Deckplan-Outpost

[Ishmael]

for what its worth...

I use a 1.5m x 3m x 15m cargo module
easy to map and draw
same volume as a standar 40 ft container ( 67.5 m^3, aka 5 dtons )
that works out to be like a narrowed 50 ft railroad boxcar
for bulk liquids, the availbale volume is less ( about 4 dtons ....a cylinder inside a container-sized framework )

I suppose a good deal depends on how you envision moving the freight from the starport to where it needs to go on world. I avoid use of lots of g-tech, so its trains and ships for me.

imagine a cheap bulk passenger/colony ship where the people are shipped in habitable containers which can be used as housing on the new world. Passengers could survive living in a conatiner for a week or two, especially when not given a choice be a despotic government.

oh..on trains for conatiners with 'life support' ( refridgeration, etc ) a type of conainer exists that has a generator and fuel tank to provide power.
A 'junk' ship that uses an idea like that to power cobbled together weapons containers?
impromptu "Q" ships..hehehehe
arm a merchant for piracy, yet unarm it and stash the 'bad' parts so it can pass as an innocent when in civilised space

 

[leo knight]

I'm redrawing this weekend, but I'm limited to Paint or Word or something I think.

I just started tinkering with Paint, since I use a work computer, and can't add software. I got a pretty good result from this: I found graph paper on Google Images, copied and pasted it into Paint, and saved that as a base to draw over. Blue lines, of course! If you find desirable images, like the floor plan for this model, just copy and paste over the graph. Remember to click the icon that makes the pasted image "transparent". You can stretch and skew the image as you please, and of course, re-color it.

By the way, are you the same Mithras who authored "Zenobia"? I love that game.

 

[Mithras]

By the way, are you the same Mithras who authored "Zenobia"? I love that game.

Yes I am Leo! Many thanks!!! I've been playing Zenobia (http://www.geocities.com/zozergames/zenobia.html ) with my sons, but they asked about Traveller - so here we are

I had an experiment with Paint at lunchtime, and did exactly the same, imported a square sheet, then began drawing. I've scanned in the iris valve and hatch icons to use too. I'll have more of a play tonight..... good luck!

 

[Vile]

So as not so send this thread off into other directions, I've started another one for the LBB3 Advanced Base. That's because it's a different beast, really, to the kind of fixed external layout modules we're discussing here.

 

[BlackBat242]

The US military has been using this for decades (since the early 1970s, at least).

I worked almost exclusively in 8'x8'x20' "mobile maintenance facility" "vans" for most of the 6 years I spent in the USMC after completing schooling. The US Navy even put a small cluster of these suspended from the ceiling in the forward end of the hangar bay in many of its supercarriers!

Multi-layer complexes can also be set up on USN support ships (T-AVB), with up to 300 mobile facilities and 52 access modules loaded on board, 186 of which may be fully powered and operational.

Here is a PDF on the concept:
http://www.natick.army.mil/soldier/jocotas/may2005/butts.pdf

The entire IMA (intermediate maintenance activity) support for a squadron or air group can be packed into C-130s, C-17s, and C-5s and moved around the world, and takes only a few hours (if you have a crane available) or days (if you have to use hand jacks & wheel sets) to position and set up for use.

They are used for many other things too... dental and other medical facilities have been packed into these for field use.


The "2 x 6 x 6 meters" (72 m3) shelter is almost exactly the volume of the "a/b double combo" shown there (8' x 16' x 20'... 2.43 x 4.88 x 6.09 meters... 72.217 m3).

 

[Vile]

Yes I am Leo! Many thanks!!! I've been playing Zenobia (http://www.geocities.com/zozergames/zenobia.html ) with my sons, but they asked about Traveller - so here we are

That looks really interesting, Mithras - but there seems to be a problem with the Ionia and Aegypt PDFs, the links don't seem to work.

 

[Icosahedron]

I just started tinkering with Paint,

Remember to click the icon that makes the pasted image "transparent".

You're probably using a newer version of Paint than me, but if not, I gotta find that icon - where is it?

 

[Mithras]

BBC News are running a year long 'track the container' news thread which has just begun. The site with the GPS map also includes a few video clips, one of which features a company that customizes and recycles containers. Have a look! Fascinating page ...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_depth/business/2008/the_box/default.stm

 

[coliver988]

containers

that video on how they get the containers on/off was really interesting: I never thought about loading order for those huge cargo ships. And all the cranes and things - simply amazing and gives me ideas for a busy starport (can you imagine a whole yard of those containers, then the loaders go on strike, and some of the cargo HAS to go out ASAP, so perhaps a tramp freighter could move some of that cargo & ship it, somehow getting past the strike lines, finding the specific container and getting it back out to their ship. Could be a complete adventure on the tarmac! Especially if the union was armed...)

 

[aramis]

Interestingly enough, a 4ton air raft isn't buff enough to carry a 4 ton container... but a custom 2 tonner could be buff enough to lift one... and a 6 ton grav speeder DOES have enough guts to get a container around, unless you used secondary thrust agencies (or play TNE, where gravitics provide no thrust).

 

[far-trader]

I knew that of course aramis, but until you typed it the way you did I'd not seen it a certain way. I'd always figured the 4ton air/raft was an actual 2ton vehicle, requiring 4tons of space for stowage (open topped) and it could carry about 1ton or 4 passengers. But the way you noted it now, what if the standard air/raft could carry 4tons? Obviously it can't in the back, but what about slung underneath? A container the same dimensions but twice as high as the air/raft itself. Just need the standard container corner clamps at each corner of the air/raft and there you go, nice handy little container mover and still room for seats. I like it Kudo's for the inspiration sir.

 

[aramis]

when built in striker or MT, no, it can't. It's got only enough lift for about 2 Td of cargo.