Superconductors

[Schwarzwald]

I was thinking of a SF setting, and wanted to have personal energy weapons.

Now one of the big bugbears about pewsonal energy weapons is that they supposedly take up too much power to run. So I was imagine how to get over that problem, and I decided that they had 'super batteries' that allowed you to fit however many megawatts you needed to run your blaster pistol into a small, light pack.

I was thinking of explaining the batteries as being practical superconductors, since I've heard that if there was a pratical superconductor you could store tremendous amounts of power in a loop of it.

Now, if I'm going to have practical, widespread superconductors in my game, I need to, just like a SF writer writing a novel, consider ALL the ramifications of them in the game world.

So I'm trying to figure out what other effects, asides from megawatt batteries, superconductors would have. I imagine they'd make great magnets, so maybe we get personal sized rail guns too. Electronics get even smaller, more efficient, faster, more powerful and so on, so personal gadgets become better.

A spinning low temp supercondictor has recently been used to create artificial gravity for the first time, so maybe a lot of interesting possibilities open up there if you want.

Anyone else have any ideas on what effects widespread practical superconductors would have?

[Yansuf]

A spinning low temp supercondictor has recently been used to create artificial gravity for the first time,

Reference please?

[tkdguy]

http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/GSP/SEM0L6OVGJE_0.html

[Nyrath]

Now, if I'm going to have practical, widespread superconductors in my game, I need to, just like a SF writer writing a novel, consider ALL the ramifications of them in the game world.
You are to be commended for thinking about the ramifications of such a development. This will be a challenge since superconductors have such universal applications.

Magnetic levitation trains will be common ("Maglev"). As will cargo mass-drivers boosting payloads into near orbit. Almost everything will run on battery power, even fighter aircraft and automobiles. Incredibly fast supercomputers. Inexpensive pocket calculators with almost artificial intelligence levels of computation. Ultra-fine resolution MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) medical scans. Super efficient utility electrical transmission cables.

[TheRavenIs]

If you have super-effective superconductors you have the means to actually use beamed power. You could have a power plant without a direct connection or better transmit power via what would be equal to fiber-optics of today, and almost now power loss.

[Metaphysician]

OTOH, one additional consequences: room temp superconductors could get incorporated into defensive measures. For instance, surface coatings to dissipate laser heating over a larger area.

[Curufea]

I'm worried about metal migration.

Continual circulating charge = continual movement of electrons.
Currently metal migration is a problem with computes as the wires are so small it isn't hard to fuse them together with continual use.

Mind you, I do now wonder it a superconductor would be the best reflecting surface (even if it is non metallic).

[sinanju]

Anyone else have any ideas on what effects widespread practical superconductors would have?

Robert Heinlein postulated "Shipstones" (in the novel FRIDAY, among other works), which were fantastically powerful sources of energy. In FRIDAY, almost everything is powered by shipstones, from handheld devices (flashlights that would shine for years from a single small stone's power supply) to an entire house (and everything in it) from larger stones, to starships.

One consequence is far less reliance on an electrical generation/transportation grid. If every device can run for months or years on a single shipstone, technology will spread far and wide. Even the most isolated home/village can possess computers, satellite commlinks, etc. The world gets much smaller.

[TheRavenIs]

One thing you also have to consider, if you have a small power storage device.....how did you get it into said device. One other thing realted to that, how is the energy generated to put into the device.

[AlHazred]

You don't necessarily need these for a reasonable personal energy weapon. Consider a weapon which fires a charge in a cartridge, which becomes plasma in the launcher as it's fired. Then you just need an ignition charge.

As far as superconductors go, don't forget to include dozens of novelty uses. If they're commonplace, then they're going to be cheaper to manufacture and cheaper to purchase. Cheaper to manufacture implies a more efficient manufacturing basis than we currently have for manufacturing the material the superconductors are made of. Whether metals, ceramics or other composites, you have to consider more prevalent use of such materials as well.

[Schwarzwald]

Well, I've heard that it's theoretically possible to make a metal superconductor out of stabilized metallic hydrogen, and since it's SF I was thinking of having SMH as the practical superconductor.

I also wondered if it could make solar power possible.

Another idea I came across once was called "Liquid electricity', that involved sotring massive amounts of electricity in water. I've heard that it can be done but we have no way of keeping the charge for rapidly dissipating.

[Curufea]

One thing you also have to consider, if you have a small power storage device.....how did you get it into said device. One other thing realted to that, how is the energy generated to put into the device.
In the Peter Hamilton books - Pandora's Star and Judas Unleashed, they have a super battery. It consists of a spun singularity that virtually has no limit to how much energy it can store. They have one plugged into a volcano feeding of geothermal energys for a few decades.

[Schwarzwald]

You are to be commended for thinking about the ramifications of such a development. This will be a challenge since superconductors have such universal applications.

Magnetic levitation trains will be common ("Maglev"). As will cargo mass-drivers boosting payloads into near orbit. Almost everything will run on battery power, even fighter aircraft and automobiles. Incredibly fast supercomputers. Inexpensive pocket calculators with almost artificial intelligence levels of computation. Ultra-fine resolution MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) medical scans. Super efficient utility electrical transmission cables.

