Grav harness

[Blue Ghost]

I'm working on a piece of fiction, and a kind of no-brainer extension of the grav belt is the "luggage" or "freight" grav harness.

Designed as a basket or "net" as per ship cargo nets of days or old, these can be remotely controlled or programmed to take package A to destination B.

A fairly expensive outgrowth of the grav-belt (or a precursor depending on how tech developed on a given world) the grav harness can be found in place of grav lifts, cranes or other mechanical lifting mechanisms, notably at starports as a high cost replacement for baggage handlers / droids / bots that use mechanical means of moving freight of all forms.

 

[BlackBat242]

Yet Another Traveller Blog grav-assisted-cargobot

 

[Xerxeskingofking]

someone came up with a similar idea on a slightly larger scale a few years back.

heres the thread for it, might have some ideas worth cherry picking.

 

[Blue Ghost]

Thanks.

You know, I figured someone had come up with it somewhere along the lines, but I was too lazy and just didn't think enough to do a search here for anything similar. At the same time I didn't recall anyone ever bringing up the subject ... or I just wasn't interested and forgot.

Either way, it seemed like something that would be around. I've actually always had issues with the grav belt, but you accept it because it's part of the Traveller package.

Thanks again.

 

[Xerxeskingofking]

your welcome.

if I may ask, what are your "issues" with the grav belt specifically, as opposed to grav tech in general? or is it with grav tech full stop?

a variation of the ideas of a cargo drone would be the personnel grav valet/Sherpa. a smallish grav unit that has a limited but useful amount of storage (say, large backpack sized), programmed to follow a control unit (or commlink/smartphone type device with a suitable app), normally above headheight to keep it out of the way. for those nobles who need to keep things with them, but don't want pockets ruining the lines of their suits, or to have to carry around a briefcase, or for those with cultural or religious prohibitions on using sophonts for such a menial task.

 

[Blue Ghost]

your welcome.

if I may ask, what are your "issues" with the grav belt specifically, as opposed to grav tech in general? or is it with grav tech full stop?

a variation of the ideas of a cargo drone would be the personnel grav valet/Sherpa. a smallish grav unit that has a limited but useful amount of storage (say, large backpack sized), programmed to follow a control unit (or commlink/smartphone type device with a suitable app), normally above headheight to keep it out of the way. for those nobles who need to keep things with them, but don't want pockets ruining the lines of their suits, or to have to carry around a briefcase, or for those with cultural or religious prohibitions on using sophonts for such a menial task.

To me air rafts and G-carriers, or even starships, require power plants pumping out massive amounts of joules to create a counter field to gravity to move things along. I guess I always wondered how you fit that in a belt or harness.

 

[mike wightman]

Gravity itself isn't very strong.
To raise a 50kg mass by 1m requires 9.8x1x50=490J

So the magic null grav module may not require as much energy as we think.

 

[Xerxeskingofking]

To me air rafts and G-carriers, or even starships, require power plants pumping out massive amounts of joules to create a counter field to gravity to move things along. I guess I always wondered how you fit that in a belt or harness.

well, I don't know about you, or what cannon says, but I always imagined grav belts as being about the same size and weight as a real world jetpack.

considering the advances in energy storage technology indicated by the jump capacitors in some j drive fluff or the black globes, its not beyond reason that the grav belt isn't fusion powered but runs off really high energy battery systems.

checking Mgt2e, the belt there is explicitly battery powered (4 hours battery life at TL12, 12hrs at TL15), and while its not a backpack sized item like I thought, its still quite a hefty looking item. its about as big as military webbing belts with all the pouches on
. the image also seems to be missing a harness or other method of secureing the user to the belt.

 

[Blue Ghost]

Well, it's just the way I see things. The game tech for vehicles seemed to imply a lot of high energy engineering, so a "belt" version of the same thing for an air raft struck me as being close to magic tech. In the CT and MT version the belt was just that, a belt (maybe with a harness like configuration).

Like I said, it's just me.

 

[kilemall]

Well, it's just the way I see things. The game tech for vehicles seemed to imply a lot of high energy engineering, so a "belt" version of the same thing for an air raft struck me as being close to magic tech. In the CT and MT version the belt was just that, a belt (maybe with a harness like configuration).

Like I said, it's just me.

LBB8, Robots, has smaller higher performance grav lifters that cost a lot more then bigger cheaper more power hungry lifters for heavier bots. Perhaps that scale is in play.

So, maybe it will help if you look at that grav harness price and recognize it's just lifting 200 kg or less, and costs a lot for it.

 

[Carlobrand]

LBB8, Robots, has smaller higher performance grav lifters that cost a lot more then bigger cheaper more power hungry lifters for heavier bots. Perhaps that scale is in play.

So, maybe it will help if you look at that grav harness price and recognize it's just lifting 200 kg or less, and costs a lot for it.

The LBB8 gravs were drawn from MT.

The MT TL12 Low Power L-Grav for 1 ton thrust was 0.01Mw, 0.03Kl, 0.02t, Cr300,000, with a minimum volume of 0.003Kl

Or in smaller numbers, 10 Kw, 30 liters, 20 kg, Cr300,000, with a minimum volume of 3 liters

The LBB8 hi-perf grav was 1 Kw, 3 liters, 2 kg, Cr30,000 and delivered 100 kg thrust. In other words, it's that minimum volume unit from MT - which I think is the grav being used in the MT belt, which according to IE "...looks like a parachute harness with a 'stiffener' that runs down the back and has a series of artificial gravity modules around the waist," which is to say, like this: