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[NUKE9.13]

Revision: ESC-PTT2 "Hermes" Plasma Torch Thruster

This revision revises the Cuttlefish's thruster to be more than a glorified hole in the Cuttlefish's Helios reactor and formalizes it as an actual independent module so we can refer to it as "the Hermes" rather than "The Cuttlefish's plasma torch thruster" all the time. (The "independent module" just means we're giving the thruster a name basically.)

By revising the plasma torch thruster to use Libum-265k superconductors in order to much more skillfully conduct magnetic extraction of plasma from the reactor and through the thruster. The more controlled extraction should allow the Helios to continue being effective during thrusting, and should allow for just a general better acceleration.

If time allows ((i.e. doesn't increase difficulty), then the Hermes also brings some mild improvements to the water feed system as well to make it a bit more effective at bringing the thrust to where we want it to be. As the water feed is extremely simple engineering and physics, this shouldn't be a problem.

TL;DR: Use Libum-265k to more carefully and skillfully extract the plasma from the Helios in our plasma torch; better acceleration and hopefully the Helios remains effective during thrusting (due to more careful/refined/exact extraction of plasma).

ESC-PTT2 "Hermes" Plasma Torch Thruster (Easy): (3+4)+1=8: Unexpected Boon
You see what a little care and attention can get you? The Hermes, unlike the Cuttlefish's previous thruster, is a competent piece of technology. Very competent, in fact.
But let's start with what we've done to the Helios. Or rather, the Helios-S, to distinguish it from the unmodified ground version. In place of the perfectly toroidal ring of plasma, the Helios-S's magnetic fields are set up in such a way that the plasma flow is twisted. Why have we done this? Because it turns out that this allows us to continually siphon off plasma without disrupting the main flow, or impacting power generation at all, for that matter.
This plasma is then fed into the Hermes, where a more efficient and powerful series of magnets accelerates it to even greater speeds than before. The water feed has been upgraded; it now adds more water (increasing thrust further), in highly variable amounts- it can be reduced to zero for 'cruising' acceleration, or cranked up to dangerous levels for emergency manoeuvres.
These new systems have been seamlessly integrated into the Cuttlefish. Whilst we were installing them, we noted a few, uh, sub-optimal design choices which we had previously overlooked, which we have fixed up. This should make the Cuttlefish more reliable in general. It now moves at a Moderate pace, can briefly accelerate to Kinda Fast, and more importantly, doesn't have to cut the engines every few minutes.


STAND BY FOR START OF SY100.

[NUKE9.13]

It is the start of SY100.

It is to great fanfare that the brave pioneers selected to go on the D Mission board the shuttles that will take them to the ITC refurbished for said mission. Crowds gather around the launch sites; most everyone else is glued to their tv screens, watching from afar. Possibly the only person not celebrating is Moira Libum, whose application to join the expedition was denied on the basis that they wanted everyone on board to be "mentally stable".
Two days later, preparations in orbit are complete, and the ITC "Ertex II" makes her ponderous way out of Ertex's influence, into the grasp of Aljadid.
Then things calm down. Without any way of reliably contacting the ship, all people on Ertex can do is wait for her triumphant return. Speculation as to what wonders they will bring back is the order of the day in the coming weeks and months.
...
Eventually, the Ertex II returns. However, it is not a happy homecoming.
We still don't know exactly what happened. The survivors were loathe to give details. Here's what we know:
The accursed Quillians sent their own expedition to Planet D, and the two ran into each other on the surface. After some heated words, the meeting descended into violence. Pistols were drawn. Who shot first? We don't know. Probably the Quillians, it sounds like the sort of thing they would do. Maybe it doesn't matter, though. What matters is, 90% of the expedition never made it back home.
We demanded that Quillus apologise, and send those responsible for the attack to Ertex so that a fair sentence may be imposed. They had the gall to demand that we apologise, and send the surviving members of our expedition to Quillus to face """justice""". Talks broke down after that.

