Breaking the sound barrier inside a station
- Thread starter Sloppy Pilot
- Start date
The speed of sound is a function of density. That means the speed of sound in air is not the same as the speed of sound in water, or in metal, etc... There is no such thing as "speed of sound" in a vacuum like space, since there is no matter, hence no density.
To visualize what sound is, think of it as ripples in water. Drop a rock in water, the impact of the rock ripples outwards and those ripples bounce around (if the water is in a container). Drop a rock in a container without water... see any ripples?
- - - - - Additional Content Posted / Auto Merge - - - - -
This is explained in lore. Your ship has speakers. Your ship interprets what is happening outside in space and produces a sound for the pilot to hear. It is a form of situational awareness.
.
Get your canopy blown off so there's no atmosphere in your cockpit. Notice that there are no sounds anymore?
I have to say this always bothers me when the news talk about the speed of a comet or a NASA mission and they mention its doing X miles per hour. They never give you the frame of reference. Very Annoying, our galaxy is apparently whizzing around the universe at a staggering rate, let alone our star around the galaxy.
Also... the speed of sound in a medium varies with its density - lower density, and the sound barrier increases. If station air were something like 40% oxygen, 60% helium at a pressure of 0.5 bar, ships wouldn't get near mach even on boost (mach in that sort of mix and pressure would probably be approaching 1000). Given the behaviour of pilots, it's probably sensible for them to do something like that.
edit: oh, the density point was made while I typed this. Damn ninjas.
edit: oh, the density point was made while I typed this. Damn ninjas.
Last edited:
I cant wait for people to complain about not seeing well enough because they are going too fast and hit a mountain or something.... Lol
That was the brilliance of Einstein's understanding relativity - a whole lot depends on where you're standing. On earth we're also moving around the sun at about 17,000mph and the sun is moving around the supermassive black hole at the center of the galaxy at some ridiculous speed, and the galaxy (entire, including you and me) is shooting along on a different vector because of the expansion of the universe.
Lessee the Milky way is 100,000ly across and our sun rotates around the center about once in 250 million years. So we're actually hauling azz! I just tried producing a wild-ass approximation of our speed but came up with a number higher than the speed of light, so that was obviously wrong... But... When you're moving distances in scientific notation, you're hauling ass.
Would it not be cool if the station had "lungs" that would relieve the pressure when big ships pass the letterbox.
There are some hints that there are breathable atmosphere outside the ship.
The most obvious might be the traffic, and perhaps the trailer and the fact that you gulp air when entering a station.
But would it not be a waste to fill the whole station with air ?
I wish frontier would look at this and write something clever to explain how station works
There are some hints that there are breathable atmosphere outside the ship.
The most obvious might be the traffic, and perhaps the trailer and the fact that you gulp air when entering a station.
But would it not be a waste to fill the whole station with air ?
I wish frontier would look at this and write something clever to explain how station works
[Important William Shatner Voice] WE... FORUM USERS... are FAR more clever... than just Frontier. Lazier and less motivated... yes... BUT AS A WHOLE... WE... ARE CLEVERERER!
So someone come up with an explaination.
I nominate space elf magic.
Fair arguments. And true enough I'm probably overestimating the effect of hitting the air envelope at a little over mach 1, but it's not quite like travelling into an atmosphere where the air is getting gradually thicker, it's a solid wall of the stuff - more like plowing into a pool of water (although air compresses a lot more easily than water, it can't do it instantly). You raise a very valid point that it may be a bare minimum of air in there, which would hugely mitigate the effects. I've seen palm trees in stations though, so the density can't be that low
I bet you 10,000 credits that you are wrong on this one.
Sure i will raise the bet with 2 tons of slaves. 20 000 says the shields will behave like a tear to improve aerodynamic performance
Sure i will raise the bet with 2 tons of slaves. 20 000 says the shields will behave like a tear to improve aerodynamic performance
Would also help with explaining Supercruising in atmosphere too unless they make us go back into space and drop in elsewhere like an ICBM.... I hope the trail effects and fireball color is affected by the contents floating in the air.
Yes there is atmosphere inside the docking bay of starports, and inside the hangars of outposts. How else do you think you hear the station announcements. I think if a ship can fly to the back of the station, aim at the letterbox and boost past mach 1 before passing through, everyone else in the dock should be able to hear a sonic boom. It just makes sense, and would be pretty top gun. The pilot shouldn't be able to hear it though, you're travelling faster than sound. Maybe a nice big rattle through the hull and a visual distortion.
Can we get a flash of cerenkov light when we pass 1c in supercruise too? I wanna be the enterprise.
Can we get a flash of cerenkov light when we pass 1c in supercruise too? I wanna be the enterprise.