Wed, Mar 10, 2021 at 9:03 AM
Ignatz,
Actually, electromagnetic induction is a perfectly valid way to recharge batteries; this is how wireless recharging is handled for gadgets today. In the future, we can assume this is much more efficient than in the present era, and that larger batteries, with greater capacities, can be accommodated. In fact, I would think this is much safer, over all, than plugging the other drones, on the ventral storage area, in to actual sockets. They would just have to land on their pads down there, and magnets would engage, charging them up automatically.
Thruster drones will still need reaction mass. One idea I had was for them to have a dense solid mass load, probably a metal like tungsten, tiny amounts of which are melted and made into a plasma state by lasers in a teeny-weenie reactor aboard. It’s then directed out the back at high speeds by a magnetic field. The amount of energy this would take is high, but hey, this is the future.
-David
Wed, Mar 10, 2021 at 10:00 AM
David,
I agree with your approach. The socket I mentioned is actually more of a tapered ring arrangement to fix and locate the drone as well as serving as an energy charging point. That energy charge could be transferred via actual contacts or an induction ring system. I'm going to have to take it as a given that the induction ring system would be far more efficient than those we have today (naturally) so that any energy loss would be minuscule.
I'm a little unclear about the thrusters on the drones. Are they similar to the engines on the main craft? So those main engines (and thrusters) function in this manner? Pushing out a plasma? I'm seeming to recall something about batteries and electrical beams, but my mind is a bit fuzzy on this one.
- Ignatz
Wed, Mar 10, 2021 at 11:14 AM
Ignatz,
I figure that, in this time period, all sorts of different engine systems are in use, and, for whatever reason, some are considered better for certain applications than others. This idea could be one of many. Maybe it becomes inefficient if scaled up, so that for small drones it make sense, but for larger purposes, not so much. Or maybe they require more maintenance than is considered acceptable for any kind of main drive. There could be a lot of reasons to use one system over another.
In the real world today, we have vehicles running on everything from wind to nuclear fission. Right tool for the job, and all that.
-David