A Thesis of Underlying Features of Realities and the Matrix

Part 4 of 4 made 1993 by Neil Asato

Those components dealing with subjects covered by BTRC products are copyrighted by Greg Porter. For those who wish to use portions of this work, please include proper references, such as, "Asato, Neil. "A Thesis of Underlying Features of Realities and the Matrix". Internet, 1993. A supplement for the published works of BTRC."

MHD (magneto-hydrodynamic) Generators
As mentioned in the alternative history section, magneto-hydrodynamic generators are designed to extract energy directly from a plasma stream. They use some burnable fuel, like coal, and seed the reaction with a material, like phosphorus, to make the products electrically conductive. The stream passes through coils, generating electricity. The exhaust is then passed through precipitators to recycle the seeding material and remove many of the pollutants like sulfur-based compounds. It is known that there are 10 megawatt generators that could be moved on trucks, though they were only known to have been made in the Soviet Union.

Integrated Staged Nuclear Generator
These types of devices are made from a number of different technologies. The design goal was to make a source of power that could put out a vast amount of energy, be relatively compact, be relatively safe to operate, and can run with minimal maintenance. This was needed to power directed energy weapons. The result was a small "fast" reactor (not all were breeder types). The smallness was for safety for reacting to any unexpected emergencies. The largest size was slightly larger than a home water heater and the smallest was the size of a milk bottle. It used a metal fuel core (unlike the ceramic cores used in most reactors) with a percentage composed of nuclear waste. This feature was included, since in the early-1990s the Fast Integral Nuclear Project was killed which was supposed to consume the nuclear waste that was building up in the nuclear waste containment areas (a nuclear reactor that ate the pollutants of other nuclear plants and generated energy in the process). If more power than a single generator was needed, then multiple units were used. This meant hooking them up like batteries in series and parallel as desired. For the containment walls, a classified bonded layer armor was used that was designed to reflect neutrons and the e-m waves produced (especially gamma rays and x-rays). The primary containment vessel was an active part of its operation, which was to reflect the neutrons back into the core to encourage fission. This vessel is roughly egg-shaped, being an ellipsoid, for reasons given later. The fuel core is at one of the points of convergence in the ellipsoid. Shielding is located between the two nodes and small amounts in the fuel area. The shielding between the two nodes is reflective, while the ones in the core is absorptive. The water used as a coolant and working fluid is usually "heavy water", if necessary by operating it in the second stage for a while, for the proper operation as fuel for the third stage. Hydrogen gas builds up in the reactor, primarily from the decay of neutrons. This is removed periodically where it is separated according to isotopes and combined with oxygen to make more heavy water for the reactor. For the initial stage of operation(shut down mode), all shielding is use to block reactions. There is just the decay due to the half-life of the fuel in the core. This slight energy is used by thermoelectric and some high-frequency e-m converters to provide minimal power for diagnostic and safety equipment. Some were designed to 'de-gas' themselves of hydrogen automatically, if the gas pressure rose beyond a certain level while in this mode. This feature is to allow the generator to remain in unused for centuries (extra equipment is used to either vent the gas or burn them off in this case). For the second stage of operation (general operations mode), the absorptive shielding is removed. The reaction functions like a fast reactor with the thermal energy being used to drive a steam generator (while sodium is considered more practical, the danger was considered as not being worth it). The power produced is usually somewhere in the tens of kilowatts range. High-frequency e-m converters (using classified variant of the bonded layer armor type) is sometimes used to provide a large percentage of energy conversion is sometimes used too. It is for this mode the fuel is designed to last a minimum of one year. For the final stage of operation (total energy depletion mode), all shielding barriers only serve to regulate the energies, not impede them. In the other part of the primary containment vessel, the neutrons and the e-m waves (gamma and x rays) are used to cause a fusion reaction with the heavy water. While the chance of fusion reaction is low for any instant of time, the probability of it occurring over a relatively small period of time is high. In some ways this is similar to the idea of using a fission bomb to act as the starter for the fusion bomb, except this is a lot slower and only occurs over several molecules at a time. The method of extracting power is the same as the previous stage. The power produced in this stage ranges from the hundreds of kilowatts to megawatts. It is called "total energy depletion mode", since it uses up the fuel core at a high rate. This was useful for using up nuclear waste and getting some weapons firing in at the same time. Due to the high levels of waste heat that needed to be dissipated, some powerful cooling system was needed for this mode. This usually involved powerful turbines forcing air through a shaped tunnel with heat dissipating fins. In some weapons systems, the heated air is used to provide thrust or as the "starter" material for conversion into plasma by the laser-plasma mediated beams projectors. An active sound suppression system is sometimes used for the cooling system. For purposes of getting a handle for design, not necessarily real, here are some rough estimates. Assume that the fissile fuel core has a basic material density of 0.018 kg/ cm^3, but that the volume needed is 1.5 times that due to the need for cooling by using plates. The energy content per material is about 1.235 * 10^14 J/kg. Ignore the extra energy available by fusion to simplify calculations. Assume that the reflective properties of the shielding allows the designer to ignore the minimum critical mass for the material, since if it did leak that much under normal circumstances, then the user would be in danger and require extra radiation protection. Assume the efficiency is equal to laser efficiency in 3G3 for a given TL. Assume only 1/3 of the material can be used before reprocessing is needed (this is based on standard fission reactors). Assume that the minimum size of the surrounding structure for the reactor is at least 20 times the fuel core, and use the density for aluminum for finding the approximate mass. Designers may wish to revise these estimates based on experience.

