Ashin Varanin
Professional Enabler
Image Source: None
Intent: A means of obtaining reliable sensor data from within extremely high-radiation environments.
Development Thread: Omegium granted here
Manufacturer: Theed Palace Space Vessel Engineering Corps
Model: Ballistic Anti-Radiation Capsule Scanprobe (BARCS)
Affiliation: Theed Hangar
Modularity: No
Production: Unique
Material: Omegium, agrinium, plas-bonded ostrine, heat sinks, electronics
Strengths:
Description: Imagine, if you will, that you obtain a fairly small quantity of a rare material. This material is highly conductive, brittle for a metal, quite strong, and extremely resistant to radiation. What do you do with it, other than study the feth out of it to verify that it can’t be replicated? If you’re one of the largest elite shipbuilders in the galaxy, why, you start thinking about environments. Specifically, places where physical impact is a rare occurrence, but radiation and heat are serious hazards.
The BARCS is a glossy, black sphere 45 cm in diameter. Its surface is completely unbroken: though designed to be deployed in space, it has no apertures for maneuvering thrusters, sensors, weapons, etc. The BARCS capsule contains a power supply, a miniature comm unit, a tracking beacon, a powerful heat sink, and a set of miniature, high-resolution non-EM sensors, detailed below.
A Naboo RASP probe launcher deploys the BARCS within a discarding thruster armature. The armature ffills the remaining space within the launcher, and gives the BARCS a precise initial kick before falling away. At that point, the BARCS becomes entirely ballistic. Its motion thenceforth, until retrieval, is a composite of its momentum and nearby forces of gravity. Usually, the BARCS is deployed very near indeed to a source of gravitational attraction: specifically, a star.
Let’s take a moment to remember that stars are massive and emit huge volumes of radiation. To even reach insystem worlds like Nkllon, for example, requires capital ships to hide behind gigantic physical shields, or else their gun mounts will turn to slag. Two more such planes are the searing rock worlds of Moth and Erep, deep in the Naboo system. Moth and Erep, along with Erep’s moon, orbit the system primary far more closely than the system’s other four planets. Traditionally, far-insystem locations such as hot worlds and stars have not often featured in system defense plans or in naval strategy. There are times, however, when precise, close-range scans and signals intercepts just plain require very close ranges, or at least as close as possible.
I suppose at this point I should out and say it. The BARCS is a spy probe that makes a ballistic slingshot course around a star or a very hot world while obtaining precision SIGINT on enemy forces on the other side of the astronomical body in question. Blurring through a ridiculously quick orbital transit against a highly irradiated and visually brilliant backdrop, it is virtually impossible to target. Once it completes its precise slingshot course, it is picked up again by the deploying ship, which has never been within line of sight of the enemy.
Naturally, using the BARCS requires the most exhaustively precise mathematics around. Circumstances need to line up just so: an enemy force on the other side of a star or a hot world, for example. Picking up the BARCS after use is an exercise in precision and acceleration: coming off a slingshot maneuver, the tiny capsule probe is a tricky thing to catch. When the circumstances are right, however, the BARCS can provide Naboo security forces with crucial sensor data.
As for how the Omegium comes into play, that’s the fun part. Its physical strength is largely tangential: if it runs into anything, it shatters, and that’s about the end of that. What matters far more is the interplay of high radiation resistance and high conductivity. The small Omegium capsule resists a good portion of the radiation which strikes it. Another portion is absorbed as thermal energy...by the side of the capsule facing the star. The other side of the capsule would normally remain quite cold, were it not for the Omegium’s high conductivity. The Omegium’s properties spread thermal energy throughout the capsule in a uniform way, effectively doubling the mass to be heated, and preventing the star-facing side from simply melting down. Since conduction is a vastly more effective method of heat transfer than radiation, uniformity is maintained, more than keeping pace with increased radiation. In terms of other mitigating factors, a small portion of energy is shed as black-body radiation on the dark side of the BARCS. Likewise, another portion of thermal energy is handled by powerful internal heat sinks. The end result, after the slingshot maneuver, is a hot but fully functional probe.
As a side note, the BARCS’ total lack of apertures helps protect the internal electronics. Radiation pulses are known to travel up thruster/engine nozzles and bounce around inside well-shielded ships, cooking the contents thoroughly. The BARCS has no such nozzles.
Most standard sensors, including just about anything EM-based, require an output and input antenna, surface, or aperture. The BARCS’ unbroken surface, the star’s background radiation, and Omegium’s anti-radiation properties stymie most of these technologies, rendering them unsuitable for use by the BARCS. Instead, the BARCS’ sensor suite focuses on a single type of sensor: a small Crystal Gravfield Trap, comparable to the module found on a fighter-sized KDY LightStealth-18. The CGT uses an internal crystalline mesh to detect mass signatures in high resolution, and requires no apertures. The CGT is not the most precise or detailed sensor around, but it can detect freighter- and corvette-sized objects with ease, as well as any stealth ship not equipped with a gravitic modulator.
In short, the BARCS is a highly specialized sensor probe for very specific situations. Alone, it’s functionally worthless; however, it can play a role in Naboo’s overall system defense strategy, which relies on maximum situational awareness despite obstructions.
Primary Source: Not influenced by any Chaos submissions.
Intent: A means of obtaining reliable sensor data from within extremely high-radiation environments.
