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Amat Thermal Dragonfly
Class ship from the Second Federation;
the antimatter is stored in numerous Penning Trap containers forward of the radiator wings |
| Amat Thermal - Data Panel
Summary: amat annihilation used to heat working fluid Basic Propulsion: Reaction Specific Impulse [sec]: 104 to 105 (depending on the amount of anti-matter used, the type of working fluid, and the design and efficiency of the engine). Fuel: amat (antiprotons) Reaction Mass: usually hydrogen Minimum Technology Required: Middle to High Tech (Information/Interplanetary Age Equivalent) Matter Manipulation: microscale Controller required: advanced non-sentient or sentient computers First Introduced: Interplanetary Age Used by: A few low tech polities and groups away from the Nexus Used in: medium speed interplanetary transport, very slow interstellar Construction Costs: Autofac: average (bulky, precision materials); Hylonano: reasonably cheap assuming presence of component materials Running cost: depends on availability of fuel; interstellar is very expensive Advantages: reasonably reliable, cheap, reasonably good performance, can give good thrust, can be made with materials in most solar systems Disadvantages: Practical for Interplanetary only. Requires amat power source, requires large amount of amat for long voyages (several hundred kg of amat about 700 t of reaction mass to accelerate a 1 t payload to 0.1c and decelerate it again Normal Acceleration: 0.01 to 3 g Normal Top/Cruising Speed 50 - 150 km/sec Drive Details Uses controlled amat annihilation to heat a working fluid; Direct conversion of part of the propellant to thermal energy |
When using hydrogen for reaction mass, an Isp of about 22 thousand is attained, but this is mitigated by the dangers of storing and using antimatter as well as by the increased bulk and other storage requirements of the reaction mass (liquid hydrogen is about thirteen times as bulky as the equivalent mass in microfusion pellets, and it requires cryogenic tanks as well)
For High Tech polities these are versatile, fast ships often used for defense or attack; the Isp of 10,000 to 100,000 is smaller than amat catalysed fusion or advanced orion/daedalus drive; some ships are small and light, others heavy and well armed. Slaved AI Antimatter thermal gunships are often used to reduce the lightspeed delay and achieve more accurate targeting of beam weapons or missiles.
