Alternate Uses For Drop Tanks?

[Jeff M. Hopper]

Seeing as how they are designed to be used under thrust, does it seem feasible to have a non-starship designed to use drop tanks when acting as a refueling tanker and then store them in the hanger when the non-starship is used in another role?

 

[Spinward Scout]

Would you need to move them from the hull? The only time I think it would be necessary to remove them on a non-starship would be during atmospheric entry (or maybe skimming). I've been wondering if you could count them as armor during space combat.

 

[Timerover51]

Would you need to move them from the hull? The only time I think it would be necessary to remove them on a non-starship would be during atmospheric entry (or maybe skimming). I've been wondering if you could count them as armor during space combat.

Why would you not count them? They would absorb damage that would otherwise impact the hull.

 

[Condottiere]

I plan on using them as freight containers.

 

[Jeff M. Hopper]

Would you need to move them from the hull? The only time I think it would be necessary to remove them on a non-starship would be during atmospheric entry (or maybe skimming). I've been wondering if you could count them as armor during space combat.

Well, if you had two pair of drop tanks, your non-starship could launch and conduct wilderness refueling to fill them (possibly refining the fuel en route) before dropping them off at the mothership to empty and use the opposite of the tank pair to conduct operations again. Every time the non-starship comes back, it swaps drop tanks.

Keeping the explosive bolts for emergancy removal of the tanks during a combat encounter seems prudent.

Of course, if I was using the Mongoose High Guard version, I could just pay for fueling connections on the mothership for the drop tanks and they become instantly useable fuel for that ship as well.

 

[robject]

A clever use of droptanks. I like that.

I'd have a tiny maneuver module attached to each tank, turning them into barges that can fly themselves back to a central location (orbital port, fuel depot, xboat station, whatever). So as the player prospects ice from the planetoid belts, he fills up a tank and sends it home.

Assuming of course safe and uneventful remote travel.

 

[esampson]

Seeing as how they are designed to be used under thrust, does it seem feasible to have a non-starship designed to use drop tanks when acting as a refueling tanker and then store them in the hanger when the non-starship is used in another role?

Are you asking for ideas for how an empty drop tank could be used (such as transporting water) or are you asking for ideas about handling tanks when they aren't in use (such as putting them in a hangar)?

 

[Jeff M. Hopper]

Are you asking for ideas for how an empty drop tank could be used (such as transporting water) or are you asking for ideas about handling tanks when they aren't in use (such as putting them in a hangar)?

I'm asking if this idea sems feasible.

 

[pendragonman]

Cable them together as a tank farm for an orbital refueling point.

 

[Spinward Scout]

Cable them together as a tank farm for an orbital refueling point.

NASA had a similar idea for the Space Shuttle tanks - tie them together and use them to make a space station.

 

[Jeff M. Hopper]

Cable them together as a tank farm for an orbital refueling point.

NASA had a similar idea for the Space Shuttle tanks - tie them together and use them to make a space station.

I was thinking of using that as the basis for Imperial Deep Bases that scouts would operate from.

 

[savage]

The shuttle tanks were not ideal for a space station. They contained chemicals that required removal and construction would not have been straightforward or they would have been considered in the ISS construction.

Drop tanks are in the same boat. Don't live in them. However, Hydrogen requires a very tight tank construction. They should be able to hold about anything but probably purpose built, as we do today with semi trailers.

 

[esampson]

Seeing as how they are designed to be used under thrust, does it seem feasible to have a non-starship designed to use drop tanks when acting as a refueling tanker and then store them in the hanger when the non-starship is used in another role?

To answer the original question asked, yes, I would certainly see that as feasible. I could also see non-starships using drop tanks in order to extend their duration so that they wouldn't need to refuel as often. This would most likely take the form of non-starship lab ships or prospecting ships that fly out to a location, spend months 'on post', and then fly back to the main world.

System defense boats might do something similar with flying to a gas giant or other place of concealment and remaining for several months before returning. In the case of SDBs they would probably even drop the tanks if they were called into duty so as to regain their full acceleration.

As for straight refueling duty I could see that done in multiple ways. I could see drop tanks that are mounted and dismounted (allowing an older vessel to be refitted to a new multi-role life such as fuel tanker/cargo hauler), large 'pods' with no engines of their own that are hauled about (allowing a similar role as above but even cheaper with the drawback that it cannot enter an atmosphere or land in a gravity well of any significance while towing) or ships which are built from scratch with modular sections allowing them to fulfill multiple roles including passenger transports similar to the modular cutter.

In fact this gives me a couple of ideas for retired Scout variants where the jump drive is stripped out and a larger maneuver drive is installed.

 

[Ref00000]

not to stir it up, but...

Why would you assume a 'drop tank' designed to handle raw, liquid hydrogen would be an empty alloy tube, in any way suitable for any cargo other than, perhaps another bulk gas, liquified?
I'm not saying it's silly, or I haven't allowed similar hacks in MTU, but it's got to be more than a fancy jerry can, doesn't it?
wouldn't a cargo-pod made to fit a standard drop-tank clamp be an available item, for that matter?