http://mirrorswarm.com/wiki/index.php?action=history&feed=atom&title=Railgun 2026-10-14T07:20:17Z Revision history for this page on the wiki MediaWiki 1.44.0 http://mirrorswarm.com/wiki/index.php?title=Railgun&diff=316&oldid=prev 2020-01-24T18:03:58Z

<p></p> <table style="background-color: #fff; color: #202122;" data-mw="interface"> <col class="diff-marker" /> <col class="diff-content" /> <col class="diff-marker" /> <col class="diff-content" /> <tr class="diff-title" lang="en-GB"> <td colspan="2" style="background-color: #fff; color: #202122; text-align: center;">← Older revision</td> <td colspan="2" style="background-color: #fff; color: #202122; text-align: center;">Revision as of 18:03, 24 January 2020</td> </tr><tr><td colspan="2" class="diff-lineno" id="mw-diff-left-l19">Line 19:</td> <td colspan="2" class="diff-lineno">Line 19:</td></tr> <tr><td class="diff-marker"></td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>Each railgun, after 10 years, is 100km wide and 15km long if it goes back 4m per day. 1% of the planet surface can host 500 railguns. That&#039;s a limit of 1E11 mirrors, which is 2000 times fewer than a 1% target. That feels about right, given we&#039;ve only skimmed perhaps 100m off the surface of 1% of the planet and the initial requirement is more like 200km.</div></td><td class="diff-marker"></td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>Each railgun, after 10 years, is 100km wide and 15km long if it goes back 4m per day. 1% of the planet surface can host 500 railguns. That&#039;s a limit of 1E11 mirrors, which is 2000 times fewer than a 1% target. That feels about right, given we&#039;ve only skimmed perhaps 100m off the surface of 1% of the planet and the initial requirement is more like 200km.</div></td></tr> <tr><td class="diff-marker"></td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br></td><td class="diff-marker"></td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br></td></tr> <tr><td class="diff-marker" data-marker="−"></td><td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>This would be quite an engineering shortfall, I'm not sure where there are orders-of-magnitude slack to take up. On the positive side it yields 3E20W compared with [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_energy_consumption current consumption worldwide of under 2E13 (20TW)]. The reduced swarm output is 15 million times higher than that.</div></td><td class="diff-marker" data-marker="+"></td><td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>This would be quite an engineering shortfall, I'm not sure where there are orders-of-magnitude slack to take up. On the positive side it yields 3E20W compared with [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_energy_consumption current consumption worldwide of under 2E13 (20TW)]. The reduced swarm output <ins style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">of 500 railheads </ins>is 15 million times higher than that.</div></td></tr> <tr><td class="diff-marker"></td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br></td><td class="diff-marker"></td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br></td></tr> <tr><td class="diff-marker" data-marker="−"></td><td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>We might be getting closer to a viable scheme with this. Even one prototype railgun quarry would do it. I think one prototype railgun and a reduced swarm is an ideal 2040 target to be honest. That's a 100m deep quarry, 100km by 25km, we've specified the rail links and the rate of delivery, we're a step forward. We might be closer to preserving the essential vacuum too. A ten-year run of a single railhead at full output  still offers 30,000 times more power than the world currently consumes.</div></td><td class="diff-marker" data-marker="+"></td><td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>We might be getting closer to a viable scheme with this. Even one prototype railgun quarry would do it. I think one prototype railgun and a reduced swarm is an ideal 2040 target to be honest. That's a 100m deep quarry, 100km by 25km, we've specified the rail links and the rate of delivery, we're a step forward. We might be closer to preserving the essential vacuum too. A ten-year run of a single railhead at full output  still offers <ins style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">a swarm capturing </ins>30,000 times more power than the world currently consumes.</div></td></tr> <!-- diff cache key mswiki:diff:1.41:old-315:rev-316:php=table --> </table>

John http://mirrorswarm.com/wiki/index.php?title=Railgun&diff=315&oldid=prev 2020-01-24T17:59:14Z

