Merchant Drop Tanks

[G. Fieendish]

Re:this "ressurected" thread....
Surely the whole point of the 100 diameter limit, is due to the gravitational effect of the larger body on the vessel's jump drive, i.e 100 diameters is the distance needed to jump into hyperspace safely without incurring problems (unless someone's skimping on the drive maintaince budget)....
However, I would argue for these effects to probably occour at the 10 D limit of any large object....

 

[whartung]

You're always within "100D" of something, whether it's another ship, a planet, asteroids, or space dust.

While the theory isn't so bad (specifically that there's a radius around a jumping object that gets subjected to "jump forces" or whatever), I think you need focus back on the tidal effect vs the 100D effect.

The 100D effect is simply a game mechanic (I mean, what a nice round number 100 is), but obviously doesn't account necessarily for density of the object you're 100D from. The extreme, absurd, example is a neutron star vs even a large gas giant.

But going back to the "jump effect" on surrounding items. Apparently when the differential is low, there's little damage, but when it's high there's more.

That would imply that with two ships of identical mass, the second ship would suffer no damage. It would also imply that the damage done is a factor of mass and distance from the jumping unit.

It also suggests that if this is the source for the 100D requirement, then a larger ship would not have to travel as far away from the larger object as a smaller ship.

Now in practicality this may make little difference (a 50K ton bulk carrier might only need to be 99.95D from the object, while a 100t Scout needs to be 100.1D, or something).

But if you want to go down this path, then you need to switch to a tidal model. Because a 50Kton freighter with it bulkheads jammed full of lead and full tanks is a different gravity source than the same freight, empty with dry tanks. And 100D just isn't a practical (realistically speaking) force model, because of it handwaving away of density.

 

[robject]

Let's face it, density is just not Classic Traveller...

 

[Misfit]

A variant on this is a design that has *only* FTL drives (OK, so it has .001G for maneuver) and is intended solely for interstellar transport of goods (a la toybots, er I mean battletech) with insystem tugs and tenders to resupply and shuttle cargo. (and yes, I'm doing a cheap commercial X-Boat redesign for FF&S as well...)

<Quibble> Battletech Jumpships have 0.1g thrust, space stations and satellites in B-Tech have more thrust then your bird <Quibble/>

 

[G. Fieendish]

Re: Battletech Jump points
But then again, given that non Pirate Jump points for the Kerney-Fuchida drive are generally at the primary star's poles, & as a result, Jumpship M-drives are stationkeeping only....
For extreme Pony Express type operations, you use DropShips such as the Mammoth class (Masses 52,000 tonnes & carries 35,000 Tonnes cargo), or the Behemoth class (mass 100,000 Tonnes & carries 75,000 Tonnes of cargo), attached to a Monolith Class JumpShip which has 9 Dropship collars & possibly Lithium-Fusion batteries so it can make a second jump in a emergency.
(Note: the Mammoth Class is the largest DropShip that can physically land on a planet...).
Note: Clan Diamond Shark uses Potemkin class Warships for some bulk cargo moving, that can carry up to 25 DropShips on it's DropCollars...