This happens in the cartoons, and in the occasional Battletech scenario, where a battlesuit/battlemech drops from orbit; these folks say it will get a little bit warm on the way down.Journal of Physics Special Topics
P2_7 Mobile Suit Gundam: Falling From Space
R. Hall, A. West, M. McHugh, J. Blake,
Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Leicester, Leicester, LE1 7RH.
November 30, 2011
Abstract
This paper explores the upper limits of the active cooling system on board a Mobile Suit from the Gundam series as it goes through atmospheric re-entry. A Mobile Suit falling through the Earth’s atmosphere experiences drag forces of nearly 10,000 kN. The increase in temperature due to the resistive drag forces felt upon re-entry would require an active cooling system with an output of 112MW which is over 37 times greater than known power outputs on board Mobile Suits.
The full article is a short exploration into some fun physics - find it here.
3 comments:
I have never understood why these people assume the drop will simply be free fall straight down. What about disposable wings? Parachutes? Retro-rockets? Any or even all of those would suffice for the game.
Instead? We get brainy-science types telling us there is 'no such power source' in a fictional machine. Well, duh.
And while you are at it, you time-killing nerd-ragers, why don't you figure out where you would *put* all that excess heat even if you *did* have such a power source? It has to go somewhere, right? And the entire outside is out of the question, as this is the source of the heat.
People who claim to be able to see fleas and yet blithely ignore the elephant ten yards away.... feh!
In their defense, I think this was a school assignment, and not intended to be a definitive analysis.
BTW: If you want definitive physics in a game, play Attack Vector: Tactical.
In reply to the first post, I agree with you that transporting the heat is the major issue as conventional cooling by conduction will be difficult with a plasma surrounding the Gundam. One may conjecture that the active cooling system directly radiates the heat through the plasma sheath (i.e. X-ray lasers it is possibly carrying anyways), but if it can cool down running such a system in the setting, then heat in combat should never be a concern!
Employing parachute/wings/etc. work by increasing the drag, leaving the heat gain unchanged and retrorockets will also do work against gravity, implying the same heat gain again.
The simplest option might be for the Gundam to carry a supply of something with tremendous heat capacity to simply absorb and dump the heat away, like ceramics.
(time-killing nerd rager)
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