illucc / Kontraption

A addon for the Minecraft mod Mekanism that focuses on adding airships that are inspired by various space exploration/combat games (Space Engineers, Elite: Dangerous, etc)
Apache License 2.0
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Thruster suggestion: Fission/Fusion Thruster #44

Open Cosmos616 opened 2 months ago

Cosmos616 commented 2 months ago

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.

This is more like a three-fold thruster suggestion. Not all of these need to be added, but they would be very cool to do so. I also am not sure if it would be possible to add these because it would likely need Mekanism Generators. I've organized them in order of increasingly outlandish ideas.

Describe the solution you'd like

1. Fission/Fusion Heated Atmospheric/Hydrogen engine. This engine is an engine that works by heating the inside of the thruster using a fission reactor or fusion reactor. Superheated coolant from a reactor is pumped into the engine and a gas is passed over coils in said engine containing the coolant. This heats up the gas causing it to expand rapidly producing thrust.

This thruster could work in the atmosphere or in space as long as a gas is available to feed the engine. If were going off the the theoretical real science stuff, the thruster would also be more efficient than a normal hydrogen engine but produce the same amount of thrust. To balance this the thruster would likely need to be more expensive, and of course, it would be more complicated to make work properly, since it needs to work alongside a reactor.

2. Nuclear Saltwater rocket engines. These engines work by causing a mixture of nuclear salts and water to go supercritical in the electromagnetic bell nozzle of the engine. they are said to theoretically be as efficient as an ion engine and as powerful or more powerful than traditional rocket engines. This rocket engine leaves a trail of highly radioactive exhaust behind it and basically could kill anything and everything around it. If you use it in space though the radioactivity spreads out so far its negligible.

3. Fusion Torch Drive, This thruster would be a long pylon of electromagnetic coils that channel and accelerate the plasma from a fusion reactor to make thrust. These thrusters in real life (theoretical science, it works by numbers but has not been built), are absurdly powerful and extremely efficient. They are designed to push ships between stars, and they are nicknamed Torch Drives because they can produce a line of glowing exhaust that stretches miles in length.

Describe alternatives you've considered

No real alternatives to these, they are basically on there own, and if these don't get added and I make an addon for Kontraption I may include these in it.

Additional context

Some pictures: image image image

WaterOtter86 commented 2 months ago

Something similar is in plans(maybe not emulating how would real fussion thruster work, but having fussion and fission is in plans)