Naturally, this means war. Quillus has no idea what they have awakened. Our superior military will overrun their primitive militia with ease, and we shall put an end to their absurd regime once and for all.
But just to ensure victory, it'd probably be a good idea to keep up weapons development. It is now the Design Phase of SY100. After the Revision Phase of SY100 will be the first Tactics Phase, and following that, the first Battle Report (which will be in the core thread)

Spoiler: Tech List (click to show/hide)

Ships
ITC (Interplanetary Transport Craft): The ships that carried colonists to your homeworld, now repurposed as military transports. They use rocket shuttles to ferry things to and from the surface. These shuttles have a limited capacity, meaning that with the exception of troops, the ITC cannot carry any equipment of a size greater than 1TC. It has 4TC. It uses chemical engines for propulsion. It has no armour or armaments. It is Very Slow, and quite large.
Cost: 2SPP

ESC-FS 1 'Cuttlefish' laser corvette: A medium-sized spaceship. The Cuttlefish's hull vaguely resembles its namesake. The 'beak' is a "Hermes" variable-water-injected fusion thruster, which draws plasma from the Helios-S reactor. It is mostly unarmoured, and has three ineffectual manually aimed laser turrets. Its speed is Moderate, though it can inject extra water into the thruster for a temporary speed boost.
Cost: 2SPP


Equipment
Printed Pistol: Issued to security guards before the war, the only real weapon both colonies started with. They are 3D-printed out of plastic, a process which is not entirely reliable, meaning the gun has a tendency to break after prolonged use... or any use, really.
Cost: Cheap

X100 Space Suit: A civilian space suit, totally unarmoured and cumbersome to walk in. At least it works well enough, and has a self-sealing lining meaning a single shot isn't an immediate death sentence... most of the time. Necessary for deployment to worlds without breathable atmospheres.
Cost: Cheap

EAF-X1 "Ranger" Laser Rifle: A big, bulky firearm, weighing in at 15kg- just barely wieldable whilst standing. Works best against stationary targets. Can fire 30 shots in pulse mode before reloading, or 15 seconds in beam mode. Beam mode has pretty good armour penetration against conventional armour. Comes with basic scope and bipod. With the scope it is accurate at Long range.
Cost: Cheap

Interplanetary Radio: Essentially just a very big radio set, capable of reliable communication between planets. Too big to fit on an ITC. Currently only useful for taunting Quillus.
Cost: 2GPP
Weight: 2TC


Infrastructure
Colony Defence Grid: The reason you can't instantly invade the enemy homeworld. A series of surface-to-orbit missile launchers, the only real concession to self defence the planners of the colony made. How they work is a mystery, and no one wants to risk taking them apart to find out.

"Helios" Fusion Reactor: A large, Tokamak style reactor. Performs He3-He3 fusion, though it does not take full advantage of this. Provides 2SPP and 2GPP.
  Helios-S: A variety specifically designed for use in spaceships. A 'twisted' plasma flow allows for plasma to be siphoned off without disrupting the reaction.


Misc Tech
Nanoquantum Capacitor Cells, Escher Pattern Mk2: AKA NQ Cells. About 15 times better than chemical batteries. Palm-sized, weigh about a kilo each. Despite their apparent complexity, manufacture and usage is simple.

Libum-265K: A near-room temperature superconductor. Manufacture is complicated.

Spoiler: Production (click to show/hide)

Ship Production Points: 16+2
  18 points: Unassigned.

Ground Production Points: 16+2
  18 points: Unassigned
 
Units: 5
  All unassigned.

[Chiefwaffles]

Design: "Picasso" Nanostructure Pattern
We've learned a lot about Escher in our attempts of using it as a laser emitter. And we believe with some tweaks to Escher, we can create a pattern much more useful for the purposes we desire. "Picasso" is named after another artist famed for his abstract and somewhat nonsensical drawings, while maintaining beauty. A perfect choice for the name of this pattern.