<p></p> <table style="background-color: #fff; color: #202122;" data-mw="interface"> <col class="diff-marker" /> <col class="diff-content" /> <col class="diff-marker" /> <col class="diff-content" /> <tr class="diff-title" lang="en-GB"> <td colspan="2" style="background-color: #fff; color: #202122; text-align: center;">← Older revision</td> <td colspan="2" style="background-color: #fff; color: #202122; text-align: center;">Revision as of 17:59, 24 January 2020</td> </tr><tr><td colspan="2" class="diff-lineno" id="mw-diff-left-l15">Line 15:</td> <td colspan="2" class="diff-lineno">Line 15:</td></tr> <tr><td class="diff-marker"></td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>If the minibots on a single track can build one factory unit from start to finish in one day, like Liberty ships, that&#039;s 64,000 launches a day at 0.75s separation. A railhead 8.4km long will be accelerating 6 units at any moment. If unit production takes longer, then the railgun has fewer units at a time. The advantage of the higher of the two nominal accelerations is that the final section of single track only has to handle of the order of 6 units at any given moment instead of 60, and everything is lighter.</div></td><td class="diff-marker"></td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>If the minibots on a single track can build one factory unit from start to finish in one day, like Liberty ships, that&#039;s 64,000 launches a day at 0.75s separation. A railhead 8.4km long will be accelerating 6 units at any moment. If unit production takes longer, then the railgun has fewer units at a time. The advantage of the higher of the two nominal accelerations is that the final section of single track only has to handle of the order of 6 units at any given moment instead of 60, and everything is lighter.</div></td></tr> <tr><td class="diff-marker"></td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br></td><td class="diff-marker"></td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br></td></tr> <tr><td class="diff-marker" data-marker="−"></td><td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>Either way we may <del style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">have </del>cold night-only launches to get rid of the heat and maybe use superconductivity.</div></td><td class="diff-marker" data-marker="+"></td><td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>Either way we may <ins style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">end up having to use </ins>cold night-only launches to get rid of the heat and maybe use superconductivity<ins style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">. This would stack production on the ground or halve productivity</ins>.</div></td></tr> <tr><td class="diff-marker"></td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br></td><td class="diff-marker"></td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br></td></tr> <tr><td class="diff-marker"></td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>Each railgun, after 10 years, is 100km wide and 15km long if it goes back 4m per day. 1% of the planet surface can host 500 railguns. That&#039;s a limit of 1E11 mirrors, which is 2000 times fewer than a 1% target. That feels about right, given we&#039;ve only skimmed perhaps 100m off the surface of 1% of the planet and the initial requirement is more like 200km.</div></td><td class="diff-marker"></td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>Each railgun, after 10 years, is 100km wide and 15km long if it goes back 4m per day. 1% of the planet surface can host 500 railguns. That&#039;s a limit of 1E11 mirrors, which is 2000 times fewer than a 1% target. That feels about right, given we&#039;ve only skimmed perhaps 100m off the surface of 1% of the planet and the initial requirement is more like 200km.</div></td></tr> <!-- diff cache key mswiki:diff:1.41:old-314:rev-315:php=table --> </table>

John http://mirrorswarm.com/wiki/index.php?title=Railgun&diff=314&oldid=prev 2020-01-24T17:57:02Z

<p></p> <table style="background-color: #fff; color: #202122;" data-mw="interface"> <col class="diff-marker" /> <col class="diff-content" /> <col class="diff-marker" /> <col class="diff-content" /> <tr class="diff-title" lang="en-GB"> <td colspan="2" style="background-color: #fff; color: #202122; text-align: center;">← Older revision</td> <td colspan="2" style="background-color: #fff; color: #202122; text-align: center;">Revision as of 17:57, 24 January 2020</td> </tr><tr><td colspan="2" class="diff-lineno" id="mw-diff-left-l1">Line 1:</td> <td colspan="2" class="diff-lineno">Line 1:</td></tr> <tr><td class="diff-marker"></td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>Jowan knows Fireball XL5, and [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocket_sled_launch that&#039;s got the railgun].</div></td><td class="diff-marker"></td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>Jowan knows Fireball XL5, and [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocket_sled_launch that&#039;s got the railgun].</div></td></tr> <tr><td class="diff-marker"></td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br></td><td class="diff-marker"></td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br></td></tr> <tr><td class="diff-marker" data-marker="−"></td><td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>It has a loading bay on which factory units are built. The loading bay can merge streams of completed factory units onto a launch rail. The launch rail has many acceleration points which kick each passing unit faster. The departure velocity is sufficient to put each unit into Mercury orbit. The orbit needn't be high, there's no atmospheric drag to consider, just don't graze mountains.</div></td><td class="diff-marker" data-marker="+"></td><td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>It has a loading bay <ins style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">rail system </ins>on which factory units are built. The loading bay can merge streams of completed factory units onto a launch rail. The launch rail has many acceleration points which kick each passing unit faster. The departure velocity is sufficient to put each unit into Mercury orbit. The orbit needn't be high, there's no atmospheric drag to consider, just don't graze mountains.</div></td></tr> <tr><td class="diff-marker"></td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br></td><td class="diff-marker"></td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br></td></tr> <tr><td class="diff-marker"></td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>Each kicker is powered by one or more [[railgun power storage]] units and direct [[Surface power collector]] connections which can be wired rather than broadcast. The power storage augments and smooths the kick. The initial idea is a bank of super-capacitors.</div></td><td class="diff-marker"></td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>Each kicker is powered by one or more [[railgun power storage]] units and direct [[Surface power collector]] connections which can be wired rather than broadcast. The power storage augments and smooths the kick. The initial idea is a bank of super-capacitors.</div></td></tr> <!-- diff cache key mswiki:diff:1.41:old-313:rev-314:php=table --> </table>

