The power problem (spoilers for Darkness)

[beafly]

I have a couple of thoughts on this topic.

First, I watched the sequence again, and the gate, never actually attempted to open an outgoing connection to earth, it was still dialing when interrupted by dropping out of FTL upon reaching the desert planet's system.

Second, I find it hard to believe that the life support systems and gate activity could possibly put a dent in the power systems that would be required to power the FTL drive that massive. I find it far more likely that the stop at this particular Red Dwarf was already planned and that the ship frequently stops at a star to fuel up, and now just happens to be the time.

I do think it more likely that the ship's FTL drive was running a very tight power budget to reach that star when the team arrived. Recognizing the need to fix the CO2 scrubbers, the ship made a detour to stop at the desert planet. As a result of that detour it lacked the power to do a proper deceleration as it would normally at the star, and compensated by shutting down early and aerobreaking on the gas giant.

That said, I really like the idea of it scooping raw materials from the gas giant to make water, and other more complex molecules for crew requirements.

[adaminator1]

One thought:


What if the ship runs from Light energy? Hence the episodes name?

[escyos]

there were lights on all over the ship, plus the machines needed for the water and plus al the stuff they started turning on.

i actually had a dream about this last night...well this morning.

I was atually talking to the destiny, it had the voice of Danny masterson (Hyde from that 70's show) and he tol dme he ran off a unique energy matrix which replenished itself from the radiation it gave off, and the ship planned to expose certain areas to space and fly around the sun very close and let radiation replenish the core.....then i parked destiny in the carpark at the place where i used to work and had to buy a trolley of mars bars....

[beafly]

there were lights on all over the ship, plus the machines needed for the water and plus al the stuff they started turning on.

Again, In the grand scheme of a inter-galactic starship's power budget, lights are probably the equivalent to charging your cellphone by plugging it into a nuclear reactor.

[creed462]

Again, In the grand scheme of a inter-galactic starship's power budget, lights are probably the equivalent to charging your cellphone by plugging it into a nuclear reactor.

though the light seemed dim in the ship. So it is likely that the ship was low on power to start with.

[Arwis]

Little off topic here but:


Sling-shots are used NOT to slowdown!!! Planetary slingshot INCREASES speed up to 12 times if performed well.

I just wanna say that because it seems that a lot of people don't know that and believe the sling shot was performed to slow down.

[jds1982]

Little off topic here but:


Sling-shots are used NOT to slowdown!!! Planetary slingshot INCREASES speed up to 12 times if performed well.

I just wanna say that because it seems that a lot of people don't know that and believe the sling shot was performed to slow down.

That's people just using mistaken terminology, they should be using the term aerobraking, which incidentaly is what they said on the show.

[Arwis]

That's people just using mistaken terminology, they should be using the term aerobraking, which incidentaly is what they said on the show.

Well the maneuver Destiny did was definitely for speed increasing not braking and it doesn't matter that ship entered atmosphere. I'll try to explain that, however I'm not an expert in this so feel free to correct me, but here is the thing:

Lets say the speed of Destiny is - X
and the speed of gas giant traveling around sun is - Y

After perfect 180 degrees sling shot destiny's speed would be ~ 2Y + X

Even if destiny's original speed X would be decreased by half due to atmospheric friction at the end we still would get - 2Y + 0,5X which would be an increase.

[randomking]

me too...its going to eat the star

spoiler for light

Spoiler:

omf i was frign right...kinda

[Shoeboogie]

Well the maneuver Destiny did was definitely for speed increasing not braking and it doesn't matter that ship entered atmosphere. I'll try to explain that, however I'm not an expert in this so feel free to correct me, but here is the thing:

Lets say the speed of Destiny is - X
and the speed of gas giant traveling around sun is - Y

After perfect 180 degrees sling shot destiny's speed would be ~ 2Y + X

Even if destiny's original speed X would be decreased by half due to atmospheric friction at the end we still would get - 2Y + 0,5X which would be an increase.

A good point. But wouldn't such a slingshot maneuver reverse Destiny's orientation? In "Darkness" she came out of the maneuver with the same orientation she went in, which looks more like aerobraking to me.

[Julian]

One thought:


What if the ship runs from Light energy? Hence the episodes name?

I don't know why I never thought of that, but it makes perfect sense - that's perhaps why the ship is heading for the sun, because it needs the energy of the solar power / heat to 'recharge its batteries'... and also, if a ship is to spend hundreds of thousands of years travelling through space, surely it wouldn't have a single energy source that would last that long - hence the need for it to use something to recharge with.