Apparently, Escher can do many things effectively, but that list does not include laser emitters. In that design, our engineers successfully managed to learn how to manipulate energy levels with quantum nanostructures. But it turns out that while it can do that, Escher isn't designed for that purpose. Escher can deftly manipulate the flow of electrons, but without impractical amounts of power and engineering, it cannot effectively manipulate the energy level of electrons.
So by taking all our knowledge with nanostructures and what we learned in that ill-fated design, we can revise/design a new nanostructure pattern that is meant to manipulate the energy level of electrons. Once this - practically the entire design - is done, we simply replace the jury-rigged Escher in our nanostructure emitter laser prototypes with Picasso, giving us what we initially aimed for.

As Picasso is simply an intended new, more graceful, way of achieving the same ultimate goal as the Escher Laser Emitter design, all the hopeful benefits and practical effects remain the same. Electrons are stored at a specific energy level and unleashed in a singular pulse upon pushing of the trigger; the nanostructure lets us easily change the wavelength of the laser during production, we should be able to wield much more power with less inefficiency, and the usage of nanostructures cuts out a lot of intermediate components, reducing bulkiness. While it can't fire in beam, we can still field the Ranger if the Picasso lasers aren't as good at anti-armor as emptying a NQC on a theoretical Quillus tank with a Ranger.

Thanks to the manipulation theoretically allowed by Picasso, we should be able to implement it in all our current laser weapons (especially since the Escher Emitter design already gave us lasers ready to be fitted with nanostructure emitters). The ground weapon is deemed the "EAF-PX3 Raider" to differentiate it from its conventional cousin. The lasers used by the Cuttlefish - deemed the "EAC-AX3 Spear" - will use the x-ray wavelength; which, along with the natural improvements of Picasso usage, will make the AX3 actually useful in space combat. The only notable things changing in these guns (assuming the Escher-prototype variants are developed upon) is the pattern of the nanostructure used.

TL;DR: Escher Laser Emitter Design failed because we tried using Escher - meant for manipulating flow of electrons - to manipulate e-levels. But we still learned how to manipulate e-levels w/ nanostructures and still implemented the general "manipulate e-levels" nanostructure assembly in lasers in that design, along with learning other useful experience. So design a nanostructure pattern actually meant to manipulate e-levels, use that instead, hopefully get the intended benefits _{(or more)} of said design.

"Picasso" Nanostructure Pattern (1): Chiefwaffles

[joha4270]

"Picasso" Nanostructure Pattern (2): Chiefwaffles, joha4270

[3_14159]

"Picasso" Nanostructure Pattern (3): Chiefwaffles, joha4270, 3_14159

[andrea]

"Picasso" Nanostructure Pattern (4): Chiefwaffles, joha4270, 3_14159, Andrea

[Detoxicated]

(For the revision phase)

Nanostructured Streamlined Spacesuit "Michelangelo"
This updated version of the original spacesuit X100 has a less bulky design. By reducing unneccessary elements from the spacesuit itself we could lessen the material used.
Through applying a thorough pattern analysis we were able to rearrange parts of the armour in such a way that we increase the durability of our armour but without increasing the weight.
The suit is made to give its wearer abs of spacesuit material for intimidation.

[NUKE9.13]

Design: "Picasso" Nanostructure Pattern
We've learned a lot about Escher in our attempts of using it as a laser emitter. And we believe with some tweaks to Escher, we can create a pattern much more useful for the purposes we desire. "Picasso" is named after another artist famed for his abstract and somewhat nonsensical drawings, while maintaining beauty. A perfect choice for the name of this pattern.

Apparently, Escher can do many things effectively, but that list does not include laser emitters. In that design, our engineers successfully managed to learn how to manipulate energy levels with quantum nanostructures. But it turns out that while it can do that, Escher isn't designed for that purpose. Escher can deftly manipulate the flow of electrons, but without impractical amounts of power and engineering, it cannot effectively manipulate the energy level of electrons.
So by taking all our knowledge with nanostructures and what we learned in that ill-fated design, we can revise/design a new nanostructure pattern that is meant to manipulate the energy level of electrons. Once this - practically the entire design - is done, we simply replace the jury-rigged Escher in our nanostructure emitter laser prototypes with Picasso, giving us what we initially aimed for.

