Dying Star in Spacedock

Dying Star in Spacedock


This is a Spacedock variant of the Dying Star insert box in STAR TREK “TOS” RPG Core book page 184.

This allows the use of the dying star into an adventure.

The local star much like our own star of “Sol” the yellow star swells into a cooler Red Giant that can be flown through. I gave the stars expansion of 1d6 kilometer per minute and over two and a half up to fifteen and half years swells out to five hundred million kilometers where the plasma is thinner and allows a ship to fly through. See my notes on stars for other details it is posted here… http://forum.trek-rpg.net/showthread...-not-starships

During the expansion the planets are absorbed and plasma sears and destroys the planet within days. A ship caught in the expanding shell of the wave immediately gets 2d6+4 x 200 damage each round and Metaphasic shields do little to assist the ship in this expansion only slows it somewhat.

This is where a Federation Oberth-class Science Vessels such as the U.S.S. Tsiolkovsky a Modified Oberth-class Solar Studies Science Ship seen in the Next Generation “The Naked Now” episode will remain on station studying the expansion. A mission to rescue the crew and the ship if possible is a mission that any ship that can carry one hundred passengers can undertake.

I question why Metaphasic shielding (as per space dock metaphasic shields allow an equipped vessel to safely spend time in a stars corona)would be ineffective? The corona temp of Sol is estimated to be 1,000,000 kelvin, where as the estimated temp of the surface (and the outer envelop of a red giant is significantly lower temp then the corona) of a Red Giant is 5,000kelvin. From what I understand as the star expands (turning into a red giant) the surface temp reduces. There is no mention of increased radiation either.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corona
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_giant

This is in connection to previous notes where all of this is either addressed or I let the players work out for themselves. I leave some of the creation to the players and then I play it fast and loose.

For a straight rescue mission, any ship with heavy shields can help with that. Just drop power from weapons, boost the shields as far as possible, and keep the warp engines on stand by (5 pts of power for warp 1). Thanks to life support being able to support twice as many people for each additional point of power put in, a supply of oxygen will be no problem.

Now what could be interesting is if the Oberth is gathering scientific data, and it has to be transferred to another vessel with equal or better science capabilities. Engineering might be called to get all the computer components out of storage to make a basic data core to copy the information onto. Medical might be setting up cots and similar stuff in a cargo bay for the rescuees to sleep on and checking the life support systems to make sure the ship can handle the extra people (less stress for larger vessels, but less likely to have a larger vessel). Operations will be coordinating emptying the cargo bay(s), keeping problems from developing, while the science department will be keeping an eye on the star.

Or instead of an Oberth (which should have been able to go to warp as soon as the star started expanding), go with a planet-side or space station base. It cannot escape, and the star's expansion is early. Their shields are protecting them but steadily failing, and they can't live without them.

So what's actually causing the star's rapid expansion in this case?

What little I understand of stellar dynamic is that when a star like our own star gets so old that it had burned most of its fuel and begins too cool a little and then suddenly and rapidly expands. This is millions of years away for us.

However I often wonder with the changes in the star if we are not seeing some of the coming attractions.

As a kid I remember the sun looking more yellow and now it looks almost white to me.

as per wiki
"Red giants are stars that have exhausted the supply of hydrogen in their cores and switched to thermonuclear fusion of hydrogen in a shell surrounding the core. They have radii tens to hundreds of times larger than that of the Sun. However, their outer envelope is lower in temperature, giving them a reddish-orange hue. Despite the lower energy density of their envelope, red giants are many times more luminous than the Sun because of their great size. Red-giant-branch stars have luminosities about a hundred to several hundred times that of the Sun (L☉), spectral types of K or M, have surface temperatures of 3,000–4,000 K, and radii about 20–100 times the Sun (Sol). Stars on the horizontal branch are hotter, whereas asymptotic-giant-branch stars are around ten times more luminous, but both these types are less common than those of the red-giant branch."

Sol is millions, if not billions of years off this happening, I doubt humanity as a species will be around to witness this occurrence, plus it would not be good for Earth as the planet would be consumed by Sol.

I know what a red giant is, guys. I'm asking why this particular star in this particular scenario has suddenly expanded to encompass the orbit of this starship/station/moon you're trying to rescue.

Normally a ship using just thrusters should be able to keep a head of the expanding outer shell but if the ship has a glitch the ship needs help. Then throw in the water silly disease of The TOS Naked ?Time? and the TNG ?Naked Now? it throws a monkey wrench into the mix. That is the scenario that we were using and this solar expansion can be used may ways with evacuation of a colony of lost humans or aliens or the site of a battle or as I just thought up find something that is about to be destroyed that is needed.