Originally posted by thekillman
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The limiting factors in a shield that would absorb energy would be:
- The maximum intensity the shield can manage.
- The maximum power flux the shield generators can manage.
- The capacitors themselves. They better allow a great margin. Obviously they'd be designed to be greater in flux capacity than the shield projector. The capacitors' maximum charge will also be an important factor.
- Loss of energy at all points.
But again I didn't see any evidence that the Alterans had any vested interest in such technology. They were more classical in their shielding tech. As long as there was power to feed the shield generator, the shield was up.
You also greatly overestimate the power that the shield could absorb; the ship will use more power to control its approach, entry, and then departure from the star, than what the exposed side of its shields could absorb. See, even at the surface of a star with an intensity of 0.6 Sol's, you'd get 1.2054 e7 W/m², while the sun itself has an intensity of 2.009 e7 W/m².
A 1 km² square would have a surface of e6 m². That would bring the maximum theoretical power that hits the whole exposed side of the shield, if it were that square and that large, in the e12~13 W range.
Even if the shields absorbed 100% of all energy emitted over all possible wavelengths, you'd get at best a couple of kilotons per second, considering the likely size of Destiny (length of less than a kilometer) and the fact that it's rather streamlined for most of its structure.
Technically, many races in Stargate would be capable of driving their ship into a star like ours if the only problem was radiation (the intensity of blue giants is tens of thousands times greater, so that's a different kind of fish though).
Really, the radiations are the lesser problem here. Escaping gravity is the main problem, and perhaps maintaining a course through hot plasma currents may be problematic notably with some spots of strong magnetism, and that's all. The pressure will be totally negligible. Globally, mere motion towards or away from the star will require power levels much greater than anything the Destiny could absorb by radiation even if it skimmed Sol's photosphere, in order to accelerate or decelerate in order to approach and leave a star at the observed speeds.
It will also be worse once the ship departs because it will be transporting fuel.
see it as a probe. the probe has solar panels. the solar panels power the shield. the shield blocks the radiation and pressure. the solar panels, for the sake of clarity, do not break down from material problems. there's a battery for the shield too.
the probe is far from the sun. the battery maintains the shield. we get closer. more power from the solar panels. the panels power the shield. we get closer and closer. more power from the panels, a stronger shield, more pressure on the shield.
the probe is far from the sun. the battery maintains the shield. we get closer. more power from the solar panels. the panels power the shield. we get closer and closer. more power from the panels, a stronger shield, more pressure on the shield.
Of course most shields are designed intelligently, since they let daylight levels pass through but would start to filter at much greater levels.
the net gain for destiny comes from the actual refueling by scooping up plasma.
The density of the hydrogen and helium mixture in the solar photosphere is not particularly high either, roughly a hundredth of that of air at sea level: at 2 e-4 kg/m³, or 2 e-1 g/m³.
Hydrogen represents on the average 72% of the mass and helium 26%. For the sake of it, let's pretend that it's all hydrogen here, not even at 98%, but at at 100%.
Let's even simplify this and say that the mass of atoms (std molecular weight) is 1g/mol instead of 1.00794g/mol.
In the photosphere that means we get 2 e-1 moles per cubic meter.
The photosphere is roughly 5800 K hot.
Let's pretend now that the Destiny drives plasma through some conduits to a place where it's cooled down to near 0° C, so that's a decrease of 5526.85 K.
Since it will still remain a gas at such temperatures, we can use the specific heat only. Let's say it doesn't change and remains 28.836 J/mol/K.
E = 31,874.5 J/m³.
A bit less than 32 KJ/m³. Nothing to brag about, really.
Technically to obtain at least one kiloton worth of energy, assuming perfect drain, it will need to pump 130,750,000 cubic meters of Sol's photosphere.
That's also a total of 26,150 kg.
It would have to drain more than 26 thousand tonnes of this same stuff, assuming the same density and temperature numbers, to get one megaton of heat energy via that plasma.
[quote]also, why refuel in stars? no idea. but stars are easy to find. planets with the right composition are not. one wrong pick and the ship is dead in the water. also, the feedback system makes solar refuel as easy as dipping into a gas giant.
Gas giants would have very little reasons to be abnormally composed, and there are very few reasons why gas giants would be hard to find. If anything, considering how it's easier to find gases than solid matter in space, it would be a sure bet to count on most systems to have at least one gas giant. And of course, anytime the Destiny would come to such a system, it would have no reason to snob the gas giant like we've seen her do.
However, there is one thing a star has that a gas giant doesn't: a huge mass. While I'm obviously not pretending that the Destiny would eat a whole portion of a star, there's nonetheless something else to look at here: gravity.
So, could Destiny use fusion to maintain an inner and more powerful singularity, and use the star's gravity to interact with said artificial singularity to restrengthen it, somehow?
Besides, knowing how there is a relation between subspace and gravity (hyperdrives, flying a ship through a given layer of subspace, are greatly affected by gravitational fields as strong as those find close to some black holes), it could be possible that the value of a star in that case is that it may also concentrate large amounts of "subspace power".
Anything considerably lighter than a star wouldn't work: even the most miserable Goa'uld ship can hyperspace through planets, and gas giants aren't exceptionally more massive than solid planets when you look at the difference between a gas giant and a star. Sol, for example, represents 99.8% of the entire system's estimated mass. That's huge.
So what the Destiny finds in a star is not just a mixture of hydrogen and helium, but hot gases to tap (always a plus even if it's extremely minor) plus something related to the gravity of the star.
Complete sidenote: If what I suggest would be correct, we may consider the possibility that stargates orbiting black holes don't really get most of their energy by harnessing whatever evaporation (radiations) they could catch (via some unseen ethereal and gigantic "fish net" of some kind) but because such singularities are focus points of subspace energies.
Originally posted by Mike.
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All in all they never provided power comparable to a ZPM. 
) Looked similar, black, with a slightly steam-punk feel. Atlantis was another phase in Ancient culture, they were bored with dark tones so they used more light colors. It also matches the progression of technology, from metal conductors to crystals. Even our own cultural styles tended to make a point of contradicting what was before them. 
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