As Picasso is simply an intended new, more graceful, way of achieving the same ultimate goal as the Escher Laser Emitter design, all the hopeful benefits and practical effects remain the same. Electrons are stored at a specific energy level and unleashed in a singular pulse upon pushing of the trigger; the nanostructure lets us easily change the wavelength of the laser during production, we should be able to wield much more power with less inefficiency, and the usage of nanostructures cuts out a lot of intermediate components, reducing bulkiness. While it can't fire in beam, we can still field the Ranger if the Picasso lasers aren't as good at anti-armor as emptying a NQC on a theoretical Quillus tank with a Ranger.

Thanks to the manipulation theoretically allowed by Picasso, we should be able to implement it in all our current laser weapons (especially since the Escher Emitter design already gave us lasers ready to be fitted with nanostructure emitters). The ground weapon is deemed the "EAF-PX3 Raider" to differentiate it from its conventional cousin. The lasers used by the Cuttlefish - deemed the "EAC-AX3 Spear" - will use the x-ray wavelength; which, along with the natural improvements of Picasso usage, will make the AX3 actually useful in space combat. The only notable things changing in these guns (assuming the Escher-prototype variants are developed upon) is the pattern of the nanostructure used.

TL;DR: Escher Laser Emitter Design failed because we tried using Escher - meant for manipulating flow of electrons - to manipulate e-levels. But we still learned how to manipulate e-levels w/ nanostructures and still implemented the general "manipulate e-levels" nanostructure assembly in lasers in that design, along with learning other useful experience. So design a nanostructure pattern actually meant to manipulate e-levels, use that instead, hopefully get the intended benefits _{(or more)} of said design.

"Picasso" Nanostructure Pattern (Normal): (4+1)=5: Average
Some engineers feel a bit uncomfortable with deliberately trying to aim for a design that inspires the name Picasso. Others are firm believers in Libumism, and insist that blueprints should be drawn left-handed with blindfolds on.
But that's more or less irrelevant. What is relevant is the results. Which are... not bad, considering. The Picasso Pattern utilises nanostructures made from a variety of interesting elements, including some rare-earth minerals- though fortunately not in large amounts. Spirals predominate, for some technical reason. The end result is thus: you put electricity in, and after a very short delay (like microseconds), the material emits a flash of light focussed on a single wavelength, as a stream emerging perpendicular to the material. This can then be booped around by mirrors (that's a technical term), and focused into a coherent beam.
It can't quite yet manage totally arbitrary frequencies, but a sufficiently wide variety is possible that it doesn't really matter.
It takes up less space and uses less energy than our conventional lasers, and generates less waste heat. One problem- if you can call it that- is that the Picasso Pattern cannot emit a continuous beam. Microseconds don't sound like much, but for lasers that's practically forever. Of course, it is possible to stagger Picasso Emitters such that their emissions overlap, but that does take up more space. This is not a problem that can be solved with any known material, though.

Anyway, we've installed these emitters in the Ranger and the Cuttlefish's turrets, which has halved the weight and quadrupled the power respectively (or rather, tripled the power. A switch to x-ray wavelengths improved the range, but since power drops off with range, might as well lump them together). Which does mean the newly christened Raider is still quite heavy, and the Spear not amazingly powerful, but they're both a hell of a lot better than they were. Further optimisation may be possible.


It is now the Revision Phase of SY100.

[Detoxicated]

Nanostructured Streamlined Spacesuit "Michelangelo" (1): Detoxicated

[joha4270]

Okay, so design is up. Armor penetration should be better if it is delivered in pulses instead of continuous beams. So changing the new lasers to pulses instead of beams would provide a notable boost in armor penetration (but maybe less killing power, not a specialist in laser damage)

EAC-AX3 Spear optimization
By changing the laser to emit a single pulse instead of a continous beam, it can very quickly penetrate a short depth into the armor, instead of the armor heating up slowly (slowly being a relative term) and spreading the heat to the rest of the hull.

While we are working at it, attempts should be made to increase the efficiency of the Picasso pattern.

I seem to be mistaken on how the picasso works. We can still use a reversion on better laser, but this isn't it.



