G-Hour

A G-Hour is a Metric that is commonly used by the crew of space and starships to measure velocity change and fuel usage of reaction-drive vessels.

Description (Specifications)

G-Hour is a term in spacecraft operations that is variously used to describe:

1. Spacecraft Velocity Change (ΔV). A unit of measurement of velocity change, equal to a 1.0 g acceleration applied for one hour or 36,000 m/s for an Imperial Standard Acceleration Unit of 10m/s² (or 35,280 m/s employing the Old Terran standard of 9.8 m/s²).
2. Reaction Drive Specific Impulse (ΔV). A measure of the weight or volume of fuel required by a reaction-drive spaceship to produce a 1 G-hour velocity change. Because the drive performance of a reaction-drive depends upon the mass of the ship, which changes as the fuel is used, fuel capacity is listed by the total velocity change produced by burning the entire load of fuel. The "ΔV" fuel load required for a 1.0 G-Hour change or the total G-Hour change of the entire fuel capacity is known in each case as its Specific Impulse, respectively.

History & Background (Dossier)

The term developed since there is no top speed in the void due to Newtonian physics. The top speed in N-space is only limited by lightspeed FTL considerations.

References & Contributors (Sources)

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 Mongoose Publishing or by permission of the author. The page history lists all of the contributions.

• Traveller Wiki Editorial Team
• Author & Contributor: Lord (Marquis) and Master of Sophontology Maksim-Smelchak of the Ministry of Science