NationStates Jolt Archive

OOC:

This is me, declaring a patent on my Ionic Tether weapons. I've been on this game for half a year, and have seen no other country with these, so I am now PATENTING them, Out-Of-Character.

This was built back in November, and I had three threads to research, test, and launch these satellites.

Ionic Tethers: How I Use Them (The Short, Equation-Free Version!):
-A small stream of particles, guided by cold plasmas, is fired from a satellite chain (one main, two sub-satellites on tethers) in high orbit. This stream travels through the ionisphere, and comes to the earth's surface. This makes the connection, and the ionisphere "grounds" onto the surface, in a tremendous lightning-like blast. The particle stream is cut, the connection breaks, and the damage is revealed. This has a powerful blast of thermal energy, like a nuclear bomb, the shockwave of the air exploding would level entire regions, and the EM effects would be incomparable. (Also good to shoot into Navies... makes nice STEAMY effects.)


Ionic Tethers: How They Work, Abstract (Little Longer, Some Equations Provided):
-New applications of space tethers are discussed in relation with the idea of an active experiment, in the Earth's radiation belts. Two long (about 10 km long each) well conducting strings are supposed to be tethered in opposite directions between the main satellite and two small subsatellites, flying through the ERB in equatorial plane. High potential difference p0 ~ 1 MV is applied between the tethers, by means of a high voltage generator carried by the main satellite. The tethers can effectively scatter the high energy particles into loss cone, providing a control of particle life time in ERB. The high energy particles are scattered due to the sheath layer formed around the tethers by relatively cold plasma (n ~ 102 cm-3, T ~ 100 eV) existing in ERB. The rigorous theory of the layer is developed, yielding the electric current collected by the tether and a potential profile which is then used for treatment of the scattering and diagnostics problems. The scattering cross-section is found to reach s ~ 2LsRc, where Ls is the length of the tether, Rc ~ 1 km is the radius of sheath. Consequently the high energy component life time can be estimated as t ~ V/sv ~ 107 s, where V ~ 2.5 x 1012 km3 is a characteristic volume, occupied by the high energy particles in ERB, v ~ 1.5 x 107 m/s is the average particle velocity. This life time proves to be much shorter than the proton life time (109 - 1010 s) inside the ERB. The above high-voltage satellite system can be used for precipitation of charged particles from man-made radiation belts, affecting the ozone layer depletion and active experiments in space such as ARAKS, CRRES, etc.


Ionic Tethers: How They Work (THE HUGE SCIENCE VERSION):
-www.estec.esa.nl/wmwww/wma/External/Conf_Proceedings/scc1998/proceedings/Papers/Danilov_Tether.pdf+satellite+particle+tethers+&hl=en&ie=UTF-8]I (http://216.239.39.104/search?q=cache:iMIMDRQX4OwJ:[url) hope you like physics.[/url]

Source of Idea
NASA demonstrated the power-harnessing effects with STS-75 (TSS-01) and TSS-01-Reconstructed. The results from these experiments were to a power of four greater than expected, and burned out the cables, snapping them. DoD has since taken over tethered satellite research. (hmm...) From this, I created my "baby", the Ionic Tether, or Particle Tether.

Similar Ideas:
IceFire Book (Almost like mine)
Command & Conquer Ion Cannon (Looks similar, works differently)

Ministry for questionable science and copyright infringement, DA

Jim walked along the polished corridors, the white walls almost blinding him. Finally, he reached the research lab... Here, he worked.

"He, Jim, how`s it going?"
"Divorce in process, and she will get the children. Heck, I will be free, finally free!"
"Congratulations! Anyway, come over, this one is interesting..."

Jim walked over to his colleague (and buddy), Joe. "Wow... Is this what I think it is?"
"Yeah. A new, fresh technology to rip off. Of course, they intend to copyright it..."
"Were we an UN member when the copyright & patent resolution was done?"
"No. We resigned LONG ago. So, I would suggest we start to work..."
"Yeah."

And they started. It took them about a month, but their incredible spies found most of the data they needed.

And finally, an add appeared in the local newspapers:

Ionic Tethers

A DA Tech application

-A small stream of particles, guided by cold plasmas, is fired from a satellite chain (one main, two sub-satellites on tethers) in high orbit. This stream travels through the ionisphere, and comes to the earth's surface. This makes the connection, and the ionisphere "grounds" onto the surface, in a tremendous lightning-like blast. The particle stream is cut, the connection breaks, and the damage is revealed. This has a powerful blast of thermal energy, like a nuclear bomb, the shockwave of the air exploding would level entire regions, and the EM effects would be incomparable. (Also good to shoot into Navies... makes nice STEAMY effects.)


