Low-tech inertial dampener options
As mentioned in this discussion: How to keep humans pilots instead of AI in sci-fi future? the ability to handle G forces is a limiting factor on what pilots can do. Some of my solutions to address this will likely be to limit the delta V via various approaches, but I'm also looking into what I can do to make high G forces tolerable for humans.
The problem is that real inertial dampeners are rather high-tech. If you can install some inertia dampening field you have discovered a way to mess with a raw force of nature, and there have to be all kinds of other interesting technology that comes from such a discovery. I want a somewhat near-future work, advanced enough for space travel but not to the level of all tech being applied phlebotinum. Thus I don't want inertial dampeners that are some magic hand-wave field that 'just works'.
What are viable approaches that could be used to help pilots handle high G forces without full scale inertial dampeners? In a somewhat advanced future, but before we reach the point of energy fields and nano-robots what approaches may be viable that aren't, yet, viable for fighter pilots of the present?
I'm most interested in space-fighters, though I don't know if the fact that their in space really effects the issue of G force and inertia.
This post was sourced from https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/q/17139. It is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
1 answer
As you say, just give them low-tech inertial dampeners. If you're using inertial dampeners to mean the same as I am, then we already have the technology to do this and it's used in many places.
Take, for example, a military helicopter, which needs to be a rock-solid gun platform for snipers at times. No human pilot can possibly correct for wind and other outside influences fast enough that there is no noticeable movement in the helicopter, so they get a computer to do it.
This computer uses sensors such as the already-installed airspeed and altitude sensors (if they're accurate enough) to detect wind force against the aircraft, and up or down movement, to control output into the engines and the rotors to move the helicopter to counter the movement. Essentially:
Hovering → ASG (airspeed gauge) shows forward velocity → is there correlating control input from the pilot? → no - inference: wind on the front of the aircraft → pitch rotor forward to counter.
This sort of processing is incredibly simple for a computer to do, and I can write pseudo-code that describes it in few lines and not much time.
There are some differences in space, namely the lack of air resistance to measure speed by. Instead, your computer needs to know the force that the engines have put out and for how long in what direction. From that it can work out how fast the craft is going now, and apply some force to prevent the acceleration going over a preset maximum.
0 comment threads
0 comment threads