Nuclear weapons
As mentioned in the various BTRC publications, these are serious campaign smashers, since there are few defenses against them. Still they need to be addressed, since the advanced military forces which span across worlds will have some in the form of missiles for taking out large space ship forces (size or number) or cities. As a suggestion, use the SpaceTime rules for the effects with use of 3G3 rules for radiation reduction due to armor. Most missiles use multi-stage, limited AI guidance (non-sentient) missiles. Treat each stage separately for finding the range before being jettisoned (use max. range). It is up to the designer how to handle missiles that are not in the atmosphere (about 100 miles for earth type worlds). A designer might want to just treat them all as operating in the atmosphere as far as range is concerned for simplicity and assume that the extra fuel is consumed in maneuvering. Some missiles will have multiple warheads that separate into smaller missiles as they get close to a target. Strategic nuclear weapons will generally be 1 megaton. In some cases, they might be as high as 2 megatons. Although it can be made greater, it is not very efficient due to the energy being wasted on everything around the target, too. This is a strategic weapon used at only long ranges, preferably as far as possible. Against most targets, they tend to be destroyed by the wide deployment of energies. For targets that are too big, like giant space stations, they are used to turn the surface into a molten coating. This wipes out most methods of waste-heat dissipation, sensors, exits and weapons. The heat of the molten coating then cooks everything inside, destroying equipment and life. This is the same principle that is used against targets like cities. The molten coating effect can be countered by the use of limited ablative armors, though the armor underneath has to be able to handle the radiation and the kinetic effects from the surface ablating away. Tactical nuclear weapons tend to be very specialized. The one type that gets used by advanced military forces is localized cone projection weapon. It is treated as a 1-ton weapon for explosion effects and a 10-ton weapon for radiation effects. It fires the effect in a cone, by having the rear and sides of the casing designed to reflect and channel the energies forward (the missile is still reduced to molten pieces though). The sides of the casing for the warhead is set up as a nested series of walls that can be retracted or extended around the warhead to control the cone size. For GMs the cone can be considered to be for every two lengths in distance, there is one length in radius (this can be varied according to the need). The ratio of explosive and radiation effects is primarily due to the construction of the warhead, and has nothing to with the casing which just focuses the output. When used, it appears to be a be a large conventional explosion with a strange brief blue flash cone. The cone has lightning-like effects going up and down the axis. The use of this weapon is as an armor-piercing weapon. It can, also, destroy most circuitry by causing changes in the materials and induced electrical fields (extremely "hardened" systems can resist this). This effect might be based on the radiation effect like 1/1000 for DV to susceptible circuitry. As might be guessed from the SpaceTime rules, death is not instantaneous though it usually occurs eventually in a few days. Circuitry damage, if it occurs, is generally instantaneous.

