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ATVs As Lifeboats

That doesn't change that it is very unlikely to have heavy radiation shielding. This would require either a substancial amount of dense material like lead or a very large volume (as much as half a meter or more) of lighter material like plastic. Either way, it seems unlikely to included except in exceptional circumstances.

The other problem I could see is if the power plant won't work in a vacuum at near absolute zero. If this is the case you won't have too long until you freeze.
 
You might need rad shielding (a relatively thin layer of BSD?) if you were travelling on a vacuum world in an inner orbit zone. Exactly where an ATV can be used isn't specified (unless by description in canon adventures?) so it's probably down to the Ref to decide, but if your 'standard' ATV could be driven on both Mercury and Pluto, I imagine if could survive reasonably well in space (thrust aside).
 
Wow, really encouraging to see the thread cover several facets I had not considered, my appreciation for all the input.

That said, for sake of discussion let's assume the ATV has limited endurance in a hard space environment and outfitted with the minimal of RCS-maneuvering (chemical motors or gravitics).

What I care to ask is how might one sort out writing up a re-entry 'cradle' that said ATV could survive the event with a greater chance of a positive outcome ?

Simply looking at the ATV being lashed onto-clamped onto a semi-aerodynamic platform (disc-shaped perhaps ?), low-tech but reliable protection from an ablative heat shield than something other and Stone-Age parachutes or para-foils for 'controlled' descent.

Said platform could even be integrated into the ship's outer hull somewhat like cargo doors with explosive release fittings, mind not likely to be a standard feature on mainstream starships other than Scout-Couriers or exploratory vessels.

I could see that 'package' appealing to surveyors and prospectors, the ATV serving as an upgraded buggy or mule-type vehicle perhaps capable of being an on-site 'shack' as need-be.


Again, my thanks to all those who gave another of my little ideas a most polite consideration !
 
Patron Zero said:
Thanks everyone for the feedback, this concept has been mulled over in my head for sometime and might see submission to one of the online Traveller periodicals if interest warrants.
Click to expand...

Go for it. You might want to think up an explanation for how it'll get from orbit on down, though. ;)
 
Patron Zero said:
...let's assume the ATV ...outfitted with the minimal of RCS-maneuvering (chemical motors or gravitics).
Click to expand...

Might be reasonable as an add on package. Sort of a jump boost for clearing ditches or climbing steep slopes. It'd be an add on imo as it's not described in the original package.

Patron Zero said:
What I care to ask is how might one sort out writing up a re-entry 'cradle' that said ATV could survive the event with a greater chance of a positive outcome ?
Click to expand...

Perfectly sound bit of design and idea. An updated and extreme altitude version of cargo plane drop skids used today. Lower tech would be as you say, ablative and parachutes. Higher tech would be limited reentry thrusters and/or grav to land. Short duration, disposable, single use.
 
If the vehicle has grav propulsion it won't need ablative heat shields, it can just float down slowly.

If it doesn't have grav power, maybe somebody could jury-rig a grav platform using the grav floorplates from the stricken ship...
 
In the LBB Double Adventure 2: Across the Bright Face, the characters spend days schlepping their ATV across the blasted daylight face of a vacuum world in orbit around an AIII (giant) star, apparently with no ill effects... except for the inevitable laser, shotgun, or flare gun(!) wounds. As Dinom (the world in question) is a shrimpy little ball of rock (about 1,000km in diameter, or about the size of Ceres), it's very unlikely to have a protective geomagnetic field of its own, so it's really up to the ATV and/or vacc suits to provide that.

However, the vehicle in question is specifically described as a 'vacuum-oriented variant of the more common wheeled ATV'.

So I guess the most correct answer to the OP's question is 'yes, but...', as in 'yes, you can drift around in space in an ATV for a time, but only if you happen to own the right kind of ATV. And even then, I'd want to make sure to have a full health checkup before attempting to, say, beget any children after that experience.
 
I guess the question is are you trying to make a "cheaper" re-entry vehicle? Because, really, the primary benefit of an ATV over a pressurized grav vehicle (i.e. a small ships boat, air raft, pinnace, etc.) is cost. There are several vehicles that can fit the ATV role of exploration, as well as a life boat, but they're just more expensive. About the only thing you may not be able to do well with such a vehicle over an ATV is mount a plow blade to the front of it to make an impromptu bulldozer.
 