John http://mirrorswarm.com/wiki/index.php?title=Railgun&diff=313&oldid=prev 2020-01-24T17:42:50Z

<p></p> <table style="background-color: #fff; color: #202122;" data-mw="interface"> <col class="diff-marker" /> <col class="diff-content" /> <col class="diff-marker" /> <col class="diff-content" /> <tr class="diff-title" lang="en-GB"> <td colspan="2" style="background-color: #fff; color: #202122; text-align: center;">← Older revision</td> <td colspan="2" style="background-color: #fff; color: #202122; text-align: center;">Revision as of 17:42, 24 January 2020</td> </tr><tr><td colspan="2" class="diff-lineno" id="mw-diff-left-l17">Line 17:</td> <td colspan="2" class="diff-lineno">Line 17:</td></tr> <tr><td class="diff-marker"></td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>Either way we may have cold night-only launches to get rid of the heat and maybe use superconductivity.</div></td><td class="diff-marker"></td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>Either way we may have cold night-only launches to get rid of the heat and maybe use superconductivity.</div></td></tr> <tr><td class="diff-marker"></td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br></td><td class="diff-marker"></td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br></td></tr> <tr><td class="diff-marker" data-marker="−"></td><td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>Each railgun, after 10 years, is 100km wide and 15km long if it goes back 4m per day. 1% of the planet surface can host 500 railguns. That's a limit of 1E11 mirrors, which is 2000 times fewer than <del style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">the </del>target. That feels about right, given we've only skimmed perhaps 100m off the surface of 1% of the planet and the initial requirement is more like 200km.</div></td><td class="diff-marker" data-marker="+"></td><td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>Each railgun, after 10 years, is 100km wide and 15km long if it goes back 4m per day. 1% of the planet surface can host 500 railguns. That's a limit of 1E11 mirrors, which is 2000 times fewer than <ins style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">a 1% </ins>target. That feels about right, given we've only skimmed perhaps 100m off the surface of 1% of the planet and the initial requirement is more like 200km.</div></td></tr> <tr><td class="diff-marker"></td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br></td><td class="diff-marker"></td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br></td></tr> <tr><td class="diff-marker" data-marker="−"></td><td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>This <del style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">is </del>quite an engineering shortfall, I'm not sure where there are orders-of-magnitude slack to take up. On the positive side it yields 3E20W compared with [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_energy_consumption current consumption worldwide of under 2E13 (20TW)]. The reduced swarm output is 15 million times higher than that.</div></td><td class="diff-marker" data-marker="+"></td><td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>This <ins style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">would be </ins>quite an engineering shortfall, I'm not sure where there are orders-of-magnitude slack to take up. On the positive side it yields 3E20W compared with [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_energy_consumption current consumption worldwide of under 2E13 (20TW)]. The reduced swarm output is 15 million times higher than that.</div></td></tr> <tr><td class="diff-marker"></td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br></td><td class="diff-marker"></td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br></td></tr> <tr><td class="diff-marker" data-marker="−"></td><td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>We might be getting closer to a viable scheme with this. Even one prototype railgun quarry would do it. I think one prototype railgun and a reduced swarm is an ideal 2040 target to be honest. That's a 100m deep quarry, 100km by 25km, we've specified the rail links and the rate of delivery, we're a step forward. We might be closer to preserving the essential vacuum too.</div></td><td class="diff-marker" data-marker="+"></td><td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>We might be getting closer to a viable scheme with this. Even one prototype railgun quarry would do it. I think one prototype railgun and a reduced swarm is an ideal 2040 target to be honest. That's a 100m deep quarry, 100km by 25km, we've specified the rail links and the rate of delivery, we're a step forward. We might be closer to preserving the essential vacuum too<ins style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">. A ten-year run of a single railhead at full output  still offers 30,000 times more power than the world currently consumes</ins>.</div></td></tr> <!-- diff cache key mswiki:diff:1.41:old-310:rev-313:php=table --> </table>

