| From: | Jeffrey Mach <mach@****.CALTECH.EDU> |
|---|---|
| Subject: | Re: About Seattle Antics |
| Date: | Mon, 27 Apr 1998 20:22:07 -0700 |
> Well so much for that idea. The germans in WWII developed two answers to
> the diesel sub. The snorkle was one. The other was an engine that ran
> off hydrogen-peroxide (yeah the blond hair stuff) apparently it could burn
> underwater without sufficating the crew. Don't ask me how I never had
> chemistry. Anyway if Germans 120 years in the past of the shadowrun
> timeline could come up with an answer it seems likly someone in the 2050's
> could also. Mark
I did take chemistry. The Hydrogen-peroxide was used as an oxidizer
instead of the air. Problem is it is _very_ dangerous to work with in
high concentrations (meaning that it wouldn't bleach your hair, it would
cause your head to ignite) and about as advisable as having a tank of
liquid oxygen on your sub. The snorkel, as discussed earlier, limited you
to only a _very_ short diving depth, and limited you to a speed at which
it wouldn't be damaged.
The answer was atomic power.
It gives you more power without using oxygen than most subs will ever
need. By 2059, they are probably using fusion as opposed to fission power
plants, though. Of course, they are a little hard to instal on mini-subs.
In my somewhat educated opinion, I would think that minisubs could use
some form of high-efficiency (superconducting?) electrical supply, if
necessary regenerating on the surface with some form of fuel-cell
technology to efficiently convert some sort of high-energy liquid fuel to
electrical energy. Hmmmm. There could be the possibility of using a
gill-like system to extract diffused oxygen from the water so you didn't
have to surface, although I suppose it would limit you to a relatively
slow speed, since extracting oxygen from the water would be much more
inefficient (volume per unit time) than just drawing it from the air. I
could see a mini-sub using a gill system and fuel-cells to recharge its
power supply while moving relatively slowly at a shallow depth, then
diving and racing at the full speed available from its electrical motors,
so that it didn't have to surface. Of course, staying under water for
long periods in a mini-sub could get mighty uncomfortable.
IMNSHO, the lack of fuel-cells in ShadowRun is pretty silly, especially
since they are otherwise so eco-conscious and given that research on them
is already pretty mature (they were used on the Apollo mission). FYI,
instead of burning a fuel in a combustion reaction and using the expanding
heated gas to generate mechanical power, a fuel cell oxidizes a fuel in a
special reaction chamber that extracts the release of chemical energy
directly as electrical power. The efficiency of this process in
extracting usable energy as opposed to a combustion process can be very
high. Also, you tend not to produce harmful by-products like those of
combustion.
In fact, auto-makers are looking into a new type of fuel cell that will
run on plain-old gasoline that you can buy at the service station.
Through several stages it is reacted in a fuel cell with oxygen from the
air to produce pure electrical power and with no other by-products than
water and carbon dioxide (just like most living things). The efficiency
looks to be much more than a normal combustion engine (meaning more miles
to the gallon). The ecologists also like the fact that you get no harmful
ozone, carbon monoxide, or nitrogen oxide. The oil companies like the
fact that you would still be using gasoline. And, since the energy
content of gasoline is so high, power from a car powered by a gasoline
fuel-cell should be more than adequate for highway driving. Just don't
ask for a race-car just yet.
Cannonical answer would be: "It got lost in the Crash." But I think most
here would already know my opinion on that. =P
--My two yen
Dr. Science
er... Jeff