I wonder if they could make computer cips so small and emergy efficient that implanted processors really become feasible.


The thought of what corporate america would do with implanted procesors terrifies me so much that I almost consider becomeing a luddite, however.

[Schwarzwald]

In the Peter Hamilton books - Pandora's Star and Judas Unleashed, they have a super battery. It consists of a spun singularity that virtually has no limit to how much energy it can store. They have one plugged into a volcano feeding of geothermal energys for a few decades.

I wonder if you could graze a star with one for a quick megacharge?

Also, I wonder if a real superconductor could kake fusion reactors more plausible as thye could provide the 'containment field' framework.

[Cancer]

If you try packing too much energy in a superconducting loop, you'll have a hell of a time moving it. Accelerate it away from where you charged it up and you'll get synchrotron radiation ... and at the energies you're fantasizing about here, that won't be pleasant.

[Curufea]

Just remember - there are only so many electrons per atom. There would be a definite limit to how much power it could hold.

[Dr. Anomaly]

In the Peter Hamilton books - Pandora's Star and Judas Unleashed, they have a super battery. It consists of a spun singularity that virtually has no limit to how much energy it can store. They have one plugged into a volcano feeding of geothermal energys for a few decades.
There is a maximum to the amount of energy you can store in a rotating singularity. I'd have to check to be sure, but IIRC the conversion rate maxes at 50% of mass (that's when it's rotating at near lightspeed).

[Tom Carman]

In the Peter Hamilton books - Pandora's Star and Judas Unleashed, they have a super battery. It consists of a spun singularity that virtually has no limit to how much energy it can store. They have one plugged into a volcano feeding of geothermal energys for a few decades.
There's a supervolcano forming under Yellowstone (I think) that would take out the better part of North America if it blows. Plenty of power there. I read recently that there is work being done to create a supercapacitor, that could be used in place of a battery as a power source.

[Schwarzwald]

There's a supervolcano forming under Yellowstone (I think) that would take out the better part of North America if it blows. Plenty of power there. I read recently that there is work being done to create a supercapacitor, that could be used in place of a battery as a power source.

I';ve known about this for a while, and am amazed that no one is doing anything about it. I mean, they ought to be drilling thousands of oil well type shafts into it to relieve pressure on it to prevent an explosion, but no one's doing a damn thing.

[Yansuf]

I';ve known about this for a while, and am amazed that no one is doing anything about it. I mean, they ought to be drilling thousands of oil well type shafts into it to relieve pressure on it to prevent an explosion, but no one's doing a damn thing.

I do not believe there is anything that we can do about it.
Drilling well shafts won't work, the pressure is building up far below the level we can reach.
Of course, the odds are that it won't blow for thousands of years. I'm actually more worried by the fault line in MO, it is much more likely to have a quake in this century. The last one there (1812 or 1813) was felt in Boston.
BTW, I am a PE with a PhD in Civil Engineering. I have seen discussions of this in the technical literature, no one has any idea of how to try and prevent this.

[Curufea]

On a side note, the large areas of granite and the middle of a tectonic plate positioning of Australia have made it a good place to try geothermal energy sources.

As to the spinning singularity - I'm not sure what kind of mass it had, but as the energy required to move an object closer to the speed of light increases exponentially, as it sped up, it could hold more.

[Starwolf]

As to superconductors. Who knows what the future may hold. It was not so long ago that a computer took up acres of real estate and required massive air conditioning units. Now my laptop perfoms faster with more memory capacity and sheer processing power than those early behemoths. There are already inroads into the battery field due largly to the construction industry. I just read an article in the Handy magazine May/June 2006 issue about how manfacturers are now using Lithium-Ion batteries for cordless tools which are lighter and run longer than comparable Ni-Cad batteries. This technology was adapted from cell phones, laptops, and digital cameras. I also know that as temperature goes down resistance goes down also, allowing for more efficient power transmission. I can easily see in the far future technology reaching a point where Giga-watts or even Tera-watts could be stored in man portable, easliy rechargable, battery packs. These packs could be used to power everything from hoome appliances and tools to weapons.

Of course the flip side is that as technological improvements occur, not only could the batteries become smaller and more powerful, but the devices and weapons that use them become more efficient and use require less power to operate for the same net result.

Throw in a smidge of rubber science and as I said who knows what can be possible.

[Cancer]

Just imagine that a new class of explosives could be high-energy-density superconductors.

The trigger is some fast-onset effect that dispels the superconducting state. (The guys who design superconducting magnets for particle accelerators call this a "quench"; there are also sudden changes in mechanical stresses that make things try to fly apart.) All that energy in the electric current suddenly dissipated in ohmic resistance. Very large amounts of heat generated as the current decays away. Sounds like nice way to make a bang to me, using rubber superconductivity.

In fact, if that quench-trigger is large-scale and new or obscure technology in your game-world, sounds like an excellent terrorism or end-of-the-world apocalypse event.