John http://mirrorswarm.com/wiki/index.php?title=Railgun&diff=310&oldid=prev 2020-01-24T16:40:49Z

<p></p> <table style="background-color: #fff; color: #202122;" data-mw="interface"> <col class="diff-marker" /> <col class="diff-content" /> <col class="diff-marker" /> <col class="diff-content" /> <tr class="diff-title" lang="en-GB"> <td colspan="2" style="background-color: #fff; color: #202122; text-align: center;">← Older revision</td> <td colspan="2" style="background-color: #fff; color: #202122; text-align: center;">Revision as of 16:40, 24 January 2020</td> </tr><tr><td colspan="2" class="diff-lineno" id="mw-diff-left-l21">Line 21:</td> <td colspan="2" class="diff-lineno">Line 21:</td></tr> <tr><td class="diff-marker"></td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>This is quite an engineering shortfall, I&#039;m not sure where there are orders-of-magnitude slack to take up. On the positive side it yields 3E20W compared with [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_energy_consumption current consumption worldwide of under 2E13 (20TW)]. The reduced swarm output is 15 million times higher than that.</div></td><td class="diff-marker"></td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>This is quite an engineering shortfall, I&#039;m not sure where there are orders-of-magnitude slack to take up. On the positive side it yields 3E20W compared with [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_energy_consumption current consumption worldwide of under 2E13 (20TW)]. The reduced swarm output is 15 million times higher than that.</div></td></tr> <tr><td class="diff-marker"></td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br></td><td class="diff-marker"></td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br></td></tr> <tr><td class="diff-marker" data-marker="−"></td><td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>We might be getting closer to a viable scheme with this.</div></td><td class="diff-marker" data-marker="+"></td><td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>We might be getting closer to a viable scheme with this<ins style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">. Even one prototype railgun quarry would do it. I think one prototype railgun and a reduced swarm is an ideal 2040 target to be honest. That's a 100m deep quarry, 100km by 25km, we've specified the rail links and the rate of delivery, we're a step forward. We might be closer to preserving the essential vacuum too</ins>.</div></td></tr> <!-- diff cache key mswiki:diff:1.41:old-309:rev-310:php=table --> </table>

John http://mirrorswarm.com/wiki/index.php?title=Railgun&diff=309&oldid=prev 2020-01-24T16:37:37Z