Another way to go is to try and get some armor on our soldiers, while also getting some small steps toward full blown power armor.

EAF-X4 Enhanced mobility unit
EMU is an attempt to quickly turn the X100 spacesuit into something usable in combat. The most significant change is the addition of a series of servo motors attached to the legs. This along with a lightweight titanium frame allows the suit to carry its own weight and some 50kg of additional equipment, without the wearer feeling it. This is powered by an array of NQ cells housed on the back of the suit.
This, along with a series improvements in the in the joints and general constructions, means the X4 is only slightly more restrictive than normal clothing.

At the same time, moderate amount of ceramic armor has been added, primarily on the chest, head and legs, with thinner armor on the arms.

I have no idea if ceramic armor is the most effective, but that's what i added. Seems like modern high performance armor is made of ceramics.

Nanostructured Streamlined Spacesuit "Michelangelo" (1): Detoxicated
EAF-X4 Enhanced mobility unit (1): joha4270

[Happerry]

An armored space suit sounds good to me. Assuming both sides have an upgraded ground weapon, the side that wins on the ground will probably be the one with better armor. Or a ground vehicle, but lets hope they don't have one of those.

Nanostructured Streamlined Spacesuit "Michelangelo" (1): Detoxicated
EAF-X4 Enhanced mobility unit (2): joha4270, Happerry

[Detoxicated]

If it was design phase i think id vote for your idea. For a revision it seems way to complex, especially since it involves technology we dont currently have.

[Chiefwaffles]

Revision: Pulse Repeater

By working on miniaturizing the bit of nanostructure (well - miniaturizing its layout to be more efficient with its usage of space: we can't really miniaturize nanostructures themselves. Yet.) responsible for the pulse in nanostructure laser weaponry, we can effectively make our lasers replicate a beam.
The miniaturization is most of the work here. Once that's done, we create a layout vaguely similar to that found in gatling guns - we store multiple pulses at a time and release them sequentially while the others charge. This is very straightforward and was even investigated during the designing of Picasso, luckily.

With this "Pulse Repeater" system in place, we can have our guns effectively be "automatic". Or it can be called "Beam" mode again - either way works. Considering how fast the Picasso layout "charges", we should need a very small number - 2 or 3, probably - of pulse thingies.
The effect should be great. Multiple pulses should be able to fire in such quick succession that it could even still appear as a "single shot", greatly increasing damage as multiple pulses hit the target right next to each other, increasing devastation. This should increase the damage of our PX3 Raider - now the PX4 Raider - notably as well as let our troops effectively use automatic fire (and obsolete the Ranger as anti-armor if that's a thing).
The AX3 Spear - called the AX4 Spear with this improvement - should gain the most from this as it benefits from being attached to a fusion reactor with a looooot of unused power and can be aimed better: The Spear will hopefully greatly increase in effectiveness as it can fire an effectively unlimited beam. This "beam" will be leaps and bounds better than the original laser turret, as the single pulse already is 4x as powerful as the original version and we're creating these pulses in very quick succession - a brief graze by the Spear's beam should deposit tons of pulses, devastating the armor and anything else. That and even if a single pulse wasn't already much more powerful, pulsed beams are shown to be much better at piercing armor than continuous beams, which just melt the surrounding area.

TL;DR: From last design: "Of course, it is possible to stagger Picasso Emitters such that their emissions overlap, but that does take up more space." Miniaturize Picasso Emitter's (via optimizing its usage of space) then do this, to create a beam mode for the PX3 PX4 and AX3 AX4.
A single "shot" from PX4 should be much more effective as it has numerous pulses in it, our troops will be able to use it more effectively against armor, and "automatic fire" = good.
AX4 will benefit the most - has fusion reactor and ship-based aiming. Just one continuous beam with tons of pulses - even a graze should be many pulses effectively. That and (even without the 4x power of the Picasso pulse) pulsed beams are better at AP vs continuous beams (also applies to PX4). And beam = bigger area affected.
TL;DR TL;DR: Stagger Picasso Emitters so they effectively emit a single beam. Tons of pulses per second = tons more damage for both PX4 and AX4 (even if using PX4 like a semiauto). Especially for fusion-powered AX4.


