science fiction inventor with another science fiction question

Stromthetroll

One thing i dont think has been mentioned Carbon properly made it is the hardest substance on earth. It is also a very weak substance if need be and very common.
Another thing is even if it is heavy the ship is in space so weight matters little and the mass probably wont be a huge deal just kinda slow at turning and should avoid landing on planets, most space ships should since it would take a large amount of energy landing and taking off not to mention planets with atmospheres which get terribly hot

Simon Bridge

"properly made carbon"? "if need be"?

afaik the "proper" way to make carbon is with protons, neutrons, and electrons...

You mean that some forms of pure carbon are very hard and some quite soft as in diamond or graphite? Maybe "hardest" in connection with "made properly" is a reference to carbon nanotubes? (Though the hardest natural substance on Earth may be wurtzite boron nitride...)

A high mass will mean it needs more energy (=fuel) for the same delta-vee. It can, and usually does, mean a higher moment of inertia (re: "kinda slow at turning") - but the details depend on the mass distribution. You are certainly correct to distinguish between mass and weight.

Since the proposed ship considered to be using a lot of mass for shielding against soft sci-fi warships ... landing, or crashing, on a planet is not likely to bother it much :D

schonovic

But would aerogel hold up against energy weapons. You know, I'm just asking you guys to design the ship for me rather than do my job, never mind. I'll look it up myself.

Simon Bridge

Whelks chance in a supernova. Though ... how much Aerogel are we talking about?... and you are being told that the design criteria don't make sense: you appear to want something "realistic" (for an unspecified value of "real") to oppose vessels which have almost no realism at all.

Probably best thought of as as a technology vs magic story. I'm thinking of the story about a WWII era sub that gets past state of the art hunter-killers by surfacing and pretending to be a fishing boat. Your hero will probably have to cheat.

In which case, you'd want to rely on dodging the magic superbeam weapons or hiding from them (planets are good - small moons help). If you get really really specific about the exact threat to be overcome you could probably do it but right now the question is wide open. The best anyone can do is point out where you need to be more careful.

schonovic

I guess that what I was looking for, I've found and that was a kind of aerogel on steroids. Light as a feather, stronger than steel and super heat resistant. With a sealant coat on the inside to keep the air in. since the aerogel is so light I can use lots of it.
I wouldn't have figured this out on my own so thanks guys for all of your help.