<p></p> <table style="background-color: #fff; color: #202122;" data-mw="interface"> <col class="diff-marker" /> <col class="diff-content" /> <col class="diff-marker" /> <col class="diff-content" /> <tr class="diff-title" lang="en-GB"> <td colspan="2" style="background-color: #fff; color: #202122; text-align: center;">← Older revision</td> <td colspan="2" style="background-color: #fff; color: #202122; text-align: center;">Revision as of 16:37, 24 January 2020</td> </tr><tr><td colspan="2" class="diff-lineno" id="mw-diff-left-l19">Line 19:</td> <td colspan="2" class="diff-lineno">Line 19:</td></tr> <tr><td class="diff-marker"></td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>Each railgun, after 10 years, is 100km wide and 15km long if it goes back 4m per day. 1% of the planet surface can host 500 railguns. That&#039;s a limit of 1E11 mirrors, which is 2000 times fewer than the target. That feels about right, given we&#039;ve only skimmed perhaps 100m off the surface of 1% of the planet and the initial requirement is more like 200km.</div></td><td class="diff-marker"></td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>Each railgun, after 10 years, is 100km wide and 15km long if it goes back 4m per day. 1% of the planet surface can host 500 railguns. That&#039;s a limit of 1E11 mirrors, which is 2000 times fewer than the target. That feels about right, given we&#039;ve only skimmed perhaps 100m off the surface of 1% of the planet and the initial requirement is more like 200km.</div></td></tr> <tr><td class="diff-marker"></td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br></td><td class="diff-marker"></td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br></td></tr> <tr><td class="diff-marker" data-marker="−"></td><td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>This is quite an engineering shortfall, I'm not sure where there are orders-of-magnitude slack to take up. On the positive side it yields 3E20W compared with [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_energy_consumption current consumption worldwide of under 2E13 (20TW)]. The reduced swarm output is <del style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">a </del>15 million times higher.</div></td><td class="diff-marker" data-marker="+"></td><td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>This is quite an engineering shortfall, I'm not sure where there are orders-of-magnitude slack to take up. On the positive side it yields 3E20W compared with [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_energy_consumption current consumption worldwide of under 2E13 (20TW)]. The reduced swarm output is 15 million times higher <ins style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">than that</ins>.</div></td></tr> <tr><td class="diff-marker"></td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br></td><td class="diff-marker"></td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br></td></tr> <tr><td class="diff-marker"></td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>We might be getting closer to a viable scheme with this.</div></td><td class="diff-marker"></td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>We might be getting closer to a viable scheme with this.</div></td></tr> <!-- diff cache key mswiki:diff:1.41:old-308:rev-309:php=table --> </table>

John http://mirrorswarm.com/wiki/index.php?title=Railgun&diff=308&oldid=prev 2020-01-24T16:37:05Z

<p></p> <table style="background-color: #fff; color: #202122;" data-mw="interface"> <col class="diff-marker" /> <col class="diff-content" /> <col class="diff-marker" /> <col class="diff-content" /> <tr class="diff-title" lang="en-GB"> <td colspan="2" style="background-color: #fff; color: #202122; text-align: center;">← Older revision</td> <td colspan="2" style="background-color: #fff; color: #202122; text-align: center;">Revision as of 16:37, 24 January 2020</td> </tr><tr><td colspan="2" class="diff-lineno" id="mw-diff-left-l19">Line 19:</td> <td colspan="2" class="diff-lineno">Line 19:</td></tr> <tr><td class="diff-marker"></td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>Each railgun, after 10 years, is 100km wide and 15km long if it goes back 4m per day. 1% of the planet surface can host 500 railguns. That&#039;s a limit of 1E11 mirrors, which is 2000 times fewer than the target. That feels about right, given we&#039;ve only skimmed perhaps 100m off the surface of 1% of the planet and the initial requirement is more like 200km.</div></td><td class="diff-marker"></td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>Each railgun, after 10 years, is 100km wide and 15km long if it goes back 4m per day. 1% of the planet surface can host 500 railguns. That&#039;s a limit of 1E11 mirrors, which is 2000 times fewer than the target. That feels about right, given we&#039;ve only skimmed perhaps 100m off the surface of 1% of the planet and the initial requirement is more like 200km.</div></td></tr> <tr><td class="diff-marker"></td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br></td><td class="diff-marker"></td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br></td></tr> <tr><td class="diff-marker" data-marker="−"></td><td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>This is quite an engineering shortfall, I'm not sure where there are orders-of-magnitude slack to take up. On the positive side it yields 3E20W compared with current consumption worldwide of under 2E13 (20TW). The reduced swarm output is a 15 million times higher.</div></td><td class="diff-marker" data-marker="+"></td><td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>This is quite an engineering shortfall, I'm not sure where there are orders-of-magnitude slack to take up. On the positive side it yields 3E20W compared with <ins style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_energy_consumption </ins>current consumption worldwide of under 2E13 (20TW)<ins style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">]</ins>. The reduced swarm output is a 15 million times higher.</div></td></tr> <tr><td class="diff-marker"></td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br></td><td class="diff-marker"></td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br></td></tr> <tr><td class="diff-marker"></td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>We might be getting closer to a viable scheme with this.</div></td><td class="diff-marker"></td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>We might be getting closer to a viable scheme with this.</div></td></tr> <!-- diff cache key mswiki:diff:1.41:old-307:rev-308:php=table --> </table>

