Your Nation's Main Battle Tank [Part 2]

[The Anglo-Saxon Empire]

Use a 100mm diameter fin stabilized KEP fired from a rail gun.

I still don't understand how saboted rounds work in a railgun. They work in conventional guns by being effectively lolneckeddown rounds and thus hilarious overpressure for their size, but the same level doesn't quite apply in railguns, at least not to my own (crap) logic. Just give a 40mm KEP some lulzy-big rails.

I just said KEP. I mean a 3 meter long KEP with no sabot.

[Germania Alliance]

(Image)

O I c what you did thar.

[Samozaryadnyastan]

Hmm. Gonna need a big O₂ tank to get that engine to run. Gonna have to be sealed too.
Ever considered powering it with a reactor for FT lolz? We have 25MW fridge-sized reactors today (albeit not licensed to operate yet), let alone lololftwankery.

i guess i could have a reactor. But it defiantly wont be a antimatter reactor. i dont want one of my tanks having an issue and exploding taking out the entire area around it

No, these reactors are regular fission reactors.
Fission reactors also don't go boom, they just go leaky-leaky melty-melty. Which is obviously undesirable, but better than losing an eighth of the planet you're trying to capture from an antimatter detonation.

[Germania Alliance]

i guess i could have a reactor. But it defiantly wont be a antimatter reactor. i dont want one of my tanks having an issue and exploding taking out the entire area around it

No, these reactors are regular fission reactors.
Fission reactors also don't go boom, they just go leaky-leaky melty-melty. Which is obviously undesirable, but better than losing an eighth of the planet you're trying to capture from an antimatter detonation.

If they can design the Abrams where if the ammunition explodes, it explodes through a hatch facing upwards (essentially saving the crew and the tank), then I'm fairly certain something can be done for a damaged fission reactor.

What the solution may be is unknown to me though.

[Samozaryadnyastan]

No, these reactors are regular fission reactors.
Fission reactors also don't go boom, they just go leaky-leaky melty-melty. Which is obviously undesirable, but better than losing an eighth of the planet you're trying to capture from an antimatter detonation.

If they can design the Abrams where if the ammunition explodes, it explodes through a hatch facing upwards (essentially saving the crew and the tank), then I'm fairly certain something can be done for a damaged fission reactor.

What the solution may be is unknown to me though.

That's entirely because of the fact that Abrams ammunition is explosive. It's a case of 'path of least resistance'. The bustle has an armoured blast door, sealing it from the turret (except in the dicey moments where a round is actually being removed from the bustle to the gun), and the bustle itself is made of one-piece casted armour plate on the bottom and sides IIRC. The top panels are then fixed over the top.
Because the resulting explosion can't get through the blast door, or through the one-piece construction of the stowage, the only place for the energy to go is upwards through the comparitively weak top panel mounting, directing the explosion up and away from the tank.
If a reactor gets holed, bad things are going to happen regardless. But hey, that's what armour plate was built for :3 liquid hydrogen emergency reaction suppression system, perhaps? Freeze the reactor to 0K, where literally nothing survives, even on the atomic level.

[Risen Britannia]

well the good thing is, if it leaks it wont be on my planet.

thorium reactors?

[The Anglo-Saxon Empire]

If they can design the Abrams where if the ammunition explodes, it explodes through a hatch facing upwards (essentially saving the crew and the tank), then I'm fairly certain something can be done for a damaged fission reactor.

What the solution may be is unknown to me though.

That's entirely because of the fact that Abrams ammunition is explosive. It's a case of 'path of least resistance'. The bustle has an armoured blast door, sealing it from the turret (except in the dicey moments where a round is actually being removed from the bustle to the gun), and the bustle itself is made of one-piece casted armour plate on the bottom and sides IIRC. The top panels are then fixed over the top.
Because the resulting explosion can't get through the blast door, or through the one-piece construction of the stowage, the only place for the energy to go is upwards through the comparitively weak top panel mounting, directing the explosion up and away from the tank.
If a reactor gets holed, bad things are going to happen regardless. But hey, that's what armour plate was built for :3 liquid hydrogen emergency reaction suppression system, perhaps? Freeze the reactor to 0K, where literally nothing survives, even on the atomic level.

You are going to need something colder than Liquid Hydrogen to bring the temperature down to 0K.

