1g Ships and Size:7 worlds...
- Thread starter infojunky
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"She Don't Use Jelly" - Flaming Lips (for that '90s-Alternative "perky grunge" thing you probably weren't expecting to deal with right now).
Baroun Tardis
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I just had this mental image of a 1000 ton "tugboat" that makes 1.5G
It goes to orbit, loads 800 tons of Type-A's and such, then back to the surface....and then takes them back to orbit
It goes to orbit, loads 800 tons of Type-A's and such, then back to the surface....and then takes them back to orbit
It could work. As I've noted upthread, as a ship captain, I'd really rather not rely on anyone else to get back out of a gravity well. Maybe in the Imperial Core, but not out on the frontiers.
Spinward Flow
SOC-14 5K
Strike that. Reverse it.
Out in the frontiers is where a single non-starship operator could enjoy a virtual MONOPOLY on such orbital transfer services to low end 200-400 ton merchant starships with 1G drives needing to land and launch on Size: 8+ worlds out on the fringes. Better yet, you would only need 2G maneuver drives so that surface to orbit trips would only take minutes (loading and unloading would actually take longer than the transit!).
Build a non-starship that can be easily supported by the local in-system technological base ... or a starship that can rotate to a nearby star system every year for overhauls and maintenance ... and you're basically set.
Baroun Tardis
SOC-12
Maybe a thing like drop tanks, but with G-Drives?
Or .... T5 says G-Drives run on built in reactors. Maybe a thing that bolts into the cargo bay?
T5 says a A-Gdrive-12-Ult is 2.25 tons and Mcr1.13. That'd give a Type-A an extra 1G of thrust out to 10D
Drives have to go in the drive bay. Otherwise, nice idea there.
Baroun Tardis
SOC-12
Isn't that a CT thing? Haven't seen any corresponsing rule in T5... I might have missed it, but...
Although from a practical point of view, I can see that if the cargo bay isn't braced, etc...
Maybe a thing like the old JATO rockets they'd strap on planes?
Baroun Tardis
SOC-12
This just crossed my mind....
You land you Type-A, no lifters, landing legs with pads, no wheels. It's a 1G world so you can descend as slow as you want, but can't go up. Soft landing isn't an issue.
Once you're landed... you're stuck, which is the whole point of this thread.
But... on an 0.9G or less world, there's gotta be times when there's ships that have engine problems and need to be moved off the landing pad to be worked on?
How do they do that?
A crane would be awkward.
A really, really big forklift? That seems... hard to envision.
What do they do?
You land you Type-A, no lifters, landing legs with pads, no wheels. It's a 1G world so you can descend as slow as you want, but can't go up. Soft landing isn't an issue.
Once you're landed... you're stuck, which is the whole point of this thread.
But... on an 0.9G or less world, there's gotta be times when there's ships that have engine problems and need to be moved off the landing pad to be worked on?
How do they do that?
A crane would be awkward.
A really, really big forklift? That seems... hard to envision.
What do they do?
Enoki
SOC-14 1K
I designed a "barge" like that. It was basically a flat rectangle with a driver's cab and some of the machinery in an aerodynamically shaped cabover design at one end. You could load 12 standard shipping containers on it stacked two high. Stack 'em on, clamp 'em down, and you're good to go. No landing gear. It was designed to land on a reasonably flat surface that would support the weight making unloading and loading a snap.
edit: Thunderbirds Elevator Car
Yes, kinda. But then again this I started this thread looking for early CT comment from Marc.
Which a leader in a though chain requiring more than just streamlining to land on many worlds.
Condottiere
SOC-14 5K
In Mongoose One, the rules allowed you to overclock the manoeuvre drive, if only for a turn, relatively safely, so that solved the issue for monomanoevre drives.
In Mongoose Two, this became rather chancy, so not worth trying it, especially midflight.
There might be some obscure option in the Classic books where you could pull that off.
In Mongoose Two, this became rather chancy, so not worth trying it, especially midflight.
There might be some obscure option in the Classic books where you could pull that off.
MT did that before MgT.... And MT is more apt to this thread than Mongoose... In that MT is just "Advanced Classic Traveller"..
AnotherDilbert
SOC-14 1K
Why would we need to land?
Just ride a shuttle?
Just ride a shuttle?
Condottiere
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We already know that.
There may be reasons to land dirtside, with spacecraft that you wouldn't normally consider doing so.
There may be reasons to land dirtside, with spacecraft that you wouldn't normally consider doing so.
mike wightman
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In the OTU the most common ACS on the Spinward Main is the type A free trader. Don't you think there would be some mention that every world size 7 or above prevents a type A from landing?
The fact that the type A can operate anywhere on the main and not worry about world size indicates to me that streamlined ships fly, it is really that simple.
The fact that the type A can operate anywhere on the main and not worry about world size indicates to me that streamlined ships fly, it is really that simple.
AnotherDilbert
SOC-14 1K
Does it specifically say either way? No.
Why would there be shuttles commonly available, if all common ships in the LBB are either streamlined or carries their own smallcraft? There must be some common ships that can't land to pay for the shuttles?
Can they fly in any atmosphere, or lack thereof? Say a freakish high-density size 6 world (say surface gravity 1.1) with atmo 1 (Trace)?
The common merchantmen in the LBBs can only safely operate from type A and B starports (refined fuel). Is that problem specifically discussed in the LBBs? Are merchantmen expected to misjump every year or two?
There is something special about landing on worlds size 8 or bigger (presumably ≥1 G surface gravity):
Perhaps this is what Infojunky was thinking about in the OP?
Though I struggle to see why a 6 G Ship's Boat would have a problem with a 1 G surface gravity? Perhaps it was intended to be about the 1 G Lifeboat?
Superficial answer: probably, since that's what you're likely riding in, if it's an emergency.
Deeper answer: maybe not, since it's likely about DRAMA! and it's up to the referee to decide what constitutes an "emergency landing". Might even include trying to land after a "small craft drives" hit (one hit destroys that component) as a way to provide a chance of survival even when it shouldn't be possible under the rules as written.
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