Building The Loeskalth Planetoid and Other Gigantic Structures

[robject]

Assuming ship design systems are inadequate for expressing the bewildering size of a planetoid displacing roughly 50 billion tons,

Then I'll try "designing" it using the UWP instead.

A000656-A J1 M1


Starport: Inferring from the text, it built its hundreds of small spaceships and starships, so it would rate a Class A starport.

Size: Planetoids are size zero (0).

Atmosphere: Planetoids have no surface atmosphere (0).

Hydrographics: No surface water (0).

Population: Millions of people (6). Since they were subduing primitive worlds, they didn't need larger numbers. Plus, 50 billion tons may be a huge ship, but the volume only goes so far.

Government: Inferring from the text, "warriors and political leaders" would likely establish either a strong government, or a coalition. I'll assume a coalition between parties who provide technical benefit to one another -- a Feudal Technocracy.

Law: Again, probably high, but unknown.

TL: 10.

As to armament and defenses... I'll have to think about that.

 

[robject]

And, here's a Travellerized version of the Death Star, which Val Dauterive did back in 1997.

65 trillion tons.

Using the correct vol equation, (4/3)*pi*r^3
the volume for a 60km radius sphere is approx. 65e12 tons  (HUGE!!)

              Tons      Mw     People
Jump 4        3.0e12             30e9
  Fuel       25.0e12
6G            7.0e12    98e12   126e9
Purifiers    13.7e12     3e12             (130e9 units: 6.5e12tons per hour)
Power         3.6e12  -102e12    72e9     (34e9 plants @ 3000Mw)
  Fuel 6mths   .6e12
Assorted      1.0e12                      (weapons, ships, food, water, etc)
St. Rooms     1.0e12            -45e9     (most small, 300+ hundred large)
Misc          1.0e12                      (Bridge, med, wkstations)
Ship Hull   -65.0e12
             ---------  -----   -----
            -10.0e12    -1e12    0        (extra for spinal mount weapon
                                           and cargo)

 

[rancke]

Starport: Inferring from the text, it built its hundreds of small spaceships and starships, so it would rate a Class A starport.

Not unless the Loeskalth provided shipbuilding service to passing civilians. I think their starport rating would be X.

Population: Millions of people (6). Since they were subduing primitive worlds, they didn't need larger numbers. Plus, 50 billion tons may be a huge ship, but the volume only goes so far.

If it's dtons, 50 billion would have room for 12.5 billion people going by the ship design rules. Though you'd probably need more than 4T per individual if you plan on making life support self-sustaining, but you'd still end up in the low billions. They were trying to evacuate as many of their people as possible, weren't they? And they were working under pressure; why would they build an escape vessel that was larger than necessary?


Hans

 

[Orr]

Then I'll try "designing" it using the UWP instead.

I like it! That's a quick and intuitive way to "design" megastructures. You might even been able to make a SWAG concerning "inhabitable surface area" and thus population.

There aren't any staterooms aboard really, maybe bunk rooms for those serving their duty days at all the docking bays, control centers, powerplants, etc. Most of the people aboard live on the inner faces of those multi-faceted "bubbles", right? I don't remember whether the bubbles are straight dodecahedrons or a "soccer ball" icosahedron, but dimensions were given.

Take the 50 billion dTon number, subtract the "buffered planetoid" cost from High Guard, subtract bridge, j-drive, m-drive, powerplant, and fuel totals, and you'll have a big chunk of tonnage left over to play with.

I don't think the Loeskalth would have interested in evacuating as many people as possible. A government made up of warriors and political elites are going take themselves, their families, and enough of their flunkies to handle all the dirty work. There's going to be no serious thought of Bentham's "Greatest good for the greatest number" or even any social pressure for the same.

 

[robject]

Take the 50 billion dTon number, subtract the "buffered planetoid" cost from High Guard, subtract bridge, j-drive, m-drive, powerplant, and fuel totals, and you'll have a big chunk of tonnage left over to play with.

Easy enough to SWAG, but allow me to be sloppy with buffering, and allow me to use Modified Book 2.

80% hull space, minus a 2% bridge, 2.5% jump drive, 1% m-drive, 1.5% plant. But, it's safe to assume a pseudo drop-tank setup for fuel via ice chunks. Why? Because remember that the original was twice its current size, I.e. half ice fuel. So the drives had to pull, say, 90 billion tons. There is some math required that I won't do at the moment.

Anyway, infrastructure tonnage is 27% of the original tonnage (90b ton). Subtract that from current tonnage (50b ton). Is it something like half of the space available for "payload"? I dunno. BUT note that at some point, these guys wuld have had to replace their drives, multiple times, and it only makes sense to cannibalize and replace with smaller drives as need permits.




Fuel and construction seem to be the two constraints. If I recall, half of the planetoid was a captured ice chunk for fuel. Or, if I recall wrong, then an ice-teroid the same size and the planetoid was captured for fuel. Either way.

I think it was the former, but the "current" volume estimate is 50b tons, so it plus ice was 100b tons. O course that only gets you the first 5 parsecs...

Text said it built out ships as it tunneled into the planetoid, so there were shipbuilding facilities. However, Hans, your comment reminded me of the discussion about "how can a TL9 world with no Starport build Ships?" which more or less goes in line with your note. So, Starport X, presumably.

I do believe that 4 tons per person is not adequate to live on a "world", so 1 billion people seems far too many. Also recall that they did not finish out the planetoid, but rather used it as a resource as they travelled.

So presumably they did not intend on evacuating their world after all. That is an interesting "fact" worth running down, via a short list of six alternatives. Or of course the booklet might tell us something.