[Germania Alliance]

If a reactor gets holed, bad things are going to happen regardless. But hey, that's what armour plate was built for :3 liquid hydrogen emergency reaction suppression system, perhaps? Freeze the reactor to 0K, where literally nothing survives, even on the atomic level.

I think a fairly simple solution would be to build the engine in the belly of the tank, towards the rear and away from the crew. Gives it a much better chance of not being hit by enemy fire from the rear, unless something explodes beneath the tank.

Install a fail-safe of sorts, where the fission reactor drops from the belly of the tank upon taking severe damage, potentially avoiding catastrophic damage to the tank itself. The tank would continue moving on fumes momentarily, putting a little distance from the damaged reactor.

Granted, the tank may have to be a little larger, but I wouldn't be too sure of it.

[Senestrum]

You can't get anything to 0k.

You can get damned close though (laser cooling ahoy!).

[The Anglo-Saxon Empire]

You can't get anything to 0k.

You can get damned close though (laser cooling ahoy!).

Well it is FT... Regardless if you use anti-matter as fuel you might as well use it in explosive shells as a last resort or something. When you lose all remaining tanks fire their anti-matter shells and destroy half the planet.

[Samozaryadnyastan]

That's entirely because of the fact that Abrams ammunition is explosive. It's a case of 'path of least resistance'. The bustle has an armoured blast door, sealing it from the turret (except in the dicey moments where a round is actually being removed from the bustle to the gun), and the bustle itself is made of one-piece casted armour plate on the bottom and sides IIRC. The top panels are then fixed over the top.
Because the resulting explosion can't get through the blast door, or through the one-piece construction of the stowage, the only place for the energy to go is upwards through the comparitively weak top panel mounting, directing the explosion up and away from the tank.
If a reactor gets holed, bad things are going to happen regardless. But hey, that's what armour plate was built for :3 liquid hydrogen emergency reaction suppression system, perhaps? Freeze the reactor to 0K, where literally nothing survives, even on the atomic level.

You are going to need something colder than Liquid Hydrogen to bring the temperature down to 0K.

Liquid Hydrogen's not too far off, something like 10K?

Also, thorium reactors? My knowledge of reactors is pretty much limited to various kinds of pressure water systems.

[Risen Britannia]

dropping the control rods (Boron) pretty much kills the reaction anyway

that course in nuclear and theoretical physics is starting to pay off (as in it makes me look like i know what im on about)

1g of matter/anti-matter = 21kt explosion

thorium http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thorium_reactor

[Samozaryadnyastan]

dropping the control rods (Boron) pretty much kills the reaction anyway

that course in nuclear and theoretical physics is starting to pay off (as in it makes me look like i know what im on about)

1g of matter/anti-matter = 21kt explosion

thorium http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thorium_reactor

If your reactor has been holed, it's probably much too late to drop the rods in.
I do need to find out more about how these fridge-sized reactors operate, but I bet the patents will be kept secret until after they are approved. If they aren't approved, the patents probably won't be released.

[Risen Britannia]

dropping the control rods (Boron) pretty much kills the reaction anyway

that course in nuclear and theoretical physics is starting to pay off (as in it makes me look like i know what im on about)

1g of matter/anti-matter = 21kt explosion

thorium http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thorium_reactor

If your reactor has been holed, it's probably much too late to drop the rods in.
I do need to find out more about how these fridge-sized reactors operate, but I bet the patents will be kept secret until after they are approved. If they aren't approved, the patents probably won't be released.

if it has a hole in all thats going to leak out is the coolant. the fuel pellets should still be in place unless directly hit so the control rods should still work

[Axis Nova]

I would like to switch to a railgun in PMT so I can use a shorter gun, but I'm not gonna go there until someone finds out if that jacketing the round in cold plasma thing works.

If you're unfamiliar with the concept, the idea is that the round would be separated from the rails by said plasma jacket, thus preventing them from touching the rail physically and eliminating the problem of rail wear through direct friction.

[The Anglo-Saxon Empire]

So, what would be a good sabot material for a tank shell from the mid 70s and a pure MT (existing and in use technology) tank shell respectively? The sabot needs to deal with pressures slightly greater than those of a Rheinmetall 120mm L/55 gun.

[Risen Britannia]

I would like to switch to a railgun in PMT so I can use a shorter gun, but I'm not gonna go there until someone finds out if that jacketing the round in cold plasma thing works.