[QUOTE I guess the question is are you trying to make a "cheaper" re-entry vehicle? [/QUOTE]

Actually I'm not, what I had in mind was to illustrate players-characters using what was on-hand during an emergency, in this instance it was the ATV aboard a starship as an improvised lifeboat. From that 'seed' the thought was 'would that work ?' and wanted some other opinions about the concept.

I can't see ATVs replacing a ship's boat or launch for which such are utilized but in a pinch an ATV might just be a survival option if no other means-method are available.
 
A futuristic ATV designed for no-Atmo/low G should serve quite well. Classic Traveller, at least, defined usage on 'frontier and airless worlds'.

It would be designed to maintain livable internal atmo - pressure, temperature, recirc-gases - in extremes essentially equivalent to outer space, including radiation exposure.

Low-G operations would likely provide at least some limited form of thrust not reliant on friction, though that would not necessarily be the case. Characters may have to get more creative if the ATV needs to be moved in space.
 
One of the JTAS magazines has a grav assisted ATV. The grav unit is not enough for flight but is used to decrease the ATVs weight hence increasing its power to weight ratio so it can go faster. Problem noted that it becomes unstable at high speeds due to loss of contact forces on the road :)

I can see an new extreme sport. ATV re-entry using a small rocket booster to break orbit and a big steel and foam re-entry shield. There is already mention of a similar club for re-entries using the emergency re-entry kits mentioned in JTAS and others.
 
Patron Zero said:
I guess the question is are you trying to make a "cheaper" re-entry vehicle?
Click to expand...

Actually I'm not, what I had in mind was to illustrate players-characters using what was on-hand during an emergency, in this instance it was the ATV aboard a starship as an improvised lifeboat. From that 'seed' the thought was 'would that work ?' and wanted some other opinions about the concept.

I can't see ATVs replacing a ship's boat or launch for which such are utilized but in a pinch an ATV might just be a survival option if no other means-method are available.
Click to expand...

I guess my point was I saw the ATV getting things added to it that frankly just didn't make any sense for an Off the Shelf ATV to have. As a radiation shielded, designed for vacuum vehicle, the ATV I think would work fine as emergency shelter. I can see it used as a safe haven on a ship that perhaps still has an airplant running that could feed the ATV, but had lost structural integrity and would have remained in vacuum otherwise.

I can see characters hopping in to one, and "driving it out of the hold" in a last desperate measure to save the crew, assuming that someone else would be coming "pretty soon now", with "pretty soon" being less than the air reserves on the ATV or the time it would take for its badly established orbit to decay, if it happened to eject in orbit.

I mean, that's certainly movie material, rushing in to the ATV, Johnson fires it up while everyone gets settled, Frank is at the door control and hits the button to open them while rushing to the ATV (with all the sirens, klaxons, and flashing lights warning about "it's a bad idea to open this door in space"). The door starts to open, air starts to rush out, Frank is grabbing hold of the door rail to the airlock, sliding in and hitting the close button with minor vacuum damage, while meanwhile Johnson mashes the accelerator, the big lurching beast breaking its moorings, a bit of wheel spin, and then pushing boxes of supplies, along with that rare artifact they didn't have time to recover, out of the way, launching them all in to the void...

Meanwhile, there's that thing on the ships power plant that's tic tic ticing away...

After that, though, their options are pretty much Gin Rummy and watching the air meter slowly go down.

Kind of a cross between "Galileo 7" and "Alien".
 
In the re-entry add-on, and grav add-on vein, how about an aerodynamic, ablative disk-wing-thing that has attaches an ATV and a standard, open Air/Raft. The combination of the wing, grav, aero braking and possibly some low tech chutes could leveredge both the temporary vacuum protection and carrying capacity of the ATV and the grav of the Air/Raft. Once down, the party would have the shelter of the ATV and the mobility of the Air/Raft. I'm thinking the whole thing, disassembled, would fit in a 4 dton container. The assembly would take a while, possibly requiring a preliminary EVA depending on the cargo space available.
 
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