John http://mirrorswarm.com/wiki/index.php?title=Railgun&diff=307&oldid=prev 2020-01-24T16:36:02Z

<p></p> <table style="background-color: #fff; color: #202122;" data-mw="interface"> <col class="diff-marker" /> <col class="diff-content" /> <col class="diff-marker" /> <col class="diff-content" /> <tr class="diff-title" lang="en-GB"> <td colspan="2" style="background-color: #fff; color: #202122; text-align: center;">← Older revision</td> <td colspan="2" style="background-color: #fff; color: #202122; text-align: center;">Revision as of 16:36, 24 January 2020</td> </tr><tr><td colspan="2" class="diff-lineno" id="mw-diff-left-l19">Line 19:</td> <td colspan="2" class="diff-lineno">Line 19:</td></tr> <tr><td class="diff-marker"></td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>Each railgun, after 10 years, is 100km wide and 15km long if it goes back 4m per day. 1% of the planet surface can host 500 railguns. That&#039;s a limit of 1E11 mirrors, which is 2000 times fewer than the target. That feels about right, given we&#039;ve only skimmed perhaps 100m off the surface of 1% of the planet and the initial requirement is more like 200km.</div></td><td class="diff-marker"></td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>Each railgun, after 10 years, is 100km wide and 15km long if it goes back 4m per day. 1% of the planet surface can host 500 railguns. That&#039;s a limit of 1E11 mirrors, which is 2000 times fewer than the target. That feels about right, given we&#039;ve only skimmed perhaps 100m off the surface of 1% of the planet and the initial requirement is more like 200km.</div></td></tr> <tr><td class="diff-marker"></td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br></td><td class="diff-marker"></td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br></td></tr> <tr><td class="diff-marker" data-marker="−"></td><td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>This is quite an engineering shortfall, I'm not sure where there are orders-of-magnitude slack to take up.</div></td><td class="diff-marker" data-marker="+"></td><td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>This is quite an engineering shortfall, I'm not sure where there are orders-of-magnitude slack to take up<ins style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">. On the positive side it yields 3E20W compared with current consumption worldwide of under 2E13 (20TW). The reduced swarm output is a 15 million times higher.</ins></div></td></tr> <tr><td colspan="2" class="diff-side-deleted"></td><td class="diff-marker" data-marker="+"></td><td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div> </div></td></tr> <tr><td colspan="2" class="diff-side-deleted"></td><td class="diff-marker" data-marker="+"></td><td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div><ins style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">We might be getting closer to a viable scheme with this</ins>.</div></td></tr> <!-- diff cache key mswiki:diff:1.41:old-306:rev-307:php=table --> </table>

John http://mirrorswarm.com/wiki/index.php?title=Railgun&diff=306&oldid=prev 2020-01-24T16:17:09Z

<p></p> <table style="background-color: #fff; color: #202122;" data-mw="interface"> <col class="diff-marker" /> <col class="diff-content" /> <col class="diff-marker" /> <col class="diff-content" /> <tr class="diff-title" lang="en-GB"> <td colspan="2" style="background-color: #fff; color: #202122; text-align: center;">← Older revision</td> <td colspan="2" style="background-color: #fff; color: #202122; text-align: center;">Revision as of 16:17, 24 January 2020</td> </tr><tr><td colspan="2" class="diff-lineno" id="mw-diff-left-l13">Line 13:</td> <td colspan="2" class="diff-lineno">Line 13:</td></tr> <tr><td class="diff-marker"></td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>Specify a quarry 100km wide, with rails every 1.56m apart merging 1m wide (4m long) units onto the railhead at the sharp end. The quarrying front gets further from the railhead at a rate dependent on how long it takes to build a factory unit. There are 64,000 tracks and a depth of 16 points merging onto the railhead.</div></td><td class="diff-marker"></td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>Specify a quarry 100km wide, with rails every 1.56m apart merging 1m wide (4m long) units onto the railhead at the sharp end. The quarrying front gets further from the railhead at a rate dependent on how long it takes to build a factory unit. There are 64,000 tracks and a depth of 16 points merging onto the railhead.</div></td></tr> <tr><td class="diff-marker"></td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br></td><td class="diff-marker"></td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br></td></tr> <tr><td class="diff-marker" data-marker="−"></td><td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>If the minibots on a single track can build one factory unit from start to finish in one day, like Liberty ships, that's 64,000 launches a day at 0.75s separation. A railhead 8.4km long will be accelerating 6 units at any moment. If unit production takes longer, then the railgun has fewer units at a time. The advantage of the higher of the two nominal accelerations is that the track only has to handle of the order of 6 units at any given moment instead of 60, and everything is lighter.</div></td><td class="diff-marker" data-marker="+"></td><td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>If the minibots on a single track can build one factory unit from start to finish in one day, like Liberty ships, that's 64,000 launches a day at 0.75s separation. A railhead 8.4km long will be accelerating 6 units at any moment. If unit production takes longer, then the railgun has fewer units at a time. The advantage of the higher of the two nominal accelerations is that the <ins style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">final section of single </ins>track only has to handle of the order of 6 units at any given moment instead of 60, and everything is lighter.</div></td></tr> <tr><td class="diff-marker"></td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br></td><td class="diff-marker"></td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br></td></tr> <tr><td class="diff-marker"></td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>Either way we may have cold night-only launches to get rid of the heat and maybe use superconductivity.</div></td><td class="diff-marker"></td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>Either way we may have cold night-only launches to get rid of the heat and maybe use superconductivity.</div></td></tr> <!-- diff cache key mswiki:diff:1.41:old-305:rev-306:php=table --> </table>

