05-18-2019, 03:38 AM
(05-18-2019, 03:04 AM)The Astronomer Wrote: a) droplet radiators! Those are awesome things. Though, I think I've heard of this concept about 'dusty plasma' radiators that seems to be good as well, although I haven't looked into the details yet.
...
Unless if the OA engineers had found a way to redirect the nasty neutron away from hitting the ship early in the setting (on ToughSF's Discord server, somebody had made a concept on how to direct reaction neutron, I think it was by making sure the fusing atoms' orientation are just right, but I don't know the details), the radiator area is going to be quite big. That, and the drive has to be placed some distance away from the radiation shield.
I'd suggest a combination of retractable radiators, which would start with droplets/dust (perhaps held in circulation patterns by invisible magnetic/plasma fields) and become made of increasingly advanced metamaterials, and then the neutron director by the time of the early interstellar ships.