"It's all about the plasma"

[Ikarrus]

Someone actually did an analysis for a hypothetical chemical makeup of plasma.

Long ago, hopefully not lost.

[DemonFiren]

Rumour has it started as a simulation of pure carbon as gas.
Hence why air alarms display "carbon molecules" (or used to?)

[allura]

it comes from Centration, the star the SS13 orbits.

[Cipher3]

Someone actually did an analysis for a hypothetical chemical makeup of plasma.

Long ago, hopefully not lost.

It was on this forum, so theoretically it exists still.

[Ikarrus]

Found it.

https://tgstation13.org/phpBB/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=547

[Juninho77]

Found it.

https://tgstation13.org/phpBB/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=547

No way that shit would ever be mineralized. Alcohols (his suggestion) are organic compounds. We're in space, specifically to mine plasma, so it is reasonable to argue that plasma is inorganic. Even more so when you consider plasteel. If it were an organic compound, we'd just get a bunch of plants to mass produce it, like we do with... Ethanol.

Still, I find it somewhat childish that a civilization that can generate and control black holes to make use of their Hawking Radiation needs to go to an asteroid for plasma. Unless, of course, plasma is not being used for power.

[dezzmont]

Plasma is used to collect that radiation somehow. Plasma also has some miraculous medical properties that seem to involve stabilizing the body against heat or cold, stopping tissue damage, or using both to regenerate the body.

[Comrade Leo]

Found it.

https://tgstation13.org/phpBB/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=547

No way that shit would ever be mineralized. Alcohols (his suggestion) are organic compounds. We're in space, specifically to mine plasma, so it is reasonable to argue that plasma is inorganic. Even more so when you consider plasteel. If it were an organic compound, we'd just get a bunch of plants to mass produce it, like we do with... Ethanol.

Still, I find it somewhat childish that a civilization that can generate and control black holes to make use of their Hawking Radiation needs to go to an asteroid for plasma. Unless, of course, plasma is not being used for power.

If I understand the engine somewhat correctly, it's a micro-singularity (it doesn't have it's own mass and needs mass to keep stable), fed by shooting particles - I wouldn't say it was a true blackhole in the sense of "collapsed star", and controlling it wouldn't take nearly as much energy, in comparison to a regular blackhole the energy required would be insignificant to mention. Although undoubtedly enough to power the station.

As for plasma it's not as far fetched as it sounds, tritium is the result of nuclear fusion, and as far as I know there is no organic method of tritium production. This means that plasma would have been formed in a former star - as it's mined from asteroids it can be assumed then that it's debris left over from a novae - I'd also go as far to say that the host star collapsed into a white dwarf and the remnants is what is mined OR the host star formed in a particularly mass heavy nebula, as space is black round the station and empty (as far as gas/dust particles are concerned), then it can be assumed that's after fusion reaction has kicked in on the host star. I'd also say it happened fairly recently considering the odds of being smashed to pieces by meteors, an event that occurs fairly frequently, meaning the system is still young and planets are still forming/early formed.

I'd refute the author's claim in his plasma thread that a gas giant could form tritium compound like plasma, or contain any sizable amount, as gas giants are mainly composed (you guessed it) gas - hydrogen/helium with trace metals. You need the intense pressures and fusion reactions of a star to produce elements heavier than hydrogen. It would also make sense to mine abundant sources of plasma rather than recreating it, as fusion is energy intense, and when you have freely compacted plasma that will 'melt' with ease and release energy without much effort, it becomes a no brainer. Pretty much in the same way as various fossil fuels are able to be made nowadays, but it's far more cost effective just to drill it from the ground.

tl;dr I can into autist too.

[Drynwyn]

Plasma is made of magic and unicorn farts.

[Kraso]

we're in a station where you can be cloned with just a fragment of your DNA or your blood using a floppy and you guys are complaining about plasma not being realistic

[Juninho77]

If I understand the engine somewhat correctly, it's a micro-singularity (it doesn't have it's own mass and needs mass to keep stable), fed by shooting particles - I wouldn't say it was a true blackhole in the sense of "collapsed star", and controlling it wouldn't take nearly as much energy, in comparison to a regular blackhole the energy required would be insignificant to mention. Although undoubtedly enough to power the station..

Of all your points, there are two that bugged me. First, that a micro-singularity doesn't have mass. It needs to have mass to be a singularity, which in our context a point of infinite density. True, it loses energy (and thus mass) through Hawking Radiation, and it needs mass to be kept stable, but it does have its own mass.

The point about it being hard to control is not the amount of energy it requires, but how to control it. As far as I know, we can't quite control a black hole by placing a barrier around it: the barrier would just be swallowed.

[allura]

the star didnt collapse.
ss13 orbits a star named Centration.

[Ricotez]

Centration might be a spiritual successor to SS13, but the two games do not take place in the same canon. According to fluff, you can only find plasma in systems without a star, but that doesn't explain why the station has solar panels.

Anyway, plasma has a lot of very unique properties. First off, it generates an electrical current when exposed to radiation (although this breaks down the plasma itself). You can find it in certain species of slimes, and the local brand of xenomorph uses it in its metabolism. It can be smelted with iron to create an incredibly powerful alloy called plasteel, but it can also be combined with certain chemicals as a catalyst to create incredibly potent medicine. You can reforge its crystalline structure to create bluespace crystals. Finally, it burns exceptionally well, so it is a very potent source of conventional bombs.

Plasma is just our kind of unobtainium. Rather than look at the reasons why it has the properties it does, it's a better approach to assume those properties are valid and look at how they would affect the development of technologies at Nanotrasen and the universe it exists in.

[Comrade Leo]

Go away you non-autist. We don't want your kind round here, normy.

[DemonFiren]

Centration is a joke, even for a scam.

[allura]

straight from exadv1's original backstory he wrote back in 2003
"Then one day Control and Command Station #13 in Sector 95-40A had found something around Tetran (a blue star). This something is hwta was called (by a sorta random name generator) Centration. "

[Ricotez]

straight from exadv1's original backstory he wrote back in 2003
"Then one day Control and Command Station #13 in Sector 95-40A had found something around Tetran (a blue star). This something is hwta was called (by a sorta random name generator) Centration. "

Well how was I supposed to know that, I got my first computer in 2003 and it didn't even have internet.