Is there any artistic depiction of sandcasters in use?

[Murphy]

I'm trying to make an artistic "schematic" for a ship where there are empty boxes overlaid upon a starship image. The players would stick cards on the boxes, to "fit" the respective slots with equipment.

But, I want to make it look nice. I could use some of the publicly avaliable icons on the internet but I'm aiming for something with slightly more class.

Missiles, fuel, staterooms and hangar are easy, but I'm kinda stumped on sandcasters. Suggestions?

 

[atpollard]

Probably similar to a mortar ... but I don't remember any Traveller Sandcaster artwork off-hand.

 

[Supplement Four]

Pictures? Have we ever figured out how the doggone things work?

I've heard that a cannister of sand is fired after the computer computes the incoming trajectory of the laser beam.

Then, I've heard, the sand is fired, spreads, and then the sand clouds are magnetically maneuvered to intercept incoming laser fire.

I think I've heard at least two more ways that sandcasters may work--one being that the cannister is really a missile fired at the incoming laser beam that explodes like flak just before impact, creating a wall of sand cloud that the laser beam must travel through.

What throws a lot of people off is the CT notion that a sand cloud, once fired, keeps the same velocity, and the ship can continually hide behind it if it doesn't change course.

I've always thought sandcasters to be an interesting, speculative Traveller subject.

Maybe T5 describes them in better detail.. I'll have to check.

 

[Marchand]

I've heard that a cannister of sand is fired after the computer computes the incoming trajectory of the laser beam.

Then, I've heard, the sand is fired, spreads, and then the sand clouds are magnetically maneuvered to intercept incoming laser fire.

I think I've heard at least two more ways that sandcasters may work--one being that the cannister is really a missile fired at the incoming laser beam that explodes like flak just before impact, creating a wall of sand cloud that the laser beam must travel through

The problem is that because the incoming laser fire is moving at lightspeed, it will already have hit you by the time you detect it. No time to fire sand.

I've rationalised it to myself as either/both of:

1) laser weapons fire a low-power "spotter" beam before the main blast, which can be detected and responded to

2) magnetic fields keep the sand aligned with the ship as a "shield". It would take a better physicist than I am to work out how much power would need to be fed through an electromagnet to keep a given mass of sand accelerating at the same rate as the ship, though. I genuinely don't know if the numbers would be feasible.

 

[aramis]

The problem is that because the incoming laser fire is moving at lightspeed, it will already have hit you by the time you detect it. No time to fire sand.

I've rationalised it to myself as either/both of:

1) laser weapons fire a low-power "spotter" beam before the main blast, which can be detected and responded to

That's canon since TNE came out.

 

[Hemdian]

Picture-wise there's something in GT (I forget where exactly) that showed sand deployed from a nozzle in a turret. It's the only picture I remember seeing of a sandcaster in action ... except sand may not work that way.

The best depiction rules-wise IMHO comes from Power Projection. There a canister is launched to explode nearby. The resultant sand cloud then has the same inertial vector as the firing ship at the time of launch. The firing ship can then choose to stay behind the sand cloud or maneuver around. Because of the speed of lasers, sandcasters were used pre-emptively.

 

[Ulsyus]

Pictures? Have we ever figured out how the doggone things work?

I'd adopted the concept that was described for shields in 2300AD - the sand is held by a simple gravitic field, and when laser fire burns through it the ship systems replace it (fire off more sand)

 

[McPerth]

I've always imagined them as chaff dispensers, just dispersing a cloud of sand (in fact, probably reflecting particles) arround the ship in the direction fired upon.

 

[mike wightman]

Don't forget that in Striker and MT sand casters can be used as super shotguns for antipersonnel/anti-LAV work.

 

[Enoki]

I've always imagined them as chaff dispensers, just dispersing a cloud of sand (in fact, probably reflecting particles) arround the ship in the direction fired upon.

That's my take. It can also be fired ahead of the ship such that as it moves there is sand covering its movement already there before it arrives so there is no need to cast it after being targeted when you can fire ahead of your movement like chaff.

 

[Ulsyus]

The problem is that because the incoming laser fire is moving at lightspeed, it will already have hit you by the time you detect it. No time to fire sand.

That's been the heart of the problem.

That's my take. It can also be fired ahead of the ship such that as it moves there is sand covering its movement already there before it arrives so there is no need to cast it after being targeted when you can fire ahead of your movement like chaff.

But it'd have to be held in place by something as the vessel changes direction, or every direction change would see the need for a new Sand shot.

 

[McPerth]

But it'd have to be held in place by something as the vessel changes direction, or every direction change would see the need for a new Sand shot.

Yes, more sand must be fired as the ship maneuvers.

Remember that in CT LBB2 system (the one that better describes its use from the ones I've read), the sand just forms clouds, that affect both parties and move at constant speed.

 

[Ulsyus]

Forgive me for not looking up the LBB, but did we have to account for sandcaster magazine sizes in CT the way we now to in T5? In the latter you'd want to have either a small (one or two mount) launcher, or a short encounter, or a big magazine. If the ship was making lots of small direction changes to become a harder target, it'd lose the sand cloud wouldn't it?

 

[aramis]

Forgive me for not looking up the LBB, but did we have to account for sandcaster magazine sizes in CT the way we now to in T5? In the latter you'd want to have either a small (one or two mount) launcher, or a short encounter, or a big magazine. If the ship was making lots of small direction changes to become a harder target, it'd lose the sand cloud wouldn't it?

Kind of. Under Bk 2, a sand canister is the same size and has the same storage limits as a missile.