Gravitational Impeller
A gravitational impeller, also known as a graviton rocket, gravitational rocket, or simply impeller, is an extreme-high-performance spacecraft propulsion system which generates thrust by expelling a focused beam of gravitational waves.
At the heart of every impeller engine is some means of generating useful quantities of gravitational waves. In modern Starweb space this is usually a conversion metric salvaged from the ruins of Hexamite space or a warp battery charged with several megatons (if not giga- or teratons) of energy. Gravitational radiation emitted by this source is reflected and focused by a shell or nozzle of digravitic material like cavorite into a tight beam, the expulsion of which generates a reaction force to move the ship.
A conversion metric-powered impeller must be fed mass at the rate of several milligrams to kilograms per second, this is usually some convient substance like water or asteroidal rock which can be acquired cheaply and packed at high density into fuel tanks. Impellers powered by warp batteries must be pre-charged with all the energy they will need before the voyage commences, making this hardware setup rarely used.
Power can be tapped from a running impeller by intercepting a portion of the exhaust beam to turn cavorite windmills connected to a generator. Most modern impellers are designed with a static power mode which expels equal beams of gravitational radiation from both ends, allowing power to be extracted while producing no net thrust on the ship.
Physics
An impeller drive can be thought of as a photon rocket for gravitational radiation, and indeed has the same theoretical efficiency (one Newton of thrust requring 300 megawatts of gravitational waves). The prime difference, however, is that unlike conversion drives' exhaust—deca-petawatts of collimated gamma rays able to scour a trail of devastation across the face of a planet—the exhaust of an impeller is a beam of gravitational waves, which even at equally strong intensity can sleet straight through matter with no effect, being only barely detectable with sensitive instruments. (A gravitational wave strong enough to harm a person would need a power level on the same scale as the total energy produced by a star.)At the heart of every impeller engine is some means of generating useful quantities of gravitational waves. In modern Starweb space this is usually a conversion metric salvaged from the ruins of Hexamite space or a warp battery charged with several megatons (if not giga- or teratons) of energy. Gravitational radiation emitted by this source is reflected and focused by a shell or nozzle of digravitic material like cavorite into a tight beam, the expulsion of which generates a reaction force to move the ship.
A conversion metric-powered impeller must be fed mass at the rate of several milligrams to kilograms per second, this is usually some convient substance like water or asteroidal rock which can be acquired cheaply and packed at high density into fuel tanks. Impellers powered by warp batteries must be pre-charged with all the energy they will need before the voyage commences, making this hardware setup rarely used.
Power can be tapped from a running impeller by intercepting a portion of the exhaust beam to turn cavorite windmills connected to a generator. Most modern impellers are designed with a static power mode which expels equal beams of gravitational radiation from both ends, allowing power to be extracted while producing no net thrust on the ship.
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