ATV-Dropcraft

[Patron Zero]

As always, hopeful this is in the correct area, that said;

I've seen some very clever designs for dropships and landing craft in films as well as in various TUs, the Badger* to name one in particular.

What has often crossed my thoughts was why not one hybrid vehicle to fulfill both requirements of landing craft and planetside conveyance ?

Yes, I do know about g-carriers and similar craft, what I am envisioning is something larger (and likely bulkier) than a typical non-military grade ATV but more compact than a dedicated dropship. 'Conventional' m-drives or their like supplying the landing-launch abilities yet still the craft moves about dirtside on wheels much as a conventional heavy truck, emphasis in heavy.

In my interpretation of this concept, the vehicle would not be using the m-drives to VTOL itself about whenever the mood struck, more so the obvious limitation of available onboard fuel tankage restriction such abuses.

Again, to every (general) rule, an exception exists; in the case having the vehicle equipped with a fuel processor would keep the gas gauge out of the red given a source of water or other fuels is available.

Finally, I see said hybrid vehicle having been developed and deployed initially for the Scouts Service or the Imperial Marines, for operations-missions where self-reliance and 'living off the land' can be taken almost literally.




* http://www.travellerrpg.com/CotI/Discuss/showthread.php?t=17527

 

[veltyen]

I've had similar thoughts.

Mainly cost based however, a grav drive is better in every way over wheels, except for price[1].

So you have a vehicle that can do say 80 kmph on its wheels, but only 10 kmph on the grav drive. Yes, you can ford rivers by floating over, and you can scale excarpments by drifting to the top, but both are so much slower then just tooling around on your wheels. At a pinch you can even reach space - though it will take an extreme length of time.

[1] Non-canonically I also have grav drives being exceedingly easy to spot compared to physical propellment. This is more a military concern, if you don't need to hide you don't care.

 

[Patron Zero]

Plug & Play

The other extreme to this was the lander-ATV hybrid being part of a modular-composite starship, the main hull, jump drives and such being left parked in a stable orbit while the vehicle plodded about dirtside.

Maybe I was too imprinted by the Zero-X space vehicle from the classic Gerry Anderson feature, Thunderbirds Are Go !


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thunderbirds_Are_Go

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zero-X

 

[sandmanninja]

Sounds like the Nostromo from Alien, too. It detached the rear section which had the star drive (I guess they had a star drive section) and cargo/refinery. A 100-ton ship that has the manuever drive section for a 10,000-ton ship... Can you say 0 to 60 in 1 second!?

 

[Icosahedron]

I think the first 'modular' ship was Fireball XL5. (Showing my age, there).

IMTU, any landing craft ought to be useable as an ATV. My M-drives incorporate grav units as standard, so a spacecraft is automatically a grav vehicle. There would be little point in equipping it with wheels or tracks; it wouldn't even save any money.

 

[samuelvss]

There was also, in one of the early JTAS, or maybe High Passage, a "Deep V," which was a wheeled ATV with just enough grav to give it a "boost" when floating in water, or stuck on land.

It was cheap, since it was only using grav units for about 10% of the vehicle's weight in thrust.

The basic justification for an ATV has to be cost, with "stealth" being a possible second.