How do you handle landing gear? All the landing gear I have seen are retractable into bays in the hull bottom. I have seen Wheels, tank treads, and a majority shown as flat plates. Docking clamps are in the design guides for most of the systems.
As the craft get heavier, the number and size of wheels grow. Look at a Russian Antonov cargo carrier. I see wheels as having an upper limit, and rubber tires have difficulties with vacuum.
Tank treads would be useful for heavier craft. The upper limit would start eating into cargo capacity.
Just about every Sci-Fi ship in the movies or TV are shown with flat landing plates. They are seen on all Star Wars, BSG, Babalon-5, Serenity-Firefly, and most traveller ship depictions. The exception are Japanese shows with rubber Tires. I see the solution as making those flat landing plates as strong gravatic plates. Give them enough power to float the weight of the loaded ship 6 inches above the ground, and most problems would disappear.
Gravatic landing plates would allow for tail sitting ships, aerial landing at speed on pavement or unimproved surfaces. Once landed, the ship could be easily moved by star port handling tractors with no friction, just mass and wind resistance to overcome. Turn the landing gear off and you are solidly planted. Turn the gear on for easy movement.
The only difficulty would by water landings. Movement over water would not be a problem, but standing still would and the water would displace under the pads.
Dead stick landings would be a nasty difficulty as the gravatic landing pads with no power would be ripped off on contact with a solid surface. The repair difficulties would be good for game master humor, but piss off the players. Jacking the ship up on surfaces soft enough not to damage the ship hull severely to effect repairs would be a hazardous undertaking. The rolls to reattach and repair the gravatic pads would be nasty. The lesson being, if you loose power close to a planet, don’t land unless you have no choice.
As the craft get heavier, the number and size of wheels grow. Look at a Russian Antonov cargo carrier. I see wheels as having an upper limit, and rubber tires have difficulties with vacuum.
Tank treads would be useful for heavier craft. The upper limit would start eating into cargo capacity.
Just about every Sci-Fi ship in the movies or TV are shown with flat landing plates. They are seen on all Star Wars, BSG, Babalon-5, Serenity-Firefly, and most traveller ship depictions. The exception are Japanese shows with rubber Tires. I see the solution as making those flat landing plates as strong gravatic plates. Give them enough power to float the weight of the loaded ship 6 inches above the ground, and most problems would disappear.
Gravatic landing plates would allow for tail sitting ships, aerial landing at speed on pavement or unimproved surfaces. Once landed, the ship could be easily moved by star port handling tractors with no friction, just mass and wind resistance to overcome. Turn the landing gear off and you are solidly planted. Turn the gear on for easy movement.
The only difficulty would by water landings. Movement over water would not be a problem, but standing still would and the water would displace under the pads.
Dead stick landings would be a nasty difficulty as the gravatic landing pads with no power would be ripped off on contact with a solid surface. The repair difficulties would be good for game master humor, but piss off the players. Jacking the ship up on surfaces soft enough not to damage the ship hull severely to effect repairs would be a hazardous undertaking. The rolls to reattach and repair the gravatic pads would be nasty. The lesson being, if you loose power close to a planet, don’t land unless you have no choice.
