Tie fighter v's ion?

garhkal · Posted: Mon Jun 16, 2014 3:36 pm Post subject: Tie fighter v's ion?

At Origins someone brought up a good point.
Since a Tie fighter's panels suck in ions to charge up/release out the engines, why does an ion cannon damage them, rather than charge them up even more?
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Dromdarr_Alark · Posted: Mon Jun 16, 2014 3:57 pm Post subject:

Because Star Wars.
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aegisflashfire · Posted: Mon Jun 16, 2014 4:18 pm Post subject:

Since when do the panels 'suck in ions' ? They're radiators (for radiating away excess heat) and solar collectors. (which absorb photons, (electrically neutral and massless) not ions (charged particles)

The whole point of an Ion engine is you are using electric fields to accelerate tiny tiny quantities of matter to relativistic speeds (where mass increases because of relativistic effects, so you are not carrying large amounts of fuel) But you dont' need to collect ions. You're using so much energy accelerating the matter, the energy required to take regular hydrogen and strip off the electrons is totally trivial.

Side note: We actually have created ion engines IRL and used them on a couple of ships. They're very efficient but dont' accelerate well.

But lets say that they WERE 'ion collectors' - this is pretty much like saying they're charge accumulators, or capacitors.

But capacitors are only designed to take in electrical energy in a certain range. Too much and they're fried. Expose a battery to a lightning bolt: Fried. Overvolt a capacitor on a motherboard: Fried.

And just because something is designed to 'take something in' doesn't mean it can't be overloaded by a weaponized version. Your mouth is designed to take in water, but I guarantee you wouldn't take a fire hose to your mouth and open it up full blast.
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CRMcNeill · Posted: Mon Jun 16, 2014 4:41 pm Post subject:

denderan marajain · Posted: Mon Jun 16, 2014 4:56 pm Post subject:

garhkal · Posted: Mon Jun 16, 2014 8:45 pm Post subject:

Ninjaxenomorph · Lieutenant Joined: 02 Jun 2014 Posts: 92 Location: Texas

Same reason shooting a laser at a solar panel damages it. Not meant to take such high, concentrated amounts of ion energy.

Dromdarr_Alark · Posted: Tue Jun 17, 2014 1:45 am Post subject:

aegisflashfire · Posted: Tue Jun 17, 2014 10:56 am Post subject:

There is another reason on the photocells.

Photocells only absorb certain wavelengths and then only a percentage of those. If they actually absorbed 100% of all incoming EM energy they would be appear like a void--just pure black, no reflection, etc.

IRL, solar panels absorb some wavelengths (I think its mostly in the greens) and convert to electrical energy. The IR stuff converts to heat. The radio/microwave stuff is basically unaffected, the higher energy stuff bounces off.

The theoretical maximum efficiency of a solar cell is around 86% meaning 14% of it still has to do other things (convert to heat, reflect away,etc)
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willg · Lieutenant Commander Joined: 29 Apr 2014 Posts: 202

Hang on, dont ship lasers work like blasers? Its not just light, its plasma too, heated gases?

willg · Lieutenant Commander Joined: 29 Apr 2014 Posts: 202

And we were talking solar power not long ago...

Do real life Ion Engines work in atmosphere or only in space?[/quote]

aegisflashfire · Posted: Tue Jun 17, 2014 1:31 pm Post subject:

Ion engines as we have currently obtain their efficiency by using extraordinarily low amounts of thrust. Less than the weight of a piece of paper iirc. It accumulates with time, but its not enough to keep something aloft against the force of gravity, no.

Assuming an unlimited power source (or functionally unlimited) sure, because the mass of what you're expelling out the back can be functionally infinite with enough power behind it.

Like everything else on a spacecraft IRL, weight is the single most limiting factor in its deployment. Batteries are heavy. Solar energy comes in at a trickle and solar panels can be heavy. Nuclear batteries work, but are finite and pose a risk on launch (if one of these rockets blew up, the potential for scattering radioactive fuel across a large swath of the earth is high)

So you need an engine that can function on very low power and with very low reaction mass. Enter the ion engine.
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Rezikai · Posted: Tue Jun 17, 2014 9:51 pm Post subject:

hey guys... 1st post long time lurker...
as for the Tie's I assumed like in Rogue Squadron #24 (Baron Fel's capture)

If the Ion cannon hits the eye-ball part instead of the wings it would disable it to.

DougRed4 · Posted: Wed Jun 18, 2014 4:07 pm Post subject:

Welcome to the Pit, Rezikai!
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Fallon Kell · Posted: Fri Jun 20, 2014 12:54 am Post subject:

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