Avatar: ISV Venture Star Analysis

it'd be a fresh start on a new world [Music] over four light-years from earth in the alpha centauri star system was pandora this earth-like moon of the gas giant polyphemus was rich with alien flora and fauna and the only place known to bear an obtainium this room-temperature superconductor had unique properties that allowed it to spontaneously levitate within magnetic fields these properties and its superconductivity revolutionized multiple industries on earth it also allowed the creation of much smaller and more efficient interstellar vehicles than the original four kilometer long craft that traveled to alpha centauri this fleet of newer isvs constantly looped between earth and pandora to facilitate the transport of unoptanium in order to make this cargo route both economical and rapid enough for investors to see returns within their lifetimes a propulsion system capable of both high thrust and high efficiency was required the solution was a two-part system the first of which was a 16 kilometer diameter carbon nanotube sail pushed by the intense energy of a beamed power laser at earth the sail and its rigging were coated in a 99.99999 reflective material to maximize thrust and reduce heating from the laser a mirror shield protected the rest of the craft from the intense beam the second part of the system was a pair of mata antimatter engines built using an obtainium to generate the tremendous magnetic fields required to contain and direct the energy from the mata antimatter annihilation this energy was then thrust augmented by injecting hydrogen directly into the nozzle creating twin exhaust plumes of super hot plasma that stretched over 30 kilometers in length this necessitated angling the engines slightly outward to ensure they wouldn't instantly vaporize the mirror shield behind them as well as reflective thermal shielding on key parts of the structure directly attached to these two engines were gigantic solid radiators for dissipating what little heat didn't go into the exhaust plume large amounts of radiation was also created by the engines requiring some form of shielding to protect the crew passengers and cargo since radiation intensity drops off rapidly with distance and because spacecraft need to keep mass as low as possible the payload section needed to be placed hundreds of meters away from the engines to fit within these constraints a lightweight tensile structure towed behind the engines was used with the payload section hanging at the end of it placed furthest away from the engines was a pair of crew modules mounted on long rotating booms to provide artificial gravity when under thrust the booms folded flat along the truss next up the truss were three habitation modules that contained 200 passengers in cryosleep as well as amnio tanks with developing avatars they fully mature on the flight out if any passengers cryovolts failed in transit they were euthanized before waking up there simply wasn't enough primary life support capacity or food supplies for any extra people a temporary system provided oxygen and co2 scrubbing for periods when passengers were not in cryosleep above that was the docking module for a pair of valkyrie shuttles used for transferring crew and cargo between pandora and the isv some communications equipment was also mounted here closest to the engines were the cargo containers stacked in ranks and arranged around the central truss for the journey from earth to pandora the isv carried 200 passengers universal object manufacturing plant components these giant 3d printers allowed creation of items on pandora that were too large to directly ship such as bucket wheel excavators dump trucks and remotely operated bulldozers also when the cargo was highly complex items that could not be made on site like computer processors and other electronics as well as aircraft power plant turbines drugs and medication data modules containing designs for equipment to be built two valkyrie shuttles and amnio tanks with the developing avatars for the return journey back to earth the cargo consisted of mostly refined unobtainium taking priority over everything else due to how much it was worth this little grey rock sells for 20 million a kilo this was packaged in native pandora and wood carefully recovered at earth and sold on more data modules this time containing the molecular structure of pandora and organic compounds for synthesis on earth small low-mass navy artifacts for sale to wealthy collectors a limited number of passengers since cargo mass was prioritized for an obtainium only those who had finished their tour of duty on pandora were permitted to return to earth anyone requiring severe medical attention that could not be solved on pandora were instead euthanized only the very highest executives were exempted from this policy to save mass the valkyrie shuttles were left behind with older ones being converted to automated gas harvesters for refueling isvs the flight plan for an isv was as follows with all times being in earth years first the laser sail was used to accelerate a 1.5 g for 0.46 years up to the cruising speed of 210 000 kilometers per second or 70 percent of light speed once there the sail was automatically retrieved folded and stored by service robots the entire craft then flipped over and deployed the mirror shield this was made of multiple layers which separated and were moved by small thrusters thousands of kilometers in front of the isv to act as debris shields these protected the ship from interstellar dust grains during the 5.83 year long coast phase at the end of this phase the shields rejoined the ship the mata antimatter engines were then ignited decelerating the isv of 1.5 g for 0.46 years into pandora orbit the vessel remained there for one year during which cargo propellant and supplies were transferred on board for the return to earth the same flight plan was reversed the mata antimatter engines burned for 0.46 years accelerating at 1.5 g up to 70 of light speed where the isp flipped and the shield was deployed for the 5.83 year long coast then the shield was retrieved and the laser sail deployed for 0.46 year long deceleration at 1.5 g to earth orbit there were some technical issues with the isv that marred its otherwise realistic design due to their extreme power the waste heats from the mata antimatter engines may have been too much for the radiators to handle the exhaust plumes would have been extremely hot and though they were angled away from the ship the thermal protection that was on board was likely not sufficient the laser system would have been just as obscenely powerful it's likely that it would have output several hundred petawatts of beamed power for comparison the total amount of sunlight hitting the entirety of the earth's surface is only 174 petawatts with laser technology this advanced why not also use it for the pandora side of the journey a relatively minor issue was the debris shield not being available during the acceleration and deceleration phases this left the isv vulnerable for 13 of its travel time despite that the design remains one of if not the most realistic fictional spacecraft in popular science fiction representing the pinnacle of human technology the isv venture star's incredible acceleration and efficiency made the interstellar transport of unobtainium economical this single-minded approach to cargo transport while certainly an appropriate optimization for interstellar craft came at a cost for the people it transported this attention to detail demonstrates more facets of the overall theme of colonialism and rampant exploitation present in the film if you enjoyed this video please leave a like and consider subscribing for more thanks

Channel: hoojiwana

Views: 308,066

Keywords: hoojiwana, sci fi, science fiction, james cameron, james cameron's avatar, avatar, starship, spaceship, interstellar starship, hard sci fi, hard science fiction, isv venture star, venture star, venture star avatar, isv venture star analysis, venture star analysis, isv venture star review, venture star review, isv venture star breakdown, venture star breakdown

Id: afmNAKf4Vlc

Length: 7min 51sec (471 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 02 2020