-----: File Open: Project "Michael" :-----
-----: Documenting Official: Martin Lawrence :-----
-----: Data Decryption Complete. Authorized Viewing Parties Loaded: Invite only :-----
Combat Necessity
As a new member of the IRG organisation, there has been a lot for me to understand and to study regarding how IRG operates but I must admit I was fascinated.
All this technology, here ready to be used.
Since the first time I had my first conversations with Dr.Erzie, he always told me to get my own ship and that, as I'm an engineer, I could make use of the knowledge that they posses. So the best idea that came in my mind was to reconstruct an already existing ship and trying to improve it where it's possible.
The ship is a R1-Series, P-"Lich" Edge Worlds Very Heavy Fighter, very common ship in the deep Omicrons.
Sabre's counter part. More agile and faster than the Sabre yet less armored. Mostly used in the deep omicrons by Zoners as escorts for their convoys against pirates and nomadic forces.
A ship that personally has always made me curious about it, it's design and it's combat capacities,but I think it can be improved even further:
Powercore upgrade:
Power capacities in a vessel are very important. In the Lich's case, it holds a normal powercore which provides only a limited power output without having the possibility on applying any prototype weaponry that IRG posesses. Therefore instead of the regular powercore, on the vessel is going to be applied an Ingenuus Power Cell to increase the power output and the longevity of the vessel far from any base.
Applying one of those would also imply that on this ship can be upgraded all the main systems and would also require to change the cooling system to "Lambda Helium Channels":Compressed liquid helium moving thermal energy nearly instantly from source to sink, where normal cryo-equipment transfers the heat to thermal exhaust ports.
This way, the Powercell is well kept without the risk of blowing off.
Weaponry Upgrade:
Looking on the market, there are a lot of choices for weaponry, from pulses to laser type weaponry. What intrigued me is a type of weaponry I've found in the Archives, called "TDGWM5K" and I could acess the datas of it:
Prototype pulse weapon of non-human origin. The TDGWM5K gets its unwieldy name from a single decoded string in the weapon's designation code. It is a pulse weapon calibrated for very high refire rate, well beyond typical equivalents. Despite its mysterious origins, it is manufactured to be compatible with typical human hardpoints.
The other 4 hardpoints, will be filled by CL-e "Advanced Flashpoint" Civilian Laser Cannon as a temporary solution till something more efficient comes out:
This is a laser-based weapon that provides a high refire rate at a reduced damage output.
The turret hardpoint will be also filled by CL-d "Flashpoint" Civilian Laser Turret which is the turret version of the CL-e "Advanced Flashpoint".
With this weaponry system, the Lich should become more efficient in combat against any small sized vessel.
Scanning Capacities Upgrade:
With the increasing of the power output with the Ingenuus Power Cell, there can be applied also modifications to the scanner. The basic scanner has a very low range of scanning and in any hazardous enviroment, most of the times doesn't work properly, that's why the scanner will receive a series of improvements.
As the power that the receiver of the scanner receives increases drastiacally, the energy conductors and the power relay will have to be improved with a more conductive and more resistant material, and in our case would be platinum and copper alloy (PtCu3) which increases the electrical conducibilty.
The transmission array will also receive an upgrade, which will amplify the distance of it.
Propulsion Upgrade:
On the civilian market there are many models of propulsion systems available, but none of those are efficient enough for this Lich, therefore we'll be using the Ingenuus Power Cell's propriety again.
We know that the Azurite gas, in its gas state can be excited and produce ions and quark radiation, ions can be used for power, and radiation can be used to re-excite the gas for more ions until the gas is depleted so, we're going to modify an already existing Ion Engine (ZN-140 Border Worlds Engine) to use use an Ingenuus Power Cell to excite Azurite gas as a propellent therfore creating more ions and boosting its capacities.
At the moments the numbers are being ran to see how many commodities are needed to achieve this ship ASAP, so we can start testing it and maybe it can be the first success as member of the IRG organisation.
The commodity list will be sent to Dr.Erzie as soon as it's completed.
-----: File Open: Project "Michael" :-----
-----: Documenting Official: Martin Lawrence :-----
-----: Data Decryption Complete. Authorized Viewing Parties Loaded: Invite Only :-----
Combat Necessity
After a bit of waiting, the commodities needed to apply those changes has been completely transported to Corinth Research Station in Omicron Kappa; there I'm leading the team which will be working on this very project to speed up the process of improving the "Lich".
Even with their help, estimated time of building of the modifications is 160 hours, as everything regarding those modifications has to be build from the scratch.
The progress will be documented here, as soon as the Project proceeds as planned.
-----: File Open: Project "Michael" :-----
-----: Documenting Official: Martin Lawrence :-----
-----: Data Decryption Complete. Authorized Viewing Parties Loaded: Invite Only :-----
Combat Necessity
The operation is proceeding well.
The Ingenuus powercell mounting along side the cooling system has been completed, while the new panels are still in building process but not too far from completion.
The propulsion system along side the new scanning system and the weaponry systems, have been left to build as last due to the precision and complexity of the work.