Development Thread: Omegium granted here
Manufacturer: Theed Palace Space Vessel Engineering Corps
Model: Ballistic Anti-Radiation Capsule Scanprobe (BARCS)
Affiliation: Theed Hangar
Modularity: No
Production: Unique
Material: Omegium, agrinium, plas-bonded ostrine, heat sinks, electronics
Strengths:
- The BARCS contains a miniature sensor suite, detailed below.
- The BARCS is extremely resistant to radiation.
- The BARCS is structurally fragile, highly vulnerable to physical weapons fire and collision. Its entire capsule can shatter at a significant impact.
- The BARCS, despite being a scanning probe, contains no standard sensors or maneuvering systems.
Description: Imagine, if you will, that you obtain a fairly small quantity of a rare material. This material is highly conductive, brittle for a metal, quite strong, and extremely resistant to radiation. What do you do with it, other than study the feth out of it to verify that it can’t be replicated? If you’re one of the largest elite shipbuilders in the galaxy, why, you start thinking about environments. Specifically, places where physical impact is a rare occurrence, but radiation and heat are serious hazards.
The BARCS is a glossy, black sphere 45 cm in diameter. Its surface is completely unbroken: though designed to be deployed in space, it has no apertures for maneuvering thrusters, sensors, weapons, etc. The BARCS capsule contains a power supply, a miniature comm unit, a tracking beacon, a powerful heat sink, and a set of miniature, high-resolution non-EM sensors, detailed below.
A Naboo RASP probe launcher deploys the BARCS within a discarding thruster armature. The armature ffills the remaining space within the launcher, and gives the BARCS a precise initial kick before falling away. At that point, the BARCS becomes entirely ballistic. Its motion thenceforth, until retrieval, is a composite of its momentum and nearby forces of gravity. Usually, the BARCS is deployed very near indeed to a source of gravitational attraction: specifically, a star.
Let’s take a moment to remember that stars are massive and emit huge volumes of radiation. To even reach insystem worlds like Nkllon, for example, requires capital ships to hide behind gigantic physical shields, or else their gun mounts will turn to slag. Two more such planes are the searing rock worlds of Moth and Erep, deep in the Naboo system. Moth and Erep, along with Erep’s moon, orbit the system primary far more closely than the system’s other four planets. Traditionally, far-insystem locations such as hot worlds and stars have not often featured in system defense plans or in naval strategy. There are times, however, when precise, close-range scans and signals intercepts just plain require very close ranges, or at least as close as possible.
I suppose at this point I should out and say it. The BARCS is a spy probe that makes a ballistic slingshot course around a star or a very hot world while obtaining precision SIGINT on enemy forces on the other side of the astronomical body in question. Blurring through a ridiculously quick orbital transit against a highly irradiated and visually brilliant backdrop, it is virtually impossible to target. Once it completes its precise slingshot course, it is picked up again by the deploying ship, which has never been within line of sight of the enemy.
Naturally, using the BARCS requires the most exhaustively precise mathematics around. Circumstances need to line up just so: an enemy force on the other side of a star or a hot world, for example. Picking up the BARCS after use is an exercise in precision and acceleration: coming off a slingshot maneuver, the tiny capsule probe is a tricky thing to catch. When the circumstances are right, however, the BARCS can provide Naboo security forces with crucial sensor data.
As for how the Omegium comes into play, that’s the fun part. Its physical strength is largely tangential: if it runs into anything, it shatters, and that’s about the end of that. What matters far more is the interplay of high radiation resistance and high conductivity. The small Omegium capsule resists a good portion of the radiation which strikes it. Another portion is absorbed as thermal energy...by the side of the capsule facing the star. The other side of the capsule would normally remain quite cold, were it not for the Omegium’s high conductivity. The Omegium’s properties spread thermal energy throughout the capsule in a uniform way, effectively doubling the mass to be heated, and preventing the star-facing side from simply melting down. Since conduction is a vastly more effective method of heat transfer than radiation, uniformity is maintained, more than keeping pace with increased radiation. In terms of other mitigating factors, a small portion of energy is shed as black-body radiation on the dark side of the BARCS. Likewise, another portion of thermal energy is handled by powerful internal heat sinks. The end result, after the slingshot maneuver, is a hot but fully functional probe.
As a side note, the BARCS’ total lack of apertures helps protect the internal electronics. Radiation pulses are known to travel up thruster/engine nozzles and bounce around inside well-shielded ships, cooking the contents thoroughly. The BARCS has no such nozzles.
Most standard sensors, including just about anything EM-based, require an output and input antenna, surface, or aperture. The BARCS’ unbroken surface, the star’s background radiation, and Omegium’s anti-radiation properties stymie most of these technologies, rendering them unsuitable for use by the BARCS. Instead, the BARCS’ sensor suite focuses on a single type of sensor: a small Crystal Gravfield Trap, comparable to the module found on a fighter-sized KDY LightStealth-18. The CGT uses an internal crystalline mesh to detect mass signatures in high resolution, and requires no apertures. The CGT is not the most precise or detailed sensor around, but it can detect freighter- and corvette-sized objects with ease, as well as any stealth ship not equipped with a gravitic modulator.
In short, the BARCS is a highly specialized sensor probe for very specific situations. Alone, it’s functionally worthless; however, it can play a role in Naboo’s overall system defense strategy, which relies on maximum situational awareness despite obstructions.
Primary Source: Not influenced by any Chaos submissions.
