*WARNING BIG POST AHEAD*
In the simplest terms, it's a gravity sensor, scanning for minute changes in a background gravitational field. Everything travelling through a gravity field disturbs the field to some degree based on its size, mass and composition.
Well, sorry to disappoint you guys, but with thisin "alien detection" you already gave the aliens the ability to play with gravitational field so advanced, that simple agrav looks child's play.
Nooo you mis-read that. The alien detection does not 'Play' with the gravitational field at all, it detects changes in the background field, caused by other objects passing through it. Its purely Passive. Remember, all objects with mass have their own gravity, just that its too tiny for *us* to detect on anything other than a planet, (or a mountain, if you've got more sensitive equipment. Think
GRACE. Its been
in orbit since 2002)
With regards to how the aliens do it, think of the
gravitational lensing effect that stars have on the space around them but on a much, much MUCH tinier scale. They are detecting how much the mass of an object (say, a fighter jet) is bending the space around it, due to its (tiny) gravitational field.
(I THINK, obviously I don't know how the aliens do it, its not said exactly in the game. But I'm fine with that. It explains enough to be believable on current science, but doesn't make up a bunch of sci-fi explanation for how stuff works. And it can't anyway, since the point of view its from, we don't have the same theoretical know-how as the aliens do)
Since you want to be a "hard sci-fi", you should change your alien propulsion ideas. 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.
Yes, Newton's 3rd law, 'The action and reaction forces between two bodies are equal, opposite'.
Chemical engines work by throwing out lots of mass (all that Hydrogen + Oxygen) at a high velocity (thats what all the combustion is for), giving lots of momentum (Mass x Velocity). The space shuttle, for instance, throws out lots of fuel with lots of momentum out the back, and it goes forward.
However, Newton's 3rd law ALSO applies to EXPLOSIONS.
Thats how a gun works.When you fire a gun, a bullet comes out one end, and the barrel recoils in the other. But the barrel and the bullet are not pushing on each other!! There's an explosion inbetween, which pushes on both. The barrel contains the explosion, so most of the force goes into pushing the bullet forwards and the barrel back. If the barrel wasn't strong enough, it would also explode outward, but that's not too fun.
The antimatter engine, as described in the UFOpedia, is effectively using the explosive force to push the rocket along.
Not the craziest idea we've had. (see 0.23 - 1.18). (It doesn't use little bomblets like this, but the principle is the same.)
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.
While your numbers are lovely, what you're doing is effectively how an Ion engine works, i.e firing a constant stream of low mass particles (ions in this case) out the back of a spacecraft at near-the speed of light. A different way of getting lots of momentum. Good for space, but not for getting off the planet
.
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.
NO
. Anti-matter Annihilation DOES NOT EQUAL combustion!! Combustion requires
Oxygen (space rockets work cos we take our own liquid oxygen with us).
Anti-matter Annihilation changes Matter into Energy direct. E=mc
2. (Cliché I know, but yes, you can actually use that equation here!). Mass, x Speed of light
squared = Shitloads of energy. The mass actually isn't there anymore... its been converted to energy. Mass is in effect a different form of energy. Conservation laws of Mass and Energy are not broken.
Both can result in explosions, yes, but Combustion requires oxygen.
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?
That sounds like a good idea to me. Using the explosive force of anti-matter as the propulsion did strike me as *glorified rocket engine* as well, it didn't quite sit right.
Also if you are using the antimatter as the propellent, how off-earth would you use it to go FTL?? Antimatter reactor and plasma drives seems to make more sense to me. (With FTL as some separate system, that does whatever it does using the power from the reactor)
Since the aliens can get plasma weapons working in our atmosphere fine, plasma engines sound plausible. The engines as they are look like they could be plasma engines or whatever. Antimatter reactor could definitely get lots of power out of them. No need to say how they work, just that for the aliens, they do.
