Engines in PS

A list of the kinds of engines in Planetary Strife.

Intra-Stellar Drives

Intra-Stellar Drives are a ship's main engines. All of the ship's maneuvering and speed are solely dependent on its intra-stellar capabilities.

LAMFM Engines

The most powerful engine in the known galaxy, and the most common as well. LAMFM Thrusters work off of existing magnetic fields generated by any and all objects, using them to pull the ship along. Very fast, efficient, and capable of fast acceleration and adjustment. It often runs off of the ship's main generator, though there are exceptions.

LAMFM Engines are used by most navies known to man. The largest are capable of pushing even massive starcruisers to high speeds comparatively easily. However, they have one major drawback: Without a magnetic field, the engines won't work. Since the ship itself would generate a small magnetic field, the engine would still provide slight thrust. However, the resultant thrust would be minimal, at best, and the ship would be extremely difficult to maneuver and accelerate. As such, it's best to operate them within a system, rather than in empty space.

LAMFM Engines are also used for terrestrial travel, since they're fairly safe to the environment.

LAMFM engines are powered by LAMFM coils. These coils are spun extremely rapidly by large electromagnets. The coil creates extreme magnetic interference that can then be 'shaped' by electric currents to move the object.

Land-based engines must be cooled by air (see below). However, for the coils to spin anywhere near fast enough to create magnetic interference, the coils must be in a vacuum. Thus, these coils are placed into hollow tubelike cylinders. This cylinders resemble very thick-walled pipes. The coil is placed inside the 'walls' and electromagnets are wrapped around the outside of the cylinder.

The whole process creates large (but not nearly as much as a Nuclear Impulse engine) amounts of heat, and land-based LAMFM engines have fans to push colder air around and through the coil cylinder.

Coils range from one foot long (commonly used in childrens' toys) to some as large as .75 Sn. The largest functional coil ever made measured 13.7 Sn long, made in the era of the Human Confederation as a scientific project to see how large one could get (This coil was later melted down, nobody could find a use for it). A 1:5 width:length ratio is optimal for most lengths, however, a thinner coil works better for larger engines.

Nuclear Impulse Engines

One of the earlier engines developed for man's ventures into space, and the most primitive engine in use. The Nuclear Impulse Engine uses a nuclear reaction to power it along in space. It's fast, but not nearly as fast as a LAMFM. However, it is capable of faster adjustments in power, allowing it to initially outpace a LAMFM thruster of equal power.

Nuclear Impulse Engines are still in some use, mainly as a back-up propulsion system. Unlike its LAMFM counterpart, Nuclear Impulse Engines can fly in empty space as well as they can in dense systems. They're also cheaper and more reliable than LAMFM engines, making them common on small inter-stellar frigates.

Nuclear Impulse Engines consume fuel. This in itself is a double-edged blade; using fuel means that the engines draw very little from the ship's main power supply, allowing a more extensive outfitting of equipment, and allowing them to provide full thrust even if the ship's systems are dying. On the other hand, if the ship runs out of fuel, even if the ship still has power, it effectively is rendered dead in space. Furthermore, fuel costs can add up quickly, and the engines require regular inspection for wear and decay.

Nuclear Impulse engines are highly resilient, when compared with other engines. They can withstand far more abuse, and can run even if critically damaged. However, they also run the risk of becoming volatile if damaged, and it's not unheard of for damaged impulse engines to explode. Whilst most nuclear explosions from the engines are small, compared to nuclear warheads, they still can do incredible damage if the engine is mounted on, or embedded in, the ship when it detonates. As such, almost all Nuclear Impulse engines are designed to be jettisoned should the engine become unstable.

Of note is that large Nuclear Impulse Engines cannot be used within the atmosphere of a planet. The exhaust from the engines would quickly superheat and irradiate the air, causing severe environmental damage wherever the ship went. Small Impulse engines can be used in atmosphere, as they are usually equipped to filter out the radiation, and don't produce enough heat to cause severe damage.

Interstellar Drive

Larger ships have interstellar drives built-in, rather than being forced to use a Ring. The exact process on how this works is too complicated to discuss here, but the system basically rips a hole through the universe and into a different plane of existence. The whole process is fairly inefficient, however, and most ships with these devices will still use Rings. Interstellar drives use considerable energy, and often a ship's entire power output will be used to open a portal. Unlike the system powering Rings, built-in interstellar drives do not instantaneously transport matter to the endpoint. In addition, care must be taken so as to make sure nothing gets 'caught' on the edge of the portal, for very strange things will happen, often resulting in a messy explosion of anything nearby.

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