Guided AI Systems extras
For most combat with AIs or systems to allow the human user react with high reaction speeds, there will have to a slight change in the way combat is done. Combat is done at a 1-second phase level, usually. Instead of using the standard movement and similar modifiers, the perception modifiers (with movement modifiers taken as a negative) are used instead versus skill. If the sensor has a poor resolution, then use hearing modifiers. This allows the use of ECM tactics to be play strong role in being hit. This is done separately from just detecting the target, as the system may detect the target but be unable to hit it. The use of estimates of the future locations of targets is the reason for the reduced effectiveness of movement modifiers. Alternatively, the vehicle rules of combat might be used and just ignore movement modifiers to make jet combat more easier. When having large ships going into combat, firing arcs for different weapons would have to be decided ahead of time, as well as sensor arcs. Vehicle combat, or some variant, will have to be used. Including the rules for automata will probably needed, though stamina effects would be scaled up to reflect energy reserves or waste-heat dissipation.

Powered Armor
This will give a more of an overview of the various systems that would be found on an established powered armor that has been refined through experience. To make the description easier, the TL 12 prototype described in the CORPS Technology 1991 will be compared with. Note that the TL 12 version in CORPS is viable in its own way, though refinements were needed before it became a really effective suit for other purposes. The primary design goal for most powered armor is to handle door-to-door combat, since this is the one type of situation that all other vehicles can't go and where to use of large missiles or artillery may not always be acceptable. Obviously, this results in certain constraints in size, weight, and equipment. Control - The controls given in CORPS do work, they just are not very comfortable and tended to be rather clumsy. A big complaint was that they were very difficult to easily get in and out of. After trying a lot of alternatives, they finally separate the part that interfaces with the human body and the rest of the system. The result was called the "skin suit". It was a rather neat-looking uniform and was adapted as the basic uniform for the powered armor users with I.D. patches on them. The basic inner part of this was a long-sleeved shirt (with a section that fits across the head or folds into a collar-shape when not in use), long-legged pants, socks, gloves, and a moccasin-like shoes. They are composed of comfortable ballistic fabrics weave with flame resistant fabrics and strain gauges. This inner suit is tailor-made for each individual, so that it forms comfortably around each person. The seals are held together with zippers, and the connections among the parts of the inner suit are by plugs next to the zippers, whenever possible. This inner suit serves to get good pick-up on the motions of the user. Along the sides of the inner suit are pockets for holding emergency supplies (tools, food, water, medical, paper and pencils, and other small personal belongings like books). Apart of the inner suit are attached "contact points". These are plastic and metal partially releasable (they are still attached to the suit upon released, sort of like the cuffs on long-sleeved shirts) bands that act as contact points between the skin suit and the inner armor and the powered armor itself. They allow the suits to be worn closely by any person by taking up the space from different body sizes and shapes. This is because the inner armor and the powered armor is made in a few sizes (usually 5 feet 6 inches and 6 feet and 6 feet 6 inches). It is against these contact points that the inner armor and powered armor attaches to. Like the inner suit these parts are made during the construction of the inner suit. They involve getting molds of parts of the would be users body, which is used as the templates for making the contact points. The hard points also contain slotted plugs for transferring information and energy. The more sophisticated contact points contain a simple low-powered computer that contains a calculator and basic computer set-up environments that instructs the powered armor what the user prefers (how to highlight targets and screen colors desired). This computer can get energy from either the powered armor or through solar arrays on the contact points (can only use the calculator under solar energy collection conditions). The most sophisticated contact point is in the head covering. This contains a foldable LCD coverings for the eyes and stereo earphones for the ears and small light-intensifier cameras. When receiving power from the powered armor, they project visual and audio information through this. When operating off batteries without the powered armor, they act as transceivers (scrambled encoded) and light intensifier sets (used for combat and recon work where the powered armor is to noticeable; this feature was recommended by Special Forces users who had to operate for long periods in hostile territory). The images are usually red for most combat situations to allow the eyes to be better adjusted to darkness in the event of having to remove the head section. On top of the contact points are the inner armor. This is a prestressed plastic-based armor. They contain inner-lined soft plastic with strips of metal that conduct heat or cold from the environment control. This allows the body to be cushioned against impacts and distributes the forces on the body. The armor is attached by the use of sliding clamps. The armor covers nearly all the body and includes a helmet with a sliding visor). The inner suit is usually a dull brown, while the inner armor uses whatever camouflage pattern works best for the environment The total inner suit is designed to be as light as possible while allowing a