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Lim Jyue (lim_jyue@pacific.net.sg)
Fri, 10 Nov 2000 02:42:43 +0800
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Long and Technical Mail Ahead
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Hi all, Hi all. As mentioned earlier, I wanted to ask some stuff and
speculate about others on the subject of Minovsky particles in the Gundam UC
universe.
My primary source is the section on Minovsky particles and Beam
Weaponry at Mark Simmons Gundam Project site. I won't be covering the
material there -- no point covering old tracks -- so if you are interested,
please go there to read up.
Oh. By the time I finished this installment I was quite tired out,
so I should have left some stuff out by mistake. I'll correct those as I
remember them. =)
Due to the length of this post I've divided it up into 2 sections.
If anyone gets annoyed by this... sorry, but this is still directly related
to UC Gundam. If you are not interested, feel free to send this pair to the
trashbin.
All right, let's begin.
Minovsky Particles and Basic Applications
=========================================
As I understand from Mark's web site, Minovsky particles are created
through the fusion of Helium-3 with Hydrogen. This particle, in its natural
state, is a eletrically neutral, no rest mass particle, which makes it hard
to detect when it is at rest.
However, Minovsky particles can be charged with both a positive and
a negative charge, which when deposited in large quantity, will naturally
forms up into a lattice structure called an I-field, which depending on the
density of the particles, can be used to contain plasma, block radio and
microwave transmission, and even deflect mega-particles, it's related cousin.
Compress the I-field sufficiently, and the positively and negatively
charged Minovsky particles will combine to form a neutral high-velocity,
high-mass (relative to Minovsky particles) particle called mega-particle,
which forms the core of Gundam weaponry.
In Gundam shows, we are show weapons or defenses using I-field in
various guises, such as:
The spherical I-field barrier found on some MAs
The flat plane beam-shield (which uses I-field to contain the
plasma, which in turn implies the I-field is flat)
The cylindrical beam saber (as above)
However, how the Minovsky particles could be shaped into these
shapes have not been identified. Since the Minovsky particles are
electrically charged, it is possible that the fields are shaped by
electrical or magnetic means, but the lattice itself should be electrically
neutral, so that explanation falls short. This is a crucial piece of the
puzzle which I have not figured out yet, and as such would like to hear some
ideas.
Minovsky-Ionesco Reactors
=========================
The most basic of applications, we now take a closer look at the
Minovsky-Ionesco reactors, the heart of our beloved MSes.
The Minovsky-Ionesco reactors utilizes I-fields to enable
compression of the plasma into a smaller volume in order to speed up
reactions. This enables the reactor to run on less fuel, as a higher
percentage is consumed by the reaction and less is left staying around
enjoying the afterglow of the reaction. This reaction is also interesting
because it creates Minovsky particles, which is used in many MS weapons.
Of particular note is that the Minovsky-Ionesco reactors use both
Minovsky particles as containment and catalyst. However, as Minovsky
particles are short-lived particles, the containment bubble will rapidly
degrade once the Minovsky particle production is stopped.
This implies that the MS can never quite shut down the MS totally,
because if so the reactor cannot be started up again due to the lack of a
plasma containment bottle! Of course, it may be possible for a base or
warship to contain hookup points to maintain or reinstate the containment
bottle for repairs and startup, but in the field, MSes should not be able to
totally shut down, but instead go into a low-power mode when necessary.
This means that even parked MSes could start up at a moment's
notice, provided sufficient fuel is available.
However, there is a way around this. The MS could have a primitive
E-cap system to store Minovsky particles necessary to create the initial
containment bottle for a long period of time. This system will, on startup,
form a containment bottle, then inject the fuel (Helium-3 and Hydrogen), and
maintain the bottle until sufficient Minovsky particles have been created by
the reactor to sustain the containment bottle.
This relies on the fact that the fusion reactions will start rapidly
once the pilot decides to switch on the reactor. If the reactions don't
start fast, the pilot has a problem...
