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Alien propulsion won't work IRL

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morse:
Since you want to be a "hard sci-fi", you should change your alien propulsion ideas.

--- Quote ---It uses direct matter-antimatter annihilation to generate thrust by injecting protons and antiprotons into the reaction chamber, then channeling this explosive force out the back of the engine.
--- End quote ---
Well, sorry, but this just won't work this way. The linear momentum preservation law tells us, that in order to move forward, we need to throw something backward, easy as that. Suppose the antimatter itself is this "something". 1000 points of AM is 10 grams, while a full tank is ~50 points, means, 0.5 grams + 0.5 grams of matter = 1.0 gram. Assume the engine efficiency is 100%, and this gram goes out at the speed of light. The mass of the ship is... well let's say 30 tons (the mass of MiG-29). 3*10^9 / 30*1000*1000 = 100 m/s. The full tank provides one-time acceleration to the speed of 100 m/s in the absence of friction. Happy journey!
In the air, this engine can still work as a ramjet (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramjet), although ramjet is working only on high speeds, and you have to think of some other propulsion system to give the ship initial acceleration.
But anyway, in space - you're out of luck.

ShipIt:
So we cannot use the idea of the Alien AM-Engines in 'Flight Simulator 19 Gold'?  :-\

Nutter:
How about having antimatter reactors and plasma drives?

The annoying thing about this is that it's bloody hard to find a propulsion method that properly illustrates their technological advantage without resorting to some sort of agrav or something of the sort.

Seriously, glorofied rockets and FTL just doesn't sound right, does it?

Of course, if they do manage to strap a propulsion system we tend to keep for sattelites and deep space craft on an atmopsheric craft...well, the hills would start looking like a nice place to be.

Crystan:

--- Quote from: ShipIt on May 29, 2012, 08:04:33 pm ---So we cannot use the idea of the Alien AM-Engines in 'Flight Simulator 19 Gold'?  :-\

--- End quote ---
Rofl

morse:

--- Quote from: Nutter on May 29, 2012, 09:13:22 pm ---The annoying thing about this is that it's bloody hard to find a propulsion method that properly illustrates their technological advantage without resorting to some sort of agrav or something of the sort.

--- End quote ---
Oh, it actually is very simple. Try this: "we do not understand the underlying physics completely. whatever it is, it lies well beyond every modern theory"
And yes, I understand the difference between sci-fi and boring reality, but even sci-fi must be self-consistent and go in accordance with the current science. So if you want to provide an explanation on some tech, let it be correct. If you can't - just provide nothing, like you do with antimatter.

About FTL I also have a complain. In "alien origins" you say "FTL violates relativity", which is, of course, true, but what you actually meant was "the way the ship pops in violates relativity", which is not exactly true, as we do not know how the ship pops in.
The theory of relativity is too well-established to just say "this ship violates it" and pretend that you are still a "hard sci-fi". But the thing is, that no theory can be "the theory of everything", every theory has it's scope, and you just need to go outside this scope, and limitations of this theory won't apply anymore. Modern human science doesn't go outside relativity theory, alien's - obviously does.

Long story short: when you need to describe something beyond modern physics, do not try to apply modern theories to that, because in that case you'll be bound to the restrictions of that theories. Just say "we do not have theoretical basis for what we see".

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