[gurps] Heinlein Battlesuits

[hal at buffnet.net]

> Hal wrote:
>> Too bad we don't know the gravity level of the world in which a jump
>> can last 15 seconds.  If we knew that, how difficult would it be to
>> determine how fast the suit went up, and how fast gravity would
>> overcome that initial velocity, and then bring the suit back to the
>> surface?
>
> Unless that was a jet-assisted hop, or there were hardwired altitude
> governors, or whatever.
>
> Onno

Even jump assisted, we can get an idea of what it takes to launch one's
self into a LONG hang time jump.  If the speed of a battlesuit already
allows the user to launch itself into the air for a 15 second "jump"
duration, then we can ignore that aspect for an actual battle suit.  I
recall trying to build a battlesuit using what amounted to TL 8 maybe TL 9
technology since it wasn't too far from our current technology.  As has
been noted however, many sci-fi writers will write what looks good without
paying attention to what SJGames has set up for their tech level scheme. 
Then again?  Since Heinlein predates SJGames, perhaps we should have
worked it into our rules instead ;)

(as usual, tongue in cheek observations...)

Assuming an earth normal gravity, what would the initial launch velocity
have to be, in order for an object to leap into the air, and take 15
seconds to come back to earth?