Till now, the Ingenuus powercell is stable, without any temperature fluctuation and the cooling system is 100% functional.
The ship will be fully completed as scheduled.
-----: File Open: Project "Michael" :-----
-----: Documenting Official: Martin Lawrence :-----
-----: Data Decryption Complete. Authorized Viewing Parties Loaded: Invite Only :-----
Combat Necessity
The vessel's construction seems to be slowing down, as I'm running more tests to ensure that the ship's newly installed systems are working perfectly.
The structural part of the vessel has been completed, as the new hull panels have been completely built from scratch so it took more time than expected to do so.
The vessel's weaponry system has been a lot more difficult to build than predicted, as the prototype weapons are very complex to build as they are very different from the normal Pulse type weaponry that can be found on the civilian market, yet we managed to build it piece by piece even if it took more time to build.
The new scanning system has been the most easy part to be mounted on, as it didn't require an overall rebuild of the whole scanning system, but just some small improvements to the already existing one to be paired up with the Ingenuus Powercell's power.
Only piece to be built is the Propulsion system We already build a scheme for it and yet we are to actually build it as this type of engine has never been built using Azurite gas as fuel.
The essential working principle of the "Hall thruster" is that it uses an electrostatic potential to accelerate ions up to high speeds. In a "Hall thruster", the attractive negative charge is provided by an electron plasma at the open end of the propulsion system instead of a grid. A radial magnetic field of about 100–300 G (0.01–0.03 T) is used to confine the electrons, where the combination of the radial magnetic field and axial electric field cause the electrons to drift in azimuth thus forming the Hall current from which the device gets its name.
The Hall effect is due to the nature of the current in a conductor. Current consists of the movement of many small charge carriers, typically electrons, holes, ions or all three. When a magnetic field is present, these charges experience a force, called the Lorentz force. When such a magnetic field is absent, the charges follow approximately straight, 'line of sight' paths between collisions with impurities, phonons, etc. However, when a magnetic field with a perpendicular component is applied, their paths between collisions are curved, thus moving charges accumulate on one face of the material. This leaves equal and opposite charges exposed on the other face, where there is a scarcity of mobile charges. The result is an asymmetric distribution of charge density across the Hall element, arising from a force that is perpendicular to both the 'line of sight' path and the applied magnetic field. The separation of charge establishes an electric field that opposes the migration of further charge, so a steady electric potential is established for as long as the charge is flowing.
An electric potential between 150 and 800 volts is applied between the anode and cathode.
The central spike forms one pole of an electromagnet and is surrounded by an annular space, and around that is the other pole of the electromagnet, with a radial magnetic field in between.
bout 20–30% of the discharge current is an electron current, which does not produce thrust, thus limiting the energetic efficiency of the propulsion system; the other 70–80% of the current is in the ions. Because the majority of electrons are trapped in the Hall current, they have a long residence time inside the propulsion system and are able to ionize almost all of the propellant, allowing mass use of 90–99%. The mass use efficiency of the propulsion system is thus around 90%, while the discharge current efficiency is around 70%, for a combined propulsion system efficiency of around 63%.
However, "Hall thrusters" operate at the high specific impulses that is typical for electric propulsion. One particular advantage, as compared to a gridded ion propulsion system, is that the generation and acceleration of the ions takes place in a quasi-neutral plasma;This allows much smaller propulsion systems compared to gridded ion propulsion systems.
Therefore might take a bit to actually build and mount it as we want to have it perfectly built.
-----: File Open: Project "Michael" :-----
-----: Documenting Official: Martin Lawrence :-----
-----: Data Decryption Complete. Authorized Viewing Parties Loaded: Invite Only :-----
Combat Necessity
Finally,after a lot of work and running diagnostics, the engines have been completed.
We had really hard time stabilizing the electromagnetic field to make it work perfectly with the Azurite gas so the gas wouldn't lose its proprieties.
After we've completed it, it was time to bring it out for a test in space, to see how it performs.
As I've started the ship's main systems, it was stable; new powercore seemed to be perfectly functioning with them.
The lambda channels were functioning as predicted, so the powercell isn't overheating.
As soon as I left Corinth's hangar bay, I started testing the propulsion system, which seems to be working just fine; the electromagnetic field seems to be stable with the Azurite gas and the exhaustion ports of the helium channels seemed to be working without issues. The speed is stable at 80 m/s on impulse and 375 m/s in cruise speed.
Further tests will be conducted to see their stability.
The new scanner seems to be as effective as expected, bu it still needs to be further tested in more harsh conditions in order to determine if its actually more effective than
other scanners.
The prototype weaponry seems to have been properly responding to the power output of the Ingenuus Powercell, without causing any damage to the weaponry itself (because I integrated the helium channels in the weapons aswell to avoid overheating). The Flashpoints have been modified aswell to contain the power of the Ingenuus Powercell, and they are responding well to the upgrades made to the weapons itself.
I'll communicate the success of the project to Dr.Erzie and see if any other modifications can be brought to the vessel itself.