Alternatively...
Revision: Targeting Computer

By revising the Cuttlefish's mainframe, we can have it feed targeting data directly to the weapons instead of through a human medium. Upon being activated once by a human, the Cuttlefish's weapons will automatically continuously track hostile targets and fire at it as fast as possible, and preferably in the optimum spots for MAXIMUM DAMAGE (though we won't try particularly hard at that because all we have is radar). A very cool "table" in the bridge with a screen on top displays the radar data and allows the bridge crew to manually switch targets if required.
Considering we already have the computer, already have the mechanically aimed turrets (just that the crew have to directly input targeting data), and already have a radar, we don't expect much difficulty for this revision.

All in all, this should (hopefully) greatly improve the capabilities of the Cuttlefish's AX3 Spear turrets. They'll be able to be fired as fast as they can without breaking, our turrets will automatically track enemies instead of waiting for human input, and our bridge crew can focus on things such as utilizing the Cuttlefish's only[/I] advantage of being able to go "Kinda Fast" to use evasive maneuvers.
TL;DR: Revise Cuttlefish's computer so: Radar -> Turrets, instead of Radar -> Human -> Turrets. Should make turrets much better at tracking targets and allow for much more firepower at enemies and should allow for the bridge crew to focus on things like damage control and evasive maneuvers.

Nanostructured Streamlined Spacesuit "Michelangelo" (1): Detoxicated
EAF-X4 Enhanced mobility unit  (2): joha4270, Happerry
Pulse Repeater (1): Chiefwaffles
Targeting Computer (1): Chiefwaffles

Also detoxicated, revisions can easily include new technology. They just can't be as ambitious as designs.

[andrea]

It was stated that our turrets would have trouble detecting and tracking enemies at long range, although their power is reasonable ( would tear through a cuttlefish like cardboard and would cause significant damage to a target with oderate armor). For this reason, since we have no pressing need on the ground, I propose a laser turret revision.

I am tempted to ask for a sensor boost as well, but since it seems like it may be out of scope, I am limiting myself to a narrow field one dedicated to tracking known targets.


Triplet-class weapons system
The old cuttlefish turrets , Hewey Dewey and Louie, are much more powerful than before, but they are still, we suspect, inadequate to the realities of space combat. Diffraction is still far from the theoretical minimum, the single pulses are not very energetic, but most importantly it lacks good long range tracking.

The triplets take the now good laser emitters and gives them the modern weapon system they deserve. Targeting computers are added in a central location to predict the flight path of a detected enemy and at the same time prepare efficents firing patterns with all available cannons to maximize hit chance. A dedicated narrow field sensor array allows us to keep following a foe even at distances normally outside the detection range of our omnidirectional sensors(or can be used to confirm suspect readings on the omnidirectionals). The pulse structure of the laser is also changed: right now it fires every nanosecond, which is much faster than it should be. Rather, a larger emitter is added which produces a pulse every 50 ns, 50 times more powerful than our previous pulse (rather than charge 1 ns and fire, it charges 50 ns and fires). This change should icnrease our ability to penetrate armor, and the pulses are still close enough to effectively hit the same spot on the enemy ship even at high transversal velocity.

Should Moira come back to visit our labs, we can task her with improvements on the picasso pattern.

Nanostructured Streamlined Spacesuit "Michelangelo" (1): Detoxicated
EAF-X4 Enhanced mobility unit (2): joha4270, Happerry
Triplet-class weapon system (1): Andrea
Pulse Repeater (1): Chiefwaffles
Targeting Computer (1): Chiefwaffles

[Chiefwaffles]

Nanostructured Streamlined Spacesuit "Michelangelo" (1): Detoxicated
EAF-X4 Enhanced mobility unit (2): joha4270, Happerry
Triplet-class weapon system (2): Andrea, Chiefwaffles
Pulse Repeater (1): Chiefwaffles
Targeting Computer (0):

Voting for Triplet-class instead of Targeting computer, though I think either would work well.