In YOUR local storefront! A MUST HAVE!

This has been an official mockingpost by the Ministry for International Mockery, pointing out that ooc copyrights are stupid. *Watches Truman copyrighting the atomic bomb* Yeah, that worked...

-Edited out-

I have recieved a good explanation.

The Vortex Corporation has been using a whole array of Ion based weaponry from almost the beginning of it's existence. If we ever happen to develop, or possess already, any technology that you claim to "patent" here, we will not refrain from using it. We do not use these Tethers as of yet, but many funds have already been invested in research concerning very similar appliances, including the so called C&C Cannon, as you call it.

Or to put it shortly:

Just because you have them, that does not mean nobody else can.

Destroy entire regions? I smell a GODMOD...

Actually, he might not mean NS regions, but geographic regions... which may be smaller than the area a small nuke ( < 100kt) would destroy.

And while I think that this thing needs *some* downscaling (I miss the necessary energy sources for such a tremendous energy output), you *can* shoot them down, and I *really* like the explanation, so I would hardly call it a godmode. (especially since Tech cannot be a godmode, only it`s (ab)use can be.)

It`s just that I hate the (as I said, incredibly stupid) idea of ooc copyrights... But aside from that, I see no problems.

OOC: Here's my thing: I don't care if you have stuff that works the same, or looks the same, as long as it is NOT the same. This was more to declare "I had it first!" than forbid it. If you stumble upon it in NS, or see it in NS, or buy it in NS, that's fine. I was just OOC copyrighting, so that I could talk about it OOC without it being ripped IC. If I ever reveal it IC, or you develope it IC, that's one thing...

Basically, I put quite a bit of thought into this, and time, so I was putting it out there, so people know WHO cooked it up.

Now, for the questions asked:

Destroying Regions?
Geographic, as stated by another Der Angst (thank you, btw).

Power Source?
The two sub-satellites are extended on tethers to charge the particle beam. A 27.8 km tether sent out by the space shuttle, with moderate quality conductivity, took in hundreds of Megawatts in seconds (and blew the cable). I extend longer cables, with better materials (more research forthcoming) to charge the main satellite. Its weapon is related to its power. (This could be a unique way to power Space Stations, too...)

Vulnerabilities:
-An single F-15 with an ASAT could pop this satellite.
-Other satellites.
-God-Forbid, an ICBM detonation.
-Anything that shoots to, from, or in space.

More on the OOC Copyright...
One of the things that bothers me on NS is the scenario of whenever someone uses/creates a cool technology, many will just rip it off instantly, usually with a declaration of:

"Well, of course, we already HAVE these! And better! Ours have COFFEE POTS on them!"

This bothers me, and so I took one tech that I really like and tried to declare it somewhat special. If others want it, they must see it, steal it, or earn it in RP... not just OOC.

I agree that patenting something SO NO ONE CAN HAVE IT is dumb, but I think that this meets certain qualifications:
It's my own tech, not something from a book, movie, cartoon, or what have you.
It's been thoroughly explained.
It's not yet real (but could be, and if it does become real, this idea is open season).
Others CAN have it.
The idea is not copyrighted, just this solution to the problem. (ie: A future-tech nation would have MUCH better ways than this, and other near-future nations might have their own designs for similar effect, and it's not a blanket forbidding of ion weapons or tethers.)
Mainly, I'm asking... respect the tech.
I think that should clear up the messes. Any other questions?

OOC: Also, Der Angst...

Are you trying to steal the tech IC? We guard it REALLY well. If you want to, contact me via TG, and I'll talk to you about it.

(Sorry, but I wasn't sure if it was joking OOC or semi-joking IC :( )

((Interesting idea, it's similar to our charged particle cannons, but still quite different.))

OOC: Well, at least you (Kaukolastan) aren't saying you're the only guy who can legitimately make MiGs. Although the whole copyright idea is perhaps flawed in execution (here I refer to Camdean's monster thread) I think copyrighting has potential for RPs if it is strictly confined to original and creative tech.

And I've yet to see any real-life country go to war over a copyright infridgement.

OOC: Also, Der Angst...

Are you trying to steal the tech IC? We guard it REALLY well. If you want to, contact me via TG, and I'll talk to you about it.

(Sorry, but I wasn't sure if it was joking OOC or semi-joking IC :( )

semi- IC/ OOC joking. If I would *really* try to steal a technology, I would actually RP spies getting in etc., and the whole process would take about a month. Minimum.

Oh, and after More on the OOC Copyright... <snip>
, ok, I understand your reasons, and I can live with it.