person to fight in it, when needed. There are two schools of though on the final attachment of the armor. One is to have suit attachable in sections. This requires the use of attachment points for the suit's components to one another. The other idea is to have the suit to be like a space capsule in which the pilot walks into the suit and seals it. This requires a larger size for the suit. Environment - These are essentially as described in CORPS. For long- duration suits, filters and small air and water purifiers are included. A part of this system would be the use of electrostatic precipitators/ozone water purifiers to provide some resistance to biological, chemical, and radiological agents if the suit has to get external air and water upon exhaustion of its internal supplies. Drugs that provide radiation (primarily anti-oxidant chemicals), disease (primarily against expected bio-warfare agents and some general purpose anti-biotics), and chemical agents (includes nerve agents) are included for quick use upon exposure. A directional radiation detector in the powered armor and some easy-to-use chemical test kits in the pockets of the inner suit is for identification of possible hazards (this is so you know which drug to use and what to avoid). Movement - This is different, and somewhat less efficient, than the one given in CORPS. The suit uses a form of linear electric motors. This is basically electromagnets that pull against one another. These "muscles" can only contract. While they are not as efficient as the type in CORPS, they are faster, can apply greater strength, and are smaller. Another difference is that the person's fingers do extend into the fingers of the powered armor. When the suit is not powered, the user can still move the armor's arms and legs around, if somewhat encumbered by the suit. This makes putting on and removing the suit alone in parts more practical, as well as allowing the user to get to someplace safe in the event of systems failure during combat. Armor - The inner suit was already described. In case it needs to be said, the inner suit's armor has bonded layered armor incorporated to use have protection against radiation and high energy attacks (limited ablation polymers). The powered armor has an endoskeleton which supports the loads of the suit and the exertions by its muscles. The endoskeleton is designed to handle being able to support a 2 and half ton weight without problem (about 24,500 Joule weight). The outer armor is composed of prestressed armor with bonded layers on the outside (limited ablation polymers with radar and IR absorption layers) and on the inside (radiation reflective layers, another set of limited ablation polymers, and ballistic fabrics) in individual sections. The prestressed component is composed of ceramic and metal. Like the CORPS powered armor, the outer armor is modular in design and can be replaced without completely disassembling the suit (powered armor designed to be removable in sections by the user would have the outer armor be removable after the section is taken off the rest of the suit, acting as a way to prevent the removal of armor when not desired). The use of force fields in powered armor was not normally done due to various design problems. One was the energy required. The other was that the outer armor would have to be completely redesigned to allow the passage of the energies or incorporating the conduits in it, either of which tended to weaken the outer armor. There were still some people who wanted to have the force field systems below the outer armor and having the outer armor to be a composite mesh with metal linings supported by the force field to create a flexible armor that would be virtually seamless and supposedly could be used to allow a computer to control the distribution of weapon's energies against the armor and through the armor. At peak level, this type of force field armor could easily take up megawatts of energy and be very detectable to assorted e-m sensors. Sensors - There really is no way for the user to look directly out of the suit. Small cameras of various types provide the visual sensors. The infrared sight is done by an unusual sensor that involves setting up an oscillating energy gradient in a quantum barrier trap that infrared e-m would "push over the top" in each pixel, so that it is not necessary to have a refrigerant and still have a high level of clarity, though it only works for a narrow frequency range per camera. This principle is used in some of the other sensors, too. Visual images are dependent on the user, though the primary image is usually red with the other sensor types using different colors like yellow, green, and blue. In non-combat situations, the image can be full- color without false coloring. The actual sensors available is not as extensive as the one in CORPS. The basic sensors will include audio, night- vision, infra-red, scrambled short-ranged radio, radiation, and ultrasonic. The ultrasonic makes use of the computer to analyze sound waves like a crude radar with interpretations based on density to get a false visual image (use hearing perception modifiers). Specialized sensor packages that can be attached would make use of the other types of sensors in the CORPS powered armor, like powerful communications, surveillance and electronic warfare devices. The extra sensors are not regarded as being needed by everyone with powered armor, and is used primarily by intelligence specialists or radio operators. Control is done by either special hand movements (having certain fingers extended or closed while moving the hand up, down, or sideways), voice commands (special words), or direct use of a control panel (which requires some security verification). Armament - This is dependent more on the mission and the personal preferences of the user. For those with the energy available, the only built-in armament are laser-plasma mediated beams projectors (one per arm). Otherwise, the weapons are simply carried and used like an ordinary