Planetary Core Tap

A Planetary Core Tap is a technology enabling the production of massive amounts of energy using geothermal technology.

• Working artifact versions of this technology have been put into operation. Unfortunately, these are far too massive to move intact to locations better suited for research, even using the Third Imperium's largest starships.

Description (Specifications)

Core Taps bore deep into volcanically active planets using the planet's electromagnetically active core to generate power.

Most geothermal energy generators then use differentials from the surface temperature to the volcanically active core temperature. Other use electromagnetic properties or other energy sources than can be harnessed to create usable energy.

Image Repository

1. TBD

What is Geothermal Energy?

Geothermal power is power generated by geothermal energy, which is to say power generated by harnessing a planet's volcanic reactions. Technologies in use include dry steam power stations, flash steam power stations and binary cycle power stations among others. Geothermal power is considered to be a sustainable, renewable source of energy because the heat extraction is small compared with most planet's total heat content.

Low technology level versions of these mostly rely on pre-existing fissures that give access to the hot interior of a world. A Planetary Core Tap is essentially the same, just with an artificially drilled well, the drilling of which requires capabilities not available even at TL-15. The efficiency of conversion of heat to power also increases with higher technology levels.

History & Background (Dossier)

It requires advanced technologies well in advance of the cutting TL-15 technologies mastered by Charted Space. Some estimate that practical versions of the technology will be developed by TL:16-18. Earlier versions of the technology have been used since as early as the late TL:1-3 epoch.

Geothermal electric stations were almost exclusively built where high-temperature geothermal resources are available near the surface in the TL:7-9 tech epoch. The development of viable binary cycle power plants and improvements in drilling and extraction technology allows enhanced geothermal systems over a much greater geographical range in the TL:10-12 tech epoch. The earlier planetary are taps are perfected and made available by the TL:13-15 tech epoch, but they can't even come close to matching the much superior mastery of the technology exhibited by surviving Ancient artifacts of the type.

Expected Geothermal Energy Development Sequence

MACRO LEVEL:

• Geothermal Steam Power Generator → Geothermal Electric Flash Power Station → Geothermal Binary Cycle Reactor → Geothermal Supercritical Fluidic Reactor → Planetary Core Tap

References & Contributors (Sources)

This page uses content from Wikipedia. The original article was at Geothermal_power. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. The text of Wikipedia is available under the Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

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This list of sources was used by the Traveller Wiki Editorial Team and individual contributors to compose this article. Copyrighted material is used under license from Far Future Enterprises or by permission of the author. The page history lists all of the contributions.

• Marc Miller. Shadows/Annic Nova (Game Designers Workshop, 1980), TBD. (Classic Traveller Double Adventure 1)
• Dragon Magazine CANARD: A Traveller Adventure by Roberto Camino November 1980 Vol. 5, No. 5
• Marc Miller. T5 Core Rules (Far Future Enterprises, 2013), TBD.
• Traveller Wiki Editorial Team
• Author & Contributor: Lord (Marquis) and Master of Sophontology Maksim-Smelchak of the Ministry of Science