John http://mirrorswarm.com/wiki/index.php?title=Railgun&diff=305&oldid=prev 2020-01-24T16:11:29Z

<p></p> <table style="background-color: #fff; color: #202122;" data-mw="interface"> <col class="diff-marker" /> <col class="diff-content" /> <col class="diff-marker" /> <col class="diff-content" /> <tr class="diff-title" lang="en-GB"> <td colspan="2" style="background-color: #fff; color: #202122; text-align: center;">← Older revision</td> <td colspan="2" style="background-color: #fff; color: #202122; text-align: center;">Revision as of 16:11, 24 January 2020</td> </tr><tr><td colspan="2" class="diff-lineno" id="mw-diff-left-l13">Line 13:</td> <td colspan="2" class="diff-lineno">Line 13:</td></tr> <tr><td class="diff-marker"></td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>Specify a quarry 100km wide, with rails every 1.56m apart merging 1m wide (4m long) units onto the railhead at the sharp end. The quarrying front gets further from the railhead at a rate dependent on how long it takes to build a factory unit. There are 64,000 tracks and a depth of 16 points merging onto the railhead.</div></td><td class="diff-marker"></td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>Specify a quarry 100km wide, with rails every 1.56m apart merging 1m wide (4m long) units onto the railhead at the sharp end. The quarrying front gets further from the railhead at a rate dependent on how long it takes to build a factory unit. There are 64,000 tracks and a depth of 16 points merging onto the railhead.</div></td></tr> <tr><td class="diff-marker"></td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br></td><td class="diff-marker"></td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br></td></tr> <tr><td class="diff-marker" data-marker="−"></td><td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>If the minibots on a single track can build one factory unit from start to finish in one day, like Liberty ships, that's 64,000 launches a day at 0.75s separation. A railhead 8.4km long will be accelerating 6 units at any moment. If unit production takes longer, then the railgun has fewer units at a time. The advantage of the <del style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">faster </del>of the two nominal accelerations is that the track only has to handle of the order of 6 units at any given moment instead of 60, and everything is lighter.</div></td><td class="diff-marker" data-marker="+"></td><td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>If the minibots on a single track can build one factory unit from start to finish in one day, like Liberty ships, that's 64,000 launches a day at 0.75s separation. A railhead 8.4km long will be accelerating 6 units at any moment. If unit production takes longer, then the railgun has fewer units at a time. The advantage of the <ins style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">higher </ins>of the two nominal accelerations is that the track only has to handle of the order of 6 units at any given moment instead of 60, and everything is lighter.</div></td></tr> <tr><td class="diff-marker"></td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br></td><td class="diff-marker"></td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br></td></tr> <tr><td class="diff-marker"></td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>Either way we may have cold night-only launches to get rid of the heat and maybe use superconductivity.</div></td><td class="diff-marker"></td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>Either way we may have cold night-only launches to get rid of the heat and maybe use superconductivity.</div></td></tr> <!-- diff cache key mswiki:diff:1.41:old-304:rev-305:php=table --> </table>

John