soldier. The use of pepper guns (the chemical sprayer) is used for taking live prisoners or just incapacitating them. The primary weapon would be an assault rifle, like that in CORPS. Various grenades can be carried in armored pouches. A sword carried along for hand-to-hand combat. While the idea of the sword sounds archaic, it is used for situations where large numbers of people attempt to charge the user or for those times when stray shots have to be avoided (metal staffs might actually be better for this though). Strangely, missiles and demolition devices are not common equipment among powered armor as most of their work involves fighting in buildings which those equipment can be more of a hazard than a help. The closest weapon to this type would be a semi-automatic hand cannon similar to that of the PolSci AC-3 in the Renegade Dreams, SpaceTime module. It would have an extra type of round identical in properties to the Fireball weapon, for distraction use (it can be used to attract infra-red sensors away from everything else). Power - It is mostly described in the CORPS version. The only difference is the use of the small range of integrated staged nuclear generators (two of them). They are designed to meet the heavy power consumption of the armor, of roughly 200 kW under the more extreme conditions. The expected time for replacement of the fuel core is about 1 year. This type of power creates a fairly large amount of air movement due to cooling needs, though it is suppressed by an active sound dampener system, which attempts to cancel the sound waves. The thermal traces are somewhat reduced by blowing the air rearward. Some battery power is used, though this is primarily to smooth out demand needs and has little effect otherwise. Stats - GMs should take this part more as a guide, and adjust them to reflect reality or their personal tastes. The suit itself will not be more than 150 kg fully loaded, excluding the user, and will probably be less for due to size limitations to fit through doorways. Tasks are done as per powered armor skill in SpaceTime. Strength will be set by the computer to be around 20 (for the safety of others around the suit), though going as high as 50 could be done with corresponding energy use. Movement will be similar to the human operator, as the operator's legs can't run faster than if they are unloaded. The inner suit, without inner armor, has an AV 15/4. With inner armor, it is 40/30. With the total suit, the AV ranges from AV 50/50 to perhaps as high as 100/100 (unknown if this can be accomplished with current military technology). The suit is likely to have add-on modules to meet the specific requirements of a mission, like intelligence gathering, long term survival missions (will include a small tube that shoots out cold or hot air [and can handle water placed in the inlet with ozone treatment to prevent water borne- diseases] for work in the desert or arctic), workstation-level computers, powered tools, and surveying equipment (for maps). OTEC (Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion) This is another energy conversion type of system that never went anywhere in reality. It uses the temperature differences in water depths to serve as heat (near the surface) and cold (far below the surface) reservoirs for the generator. The working fluid is usually ammonia. The energy efficiency is low due to the relative closeness of the temperatures to each other, but there is no fuel that has to be paid for. Attention has to be paid to using corrosion resistant materials due to the corrosive effects of sea water. In Hawaii, there has been one operating prototype plant on the Big Island, though the true commercial utility plants have never been constructed. Design plans generally involve using either oil platforms for the structure or ships, and would produce power ranging from hundreds of kilowatts to megawatts depending on the design. The one main drawback to this system is getting the power to where the users live (unless they are aquatic). One way is microwave transmission, but unless a array-type of system is used to break it up into a number of weak beams there is the danger of damage to anything crossing the transmission path. Another way is to use the energy to break the water into hydrogen and oxygen and selling it as fuel and oxygen tanks. This would be more useful for rocket bases (to the moon as an example), train-like systems, and power utilities. These types of systems are useful for worlds that have suffered a nearly complete depletion of major energy resources, and need an emergency energy system that can give them the boost they need to try leave the planet to get new resources. It is useful for TimeLords that need to generate a lot of power without attracting too much attention. An improved design took the concept of the solar water heater and merged them with OTEC. It used solar collectors of water (non-sea water, but it does not have to be drinkable) flowing through corrugated metal with blackened surfaces to get a very high temperature heat reservoir, which boosted efficiency during the day. At night, when the temperature in the solar collectors dropped below that of the surface of the ocean due to exposure to the wind, the water at the surface of the ocean is used as the heat reservoir. This allowed the system to operate at an overall high efficiency throughout the time of its operation. A later add on, was the use of paints on all surfaces that contained pepper-derived substances that kept nearly all organisms off the structures (leaves a bad taste in their senses), which cut maintenance costs dramatically. Some of these systems make money by selling purified water (chlorine is included from the salt to prevent the water from being contaminated by diseases, though areas with high sanitation standards might not need this). Sodium is sold for industrial purposes (it has to be in a compound form with another substance, as the danger of a violent uncontrolled reaction is rather high).