This may also be another explanation why many early MS could not
fire beam weapons -- much of their Minovsky particle output has been
diverted to system-critical resources, like maintainence of the containment
bottle within the reactor.
Considering that military reactors are by nature more fuel-efficient
-- it needs to consume less fuel in order to increase operational time span
-- this implies that early MS reactors are fuel efficient, but does not
really produced that much Minovsky particles. It's no wonder that early MS
depends heavily on projectile weapons to do most of the scut-work.
Fast-forward to the 2nd UC century, however, we will see a switch to
a more volitile reactor types. The reason will be covered in the next
section: Beam Weapons.
Beam Weapons
============
As we all know, beam weapons consist mostly of mega-particles
created by the compression of charged Minovsky particles. This requires
large amounts of energy, which most MS simply couldn't supply initially, and
as a result, most beam weapons comes with a limited number of shots which
could be recharged slowly, by leeching Minovsky particles from the reactor,
polarizing them, and compacting them within the gun.
In the late UC 0080s, E-caps became popular, and it was a boon.
E-caps store compacted polarized Minovsky particles in essentially the
Minovsky's equivalent of capcitors, which enabled small MSes to carry large
guns without having to worry about recharging the weapons. With the advant
of E-caps, the beam weaponry market really opened up. This meant that MS
could be built with smaller reactors, as they now need not worry about
recharging weapons -- which meant the MS could carry more reactant and
propellant, meaning it's operational range is increased. However, at about
this time, technical improvements seemed to have improved the efficiency of
reactors, and most Z and ZZ era reactors tends to have larger outputs. The
best of both worlds, effectively.
A special note should be given to beam sabers and shields. Both use
the same I-field plasma containment bubbles to project a offensive and
defensive plasma weapon respectively.
The question here is where the MS gets the plasma from. The most
obvious answer is from the reactor, but that means that there must be a
continous pipeline from the reactor to the beam saber. But in 0083, we
clearly see Gato abandon his beam saber as a decoy -- and it remain lit!
Hence, there must be another explanation, and here is mine: When the
beam saber hilt is locked in the carrying position, it draws -- and
constantly renews -- both Minovsky particles and plasma from the reactor.
Using the Minovsky particles, it works a containment field within the hilt
itself, compressing the plasma and hence keeping it warm.
Upon activation, the beam saber extends the containment field, and
the plasma extends itself out along with the field. As I-fields cannot
penetrate solid objects, every time the beam sabers strike a solid object,
the containment field breaks, and plasma flows across the object, burning
and melting it.
However, as I-fields will not fuse with one another, a beam saber
will block another beam saber, unless there is a gross discrepency between
the two I-fields, at which the stronger I-field may break through the bonds
of the I-field and cause the other beam saber to lose a great deal of plasma
and Minovsky particles that way.
This means that a beam saber cannot be extended indefinitely -- it
must recharge both plasma and Minovsky particles.
Similarly, beam shields work on the same principles, but on a
defensive nature. When a beam shot hits the shield, the I-field lessens or
deflects the mega-particles, and the plasma takes up the remaining. When a
solid projectile hits the shield, the plasma incinerates the projectile.
Quite a clever use of both technology.
But at a cost. To maintain both beam sabers and beam shield -- I
can't remember whether F91 MSes uses E-caps -- the reactor must produce more
Minovsky particles. Hence, it is likely that sometime after the development
of beam shields, the reactor designs of MSes moved towards "hotter" reactors
-- reactors that had more reaction per unit time -- to produce more Minovsky
particles and plasma to maintain these weapons.
Indirectly, this makes the MSes walking bombs, which they were used
as such -- as Mark Simmons puts it, as tact nukes.
-------------
Lim Jyue
ICQ: 24737555
I am careful not to confuse excellence with perfection.
Excellence I can reach for; perfection is God's business.
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