Fuel Requirement for Covenant Ships?

[constantine]

I want to know what the fuel requirement would be for Covenant (Halo) ships - for instance, how much fuel would they need to carry on their ships to pull off the destruction of Jericho, assuming 100% efficiency.

Ignoring any other inconsistencies; reactor size/output, the explanation of the glassing of Jericho (the fact that the atmosphere doesn't dissipate before the water bodies), etc. and assuming that it takes them 36 hours to vaporize all of the water bodies of an Earth-like planet. There being 36 ships altogether, they would need to be dropping roughly 200 gigatons/second onto Jericho - which is roughly 8.4e20 watts/second if I'm not mistaken.

On page 193 of 'First Strike', Cortana explains that the Covenant use a 'pinched magnetic field to heat tritium plasma'.

My questions:
Is there a difference between deuterium fusion and tritium fusion? The only info I can find concerning tritium fusion reaction is concerning deuterium-tritium fusion. I'm wondering if cortana isn't simply talking about deuterium fusion. I've tried finding info on this before but I either can't understand it or...yeah, I can't understand it. I can't seem to find a simple explanation concerning the energy density of tritium fusion, like x number of joules per kilogram.

It all points to a rather fat inconsistency on the part of Eric Nylund, really. I'm thinking the fuel requirements alone (not even counting space needed for reactors) exceed the space given in the flagship Ascendant Justice. The Ascendant Justice was alot bigger than the cruisers and destroyers that took part in the destruction of Jericho.

[Darth Wong]

I want to know what the fuel requirement would be for Covenant (Halo) ships - for instance, how much fuel would they need to carry on their ships to pull off the destruction of Jericho, assuming 100% efficiency.

There are some pretty big questions about Covenant "glassing". If their weapons are so powerful, why don't they vapourize a Terran ship with a single hit? Why does it take so long to burn through several metres of Titanium-A armour if these blasts can wipe out hundreds of square kilometres of surface in a single hit? And why was a region of Reach still inhabitable despite the rest of the planet being "glassed", since that much release of energy would easily wipe out the remaining patch through collateral effects?

Ignoring any other inconsistencies; reactor size/output, the explanation of the glassing of Jericho (the fact that the atmosphere doesn't dissipate before the water bodies), etc. and assuming that it takes them 36 hours to vaporize all of the water bodies of an Earth-like planet. There being 36 ships altogether, they would need to be dropping roughly 200 gigatons/second onto Jericho - which is roughly 8.4e20 watts/second if I'm not mistaken.

Again, though, the problem is that the destruction of Reach is described to be similar, except for that untouched patch (which makes no sense in light of these figures).

On page 193 of 'First Strike', Cortana explains that the Covenant use a 'pinched magnetic field to heat tritium plasma'.

My questions:
Is there a difference between deuterium fusion and tritium fusion? The only info I can find concerning tritium fusion reaction is concerning deuterium-tritium fusion. I'm wondering if cortana isn't simply talking about deuterium fusion. I've tried finding info on this before but I either can't understand it or...yeah, I can't understand it. I can't seem to find a simple explanation concerning the energy density of tritium fusion, like x number of joules per kilogram.

D-T fusion is easier to initiate and produces more energy per reaction IIRC.

It all points to a rather fat inconsistency on the part of Eric Nylund, really. I'm thinking the fuel requirements alone (not even counting space needed for reactors) exceed the space given in the flagship Ascendant Justice. The Ascendant Justice was alot bigger than the cruisers and destroyers that took part in the destruction of Jericho.

The inconsistencies are most easily explained by describing the effects on Jericho as hyperbole. The number of facts working against the high-energy explanation well exceed the number of facts in favour: Reach, weapon effectiveness against titanium, and their method of power generation all say "nay".

[constantine]

I agree that the 'glassing' of Jericho is inconsistent.

My point is, I want to know how many inconsistencies there are in the Halo novels, I was just using Jericho as an example. I'm still curious as to the fuel requirements even if we give the Covenant an extremely low power output. For instance, say the Covenant are firing kiloton plasma torpedoes, non-stop for an hour. How much fuel would they need?

Nylund gives them small ships, under 3 kilometers for cruisers and destroyers. Small ships, for D-T fusion at least. I want to know if a 3 km ship could even house the fuel required for the operation of a starship, even if their weapons are kiloton strength.

Or I suppose, give the plasma a 30 megaton yield - as much as the HAVOK...

[ClaysGhost]

I agree that the 'glassing' of Jericho is inconsistent.

My point is, I want to know how many inconsistencies there are in the Halo novels, I was just using Jericho as an example. I'm still curious as to the fuel requirements even if we give the Covenant an extremely low power output. For instance, say the Covenant are firing kiloton plasma torpedoes, non-stop for an hour. How much fuel would they need?

Nylund gives them small ships, under 3 kilometers for cruisers and destroyers. Small ships, for D-T fusion at least. I want to know if a 3 km ship could even house the fuel required for the operation of a starship, even if their weapons are kiloton strength.

Or I suppose, give the plasma a 30 megaton yield - as much as the HAVOK...

Taking your 8.4e20 Watt figure over 36 hours gives a total energy expenditure of about 1.1e26 Joules. Converting this energy into the mass of "fuel" they probably used is just application of E = mc^2 with a factor to account for the inefficiency: E = rmc^2, where r is the efficiency of conversion. I don't think pure tritium fusion genereates any useful energy (but this is from vague memory, I haven't checked) but for D-T fusion the relevant figure is about 17%, absolute maximum. So m = 1.1e26 / (0.17 * 3e8 * 3e8) = 4.7e9. The attacking ships would have to expend roughly 5 million tonnes of fuel in the attack if it is as you describe. Since this is solely the energy required to "heat up" the plasma torpedos, it is a low-end estimate and does not include the mass of the torpedos themselves or the mass for their propulsion. As I understand it Covenant plasma is very scifi in its behaviour, so trying to estimate the mass of the torpedos is probably pointless.

It's not possible to answer your other questions yet: you don't state the rate at which Covenant ships can fire plasma torpedos, nor how many ships are involved.

[constantine]

Thanks. That was explained very well.