terragens. It emulates some aspects of terragen rodents.

Its eyesight is, at best, limited. It orientates by touch by whiskerlike protrusions. It navigates in the space by remembering the touch sensation of places er has been and walking a fixed distances by memory. When tossed aside, it can return to the familiar place only by chance exploration of the environment. It is primitive, but surprisingly effective, especially in places like buildings, starships, with many straight lines and few irregular surfaces, especially if an approximate map of the surroundings can be loaded into it.

Long obsolete, but still found near the Outer Reaches.

Jerzy Dyczkowski

Ratchet knife

A piece of mono-filament wire held out from a grip in an electromagnetic field.

The field caused it to vibrate back and forth in a standing wave. Things interfering with the wave (like flesh or metal) would be sliced through like butter. The blade length is adjustable and had a small sphere at the tip so you could actually tell where it ended. The handle is heavy because the batteries ("molecular distortion batteries") were pretty massive.

Peter Kisner

ray

Ejecta from meteoric impacts forming streamers radiating from some craters; A bright streak of material ejected from a crater on a Selenian Type or similar planet.

Rayleigh scattering

Scattering of light by particles smaller than the light's wavelength. This process favors scattering of blue light, which explains why the sky on many planets that possess an atmosphere is blue.

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