Life Support

[Shadow Shack]

In Book-2 it states a per-jump fee for life support (as it turns out, 77 edition states 2K per stateroom --- occupied or not, while later editions state 2K per person on board), regardless of edition my question is how much of this 'stuff' can be stacked?

I ask as a ship may find itself in a position where it must jump into an open parsec in order to reach a destination world, more so with lower jump capable craft (such as a Jump-1 subsidized merchant) so if it's truly a per-jump rule you're not going to find and replenish that stuff everywhere (to this I would also add lower class starport that lack facilities) and if it truly is per jump then you eventually find yourself stranded.

So how much, if possible, can be "stacked" and how much space does it take up? I.e. can I stow a few months of LS in my scout/courier attic or do I need to chew up some hold space to stow it?

 

[AnotherDilbert]

Beltstrike has some rules (p3):

In long voyages of this type, life support not only costs money but takes up measurable cargo space. Life support costs are paid as in the Traveller rules (Cr2000 per person per 2 weeks, or Cr1000 per week); 150 person-weeks of life-support supplies take up one ton of cargo space and cost Cr150,000. This amount will support one person for 150 weeks, 3 people for 50 weeks, etc. Life support supplies include food, air and water (to replace leakage from the recycling process), and consumable elements of the Life support system, such as filters, C0₂ absorbers, and so on.

JTAS#24, p33 has some other rules, including pre-paying for annual maintanance.

 

[Shadow Shack]

Thanks, it's good to have a canon yardstick to go by.

 

[Timerover51]

One cubic meter of water should supply all of your oxygen needs in a Scout for several months to several years depending on the number on board. Assuming adequate water recycling, a cubic meter of water should be more than adequate for a few months as well. So two cubic meters of water would be sufficient to supply the oxygen and water needs of your scout for several months.

As for food, the following data is drawn from official U.S. Army publications.

The World War 2 and Korean War 5 in 1 ration supplied sufficient non-perishable food for 5 men for one day, and supplied approximately 4000 calories per day per man. The volume of one case of rations was 0.8 cubic feet, so a 30-day supply of food for 5 men would require 24 cubic feet of space, or less that one cubic meter, which is equal to 35.3 cubic feet.

The Meal, Combat, Individual used in Vietnam contained 12 meals per case, so was capable of feeding 4 men for one day per case, supplying about 3600 calories per day per man. The cube per case was also 0.8 cubic feet, so again a 30-day supply of food would occupy 24 cubic feet, or less than one cubic meter.

Now, if you wish to inflict Meals, Ready-to-Eat, also known as MREs, on your defenseless crew members, a case of 12 meals, so food for 4 men per day, declared edible by the U.S. Army Medical Corps and National Institute of Health, oddly enough occupies 0.9 cubic feet, more than the 5-in-1 ration or the Meal, Combat, Individual ration, but is lighter. The volume required would be 27 cubic feet, again less than one cubic meter. If using MREs, I would increase the water storage by at least one cubic meter for re-hydrating the rations.

If you wish to offer your crew a bit wider selection of food, then there is the Operational B ration, which comprises a range of about 100 vatieties of non-perishable foods. It does require more preparation time than the MCI or MRE, more comparable to the 5-in-1 ration. A ton of Operational B rations would supply 606 man-days of food at about 4000 calories per day per man, and occupy 71 cubic feet, or about 2 cubic meters. If you have a 4 person crew, that would supply sufficient food for at least 150 days.

You would require CO2 scrubber, but that could be managed by running your exhausted air through a Liquid H fuel tank and freezing the CO2 out. You would need things like toilet paper and some other consumables, but those should not require much more that another cubic meter or so of space per month.

Basically, I assume that any jumping ship carries sufficient life-support supplies for at least one month, and more reasonable 2 months, and you are siimply replenishing your supplies at each stop, using first-in first-out usage policies, and always maintaining an adequate reserve.

 

[Condottiere]

You can survive a week on ramen, plus vegetables.

Life support is more nebulous and ambiguous.

 

[Shadow Shack]

You can survive a week on ramen, plus vegetables.

...and you can cook it in a coffee maker.

 

[AnotherDilbert]

You can survive a week on ramen, plus vegetables.

The question is: Do you really want to survive under those conditions?


You live on the ship permanently. MREs or noodles are short-term emergency rations.

 

[KyleLittle]

In another life I found that a mix of fresh food and MREs worked well for extended periods. Our cooks provided one meal per day at (usually lunch) using the fresh ingredients available and the rest came from MREs. This may work well in cases where you don't have enough cooks to run a kitchen for three meals a day or you have limited fresh food storage capacity.

 

[Condottiere]

A week is a pretty short term of time, and there is a cautionary tale of a (foreign) student who loaded up on Maggie Mee and died.

On the other hand, I probably could have one meal a day which was mee based, whether Cantonese, Hokkien, wanton, and prepared by professionals, and the other potato or rice based.

You could have hawkers setting up shop dirtside in the downport, since real estate would be fairly inexpensive and expansive compared to hiport.

To be fair to ramen, professionally done it too can be nutritious, if comparatively expensive.

 

[coliver988]

I just remember that episode of Firefly when they got the fresh strawberries. Yet they also had an entire kitchen area that could hold a lot of fresh food.

However, apparently there was a backstory (and one that could work with Traveller):

After the destruction of Earth-That-Was, strawberries were largely considered a rare delicacy, and usually only the wealthy could afford them. Shepherd Book was able to buy passage off of Persephone with only a little cash and a small amount of fruit, including a box of strawberries. Kaylee proved to be quite fond of them.

edit: source of that above: https://firefly.fandom.com/wiki/Strawberry

 

[Condottiere]

Binging with Babish: Secret Ingredient Soup from Kung Fu Panda

The secret ingredient is...nothing! Despite that revelation, this so-called secret-soup is one of the most hotly requested dishes in the Babish Culinary Universe. Can we develop deep flavors, hand-pull noodles, and serve up a dish that lives up to Mr. Ping's noodly legacy? Yes, no, and yes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cee6883w2Nk

 

[Straybow]

I'm convinced that the 2k/stateroom was a fudge-factor that never got fixed. They put a figure in for how much they thought it should cost to operate per stateroom. But that figure should actually come from a weighted fraction of the operating costs including financing. Then after setting starship construction costs that placeholder 2k should have been pulled out, but instead was left in place.

 

[kilemall]

I'm convinced that the 2k/stateroom was a fudge-factor that never got fixed. They put a figure in for how much they thought it should cost to operate per stateroom. But that figure should actually come from a weighted fraction of the operating costs including financing. Then after setting starship construction costs that placeholder 2k should have been pulled out, but instead was left in place.

I dunno, works for me in terms of 'close to the bone' costing of everything on the ship, and the need to either win big on the speculative cargo or do dirty deeds to make payroll.