If you're unfamiliar with the concept, the idea is that the round would be separated from the rails by said plasma jacket, thus preventing them from touching the rail physically and eliminating the problem of rail wear through direct friction.

having a super heated gas inside your gun sounds like a bad idea

[The Soviet Technocracy]

I would like to switch to a railgun in PMT so I can use a shorter gun, but I'm not gonna go there until someone finds out if that jacketing the round in cold plasma thing works.

If you're unfamiliar with the concept, the idea is that the round would be separated from the rails by said plasma jacket, thus preventing them from touching the rail physically and eliminating the problem of rail wear through direct friction.

having a super heated gas inside your gun sounds like a bad idea

This.

Sounds like it would make your barrels wear even more ridiculously fast, actually.

[Senestrum]

You can't get anything to 0k.

You can get damned close though (laser cooling ahoy!).

Well it is FT...

Getting something down to absolute zero is a lot like traveling at the speed of light; you can approach it asymptotically but you will never reach it.

So, what would be a good sabot material for a tank shell from the mid 70s and a pure MT (existing and in use technology) tank shell respectively? The sabot needs to deal with pressures slightly greater than those of a Rheinmetall 120mm L/55 gun.

1970's: Aluminum.

Modern: Graphite-fiber/carbon-fiber reinforced polymer with a thin aluminum sheet to prevent burnination. Use nylon for the obturator.

[Indeos]

Well it is FT...

Getting something down to absolute zero is a lot like traveling at the speed of light; you can approach it asymptotically but you will never reach it.

Isn't the speed of light thing in question with that other experiment?

[Senestrum]

Getting something down to absolute zero is a lot like traveling at the speed of light; you can approach it asymptotically but you will never reach it.

Isn't the speed of light thing in question with that other experiment?

That neutrino experiment? I'm waiting for somebody to find some factor that they didn't account for (so far the team has confirmed that the accounted for everything people have suggested they didn't). And if they actually were traveling at that speed... well, they would have been traveling significantly faster than light (18 m/s over), and this is substantially more plausible than actually traveling at the speed of light as it doesn't require infinite energy. It is just as impossible to slow down to the speed of light as it is to accelerate to it (yes, objects traveling faster than light gain energy as they slow down. See: Tachyons).

Most of the objections to FTL travel are based around the fact that scientists loooooooove causality. In fact, the best way to test the whole FTL neutrino thing would be to arrange a similar experiment in such a way as to force time travel.

[Indeos]

Isn't the speed of light thing in question with that other experiment?

That neutrino experiment? I'm waiting for somebody to find some factor that they didn't account for (so far the team has confirmed that the accounted for everything people have suggested they didn't). And if they actually were traveling at that speed... well, they would have been traveling significantly faster than light (18 m/s over), and this is substantially more plausible than actually traveling at the speed of light as it doesn't require infinite energy. It is just as impossible to slow down to the speed of light as it is to accelerate to it (yes, objects traveling faster than light gain energy as they slow down. See: Tachyons).

Most of the objections to FTL travel are based around the fact that scientists loooooooove causality. In fact, the best way to test the whole FTL neutrino thing would be to arrange a similar experiment in such a way as to force time travel.

That doesn't make any sense to me, honestly. If we can surpass it, it seems illogical that we can't reach it.

[Senestrum]

This is relativity, the theory that takes everything we know about the world, bends it over, and fucks it to death with a spiked dildo.

What's next, are you going to ask me why FTL is synonymous with time travel?

[The Celestial Flame]

Umm turned out the (neutrino) experiment forgot to take relativity into account when adjusting the time on both the sending and receiving end.
After doing that the 60ish ns faster was negated. Thus relativity was preserved.

That is not to say appearent't "FTL" is not possible.
Bending space allows you to travel faster then what it would normally take light to in a non distorted space time setting. That is not to say you are traveling faster then light, since that is not the case, just the distances were significantly reduced.(using that method time isn't "sped" up elsewhere)
Besides relativity is only an issue for travel for those outside your reference frame.
From earth you could reach the nearest star in literally seconds if you had enough energy its just a huge amount of time would have passed on earth in doing so.

[Indeos]

This is relativity, the theory that takes everything we know about the world, bends it over, and fucks it to death with a spiked dildo.

What's next, are you going to ask me why FTL is synonymous with time travel?

Yes.